Free Republic

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko has called on residents to temporarily leave the Ukrainian capital for places with alternative sources of electricity and heat. That came following a major Russian missile and drone attack overnight into this morning that severely damaged critical energy infrastructure. The strikes, described by officials as one of the most damaging on Kyiv’s power grid this winter, left approximately half of the city’s apartment buildings, around 6,000, without heating as temperatures plummeted to minus 8°C and forecasters predicted further falls.

Billions of dollars in alleged fraudulent healthcare spending is being investigated in California, specifically probing foreign nationals operating illegal hospice facilities — officials announced Friday in a bombshell press conference. “We have witnessed a sevenfold increase in hospice in LA County, sevenfold. That doesn’t happen naturally,” Dr Mehmet Oz, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services told The Post during at the press conference. “There is not seven times more deaths in LA County than there were five years ago. These are fraudsters, and these do tend to be foreign influences, either Russian and Armenian gangs, mafia,...

Bill and Hillary Clinton are facing contempt of Congress charges if they don’t appear before a House committee next week to testify in the Jeffrey Epstein investigation. The couple was originally scheduled to testify before the House Oversight Committee in December but those appearances were moved to January 13 for him and the 14th for her at the request of the couple, who cited a conflict. But now they haven’t confirmed they will be there next week. And Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.), the chairman of the panel, said he’ll slap them with contempt if they don’t show.

Bill Gates quietly sent nearly $8 billion to the private foundation of his ex-wife, Melinda French Gates, in what amounts to one of the largest divorce-related payouts ever disclosed. The $7.88 billion donation was made in 2024 to the Pivotal Philanthropies Foundation, a relatively new nonprofit launched by French Gates, according to a newly released tax filing reviewed by the New York Times’ DealBook. The filing marks the first time concrete financial terms of the Gateses’ 2021 divorce have been made public following their decision to formally separate their philanthropic work in 2024.

Gene Simmons recently attempted to dispel the "mythology" surrounding Kiss' biggest hit, "Beth," claiming drummer Peter Criss "had nothing to do with that song" despite singing it and receiving a writing credit on the track. In a new interview with Professor of Rock, Simmons detailed the origins of "Beth," which appeared on the band's fourth album, Destroyer, and peaked at a career-high No. 7 on the Billboard Hot 100. How 'Beth' Started With a Clunkier Title Simmons said that during a limousine ride through Michigan, Criss hummed him a primitive version of the song, which at the time had the...

After a night with lots of bloodshed, it appears that the IRGC military are backing down. The Iranian demonstrators have taken over the streets in major cities again.

‘(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay,’ co-written with his great friend Steve Cropper, was released on January 8, 1968, a month after Otis’ death at just 26.It’s a cruel twist in an already tragic story that the biggest song in Otis Redding’s entire catalog is the one that he never saw become a crossover anthem. His posthumous No.1 “(Sittin’ On) The Dock Of The Bay,” co-written with his great friend Steve Cropper, was released on January 8, 1968, a month after his death in a plane crash at the age of just 26. Of course, it was partly the...

@RupertLowe10 It looks like Starmer is seriously considering a ban on X. I will protest against this on the streets of London. I hope you will all join me.

“Our school is firmly committed to anti-oppressive practice, policy, and research. Therefore, we expect our … students to adhere to these values. That means recognizing our own biases, privileges, and experiences with oppression. […] While we support and recognize your academic freedom, we expect that your work aligns with the values of social justice and anti-oppression. I expressed concern during our meeting that I worry you do not see value or legitimacy in these values.” That is part of a much longer email one of us received from a social work professor (the program director) in 2023, during a recent...

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – Violent rioters favoring monarchy vandalized public and private properties in a number of cities across Iran on Thursday night, inflicting injuries on ordinary people and security forces. The violent unrest that erupted in a number of Iranian cities on Thursday night caused damages to the government buildings, private shops, and even mosques. The rioters backing monarchy vandalized public properties, blocked streets, attacked the administrative buildings and Police stations, and injured a number of security and law enforcement forces. In remarks on Friday morning, Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei said the vandals have destroyed...

Tulsa Police are appealing to the community for assistance in solving two unsolved homicide cases from last year. Despite maintaining one of the highest homicide solve rates in the country, with a near 95% solve rate last year, two cases remain open. The Tulsa Police Department (TPD) believes that someone in the community holds the key to solving these cases. Richard Meulenberg, TPD public information officer, highlighted Tulsa's exceptional solve rate, stating, "Tulsa, historically, over the last several years, our solve rate is significantly above the national average. The national average for solving homicides hovers just at or below 60%."...

In South Africa, manufacturers of pineapple juice and other pineapple products discard thousands of tons of pineapple leaves every year, with most ending up in dumpsites. The leaves are seen as agricultural waste and usually treated as useless. However, they can be converted into something that solves real-world problems - a powerful resource for both environmental protection and security. This involves turning them into a special kind of nanoparticle. (Nanoparticles are very tiny materials, no bigger than 0.0001 millimetres.) Read more: Tiny technology that can find pollution in South Africa's water and trap it I’m part of a team of...

"And here we can see the approximate routes of attacks that took place between the 7th and 8th of January of 2026 when the Russians as you can see according to this map were attacking just the Nepro region. And if you remember, we discussed the situation yesterday because after these attacks there are huge problems with energy supply, heat supply, water supply took place exactly on the territory of the city. And uh these pictures and these photos were published by pro Ukrainian sources there. As you can see, there is a complete blackout and complete national disaster in...

A proposed mosque and commercial development in Broken Arrow is drawing statewide attention as Oklahoma Attorney General Gentner Drummond announced an investigation into the project. Drummond cited public concern and questions about funding and oversight as reasons for the probe. The investigation comes just four days before the Broken Arrow City Council's special meeting on Jan. 12. Drummond's office plans to review the project's ownership, governance, and financing, describing it as a matter of substantial public concern. “Oklahomans deserve confidence that local land-use decisions are being made lawfully, transparently and in full compliance with state and federal law,” Attorney General...

🚨 HOLY CRAP! Sec. Scott Bessent reveals plans to CIRCUMVENT the Tim Walz administration, he's going to train patriot Minnesota law enforcement who are fed up with the fraud to catch it in real-time 🔥 "We will NOT let the incompetence and recalcitrance of Governor Walz stop law enforcement from holding these perpetrators accountable!" "Treasury is providing training to Minnesota law enforcement on how to utilize financial data such as suspicious activity reports to better combat these fraud schemes." "Treasury will deploy all tools to bring an end to this egregious, unchecked fraud and hold perpetrators to account." This is...

Explanation: Both Moon and Sun create beautiful ice halos in planet Earth's sky. In fact, the two brightest celestial beacons are each surrounded by a complex of ice halos in these photos of the sky above Chamonix-Mont-Blanc in France. The panels were recorded one night (left) and the following day at the end of December 2025. Similar ice halos appear in moonlight and sunlight because they are all formed through the geometry of flat, hexagonal ice crystals. The ice crystals reflect and refract light as they flutter in the cold atmosphere above the mountain resort. In the pictures both Moon...

The fighting in July and December displaced hundreds of thousands of people in Thailand and Cambodia and killed about 100 soldiers and civilians. The United States, which played a major role in ending border clashes last year between Thailand and Cambodia, will provide $45 million (€38 million) in aid packages to the two Southeast Asian countries to help ensure regional stability and prosperity, a senior US State Department official said on Friday. US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Michael DeSombre made the announcement in an online media briefing in Bangkok where he was meeting with...

If imitation is the sincerest form of politics, President Trump is paying Elizabeth Warren great homage by copying the Senator’s ideas. In November he asked the Justice Department to investigate meat-packers for price-fixing. On Wednesday he endorsed a ban on large institutional investors buying homes. Mr. Trump is searching for ways to lower housing costs and now he’s seizing on a favorite of the anti-business left. “People live in homes, not corporations,” he wrote on Truth Social. “I am immediately taking steps to ban large institutional investors from buying more single-family homes, and I will be calling on Congress to...

17:03 EST 08 Jan 2026, updated 08:06 EST 09 Jan 2026 By NATALIE LISBONA AND MILES DILWORTH Sir Tony Blair's sister-in-law has sparked outrage after footage emerged of her describing October 7 as a 'legendary day' for Muslims. Lauren Booth, a British-born journalist who has converted to Islam, said 'only Allah knows' how many 'millions' would pick up the Quran in the wake of the attacks, arguing that the world had reached a historic 'tipping point'. The comments, made during an interview with Turkish media last year, have sparked outrage given that October 7 marked the deadliest massacre of Jewish...

A Pennsylvania man has been arrested and is facing more than 500 charges after he was accused of stealing human skulls and “numerous” skeletal remains from an abandoned cemetery on Philadelphia’s outskirts, according to police. Bones and skulls visible in the back seat of a car near the cemetery led police to the home and storage unit of Jonathan Gerlach, 34, after police had been looking into a string of burglaries. Investigators checked Gerlach’s licence plates and found that he had been near the cemetery repeatedly during the period when the burglaries occurred. Officers say the Jan. 6 arrest culminated...