Free Republic

The Ancient Greeks were active travelers, despite the dangers of land travel and the fear of highwaymen. Sea travel required ample supplies and means. A fascinating archaeological find exhibited in the Agora Museum in Athens is rectangular clay tablets with inscribed names and occupations that purportedly served as travel documents in antiquity. Most travelers were aristocrats and well-to-do citizens who traveled to witness and experience the wonders of the ancient world, and other famous places and sights. Others traveled for pilgrimage; healing in sanctuaries such as the Sanctuary of Asclepius in Olympia, the Sanctuary of Apollo on Delos Island, or...

Shi Yongxin, the abbot of the world-renowned Shaolin Temple, is being investigated by multiple agencies for embezzlement, "improper relationships with multiple women" and "fathering illegitimate children", the temple said on Sunday. The 1,500-year-old Shaolin Temple, located in a mountain range in central China's Henan province, attracts thousands of disciples every year - some from across the world. Mr Shi, who has been Shaolin Temple's abbot since 1999, has earned the nickname "CEO monk" for transforming the institution into a global brand. He has been stripped of his ordination certificate amid the probe, China's Buddhist association said on Monday. The ordination...

In a chilling and grotesque act of psychological warfare, Hamas released a disturbing video showing Israeli hostage Evyatar David—visibly emaciated and barely able to stand—being forced to dig what appears to be his own grave in a tunnel beneath Gaza. The 24-year-old hostage is seen crossing off days on a calendar, holding a nearly empty can of beans, and stating he hasn’t eaten in days. “This can is for two days… so that I don’t die,” he says. “This is the grave I think I’m going to be buried in. Time is running out.” The nearly five-minute video, released Friday,...

US President Donald Trump said that his special envoy Stephen Witkoff will arrive in Russia on August 6-7. On August 3, the head of the White House said that Witkoff is focused on food supplies to Gaza. "I think he may go to Russia next /br. this/ week, Wednesday or Thursday. They want to see him, they asked to meet with him“, Trump said. “We'll see what happens“, he added.

What is the likelihood that the Fed will change the Federal target rate at upcoming FOMC meetings, according to interest rate traders? Use CME FedWatch to track the probabilities of changes to the Fed rate, as implied by 30-Day Fed Funds futures prices.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller accused India of effectively funding Russia’s war in Ukraine by continuing to purchase Russian oil, despite U.S. tariffs imposed in response. “What [Trump] said very clearly is that it is not acceptable for India to continue financing this war by purchasing the oil from Russia,” Miller stated. “People will be shocked to learn that India is basically tied with China in purchasing Russian oil. That’s an astonishing fact,” he added in a Sunday Fox News appearance. Miller’s comments were in reference to a series of Truth Social posts President Donald Trump made...

https://youtu.be/xvlnpYT19Hg?si=zk59xOcqMDCwMtnU

The public is fed up with having to climb over drug-addled zombies and mumbling, mentally deranged vagrants on the streets and in the subways. But New York City's far-left politicians insist the homeless should be catered to on their own terms, including providing them with clean needles to support their addictions, and medical care wherever they choose to sleep. The public's fears and disgust be damned. Last Thursday President Donald Trump took sides with the public. By executive order, he announced that federal funding for housing and social services would no longer go to the "failed programs" that facilitate the...

President Donald Trump was asked to weigh in on the Sydney Sweeney "great jeans" American Eagle ad controversy. He delivered a reply that demonstrated humor and exposed it for the silliness it deserves. It'd be challenging to imagine readers are unaware of what happened here, but a quick recap, if you will: Sweeney, who is a bombshell by most measures, dared to star in a commercial wearing form-fitting pants, a loosely buttoned shirt, and looking good while talking about her "great jeans." Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle campaign is receiving criticism for a “jeans/genes” pun that some say echoes eugenics and...

AP News reports that ocean swells and shifting coastal sands exposed ancient Hawaiian petroglyphs on a beach in Oahu. The carvings were first seen almost a decade ago near a U.S. Army base in Waianae, an hour outside Honolulu, but were quickly swallowed back up again by the sand. Although sections of the artwork have occasionally become visible, said U.S. Army Garrison Hawaii archaeologist Laura Gilda, this is the first time the entire panel has been exposed. The scene consists of 26 petroglyphs -- 18 of which depict anthropomorphic stick figures -- carved across a 115-foot stretch of sandstone. Experts...

Young people from 146 countries celebrated with Pope Leo XIV at the concluding Mass of the World Youth Jubilee at Rome's University of Tor Vergata on Sunday.The Vatican put the number of youths attending the event at more than a million, based on official estimates. Leo arrived by pope mobile to cheers and applause.He urged the celebrants "to adventure with the Lord toward eternity" saying that the Lord was "gently knocked" at the window of their souls.

http://MigrantReports.com | Canada spent $115 million housing nearly 5,000 asylum seekers—mainly from Nigeria, Venezuela, Kenya, Turkey, and Colombia—in Niagara Falls between February 2023 and February 2024. Visit Rebel News for more on this story ► https://rebelne.ws/4ooNCco

Join together with Fellow FREEPERS to Pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.'I Urge, then, First of All, that Requests, Prayers, Intercession and Thanksgiving be Made for Everyone: for Kings and All those in Authority that we May Live Peaceful and Quiet Lives in All Godliness and Holiness.' 1 Timothy 2:1-2Religion Forum Threads Labeled [Prayer] are Closed to Debate of Any Kind.Psalm 37:30,31The Mouth of the Righteous Speaketh Wisdom, and his Tongue Talketh of Judgment. The Law of his God is in his Heart; None of his Steps shall...

The Secret Service abruptly halted the security clearance renewal for former Director Kimberly Cheatle. Secret Service Director Sean Curran reversed course and decided against renewing Cheatle’s top-level security clearance after RealClearPolitics brought up Senator Ron Johnson’s opposition to the agency. RealClearPolitics reported: The Secret Service was moving forward with renewing former Director Kimberly Cheatle’s top-level security clearance but reversed course after RealClearPolitics inquired about a key senator’s opposition, according to multiple sources in the Secret Service community. Sen. Ron Johnson, a Wisconsin Republican who chairs the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and previously chaired the full Homeland Security panel, argued that...

The Trump administration's DOGE developed a new tool that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to review federal regulations for potential elimination, according a new report. The "DOGE AI Deregulation Decision Tool" was designed to review about 200,000 federal regulations and assess which can be eliminated, The Washington Post reported after reviewing a PowerPoint presentation about the tool and its findings that was dated July 1. The Post reported that about 100,000 of those rules should be considered for elimination on the grounds that they're no longer required under federal law based on the AI tool's review and some feedback from DOGE...

The United States stands on the brink of an unprecedented transformer shortage that threatens to derail President Trump’s ambitious plans for AI-driven reindustrialization. With wait times for electrical transformers now stretching to 3–5 years—compared to just 4–6 weeks in 2020—manufacturers warn of "catastrophic" grid instability as power demands skyrocket from new data centers, factories, and infrastructure projects. The bottleneck stems from Trump’s aggressive trade policies, including a 25% tariff on India (the world’s largest transformer producer, making 60% of global supply) and looming 100% penalties on China (which produces another 20%). The Transformer Shortage: A Ticking Time Bomb Transformers are...

Across the Western world, governments have opened the floodgates to mass third-world immigration. It is questionable whether such policies have been popular anywhere, and it is hard to identify a country where citizens have ever voted for them. Thus, unrest has been inevitable. The international political class has usually responded to popular discontent over immigration by shutting down speech and criminalizing dissent. Meanwhile, a number of European countries are rapidly becoming unrecognizable. Why this crazed dedication to an unpopular and likely suicidal policy? I wish I knew. Yesterday, there were massive protests across the United Kingdom against the Uniparty’s immigration...

The Senate did not use the pro forma session practices during or after the first session of the 111th Congress.39 Toward the end of the second session, however, the Senate structured its 2010 pre-election break as a series of shorter recesses separated by pro forma sessions. In this case, the use of the practice reportedly stemmed from a lack of agreement between the Senate majority leader and the Senate minority leader regarding the disposition of pending nominations over the break.40 ... 39 When the practice under discussion here was first used, during the 110th Congress, Congress and the White House...

Jimmy Page has settled a lawsuit involving Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused," which was filed back in May by the songwriter Jake Holmes. Holmes' suit was filed against both Page and Sony Pictures film studio, alleging copyright infringement and breach of contract. The suit claimed that two early live versions of the song were included in the 2025 documentary Becoming Led Zeppelin without properly crediting or compensating Holmes. It also claims that Page has released several live renditions of the song as recorded by the Yardbirds that credit Page as the lone songwriter. (They appear on the archival releases Yardbirds...

Slashdot reader ffkom writes: The air around you mostly consists of nitrogen [78%]. And in that air exist happy little monogamous pairs of two nitrogen atoms per molecule, also known as N2. Researchers from the University of Giessen, Germany, recently managed to synthesize N6 molecules, "the first, to our knowledge, experimentally realized neutral molecular nitrogen allotrope beyond N2 that exhibits unexpected stability." And these appear to be pretty angry little molecules, as they detonate at more than twice the energy density than good old TNT: A kiloton of N6 is 1.19×10**7mol, which can release an energy of 2.20×109kcal (9.21terajoules) based...