Free Republic

North Korea is executing schoolchildren for watching South Korean TV shows and listening to K-Pop, including Netflix’s hit series “Squid Game,” according to Amnesty International. Escapees told the human rights group that teenagers and even middle school students have been publicly executed, sent to labor camps or subjected to brutal public humiliations for consuming foreign media banned by the regime. The accounts are based on 25 in-depth interviews conducted in 2025 with North Koreans who fled the country between 2012 and 2020, the organization said. Most were between ages 15 and 25 when they escaped. One interviewee said people, including...

A small group of pro-wealth activists clashed with socialist demonstrators Saturday over California’s proposed “billionaire’s tax,” as dueling protests played out on the streets of San Francisco. The rally, dubbed the “March for Billionaires,” drew supporters of the state’s ultra-wealthy residents, who are in the crosshairs of a proposal that would force them to hand over five percent of their net worth to California each year. Organizer Derik Kauffman said many onlookers assumed the march was a joke, given it was staged in ultra-liberal San Francisco. “Vilifying billionaires is popular. Losing them is expensive,” reads a message on the event’s...

[Catholic Caucus] The SSPX and the Question of Apostolic ContinuityThe current situation involving the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX) has once again revealed a serious and unresolved reality within the Church – one that cannot be dismissed, delayed indefinitely, or answered with silence.In the years following the Council, Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre acted under the conviction that essential elements of the Church’s life – the traditional priestly formation, the sacramental theology that shaped it, and the Mass that had nourished countless saints – were being abandoned or actively suppressed. The Society of St. Pius X arose from that crisis and,...

Bob Fosse was up to his usual tricks when he was asked to do some extra work with Janet Leigh during pre-production on My Sister Eileen, his fourth Hollywood movie role and his first as a choreographer. Leigh was nervous and asked Columbia, her studio, if she could rehearse with him "to get sort of seasoned" and started three weeks of what amounted to a private tutorial with the man who would become the most famous choreographer in American musicals. (Leigh has said she had never made a musical before but that wasn't true: in 1951 she had starred in...

About a dozen women holding their yoga mats berated staffers for being "silent." "Give us answers, let’s go … let’s hear it, why are you being silent?" one lunatic said. "Let’s hear it, Delaney, loud and proud, baby. You want to say it, let’s f**king say it." "We can f**king get a yoga studio someplace else." According to the New York Post, the incident unfolded after customers heard through "studio gossip" that the corporate team took down an anti-ICE sign. CorePower has since responded to the incident, calling the meltdown from the women "aggressive and profane" before saying they don't...

Chaos Erupts in Milan as Radical Leftists Clash with Police over ‘Unsustainable’ Olympics MILAN, ITALY - FEBRUARY 07: Police use water cannons and tear gas to drive away protestersAlessandro Levati/Getty Images Kurt Zindulka7 Feb 202669 2:52 Violence broke out on Saturday as thousands of leftist protesters took to the streets of Milan to demonstrate on the sidelines of the Winter Olympics. With the eyes of the world’s media descending upon the Italian financial hub as it co-hosts the XXV Winter Olympic Games, various left-wing activist groups organised in Milan to promote their disparate agendas. According to a report from Milan’s...

Residents of the Marylander Condominiums, in Prince George’s County, Md., have been without heat since November after vagrants from a nearby homeless encampment allegedly vandalized the boiler room. Now, many of those residents will be homeless themselves after a judge greenlighted the county’s efforts to start a forced evacuation of the condominium complex. Maryland district judge Bryon Bereano gave the county permission on Thursday to enforce an eviction order against half the property, which affects roughly 100 units. The county had deemed those units “unfit for human habitation” due to the heating failures allegedly caused by the encampment, to which...

NewsTalk 105.9 FM WMAL is pleased to bring the Free Speech Forum once again to The Birchmere in Alexandria, VA on Sunday, May 17th. This unique event features WMAL’s personalities on stage debating the news of the day as determined by questions posed in writing from members of the audience. WMAL personalities will include Larry O’Connor, Chris Plante, Vince Coglianese and WMAL’s new afternoon show host, Derek Hunter.

U.S. — After watching several videos of anti-ICE protesters viciously hunting people down to check their papers, an impressed President Trump announced he will immediately hire the protesters to join Border Patrol. Trump stated that the protesters' stiff enforcement of checkpoints, motivation to build physical barriers, and commitment to chasing down anyone without proper identification made them perfect for the job. "I can't think of anyone better," said Trump. "Have you seen these people? They're so passionate about border security, you don't even have to pay them and they'll stand out in the freezing cold to monitor every single person...

Besides scrutiny from the feds, Rep. Ilhan Omar’s husband’s winery could land the embattled power couple in hot water with imams too. Political consultant Tim Mynett converted to Islam to marry Omar, a practicing Muslim — but selling booze is strictly banned in Islamic law, which considers anything to do with alcohol sinful — or “haram.” “I assure you that they got married in accordance with Islam and the law, and Ilhan’s husband converted to Islam,” a spokesperson for Omar’s office told BBC Somalia at the time of the 2020 wedding. It was Mynett’s California-based wine company eStCru, together with...

A Feb. 6 ruling from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals states that illegal aliens who never presented themselves at a port of entry can be held without a bond until they are deported.A three-judge panel voted 2-1 to reverse a lower court's decision.Victor Buenrostro-Mendez had sued US Attorney General Pam Bondi, Department of Homeland Security Kristi Noem, U. S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Acting Director Todd Lyons, Acting ICE Houston Field Office Director Matthew Baker, ICE John Linscott, ICE Director of Houston Contract Detention Facility, and Houston Warden Contract Detention Facility of CoreCivic Martin Frink.The case was consolidated with...

Hamas announces 500-shekel payments to tens of thousands of ‘Al-Aqsa Flood’ widows Hamas plans to disburse 500 shekels – some US $160 – to every widow of those killed in the “Al-Aqsa Flood War,” the group announced Wednesday. Payment would be made to as many as 50,000 widowed families, it said, amounting to total disbursements of some 25 million shekels (US $8 million). Though not stated explicitly in the statement, it was widely understood in Gaza that the reference to “Al-Aqsa Flood” meant the lion’s share of aid would go to the widows of Hamas members.

The Justice Department announced Friday that a “key participant” in the September 11, 2012, Benghazi attack is now in U.S. custody and will be prosecuted for his alleged role in the deaths of four Americans. Attorney General Pam Bondi identified the suspect as Zubayr Al-Bakoush and said he arrived at Andrews AFB early Friday. Prosecutors have filed an eight-count indictment that includes murder-related charges tied to the deaths of several Americans. Bondi made the announcement alongside FBI Director Kash Patel and U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro, and Al-Bakoush is expected to face charges that include terrorism, arson, and murder.

Natasha Owens slamming the cantsingsteen.

Recent figures from the Central Bank of Iran highlight the scale of the problem. In the Iranian year 1403 (2024/25), the average annual gross expenditure of an urban household reached about 4.69 billion rials, or roughly 391 million rials per month, marking a year-on-year increase of nearly 38%. Of this amount, close to 30% was spent on food and beverages alone. For an average household of 3.2 people, monthly food expenses exceeded 116 million rials.

Iran’s leadership is edging toward a war scenario not because diplomacy is necessarily collapsing, but because confrontation is increasingly seen as the least damaging option for a ruling system under intense internal and external pressure

Green Day have changed the lyrics to two of their most famous songs ahead of the band's upcoming Super Bowl performance. Green Day, comprising Billie Joe Armstrong, Mike Dirnt, and Tré Cool, will perform at the Super Bowl's opening ceremony show on Sunday, February 8. The Grammy Award-winning band, which has outwardly condemned Donald Trump in the past, will be singing a number of their biggest hits as the Seattle Seahawks and New England Patriots prepare to take the field at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California. Following the American Idiot's hitmakers' performance, Puerto Rican rapper Bad Bunny will perform,...

If he were so inclined, I think Governor Walz could rewrite the Paul Simon song subtitled “How I Was Robert McNamara’d into Submission.” In Walz’s case, it would go “How I was Nancy Pelosi’d Into Submission.” The lyrics would explain how he was Nancy Pelosi’d into submission by Amy Klobuchar, or perhaps how he was Klobber’d into submission. I told the public part of the story in the Examiner column “Exit Tim Walz, stage Biden.” Walz has now folded his campaign for an absurd third gubernatorial term. To say that Walz is the worst governor in Minnesota history does not...

It is not momentous events that are the most meme-worthy. Rather, it is moments when liberals show their true colors and embarrass themselves, often in relatively trivial ways, that set meme-creators to work. This week, along with the ongoing fiasco in Minnesota, we had severel such events. The Washington Post, hemorrhaging losses, laid off a large portion of its staff, causing its newly-unemployed reporters to demonstrate outside the building. They marched in defense of the moral principle that Jeff Bezos is obliged to support them forever, no matter how much money they lose. I wonder whether some of the newly-laid-off...

The FBI's seizure of ballots, documents, and machinery used by Fulton County in the 2020 presidential election was challenged by Fulton County election Commissioner Marvin Arrington. "Look, we went through all this nonsense in November of 2020," he complained. "At that time everyone agreed that Trump lost the election. The media declared Biden the winner. Judges determined that Trump lacked standing to challenge the results. Reexamining the outcome at this late date isn't worthwhile and could destabilize the country if it turns out that some mistakes were made." FBI Director Kash Patel pointed out that "the 'lacks standing' grounds used...