Free Republic

The Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) in northern Iraq has formalized two major energy agreements with U.S. firms HKN Energy and WesternZagros in Washington, D.C., Kurdish media reported on Monday, in deals valued at a combined $110 billion, despite a legal showdown with the federal government of Iraq over control of the country’s oil exports... ...The deals were formalized during KRG Prime Minister Masrour Barzani's official visit to the United States this week... ...Washington has been advocating for the resumption of Kurdish oil exports, which have been stalled since March 2023 due to legal disputes and pipeline shutdowns. Washington's push aims...

Federal officials are investigating why two planes got dangerously close on a runway at New York’s LaGuardia Airport earlier this month despite the airport being equipped with an advanced surface radar system that’s designed to help prevent such close calls. Both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board said Monday that they are investigating the May 6 incident when a Republic Airways jet had to abort takeoff because a United Airlines plane was still taxiing across the runway. In audio from the tower that ABC obtained from the website www.LiveATC.net, the air traffic control said to the...

CAMDEN, Delaware (AP) — A Delaware animal shelter is trying to care for and rehome thousands of chicks that survived being left in a postal service truck for three days. Trapped in a warm enclosure, without food and water, thousands died before they were discovered. Involved parties are still awaiting answers as to how 12,000 chicks were abandoned within the truck at a Delaware mail distribution center. The United States Postal Service said in an email that it was aware of a process breakdown and was actively investigating what occurred. Pennsylvania-based Freedom Ranger Hatchery raised the chicks for their weekly...

WARSAW, May 19 (Reuters) - Polish customs seized 5 metric tons of tires for civilian Boeing aircraft which were due to transit through Belarus and Russia, the country's National Revenue Administration said on Monday, adding such goods are covered by European Union sanctions. Western sanctions against Russia have been toughened repeatedly since its full-scale invasion on Ukraine in 2022, without ending the war. "Officers... discovered during the inspection of a truck in Koroszczyn that the driver was transporting tires used in Boeing civil planes instead of the declared car and bus tires," the National Revenue Administration said. "The sender of...

HELSINKI, May 19 (Reuters) - Finland will supply 90 million euros ($101.35 million) of ammunition to Ukraine by using proceeds from Russian financial assets frozen by the European Union after Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022, the Finnish defence ministry said on Monday.The EU has estimated that 210 billion euros of the roughly $300 billion worth of frozen Russian assets are held in the 27-nation bloc, mainly in the form of government bonds that Russia's central bank had stored as reserves.HELSINKI, May 19 (Reuters) - Finland will supply 90 million euros ($101.35 million) of ammunition to Ukraine by using proceeds from...

Wendy McMahon, the president of CBS News and Stations, had allied herself with Bill Owens, the “60 Minutes” executive producer who recently resigned.The president of CBS News, Wendy McMahon, was forced out of her post on Monday, the latest shock wave to hit the news division amid an ongoing showdown involving President Trump, “60 Minutes,” and CBS’s parent company, Paramount. Ms. McMahon told her staff in a memo that “it’s become clear the company and I do not agree on the path forward.” Executives at Paramount informed Ms. McMahon on Saturday that they wanted her to step down, according to...

[Catholic Caucus] Pope Leo XIV removes controversial Archbishop Paglia as head of John Paul II InstituteThe nomination is the first major appointment made by Pope Leo XIV in the various offices of the Roman Curia, and is being welcomed by pro-life advocates.In one of the first major appointments of his pontificate, Pope Leo XIV has replaced the controversial president of the John Paul II Institute, which was itself gutted by Pope Francis in 2019.As announced by the Holy See Press Office today, Leo XIV has named Cardinal Baldassare Reina as the Grand Chancellor of the Pontifical Theological Institute “John Paul...

At first, it seemed that the Indiana Fever’s home win over Chicago Sky on Saturday would be just another spicy chapter in the rivalry between Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark. Both players were typically excellent: Clark spurred the Fever to victory with a triple-double, while Reese grabbed 17 rebounds to go with her 12 points. But it was a moment in the third quarter that WNBA fans will be talking about for weeks to come. Some of them may even do so without resorting to cheap bigotry. With 4:38 remaining, Clark reached for the ball over Reese’s head, made what...

The company said Monday it has become clear through the rezoning process that there are better uses for its capital. Wynn had partnered with Related Companies to develop an integrated casino resort in the posh Hudson Yards neighborhood of Manhattan, where high-end shops and restaurants already draw crowds. Wynn Resorts has surrendered to the inevitability of "years of persistent opposition," according to a company news release. It is the second casino giant this spring to throw in the towel on a New York gaming license. Wynn says "any casino operator" will face stiff opposition for years to come. The company...

Seriously, has anyone listened to the whole Hur audio? The establishment takeout that this is just about Joe Biden having pudding for brains is lazy and misses the deeper point, which is that the prosecutors had him cold on possessing classified documents he had no right to keep. Biden lies and dissembles and filibusters and goes vague and mumbly at all the crucial points, with the help of lawyer Bob Bauer, who interrupts every time Joe might incriminate himself and laughs like a hyena when Joe gets feisty or cracks a sarcastic joke at the prosecutors’ expense. It is vintage...

Pregnant women who received the Covid vaccine had a 13.3 percent miscarriage rate while non-vaccinated moms had a 4.5 percent miscarriage rate. While the study downplayed the increased rate of dead babies, it championed the Covid injection for successfully reducing the rates of pneumonia, vomiting and headache. Another study detailed how the Covid vaccine likely reduces women's egg supply, indicating the Covid shot is also an infertility shot, a depopulation shot. A recent peer reviewed study has found that among women who tested positive for Covid, the ones who were also vaccinated for Covid had a higher rate of miscarriage....

U.S. officials say adding the B61-13 bomb to America's nuclear arsenal is key to holding certain underground and large area targets at risk. he first production example of the new B61-13 nuclear bomb has been completed roughly a year ahead of schedule, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The B61-13 is based on the preceding B61-12, but offers a higher maximum yield that U.S. officials say offers important additional capacity to hold hardened targets, such as underground command and control facilities, and ones spread across physically larger areas, at risk.The U.S. military first announced plans to develop and field...

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a 2-hour call on Monday in what the U.S. said was a push to get Russia to end its deadly war in Ukraine. Both Trump and Putin described the call in a positive light, with the Kremlin chief saying it was "frank" and "useful," but it is not immediately clear what results were achieved. Trump took to social media to praise the call as having gone "very well" and said, "Russia and Ukraine will immediately start negotiations toward a Ceasefire and, more importantly, an END to the War." "The conditions for...

Explanation: What if you could fly over Pluto's moon Charon -- what might you see? The New Horizons spacecraft did just this in 2015 July as it zipped past Pluto and Charon with cameras blazing. The images recorded allowed for a digital reconstruction of much of Charon's surface, further enabling the creation of fictitious flights over Charon created from this data. One such fanciful, minute-long, time-lapse video is shown here with vertical heights and colors of surface features digitally enhanced. Your journey begins over a wide chasm that divides different types of Charon's landscapes, a chasm that might have formed...

The Supreme Court heard oral arguments on Thursday in three cases concerning challenges to President Trump’s birthright citizenship executive order. The question before the high court was not, however, the constitutionality of the EO, but rather whether the lower courts had authority to issue injunctions on a nationwide basis to bar implementation of an EO. You would be hard pressed to know that, though, from the justices’ questions—-the overwhelming number of which focused instead on how to stop Trump. “So, as far as I see it, this order violates four Supreme Court precedents,” Justice Sotomayor declared early in the argument,...

Every year, thousands flock to the southern tip of South Korea to partake in the Jindo Miracle Sea Road Festival. The event celebrates a natural phenomenon in which the Jindo Sea opens up to expose a 1.8 mile long stretch of sand that connects two of the country’s islands. While legend has it that the extraordinary happening is the work of the god of the sea, science suggests it is essentially a perfect storm of gravitational forces. For the time that the path is visible during the festival days – in addition to the two or three other times the...

For months, big retailers have been warning that prices will rise. Now, thanks to insider information from Target workers, the extent of the raises are becoming apparent. Staff say it is just the beginning. A $9.99 USB-C cord from the store's in-house Heyday brand is now ringing up at $17.99, according to a self-identified employee on Reddit. 'It's happening,' the worker wrote, sharing a photo of the price tag update. 'All of Heyday is going up.' The spike — an 80 percent increase — is being blamed on the latest wave of tariffs linked to President Donald Trump's trade policies.

“That's a hard transition,” Harmony Dust, the founder and executive director of Treasures, told Verily in a phone interview. Treasures is a survivor-led charity that helps women transition out of the sex industry and supports them in rebuilding their lives by offering support groups, emergency financial-relief, and life-skills coaching… One evening in 2003, she found herself sitting in her car across the street from the club she’d recently quit, feeling like she was looking at a prison that had once trapped her. She found a stack of cards in her console offering a Bible verse from Proverbs 31: “Her value...

FBI Director Kash Patel and Deputy Director Dan Bongino have weighed in on their efforts to restore trust in the agency and deliver transparency related to key investigations such as Crossfire Hurricane. During an appearance on Fox News, Maria Bartiromo asked Patel about his plans to rebuild public confidence in the FBI and remove political bias from operations. “So, we have a multi-part process,” Patel responded. “First of all, our priorities — simple: crush violent crime, defend the homeland, rigorous organizational accountability, and the fourth — aggressive constitutional oversight with Congress.” According to Patel, empowering the FBI’s rank-and-file agents and...

The US Supreme Court has lifted an injunction against its effort to revoke legal status for over 500,000 migrants who were part of the Biden-era CHNV program. This ruling is another victory for the Trump administration’s efforts to curb illegal immigration. Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson was the only judge to dissent. The matter is still being litigated in court, but the administration can proceed with revoking the legal status of those who entered the US under the CHNV program.