Free Republic

On Easter Sunday, House Speaker Mike Johnson pledged to be an “ambassador of hope” by voting on military aid for Ukraine, despite opposition led by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene for approving a government funding package before the holiday recess. During an Easter Sunday interview with Fox News, Johnson confirmed his intention to urge Congress to provide further aid to Kyiv’s war against Russia. The New York Post reports, “If we could use the seized assets of Russian oligarchs to allow the Ukrainians to fight them, that’s just pure poetry,” the House speaker said on “Sunday Night in America with Trey...

America last! The U.S. Senate has cast a contentious vote, advancing a massive $95 billion foreign aid package that supports Ukraine, Israel, Gaza, and Taiwan, but notably omits any provisions for bolstering U.S. border infrastructure. In a 67-32 cloture vote, the Senate crossed party lines, with several RINO senators joining Democrats to move the foreign aid bill forward. Republicans who joined Democrats in voting in favor include: Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) Mitch McConnell (R-KY) Bill Cassidy (R-LA) Roger Wicker (R-MS) Todd Young (R-IN) Susan Collins (R-ME) Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) John Kennedy (R-LA) John Thune (R-SD) Dan Sullivan (R-AK) Mitt Romney...

House Speaker Mike Johnson will introduce a bill to send $17.6 billion to Israel in emergency aid without corresponding spending cuts amid a fight over border security. The first standalone Israel aid package voted on included IRS cuts, which of course received heavy backlash by Democrats and was rejected by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. The new Israel funding bill will exclude the IRS cuts. "While the Senate appears poised to finally release text of their supplemental package after months of behind closed doors negotiations, their leadership is aware that by failing to include the House in their negotiations, they...

The first video has appeared online depicting the Ukrainian army’s ex-Slovenian M-55S tanks. The video depicts what appears to be a four-person M-55S crew training on its new-old vehicle. The thick mud—a sticky hallmark of Ukraine’s wet early winter—might confirm the video is recent. The M-55S despite its age could represent a glimpse at the Ukrainian army’s tank future. It’s all about the gun. The M-55S is a deeply modernized Soviet T-55, a tank type that first entered service in the late 1950s. In the 1990s, the Slovenian army paid Israeli firm Elbit and STO RAVNE in Slovenia to modify...

A $40 billion Ukraine aid package passed the Senate on Tuesday with relative ease despite opposition from 11 Republicans. The package that passed 86-11 will give Ukraine another round of military and humanitarian assistance as the war with Russia drags on. Despite support from Democratic and GOP leadership, 11 Republicans broke from their party and voted against the aid. The conservative effort to stop the bill first began last week when the House sent the legislation to the Senate, and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) objected to the measure. Paul delayed the passage of the bill by a week because he...

The Senate on Wednesday evening voted 67-32 to advance the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill. “The motion upon reconsideration is agreed to.” ..... Snip..... Here are the 17 Republicans who voted with the Democrats to advance the bill: Blunt, Burr, Capito, Cassidy, Collins, Cramer, Crapo, Graham, Grassley, Hoeven, McConnell, Murkowski, Portman Risch, Romney, Tillis, Young Not voting: Rounds

The Justice Department says it expects to charge at least 100 more people in connection with the storming of the Capitol, describing the investigation into the deadly attack as one of the biggest in U.S. history. Federal prosecutors disclosed the estimate in court papers Friday as they seek more time to gather and sift through evidence in the sprawling probe before having to move cases to trial. More than 300 people have already been charged in the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol by a pro-Trump mob seeking to disrupt the certification of Electoral College votes. "The investigation and prosecution...

Debate Over Navy's Zumwalt Destroyer's Seakeeping Abilities Doused After Rough Seas TestsThe Navy sent Zumwalt into two real-world storms as part of trials to prove its controversial hull design could handle heavy seas.The U.S. Navy says the stealth destroyer USS Zumwalt successfully completed the second and final phase of its Rough-Water Trials late last year. This involved sending the ship into two real-world storms with waves between around 16 and a half and 20 feet tall. The testing was extremely significant given the ship's inward-sloping tumblehome hull form, which critics have long said would make it a disaster waiting to...

The Catholic Church and its social service agency Caritas in Bangladesh are stepping up a massive nationwide tree plantation campaign with an aim to make the country greener and safer amid threats of climate change impacts. Since last year, they have jointly planted about 400,000 saplings of various species of fruit trees. A total of 700,000 trees will be planted by the end of the year. The campaign is inspired by three significant events — the fifth anniversary of Pope Francis’s environmental encyclical Laudato Si', the golden jubilee of Bangladesh’s independence from Pakistan, and the birth centenary of the nation’s...

President Donald Trump addressed the nation on Saturday at the White House, where he announced the first round of historical figures to be included in the National Garden of American Heroes.

Mike Bloomberg’s campaign for president spent a colossal amount of money in the final quarter of 2019 as he attempts to catch up to and surpass Democratic rivals. Bloomberg’s campaign spent over $180 million at the end of 2019, according to a newly released Federal Election Commission filing. The massive expenditure amount went toward TV ads, field staff and his technology firm, Hawkfish. The record shows Bloomberg’s campaign spent over $11 million on the digital firm. The company has become the primary digital ad agency for Bloomberg’s operation. He launched his bid for president at the end of November, several...

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, working alongside Boeing and Aerojet Rocketdyne, has demonstrated that it can successfully fire the AR-22 booster rocket engine 10 times over 240 hours. The test outcome marked a major step in the development of DARPA’s Phantom Express experimental spaceplane, officials said July 10. “We needed to show that main propulsion system, the AR-22, … could in fact support rapid turn operations,” said Scott Wierzbanowski, DARPA’s program manager for the spaceplane. “We were extremely successful. We completely destroyed previously held records of how … you deal with a liquid-hydrogen, liquid-oxygen-type engine.” The agency also proved...

WASHINGTON (AP) — It looks like President Donald Trump is getting the military parade he wants in Washington — though he may get no tanks for the effort.A Pentagon planning memo issued Thursday and released Friday says the parade being planned for Nov. 11, Veterans Day, will “include wheeled vehicles only, no tanks — consideration must be given to minimize damage to local infrastructure.” Big, heavy tanks could tear up District of Columbia streets.But the event will “include a heavy air component at the end of the parade,” meaning lots of airplane flyovers. Older aircraft will be included as available.

Jeff Bezos just donated $33 million to 'dreamers' Jeff Bezos just donated $33 million to 'dreamers' 41 Mins Ago | 00:41 Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos donated $33 million in college scholarships for "dreamers" — childhood undocumented immigrants granted stay in the country under the Obama-era Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program. TheDream.Us, a nonprofit working toward college access for undocumented immigrants, said the donation from Bezos and his wife MacKenzie is the largest in the organization's history and will fund 1,000 scholarships. "My dad came to the U.S. when he was 16 as part of Operation Pedro Pan," Bezos said...

The future USS Michael Monsoor, set to become the U.S. Navy’s second stealthy Zumwalt-class destroyer, is underway for the first time for sea trials. The milestone comes as the service continues to reformulate the role of the ships, now saying they will be focused on attacking surface targets at sea, as well as on land, while the vessels' future seems as uncertain as ever in the face of continuing budget shortfalls and personnel problems. The second Zumwalt-class ship, also known as DDG-1001, sailed down the Kennebec River in Maine, on its way to the Altantic Ocean from Bath Iron Works...

The three new Zumwalt-class destroyers are in trouble. Originally envisioned as a fleet of more nearly three dozen destroyers, and the weapons that justified them, the Zumwalts have faced delays, cuts and staggering cost increases. As the ships teeter on the verge of white elephant status, could they become relevant again by taking on a new role, that of a stealthy ship killer? The Zumwalt-class destroyers were originally envisioned as a fleet of thirty-two destroyers designed to attack targets far inland with precision-guided howitzer shells. Designed in part to support amphibious landings by the U.S. Marine Corps, the Zumwalts were...

The three new Zumwalt-class destroyers are in trouble. Originally envisioned as a fleet of more nearly three dozen destroyers, and the weapons that justified them, the Zumwalts have faced delays, cuts and staggering cost increases. As the ships teeter on the verge of white elephant status, could they become relevant again by taking on a new role, that of a stealthy ship killer? The Zumwalt-class destroyers were originally envisioned as a fleet of thirty-two destroyers designed to attack targets far inland with precision-guided howitzer shells. Designed in part to support amphibious landings by the U.S. Marine Corps, the Zumwalts were...

For the second time in two months, The Navy's new $4 billion stealth warship has broken down. As Military.com reports, the ripped-from-the-pages-of-a-sci-fi mag-looking USS Zumwalt is now in Panama for repairs after suffering a breakdown while passing through the Panama Canal on Monday evening.Military.com's Hope Hodge Seck reports that a spokesman for U.S. 3rd Fleet, Cmdr. Ryan Perry, told Military.com that the commander of 3rd Fleet, Vice Adm. Nora Tyson, had instructed the USS Zumwalt, the first in a new class of stealthy destroyers, to remain at ex-Naval Station Rodman in Panama to address the engineering casualty. "The timeline for...

BATH, Maine — The Bath-built USS Zumwalt, the first-in-class “stealth” destroyer that left the Bath shipyard on Sept. 7, broke down Monday night while passing through the Panama Canal and was towed by tugs through the locks toward the Pacific Ocean. The DDG 1000, the first of a class of three destroyers that cost an estimated $22 billion combined, “suffered an engineering casualty,” the Navy Times reported. The Zumwalt was towed through the locks to Rodman, a former U.S. military base.

Just three weeks after commissioning the USS Zumwalt, the U.S. Navy has admitted it is canceling ammunition specially developed for the ship's high-tech gun systems because the rounds are too expensive. . The guns, tailor made for the destroyer, will be unable to fire until the Navy chooses a cheaper replacement round. The Zumwalt-class destroyers were conceived in the late 1990s as the first of a new generation of stealthy warships. The radar signature of the 610 foot long warship is that of a 50-foot fishing boat, making the Zumwalts great for getting in close to an enemy coastline and...