Free Republic

The outlets include Voice of Europe, which was foiled as a Russian influence operation by Czech secret services in March. The European Union has announced a ban on four media outlets accused of spreading pro-Kremlin propaganda and "destabilising" Ukraine's neighbouring countries. The four blacklisted outlets - Voice of Europe, RIA Novosti, Izvestia and Rossiyskaya Gazeta - are "under the permanent direct or indirect control" of Russia and have been "instrumental" in fostering support for its illegal invasion of Ukraine, the European Council said in a statement on Friday. "The Russian Federation has engaged in a systematic, international campaign of media...

On Friday’s “CNN News Central,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) stated that President Joe Biden’s threat to withhold certain weapons from Israel took pressure off Hamas and in doing so made it less likely to get a ceasefire deal, which makes it harder to get aid into Gaza and free the hostages. Moskowitz said that while he has issues with the House bill to force Biden to transfer weapons to Israel, the bill won’t become law anyway, so those concerns aren’t hugely relevant, and “my main purpose for voting for the bill is what I said earlier when the President decided...

WARSAW, Poland (AP) – Poland is investing about $2.5 billion to step up security and deterrence on its border with Russia and its ally Belarus, the prime minister said Saturday. Donald Tusk said work on the Shield-East project which includes building proper military fortifications has already begun. Poland is on the eastern flank of NATO and of the European Union and Tusk stressed it bears additional responsibility for Europe’s security.

A divisive mobilization law in Ukraine came into force Saturday, as Kyiv struggles to boost troop numbers after Russia launched a new offensive that some fear could close in on Ukraine's second-largest city. The legislation, which was watered down from its original draft, will make it easier to identify every conscript in the country. It also provides incentives to soldiers, such as cash bonuses or money toward buying a house or car, that some analysts say Ukraine cannot afford.

Oakland has removed the traffic lights from one intersection and replaced them with 4-way stop signs due to people stealing copper and then tampering with an electrical box. It's a sight that has made drivers do a double take: a stop sign hanging overhead where a traffic light would normally be, located above the intersection of E. 12th Street and 16th Avenue in Oakland. Neighbors said city workers removed the all the traffic lights in the last week and replaced them with four-way stop signs. The installation came after months of people stealing copper wires and tampering with the city...

Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell has tested positive for COVID-19 and is experiencing related symptoms. Powell tested positive late Thursday. "Following Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance, he is staying away from others and working at home,” a Fed spokesperson said.

New York City is losing drugstores as retail theft continues to surge. Gotham has logged 21,578 shoplifting complaints this year through May 12, up 5% from the 20,552 thefts during the same period last year. Manhattan has seen 8,896 incidents of retail theft alone. Crime is so rampant, national chains like Target, CVS and Walgreens are closing locations and tempering expansion plans. Target announced at the end of last year the closure of nine stores across four states, including one in Harlem, due to theft.

Iranian authorities have sentenced a Jewish man to die — and they plan to carry out the execution as soon as Monday, sources told The Post. The case has sent a shockwave through the tiny Jewish community in the Islamic Republic, and Iranian Jewish expats and others in the Jewish community in New York and Israel are sounding the alarm that it is a clear miscarriage of justice. Arvin Ghahremani, 20, was working out at the gym in the Iranian city of Kermanshah, about 500 miles outside of Tehran, in November 2022 when he was ambushed by seven men, one...

Teachers’ grading practices have changed and students’ grades have drifted up in recent years, a pandemic-era legacy that is being met with mixed reaction from educators across the country. Dating back to 2020, when the pandemic upended American education overnight, many schools have adopted a more lenient approach to grading. Some eliminated zeros or removed penalties for late work. Many teachers report “giving grace” to struggling students. Others say they have felt pressure from administrators to limit failure rates. Higher grades have come even as students’ test scores and attendance rates have dropped. A study in Washington state found that...

Federal law enforcement agencies are warning that ISIS may be looking to target Pride events. Sergio Quintana reports. One comment at the video already notes this as a possible False Flag

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher reacted to the United Kingdom and Scandinavian nations walking back transitioning children by saying that America has tried to be so progressive, it’s actually behind the rest of the world and that the American medical establishment won’t make the same corrections other nations have because “They’re afraid.” Maher stated, “Let me add one more thing to our discussion there about rolling back some of the overexcesses in 2020…this is in the U.K., they are now pronouncing the United States as way behind. This is so, to me, symbolic of so...

Surprising no one, the staunchly conservative Arkansas Supreme Court unanimously upheld four 2021 state laws that make voting in Arkansas less pleasant, less convenient and less likely to count. In an opinion issued Thursday, the seven-member court overturned former Pulaski County Circuit Judge Wendell Griffen’s 2022 ruling that the four laws at issue hindered the fundamental right to vote and were therefore unconstitutional. [snip] The 2021 laws the state Supreme Court upheld Thursday are: Act 973, which shortens the window to turn in absentee ballots, moving the deadline from the Monday before Election Day to the Friday before. Act 736,...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan claimed on Wednesday that Israel would "set its sights" on Turkey if it succeeded in defeating Hamas in the Gaza Strip, AFP reported. "Do not think that Israel will stop in Gaza," Erdogan told his party lawmakers in the parliament in the capital Ankara. "Unless it's stopped... this rogue and terrorist state will set its sights on Anatolia sooner or later," he added, referring to the large Turkish peninsula also called Asia Minor that comprises more than half of Turkey's territory. "We will continue to stand by Hamas, which fights for the independence of its...

ST. LOUIS, Mo. (First Alert 4) - A man has been charged after he was shot while reportedly trying to break into a home Tuesday morning. The incident took place around 4 a.m. Tuesday in the 2200 block of Empress Drive. According to St. Louis County police, a man forced entry into a home when the homeowner shot him. The suspect ran off on foot but was tracked down by a police K9. He was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries following the shooting. First Alert 4 spoke to the homeowner who didn’t want to go on camera but did...

Donald Trump is a homophobe, sexist, and racist declared far-left Mayor of London Sadiq Khan while urging his party to do more to “call him out”. The “special relationship” between the United Kingdom and the United States may be in store for choppy waters as polls suggest former President Donald Trump is set to return to the White House and the left-wing Labour Party is widely projected to take power in Westminster as the two countries head towards general elections later this year.

BERLIN (AP) – German authorities closed down Munich airport temporarily on Saturday after six climate activists broke through a security fence and glued themselves to access routes leading to runways, officials and local media reported. The activists from the group Last Generation were protesting flying, the most polluting form of transportation, said the German news agency dpa. Police have detained the six. Incoming flights had to be diverted to other airports, an airport spokesperson said. After a couple of hours, the airport’s two runways were reopened though some disruptions to flight schedules may happen, a statement on the airport´s official...

Not long ago, President Biden promised to transform the American auto industry — “first with carrots, now with sticks” is the analogy The Washington Post used. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m not sure I’d trust the president to drive my car, much less dictate the future of industrial policy. Yet Biden implemented draconian emissions limits for all vehicles, ensuring that within nine years 67% of all new passenger cars and trucks will be electric. In the old days, a centralized state controlling manufacturing and commerce, production, prices, wages and conditions in our biggest sectors would be called...

Every two years one hears the next election will be one of the most important ever. The truth is every election is important because it determines the laws we live under, how we are taxed, and the kind of society we live in. But it’s not an overstatement to say that Tuesday’s primary election may be the most important election in recent memory. I say that after following Idaho politics for the past five decades, first as a journalist and now as an advocate for education. With so much at stake, this election will decide whether we remain stuck in...

Ocean temperatures that have gone “crazy haywire” hot, especially in the Atlantic, are close to making the current global coral bleaching event the worst in history. It's so bad that scientists are hoping for a few hurricanes to cool things off. More than three-fifths — 62.9% — of the world's coral reefs are badly hurting from a bleaching event that began last year and is continuing. That's nearing the record of 65.7% in 2017, when from 2009 to 2017 about one-seventh of the world's coral died, said Derek Manzello, coordinator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coral Reef Watch...