Free Republic

A woman arrested twice for silently praying outside an abortion clinic, who received a £13,000 payout in acknowledgement of her unjust treatment, has become the first person in Britain to be charged under new buffer zone laws. Abortion buffer zones came into force in October 2024 outside abortion clinics in England and Wales, criminalising offering vital support to women, and amid confusion about precisely what activities are prohibited outside abortion clinics. Director of the March For Life UK, Isabel Vaughan-Spruce, had previously been arrested twice for silently praying outside an abortion clinic in Birmingham, but West Midlands Police subsequently apologised...

Americans should expect to be flush with cash next year, with fat tax-refund checks and more take-home pay in their pockets, says a top contender to become President Trump’s next Federal Reserve chair. “We are going to see the biggest refund cycle ever in the history of America, and people are going to get massive refund checks,” boasted National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett this week in an interview on FOX Business’ “Varney & Co.” “We’re expecting just that part of it alone to be worth a couple-thousand-dollar refund … the numbers are striking.” Hassett’s comments Thursday came a day...

What I see as irony concerning Somalia

Diversity is not our strength California Attorney General Rob Bonta, a Democrat, posted to X his support for the “migrant community” in California over the state’s legal immigrants and citizens. “Migrant” is the new word for “illegal” alien. “Migrant communities are vital to California’s vibrant culture and world leading economy. In CA, we’ll continue to protect our migrant communities this #InternationalMigrantsDay and every day.” Because as Democrats love to say, “Diversity is our strength.” Yet nothing is further from the truth. British historian Arnold Toynbee warned, “Civilizations die from suicide, not by murder.” “According to Toynbee, civilizations start to decay...

“‘The kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in the field, which a man found and hid again’” (Matthew 13:44). Jesus’ concise but profound parables of the hidden treasure and the pearl of great value show us that, above all, we must personally appropriate God’s kingdom. People automatically at birth become members of their parents’ family and country, but such natural inheritance doesn’t apply regarding the kingdom. Everyone is under God’s dominion because they live on the earth, which is under His sovereign control. And if unbelievers associate with believers, they can potentially enjoy many kingdom benefits. But if...

A survey from the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) has found that at least one in three Muslims living in France believe that the Sharia law should be instituted globally. In a follow up to its annual survey of Muslim opinion in France, IFOP released another poll of 1,005 Muslims over the age of 15 to specifically examine “the influence of political Islamism” in the country, notably through the Muslim Brotherhood, which the French government has accused of engaging in a decades-long campaign to undermine Western civilization. According to the survey, 32 percent of Muslims in France consider Islam...

The Australian state of New South Wales is proposing to ban public displays of Islamic State group flags or extremist symbols after a mass shooting driven by antisemitism killed 15 people at Sydney’s Bondi Beach. Under draft laws to be debated by the state Parliament, publicly displaying the IS flag or symbols from other extremist groups will be offenses punishable by up to two years in prison and fines. The state’s premier, Chris Minns, also said chants of “globalize the intifada” will be banned and police would be given greater powers to demand protesters remove face coverings at demonstrations. “Hate...

Federal prosecutors say the Biden‑era border crisis produced one of the most brazen cybercrime cases in years. The Department of Justice charged 54 alleged members of the Venezuelan terror gang Tren de Aragua with using sophisticated malware to loot millions from U.S. ATMs and funnel the cash back to their criminal network. The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nebraska unsealed two sweeping indictments charging 54 individuals for their alleged roles in a nationwide ATM “jackpotting” conspiracy tied to the violent Venezuelan criminal organization Tren de Aragua (TdA). Prosecutors say the group deployed sophisticated malware to force ATMs across...

US special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have presented a $112 billion reconstruction plan to Gulf officials to build a “high-tech metropolis” atop the remains of Gaza, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. The 32-page PowerPoint presentation labeled "sensitive" and titled "Project Sunrise" was developed over 45 days and reportedly presented to officials from Qatar, UAE, Egypt, and Turkiye. The plan envisions turning the Gaza Strip into a "high-tech metropolis" over the next two decades with four phases of reconstruction beginning in southern Gaza. It also calls for turning Rafah into Gaza's new "administrative center," housing over 500,000...

Donald Trump just sent Nicolas Maduro a Christmas message, of a sort. And that message is not many happy returns of the day. Earlier today, the US Navy boarded a tanker carrying Venezuelan oil in international waters. Unlike the first seizure, Marc Caputo reports for Axios, this ship had no specific sanctions applied to it [see update below]. This escalates the standoff over Maduro's illegal regime and the oil revenue he desperately needs to cling to power:The U.S. military early Saturday boarded a tanker that is not under U.S. sanctions as it shipped Venezuelan oil in hopes of escaping a...

And now, readers, we return to the story that won’t go away, the Jeffrey Epstein saga. The deceased pedophile continues to dominate headlines over six years after his death, mostly because there are rumors that high-profile individuals were involved with his exploits, and if their enemies can prove it, they can be ruined. There are also countless victims who have never received justice. Already this Friday afternoon/evening, news broke that today was the deadline Congress had established for the DOJ to release the files, and the department was doing just that. As our Ward Clark reported, Deputy Attorney General Todd...

The body of a man missing for 28 years has been found in a melting glacier in Pakistan's remote and mountainous Kohistan region.A shepherd stumbled upon the body, which was remarkably well-preserved, with its clothing intact, in the so-called Lady Valley in the country's east..."What I saw was unbelievable," the shepherd who found the body, Omar Khan, told BBC Urdu. "The body was intact. The clothes were not even torn."As soon as police confirmed that it was Naseeruddin, locals began offering more information, Mr Khan added.Naseeruddin had a wife and two children. He was travelling with his brother, Kathiruddin, on...

Deputy Director Dan Bongino is leaving the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in early 2026, as he announced in a post on X, and President Donald Trump has revealed what the seeming cause of that decision to leave is, something he revealed when praising Bongino and thanking him for his time in the position. As background, Bongino’s decision to leave came after media reports revealed that his departure was widely expected at the Bureau after he had cleaned out his office and desk, with early reports saying that he was weighing departure, and it then quickly emerged that he would...

On Thursday evening European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen cancelled today's planned signing in Brazil of a trade deal between the European Union and five South American MERCOSEUR countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay). The deal will now be signed next month. It's a deal farmers in Europe see as a direct threat to their livelihood. Several months ago US ranchers bristled when President Donald Trump... French farmers have been protesting the MERCOSEUR trade deal for months with various demonstrations that sometimes include the dumping of manure and trash at government buildings. Protests continued in France this week... Meanwhile...

Rob Reiner did for Trump Derangement Syndrome (TDS) what Ray Kroc did for hamburgers, what Henry Ford did for the automobile, and what Genghis Khan may have done for sexually transmitted diseases; he brought it to the masses. Reiner's tweets weren't informative, clever, or funny; they were over-the-top insulting and, more importantly, accusatory, so much so that an acne-besotted incel from Butler, Penn., might want to take a shot at Trump. FACT-O-RAMA! Though other Hollywood celebrities have tried (looking at you, Robert DeNiro), no one has attacked Trump as frequently — or as loopily — as Reiner. Take a peek...

bout 30% of San Francisco was blacked out Saturday, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said, as a power outage grew to about 130,000 customers. PG&E spokesman Edgar Hoida said the cause of the outage was under investigation. PG&E's online outage status reported 124,555 customers without power, or 30.1% of San Francisco, at 6:44 p.m. Outages were first reported in the Inner Sunset neighborhood at about 9:40 a.m., affecting about 14,700 customers. At 10:10 a.m., more outages were reported impacting about 25,000 customers in the Richmond District, the Presidio, Golden Gate Park, Inner Sunset District, and near the Civic Center. Scattered...

One of Kentucky’s largest bourbon producers apparently is pausing whiskey production at the end of the year. Jim Beam, which is one of the largest makers of American whiskey in the world, is planning to shut down production in Happy Hollow in Clermont on Jan. 1 through 2026. The visitors center on site will remain open for Kentucky Bourbon Trail visitors. “We are always assessing production levels to best meet consumer demand and recently met with our team to discuss our volumes for 2026,” according to a statement from the company. “We’ve shared with our teams that while we will...

Seventy-two-year-old Target employee Jeanie Beeman took to the stage at Turning Point USA’s AmFest in Phoenix, Arizona, on Saturday to thunderous applause. She even had a hug and a special moment with Erika Kirk, the widow of TPUSA’s slain co-founder Charlie Kirk. RedState brought you the story of out of Chico, California, where Jeanie was verbally harassed by — in the inestimable words of our Rusty Weiss — a “leftist shrew” who swore at her Wednesday, accusing her of being "f**king stupid" and supporting “a racist.” All of this because Jeanie had the temerity to wear a shirt honoring Charlie,...

Democrats have decided that they need to have their own version of Turning Point USA in order to appeal to young voters and what they have come up with is the most Democrat thing ever. It’s going to be a total disaster. It’s called the ‘DNC National Youth Coordinated Table’. It’s not a grassroots group, it’s completely fabricated. And you can just imagine how meetings of this group are going to go, with mini-groups within the group fighting for dominance and power. Newsweek reported on this: Exclusive: Democrats Unveil New Plan to Win Young Voters From Trump The Democratic National...

Now here's a story out of Florida that bears watching. Florida's black bear hunt is underway, and troubles' a-bruin. The problem is, as it so often is in wildlife policy: A question of policy based on emotion vs. policy based on science. Ten years ago, a Florida bear hunt shocked the public when photos spread online of bloody carcasses of mother bears loaded in pick-up trucks and splayed out on concrete slabs at hunter check-in stations. The hunt, the first in 20 years, was halted in less than 48 hours after an estimated 304 bears were killed the first weekend....