Free Republic

From the outside, Pixar’s narrative is a clear story of redemption: after an undeniably tough few years – battered by COVID-19 theater shutdowns, two Hollywood strikes, and a couple of box office disappointments – the studio needed a win, and that win was Inside Out 2. ...The sequel to Pete Docter’s Oscar-winning 2015 blockbuster is Pixar’s biggest hit in years, and it’s not even close. Inside Out 2 isn’t just Pixar’s highest-grossing film. It’s the highest-grossing animated movie of all time, sitting at a jaw-dropping $1.6 billion at the worldwide box office. It’s a stunning turn of events when considering...

When an Arab militia rampaged through Maryam Suleiman’s village in the Darfur region of Sudan last year and lined up men and boys to massacre, the gunmen were blunt about their purpose. “We don’t want to see any Black people,” a militia leader said, adding mockingly: “We don’t even want to see black trash bags.” To make his point, Maryam recalled, he shot a donkey because it was black. Then the militia members executed men and boys who belonged to Black African ethnic groups, she said. “They shot my five brothers, one after the other,” Maryam told me, describing how...

Emily Momoh of Camden Black British History Community Hub; mayor Councillor Samata Khatoon and Arthur Torrington CBE [Lennox Salmon]A MEMORIAL for the abolitionist Olaudah Equiano was unveiled near his burial place in Tottenham Court Road. With the support of London mayor Sadiq Khan, Equiano, also known as Gustavus Vassa, was honoured with the installation of a permanent memorial on the American Church’s walls last month.He was buried there in 1797.Equiano was born around 1745 and had been enslaved, but bought his freedom for £40 in 1766, became a businessman, explorer, community activist, writer, and an abolitionist.Olaudah EquianoHis bestselling book,...

The organic farm shop is a paradise for wealthy Germans. Behind the scenes, we pick and chop vegetables until we’re on the point of collapse ... they guaranteed work for at least 10 hours a day and that I would be paid €6.20 (£5.27) an hour. I would have to pay the agency a fee of €200 and a one-off sum of €105 for my bed. I would buy and cook my own food. They also told me to bring boots and rubber gloves. ... The contract I sign on about day three probably corresponds to the German labour code....

Since the aggression against Ukraine, Russia has lost most of its Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). The Bank of Russia admits that today Russian business can only count on itself. – The Russian economy needs money for structural transformation, but it can only count on its own resources – emphasized Elvira Nabiullina, Governor of the Bank of Russia, in the analysis “Main Directions of Development of the Russian Financial Market” for the Next Three Years, published on Monday FDI has fled Russia, count on your own money The authors emphasize that investments can be financed through the financial market not only...

.. Paris is a city whose police steal blankets from people they force to live on the streets while suppressing protests and criminalizing people who defend the rights of migrants and asylum seekers. ... The walls of Fortress Europe are constantly raised higher, the isolation increasingly brutal. People fleeing face almost insurmountable bureaucratic and physical hurdles. The European border protection agency Frontex is the central instrument of this isolationist policy, which stigmatizes people seeking protection as a threat to European security and treats them accordingly. Human rights violations along the EU’s external borders are committed ondaily basis. Safe andlegal ways...

South Korea is set to buy up to 200 Polish Warmate drones from the WB Group. The sale had been rumoured for some time, but at Polish defence conference MSPO 2024, last week, WB Group chief operating officer Marcin Kubica confirmed the company’s intention to complete the sale and to begin supplying the drones by the end of 2024. “You expressed your wish to have Warmate systems this year,” Kubica said. “On behalf of the WB Group, I would like to express a commitment: you will have Warmate systems in [South] Korea this year.” Warmate drones are lightweight enough to...

It was the embrace that launched a thousand tweets: on Sunday, Taylor Swift hugged Brittany Mahomes – the wife of NFL quarterback Patrick Mahomes – at the US Open. A photo of the hug immediately had tongues wagging. If you’re not Extremely Online, the only thing that might stand out from the innocuous-seeming hug photo is that Swift’s boyfriend, Travis Kelce (also in the photo) has horrendous taste in hats. The broader context, however, is Mahomes’s link to Donald Trump. Last week the former president thanked Mahomes for “strongly defending me” after she liked one of his Instagram posts back...

After entering 2024 in a sorry state, Ukraine has notched up a series of notable achievements since the start of the year, giving fresh impetus to its fight back against Russia. ... Western allies have let it use some of the missile systems they've supplied to hit targets inside Russia, with notable caveats, giving it a better chance to defend itself against incoming Russian attacks. And it also regained the initiative with its surprise incursion into the Russian region of Kursk in August, even while gradually losing ground in eastern Ukraine. "What Ukraine has done in the past month, starting...

Sweden will send its 17th aid package to Ukraine with further military support totalling 4.6 billion Swedish crowns ($443 million), Defence Minister Pal Jonson said on Monday. The new package will include ammunition for infantry fighting vehicles already donated by Sweden, as well as purchases that would facilitate a transfer of Gripen fighter jets in the future, though no such transfer has been decided on yet. "We want to have the ability to donate Gripens to Ukraine at a possible later stage," Jonson told a press conference. Jonson said support included additional combat boats, missiles and camouflage gear as well...

The chairwoman of the Swiss organization "Operation Libero" practices shooting in her free time. She boasted on social media about the results of one of her last sessions... she used a painting of the Virgin Mary with child, published in an auction house catalog, as a shield. Now the activist is asking for forgiveness. As reported by the Swiss portal blick.ch, the image that Sanija Ameti shot was placed in the catalog of a large auction house. It is a work of art with a classical aesthetic, showing the Blessed Virgin Mary with the Child Jesus. Ameti posted a story...

Russia's banks have practically emptied their stash of yuan, largely because Chinese financial firms are spooked from doing business with the nation. Lenders have urged Russia's central bank to address a yuan liquidity shortage in the nation, with insiders saying that access to the Chinese currency was running dry, Reuters reported. Russia's ruble dropped nearly 5% against the yuan earlier this week, Reuters noted. The drop came shortly after Russia's finance ministry suggested the Central Bank of Russia would shrink its daily yuan sales, with central bankers selling just $200 million a day, down from the $7.3 billion sold daily...

A drop in the share of Black first-year students at two elite colleges this school year has provided an early sign that the Supreme Court’s decision to end affirmative action could have an impact on racial diversity, at least at some of the nation’s more selective schools. At Amherst College the share of Black students decreased sharply — by 8% — for this year’s entering class. It decreased more moderately at Tufts University. At the University of Virginia the percentage of Black students also dipped, but only slightly. Amherst’s data showed that the percentage of white students enrolling rose sharply,...

...She’s vague to the point of vacuous. She struggled to give straight answers to her shifting positions on fracking and border security other than to say, “my values have not changed.” Fine, but she evaded the question of why it took the Biden administration more than three years to gain better control of the border, which it ultimately did through an executive order that could have been in place years earlier. It also doesn’t answer the question of why she reversed her former policy positions — or whether she has higher values other than political expediency. Harris also relied on...

I believe there are few, if any, nations in the modern world where independence means as much today as it does in Ukraine. Ukraine’s fight for independence took centuries. And when we finally got it after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, its successor, Russia, soon tried to subjugate Ukraine again. I’m Ukrainian but my first words were in Russian. In fact, all of my words were in Russian until I started school. Like many other Ukrainian families, mine used to be Ukrainian-speaking once, but was Russified over recent generations The big bang that changed it all happened in 2014....

Revival of India's defence deals with Ukraine will be one of the key areas of focus for PM Modi since the supply chain has been disrupted by the ongoing war with Russia. The ripple effects of this damage have been felt globally, making the potential discussions on defence during the visit all the more significant "In 2023, the Ukrainian defence industry produced weapons and equipment worth $3 billion, adding 1.5% to the country's GDP growth", wrote Wilson Center in its 'Defense Technology Investment in Ukraine Is Attractive but Awaits Greater Risk Insurance'. The report also highlights the challenges and opportunities...

The Prime Minister travelled to Kyiv from Poland in a ‘Rail Force One’ train Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday arrived in Ukraine on a historic visit to the war-torn country. This is the first visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Ukraine since the country became independent in 1991. The Prime Minister travelled to Kyiv from Poland in a ‘Rail Force One’ train that took around 10 hours. The return trip will also be of the same duration. Mr. Modi will hold both one-on-one and delegation-level talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with a focus on ways to find...

Liquor exports are on a high, led by a 26 percent rise in whiskey shipments in the first half of 2024, complementing the strong performance of Indian-made smartphones and electronics. A Moneycontrol analysis of commerce ministry data shows that India shipped spirits worth $78.5 million in the first six months of 2024. Blended whiskey, which accounts for half of the total whiskey exports, jumped 37 percent, and exporters are now aiming to grow the market for Indian-made single malt. Premium whiskey exports almost doubled to $6.3 million in the six months to June 30 from a year earlier.

Christian Solidarity Worldwide has learned that the commander of Brigade 20 of the Syrian National Army visited the local Christian community in Ras Al-Ein in northern Syria on 22 June and promised to support and protect the few remaining Christians in the town. Ras Al-Ein is close to the Syrian border with Turkey and is currently under the control of a coalition of Islamist militias. Abdulaziz Al-Sawadi, who is also known as Abou Barzan, controls an area 25 miles west of the town. Commander Al-Sawadi visited St Thomas Syriac Orthodox Church and the church's library. He expressed his commitment to...

Amid ideological hurdles facing Russia in occupied regions in Ukraine, evangelical churches are targets for Russian soldiers to allegedly root out anti-Russian sentiment, if not levy allegations of American havens for "spies." "You don't run a church: You run a nest of American spies," Russian soldiers who stormed Melitopol's Church of God's Grace told its Baptist pastor Mykhailo Brytsyn during interrogation after an armed takeover The evangelical churches are being targeted because the ideology is not in line with Putin's favored Russian Orthodox Church as Putin attempts to turn contested regions into full-hearted Russian territories after his years long war...