Free Republic

On April 26, 1986, Soviet engineers at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant were conducting a safety test. Doomed by a fatal design flaw and pushed to the limit by human negligence, reactor 4 exploded amid an attempted shutdown during a routine procedure, setting off a chain of events that ultimately released radioactive material hundreds of times greater than that of the atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima... While science has allowed us to understand the circumstances of the explosion itself, it has taken much more work to uncover the layers of mismanagement, negligence and misinformation that resulted in human suffering, ecological...

Many people now believe that words can cause lasting harm.A new paper suggests a link between censoriousness and mental illness. The Wall Street Journal article is paywalled, but here is a link to the original paper. First comment is a summary of the paper. Personality and Individual Differences.pdf

Blockade of Hormuz threatens to choke Iran’s trade lifelines and push a fragile economy toward collapse. Mounting losses, inflation and internal divisions raise doubts over Tehran’s ability to sustain prolonged conflict. The economic viability of Iran’s resistance is facing an unprecedented existential threat due to the US naval blockade of the strait, which accounts for over 90 percent of Iran’s $109.7 billion in annual trade. Beyond immediate revenue loss, the blockade creates a catastrophic “storage clock” for Iran’s energy infrastructure. With only about 20 million barrels of spare onshore storage capacity and a surplus production of 1.5 million barrels per...

The 2026 season-opener between the Indiana Fever and Dallas Wings will be one of the most highly anticipated games in WNBA history. However, it is nowhere near a sellout as of this writing due to outrageous ticket prices. This is the first time ever that the Indianapolis-based organization is struggling to sell seats. Cost is the primary factor in the stark decline of sales for the Fever home-opener, which reflects a larger concern for the WNBA. Someone has to pay for the increased player salaries but the demand may not match the financial expenditure. The 2026 WNBA season will get...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ America’s Team! U.S. Marines with 3rd Radio Battalion, III Marine Expeditionary Force Information Group and U.S. Army Soldiers with 1st Extended Range Sensing Effects Company, 1st Multi-Domain Effects Battalion, 1st Multi-Domain Task Force, pose for a photograph at Japan Ground Self-Defense Force Hijyudai Maneuver Area, Oita Prefecture, Japan. U.S. Marines and U.S. Army Soldiers performed a field setup and tear-down of electronic warfare systems as a part of the field training exercise portion of Resolute Dragon 23. RD 23 showcased the first ever bilateral operations with U.S. Army...

The UK government has agreed to pay France another £660m to curb the number of asylum seekers travelling across the Channel, including plans to fund a riot squad to “contain and disperse” people trying to board small boats. Under a three-year deal to be signed on Thursday by the home secretary, Shabana Mahmood, 1,100 enforcement, intelligence and military officers – an increase of 40% – will be employed to track down smuggling gangs and people seeking refuge. A 50-strong riot squad will be trained in “crowd-control tactics” and will “stop illegal migrants in their tracks”, according to the Home Office....

At least 23 people, including three children, were killed Tuesday in three separate attacks blamed on jihadists and criminal gangs in northeastern and northwestern Nigeria, according to two security reports. Suspected Boko Haram jihadists killed 11 people in a raid on a village in northeastern Borno state, while 12 others were killed in attacks on two villages in northwestern Zamfara state, according to two security reports prepared for the United Nations and seen by AFP. Jihadists have been waging a 17-year armed insurgency in the northeast, while kidnapping-for-ransom gangs known as bandits have been terrorising communities in the northwest and...

Druzhba means ‘friendship’, which is nowhere to be found these days. Today, Ukraine restarted the flow of Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia through the Druzhba pipeline that it kept shut to further boost the election of Péter Magyar. In exchange for that, the EU was finally able to approve the long-awaited 90 billion Euro loan to Kiev – although it must be noted that both Budapest and Bratislava ‘opted-out’, meaning no Hungarian or Slovak money is part of it. But there isn’t time to celebrate because, also today, Russia announced that it will close a major oil pipeline into...

Being a Christian girl in Pakistan means living as a target. Teenagers Maria, Sidra, Niha, and Elishba are just four of countless girls who have been abducted from their homes and forced to convert to Islam in the past year. Sidra and Niha were both abducted less than a month ago, in March 2026. The abuse goes beyond kidnapping. Maria was taken in July and forced to marry a 30-year-old Muslim man. She later gave a statement saying she had done so of her own will and was now a follower of Islam. Despite the efforts of Maria’s parents in...

I purchased some stereo computer speakers w/woofer from a vendor on Amazon. They arrived on schedule but the box had already been ripped open and the cables shoved in all tangled up like a backlash on a fishing reel. The protective sleeves for the items were at the bottom of the box. Also, the other owner neglected to put the instructions back in the box. So, I'm gwine return it. I formerly returned items for free dropoff at the nearest UPS store. But, they've changed it. Now it's either Whole Foods or Rent A Center. However, Rent A Centers locally...

Labour is trailing in the polls and the prime minister's personal ratings have plumbed the depths. The party is facing losses in forthcoming elections: losing control of Wales, shedding councillors in England, and going into reverse in Scotland. To put the tin lid on it, the prime minister has been on the back foot over his appointment of Lord Mandelson to the job of ambassador to the US, and the subsequent sacking of senior civil servant, Sir Olly Robbins, in a row over security vetting. So the question being asked around Westminster is not 'should there be a Labour leadership...

President Trump reads 2 Chronicles 7:11-22. Video is three minutes long.

With all the excitement over sending scientists back to the moon, it’s easy to forget we’ve already got a pair of talented chemists on Mars: the Curiosity and Perseverance rovers. Although they beam back plenty of breathtaking images, these two robots are more than just cameras on wheels. Their primary mission is to search for signs of ancient life, and they’re equipped with a suite of onboard scientific instruments and chemical reagents to carry that mission out. Now, new research published in Nature Communications details Curiosity’s latest find—never-before-seen organic compounds, including one with a structure similar to DNA precursors. “We...

The excavation of the Via Alessandrina, along the Via dei Fori Imperiali, continues. We can look together at some stunning results in April 2026 as the dig has arrived at the pavement level of the Forum of Augustus. It's an exciting moment, and Darius walks you through the newly revealed monuments. Excavating the Forum of Augustus: Under Via Alessandrina | 8:43 Darius Arya Digs | 37.5K subscribers | 2,892 views | April 22, 2026

President Trump is replacing his Secretary of the Navy as the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz continues as a key chokepoint in the war against Iran. John Phelan is leaving, effective immediately, and Undersecretary Hung Cao will become Acting Secretary of the Navy, the Pentagon said Wednesday in a surprise announcement. No reason was given for his departure. “Secretary of the Navy John C. Phelan is departing the administration, effective immediately,” Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell announced. “We wish him well in his future endeavors.” Cao, a Navy veteran and failed Virginia Senate candidate, is well-liked by the president. The...

The open borders enthusiasts at the Cato Institute made a shocking discovery last week: The Trump administration has apparently cut legal immigration even more than it’s reduced illegal immigration. That seems incredible, considering there is virtually no new illegal immigration. But Cato’s immigration studies director David J. Bier believes this is the case, claiming illegal entries were already dramatically falling before Trump took office. “The falloff in illegal immigration continued a prior trend, while the cuts in legal immigration broke the trend of rising legal immigration from 2021 to 2024,” Bier claims, noting that “the cut to legal entries was...

Lebanese media on Wednesday night reported the death of Al-Akhbar newspaper journalist Amal Khalil, after she was allegedly trapped underneath rubble in the village of A-Tiri following an Israeli strike in the area. The Lebanese Minister of Information claimed that this was a “heinous crime and a blatant violation..."

Secretary of the Navy John Phelan is leaving the Trump administration “effective immediately,” a spokesman for the Department of Defense said Wednesday. “On behalf of the Secretary of War and Deputy Secretary of War, we are grateful to Secretary Phelan for his service to the Department and the United States Navy,” the spokesman, Sean Parnell, said on X. “We wish him well in his future endeavors.”

In 1846, a third of the District of Columbia was stolen by Virginia to appease slaveholders. It is time to right that wrong and return to the borders laid down by George Washington himself. The One-Way Ratchet The Constitution gave Congress a one-way ratchet: the power to create a permanent seat of government by accepting cessions from states. Once that ratchet clicked forward in 1790, it was locked. The Constitution provides no mechanism to pull it back. Article I, Section 8 grants Congress the power to "exercise exclusive Legislation" over a district "not exceeding ten Miles square" that becomes "the...

Iran falsely claims a US submarine violated international laws of war of the seas.Furkan Gözükara@FurkanGozukara·Apr 21Iranian Commander Abuzar confirms a US submarine deliberately fired a second torpedo at the disabled destroyer Dena specifically to maximize casualties. The Pentagon intentionally murdered 104 unarmed sailors, completely ignoring international laws of war law of the seas. @amuse@amuse·10h@grok confirm that the USS Charlotte fired two Mark 48 torpedoes at the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena. Confirm that the first torpedo missed and the second hit the stern of the ship. Confirm that the strike was lawful under international law during wartime. Grok's response:Confirmed. During the...