Free Republic

Gasoline production in Russia has fallen after a series of strikes by Kyiv on the country's oil refineries, figures show. Rosstat, Russia's Federal State Statistics Service, said that in the week ending March 24, the nation's production of motor petrol fell by approximately 7.4 percent to 754,600 tons compared to the week prior, when production was at 815,300 tons, local media reported. Moscow depends on its oil exports and energy industry, which make up some 30 percent of the country's budget revenues and are crucial for the funding of the war in Ukraine. Kyiv ramped up its attacks on Russian...

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. (WISH) — Indiana plans to rebuild a small section of highway that by next summer could charge electric vehicles being driven. Purdue University and Indiana government’s Department of Transportation, in separate news releases issued Wednesday, touted the construction project as the first highway segment in the nation with wireless charging. Construction could begin as soon as April 1. Neither Purdue or the Indiana Department of Transportation (INDOT) reported how much the project will cost. Indianapolis-based White Construction was awarded a contract to build the wireless power-transfer technology in a quarter-mile of U.S. 231/U.S. 52 between Cumberland Avenue...

Heart scarring was detected more than one year after COVID-19 vaccination in some people who suffered myocarditis following receipt of a shot, researchers reported in new studies.A third of 60 patients with follow-up cardiac imaging done more than 12 months after their myocarditis diagnosis had persistent late gadolinium enhancement (LGE), which is, in the majority of cases, reflective of heart scarring, Australian researchers reported in a preprint of a new study, published on March 22.Myocarditis is a form of heart inflammation.The median time from receipt of a vaccine to follow-up imaging was 548 days, with the longest interval being 603...

Over 40 people were killed and dozens injured in airstrikes overnight near Aleppo, in northwestern Syria. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR) reported that the alleged Israeli attack hit at least one weapons warehouse belonging to Hezbollah near the Aleppo International Airport in the early hours of Friday morning. The UK-based monitor further said strikes also targeted Syrian air defense installations in nearby Al-Saferah and that explosions were heard in the Kafr Joum area, in western Aleppo. Footage from the moment of the attack shows huge explosions and mushrooms of dust rising from the area. Two unnamed security sources...

A new published report from international researchers marshals every line of evidence in defense of fairness in women’s sports.The International Olympic Committee (IOC) developed its 2021 framework on sex and “gender” around the concepts of fairness, inclusion, and non-discrimination. This framework leaves it to each sport’s governing body “to determine how an athlete may be at a disproportionate advantage against their peers.” However, they admonish sports organizations against “targeted testing … aimed at determining [athletes’] sex, gender identity and/or sex variations.” Instead, it’s up to each sport to “[provide] confidence that no athlete within a category has an unfair and...

Louis Gossett Jr., 87, dies.

VIDEO It's a miracle! In the Democrat primary race for Cook County State's Attorney the law and order candidate, Eileen O'Neil Burke, was leading her standard Democrat (meaning NOT law and order) opponent by over 10,000 votes in the March 19 primary election. And then the miracle happened! A few days after the election 10,000 uncounted ballots were found! And then, miracle of miracles, almost all of those ballots were cast for the leftist candidate opposed to law and order. And WHO counted those votes? Why a radical leftist defund the police communications director for the Chicago Board of Elections,...

The Pennsylvania Fraternal Order of Police, Philadelphia Fraternal Order of Police Lodge 5 and the Pennsylvania State Troopers Association have officially come out in opposition to Judge Adeel Mangi's nomination to sit on the United States Third Circuit Court of Appeals -- making them the latest in a long list of law enforcement organizations to oppose the nomination. “It’s an affront to all Pennsylvania law enforcement officers, active and retired, that Mr. Mangi would serve on an organization that describes a person who murdered a police officer as a ‘freedom fighter,'" the groups wrote in a letter to Senate Leadership...

Part 1 was featured here last week. Did you see it? It explored the beginnings of a true FReeper tradition. A tradition that is in dire need of being resuscitated.Anyway, we continue the silliness with the second OFST.... **** OFFICIAL FRIDAY SILLINESS THREAD **** Posted on 12/10/2004 11:05:24 AM PST by TheBigBBy request...another OFFICIAL FRIDAY SILLINESS THREAD! Feel free to vent, post silly jokes, make nonsensical statements, or even IGNORE THIS THREAD. I ask that we all keep our good buddy TomServo in our thoughts, also.To get things started, a favorite cartoon:more....... 415 replies this time TheBigB (as far as...

The latest Fox News national survey shows former President Donald Trump pushing out to his largest general election lead in the history of the polling series -- in any of the three cycles in which Trump has run. His advantage over incumbent President Joe Biden sits at five percentage points in this data set, both in the head-to-head matchup (Trump hits 50 percent on this question) and the 'crowded field' scenario. For what it's worth, Trump's lead in a hypothetical battle against Vice President Kamala Harris is slightly larger, at six percentage points. Here are the top line outcomes from...

Efforts to build a bridge where the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore, Maryland, stood until Tuesday are estimated to cost anywhere from $400 million to several billion dollars, according to reports. Punchbowl News reports — citing sources from the Biden administration, Capitol Hill, and Annapolis — that the undertaking to replace the bridge, which collapsed after a cargo ship named Dali crashed into one of its pier foundations, will cost “several billion dollars.”

LOS ANGELES - FOX 11 anchor and reporter Susan Hirasuna didn’t anticipate she’d be the victim of a crime while during coverage for the station’s nightly newscast. On Thursday night, Hirasuna discovered her Tesla had been stolen and reported it missing. Later that evening, patrol officers with the Los Angeles Police Department spotted the vehicle and initiated a pursuit.

Putin has claimed Russia has no plans to attack NATO countries but will shoot down F-16 fighter jets sent to Ukraine from Western countries. Speaking at a visit to an air base late Wednesday to military pilots, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia had no intention of starting a war with NATO. He called the claim that Russia would attack a NATO member country "sheer nonsense". When asked about F-16 fighter jets, which the West has pledged to send to Ukraine, Putin said that the aircraft would not dramatically alter the situation. At the same meeting, he warned Ukraine’s...

Among faith groups in the United States, white Evangelical Christians are one of the best at retaining members even as the share of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated continues to grow, according to a new survey. The nonprofit research organization Public Religion Research Institute released the report on Wednesday titled "Religious Change in America," which charted several trends among faith groups in the U.S. Data for the report came from a survey PRRI conducted online of 5,627 adults in the U.S. from Nov. 16 to Dec. 7, 2023, with a margin of error of +/- 1.79 percentage points at the...

President Biden’s reelection campaign released an ad Friday that focuses on courting supporters of Republican Nikki Haley while also bashing former President Trump for pushing away her backers. The ad, first reported by The Washington Post, is a 30-second spot that includes the various times Trump has criticized Haley, including calling her “birdbrain” and “not presidential material.” “If you voted for Nikki Haley, Donald Trump doesn’t want your vote,” the ad reads. “Haley supporters ‘will be permanently barred from the MAGA camp,’” it says, quoting Trump in a January post on Truth Social. The ad also includes clips of Trump...

Senators are fighting back against rumblings that the US government will stop classifying potatoes as a vegetable. Fourteen lawmakers have written to the federal agencies who could influence the change, warning it would confuse Americans and cause chaos for supply chains. It comes amid reports that the 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee is 'considering changes to food groups,' including a proposal to lump starchy vegetables in the same category as grains, which would put it in the same bracket as bread and rice. The panel is tasked with providing independent, science-based advice to the Departments of Agriculture (USDA) and Health...

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said America’s adversaries are toying with new artificial intelligence tools to generate content resembling her that can dupe unwitting audiences, as part of an effort to meddle in global politics. Mrs. Clinton, who previously heaped blame on the Russian government for her 2016 presidential race loss to Republican Donald Trump, said Thursday that Russia’s previous actions to demonize her were “primitive” and a new leap forward has been made with cutting-edge technology. The Russians in 2016,she said, “had all kinds of videos of people looking like me but weren’t me, and they had to...

Trump 2024. pic.twitter.com/g2jIhPrOTP— Alex Bruesewitz 🇺🇸 (@alexbruesewitz) March 29, 2024

Two years ago, the Biden administration rammed through Congress a trillion-dollar infrastructure bill that contained, among other boondoggles, $7.5 billion for building EV charging stations across the country. The administration says it's going to need 500,000 charging stations in place by 2030 to achieve Biden's climate goals on emissions. So far, a grand total of seven charging stations are operational. “I think a lot of people who are watching this are getting concerned about the timeline,” said Alexander Laska, a deputy director at the Third Way think tank. Gee! Ya think? How many charging stations will $7.5 billion buy? The...

...Earlier this month, a U.N. report from its Office of the Special Representative of the Secretary General revealed what Israel has been saying for months, namely that Hamas committed the most vile sexual violence and torture on Oct. 7, and such treatment likely continues to be perpetrated on hostages. Experts from the U.N.—an organization that is routinely hostile to the Jewish state—actually found "clear and convincing information that some [hostages] have been subjected to various forms of conflict-related sexual violence including rape and sexualized torture and sexualized cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment and it also has reasonable grounds to believe...