Free Republic

Over the past few years, researchers and a growing number of startups have made claims about bringing the world closer and closer to nuclear fusion — but the reality is far less impressive than that, with expensive reactors still requiring far more energy to get started than they are able to put out. China's new reactor will essentially replicate the detonation of a thermonuclear bomb by producing powerful electric pulses. These pulses generate enough pressure to fuse atoms together, a process which releases energy. In fact, all the preceding "Z-pinch" reactors that have been built around the world so far...

Judicial Watch filed a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit this week seeking answers from the Secret Service related to the Hunter Biden gun incident in Delaware four years ago. The conservative legal advocacy group filed its initial FOIA request in March 2021, just after reports emerged about a handgun belonging to President Joe Biden’s son getting thrown in the trash near a Delaware high school in October 2018 by his sister-in-law Hallie Biden, with whom he was in a romantic relationship. The Secret Service has denied any involvement in responding to the incident, and after the agency declined to hand...

Does it matter how we treat others? What does my neighbor’s suffering have to do with me? Can I continue living in comfort while bypassing those around me who are in misery? These are questions that the Readings for this Sunday raise, and to which they provide uncomfortable answers. Let’s read and let the Holy Spirit move us outside our comfort zone. 1. The First Reading is Amos 6:1a, 4-7: Thus says the LORD the God of hosts: Woe to the complacent in Zion! Lying upon beds of ivory, stretched comfortably on their couches, they eat lambs taken from the...

ASSISI, Italy (AP) — Pope Francis, visiting Assisi, the birthplace of his namesake saint who was close to nature, called on Saturday for “courage” in abandoning fossil fuels and lamented that older generations didn’t know how to protect the planet and secure peace, He told young people he was pinning his hopes on their efforts in working to save the planet and to make the world’s economy more attentive to the poor. During his brief visit Saturday to the hill town in central Italy, Francis spoke to a gathering of some 1,000 young people, some of them young economists. Others...

New York City school kids are losing their minds over the zonked-out drug addicts and raving vagrants they encounter every day – and are flocking to therapists to find ways to cope with the stress, The Post has learned. In neighborhoods such as Hell’s Kitchen “a lot” of kids are now in therapy, according to mom Katie Hamill, 43, whose 7-year-old daughter is being treated for anxiety. “My daughter has seen everything from fornication, masturbation, defecation, urination, you name it, she has seen it. … consistently and constantly. She is in this constant state of panic,” said Hamill, who works...

STATE HOUSE NEWS SERVICE As Europe careens towards an energy crisis this winter, a Baker administration official said that Massachusetts is in a position more similar to Europe than to other states, and put residents here on notice that the cost of heating their homes and keeping the lights on is likely to skyrocket here this winter as the price of natural gas soars. “Everybody should be aware that, this winter, Massachusetts is more like Europe than we are from other states because we’re at the end of our national gas pipeline system,” Judy Chang, undersecretary of energy and climate...

Judicial Watch announced today that it received 115 pages of records from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) revealing previously redacted locations of COVID-19 vaccine testing facilities in Shanghai, China. The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had claimed the name and location of the testing facilities were protected by the confidential commercial information exemption of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA).

President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has thrust himself more directly into strategic planning for the war in Ukraine in recent weeks, American officials said, including rejecting requests from his commanders on the ground that they be allowed to retreat from the vital southern city of Kherson. A withdrawal from Kherson would allow the Russian military to pull back across the Dnipro River in an orderly way, preserving its equipment and saving the lives of soldiers. But such a retreat would be another humiliating public acknowledgment of Mr. Putin’s failure in the war, and would hand a second major victory...

Hilary Fordwich expands on her takedown of CNN's Don Lemon on the topic of slavery and reparations with Newsmax's Rob Schmitt.

Netflix has been slammed by viewers after adding an LGBTQ tag to the new Jeffrey Dahmer series, who have raged: 'this is not the representation we're looking for'. Many called out the streaming platform - who have now removed the tag - saying they were 'gobsmacked' and 'disgusted' at the choice. The series follows the infamous Milwaukee serial killer who murdered 17 people between 1978 and 1991 - many of whom were young, gay African Americans. An inside look: Netflix previously released two images of eters playing Jeffrey Dahmer ahead of the limited series' release Many hit out at the...

Archaeologists digging near Prague have discovered the remains of a Stone Age structure that’s older than Stonehenge and even the Egyptian pyramids: an enigmatic complex known as a roundel. Nearly 7,000 years ago during the late Neolithic, or New Stone Age, a local farming community may have gathered in this circular building, although its true purpose is unknown. The excavated roundel is large — about 180 feet (55 meters) in diameter, or about as long as the Leaning Tower of Pisa is tall, Radio Prague International reported. And while “it is too early to say anything about the people building...

One of the strongest storms ever to hit Canada slammed into Nova Scotia’s coastline early Saturday, leaving hundreds of thousands of people without power. Former Hurricane Fiona made landfall early on Saturday morning over Guysborough county on the northeast corner of mainland Nova Scotia, Canada’s weather service said. There were maximum sustained winds of almost 81 mph, while peak gusts of over 100 mph were detected, it added. It is the lowest pressured land falling storm on record in Canada, according to the Canadian Hurricane Center, which also described hurricane-force gusts battering the area. More than 40% of the population...

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Admits: A "DIFFERENT Church" Is Emerging From SynodA "different church" is emerging from the synod process, Cardinal Mario Grech, secretary general of the Vatican synod, revealed to AmericaMagazine.org (21 September).He had spoken to Francis after the Amazon Synod about married priests, Grech said. Francis replied, "Do you know why I did not accept this proposal? Because I felt that there was no discernment during the synodal assembly."At the time, however, Benedict XVI also intervened and defended celibacy. Asked if Francis' response was "not a rejection", Grech replied, “We need time!"

Russian natural gas exports to Europe have dropped by more than 82% in one year, according to Spain's Energy Transition Minister Teresa Ribera. "In just a year, the flow of gas from Russia fell by more than 82%. In fact, in January 2021, supplies from Russia accounted for about 40% of the gas consumed in Europe. At the moment, this figure does not reach 10%."

“The Poor Man and Rich Lazarus” (Luke 16:19-31)Our text today is the story commonly known as “The Rich Man and Poor Lazarus.” But I’m going to suggest to you today that we could just as well call this story “The Poor Man and Rich Lazarus.” As we shall see. So let’s go. Jesus starts out the story with the rich man: “There was a rich man who was clothed in purple and fine linen and who feasted sumptuously every day.” Now this is quite a picture Jesus is painting with just a few words. The man is described as a...

Hillary Clinton likened Donald Trump's rally in Ohio last weekend to Adolf Hitler courting Nazis, a comparison that drew a sharp rebuke from a spokesman for the former president. "I remember as a young student, you know, trying to figure out, how people get basically brought in by Hitler. How did that happen? I'd watch newsreels and I'd see this guy standing up there ranting and raving, and people shouting and raising their arms. I thought, 'What's happened to these people?'" Clinton said at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin. "You saw the rally in Ohio the other night, Trump...

The war exposed Ukraine to two of her most critical vulnerabilities – questionable legitimacy and extreme nationalism. Legitimacy derives from acceptance and recognition. However, Ukraine’s neighbors Russia, Poland, and Romania do not accept their current borders with Ukraine.###After the disintegration of the Soviet Union, Ukraine got its borders within which she achieved independence and millions of Russians, Poles, Hungarians and Romanians were trapped in a newly created country.The Ukrainian problem is greatly exacerbated by the fact that unlike pluralistic societies such as the USA, Canada, Switzerland, and Russia, which are tolerant of different cultures, religions, and languages, Ukraine is not....

In a major victory for members of the NYPD’s largest police union, a judge ruled Friday cops who were fired for not getting vaccinated against the coronavirus have to be reinstated. In the stunning decision, Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lyle Frank wrote that the city’s vaccine mandate on the Police Benevolent Association was invalid “to the extent it has been used to impose a new condition of employment” on the union. The mandate was also invalid because it issued enforcement beyond “monetary sanctions” prescribed in the law, Frank wrote — ordering that all PBA members put on leave or canned...

Cook County Board president Republican candidate Bob Fioretti is calling out Democratic lawmakers over the latest indictment of a member of the majority party after state Sen. Emil Jones III (D-Chicago) was charged with accepting a bribe. Jones allegedly accepted $5,000 from a firm operating a red light camera system. "Red-light cameras are a plague on our communities, and a license to steal from our communities!” Fioretti said in a press release. “They are a hidden tax on Cook County residents created by shady, backroom deals and corruption by our so-called 'public servants.' A billion dollars in 'fines' and a...

Police say Marcell Hunter was wearing an electronic monitoring ankle bracelet when he left his home in June to attend a street party in Englewood. The 27 year-old is accused of shooting and killing 22 year-old Nikki Connor at the party "because he didn’t know who she was and he didn’t want her there," according to CWB Chicago. Before the alleged murder, Hunter had been out awaiting trial on three felonies dating back to 2018. That's thanks to Cook County Judge Carol Howard, who released him to the public in February, insisting he stay at home. Prosecutors say Hunter didn't....