Free Republic

RAMSTEIN AIR BASE, Germany — US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that President Joe Biden has approved additional military aid to Ukraine worth up to $675 million, an announcement that came as he rallied allies to renew their commitment to Ukrainian military support “for the long haul.”

President Biden to announce fresh measures to combat ‘new phase of the pandemic,’ will issue “stark warning” to unvaccinated Americans

A former commander of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps, which the FBI says played a role in a 1996 terrorist attack that killed 19 U.S. servicemen, accompanied Iraq’s prime minister to the White House on Monday, attending an event at which President Obama trumpeted the end of the Iraq War. Hadi Farhan al-Amiri, transportation minister in Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government, was part of the delegation that visited the White House to discuss Iraq’s future and Iran’s influence there, among other topics. -excerpt - Louis J. Freeh, who served as FBI director in the Clinton administration and the early months...

The people of Easter Island appeared to drink directly from the sea, European explorers reported in the late 1700s. And today, you can see animals—most famously horses—do the same thing. What's going on? While surrounded by a vast ocean, fresh water is a scarce commodity on Rapa Nui, as the island is known to its native inhabitants. No rivers or streams cross its surface, and it sports only three small crater lakes that can dry up during periodic droughts. Due to a quirk of geology, rainwater immediately sinks down through the porous bedrock, where it feeds an underground aquifer, explained...

Trinity College Dublin, one of Ireland’s most prestigious universities, has announced that it will phase out use of the term “Freshman” in favor of the more gender-neutral “Fresh.” Currently, first and second year students at Trinity are referred to as “junior freshmen” and “senior freshmen.” The school’s Vice-Provost Chris Morash and Student Union President Kevin Keane shared the news in a mass email sent on Tuesday. They noted that the change stems from a proposal from Trinity’s Equality Committee that “the title given to first and second year undergraduates students be changed from ‘Freshman’ to the gender-neutral term ‘Fresh.’” […]...

Since China's capital city Beijing issued its first ever air pollution red alert last week, sales of bottled Canadian fresh mountain air to Chinese customers have soared. Two entrepreneurs from Alberta have been selling Vitality Air for just over a year, but over the last two weeks their sales to China have increased dramatically, reports The People's Daily Online. The red alert over air pollution was issued by Beijing authorities on December 7, lasting three days, amid the second bout of bad air this month. During this time PM2.5 levels - tiny hazardous airborne particles - exceeded 900 micrograms per...

Raw fish is a Japanese delicacy - however, this sashimi fish might have been a little too fresh. Customers were eating at a restaurant in Japan when they noticed the fish they were served was moving. One customer took out their camera and started recording. First they saw the fins twitching. Then, the twitching turned into wiggling. The customers started screaming when the fish flopped off the plate.

The bucardo became extinct in 2000, but cells from the last animal were frozen in liquid nitrogen. In 2003, a cloned calf was brought to term but died a few minutes after birth. Now, the scientists will test the viability of the female bucardo's 14-year-old preserved cells. The bucardo, or Pyrenean ibex, calf born through cloning was an historic event: the first "de-extinction", in which a lost species or sub-species was resurrected.

One of the great things about being a nature lover is that your powers of observation seem to improve. While others are walking by, oblivious to the activities going on all around them, naturalists notice the creatures and the behaviors, especially if they are out of the ordinary. Such was the case on March 24, 2012, a sunny Saturday morning, when Ginger Morneau, her husband Ken, and brother Lou Baker were walking along the Ogden Point Breakwater in Victoria, BC. The breakwater is a favourite spot for locals and visitors, reaching out about a half mile from the waterfront south...

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Barack Obama often discussed his mother's struggle with cancer. Ann Dunham spent the months before her death in 1995, Obama said, fighting with insurance companies that sought to deny her the coverage she needed to pay for treatment. "I remember in the last month of her life, she wasn't thinking about how to get well, she wasn't thinking about coming to terms with her own mortality, she was thinking about whether or not insurance was going to cover the medical bills and whether our family would be bankrupt as a consequence," Obama said in September...

UNITED NATIONS (AFP) – The international powers stepped up their battle with Iran over its nuclear program Wednesday with the UN Security Council ready to pass a tough fourth round of sanctions. Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad threatened to suspend nuclear negotiations in response to what US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said would be "the most significant sanctions that Iran has ever faced." The US-drafted sanctions resolution, co-sponsored by Britain and France with the backing of Russia and China, would expand an arms embargo, target Iran's banking sector and ban the country from sensitive activities like uranium mining. It would...

LOS ANGELES (AFP) – Fugitive filmmaker Roman Polanski was hit by fresh sex crime allegations Friday by a British actress who claimed the director "forced himself" upon her just after her 16th birthday. Polanski, who is fighting extradition to the United States to face sentencing in his 1978 child sex case, was accused by actress Charlotte Lewis, 42, of abusing her at his apartment in Paris nearly 30 years ago. In a press conference at the Beverly Hills offices of attorney Gloria Allred, Lewis said she was speaking out to counter suggestions from Polanski's legal team that his earlier case...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Treasury officials and regulators are weighing a fresh round of bailouts for banks that were deemed too risky to qualify for earlier aid. Representatives from the Treasury Department, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and House Financial Services Committee discussed the plan by phone Thursday, said California Bankers Association Chairman Dan Doyle, who was on the call. Small community banks are struggling as commercial real estate and other loans go sour. Officials and industry representatives are considering how to get money to those banks, Doyle said Friday.

I saw the Father in the Garden with Jesus and the Father had a shofar in his left hand . My sons and daughters of Zion ( hebrews 12:23 )it is time to unite as one with me The Father for we are advancing inward to penetrate the last strongholds . See them in the center for we have them surrounded , yet many within this circle that have resisted me and my will " Jesus " shall soon be inialted OR come into this very army I have formed as My Bride and soon there shall be a great...

(IsraelNN.com) Less than a week after the deadly terrorist assault in Mumbai, a Chabad House elsewhere in India received a threatening note from Muslim fundamentalists. According to a report on Israel TV's Channel 1, the Chabad House in Pune, India, has received a letter threatening to "wipe out the Chabad House and the Jews and Israelis.... The CIA and Mossad will not be able to save you." Although hate mail sent to Jewish institutions is not unusual, the timing has led Israeli security services to recommend heightened alert levels and increased protective measures at the Pune outreach center. A representative...

We know Urban Outfitters sometimes makes shirts with stupid sayings, but this one really takes the cake - The mega-chain had to halt sales of a certain new tee after pretty much everybody reacted in outrage. The shirt features a Palestinian boy (which can be deduced by the Palestinian flag and map of Palestinian territories next to him), crouched, holding a large gun with a couple friends behind him doing the same, with the word "Victimized" beneath him, and "Fresh Jive" above him (the shirt was actually designed by Fresh Jive, a company out of LA), and a white dove...

BERKELEY _ He called himself Fresh, but a group called Students Against Hippies in Trees said his routine for protesting various university policies was getting stale. Seventeen days after protester Michael Schuck _ aka Fresh _ climbed into an oak just north of Sather Gate on the University of California, Berkeley campus, tree-sit opponents mobbed the tree Friday calling for Schuck to follow the rules for public discourse and get out of the tree. The 23-year-old Schuck finally did come down and was cited by police for illegally lodging and trespassing and released, a university spokesman said Friday. He said...

Windmill With A Twist Can Provide Fresh Water From Seawater DirectlyThe first prototype has been built and is already working at a location near the A13 motorway near Delft. This prototype is to be dismantled and transported to Curaçao the first week of March. There the concept will be tested on seawater. (Credit: Image courtesy of Delft University of Technology) ScienceDaily (Mar. 3, 2008) — A traditional windmill which drives a pump: that is the simple concept behind the combination of windmill/reverse osmosis developed by the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) in The Netherlands. In this case, it involves...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 20, 2006-- President Bush said today he’s counting on new Defense Secretary Robert Gates to bring a fresh perspective to the Pentagon, and he vowed to continue ensuring U.S. troops have what they need to accomplish their mission. Speaking to reporters at a White House news conference, the president said Gates will be “an important voice in the Iraq strategy review that’s under way.” Gates arrived in Iraq today to meet with deployed U.S. military leaders and troops and Iraqi leaders and to assess the situation on the ground. Bush said he considers the views of commanders...

A contractor representative talks with U.S. Army Corps of Engineers officers about training requirements to operate and maintain the equipment on one of five skimmer tanks at the Nasiriyah Water Treatment Plant. [ARMY PHOTO BY JAMES BULLINGER ] NASIRIYAH — Construction of a new multi-million dollar water treatment plant here means fresh water for more than 500,000 residents. It also means a variety of new jobs, ranging from laborers to skilled engineers.The plant serves the Dhi Qar communities of Nasiriyah, Suq Ash Sheuk, al-Diwaya, al-Shatra and al-Gharraf., and is a “world-class facility and the largest water treatment facility in Iraq,”...