Free Republic

Russia has captured 162 square miles of the Ukrainian territory since June 14, the Interfax news agency said Tuesday, citing Sergei Shoigu, the secretary of Russia's security council. Russian forces have captured the village of Tymofiivka in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine, Interfax news agency quoted the defense ministry as saying Tuesday. Also, Russian forces have thwarted a Ukrainian attempt to penetrate the border in Russia's Kursk region, the interim governor of the region said Tuesday.

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” Representative Eric Swalwell (D-CA) vowed that Democrats will do everything they can to get Acting Attorney General Matthew Whitaker to recuse himself due to the fact that Whitaker has “pre-judged” Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. Swalwell stated that Democrats should “project confidence, tell the American people, you elected us to stop this. We’re going to stop this.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is pressing for funding to restart the study of the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator, the Washington Post reported today (see GSN, Dec. 16, 2004). “I think we should request funds in FY06 and FY07 to complete the study,” Rumsfeld wrote in a Jan. 10 memo to then-Energy Secretary Spencer Abraham. “Our staffs have spoken about funding the Robust Nuclear Earth Penetrator study to support its completion by April 2007.” A Defense Department spokesman yesterday confirmed the contents of the memo, saying the Pentagon “supports completion of the study” of the bunker-buster nuclear weapon. The Bush...