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A CHINESE destroyer has fired a LASER at an Australian warplane - as tensions in the South China Sea rage on. The military-grade laser beams - which can potentially blind pilots - were reported earlier this week. According to the Sydney Morning Herald, the Republic of China naval destroyer lased the RAFF Poseidon aircraft in an act that was deemed “unsafe and unprofessional" in violation of international codes and agreements. Officials confirmed the incident after the Luyang-class guided missile destroyer was spotted sailing through the Arafura Sea on Thursday. The statement from the Australian Defence Department confirmed that it detected...

As fears grow of a Russian invasion of his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is proposing a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin. "I don't know what the president of the Russian Federation wants, that's why I proposed to meet," Zelenskyy said at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday. "We are ready to sit down and speak. Pick the platform that you like," Zelenskyy said. "What is the point of us shooting and proposing diplomacy at the same time?" The Kremlin does not yet appear to have responded to Zelenskyy's proposal, as of Saturday afternoon ET. "All we care about...

Most of the time, the vast majority of Americans simply do not care about economics. And it pains me to say that, because I have been running a website about economics for more than a decade. But it is true. Under normal circumstances, most hard working Americans don’t have the time or the energy to debate the finer points of economic policy. But now things have changed. Here in 2022, our leaders have messed things up so badly that suddenly just about everyone is feeling the pain. Most people just want economic conditions to “return to normal”, but that isn’t...

Burger King is removing its iconic Whopper sandwich from its discount menu, and its parent company plans to raise prices across the board to offset higher cost Given inflationary pressures, Tom Curtis, the president of Burger King's North America operations, said on an earnings call Tuesday that the burger chain lifted "some price caps on some selected items" and "removed Whopper from our core discount" menu. However, he acknowledged that the burger – a quarter-pound flame-grilled beef patty – is its "strongest brand equity" that is core to its growth. With that in mind, the brand will still look for...

A kindergarten class had a homework assignment to find out something exciting and relate it to the class the next day. When the time came to present what they'd found, the first little boy the teacher called on walked up to the front of the class, and with a piece of chalk, made a small white dot on the blackboard and sat back down. Puzzled, the teacher asked him what it was. 'It's a period,' he replied. 'I can see that,' said the teacher, 'but what is so exciting about a period?' 'Darned if I know,' chirped the little boy...

Feb. 18, Russian occupying forces violated the cease-fire 12 times, while 10 of them involved the use of 122-mm artillery systems, 120- and 82-mm mortars. Overall the enemy fired 117 shells and mortar rounds. The attacks at Ukrainian strong points also involved anti-tank missile systems, infantry fighting vehicles, various types of grenade launchers, heavy machine guns and small arms. As reported, within the action area of Skhid semistrategic group the enemy committed six attacks at the JFO positions with - 122-mm artillery, anti-tank guided missiles and heavy machine guns - in the area of Lebedynske; - 122-mm artillery and 120-mm...

Heavy tow trucks and front loaders equipped with forklift arms began clearing trucks from Wellington Street just before 2 p.m. A group of several dozen protesters continued to face off with police at the corner of Bank and Wellington streets. But a major push by police had cleared the road in front of Parliament Hill. Tow trucks sat on Laurier Street near city hall earlier Saturday, their company logos covered or removed and some of their drivers wearing face coverings. Further south on O’Connor Street, Tom Hutar hurled abuse at a CBC reporter who was live on camera. “I’m just...

As the mainstream narrative about the origin of COVID-19 falls apart, it’s time to put other widely accepted facts about the virus—and the devastating measures they were used to justify—under the same scrutiny. On March 13, 2020, the public school district where I teach announced that all classrooms and buildings would be closed for two weeks. Then two weeks turned into two months, and two months turned into over a full year without in-person instruction. My school serves a diverse population of low-income students in the San Francisco Bay Area. It is impossible to overstate the severity of this disruption...

(CNN)Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau took a knee during a Black Lives Matter demonstration in Ottawa on Friday. Trudeau's act of solidarity comes after he declined to comment earlier in the day about whether he would be attending the protest. Still, he arrived at Parliament Hill -- home to Canada's Parliament -- wearing a black cloth mask Friday afternoon and surrounded by security guards, according to CNN affiliate CTVnews. Trudeau did not speak at the event, though he clapped and nodded along with some of the other speakers, including a moment when a speaker asserted there is no middle ground...

It seemed a slam dunk: The popular conservative cause of banning “critical race theory” in schools, being taken up for a vote in one of the country’s most lopsidedly conservative legislatures. Then a Democrat, one of just seven in the 60-member Wyoming legislature, stood up Thursday and said he could not support the bill because he was Jewish. “In this bill, page 9, line 19 states, ‘The teaching of history must be neutral, without judgment,'” state Rep. Andy Schwartz said during debate. “Now, how can that be possible? If I were a Native American, I doubt I could accept the...

The divide within the Massachusetts Republican Party is growing wider. Republican State Committeewoman Janet Leombruno is concerned about what's been happening with the state party. "It is incredibly hard to operate in the party today as a pragmatic centrist," she said. Leombruno described the tension at the January state committee meeting, when member John Miller tried to get Chair Jim Lyons to seat duly elected state committeewoman Nicaela Chinnaswamy. In video provided by a committee member, Lyons can be seen at the podium yelling at Miller, who is trying to raise a point of order. Lyons tells Miller he's out...

In a short 2017 video clip circulating on YouTube, Klaus Schwab, head of the World Economic Forum and the global promoter of corporatist stakeholder capitalism, outlines how his subversive WEF movement has, to use his word, “infiltrated” governments all over the world. He makes special note of Canada. “I have to say, when I mention now names, like Mrs. (Angela) Merkel and even Vladimir Putin, and so on, they all have been Young Global Leaders of the World Economic Forum. But what we are very proud of now is the young generation like Prime Minister (Justin) Trudeau … We penetrate...

Now that even the blue cities and states are throwing the bums out and Republicans are soaring in the polls and getting ready to take Congress, something interesting is happening: the Republican establishment is trying to get as far away from Trump-hating Rep. Liz Cheney as possible. Not the Trump faithful, who have despised Cheney for years — the old guard Republicans who have been around forever and who are now rubbing their hands together as November beckons. Just look at what House minority leader Kevin McCarthy, who has big ambitions of becoming the next speaker of the House, is...

GOP Sen. John Boozman (Ark.) voted with former President Trump more than 91 percent of the time and snapped up an early 2022 endorsement and a donation from his PAC. But as Boozman seeks a third term for his reliably red Senate seat, his primary opponents are coming after him by trying to paint themselves, and not the 71-year-old, as the real Trump candidate. The under-the-radar race has echoes of the broader headaches facing Republicans heading into primaries: anti-establishment challengers trying to claim the former president’s mantle, and his voter base, while they face off with traditionally conservative — and...

For years, it has been my position that the threat of radical Islam implies an imperative to focus security measures on Muslims. If searching for rapists, one looks only at the male population. Similarly, if searching for Islamists (adherents of radical Islam), one looks at the Muslim population. And so, I was encouraged by a just-released Cornell University opinion survey that finds nearly half the U.S. population agreeing with this proposition. Specifically, 44 percent of Americans believe that government authorities should direct special attention toward Muslims living in America, either by registering their whereabouts, profiling them, monitoring their mosques, or...

20-year-old Eric Schubert used DNA to build a series of vast family trees and identify the killerOn the morning of March 18, 1964, nine-year-old Marise Ann Chiverella went missing on her way to school in Hazleton, Pa. Her body was found later that day, with evidence she had been sexually assaulted — and for nearly 60 years, police didn't know who had done it. Now, a college student with a special gift for genealogy has helped solve the decades-old cold case. State police exhumed the long-dead assailant's body last month and said his DNA precisely matched DNA left on Chiverella's...

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) showed a five-point lead over Democrat Robert Francis “Beto” O’Rourke in a hypothetical head-to-head gubernatorial poll from Climate Nexus. The poll found that 45 percent of the registered Texas voters surveyed said they would vote for Abbott, five percent more than would vote for the Democrat.

There are different constellations in the Never Trump firmament and it’s unclear if they can unite As Joe Biden lurched from crisis to crisis with plummeting approval ratings, the Republican party seemed largely content to bury its internal differences and enjoy the show. But not for long. Earlier this month Alyssa Farah Griffin, once communications director for President Donald Trump, made clear that her loyalties have shifted to former vice-president Mike Pence and the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell. “Put me squarely in the Pence/ McConnell camp,” Farah Griffin wrote on Twitter. “Certain denunciations must be unequivocal.” This drew a...

After a three week absence which ran from Feb 5 to 19, I'm back. Some FReepers will celebrate my return. Others will feel differently :) Long story short, I live out in the country in Aiken County, SC. Nearest neighbors are 1/4 mile away and we don't communicate that much. Due to the remote location, there is no "wired Internet" out here. I chose to use my cell phone's Hotspot to connect to my home computer and the cell tower located about .75 mile from here. This worked fine for 4+ years. I use the Internet A LOT to keep...

Felicity Ace Car Carrier Continues to Burn in Mid-Atlantic – Photos February 18, 2022 A salvage team from SMIT is en route to the retrieve the abandoned M/V Felicity Ace, which continues to burn near the Azores. Reuters BERLIN/LISBON, Feb 18 (Reuters) – A ship carrying around 4,000 vehicles, including Porsches, Audis and Bentleys, that caught fire near the coast of the Azores will be towed to another European country or the Bahamas, the captain of the nearest port told Reuters on Friday. Lithium-ion batteries in the electric cars on board the vehicle carrier Felicity Ace have caught fire and...