Free Republic

An international team of chemists has set a new world record for tying the world’s smallest knot, which they say consists of only 54 atoms. Remarkably, researchers involved with the achievement say it happened by accident, and are unable to account for how it occurred. Chemists Zhiwen Li, Jingjing Zhang, Gao Li with the Chinese Academy of Sciences’ Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, and research colleague Richard J. Puddephatt with the University of Western Ontario, Canada, were attempting an entirely different process in the lab when the record breaking discovery was made. Their achievement is described in a study that...

#BREAKING ⚡️Houthis announced that they hit an American warship.— UKR REPORT (@UKR_Report) January 24, 2024

Numerous Chicago residents, including multiple Black Democrats, have sued the city in response to the influx of migrants, and they blame President Joe Biden, not people like Texas Gov. Greg Abbott. Abbott has been arguably the loudest voice against the Biden administration's immigration policies, which resulted in about 300,000 migrants—nearly 10,000 per day—coming into the United States through Mexico in December alone. Federal border agents encountered about 2.5 million migrants in total last year, according to data from Customs and Border Protection (CBP), surpassing the previous record high from a year earlier.

Democrat billionaire donor Reid Hoffman, co-founder of LinkedIn, paused donations to former Gov. Nikki Haley’s bid for the Republican nomination, a source familiar with the matter told CNBC Wednesday. The funding pause represents the first Haley donor to cut his support after Tuesday. Haley was the establishment’s favorite to attack former President Donald Trump, the de facto GOP nominee. Hoffman previously gave $250,000 to a pro-Haley super PAC, the New York Times reported.

Despite a punishing loss in New Hampshire, Nikki Haley has nearly a dozen fundraisers scheduled between now and the South Carolina primary — and insiders are now wondering how many of these shindigs will actually happen. On Jan. 30 in New York City, billionaires including Leonard Stern, Cliff Asness, Stanley Druckenmiller, Ken Langone and Henry Kravis are co-hosting an event for the former South Carolina governor. On Feb. 6, Silicon Valley mogul Tim Draper is hosting Haley in Atherton, Calif. On Feb. 15, Haley also is slated to be feted in Dallas by real estate tycoon Harlan Crow, according to...

A Russian military transport plane carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war crashed near the border between the two nations Wednesday, with Moscow accusing Kyiv of shooting down the aircraft, Kremlin officials say. The Russian Ilyushin Il-76 plane was carrying 74 people, including six crew members and three guards who were set to deliver the POWs in exchange for Russian captives, according to state news agency RIA’s quotes from the defense ministry. Andrei Kartapolov, a Russian lawmaker, claimed during a parliamentary session Wednesday that the plane had been shot down by three missiles.

An investigation is underway Wednesday after six people were found shot to death in a remote desert area in the community of El Mirage. The bodies were discovered around 8:15 p.m. Tuesday when deputies responded to a welfare check off Highway 395 between Lake Los Angeles and Adelanto, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department spokesperson Mara Rodriguez said.

The Ohio Senate voted Wednesday to override Republican Gov. Mike DeWine’s veto of a bill that would prohibit doctors from performing sex-change medical procedures on minors. The state’s House of Representatives voted 65 to 28 on Jan. 10 to override the governor’s veto of the bill, which would bar doctors from performing transgender surgeries or prescribing cross-sex hormones and puberty blockers to minors. State senators voted 23 to 9, largely among party lines, to pass the legislation. “The Governor does not have [a] new comment today. His previous comments on the bill and his veto reflect his position on the...

UFC president Dana White defended fighters’ right to say “whatever they want” after middleweight fighter Sean Strickland went on a wild rant when asked about his remarks on the LGBT community in the days before his fight. The dethroned UFC middleweight champion faced backlash but also plenty of support when he went after a reporter who brought up comments he’d made about having a gay son.

The Supreme Court has denied death row killer Kenneth Eugene Smith's last minute request for a stay in execution. Smith will be executed tomorrow in Atmore, Alabama, with nitrogen hypoxia. It will be the first execution of its kind in the US and first known nitrogen execution in the world. He had begged the court for mercy, citing experts concerns over the method despite previously requesting it.

Does anybody else here suffer from what I call "Alarm Clock Fatigue?" That is the syndrome where even if you get plenty of sleep, the mere fact that an alarm clock wakes you up makes you weary for the rest of the day.That happened to me today. Despite the fact that I was asleep by around 9 PM last night so I got over 8 hours of sleep, the mere fact that it was an alarm clock that woke me up at 6 AM because I had an early appointment this morning made me tired for the rest of the...

Yadin is an actor who serves as a reservist in the Israeli military. He knows the painful reality of the Israel-Palestine conflict better than most, being on the front lines of October 7 and fighting for his life after being shot by Hamas fighters near the Gaza Strip. His is a tale of two starkly different worlds. From the deafening silence of the battlefield to the wild applause of an audience. Yadin shares the deep impact his experiences in the Israeli Defense Forces have on his approach to acting. How he balances the gruelling demands of special forces training with...

Florida’s undercount in the 2020 census may have cost the state at least one, possibly two, seats in the U.S. House of Representatives and up to $21 billion in federal funding, according to a new report by Florida TaxWatch. The nonpartisan government watchdog group’s analysis found that an estimated 750,000 Floridians, or 3.48 percent of the state’s population, were not counted in the last census. This marked the state’s most significant census undercount in recent decades, despite efforts to improve participation rates between 2010 and 2020. “About 320 federal programs have census-derived federal funding. These programs affect nearly every aspect...

Due to the Biden administration's decision to waive financial assurance fees, should Vineyard Wind fail and not fully fund their decommissioning account in a timely manner, the public will likely have to pick up the tab.. Biden administration reportedly waived fees for an offshore wind project that are in place to ensure that the infrastructure is removed and the site reclaimed at the end of the project’s life.. Joe Biden, as part of his climate agenda, is pushing an aggressive buildout of offshore wind projects along the East Coast. With the offshore wind industry struggling financially, the waiving of these...

PHOENIX (3TV/CBS 5) -- The Chairman of the Arizona Republican Party has resigned amid a growing number of calls to step down after a British tabloid released clips of him reportedly trying to “bribe” former gubernatorial candidate and TV news anchor Kari Lake to not run for Senate. The verified audio recording obtained by the Daily Mail reveals party chair Jeff DeWit asking Lake to “Just say, is there a number at which,” that appears to signify Lake to essentially “name her price.” Lake is heard in the audio tape taking offense to the remark, stating, “I can be bought?...

Rep. Chip Neiman has drafted legislation that would make it illegal to intimidate others with their genitals. The bill is in response to a nudist who, when asked to put on clothes at a public mailbox center, responded by bending over and spreading his buttocks. Sometimes, it’s not obvious a law is needed until a situation presents itself outlining a glaring hole. That’s exactly what’s happened in rural Crook County, where a nudist refuses to wear clothing in public when picking up his mail at a rural mailbox center. On one occasion, when asked to put on clothes, the man...

Florida earned its reputation as the retirement capital of the US.. A fixed income in retirement can go a lot further in some states than others .. ... To make the most of your retirement savings, you should retire in a state where the cost of living and tax rates are friendly to retirees, if you have the resources to. You should also consider factors like the quality of the state's healthcare system and the abundance of activities that you enjoy.' Colorado, which ranked second for the best state to retire in 2024, offers similarly taxpayer-friendly conditions, with no estate...

Embattled Sen. Bob Menendez (D-NJ), accused of accepting gold bars and hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes in exchange for influence, is fighting to suppress evidence from search warrants executed by the government, including the warrant that led to the seizure of hundreds of thousands in cash and gold bars from his residence. This comes as Menendez told the Washington Post that he thinks that if he beats the three felony charges laid out against him in a September indictment quickly enough, he could win reelection to his Senate seat, though he has not formally launched a bid to...

Five prominent U.S. universities have agreed to pay a total $104.5 million to settle a lawsuit accusing them of price fixing. Brown University agreed to pay $19.5 million, Columbia and Duke are each paying $24 million, and Yale and Emory are each paying $18.5 million, according to United Press International. The lawsuit was brought forward by eight former students against 17 universities, alleging they colluded as "a price-fixing cartel" to "fix" price competition when it came to financial aid. It essentially states the schools collectively shared confidential data and information about admissions and financial aid, from which they adopted a...