Free Republic

When the dog usually goes for a walk with the husband and stops at the pub for a beer, then one day the missus takes him for a walk 😭

Ukraine's anti-corruption bureau said on Monday that it was conducting a large-scale operation to uncover corruption in the country's energy sector. "The activities of a high-level criminal organization have been documented," the bureau said about the investigation which involves 1,000 hours of audio recordings and took 15 months of work. "Its members have built a large-scale corruption scheme to influence strategic enterprises in the public sector, in particular JSC 'Energoatom'," according to the post on the Telegram messaging app.

🧵🚨 MAJOR BREAKING: International actors are involved in the State Department led color revolution 🚨🚨 This is not speculation; it’s straight from a recorded call. Ex-USAID employees describe how, before January 20, they moved internal groups off government systems and into encrypted Signal chats, then quickly linked with foreign partners and NGOs after the inauguration. This attempt at creating a color revolution isn't new news; this part was already reported in NOTUS earlier this year. But what's not reported is the international aspect. One participant explicitly frames it as "a global anti-authoritarian movement," connecting U.S. officials with "colleagues from around...

---SNIP--- Whenever the November Witch sweeps across the Great Lakes in autumn, mariners know to beware. Hurricane-force winds, born from collisions of lingering summer warmth and frigid Arctic air, can slam into the lakes and set loose 40-foot waves. But unlike an ocean hurricane, which builds for days or weeks, the Witch of November—made famous by Canadian singer Gordon Lightfoot’s 1976 ballad—can transform the lakes from glass to fury in just hours. To the Anishinaabe, also known as Chippewa, it isn’t a sorceress who terrorizes the largest of the Great Lakes, but a clash between Thunderbirds, wind spirits who rule...

Think Mamdami is the worst thing? No matter. If you don't have all your kids, if you practiced contraception and abortion, you're already pitching yourself headlong over the lemming cliff. I live in the area with the greatest variety of ethnic groups. Forty years ago, it was Russians. Then it was Hmongs. (What's that? See Clint Eastwood's "Gran Torino".) Now the streets of Sacramento are filled with women in veils leading strings and strings of kids. It doesn't matter if you or I don't like them. Like-schmike. We don't have kids; they do. We are dinosaurs. The future is theirs....

The U.S. military killed six people on Sunday in two more strikes on boats suspected of smuggling drugs in the eastern Pacific Ocean, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced on Monday. The latest strikes raised the death toll in the campaign to 76 people in 19 attacks in the Pacific and the Caribbean Sea since early September. In a post on social media, Mr. Hegseth cited “intelligence” and included two short video clips of the bombings of two separate boats that he said were traveling “along a known narco-trafficking transit route in the Eastern Pacific.” One of the boats appeared to...

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., was the only Republican who broke with his party and voted no on the test vote to break a filibuster on the deal to reopen the government. Paul voted nay because he wanted a guarantee of a change in the bill regarding hemp.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic senators — eight in total — faced almost instant blowback from members of their own party as they voted to allow the Senate to move forward on compromise legislation that would reopen the government.Their decision Sunday night was labeled a “betrayal” and “pathetic” by some of the most prominent voices in the Democratic Party.“To my mind, this was a very, very bad vote,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats. The group of defectors consisted of several senators who are retiring next year, as well as a number of former governors....

Ever since OpenAI’s ChatGPT was introduced in November 2022, experts and executives have been predicting that it and other AI models will eliminate untold jobs — forecasts that seem, at a first glance, to have been borne out by the plethora of tech sector layoffs in the wake of its debut. But a new study from Yale University found quite the opposite in the United States, which should give anxious workers some relief as it goes against the hyped up prognostications of many tech CEOs. “While anxiety over the effects of AI on today’s labor market is widespread, our data...

Explanation: Clouds of glowing gas mingle with dust lanes in the Trifid Nebula, a star forming region toward the constellation of the Archer (Sagittarius). In the center, the three prominent dust lanes that give the Trifid its name all come together. Mountains of opaque dust appear on the right, while other dark filaments of dust are visible threaded throughout the nebula. A single massive star visible near the center causes much of the Trifid's glow. The Trifid, also known as M20, is only about 300,000 years old, making it among the youngest emission nebulae known. The nebula lies about 9,000...

Summary Trump threatens penalties for absent air traffic controllers FAA reports 20-40% of controllers have been absent at major airports Senate advances bill to end government shutdown WASHINGTON, Nov 10 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump on Monday demanded air traffic controllers return to work as travelers endured another day of flight cancellations, which the administration ordered to manage staff shortages during the government shutdown. Threatening to curtail the pay of any controller who did not go back, Trump said he would award those who have not taken time off during the 41-day shutdown $10,000 bonuses and would welcome the resignations...

An illegal immigrant with a criminal history has been arrested following a weekend shooting in which U.S. Border Patrol agents were shot at in Chicago. The shooting happened Saturday in the city's Little Village neighborhood as federal agents were conducting immigration enforcement operations. The unidentified suspect, a Mexican citizen, was in a Jeep that drove up near the agents and fired shots before driving away, federal sources told Fox News. At the time of his arrest, he was found with a firearm, sources said. The suspect has previously been convicted of crimes including aggravated unlawful use of a weapon/vehicle, felony...

The Marine Corps was established in 1775 to fight in the Revolutionary War, making the branch older than the United States.Monday marks a major milestone in American military history as the U.S. Marine Corps celebrates its 250th birthday and events honoring Marines past and present are planned across several states.Birth of the CorpsThe branch traces its origins to Nov. 10, 1775, when John Adams drafted a resolution creating the Continental Marines to serve alongside the Continental Navy in the Revolutionary War. Recruitment began at a brewery in Philadelphia, which is now recognized as the Corps' birthplace.First MissionsThe Marines' first assault...

Setting the stage for a major ruling on election law, the Supreme Court on Monday agreed to decide whether federal law requires ballots to be not only cast by voters but also received by election officials by Election Day. As part of the list of orders from the justices’ private conference on Friday, the court took up Watson v. Republican National Committee, a challenge by the Republican National Committee and others to a Mississippi law (as well as similar laws in 30 other states and the District of Columbia) that allow mail-in ballots to be counted as long as they...

In Chicago, Los Angeles and Portland, the immigration debate has spilled into the streets, sparking almost daily demonstrations while immigration agents ramp up arrests. But in El Paso - a city in Texas on the US-Mexico border - the streets are unusually quiet. A year after the BBC last visited the border to understand the impact of the migrant crisis on the border, sites that were once teeming with migrants lie largely silent. Just a few years ago, as many as 2,500 migrants once camped outside the city's historic Sacred Heart Catholic church. Many lined the streets sleeping on donated...

Congressional Democrats are furious after eight colleagues voted with Republicans.Congressional Democrats are livid after a handful of their Senate colleagues voted Sunday to advance the House-passed stopgap and end the government shutdown.Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) called it a mistake. Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) called it “a very bad night.” And Reps. Ro Khanna (D-Ca.) and Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) accused Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer of being ineffective and called for his removal.“Senator Schumer is no longer effective and should be replaced,” Khanna said in a post on X following the vote. “If you can’t lead the fight to stop healthcare...

Fresh off a resounding victory to gerrymander congressional maps to help Democrats, Gov. Gavin Newsom of California chose to celebrate in the place where the nation’s escalating redistricting fight started: Texas. “We can shape the future here in Texas,” he said on Saturday at a union hall in Houston packed with cheering Democrats. “We can shape the future here all across the South and across the United States of America. You have that power. You do. Not Donald Trump.” Against the backdrop of an enormous American flag befitting a national campaign event, Mr. Newsom framed the redistricting battle in historic...

Over the past two decades, tens of millions of women have been denied or not offered hormone replacement therapy or have otherwise avoided it because of a medical dogma that it would increase their risk of dying of breast cancer. Clinical trials, however, don’t support that association. It’s time to treat women’s health with rigorous science instead of fear and misinformation. Today, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is requesting that drug manufacturers remove black box warnings from these products. These are the strongest drug warning the agency can require, and they have inappropriately scared women off from this life-changing,...

Explanations for Zohran Mandani’s victory emphasize his cost-of-living focus, his savvy use of social media, Andrew Cuomo’s shortcomings and the city’s growing number of South Asians and alienated young people. But there’s a key additional factor. Mamdani’s allies in the Democratic Socialists of America, Working Families Party and left-wing foundations worked for years to change city election laws that gave his candidacy a powerful boost.Foremost is ranked-choice voting (RCV), which voters approved in 2019 after a campaign in which there was almost no organized opposition but proponents, such as billionaire George Soros’ son Jonathan Soros, spent over $2 million.Curiously, ranked...

Before Sunday night’s Senate vote cleared the way for legislation that would end the longest government shutdown in history, you got the sense the it would either be resolved quickly or extend into the holiday season. Why? Because the central announced goal for Democrats, the extension of Obamacare-premium subsidies, wasn’t happening and likely would never happen until such time as Donald Trump stepped in and forced a deal on MAGA Republicans. With Trump showing zero signs of engagement, other than a petulant demand that the whole problem go away via the abolition of the filibuster, the choice for Democrats was...