Free Republic

Ukrainian drones attacked more targets in Russia late on Wednesday, a night after drones struck at least six regions deep within Russia in one of the broadest volleys yet of Kyiv's campaign to turn the tables on Moscow. One of the drone strikes, targeting an airfield far from Ukraine's borders, destroyed military transport planes on the ground. (snip) The previous night, Russian officials described attacks on Bryansk and five other regions, including Moscow region, and Pskov in the north, where four military transport planes were damaged in a huge blaze at an airfield. The Russian foreign ministry said the attacks...

Critics claim food companies and restaurants are taking advantage of inflation to raise prices higher and higher.If you’ve been grocery shopping lately, you’ve probably noticed markedly higher prices on items like bread, milk, and eggs. It’s been widely reported that inflation has driven up prices, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ food index, a measure of price changes in grocery stores and restaurants, increased 11.2% year over year last month. But a new New York Times report says some food companies may be raising prices higher than inflation calls for—just because they can. “Corporations have used inflation, the pandemic, and...

WASHINGTON, D.C.—In a move to help alleviate pain at the pump, the Biden Administration has announced a $1 billion initiative to provide grief and trauma counselors to stand by at all gas pumps across the nation. The plan will fund licensed therapists and psychiatrists to stand at the ready at gas pumps from New York to California to comfort people mourning the loss of hundreds of dollars every time they fill up their tanks. "There, there. It's gonna be OK," said one grief counselor as a woman filled up her VW at a gas pump in California. "Times like these...

India is buying up cheap sanctioned Russian oil, refining it, then selling it to the US and EU for huge profits, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. The US has reluctantly given India permission to buy Russian oil because India has threatened to ditch their alliance with America and ally with China if the US dares to sanction them. While Americans and Europeans are being forced to pay record prices for gas as "the cost of standing up for freedom," the free nation of India is buying oil from Russia for a whopping $35 off a barrel...

The eu’s ban on Russian oil, agreed on May 31st, is off to an unpromising start. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February, the amount of its oil pumped into the bloc has been increasing. It rose by 14% between January and April, from 750,000 to 857,000 barrels per day, according to Argus Media, a publisher. The embargo applies only to seaborne crude and petroleum products, for now covering just 75% of imports from Russia. Oil supplied by pipeline to a handful of countries in central and eastern Europe is temporarily exempt—a concession to Hungary, which had been blocking the agreement....

BlackRock has taken a $17 billion loss as a result of its Russian exposure since Putin’s invasion of Ukraine began in late February—and it’s not the only Western bank set to take a sizable hit. International banks are owed roughly $121 billion by Russia-linked entities, according to data from the Bank for International Settlements—and because of the recent decoupling of the West and Russia, they are unlikely to get most of that money back. BlackRock’s clients held around $18.2 billion in exposure to Russia-linked assets as of the end of January, the firm revealed. The world’s largest asset manager declined...