Free Republic

Last year’s Democratic vice-presidential nominee has thrown himself into a robust atonement-and-explanation tour, though aides insist there is no grand strategy.Nearly seven months since his ticket lost the 2024 presidential election, Tim Walz is trying all at once to make amends for everything he thinks went wrong.He is going to Republican areas where Democrats lost ground. He is sitting for countless interviews after former Vice President Kamala Harris’s campaign limited his media exposure. And as his party engages in collective finger-pointing, he is among the few Democrats admitting that they themselves made mistakes.“I know my job and I didn’t get...

SummaryEight OPEC+ members met online OPEC+ cites steady economic outlook, healthy fundamentals Started unwinding output cuts in April For more detail on OPEC+ unwinding its cuts, see Explainer LONDON/MOSCOW, May 31 (Reuters) - The world’s largest group of oil producers, OPEC+, stuck to its guns on Saturday with another big increase of 411,000 barrels per day for July as it looks to wrestle back market share and punish over-producers. Having spent years curbing production - more than 5 million barrels a day (bpd) or 5% of world demand - eight OPEC+ countries made an modest output increase in April before...

A Ukrainian drone attack has destroyed more than 40 Russian planes deep in Russia's territory, a Ukrainian security official told The Associated Press on Sunday, while Russia pounded Ukraine with missiles and drones a day before the two sides meet for a new round of direct talks in Istanbul. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to disclose operational details, said the attack took over 1 1/2-year to execute and was personally supervised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The operation saw drones transported in containers carried by trucks deep into Russian territory, he said. The drones reportedly hit 41...

The MAGA Trump Train Patriots welcome you !!! ~FRiends began the journey down the tracts in 2015~ ~The Golden Age has begun~ ~The best is yet to come~~God closes the final chapter in the book ~ See post ONE for MAGA thoughts for this thread M - A - G - A

Homo erectus, modern humans' archaic hominin relative, was the first human species to migrate out of Africa. One of the places they eventually settled was in Southeast Asia, as H. erectus fossils found on the island of Java date back 1.6 million years. Archaeologists working there recently gained new insight into the way these early humans lived, according to a statement released by Leiden University.Dredging operations in the Madura Strait recovered two fragments of 140,000-year-old H. erectus skull among the fossilized remains of 36 vertebrate species. This now-submerged region was once part of a landmass called Sundaland, which connected the...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian drone attack has destroyed more than 40 Russian planes deep in Russia’s territory, Ukraine’s Security Service said on Sunday, while Moscow pounded Ukraine with missiles and drones just hours before a new round of direct peace talks in Istanbul. A military official, who spoke with the Associated Press on condition of anonymity to disclose operational details, said the far-reaching attack took more than a year and a half to execute and was personally supervised by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.The military source said it was an “extremely complex” operation, involving the smuggling of first-person view,...

@RandPaul The American people, like the Great People of Kentucky, do not support Biden spending levels and $5T in new debt. Therefore, I will not. It’s simple.** My Notes / paraphrasing for FR Only *** Rand: This (BBB) is a Military Industrial Complex bill... They love it as it's padding out defense spending by around 320 billion dollars in new money... (I can't vote for that) On tariffs: I spoke to the President about the tariffs this week. He did most of the talking and we dont agree.... I talk to people in Kentucky and none of them support the...

Two people have been killed and 500 have been arrested in France during PSG victory celebrations, authorities said on Sunday. Paris Saint-Germain beat Inter Milan 5-0 to win the Champions League for the first time in the team's history. CNN reported that as of Sunday morning, nearly 560 people had been arrested, including 491 in Paris. There were 320 people placed in police custody and 254 of them were in Paris alone. Police chief Laurent Nuñezs said a 17-year-old died from stab wounds and a man in his 20s died in a collision with a vehicle.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio is moving quickly on President Donald Trump’s directive to overhaul the State Department and has notified Congress of plans to eliminate or consolidate more than 300 offices. On Thursday, Rubio notified Congress of some of the plan’s particulars. The elimination or consolidation of more than 300 department offices amounts to nearly 45% of the State Department’s stateside offices, according to a document shared with The Daily Signal by a senior State Department official. The document outlines that these bureaus will focus on energy and technology, humanitarian affairs, internal operations, foreign assistance, strategy, and security, respectively....

MSNBC’s Katelyn Burns took to dramatic fearmongering on Wednesday that the ‘big, beautiful bill’ would kill trans-identifying individuals.In an article griping about President Trump’s plan to keep Medicaid from paying for transgender hormone injections, MSNBC repeated the debunked falsehood that lack of access to so-called “gender-affirming care” will cause people to die.The “one big, beautiful bill,” which passed the House and is making its way through the Senate, would prevent taxpayer dollars from funding opposite-sex hormones for adults and minors. But MSNBC’s Katelyn Burns, a freelance columnist who proclaims the title “the first openly transgender Capitol Hill reporter in U.S....

Migrants illegally in the US are facing a new challenge, as they head to immigration court their cases are being dropped. But although that might sound like a good thing, having a case in court gave people temporary legal status in America, that dissapears when the case does, leading to mass arrests... Activists are having meltdowns.

Explanation: What's happening to this spiral galaxy? Although details remain uncertain, it surely has to do with an ongoing battle with its smaller galactic neighbor. The featured galaxy is labelled UGC 1810 by itself, but together with its collisional partner is known as Arp 273. The overall shape of UGC 1810 -- in particular its blue outer ring -- is likely a result of wild and violent gravitational interactions. This ring's blue color is caused by massive stars that are blue hot and have formed only in the past few million years. The inner galaxy appears older, redder, and threaded...

Chaotic scenes unfolded in lower Manhattan as federal agents stormed Democratic Rep. Jerry Nadler's office and handcuffed a female staffer in dramatic video footage. The 77-year-old longtime congressman erupted in fury after Department of Homeland Security officers burst into his office Wednesday before accusing his staff of 'harboring rioters' in scenes captured on video. 'President Trump and the Department of Homeland Security are sowing chaos in our communities, using intimidating tactics against both citizens and non-citizens in a reckless and dangerous manner,' Nadler said in statement to Politico. 'If this can happen in a Member of Congress's office, it can...

MT. VERNON, VA — In a massive scandal upending centuries of historical beliefs, researchers have discovered that George Washington signed the vast majority of his orders with an auto-feather device. "After careful study and research of early American history, we've discovered a device called the 'Auto-Feather' that George Washington used to sign pretty much every one of his presidential orders," historian Fineas T. Barlow told the press. "We have even learned he used the auto-feather device to issue military orders and even to sign letters to his wife." Historians discovered the auto-feather while looking through an old storage cupboard in...

Hundreds of billions of screaming insects are emerging from the ground throughout the US in a jarring sight that hasn't taken place in 17 years. The long-awaited cicada invasion is here, and the bugs have already been spotted hatching in at least three states: Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. Scientists are also expecting billions more to emerge at any moment in Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Massachusetts, North Carolina, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia. This startling awakening of cicadas is referred to as Brood XIV. The insects last appeared in 2008, and now the next window in their synchronized...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., said on Sunday that he would support President Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" if the debt ceiling hike was removed. Paul told CBS' "Face the Nation" host Margaret Brennan that he and three other Republican senators will hold out against the bill unless it is modified. "I think there are four of us at this point, and I would be very surprised if the bill at least is not modified in a good direction," Paul said. "I want the tax cuts to be permanent. But at the same time, I don't wanna raise the debt ceiling...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent appears on CBS News to counter the false information being spread by Margaret Brennan on behalf of Wall Street corporations. The topics of interest surround China and tariffs. Let me clarify for the audience that does not follow closely. Tariffs are paid by the importer based on the wholesale price of the product as delivered by the exporting country depending on the exporters’ tariff rate. Tariffs are NOT LEVIED/PAID based on the retail price of the product as sold to the consumer.Example: A pair of Denim Jeans made in China for Guess Brand. The Chinese manufacturer...

DECATUR, Ga. — The saga continues at a DeKalb County home where squatters are still planning a summer pool party -- even after a key figure was reportedly taken into custody and police increased patrols in the area. Just days after their father passed away, a metro Atlanta family says strangers moved into his DeKalb County home without permission and began throwing parties. Four siblings—Lisa, Kevin, Marcus, and Marlene—say they grew up in the home, which makes it even more painful to see how it's being treated now. The squatters have posted videos from inside the house and are now...

“Let’s keep this our little secret,” child predators sometimes tell their victims. This apparently was the attitude, too, of a Nevada official who was hiding youth “trans” castration surgeries from parents. This man was also using a loophole to get Medicaid (our tax dollars) to pay for the sexual-distortion treatments (SDTs).This time, however, the dark secret has been brought to light, by an undercover operation by O’Keefe Media Group (OMG). As that organization reported Friday (note: the official, being woke, uses the wrong pronouns to identify a cited youth):Deshaun Eli Mack, a Family Services Specialist with the Nevada DHHS [Department...

Staring at a fern in my apartment, a wild thought strikes me: this plant might be pulling off quantum tricks to soak up sunlight.Quantum physics -- the bizarre world of particles dancing as waves and entangled across space -- isn’t just for labs or sci-fi flicks. It’s the hidden pulse of life on Earth and our guide to finding life among the stars. With rules like superposition (particles existing in multiple states) and entanglement (spooky links defying distance), quantum mechanics shapes everything from chloroplasts to cosmic chemistry. How does this subatomic weirdness drive life here and fuel our search for...