Free Republic

Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that she was unaware of antisemitic tropes about Jewish people and money. Anchor Dana Bash said, “What Republicans are saying about you is that there is a pattern of antisemitic and other controversial statements that make you unfit to sit on, in your case, the House Foreign Affairs Committee. I’m told that Republicans presented a list in their meeting, in their private meeting this past week. Included in that list, you said that Israel hypnotized the world. You said Israel is an apartheid regime. You said that politicians...

Representative Adam Schiff (D-CA) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that he believed the 2016 Donald Trump campaign did collude with the Russian government. Anchor Dana Bash said, “You said that there was direct evidence of the fact that Donald Trump colluded with Russia back in 2016. Special Counsel Robert Mueller said in his report, quote, ‘The investigation did not establish that members of the Trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the Russian government.’ Republicans argue that is proof that you used your position on the intelligence community to potentially mislead Americans, which is why you should not...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

American oil company Chevron nearly doubled profits from 2021 to 2022, posting record-breaking annual earnings of $35.5 billion, the company announced Friday. The company’s 2022 profit was roughly one-third greater than its previous record, set in 2011, and came off the back of high gas prices, The Wall Street Journal reported. The company reported an annual revenue of $246.3 billion, up from $162.5 billion in 2021, and a fourth quarter profit of $6.4 billion, with revenue at $55 billion. “Again in 2022, we delivered on our financial priorities: returning cash to shareholders, investing capital efficiently, and paying down debt,” CEO...

A passenger bus fell into a ravine and caught fire killing 40 people in southern Pakistan on Sunday... The bus was carrying 44 passengers from Quetta in Balochistan province to Karachi in neighboring Sindh province. The accident was near the town of Bela, in Lasbela district. Hamza Anjum Nadeem, assistant commissioner in Bela, said the bodies of 40 people, including women and children, were recovered. Four injured passengers were rescued. “The accident happened due to over-speeding and the bus crashed into the pillar of a bridge. It caught fire soon after falling into the ravine,”

The Kingdom of Heaven is not in the carnal pleasures of this world. In the proper ordering of my passions, may I find fulfillment in charity and divine beatitude (CCC 1769). We are made in the image and likeness of an infinite God. From our finite perspectives, can we fathom the depths of a soul? What are the limits of spirit? In our finite nature, can we grasp the expanse of infinity itself? No. However, we can feel universal longings within us for peace without end. Until our souls find their peace in God, we are restless. This restlessness is...

The human cerebral cortex is made up of six cellular layers, but at Precision Neuroscience, a team of scientists and engineers is working to build a device that’s reminiscent of a seventh. The device is called the Layer 7 Cortical Interface, and it’s a brain implant that aims to help patients with paralysis operate digital devices using only neural signals. This means patients with severe degenerative diseases like ALS will regain their ability to communicate with loved ones by moving cursors, typing and even accessing social media with their minds. The Layer 7 is an electrode array that resembles a...

On Jan. 17, 2023, it was reported that one of the speakers (a historian) at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos this week said globalization (world government) is here to stay, and the notion of de-globalization is a mirage. Another speaker (the CEO of a German tech company) said the world is merely entering into the next phase of globalization. It is my understanding that the globalists are advancing globalism in phases or stages with a timeline that calls for the fundamental transformation of the world into a world government by 2030 or sooner. As far as globalization...

Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned that the U.S. is facing a catastrophic debt crisis if lawmakers fail to raise the borrowing limit, saying the country would face a spiraling recession. “It would be devastating,” Yellen said to Axios in an interview from Johannesburg, South Africa. “It’s a catastrophe.” “Of course, it makes me nervous,” she added The U.S. reached its technical borrowing limit of around $31.4 trillion earlier this month, but Yellen has been able to enact accounting moves that will allow the federal government to pay its bills until sometime in June. Before then, lawmakers must agree to lift...

NASA completed a round of testing last year with the "rotating detonation rocket engine," which generates thrust using fuel-saving supersonic combustion, agency officials wrote(opens in new tab) in an update on Wednesday (Jan. 25). Those tests were very early-stage, but agency officials say that future iterations of the technology could be used on moon or Mars missions, for robotic probes or crewed landers. Expanding humanity's footprint across the solar system will require a fundamental rethink of how we approach long-distance travel, with both fuel and time, exploration advocates say. Getting to Mars with current propulsion technology takes six to nine...

Western countries agreed to supply tanks for use against the Russian invasion this week, prompting the Ukrainian government to push the envelope further, with discussions about more major military equipment advancing. Talk of NATO nations supplying long-range missiles, warships, submarines, and fighter jets is evident, with Ukrainian government figures seemingly tasked with acquiring new equipment wasting absolutely no time to push new ideas immediately after the dam burst on tank supply.

Longtime CIA officer and former Moscow station chief Dan Hoffman called out President Joe Biden for not being transparent about the role of the United States in the war in Ukraine. "The president needs to take a page out of President Reagan's book or FDR's book or JFK — somebody — and explain to us what's going on and why it matters to us," Hoffman said on the John Solomon Reports podcast. The U.S. announced this week that it would be sending three dozen tanks to the Ukrainians ahead of an expected Russian offensive. The 31 M1A1 Abrams tanks will...

Earlier this week, The New York Times reported on the Ukrainian government’s recent shake-up to fight corruption. “The dismissals appeared to reflect Mr. Zelensky’s goal of reassuring Ukraine’s allies — which are sending billions of dollars in military aid — that his government would show zero tolerance for graft as it prepares for a possible new offensive by Moscow,” according to the Times. Why did it take Volodymyr Zelensky 11 months to address the corruption issue? There have been signs of the problem for many months now. Ukrainian-born Rep. Victoria Spartz, R-Ind., who at the beginning of the invasion was...

CHICAGO (CBS) -- Plans are moving full speed ahead to open a migrant shelter in what was an abandoned school in Chicago's Woodlawn neighborhood, and after a community meeting Saturday afternoon, neighbors have a better idea of a timeline for the shelter to open. The city says it is ready to move in migrants as soon as Monday. But neighbors say they feel the plan was rushed with little community input. "We were hearing them, but they wasn't hearing us," said one neighbor. To start, 250 migrants will move into the shelter. It will remain a shelter for two years...

(Daily readings from the USCCB)When Jesus saw the crowds, he went up the mountain, and after he had sat down, his disciples came to him. He began to teach them, saying: “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.” Matthew 5:1–3The Sermon on the Mount begins with today’s reading in Chapter Five of Matthew’s Gospel and continues through Chapter Seven. This beautiful sermon presents us with many familiar teachings of Jesus, such as the Beatitudes, the Lord’s Prayer and the Golden Rule. Jesus begins His sermon by going up a mountain and sitting down. The...

CAIRO, Wednesday, Jan. 21, 1863. One day in this place is not particularly unlike any other day, with the exception that, when we have a day especially mean as regards its mud, or its rain, or some other unpleasant characteristics, we can always safely calculate that the next day, in these or some other respects, will be a little meaner. There is no sameness about the discomforts of Cairo -- unlike many other places -- for, however bad things are to-day, you may always safely calculate on a change; to-morrow will not be like to-day, it will simply be worse....

More than 100 firefighters responded to a raging inferno that ultimately killed 100,000 chickens at an egg farm in Bozrah, Conn., officials said. The blaze was brought under control late Saturday afternoon after a four-and-a-half-hour battle involving 16 fire departments, according to Fox 61. The Bozrah Town Fire Marshal is investigating the three-alarm chicken coop fire. The Salvation Army, which was on the scene providing food to firefighters, confirmed with officials that around 100,000 chickens died in the fire. The fire comes as egg prices are already soaring in part due to a large number of avian influenza deaths in...

... So what role will Wang play in formulating a Taiwan policy during Xi's third term? One source knowledgeable of China-Taiwan relations noted that Wang will be tasked with writing a theoretical unification strategy fit for the Xi era. "One may assume that a threat of China using force to unify Taiwan is imminent, but this is not the case. The first step is to launch a new theory that will replace Deng's one country, two systems. Then pressure will be put on Taiwan based on it," the source explained. The source expects this theory to become a yardstick with...

Georgia Republican Rep. Austin Scott, a new member on the House Intelligence Committee, hopes the panel will investigate efforts by unfriendly foreign powers to insert themselves into U.S. food and technology supply chains. "One of the things that I expect us to look into, and hopefully look into, is where our adversaries have embedded themselves in the supply chain of basic necessities for Americans," Scott said on the John Solomon Reports podcast. "I talk about food a lot, because it's one of the things that we have to have to get through the day," Scott explained. "What are our adversaries...

What would the Church of England be without gay people? Well, desperately short of vicars for starters. As many as 40 per cent of Anglican clergy are said to be gay. That percentage is probably even greater for choir members. A mischievous contemporary of mine at university set herself the challenge of seducing every adult member of the choir of King’s College, Cambridge. Let’s just say Rebecca had a mountain to climb. Without gay men, the organ lofts of our great cathedrals would grow cobwebby with disuse and the thrumming, resonant pipes fall silent. Subtract the gay organists, gay clergy,...