Free Republic

The Detroit native teamed up with his original bandmates in 1953, and has been a Top ever since.Abdul “Duke” Fakir wouldn’t be human if he didn’t feel strange sometimes. As he has continued to perform, around a pandemic-driven pause, with the latter-day version of the Four Tops, he is the last remaining founder member of this great vocal institution. He does so with the immense good grace and style that always characterised his work with his departed colleagues. Duke was born on December 26, 1935. The Detroit native was friends from school years with Levi Stubbs, and they first...

An illegal migrant has been nabbed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) in Louisiana after she ran a red light and crashed her car into one of the agency's vehicles, officers said. The Honduran national accidentally plowed her car being into one being used by ICE during the Operation Catahoula Crunch raid in Slidell, according to US Border Patrol chief Gregory Bovino. 'Apparently she never learned the lesson that red means stop, not 'accelerate and collide with a government vehicle actively enforcing federal law'.' Bovino, the Commander of Operation At Large in California, said in a Facebook post. No injuries...

Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón signed legislation on July 16 barring puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and gender-affirming surgeries for individuals younger the 21 years of age. The law’s text justifies the move by making the case that minors “are particularly vulnerable to making decisions that can have irreversible consequences.” The law further stipulates that public funds cannot be used for gender-affirming care for youth. González-Colón, a Republican who just took office this year, signed the legislation despite previously seeking amendments to safeguard access to puberty blockers and allow individuals already receiving gender-affirming care to continue to do so, according to...

Ideology has seized our universities, Cary Kogan says: ‘We can't have this kind of identity-based hate movement being taught in classrooms’ “Bondi was a warning shot,” cautions Cary Kogan, professor of psychology at the University of Ottawa. “If Western governments aren’t going to deal with the issue (of antisemitism), this is what we’re going to end up with. And I worry; the intelligence community has told us very clearly that there are bad actors here in Canada, and you know, the government needs to listen.” Offended, both as a Jew and an academic, by faculty union manoeuvres to constrain the...

Calls to hold Minnesota Democrat Gov. Tim Walz accountable are growing after what independent journalist Nick Shirley says is evidence of massive fraud uncovered this week. Rep. Tom Emmer, R-Minn., and Tesla CEO Elon Musk are among the high-profile figures calling for increased scrutiny of Walz as accusations of widespread fraud mount. In a video that has since gone viral, Shirley and his team confront daycare workers in and around the Twin Cities. Shirley claims the operations were beneficiaries of hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer funds despite no legitimate business activity to justify the influx of money. In...

Puerto Rican Governor Jenniffer González signed Senate Bill 504 into law this week, recognizing preborn children as "natural persons." Key Takeaways: Governor of Puerto Rico Jenniffer González signed SB 504 into law, recognizing preborn babies as persons. The bill does not change current abortion laws or provide further protections for preborn children. Abortion supporters claim the law will "reverse women's rights." The Details: The bill amends Puerto Rico's Civil Code to recognize preborn babies as natural persons from the moment of fertilization at any stage of gestation within the mother’s womb. It was authored by Senate President Thomas Rivera Schatz...

SummaryDan Lyman interviews William Wolfe, executive director of the Center for Baptist Leadership and former Trump administration appointee at State Department and DOD. Wolfe introduces his background, including work for pro-American immigration figures, and explains his focus on immigration due to perceived subversion by Christian NGOs. Lyman asks for a high-level grade on the second Trump administration's immigration crackdown. Wolfe gives an A-minus, noting significant progress compared to the first term (e.g., cutting USAID funding, stronger border security, lower refugee caps, discussions on H-1Bs), but emphasizes the problem worsened under Biden, requiring even more action. Discussion on USAID: Wolfe describes...

In a move that has ignited fierce debate across Florida, the Pensacola city-owned Saenger Theatre hosted a sold-out performance of “A Drag Queen Christmas” on Tuesday, despite months of controversy, public outcry, and demands from state officials to cancel the event.

President Donald Trump is throwing cold water on Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's new 20-point peace plan ahead of their Sunday meeting at Mar-a-Lago. "He doesn't have anything until I approve it," Trump told Politico. "We'll see what he's got." Trump believes he will have a productive meeting with Zelenskyy and also hopes to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin soon. "I think it's going to go good with him," Trump said to Politico. "I think it's going to go good with Putin." The president said he will meet with Putin "as much I want." On Friday, Russia accused Zelenskyy and...

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass is facing intense backlash for making racially-charged comments about Hispanic Americans serving with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Bass, a Democrat, was speaking with CNN’s “The Situation Room” on a recent network feature that profiled Border Patrol and ICE agents training to work along the southern border. CNN noted that a large percentage of recruits were of Hispanic heritage and at one point asked whether they had any reservations about apprehending their “own kind.” “They didn’t come in the right way so they aren’t my kind,” one recruit said without hesitation. Border Patrol Agent...

The father of a teenage girl who deputies say was kidnapped on Christmas Day found her using his phone’s parental controls, according to authorities in Texas. A 15-year-old girl was reported kidnapped from the Houston suburb of Porter on Thursday after her parents said she took her dog out for a walk but did not return, the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office said in a news release. Authorities said the girl’s father tracked her phone using parental controls, which led him to a secluded, partially wooded area in Harris County, roughly two miles from Porter. Her father located her and her...

By Dr. John BergsmaThe Sunday that falls in the Octave of the Solemnity of Christmas is dedicated to celebrating the Holy Family. The Readings for this Sunday focus on the rights and responsibilities of family members toward each other, and the Gospel focuses on the role of the “most forgotten” member of the Holy Family, St. Joseph, who cared for and protected the Blessed Mother and infant Jesus through the dangerous early years of Jesus’ childhood. 1. The First Reading is Sirach 3:2-6, 12-14:God sets a father in honor over his children; a mother’s authority he confirms over her sons.Whoever...

Newspapers in late 1700s/early 1800s were delivered by postboys on horseback. In the New Year's edition, there would often be a single page poem insert that summarized the news of the year in a humorous way. This was exchanged by the postboy with his customers for a tip. Henry Livingston, Jr., argued by his family to be the actual author of Night Before Christmas, wrote Carrier Addresses for a variety of New York newspapers from 1787 to at least 1823. The 1803 Political Barometer Carriers Address gives a brief overview of news after an introduction and before a request for...

NIGERIA — President Trump has given dozens of ISIS terrorists the gift of getting to meet Allah for Christmas. After giving much thought to what they would like, Trump decided there was simply no better gift than sending them to meet Allah. "A one-way ticket to Allah! They're going to love this," said Trump as he wrote "Merry Christmas" on the missiles destined for Nigeria. "No one gives better gifts then me, your favorite President. It's a beautiful gift, very expensive, let me tell you. I spent millions of dollars on it, but it will all be worth it for...

Seven years ago, Mr Kelvin Seah Lee Nguon stepped back from his job to be a stay-at-home dad and eventually found himself struggling with loneliness and a lack of purpose. Here's how he learnt to appreciate life's small moments again. In late 2017, my wife and I learnt that the younger of our two sons has autism. We needed more support at home. So in 2018, I went from being a full-time polytechnic lecturer to part-time, and became a stay-at-home husband and dad. Since that transformative year, my day-to-day routine has pivoted to mostly household chores, parenting and some teaching....

Mervyn Kersh is proud of his country, and of the role he played in helping to defeat the Nazis in the Second World War. But the soon-to-be 101-year-old Jewish D-Day veteran, who also witnessed the horrors of the newly-liberated Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945, is not proud of what he sees as the current state of the nation. Speaking to the Daily Mail from his comfortable home in north London, Mervyn is despondent about modern Britain and the myriad crises it faces. He goes as far as saying that victory over Adolf Hitler was a 'waste of time', adding that...

A new billboard in Times Square is misguided in dangerous ways“Merry Christmas,” proclaims a billboard in Times Square: “Jesus is Palestinian.” Countless people will walk by the display or see it on social media, and many will believe it. So, let’s go through why that statement is such a mistake, once again. Jesus was a Jew. He was born to Jewish parents, was circumcised under Jewish law — traditionally, on Jan. 1, which is how that day became known as the Feast of the Circumcision — and lived as a Jew. He taught from the Hebrew Scriptures. He worshiped in...

A bizarre wildlife incident disrupted operations at La Coruña Airport on the morning of Saturday, December 27, when several wild boars breached the airport boundaries and began trotting along the runway, which led to a temporary closure for safety reasons. According to airport operator Aena, the presence of the animal(s) on the runway led to the suspension of flights starting early in the morning. Unlike typical disruptions caused by Galicia’s frequent fog, this incident was solely due to the boar intrusion. “Sorry, I regret having to bring you to Santiago,” pilot apologises Two incoming flights were diverted to Santiago de...

Watchdog group demands answers after ‘unbelievable security lapse’ by Trump’s Secret Service team The Secret Service continues to endanger the president’s life with lax security, and the government is sitting on information that might expose recent failures which allowed President Trump to get shouted down by Code Pink protesters during a recent outing to a Washington DC restaurant, advocates fear. “I’m just really concerned about the president’s safety,” Tom Fitton of Judicial Watch told The Post. “He was almost killed twice supposedly under the protection of the Secret Service and then they walked him into a potentially dangerous ambush,” he...

In the early hours of Wednesday morning, thieves broke into a parish church in the Sevillian town of Paradas, mistakenly stealing a replica of a painting by El Greco after believing it to be the original work. The incident occurred at the Church of San Eutropio, where both the authentic artwork and a publicly displayed copy are housed. The stolen piece was a replica of La Magdalena Penitente, a painting attributed to the 16th-century artist Doménikos Theotokópoulos, known as El Greco. The original painting remains inside the church and was not removed, as it is kept behind protective iron bars...