Free Republic

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — The Trump administration is bringing a small number of white South Africans to the United States as refugees next week in what it says is the start of a larger relocation effort for a minority group who are being persecuted by their Black-led government because of their race.The South Africans’ applications are being fast-tracked by the U.S. after President Donald Trump announced the relocation program in February. The Trump administration has taken an anti-migrant stance, suspending refugee programs and halting arrivals from other parts of the world, including Iraq, Afghanistan and most countries in...

Practically everyone has heard of Saint Kateri Tekakwitha, the Lily of the Mohawk nation and the first formally canonized indigenous American saint. Almost no one has heard of Catherine Gandeaktena. But a new historical novel, Catherine of the Erie by Claudio R. Salvucci aims to change that. Though almost unknown among Catholics today, Catherine Gandeaktena's role was an important one. Indeed, if it were not for Catherine, the world may never have known about Saint Kateri. Catherine of the Erie successfully puts this devout, humble woman and her harrowing life story on the literary map. Here is some historical background...

An elderly Catholic sculptor in Nagasaki, Japan, is all set to complete and install the world’s tallest wooden statue of the Virgin Mary after four decades of time, energy and money. Eiji Oyamatsu, 88, a Catholic from Fujisawa, Kanagawa prefecture, will unveil the 10-meter wooden statue of Mary with the child Jesus at the end of June, reported Japanese newspaper Asahi Shimbun. The statue pays tribute to thousands of Christian martyrs of Nagasaki in the 17th century. The single-handed effort by Oyamatsu encouraged a group of volunteers to form the Citizens’ Association for Minami-Shimabara World Heritage in 2018. The group...

A17th-century painting showing a Black woman with her White companion has been placed under a temporary export bar to reduce the risk of the artwork leaving the United Kingdom... ...Titled "Allegorical Painting of Two Ladies, English School," the painting presents a Black female sitter and her White companion as counterparts, as they sport similar clothing, hair, jewelry and makeup.... ..."This anonymous painting is a great rarity in British art, as a mid-seventeenth-century work that depicts a black woman and a white woman with equal status. It is not a portrait of real people, as far as we know, but the...

The world is celebrating the amazing journey that Apollo 11 made to the Moon 40 years ago. But few realise that an early bid to reach the Moon was launched from England, way back in the 17th century. Wilkins and Hooke aboard their spaceship Incredible as it may seem, one of the greatest scientific minds of the time, Dr John Wilkins, a founder of the Royal Society, was planning his own lunar mission four centuries ago around the time of the English Civil War. It wasn't hot air either. Inspired by the great voyages of discovery around the globe...

17th century Japanese village uncovered in Cambodia Thursday, February 14, 2008 at 07:01 EST PHNOM PENH — A site of a Japanese village dating back to the 17th century has been found in the outskirts of Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh, a Japanese archaeologist said Wednesday. Hiroshi Sugiyama, chief research fellow at Japan's National Research Institute for Cultural Properties, said that based on research since 2004 and analyses of excavations and documents, the site in Ponhea Lueu Commune, about 25 kilometers north of Phnom Penh, is a Japanese village dating back to the 17th century. Based on on-site research, excavations and...

Hendrick Hamel is a Dutch sailor that ended up in Korea in 1653. Hamel and sixty-four crew members left on the Sperwer from Batavia. The Sperwer encounters a storm and the ship is gone. 28 of the 64 died. They wash ashore on Cheju Island. From their, it starts Hamel's adventure in Korea. He was like the Marco Polo of Korea. It could be possible that I could have non-Korean ancestry in me, perhaps a Dutch ancestry in me. The Journal of HamelKorea Through Western Cartographic Eyes

INDEX Gentleman's Magazine - Gunpowder June 1740. Volume 10. Friday, 20. - Complaint having been made to the Lords of the Admiralty that the Gunpowder used by the 3 Men of War when they took the Princessa was weaker than the Powder taken in the said Ship in Proportion of 7 to 12, it was thought proper to make a publick Tryal; in order thereto some Gunpowder was taken out of each of the above 4 Ships, put into 4 Boxes at Portsmouth which were sealed up by some Officers of the Navy and Ordnance, and sent to Town, and...