Free Republic

Dubai (AFP) – Russia's invasion of Ukraine has sent energy prices surging, but the oil-rich Gulf monarchies have so far resisted Western pressure to raise output, prioritising their own strategic and economic interests. The Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its allies (OPEC+), led by Riyadh and Moscow, failed Wednesday to respond to a call to produce more and faster, despite pressure on the Gulf states in particular. The group argued that the "current volatility is not caused by changes in market fundamentals but by current geopolitical developments," according to a press release. "Gulf countries are testing their ability to...

Athletes from the Russian Paralympic Committee (RPC) and the Paralympic Committee of the Republic of Belarus will not be allowed to compete at the 2022 Winter Paralympic Games in Beijing, following further sanctions from the International Paralympic Committee (IPC). Both nations were previously to compete under a neutral banner at the Games in light of the ongoing invasion of Ukraine, although Russian athletes were already competing neutrally under the ruling of the Court of Arbitration for Sport following the nation's doping scandal. Initially the IPC allowed athletes from the countries to be represented under the Paralympic flag, but quickly performed...

Don’t ask questions, just give them their citizenship.. Biden’s evacuation brought tens of thousands of Afghans to America. The majority of them were not interpreters, had no visas, and no basis for entering the country. Despite that, they were rapidly brought here with virtually no vetting, dropped off at military bases, and then put through the resettlement process across the United States. There’s no one problem. At last count around 36,000 Afghans or 40% of the “refugees” had no legal basis for being evacuated even after the Biden administration and its congressional allies, both Democrat and Republican, watered down standards...

Benefits of the blood pressure medication verapamil include delayed disease progression, lowered insulin requirements, and preservation of some beta cell function. Use of the drug verapamil to treat Type 1 diabetes continues to show benefits lasting at least two years, researchers report in the journal Nature Communications. Patients taking the oral blood pressure medication not only required less daily insulin two years after first diagnosis of the disease, but also showed evidence of surprising immunomodulatory benefits. Continuing medication was necessary. In the two-year study, subjects who stopped daily doses of verapamil at one year saw their disease at two years...

French President Emmanuel Macron believes “the worst is yet to come” in Ukraine after Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed an “uncompromising fight” during a 90-minute phone call on Thursday, according to a French presidential aide. On the frontlines, Russian forces increased pressure on Mariupol and Kharkiv after Kherson became the first Ukrainian city to fall. Follow our live blog for the latest developments.

Vladimir Putin wants to seize all of Ukraine and "worse is to come" during the conflict, the French president has warned. Emmanuel Macron held talks with Mr Putin over the phone this afternoon in a bid to ease tensions between Russia and the West. According to French officials, Mr Macron told the Russian leader that he was making a "major mistake" in Ukraine, adding: "You are lying to yourself". Following the call, Mr Macron believes "worse is to come" in the unfolding humanitarian crisis and that Mr Putin wants to seize the entire country, according to an aide.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled for the U.S. government in a case involving a Guantanamo Bay detainee seeking what the government said is secret information. Abu Zubaydah, who was captured in Pakistan in 2002, was once thought to be a high-ranking member of the terrorist group al-Qaida. Zubaydah was seeking to get the testimony of two former CIA contractors as part of an Polish investigation into his treatment. Justice Stephen Breyer wrote in an opinion joined by six of his colleagues that the government had argued “Zubaydah’s discovery request could force former CIA contractors to confirm...

It’s open-line Throwback Thursday: time to recycle one of the best squirrels of all time.It’s a useful ruse in many variants and applicable to multiple situations: from undermining a sitting president to diverting attention from corruption, inflation, Covid-fatigue, plunging approval ratings – so many things! Just toss it out there and wait awhile.P.S. The ‘sanctions’ aren’t working Joe, maybe you should consider including the U.S. purchase/import of Russian oil to the mix. Just a thought.Posted from: MOTUS A.D.

GOP House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy returned from a congressional junket to Israel this week and immediately surrendered to the woke corporate media and leftist smear merchants. Is this the kind of America Last "leadership" grassroots conservatives want if Republicans take back Congress in November? McCarthy told a CNN reporter on Monday that it was "appalling and wrong" for Republican Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., to speak to the annual America First Political Action Conference, or AFPAC. I have personally addressed and supported AFPAC since its inception in 2019. It is the authentic alternative to the...

Lent began this week. In the Christian tradition, the Lenten period is a time of fasting and prayer, preparation and reflection in anticipation of Easter, which commemorates the death and resurrection of Jesus. Historically, Lent has been a time to provide instruction to new converts and young Christians as a way to strengthen their faith, as well as a period for believers to spend in reflection in order to become closer to God. Lent allows Christian believers to focus on God rather than on the world. Through prayer and fasting, believers can change the patterns of their everyday lives to...

During the segment, Jones discussed nominating President Trump for Speaker of the House after the red wave that is going to occur in the midterms this year. Vernon Jones: “When we take Congress in 2022 I will be nominating and voting for Donald Trump to be the Speaker. And once the Senate confirms impeachment and throws out Kamala Harris and Joe Biden then President Trump will be the President of the United States.” Once Trump is Speaker, he will introduce articles of impeachment for Joe Biden AND Kamala Harris which, if passed, would make DJT the President of the United...

Campaigning politicians have always inflated their own importance and the benefits of the policies they espouse -- and exaggerated the perils of electing the other guy. It used to be the case that these self-aggrandizing stump speeches were tempered by a (mostly) diligent press that went out of its way to poke holes in those exaggerations and deflate egos with some sharply pointed facts. And Americans have historically trusted their elected leaders to tell the truth in matters of grave national importance. No more. We are swimming in a cesspool of lies so fetid that it’s almost impossible to know...

Ukraine has invited Russian women to come to Kyiv and collect their sons, many of whom appear to be inexperienced and frightened teenage conscripts.. In a field surrounded by the people he had been sent to fight, a young Russian prisoner of war hungrily gulped down the tea and bread they offered him. A Ukrainian woman calmed him, telling the soldier not to worry. Using her phone, she made a video call to his mother. As soon as his mother appeared on the screen, he burst into tears. “Everything is OK,” his female captor said, while others stroked his back....

Despite widely-reported claims that 70 fighter jets were being provided to Ukraine by EU member-states, Western powers have now denied any plans of giving combat aircraft to the embattled nation.The EU — alongside Slovakia, Bulgaria and Poland — has seemingly denied the possibility of providing the Ukrainian airforce with combat aircraft. This is despite initial widespread reporting that either the EU or a number of its members were actively in the process of providing fighter jets to the war-torn country, with the Ukrainian airforce even claiming that Poland would provide it with the use of its airports for “combat tasks”...

Fox News star Greg Gutfeld revealed on the air that his mother-in-law is stranded in Ukraine as the embattled country is invaded by Russia. Gutfeld, a co-host of The Five, told his colleagues on Wednesday that the mother of his wife is currently in a hotel in Lviv, a town in western Ukraine that lies about 43 miles from the border with Poland. During a segment with on-site reporter Lucas Tomlinson, Gutfeld, who was broadcasting from the network’s Manhattan studios, told him: “Well thank you Lucas, you’re in Lviv, so is my mother in law.” He added: “I think she’s...

The tragic events of the past week highlight the wisdom in maintaining a fiscally sound house, rather than a highly indebted government, before emergencies strike. Russia's barbaric invasion of Ukraine and the West's response will likely drive inflation even higher. At home, expect calls for more government spending to help Ukrainians defend themselves and enable us Americans to better deal with supply-chain disruptions. No matter what lawmakers decide, they'll be hindered in one way or another by past fiscal mistakes. The United States finds itself with an inflation rate not seen since the early 1980s, thanks to too much COVID-19...

It sounds simple, but to treat someone you suspect has COVID, you need to confirm they are actually infected with the coronavirus. In the UK, it is easy to take this for granted – we've had a reliable detection method for diagnosing infected patients widely available since early on in the pandemic. This allowed for people to be treated and cared for promptly, saving lives. The main technique for identifying whether someone has COVID is called reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction testing – or RT-PCR. This process can tell whether the coronavirus's genetic material is present in a sample taken...

Establishment Republican Congressman Van Taylor (Texas — 3rd District) is dropping out of his re-election race after NATIONAL FILE exclusively broke the story that Van Taylor had an extramarital affair with an ISIS bride, abusing his power by requesting a “slow rim job” from the woman and trying to keep her quiet with lavish money offers. Van Taylor was held to less than 50 percent of the vote in his primary on Tuesday night and forced into a runoff against second-place challenger Judge Keith Self and now the Republicans do not see any path forward for the sitting Congressman. Van...

Study the chart on Kinross Gold, which has about 12-20% of its gold mining operation in Eastern Russia. It seems rather odd that the stock hit $7 in December and suddenly plummeted starting December 9, 2022 all the way down to $5.04 per share for no real supposed reason by December 15, 2022. The Russians invaded the Ukraine February 24, 2022.

Col Macgregor's comments from 13FEB22 on Sky News. Interesting to compare Col Macgregor's predictions with the results on the ground two days into the Russian invasion of Ukraine.