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Armed police officers wave cars off the motorway going from Poland to Germany. They're searching for people-smugglers and their desperate cargo. This is the German government's latest bid to show it is getting a grip on rising levels of irregular migration. But, as we found in a rural border district, there's little sense of control. Altenberg is a small town in Saxony, right by the Czech Republic. Families race down a toboggan run that weaves through the forest and, when winter's here, there's even a small ski resort. The local mayor, Markus Wiesenberg, says that - in this area alone...

Are you in the dark about your vitamin D levels? Experts are shedding light on whether or not you might be lacking an important vitamin when the days get shorter. Vitamin D is important for multiple bodily functions and is most responsible for helping the body absorb calcium, essential for strong and healthy bones, according to the National Institutes of Health. It also plays an important role in the immune system and the health of the body’s muscles and nerves. The ways in which people get vitamin is from food, the sun, or supplements, according to Yale Medicine. However, 35%...

A Connecticut judge's decision to redo a local primary election contest, citing videos showing possible ballot stuffing, has renewed claims about the 2020 presidential election. Connecticut Superior Court Judge William Clark rejected results from a Democratic mayoral primary in Bridgeport, the state's largest city, saying he had seen evidence to order a rerun, even though the general election is in four days, the Associated Press reported. In the wake of the decision, conservative commentators began responding with what they said was evidence of ballot stuffing in the 2020 White House race. Former President Donald Trump is facing 13 charges in...

"A serious obstacle to achieving technological independence is the shortage of qualified scientific, engineering and labor personnel. The total number of personnel engaged in research and development in Russia has decreased by a quarter over the past 20 years," Patrushev said at a retreat in the city of Tomsk, in Siberia, Russia. A large number of scientists and academic staff are believed to have fled the country after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and again after he announced a partial mobilization of the population last fall. Hundreds of thousands of Russians fled...

A California cop punched a female suspected shoplifter in the head while arresting her for allegedly stealing $2,000 worth of goods from a mall, according to a now-viral video. The 50-second video, which has more than 780,000 views on TikTok, opens with the end of a car chase in Vallejo on Friday, when officers were attempting to cuff the suspect, who allegedly shoplifted with an accomplice from the Gateway Plaza shopping mall. The officer walks up to the driver, who had not been identified, and pulls her out of the car as she resists him. The officer then slams her...

A lawsuit to kick Donald Trump off the 2024 ballot in Minnesota may be in trouble after the state Supreme Court justices hearing the case appeared skeptical that states have the authority to take the unprecedented action.The case centers around the Fourteenth Amendment, specifically Section 3’s “Insurrection Clause.” Plaintiffs argue President Trump’s actions on January 6, 2021, disqualify him from appearing on the ballot.The clause reads:No person shall be a Senator or Representative in Congress, or elector of President and Vice-President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken...

'The biggest threat to us as Jews is and has always been white supremacy, not the struggle for Palestinian liberation,' Tulane Students for Palestine says

GAINESVILLE, Fla. – Santoria Nichelle Smith, 18, was arrested yesterday and charged with disrupting a school function and battery on a law enforcement officer; she was previously arrested in August for battery on a law enforcement officer, but the charges were dropped. At about 2:00 p.m. yesterday, Santa Fe Police Department officers responded to a reported disturbance in a classroom at Santa Fe College Blount Hall (530 W. University Avenue). The officer reported that when he arrived, he found Smith in a verbal dispute with an office supervisor. When the officer told Smith she was disrupting the operation of the...

DELAND, Fla. - A Florida man was arrested after he was found openly carrying a loaded gun at a DeLand hotspot, according to police. Michael Ribar was arrested and charged with two counts of open carrying of weapons after concerned citizens alerted deputies to Cafe DaVinci just before 9 p.m. on Tuesday. The 22-year-old man allegedly had a visible handgun on his right hip, a black 9mm handgun with three loaded magazines, according to the DeLand Police Department. He was also wearing a bulletproof vest and a tactical belt with two handcuffs, a baton and medical kit. The baton is...

DICKINSON — A Dickinson woman is currently in custody following a tense situation that unfolded inside a local bank on Wednesday afternoon. According to Dickinson Police Department officials, officers were dispatched to Bravera Bank North, located at 1151 3rd Ave. W., at around 2:25 p.m. in response to a report of a female individual exhibiting erratic behavior within the bank's lobby. According to employees present during the incident, 36-year-old Savannah Fahlstrom entered the bank with the intent to close her account and withdraw her funds. Fahlstrom and an employee of the bank were discussing the process when Fahlstrom began...

More than 100 demonstrators and activists gathered at the Port of Oakland on Friday to block the entrance to a ship that they claimed was transporting military weapons to Israel.

Investigators have been sent to Antarctica after a chilling report revealed that over half of the women working at the continent's U.S. base have experienced sexual violence. Antarctica is known for its vast icy terrain and isolated location, characteristics that mystify and intrigue outsiders - but also characteristics that have led to a rampant culture of sexual abuse. McMurdo Station - the U.S. Antarctic research station - is under investigation for harboring a shockingly high number of sexual assault and harassment claims. The cluster of buildings is stationed on the south tip of Ross Island and hosts up to 1,2000...

San Francisco has been blasted as a 'ghost town' and a 'ruined city' by Chinese media outlets, as city officials use the Star Wars theme to rid streets of homeless people. The beleaguered California city has been labelled a 'total failure' by some China-based outlets as the city prepares to host Chinese President Xi Jinping next week. The spotlight will be on the city as the Chinese President meets with President Biden for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. While the city gears up for the event, U.S. Chinese Radio used the headline 'Ghost town San Francisco to have major...

Former President Barack Obama helped draft the new White House artificial intelligence policy that President Joe Biden rolled out earlier this week, according to aides familiar with the situation. … Ahead of its debut, Obama -- who has long had interest in AI -- assisted the Biden team with the plan, an Obama aide told ABC News. Obama held meetings with AI industry leaders, where he pressed them and made them aware of not just the national security concerns AI poses, but also other issues with AI such as bias and discrimination, the aide said. Obama also met with congressional...

It's our Fearless Leader's Birthday. Donate today and write Happy Birthday in the comment field! :D Monthly Donors · Dollar-a-Day Donors · 300 Club Donors Donate by CCor byhttps://i.imgur.com/zZBuCjG.gifPayPalor by mail to: Free Republic, LLC - PO Box 9771 - Fresno, CA 93794Got a birthday message to write? Maybe a gif or a photo to post? Check out this birthday thread for Jim Rob. :DWish Jim Robinson a Happy Birthday today!11/3/2023, 1:00:08 PM · by Albion Wilde · 229 repliesfreerepublic.com ^ | November 3, 2023 | The Author of Creation made Jim

President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden visited Maine to grieve with a community reeling from a mass shooting that left 18 people dead and 13 others wounded. The Bidens arrived in Lewiston on Friday afternoon, where they met with survivors, families of the victims and first responders. They were greeted upon their arrival by Governor Janet Mills, Lewiston Mayor Carl Sheline and other local officials. Their first stop was Schemengees Bar, one of the locations of last week's mass shooting. Biden carried a bouquet of white flowers in one hand and held the first lady’s hand in the...

At one point during a contentious hearing in her Florida courtroom on Wednesday afternoon, U.S. District Court Judge Aileen Cannon confronted the Department of Justice about its concurrent federal indictments against Donald Trump. Cannon pressed Jay Bratt, the chief prosecutor on Special Counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case, to name another instance when the government brought charges against the same defendant on two different matters within a few months of each other. (Smith indicted the former president last June in the southern district of Florida for unlawfully keeping national defense information at Mar-a-Lago and obstruction of justice. Seven weeks later,...

If you can make ridiculous calls like this one, you can definitely use your "discretion" to rig a game. And that's why people don't trust the NFL anymore. Watch this absolute non-penalty get called for a fifteen yarder with an automatic first down. .... Roughing the passer?! They literally hit him as he’s throwing. It’s impossible to play football if this is roughing. ... Bro, those dudes were half a second from a sack, not even! Just absolutely ridiculous refereeing here. And Kirk Herbstreit's commentary is just brilliant. You can tell he's been around long enough to know how to...

On the face of it, Friday’s decision by the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn an injunction against enforcement of Illinois’ recently enacted ban on “assault weapons” and “large capacity” magazines doesn’t change circumstances on the ground. The three-judge panel that issued today’s decision had previously stayed U.S. District Judge Stephen McGlynn’s injunction while the state appealed, so the law has been in effect throughout litigation. Still, the 2-1 decision does matter, both because it provides an opportunity for some or all of the plaintiffs to appeal on an emergency basis to the Supreme Court and because it will...

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to take up a case involving the Trump-era ban on "bump stocks" that was initiated in the wake of the Las Vegas mass shooting. The justices agreed to hear arguments early next year over the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) rule, which was implemented in 2017. The case pertains to whether the Department of Justice, which oversees the ATF, followed federal law in changing the regulation around bump stocks, which are able to increase the rate of fire in some semiautomatic weapons. Federal appeals courts have come to different decisions...