Free Republic

FIRST ON FOX: The global government-surplus auction house that listed unused components of President Donald Trump’s border wall under the Biden administration told Fox News Digital on Friday that it plans to coordinate with the Trump administration to return some of the materials to the federal government. In January 2021, President Joe Biden set in motion the chain of events that would eventually lead to the sale of unconstructed border wall components and implements. "Like every nation, the United States has a right and a duty to secure its borders and protect its people against threats. But building a massive...

A SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nichole Ayers along with mission specialists JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency) astronaut Takuya Onishi, and Roscosmos cosmonaut Kirill Peskov splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 9, 2025. Credit: SpaceX Splashdown! SpaceX Crew-10 astronauts and cosmonaut back on Earth | 12:06 VideoFromSpace | 2.02M subscribers | 47,832 views | August 9, 2025

The dispersal of archaic hominins beyond mainland Southeast Asia (Sunda) represents the earliest evidence for humans crossing ocean barriers to reach isolated landmasses. Previously, the oldest indication of hominins in Wallacea, the oceanic island zone east of Sunda, comprised flaked stone artifacts deposited at least 1.02 million years ago at the site of Wolo Sege on the island of Flores. On Sulawesi, the largest Wallacean island, previous excavations revealed stone artifacts with a minimum age of 194,000 years at the open site of Talepu. Now, archaeologists from Griffith University show that stone artifacts also occur at the nearby site of...

Recently, a mysterious discovery has resurfaced on social media, reigniting debates and curiosity worldwide: the so-called "lost city" said to lie beneath the waters off the coast of Cuba. More than 20 years ago, this underwater site first caught the attention of archaeologists and scientists, but it has remained largely unexplored since. Given the renewed interest online, we’ve taken a closer look at the international reports and expert opinions surrounding this fascinating -- yet still unconfirmed -- find that could potentially rewrite parts of human history.In 2001, a Canadian research team reported finding massive stone structures deep beneath the ocean’s...

A Texas real estate magnate and trophy hunter was killed by a Cape buffalo during a hunting expedition in South Africa, according to a safari company, which described the incident as "sudden and unprovoked." Asher Watkins had been tracking the bull for a kill when the large horned animal staged an attack first. "Asher was fatally injured in a sudden and unprovoked attack by an unwounded buffalo he was tracking together with one of our professional hunters and one of our trackers," said Hans Vermaak, leader of the safari company Coenraad Vermaak Safaris (CVS), in a statement. "The family and...

Archaeologists in Croatia have unearthed the remains of a 1,800-year-old watchtower that was erected to help the Romans defend the "limes" -- the border along the Danube River that marked the frontier of the Roman Empire.Roman artifacts revealed at the site, including military equipment, brooches and ceramic vessels, indicate that the watchtower was constructed in the late second century A.D. and used in the third century A.D., the team reported...During the Marcomannic Wars (circa A.D. 166 to 180), Roman soldiers under the rule of emperor Marcus Aurelius fought several peoples -- including the Germanic Marcomanni who lived north of the...

A transgender bus driver took her own life by jumping in front of a train after colleagues kept referring to her as male. Ava Michal Hudson, 27, died on August 7 last year on her way to work at the Chicago Transit Authority, while in her uniform. She didn't leave a note and gave no indication she was suicidal before suddenly leaping to her death, just four days after attending her brother's wedding. 'Sadly, we’ll never fully know the reason for her death, but the pain left behind after her sudden departure has been acute,' her family wrote in her...

A violent eruption under Greenland’s ice exposed a secret lake and left a crater the size of a city. Credit: ESA | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel A hidden lake beneath Greenland’s Harder Glacier unexpectedly erupted, unleashing a powerful surge of water that carved a massive crater in the ice. The dramatic event caught researchers off guard, as water surged upward through thick ice, creating a profound impact on the glacier. Over just ten days, the lake released 23.8 billion gallons (90 million cubic meters) of water, equivalent to nine hours of Niagara Falls’ full-force flow. A Violent Flood...

The ancestors of all modern humans split off from a mystery population 1.5 million years ago and then reconnected with them 300,000 years ago, a new genetic model suggests. The unknown population contributed 20% of our DNA and may have boosted humans' brain function...In a study published Tuesday (March 18) in the journal Nature Genetics, researchers presented a new method of modeling genomic data, called "cobraa," that has allowed them to trace the evolution of modern humans (Homo sapiens).By applying their new method to modern human DNA data published in the 1000 Genomes Project and the Human Genome Diversity Project,...

In a groundbreaking discovery, scientists have found chemical traces of betel nut chewing in 4,000-year-old teeth from a Bronze Age burial in Thailand -- the earliest direct evidence of psychoactive plant use in Southeast Asia.By analyzing hardened dental plaque, researchers uncovered compounds linked to betel nut, a stimulant that boosts alertness and euphoria...One common side effect of regular chewing is teeth stained a deep reddish-brown or black.However, the absence of these stains does not necessarily mean the habit was avoided. A recent investigation by an international team used a cutting-edge technique to study ancient dental plaque from Bronze Age Thailand,...

The Airbus A400M Atlas isn't your typical passenger plane An unusual-looking military aircraft has been flying over California this past month, baffling spectators who say they witnessed it from the ground in the Bay Area. According to Flightradar24 records, the aircraft, an Airbus A400M Atlas, is part of the United Kingdom’s air force and has been flying out of Oceanside, Blythe and Yuma airports for the past several days. Two weeks ago, several people said they saw an A400 flying low by Morro Bay, while another said it passed over Cupertino. This strategic military aircraft isn’t your typical passenger plane,...

Scylax of Caryanda, a Greek in the service of the Persian Great King, is best known for his early exploration of India and for shaping what the ancient Greeks knew about the East. Born in the late 6th century BC in a Carian town of Asia Minor (Anatolia), he lived at the cultural crossroads of Greek and Persian influence. Scylax became both an explorer and a writer—an essential figure in the transmission of geographical knowledge between civilizations. Unfortunately, Scylax’s original writings have not survived. What we know of his life and work comes from fragments preserved by later historians like...

Using Google Earth, Justin Myers found some anomalies near Nikumaroro Island that he thinks are strikingly similar to Earhart’s lost plane. Here’s what you’ll learn when you read this story: * A pilot perusing Google Earth may have stumbled across the remnants of Amelia Earhart’s Lockheed Electra 10E * Inspired by a documentary on the final flight of Earhart and Fred Noonan, Justin Myers compared the measurements of anomalies in a Google Earth image to the components of the Earhart plane * Thus far, no major institutions have made any effort to investigate his claims =========================================================================== What would you do...

Russian scientists say they’ve built a new kind of engine that could cut the trip to Mars down to just one month. A working prototype already exists, and it’s unlike anything currently used in space. ============================================================= Russia’s New Plasma Engine. Credit: IZVESTIA/Sergey Lantyukhov | The Daily Galaxy --Great Discoveries Channel ============================================================= A new propulsion system developed by Russian scientists is generating buzz in the spaceflight community. According to researchers from Rosatom’s Troitsk Institute, a laboratory-tested magnetoplasma engine could make it possible to travel from Earth to Mars in as little as one to two months—a significant leap from today’s six-...

Vegas was better when the Mafia ran it. There, we said it. Back then, the city wasn’t a soulless corporate cash machine; it was a destination built for working-class Americans to have a good time, blow off some steam, and feel like high-rollers for a weekend. The Mafia understood their customers because they were their customers. They knew you didn’t nickel-and-dime a guy on his way to the blackjack table. You gave him cheap rooms, free drinks, affordable and abundant buffets, and enough glitz to make him feel like a big shot for a few days. The real money came...

If the average person is just as stupid as Vladimir Duthiers, I'm beginning to understand why they think Neil DeGrasse Tyson is a genius. CBS host questions if it is a good idea to colonize the moon because “we know how the Age of Colonialism worked on this planet." pic.twitter.com/bof7kap98O— Western Lensman (@WesternLensman) August 6, 2025Vladimir: Will [the moon] A., serve as a functional life source eventually for human beings? And B., we know how the age of colonialism worked on this planet. Should we be trying to colonize and saying there's a keep-out zone that no other countries can...

Beginning in January 1, 2026, all kayaks, rafts, and stand-up paddleboards (SUPs) will require a permit. The permit could be a 7-day permit ($6) or annual permit ($20). See more here. The agency says they must do this to educate and work against invasive species. We can find only two other states that require paddleboards (under 10 feet) to get a permit to use. This fits nicely with Oregon’s unique bike tax. Everything people love about Oregon is now being taxed and regulated. At the same time, the same agency is jacking up camping fees for out-of-state residents by 25%...

The mistakes of Amelia Earhart's final flight, and the physics that could have saved her. What Actually Happened To Amelia Earhart? | 36:35 Veritasium | 18.4M subscribers | 11,336,539 views | November 20, 2024 00:00 Amelia Earhart's final flight 03:33 Who was Amelia Earhart? 05:36 The flight plan 07:13 How celestial navigation works 09:16 Invention of radio technology 12:02 Radio waves explained 22:44 Earhart makes her critical decision 24:55 Communication failures 28:30 "Gas is running low" 31:39 Her desperate final message 33:01 The small detail that could have saved her

Passengers aboard a Cathay Pacific flight from Los Angeles to Hong Kong endured a nightmare journey that may have just broken the record for the world's longest commercial flight - but not in distance. Flight CX883 took off from LAX at 12:55 am on August 4 with nearly 300 passengers onboard, expecting a 13-hour transpacific trip. But a freak weather event over Hong Kong turned the flight into a 29-hour ordeal in the sky - and on the tarmac.

The Kaaba of Najran, which was built by Abdel-Midan al-Harthy, local historians are suggesting that its more likely to be a church which is mentioned by Al-A'sha: The Kaaba of Najran is bound to you until you approach by its doors and visit “Yazid” and Christ believer and consider them as the best of its owners. The Kaaba of Najran was built east of the city on a mountain called Teslal. Among the modern historians who spoke to the Kaaba of Najran, Dr. Muhammad Al-Zulfah, says: "When the Arabs started the name of Kaaba of Najran on this church because...