Free Republic

Two things are happening in the Black Sea which together could shift the dynamic in Russia’s favor. Russia has copied Ukraine’s’ maritime drones and started using them. At the same time, a decision by Elon Musk to limit Starlink use may stop Ukraine using their own. As the saying goes, Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The Russian military has copied Ukraine’s now famous ‘Maritime Drone’ and begun using it against Ukrainian targets. At the same time, Ukraine’s own ability to deploy maritime drones looks to have been massively reduced. SpaceX has said that it will prevent Ukraine using...

A Chicago man is facing a slew of felony charges after allegedly robbing a man at gunpoint and then staying at the scene to eat the victim’s takeout fried chicken. Chicago police arrived at the robbery scene within minutes and allegedly found James Taylor, 20, still there, enjoying the victim’s delicious fried chicken. Officials said the victim, 35, parked in front of his home in the 4500 block of South Calumet around 1:30 a.m. Saturday and started to head toward his residence with his piping hot yardbird. When the victim turned around, Taylor was pointing a pistol at his face,...

A former dean of Stanford's law school and a computer science researcher at the university co-signed indicted FTX cryptocurrency exchange founder Sam Bankman-Fried's bond, according to court records made public on Wednesday. Bankman-Fried, 30, has pleaded not guilty to fraud charges over the collapse of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange. He has been out on $250 million bond co-signed by his parents, Joseph Bankman and Barbara Fried, who pledged their Palo Alto, California, home as collateral for his return to court. His parents are both professors at Stanford Law School. The names of two other sureties had been redacted until Wednesday,...

Half of Americans in a recent survey indicated they believe national news organizations intend to mislead, misinform or persuade the public to adopt a particular point of view through their reporting. The survey, released Wednesday by Gallup and the Knight Foundation, goes beyond others that have shown a low level of trust in the media to the startling point where many believe there is an intent to deceive. Asked whether they agreed with the statement that national news organizations do not intend to mislead, 50% said they disagreed. Only 25% agreed, the study found. Similarly, 52% disagreed with a statement...

Ukraine is accusing Russia of using spy balloons as part of its ongoing war — saying it shot down six over the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. “Aerial targets were detected in the sky over the Kyiv region. As a result air defense kicked into action,” the Kyiv Regional Military Administration reported on Telegram. “Keep calm and stay in shelters!” Although the message did not specify when the balloons were shot down, air alerts were issued in Kyiv on Wednesday. The apparent use of balloons comes on top of the US shooting down several unusual objects in American skies, including a balloon...

A West Virginia journalist was fired last month after exposing alleged abuse of disabled people in the state’s health agency. Amelia Ferrell Knisely said she had been warned to stop reporting on allegations that the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources was hiding information on the treatment of disabled persons in state care in the weeks before she was let go from her part-time job at West Virginia Public Broadcasting. “I was let go from my job at WVPB last week following threats from DHHR about my reporting on DHHR’s treatment of people with disabilities,” she wrote on...

Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) says he is not sure how Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) would perform in a presidential contest if he joins the race, saying that “none of us really know who he is” on the national stage. Christie said in an interview with the conservative outlet The Dispatch published Wednesday that DeSantis has done a “good job” as governor, but he does not know how DeSantis would perform in a Republican primary. DeSantis has not publicly confirmed whether he is considering a run for president in 2024, but he has been the subject of...

Taking an electric car on a road trip can be a stressful experience — at least according to a couple who took their Kia EV6 on a cross-country trip from Michigan to Florida. Axios reporter Joann Muller said her husband took the electric car on a 1,500 mile road trip — she joined him part-way through — to see if the US is truly ready for mass EV adoption. While electric cars are becoming more prevalent, charging infrastructure isn't quite what it should be, Muller wrote. "We were constantly thinking about where to charge next," Muller wrote of her experience...

Cleveland, Ohio, has informed city residents that their water is safe amid growing concerns about the environmental consequences from the derailment of a train hauling chemicals in the northeastern part of the state. In a statement, Cleveland Water notified residents that its drinking water comes from Lake Erie, which is “separate from the Ohio River and its watershed.” “There’s no indication that Lake Erie or its watershed have been impacted by the train derailment in East Palestine,” the department said in its statement. “The testing that we regularly perform would catch any changes to our source water should they arise.”...

In a scene from The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe, one of the tales of C.S. Lewis’s classic Chronicles of Narnia, the four children, Lucy, Edmond, Susan, and Peter find themselves at the dwelling of Mr. and Mrs. Beaver. As Mr. Beaver begins explaining events to the children, he tells them in a low whisper, “They say Aslan is on the move — perhaps has already landed.”Aslan is the Great Lion in the Narnia stories, the God or Christ figure. After nearly one hundred years of the cruel rule of the White Witch, who had kept it always Winter...

The Kremlin will not invite reporters from countries that Russia has deemed “unfriendly” to President Vladimir Putin’s address to the Federal Assembly next week. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on February 15 that only media representing "friendly" countries will be accredited to the February 21 event. -snip- More than 60 countries, including the United States, EU member states, Britain, Canada, and Japan, have been declared "unfriendly" by Russia for imposing or supporting sanctions in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

WASHINGTON, DC — An envoy of extraterrestrial beings stifled their frustration and asked to be taken to a different leader after their initial meeting with President Joe Biden left them confused and exasperated, sources say. "I guess he's not the leader they were expecting," said an insider who spoke on the condition of anonymity. "It was the classic sci-fi movie scenario, with the aliens arriving and telling us, ‘Take us to your leader.' We quickly set up a meeting with President Biden, and things went downhill from there." "The aliens were already asking why we kept shooting down their peace...

EAST PALESTINE, OH — Government officials are warning residents of East Palestine to protect themselves from deadly health risks by making sure they've received the latest COVID booster. "In light of the ongoing environmental and health crisis in rural Ohio, we are urging all citizens to make sure they are up to date on their vaccinations," said Ohio Health Department spokesperson Danze Pickleton. "The chemicals being spilled into the water and burned into the air are nothing compared to the deadly power of the latest variant XBB.1.5. Get your booster, East Palestinians!" The Ohio DOH reiterated that it's essential to...

While speaking to the National Association of Counties Tuesday, President Biden pushed for more gun control and said there is “no rationale…for magazines that hold 50, 70 bullets.” He did not say what he believes to be a rational magazine capacity nor did he note whether 70-round magazines exist. Biden said, “I’m going to say something that’s always controversial, but there is no rationale for assault weapons and magazines that hold 50, 70 bullets.”

FBI’s Targeting Of Traditional Catholics Must Be Music To The Vatican’s EarsThe orthodoxy of traditional Catholics makes them prime targets not just for Biden’s Justice Department, but for the globalist-aligned church of Francis..... Pleasing to the PopeIn any case, one thing seems likely: The memo must have been music to the Vatican’s ears. Certainly, Christ-following, church-attending, Bible-believing, cross-bearing Catholics make poor Democrats, and therefore inevitable targets for President Joe Biden’s Justice Department. But the orthodoxy of these Catholics also puts them out of step with the church of Francis, a body increasingly aligning itself with the globalists, climate extremists, and...

Part 1 Some Linux veterans are irritated by some of the new tech: Snap, Flatpak, Btrfs, ZFS, and so forth. Doesn't the old stuff work? Well, yes, it does – but not well enough. Why is Canonical pushing Snap so hard? Does Red Hat really need all these different versions of Fedora? Why are some distros experimenting with ZFS if its licence is incompatible with the GPL? Is the already bewildering array of packaging tools and file systems not enough?No, they aren't. There are good justifications for all these efforts, and the reasons are simple and fairly clear. The snag...

Urolithin A, a metabolite of ellagitannins in pomegranates, boosts immune cells’ ability to combat tumors by inducing a process known as mitophagy. STORY AT-A-GLANCE Urolithin A (UA) has emerged as a powerhouse player in the fight against cancer, as it may naturally boost tumor-fighting immune cells. UA is a metabolite of ellagitannins in pomegranates that has anti-inflammatory and anticancer effects. UA “recycles and renews mitochondria” by inducing a biological pathway known as mitophagy—the process of cleaning out your mitochondria, allowing them to function at their best. This changes T cells’ genetic program, making them more able to fight tumors. In...

Anything in the emails that suggest who stayed in the luxury Corinthia's River Suite were redacted.. Federal government staff were prepared for reporters to find out about the exorbitant hotel bill, including a more than $6,000-a-night suite, that politicians and government staff incurred while in London for the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II. Internal documents show Global Affairs Canada (GAC) staff discussing weeks after the funeral how to avoid the embarrassment happening again with the coronation of King Charles. The documents contain emails also referring to orders from the office of Global Affairs Minister Mélanie Joly that staff not tell...

A resident in East Palestine, Ohio, is asking Americans to “pray for us” following the February 3 train derailment that resulted in residents being ordered to evacuate their homes on both sides of the Ohio-Pennsylvania border as fears of hazardous chemicals and a possible explosion loomed. “Pray for us,” the East Palestine resident told Breitbart News on Tuesday. “I know there’s a lot of people that are very, very scared. They’re very nervous about what they’re coming home to, the environment, the animals years from now, the environmental impact on just people, and things around town.”

A federal judge issued an injunction blocking enforcement of New York’s “Hateful Conduct Law” seeking to regulate “hate speech” on social media platforms, ruling that the law is a violation of the First Amendment, which prevents the U.S. government from regulating the speech of its citizens.