Free Republic

Russia's attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure amount to genocide, a top Ukrainian official says. Strikes on key facilities targeted "the full Ukrainian nation" and were an effort to force Kyiv to surrender, the prosecutor-general told the BBC. The term genocide refers to an effort to wipe out a group of people. Russia denies having any such aim. Millions of people across Ukraine are facing power cuts in freezing weather, following sustained Russian attacks. Efforts are ongoing to reconnect homes cut off from electricity. Officials say Kherson has now been fully resupplied, following the city's recapture by Ukrainian troops earlier this...

This list only includes destroyed vehicles and equipment of which photo or videographic evidence is available. Therefore, the amount of equipment destroyed is significantly higher than recorded here. Small arms, ATGMs, MANPADS, loitering munitions, drones used as unmanned bait, civilian vehicles, trailers and derelict equipment are not included in this list. All possible effort has gone into avoiding duplicate entries and discerning the status of equipment between captured or abandoned. Many of the entries listed as 'abandoned' will likely end up captured or destroyed. Similarly, some of the captured equipment might be destroyed if it can't be recovered. When the...

41% of Ukrainian territory is now under Russian control, and with massive electricity and internet outages across the rest of the country. But don’t worry, Ukraine President and former comedian Vladimir Zelensky is filming a Netflix programme with US talk show host David Letterman.Letterman is the latest A-List celebrity to have booked a space in the Ukrainian President’s diary, which appears to have a lot of available space in it for photo-ops considering the country is on the brink of total destruction, according to all independent military experts. Letterman was in Kiev for the filming of the episode for his...

For years, Kim Cobb was the Indiana Jones of climate science. The Georgia Tech professor flew to the caves of Borneo to study ancient and current climate conditions. She jetted to a remote South Pacific island to see the effects of warming on coral. […] Now she is about to ground herself, and she is not alone. Some climate scientists and activists are limiting their flying, their consumption of meat and their overall carbon footprints to avoid adding to the global warming they study. Cobb will fly just once next year, to attend a massive international science meeting in Chile....

Washington (AFP) - Israel secured supplies of ammunition from the Pentagon last month without the approval of the White House or the State Department, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday. Since officials there were caught off guard as they tried to restrain Israel's campaign in Gaza, the administration of President Barack Obama has tightened controls on arms shipments to Israel, the newspaper said, quoting US and Israeli officials. But the case illustrated that the White House and the State Department have little influence over the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the paper said, quoting officials from both countries. ......

LONDON (AFP) - British security services have admitted they know almost nothing about why the London bomings happened or if Al-Qaeda was involved, according to a leaked intelligence report in The Sunday Times. The MI5 internal security service has owned up to "significant gaps" in its knowledge about the July 7, 2005 attacks, the secret report for Prime Minister Tony Blair and senior ministers revealed, the British weekly newspaper said. According to the report, MI5 said: "We know little about what three of the bombers did in Pakistan, when attack planning began, how and when the attackers were recruited, the...

<p>SACRAMENTO – Assemblyman Joe Canciamilla sat in his office, resting a Diet Pepsi on his knee. Narrowing his eyes, he contemplated an upcoming meeting with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's aides on an energy bill that could shape California's electricity market for decades. Would the governor support the bill?</p>