Free Republic

Vladimir Putin wanted Russia to join Nato but did not want his country to have to go through the usual application process and stand in line “with a lot of countries that don’t matter”, according to a former secretary general of the transatlantic alliance.George Robertson, a former Labour defence secretary who led Nato between 1999 and 2003, said Putin made it clear at their first meeting that he wanted Russia to be part of western Europe. “They wanted to be part of that secure, stable prosperous west that Russia was out of at the time,” he said.The account chimes with...

Illegal aliens, like anyone else out there, respond to incentives.Joe Biden's plan to end Title 42, the one measure that kept some illegal migrants out on COVID concerns, is one whopping incentive.Because what we see right now are some amazing responses to the incentive to skip the immigration line and just walk in without authorization among the would-be illegals.Start with this:Juarez shelters full ahead of May 23 end of Title 42 policy in U.S. https://t.co/kjhShmuRSi "We're waiting for Title 42 to end because there are too many people here." — Mark Krikorian (@MarkSKrikorian) May 3, 2022Seems the shelters are filling...

She stood in just her bathrobe in the freezing basement of the Mariupol theater, coated in white plaster dust shaken loose by the explosion. Her husband tugged at her to leave and begged her to cover her eyes. But she couldn’t help it — Oksana Syomina looked. And to this day, she wishes she hadn’t. Bodies were strewn everywhere, including those of children. By the main exit, a little girl lay still on the floor. Syomina had to step on the dead to escape the building that had served as the Ukrainian city’s main bomb shelter for more than a...

Russian forces pounded targets across Ukraine, taking aim at supply lines for foreign weapons in the west and intensifying an offensive in the east, as the European Union moved Wednesday to further punish Moscow for the war with a proposed ban on oil imports. The Russian military said Wednesday it used sea- and air-launched precision guided missiles to destroy electric power facilities at five railway stations across Ukraine, while artillery and aircraft also struck troop strongholds and fuel and ammunition depots. The defense minister repeated that Russian forces have blocked off a steel mill in Mariupol from which scores of...

A California First District Court of Appeal decision released on Monday ruled that a ban against four drug dealers from a 50-block area of the Tenderloin and South of Market neighborhoods is illegal, upholding earlier rulings on the matter.

A former Crimson president wanted to blast the paper's decision to endorse BDS. Crimson president Raquel Coronell Uribe won't publish his letter. The Harvard Crimson on Friday broke with the paper's longstanding editorial position to endorse—in a lengthy but borderline illiterate editorial—the anti-Semitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement that aims to economically isolate the Jewish state of Israel. The endorsement came at the tail end of an "Israeli Apartheid Week" hosted by the Ivy League school's Palestinian Solidarity Committee, replete with an art show that equated Zionism with "racism" and "white supremacy." (The Crimson editorial characterized this as "a colorful,...

Amazon will reimburse its staff in the US up to $4,000 in travel expenses annually for a range of non-life threatening medical treatments, including elective abortions, as conservative-led laws look to block access in many states. The online retail giant's decision comes after a leaked memo on Monday revealed that the U.S. Supreme Court could be poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide. In a message sent to Amazon employees on Monday, obtained by Reuters, Amazon told its employees that the new work benefit would apply to an employee if an operation could...

Vice President Kamala Harris has been taking political advice from MSNBC host Joe Scarborough, according to the authors of This Will Not Pass, a new book about the Biden administration in which New York Times reporters Jonathan Martin and Alex Burns document the general consensus among Democrats that Harris's tenure as vice president has been "a slow-rolling Greek tragedy." The authors note that by the end of President Joe Biden's first year in office Harris was "as politically isolated as she had ever been," and "few Democrats had confidence" in her ability to be the party's standard bearer in 2024....

MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski on Wednesday blasted Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) for suggesting media and public attention should focus on who leaked a bombshell draft memo to Politico earlier this week revealing the Supreme Court is poised to overturn Roe v. Wade rather than focus on the draft itself. “The old white guys, Mitch, is going to tell us what the story of the day is?” she asked. “That’s rich, Mitch … the bottom line is this is setting women back in so many different ways with so many different consequences and you’re going to tell us that...

It's the first ever monthly trade deficit to surpass $100 billionThe U.S. trade deficit hit a record $109.8 billion in March as import purchases spiked, the Commerce Department announced Wednesday. March was the first time in U.S. history that a monthly deficit surpassed $100 billion. The trade deficit refers to the gap between how much America purchases from other countries versus what it sells abroad. March also saw a record-setting increase in imports as companies seek to restore stockpiles following recent supply chain chaos.

<p>TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) - Two men were arrested in Broward County last Friday for their alleged involved in a Pompano Beach woman’s murder in 2021, according to deputies.</p><p>On March 25, 2021, Broward County deputies and Pompano Beach Fire Rescue responded to a shooting call on Northwest 8th Street, where they found 39-year-old Jonelle Coleman lying on the sidewalk.</p>

In Ukraine, Israeli mercenaries are actually shoulder-to-shoulder with the Azov militants,” said spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. Israelis are fighting alongside Azov, a Ukrainian military battalion with neo-Nazi roots, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday, amid a row between Jerusalem and Moscow over the latter saying Hitler was part Jewish. “I’ll say something that the politicians in Israel who are now inflating their information campaign are unlikely to want to hear,” Zakharova said in an interview with Sputnik Radio. “Perhaps they will be interested. In Ukraine, Israeli mercenaries are actually shoulder-to-shoulder with the Azov militants.” Israel is certainly aware...

Although the right to an abortion has been enshrined in U.S. law for almost 50 years, the cost of the procedure has steadily risen and can now hinder women from obtaining care, according to new research from University of California San Francisco. A woman undergoing a first-trimester abortion in 2020 paid about $515 for the procedure — an increase of 8% from the median cost in 2017. Travel costs and lost wages can add hundreds of dollars more to the cost of seeking an abortion. Patients already typically pay ancillary costs to seek abortion care that can add up to...

Israeli ‘mercenaries’ teaming up with neo-Nazis in Ukraine, Russia says In Ukraine, Israeli mercenaries are actually shoulder-to-shoulder with the Azov militants,” said spokeswoman Maria Zakharova. By LAHAV HARKOV Published: MAY 4, 2022 12:57 Israelis are fighting alongside Azov, a Ukrainian military battalion with neo-Nazi roots, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday, amid a row between Jerusalem and Moscow over the latter saying Hitler was part Jewish. “I’ll say something that the politicians in Israel who are now inflating their information campaign are unlikely to want to hear,” Zakharova said in an interview with Sputnik Radio. “Perhaps they...

Forty-five percent of young LGBTQ people seriously considered attempting suicide in 2021, according to a survey published Wednesday by the LGBTQ mental health nonprofit the Trevor Project. It's the third consecutive year that rates of suicidal ideation have increased among LGBTQ youth, the organization said. "We must recognize that LGBTQ young people face stressors simply for being who they are that their peers never have to worry about," CEO and executive director of the Trevor Project Amit Paley said in a statement. For the nonprofit's fourth edition of its National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health, researchers surveyed nearly 34,000...

The Walt Disney Co. has lost nearly $63 billion in market capitalization since it decided in March to embrace radical LGBTQ activism and declare war on Florida by opposing the state’s Parental Rights in Education law. Shares of Disney have plummeted 23.5 percent since the start of March. For the past 12 months, Disney has seen its stock drop more than 30 percent, making it the worst performing stock on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Disney’s free fall comes as the company has embraced woke, far-left politics, specifically the exposure of young children to radical LGBTQ ideology. The trouble began...

During an appearance on Tuesday’s broadcast of FNC’s “Hannity,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) reacted to a Politico report revealing a leaked draft Supreme Court majority opinion indicating the 1973 Roe v. Wade would ultimately be overturned. Graham told Fox News host Sean Hannity Democrats seemed to be working against American institutions to gain power and called the leak “the saddest chapter in the history” of the U.S. Supreme Court.

DIY medicine collectives are preparing for the horrifying prospect that Roe v. Wade will be overturned. With the Supreme Court poised to overturn the constitutional right to abortion, an anarchist collective that makes DIY medicine has released detailed instructions for making abortion pills. The group has previously released instructions for making a DIY Epipen and for making daraprim, the pill that made “pharma bro” Martin Shkreli infamous. The Four Thieves Vinegar Collective first demonstrated how to make misoprostol tablets, which are used to induce an abortion, at the Please Try This at Home conference in Pittsburgh in 2019. Last year,...

Imports climb to record $351.5 billion in March he numbers: The U.S. trade deficit leaped 22% in March and topped $100 billion for the first time ever, reflecting a big appetite among Americans for foreign goods. They’re also paying higher prices for oil and other products due to soaring inflation. The trade gap rose to $109.8 billion from $89.8 billion the prior month. Economists polled by The Wall Street Journal had forecast a $106.7 billion trade gap. Imports leaped 10.3% in March to a record $351.5 billion. High inflation, especially oil prices, has added to the cost of imports. Exports...

In the wake of the news that the Supreme Court is preparing to overturn Roe v. Wade, Democratic politicians and strategists are seeking to turn abortion into the new dominant issue of November’s midterm elections. Axios reports that strategists hope to target swing states with contested seats for governor and the U.S. Senate, particularly states where abortion could be outlawed if Roe is ultimately overturned. One anonymous strategist pointed to the finality of the leaked draft opinion, written by Justice Samuel Alito, which determines that both Roe, originally decided in 1973, as well as the follow-up case Planned Parenthood v....