Free Republic

Japanese knotweed evolved in one of the harshest environments on Earth – now scientists are desperately trying to find a way to destroy it. Where it does produce seeds, Japanese knotweed is prolific. At one research site in Philadelphia, the plants were found to produce up to 150,000 seeds each year per stem – most of which were found to be viable. This two-part system, with above-ground and below-ground body parts, means it's extremely difficult to control Japanese knotweed with chemicals. The most effective is glyphosate, which works by inhibiting an enzyme plants need to produce amino acids, and the...

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that threatens to cut off annexed peninsula from Putin's reinforcements A huge explosion has hit the only bridge between Crimea and Russia, a crucial supply line for Putin's forces Footage shows the blast following the rail bridge engulfed in flames and the road bridge next to it collapsed The cause of the explosion is not known but Ukraine has been targeting Russian logistics in recent weeks Footage appears to show a truck exploding on the road section of the bridge as sabotage is suspected A crucial bridge linking Russia and Ukraine has caught fire in a spectacular explosion in a...

This is a short video on the Crimean Bridge on which there as the tanker fire. There appears to have been a span of the bridge which collapsed. To just have to go to the first few seconds at the linked video to see a picture of the dropped span. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=npIRfEQM2kw

“I wisdom dwell with prudence, and find out knowledge of witty inventions” (Proverbs 8:12 KJV).

Poland's government to continue to push for $1.3T in reparations from its neighbor Germany, despite Berlin saying matter is closedBerlin’s claim that Germany’s World War II reparations to Poland is a closed subject is morally and legally unfounded, said a Polish government spokesperson on Wednesday."This is an unfounded claim, both in the moral and legal sphere, because Poland has never given up on war reparations in any way," Piotr Muller told the Polish Press Agency (PAP).In a newspaper interview also published Wednesday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz rejected Polish demands for reparations."Like all previous federal governments, I can point out that...

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Republicans remain positioned to win a congressional race in Rhode Island this fall for the first time since 1992, but Democrats still have a shot at holding the seat, an exclusive 12 News/Roger Williams University poll released Thursday shows. The survey of 254 likely voters in Rhode Island’s 2nd Congressional District finds Republican Allan Fung at 46% and Democrat Seth Magaziner at 40%, with 9% of voters undecided and 4% supporting independent candidate Bill Gilbert, who will appear on the ballot as “Moderate.” 12 News political analyst Joe Fleming, who conducted the poll, noted that Fung’s...

In a bid to help bolster the Democrats' main campaign issue, the Department of Justice has stepped up its efforts to portray peaceful protests outside abortion clinics as domestic terrorism. Two weeks ago a heavily-armed squad of 20 FBI agents arrested pro-life activist Mark Houck at his home in front of his wife and children. Though the case against him was already thrown out by a Pennsylvania state court last year, the DOJ decided to take a "second bite of the apple" and press federal charges under the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. Houck's attorney, Peter Breen,...

A top Saudi official has blamed Joe Biden for higher gas prices after claiming the president should have extracted more oil from US wells. Adel al-Jubeir, Saudi Arabia's Minister of State, spoke to Fox News Friday and said it's Washington's fault for not increasing domestic production of the fuel. Al-Jubeir said, 'With due respect, the reason you have high prices in the United States is because you have a refining shortage that has been in existence for more than 20 years. You haven't built refineries in decades.'

A Harvard-affiliated children's hospital has sparked outrage after claiming some babies know they are transgender 'from the womb'. In a now-deleted video, the Boston Children's Hospital suggested an even larger number of minors know 'as soon as they can talk'. Critics told DailyMail.com the claim was was not based on science and suggested medics at the clinic are unwilling to question children who are often vulnerable.

Elon Musk has blamed America's woke colleges for turning his transgender daughter Vivian against him. In a new interview with the Financial Times, the world's richest man blamed 'neo-Marxists' in elite schools and universities for the estrangement between him and his daughter. He added: 'It's full-on communism . . . and a general sentiment that if you're rich, you're evil.'

A liberal political media operation being run out of Washington, D.C., and Florida is pushing left-wing stories in 51 different fake news outlets in order to influence the outcome of the November midterm elections, it is claimed. The allegations came in a shocking new investigation from Axios that was published on Thursday. The report alleges that in the past 12 months, multiple new 'news' website have appeared across the country, all run by a company named Local Report Inc.

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni's son, Muhoozi Kainerugaba, issued a bizarre string of Tweets this week in which offered to trade 100 cows for the right to marry likely Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and threatened war should the "Romans" refuse his offer. "For my Italian friends, these are Nkore cows," Kainerugaba wrote. "The most beautiful cows on earth. I know Europeans give girls they like flowers? I have never understood it. In our culture you give a girl you like a cow." "I would give her 100 Nkore cows immediately! For being fearless and true!!" he wrote in a separate...

The Kerch bridge from Russia to Crimea, a hated symbol of the Kremlin’s occupation of the southern Ukrainian peninsular, has been hit by a massive explosion on the span that carries railway traffic. Images from the bridge showed a fiercely burning fire engulfing at least two railway carriages from a train on the bridge, accompanied by a vast column of black smoke. The explosion, which witnesses said could be heard kilometres away, took place around 6am on Saturday while a train was crossing the bridge, although it was not immediately clear what caused it. Some images appeared to show a...

If ordinary taxpayers fail to file returns, congressional Democrats hire 87,000 new IRS agents to punish them. Yet if the IRS destroys 30 million “tax information” returns without even processing, those Democrats actively block attempts to demand an explanation. Apparently, Democrats think transparency is unnecessary for tax collectors for the welfare state. For those who missed the original story, some background is in order, especially to understand how astonishingly brazen the Democrats are in refusing to hold the IRS accountable. On May 22, the treasury inspector general for tax administration reported that the IRS deliberately destroyed 30 million returns in...

RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel told FBN's Maria Bartiromo on Wednesday morning that the Republican Party is "seriously looking at how we can sue Google" for suppressing their get-out-the-vote emails by labeling them as "spam." MARIA BARTIROMO: You also say that Google is suppressing millions of election-related e-mails, just in the last month the [Republican National] Committee is accusing the company of marking 22 million e-mails as spam, including get-out-the-vote messages. You're exploring legal options. What are you going to do? RONNA MCDANIEL: We spent the day on the phone with attorneys yesterday. We're very seriously looking at how we can...

Soldiers are leaving the Army National Guard at a faster rate than they are enlisting, fueling concerns that in the coming years units around the country may not meet military requirements for overseas and other deployments. For individual states, which rely on their Guard members for a wide range of missions, it means some are falling short of their troop totals this year, while others may fare better. But the losses comes as many are facing an active hurricane season, fires in the West and continued demand for units overseas, including combat tours in Syria and training missions in Europe...

The twists and turns of the Nord Stream 2 (NS2) saga have yielded yet another stunning game-changer. It started with Gazprom revealing that the Line B string of NS2 is intact; not only it escaped Pipeline Terror but may “potentially” be used to pump gas to Germany. That confirms once again that NS2 is an engineering marvel. In fact the whole system: the pipes are so strong they were not broken, but merely punctured. Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak followed up, with a caveat: restoration of the whole system, including NS, is possible, and “requires time and…funds”.…. … Subsequently...

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) denounced as “classic anti-Semitism” remarks by the rapper Kanye West, who in a radio interview last week attempted to explain President Obama’s inability to gain momentum on his policy priorities in Washington, D.C. with the outrageous statement that, “Black people don’t have the same level of connections as Jewish people.” “If the comments are true as reported, this is classic anti-Semitism,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director. “There it goes again, the age-old canard that Jews are all-powerful and control the levers of power in government. As a celebrity with a wide following, Kanye West...

Democratic Rep. Sean Casten's 17-year-old daughter Gwen passed away earlier this year due to sudden cardiac arrythmia, the family noted in a statement. "In layman's terms, she was fine, and then her heart stopped," the statement explained, noting that the young woman was healthy and that the family does not know the reason the heart issue occurred. "Gwen was a healthy 2022 teenager. She ate well, exercised, got regular check-ups, didn't suffer from any behavioral health issues, and had close relationships with family and friends. She was fully vaccinated, and quarantined after occasional positive, asymptomatic COVID tests during the omicron...