Free Republic

Since Russia invaded Ukraine, Taiwan’s security has been on the lips of policymakers and analysts the world over, amid predictions China could one day follow Moscow’s lead and attempt to take over the island nation. Both Taiwan and Ukraine are young democracies, whose national identity and political independence face the threat of aggression from a neighbouring superpower. Taiwan, however, has a little-discussed secret weapon that Ukraine did not have – a dominance in manufacturing semiconductors that some analysts say could prove crucial in deterring an invasion by Beijing. An invasion of Taiwan could trigger unprecedented global economic fallout due to...

Los Angeles leaders have a history of making big pledges on climate change and the environment that are more ambitious than what they actually deliver. But in the race to succeed Eric Garcetti as mayor, candidates are hardly even talking about climate and environmental issues and are instead focusing almost exclusively on housing, homelessness and crime. L.A. needs a mayor that not only talks about climate change and environmental issues but also has clear and ambitious plans for accelerating action to reduce emissions and keep Angelenos safe from the escalating effects of a warming planet. But the climate crisis has...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on Thursday that two of his country’s top security officials had been dismissed from their roles as generals for being “traitors.” “Regarding antiheroes. Now, I do not have time to deal with all the traitors. But gradually they will all be punished,” Zelensky said in a speech. “That is why the ex-chief of the Main Department of Internal Security of the Security Service of Ukraine Naumov Andriy Olehovych and the former head of the Office of the Security Service of Ukraine in the Kherson region Kryvoruchko Serhiy Oleksandrovych are no longer generals,” he said. Zelensky...

WASHINGTON — A year after he entered the White House with a vow that fighting global warming would be a driving priority for his administration, President Biden’s climate agenda is mired in delay and facing legal, legislative and political headwinds that could diminish or dismantle it entirely. His two main avenues for significant climate action are legislation and regulation. But even Mr. Biden’s top aides and closest allies now concede that the legislative centerpiece of his climate plan is unlikely to become law in the face of steadfast Republican opposition.And regulations that are now under development — strict limits on...

Whoopi Goldberg went off on one of her fellow co-hosts on The View who called Hollywood elites out-of-touch hypocrites, claiming the statement was akin to racism. As hosts discussed the infamous slapping incident between Will Smith and Chris Rock at the Oscars, Tara Setmayer criticized the audience at the event for clapping for Smith's Best Actor win following the assault saying, 'They gave him a standing ovation which I think, again, goes back to why some people feel like Hollywood elites are a bunch of hypocrites.' 'They go out there and they give these statements of moral superiority about things,...

The United States Postal Inspection Service, the law enforcement arm of the post office, was “not legally authorized” to conduct blanket keyword searches of social media for terms such as “protest,” “attack,” and “destroy,” an inspector general investigation found, because it is only supposed to investigate cases with some connection to the post office or the mail. The USPSIS is the oldest police agency in the country, called the United States Postal Inspection Service, or USPIS. Its job is to police the mail and crimes related to the mail such as mail fraud. USPIS dates back to a time when...

For the benefit of people outside the USA who are frankly baffled at how this is evolving...

Big Tech censors: We know what we’re doing. Their algorithms: April Fools! It’s a tall task for Big Tech companies to justify mashing the censorship button on conservative speech when the systems they use to do their dirty work are so stupid that they always come back to kick them in the pants. MRC Free Speech America has logged over a whopping 3,500 cases of censorship into its CensorTrack database. But some of the cases were so flat-out ridiculous that they undermine the whole system of censorship and so-called fact-checking. MRC Free Speech America combed through CensorTrack to unearth the...

SAN FRANCISCO — Two co-founders of a Taiwan biotechnology company were sentenced Tuesday for plotting to steal trade secrets from Genentech in a $101 million scheme, prosecutors said. Racho Jordanov, former CEO of JHL Biotech Inc., and former chief operating officer Rose Lin were sentenced in San Francisco federal court to a year and a day each in federal prison, the U.S. attorney's office said.

1 April 2022 Friday of the 4th week of Lent Church of St. Peter and St. Paul, Lviv, Ukraine Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Violet.First readingWisdom 2:1,12-22 ©Let us lie in wait for the virtuous man and condemn him to a shameful deathThe godless say to themselves, with their misguided reasoning:‘Our life is short and dreary,nor is there any relief when man’s end comes,nor is anyone known who can give release from Hades.Let us lie in wait for the virtuous man, since he annoys usand opposes our way of life,reproaches us for our breaches of the lawand accuses us of playing...

VIDEOEvery one of these media lackeys who discounted the validity of the Hunter Biden laptop story in 2020 must now be confronted with their own words. Their main job was NOT reporting news but to protect Joe Biden and the Democrats in 2020.

<p>For years, congressional Republicans promised to hold FBI officials culpable for various scandals but failed to act.</p><p>So said an FBI agent to Julian Khater, one of two men accused of assaulting Capitol police officers with pepper spray on January 6, during a tense interrogation last year. Desperate to sustain the falsehood that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was killed by Trump supporters during the Capitol protest, the FBI claimed to possess video footage that showed Khater and his friend, George Tanios, attacking Sicknick and other officers with chemical spray. Khater was arrested on an airplane at the Newark airport on March 14, 2021 after he arrived home from a trip to Florida.</p>

The largely forgotten Winter War of 1939-40 When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, it seemed apt to compare it to the Soviet Union’s invasions of Hungary in 1956 and Czechoslovakia in 1968, when those states sought to throw off Moscow’s yoke and go their own way. The Soviet army needed barely a week to extinguish the last breaths of the Hungarian resistance, and it took only a day to put down Czechoslovakia’s. But Ukraine is not Hungary, and it is not Czechoslovakia. Five weeks in, the Ukrainians have killed thousands of Russian soldiers, destroyed entire enemy columns, downed planes,...

Colonel Thomas Rosser invites Major Generals Fitzhugh Lee and George Pickett to join him for a luncheon of baked shad. Both generals graciously accept the invitation. By all accounts, it was a quiet, relaxing afternoon for all present.

PM calls on civilians to carry firearms as Israel goes on high alert Israel’s security alert status has been raised to its highest level. That means police are much more visible on the streets, working longer shifts and focusing their presence on schools and popular gathering spots. Troop presence in the West Bank hand around the Gaza strip has also increased, with the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) announcing they are adding 14 battalions and combat soldiers from special forces units. Soldiers who carry a certain class of weapon will also be required to take their weapons with them even while...

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In Turkey, foreigners who pay $250,000 for a property and keep it for three years are eligible to receive a Turkish passport. For a slightly smaller sum, Dubai offers a three-year residency visa. Wealthy Russians are pouring money into real estate in Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, seeking a financial haven in the wake of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine and Western sanctions, according to many property companies. We sell seven to eight units to Russians every day," said Gul Gul, co-founder of the Golden Sign real estate company in Istanbul. "They buy in cash, they open bank accounts in...

WASHINGTON, Monday, March 31. THE NAVY DEPARTMENT AND THE NASHVILLE. It is ascertained, on examination, that Capt. FOX, Assistant-Secretary of the Navy, as soon as it was known that the Nashville had run in at Beaufort, N.C., telegraphed to every gunboat of the navy that was available to proceed forthwith to that port to prevent her escape. All urgency was expressed in his dispatches, but, by a run of ill luck that sometimes defies all human control, not one reached her destination in time to do any good. NO PASSES TO VISIT MARYLAND. The requirement of passes from persons visiting...

About two weeks ago, the New York Times published an article finally conceded that the Hunter Biden laptop and many of the emails on it are authentic. Yesterday (March 30), the Washington Post followed suit. The laptop in question is the one that Hunter left at a Delaware computer repair shop, and whose contents the New York Post revealed in a series of explosive October 2020 articles. Those articles got the NY Post banned from Twitter in the run-up to the 2020 election, while some 51 ex-intelligence officials denounced the laptop as likely “Russian disinformation.” Meanwhile, the Times and the...

Fauci shut down all lab leak theories after being schmoozed by gain-of-function researcher Peter Daszak who won tens of millions of dollars from the US government to fund his controversial experiments which may have sparked pandemic Investigators allege Dr. Anthony Fauci silenced any discussion about COVID being caused by a lab leak - and not through animal-to-human transmission Fauci also helped a controversial scientist get millions federal funding to study bats, Vanity Fair researchers who analyzed more than 100,000 documents claim They also allege NIH funds may have contributed to the development of the COVID-19, if it was indeed created...