Free Republic

Secretary of State Marco Rubio has technically been banned from visiting China by its communist government, but he accompanied President Donald Trump on his trip to Beijing on Tuesday using a bureaucratic loophole created by the Chinese to let him in. Rubio, the son of Cuban exiles to Florida who was elected to the Senate in 2011, was one of several congressional representatives banned from traveling to China in July 2020 because they spoke out against China’s brutal oppression of the Uyghur Muslims of occupied East Turkistan. The U.S. had previously sanctioned four Chinese officials for herding the Uyghurs into...

DNA testing has finally revealed that two mysterious individuals -- a young boy and a teenage girl entombed together in a rare Anglo-Saxon double burial -- were brother and sister, according to a report by The Independent. The pair initially drew attention two years ago when they were discovered in Cherington, Gloucestershire, because of the unusual way they were laid to rest. Both children had been placed gently on their sides. The young girl faced her brother and had been propped up in a way, perhaps on pillows, that made it look like she was watching over her younger sibling...

According to a statement released by the University of York, researchers have identified rare traces of dyed purple textiles in two Roman infant burials. Known as Tyrian purple, the extremely costly colorant was manufactured by crushing thousands of murex marine sea snails and was typically reserved for use by emperors, royalty, and members of the aristocracy. However, experts were able to detect its presence on garments wrapped around two small children who died and were buried around 1,700 years ago. Their remains are held in the collections of the York Museums Trust. The dye was identifiable through chemical analysis because...

According to a statement released by the University of Southampton, a crannog in shallow waters in Loch Bhorgastail on Scotland's Isle of Lewis has been evaluated by researchers from the University of Southampton and the University of Reading with a technique called stereophotogrammetry, which involves stitching together photographs taken at different angles to create a high-resolution 3D model. The study determined that the structure began as a circular wooden platform, measuring about 75 feet in diameter, that was topped with brushwood. Neolithic pottery was also discovered in the area surrounding the crannog, enabling archaeologists to date this first construction of...

According to a Herald Scotland report, National Trust for Scotland archaeologists, assisted by volunteers, recovered a piece of copper alloy from a stone structure in Highland Scotland's Ben Lawers National Nature Reserve that may have been used to distill whisky in secret to avoid paying taxes that had been levied beginning in the 1780s. The researchers suggest that the copper part is a piece known in Gaelic as An Gearradan, or the collar connecting a still to its lyne arm, which controlled how much vapor returned to the pot and therefore controlled the flavor of the finished product. The team...

Archaeologists from the University of Haifa have unearthed a 1,600-year-old mosaic with a Greek inscription reading, "Peace on the elders," that may be the earliest evidence of a dedicated institution for the elderly.The discovery was made at the Sussita (Hippos) National Park near the Sea of Galilee, the primary Christian city in the region during the Byzantine period. The mosaic, dating to the late fourth or early fifth century CE, was discovered at the entrance to a public building.According to Dr. Michael Eisenberg, co-director of the excavation project, the finding provides "living proof that care and concern for the elderly......

You get ten questions of current events. I got 8/10 right. See if you really are a 'News Junky'!.............

The ex-hooker who allegedly hired a hitman to kill his Chelsea art-dealer hubby coolly sat in Manhattan federal court Tuesday as prosecutors showed jurors grisly photos of the victim’s bloodied corpse. Daniel Carrera Sikkema, wearing a gray blazer over a white shirt, showed no emotion during opening statements at the kick-off of his trial — even as prosecutors displayed images of the body of his much older estranged husband, Brent Sikkema, who was riddled with stab wounds from the January 2024 killing inside his home in Rio de Janeiro. Federal prosecutors alleged that Sikkema, in his mid-50s, hired Cuban national...

Eric Clapton cut short a concert in Madrid last week after someone in the audience threw an object that struck him in the chest, several news outlets report. Mr. Clapton had just finished performing “Cocaine” at the Movistar Arena last Thursday when someone hurled what appeared to be a vinyl record sleeve. The Clapton fan club Where’s Eric! said the incident occurred during the famed guitarist/songwriter’s first appearance in Madrid in 25 years. Mr. Clapton, 81, was not seriously injured and went on to perform in Barcelona on Sunday.

“Golden Dome” could cost taxpayers $1.2 trillion over 20 years, according to a government report issued on Tuesday. ...Even if the system is built, the report concluded, an adversary like Russia or China that has a large arsenal of nuclear weapons could overwhelm it and some missiles would hit their targets. The budget office report found that the “space-based interceptors” the president envisions — satellites armed with missiles orbiting the planet — would consume about 60 percent of the cost.

WASHINGTON — Former Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas lamented the delay in immigration enforcement actions until the final year of President Biden’s term — despite having testified to Congress several times while in office that the US border was “secure.” In an appearance Tuesday at Politico’s Security Summit, Mayorkas discussed aspects of the “broken” immigration system in America, acknowledging that a “low bar” for those expressing “credible fear of persecution” allowed too many migrants into the country during the Biden administration. More than 8 million entered by the start of the 46th president’s final year in office — before Biden...

It’s hard to even imagine now, but immediately after it launched in 2004, there was nothing on the internet cooler than Facebook. It was initially available only to Harvard students, then gradually expanded to students at other elite colleges, giving it an aura of exclusivity that founder Mark Zuckerberg clearly coveted. By the time it opened up to public accounts in 2006, the hype was palpable, paving the way to an explosive initial public offering in 2012. Since those salad days, its trajectory has never been quite the same. Sure, it’s maintained market share with a series of cynical acquisitions...

The XA103 is being built under the U.S. Air Force’s Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion program to improve fuel efficiency, thermal management, and power output. Pratt & Whitney clears major XA103 milestone. Pratt & Whitney Pratt & Whitney, a subsidiary of RTX, has completed a fully digital assembly-readiness review for its XA103 adaptive engine. This breakthrough is a key step in the U.S. Air Force’s Next Generation Adaptive Propulsion program. With this milestone, the company can now begin ordering hardware and prepare to assemble the first physical test engine later this decade. This review signifies the end of an important design...

Two convicted Chinese spies helped Arcadia’s former mayor become a successful SoCal politician — who secretly took orders from Beijing. Yaoning “Mike” Sun and John Chen helped Eileen Wang win office and secretly reported back to their masters in the People’s Republic of China, according to court documents. Sun took orders from Chen as he served as the campaign manager and business partner of Wang in her successful 2022 run for Arcadia City Council. When Wang won her seat, Chen told Sun to send a report to their PRC masters calling Wang a “new political star.” Wang would “go against...

The numbers don’t add up! New York City is already dumping a record $43 billion into its public schools while spending heaps more per-student than any other large US district — despite plummeting enrollment and mediocre test results. The massive price tag for educating Big Apple students could grow even more as Mayor Zohran Mamdani is finalizing his first budget proposal and as the city is already spending $44,000 per student — an unsustainable level of spending, budget watchdogs and education analysts said. The spending is also unacceptable, given Big Apple students’ middle-of-the-pack showing among urban school districts on standardized...

FIRST ON FOX: Rep. Ilhan Omar, D-Minn., has not publicly or privately responded to a top investigative committee in Minnesota’s request for information on her possible ties to the massive fraud scandal, but a recent email from one of her former top staffers to the committee sheds light on how her camp may view the situation and who they blame. "As the District Director for Congresswoman Ilhan Omar from 2019-2022, I read with interest your comments in Session Daily regarding H.R.6187 - MEALS Act," former Omar District Director Kendal Killian wrote in an email, obtained by Fox News Digital, Wednesday...

The Nahal Mishmar Hoard is an archaeological discovery of more than 400 copper objects from the Chalcolithic period, found in the Judean Desert in 1961 by Pessah Bar-Adon, an archaeologist from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in a cave at Nahal Mishmar, west of the Dead Sea. It was found by chance during an expedition searching for more of the famous Dead Sea Scrolls.The findings from Nahal Mishmar represent one of the most important hoards of ancient metal objects ever discovered and provide scholars with valuable insight into Copper Age metallurgy and society in the Levant. The objects, mostly made...

Researchers led by Elena Klenina and Andrzej B. Biernacki of Adam Mickiewicz University and their colleagues identified intestinal parasites in residues taken from four chamber pots recovered from two archaeological sites in the Roman province of Moesia Inferior, which is located in what is now Bulgaria, according to a La Brújula Verde report. Three of the pots in the study were found in a villa located near the Legio I Italica army camp, where high-ranking officials likely stayed when they visited the region. Cryptosporidium, a protozoan that can cause severe diarrhea, was one of the parasites detected in the second-century...

Reports of transgender actor Elliot Page — formerly Ellen — playing Achilles in Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film, The Odyssey, have sparked fierce backlash. “You could have paid me to tank this movie and I wouldn’t have thought of this,” actor Kevin Sorbo reacted. While Page’s role in Nolan’s retelling of Homer’s The Odyssey — set to debut in theaters on July 17 — has yet to be officially confirmed, the Juno star is known to be in the movie, according to a report by the video gaming and entertainment website IGN. “The trailer might’ve given away who the actor is...

A Los Angeles mayoral debate has collapsed at the last minute after Nithya Raman joined Karen Bass and Spencer Pratt in pulling out. Raman revealed early Monday she was not going, following Bass pulling out last week and Pratt earlier saying he had a scheduling conflict. It left just businessman Adam Miller and activist Rae Huang. A spokesman for the Pat Brown Institute and the League of Women Voters said: “With only two candidates remaining, the event partners have agreed not to proceed.” Raman’s campaign told The Post: “We’re disappointed that Mayor Bass cancelled her participation in the debate. We...