Free Republic

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Defense Department announced Friday it is allotting $300 million in "security assistance" for Ukraine to bolster the country's defense capabilities, adding to the $1.6 billion Washington has committed since Russia invaded in late February.

but Kyiv is braced for new assault in East A British-made anti-aircraft missile shot down a Russian Mi-28N helicopter in the Luhansk region, said experts Footage showed the aircraft being cut in two as its tail was struck by the portable missile, made in Belfast The Starstreak system is a laser-guided missile that travels at more than three times the speed of sound Prime Minister Boris Johnson has repeatedly insisted the UK will provide further defensive support to Ukraine A British-made Starstreak missile is understood to have shot down a Russian helicopter in the weapon's first use in Ukraine -...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” former presidential candidate and founder of the Forward Party Andrew Yang said it looks as though the Hunter Biden laptop story was “buried because of the timing…it was coming out during the height of the election in 2020 and they just did not want that out in the mainstream.” And that the higher levels of trust in the media among Democrats and lower levels of trust in the media among Republicans and independents is a case “where one side feels like the media is on their side.”

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher said that while The New York Post‘s Hunter Biden story should have been taken with a grain of salt, “It didn’t take two years.” And it seems like “the left-wing media just buried the story because it wasn’t part of their narrative and that’s why people don’t trust the media.”

House Republicans have called on Hunter Biden to testify before Congress later this week, according to a letter from a senior House Republican. "House Committee on Oversight and Reform Republicans request the attendance and testimony of Hunter Biden," Ranking Member James Comer said in a letter to House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney. The committee hearing, titled "It’s Electric: Developing the Postal Service Fleet of the Future," is scheduled for Tuesday, April 5.

This afternoon, April 1, the Department of Defense (DoD) notified Congress of additional assistance activities under authority provided by the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). Through USAI, DoD will provide up to $300 million in security assistance to bolster Ukraine's capacity to defend itself. This decision underscores the United States' unwavering commitment to Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity in support of its heroic efforts to repel Russia's war of choice. Capabilities in this package include: • Laser-guided rocket systems; • Switchblade Tactical Unmanned Aerial Systems; • Puma Unmanned Aerial Systems; • Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems; • Armored High Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled...

A leading economist has claimed that, in his view, economic globalisation is now ‘over’ as a result of the Ukraine war. Gabriel Felbermayr, a world-renowned economist who heads up the Austrian Institute for Economic Research (WIFO), has declared that globalisation is now “over” thanks to the ongoing war in Ukraine. ....snip Although the end of globalisation has been predicted many times before, Felbermayr’s warning matches those made by other groups and organisations, with Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine already causing serious issues for international trade. The supply of food is one major area where the war has already caused significant...

The White House refused to rule out President Joe Biden issuing a presidential pardon for his son Hunter Biden or for his brother James Biden as federal investigations continue over their foreign business dealings. “That’s not a hypothetical I’m going to entertain,” White House communications director Kate Bedingfield said during the daily press briefing when asked about a potential pardon “I don’t have anything to add from this podium.” Bedingfield was reluctant to address any aspect of the Hunter Biden story, after CNN, The Washington Post, and the New York Times recently published stories about the federal tax probe into...