Free Republic

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has triggered one of the largest population movements in Europe since World War II. As the Ukrainian army is fortifying the cities, many city dwellers have fled to the countryside, where they have discovered a rural population determined to resist for the long term. “It's much easier to survive outside the cities. I feel safer in this isolated place, I don't see why the military would waste time and ammunition to come here," Anna Martsinkiv, a sociologist who lives in a small house outside Obukhiv, about 40 kilometres south of Kyiv. The Russian invasion reminded...

Germany has emerged as the main barrier to tougher sanctions against Russia, threatening to spark a rift in western efforts to punish the Kremlin.Europe’s largest economy is the main power resisting attempts to add Sberbank to a list of Russian financial institutions cut off from the Swift payments system, Bloomberg reports.Sberbank, which is Russia’s largest lender, was left off the initial list as part of a decision to protect energy-related transactions, but calls are now mounting for the EU to tighten its sanctions.It’s not Germany’s only area of resistance, either. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has publicly opposed sanctions targeting Russia’s...

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed sending money back to taxpayers to offset record-high gas prices but rejected calls to increase oil drilling, saying he wants to free the state “once and for all from the grasp of petro-dictators.” Newsom’s proposal would likely come in the form of a tax rebate. Dee Dee Myers, Newsom’s senior adviser, told reporters the rebate would likely total in the billions of dollars and be limited to people who have a car. People who are living in the country illegally would also be eligible for the rebate, which could occur as...

...When combined with military exercises and Russian officials’ public statements, this evolving doctrine seems to indicate that Russia has potentially placed a greater reliance on nuclear weapons and may threaten to use them during regional conflicts. This doctrine has led some U.S. analysts to conclude that Russia has adopted an “escalate to de-escalate” strategy, where it might threaten to use nuclear weapons if it were losing a conflict with a NATO member, in an effort to convince the United States and its NATO allies to withdraw from the conflict. Russian officials, along with some scholars and observers in the United...

The orchestra had an all-Tchaikovsky concert scheduled for next week, but has decided to change the programme having deemed it to be 'inappropriate' at this time The Cardiff Philharmonic Orchestra has removed Tchaikovsky from its programme of its upcoming concert ‘in light of the recent Russian invasion’.Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture was due to be included in the orchestra’s upcoming all-Tchaikovsky concert at St David’s Hall on 18 March, but it was considered by the orchestra ‘to be inappropriate at this time’.The orchestra will instead present a programme centred around Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8, with John Williams‘s The Cowboys Overture opening the...

The Moscow stock exchange will stay shut Wednesday, Russia's central bank said, bringing the closure well into the second week. The central bank also halted sales of foreign currency, as tough sanctions threaten to crush Russia's economy. The Russian ruble is trading at less than 1 cent, and the country's stocks are seen as "uninvestable". Moscow's stock exchange remained shuttered Wednesday, extending its closure well into a second week, as escalating sanctions against Russia threatened to hobble the country's economy. Russia's central bank has opened trading on its currency market, even as it separately stopped the sale of foreign currencies....

BRUSSELS (AP) — Europe faces a tough choice: Is it worth a recession to choke off oil and gas money to Russia while it fights a war in Ukraine? The 27-member European Union faces far more economic pain from the war and resulting sanctions than the U.S. — true above all when it comes to the oil and gas that powers vehicles and keeps the heat and lights on. While the U.S. and British bans on Russian oil increase the pressure on Europe to follow suit, the continent’s dependence on Russia for energy makes an immediate embargo much more difficult....

Ukraine’s closed Chernobyl nuclear power plant has been disconnected from the nation’s power grid by Russian forces, Ukraine’s state-owned grid operator Ukrenergo said Wednesday, potentially jeopardizing the cooling of nuclear material still stored at the site. “Because of military actions of Russian occupiers the nuclear power plant in Chornobyl was fully disconnected from the power grid. The nuclear station has no power supply,” Ukrenergo said in a statement on its official Telegram page, using Ukraine’s spelling for the plant. Electricity is needed for cooling, ventilation and fire extinguishing systems at the closed site. In a statement on its Facebook page,...

During remarks at the White House Tuesday, President Joe Biden claimed his domestic climate agenda is not contributing to an increase in oil and gas prices for American consumers. "It’s simply not true that my administration or policies are holding back domestic energy production. That’s simply not true," Bide said. "In the United States, 90 percent of onshore oil production takes place on land that isn’t owned by the federal government. And of the remaining 10 percent that occurs on federal land, the oil and gas industry has millions of acres leased. They have 9,000 permits to drill now. They...

Lada cars have been a symbol of Russia’s self-reliance since they began rolling off assembly lines during the depths of the Cold War. On Wednesday, Lada’s factory floors ground to a halt as Western sanctions deprived its parent company of the parts and supplies it needs to make cars, according to people familiar with the matter. Thousands of workers have been placed on leave. ... Today, the Togliatti plant employs some 32,500 people. The plant makes a number of Lada models, including the XRAY, the Largus and the Granta. It also makes vehicles for the Renault brand.

The New York Times said vaccinations, booster shots and masks have not caused a major difference in case rates between parts of the country with different levels of COVID-19 precautions in a Wednesday morning newsletter. The article compared COVID-19 case rates for Democratic and Republican areas, noting that Democrats were more likely to wear masks, get vaccinated and boosted, avoid public spaces and shut down in-person schools over virus fears. “These factors seem as if they should have caused large differences in case rates. They have not. And that they haven’t offers some clarity about the relative effectiveness of different...

Last week's failed cloture vote on the Women’s Health Protection Act (or, more fittingly, the “Abortion on Demand Until Birth Act”) provided an important glimpse into the worldviews of America’s two major political parties. It also elicited some revealing comments from Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), an original co-sponsor of the bill. Although his staff told me they did not have an official reason for why Warnock missed the vote, the senator himself wanted to ensure everyone knew where he stood. Hours before the vote, Warnock tweeted, “I’ve always been a pro-choice pastor, and I believe a doctor’s office is too...

Minnesotans consistently rank fear of crime as their #1 concern for state and local leaders. Studies consistently show a small number of violent criminals are responsible for most crimes committed. American Experiment’s Criminal Injustice Tracker below highlights the public instances where a suspected violent criminal has been inexplicably released from jail potentially putting the entire community at risk.

Former White House Press Secretary Stephanie Grisham said that after working under former president Trump, it was clear to her he "admired" Russian President Vladimir Putin and his willingness to stifle dissent.. I think he wanted to be able to kill whoever spoke out against him."

The Latin School of Chicago appears to have been a breeding ground for critical race curricula that later gave excuses for political violence. lthough critical race theory has only come to the forefront of American politics in the last year, an email obtained by The Federalist dating back to 2016 proves the divisive ideology has been entrenched in American K-12 schools for much longer, sometimes where some least expect it. An email from Elizabeth Denevi, who at the time was the director of studies and professional development at the Latin School of Chicago, shows the private school injected CRT into...

Yum Brands Inc, the parent company of the KFC and Pizza Hut, said on Tuesday it was suspending investment in Russia and operations at its restaurants, redirecting all profits from operations in the country to humanitarian efforts. A growing number of Western firms have pulled out of Russia amid concerns over its war with Ukraine which has forced 2 million people to flee the country, according to UN figures. The Kentucky-based Yum! Brands joined western brands, including McDonald’s, Starbucks, Coca-Cola, and PepsiCo that are halting operations in Russia over its war on Ukraine. Yum has at least 1,000 KFC and...

Every major problem we are facing today is not because of war, but because of the arrogance, ignorance, and incompetence of government central planners and their cronies. The elites pushing their agendas and their cronies’ pet projects, whether through short-sightedness or nefarious intentions, have delivered an obvious negative outcome for America. Our economic woes started long before Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. And while Putin deserves the blame for war, our government central planners get the full credit for our economic and national security vulnerabilities. The highest inflation in the last 40 years was recorded before eastern Europe even entered the...

Steve Bannon has put Bill Barr on notice, warning that the former attorney general “better lawyer up” as “it’s all going to come out.” Bannon, President Donald Trump’s former White House chief strategist, said: “Well, he’s Walter Mitty. “He’s a nerd and been a nerd all of his life. “He not only stabbed Trump in the back, he stabbed the nation in the back. “On this hard drive from hell, what he did, he suppressed this information so that what the elites in our country were doing, compromised by the Chinese Communist Party and all of the situation in Ukraine,...

It's time for your red pill. Something smells rotten in Ukraine. The story is rotten, rancid, hinky; the story just doesn't add up. President Joe Biden and the media desperately want you to believe Russia is the bad guy and Ukraine is a little angel. They want you to fall in love with underdog Ukraine. They want you to support America getting involved on behalf of Ukraine. To get your support, they need the media to sell you a bill of goods. But it just doesn't add up. First, Biden is the one who funded Russia's invasion. Biden killed our...

The US was rocked by a military and diplomatic earthquake on Monday after Chinese leaders revealed that the Middle Kingdom has constructed an N-bomb capable of reaching the mainland United States, and is prepared to use it. “If America persists in imposing its imperialist designs on China and the Chinese people, then China will not hesitate to respond with immediate deployment of the N-bomb,” Xi Jinping said in a speech to the Communist Party Congress. Foreign policy experts quickly labeled China’s announcement as the worst blow to American strategic freedom in the nation’s history. “America has built its entire foreign...