Free Republic

It is always best practice to understand an opponent's objectives prior to negotiation. In this instance, it may be easier to simply let people speak for themselves. Below are four short clips to help explain the unfortunate crisis that has been unfolding in Ukraine.

Tesla is hiking its prices in the United States and China for the second time in a week amid high inflation. For all models in the U.S., Tesla’s website indicated that prices have risen between 5 and 10 percent, Reuters reported on Tuesday. Some of its Model 3 and Model Y vehicles made in China have increased roughly 5 percent. Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said earlier this week that the companies were experiencing higher "inflation pressure."

OVERSCHILD, Netherlands, March 15 (Reuters) - Images of bombed-out hospitals and apartment buildings across Ukraine reminded Jannie and Bert Schrage of their home country during World War Two. Then the retired couple, who live in the north of the Netherlands, realised they had a resource to help slow President Vladimir Putin's campaign – natural gas. The Schrages live above the Groningen gas field, Europe's largest. They have been opposing gas production since earthquakes started to force them out of their homes a decade ago. Now, like a majority of those polled in their province, they say that if it would...

Lung Infection Illustration Disease of the small airways in the lungs is a potential long-lasting effect of COVID-19, according to a new study published in the journal Radiology. The study found that small airways disease occurred independently of initial infection severity. The long-term consequences are unknown. “There is some disease happening in the small airways independent of the severity of COVID-19,” said study senior author Alejandro P. Comellas, M.D., professor of internal medicine and faculty in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Carver College of Medicine, University of Iowa in Iowa City. “We need to...

Talks between Riyadh and Beijing have accelerated as the Saudi unhappiness grows with Washington (Rest behind paywall)

Best-selling children's author Matt Walsh spoke at Georgia Tech on Monday. His book Johnny the Walrus is a timely tale of innocence, identity, and imagination. Critics say the book is transphobic. Many of those same critics also refer to Florida's anti-grooming bill as the "Don't Say Gay" bill. Walsh's speech was about “why men don’t belong in women’s sports.” This is another controversial topic critics say is transphobic. Walsh was being an ally to women who are often told to keep their opinions on the matter to themselves. Not everyone agreed, and they protested Walsh being allowed to express an...

A fireball over San Francisco Bay Area on 17 Oct 2012. (NASA/Robert P. Moreno Jr) On 11 March 2022, at around 9:20 pm UTC, a small asteroid entered Earth's atmosphere. This is not unusual. Space rocks enter Earth's atmosphere all the time. What makes this asteroid so amazing is that an astronomer spotted it before it made its rendezvous with atmospheric entry. It's named 2022 EB5, and it's only the fifth asteroid we've ever managed to spot prior to impact. The object, thought to measure around two meters across (6.5 ft), was spotted by astronomer Krisztián Sárneczky of Konkoly Observatory's...

Chinatown, NYC. Look at the long, long line of mostly Asian women and elderly waiting to get their pepper spray. This is the clearest sign people are living in fear 😔💔 #StopAsianHate

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government has provided more than $2 billion to help cover funeral costs for more than 300,000 families of people who died from COVID-19, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced Tuesday as it launches a new campaign to raise awareness about the aid to eligible families. More than 965,000 people have died in the U.S. from the virus. The COVID-19 Funeral Assistance program provides up to $9,000 per funeral and covers COVID-19 related deaths since Jan. 20, 2020. The average amount awarded per death is $6,500, according to FEMA. “FEMA’s COVID-19 Funeral Assistance program has helped...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Olathe police released additional details in a Friday morning shooting at Olathe East High School that left three people injured. According to the department, a school resource officer later identified as Erik Clark, responded to the school's main office for an administrative matter. OlatheEastVideo.jpeg Copyright 2022 Scripps Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Photo by: Cameron Taylor/KSHB Police block the main entrance to Olathe East High School on Friday, March 4, 2022. By: David Medina Posted at 8:45 PM, Mar 04, 2022 and last updated 3:58 PM,...

Basically nobody would support funding these things if they were put to a vote on their own. In a sad commentary on the state of America’s priorities, the $1.5+ trillion spending legislation passed by Congress last week barely made headlines. Little attention was paid to the 2,700-page spending bill or the fact that it was released at 2:30 a.m. on the day of the vote, meaning most members of Congress voted on it blindly without even having skimmed the legislation. In a less dysfunctional country, this would be an outrage. Yet there’s even more scandal lurking beneath the surface-level incompetence...

***BREAKING*** Substantial #Russian Navy force, including landing ships, advancing on Odessa area today. Seen 09:47 UTC in satellite imagery @CovertShores

The Wall Street Journal reports active talks between Riyadh and Beijing about pricing some Saudi oil sales to China in yuan instead of dollars. Chatter about this sort of arrangement has been ongoing for several years, but recent events have brought a new urgency to talks, according to the report, which says the Saudis are questioning longstanding U.S. security commitments to the Kingdom. Among the issues is what the Saudis believe to be less-than-enthusiastic support for the war in Yemen, the White House's attempt at an Iran nuclear deal, and shock at the American withdrawal from Afghanistan. China is a...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is marking Equal Pay Day by taking new steps aimed at ending the gender pay gap for federal workers and contractors. President Joe Biden on Tuesday is signing an executive order that encourages the government to consider banning federal contractors from seeking information about job applicants’ prior salary history. And a new Labor Department directive is aimed at strengthening federal contractors’ obligations to audit payrolls to help guard against pay disparities based on gender, race or ethnicity. The Office of Personnel Management also is considering a regulation to address the use of prior salary...

During the winter of 2013 to 2014, pro-European protests in Ukraine’s capital city of Kyiv swelled into a revolution calling for the removal of Viktor Yanukovych, the country’s pro-Russia president at that time. Weeks after Yanukovych’s ousting in February 2014, Russia invaded and seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula... The Donbas war began on April 6, 2014, when Russian security agents and special forces troops spearheaded an unconventional military offensive that spawned two Russian-controlled breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine — the Donetsk People’s Republic, or DNR, and the Luhansk People’s Republic, or LNR... Through a campaign of weaponized propaganda, Moscow painted both...

ROCHESTER, N.Y. (WHEC) — A convicted cop killer—invited to speak at a local college. That's a claim going around on social media. But is that really true? That's tonight's Fact Check. Jalil Muntaqim, also known as Anthony Bottom, lives in Brighton. Back in 1971, he killed two New York City Police officers. He was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. But now he's out on parole, and next month he's scheduled to speak at SUNY Brockport. According to the posting on Brockport's events calendar, it will be "an intellectual conversation on his time with the Black Panthers and...

Discovery CEO David Zaslav’s total pay package came to more than $246 million for 2021 as the company prepares to close its merger with WarnerMedia. That compares with $37 million the year before and was inflated by a large $202 million option grant awarded last year when his contract was extended through 2027. Zaslav’s base salary of $3 million was unchanged. His stock award of $13 million was up from $12 million and his non-equity incentive plan compensation — like a bonus — was set at $22 million vs. $12 million, according to Discovery’s proxy statement filed with the SEC...

The more one delves into history, the more one is humbled by what one doesn’t know. Case in point... March 15 is the anniversary of the beginning of a naval campaign fought between two colonial powers in the year 1646 half-a-world away from Europe. Having grown up in an English-speaking country, I often catch myself adopting the conventional historical view of the British navy as presented in literature and film as an unconquerable force. Their most common foes—the Spanish and the French—are normally presented as formidable but hapless. They are numerous enough to appear to be a challenge, but ineptitude,...

Multiple reports Monday hinted the White House is weighing a trip for President Joe Biden to Europe amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine. The plan, which is still being finalized, calls for Biden to meet with other leaders from the NATO alliance in Brussels on March 23, said three of the sources as cited by Reuters.

Susan Rice @AmbRice46 Congratulations to the trailblazing @HHS_ASH Admiral Rachel Levine on being named one of @USATODAY’s Women of the Year. Your leadership during this pandemic has been vital.