Free Republic

Ron Dellums, who served as Oakland's 48th mayor and served 13 terms as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives, has died, his nephew said. Ben Bartlett, Dellums' nephew and a Berkeley city councilman, told KTVU on Monday that Dellums died of cancer in Washington, D.C. on Sunday evening. He was 82.

Six men sat down for a business meeting on the morning of October 18 last year, amid the hubbub and marble-columned opulence of Moscow’s iconic Metropol Hotel, to discuss plans for a “great alliance.” A century earlier, the grand institution was the scene of events that helped change the face of Europe and the world: Czarist forces fought from inside the hotel as they tried and failed to hold the Bolsheviks back from the Kremlin in 1917, and it was here, in suite 217, that the first Soviet Constitution was drafted after the revolution succeeded. The six men — three...

In general, the West should be horrified not by the 76 percent who backed Putin but by the fact that in the Russian elections: patriotic, communist and nationalist ideas were supported by 95 percent of the population, leaving the liberal ideas with a pathetic five percent. And you, my Western friends, are guilty of this. By your hostility and sanctions, you have pushed the Russian people into the arms of the Moscow regime. Had you behaved sensibly and reached compromises, this outcome would not have occurred; but now that it has, the West must assume all responsibility. As a result,...

US President Donald Trump has decided to extend sanctions against Russia for at least another year, according to the relevant document in the Federal Register. The document emphasizes that the United States first imposed sanctions on Russia in 2014 when Russian soldiers invaded Ukrainian territory, occupying Crimea and parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions. Since then, the initial executive order on sanctions, #13660 from 2014, has been repeatedly expanded by US presidents through other orders as Russia continued and escalated its aggression.

Thousands of far-reaching sanctions have been imposed by dozens of countries on Russian banks, businesses and people since Moscow ordered tanks to roll across the border into Ukraine in the winter of 2022. Now, more than 1,000 days later, as President-elect Donald J. Trump prepares to take office, questions about the sanctions’ effectiveness — and future — are expected to come under renewed scrutiny. Mr. Trump has stated, “I want to use sanctions as little as possible.” And he has made clear that there will be a shift in American policy toward Ukraine, having promised to end the war in...

W is considering axing as many as 30,000 jobs as it scrambles to save billions of euros amid a slowdown in the car market, German media has reported. The carmaker recently announced it could close some of its German factories for the first time in history as it struggles to reinvent itself for the electric era. Analysts at Jefferies said VW is considering closing two to three facilities, with as many as five German sites under threat, putting 15,000 jobs at risk. That job losses is feared to have doubled to 30,000, according to Manager Magazin, a leading German business...

The signs are already present and obvious, but the overall economic picture probably won’t be acknowledged in the mainstream until the situation becomes much worse (as if it’s not bad enough). It’s a problem that arises at the onset of every historic financial crisis – Mainstream economists and commentators lie to the public about the chances of recovery, constantly giving false reassurances and lulling people back to sleep. Even now with price inflation pummeling the average consumer they tell us that there is nothing to worry about. The Federal Reserve’s “soft landing” is on the way.I remember in 2007 right...

A representative of the United Nations World Food Program warned on Sunday that Russia is blocking close to 4.5 million tons in grain exports from Ukraine, The Guardian reported. Martin Frick told German news outlet dpa that the abrupt stoppage could initiate a global food crisis and that he is working to allow the supply to go forward. “Foodstuffs have to reach those in Ukraine who are trapped and in need. But at the same time, there is the need to provide other parts of the world with foodstuffs they are expecting from Ukraine in order to alleviate a global...

Washington (CNN)Senate leaders struck an agreement Monday to roll out additional sanctions on Russia and make it difficult for the President to lift them. The Senate Foreign Relations and Banking Committee announced a deal that had the support of the committee's top Democrats and Republicans that's expected to attract wide bipartisan support. The proposal would provide for a congressional review process if the executive branch eases current sanctions on Russia. And it imposes new sanctions in a number of categories, including those "conducting malicious cyber activity on behalf of the Russian government" and "supplying weapons to the Assad regime. {snip}...

On the heels of new sanctions enforced by the Obama administration, Russian President Vladimir Putin has released his annual New Year's statement to the international community. CNN repeatedly noted that Putin "sidestepped" President Obama in the statement, instead offering his congratulations to President-elect Donald Trump. In his annual greetings statement, Putin expressed hope that after Trump is sworn in as US President on January 20, the two countries, "acting in a constructive and pragmatic manner, will be able to take real steps to restore the mechanisms of bilateral cooperation in various areas and take their interaction in the international arena to...