Free Republic

An incident involving sightings of aerial objects in Lithuanian airspace led to a temporary shutdown at Vilnius Airport over the weekend, according to investigators. The sightings, which officials have now confirmed were nearly two-dozen unauthorized hot-air balloons, delayed flights for several hours on Sunday. The balloons were reportedly carrying contraband cigarettes into the country’s airspace, investigators said. Officials with Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center said the incursion was one of the largest of its kind in recent memory, impacting close to 6,000 passengers on Sunday morning. The incident unfolded amid heightened concerns over recent reports of alleged drone incursions in...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s “my way or the highway” message to hundreds of generals and admirals at a summit in Virginia last week has sparked fears that some top leaders may choose to bow out of the U.S. military entirely. The departure of two senior leaders last week stoked those worries, though the Pentagon says they were unrelated to Hegseth’s ultimatum.“His speech directly attacked the values of many of the senior officers and enlisted members in the audience, and I would expect many of them to demonstrate their disgust by retiring,” Don Christensen, a retired Air Force colonel and former...

U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday urged Swedish career protester Greta Thunberg to see a doctor because, “… for a young person, she’s so angry. She’s so crazy.” Trump was speaking after Thunberg was deported from Israel along with 170 other activists who were detained while taking part in a flotilla bound for Gaza, as Breitbart News reported. He was asked about Thunberg during a press conference at the Oval Office. The president’s advice to the left-wing Swede was simple: “She is just a troublemaker … She has an anger management problem. I think she should see a doctor. If...

Singer and songwriter Taylor Swift released the new album “The Life of a Showgirl” on Friday, which included a song expressing a desire to “settle down” and have children. The new album prompted a wave of pushback from left-leaning women online, including one clip where a woman claimed Swift went on her “boyfriend’s football podcast” to “announce” it and proceeding to lace into the singer for tying herself to Travis Kelce and the National Football League. The Daily Caller’s Natalie Sandoval breaks down the situation for Media Madness. VIDEO AT LINK...............

Centuries of human history have been frozen in time inside the towering nests of bearded vultures, Europe’s most endangered raptors, and have revealed a surprising archive of ancient artefacts carried aloft by the birds themselves. A Spanish research team who were excavating 12 ancient eyries in southern Spain’s rugged cliffs uncovered 2,483 preserved remains in a study published recently in the Ecology journal. Among them: 2,117 animal bones, 86 hooves, 72 leather scraps, 43 eggshell fragments—and 226 human-made objects, some dating back over 650 years via carbon-14 analysis. “These nests have acted as natural museums,” the authors wrote, who credited...

According to the team the polarimetric behavior is "significantly different from all known comets (either interstellar or bound to our Solar System)". 3I/ATLAS imaged by NASA’s Spectro-Photometer for the History of the Universe, Epoch of Reionization and Ices Explorer (SPHEREx). Image credit: NASA/SPHEREx. ================================================================= Ateam of astronomers have presented the first polarimetric observations of interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS, finding that it has extreme negative polarization. On July 1, 2025, astronomers spotted an object moving through the Solar System at nearly twice the velocity of previous interstellar visitors ‘Oumuamua and Comet Borisov. The object was confirmed to be an interstellar comet with...

An Boeing 787 Dreamliner was forced to deploy its emergency Ram Air Turbine during final approach to Birmingham Airport on Saturday. An Air India Boeing 787 Dreamliner to Birmingham landed safely on Saturday, October 4, after the Ram Air Turbine (RAT) deployed during its final approach. The flight AI117 departed Amritsar Saturday, October 4 2025 for a 10-hour flight to Birmingham, UK. The Boeing 787 Dreamliner (registration VT-ANO) landed on runway 33 at 19:07 BST while pilots detected deployment of the Ram Air Turbine during final approach to Birmingham. According to an Air India spokesperson, the aircraft’s electrical and hydraulic...

On the October 1 episode of IMO—which Michelle Obama co-hosts with her older brother, Craig Robinson—the siblings discussed the realities of marriage, emphasizing that even strong relationships require work and support. "I try to be honest with the world, with the people who follow me and Barack, to our girls, because, you know, people look at our marriage as the ideal," the former first lady—who shares daughters Malia Obama, 27, and Sasha Obama, 24, with Barack Obama—said. "In Instagram world, you see two loving people doing a hard thing in the world, always on stage, giving each other a hug...

The president of the United States seemingly does not understand what the military is forNo dictator or would-be dictator on day one has ever assembled before him in one room the entire senior officer corps of his armed forces in order to have them belittled as failures and humiliated for their slovenly personal appearance, while degrading whole classes serving in the army, navy and air force degraded as inferior and unworthy. No dictator has ever pleaded for generals and admirals to applaud his remarks, followed by deafening silence.Donald Trump is used to entering to the din of a mob jazzed...

Up to 25 small hot-air balloons, some of them confirmed to be carrying smuggled cigarettes, entered Lithuanian airspace late Saturday and forced the shutdown of Vilnius Airport, delaying flights for hours, authorities said. The balloons interfered with 30 flights, impacting some 6,000 passengers, according to Lithuania’s National Crisis Management Center. Flights resumed at 4:50 a.m. Sunday (9:50 p.m. ET, Saturday). Two of the balloons flew above Vilnius Airport, according to spokesperson Darius Buta. More than two dozen reached the wider Vilnius County. The balloons were recorded flying between roughly 8:45 p.m. Saturday and 4:30 a.m. Sunday. Border police recovered 11...

“On behalf of AMC Theatres and the entire theatrical exhibition industry, I extend our sincerest appreciation to the iconic Taylor Swift for bringing her brilliance and magic to movie theatres this weekend,” AMC’s CEO Adam Aron said in a statement. “Her vision to add a cinematic element to her incredible album debut was nothing less than a triumph.” Her newest theatrical effort, “The Official Release Party of a Showgirl,” is dancing to the top of box office charts with $33 million over the weekend. The “cinematic experience,” as the project has been dubbed, collected another $13 million at the international...

We need to talk about it openly Friends, I’d like to talk with you about a difficult subject. A significant number of you are disoriented by what Trump and his lapdogs are doing. Many are deeply anxious. Some of us are depressed. For years, medical experts have recommended that Americans be screened for “anxiety disorders.” But what many of us are feeling now is not a personal disorder. It’s a rational response to a nation that’s becoming ever more disordered. What we’re experiencing is not a sickness or individual distress. It’s a sensible reaction to a society becoming sicker and...

Tibetan monk lived three centuries, weighs just 30 killo, has clear mind with strong memory, no signs of illness.

Rep. Madeleine "Next Tuesday" Dean (D-Pa.) on Wednesday confronted House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), urging the GOP leader to address comments made by the president during his address to generals in Quantico, Va. “The president is unhinged. He is unwell,” Dean told Johnson in front of a crowd and cameras. Johnson fired back by telling her, “A lot of folks on your side are, too.” Dean then pointed to President Trump’s remarks from the day prior, when he suggested Democratic-led cities be used as “training grounds” for the military. He and Hegseth also told service members that the days of...

It appears that a disgraced, retired U.S. Army colonel who led a "pup play" fetish ring that included junior officers while on active duty has surfaced as a sponsor for incoming midshipmen at the U.S. Naval Academy. When we last encountered Colonel Brian T. Connelly, he was outed as the leader of a fetish group that you probably, and fortunately, did not know existed ...

Red wood ants (Formica rufa) pheromone transmission. (Photo by Yuriy Bartenev on Shutterstock) In A Nutshell * Red wood ants carry Fructilactobacillus sanfranciscensis, the sourdough bacterium that can seed milk and trigger yogurt-like fermentation. * In lab conditions, four live ants added to warm milk led to curdling by morning at about pH 5 (store yogurt is ~4.2), with mild tang and grassy notes. * Ants contribute formic acid (about 1–2.5 g/L measured in the yogurt), lowering pH; ant-borne bacteria then make lactic and acetic acids and enzymes that cut milk proteins. * Only live ants yielded stable, desirable communities;...

A Tesla Cybertruck owner visiting Chicago for a conference captured video of a woman wiping dog feces on his vehicle, which features a distinctive American flag wrap with President Donald Trump’s signature in gold on the tailgate. Internet sleuths quickly identified the alleged perpetrator Fox 32 Chicago reports that John Evans, a visitor from Savannah, Georgia, parked his distinctive Tesla Cybertruck in Chicago’s Northalsted neighborhood on Wednesday while attending a conference. The vehicle, covered in an American flag wrappingand featuring President Donald Trump’s signature in gold leaf on the tailgate, caught the attention of a passerby who took offense to...

Dame Sarah Mullally has been named the first female Archbishop of Canterbury in the Church of England's history. A former chief nursing officer for England, Dame Sarah is now Archbishop of Canterbury-designate, ahead of a legal ceremony expected in the coming months to confirm her position as the Church's top bishop. She was selected to replace Justin Welby, who was forced to stand down last year over his handling of the Church of England's worst child abuse scandal.

Trump tweeted Tyrus 2:30 a.m. and got him in trouble with his wife. Filled up all of California's reservoirs, and Gavin Newsance is PO'd about it.

“As a longstanding protest, we believe strongly in the power of people, and love that Portlanders use bikes (and sometimes their bodies) to stand up for justice and community,” the official Portland World Naked Bike Ride said in a statement on Thursday.”