Free Republic

A left-wing group is putting up billboards in high-crime cities where President Donald Trump deployed the National Guard, telling military service members that is not what they “signed up for” and encouraging them to refuse “unlawful orders.” Win Without War, a self-described “diverse network of activists and national organizations working for progressive foreign policy,” launched its billboard campaign in September in Washington, DC, before expanding to Chicago, Memphis, and the military bases Ft. Bragg and Camp Lejeune in North Carolina. One of the billboards asks, “Did you go airborne just to pull security for ICE?” before directing people to a...

Just in: The father of 20-year-old Sarah Beckstrom says her death is all but certain after she was targeted by a jihadist Afghan "refugee" "She has a mortal wound. It's not going to be a recovery."

George Washington’s Thanksgiving Proclamation in 1789 laid the foundation for thanksgiving celebrations on the last Thursday of November. While an annual thanksgiving holiday would not become a federal holiday until 1863 under a proclamation of Abraham Lincoln, Washington’s ideas for such a holiday led to advocacy for it to become a federal holiday throughout the nineteenth century.

LINES of dragons’ teeth bollards protect Ukraine from Russian attacks in the “fortress belt” tyrant Vladimir Putin insists must be surrendered before any ceasefire can be agreed. The Sun on Sunday’s Defence Editor Jerome Starkey visited to see the barricades and tank trap trenches that President Volodymyr Zelenksy says would take four years to breach. The UK’s Defence Intelligence experts predict 1.9million Russian troops would become casualties in the time it would take to overcome the belt — the best defended position in war-ravaged eastern Donbas. It stretches 30 miles from Slovyansk to Kostyantynivka in Donetsk Oblast [province] of which...

This story has been made freely available as a public service to our readers. Please consider supporting SCMP’s journalism by subscribing. What we know so far: 44 people, including a firefighter, have died. Some 279 are still missing Among those hospitalised, 45 are in serious condition The eight residential blocks in the estate had been undergoing renovations since July 2024, sheathed in bamboo scaffolding and green mesh Authorities say the rapid spread of fire was “unusual”, with styrofoam material found in buildings Government will launch investigations, including criminal probes, to find cause of deadly blaze Blazes in three of the...

They're not vetted. And they're not refugees. They're here to kill us. The killing of two National Guardsmen by an Afghan Muslim ‘refugee’ is only the latest act of Afghan refugee violence. Biden’s decision to import huge numbers of unvetted Afghans has created a ticking time bomb. The only way to defuse it is to deport them. In the years since Biden’s mass importation of Afghans, every possible effort has been made to try and legalize them. But one day those efforts will succeed unless they are removed from this country. We’ve been lied to over the years about Afghans....

Voters in the Coastal Plains of North Carolina are on track for new congressional maps in the 2026 midterms. The 1st and 3rd Congressional Districts are changed from the 2024 presidential cycle in the map redrawn this fall by the Legislature. On Wednesday, Justices Allison Jones Rushing, Richard Myers and Thomas Schroeder in a 57-page opinion concluded plaintiffs did not make a “clear showing that they are likely to succeed on the merits of any of the claims advanced in their preliminary injunction motions” and denied the request for a preliminary injunction. Filing for the 2026 midterms begins Monday. Rushing...

NPR's Ailsa Chang talks with U.S. Rep. Elissa Slotkin about signing a letter to President Biden calling to prioritize evacuating Afghan allies who face retaliation from the Taliban.

A Florida driver was arrested after allegedly trying to hit members of an LGBTQ running club with his vehicle at a local park, according to the West Palm Beach Police Department. Ihab Mustafa El Mahmoud, 43, was arrested on Monday evening for "attempting to strike members of a local running club at a park, making multiple passes and driving recklessly before fleeing," police said. Police responded to the scene at approximately 8:20 p.m. on Monday, and upon arriving, "met with members of a local LGBTQIA+ running club" who reported an individual allegedly driving a Ford Bronco SUV and "intentionally" trying...

Putin is offering Ukraine a deal: If Ukrainian forces withdraw from the contested territories, Russia will immediately cease all military operations. Should they refuse to do so, Russia will compel their withdrawal through force until peace is achieved.

A 19-year-old college student who was on her way to surprise her family for Thanksgiving break was detained at a Boston airport and later deported despite a federal judge's order blocking her removal, according to her attorney. Any Lucia Lopez Belloza, who entered the U.S. from Honduras when she was 8 years old, was about to board her flight to Texas last Friday to visit her parents and siblings when airport authorities told her to step aside, her attorney Todd Pomerleau told ABC News. Lopez Belloza was detained, informed that she had a removal order and then arrested, her attorney...

A generation sidelined by debt, ideology, and stalled adulthood is drifting—but it won’t stay lost if society restores real opportunity, accountability, and purpose. TA generation sidelined by debt, ideology, and stalled adulthood is drifting—but it won’t stay lost if society restores real opportunity, accountability, and purpose. Zoomers rarely date, supposedly out of fear that they would have to grow up, take charge, and head a household. Yet the opposite, sympathetic generalization of Gen Z seems more accurate. All through K-12, young men, particularly white males, have been demonized for their “toxic masculinity” that draws accusations of sexism, racism, and homophobia....

After several bruising weeks for Speaker Mike Johnson, a soft-focus podcast interview alongside his wife, conducted by Katie Miller, the wife of Stephen Miller, one of President Trump’s top advisers, had all the ingredients for a flattering reset. What emerged from the interview instead was a portrait of a Republican leader barely keeping his head above water in a job to which he does not appear particularly well suited, a conversation full of tragically revealing details packaged as rueful humor but with the biting sting of truth. “We have this joke that I’m not really a speaker of the House,”...

As families gather to celebrate Thanksgiving, many worry about the impossibly high cost of health insurance. Let’s play a game of What If? (It will be fun, I promise.) What if healthcare dollars currently going to insurance companies were paid instead to the consumers themselves? Would good things result, or bad? This “what if” exercise was prompted by President Trump’s offhand suggestion to give ACA subsidies “directly to the people...[instead of]...BIG, BAD insurance companies”? (Republicans are currently considering this idea but only for the ACA.) Specifically, what if all the money called employer-sponsored health benefits that presently goes to insurance...

CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — No one wants a weasel on their Thanksgiving table, but swapping turkeys for other animals was once surprisingly common.Trading turkeys – for wildlife management, not dinner – was a key part of one of North America’s biggest conservation success stories. After dwindling to a few thousand birds in the late 1880s, the wild turkey population has grown to about 7 million birds in 49 states, plus more in Canada and Mexico, according to the National Wild Turkey Federation.In many cases, restoration relied on trades. The exchange rates varied, but Oklahoma once swapped walleye and prairie chickens...

First, Newport, Ore., lost its Coast Guard rescue chopper. Then came the swirl of rumors and evidence that Immigration and Customs Enforcement was coming to town.The welcome signs on the edge of Newport, Ore., celebrate recent high school sports championships, point tourists toward the local aquarium and highlight two of its defining attributes — the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Pacific fleet and its designation as one of the nation’s 37 “Coast Guard cities.”But the central coast town’s long, warm relationship with the federal government has been upended in recent weeks. First, a Coast Guard rescue helicopter was redeployed from...

The suspect in the shooting of two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday reportedly had his asylum application approved by the Trump administration earlier this year, according to CNN. “What we know is that he comes here from Afghanistan. Now, this is a guy who’s been living in Washington state, not Washington, D.C. On the other end of the country,” reported CNN Chief Law Enforcement and Intelligence Analyst, John Miller:

Two National Guardsmen were shot and critically injured in Washington, D.C., when a suspect, identified as an Afghan national let in through a Biden-era program allegedly ambushed them Wednesday.Fox News’ Bill Melugin reported the suspect in custody “is an Afghan national who entered the U.S. on 9/8/2021 as part of the Biden admin’s Operation Allies Welcome in the aftermath of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.”Melugin reported that the suspect’s “permission to be in the U.S. expired in September of this year, and he is now in the country illegally.”The Department of Homeland Security inspector general released a report in 2022...

MOUNT RAINIER, Wash. - A new study has revealed that Mount Rainier is experiencing a significant reduction in size due to shifting climate patterns. The findings, published in the "Arctic Antarctic and Alpine Research" journal, indicate that since 1950, Mount Rainier has decreased by more than 20 feet. Researchers attribute this shrinkage to the melting of snow and ice over the years. Researchers have been tracking the height decline using satellites, laser measurements and historical photographs.

Inquiry comes after the six lawmakers encouraged military to refuse orders they think are illegal Members of Congress who produced an explosive video last week said Tuesday they have been informed that the FBI is investigating them. The agency is seeking interviews with the six Democratic lawmakers, who were contacted through their respective chambers’ sergeant-at-arms’ offices, the members said. In the video posted last Thursday, four House members and two senators who served in the military or in the CIA urged those currently serving in U.S. military and intelligence positions to disobey unlawful orders. An FBI spokesperson declined to...