Free Republic

“Why did all these RVC [Russian Volunteer Corps] and the Legion [Freedom of Russia Legion] conduct their raids? To carry out additional reconnaissance [of the area]. They weren’t just walking around and posting all these videos; [PR] for the media was an afterthought. Initially, any military shit is done for military purposes. We did the same thing back in the day [since 2014]. We went in, observed the reaction — how quickly they respond to your arrival, how many forces are there, where, what, how — and then we left. Then again and again. So, eventually, [the AFU] already had...

_ Lizzo:

Kamala Harris and Tim Walz rallied a packed arena outside Phoenix, Arizona, on Friday – drawing perhaps the largest Democratic crowd of the election cycle this year. The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, her running mate and the local leaders who joined them on stage whipped up the crowd, discussing immigration, abortion rights and Indigenous sovereignty. Noting the Indigenous leaders in the room, Harris also said: “I will always honor tribal sovereignty and respect tribal self-determination.” Indigenous voters are credited with helping deliver Arizona to Joe Biden in 2020; the state is home to 22 federally recognized tribes. At one point...

Vice President Kamala Harris has selected Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz as her vice presidential running mate, according to three sources with knowledge of the pick, adding a popular Midwestern state executive to the Democratic ticket as the party gears up to hold onto key Northern battleground states this fall. In picking Walz, who's in his second term and also served 12 years in Congress, Harris will have as her No. 2 someone with a proven record of winning over white working-class voters in Rust Belt states while also boasting a robustly progressive record. Democrats will hope that mix of attributes...

Nguyen Muchan, who runs a current affairs-related account on the Chinese social media Weibo, is considered a figure representing the patriotism of Chinese youth. Just looking at the cat photo she posted on her social media home screen, she looks no different from any other young Chinese woman her age. However, the 6.4 million subscribers who visit here are enthusiastic about her ‘spicy mouth’ armed with patriotism, not her cute profile picture. Last year, when Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix provided information related to the semiconductor supply chain to the United States at the request of the U.S. government, Nguyen...

Would-be Donald Trump assassin Thomas Matthew Crooks purportedly wrote a chilling online message that hinted at his sinister plans for the day he shot up the former president’s Butler, Pa. rally over the weekend. “July 13 will be my premiere, watch as it unfolds,” the 20-year-old gunman allegedly wrote on Steam, a popular online platform where gamers communicate, Fox News reported. Investigators are currently working to determine whether the posting is legitimate. The foreshadowing was revealed to US senators during a briefing by top law enforcement officials Wednesday.

It is unclear why the listings were taken down, but the Chinese internet is heavily controlled, with content considered "sensitive" routinely taken down. The assassination attempt at a Pennsylvania rally last Saturday sparked widespread discussion online, with related hashtags trending high on X-like platform Weibo. A cached image on Taobao, one of China's largest e-commerce sites, shows the T-shirt priced at 39 yuan ($9; £7). A 25-year-old Taobao retailer told South China Morning Post that she received more than 2,000 orders for the T-shirts a mere three hours after she put it up for sale. Most were from China and...

BUTLER, Pa. — Law enforcement officers confirmed to ABC News the building where a gunman opened fire at a Pennsylvania rally for former President Donald Trump was the building being used as a staging area for a local police tactical team. Moments before shots rang out, rallygoers noticed 20-year-old Thomas Crooks climbing onto the roof and warned two officers. ABC News learned the building was the same building a local police tactical team was using as a staging area to watch over the crowd at the Butler Farm Show grounds. It is unclear if the team was inside the building,...

CenterPoint is a $19 billion, for-profit corporation granted a monopoly over a hundred years ago to manage and maintain the transmission and distribution of electricity across the Houston region. This regulated utility failed to deliver power to 85% of its customers during the height of a mild hurricane. In a perfect world, the Public Utility Commission would have ensured CenterPoint maintained a grid resilient enough to withstand a stronger storm. Instead, elected officials are asking the wrong questions about the emergency response. “I’ll tell you whether I’m satisfied or not when I have a full report of where their crews...

In Lebanon, a Christian man falls in love with a Muslim woman. Her parents won't allow him to marry her unless he converts to Islam. The man goes to see the sheikh and is told that he has to get circumcised. He reluctantly agrees and got married in May 2024. A month later in June 2024, the man is walking down the Hamra Street with a gold chain around his neck attached to a crucifix on his chest. The sheikh sees the crucifix and stops him to say, "My son, what are you doing? You are a Muslim now. Why...

A Russian Jew had been allowed to emigrate to Israel. At Moscow airport, customs found a Lenin statue in his baggage and asked him, "What is this?" The man replied, "What is this? Wrong question comrade. You should have asked, Who is he? This is Comrade Lenin. He laid the foundations of socialism and created the future and prosperity of the Russian people. I am taking it with me as a memory of our hero days." The Russian customs officer was a bit shamed and let him go without further inspection. At Tel Aviv airport, the customs officer also asks...

MIAMI (AP) — Former President Donald Trump said in an interview posted on Thursday he wants to give automatic green cards to foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges, a sharp departure from the anti-immigrant rhetoric he typically uses on the campaign trail. Trump was asked about plans for companies to be able to import the “best and brightest” in a podcast taped Wednesday with venture capitalists and tech investors called the “All-In.” “What I want to do and what I will do is you graduate from a college, I think you should get automatically as part of your diploma...

Most Black adults say the prison (74%), political (67%) and economic (65%) systems in the U.S., among others, are designed to hold Black people back, according to a new Pew Research Center survey in September 2023. For example, 82% of Black adults say they have heard the following racial conspiracy theory about the prison system: Black people are more likely than White people to be incarcerated because prisons want to make money on the backs of Black people. Many Black adults (74%) say this racial conspiracy theory is true and happening in the U.S. today. For this report, we surveyed...

Who is Your Enemy? One of the most fundamental differences between the US Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA) and the proposed Georgian foreign agents law is the historical context in which the two laws originated, and who they were directed against. The US Congress adopted FARA in 1938 specifically to target lobbying and consulting firms acting on behalf of the Nazi German government. Concern about Soviet Communist agents also motivated the law. Of course, by 1938, the United States under Franklin D. Roosevelt was already well aware that Nazi Germany presented a direct military and security threat to the country....

“We had 20 people shot at that parade, and not one of them dies?” said Detective Rob Hurst, Hart’s partner at the scene. “If that’s not a miracle, you tell me what is.” Hovering near death, Cotton somehow dictated a statement from the intensive care unit that a close friend delivered to a hastily called New Orleans City Council hearing. “Do you know what it takes to be so disconnected in your heart that you walk out into a gathering of hundreds of people who look just like you and begin firing?” she asked. Alluding to the bleak circumstances facing...

Russia’s Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu warned Kremlin will intensify attacks on Western weapons stored in Ukraine. “We will increase the intensity of attacks on logistics centers and storage bases for Western weapons,” Shoigu said on Tuesday, according to Russian state-owned outlet RIA Novosti. The warning from Shoigu came just as the House passed the $95 billion foreign aid package over the weekend and cleared the Senate Tuesday night. It is now on its way to President Biden’s desk to be signed. Foreign aid for embattled U.S. allies includes $26 billion for Israel and humanitarian aid in Gaza, $8 billion for...

The job of commanding a nuclear submarine should go to smart and well-qualified officers. Or at least that's the case in Western navies. Not so in the Chinese navy. Except for engineers, Chinese submarine officers tend to come from military academies with the lowest college-entrance-exam scores, a US military analyst said. This suggests that People's Liberation Army Navy sub commanders are not the "best and the brightest" officers who may be most equipped to cope with the stresses and challenges endemic to submarine warfare. Based on China's college-entrance exam — called the gaokoa — the People's Liberation Army Navy engineering...

Red Lobster is reportedly considering filing for bankruptcy to relieve financial pressures that have weighed on the company. According to a report by Bloomberg citing people familiar with the discussions, Red Lobster is weighing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing to renegotiate burdensome leases and address other long-term contracts as well as rising labor costs. The outlet reported that the seafood restaurant chain is being advised by law firm King & Spalding on the subject, and that while discussions about restructuring are ongoing and that no final decisions have been made about a bankruptcy filing. By filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy,...

(Reuters) - The U.S. Justice Department next week will meet with lawyers for families of victims of two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019, as the government decides whether to move ahead with a criminal case, according to correspondence Reuters reviewed. The meeting, set for Tuesday afternoon, comes ahead of an April 24 gathering scheduled for the victims' families themselves to confer with Justice Department officials. "As we have ... done previously, we think it would be productive to hold a lawyers-only meeting approximately two weeks before the conferral," said Glenn Leon, the...

Wausau voters ousted Mayor Katie Rosenberg, electing conservative challenger Doug Diny with 52 percent of the vote. Wausau spent millions modifying a new water treatment facility after testing in 2022 found all city wells contained elevated PFAS levels. The city instituted new filtration systems in early 2023, but facility costs led to skyrocketing water bills that became an issue in the local race. Diny, who was elected to Wausau City Council in 2020, won 5,222 votes to Rosenberg’s 4,798. Like many local races, the nominally nonpartisan race was characterized by ideological spending on both sides. According to WisPolitics, the state...