Free Republic

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California has become the third U.S. state to designate Diwali — the Hindu “Festival of Lights” — as an official statewide holiday. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law Tuesday to go into effect on Jan. 1. It would authorize public schools and community colleges to close on Diwali. State employees could elect to take the day off and public school students will get an excused absence to celebrate the holiday. The new law recognizes that Diwali is also celebrated by Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists. Pennsylvania was the first U.S. state to make Diwali a...

The left’s house of cards incinerates under scrutiny, and Trump lit the match. Democrat politicians and left-leaning journalists use loaded questions like weapons. Thankfully, conservatives have found a powerful model in President Donald Trump. He has inspired a new generation of fighters to push back against dishonest attacks. Conservatives have stopped playing defense, flipped the script, and gone on the offense. Directly countering the left’s playbook of preordained conclusions cherry-picked with selective facts, conservatives are increasingly using unvarnished evidence leading to clear truths. The days of polite deference are over, as Trump himself demonstrated in the Oval Office when he...

As the federal government shutdown drags on into a second week, a critical animal recovery program based in Colorado has ground to a halt, delaying a reintroduction plan that could be crucial to the survival of an endangered species. Fewer than 1,000 black-footed ferrets remain on the planet, including around 280 captive-bred ones currently being housed at the National Black-Footed Ferret Conservation Center in Carr, Colorado. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had planned to reintroduce them at 15 sites across federal, tribal and private lands this fall, according to the conservation organization Defenders of Wildlife. Instead, the creatures are...

Context: Gulf Arab nation is trying to act as a mediator in the conflict between the United States and Venezuela. The Trump administration is more focused on military options than on diplomacy. Marco Rubio has been trying to craft a strategy to oust Mr. Maduro through military pressure. President Trump has refrained from asking Qatar to play a significant diplomatic role. Dive Deeper: Qatar is stepping up as a mediator in the conflict between the U.S. and Venezuela, despite President Trump's focus on military action in the region. The Venezuelan government, led by President Nicolás Maduro, is open to Qatar's...

Last month was the third-warmest September on record globally, behind 2024 and 2023, according to new data analyzed by the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). The planet’s average surface air temperature was around 61 degrees Fahrenheit. While global air and sea surface temperatures are currently falling short of new record highs, climate scientists warn the pause in record-breaking warmth is unlikely to persist as human-caused greenhouse gas emissions continue to drive the long-term warming trend.

Officials say the demonstration turned violent after protesters refused to clear the roadway and surrounded police cruisers.Thirteen people were arrested in downtown Boston Tuesday night after a pro-Palestinian demonstration turned violent — a chaotic scene that also left four Boston police officers injured, according to officials... “When officers attempted to move the group to the sidewalk to allow emergency vehicles to pass, protesters surrounded police cruisers, kicked vehicle doors, and resisted dispersal efforts,” the department said in a statement. “Several officers were assaulted during this period, including one struck in the face. Protesters also ignited smoke devices and flares, further...

Ignore the Left-wing naysayers, Israel is winning this necessary war.By Richard Kemp. The Telegraph. May 30, 2025 — And Israel has had unparalleled success. They have killed something like 20-25,000 Hamas terrorists, including many senior commanders.https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2025/05/30/ignore-the-naysayers-israel-is-winning-this-necessary-war/[Ambassador of Israel 🇮🇱 to India 🇮🇳 & Non-resident Ambassador to Bhutan 🇧🇹 & Sri Lanka 🇱🇰].🇮🇱 Reuven Azar @ReuvenAzar:What is shameful is your deceit. Israel Killed 25,000 Hamas terrorists. The terrible cost in human lives derives from Hamas’s heinous tactics of hiding behind civilians, their shooting of people trying to evacuate or receive assistance and their rocket fire. Israel facilitated 2 million tonnes of...

Click on link

Two years after Hamas’s attack on southern Israel, anti-Semitic violence seems to be on the rise throughout the West. On Yom Kippur, a man drove a car into a crowd outside a synagogue in Manchester, England, then got out and stabbed members of the congregation before he was also killed. On June 2 in Boulder, Colorado, an Egyptian national threw Molotov cocktails at protesters calling for the release of Israeli hostages, killing one of them. Such incidents have grown more frequent as the Israeli military’s deadly operation in Gaza grinds on.

Two year ago today, Hamas carried out a horrible war crime, killing more than 1,100 Israelis and kidnapping 250 more.

Washington — Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked an effort aimed at preventing continued U.S. strikes on alleged drug-carrying boats off the coast of Venezuela. Democrats forced a vote on the issue under the War Powers Act. In a 48-51 vote, the effort failed to garner enough support to move forward. The resolution, led by Sens. Adam Schiff of California and Tim Kaine of Virginia, would have blocked the U.S. military from engaging in hostilities with "any non-state organization engaged in the promotion, trafficking, and distribution of illegal drugs and other related activities" without congressional authorization. ...

On May 21, Black author Dr. La’Tonya Rease Miles appeared at a book talk to promote her new memoir, “Smart Girl: A First-Gen Origin Story.” Attendees gathered at the quaint James M. Duncan Branch Library in Alexandria, Virginia, hoping to get their books signed and to hear Miles’ inspiring story of being the first in her family to attend and graduate from a four-year university. Instead, they got an earful from a belligerent Trump supporter who crashed the reading. “This is not Nazi Germany! I don’t need to do anything. Stop telling me what to do,” shouted the older white...

BK BP PTFQWC KJVK KJT CBPTUVOFT WS KJT DWUFQ NVY JTFL UTHVUQBYH KJTBU CBPTUZ VP V DUWYH BYSFBNKTQ OZ KJWPT DJW VUT FTPP CBPTUVOFT. - HTWUHT TFBWK

A county in California wine country is beefing up its vaccine recommendations and instituting a mask mandate, citing "greater risk" of contracting COVID-19 amid the start of the annual flu season. The Sonoma County Department of Public Health's Interim Health Officer Dr. Karen Smith issued an order Monday requiring anyone entering certain healthcare facilities in the county to wear a mask. Facilities subject to the order include skilled nursing facilities, portions of long-term care facilities where nursing care is provided, acute and non-acute rehabilitation facilities, infusion centers, and dialysis centers, according to the order. "The rationale behind this order is...

Between 200 and 300 people participated in a demonstration in downtown Boston on Tuesday night after what began as a pro-Palestinian protest quickly turned into a riot. In total, 13 people were arrested after police say people in the group became violent toward police officers. The agitators also blocked an intersection, according to police. "When officers attempted to move the group to the sidewalk to allow emergency vehicles to pass, protesters surrounded police cruisers, kicked vehicle doors and resisted dispersal efforts. Several officers were assaulted during this period, including one struck in the face. Protesters also ignited smoke devices and...

Hamas has agreed to a peace deal pushed by President Donald Trump to end the war in Gaza and return the hostages, two years after the terrorist network attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, sparking not only the bloodiest day for Jews since the Holocaust, but a deadly war and a humanitarian crisis across the Gaza Strip. Trump took to Truth Social Wednesday to make the announcement: "I am very proud to announce that Israel and Hamas have both signed off on the first Phase of our Peace Plan. This means that ALL of the Hostages will be released very...

“Meanwhile the disciples were urging Him, saying, ‘Rabbi, eat.’ But He said to them, ‘I have food to eat that you do not know about.’ So the disciples were saying to one another, ‘No one brought Him anything to eat, did he?’ Jesus said to them, ‘My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me and to accomplish His work’” (John 4:31–34). The disciples’ primary concern at this point had been food. That’s why they urged Jesus to eat. Jesus, however, had a higher priority, as His reply to them makes clear: “I have food to eat...

California’s Democratic gubernatorial candidate Katie Porter ruthlessly excoriated a staffer during a discussion on environmental policy for the Biden administration, shocking resurfaced video shows. The former Congresswoman seamlessly switched from a professional tone while discussing electric vehicles with then-Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm to an angry and rude lambasting of a staffer who innocently popped into frame, Politico first reported. “Get out of my f–king shot,” the short-tempered Porter screamed at her surgical mask-wearing staffer, the clip showed. The female employee then interjected with a correction to a statement made by the then-congresswoman —- but Porter refused to back-down from...

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) said Tuesday that she has faced more pressure over a petition to trigger a House vote compelling the release of files linked to Jeffrey Epstein than any other issue. “My signature is on that discharge petition, and there has not been another issue where I have ever received more pressure than that one, and I’m pretty much shocked by it. I can’t imagine — I’ve never understood how this is an issue,” Greene told NewsNation’s Blake Burman on “The Hill.” “I think when it comes to women being raped, especially when they were 14 years...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business; End to Sex Slavery; Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.