Free Republic

Depending on who you ask, vote fraud is dismissed as something that never happened, or used to happen but doesn’t happen anymore, or happens, but not in numbers significant enough to change an election, so who cares? I’ve always been particularly irritated by that last one, having had two good friends – members of a state legislature and a county board – win or lose elections by a single vote over the years (Penny Pullen was the Illinois State Rep, and the late Donald Conn was the Ogle County Board Member). Personally, I’ve always known that vote fraud is real....

The would-be Twitter killer has drawn only 1.2 million installations, according to Sensor Tower Former president Donald Trump’s Truth Social app is seeing a 93% drop in signups and similarly steep decline in traffic after a rocky rollout last month fraught with technical issues and an extensive waiting list for new signups to actually use the service. After going live on President’s Day, the Twitter-lookalike app saw installs decline by more than 800,000 since its launch week, according to Sensor Tower. Installs on the Apple app store this month have fallen to about 60,000 per week, based on early estimates.

Former Klein Oak High School student Mari Leigh Oliver, 22, won $90K after the Texas school settled a discrimination case before it went to trial The student claimed she was harassed by several teachers in 2017 after refusing to stand for the Pledge of Allegiance She said she felt 'we live in a country where there isn’t justice and freedom for all' and took offense to 'under God' and 'liberty and justice for all' Under Texas law, a student does not have to participate in the Pledge as long as a parent has submitted a written request. It is unclear...

Epidemiologists examining the biggest Chinese outbreak of COVID-19 in two years are trying to ascertain why the proportion of asymptomatic cases is so high, and what it could mean for China's future containment strategy. The number of new confirmed community transmitted cases in the major financial hub of Shanghai reached 4,477 on Tuesday, a record high, but only 2.1% showed symptoms. The share of symptomatic cases over the previous seven days was around 1.6%. Although outbreaks overseas have demonstrated that Omicron was less deadly than its predecessors, with lower levels of hospitalisation, the rate of symptomatic infection was relatively high...

Today, about 300 soldiers (mostly ethnic Ossetians) from the Russian military base returned to South Ossetia of their own free will, because they thought they had been left for dead during a special operation in Ukraine. The former president of South Ossetia called not to draw hasty conclusions and not to accuse the guys of desertion, but to carefully investigate the situation when soldiers are sent to combat operations without full outfit and stocks of weapons, warm clothing and protective equipment. Returned soldiers on the border of Russia and South Ossetia. They hitchhiked home. additional detail on this incident from...

Ukrainian soldiers have essentially retaken, for now, the town of Irpin, the scene of fierce fighting in recent weeks. Its success shows the steep challenges Russia faces in trying to capture Ukraine’s capital Creeping forward block by block, Ukrainian soldiers in a reconnaissance unit on Tuesday found signs of a retreating Russian army everywhere: a charred armored vehicle, abandoned body armor decorated with an orange and black St. George ribbon, a Russian military symbol, and the traditional blue-and-white striped underwear issued to Russian soldiers, cast aside in a forest. What they did not encounter was the Russian army in any...

Videogames based on blockchain networks appear to be a prime target for thieves, raising more concerns about the security of cryptocurrencies held on these decentralized gaming networks. Thieves targeting Axie Infinity, a popular blockchain-based videogame, made off with 173,600 ether tokens and $25.5 million in USDC, a type of stablecoin that is pegged to the dollar. The theft occurred on March 23, according to developers of Axie, but was announced publicly on March 29. At recent prices for ether, the heist was worth about $615 million, down slightly from the $625 million value when the theft was disclosed. Axie is...

Closeup of the region on the sky, 1/250 of a degree across, where the gravity of a foreground cluster of galaxies magnifies the distant background star—nicknamed Earendil—thousands of times. With a fortuitous lineup of a massive cluster of galaxies, astronomers discovered a single star across most of the entire observable Universe. This is the farthest detection of a single star ever. The star may be up to 500 times more massive than the Sun. The discovery has been published today in the journal Nature. Gazing at the night sky, all the stars that you see lie within our own galaxy,...

The German government said that Russian President Vladimir Putin told Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Wednesday that Europe could continue paying for Russian gas in euros and not rubles as previously announced. German government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said Putin had told Scholz that payments from Europe next month "would continue to be in euros and transferred as usual to the Gazprom Bank, which is not affected by sanctions." The bank would then convert the payments into rubles, Hebestreit quoted Putin as saying. Hebestreit said in a statement that Putin had stressed in the telephone call with Scholz "which took place at...

Two soldiers have been rescued after a V-22 Navy Osprey - - Tilt Rotor crashed off the Virginia coast on Wednesday night - One person is still said to be missing following the chopper crash - The plane crashed north of the Chincoteague Causeway just off of Wildcat Point near the Maryland state line shortly after 7:30pm on Wednesday evening - The Virginia Coast Guard dispatched rescue boats and a rescue helicopter together with a police helicopter from Maryland

Germany is willing to become a “guarantor state” for a potential peace agreement between Ukraine and Russia, a government spokesman said on Wednesday. Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy discussed the issue in their recent phone calls, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told a news conference in Berlin. “Germany, like several other countries, is of course ready to act as a security guarantor for Ukraine,” he stressed, but added that the matter could be subject to further deliberations as many details were still not clear. During peace negotiations in Istanbul on Tuesday, Ukrainian officials signaled readiness to negotiate a...

Thin blue line patches worn by on-duty Calgary police officers will need to be replaced with a symbol that better reflects the values of Calgarians, following a decision by the Calgary Police Commission. The decision is aimed at ending the use of the controversial patch that has mixed meanings, while still ensuring there is a way for officers to visually honour each other and those who have lost their lives in the line of duty. ...the thin blue line also has a contentious history with roots in division, colonialism and racism, most recently being prominently displayed at counter protests against...

A second attempt to refloat the Ever Forward will take place this evening using seven tugboats, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesperson has confirmed to gCaptain. The refloating effort is expected to take place during the next high tide at around 6 p.m eastern time.

Calling for the Arrest of these Thugs got me in Trouble on TikTok

Men are reportedly being asked whether they are pregnant before being given radiotherapy. Cancer patients and those having X-rays and MRI scans are being asked the question, even if they are not women because the word 'female' has been replaced by 'individuals' for medical procedures. In Liverpool, the Walton Centre NHS Trust now asks 'all patients under the age of 60, regardless of how you may identify your gender' whether they could be having a baby. It is understood to be one of a handful of trusts to have expanded the questioning despite it not being a national policy at...

For many living in Shanghai, the city’s tough quarantine measures are proving to be unbearable as they struggle to cope with life without enough basic necessities such as food and medication. Wan Wenying, 56, a resident of Shanghai’s Baoshan district, told The Epoch Times on March 29 that she was short on food after local officials refused to help her. “Our building was sealed off yesterday but our residential compound has been sealed off for four days,” Wan said, adding that residents in her building had been required to take nucleic acid tests to see if they were infected with...

The war between Russia and Ukraine is four weeks old. Speculation about possible landing operations has always existed, as Russia has reinforced its Black Sea Fleet with additional landing assets and the amphibious task force has been present in the Black Sea since the beginning of the war. The possibility of a Russian amphibious operation has been on the table since the escalation of tensions between Ukraine and Russia. There have been strong indications pointing to a future landing operation, such as the deployment of additional landing ships to the Black Sea, the conduct of naval exercises based on amphibious...

... TMZ cites witnesses as saying that the athlete who threw the punch was not involved in the race. He was reportedly standing on the track, and the runner in first place — who ultimately got punched — told him to move out of the way. During the next lap, instead of moving, the athlete reportedly further impeded the first-place runner, who pushed him over. In apparent retaliation, the athlete in the black chased him down and socked him in the head. It was not immediately known if any criminal complaints were made over the incident. Running Magazine reported that...

California’s first-in-the-nation task force to identify reparations for African Americans voted Tuesday to limit eligibility to those who can trace their lineage. After more than six hours of debate Tuesday, California’s reparations task force voted that only Black Californians who can prove a direct lineage to enslaved ancestors will be eligible for the statewide — and first-in-the nation — initiative to address the harms and enduring legacy of slavery. The nine-member task force voted 5-4 in favor of defining eligibility for reparations based on lineage “determined by an individual being an African American descendant of a chattel enslaved person or...

DOHA, Qatar—This tiny Persian Gulf kingdom is emerging as one of Europe’s best hopes for weaning itself off Russian natural gas, in another sign of how the war in Ukraine is changing the world’s energy relationships. Germany, France, Belgium and Italy are in talks with Qatar to buy liquefied natural gas on a long-term basis, said Qatari and European officials. Germany’s Economy Minister Robert Habeck flew to Qatar this month to announce an energy partnership and a commitment to build his country’s first-ever terminal to receive shipments of liquefied natural gas from Qatar and other gas producers. ... Qatar is...