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The biggest story of 2025, to judge from the number of people who sent it to me, was this raccoon:In case you somehow missed this story: In late November, this raccoon got into a state liquor store in Ashland, Va., by falling though the ceiling. Once inside, the raccoon ransacked the store, leaving a trail of broken bottles......and apparently consuming a large quantity of booze before passing out in the bathroom next to the toilet. That’s where the raccoon was found by a store employee, who called an animal-control officer, who took it to an animal shelter. When the raccoon...

Saturday 27 December 2025 Saint John, Apostle, Evangelist Feast St. John the Apostle Catholic Church, Leesburg, VAReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: A(II).First reading1 John 1:1-4The Word, who is life - this is our subjectSomething which has existed since the beginning,that we have heard,and we have seen with our own eyes;that we have watchedand touched with our hands:the Word, who is life –this is our subject.That life was made visible:we saw it and we are giving our testimony,telling you of the eternal lifewhich was with the Father and has been made visible to us.What we have seen and heardwe are...

There are no documented survivors of Unit 731, the covert department of the Imperial Japanese army that conducted lethal experiments on thousands of civilians in occupied China. As it sought to develop chemical and nuclear weapons, the unit subjected its mostly Chinese victims to a catalogue of horrors beyond the human imagination between 1936 to 1945, when the Empire of Japan surrendered. Civilians were dissected alive without without anesthesia, infected with bubonic plague, typhus and cholera and used as human guinea-pigs for frost-bite treatments in spine-chilling torture laboratories. A new Chinese film called 'Evil Unbound' has brought to life the...

Embattled Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband’s venture capital firm quietly scrubbed key officer details — including former Obama officials — as scrutiny grows over the family’s skyrocketing wealth, The Post has learned. Omar (D-MN) went from nearly broke to being worth up to $30 million in just a year — as a massive, up to $9 billion fraud scheme involving the Somali community in her district unfolded right under her nose in Minnesota. Close to 90 people have been charged so far, including at least three with direct ties to the lefty Squad member, though she has not been charged. It...

Friday 26 December 2025 Saint Stephen, the first Martyr Feast St Stephen the First Martyr, SacramentoReadings at MassLiturgical Colour: Red. Year: A(II).First readingActs 6:8-10,7:54-59The martyrdom of StephenStephen was filled with grace and power and began to work miracles and great signs among the people. But then certain people came forward to debate with Stephen, some from Cyrene and Alexandria who were members of the synagogue called the Synagogue of Freedmen, and others from Cilicia and Asia. They found they could not get the better of him because of his wisdom, and because it was the Spirit that prompted what...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday announced today the official recognition of the Republic of Somaliland as an independent and sovereign state. Netanyahu, Foreign Minister Gideon Sa'ar, and the President of the Republic of Somaliland signed a joint and mutual declaration. “This declaration is in the spirit of the Abraham Accords, signed at the initiative of President Trump,” said a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office. Prime Minister Netanyahu congratulated the President of Somaliland, Dr. Abdirahman Mohamed Abdallah, and praised his leadership and commitment to promoting stability and peace. The Prime Minister invited the President to pay an official visit...

Daily Readings from the USCCBFeast of Saint John, Apostle and EvangelistSo Peter and the other disciple went out and came to the tomb. They both ran, but the other disciple ran faster than Peter and arrived at the tomb first; he bent down and saw the burial cloths there, but did not go in. When Simon Peter arrived after him, he went into the tomb and saw the burial cloths there, and the cloth that had covered his head, not with the burial cloths but rolled up in a separate place. Then the other disciple also went in, the one...

CME Raises Silver Margins to $25K as Market Manipulation Intensifies CME raises silver margins to $25K amid a price surge, reviving manipulation concerns as higher costs threaten trader liquidations. On December 26, 2025, the CME Group announced an increase in margin requirements for silver futures. Starting December 29, 2025, the initial margin for March 2026 silver contracts will rise to $25,000. This move comes amid rising silver prices and growing concern about market manipulation. The CME’s decision is seen as another attempt to control silver’s price during a period of increased demand. The Impact of the Margin Hike on Silver...

The state’s parole board has released 39 “emerging adult” murder convicts who were originally sentenced to life without parole, but who later became eligible after a court ruling. The Massachusetts Parole Board has issued 51 parole decisions since the Supreme Judicial Court last year ruled that emerging adults who were 18 to 20 at the time of the offense cannot be sentenced to life without parole. Allen Alston, 47 — formerly known as Allen Scoggins — was one of the convicted murderers granted parole. On May 16, 1997, a then-19-year-old Alston shot and killed taxi driver Ismael Rivera, 56, in...

Recently appointed Chief Executive Officer of the federal Internal Revenue Service (IRS) Frank Bisignano predicted that "94% of taxpayers will see tax reductions from President Trump's 'Big Beautiful Bill' legislation. Many families will receive annual income tax reductions in the $10,000 to $20,000 range. Social Security recipients will see annual net increases in benefits ranging up to $6,000 due to the legislation's elimination of taxes on benefits." Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt) called these tax reductions "inherently unfair. Only the richest 50% of Americans pay income taxes. Those too poor to pay these taxes and those on welfare will get no...

Turkish intelligence captured an IS member assigned to carry out suicide attacks in Turkey and Europe, as authorities warned of possible New Year's Eve attack plots. Ten suspects were detained for financing the network. Turkey's national intelligence agency MITcaptured Mehmet Gören, a senior IS-Khorasan (ISIS-K) member assigned to carry out suicide attacks targeting civilians in Turkey, Europe, Pakistan and Afghanistan, security sources said Tuesday. Gören, operating under the codename "Yahya", was apprehended in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region and brought to Turkey following intelligence operations, according to sources. The operation thwarted attack plans targeting Turkey and exposed the organisation's recruitment network....

VIDEOIn the dystopian novel "Handmaid's Tale" powerless women in a future patriarchal society are treated like slaves and forced to wear ugly head coverings and must cover their bodies completely in long robes. The sad truth is you don't have to conjure up fiction to find such a society. This situation already exists in much of the Muslim world and is strictly enforced in such places as Iran and Afghanistan. So what did the Lt. Governor of Minnesota do? She embraced the Handmaid's Tale ethos by wearing a hijab, a symbol of the Handmaid's Tale type oppression among millions of...

One of the first things I did when I moved to Dubai was buy a Dodge Challenger. Not the volcanic Hellcat or the feral Scat Pack — the SXT, the V6 base model. Nevertheless, for those nine months in 2023, the car carried itself like it had seen things it couldn’t legally discuss. I miss it the way a grounded teenager misses his phone — painfully and often. The car was, in many ways, gloriously pointless. But to me, it was absolutely perfect. Nobody buys a Dodge for practicality. You buy one because fun is a dying art and driving...

Don’t ever be silenced.

Journalist in Ohio discovered more shocking Somalia immigrant fraud schemes Somalis in Ohio exposed for running EBT fraud rings by owning restaurants with attached grocery stores. They use welfare benefits to buy ingredients in bulk and funneling the money into their cash-paying eateries while reporting losses for tax write- offs He also shows how Muslims with multiple wife’s can have them all claim benefits

As families come together to light the kinara, Jen and I wish all those celebrating a joyful Kwanzaa. May the seven principles of Kwanzaa, in particular community, purpose, and unity, guide our way toward a better future. Happy Kwanzaa, California!

CHRISTMAS BIBLE-ART EPISODE #15 of 33 IT’S A BOY! L U K E CHAPTER 2 In those days Caesar Augustus issued a decree that a census should be taken of the entire Roman world. (This was the first census that took place while Quirinius was governor of Syria.) And everyone went to his own town to register. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to Bethlehem the town of David, because he belonged to the house and line of David. He went there to register with Mary, who was pledged to be...

~A happy third day of Christmastide to you. Waking on Boxing Day to hear that President Trump had dispatched the USAF across the Atlantic to take out the compounds of "scum", I naturally assumed he was referring to 10 Downing Street: A teacher in an English school was accused of posing a risk to children and referred to the Government's counter-terrorism programme after showing Donald Trump videos to his US politics class... Henley College, a sixth-form in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, with more than 2,000 students, reported the politics lecturer to the local child safeguarding authority, which concluded a referral to Prevent,...

Zohran Mamdani is about to take office as New York City’s new mayor. One of his signature initiatives is the idea of ‘community policing’. This usually gets translated in the press as “he wants to send social workers out to answer 911 calls.” That alone is crazy enough, but as usual, the press does not begin to understand or communicate effectively what is really happening. A bill has already been introduced before the New York City Council to create what will be called the “Department of Community Safety.” Brooklyn Lincoln Restler, a member of the Working Families Party, is the...

Droubay said her family's housing costs doubled, but their New York life is a dream come true. snip I have been pleasantly surprised by how kind 99% of people have been. I will get to the subway, and before I even fold up my stroller, strangers pick up the other end and carry it for me. Everyone stands up and offers seats to my kids, or older women have even grabbed one of my kids' hands and helped them on or off the subway for me.