Free Republic

Trains loaded with large amounts of Russian military hardware, including tanks and other heavy armored vehicles, as well as heavy artillery, appear to be streaming toward the country's borders with Ukraine. There are unconfirmed reports that the scale of these movements is so significant that it has, to the dismay of Russian farmers, disrupted shipments of tractors and other agricultural equipment ahead of the spring harvest season. U.S. officials are now worried that a new major round of fighting between Russia and Ukraine may be imminent as a ceasefire is at risk of expiring tomorrow.It's not entirely clear when the...

Vladimir Putin's government had nothing to say on Thursday about his biggest critic, opposition leader Alexey Navalny, going on hunger strike in prison to protest what he's described as a lack of proper medical care. In a handwritten statement, a picture of which was posted online by his allies on Wednesday, Navalny said that his physical condition was worsening, but that he'd been unable to see a doctor of his choice and receive necessary medications.

The Orange County, California, mass shooting suspect has been identified as 44-year-old Aminadab Gaxiola Gonzalez.Breitbart News reported that four people were killed in the Orange County attack, including one child.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) introduced a proposal on April 1 that would ban COVID-19 vaccination mandates as well as so-called vaccine passports. The We Will Not Comply Act would ban documents that show who has been vaccinated or recently tested negative for the CCP virus. The concept of requiring certification has been rejected by pro-privacy groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Greene’s measure likely won’t be taken up by the Democratic-controlled House of Representatives, and if it is, it will be unlikely to pass. It would “prevent any business engaged in interstate commerce from discriminating against...

Explanation: Have you ever seen a rocket launch -- from space? A close inspection of the featured time-lapse video will reveal a rocket rising to Earth orbit as seen from the International Space Station (ISS). The Russian Soyuz-FG rocket was launched in November 2018 from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, carrying a Progress MS-10 (also 71P) module to bring needed supplies to the ISS. Highlights in the 90-second video (condensing about 15-minutes) include city lights and clouds visible on the Earth on the lower left, blue and gold bands of atmospheric airglow running diagonally across the center, and distant stars...

During an interview with ESPN aired on Wednesday’s “SportsCenter,” President Joe Biden said he would “strongly support” Major League Baseball moving its All-Star Game out of Atlanta over Georgia’s election law and said that “today’s professional athletes are acting incredibly responsibly” in leagues like the NBA. Host Sage Steele asked, “Mr. President, what do you think about the possibility that baseball decides to move their All-Star Game out of Atlanta because of this political issue?” Biden responded, “I think today’s professional athletes are acting incredibly responsibly. I would strongly support them doing that. People look to them. They’re leaders. Look...

Who? Us? A Nevada university is now denying claims it designated “identity-based” dorm rooms that were deemed off limits to whites. Reason? “For the safety of student participants.” The Young America’s Foundation claimed on Wednesday that the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR) doesn’t allow white students to live with African-American, Native American, and Latino classmates at a campus dorm. But according to the Daily Mail, UNR said the report was wrong and that the official in charge of the dorms “misspoke.” The Great Basin Hall dorm has a “living learning communities” philosophy. Four of the LLC are distinctly identity-based —...

The White House is pushing an infrastructure bill that could reshape the discussion around capitalism as it seems to reestablish the federal government as a primary driver of how the economy should grow and function. In addition to traditional infrastructure projects, Biden’s $2.25 trillion American Jobs Plan would make government investments in broadband, electric vehicles, climate change, elderly care, child benefits, housing and developing future technologies. It would redefine classic infrastructure projects to include investments in workers and families paid for by tax hikes on corporations. The ambitious proposal effectively transforms the relationship between the government and the private sector,...

...Background checks in March were up 36% from February, as around 4.7 million were initiated, FBI data shows, according to CNN.The number of checks do not equal the number of guns purchased, but they do tend to correlate with the volume of sales. Gun sales have historically trended higher as safety fears gripped America or when citizens anticipated upcoming gun control measures.

What did Floyd's girlfriend say?Ms Ross is the first person to testify who personally knew Mr Floyd. She told the court that she met Mr Floyd in 2017 in the lobby of a Salvation Army homeless shelter, where he worked as a security guard and she was waiting to see the father of her son. She said Mr Floyd asked if she would pray with him. "It was so sweet and at the time I had lost a lot of faith in God," she said, adding that they kissed that night. She said their first meeting was "one of my...

SAN RAMON, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Today the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit unanimously ruled that the City of New York’s climate change lawsuit against Chevron and a group of other energy producers is without merit and must be dismissed. The court upheld the federal district court’s decision that the City’s claims are barred, holding that municipalities cannot “utilize state tort law to hold multinational oil companies liable for the damages caused by global greenhouse gas emissions.” While recognizing that “[g]lobal warming is one of the greatest challenges facing humanity today,” the court explained also that “[g]lobal warming presents...

A paramedic who testified at the trial of Derek Chauvin on Thursday criticized Minneapolis police officers for not doing chest compressions on George Floyd at the scene, saying “any layperson can do chest compressions.” The criticism came during defense attorney Eric Nelson's cross examination of Derek Smith, the paramedic. “Any layperson can do chest compressions. There’s no reason Minneapolis couldn’t have started chest compressions,” Smith told Nelson as the defense attorney questioned him over treatment offered to Floyd in the back of an ambulance after paramedics arrived on the scene. Smith testified on the fourth day in the trial of...

I must admit to spending a good deal of this month reliving my childhood by watching reruns of the Bob Barker era of ‘The Price is Right.’ Come on Down! The streaming service Pluto.tv launched the Bob Barker Era ‘Price is Right’ Channel in early December. I couldn’t resist taking a peek. And I’ll confess that I’ve spent a number of hours this month watching those old shows. Pluto.tv escaped my notice until I learned about their ‘Price’ plans. It turns out ViacomCBS now owns the streaming service. It also owns CBS, the network where The Price is Right made...

For two weeks, Delta Air Lines and Coca-Cola had been under pressure from activists and Black executives who wanted the companies to publicly oppose a new law in Georgia that makes it harder for people to vote. On Wednesday, six days after the law was passed, both companies stated their “crystal clear” opposition to it. Now Republicans are mad at the companies for speaking out. Hours after the companies made their statements, Gov. Brian Kemp, a Republican, took aim at Ed Bastian, the chief executive of Delta, accusing him of spreading “the same false attacks being repeated by partisan activists.”...

Pfizer says its vaccine is preventing 91% of coronavirus cases in the six months after people are immunised. And a separate study shows even people in their 80s and 90s are producing impressive levels of antibodies after receiving both doses of the vaccine. Only 63% of them, however, also produce the T-cells that help maintain those antibodies in the longer term. And the crucial question of how long the protection from the vaccine lasts remains unanswered. Pfizer analysed data from 46,000 people on the original clinical trial, exactly six months after their second dose. It also looked at 800 trial...

A federal judge ordered pop star Lil Nas X’s “Satan Shoes” to cease being sold, siding with Nike after it filed a lawsuit against the design company MSCHF Product Studio, which Nike says customized the Air Max 97 shoes without permission. The “Old Town Road” singer caused chaos last week following the unveiling of his limited edition satanic-theme shoes, which are said to contain a drop of human blood. The initial unveil caused confusion and uproar from fans who thought the shoe was made in collaboration with Nike, which the company ultimately denied. Nike followed up with a lawsuit on...

Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte signed legislation outlawing sanctuary cities in the state. “We are a nation of laws, and immigration laws will be enforced in Montana. Criminal, illegal aliens who pose public safety threats to our communities have no sanctuary in Montana,” Gianforte said before signing the bill. The legislation, HB200, prohibits local jurisdictions in the state from adopting sanctuary city policies and outlines penalties for cities that do not comply with the law. The state’s legislature had passed similar legislation in 2019, but that effort was vetoed by Democratic former Gov. Steve Bullock. The move comes as a growing...

What could be the nation’s first commercial advanced nuclear power reactor would be built and operated near Richland under a partnership agreement signed Thursday. X-energy, of Rockville, Md., will work with Energy Northwest of Richland and Grant County PUD to develop, build and operate an 80-megawatt reactor, the Xe-100, on land already leased by Energy Northwest at the Hanford nuclear reservation in Eastern Washington.

Poland chose not to take the knee before Wednesday's World Cup qualifier with England after the country's FA president described the gesture as 'the last topic that interests us'. England players opted to take the knee just seconds before the match at Wembley kicked off, with the visiting players choosing to point to the 'Respect' UEFA badge on their shirts instead of joining in. The move comes a day after Czech Republic players pointed at the same part of their match shirt as Wales players took the knee before Tuesday's World Cup qualifier in Cardiff.

The media has been abuzz lately with calls to revive the "Fairness Doctrine". CNN, MSNBC, CBS, along with a number of other major media outlets including the New York Times and Washington Post are now demanding that something be done to stop what they call, 'disinformation". What disinformation is seems to be defined by anything they don’t like and is almost exclusively conservative content. Online, the attack against opposing ideas has been even more aggressive with Big-tech companies selectively banning people and arbitrarily removing anything to which they are opposed. Following a number of successes in having conservative outlets defunded,...