Free Republic

Searches for a Speaker alternative to House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) are slowly building momentum as he faces opposition that threatens to sink his bid. On one side, McCarthy’s fiercest detractors are teasing that there are people interested in being a viable GOP consensus substitute for the current minority leader. On the other, members say preliminary conversations are happening among Republicans and Democrats about a possible contingency candidate if McCarthy cannot win the gavel after multiple ballots in the new GOP-majority House next month. Neither side will name names, fearing that anyone mentioned as a candidate would get intense...

The August test actually generated more energy than scientists predicted, and damaged some equipment. Using the world's largest laser, consisting of 192 beams and temperatures more than three times hotter than the center of the sun One adjustment that helped: Researchers made the fuel capsule about 10 percent bigger and now it's up to the size of a ball bearing. That capsule fits in a tiny gold metal can that researchers aim 192 lasers at. They heat it to about 100 million degrees, creating about 50 percent more pressure inside the capsule than what's inside the center of the sun....

On Friday, December 2, 2022, a father, Ariel Eliyahuo, and his two-year-old daughter returned to their Woodland Hills home in Los Angeles, California. An average-sized coyote can be seen approaching the two-year-old. It knocks the child down, then attempts to drag the girl off by her legs. Only the quick action of her father, who ran at the coyote, yelling, drove off the animal. The coyote did not leave the area until the father threw a water bottle at it.The action fits very well as a predatory attack. Young children are reasonably close to the size of prey that a...

Disturbing evidence reveals UK special forces’ war crimes in Afghanistan: Report Tala Michel Issa, Al Arabiya English BBC Panorama has released disturbing evidence of war crimes reportedly committed by a squadron of Britain’s special forces in Afghanistan, revealing a suspicious pattern of unlawful killings during night raids. Newly obtained military reports seen by the BBC suggested that one SAS unit, which was in Afghanistan between 2010 and 2011, killed around 54 people during a six-month tour of the country and that former UK special forces head General Sir Mark Carleton-Smith failed to pass on evidence to a murder inquiry. Advertisement...

Afghanistan Taliban leader praises Afghan victory at gathering to forge national unity The reclusive supreme leader of the Afghan Taliban, Haibatullah Akhundzada, hailed the group’s 2021 takeover of Afghanistan during a meeting on Friday called to forge national unity and attended by religious leaders from around the country. Taliban spokesmen confirmed that Akhundzada, who is based in the southern city of Kandahar, had come to the capital Kabul for the all-male gathering of some 3,000 participants. After receiving pledges of allegiance from participants raising their hands, Akhundzada praised the Taliban’s victory last August, which marked the end of a 20-year...

Whatever happened to “All the news that’s fit to print,” and “Democracy dies in darkness,” the respective mottos of the two most influential newspapers in the country, The New York Times and The Washington Post? Every morning, these august organs set the narrative for newsrooms across the country, and yet, time and again, we see them ignore stories that don’t suit their own agenda as propaganda purveyors for the Democratic Party and the security state. This has been obvious in their non-coverage of Elon Musk’s Twitter Files, four batches over 10 days so far, which have revealed a chilling censorship...

Dutch court rules 2007 Dutch bombing in Afghanistan was Published: 23 November ,2022: 03:36 PM GST Updated: A Dutch court ruled on Wednesday the shelling by Dutch soldiers of a residential complex in the Afghan province of Uruzgan in June 2007 was illegal, adding the Netherlands should compensate the victims. For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app. Advertisement The Dutch Defense Ministry had asked prosecutors almost two years ago to look into this bombing, which killed dozens of civilians, following a report by a war veteran questioning the legitimacy of this action in...

ISIS claims responsibility for attack on Pakistan envoy in Kabul : ISIS claimed responsibility Saturday for an attack on Pakistan’s embassy in Kabul, which Islamabad decried as an “assassination attempt.” A security guard was wounded in the attack Friday in the Afghan capital. Advertisement For the latest headlines, follow our Google News channel online or via the app. In a statement cited by terrorism monitor SITE, the ISIS’s regional chapter said it had “attacked the apostate Pakistani ambassador and his guards.” Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has called it “an assassination attempt” on the head of the mission, and demanded...

Igor Girkin, a Russian army veteran and former defense minister of the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic, was among those who "directly" criticized the Russian leader. According to the ISW, Girkin "specifically criticized" Putin's statement on December 9 that described the progress of the "special military operation" as "stable." In a Telegram post, Girkin said: "[Putin] "assured us that the Special Military Operation was proceeding normally, calmly, according to plan (however, this time he did not add anything about being ahead of schedule)." In addition, the ISW added in its assessment that Russian authorities planned to launch programs in Russia and...

A large walrus nicknamed 'Thor' was found resting on a UK beach in a rare sighting over the weekend. The marine mammal was discovered on Sunday morning along the shoreline of the Solent on the south coast having travelled from Europe.... .... Thor was last spotted in the Netherlands on November 6 and has been travelling along the coast of France as far as Brittany in the last few weeks...

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Kosovo’s Prime Minister urged NATO peacekeeping troops to intervene after minority Serb protesters blocked roads and unknown gunmen exchanged fire with police over the weekend amid rising ethnic tensions in the country’s restive north.... ...Vucic demanded the release of recently arrested Kosovo Serbs “as they are held on trumped-up charges” and the pullout of Kosovo police, in line with an EU-brokered agreement that stipulates consent of Serb mayors in the area for that. “Kosovo police has nothing to do in the north…especially people armed…up to their teeth,” Vucic said. “That causes uneasiness and fear among the Serb population.” Belgrade and...

It is unclear if last week's Thailand trip was paid for with US taxpayers' cash. Despite Daszak's ties to Wuhan Institute of Virology, in September EcoHealth Alliance was awarded a $653,392 grant from the National Institutes of Health to study Covid-like viruses in bats across Asia and Africa. Virologist who funded Wuhan lab, then tried to silence COVID leak claims proudly shares videos of himself in Thai bat cave with 2.5 million of the animals which harbor pathogen that's believed to have sparked pandemic Virologist Dr. Peter Daszak brazenly posted videos of himself and his research team standing in the...

Basketball taught Paul Silas how to be patient. As a player, he waited 10 years before winning his first championship. As a coach, he waited 15 years for a second chance at running a team. As a father, he waited 20 years before seeing his son get a chance to lead a franchise.... ...Paul Silas began his career as a head coach with a three-year stint leading the then-San Diego Clippers starting in 1980. After spending more than a decade as an assistant, he returned to being a head coach and spent time with the Charlotte Hornets, the New Orleans...

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Nearly 34 years after 270 people, including 190 Americans, died in the mid-air bombing of Pan Am 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, the Libyan intelligence officer accused of building the explosive device has been taken into custody by the United States to face justice, federal officials told ABC News. Abu Agila Mas'ud will face criminal charges in the United States for his suspected role in the deadliest terror attack on British soil....

The National Post reports that Jennyfer Hatch, the 37-year-old woman who became a poster girl for assisted suicide in a recent Canadian short film, embraced suicide only after failing to secure proper health care. Simons, a Canadian clothes retailer, released a video, All Is Beauty, romanticizing her death. Really, she wanted to live. CTV News confirmed that Hatch was the same woman who had spoken to it anonymously last summer “about her failed attempts to find proper treatment for Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, a rare and painful condition in which patients suffer from excessively fragile skin and connective tissues.” In June, Hatch...

What is the latest thinking on here? Will the GOP nomination for president be contested or what? Trump has announced and I think whether any one likes it or not Ron DeSantis of Florida is going to run. He would not be making the kind of comments or putting out the kind of press releases he is otherwise. I could be wrong (?). Rand is also making sure he is in the media a lot. He might be thinking about it. He ran in '16 if you remember. Others will no doubt jump in for the attention and potential $....

Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) said Thursday he would not support former President Donald Trump if he were to become the Republican nominee for president in 2024. “Absolutely not,” Romney told a reporter during an event on climate change in Washington, D.C. “Look, I voted to remove him from office twice.” “And it’s not just because he loses,” the senator said of his refusal to support Trump. “That’s my reason that I offer to other people who are big fans of his. But it’s also [that] he’s simply not a person who ought to have the reins of the government of...

So it is with electric vehicles. EVs gained popularity some 120 years ago but range, lack of infrastructure, and purchase price stifled them. But in 1899 there were more electric vehicles recorded in the U.S than gasoline-powered, 1,575 vs. 936, according to Quartz.