Free Republic

Republican Congressman Matt Gaetz says sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein was killed as part of a ‘foreign operation’, but refused to divulge which government was responsible for his death. Gaetz made the comments during an appearance on Benny Johnson’s show. In August 2019, Epstein was found unresponsive in his jail cell at the Metropolitan Correctional Center in New York City after supposedly committing suicide by hanging. Multiple violations of normal jail procedures allied with the convenient failure of two cameras in front of Epstein’s cell prompted conspiracy theories suggesting Epstein was murdered in order to keep his high profile client list...

Just ahead of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden made clear where the blame lay for Moscow's aggression: His predecessor Barack Obama. A new book by Bob Woodward describes Biden's frustration that his then boss did not take tougher action when Russian forces invaded Crimea almost a decade earlier. 'They f***ed up in 2014,' Biden said to a friend, according to Woodward. 'That’s why we are here.

For years, world leaders have accused Russia of funding environmental groups in Europe to steer nations away from energy independence and strengthen Russia’s iron grip over the continent. As nations across the globe begin shunning Russian oil in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine, U.S. leaders are also questioning how deep Russia’s ties go in the environmental community. "The Russians actually fund some of the most rabid environmental groups in Europe because they sic them on the energy projects that aren’t Russian," James Carafano, vice president of the Kathryn and Shelby Cullom Davis Institute for National Security and Foreign...

Devon Archer was convicted of defrauding the Oglala Sioux Indian tribe out of bond-sale proceeds. Hunter Biden was not implicated in the scheme, which defrauded the Oglala Sioux Indian tribe out of the proceeds of bond sales. | Pablo Martinez Monsivais, File/AP Photo A federal appeals court reinstated the fraud conviction of Hunter Biden’s former business partner on Wednesday, reversing a lower court judge who had granted his request for a retrial. Hunter Biden was not implicated in the scheme, which defrauded the Oglala Sioux Indian tribe out of the proceeds of bond sales. But the scheme was committed under...

Song Binbin, who has died, probably aged 77, became a poster girl for the bloody Chinese “Cultural Revolution” when on August 18 1966 she was photographed overlooking an immense rally in Tiananmen Square, pinning a red armband, symbol of the Red Guards, on the arm of the Chinese dictator Mao Zedong. Two weeks earlier she had taken part in the murder of Bian Zhongyun, deputy principal of the Beijing high school she attended, one of the first – and one of the most notorious – of the murders that inaugurated a decade of slaughter in which between one and...

A fireball that blazed through the skies over Papua New Guinea in 2014 was actually a fast-moving object from another star system, according to a recent memo(opens in new tab) released by the U.S. Space Command (USSC). The object, a small meteorite measuring just 1.5 feet (0.45 meter) across, slammed into Earth's atmosphere on Jan. 8, 2014, after traveling through space at more than 130,000 mph (210,000 km/h) — a speed that far exceeds the average velocity of meteors that orbit within the solar system, according to a 2019 study of the object published in the preprint database arXiv. 2019...

The missing American who’d traveled to Ukraine years ago to aid Russian separatists in Donbas was found dead in the country’s war-torn eastern region. The body of Russell Bentley, a 64-year-old U.S. Army vet, was recovered in the Russian-controlled region of Donetsk Oblast, Reuters reported. -snip- The former pothead, who used “Texas” as his military call-sign, left behind a yoga instructor girlfriend to travel to Ukraine. He utilized crowdfunding sites to finance his trip, and had since become a Russian citizen. He also got married after moving to Ukraine, where he began working as a reporter for the state-owned Sputnik...

Russell Bentley, a self-described “Donbass Cowboy,” joined Russian forces soon after they created a proxy state in eastern Ukraine in 2014. He quickly became one of Russian propaganda’s favorite Americans, receiving a Russian passport and a gig with state-run Sputnik TV. On April 8, the 64-year-old Austin native better known under his call sign “Texas” was detained by Russian soldiers in the city of Donetsk, occupied by Russia for the past decade, according to his wife. Eleven days later, he turned up dead. He is the latest in a string of figures involved in Russia’s 2014 takeover of parts of...

Russell Bentley, 64, who fought alongside pro-Putin rebels in eastern Ukraine, was tortured and murdered by Russian servicemen, Kremlin investigators said on Friday. Bentley, a self-described communist from Dallas, Texas, went missing in the Russian-occupied city of Donetsk in April and was later found dead. Nicknamed “Texas”, he regularly appeared on pro-Kremlin social media channels, backing Moscow’s full-scale military offensive.

Hopes were high that the International Wine and Spirits' first-ever Global Judging event of North American whiskey on home soil would unearth some fantastic bottles. Well, it didn’t disappoint. An expert panel sampled almost 500 bottles in Kentucky in early September, and the results were just announced. Over 430 medals were awarded, including 30 golds and four outstanding golds. The judges were wowed, to say the least.

As the Cold War ended in the late 1980s and early ’90s, a new fear arose amid the rejoicing and relief: that atomic security might fail in the disintegrating Soviet Union, allowing its huge stockpile of nuclear warheads to fall into unfriendly hands. The jitters intensified in late 1991, as Moscow announced plans to store thousands of weapons from missiles and bombers in what experts viewed as decrepit bunkers, policed by impoverished guards of dubious reliability. Many officials and scientists worried. Few knew what to do. That is when Thomas L. Neff, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology,...

While Moscow hails him for being an efficient mediator, Kyiv insists that Lukin sent the order to militiamen in Sloviansk from their Russian bosses. Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) released a transcript of an intercepted telephone conversation between Lukin and Igor Strelkov, head of the pro-Russian self-defense of Sloviansk. According to the SBU, Strelkov’s real name is Igor Girkin, a Russian national and colonel of Russian Military Intelligence. “I’m in Donetsk right now, in good company… You do sort of have a general idea about the task that I’ve been given, don’t you?” Lukin said. “Yes, I know, I’ve been warned…...

The Ukrainian government needs to find a “fine line” that would allow it to both protect free speech and fight Kremlin propaganda, a top official of the Organization of Security and Cooperation in Europe said in an interview with the Kyiv Post. There has been a debate in Ukraine on whether pro-Kremlin media, which are inciting Russia’s war against Ukraine and fabricating lies, should be banned. While some argue that they are a threat to national security, others condemn such measures as an attack on free speech. “The Ukrainian government needs to find a very fine line with the help...

The top Democrat on the House Oversight Committee dismissed Chairman James Comer’s Wednesday morning release of bank records that appear to show Hunter Biden was paid millions by Eastern European oligarchs. The 19-page memo, which provides screenshots of redacted financial records, says millions of dollars in payments came from Ukrainian energy company Burisma Holdings, Russian oligarch Yelena Baturina and Kazakhstani oligarch Kenes Rakishev. The records also suggest Joe Biden attended dinners with Baturina, Rakishev and a representative from Burisma while he was vice president.

WASHINGTON — House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer says an informant file that he’s seeking from the FBI links President Biden to a $5 million bribery scheme while he was vice president. Comer (R-Ky.) revealed the size of the alleged bribe for the first time Wednesday in a letter to FBI Director Christopher Wray, threatening him with contempt proceedings if he doesn’t share the file pursuant to a May 3 subpoena. The informant tip is dated June 30, 2020, Comer wrote — an additional clue in the mysterious allegation that triggered a guessing game due to the Biden family’s extensive...

The Biden family and its business associates received millions of dollars from oligarchs in Russia, Kazakhstan, and Ukraine while Joe Biden was vice president, according to bank records obtained by the House Oversight Committee. With the new payments included, the committee says it has now identified more than $20 million in payments from foreign sources to the Biden family and their business associates. Those foreign sources include not only the three aforementioned countries, but also China and Romania as well. Hunter Biden’s former business associate Devon Archer previously testified that then-Vice President Biden joined roughly 20 phone calls on speakerphone...

Telegram founder Pavel Durov detained on arriving in France from Azerbaijan

Pavel Durov, the founder and owner of Telegram, is a significant figure in the tech world. As of August 24, 2024, his net worth is estimated at $15.5 billion, placing him among the world’s wealthiest individuals, ranked #120. Durov’s notable achievements began with the creation of VKontakte (VK), Russia's largest social network, which he co-founded with his brother Nikolai in 2006. VK quickly became a dominant platform in Russia, similar to Facebook. #Durov’s tenure at VK was marked by disputes with Russian authorities over data privacy and content control. In 2014, facing mounting pressure, he was compelled to sell his...

The founder of Russia’s leading social media network—a wunderkind often described as Russia’s Mark Zuckerberg—has left his post as CEO and fled the country as cronies of President Vladimir Putin have made steady inroads into the company’s ownership. The slow-motion ouster of Pavel Durov from the network known as VKontakte, or “In Contact,” is the latest sign that independent media outlets in Russia have become increasingly imperiled. Although months in the making, the loss of Durov’s leadership in VKontakte means that the space for free speech on the Russian web could shrink even further. …

A Nazi-inspired beauty pageant dubbed "Miss Hitler 2014" is calling for attractive women to participate in the contest held on the Russian equivalent to Facebook . Participants are requested to submit Nazi-themed "selfies" to the competition organized by a neo-Nazi group on VKontakte - Russia's largest social networking service - along with a caption describing why they "love and revere the Third Reich of Adolf Hitler," the UK-based Daily Mail reported. At least 14 females from Russian and Eastern Europe have entered the contest that celebrates the glorification of Nazi Germany and the fascist totalitarian government ruled by Adolf Hitler...