Free Republic

The Trump administration is placing more restrictions on Russia's oil, gas and banking sectors by further restricting Russian access to U.S. payment systems, according to four people familiar with the plans. The Treasury Department on Wednesday let lapse a 60-day exemption put in place by the Biden administration in January that allowed specific energy transactions involving sanctioned Russian banks to continue. By letting the waiver lapse, the banks may no longer access U.S. payment systems to conduct major energy transactions. The Russian financial institutions that had been exempt from sanctions included Vnesheconombank, Bank Financial Corporation Otkritie, Sovcombank, Sberbank, VTB Bank,...

As relations between Russia and the US disintegrate as a result of the escalating proxy war in Syria, which today culminated with Putin halting a Plutonium cleanup effort with the US, shortly before the US State Department announced it would end negotiations with Russia over Syria, tomorrow an unprecedented 40 million Russian citizens, as well as 200,000 specialists from "emergency rescue divisions" and 50,000 units of equipment are set to take part in a four day-long civil defense, emergency evacuation and disaster preparedness drill, the Russian Ministry for Civil Defense reported on its website. According to the ministry, an all-Russian...

Consider the movement of the earth's surface with respect to the planet's center. The earth rotates once every 23 hours, 56 minutes and 4.09053 seconds, called the sidereal period, and its circumference is roughly 40,075 kilometers. Thus, the surface of the earth at the equator moves at a speed of 460 meters per second-or roughly 1,000 miles per hour. As schoolchildren, we learn that the earth is moving about our sun in a very nearly circular orbit. It covers this route at a speed of nearly 30 kilometers per second, or 67,000 miles per hour. In addition, our solar system--Earth...

Before class last Tuesday morning, Oct. 30, Seth Gruber stood outside his school's dining hall with a sign showing a tiny pair of red, severed hands. Some students who walked by him during the next four hours stared down at their feet as they passed. Others shot him dirty looks. Several told him the graphic pictures of aborted babies were inappropriate and disrespectful. Gruber, a junior at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, Calif., knew his pro-life activism wouldn't make him the most popular guy on campus. But he didn't expect to meet with so much opposition. Westmont is an evangelical...

GROTON, Conn., May 6, 2009 – Sirens wail as a fire truck speeds to a school in response to a reported incident. Dozens of students are sent to area hospitals. The radiation alarm on one of the firemen begins to scream. Army Sgt. 1st Class Ryan Van Damme, a decontamination noncommissioned officer for the 14th Civil Support Team of the Connecticut National Guard, checks Army Sgt. John Barton, a survey team member, for contaminants after Barton returned from surveying the inside of a school during an exercise simulation in Groton, Conn., May 5, 2009. U.S. Army photo by Pfc....

A federal appeals court gave an anti-abortion group the go-ahead Wednesday to drive trucks with enlarged photos of aborted fetuses past California schools, saying the Constitution protects the display of disturbing messages.  Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies interfered with free speech by ordering the driver of one such truck to move away from a middle school, said the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The deputies had cited a state law barring disruptive activities near public school grounds.  "The government cannot silence messages simply because they cause discomfort, fear or even anger," said a panel of three...

FORT DETRICK, Md.(Army News Service, July 20, 2005) - Plasma, goats and plants may one day hold the key to protecting warfighters and the public from nerve agents. Boosting the amounts of an enzyme called butyrylcholinesterase, normally present in small quantities in blood plasma as detoxifiers, can interdict nerve agents when they enter the bloodstream so the nerve agents can't reach their targets. Knowing this, researchers for 20 years have been finding ways of producing large amounts of the enzyme they call a "bioscavenger." "The bioscavenger is being tested against all known nerve agents," said Col. Michelle Ross, deputy commander...

Dozens sick from unknown chemical in DC office building

AMSTERDAM — Breda Court was sealed off on Friday and about 400 people ordered to remain inside the building after a suspect "anthrax" letter addressed to a judge was discovered in the postal room. The letter was written in English and contained a suspect powder. Alarmed authorities prevented anyone from entering the building for several hours and urged the 400 people trapped inside to restrict their movements. Police gave the all clear at about 2pm, but anyone who possibly came in contact with the letter were ordered to shower before leaving the building, Dutch associated press ANP reported. A police...

Mystery blood clots kill U.S. troops Monday 06-Oct-2003 8:58PM Story from United Press International Copyright 2003 by United Press International (via ClariNet) WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Several U.S. soldiers in the Iraqi war died from sudden illnesses and a United Press International probe shows those were triggered by unexplained blood clots. The Pentagon says blood clots caused two soldiers to collapse and die. At least eight other soldiers have also collapsed and died from what the military has described as non-combat-related causes. NBC reporter David Bloom also died of a blood clot in his lung after collapsing near Baghdad....

Mystery blood clots felling U.S. troops By Mark Benjamin Investigations Editor Published 10/6/2003 12:41 PMView printer-friendly version WASHINGTON, Oct. 6 (UPI) -- Unexplained blood clots are among the reasons a number of U.S. soldiers in Operation Iraqi Freedom have died from sudden illnesses, an investigation by United Press International has found. In addition to NBC News Correspondent David Bloom, who died in April of a blood clot in his lung after collapsing south of Baghdad, the Pentagon has told families that blood clots caused two soldiers to collapse and die. At least eight other soldiers have also collapsed and died...

Abortion issue is played out before students Monday, May 26, 2003 By KATHLEEN CARROLL HERALD NEWS PATERSON - Students leaving Eastside High School last week were greeted by abortion protesters bearing graphic images of what they said are aborted fetuses. The group, the Center for Bio-Ethical Reform of Santa Fe Springs, Calif., has visited a handful of local high schools in recent months, including those in Clifton, Teaneck, Bergenfield, Maplewood, Hackensack, Paramus and Manchester Regional in Haledon, said Bill Calvin, the group's Northeast coordinator. "Young people in the high school age group are forming ideas about sexuality and what to...

"When the atom bomb destroyed Hiroshima on August 6, 1945," notes a website, "it somehow spared a building only eight blocks away from ground zero. In it were living eight Jesuits who were unharmed by the blast, heat, and radiation. Some 200 scientists have examined the priests, trying to determine why they were unhurt. Speaking on American TV, the German Jesuit Father Hubert Schiffer gave the answer: 'In that house, the Rosary was prayed every day. In that house we were living the message of Fatima,' he said." Actually, it was even more dramatic than that. Let's hear Father Schiffer's...