Free Republic

Daily Readings from the USCCBJesus came to Galilee proclaiming the Gospel of God: “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the Gospel.” As he passed by the Sea of Galilee, he saw Simon and his brother Andrew casting their nets into the sea; they were fishermen. Jesus said to them, “Come after me, and I will make you fishers of men.” Mark 1:15–17Today, as we enter into Ordinary Time, we hear Jesus’ first proclamation of the Gospel as recorded by Mark: “This is the time of fulfillment. The Kingdom of...

Dogs are great at learning action commands like “sit” and “stay.” They're less good at remembering the names of things, like what their squeaky or stuffed toys are called. Only an elite group of gifted word-learner dogs can retain the names of hundreds of toys. Scientists know of about 50 such pooches, but they aren’t yet sure what's behind their wordy skills. Now, new research is pushing the limits of what the dogs can do. Scientists already knew that these extraordinary pups could learn the names of their stuffed pizza and doughnut toys from playtime with their owners. In the...

U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order that aims to block the seizure of Venezuelan oil revenue held in U.S. Treasury accounts. The executive order states that the revenue, which is held in foreign government deposit funds, are “held solely for sovereign purposes” and that any court attempt to seize the funds will “materially harm the national security and foreign policy” of the U.S. The order, which declared a national emergency, said the funds are the sovereign property of Venezuela held in U.S. custody for governmental and diplomatic means, and are not assets subject to private claims....

President Trump was briefed on new options for military strikes in Iran, a senior U.S. official confirmed Sunday. Mr. Trump appeared to lay out his red line for action on Friday when he warned that if the Iranian government began "killing people like they have in the past, we would get involved." "We'll be hitting them very hard where it hurts," he said at the White House. "And that doesn't mean boots on the ground, but it means hitting them very, very hard where it hurts." On social media, Mr. Trump offered his support for the protesters, saying that "Iran...

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Argentina has repaid the funds it drew from a $20 billion credit line with the Trump administration, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent announced Friday, in a crucial step for Argentine President Javier Milei to restore confidence in his chronically distressed economy. In addition to making payments to bondholders, Milei’s radical libertarian administration had “quickly and fully repaid its limited draw,” Bessent said, without specifying the amount. The Treasury’s latest report on the status of the credit line said that Argentina’s central bank had traded pesos for $2.5 billion through the swap as of the end...

Representative Ilhan Omar has been accused of attempting to secure a $1 million earmark in a congressional spending bill for a Somali-led addiction recovery organization that shares an address with a Somali restaurant. On Monday, lawmakers unveiled a new spending package totaling at least $174 billion. Iowa Senator Joni Ernst said her office found that Omar had earmarked $1,031,000 through the Department of Justice for an organization called Generation Hope MN. The earmark was included alongside funding requests co-led by Senators Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith of Minnesota. Ernst told Fox News that the earmark was presented as funding for...

Iranian Activist Masih Alinejad Slams Ana Kasparian's Ridiculous Iran Comments | WATCH Iranian activist Masih Alinejad torches Piers Morgan for platforming regime-apologist drivel amid Iran's bloody crackdown, because nothing says 'uncensored' like fueling tyrants' excuses to kill.

The viral video from November 13, 2025, shows an ICE agent in Salem, Oregon, taking a U.S. citizen's wallet and keys during an immigration operation, then driving off and abandoning her car. Local police later received the items from agents and returned them. Community groups expressed outrage, calling for accountability, but no charges or lawsuits against the agent have been reported as of January 2026.

A left-wing activist group gathered more than one thousand people inside a Minnesota church on Saturday for “training” on how to interact with ICE agents in public, following the fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good earlier this month. The group, Monarca, said the event was intended to train “upstander legal observers” to follow and record Department of Homeland Security officers as they carry out ICE operations. Attendees were encouraged to attend protests wearing gas masks and sunglasses and to carry a pencil, with organizers noting that in Minnesota, “a pen will freeze.” According to the New York Post, speakers at...

Every woe-laden left winger from Minneapolis to the Florida Everglades is now aware of the sad death of Renee Nicole Good, a 37-year-old mother who thought it seemed like a good idea to aim her multi-ton vehicle at an ICE officer. Her mother, Donna Ganger, told the Minneapolis Tribune that she was a good person who had been taking care of people all her life. Nicole graduated in 2020 from Old Dominion University in Virginia with a literary degree. At that time, she was married to her former husband, Tim Macklin. GoFundMe has raised over a million dollars for the...

An FBI supervisor who openly opposed Donald Trump on social media played a crucial role in igniting the controversial Arctic Frost probe, pressing to add the former president as a formal subject of the investigation and circulating articles from liberal activists and leftwing news sources to make his case, according to evidence recently turned over to Congress and obtained by Just the News. Special Agent Timothy Thibault, who left his role as the assistant agent in charge of its Washington field office in August 2022 after his anti-Trump social posts became public, organized the initial electronic communication that authorized the...

Nvidia and Palantir's competitive AI edges won't last, argues Michael Burry Famed for predicting the housing market crash and a vocal skeptic of the AI boom, Michael Burry is now invoking one of the world's most famous investors to add gravitas to his argument. Burry used an escalator built by Berkshire Hathaway's (BRK.A) Chairman Warren Buffett, in a department store he owned in the late 1960s, to illustrate how vast AI spending may not leading to value accruing across its supply chain. "When the department store across the street put an escalator in, he had to, too. In the end,...

Then-Special Counsel Jack Smith's office approved paying $20,000 in 2023 to a confidential human source for information in the controversial FBI investigation code-named Arctic Frost that probed efforts by President Donald Trump and his followers to contest the 2020 election results, according to documents obtained by Just the News. The revelation is included in a tranche of new memos that FBI Director Kash Patel turned over to Congress this week that provide more clarity on the tactics and scope of the inquiry that agents and prosecutors used to try to build a case that Trump, his lawyers and allies had...

CHRISTMAS BIBLE-ART EPISODE #30 of 33 KING HEROD SLAUGHTERS THE INNOCENTS M A T T H E W CHAPTER 2 When Herod realized that he had been outwitted by the Magi, he was furious, and he gave orders to kill all the boys in Bethlehem and its vicinity who were two years old and under, in accordance with the time he had learned from the Magi. Then what was said through the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled: “A voice is heard in Ramah, weeping and great mourning, Rachel weeping for her children and refusing to be comforted, because they are...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=st8GKlONVz8 Jan 11, 2026 The CIA has been quietly helping Ukraine target Russian oil infrastructure, and in this video I explain why that shift has nothing to do with explosions and everything to do with breaking systems. This isn’t Hollywood spy stuff. It’s industrial warfare aimed at the parts Russia cannot easily replace. I break down how Ukraine moved from flashy refinery strikes to precision attacks on critical bottlenecks, why intelligence agencies excel at identifying industrial choke points, and how hitting the right component can keep a refinery offline for weeks or months. This is pressure applied at the foundation...

Even government programs can get strangled by red tape. Think back to 2021. That's when President Joe Biden signed the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. It directed more than $1 trillion toward transportation and infrastructure projects. That included more than $42 billion to expand broadband internet.

12 January 2026 Monday of week 1 in Ordinary Time Mass for the Feast of the Baptism of the Lord at the site of the Baptism (Al-Maghtas)Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: A(II).First reading1 Samuel 1:1-8Hannah's rival taunts her for being barrenThere was a man of Ramathaim, a Zuphite from the highlands of Ephraim whose name was Elkanah son of Jeroham, son of Elihu, son of Tohu, son of Zuph, an Ephraimite. He had two wives, one called Hannah, the other Peninnah; Peninnah had children but Hannah had none. Every year this man used to go up from his town...

In the immediate aftermath of the U.S. operation that led to Nicolás Maduro’s capture, much of Washington made a familiar assumption: that Donald Trump would now formally embrace the Venezuelan opposition and usher in a U.S.-backed political transition. Within policy circles, think tanks, and cable news studios, expectations hardened quickly. The usual people anticipated recognition ceremonies, opposition figures positioned themselves for legitimacy, and commentators spoke confidently about a “handoff” phase, as if regime change naturally culminates in international endorsement and applause. That assumption reflected Washington’s worldview, not Trump’s. [SNIP] Trump has never equated removing an adversary with an automatic claim...

It bothers me to my core that lawmakers, elected leaders, and those who serve the public rushed to condemn law enforcement officers—without proof—the tragic death of Renee Nicole Good. Tragic, yes. But tragic for only one reason. She—and she alone—had dozens of chances to avoid her demise. As the newly released video footage now makes unmistakably clear—shown from multiple side angles and, tragically, from the body camera of the officer she struck—Renee Nicole Good put her vehicle in reverse, aimed it toward a uniformed officer, and stepped on the gas. That was her decision. No one forced it. No one...

Gold and silver prices are strongly up and both hit new record highs in early U.S. trading Monday. Risk aversion is significantly elevated in the marketplace to start the trading week, amid tumult in the Federal Reserve and civil unrest in Iran that are driving safe-haven demand to the precious metals markets. February gold was last up $98.30 at $4,599.30. March silver prices were up $4.849 at $84.205.