Free Republic

At its simplest, a small drone is an eye in the sky, giving what every commander has wanted for centuries: a view of what is happening on the other side of the hill, or in the middle of the forest, or just down the next street, without having to send troops. Aerial reconnaissance was previously confined to higher levels of command and only gradually filtered down the chain; now every squad leader can have a folding Mavic Mini 2 small enough to fit into a cargo pocket but able to send back HD video from three miles away for half...

Prayers before Coeur d’Alene City Council meetings could be seeing their final Amen. The city, which recently took over scheduling pastors to give brief invocations, might end the decades-long practice. It has long been handled by Pastor Paul Van Noy of the Kootenai County Ministerial Association, a Christian organization. Mayor Jim Hammond said the city was given information by Van Noy stating it could be opening itself up to legal liabilities should it deny a person who wants to give the invocation. Hammond said that when the city recently took on scheduling of invocation pastors, it did so to give...

The volume of goods transported around the globe by container ships has increased continuously in recent years. As Statista’s Katharina Buchholz details below, according to data from the Hong Kong Marine Department shows that ports in Asia, especially in China, are increasingly dominating the industry.Infographic: The World’s Biggest Shipping Hubs | StatistaIn 2005, there were still two European and one North American port in the ranking of the biggest shipping hubs in the world. In 2021, only Rotterdam remained in the top 10 – in the bottom rank.Asian ports have grown at a fast rate in recent years. In addition...

A sheriff's office in Alabama issued an alert Friday night after an inmate and the assistant director of corrections went missing earlier in the day...Vicki White, a 25-year veteran at the department, left the local detention center with Casey Cole White at 9:41 a.m..."Did she assist him in escaping? That's obviously a possibility..."

In the past year, 5.7 million students have faced sexual abuse from school employees across all 50 states in America. But how and why does this problem persist? Educational researcher Charol Shakeshaft explores the atrocities of school employee sexual misconduct through powerful stories and offers potential solutions to this unsettling situation. Charol Shakeshaft has been studying equity and justice in schools for four decades. Charol is an acclaimed author, receiving national and state awards. She was just awarded a grant from the Centers for Disease Control to study the prevention of school employee sexual misconduct. In 2004, Dr. Shakeshaft completed...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to a tweet from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. on Friday evening, telling her to "Stop hitting on me." Musk was responding to a tweet from Ocasio-Cortez, expressing her frustration with the "massive communication platform." "Tired of having to collectively stress about what explosion of hate crimes is happening bc some billionaire with an ego problem unilaterally controls a massive communication platform and skews it because Tucker Carlson or Peter Thiel took him to dinner and made him feel special," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

If you use Google Chrome as an internet browser, beware: Your information could be compromised. Google issued an alert warning billions of Chrome users that the browser has been successfully targeted by hackers, and listed 30 security flaws, including seven deemed to have a “High” threat level. It is unclear who hacked the firm, and whether any users’ security was put at risk. Google said further hack details are currently being restricted by the company “until a majority of users are updated with a fix.”

"Upon completing her first trip to Alaska, Secretary Haaland left with a “parting gift” of more Washington restrictions, declaring that millions more acres that were once open to oil and gas exploration would be locked under environmental regulation."

A bipartisan group of senators has resumed efforts to revise the U.S. immigration system, following years of failed attempts to pass legislation on the politically divisive topic. Senate Judiciary Chairman Richard J. Durbin of Illinois met with panel members Sens. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., Thom Tillis, R-N.C., and John Cornyn, R-Texas, on Thursday morning to discuss which immigration bills could garner 60 votes, the minimum needed to overcome a filibuster in the evenly divided Senate. The senators said they discussed several topics, such as changes for migrant farmworkers critical to the U.S. economy and changes for foreign workers stuck in a...

Reflections on the anniversary of the liberation of Dachau... On April 29, 1945, the United States Army liberated the prisoners at the Nazi concentration camp at Dachau. Dachau wasn’t the only such camp. Using the broadest definition, there were 44,000 concentration camps, work camps, and death camps operating in Nazi Germany by the end of the war. It wasn’t even the largest such camp; Dachau was originally only built to house 5000 prisoners, though it held as many as 30,000 at the end. But Dachau holds the distinction of being the first. Designed by Theodore Eicke and officially opened by...

Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to a tweet from Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. on Friday evening, telling her to "Stop hitting on me." Musk was responding to a tweet from Ocasio-Cortez, expressing her frustration with the "massive communication platform." "Tired of having to collectively stress about what explosion of hate crimes is happening bc some billionaire with an ego problem unilaterally controls a massive communication platform and skews it because Tucker Carlson or Peter Thiel took him to dinner and made him feel special," Ocasio-Cortez tweeted.

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Albuquerque’s K-12 schools should cut staff and think about downsizing its footprint because of dwindling enrollment and spend more for the education of low-income students who fell further behind their peers during this school year, according to a report from the New Mexico Legislature made public Wednesday. The report from the powerful Legislative Finance Committee recommended that Albuquerque Public Schools let go 400 of the district’s 12,000 employees, but didn’t specify how many of the district’s increasingly empty schools it should shutter. The school district has 144 schools and 73,000 students, down from 85,000 six...

Dr. Peter Navarro on the Trade Deficit, Ohio Senate Race

The summer season is upon us and, per each year, we’ve dug beyond studio offerings (though a few potential highlights remain) to present an in-depth look at what should be on your radar. From festival winners of the past year to selections coming straight from Cannes to genre delights to some high-flying spectacles, there’s more than enough to anticipate.

There are protesters on the streets in Ottawa tonight coinciding with the arrival of the "Rolling Thunder" motorcycle protest in Canada's capital. Police reinforcments from outside of Ottawa are present tonight. Police blocking access to Parliament Hill. Tow trucks are also present tonight in downtown Ottawa, Protest activity near Canada's War Memorial tonight nearby a large crowd on Rideau Street just east of Sussex Drive... Four Canadian military cadets near graduation died following an early morning incident... In Israel a security guard in the community of Ariel shot dead tonight... In Canada members of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police left...

Texas leadership approved an additional $495 million for Operation Lone Star, the majority of which will fund the Texas National Guard deployed along the U.S.-Mexico border. The funding will go toward implementing border security initiatives such as boat blockades, razor wire at border crossings, and charter buses transporting migrants from Texas to Washington, D.C. The new funds were broken into two different payments: $463 million to be used for the deployment of the Texas National Guard and the other $30 million for building the state's border wall. Democrats were dismayed by the announcement.

NBC News kicked off White House Correspondents’ Dinner weekend by unveiling a new studio on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., on Friday night. Friday’s bash was attended by top NBC executives and journalists from across the network’s various news brands, including MSNBC, CNBC and Peacock.

Rep. Gaetz: Mandel Tattling to McConnell on MAGA

The EU faces difficult questions that need to be debated now rather than later. Europe needs a strong deterrent against Moscow, and that will only be possible if France and Germany team up to advance the debate. In the end, the meeting at the United States airbase in Ramstein, Germany, resembled a ribbon ceremony with praise awarded to the most diligent. Germany is a great friend that is doing everything it can to support Ukraine, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said. It was not only thanks for the Germans’ proposal to send tanks to Ukraine, but also the polite...

Join together with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession, and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.