Free Republic

Despite Bud Light's expectations, their new advertisement, featuring Kansas City Chiefs star Travis Kelce, failed to salvage their reputation in the aftermath of the Dylan Mulvaney controversy. As sales continue to plunge, Bud Light released a 15-second commercial on Sunday showing Kelce cracking open a can of beer and aggressively grunting with several other men. The ad, titled 'Backyard Grunts with Travis Kelce,' is being labeled as another 'desperate' effort to regain support and has faced criticism online, with the majority of comments claiming the brand is attempting to save face once again. The new advert appears to be an...

The U.S. military is in decline and now faces a peer competitor, China, that vastly outmatches the United States in terms of military–industrial capacity. And in research, China has a “stunning lead” over the United States in 37 out of 44 critical and emerging technologies, many of which are directly defense related. Yet our military is spending an increasing percentage of its time, money, and mindshare on so-called green initiatives. One of the latest of these initiatives is the Army’s plan to run a series of field tests on a multi-ton, wheeled battery pack as part of its efforts to...

Russian officials are trying to link the U.S. and NATO to an alleged Ukrainian drone attack on Moscow on Tuesday, saying Western countries provided "necessary intelligence" for the raid. Russia claims its air defenses fended off an attack on the nation's capital by five Ukrainian drones on Tuesday. Officials now claim the attack would not have been possible for Ukraine without assistance from Western allies. "These attacks would not be possible without the help provided to the Kyiv regime by the US and its NATO allies," the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement, according to the Agence France-Presse. The...

Bjórnar Moxnes got caught on cameras. He publicly apologized The leader of Norway’s left-wing Ródt party, Bjórnar Moxnes, was caught red-handed while stealing a pair of sunglasses from the Duty Free at Oslo airport. Moxnes was fined 3,000 Norwegian kroner (just over €257) for theft with intent. The news has raised a hornet’s nest of controversy. Over the weekend, the leader was interviewed by Norwegian public broadcaster Nrk, to which he recounted the incident and admitted his guilt: “I want to start by saying I’m very sorry.” Moxnes explained that he only realized he had left the shop without paying...

President Joe Biden ignored shouted questions from reporters Tuesday - as the Secret Service investigated who left cocaine in the White House in a major security breach. He was delivering remarks alongside first lady Jill Bide to educators attending the National Education Association's Representative Assembly. While the conference is taking place in Orlando, the Bidens took part in it virtually from the White House complex's South Court Auditorium, with the president telling attendees, 'By the way, arming teachers is not the answer.' Gun violence was on the brain as the president earlier Tuesday had put out a statement condemning the...

Despite continued accusations from Ukraine that Russia is planning to “blow up” the Zaporizhia NPP (ZNPP), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) says its experts at the site “have so far found no visible indications of mines or other explosives”. The IAEA said its experts were able to inspect parts of the plant’s cooling system, including some sections of the perimeter of the large cooling pond and the isolation gate of the discharge channel of the nearby Zaporizhia Thermal Power Plant (ZTPP). It noted that both this channel and the cooling pond “hold reserves of water that remain available for...

The existence of a masked gang of young men tying up rioters in one town is discussed in French language publications, but the mayor insists no such thing exists and tells locals to call the police if they witness unrest. Using zip-ties to restrain alleged rioters, the men are said to have then handed their captures onto the regular police on Friday night as well as having been seen putting out fires. Described as strongly physically built, fast-moving, and proceeding in a tightly-packed group, a report in Ouest France says one member of the group told a journalist that he...

In the 6th century AD, during the reign of Emperor Justinian, the Roman Empire experienced an extraordinary resurgence, reconquering lands - including Italy, North Africa and Rome itself - that had been lost to the 'barbarians' a century before. Leading these campaigns, a brilliant Roman general named Flavius Belisarius - a skilled tactician, inspirational leader, pragmatic and humane. This is the story of those campaigns, as recorded by Procopius, an eyewitness to many of them, as well as other ancient historians, texts, and archaeological remains. Rome Strikes Back: Belisarius and the Wars of Justinian (ALL PARTS) | 2:14:46Epic History TV...

Lawyers are questioning whether the Delaware attorney's office kicked their most experienced prosecutors off the Hunter Biden case – just before they filed minor charges against the president's son. Whistleblowers who ran the IRS criminal probe into Hunter for five years told Congress about their travails with veteran Delaware prosecutors Lesley Wolf, Shawn Weede, and Shannon Hanson. But in a letter to a federal judge last week announcing the charges against Hunter, Delaware US Attorney David Weiss listed three different prosecutors who have apparently had no previous involvement in the case – leading to questions of a last-minute overhaul by...

he Salt Lake City Police Department is asking for help identifying the person or people responsible for burning multiple Pride flags this holiday weekend. Officers responded to a home near the city's downtown area after the homeowner reported their Pride flag had been cut down and burned. Police then learned that at least four other Pride flags in the area were vandalized in a spate of incidents likely to have occurred between 1am and 1.30am on Monday. Doorbell footage captured by one resident showed a man wearing a mask, hoodie and a stab or bulletproof vest approaching a house and...

A federal judge has made a historic ruling by partially granting an injunction that blocks various Biden administration officials and government agencies like the Justice Department and the FBI from working with big tech firms to censor posts on social media. The injunction came in response to a censorship-by-proxy lawsuit brought by attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri, who have accused Biden administration officials and various government agencies of pressuring social media companies to suspend accounts or take down posts. The judge, Terry A. Doughty, wrote in the July 4 judgment (pdf) that various government agencies, including the Cybersecurity and...

You're Next Doomberg We are publishing this piece in full, without a paywall. Please share widely. “I can't impart it to anybody who hasn't been there. Standing in the security line in the airport. If you want to know what it's like to be in the Soviet Union, you are in the Soviet Union. In that moment, you are in the Soviet Union. You're in a line waiting for something, and at the end of that line, a lot of bad things can happen to you. People don't think that way. But in reality though...” – Simon Mikhailovich In the...

On Thursday, former President Barack Obama complained the frivolous indictment against 45th President and leading 2024 presidential candidate Donald Trump doesn’t disqualify him from running for President in 2024.During an interview on CNN’s “News Central,” host Amanpour said, “The spectacle of a former president being federally indicted. How is the rest of the world, the democratic world, maybe even the non-democratic world meant to interpret that indictment and indeed the fact that a federal indictee is running, is able to run for the highest office in the land, maybe even the world?”Obama on Trump Indictment: 'Nobody is above the law'“It’s...

A raft of regulations enacted by the Biden administration is pinching Americans’ wallets to the tune of nearly $10,000 per household as of the end of last year, according to a budget watchdog group. Should Biden’s regulatory trajectory keep pace with that of his former boss, Barack Obama, the cost will skyrocket to roughly $60,000 per household by the end of Biden’s possible second term in office, the Committee to Unleash Prosperity estimated in a recent report that measured “current and expected future costs.”

Two neighbors at war with each other have dug a trench and lined it with a fence and bins to divide their properties after they fell out over one residents' alleged obsession with feeding local cats. John Gutierrez, 33, a stay-at-home father from San Antonio, Texas, claims the woman living next door has repeatedly harassed his family and shouted abuse at his children while they play in their garden. Gutierrez said he had a good relationship with his neighbor until he asked the elderly woman to stop feeding the local cats as they defecated on his lawn - a request...

The American Dream is alive and well for most, but the younger generation and less educated do not share such optimism, according to a new poll conducted by NORC – University of Chicago. In a survey of 2,187 of U.S. residents – regardless of age, race, ethnicity, income, or education – a whopping 75% of respondents said they had achieved or are on their way to obtaining the American Dream, namely economic opportunity and freedom of choice.

A woman who pleaded guilty to setting fires in forested areas around Kamloops in the middle of fire season last year will learn her fate in the next few months. Kamloops provincial court Judge Roy Dickey has set Sept. 18 as the date to render a decision on sentencing, according to court records. Angela Cornish, 42, has pleaded guilty to a pair of arsons in the Lac Le June area on May 8 and May 11 of 2022. Police had been following Cornish after receiving tips on a number of fires they had been investigating in the Lac Le Jeune,...

The Ukrainian government accused Russia on Tuesday of planning a “provocation” at the Moscow-controlled Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, while Russia claimed that Kyiv was planning to “attack” the facility. Fears over the safety risks for the nuclear plant, Europe’s largest, have been constant throughout Russia’s invasion, but increased in early June after the destruction of the Kakhovka dam, the source of cooling water for its reactors. The mutual accusations were made around the same time late on Tuesday. Kyiv’s military warned of the “possible preparation of a provocation on the territory of the Zaporizhzhia power plant in the near future”.

Ukraine's air force has appeared to confirm that a U.S-made Patriot missile system was behind the downing of five Russian aircraft in one day in May 2023. A video posted on Monday shows "kill" markings on the side of a Patriot air defense system that indicate it claimed three helicopters and two jets on May 13. If accurate, this would be a record for a Patriot system in a single day.

Russia may be preparing a provocation at the occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant "in the near future," the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces reported on July 4.Russian forces have placed objects similar to explosive devices on the roof of the plant's third and fourth power units, according to the General Staff. "Their detonation should not damage power units but may create a picture of shelling by Ukraine's military."The General Staff added that it was monitoring the situation, ready to act "under any conditions."On June 20, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced, citing intelligence data, that Moscow was considering a terrorist attack...