Free Republic

Two power substations in a North Carolina county were struck by gunfire in what police say is being investigated as a criminal act, causing damage that could take days to repair leaving tens of thousands of people in the dark without electricity. In response to ongoing outages, which began just after 7pm on Saturday night across Moore County, officials announced a state of emergency that included a curfew from 9pm on Sunday until 5am on Monday. Also, county schools will be closed Monday. 'An attack like this on critical infrastructure is a serious, intentional crime and I expect state and...

The FBI warned Twitter during “weekly” meetings before the 2020 election to expect “hack-and-leak operations’’ by “state actors” involving Hunter Biden, and “likely” in October, according to a sworn declaration by Twitter’s former head of site integrity, Yoel Roth. The warnings were so specific that Twitter immediately censored The Post’s scoop about Hunter Biden’s laptop on Oct. 14, 2020, citing its “hacked materials” policy, a move described on Saturday as “election interference” by Twitter’s new owner, Elon Musk. The extraordinary revelation for the first time lays bare how the FBI was involved in pre-bunking the story of the laptop, which...

The Supreme Court is hearing the case Monday of a Christian graphic artist who objects to designing wedding websites for gay couples, a dispute that’s the latest clash of religion and gay rights to land at the highest court. The designer and her supporters say that ruling against her would force artists — from painters and photographers to writers and musicians — to do work that is against their faith. Her opponents, meanwhile, say that if she wins, a range of businesses will be able to discriminate, refusing to serve (b)lack customers, Jewish or Muslim people, interracial or interfaith couples...

Scientists have discovered two new minerals and possibly a third in a meteorite discovered in Somalia in 2020, researchers from the University of Alberta, in Edmonton confirmed on Wednesday. The two minerals came from a single 2.4-gram slice of the meteorite, which was officially discovered two years ago. Locals near the town of El Ali, in the Hiiraan region of Somalia had known about its existence for decades. "Whenever you find a new mineral, it means that the actual geological conditions, the chemistry of the rock, was different than what's been found before," University of Alberta Department of Earth &...

Raheem Sterling will fly back to England after missing the 3-0 World Cup round-of-16 win over Senegal, the Football Association (FA) confirmed on Sunday, with sources telling ESPN his house was the target of an armed robbery. The 27-year-old held talks with manager Gareth Southgate on the morning of the game after learning his Surrey home was broken into on Saturday evening. - Dawson: England World Cup starts now with France clash - Stream on ESPN+: LaLiga, Bundesliga, more (U.S.) Southgate confirmed after England's victory that Sterling has been released and will travel to London, with no return date set,...

Three Chinese astronauts landed back on earth on Sunday (Dec 4) on board the re-entry capsule of the Shenzhou-14 spacecraft, state broadcaster CCTV reported, bringing to an end a six-month mission on China's space station. The three astronauts - commander Chen Dong and teammates Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe - who had been overseeing the final, pivotal period of construction at the space station, which was completed in November, all said they were feeling well after landing in audio aired on CCTV. The capsule landed at the Dongfeng site in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous region at 8.09 pm, with...

A key problem is federal employees are still largely at home. President Biden vowed in March that “the vast majority of federal workers will once again work in person.” Months later, it’s not even close to that. According to the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) Federal Employee Viewpoint Survey, nearly 40 percent said they work fully remotely or at home three or more days a week. Another 17 percent say they are at home one or two days a week. The DowntownDC Business Improvement District’s tracking indicates fewer than a quarter of federal workers are back in the office. Mayor...

At least eight universities have partnered with online sports betting companies, reports The New York Times. Sports betting is surging across America — with flashy ads and easily accessible apps encouraging wagers both at home and in stadiums — and has slinked its way over to several college campuses as well. The New York Times recently uncovered that at least eight universities have partnered with online sports-betting companies, while at least a dozen athletic departments and booster clubs have signed agreements with brick-and-mortar casinos. Personal finance author and radio host Dave Ramsey lambasted the institutions on The Ramsey Show. “You...

•Actress Amber Heard has appealed the $10million award she was ordered to pay ex-husband Johnny Depp following a defamation trial held earlier this year •Heard's attorneys argued in a 68-page filing that significant evidence was excluded and that the trial was held in the wrong state •The trial was held in Fairfax, Virginia, because that is where The Washington Post website houses its servers •Depp sued Heard in 2019 for $50million over a Washington Post op-ed written under Heard's name in which he was accused of domestic abuse •Depp's attorneys have also filed an appeal of the $2million he was...

A new study has revealed that small lakes on Earth have expanded considerably over the last four decades – a worrying development, considering the amount of greenhouse gases freshwater reservoirs emit. Between 1984 and 2019, global lake surfaces increased in size by more than 46,000 square kilometers (17,761 square miles), researchers say. That's slightly more than the area covered by Denmark. Carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, and other gasses are constantly produced from lakes, because of the bacteria and fungi feeding at the bottom of the water, snacking on dead plants and animals that have drifted down to the lake...

As Donald Trump prepares for his next run for the White House in 2024, he has already received endorsements. The former president is getting support from Republican lawmakers.November 15 was the day Trump announced he was running for reelection.“In order to make America great and glorious again, I am tonight announcing my candidacy for president of the United States,” he said at Mar-a-Lago, his Florida estate where he will base his campaign.“America’s comeback starts right now,” Trump declared, proclaiming, “Your country is being destroyed before your eyes.”“Under our leadership, we were a great and glorious nation — something you haven’t...

A cyber security and data analyst funding research into Twitter’s alleged child sexual abuse material (CSAM) problem said Saturday that the platform has nearly doubled its daily suspension rate on accounts that share exploitative content containing child pornography. Andrea Stoppa, founder of cybersecurity group Ghost Data, had personally funded research into the issue earlier this year after receiving a tip about the problem’s severity. The report allegedly found more than 500 accounts soliciting child sex abuse material that appeared alongside or on profile pages of at least 30 major advertisers’ Twitter accounts, which led some of those companies to pull...

Colorado mom Lydia Lerma feels punched when she hears the trendy new term “minor-attracted person.” Just thinking of the damage a pedophile inflicted upon her son, who was six at the time, causes pain.An edited version of one of Balenciaga's controversial adverts featuring teddy bears and children. The face of the child model has been blurred for this report. (Jam Press/Balenciaga)Creating a polite-sounding term for someone sexually attracted to children enrages her.Any push to normalize pedophilia or designate it as another sexual orientation to be tolerated is “unconscionable,” Lerma told The Epoch Times.“That’s a bunch of [expletive]!” she said of...

Just hours after we find out that the Hunter Biden laptop not only wasn't "Russian disinformation", but rather was being actively covered up by social media, another "conspiracy theory" that wound up costing tons of honest truth seekers their social media accounts (including Zero Hedge, who was first to talk about the lab leak all the way back in February 2020), is inching closer toward being validated as reality.That's because a scientist who formerly worked at the Wuhan Institute of Virology has now gone on record and has said that COVID was "man-made" and leaked from the lab.The claims are...

Of the various hospitals around the country that have been facing public outcries over their decisions to conduct genital mutilation surgeries on children along with other “gender-affirming care,” Boston Children’s Hospital is among the largest and the most well-known. They have since pulled all of their promotional material off of their website after it attracted media attention, but the “services” are still continuing. In addition to peaceful, lawful protests, the hospital has also been hit with a series of bomb threats and other threats of violence. This week, the Associated Press published a glowing review of the hospital’s transgender programs,...

A good idea. A long overdue good idea, at that. But even then, Apple apparently can’t entirely quit China as a supplier — or more accurately, a supply management resource.But at least it’s a start … perhaps:In recent weeks, Apple Inc. has accelerated plans to shift some of its production outside China, long the dominant country in the supply chain that built the world’s most valuable company, say people involved in the discussions. It is telling suppliers to plan more actively for assembling Apple products elsewhere in Asia, particularly India and Vietnam, they say, and looking to reduce dependence on...

The Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn was first published on December 10 1884 in Canada And The UK. Now in a deeply repressed and unjust Australia, I look to American inspiration and brotherhood in exploring the theme of freedom and relatively untrammeled humanity in initiating a Huck Finn Week. I write of two different iconic journeys and of how journeying is ingrained in Australia. And I post 2 images of beautiful Australian women, who each in their own way are committed to living with freedom and care for others, as were Twain's creations, Huck and Jim. Our heritage is not the...

There are wind farms being put up all over the place these days, including in many rural areas of the United States. But the offshore wind farms that have been constructed in the North Sea by various European power companies have created a forest of towers rising up over the waves. But that’s not a problem, right? After all, this is the “clean energy” we were all promised and we’re saving the planet so everyone can feel better about themselves. The Biden administration recently announced plans to accelerate offshore wind farm construction in the name of “environmental justice, biodiversity, and...

Moore County, in the Sandhills region of central North Carolina, is mainly known for its golf courses, especially Pinehurst No. 2. The county is also home to thousands of active-duty soldiers (many of whom are Special Forces) stationed nearby at Fort Bragg, the home of the US Army Special Operations Command and the 82nd Airborne, making the rural county’s infrastructure an attractive target.Saturday night that infrastructure was attacked when numerous power substations throughout the county were targets of what the Moore County Sheriff labeled “intentional vandalism,” leaving more than 40,000 people without power.Moore County Sheriff Ronnie Fields reported on Facebook...

Answer: Government-imposed CAFE standards, the standards which ostensibly mandate higher fuel economy.