Free Republic

<p>Jeff Beck, among the most innovative and certainly the most unpredictable of ’60s guitar heroes, has died. He was 78.</p><p>A fleet, imaginative soloist, Beck brought formidable instrumental firepower to British band the Yardbirds, which he joined in 1965 as a replacement for Eric Clapton. Entirely at home with the group’s blues roots, he burnished their pop hits with an adventurous and virtually unprecedented use of feedback, sustain and fuzz.</p>

A second batch of classified documents belonging to President Biden was reportedly discovered by White House aides, days after the discovery of documents from a former private office of the president’s became public. The new batch was found in separate location from the first, NBC News first reported, citing a personal familiar with the matter. The first batch was found in a University of Pennsylvania office in Washington that once belonged to Biden between his time as vice president and his 2020 presidential campaign. Since then, White House aides have been looking for any additional classified documents in other locations,...

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) is “continuing to assess the cause of the outage” that resulted in flights being temporarily grounded Wednesday morning, Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said in a video update Wednesday afternoon. “The most important thing I want passengers to know is our number one priority is safety,” he began. “It’s one of the reasons why today for example, while this issue was being worked out on the system side, there was this ground stop of about an hour and a half nationwide to make absolutely sure out of an abundance of caution that no aircraft could take...

President Vladimir Putin has removed Russia's top commander in Ukraine, three months after he was installed. Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov has been appointed to lead what Russia calls its "special military operation" against its neighbour. He replaces Sergei Surovikin who has overseen Moscow's brutal attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure. The reshuffle comes as Russian forces say they are making progress in eastern Ukraine after months of setbacks. Gen Gerasimov, who has been in post since 2012, is the longest-serving Russian chief of general staff of the post-Soviet era. Gen Surovikin - now his deputy - has been...

Mexico’s President Andrés Lopez Obrador says 40 million Mexicans are living in the United States. “Just imagine: There are 40 million Mexicans in the United States — 40 million [including people] who were born here in Mexico, [or] who are the children of people who were born in Mexico,” President Andrés Lopez Obrador gushed at a January 10 press conference with President Joe Biden and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Obrador’s proud Mexican-first advocacy for ethnic Mexicans — including ethnic Mexicans in the United States — is very different from the globalist, investor-first policies pushed by Trudeau and Biden.

Western Brown High School is mourning the loss of one of its students, who died after suffering a medical emergency Monday, school officials said. Superintendent Raegan White said Blaze Jacobs, a junior at the school, suffered cardiac arrest and was taken to Children’s Hospital, where he later died. Details surrounding the incident were not made available.

Music video by The Beatles performing I Feel Fine

Officials from the World Health Organization (WHO) are recommending that COVID-19 mitigation methods like masking on planes be reemphasized for regions like North America and Europe in response to the spread of the XBB.1.5 omicron subvariant, which is believed to be significantly more transmissible than previous mutations. Catherine Smallwood, senior emergency officer for the WHO, was asked during a briefing on Tuesday whether travelers from the U.S. should be subject to travel checks due to the spread of XBB.1.5. More than 70 percent of cases in the Northeastern U.S. are currently attributed to the subvariant.

First Week in Ordinary Time Mark 1:29–39 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus heals many of the townspeople of Capernaum. His healing of physical ailments points to his spiritual healing—to his being the doctor of the soul.The Gospels are filled with accounts of Jesus’ healing encounters with those whose spiritual energies are unable to flow. Much of Jesus’ ministry consisted in teaching people how to see (the kingdom of God), how to hear (the voice of the Spirit), how to walk (overcoming the paralysis of the heart), and how to be free of themselves so as to discover God.Jesus was referred...

This morning Russian Navy ships and submarines left their base at Novorossiysk, in the Black Sea, en-masse. This is highly unusual and may indicate ongoing operations. Sources seen by Naval News confirm the exodus. The group included the Project 11711 Ivan Gren class landing ship, Pyotr Morgunov, the largest amphibious ship in the Black Sea. It also contained all three Project 636.3 Improved-Kilo class submarines which were present at the base. Analysis suggests that other warships were also sailing, leaving only a few warships and support vessels in the port. It is likely the most empty that Novorossiysk has been...

Russian President Vladimir Putin's unprovoked war with Ukraine could come to a conclusion this year, according to a former US Army general who warned that the Kremlin would likely turn to the dire option of nuclear weapons if Moscow faces defeat in the conflict.Retired US Army Brig. Gen. Kevin Ryan told Insider on Tuesday that he believes that Russia "would use a nuclear weapon before it allowed its military to be defeated in the field."Putin has repeatedly threatened the use of nuclear weapons since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, but Ryan said that the Kremlin may...

A popular Telegram channel affiliated with the theocratic republic’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) posted a chilling video that appeared to threaten former President Donald Trump’s life and also the lives of leading United States defense officials days after the anniversary of slain Iranian General Qassim Soleimani’s death. The video, posted Monday on the IRGC-affiliated “Sepah Cyberi” channel, depicts an office where a file on Soleimani lays open on a desk, complete with photographs of the terrorist and his assassination, and a calendar marked with the date of his death. Watch

The federal government is closing in on the $31.4 trillion borrowing limit, meaning a high-stakes fight over raising the debt ceiling is fast approaching. An estimate from the Peter G. Peterson Foundation places the nation’s debt at $31.39 trillion and counting on Wednesday, just a hair below the limit set more than a year ago. That doesn’t mean the debt ceiling will have to be lifted this week — or even this month. The Treasury Department can generally use what are known as extraordinary measures to put off an actual debt crisis. But it’s clear the fight is edging closer,...

Controversial NBC News president Noah Oppenheim will step down from the high-profile role amid a broader shakeup at the news division, the network said Wednesday. Oppenheim, who was accused by Ronan Farrow of spiking his Harvey Weinstein reporting, will remain in the NBC family, having inked a film and TV production deal with parent NBCUniversal. NBC News Group Chief Cesar Conde said New York Times deputy managing editor Rebecca Blumenstein will take over much of Oppenheim’s responsibilities, and grab the title of president of editorial for NBC News. Blumenstein, 56, will oversee editorial, newsgathering, booking and the NBC News bureaus...

LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer will travel to Europe next week for a five-day trip to promote the state’s recent economic developments and with hopes of attracting new businesses in the automotive and clean energy industries. The Democratic governor will travel to Norway first before heading to Switzerland to speak at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos next week to speak on a panel to discuss “The Return of Manufacturing.” She will be a part of a bipartisan group of governors in Davos that includes Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker

Aides to President Joe Biden have discovered at least one additional batch of classified documents in a location separate from the Washington office he used after leaving the Obama administration, according to a person familiar with the matter. Since November, after the discovery of documents with classified markings in his former office, Biden aides have been searching for any additional classified materials that might be in other locations he used, said the source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide details about the ongoing inquiry. … The classification level, number and precise location of the additional documents was...

The head of the National Transportation Safety Board expressed concern Wednesday about the safety risks that heavy electric vehicles pose if they collide with lighter vehicles. The official, Jennifer Homendy, raised the issue in a speech in Washington to the Transportation Research Board. She noted, by way of example, that an electric GMC Hummer weighs about 9,000 pounds (4,000 kilograms), with a battery pack that alone is 2,900 pounds (1,300 kilograms) — roughly the entire weight of a typical Honda Civic. “I’m concerned about the increased risk of severe injury and death for all road users from heavier curb weights...

Explanation: The scene may look like a fantasy, but it's really Iceland. The rock arch is named Gatklettur and located on the island's northwest coast. Some of the larger rocks in the foreground span a meter across. The fog over the rocks is really moving waves averaged over long exposures. The featured image is a composite of several foreground and background shots taken with the same camera and from the same location on the same night last November. The location was picked for its picturesque foreground, but the timing was planned for its colorful background: aurora. The spiral aurora, far...

A Christian boarding school in Missouri that’s been under intense scrutiny over abuse allegations announced Wednesday that it will close later this month due to financial hardship. Agape Boarding School in Stockton has been the subject of state and location investigations and several lawsuits from former students. It will stop providing service effective Jan. 20, according to a statement from the school for boys. Attendance at Agape plummeted after abuse allegations surfaced. Agape had 132 students 13 months ago, its lawyer, John Schultz said. It now has 12. The school’s focus now is “on getting the boys who remain in...

A government watchdog is demanding the US attorney probing Hunter Biden in Delaware investigate tens of millions in anonymous donations from China to the University of Pennsylvania, where an academic center is named for his father, President Biden. The Ivy League college raked in a total of $54.6 million from 2014 through June 2019 in donations from China, including $23.1 million in anonymous gifts starting in 2016, according to public records.