Free Republic

Ukraine's long-awaited attempt to take back the territories in the east and south of the country, occupied by Russia for the past 18 months, is now in full swing. A key figure in planning and executing this operation is Gen Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine's 49-year-old commander-in-chief. Little known until recently, his popularity now rivals that of President Volodymyr Zelensky. Gen Zaluzhny, or "our Valera" as friends and old classmates like to call him, was appointed commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian military in July 2021. (snip) Within seven months he was leading Ukraine's defence against full-scale invasion. (snip) The commander-in-chief became a national...

SAN DIEGO -- A man was charged in federal court Tuesday in connection with the deaths of three Chinese migrants, including a mother and her 15-year-old son, who were found dead in the trunk of a car. Prosecutors said Neil Edwin Valera, a U.S. citizen who resides in Tijuana, smuggled the three migrants in his BMW and left them in the trunk of the car two days after he crossed into the United States through the San Ysidro Port of Entry in the same car. Valera, a truck driver from El Paso, Texas, was taken into custody at the downtown...