Free Republic

...On Thursday, California Secretary of State Shirley Weber approved a campaign to gather signatures petitioning for a vote on whether the state should leave the U.S. In a Sunday op-ed for Flash Report, a blog on California's political news, Nehring said the Kremlin was likely cheering on the latest push to get a secession referendum included on the Golden State's 2028 ballot....

A longtime ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin has predicted that the majority of Russian companies could go bankrupt due to the increasingly high interest rate. - snip- Chemezov criticized the Russian central bank's elevated key interest rate, which, following his comments, was raised by an additional two percentage points on Friday to a record 21 percent. "There is no 20 percent profitability anywhere. Maybe in the drug trade, but even the sale of weapons does not bring such a profit," he said. Chemezov said that the high key interest rate drives up borrowing costs for businesses, which hurts their...

he FBI wants to interview Donald Trump after he was injured during an assassination attempt at a campaign rally earlier this month, a report says. An FBI official speaking anonymously told the New York Times that they have asked to interview the former president as part of their investigation into the incident. "The bureau has asked to interview Mr. Trump as part of its broader investigation, hoping to provide insights into the shooting and possibly a more complete record of his injury, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss the continuing inquiry," the NYT report says.

Russian forces suffered an average of 983 casualties per day in Ukraine in February, the highest since the war began, the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) said in an intelligence update on Sunday. The UK department said the increase in casualties, which included both killed and wounded soldiers, was likely due to "Russia's commitment to mass and attritional warfare." In February, Russia finally captured the embattled Ukrainian town of Avdiivka, which sits just north of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine. War analysts have noted that Russia's tactics to take Avdiivka often involved "human wave" assaults, attempting to overwhelm Ukrainian positions with...

Ukrainian forces have faced dense minefields while carrying out counteroffensive operations. It has forced Ukrainian units to move slowly on foot rather than using tanks or other vehicles. Ukrainian officials are now calling for F-16 jets and more mine-clearance equipment.Ukraine has been forced to change its counteroffensive strategy after repeatedly coming up against dense Russian minefields, a report says.Ukrainian units are leaving behind the battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles donated by Western allies and advancing slowly on foot, The Washington Post reported."You can no longer do anything with just a tank with some armor because the minefield is too...

Many Russian troops are dying in Ukraine because of non-combat issues such as alcohol consumption and poor weapons handling drills, the UK defense ministry said in an intelligence update on Sunday. The ministry estimated that Russia has suffered up to 200,000 casualties since its invasion of Ukraine over a year ago and that a "significant minority" has not been due to the fighting. A Russian Telegram news channel reported in March that alcohol consumption is a particular issue amongst the deployed Russian troops and that "extremely high" incidents, crimes, and deaths have been linked to it. The ministry noted that...

Former President Donald Trump attempted to convey a cryptic message to Attorney General Merrick Garland following the FBI raid of his Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida, a report says. According to The New York Times, Trump wanted Garland to know that he had been speaking with people around the country and that they were enraged by the FBI search. "The country is on fire. What can I do to reduce the heat?" was the message Trump wanted to be conveyed to Garland, a person familiar with the exchange told the paper. A person close to the former president reached out to...

Former President Donald Trump took Truth Social to his social media platform over the weekend to lash out at the FBI over its raid of Mar-a-Lago. In a stream of messages, Trump complained that the FBI searched the house, including his wife Melania Trump's closets, "alone and unchecked." He also repeated the baseless allegation that the FBI could have planted evidence at Mar-a-Lago: "There was no way of knowing if what they took was legitimate, or was there a "plant?" The FBI raided Trump's Mar-a-Lago residence in Florida as part of an investigation into whether he mishandled government records by...

Former President Donald Trump expressed sympathy for President Joe Biden after he fell off his bicycle, in a rare moment of goodwill between the two political rivals. "I hope he has recovered because, as you know, he fell off his bicycle today," Trump said of Biden while speaking at his American Freedom Tour in Memphis, Tennessee, on Saturday. "No, I'm serious. I hope he's okay. He fell off a bicycle," Trump said after the crowd responded with laughter.

Local and international groups are rushing to get post-rape kits, emergency contraception, and abortion pills to Ukrainians amid growing evidence that Russian soldiers have used sexual violence as a weapon of war. Ukraine says it's received more than 400 reports of sexual violence, including rape, in two weeks. Existing data is unlikely to "convey an accurate picture" of the true magnitude of sexual violence in the country because rape so often goes unreported, even in times of peace, Jaime Nadal Roig, the UNFPA's representative to Ukraine, told Insider.