Free Republic

Capital controls imposed by Russia have turned the ruble into the world’s best performing currency this year, though not many people can pocket a profit on the rally.The ruble resumed its advance against the dollar on Wednesday as the Moscow Exchange reopened after two days of public holiday. It’s now up more than 11% against the US dollar since the start of the year, surpassing the real’s 9% advance to become the top gainer among 31 major currencies tracked by Bloomberg. The offshore rate is up even more, about 12%.

ESPN couldn’t make the Kentucky Derby about race, so they switched to politics. On Wednesday, during an Outside the Lines episode, ESPN host John Barr interviewed Eric Reed — owner of Mercury Equine Center, which houses reigning Kentucky Derby-winning horse Rich Strike —and asked Reed if he had ever tweeted anything remotely negative about Vice President Kamala Harris. In typical ESPN fashion, the host had a tweet in question hiding in his back pocket after a considerable investigation over a matter that no one would care about if not for the hard-hitting journalism at ESPN. Barr’s tweet in question, posted...

Pallets of baby formula are being sent to holding facilities at the border amid a shortage that has seen many parents unable to find it at their local stores, according to a GOP representative. [Below is the photo she posted of pallets of baby supplies at a border center. "They are sending pallets, pallets of baby formula to the border," Rep. Kat Cammack, R-Fla., said in a video posted to Facebook Wednesday. "Meanwhile, in our own district at home, we cannot find baby formula."

When my son Joseph was born last August, he was underweight. The doctors recommended I breastfeed and supplement with formula. I was devastated. He is the first child for me and my husband, and when I was pregnant, I had dreams of exclusively breastfeeding. But like many other families, it wasn’t a possibility. After I got over my formula hesitancy, I took comfort that Joey was doing well and gaining weight and had a renewed my hope for a bright future for our new family. But it was quickly replaced with a new concern. In January, I noticed growing holes...

Supermassive Black Hole Spewing Out Jets An artist’s conception of a supermassive black hole at the center of a galaxy. Credit: Image courtesy of ESA/AOES Medialab ************************************************************************************** Update: Meet Sagittarius A* – Astronomers Reveal First Image of the Black Hole at the Heart of the Milky Way Today (May 12, 2022) at 9:00 a.m. EDT (6:00 a.m. PDT, 15:00 CEST) The European Southern Observatory (ESO) and the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project will hold a press conference to present new Milky Way results from the EHT. The ESO Director General will deliver the opening words. EHT Project Director Huib Jan...

A U.S. appeals court ruled Wednesday that California's ban on the sale of semiautomatic weapons to adults under 21 is unconstitutional. In a 2-1 ruling, a panel of the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Wednesday the law violates the Second Amendment right to bear arms and a San Diego judge should have blocked what it called "an almost total ban on semiautomatic centerfire rifles" for young adults.

President Donald Trump will headline the upcoming Student Action Summit (SAS) in July, hosted by Turning Point Action. The summit will take place in Tampa, Florida, on July 22-24.Founder and President of Turning Point USA, Charlie Kirk, shared his excitement about the announcement on Twitter, stating, “Honored to have 45 back against at #SAS2022 this July in Tampa, Florida.” He added, “And this is just the beginning…dozens more incredible guests still to be announced in the coming weeks. This event will be bigger and better than ever.”President Trump has been CONFIRMED as a Turning Point ACTION sponsored speaker at TPUSA's...

A former Black Panther who was convicted of murdering a New Jersey State trooper 49 years ago will soon be sprung on parole. New Jersey Supreme Court on Tuesday ruled 3-2 to allow 85-year-old Sundiata Acoli, the Black Liberation Army activist who killed Trooper Werner Foerster in 1973, to go free. Acoli had appeared before the parole board eight times since 1993 — when he became eligible for parole on his lifetime prison sentence. “In light of Acoli’s verbal renunciation of violence as an acceptable way to achieve social change; more than two decades infraction-free in the federal prison system;...

The Biden administration strayed further from American energy independence once again, as the Department of Interior canceled two oil and gas lease sales in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico, The Hill reported. There was “lack of industry interest in leasing in the area” of Cook Inlet, Alaska, the department said in a statement to Axios.In the Gulf of Mexico, the DOI cited legal complications as reasons not to go through with two lease sales. “The Department also will not move forward with lease sales 259 and 261 in the Gulf of Mexico region, as a result of delays due...

A wild fox in Anoka County tested positive for bird flu, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources announced Wednesday. It’s the first known wild mammal in Minnesota to contract the strain that has forced farmers to cull millions of poultry across the U.S. The University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory discovered the fox and alerted the DNR. The National Veterinary Services Laboratory later confirmed the highly pathogenic avian influenza diagnosis. The first North American cases of HPAI in wild mammals were detected in two red fox kits last week in Ontario, Canada. The DNR said in light of these cases,...

(CNN)Ashley Judd and her family wanted the world to hear from them how Naomi Judd died. The younger Judd appeared in an interview with Diane Sawyer, which aired on Thursday on "Good Morning America." She said her family had agreed that she share the cause of death of her mother. "She used a weapon," Ashley Judd said. "A firearm. So that's the piece of information we are very uncomfortable sharing." She and her sister Wynonna Judd announced on April 30 that they had lost their mother "to the disease of mental illness." She was 76. Ashley Judd said she and...

Prices at the wholesale level accelerated further in April, part of a broader inflation problem persisting through the U.S. economy, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Thursday. The producer price index, which tracks how much manufacturers get for products at their initial sale, rose 0.5% on the month and 11% from a year ago, a decrease from the record 11.5% in March. Excluding food, energy and trade services, core PPI rose 0.6% in April and 6.9% from a year ago, the latter a decline from 7.1% last month. Both monthly increases were exactly in line with Dow Jones estimates. Headline...

Should American citizens be treated differently than immigrants illegally entering the country? How about our men and women who serve in the military? Many would likely answer yes, but that’s not the way it appears to be playing out when it comes to COVID vaccine mandates. Recently, the brother of Col. Alexander Vindman, of impeachment infamy, expressed his support for a prosecution team that secured a first in the nation conviction of a lieutenant for failing to get a COVID-19 vaccine. Regardless where one stands on the issue of mandates, the double standard when it comes to the new vaccine...

As gas prices reach new heights, Biden Administration cancels lease sales in Alaska and the Gulf of Mexico. This senile old man and those who handle him hate America. Every policy they make hurts Americans.Only a few days ago

Naomi Judd shot herself with a gun a day before she was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, her heartbroken daughter has revealed. The singer killed herself with the firearm at her Tennessee farm on April 30 aged 76 after battling her mental health, Ashley told Good Morning America on Thursday. Ashley choked back tears as she drip-fed more details about the iconic singer's suicide last month in her first television interview on the tragedy. She and her sister Wynonna - who performed with Naomi for years in The Judds - first open up about her death at...

Ashley Judd revealed that her mother, Naomi Judd, died by suicide and “used a firearm” in an interview with Diane Sawyer on Good Morning America Thursday. “She used a weapon. Mother used a firearm,” Judd said. “So that’s the piece of information that we are very uncomfortable sharing, but understand that we’re in a position that if we don’t say it, someone else is going to.” Naomi Judd died April 30 at the age of 76. At the time, an exact cause of death was not given, though Ashley wrote on social media that “We lost our beautiful mother to...

After pleading unsuccessfully for affordable housing to help ease her chronic health condition, a Canadian woman ended her life in February under the country’s assisted-suicide laws. Another woman, suffering from the same condition and also living on disability payments, has nearly reached final approval to end her life. The two high-profile cases have prompted disbelief and outrage, and shone a light on Canada’s right-to-die laws, which critics argue are being misused to punish the poor and infirm. In late April, the Spectator ran a story with the provocative headline: Why is Canada euthanising the poor? But medical and legal experts...

The supermassive blackhole at the center of SgrA*. (EHT Collaboration) =================================================================== Four and a half billion years ago, our pale blue dot was born in the rubble left over from the birth of a star. Since then, we've been locked in a cosmic dance; Earth whirls around the Sun; and the Sun whirls around the galactic center, the dark, mysterious heart of the Milky Way. Contained in that dark heart, around which the entire galaxy revolves, is a supermassive black hole named Sagittarius A*, clocking in at around 4.3 million times the mass of the Sun. We've been able to...

A gunman remains on the loose after storming into a Dallas hair salon Wednesday afternoon and shooting three women, reports said. The shooting happened after 2 p.m. at Hair World Salon, a business located in a shopping center in a district full of Asian-owned businesses, according to WFAA-TV.

Chief Mufti of Russia Talgat Tadzhuddin, who has also served as the head of the Central Muslim Spiritual Directorate of Russia, said in an April 30, 2022 interview on Sky News Arabia (UAE) that fighting alongside Russian forces in Ukraine constitutes a holy jihad for Muslims, and that any Muslim who dies in the fight is a martyr. He explained that the Spiritual Directorate has issued a fatwa on this subject, and gave examples of previous Russian victories over the Nazis and Western powers. In addition, he said that the U.S. was founded on the annihilation of native Americans and...