Free Republic

F-16, during the massive rocket attacks on August 26, was shot down with the help of Patriot air defense systems due to the lack of coordination between the units of the Ukrainian Air Force. This was stated by the deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Mariana Bezuglaya. "According to my information, the F-16 of the Ukrainian pilot Alexei "Moonfish" Mes was shot down by the Patriot anti-aircraft missile system due to discoordination between units. The reports noted that he "failed to manage." The event took place during one of the most powerful air attacks of the Russians on August...

The two Boeing Starliner astronauts who have been stranded in space for 80 days will stay in space for another six months, NASA officials announced Saturday. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are now expected to return to Earth in February, while the Starliner will be brought back unmanned. Veteran astronauts Wilmore and Williams launched aboard Boeing’s Starliner back on June 5 — the maiden crewed voyage for the spacecraft — for what was supposed to be an eight-day mission docked to the International Space Station. The test flight, however, encountered thruster failures and helium leaks so serious that NASA...

The city of Fort Lupton and town of Platteville, Colorado, agreed on the settlement with the victim, Yareni Rios-Gonzalez, according to a release from the Fort Lupton Police Department. The settlement amount will be split equally between the town and city and paid by their insurers, according to attorney Eric M. Ziporin, whose office represents the city. Rios, who was a suspect in a road rage case, survived the September 2022 collision but suffered nine broken ribs, a broken arm and other injuries. “This voluntary settlement is to the mutual satisfaction of the parties, recognizes the gravity of this matter,...

Economist Valentina Bondarenko is dead. She fell from her apartment window, the Russian news agency Tass reported. Newsweek called her "Russia's leading economist." She is yet another prominent figure in Russia to die this way since the invasion of Ukraine began. The tragedy was supposed to have happened on Monday evening, while Russian media reported the woman's death on Tuesday. 82-year-old Bondarenko was a leading researcher at the Institute of Economics of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow - explains the American "Newsweek". The Russian news agency Tass reported that the economist's fall "had no criminal background. - Valentina...

The Secret Service acknowledged Saturday that it had turned down requests of additional resources sought by former President Donald Trump’s security detail in the two years leading up to his attempted assassination last week, a reversal from earlier statements by the agency denying that such requests had been rebuffed. Almost immediately after a gunman shot at Trump from a nearby warehouse roof while he spoke at a rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, last weekend, the Secret Service faced accusations from Republicans and anonymous law enforcement officials that it had turned down requests for additional agents to secure Trump’s rallies. “There’s an...

The sudden appearance of four crane barges where a submarine had been parked has prompted questions about the possibility of an accident. Satellite imagery shows unusual activity last month, including the sudden appearance of four crane barges, at a shipyard in China that builds submarines and other naval vessels, which might potentially be a sign of an accident of some kind. Tom Shugart, an adjunct senior fellow at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS) think tank and a retired U.S. Navy submarine warfare officer, was first to notice the goings-on at the Wuchang Shipyard. This yard, which is...

Joe Biden has been slammed online after referring to the US Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin as “the black man”. After his comment, Biden tried to correct himself by saying Austin’s name but instead named US Supreme Court Associate Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson. Users on social media criticised the oldest-ever sitting president’s comments. “Whoa boy. Good luck covering this one up,” wrote one user. The 81-year-old appeared in an interview with BET News’ Ed Gordon on Wednesday about his presidency. The president’s interview with Gordon touched on numerous topics and issues facing Biden. The 81-year-olds health was brought up, as...

Joe Biden's argument that his disastrous debate performance last week was a one-off is seemingly falling apart. In his latest verbal slipup, the president said he was "proud" to be the "first Black woman to serve with a Black president." .... "By the way, I'm proud to be, as I said, the first vice president, first Black woman, to serve with a Black president," he said.

Israeli forces on Monday released the director of Gaza’s biggest hospital, Al Shifa, after more than six months in detention during which he claimed he was brutally “tortured” and “beaten” by the military. Dr Mohammad Abu Salmiya, who was released along with about 50 other detained Palestinians ...

Russia dropped dozens of its glide bombs on its own territory between April 2023 to April 2024, an intercepted internal document found. At least 38 of the munitions fell on the Belgorod region close to Ukraine, according to The Washington Post, which cited bomb cleanup and evacuation documents obtained by Ukrainian intelligence. The majority of bombs, largely undetonated, were found by civilians in areas surrounding the city. Four bombs have hit the city of Belgorod itself. The first recorded accidental bomb drop fell on a central street in Belgorod in April 2023, creating a 65ft crater, shattering windows and blowing...

The Parliamentary faction of President Emmanuel Macron has been utterly destroyed in the unexpected snap election he called just three weeks ago, with Le Pen’s Party looking to nearly treble its seat holding. Polling has closed in France for the first round of this week-long Parliamentary election. While actual seat distribution won’t be fully known, the exit polls following this knock-out round have given a confident answer that Marine Le Pen’s nationalist-populist National Rally (RN) won the day. Per the exit polls, her faction gained 34 per cent of the vote, while the left-wing coalition founded for the purpose of...

An initial eight-day Boeing Starliner test mission to the International Space Station will be extended indefinitely to test the spacecraft's thrusters. Test pilots Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are safely aboard the ISS and are not stranded in space, NASA commercial crew program manager Steve Stich said ... But there is no targeted return date "until we get the testing completed," Stich said. ... The Starliner's service module contains thrusters, helium lines and other systems that NASA officials need to study before discarding the module upon re-entry and allowing it to burn up. Those components require further study to determine...

Editor's note: NASA announced on Friday that Starliner's troubleshooting has been extended for a third time, meaning that the astronauts will stay aboard the International Space Station indefinitely until some time in July. Two NASA astronauts who rode to orbit on Boeing's Starliner are stranded in space aboard the ISS after engineers discovered numerous issues with the Boeing spacecraft. Teams on the ground are now racing to assess Starliner's status. Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams were originally scheduled to return to Earth on June 13 after a week on the ISS, but their stay has been extended for a...

CBS News labels the clip a “digitally altered video” but it’s the exact version shared by the White House

A US police officer from the city of San Diego resigned after an ’embarrassing incident’ emerged last year, where he was forced to seek help from a fellow policeman after he became locked in the backseat of his police cruiser with a woman he had arrested for suspected car theft. The officer identified as Anthony Hair had been assisting in the arrest of individuals suspected of car theft on the night of August 15, 2023. One of the arrested individuals was a woman with an outstanding bench warrant, according to the KFMB San Diego outlet. According to the internal investigation,...

Five Russian scientists who died in a plane crash on Tuesday had been helping Iran with nuclear secrets, it has been revealed. They were among 45 killed when the plane's lights failed in heavy fog and careered into a motorway before bursting into flames - leading conspiracy theorists to believe it was a deliberate plot to kill the nuclear experts. Russian security sources confirmed that the dead scientists worked at the controversial Bushehr nuclear plant on the Iranian Persian Gulf.

I haven't cross checked this but...

Ottawa, Ontario, Canada author Clive Douglas Campbell and Phoenix, Arizona, USA publisher Selah Publishing Group are pleased to announce the release of Messiah: 2030. Nobody knows the day and hour of the Second Coming, but the following years are on the front cover: Messiah: 2030 Cluny: 1030 Jesus: 30 David: 970 Abraham: 1970 Noah: 2970 Adam: 3970 Messiah: 2030 claims the Bible prophesies a sixth Arab-Israeli war will be over in 2003 and include the following: --the Palestinians will be deported to Jordan --Israel will go to war with Jordan, possess Jordanian land east of the Jordan River and King...

A North Carolina cafe customer is out $2,000 as her go-to diner posted her entire credit card information online for the world to see. Rhonda Deaver paid her weekly visit to Smith’s Cafe in Kinston following her doctor’s appointment on April 30 and dined at the restaurant, approximately 80 miles southeast of Raleigh. During her drive home, Deaver received a call from her bank telling her she left her credit card at the cafe. When she returned to the diner, cafe staff told Deaver they had taken a picture of the front and back of the card and posted it...

The Ukrainian army has come under rare criticism from military analysts for allegedly bungling up a troops rotation that allowed Russia to capture 5km of land, highlighting the strains Kyiv’s forces are under as they await the arrival of fresh US aid. Deep State, a Ukrainian analytical group with ties to the defence ministry, on Wednesday said the Russian advance late last week in the southern part of the village of Ocheretyne had been caused by a rotation that left the area unprotected. The criticism comes a day after the US Senate approved a $61bn aid package for Kyiv which...