Free Republic

Hundreds of millions of U.S. tax dollars went to recipients in China and Russia in recent years without being properly tracked by the federal government, including a grant that enabled a state-run Russian lab to test cats on treadmills, according to Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Iowa). Ernst and her staff investigators, working with auditors at the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Congressional Research Service, as well as two nonprofit Washington watchdogs—Open The Books (OTB) and the White Coat Waste Project (WCWP)—discovered dozens of other grants that weren’t counted on the federal government’s USASpending.gov internet database.While the total value of the...

Fuentes caught a strange video on his home security camera at 3 a.m. The startling video shows two circles of light soaring in the air, twinkling mysteriously in the night sky. The national U.F.O. Reporting Center says there have been 245 new UFO reports through March 30. In 2020, there were 7,200 plus UFO sightings. That’s 1,000 more sightings than in 2019. What was once a bedtime story turned into a bombshell. Over the past few years, we have seen a new level of acknowledgment from the government. Thousands of UFO documents from the CIA were recently obtained. The Department...

Ever since Donald Trump touched the Orb, praise be upon it, I've been making "This is what you get when you touch the Orb" jokes. If you don't know what I'm talking about, I'll tell you: On his trip to the Middle East in May, President Trump, along with the Saudi king and the president of Egypt, laid his hands on a glowing white orb for two minutes (which strikes me as a long time to touch an orb). The image was like a mix of J.R.R. Tolkien and 1970s low-budget Canadian sci-fi. It looked like they were calling forth...

Top leaders of five Nordic countries are rejecting claims that they "trolled" President Donald Trump by posing for a photo that is drawing comparisons to the US leader's now-infamous moment with a glowing orb during his trip to Saudi Arabia. The photo, which was first reported by The Hill, shows the prime ministers of Norway, Finland, Iceland, Sweden and Denmark all placing their hands on a European soccer ball -- an image that would most likely have been viewed as benign had it not surfaced just days after one of the most memorable moments from Trump's first foreign trip to...

President Donald Trump broke the Internet once again during the inauguration of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology Sunday in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia. To signify the official start to the facility’s operations, Trump touched a brightly lit globe with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz and Egypt’s president Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. An awkward-looking Saudi TV screen grab quickly went viral, with the Internet quickly dubbing the object “the Trump orb.”

Saudi Arabia rolled out the red carpet for US President Donald Trump on his inaugural overseas trip, but a moment involving a glowing orb had observers scratching their heads. Trump attended the opening of the Global Center for Combating Extremist Ideology on Sunday alongside his host, Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, reported the state-run Saudi Press Agency. As the lights dimmed, the three leaders officially "activated" the new center by placing their hands on an illuminated globe as a four-minute introduction video displayed on large screens behind them, according to local media.

Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker and several Commissioners will meet US financier George Soros next Thursday (27 April) as part of consultations on a new Hungarian law that could close a university he funds, and of legislation targeting foreign-funded NGOs. The Central European University (CEU) is at the heart of the latest dispute between Hungary and the European Commission in Brussels, which voices concern in many Western EU states that Budapest is infringing on rule of law and democratic standards. Commission spokesperson Mina Andreeva today (21 April) said its First Vice-President Frans Timmermans and two other Commissioners will also meet Soros...

Further survey work undertaken by ORB, in association with its research partner IIACSS, confirms our earlier estimate that over 1,000,000 Iraqi citizens have died as a result of the conflict which started in 2003. Following responses to ORB’s earlier work, which was based on survey work undertaken in primarily urban locations, we have conducted almost 600 additional interviews in rural communities. By and large the results are in line with the ‘urban results’ and we now estimate that the death toll between March 2003 and August 2007 is likely to have been of the order of 1,033,000. If one takes...

Mystery shrouds IOP's floating orb Thursday, June 13, 2002 BY GLENN SMITHOf The Post and Courier Staff      <!summ!>ISLE OF PALMS-When a giant silver orb washed up in front of her rented beach house Monday night, Marie Segneri wondered for a moment if aliens had landed in the middle of her family reunion.<!end!>     The smooth, metallic ball was at least 3 feet in diameter and weighed a couple hundred pounds or more. Aside from a series of numbers stamped on its slightly dimpled surface, the sphere offered few clues as to its origin.     "It looked like it may have...