Free Republic

President Biden's administration is scrambling to track the nearly $20 billion in military aid it has sent to Ukraine as Republicans warn of impending audits when they take control of the House in January. Likely future House Speaker Kevin McCarthy has said his party will not be giving Ukraine a "blank check" to fend off Russia's invasion. A potential audit would determine how much, if any, of the U.S. aid is ending up in the wrong hands. The Biden administration's previous tracking efforts have inspected only a fraction of the aid provided to the country. While some staunch Ukraine allies...

FOX 5 reports gunshots erupted Saturday around 8 p.m. following a “dispute between a group of teenagers and young adults” near Atlantic Station, in Atlanta, Georgia. One person was killed in the incident and five others wounded. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution notes that the shooting occurred after “a group of people were escorted off the property by Atlantic Station security and off-duty Atlanta officers.”

Tufts research school has diagnosed museum curation with a bad case of white supremacy, and it’s offering a post-graduate cure.

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the Senate should defund law enforcement refusing to enforce gun laws. Anchor Dana Bash said, “Five months, it’s been that long since the president signed a bipartisan bill. You helped negotiate it. It incentivized states to implement red flag laws. Virginia and Colorado, where these mass shootings took place over the last ten days or so, they already have red flag laws in place, and it did not prevent those mass shootings.”

Ukrainian women have played a crucial part in their country's resistance to Russia's full-scale invasion. Now, a new school is training women to play a vital new role. The Female Pilots of Ukraine is the country's first school dedicated to solely teaching women — both civilians as well as those serving in Ukraine's security forces — how to fly drones. Both the Ukrainian and Russian militaries have been using drones in the war in Ukraine, for reconnaissance and fighting. Ukraine has many women in the military but they rarely work as drone pilots, according to the school's administrators. The school,...

Video at link. From Bannon's War Room. (Posted as Vanity as it is not yet a 'news story'.)

Russia’s infamous Wagner Group has abandoned dozens of former Central African Republic (CAR) rebels in Ukraine’s Donbas region after recruiting them to fight Vladimir Putin’s war, two former CAR fighters told The Daily Beast. The CAR sources, who were recruited by Wagner after quitting the Union for Peace (UPC) rebel group last December, said that many of the 100 or so ex-UPC fighters currently in Ukraine have lost contact with Wagner after the group trained them and flew them to the Donbas region about eight months ago. “Some of our colleagues have called us [on the phone] to inform us...

Fifty organizations dedicated to food sovereignty and food justice issues signed an open letter calling out Bill Gates over his latest claim that technology is the solution to world hunger and food sovereignty and asking the media to do a better job of covering the issue.Fifty organizations dedicated to food sovereignty and food justice issues are calling out Bill Gates over his latest claim that technology is the solution to world hunger and food sovereignty.In an “open letter” published earlier this month, the groups addressed comments Gates made, during interviews with The New York Times and The Associated Press, about...

The Ukrainian army has deployed some of its best brigades to eastern Ukraine, including the 92nd and 93rd Mechanized Brigades and the 1st Presidential Brigade. But these elite Ukrainian formations might not be the biggest killer of Russian troops in the east. Under-trained, under-supplied and ambivalently led, Russians in the region are freezing to death by the dozen. Shocking videos that have circulated online in recent weeks tell a tragic story. The videos, shot by the Ukrainian brigades’ hovering drones, depict Russians in the late stages of hypothermia, so cold and sick that they barely react when the drones drop...

Snow extent in the Northern Hemisphere at the end of November represents an important parameter for the early winter forecast. This year snow extent is running much higher than average and according to existing global estimates, it is now beyond the highest ever observed so far. Winter forecast, especially in its early phase and in Europe, might be strongly influenced by such a large snow extent, although many other factors need attention. SNOW EXTENT IN NOVEMBER 2022.. Northern Hemisphere snow extent is currently indeed very high, now at about 41 million square kilometers.. ... Looking at the below Rutgers Daily...

The Bible In Paintings ~ Encouragement for Appreciating and Applying God's Word ~ “GO AWAY, LORD; I AM A SINFUL MAN!” ֎ Featuring 29 Paintings, 1 Mosaic and 8 Windows ֎ L U K E CHAPTER 5 One day as Jesus was standing by the Lake of Gennesaret, with the people crowding around him and listening to the word of God, he saw at the water’s edge two boats, left there by the fishermen, who were washing their nets. He got into one of the boats, the one belonging to Simon, and asked him to put out a little...

Alfonso Borrego is the great-grandson of Geronimo, a prominent leader and medicine man from the Bedonkohe band of the Apache people. Geronimo was known for his fearlessness – he resisted both the Mexican and American militaries when they attempted to remove his people from their tribal lands in the late-1800s. Borrego, 66, has spent years researching what happened to his people and his great-grandfather. While speaking with EL PAÍS, he discusses the various conflicting narratives that have been pushed over the past century. Some say that the Spanish drove the Indigenous to near-extinction in the United States, while others suggest...

Now all eyes are on Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis. He is also coming off a big reelection win in a state that has become a symbol of his party’s governance nationwide. He and Newsom were putting themselves in position to run for president while respecting the frontrunner status of former President Donald Trump and Biden, respectively. Though weakened by the midterms, Trump has already announced he is running for president again in 2024. Biden was strengthened by them, and while a final decision is still forthcoming, he appears to be leaning heavily in favor of seeking a second term.

While Charles de Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws was an oft-cited source during the federal convention of 1787, his observations weren’t limited to the balance of powers in government. He also touched on the nature of educational systems in republics and despotisms. Parents and educators form our first impressions. They prepare people for civil life in republics and for servitude in despotisms. From previous chapters, Montesquieu had explained the springs, the forces which propel nations. Public virtue is the propellant in republics, while the bayonet of fear prods despotisms. Education in despotic countries debases the mind. The mind of...

PORTLAND, Ore. — Marcy Landolfo is at her breaking point. This week marked the 15th break-in at Rains PDX within a year and a half. Landolfo said most of those repairs at the Northeast Portland location were paid for out of pocket. Other times, she just left the windows boarded up. "It’s just too much with the losses that are not covered by insurance, the damages, everything. It’s just not sustainable," Landolfo said. KATU asked why Landolfo decided to close now, instead of keeping doors open through the holiday shopping season. ... The owner at Rains tells me after five...

(Daily readings from the USCCB)Jesus said to his disciples: “As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. In those days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day that Noah entered the ark. They did not know until the flood came and carried them all away. So will it be also at the coming of the Son of Man.” Matthew 24:37–39Are you awake? Spiritually speaking? As we begin the liturgical season of Advent, we are given the future coming...

OPINION: In case you’re keeping track, last week the Biden administration did something else they said they’d never do. But succumbing to pressure from Europe is expected when abdicating American leadership. Our jet-setting climate czar, John Kerry, agreed on your behalf, at a meeting of folks who specialize in bilking America, to create what amounts to a climate reparations fund. The fund is intended to compensate those nations in the developing world that have allegedly suffered the ill effects of global climate change because of productive Western economies. It seems that punishing success is more than a domestic political trend....

Died Suddenly, the mega-viral new film from the Stew Peters Network, has eclipsed 10 million views, shattering through left-wing censors to expose the global depopulation scheme at the heart of the COVID jab roll-out. Directed by award-winning documentarians Matthew Miller Skow and Nicholas Stumphauzer, with help from producers Stew Peters, Lauren Witzke, and Edward Szall, Died Suddenly has garnered massive viewership, across multiple platforms, since its Monday evening release. As of Friday, over 10 million viewers all around the globe have streamed the film, busting through left-wing censors to disrupt the globalist narrative that’s dominated the news and cultural cycle...

The passenger was reported missing by his sister around midday Thursday before the Coast Guard and neighboring vessels spotted him in the water hours later

Several tax prep services have been found sending sensitive financial information to Meta, including people’s income, filing status, and even amounts won in college scholarships. The information comes via an investigative report from The Markup, which claims that Meta Pixel implementation in tax filing services has led to unintended data collection on Meta's part. Meta Pixel is a piece of Javascript code created by Meta that lets companies track user activity as a way to “measure the effectiveness of [ads and the design]” of their websites. As it turns out, way more information than user activity was being sent, and...