Free Republic

A map of where two periodical cicada broods have been observed across the eastern U.S. shows the areas in which they are likely to emerge in the next few weeks. Experts are predicting that the two populations, which have been hibernating underground for over a decade, will appear at the same time, carpeting an area from southern Wisconsin to the Carolinas with as many as a hundred trillion bugs.

The pilot of the cargo ship that knocked down a highway bridge into Baltimore Harbor had radioed for tugboat help and reported a power loss minutes earlier, federal safety officials say, citing new data from the freight's recorder. (excerpt) NTSB's investigator in charge, Marcel Muise, said the recovered voyage data recorder (VDR) had helped them establish a timeline of events. He said the ship had departed from Seagirt Marine Terminal at around 12:39am and had entered the Fort McHenry Channel at 1:07am, before "numerous audible alarms" were recorded on the audio from the ship's bridge at 1:24am. At about the...

Voter turnout in elections in Iran hit what appears a historic low. According to unofficial accounts, only about 40 percent of the electorate cast a ballot Friday in separate votes for the country’s national parliament and the Assembly of Experts, the political body that will select the successor to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s 84-year-old supreme leader. An opposition boycott and widespread disenchantment set the mood, even as the theocratic regime pushed its citizens to come out to the polls. (excerpt) The turnout numbers may mark the lowest since the 1979 revolution that brought the Islamic regime into power. In Tehran,...

Legendary U.S. Marine Corps Scout Sniper Charles Benjamin “Chuck” Mawhinney died at the age of 75 after an incredible life, both in the military and after. Mawhinney is famous for over 100 confirmed kills as a sniper in Vietnam. “I’m just a simple person, and in Vietnam, I was just doing my job.” Mawhinney once said. His famous quote represents just how humble he was. Mawhinney worked for the U.S. Forest Service after his time in the Marines, retiring after 27 years, and for most of his life, no one knew just how legendary he was.

An Iranian government official has blamed “terrorism and sabotage” for twin explosions on gas pipelines overnight. While there are few details about the blasts, one occurred on the mainline gas route running from Iran’s central Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari province north to major gas fields in the Caspian Sea, state media reported on Wednesday. The other explosion was reported in the southern province of Fars.

(excerpt) According the notice, Electrolux Group—the parent company of Frigidaire—is recalling about 383,240 of their side-by-side fridges with slim ice buckets. The reason? There is an ice bucket assembly component that can easily break and as a result, cause either a choking or laceration hazard through the pieces being dispensed out of the ice bucket. (excerpt) As the recall notes, the models included were manufactured between 2015 and 2019 and were sold at nationwide retailers such as Lowe's, Home Depot and more. Dates that the items in question were sold fall between November 2015 and September 2019 and between the...

After a weekend of U.S. strikes against its proxies in Iraq, Syria and Yemen, Iran has issued a strongly worded warning not to target a ship that U.S. officials and analysts suspect of providing real-time intelligence for attacks on other vessels in the Red Sea and serving as a forward operating base for its commandos. In a slickly produced video published on the Iranian Army’s Telegram channel Sunday, a narrator says in English that “those engaging in terrorist activities against the MV Behshad or similar vessels, jeopardize international maritime routes, security and assume global responsibility for potential future international risks.”

A new explosion was reported off Yemen on Thursday after overnight US strikes targeted 10 attack drones and a ground control station belonging to the Iran-backed Huthi rebels. The explosion, reported by the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations agency, happened near a vessel west of the port city of Hodeida. (excerpt) Early Thursday in Yemen, US forces targeted a "Huthi UAV ground control station and 10 Huthi one-way UAVs" that "presented an imminent threat to merchant vessels and the US Navy ships in the region", a CENTCOM statement said, using an abbreviation for unmanned aerial vehicles or drones.

FBI Director Christopher Wray warned about the growing threat of Chinese cyberattacks against U.S. electrical grids and other infrastructure during an appearance Wednesday morning before the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. (excerpt) Wray also argued that “there has been far too little public focus” that Chinese hackers are targeting critical infrastructure in the U.S. such as water treatment plants, electrical grids, oil and natural gas pipelines, and transportation systems, according to the prepared remarks. (excerpt) As Wray testified, the Justice Department and FBI announced they had disabled a Chinese hacking operation that had infected hundreds of small...

The U.S. government has raised its travel alert level for Jamaica amid a spate of murders in the Caribbean nation, urging Americans to reconsider visiting the island "due to crime and [unreliable] medical services." The State Department announced the change, to its Level 3 travel advisory, for Jamaica just a few days after it issued a warning about the Bahamas, which remained at a Level 2 advisory, urging Americans to "exercise increased caution," despite a series of murders there.

Iranian sources to @AJArabic: “The US sent more than one message to Tehran over the past two days via third parties. Washington's messages said that it did not want an open war and warned that expanding the war would be met with the US action. Tehran rejected Washington's threats and said targeting its territory is a red line, and crossing the line would be met with an appropriate response. Tehran's message said that it does not want a war with Washington either, but it will forcefully confront any American adventure.”

MPs went after each other, throwing punches, pulling hair and blowing toy trumpets during a session of parliament in the Maldives. The fight came after the opposition party refused to approve 4 new cabinet ministers – who are members of the newly-elected president’s party.

Iran said Sunday it successfully launched three satellites into space, the latest for a program that the West says improves Tehran’s ballistic missiles. The state-run IRNA news agency said the launch also saw the successful use of Iran’s Simorgh rocket, which has had multiple failures in the past. The launch comes as heightened tensions grip the wider Middle East over Israel’s continued war on Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Today, we see risk-averse leadership despite enormous adversarial pressures on military forces deployed overseas. Constant attacks on U.S. military forces and locations in the Middle East go virtually unanswered. Domestically, we see the rise not of war-fighting but of the primacy of diversity, equity and inclusion ideology that, despite the words, tends to cut at the fabric of military service. (excerpt) We need leaders and commanders who understand the primacy of the mission. The mission is to deter and, if deterrence fails, to fight and win our nation’s wars. They must have a warrior personality that understands why men and...

Man at Mexican border describes his 2wk trip from Guinea. Map shows his route as he describes the mode of transportation & how corrupt the Mexican police were. Not sure I believe the horse part.

The two Navy SEALs who went missing off the coast of Somalia last week were helping seize Iranian weapons bound for the Houthis, the US said in a statement on Tuesday. The Navy SEALs carried out a "complex boarding" of a dhow, operating out of the USS Lewis B. Puller and assisted by helicopters and unmanned aerial drones, CENTCOM said. (excerpt) Among what was seized were propulsion, guidance, and warheads for medium-range ballistic missiles and anti-ship cruise missiles, as well as air-defense-associated components, it said. (excerpt) The Associated Press earlier reported, citing unnamed US officials, that the pair were climbing...

A Quebec man who posted conspiracy theories online that forest fires were being deliberately set by the government has pleaded guilty to starting a series of fires himself that forced hundreds of people from their homes. Brian Paré, 38, pleaded guilty Monday to 13 counts of arson and one count of arson with disregard for human life at the courthouse in Chibougamau, Que. Prosecutor Marie-Philippe Charron told the court that two of the 14 fires set by Paré forced the evacuation of around 500 homes in Chapais, Que...

After Mr.Cooper and LoanCare, it's loanDepot's turn to confirm an attack The company has notified its customers of some problems it was having via an X post that noted: "loanDepot is experiencing a cyber incident, which is affecting our phone lines. We are working diligently to return to normal business operations as soon as possible. We apologize for the inconvenience." "loanDepot is experiencing a cyber incident. We have taken certain systems offline and are working diligently to restore normal business operations as quickly as possible,” it said in a separate announcement. "We are working quickly to understand the extent of...

Worth another watch : )

One down, two to go. Bill Ackman appears to have a scorecard tracking which college presidents lose their jobs for their congressional statements on on-campus antisemitism, and now he's training his full fire on the two university leaders who remain. (excerpt) And Ackman's quest seems to be picking up after Liz Magill, president of the University of Pennsylvania, resigned from her position on Saturday. On Sunday, Ackman penned an open letter to Harvard's governing boards of directors, where he reiterated his call for Claudine Gay to be removed. "In her short tenure as President, Claudine Gay has done more damage...