Free Republic

Foreign aircraft lessors seeking to recover some $10 billion worth of planes from Russia were dealt a new blow Monday when President Vladimir Putin signed a law clearing the country’s airlines to fly the planes domestically.Sanctions and reciprocal airspace closures in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last month have cut off the country’s air travel market. Boeing and Airbus have said they will no longer supply parts to its airlines. That could force carriers to cannibalize other jets for parts.There are some 728 Western-built aircraft in the country’s airlines’ fleets, 515 of them leased by foreign lessors, according to...

An employee at Channel One Russia, the leading news network in the country, crashed a live television show to heckle Vladimir Putin and protest the war. She later released a taped message denouncing Putin and his war.She ran on the screen with a sign reading ‘No war” and she yelled in Russian “No to war, stop the war.” The brave woman is Maria Ovsyanikova, an editor for the station. She was detained by police and can expect the worst after Russia passed new laws cracking down on dissent from the media.Her sign in Russian said: “Stop the war! Don’t believe...

As Google prepares to bring most employees back to the office, the company is facing a workforce that’s increasingly unhappy when it comes to key issues such as compensation and an ability to meet career goals.Google’s annual employee surveys, internally called “Googlegeist,” show that a growing number of staffers don’t view their pay packages as fair or competitive with what they could make in a similar role elsewhere. They are also questioning their employer’s ability to execute.The surveys were taken in January and released to employees last week. CNBC viewed results from the company overall as well as individual groups...

What does it take to defend, fight and survive in an Arctic environment? What do you do if you fall through the ice while wearing 20 kilograms of military gear? Cold Response 2022 is a long-planned exercise bringing together thousands of troops from NATO Allies and partners, testing their ability to work together in cold weather conditions across Norway – on land, in the air and at sea. Over the coming weeks, Allied and partner armed forces will trek across the vast wilderness, conduct live-fire drills, leap into freezing lakes, and much more. It's all about training vital skills, making...

Inside a newly-shutdown Chinese hospital deemed the latest COVID-19 outbreak hotspot, overworked nurses started a shouting match with doctors demanding basic measures of protection.In some Chinese universities, students broke down in tears after some were sealed inside their dorms without access to water or toilets.Elsewhere in some rental apartments, tenants were shocked to learn that they had to pack up within hours because what they considered their home would be converted into quarantine facilities.Over the past week, scenes of exasperation have emerged in various parts of China as officials battled against the “stealth omicron” variant that has fueled the country’s...

SACRAMENTO—The effort to temporarily remove California’s gas tax—the highest in the nation—failed in the state assembly on March 14 as gas prices continue to climb throughout the state.“Every [Republican] lawmaker voted to take 50 cents off the gallon of gas,” Assemblyman James Gallagher (R-Yuba City) wrote on Twitter. “Not a single Democrat Assemblymember supported this effort to lower gas prices.”Assemblyman Kevin Kiley (R-Rocklin) introduced Assembly Bill 1638 on Jan. 12 to suspend the gas tax for six months to save residents about 50 cents per gallon, a “burden” on community Californians that will continue to worsen, Kiley told The Epoch...

The Massachusetts Public Health Department announced Thursday that the state would lower its COVID-19 death count by 3,700 due to new measuring criteria being implemented.The department said in a statement the new death definition is following the guidance (pdf) of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to create a standardized approach for states to count COVID-19 deaths.“Our approach proved to be too expansive and led to a significant overcount of deaths in Massachusetts,” Public Health Commissioner Margret Cooke told the State House News Service.Massachusetts deemed COVID-related fatalities those which...

The top Kremlin spokesman said Monday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is still going according to plan and “within the timeframe” that was “approved in advance.”“The Russian Armed Forces are using modern high-precision weapons, hitting only military information infrastructure facilities. All plans of the Russian leadership will be implemented in full within the timeframe approved in advance,” asserted Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin, to state-run media.Peskov declined to comment on how long the war, described by Russia’s government as a “special military operation,” will last. Peskov also appeared to dispute a significant number of reports and...

The U.S. government and Pfizer reached an agreement to delay the U.S. regulatory decision on the company’s COVID-19 vaccine for children as young as 6 months old, Pfizer’s CEO said on March 13.“We all agreed it’s better if we wait for the three doses to come out,” CEO Albert Bourla said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”Pfizer and its partner BioNTech have been testing their vaccine on children aged 6 months to 4 years but announced in late 2021 that they were expanding the clinical trial to three doses because the two-dose primary regimen didn’t trigger a sufficient immune response in...

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, harshly condemned former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard, D-Hawaii, for comments she made in recent days about U.S. biological laboratories in Ukraine, Business Insider reported Monday. "Tulsi Gabbard is parroting false Russian propaganda," Romney tweeted. "Her treasonous lies may well cost lives." Russia has spread a baseless claim the U.S. is funding the development of bioweapons in labs in Ukraine, a move which the U.S. warned could indicate that Moscow is planning to use chemical weapons against Ukraine, according to Business Insider. In response to Romney's comments, Gabbard on Monday wrote on Twitter: "You have called me a...

Nine of 10 bills filed in six states seeking to audit 2020 election results—including three that would have nullified Joe Biden’s victory—have fallen by the wayside as legislative sessions wind down.Seven bills seeking 2020 general elec­tion audits were filed in four states, Flor­ida, New Hamp­shire, South Caro­lina, and Tennessee. Only a New Hampshire measure proposing a review of one county’s 2020 results remains on the docket.Lawmakers in New Hampshire, Arizona, and Wisconsin filed 2022 legislation demanding the nullification of 2020’s election results with an audit to determine the winner. Only the embattled Wisconsin effort has a heartbeat.New Hampshire’s House Bill...

“A wholesome tongue is a tree of life: but perverseness therein is a breach in the spirit. A fool despiseth his father's instruction: but he that regardeth reproof is prudent” (Proverbs 15:4).

There are signs that Russia and Ukraine might be on the path to negotiating an end to the strategic, military, political, and economic blunder Vladimir Putin begat with his ill-conceived invasion of Ukraine.Early last week, the New York Times observed that there seemed to be movement in the negotiations.When President Vladimir V. Putin launched his invasion two weeks ago, he said a primary goal was the “denazification” of Ukraine. He referred to the Ukrainian government as a “gang of drug addicts and neo-Nazis,” making it clear that his aim was to topple it.But in recent days, the language has shifted,...

The U.K.'s Privy Council, which serves as the final appeals court for several Caribbean islands, ruled that both islands' bans on gay marriage were constitutional, according to the Associated Press. The decision deals a heavy blow to the islands' LGBTQ communities, which had hoped for a more favorable opinion from the court.

The Biden-Harris regime is delighting in the opportunity to pin the blame on Putin’s War - for skyrocketing fuel prices today, and for the food shortages and economic challenges of tomorrow. As the regime’s lies go, we must admit: this one isn’t a lie. Putin’s War has indeed caused the interruption of certain international supply lines. Necessary sanctions against Russia have almost immediately ended the flow of considerable export business that employed countless American workers, and the import bans and duty rate hikes being imposed on Russian products will cause some shortages, from grocery shelves to factory stockrooms. Ukraine was...

Headlines like, “WWIII has likely started already, but we have been slow to recognize it,” from Bill Ackman, and corporate media pushing nuclear war hype and hysteria had sparked unease among American households who hadn’t felt this way since the early days of the virus pandemic when they were caught empty-handed with limited supplies to weather COVID lockdowns. Americans, many of whom have been transformed into preppers in a post-COVID era, are at it again, panic hoarding supplies as they fear Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could be the catalyst for the next world war (well, at least they think this...

Comrades, Tucker Carlson’s opening monologue outlined the insanity of our current situation tonight. Washington DC and the media echo chamber all agree that Ukraine is the most important shiny thing everyone should pay attention to... and if you don’t, you are a Russian agent...

Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered to refrain from storming Ukraine’s big cities for fear of great losses among civilians, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday. Speaking at a press briefing in Moscow on Monday, Peskov said “nationalist units deploy tanks, artillery, rocket launchers in residential areas,” drawing the combat actions to these areas, but the Russian special operation was planned considering this circumstance. Peskov blasted as “provocative” the remarks by US national security adviser Jake Sullivan and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who alleged that Putin was “disappointed” about the lack of progress in capturing the big cities....

Dear liberals: Pretty soon, your iPhone could be assembled in a country where homosexuality is punishable by death, and religious dissidents are sometimes beheaded. In what could be a victory for Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman’s effort to attract tech companies to help diversify Saudi Arabia’s economy away from oil and gas, Foxconn, the Taiwanese consumer tech giant that’s one of Apple’s biggest contractors, has reportedly submitted a proposal to build a $9 billion factory in the Kingdom. WSJ reports that the kingdom “is reviewing an offer from the company, formally known as Hon Hai Precision Industry, to build a...

American gun owners can expect ammunition and reloading component price increases due to soaring commodity prices in the next few weeks. Vista Outdoor, the leading U.S. manufacturer of ammunition, announced earlier this year that “supply chain constraints and increases in our raw materials” will result in “price increases to help offset those rising costs.”Price hikes will begin on April 1 for Vista Outdoor ammo brands, including CCI, Federal, Hevi–Shot, Remington, and SPEER. The ammo and component price increases are as follows: •Primers – 5% •Powder – 5% •Handgun – 2-8% •Rifle – 3-8% •Shotgun – 3-12%Vista Outdoor revealed April’s price...