Free Republic

Allies are increasingly divided on further heavy-weapons shipments to KyivCracks are appearing in the Western front against Moscow, with America’s European allies increasingly split over whether to keep shipping more powerful weapons to Ukraine, which some of them fear could prolong the conflict and increase its economic fallout.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) is facing major tests of his ability to unite the Democratic caucus heading into a turbulent summer stretch. Schumer, who has touted unity as a crucial asset, will now need to rally Senate Democrats to stick together amid new signs of division between moderate Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and a progressive wing that is increasingly restless five months into the party’s control of Congress. Whether he succeeds will have sweeping ramifications for not only President Biden’s agenda, with fights over a slew of policy goals in June and July and...

In fact, we’re talking about charging these up at night, so there won’t be any solar at that time. So we’re down to wind, and very often at night, the wind does fall off. GM’s Zimmerman then says: I don’t think coal is bad. It’s got lovely BTUs. It’s got lovely energy value. ...Similarly, the film explains that the Koch Brothers build the mirrors used in solar panels. Josh Fox, the director of Gasland, led a campaign to have the film taken down and for Michael Moore to issue an apology:

Cracks in the universe: the search for cosmic strings Galaxy-sized filaments of raw energy may be threaded through spacetime, according to some theories. Will we ever find traces of them? Cathal O’Connell takes up the hunt. Share Tweet Tatyun / Getty Images Our universe exploded into being, expanded at a fantastic speed and cooled. Perhaps too quickly. Some physicists believe the rapid cooling might have cracked the fabric of the universe.These hairline fractures may still be threaded through space-time. Dubbed cosmic strings, mathematical models see them as invisible threads of pure energy, thinner than an atom but light-years long. The...

Some strange booms have shaken residents in Fond du Lac County, Wisconsin. The series of explosion-like sounds rattled residents from Waupun, Campbellsport and elsewhere Tuesday and sent Fond du Lac County sheriff's deputies out looking for a cause. Geologists say the booms were likely a phenomenon commonly known as an ice quake.

<p>Flaws in nuts that hold up lights throughout the Big Dig’s tunnels may be the result of workers overtightening the fasteners when they were first installed, a top highway official said Thursday.</p> <p>Highway officials revealed this week that an inspector had discovered a cracked nut on a light fixture in the Ted Williams Tunnel in September. After further inspection of the Williams Tunnel and the Interstate 90 Connector and Interstate 93 tunnels, officials said they believe hundreds of fasteners throughout the Big Dig tunnels are flawed and must be replaced.</p>

Boeing Co said on Friday that "hairline cracks" had been discovered in the wings of about 40 787 Dreamliners that are in production, marking another setback for the company's newest jet. The cracks have not been found on planes that are in use by airlines and therefore posed no safety risk, Boeing said, adding the problem also will not alter Boeing's plans to deliver 110 787s this year. Wing-maker Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd notified Boeing in February of the problem, which arose after the Japanese company altered its manufacturing process. He added that the manufacturing change was probably aimed at...

Security forces arrest nearly two dozen PFLP operatives running terrorist cells near Jerusalem; were planning on kidnapping IDF soldiers, shootings, and bombings; many had previously served in Israeli prisons. The IDF and Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) have arrested close to two dozen Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) operatives who were running a number of terror cells near Jerusalem and were planning to kidnap soldiers and perpetrate other terror attacks against Israel, it was released for publication on Sunday. Some of the operatives, the Shin Bet said, were Arabs from east Jerusalem in possession of Israeli identity...

As part of Monday's iOS 4 upgrade, Apple patched a record 65 vulnerabilities in the iPhone, more than half of them critical... However, the first-generation iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as the much newer iPad, may be vulnerable to some or all of the 65 bugs... Formerly known as iPhone OS 4, iOS 4 included patches for 35 bugs, or 54% of the total, that were tagged with the phrase "arbitrary code execution," which is Apple's way of saying the vulnerability is critical and could be used to hijack an iPhone or an iPod Touch.

May 30, 2010 Chinese dam causes quakes and landslides Michael Sheridan and Richard Jones Roads are cracked in the Huang Gu Po district of Badong on the lower reaches of the Three Gorges Dam Some of the damage caused can be seen in Badong The Three Gorges dam was so vast and sweeping a vision that nothing could stand in its way. Not the old cities of the Yangtze valley, storehouses of human toil and treasure for more than a thousand years. Not the lush, low-lying farmlands, nor the villages, nor even the pagodas and temples that graced the riverbanks....

The drift net of the U.S. intelligence system had detected the alleged Fort Hood gunman months before last week's shooting rampage. But the nature of his communications with an Al Qaeda-connected, Islamic scholar was non-threatening and did not warrant further investigation, according to officials briefed on the case.

The Obama adminstration has imposed financial sanctions on a company accused of involvement in North Korea's missile proliferation network.

Turning their Backs on Jihad By Britta Sandberg More and more prominent terrorists are defecting from the cause. The Egyptian theologian Dr. Fadl is the best known, but many others are likewise reconsidering. Experts see it as a delayed reaction to the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. Noman Benotman walks into a restaurant on Park Lane, the exclusive, minimalist sort of place that is currently all the rage in London. People in business suits converse in hushed tones at nearby tables. Benotman, wearing an orange polo shirt and a gray checked blazer, fits in perfectly. Benotman, a 41-year-old man from...

Southwest Airlines discovered fuselage cracks on four of the airplanes that it grounded for inspections Wednesday, the airline said today.The Dallas-based carrier took 38 Boeing 737 planes out of service to check for cracks in the exterior above and below passenger windows. It also checked five planes that were already parked for maintenance, and one plane that had recently been retired from the fleet.A spokeswoman said that 34 of the planes passed the inspections and were returned to service today."Four were held for surface repairs, and we expect to have them back in service by the weekend," said spokeswoman Brandy...

NEW ORLEANS - Fed up with crime and political corruption, New Orleans' business leaders in 1952 organized to flush out the twin poisons they believed were harming economic development. It was a time when illegal gambling and the Carlos Marcello crime family operated openly in a city that was a bustling business hub. Fast forward 55 years. Gambling is legal and the mob has faded into obscurity. The city's economy is a shadow of its former self, thanks to the 1980s oil bust, an exodus of big businesses and the shattering blow of Hurricane Katrina, which ran off at least...

(IsraelNN.com) Legal action is being taken against two Muslim charities in the United States due to their support of the Hamas and Hizbullah terrorist groups. On Tuesday, the US Treasury began legal action against the Iran-based Martyrs Foundation and what it says is a front-group for it – the Goodwill Charitable Organization (GCO), which has a US branch in Dearborn, Michigan. The organization is accused of providing funding to Hizbullah. Action was also initiated against al-Qard al-Hassan, a Lebanese firm believed to have been used by Hizbullah as a front for managing its finances. The administrative order also includes a...

WASHINGTON -- It may be too early to make any predictions about the 2008 elections, but it's likely the Republicans will win back a number of House seats they lost last year. Indeed, as I noted in an earlier column, Democrats hold at least eight of the nine "most vulnerable" House seats, according to veteran congressional-elections analyst Stuart Rothenberg.

ISLAMABAD (AFP) - Pakistan's military ruler President Pervez Musharraf is battling serious dissent within his own party, weakening a crucial cornerstone of the US-led "war on terror," analysts and party officials say. The man who survived at least two Al-Qaeda assassination attempts stirred up a hornet's nest when he suspended the country's top judge, Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, on March 9. Opponents say he wanted to intimidate the judiciary before seeking re-election in uniform from the outgoing parliament -- despite the fact that the constitution says he should quit as army chief by the end of 2007. After trying...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bad storm in Alaska last October generated an ocean swell that broke apart a giant iceberg near Antarctica six days later, U.S. researchers reported on Monday. The waves traveled 8,300 miles to destroy the iceberg, said Douglas MacAyeal of the University of Chicago and Emile Okal at Northwestern University. Writing in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, they said their study shows how weather in one region can affect events far away. "One of the things we're debating in the world right now is whether global warming might increase the storminess in the oceans," MacAyeal said in...

Taliban exposes cracks in Nato Simon Tisdall Tuesday September 12, 2006 The Guardian (UK) Nato chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer's public plea today for up to 2,500 additional soldiers to fight alongside British, Canadian and Dutch forces in southern Afghanistan has highlighted deep internal strains in the alliance caused by unexpectedly fierce Taliban resistance in Helmand and Kandahar provinces. The Nato secretary-general's appeal followed an unsuccessful attempt to drum up more support from leading members such as France, Germany, Italy and Spain in Warsaw at the weekend. A formal force generation conference will be held today. "We are working on...