Free Republic

The failure of the grain deal (undermining the bridge) will result in huge financial losses for Ukraine. And the strikes on the Black Sea ports are tied into it. It was the most powerful attack on the city since the beginning of the Russian Special Military Operation in Ukraine. From what can be gathered from Ukrainian sources, the Russian combined arms attack included around 32 Iranian UAV ‘Geranium’, 16 Calibre Missiles, 8 X-22s, 6 hypersonic Onyx missiles and one X-59 flew across the skies of Ukraine. The targets were the infrastructure of the ports of Odessa and the region, industrial...

CNN — A 79-year-old Florida man was bitten by a nearly 7-foot-long alligator Thursday morning at a golf course in Naples, according to local authorities. The man told deputies he was on a walk at the Forest Glen and Golf Course community, where he lives, shortly after 5:00 a.m. Thursday when an alligator came up and bit him in the leg, according to a Facebook post from the Collier County Sheriff’s Office. “I’m bleeding. I don’t know how bad it is. It’s profuse,” the man told a 911 dispatcher, according to an audio recording of the call. “There’s a lot...

A plausible fourth failure of a defensive firing of a handgun against a bear has been discovered. The fourth incident was found in the incidents discovered in the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request for a polar bear and human conflict database. The incident occurred near Churchill, Canada, as part of two incidents from October 19 to October 26, 1986. Bear spray had recently become available. There are two separate incidents. The first involves bear spray, which marked the bear. The second involved “cracker shells” and a .44 caliber handgun, probably a .44 magnum. From the FOIA, incident 41:October 19-26,...

Six people were killed and one wounded in an attack at a kindergarten in southern China's Guangdong province on Monday, a spokeswoman for the city government said. 'The victims include one teacher, two parents and three students,' she said, in the rampage which unfolded around 7:40am (2340 GMT on Sunday). She did not offer details about the identities or ages of the victims, nor the weapon used in the attack in the city of Lianjiang, but reports suggested the victims were stabbed. .....

Openly gay Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg on Sunday accused Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis of using “oiled-up shirtless bodybuilders’’ to try to prove his masculinity in an ad attacking Donald Trump. The controversial clip features Trump, who is vying against DeSantis for the GOP presidential nomination, crowing in 2016 that he would “do everything in my power to protect our LGBTQ citizens” — as multiple images of DeSantis and shredded bare-chested men are interspersed between the perceived dig and others targeting the former president.

U.S.A. — Seven times as many people have been killed by bears when bear spray has been sprayed in defense than have been killed by bears when a handgun has been fired in defense. Any comparison of the efficacy of bear spray and firearms is difficult. There are many variables. The data is subject to selection bias. The analysis of the data is subject to confirmation bias. Similar problems exist with the defensive uses of firearms.Fatal bear attacks are less subject to selection bias because nearly all fatal bear attacks are recorded.We nearly always know when bear spray was sprayed...

On August 17, 1993, Stephen Smith had crawled into his sleeping bag a little before midnight, exhausted from a long day of research hanging in a harness, high above ground, banding sea birds. Only 15 minutes later, a polar bear emerged from the sea and was attempting to enter the tent. From Up Here magazine Jan/Feb 2013:Things were shaking, rumbling, vibrating – a space encapsulated, tumbling uncontrollably, like a car rolling off a highway. A roar beyond the edges closing in; unrelenting confusion; craziness. And then the instant where my stifled scream broke free and the dream was gone. Sitting...

On June 16, near Groom Creek, in Arizona, 66-year-old Steven Jackson was sitting on his camp chair, having coffee at an outdoor table, when a 300 lb male black bear attacked him. The attack appears to have been unprovoked and predatory in nature. Groom Creek is a few miles South of Prescott, about 100 miles north of Phoenix, at about 5000 – 6000 feet above sea level. The temperature on the morning of the 16th was 70 degrees Fahrenheit. From Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office: At approximately 7:50 this morning, the YCSO dispatch center received multiple 911 calls about a man...

The owner of the dog savagely stabbed to death in Central Park over the weekend cried out, “You killed my dog, you piece of ****!” as the heartless attacker fled with his own pups, dramatic new video shows. The clip – taken by a witness to the heated Saturday night clash and obtained by WABC — shows the moments after 14-year-old pit bull-German shepherd mix Eli was mortally wounded by another pet owner near the park’s 106th Street and East Drive entrance. “You better not show your face!” Eli’s 51-year-old owner, Brian, snarled as he followed the suspect, seen fleeing...

PRESCOTT, Ariz. — A bear reportedly killed a person in an attack near Groom Creek in Yavapai County early Friday morning, the Yavapai County Sheriff's Office said. The bear has since been killed and is no longer a threat to the community, deputies said. How the bear was killed hasn't been clarified. Deputies from the sheriff's office and Arizona Game and Fish responded to the scene near Groom Creek to reports of the dead person. Groom Creek is about six miles south of Prescott. Investigators are at the scene working to determine the events leading up to the attack. This...

During an interview with CNN’s “Axe Files” podcast released on Thursday, former President Barack Obama stated that while he thinks some things get improperly labeled as “woke,” progressives do sometimes go after reporters for “asking questions that don’t fit the accepted narrative or are inconvenient for progressives” or for “pointing out facts that don’t fit the neat narrative” that progressives want to push. Obama said, [relevant remarks begin around 47:00] “I think that we have tended, at times, on the progressive side to tip into kind of a scolding social etiquette police and virtue signaling whereby somebody doesn’t say something...

At least 11 people were killed in an overnight Russian missile strike on the central Ukrainian town of Kryvyi Rih, the hometown of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, regional officials announced Tuesday. Four people were killed in an apartment building in the town and another seven in a warehouse, according to the region’s governor. The town’s mayor, Oleksandr Vilkul, said that 28 people were injured in the strike. “Russian killers continue their war against residential buildings, ordinary cities and people,” Zelensky said on Telegram on Tuesday. The strikes come as Ukraine begins a long-awaited counteroffensive in the south and east of...

Many successful defenses against attacks by bears on people are not recorded/reported as attacks because the bear is killed and reported as a legal hunting harvest. People who want to minimize the danger of bear attacks point out few people are killed by bears. Very few people are killed by bears because people are more effective killers than bears if people are allowed to keep and carry weapons. People have a natural affinity to keep and carry arms. The renowned bear researcher, Stephen Herrero, speculated as to why so few people are killed by black bears. Herrero, as reported in...

One of the great secrets of successful institutions is that people are loyal to institutions that are loyal to them. If that pact gets broken at one end then it gets broken at both... This brings me to Donald J Trump. Earlier this week the 45th President sent out one of his trademark insults on his “Truth Social” platform. The target of his ire was not any Democrat or American-hater. It was Kayleigh McEnany, his former White House press secretary. “Kayleigh ‘Milktoast’ McEnany just gave out the wrong poll numbers on FoxNews,” said Trump. “I am 34 points up on...

A woman was shot dead in an Uber in a wealthy Atlanta neighborhood in what police are calling a “targeted incident.” This victim, who has not been named, was discovered in the back of a black Cadillac Escalade on Lindbergh Drive in Buckhead around 4:30 a.m. Tuesday, FOX 5 reported. Police believe the woman was targeted by multiple shooters, Channel 2 Action News said. It’s unclear if she was a passenger in the Uber. The bullet-riddled SUV was found near a series of apartment complexes.

U.S. officials reportedly believe that Ukraine was likely behind the failed drone attack on the Kremlin earlier this month, along with a number of other killings and incursions on Russian territory. Intelligence officials do not know which unit was behind the drone attack, and it’s unclear if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky knew about it beforehand, The New York Times reported.

Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom accused Target of participating in a "systematic attack" on LGBTQ communities across the country after the retail chain rolled back the sale of some "Pride" products this week. In a Wednesday tweet, Newsom declared that Target CEO Brian Cornell was "selling out the LGBTQ+ community to extremists." Target confirmed on Tuesday that it had moved its "Pride Collection" stations further back into the store at some locations, in addition to removing some products designed by a Satanist fashion group. "This isn't just a couple stores in the South," Newsom declared. "There is a systematic attack...

A mob of bicyclists brutally attacked a man leaving a store in downtown Los Angeles’s jewelry district on Thursday. Eyewitnesses told authorities that around 4:00 p.m. ten teens circled the unknown man on the sidewalk. Video footage obtained by the New York Post seems to show that before the altercation, one of the assailants, shirtless and with red basketball shorts on, rammed his bicycle handlebar into the window of the victim’s white truck, which was parked just outside the store. Allegedly, the group attacked the man because they believed he stole a bicycle.

A closed-door meeting of left-wing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) was held on January 16, 2003, in Washington, D.C. to consider how to apply international financial pressure through a global tax on the U.S. Bruno Jetin, a representative of ATTAC France, spoke to the gathering and acknowledged in private conversation that his group works hand-in-glove with the French Communist Party and the "Socialist parties on the Left." A representative of the embassy of France in the U.S. was listed as a participant. ATTAC stands for the Association for the Taxation of Financial Transactions for the Aid of Citizens. The International ATTAC Movement...

Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the attack by unknown assailants on a U.S. convoy in Nigeria, which left four people dead, including two staff members of the U.S. Consulate in the country. “We do not yet know the motive for the attack, but we have no indications at this time that it was targeted against our Mission,” Blinken said in a statement. “We condemn in the strongest terms this attack. We will work closely with our Nigerian law enforcement colleagues in seeking to bring those responsible to justice.”