Free Republic

The Ukrainian Embassy hosted a reception last week in honor of the 31st anniversary of the country’s armed services. Events like this are part of the social calendar of Washington’s smart set, with hobnobbing diplomats, think tankers, journalists, and US officials. Guests took photos with the Ukrainian ambassador. Even Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley showed up. (snip) (snip)No one wanted to talk about the party invite, however. A senior official from the Ukrainian Embassy in Washington confirmed that the companies’ logos appeared on the invitation but declined to speak on the record. They directed me to...

Davos 2022 held last May was the first in-person Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum since January 2020. Davos 2023, running from 16-20 January, marks a return to the January event. Entitled “Cooperation in a Fragmented World,” the meeting will be about: ‘The world today is at a critical inflection point. The sheer number of ongoing crises calls for bold collective action. ‘The Annual Meeting will convene leaders from government, business, and civil society to address the state of the world and discuss priorities for the year ahead. ‘It will provide a platform to engage in constructive, forward-looking dialogues...

When done well, pranking can be a sophisticated social interaction and both children and parents can equally get a laugh out of it, says this psychology lecturer.We all lie to our kids. Some lies – telling them their artwork is wonderful, or that Wiggles band-aids are infused with anaesthetic – benefit the child. Others are just a bit of fun. Take the Tiktok trend of telling your kids this weird little gnome is a picture of them as a baby: SNIP From a cognitive point of view, a prank firstly involves an attempt to implant a false belief in the...

The rescue team's best friend - the K-9 dog detection unit - has also been working tirelessly alongside their human handlers.Many Malaysians have shared photos on social media showing exhausted rescue workers as search operations to locate the buried victims of Friday's landslide near Genting Highlands moved into the third day on Sunday (Dec 18). But many of those pictures do not show their silent companions, who are just as stretched and weary. The rescue team's best friend - the K-9 dog detection unit - has also been working tirelessly alongside their human handlers.

New Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass finished up her first week in office by helping out less-fortunate families with a holiday giveaway. Bass helped hand out $300 gift cards and other presents on Friday to 5,000 families at the All Peoples Community Center near downtown LA. "It will bring a smile to my daughter's face," said Noemi Munoz of South Los Angeles. "Bring some groceries to the table." The families who received gifts were chosen by lottery after being selected from among those in Los Angeles with the greatest need for assistance.

The majority of Japanese people do not support raising taxes to fund military expansion, Kyodo reported on Sunday, citing a survey the news agency conducted after the government announced Japan's biggest military build-up since World War Two. Japan on Friday announced a $320 billion (S$435b) military spending plan to buy missiles capable of striking China and to ready the country for any sustained conflict, as missile tests by nearby North Korea, China's claim over Taiwan and the invasion of Ukraine by Japan's western neighbour Russia stoke fear of war. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida this month said his government would not...

Incel believers are members of an online subculture who define themselves as unable to find a romantic or sexual partner despite desiring one.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass said over the weekend that she wants to eliminate the homeless encampments that are plaguing the city’s streets through the state of emergency that she declared on her first day in office. Bass made the remarks during a Sunday interview on NBC News’ “Meet the Press” with host Chuck Todd. Bass claimed that 95% of the city’s 40,000 homeless people would accept taxpayer-funded public housing if it was offered to them. When asked by Todd if she would allow LAPD and sanitation officers to continue doing sweeps of the encampments, she said, “no” and that...

Elon Musk @elonmusk Should I step down as head of Twitter? I will abide by the results of this poll. Yes 57.7% No 42.3% 3,053,971 votes · 11 hours left 3:20 PM · Dec 18, 2022

There have been six weather modification (aka ChemTrails, GeoEngineering, etc.) planes spraying over Central West Texas over the last few days. Normally, to maintain the drought conditions, only 1 -3 planes are used. The last times six planes were used were before the freak snow storm a couple of years ago, before Harvey and before Katrina. Something is up when you see 6 planes working 24/7. Expecting some really bad or strange weather here or to the East.

Denver, Colorado Mayor Michael Hancock (D) has declared a state of emergency over 0.01 percent of President Joe Biden’s record-breaking number of illegal immigrants arriving in the city. Days ago, Hancock issued an emergency as fewer than 650 border crossers and illegal aliens have arrived in Denver in recent weeks after being released into the United States interior by the Biden administration.

Security personnel at Washington Dulles International Airport stopped a woman trying to bring giraffe and zebra bones back to the U.S. from Kenya, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The woman, who was not identified because she was not criminally charged, initially declared that she just had a small Acacia tree twig in her possession when she arrived at the airport on Nov. 17. The small twig was fine to bring back to the U.S., but CBP agricultural specialists found the animal bones while x-raying her bag during a secondary examination. Fish and Wildlife Service inspectors determined that importation...

Today's 4th Sunday of Advent readings highlight the Promise of Salvation history whereby God becomes fully human for the necessary redemption of his creation. Fear Not. 13 min. YouTube video link below:The Promise of Emmanuel

A course for healthcare professionals urges them to start asking children as young as three years old about their gender identity.The online module from the Fenway Institute, titled “Affirming Care for Transgender and Gender Diverse Children and Adolescents,” advocates that those in the medical field take an “affirming” approach to gender dysphoria in youth. The module, which discusses the use of puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and surgery, is eligible for continuing medical education requirements, which some medical students, residents, and professionals need in order to maintain their positions. One section of the module, titled “Asking pediatric patients about gender identity,”...

A Chicago-area high school “literacy coach” recently recorded a video of herself in which she admits to indoctrinating the students in her charge. Fox News reports Crete-Monee High’s Heather Marie Godbout (pictured), a member of the school’s Equity Team, also rips “right-wing conspiracy theorist nut jobs” in her video and notes she is opposed to traditional grading policies — because grades get “conflated with other things that aren’t actually learning, like effort or ‘work ethic,’ whatever that means.” “All you right wing conspiracy theory nut jobs who seem to think the teachers are out here just indoctrinating children into some...

Researchers from Japan reveal that they may just have found a way to repair cardiac damage in patients suffering from chronic heart attack and heart failure. Adult heart cells have very limited ability to form new heart tissue, so when the heart muscle is damaged by a heart attack, the damaged areas are filled in with inflexible scar tissue. The presence of scar tissue impairs heart function and leads to arrhythmias, progressive heart failure and eventual death. "Previous studies have shown that reprogramming cardiac fibroblasts (CFs), the cell type that generates scar tissue, into cardiomyocytes (CMs), or normal heart muscle...

Dino Danelli, drummer with blue-eyed soul pioneers the Rascals in all their incarnations, has died at age 78. “It is with a broken heart that I must tell you of the passing of Dino Danelli,” guitarist Gene Cornish wrote Thursday on social media. “He was my brother and the greatest drummer I’ve ever seen. I am devastated at this moment. Rest in peace, Dino; I love you brother.” Danelli co-founded the band as the Young Rascals in 1965 with Cornish, keyboardist Felix Cavaliere and percussionist Eddie Brigati, and everyone but Danelli contributed lead vocal parts. The New Jersey outfit debuted...

Kim Simmonds, co-founder and guitarist of Savoy Brown, has died at the age of 75. The news was confirmed today via the band's official social media pages. "Please note one of Kim's last requests was to thank the fans of Savoy Brown," they said. "Your support was and shall always be immensely appreciated." Simmonds announced in August that he had been battling stage-four cancer for close to a year. He'd been diagnosed with signet-cell colon cancer, a rare form of the disease that accounts for less than one percent of cases. It is often not detected early enough to provide...

Texas border cities were preparing Sunday for a surge of as many as 5,000 new migrants a day across the U.S.-Mexico border as pandemic-era immigration restrictions expire this week, setting in motion plans for providing emergency housing, food and other essentials. El Paso County Judge Ricardo Samaniego told The Associated Press the region, home to one of the busiest border crossings in the country, was coordinating housing and relocation efforts with NGOs and other cities, as well as calling on the state and federal government for humanitarian help as they prepare for an onslaught of new arrivals once public health...

ormer Russian President Dmitry Medvedev suggested on Friday that members of the NATO military alliance providing Ukraine with assistance could be "legitimate military targets." In a lengthy statement on his Telegram channel, Medvedev, who is deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, questioned whether the delivery of weapons to Ukraine by NATO nations could be viewed as an attack on his country. Today...the main question is whether the hybrid war de facto declared on our country by NATO can be considered to be the alliance's entry into war with Russia? Is it possible to view the delivery of a large volume...