Free Republic

As the US increases its focus on global competition with China, officials have singled out Beijing's inroads into Latin America as a growing threat to countries there and to US interests in the region. At recent congressional hearings and public events, those officials have cautioned that China is investing in digital and physical infrastructure, natural resources and extractive industries, and in political and military relationships across Latin America and the Caribbean in a multipronged effort to secure access and influence and gain leverage over countries there in order to advance its own commercial and strategic interests. Although China's engagement with...

Enrique Tarrio, the former chairman of the Proud Boys, and four other members of the far-right group were indicted on Monday for seditious conspiracy in connection with the storming of the Capitol last January, the most serious crime to be charged in the Justice Department’s sprawling investigation of the assault. The sedition charges against Mr. Tarrio and his co-defendants — Joseph Biggs, Ethan Nordean, Zachary Rehl and Dominic Pezzola — came in an amended indictment that was unsealed in Federal District Court in Washington. The men had already been charged in an earlier indictment filed in March with conspiring to...

Workers allege the action is retaliatory, but the chain says closures are "a regular part of our operations." With thousands of locations nationwide, a single Starbucks closing typically isn't national news. But at a time when the coffee chain is dealing with a major unionization push from employees — and being accused of potentially illegal anti-union behavior in the process — the announcement that Starbucks is shuttering a unionized store in Ithaca, New York, is grabbing a lot of attention. Starbucks Workers United, the national group behind Starbucks employees' unionization efforts, said they would once again be filing an Unfair...

Since its 2008 incursion into Georgia (if not before), there has been a remarkable evolution in Russia's approach to propaganda. This new approach was on full display during the country's 2014 annexation of the Crimean peninsula. It continues to be demonstrated in support of ongoing conflicts in Ukraine and Syria and in pursuit of nefarious and long-term goals in Russia's “near abroad” and against NATO allies.In some ways, the current Russian approach to propaganda builds on Soviet Cold War–era techniques, with an emphasis on obfuscation and on getting targets to act in the interests of the propagandist without realizing that...

Ukraine keeps all Russian prisoners of war in full compliance with the Geneva Convention, and has also set up a camp for them in one of the western regions. Those prisoners of war for whom there are no close expectations regarding the exchange are held there. The censor reports, this information is reported by UNIAN with reference to the minister of Justice Denis Malyuska. "We work in full compliance with the Geneva Convention. We have created a special camp for prisoners of war in the west of Ukraine, where those prisoners of war are held for whom there are no...

An Arizona man has used the sweltering desert heat of his home state to reportedly cook burgers and steaks — and even bake a cake — inside his 200-degree car. Joe Brown, from Phoenix, has attracted millions of viewers to his unconventional cooking show on TikTok. The 20-year-old’s culinary experiments began in March 2020, as the coronavirus pandemic forced many people his age back home for lockdown. Brown started by using the roof of his home as an environmental oven before shifting his trials to his car in April this year.

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A staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened that Ukraine will soon see "a real special operation." Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov has backed Putin since Russia launched its invasion of neighboring Ukraine in late February. Kadyrov has regularly posted videos calling on Ukrainian forces to surrender and claimed to be in Ukraine in some of them. "One of these days, you will see a real special operation," he said in a video message posted online on Sunday, using Moscow's terminology to describe the assault on Ukraine. He went on to describe Ukrainians as "shaitans," a term meaning devils...

The ‘retirement ideal’ has been changing for years. Older people are increasingly unretiring, changing the shape of this life stage.Picture retirement in your head. It’s a laughing, grey-haired couple sipping piña coladas on a white sand beach; perhaps they’re getting some liquid courage for their sky dive later. Not a care in the world, their only responsibility is getting their grandchildren good gifts for their birthdays. It’s a beautiful fantasy – and for many retirees, present and future, it’s just that: a fantasy. The concept of retirement as we know it is changing, and has been for a long time....

The Mexican president's refusal to attend a U.S.-hosted summit because of disputes over the guest list highlights how Latin America's leftists are pursuing an increasingly independent foreign policy from Washington. President Andres Manuel Lopez had said he would not go to the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles this week led by U.S. President Joe Biden unless all governments in the region were asked. On Monday, he followed through as Washington said it was not inviting its antagonists Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua on the grounds of human rights and democratic shortcomings. Lopez Obrador's firm line over the past few...

[37:13] Legend of popular history Mike Loades provides Dan a detailed run down of Henry V's famous victory at the Battle of Agincourt on 25 October 1415 and how his men were more a band of brigands than a 'band of brothers'. They discuss the arms, the armour, the tactics and the popular myths today associated with the battle, thanks to the immortal works of Shakespeare and Laurence Olivier.Historian Mike Loades Debunks 'The Agincourt Myth' | October 24, 2021 | History Hit

Resolution sets forth cisgender women's right to female-only spaces based on their assigned sex at birth.Last month, congressional Republicans introduced a House resolution that recognizes a person’s “biological sex” as a distinct legal category deserving of certain protections. The resolution, dubbed the “Women’s Bill of Rights,” affirms that, for legal purposes, “sex” means only a person’s biological sex — either male or female — at birth, and distinctly defines the terms “woman,” “girl,” and “mother” as referring to humans assigned female at birth while “man,” “boy,” and “father” refer to humans assigned male at birth. The House version of the...

Explanation: Will our Milky Way Galaxy collide one day with its larger neighbor, the Andromeda Galaxy? Most likely, yes. Careful plotting of slight displacements of M31's stars relative to background galaxies on recent Hubble Space Telescope images indicate that the center of M31 could be on a direct collision course with the center of our home galaxy. Still, the errors in sideways velocity appear sufficiently large to admit a good chance that the central parts of the two galaxies will miss, slightly, but will become close enough for their outer halos to become gravitationally entangled. Once that happens, the two...

School board candidate Heather Fletcher says she checked out the books to make the library a "safe place for children."A candidate for public office in Maryland says she checked out all of the books from an LGBTQ Pride Month display at the Brunswick Public Library so that others wouldn’t be able to see or read them and to prevent children from asking potentially uncomfortably questions. Heather Fletcher, a candidate for the Frederick County Board of Education, claims she checked out 20 books from the display last Tuesday to make the library a “safe place for children.” She told the Frederick...

In a stunning admission, CISA reports that voting machines are vulnerable to tampering and hacking. After two-plus years of denials from multiple government officials, politicians, and the legacy media, the much delayed Cyber & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) report “identifie[d] vulnerabilities affecting versions of the Dominion Voting Systems Democracy Suite ImageCast X.” The report warns the vulnerabilities present in the system software represent risks that “should be mitigated as soon as possible.” CISA also reported that ” it has no evidence that these vulnerabilities have been exploited in any elections.” CISA Director Jen Easterly stated the same in a Tweet...

The author said 'there was a need for more books that celebrate the joy of being gay, and contain jolly stories of life in single-sex families'A series of new children's books that contain same-sex families as characters will be given free of charge to primary schools in Wales. They are being published by Peniarth - part of University of Wales Trinity Saint David - which was established in 2009 as the university's publishing wing. It has since become one of the main publishers of Welsh and bilingual books and educational resources in Wales. To get the latest WalesOnline newsletters e-mailed...

Parents and students rallied outside of Granada Hills Charter High School on Tuesday to protest a policy that will bar unvaccinated students from participating in graduation ceremonies. Granada Hills Charter has maintained its vaccination requirement despite the Los Angeles Unified School District delaying the vaccination mandate until July 1, 2023. According to the school, 99% of eligible students have been vaccinated.

The struggling Minnesota Twins have arrived in Toronto with regular right fielder Max Kepler and relief pitchers Emilio Pagán, Caleb Thielbar and Trevor Megill on the restricted list to comply with the Canadian government’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The four players will miss the three-game series against the Blue Jays. Canada requires anyone traveling to the country to have received two doses of a COVID-19 vaccine, the second one at least 14 days before entry. Kepler will lose $111,264 of his $6.75 million salary, while Pagán loses $37,912, Thielbar $21,429 and Megill $11, 662.

U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson survived a vote of confidence on Monday triggered by lawmakers in his own Conservative party amid widespread anger over a series of lawbreaking parties in Downing Street during the country’s Covid-19 lockdowns, marking the latest road bump in a tumultuous and polarizing premiership dominated by the pandemic.

U.S. natural gas fundamentals remain bullish as above-normal temperatures drive cooling demand and dwindling supplies that would’ve been used for the next winter season cause market tightness, sending futures for July delivery soaring 9.5% to $9.340/mmbtu as of 1315 ET.Houston-based energy firm Criterion Research sheds more color on the natgas fundamentals driving prices higher. They report a combination of factors, including above-average temperatures in the Lower U.S. 48, natgas demand, slumping natgas production, and below-average national stockpiles, which have driven July contracts above $9. The Lower 48’s weather outlook has come in warmer this morning, with the latest models showing...