Free Republic

Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr’s son, Conor Kennedy, has been named on Russia’s international wanted list for fighting alongside the enemy in the Ukraine war, according to reports. The Basmanny District Court of Moscow authorized the younger Kennedy’s “arrest in absentia,” accusing him of acting as a mercenary for the Ukrainian armed forces, Russian state outlet TASS reported last week. He faces seven to 10 years in prison if captured, according to the outlet.

Andrei Klepach, the chief economist at Russian state development corporation VEB.RF, was reportedly fired on Aug. 16, a day after Russian media widely circulated his warnings that Russia was losing its economic and technological competition with the West. Russian independent media outlet The Bell reported Klepach’s dismissal on Aug. 16, citing two people familiar with the matter. The report came two days after The Moscow Times published excerpts from Klepach’s May remarks, which were subsequently picked up by other Russian media. Speaking at an event organized by the Moscow Exchange’s Nikitsky Club, Klepach reportedly said Russia would be unable to...

Those who fail to complete the Australian Census will be fined if they do not complete it.

...About 50 days ago, he was transferred from the prison to the hospital in what's been described as a state of a dissociative stupor. Some might say a catatonic state or a vegetative state. He's being fed through a tube that runs into his nose, down into his stomach. And we are literally on an hour-by-hour basis hoping that Mr. Gilman hangs on and that we can secure for him some kind of lifesaving medical evacuation out of Russia. ... Well, the tragedy of this whole story starts with the fact that, over 1,600 days ago, he started his detention...

A specialist British police unit created to track online sentiment has referred more than 100 social media posts to local forces for potential arrest, according to data obtained through Freedom of Information requests and reported by the Daily Telegraph. The National Internet Intelligence Investigations unit notified local police about 106 posts, with 50 of those flagged in June alone, in the aftermath of disclosures surrounding the murder of teenager Henry Nowak. Nowak was stabbed to death by Vikrum Digwa, and his pleas for help were reportedly ignored by officers who doubted the dying student after his killer claimed to be...

Russia’s Supreme Court on Monday barred the liberal Yabloko party from contesting September’s parliamentary elections, sidelining the only officially registered party that opposes Moscow’s war in Ukraine. More than four years after Russia launched its full-scale war, the decision highlights the authorities’ intolerance of anti-war views and further narrows the already limited space for dissent in Russian politics. “Excluding Yabloko from the election means refusing dialogue with people who ask questions that are uncomfortable for the authorities,” Nikolai Rybakov, the party’s leader, said, vowing to appeal the decision.

Supreme Court of Australia's most populous province says Kirralie Smith and her women's rights group Binary committed "transgender vilification." If you refer to transgender people by their sex online, Australia might pass on compelling the platform to censor your speech, at least if posted from abroad. Say it Down Under, though, and you risk fines approaching six figures and a digital scarlet letter. The New South Wales Supreme Court upheld fines of $95,000 Australian – roughly $66,000 U.S. – against women's sports activist Kirralie Smith and her group Binary Australia, as well as a court-written statement to be posted on...

Flock cameras are in thousands of communities across the country and often hide in plain sight. A Flock camera is an automated license plate reader, or ALPR, made by the public-safety technology company Flock Safety. The cameras are commonly installed along roads, at intersections, near neighborhood entrances, and around businesses or other private properties.

Axon Lightpost is a fixed, infrastructure-mounted intelligent ALPR camera designed to transform existing streetlights and outdoor infrastructure into real-time vehicle intelligence tools. Lightpost delivers automated license plate recognition (ALPR), vehicle attribute recognition (VAR), and livestreaming video seamlessly into the Axon public safety ecosystem with minimal physical footprint. Built in collaboration with Ubicquia, Axon Lightpost installs quickly on existing light poles without trenching or new pole infrastructure, dramatically reducing deployment complexity and cost. Once powered and network-connected, Axon Lightpost begins autonomous operation with no daily user interaction, providing continuous detection and secure data upload to Axon Evidenceand Axon Fusus. SNIP

Modern semiautomatic firearms are flying off the shelves in Colorado in the days before a new "permit to purchase" scheme goes into effect, according to a local media outlet. In April 2025, Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signed legislation initially introduced as an outright ban on so-called "assault weapons" that requires anyone wishing to buy a modern semiautomatic firearm, including the AR-15 rifle, to first receive a firearms safety course eligibility card, then to complete a firearms safety course within five years. One firearms dealer had restocked three times, according to the Pikes Peak Courier. "We are jam-packed," Justin Green,...

California Democrat starts by targeting billionaires, ends article demanding taxes on $50-million net worth — that threshold will keep dropping until it hits your 401(k)New York’s socialist mayor campaigned on taxing billionaires, immediately pivoted to hitting millionaires — same playbook progressives used with income tax over a century agoEvery dollar seized in wealth taxes gets ripped out of businesses like Walmart and Tesla, destroying jobs and innovation to fund left-wing NGOs and handouts for illegalsIf you ever wished you could be counted among billionaires, your wish might come true soon if the socialists get their way. Of course, it’s not...

Last month and early this month, Camilla Alhassan shared a series of videos alleging, without providing evidence, that the president sacrificed 32 cows as part of a ritual to help him win the 2024 general election. The 43-year-old also alleged that a government initiative to distribute sanitary pads to recent flood victims was an attempt to conceal what she claimed he had done. The judge turned down an appeal for a lighter punishment, ruling that a custodial sentence would discourage similar conduct. Prosecutors had argued that Alhassan, who has more than 70,000 followers on TikTok, had made a series of...

as climate change drives increasingly intense and frequent heatwaves to the UK, experts are calling for better awareness of the risks to women and more targeted efforts to protect them

It became mandatory Tuesday for citizens of the European Union’s 27 member states to allow their cars to track their movements using artificial intelligence. The European Union’s General Safety Regulation mandated Advanced Driver Distraction Warning (ADDW) systems that track drivers’ body movements, such as eye and head movements, in every new vehicle sold after July 7, according to Access Newswire. “This is a driver support system,” Martin Krantz, CEO and Founder of Swedish AI company Smart Eye, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview. “It’s a life-saving technology. It really helps to prevent accidents. It’s probably gonna be...

Talking to LBC's Sunday with Lewis Goodall, the Deputy Leader of the Labour Party called for more restrictions on social media usage around the date of elections, calling for rules to be aligned with current broadcasting restrictions. "We absolutely need to strengthen regulation in the social media place," she told LBC, adding that she already has some proposals to put forward, "especially when it’s election time,” as part of a current bill being looked at in Parliament. "We’ve got an elections bill going through the House of Commons at the moment; to strengthen that bill, so that social media comes...

On the tenth anniversary of the vote to leave the EU, Cabinet Office minister Nick Thomas-Symonds said the prominent Leave campaigner had a worldview which was “sympathetic” to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Meanwhile, Mr Farage accused political leaders, including former prime minister Boris Johnson, Tory leader Kemi Badenoch and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer of failing to understand the “forgotten places” across the country which had wanted a “fairer deal” for the UK. A debate over the future of the UK-EU relationship has reignited in recent weeks after the outgoing Prime Minister made closer ties with Brussels a key pillar...

A woman has been fined after fabricating a series of social media posts claiming she encountered ghosts while taking a boat tour in Trang An, one of northern Vietnam’s most popular tourist destinations. On June 9, police in Ninh Binh Province announced an administrative fine of VND7.5 million (USD289) against L.Q.A., a resident of Hanoi, for providing and sharing false and fabricated information that caused public concern and confusion. Authorities said the case stemmed from 37 social media posts that circulated widely online, recounting alleged supernatural and paranormal experiences during a boat trip in Trang An. The posts, published through...

How Will Digital IDs Work?

Canadian Senate passes bill removing religious defence from hate speech lawCanada’s Senate in early June approved legislation that removes a decades-old Criminal Code protection for good-faith religious expression based on sacred texts, advancing a measure widely seen by faith communities as a direct threat to the public proclamation of Christian teaching on marriage, sexuality and human nature.The Combatting Hate Act, known as Bill C-9, cleared the upper house on June 4 by a 45-13 vote, with two abstentions. It now returns to the House of Commons, which passed the bill in March, for final approval of Senate amendments before Royal...

Tommy Robinson was detained by police on Saturday at Heathrow airport under counter-terrorism laws, after a week in which he rose to further prominence on social media. It was understood the far-right activist, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was stopped and had his phones seized under section 3 of the Counter-Terrorism Border Security Act 2019. Robinson used social media to claim he was detained for almost three hours and had his iPhone and Samsung Galaxy phones taken, and to ask his supporters to donate money to fund his legal defence. A spokesperson for Robinson posted on X: “They likely...