Free Republic

Sports news and commentary Deadspin has been sold again — and its entire staff has been laid off. Deadspin, once owned by Gawker Media, became part of G/O Media in 2019. In a memo to company staff Monday, G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller announced that Deadspin was sold to European firm Lineup Publishing. With the sale, the staff of Deadspin is getting pink-slipped. “Deadspin’s new owners have made the decision to not carry over any of the site’s existing staff and instead build a new team more in line with their editorial vision for the brand,” Spanfeller wrote in the...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Western leaders descended on Kyiv Saturday to mark the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen traveled overnight to Kyiv by train along with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. They arrived shortly after a Russian drone attack struck a residential building in the southern city of Odesa, killing at least one person. Three women also sustained severe burns in the attack Friday evening on a residential building, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said on his social media account....

The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday that the nation of Hungary, on two occasions, blocked attempts by the European Union to make a consensus statement against the anticipated Israeli military operation against Hamas in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where the bulk of Hamas terrorists are thought to be concentrated.EU’s Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell reportedly tried to unite all 27 member states behind a statement calling for an “immediate humanitarian pause” in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, a move that Israel argues would allow Hamas to regroup and rearm its terrorist elements.According to the report, Borell eventually succeeded...

And so it begins. Nine months still to go before the next US presidential election and already the Republican party favourite and former President Donald Trump is sending eyebrows and blood pressure skywards in Nato capitals with his provocative statements. And yet they will delight many of his supporters. Suggesting at a rally in South Carolina that he would "encourage" aggressors (for example Russia) "to do whatever the hell they want" with Nato countries that fail to pay their dues has prompted an immediate condemnation from the White House. A spokesman called the comment "appalling and unhinged", saying it was...

The cost of racial and ethnic diversity is incredible. In just 6 years the United Kingdom has seen a 5 billion pound increase in spending on police services (www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-funding-for-england-and-wales-2015-to-2023/police-funding-for-england-and-wales-2015-to-2023) in England and Wales, a 41% policing budget increase. In just the first 9 months of 2023 Ireland’s Garda overtime budget has surged by 54%, and a further 25% increase is planned for 2024. (www.citizensinformation.ie/en/money-and-tax/budgets/budget-2024/)

Travel was halted across Europe Saturday as heavy snow blanketed cities and freezing temperatures set in following a week of deadly early-season storms. Flights were grounded in Munich and Dublin Saturday after a winter storm dumped snow across southern Germany and parts of Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, disrupting travel across the continent.

The fervent push from Brussels to admit Ukraine into the European Union would see €186 billion transferred to Kyiv from other member states in addition to the billions poured into the country to subsidise the war effort against Russia. According to leaked internal assessments from the secretariat of the EU Council of the cost of admitting nine new countries into the bloc, many states that hitherto were net beneficiaries of wealth transfers would need to begin sending their limited resources abroad and wealthier economies such as France, Germany, and The Netherlands would need to significantly increase their foreign contributions

President Joe Biden’s foreign policy advisers are concerned that a victory by Italian leader Giorgia Meloni could weaken the united European coalition pushing back against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Meloni represents a populist-nationalist shift in power after Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi sought to align Italy with the European Union and teamed up with the G7 nations to push back against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Sir Isaac Newton vs. the EC There are plenty of formal peer-reviewed industry papers and articles published in specialized international oil & gas journals regarding theoretical “huge volumes” of supposed European nat-gas “reserves”. Supposedly, such reserves would “solve” the absolutely unnecessary self-inflicted European nat-gas crisis. Furthermore, there are lots of curious back-of-the-envelope ´calculations´ plus added blah blah blah with the very same prognosis in mind. And even some European Commission members are on record describing a highly optimistic outlook on how long ( months ! ) would Europe´s natural gas reserves ´easily´ last after Russia stops delivering its traditional and...

European banks have joined Wall Street in allowing clients to trade Russian debt once again after the US Treasury gave the green light last month for investors to wind down their positions.The global market for Russian sovereign and corporate bonds froze in June after US investors were banned from buying Russian securities on the secondary market as part of the wests sanctions against Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi travelled together on a special Ukrainian train originally created for holidaying oligarchs, just the latest world leaders to have made the pilgrimage to Kyiv to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky. European leaders of France, Germany, Italy, and Romania coalesced in Kyiv, Ukraine Thursday to meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky. The meeting may represent a thawing, in a sense, of relations between France and Ukraine, which has been strained over President Macron’s longstanding attempts to negotiate with Russia.

Europe’s natural gas prices jumped Thursday after one of the US’ largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals experienced an explosion on Wednesday and has been shut down. A large share of the terminal’s LNG has been destined for Europe as the continent weens off Russian supplies. Been in the Freeport area all day for an “incident” at LNG facility on Quintana Island. Freeport PD and witnesses say no doubt about it: it was an explosion. 💥 The fire/release has been contained and employees are accounted for. Investigation underway. pic.twitter.com/8wuGEGazb2 — Erica Simon (@EricaOnABC13) June 8, 2022 According to Bloomberg,...

Ten more European gas buyers have opened accounts in Gazprombank JSC, doubling the total number of clients preparing to pay in rubles for Russian gas as President Vladimir Putin demanded.A total of twenty European companies have opened accounts, with another 14 clients asking for the paperwork needed to set them up, the person said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss confidential matters. He declined to identify the companies.

The White House on Thursday cast U.S. President Joe Biden as a man leading the free world as he began a series of summit meetings in Europe with the promise to “hold Russia accountable” for its invasion of Ukraine. Over the course of 24 hours, the European diplomatic capital of Brussels is hosting an emergency NATO summit, a gathering of the Group of Seven (G7) industrialized nations and a summit of the European Union.

On Thursday’s broadcast of CNN’s “New Day,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said European nations that are “much more reliant upon Russia for natural gas and for oil,” are “doubling down” on becoming energy independent through green energy, “and we should be doing the same.” Co-host Brianna Keilar asked, “[W]e’ve seen these reports, the administration’s reaching out to Saudi Arabia and to Venezuela. I think folks that many Americans might consider unsavory characters, in this search for energy, to kind of fill this Russian energy void. How should Americans view this?”

Australian mining company European Lithium is in the process of securing two promising lithium deposits in Ukraine, aiming to become the largest lithium supplier in Europe and an essential part of an integrated European battery supply chain. The two deposits, discovered and subsequently explored in the 1980s and 1990s, are located in Shevchenkivske in the Donetsk region and in Dobra in the Kirovograd region of western Ukraine. Both sites are said to be “under-explored” according to modern methods and “contain significant expected resources”, according to a statement by the Australian company, who have so far made a name for themselves...

Paris canceled its New Year’s Eve fireworks. Denmark has closed theaters, concert halls and museums. Ireland is again forcing pubs and restaurants to close at 8 p.m. And the Netherlands is expected to announce a strict new lockdown later Saturday. With coronavirus cases surging across Europe as the Omicron variant spreads, governments are imposing new restrictions across the continent, triggering plans for protests in several major cities.

Thousands of protesters gathered in Prague, the capital of the Czech Republic, to protest new COVID-19 restrictions aimed at combatting the spread of the new omicron variant. Among other things, the Czech government banned the popular Christmas markets and any public consumption of alcohol, such as mulled wine, which Czechs and visitors often drink at such markets.

President Joe Biden flies off Thursday to attend global summits in two European cities. After he climbs the steps of Air Force One he will stop, turn and wave goodbye to a Democratic party scrambling to deliver a roughly $2 trillion spending package and a nation troubled by a host of domestic issues. First stop is Rome for a G-20 summit and then its on to Glasgow, Scotland, for the COP26 U.N. Climate Change Conference, personal commitments by a president for whom a visit to the U.S.-Mexico border is just one journey too many.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said the U.S. is partly to blame for the gas shortages Europe is currently facing. Putin, during an interview with CNBC at the annual Russian Energy Week, said that while European countries bear part of the blame for the gas shortages, the U.S.’s decrease in supplies has been “the cause of panic.” “You see the problem does not consist in us, it consists in the European side, because, first, we know that the wind farms did not work during summer because of the weather, everyone knows that. Moreover, the Europeans did not pump enough...