Free Republic

The single deadliest flu pandemic in history was the Spanish flu pandemic during 1918-1919. Occurring in the three waves of increasing lethality, the Spanish flu killed more people in 24 weeks than AIDS did in 24 years. It also killed more people in one year than smallpox or the Black Plague did in 50 years. P

Former Detroit Police Chief James Craig believes rooting out “woke prosecutors” and “woke judges” is critical to overcoming nationwide crime waves. Craig, hoping to unseat Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer this year, noted that the far-left movement to defund the police and the overarching anti-police sentiment from that same Democrat faction had contributed to crime spikes, but he said controlling crime “is more than focusing on the police. What are the root causes? The number one cause is no consequences. Bad guys know there’s no consequences,” Craig said. Craig pointed to Democrat leaders, who he said were “complicit” in allowing overly...

Artist's concept of a ship-mounted laser weapon The US Navy has shot down its first drone representing a subsonic cruise missile using an all-electric high-energy laser. At the US Army’s High Energy Laser Systems Test Facility at the White Sands Missile Range, New Mexico, the Lockheed Martin Layered Laser Defense (LLD) weapon disabled the engine on a drone, which then parachuted to earth. Sponsored by the US Office of Naval Research (ONR) and conducted in partnership with the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense (Research and Engineering) and Lockheed Martin, the February 2022 test was intended not only to...

One of the Jenin "Palestinian" terrorists, an Islamic Jihad member, eliminated on Apr 14, 2022, Sha's Jamamji كامامجي was photographed in front of a swastika, with the writing in Arabic reading: "The People of the Streets."Elior Levy, Yoav Zeitun, 'Two terrorists were killed in clashes near Jenin; IDF: "Open fire on the forces" Ynet, 14 April 2022. Six Palestinians killed in 24 hours, and clashes continue: Two terrorists were killed in the village of Dan near Jenin - one of them a member of the military wing of Islamic Jihad and the brother of a terrorist who escaped from Gilboa...

This year’s Forbes Billionaires list featured 172 women – more than ever before – and unearthed 268 new ten-figure fortunes. At least one member of the world’s 50 richest people can be found on every continent except Antarctica. Yet just seven, or 0.4%, of the globe's 1,645 billionaires openly identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Spain has informed the European Commission that a joint price reduction plan with Portugal may entail restricting energy sales to France, El Pais reported. Madrid is its northern neighbor’s largest single supplier of imported electricity, and the potential restriction comes as the entire EU grapples with soaring energy costs. Spain and Portugal agreed in late March to cap the price of gas used in electricity generation to the equivalent of 30 euros per megawatt/hour ($32.50). While Brussels granted both countries an exception to its normal rules and allowed this arrangement to go ahead, Madrid and Lisbon then delivered some bad...

The hypocrisy of Facebook’s fact-checking partners knows no bounds. In an act of discrimination against the Media Research Center, a Meta platform fact-checking partner threw a fit after MRC’s video division, MRCTV, dared to write about a video that showed President Joe Biden getting smacked with a white or yellow substance, depending on the photo or video. MRCTV managing editor Brittany Hughes published a piece April 13 headlined, “Yes, a Bird Just Crapped On Biden During a Speech.” Hughes quipped that “It appears a bird proceeded to crap on Joe Biden while the president was speaking in Iowa Tuesday, dropping...

President Joe Biden has upped the tempo of his travel before the 2022 midterm elections, months after expressing his desire to return to a campaign-style schedule to underscore his accomplishments. But Biden is an inconsistent performer on the campaign trail. While he may forge inroads with persuadable voters one on one, he can just as easily distract from the White House's intended message with an off-script comment or a viral video clip. For Republican strategist John Feehery, the White House is in a difficult position since they aspire to portray Biden as an in-command leader as it simultaneously creates opportunities...

BOSTON (AP) — A former chairperson of the Massachusetts tribe whose ancestors aided the Pilgrims goes on trial Tuesday for bribery, extortion and other federal charges related to the tribe’s planned casino project. Cedric Cromwell’s criminal trial opens in U.S. District Court in Boston after being delayed for months by the coronavirus pandemic. Federal prosecutors say Cromwell used his position as chair of the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe to extort tens of thousands of dollars in bribes and engaged in a conspiracy to commit bribery. The Cape Cod-based tribe’s casino plan has faced years of legal setbacks, but it got a...

The Jane Doe, known only as "Blue Pacheco" by authorities, has now been identified as Patricia Skiple of Colton, Oregon. On June 3, 1993, Skiple's body was found on the side of California state Route 152 in unincorporated Gilroy. She was 45 years old at the time of her death. In 2019, the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office partnered with the DNA Doe Project to attempt to identify the body via investigative genetic genealogy. “This case was exceptionally challenging due to recent Norwegian ancestry which resulted in very distant DNA matches on GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA,” said DNA Doe Project team...

"The coldness of outer space is also an extremely important renewable energy resource," a researcher says. Solar panels sit under a night sky. Researchers have designed solar panels that can generate electricity at night. It likely goes without saying, but of all the energy solar panels generated last year, none of it was produced at night. New research is showing that doesn't have to be the case. Researchers at Stanford modified commercially available solar panels to generate a small amount of electricity at night by exploiting a process known as radiative cooling, which relies on, no lie, the frigid vacuum...

Upping his war with the Walt Disney Co., Gov. Ron DeSantis said he is expanding the special session of the Legislature that started Tuesday to consider eliminating the Reedy Creek Improvement District that governs much of Walt Disney World. He also said he would seek to eliminate the special carve out Disney received from the Legislature for the so-called Big Tech law that would allow people to sue social media companies such as Facebook or Twitter if they are censored. That law has been blocked by a federal judge. “I am announcing today that we are expanding the call of...

Maskaholics Wearing a mask may still give some people a sense of security, but they could breathe more easily if they’d face the facts.The pandemic has eased, but not the compulsion of many Americans to cover their faces. Fully vaccinated adults are still wearing masks on their solitary walks outdoors, and officials have been enforcing mask mandates on airline passengers and on some city-dwellers and students. (Though today’s ruling by U.S. District Judge Kathryn Kimball Mizelle in Tampa, declaring the Biden administration’s mask mandate for public transportation unlawful, comes as welcome news.) Maskaholics in the press are calling for...

A 22-year high in apprehensions along the U.S.-Mexico border in March was partly fueled by record arrivals of migrants from Cuba, Nicaragua, Colombia and Ukraine, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) figures released this week show. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) processed migrants 221,303 times along the southern border in March, a 33% jump from February and the highest tally since 2000, according to agency statistics. CBP said 159,900 encounters in March represented unique migrants, citing a 28% rate of repeat border crossings. The spike in migrant arrivals was also partly driven by a 33% increase in apprehensions of single adults,...

A 15-year-old female student who was stabbed to death by a male intruder at a high school in California has been pictured. Alicia Reynaga was allegedly attacked by 52-year-old Anthony Gray at Stagg High School in Stockton yesterday. She was knifed multiple times before being rushed to hospital where she later passed away.

A group of President Donald Trump’s allies and associates spent months trying to overturn the 2020 election based on his lie that he was the true winner. Now, some of the same confidants who tried and failed to invalidate the results based on a set of bogus legal theories are pushing an even wilder sequel: that by “decertifying” the 2020 vote in key states, the outcome can still be reversed. In statehouses and courtrooms across the country, as well as on right-wing news outlets, allies of Trump — including lawyer John Eastman — are pressing for states to pass resolutions...

Thermal Images of Neptune Over a 17-year period, an international team of astronomers monitored Neptune’s atmospheric temperatures. They discovered that Neptune’s global temperatures dropped unexpectedly, followed by a dramatic warming at its south pole. Credit: ESO/M. Roman Using ground-based telescopes, including the European Southern Observatory’s Very Large Telescope (ESO’s VLT), an international team of astronomers track Neptune’s atmospheric temperatures over a 17-year period. They found a surprising drop in Neptune’s global temperatures followed by a dramatic warming at its south pole. “This change was unexpected,” says Michael Roman, a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Leicester, UK, and lead...

A new study finds that some children with cerebral palsy and scoliosis do not require pelvic fixation when undergoing growing rod treatment, potentially avoiding several complications. Researchers analyzed pediatric patients with cerebral palsy and scoliosis treated with growth-friendly implants, in which expandable rods are inserted into the back to help control the spinal curvature while still allowing the spine to grow. They found that for children with a pelvic tilt and lower lumbar spine tilt of fewer than 10 degrees, the pelvis did not need to be included when inserting growing rods. "Inserting screws into the pelvis to anchor the...

A detailed list of the destroyed and captured vehicles and equipment of both sides can be seen below. This list is constantly updated as additional footage becomes available.

Chechens & Russian Army Battle Azov & Ukraine on Mariupol frontline