Free Republic

Russia is attempting to restore old military equipment held in long-term storage to replace losses suffered during its invasion of Ukraine but it is encountering difficulty in doing so because of corruption and the poor condition of the equipment, the Ukrainian Intelligence Directorate (GUR) said on Saturday. Military gear is being removed from long-term storage facilities and is being channeled to a repair and rehabilitation base near the Belarus and Ukraine border, GUR asserted, but in cases such as the Russian 4th Tank Division, the conditions of vehicles are such that only one-in-ten "mothballed" units is in working order. The...

UK minister Nadhim Zahawi has distanced himself from Joe Biden's comments calling for Vladimir Putin to be removed from power, suggesting that decision is "up to the Russian people". The US president said on Saturday during a speech in Poland that Mr Putin is a "dictator" who "cannot remain in power". Asked on Sky News if the UK government also thinks the Russian leader has to go, Mr Zahawi appeared to distance himself from Mr Biden. "I think that's up to the Russian people... I think the Russian people will decide the fate of Putin and his cronies."

The Middle East Studies Association (MESA), which represents hundreds of professors who teach Middle Eastern studies on dozens of American college campuses, passed a resolution endorsing the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement. The Middle East-centered learning society closed its 50-day voting period for the BDS resolution on Wednesday. More than 80 percent of the organization's voting members, many of whom teach about Israel at U.S. universities, cast ballots supporting the resolution, which accuses the Jewish state of committing human rights abuses against Palestinians and calls on MESA members to boycott Israeli universities. Left-leaning students and faculty at American universities...

Comedian and writer Michael Loftus says his latest project, That Show Tonight, is designed to create Saturday Night Live for conservatives. And he gave a dose of his humor on the Just the News, Not Noise TV show, offering a sizzle reel of things you will never here Democrats say. compliments of several prominent cameos.

An enterprising journalist from Bolivia [Twitter Link] mapped the countries that support the sanctions against Russia (yellow) versus the countries that are not participating in the western sanctions against Russia (grey). (“Decadent West” vs. rest of world) The image provides a visual reference to consider our previous discussions about the cleaving of the global economy between two overarching ideologies.

MADISON, Wis. — The push by Republicans to conduct partisan ballot reviews similar to the one that unfolded last year in Arizona has spread beyond the battleground states where former President Donald Trump disputed his loss, an effort that has had mixed legislative success but has sown doubts about whether future elections can be trusted. While most of the bills are unlikely to become law, the debates and public hearings in GOP-controlled state legislative chambers have added fuel to the false claims that widespread fraud cost Trump reelection in 2020. “They’re really tearing down democracy, and they don’t think they...

Once upon a time in Little Rock... If you ever wished to see Hillary Clinton in a production of Into the Woods… well, first of all, we have questions for you. And second of all, your wish has come true. Well, sort of. The former secretary of state, senator, and First Lady has joined the cast of an upcoming production of the Stephen Sondheim musical at the Arkansas Repertory Theatre (a.k.a. the Rep), set to open in Little Rock next month. Representatives for Clinton did not immediately respond to EW's request for comment on the news. Clinton will not be...

Thousands of people were evacuated in The Philippines on Saturday after a volcano erupted with plumes of steam and ash that went nearly two miles in the sky, Reuters reported. The threat level for Taal volcano, located in a lake south of the capital Manila, was raised from level two to level three on a scale of zero to five on Saturday morning after it spewed plumes that reached up to 9,800 feet, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (PHIVOLCS) said in a statement. A total of 1,100 people, including fisherman in the lake, were evacuated by authorities, PHIVOLCS...

We are strange creatures. We see the world and build mental models of how the world works. Soon, those models become more significant to us than reality itself. That is dangerous when so much of our “experience” is from the news and entertainment media. We think our tiny screens show us what is really happening. We want to be carful about what we put into our heads. Here in the USA, there are over a million violent crimes a year. The vast majority of them do not involve the criminal using a gun. At the same time, honest citizens like...

President Joe Biden's nominee for the Supreme Court of the United States is everything you thought she'd be. Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson, who will likely replace Justice Stephen Breyer, has the support of progressives across the country. Susan B. Anthony List president Marjorie Dannenfelser noted that Jackson is "backed by many of America's most radical pro-abortion groups" as well as "on record opposing the free speech rights of pro-life advocates pleading to save lives outside abortion cetners and supporting the false claim that abortion is 'health care.'" That, of course, is no surprise. Biden is the most pro-abortion president in...

When I started warning of an emerging global food crisis a number of months ago, many out there assumed that I must be exaggerating things. Sadly, I was not exaggerating one bit. The soaring price of fertilizer, extreme global weather patterns, shocking crop failures and an epic global supply chain crisis had combined to create a "perfect storm" even before the war in Ukraine began. Of course the war has made things far worse, because Russia and Ukraine collectively account for about 30 percent of all worldwide wheat exports under normal conditions. For a while, the mainstream media and our...

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Russian deputy defense minister Yunus-Bek Evkurov visits a Russian soldier who lost his leg in Ukraine and tells him: “I hope you’ll get back on your feet”. The facial expression on the young man says it all. “My life is over and for what”?

Elon Musk's satellites are connecting Ukraine with the internet. Starlink was conceived as a civilian program — but Ukraine's military can also use it to guide drones and strike Russian tanks and positions. Just after Russia's invasion began in late February, Ukrainian Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov took to Twitter to ask US billionaire Elon Musk to activate his Starlink satellites for use in Ukraine. Musk swiftly tweeted his response: "Starlink service is now active in Ukraine. More terminals en route." Soon after, a number of terminals and powerful batteries arrived in Ukraine. Others soon followed. Fedorov took to Twitter...

... After the attacks by Islamic terrorists on September 11, 2001, America’s hubris manifested itself in an effort to spread democracy to the world, but in the first instances to Afghanistan and Iraq. ... The George W. Bush administration rightly responded to attacks on our country by hunting down the terrorists responsible and retaliating against some of the regimes that supported the terrorists. But then it got carried away and launched a Wilsonian crusade for democracy. ... As President Reagan's U.N. Ambassador and trusted adviser, Jeane Kirkpatrick was one of the intellectual architects of our victory in the Cold War....

This sort of Republican leadership is a no-squish zone. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis won in 2018 over Andrew Gillum by just 32,000 votes, or four-tenths of one percentage point. Very, very close in a big purple state. Since that victory, DeSantis has endured relentless attacks on every conceivable issue, nonissue, and fake issue. National outlets such as “60 Minutes” and state publications in every market gaslighted the public and often flat-out lied about DeSantis, from the number of COVID deaths and transgenderism in schools to the fictional “don’t say gay” bill. Late-night former comedians, Hollywooders, corporate cowards, and the White...

It’s been rightly said that “he who holds the gold makes the rules.”After World War 2, the US had the largest gold reserves in the world, by far. Along with winning the war, this let the US reconstruct the global monetary system around the dollar.The new system, created at the Bretton Woods Conference in 1944, tied the currencies of virtually every country in the world to the US dollar through a fixed exchange rate. It also tied the US dollar to gold at a fixed rate of $35 per ounce.The dollar was said to be “as good as gold.”The Bretton...

He came, he saw, he confused. Joe Biden’s call-to-arms speech in Poland was long on soaring rhetoric about the virtues of democracy but woefully short on what more the West will do to help Ukraine defeat the Russian invasion. But by the time he got to the finish, most of that was forgotten. What mattered most and what will be remembered for a long time was a single line the president of the United States said about the president of Russia: “For God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power.” In the context of the speech and the slaughter of...

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen reminded us of something everyone seems to have forgotten when she said “being a refugee is temporary.” Frederiksen made the comments after Denmark passed a law giving Ukrainian refugees the right to work, education and social welfare. “Being a refugee is temporary, so you have to return and help build up your homeland when you get the opportunity. It gives us the opportunity to help other refugees,” Frederiksen said. Denmark has been one of the toughest countries in Europe when it comes to strict immigration policies that are protected from being abused by “refugees” who...

By LIZ O'RIORDAN FOR THE MAIL ON SUNDAY PUBLISHED: 18:01 EDT, 26 March 2022 | UPDATED: 03:11 EDT, 27 March 2022 The first time I saw CPR being performed was on TV. I was in my teens – it was probably the American medical drama ER. Maybe it was Casualty. There would always be a frantic scene of a medic pumping away at a patient whose heart had stopped. Someone would rush in with defibrillator paddles. Someone else would yell 'CLEAR!' Years later, as a fledgling doctor working on a crash team on hospital wards, I got to see it...