Free Republic

UN Security Council members, including China, Pakistan, Russia and Algeria, on Friday condemned Israeli attacks on Iran, warning that it threatens regional peace and risk setting a dangerous precedent by targeting nuclear facilities. Speaking at the emergency session on Iran, which was requested by China, Pakistan, Russia and Algeria, Russian envoy Vassily Nebenzia denounced the attacks and said: "The Iranian, peaceful civilian nuclear facilities continue to be targeted, and this is liable to plunge us into an unseen nuclear catastrophe." He warned that the Security Council "cannot shirk its responsibility" and must assess the situation objectively. "Nuclear facilities cannot be...

Louisiana's law requiring the Ten Commandments be posted in all public school classrooms was ruled unconstitutional by a federal appeals court Friday, according to the ACLU, a plaintiff in the case. Why it matters: The decision brings clarity to state schools after a confusing year in which state leaders and the courts have issued conflicting guidance on whether educators must abide by the law while the lawsuit was being resolved. The latest: A panel of three judges in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, widely considered one of the nation's most conservative, called the law "plainly unconstitutional."...

That’s a crap load of partying! A summertime island hotspot off Cape Cod will start testing its sewage for cocaine and other drugs to find out when and how often residents are getting high, officials said. Nantucket health officials want to sniff out when drug use spikes — including seasonally and around holidays — to help folks with recovery outreach in the scenic town, the Nantucket Current reported. “Everyone’s got a good idea of what the [drug] situation is, but we have very little direct measurement,” the town’s human services director, Jerico Mele, told the outlet. “When we get away...

He may be out of office, but he’s still driving people crazy. Former President Joe Biden has been overheard asking for frozen treats while commuting on Amtrak to his government-provided DC office — where little known work is being done — as well as allegedly forgetting a top rule of the train. “He was talking in the quiet car!” a disbelieving Amtrak regular vented to The Post. The 82-year-old former chief executive, who rode the route back and forth to Delaware during his 36 years in the Senate, also has gotten rusty on the cafe car’s offerings. Biden recently asked...

Iran will never agree to halting all uranium enrichment and Israel must stop its air campaign before any negotiations can proceed with the U.S., the Iranian foreign minister said. Iran is uncertain if it can trust the United States in diplomatic talks after Israel launched an aerial attack on the country only days before scheduled negotiations with American officials, Tehran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, said Friday in an exclusive interview with NBC News. Asked by NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell if a deal could be reached with the United States within the two-week time frame recently given by President Donald Trump,...

Who really knows Pavel Durov? Arrested in France and facing charges as explosive as they are controversial – complicity in drug trafficking, money laundering, organized fraud among others –, the creator of Telegram, the encrypted messaging app used by more than a billion people worldwide, including Volodymyr Zelensky and Emmanuel Macron, denounces a conspiracy, a denial of justice, and claims to be already punished without having been tried. In this extensive interview, the longest he has ever given, the man who founded VKontakte (the "Russian Facebook") before leaving Russia in 2014 to preserve his independence reflects on his fight for...

Michelle Obama has made yet another snide jibe at her husband Barack. In the latest episode of her podcast with her brother, Michelle confessed that she was glad the pair never had a son because he would have been just like her husband. 'I'm so glad I didn't have a boy... he would've been a Barack Obama,' she joked to her brother, Craig Robinson and radio host Angie Martinez. 'Baby Barack! It would've been amazing!' Martinez squealed, but Michelle doubled down. 'Oh no. I would've felt for him,' she said. The remark comes amid swirling rumors about the state of...

It wasn’t safe to go back in the water of the Jersey Shore in 1916, as a series of deadly shark attacks forever changed Americans’ attitudes toward the sea creatures. As Americans prepared to celebrate the Fourth of July holiday weekend in 1916, the aptly named resort town of Beach Haven, New Jersey, promised a sanctuary from worries about the war raging in Europe and the polio epidemic sweeping through New York City. Seeking refuge from the sweltering heat gripping his hometown of Philadelphia, Charles Vansant stepped out of his beachfront hotel to take a quick dip in the Atlantic...

President Donald Trump directly rebuked Tulsi Gabbard, his own director of national intelligence, during a Q&A with reporters on Friday afternoon amid reports that she’s an increasingly irrelevant figure within his administration. After being asked by MSNBC’s Vaughn Hillyard about why he was considering a strike on Iran given his expressed opposition to the Bush administration’s war in Iraq, Trump stated that Iran had gathered “a tremendous amount of [nuclear] material.” “What intelligence do you have that Iran is building a nuclear weapon? Your intelligence community has said they have no evidence that they are at this point,” followed up...

The head of state also answered questions about the possibility of a mutually acceptable peaceful solution to the conflict in the Middle East, a new world order and outdated Western approaches that ignore the interests of the Russian Federation. TASS collected the main points of the President of the Russian Federation.The situation in UkraineRussia doesn't achieve it surrender on the part of Ukraine: "We insist on recognition of the realities that have developed on earth.". Thus, the Russian army "attacks in all directions along the entire line of combat contact every day," creates a security zone, to which the enemy...

PORTALES, N.M.— William and Daynnely Carrillo got married on May 25, and while the wedding day was just how they wanted it to be, they had a little surprise in the mix of it all. Bad weather arose, and a tornado was spotted in the distance from their wedding venue. Instead of finding shelter, the couple took advantage of the moment by taking wedding photos in front of it. “The ceremony was going to be outside and then everything else was going to be inside. So, it was going to be four o’clock and then basically throughout the whole ceremony...

Russian President also emphasized that the situation between Russia and Ukraine is different from what US President Donald Trump is doing, trying to achieve unconditional surrender of Iran in terms of nuclear program SANCT-PETERBURG, June 20. / TASS /. Russia does not seek surrender of Ukraine, but insists that Kiev recognize the realities prevailing on the earth. This was stated by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the plenary session of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (PIEF)."We are not seeking surrender from Ukraine. We insist on recognizing the realities that have developed on earth, "he stressed.Putin also emphasized that the...

LOS ANGELES, CA — The Los Angeles Dodgers were hoping to attract large crowds at tonight's game against the Washington Nationals by offering a limited edition MS-13 bobblehead to commemorate the recent L.A. anti-ICE riots. A social media ad for the event read, "¡Hola! Don't miss MS-13 Bobblehead Night at Dodger Stadium on 7/20 presented by the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights (CHIRLA)! The first 2,000 undocumented migrants get their very own MS-13 Bobblehead! ¡Ay, caramba!" The limited edition MS-13 bobblehead features a Latinx cis-male with face tattoos and a penchant for vandalism. The figurine wears an unbuttoned Dodgers jersey...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Democrats were outraged by an appeals court ruling that permitted the Commander in Chief of the United States Armed Forces to command the armed forces. Democratic leaders said that the ruling was a clear and present threat to American democracy and they feared for the future of a country where the person in charge of things could actually be in charge of things. "This is an extremely dangerous precedent for the court to set," said Senator Cory Booker. "There is no way that the president should be allowed to exercise his constitutional authority to tell the U.S....

Maitake mushrooms like these have a unique internal structure that helps them resist pressure in specific directions. (puttography/Shutterstock) In a nutshell Researchers discovered that the internal thread orientation of mushrooms, specifically hyphal filaments, can alter material strength without changing the material itself. Dimictic mushrooms like maitake showed up to 30 times more stiffness in certain directions compared to randomly structured monomitic mushrooms like white buttons. Computer models confirmed that adjusting thread alignment in bio-inspired materials could nearly double stiffness, offering a new way to design strong, lightweight, and sustainable engineering materials. BINGHAMTON, N.Y. — Engineers spend billions trying to create...

After the death of my sister, I was pulled into the troubling world of AI-written obituaries. This is what I learned about grief, scams and the people behind the words. ==================================================================== My sister had only been gone for a few hours and the AI afterlife had already devoured her. Jamie went into the hospital with stomach pain on a Friday last January. By Tuesday morning, she had passed away from an aggressive lymphoma at 36. Later that afternoon, my mom got a text about a suspicious obituary my aunt saw online. The errors jumped out immediately. Her cause of death...

Explanation: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, planet Earth lies on the horizon in this stack of panoramic composite images. In a monthly time series arranged vertically top to bottom the ambitious photographic project follows the annual north-south swing of sunrise points, from June solstice to December solstice and back again. It also follows the corresponding, but definitely harder to track, Full Moon rise. Of course, the north-south swing of moonrise runs opposite sunrise along the horizon. But these rising Full Moons also span a wider range on the horizon than the sunrises. That's because the well-planned project (as shown in this video)...

Rubin Observatory’s ultimate cosmic movie is about to begin, and we want you to be a part of it We invite you to attend the live stream of NSF–DOE Vera C. Rubin Observatory’s First Look event, taking place on 23 June 2025 at 11:00 a.m. EDT. At this international celebration the Rubin Observatory team will unveil the observatory’s first spectacular images. The event will be live streamed via YouTube in English and Spanish. Links to the live streams will be made available on rubinobservatory.org. Want to attend an in-person celebration? Hundreds of venues around the globe will be hosting watch...

Today's vote is hugely significant. It now looks highly likely that assisted dying will be introduced in England and Wales. The vote by MPs to approve Kim Leadbeater's bill is arguably the biggest vote regarding bodily autonomy since the legalisation of abortion in Great Britain in 1967. In the baking heat of London's Parliament Square today, hundreds of campaigners stood chanting their views - both for and against assisted dying - amid a sea of colourful banners and placards. There was emotion too. Some carried photos of loved ones who died in pain, while others expressed their fears for the...