Free Republic

House Speaker Mike Johnson on Monday unveiled a proposal for sending wartime aid to Israel and Ukraine as he seeks to fend off a right-wing revolt that could put his leadership in peril. The Louisiana Republican said he plans to put four separate bills on the floor, separating aid for Israel with assistance for Ukraine, which has faced fierce pushback among some members of his conference. A third measure includes aid for Taiwan and the final bill addresses other Republican foreign policy demands. "We won't be voting on the Senate supplemental in its current form, but we will vote on...

The Ukrainian military has labored, for years, to root out far-right extremists in its ranks. The latest clash between the extremists and the defense ministry in Kyiv couldn’t have come at a worse time—or in a worse place. After weeks of drama, the defense ministry redeployed and shook up the staffing within the army’s 67th Mechanized Brigade this weekend. The brigade was holding the most vulnerable district in the most vulnerable city in eastern Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast: the canal district of Chasiv Yar. Now the 67th Brigade—what’s left of it—has redeployed to the Ukrainian rear, and a brigade of Ukrainian...

California is expected to spend about $8.7 billion on state worker pensions next year. Gov. Gavin Newsom wants to offset some of that cost by repurposing a previously scheduled debt payment. More generous-than-expected raises for California state workers are nudging up the cost of public employee pensions, according to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System.

A UK conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, has filed a lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to access Prince Harry's immigration records. The think tank is looking to find out if Prince Harry lied about his drug use while immigrating to the United States. The Heritage Foundation argues that these documents are of public interest. To immigrate to the United States, Prince Harry would have had to disclose any prior drug use during the immigration paperwork process. However, he did not mention his drug use on official documents but admitted to it during an interview in 2020....

Lots of footage of flash floods as spring thaws early in northern hills, bringing torrential floods along the Ural river. Commentary from Konstantin accompanies footage.

Doctors treating respiratory issues are not always aware if their patients have been vaping. Therefore, cases are not tracked systematically at hospitals because these patients are not always willing to share their vaping history. With the clampdown on vaping and the authorities stepping up checks, even in public hot spots such as the Central Business District, parks, malls and bars, patients with breathing issues caused by vaping are aware and are keeping mum. Dr Sewa Duu Wen, who heads the department of respiratory and critical care medicine at Singapore General Hospital, told The Straits Times about one case of a...

Roughly two dozen pro-Palestinian protesters on Monday blocked the entrance to Valero Energy Corp.’s headquarters off the Loop 1604 access road on the Northwest Side, snarling traffic for nearly two hours as they chanted against the oil refining company selling fuel used by the Israeli military. “Not another nickel, not another dime,” the group yelled, as some sat cross-legged by the headquarters’ entry road, “no more money for Israel’s crimes.” The protest, which included a 25-person blockade, was done in coordination with other major cities across the U.S. to coincide with Tax Day and what activists call the U.S. government’s...

Tesla is laying off more than 10% of its global workforce, equivalent to at least 14,000 roles, as the electric carmaker reacts to slowing demand and pressure on prices. The chief executive, Elon Musk, announced “the difficult decision” in a memo first reported by the online publication Elektrek. Tesla employs 140,473 people, according to its annual report.

A paper at the Crime Prevention Research Center (CPRC), founded by researcher John Lott, shows how faith in the police, arrest rates, and crime reporting are all interrelated. The paper is titled " The Collapse in Law Enforcement: As Arrest Rates Plummet, People Have Been Less Willing to Report Crime", published on April 5, 2024. As faith in the police collapses, reporting of crime drops, and so do arrest rates and clearance rates for both violent crimes and property crimes. This has the classic look of a positive feedback loop. The consequences are far from positive. It is not a...

Gayle King and Charles Barkley ended the limited run of King Charles on CNN after six months of struggling to find ratings. The show was always described as a “limited” series by the network. The New York Post reported on Monday that King Charles had been “axed,” but the network denied this description and noted that the plan was always to run the show into the Spring. A CNN spokesperson confirmed King Charles had come to a conclusion following King and Barkley giving a final sendoff to viewers last week. The spokesperson touted ratings wins for the series, which had...

President Trump on Monday afternoon spoke to the press after the first day of the Stormy Daniels ‘hush money’ trial in Manhattan. Jury selection was underway on Monday morning for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s lawfare case against Trump related to ‘hush payments’ made to porn star Stormy Daniels. After refusing to recuse himself, Judge Juan Merchan on Monday threatened to put President Trump in jail if he doesn’t show up for trial. Merchan read Trump his right to be in court during the trial. The judge told Trump a warrant would be issued for his arrest if he failed to...

Can I trust you? Wait … can I really trust you? What if you’d given me your word that you’d never betray me, but then you discovered that betraying me could make you really rich, or really successful, or even just a bit happier? A lot of us discover—sometimes too late—that verbal contracts aren’t worth the paper they are printed on. But, what about social contracts? What about the warp and weft of what keeps humans making moral sense to one another? This always matters. But, it matters especially at the moment, when we are all deciding how we should...

President Trump, refusing to be silenced by a leftwing judge and Soros-funded prosecutor, is facing scrutiny for sharing a video of his allies exposing the conflicts of interest in the Stormy Daniels “hush money” case. Jury selection is still underway for Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg’s lawfare case against Trump. Last April, Trump was hit with 34 felony counts of falsifying business records and conspiracy. The far-left judge overseeing the Stormy Daniels trial trampled all over Trump’s First Amendment rights with a strict gag order. Juan Merchan earlier this month expanded Trump’s gag order to bar Trump from making factual statements...

The New York judge overseeing former President Trump’s hush money trial said Monday that Trump cannot attend arguments on presidential immunity at the Supreme Court next week. ... The decision to not allow Trump to be in Washington, D.C., on April 25, when the Supreme Court is set to hear oral arguments on a presidential immunity claim Trump is making in his federal criminal case, came just before the New York trial adjourned Monday. “Arguing before the Supreme Court is a big deal, and I can certainly appreciate why your client would want to be there, but a trial in...

Update (1825 EST): General Dynamics has confirmed a small fire has been extinguished with no injuries. At approximately 1500 EST, initial reports indicated that a large fire had broken out at the Scranton Army Munitions Plant in Scranton, Pennsylvania. Eyewitnesses posted video and photos of the blacksmith shop at the plant billowing black smoke out of the stacks, much higher than usual. The Scranton Army Ammunition Plant(SCAAP) is a United States Army Joint Munitions Command (JMC) facility that manufactures large-caliber metal projectiles and mortar projectile. It is operated by General Dynamics-Ordnance and Tactical Systems (GD-OTS).

Kings County agencies and growers may face probation and millions of dollars in fines — which could be the first step toward the state wresting control of groundwater.

Actress Megan Fox offered advice to single women regarding their goals for this summer. "I don't know if I'm the best person to give advice, because my advice is just to learn a skill or develop a hobby," Fox told E! News exclusively. "The only thing they're going to do is wear you down. Keep going. Invest in yourself," she told The Rundown host Erin Lim Rhodes at the Revolve 2024 Festival on April 13, "and don't waste your energy on the kids," she said. Fox later shared a video of her interview with E! News on her Instagram, writing:...

The House is poised to barrel into the debate over foreign aid this week as Johnson looks to put legislation on the floor to assist embattled U.S. allies — a highly anticipated move that has been months in the making. But the parameters of that bill, or package of bills, remain unknown, leaving lawmakers waiting to see how the Speaker approaches the politically prickly topic — especially after Iran attacked Israel over the weekend, as lawmakers sound the alarm about Ukraine’s beleaguered forces, and amid a threat by Greene to bring a motion to vacate against Johnson. The Speaker told...

There's nothing at all funny about putting a former president of the United States of America on trial for misdemeanor record-keeping offenses and turning those into felonies through a badly done magic trick. The underlying reason why the George Soros-selected prosecutor put Donald Trump on trial starting Monday, however, is yet another reason why this case should be laughed out of court. The avowed Trump-hating prosecutor, Alvin Bragg, is part of the effort by the left to tie up the former president in court so he can't campaign for president. Additionally, they hope that by ringing up all manner of...

The world is losing the battle against electronic waste, a UN expert said on Wednesday (March 20), after a report found 62 million metric tons of mobile phones and devices were dumped on the planet in just one year — and this is expected to increase by a third by 2030. Electronic waste, also known as e-waste, consists of any discarded items containing an electric plug or a battery. It can contain toxic additives and hazardous substances such as mercury, and represents an environmental and health hazard. "These goods are often not easy to repair. They easily become waste and...