Free Republic

As Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation” continues its downward spiral in Ukraine, the future of Russian-occupied or dominated territories is becoming a subject of interest, beginning with Kaliningrad. ...Moldova took what could be the first step on May 15, when Igor Grosu, President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova, announced Moldova was formally withdrawing from the Commonwealth of Independent States interparliamentary assembly — the Russian equivalent of the British Commonwealth ...In a worst-case scenario, if you were to overlay the domino theory of U.S. Cold War policy, substituting “getting out from underneath Russian oppression” for “the...

Be careful what you wish for.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’ office has responded to news that The Walt Disney Company will no longer build a headquarters for its theme park business in Florida. The news comes as Disney is in two legal battles over DeSantis’ actions to take over an Independent Special District that governs over Disney World property. Here’s the statement (via Scott Gustin):Disney announced the possibility of a Lake Nona campus nearly two years ago. Nothing ever came of the project, and the state was unsure whether it would come to fruition.Given the company’s financial straits, falling market cap and declining stock price, it...

The attorney for the white New York City hospital worker who was accused of trying to take a rental bicycle from a Black man in a viral video says that the woman paid for the bike herself — and has the receipts to prove it. A receipt shared with Insider shows payment for a Citi Bike on the app on the evening of May 12 in Manhattan; the bicycle was relocked to its dock a minute later with no charge logged. The Citi Bike identification number in the viral video is the same as the one on the receipt, and...

Why do all the commercials on Newsmax play 2, 3 and 4 times during the same commercial break. It is so annoying. If I hear another Kia commercial or Booking.com commercial play 3 times in a row I am going to scream.

Agency used foreign spying law to gather intelligence in what one lawmaker called ‘shocking abuses’ WASHINGTON—The Federal Bureau of Investigation improperly searched a trove of intelligence gathered through a foreign spying law for information on people suspected of participating in the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol and the George Floyd protests, a court opinion released Friday showed. Despite a lack of evidence, the FBI performed more than a dozen searches of raw foreign intelligence data related to people believed to be involved in the Capitol riot to hunt for foreign ties, the court said. Separately, three Jan....

Description 'Citi Bike Karen' Lawyer Shows RECEIPTS & Announcers DEFAMATION Lawsuit Against Race Hustling Media! Black Conservative Perspective 10K Likes 64,202 Views May 19 2023 👕Merch: https://gforemanbcp.com/ 🤙🏾 Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/blackconserva... 👊Paypal: paypal.me/gforemanbcp 💸Cash App: $gforemanbcp 🏃‍♂️Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/gforemanBCP @gforemanBCP 📷 Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/gforemanbcp/ ⭐ Wooden American Star: https://bridgethegapshop.com/discount... The attorney for the New York City nurse at the center of a viral bicycle dispute said his client is "in hiding" because her life and job are being threatened over the encounter. The attorney says he is preparing lawsuits, saying there's "no question" some outlets defamed his...

"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands." "For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; "And to wait for his Son from heaven, whom he raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come." Revelation, Chapter 7 1 And after...

Russia said on Friday that Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu visited a command post in Ukraine’s southern region of Zaporizhzhia and inspected troops there. The Russian defense ministry did not say when Shoigu made the visit but the statement was released as Ukrainian troops prepare for an offensive and have stepped up their activity along the front line. “Sergei Shoigu inspected the forward command post of one of the formations of the Vostok group of troops in the Zaporizhzhia direction,” the Russian defense ministry said in a statement. In a video released by the ministry Shoigu, who wore military fatigues, was...

Postoperative delirium—a sudden, fluctuating and typically reversible disturbance of mental status in patients that occurs after anesthetized surgery—is a common postoperative complication. The causes, progression and biological signatures are largely unknown, however. Now researchers have conducted a first-of-its-kind study that shows an association between gut microbiota and postoperative delirium. Early studies in elderly mice found that anesthesia/surgery induced an age-dependent changes in postoperative gut microbiota and postoperative behavior, including postoperative delirium-like behavior. In their current work, a clinical observational study conducted between 2016 and 2020 at Mass General, a research team led by Yiying (Laura) Zhang, MD, Ph.D., collected fecal...

Cruz returns to the viral internet meme that gained popularity in 2016Sen. Ted Cruz this week leaned into a long-running joke that paints him as a possible suspect behind the infamous Zodiac Killer murders in the late 1960s. It was reported on Wednesday evening that the FBI had confirmed the identity of the serial killer to be Air Force Veteran Gary Francis Poste, who died in 2018. "[T]his is absolutely true," Cruz quipped on Twitter while linking one of the news articles about the development.

Alison Lundergan Grimes must pay $10,000 in fines for improperly ordering the downloading and distribution of voter registration data from her public office while she was Kentucky’s secretary of state, the Executive Branch Ethics Commission announced Friday. The ethics commission long has been investigating Grimes, once a rising star in the Kentucky Democratic Party who served in Frankfort from 2011 to 2019. In early 2019, the Herald-Leader and ProPublica published a series of stories on Grimes’ conduct as a two-term secretary of state and 2014 Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate. The stories reported on Grimes’ improper use of the...

Silver remains below its all-time high while gold is trading near its record levels. If the gold/silver ratio drops below 78, it could give silver a sustainable bullish trend and potentially push it towards multi-year highs.-Silver gained strong upside momentum in recent months but remains cheap compared to gold. -Demand for precious metals is rising as traders search for safe-haven assets amid a banking crisis in the U.S. -If gold/silver ratio settles below the 78 level, silver may gain strong upside momentum. Unlike Gold, Silver Settled Well Below Its All-Time High Levels Silver enjoyed strong support in recent months...

The hikers, who were lost on a Southern California trail for about three hours Friday night before they were rescued, lacked proper hiking clothing, water and lighting equipment, a Ventura County sheriff’s deputy said. \ Ten teenage hikers who spent their Friday night lost on the trails of a Southern California canyon before a search and rescue team found them with the help of an iPhone feature "were not prepared" for their climb, officials said. Members of the group — who are all 16 to 18 years old — spent about three hours Friday stuck on the trails of Santa...

SEATTLE, May 19, 2023--(BUSINESS WIRE)--(NASDAQ: RDFN) — There are just four major U.S. metropolitan areas where it would be cheaper to buy than rent the typical home—that is, the typical home has an estimated monthly mortgage cost lower than its estimated monthly rental cost. That’s according to a new report from Redfin (redfin.com), the technology-powered real estate brokerage.In Detroit, the typical home is 24% less expensive to buy than rent—the largest discount in percentage terms among the 50 most populous metros. The median estimated monthly mortgage payment for Detroit homebuyers is $1,296, compared with an estimated monthly rent of $1,697....

SIXTH WEEK OF EASTER John 16:20-23 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus exhorts us to pray with expectant faith: “Amen, amen, I say to you, whatever you ask the Father in my name he will give you.” Invoking the name of Jesus is an effective way to monitor the quality and shape the content of our prayer.When we pray “through Christ our Lord,” we are assuming the stance and attitude of Jesus, aligning ourselves to him, compelling ourselves to desire what he desires. Accordingly, it is altogether consistent to pray in the name of Jesus for peace, justice, the forgiveness of...

The gut microbial community structure—communities of bacteria, viruses and fungi that live in the intestines—influences the inflammatory response in the lungs of aging mice, according to researchers from the Institute of Functional Anatomy at Charité, the Medical University of Berlin in Germany. Inflammation leads to reduced lung function and disease in older adults. It also worsens their prognosis in cases of pneumonia and acute lung injury. However, the source of the inflammation and potential treatments are not fully understood. In this study, researchers analyzed the gut microbiome and its impact on inflammatory signaling in aging lungs. Then, scientists tested the...

Palo Alto, California, administrators have exempted a celebrity chef’s restaurant from the city’s sweeping gas stove ban. Jose Andres’ newly planned restaurant, Zaytinya, is one of the latest Simon Property Group (SPG) buildings that received project approval in 2019, including for a a gas line, which the restaurant relies on, according to Palo Alto Online. The plan, however, changed when planning staff informed the company that due to the City Council’s revision of the building code, the restaurant was required to use electric stoves. Simon wrote a letter in April threatening the city council with a lawsuit if it maintained...

US House members probing the COVID pandemic fired off a letter Friday to disgraced former Gov. Andrew Cuomo demanding he testify about why he sent coronavirus patients to nursing homes during the height of outbreak. House members previously sent five similar letters to the ex-New York governor, to which he did not respond. “Your testimony is important to uncover the circumstances and policies which led to the death of more than 15,000 New York nursing home residents during your tenure,” wrote Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), chairman of the GOP-controlled House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic, in the panel’s latest...

“No Labels” has been “gaining steam” and raising money to hopefully get a candidate on the 2024 ballot, with Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) at the top of the political group’s list, the New York Times reported. The group — which has been working to allow all 50 states to vote on a third-party candidate in the presidential election — is trying to raise a large war chest in order to have a “well-funded” “unity ticket” on the ballot in the 2024 presidential election, the Times reported. The Times reported: