Free Republic

New Yorkers would be forced to pay 2.5 times the market rate for electricity generated by the Empire Wind One offshore wind farm if the deal goes through, according to an independent financial analysis. The Trump Administration paused construction of the controversial project — 54 turbines in the Atlantic Ocean some 14 miles south of Long Island — last week, saying it needs further review. The project has seen strong backing from Gov. Kathy Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams. Trump’s move was welcomed by those who claim the project is going to overcharge taxpayers. “New Yorkers are entitled to clean,...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the formation of an “Armed Forces of Europe” in a speech delivered before the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday. While the Trump administration has drawn feigned outrage throughout European capitals for daring to suggest that they meet their NATO defence spending obligations, President Zelensky was hailed with applause at the Munich Security Conference as he called for an international European army. Zelensky argued that a European army would be necessary for Europe to take back its own destiny and to ensure its safety if America refused to come to its rescue.

STUTTGART, Germany — Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Tuesday began his first international trip overseas spending some quality time with American troops stationed in Germany early in the morning for some physical training — or PT, in military-speak. Side-by-side with Green Berets from the 10th Special Forces Group, the 44-year-old defense secretary did the “HERO workout” — a series of exercises honoring those who have fallen in the line of duty. Hegseth did the workout despite arriving to Germany around 2 a.m. that morning and only getting a few hours sleep. Asked why it was important for him to do...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russian forces are bypassing a key stronghold in eastern Ukraine that they have fought for months to capture and are focusing instead on cutting supply lines to it, a Ukrainian official said Monday. Russian troops are going around the vital logistics hub of Pokrovsk, where a steadfast Ukrainian defense has kept them at bay, and are taking aim at a highway that leads from there to the central Ukraine city of Dnipro, Maj. Viktor Trehubov, a local Ukrainian army spokesperson, told The Associated Press. That route is crucial for supplies feeding Ukrainian forces in the entire...

**SNIP** Multiple Trump family members attended the five-week trial. They included sons Don Jr. and Eric, daughter in law Lara and daughter Tiffany, although Melania did not attend his trial, which resulted in conviction on charges of falsifying business records related to paying off the porn star. 'I have a wonderful wife. I mean, it's not easy for her to read this kind of stuff – that's fake – that's fake stuff,' he said. Trump went on an extended discourse about Don Jr., who he called a 'good kid' who became the subject of accusations during the Russia probe. That...

The Coriolis effect describes the pattern of deflection taken by objects not firmly connected to the ground as they travel long distances around the Earth.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week” that the Biden administration was demanding the Israeli Defense Forces makes “deconfliction changes’ in Gaza Partial transcript as follow: MARTHA RADDATZ: He says this is a war against humanity and things have to change now. KIRBY: Well, our – our hearts continue to go out with Chef Andres and his whole team at World Central Kitchen. As you know, the president spoke to him. The president shares that grief and sorrow.

Moscow is trying to bribe its citizens into signing up to serve in the military as Russian President Vladimir Putin watches his forces continue to shrivel up in Ukraine the longer the conflict lasts. "Putin has launched a full-on recruitment drive," Rebekah Koffler, a strategic military intelligence analyst and the author of "Putin’s Playbook," told Fox News Digital. An analysis from The Atlantic Council found that Russian armed forces have turned to the civilian population to help fundraise for additional equipment, including drones, thermal sights, vehicles and medicine, through a group called "All for Victory," run by propagandist Vladimir Solovyov....

The Ukrainian military has halted a Russian advance in the east of the country and is now moving south, officials said on Friday. “We had very fierce battles in the Kupiansk and Lyman directions, but our soldiers stopped the enemy there,” Deputy Defence Minister Hanna Maliar told Ukrainian television. Ukraine’s summer counterattack has won multiple small victories, but Russian officials have denied Ukrainian claims that it has taken eight villages and pushed back Russian forces. That offensive is still in its early stages, with Ukrainian forces not yet advancing on the best-defended Russian positions in Donetsk and Luhansk.

The Ukrainian army on Wednesday said that Russian forces have begun to retreat in the key city of Bakhmut — just as President Volodymyr Zelensky stressed that more time is needed to prepare for a counterstrike. The hotly contested eastern Ukrainian city that has been the backdrop for many of the war’s fiercest battles has seemingly been abandoned by some Russian troops, according to Ukraine’s ground forces commander. Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi said that Russian troops in parts of Bakhmut have retreated following triumphant counterattacks left Wagner troops fatigued. The units that fled have moved about 1.2 miles back, he...

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said on Sunday that he is “open” to sending U.S. troops to Taiwan to defend the island, saying that “strategic ambiguity” is not working. “Fox News Sunday” anchor Shannon Bream asked Graham if the senator would support authorizing U.S. force in Taiwan if tensions rise between the island and China. Graham responded that Congress needs to ask itself whether the U.S. should have a defense agreement with Taiwan. “So the question for the Congress, should we have a defense agreement with the island of Taiwan? We don’t should we have one?” he said. “But yes, I’d...

Russian forces have likely seized the center of the hotly contested city of Bakhmut, where they are threatening an essential supply route for Ukrainian forces in the west, British intelligence said Friday. The eastern city is one of the last urban areas of Donetsk that has withstood Russian incursion. Now mostly reduced to rubble, the city center has been the focus of intense fighting for months. “Ukraine’s key 0506 supply route to the west of the town is likely severely threatened,” the British intelligence update warned. Ukrainian military expert Vladyslav Selezniov previously said that forces will have to retreat if...

Marines Commandant General David Berger testified before the Senate Appropriations Committee that military branch needed more amphibious shipsBerger said the fleet was at 35 percent capacity of what was required for the US to maintain both a military and humanitarian presence in the Pacific regionHe said two decades of land-based conflicts had shifted the Marines' focus from sea-based combat, and that the branch should begin returning to those roots The Marines' highest-ranking general warned that US forces are at their lowest levels of preparedness in recent history, and are critically lacking the number of amphibious troop ships and landing craft...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree Sunday removing the commander of the military’s Joint Forces Operation (JFO), which is involved in the ongoing counteroffensive in the eastern Donbas region of the country.Zelensky announced Eduard Moskalyov’s dismissal in a one-line decree without any explanation, according to Reuters. Moskalyov had been appointed to the position last March.The JFO was launched as a resistance force in 2014 after Russia’s seizure of the Crimean peninsula and parts of the Donbas, and has been heavily involved in fighting since Moscow’s full invasion a year ago.Moskalyov’s dismissal is the latest in a series of changes...

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley acknowledged on Friday that it would be difficult for Ukrainian forces to “eject” Russian forces from all of Ukraine this year. “From a military standpoint, I still maintain that for this year it would be very, very difficult to militarily eject the Russian forces from all — every inch of Ukraine and occupied — or Russian-occupied Ukraine. That doesn’t mean it can’t happen, doesn’t mean it won’t happen, but it’d be very, very difficult,” Milley said in Germany.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the city of Bakhmut, in the eastern Donbas region, is holding its own despite widespread Russian destruction in the area. “Bakhmut is holding out against all odds,” Zelensky said in his address Sunday. “And although most of the city is destroyed by Russian strikes, our warriors repel constant attempts at Russian offensive there.” Reuters reported that Ukrainian officials said they sent reinforcements to Soledar, a small town near Bakhmut, to repel attacks from the Russian mercenary group Wagner. Zelensky said in his address that the situation in Soledar is “extremely hard,” as the town faced...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday said his country has reclaimed 6,000 square kilometers of occupied territory from Russia in recent weeks as its troops push forward with a counteroffensive. “From the beginning of September until today, our warriors have already liberated more than 6,000 square kilometers of the territory of Ukraine – in the east and south,” he said in an address to Ukrainians. “The movement of our troops continues.”

MADRID (Reuters) - NATO will increase the number of its forces at high readiness massively to over 300,000, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Thursday that Russian forces now occupy about 20 percent of Ukrainian territory, almost 100 days into the war. Zelensky spoke Thursday to Luxembourg’s legislature, saying Russian troops have invaded more than 3,600 “settlements,” but that Ukrainian forces have taken back more than 1,000 of them. He said Luxembourg’s motto, “We want to stay what we are,” is what Ukraine is currently fighting for.

POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP) – Russian and Ukrainian troops engaged in close-quarter combat in an eastern Ukraine city Sunday as Moscow’s soldiers, supported by intense shelling, attempted to gain strategic footholds for conquering the region in the face of fierce Ukrainian resistance. Ukrainian regional officials reported Russian forces “storming” Sievierodonetsk after trying unsuccessfully to encircle the city. The fighting knocked out power and cellphone service, and a humanitarian relief centre could not operate because of the danger, the mayor said.