Free Republic

The war-ravaged eastern city of Bakhmut may fall to Russian forces, with Kyiv officials saying its military is contemplating pulling troops back from the city that has become a symbol of Ukrainian resistance. A Ukrainian serviceman carries a 152 mm shell to fire a Msta-B howitzer towards Russian positions, near the frontline town of Bakhmut on March 2, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. A Ukrainian serviceman carries a 152 mm shell to fire a Msta-B howitzer towards Russian positions, near the frontline town of Bakhmut on March 2, 2023, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.Alexander Rodnyansky, an economic...

Apple will manufacture iPhones at a new plant in India, officials said Friday, as the US tech giant seeks to ramp up its India production and diversify away from China. The flagship mobile's global supply chain is based mainly in China, where strict Covid policies last year and ongoing diplomatic tensions with the United States have hurt production. "Apple phones to be built in the state soon," Karnataka state chief minister Basavaraj S Bommai tweeted on Friday. "Apart from creating about 100,000 jobs, it will create a whole lot of opportunities for Karnataka," he added. Rajeev Chandrasekhar, India's minister of...

Russian tax revenue from crude oil and petroleum products plummeted by 48% in February from a year earlier due to the much lower price of Russia’s flagship crude grade after the EU banned imports of Russian oil, according to Bloomberg estimates based on official Russian data. Total tax revenues from oil and natural gas dipped by 46% year over year to $6.9 billion (521 billion Russian rubles) in February, per data from the Russian Finance Ministry published on Friday. Russia’s revenues from crude oil and oil products alone crumbled by 48% annually to $4.8 billion (361 billion rubles), according to...

I don’t care how bad the pain is, hospital Tylenol is not worth $4,000! Imagine you’re itching for a manicure and a luxurious pedicure, including callus softening, skin scrubbing, foot massage, and foot mask. You arrive at the salon, take a look at the price sheet (which looks oddly reminiscent of a restaurant menu), and tally up your selections in your mind. Once your feet are soaking and the nail technicians are getting busy prepping your fingernails, you already know roughly how much your spa day will cost. Your nail salon was transparent with you ahead of time, and despite...

Donald Trump Jr. scored a victory on Friday when PNC Financial Services Group Inc. reversed course after inexplicably cutting ties with his news aggregation company, then blaming it on a “good-faith error.” PNC Bank made headlines Thursday afternoon after Trump Jr. revealed that the “woke” company shut down the bank account for the app he co-founded with Trump spokesman Taylor Budowich — MxM News — “without any explanation”:

The proudly gay mayor of College Park, Maryland, has been arrested on 56 charges related to child pornography. Patrick Wojahn, 47, once boasted of his mentor/mentee relationship with Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, who is also gay and was the mayor of South Bend, Indiana. “I actually met Mayor Pete Buttigieg shortly after I was elected mayor in 2015,” Wojahn said in a 2019 interview with the Washington Blade, an LGBT outlet. “I went to the U.S. Conference of Mayors’ Winter Meeting in D.C. in January and he was assigned to be my buddy.” Wojahn said he attended a White House...

TORONTO -- Nordstrom Inc. announced Thursday it is closing all of its Canadian stores and cutting 2,500 jobs as it winds down operations in the country. The Seattle-based retailer has six Nordstrom and seven Nordstrom Rack stores in Canada, which will be shuttered by late June.

For weeks there has been speculation about his state of health. Ramzan Kadyrov (46), Putin's willing bloodhound, does not seem to be doing well. His mental state is well known (he loves to murder and torture), but his physical state is probably no longer up to speed. In recent months, he has gained considerable weight, looks very bloated, in his videos he often does not get his eyes open. What's going on with the Chechen dictator, who is otherwise so supposedly bursting with strength? In recent months, he has gained considerable weight, looks very bloated, in his videos he often...

The House Ethics Committee is extending its review on whether Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez accepted impermissible gifts associated with her appearance at the 2021 Met Gala. The bipartisan committee said Thursday members decided in December 2022 to extend their review into the allegation after they received a referral from the Office of Congressional Ethics. An 18-page report prepared by the office made public Thursday and reviews by NBC News shows the New York lawmaker may have violated House rules, standards of conduct and federal law and concluded there was "substantial reason to believe" Ocasio-Cortez accepted impermissible gifts. House lawmakers are...

A new lawsuit is garnering attention in Washington where a white law student has sued Howard University’s School of Law for racial discrimination. Michael Newman alleging the school maintains a “hostile education environment.” The complaint names Law Dean Danielle Holley as well as other Howard officials in addition to the university as a whole. Newman joined the freshman class at Howard in the fall semester of 2020 and remained there for two years. He was expelled in September 2022. He alleged that he suffered “depression, anxiety and suicidal thoughts” as a result of “public ostracism, vilification and humiliation” due to...

Blackstone Group Inc BX.N said on Wednesday it agreed to acquire genealogy provider Ancestry.com Inc from private equity rivals for $4.7 billion, including debt, placing a big bet on family-tree chasing as well as personalized medicine. Ancestry.com is the world’s largest provider of DNA services, allowing customers to trace their genealogy and identify genetic health risks with tests sent to their home. Blackstone is hoping that more consumers staying at home amid the COVID-19 pandemic will turn to Ancestry.com for its services. “We believe Ancestry has significant runway for further growth as people of all ages and backgrounds become increasingly...

FALL RIVER — David Mello leads the children’s section of the 19th-century library in the center of the city, a longtime public servant whose ready smile turns rueful when he recalls the ugly protest on its granite steps late last year. About 20 neo-Nazis shouted at adults and children as they arrived Dec. 10 for Drag Story Hour, a library event in which volunteers who are dressed in drag read books to children. The readers were denounced as pedophiles. Antisemitic slurs were hurled at an adult there wearing a yarmulke. And protesters flashed the Nazi salute. “It’s now come to...

Assembly Bill 853 by Assemblyman Brian Maienschein (D-San. Diego) was introduced to address successor grocery store employer. AB 853 would add Labor Code Section 2516.1 to the Labor Code. First, the bill would provide that, in the case of a change of control from a merger, a successor grocery employer would be prohibited from causing a grocery establishment that is located in a geographic area designated by United States Department of Agriculture as a food desert to cease being fully operational and open to the public until the establishment provides a written notice to the city council, city attorney, board...

The Democrat mayor of College Park, Maryland arrested on Thursday for possessing and distributing child porn, was mentored by Pete Buttigieg and branded himself as an LGBTQ role model. Wojahn, the first openly gay man to take mayoral office in his city, was charged with 40 counts of possession of child sexual exploitative material and 16 felony counts for distribution of child porn

BALTIMORE — Three years ago, the leader of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, Rep. Pramila Jayapal, threw her support behind liberal icon Bernie Sanders for president while questioning Joe Biden’s progressive credentials. This week, at the House Democrats’ annual retreat, Jayapal stood before a bank of TV cameras and declared Biden the “most progressive president that we’ve had in a long time.” “I would like to see him announce sooner,” Jayapal, of Washington, later said of his 2024 re-election bid. But at a three-day gathering of House Democrats at Baltimore’s Inner Harbor this week, Democrats from every corner of the party...

Tennessee becomes first state to ban drag shows on public property, near schools Tennessee bill signed into law also bans gender transition surgeries for minors Mississippi Republican Gov. Tate Reeves on Tuesday signed legislation banning gender reassignment surgeries for minors, saying children should not be allowed to undergo permanent, body-altering surgeries. (WBDB) Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed legislation on Thursday restricting drag shows and banning gender transition treatments for minors. Tennessee is now the first state to limit the performances, and the provision criminalizes performances that take place in public or where they could be seen by children. The bill...

Just the latest anti-white attack against children in the United States of America. Disturbing video footage from an Ohio elementary school shows black students attacking their white peers and holding them hostage on a playground as they put them on their knees and force them to swear allegiance to Black Lives Matter, the far-left militant group responsible for dozens of homicides and the burning of American cities. The racially-motivated attack took place on February 10th at Springfield, Ohio’s Kenwood Elementary School, where a group of black students celebrated “black history month” by attacking their white peers, holding them hostage on...

President Joe Biden’s aides are gathering top Democrats to sit on a “National Advisory Board” to promote unity around the president as he moves towards an expected campaign announcement, according to The Washington Post. The campaign board, through the Democratic National Convention, will be stacked with prominent governors and senators, as well as other well-known Democrats, rumored 2024 contenders of Biden...

Guest Post by Becky Behrends, M.D. and Vice President of Research for Michigan Citizens for Election Integrity (MC4EI.com) Are you better off than you were four years ago? That was the question Ronald Reagan posed to Jimmy Carter in their presidential debate in 1980 and it has become one of the most famous and important campaign questions of all time. Four years ago, the US and the world experienced the start of Covid -19 and all its economic fallout since then. The economy has suffered ups and down subsequently. The question now is, has government policy under Biden since 2021...

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- A high-speed bullet train from Southern California to Las Vegas is a step closer to reality. Brightline, the company that will build the system, has announced a landmark labor agreement with the High-Speed Rail Labor Coalition, which is "compromised of 13 rail unions representing more than 160,000 freight, regional, commuter, and passenger railroad workers in the United States." The $10 billion investment is expected to create nearly 35,000 jobs during construction and over 1,000 permanent jobs once operational, according to a press release from Brightline. The fully-electric train will be able to travel 200 miles an...