Free Republic

Almost everything we build (houses, buildings, bridges) depends on a material that we use without thinking too much, cement, true? It is so common that it seems inevitable, but its impact is enormous, just its production generates around 8 % of the world’s CO₂ every year. Eight percent!! But, there is a new material that is stealing the show… cardboard and paper, the same ones that end up in the trash everyday. We pollute by producing cement while wasting materials that could be used to build. But, wait, Laura, how can we use paper and cardboard in construction? Okey, let’s...

The Army vs. Navy Game is a spectacle like no other. Every year, these two storied service academies get together to cap the college football regular season, and this year will be no different. The Commander-in-Chief's Trophy is on the line as the pageantry will again be a sight to behold. What also will be a sight to behold, as is usually the case, are the uniforms that will be worn by the Black Knights and Midshipmen. As is the case for some time, when the two teams meet this year on Dec. 13 in Baltimore they will wear special...

In contrast to the warmongers, President Trump has continuously said, “I want everybody to stop dying.”So, what’s preventing peace? Russian President Putin offered peace December 25, 2022, January 6, 2023, and again on June 14, 2024, with TASS reporting Putin offered “another real peace proposal to Kiev,” stating, “These parameters were generally agreed upon by everyone back during the Istanbul talks in 2022.” Yet, all of these proposals were rejected by Zelensky, the Biden administration, and the Brennen-infested CIA.Remember, this mess started in 2014 with Biden and the CIA in Kyiv toppling the duly elected pro-Russian president of Ukraine, because...

Senator Ted Cruz has weighed in on Representative Ilhan Omar and issued her with a warning after allegations have swirled that the progressive congresswoman married her brother so he could become an American citizen. Cruz shared an article on X, accusing Omar of the reported sham marriage, writing: 'If this is true, then Omar faces criminal liability under three different statutes.' The Republican senator then cited three US laws, including Federal Marriage Fraud, State Incest Laws, and Tax Fraud. Federal Marriage Fraud prohibits any American from knowingly entering into a marriage to evade immigration laws. Meanwhile, all state incest laws...

People experiencing flu or cold symptoms should wear a mask in public places as the UK grapples with a “tidal wave” of illness, an NHS leader has said. Daniel Elkeles, chief executive of NHS Providers, which represents NHS trusts, said the country was facing a “very nasty strain of flu” that had occurred earlier in the year than normal, and face coverings should be worn on public transport, as during the Covid pandemic. He told Times Radio: “When you were talking about anything like Covid, I think we need to get back into the habit that if you are coughing...

A federal judge in Massachusetts on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to restore billions of dollars in canceled FEMA disaster mitigation funding, siding with 22 states and the District of Columbia that sued over the canceled grants this summer. President Donald Trump’s administration said in April it was “ending” the Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) program, which helped communities with predisaster projects to harden infrastructure and improve resilience against the increasing threats of climate change. The administration called the program “wasteful and ineffective” and said it would halt $3.6 billion in funding awarded but not yet paid and would...

At the end of a Jan. 23 news conference in Paris, where even the NBA’s global ambitions failed to shield him from domestic criticism over the state of the league’s product, Commissioner Adam Silver acknowledged something that many had concluded long ago: The NBA’s analytics movement had pushed the game to a problematic place — one that sits exactly 23 feet 9 inches from the goal, or 22 feet in the corners — where the league must now consider intervening. When it comes to the NBA’s glut of three-pointers, Silver said, “it’s absolutely [true] that the analytics have taken teams...

My youngest daughter, Katie, who was only 20 years old, was killed on Jan. 19. Her only “crime” was being a passenger in a car in Urbana, Illinois. The man who took her life, Julio Cucul-Bol, was an illegal immigrant who was driving drunk when he slammed into the Honda Civic she was riding in at nearly 80 miles an hour. He fled immediately and was then aided by associates in Urbana and Chicago as he tried to escape justice.

A political science professor at the University of Arkansas stands accused of praising Iran’s Supreme Leader using the school’s letterhead and attacking Israel, The Post has learned. Shirin Saeidi, head of the school’s Middle East Studies program, also allegedly supported a convicted Iranian regime war criminal, evidence shows. Now, lawmakers and a group of Iranian dissidents are demanding administrators at the university further discipline Saeidi, who was removed from her position Friday, according to a spokesman. Saeidi used the school’s letterhead to appeal for the release of Hamid Nouri, who was convicted by a Swedish court in 2022 of ordering...

A senior U.S. official confirmed to Fox News there have been multiple injuries after American service members were ambushed in Syria on Saturday. The official added that some of the injuries were serious. Two local Syrian officials earlier told Reuters that a convoy of U.S. and Syrian forces fighting the Islamic State terrorist group was targeted while on patrol in the central town of Palmyra.

Congress appears poised to pour more gasoline on the fire that caused the nation’s affordability crisis by extending COVID-era subsidies for the Affordable Care Act (ACA), aka “Obamacare.” This is not to say that the beneficiaries of the ACA aren’t suffering from soaring healthcare costs. They are. But the problem, once again, is that the government’s “solution” is just more of what caused the problem in the first place. The growing deficit, the epidemic of dependence on government welfare programs, and soaring prices are all part of the same crisis. We’re not just having an affordability crisis. We’re having a...

December 6 Puccini: LA BOHÈME December 13 Giordano: ANDREA CHÉNIER December 20 at 12:00 p.m. Mozart: THE MAGIC FLUTE – Abridged, English December 27 HANDEL AT THE MET January 10 Bellini: I PURITANI January 17 Bizet: CARMEN March 14 Puccini: MADAMA BUTTERFLY March 28 Verdi: LA TRAVIATA April 11 Mozart: DON GIOVANNI May 2 Tchaikovsky: EUGENE ONEGIN May 9 Donizetti: LA FILLE DU RÉGIMENT May 23 Puccini: TURANDOT

A Republican activist from Idaho has received a barrage of death threats and abuse after he won free beer for reporting an illegal migrant to ICE. Ryan Spoon, vice chairman of the Ada County Republican party was announced as the first winner of the Old State Saloon bar's giveaway in Eagle, Idaho. Bar owner Mark Fitzpatrick won praise from Homeland Security after announcing on social media last month that if individuals provide evidence such as photos, videos, or alternative documentation to help ICE locate migrants without legal status, they qualify for a month of free beer. The bar additionally boasted...

ERUSALEM, Dec 12 (Reuters) - Israel's cabinet has decided to give legal status to 19 settlements in the occupied West Bank, including two that were vacated 20 years ago under a pullout aimed at boosting the country's security and the economy, Israeli media reported. The Palestinian Authority on Friday condemned the move, announced late on Thursday. Some of the settlements are newly established, while others are older, Israeli media said. The move to legalise the settlements in the West Bank -- territory Palestinians seek for a future state -- was proposed by far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and Israeli Defense...

A grieving uncle reportedly took the law into his own hands after growing furious over the handling of a case involving the accused killer of his nephew. CBS News Colorado obtained police documents on Wednesday, which showed that a 36-year-old Aurora man named Daniel Alexander Ashby attended a court hearing inside the Arapahoe County Courthouse in Littleton, Colorado, earlier this week for 19-year-old Christopher Ramirez-Rodriguez. The teen is accused of running a red light and killing Ashby’s 12-year-old nephew in July. Police say the Ashby’s nephew was crossing the road on his electric scooter at the time of the incident....

Elon Musk recently asked a question that millions of Americans have been asking for years: “Who sends them their instructions!? Real question.” He was reacting to a familiar spectacle, within minutes or hours of an event, leading Democrats, left leaning pundits, and drive-by media outlets suddenly begin using the same phrase, the same framing, sometimes almost the same sentence, on TV, on 𝕏, and across the web. The pattern is so obvious that it has become a kind of dark joke on the right. We all see the copies, the question is whether there is in fact a script....

The Who's Roger Daltrey has been knighted for his services to charity and to music. The 81-year-old singer received his honour from the Prince of Wales at Windsor Castle yesterday (December 10) and told the Press Association that he considered the award to be "an incredible honour". "I was born in the Second World War and grew up in the streets in London," he said, "for a kid like me, achieving this, it's a dream.” Daltrey was responsible for launching and curating the Teenage Cancer Trust's annual week of charity benefit shows at London's Royal Albert Hall: the initiative has...

A woman is recovering from life-altering injuries after police say she was the victim of a chemical attack near Forsyth Park on Wednesday night. The assault happened near West Waldburg and Whitaker streets, just steps from one of the city’s most visited landmarks.

Close encounters of the delusional kind. A Florida whacko accused of stealing a BMW told cops he was “teleported” into the luxury car on orders from the “X-Men” — and later thanked the officers for saving him from “aliens” he claimed were after him, according to nutty police bodycam footage. Calvin Johnson, 36, was arrested Monday afternoon after swiping the unlocked flashy car from Bicentennial Park in Ormond Beach and wrecking it minutes later while barreling down a nearby highway at 130 mph, according to the Volusia County Sheriff’s Office. The car’s owner told police he was walking his dog...

CHICAGO, Dec 13 (Reuters) - The windowless newsroom of The Phoenix, the Loyola University Chicago newspaper, hums like an old refrigerator. A coffee pot burbles in the corner as juniors Julia Pentasuglio and Ella Daugherty lean over a glowing laptop, updating a Google map. Each red pin marks a sighting of federal immigration agents near campus and the surrounding neighborhoods. Nearby, editor-in-chief Lilli Malone scrolls through reports from Rogers Park, a neighborhood along Chicago's lakefront where 80 languages mix. There were new pins from seven sightings that day alone - reports of vans barreling down side streets, masked immigration officers...