Free Republic

The departure of foreign auto makers from Russia has ultimately caused domestic car prices to rise, President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday, a rare acknowledgement of the harm caused by Western measures imposed over Moscow's actions in Ukraine. Most European, Japanese and South Korean carmakers suspended production and gradually left the Russian market following Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, taking technology, know-how and access to parts with them. Putin said car prices had risen by about 40%, without specifying a period, blaming this on low production and domestic carmakers' increased costs as they import components. "When European brands left...

LAS VEGAS—In a flashy hotel on the famous Strip on Saturday night, Andrew “the Annihilator” Ngai ran down an arena walkway with hands in the air, and burst onstage to screaming fans. His two-time world championship was on the line. The Australian didn’t know it, but within minutes, victory would seemingly be snatched away from him, all because of a computer glitch. This seems appropriate, since Ngai was playing to be the best at competitive Excel, which is an actual thing. Don’t blame Clippy For many, Excel is something to be avoided after work hours. But the omnipresent office spreadsheet...

Russia's Central Bank on Friday raised its key interest rate to 16%, the fifth hike since summer as it fights to keep accelerating inflation down and a move widely anticipated by analysts. "Current inflationary pressures remain high," the Central Bank said in a statement explaining the rate hike, adding that "annual inflation for 2023 is expected to be close to the upper bound of the 7.0–7.5 percent forecast range." This is a developing story.

Blaze Media investigative journalist Steve Baker on Thursday said the U.S. Department of Justice will be charging him for his Jan. 6 reporting. "My attorney has just been notified by @FBI that I am going to be charged by @TheJusticeDept for my journalistic efforts on #Jan6," Baker wrote Thursday on X. "I have to self-surrender on Tuesday. Charges are yet unknown. Stay tuned for more information to follow this afternoon." What are the details? Baker on Thursday told Blaze Media that FBI Special Agent Craig Noyes contacted his attorney in North Carolina and that Noyes said he doesn't know what...

‘That which government is constitutionally prohibited from doing, it cannot contract with others to do.’In a study published Tuesday, Media Research Center (MRC) Free Speech America found that NewsGuard, the taxpayer censorship giant self-tasked with rating media outlets on reliability, “overwhelmingly favored left-leaning outlets over right-leaning ones.” This is the third year MRC Free Speech America has exposed NewsGuard for its partisanship, and, according to MRC, NewsGuard has become “even worse” than years prior. Using AllSides, an organization that classifies media outlets by their “right” to “left” bias, “MRC researchers determined that NewsGuard provided a stellar average ‘credibility’ rating of...

VIDEOUPDATE: A source from inside IBM and Red Hat has just given us INTERNAL SLACK MESSAGES that reveal employee response to our reporting. According to one IBM / Ret Hat employee, “The truth is, it’s his fault (James O'Keefe's) that we are even having this conversation. We all made zero stink about this until the 'super mega awesome leaked IBM exec video'.“ Clearly, this is striking a nerve both inside and outside the tech giant.

The evidence of illegal voting in the United States is shocking. Very recently, the Heartland Institute and Rasmussen Reports released the shocking results of their survey of 1,085 national likely voters. Of the ten questions asked, I think the most disturbing responses were related to these: - “During the 2020 election, did you cast a mail-in ballot in a state where you were no longer a permanent resident?” (17% said, “Yes.”). - “During the 2020 election, did a friend, family member, or organization, such as a political party, offer to pay or reward you for voting?” (8% said, “Yes.”). -...

(KRON) — With the new year comes new changes involving housing in California. Governor Gavin Newsom signed several bills into law this year that will go into effect starting Jan. 1, 2024. Some bring changes to the workplace, others to the state’s official symbols. Here are five impacting housing that you’ll want to be aware of: 1. Security deposits Tenants will no longer have to fork over several month’s rent as a security deposit. A new bill caps the amount a landlord can charge to one month’s rent. 2. Evictions based on alleged criminal activity Tenants will not be able...

A New York appeals court has again upheld a gag order that bars Donald Trump from commenting about court personnel in his civil fraud trial, ruling Thursday that the former president’s lawyers used the wrong legal mechanism to fight the restriction. A four-judge panel in the state’s mid-level appellate court ruled Thursday that Trump’s lawyers erred by suing trial Judge Arthur Engoron, who imposed the gag order in October after Trump disparaged his law clerk. Instead, the appellate judges wrote, Trump’s lawyers should’ve followed the normal appeals process by asking Engoron to reverse the gag order and then, if denied,...

"Whether it's eating less meat or cycling instead of driving, humans can do many things to help prevent climate change.Unfortunately, breathing less isn't one of them.That might be a problem, as a new study claims the gases in air exhaled from human lungs is fueling global warming.Methane and nitrous oxide in the air we exhale makes up to 0.1 per cent of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions, scientists say.And that's not even accounting for the gas we release from burps and farts, or emissions that come from our skin without us noticing.

This is not a metaphor, but what’s happening in the country, literally. I mean, you can’t make this sh*t up: https://twitter.com/satanic_temple_/status/1734937818210897994 It is 100% impossible to restrict gun rights based on the US Constitution. “Shall not be infringed” is very straightforward. However, the people in charge of the country have been violating the Constitution since the late 19th century and they threw it out completely in the 1960s.

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George Santos was a constant headache for Republicans, starting when he was exposed as a con man shortly after winning a Long Island Congressional seat a year ago. That continued until this month, when he was expelled from the House after publication of a searing ethics report. But the mood among local Republicans is likely to shift now that they’ve found what appears to be a dream candidate for the Feb. 13 special election to succeed Santos. Mazi Melesa Pilip, 44, is a two-term member of the Nassau County Legislature whose life comes out of central casting. She was born...

Democratic Rep. Wiley Nickel will not run for re-election in his home state of North Carolina in 2024, instead opting to explore a run for U.S. Senate in 2026 after a GOP-led redistricting drastically changed his seat. “Republicans have rigged the system to favor themselves and I don’t have a path to run for re-election in the 13th District,” Nickel said in a statement, referencing redistricting in his state that fundamentally changed the demographic and partisan makeup of the statewide map. “But I’m not giving up and neither should you. Next year, I’m going to be working to elect North...

Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar’s days “are numbered,” a senior Biden administration official said Thursday, pledging that “justice will be served.” Coinciding with a visit to the region by U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, the official said of Sinwar, “I think it’s safe to say his days are numbered…He has American blood on his hands.”

Republican Rep. Drew Ferguson said Thursday he won't seek reelection to his Georgia seat in 2024. "Julie and I look forward to spending more time with our children and grandchildren while continuing to work to keep Georgia the best state in America to live and do business,” Ferguson said in a statement. He said he plans to serve the remainder of his fourth term representing western Georgia's 3rd District, which expires at the end of next year. The announcement comes two months after Ferguson said his family had received death threats amid the inner turmoil Republicans faced in electing a...

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"Russia lost 360,000 people in the war, according to Putin," Matveev wrote. "244 thousand mobilized. 486 thousand volunteers. And there are only 617 thousand at the front. Entertaining military mathematics from Putin. "The losses were 113 thousand people," he continued. "But there was also the invasion group and those who were recruited before mobilization. And this is around 250 thousand. That is, Putin literally admitted irretrievable losses in the amount of 363 thousand people.".. The figure does come close to the 315,000 claimed Russian troop casualties that were revealed in a leaked declassified U.S. intelligence document this week. The General...

British detectives have launched a manhunt for a boy's mother and grandfather in southern France after they allegedly kidnapped him and took him to a 'spiritual commune' six years ago where he was 'brainwashed' before he managed to escape. Alex Batty, from Oldham, Greater Manchester, was just 11 when he did not return from a holiday to Spain with his mother Melanie, then 37, and grandfather David, then 58, in 2017. His grandmother and legal guardian, Susan Caruana, who has spent an agonising six years not knowing if her grandson is alive, said in 2018 that she believed her daughter...

"It was an all consuming fear that I would just stop breathing in my sleep, but still, all I wanted was to take more." "I approached my own son in the street asking for drugs, that's how low I was, benzos just destroyed my life." These are the stories of two separate people with the same catastrophic addiction to a prescription drug. Thirty years apart in age and 200 miles apart in distance, their stories are scarily similar. I meet Rory Maslen (they/them), 21, at their university flat in Leeds. As Rory sank into the sofa, they look at me...