Free Republic

Estonia considers itself a front-line state, a Nato member where its border guards stare across the Narva River at the Russian fortress of Ivangorod. This tiny Baltic state, once a part of the Soviet Union, is convinced that once the fighting stops in Ukraine, President Vladimir Putin will turn his attention to the Baltics, looking to bring countries like Estonia back under Moscow’s control. To help stave off that possibility, Estonia’s government has poured money and weapons into Ukraine’s war effort, donating more than 1% of its GDP to Kyiv. "If every Nato country did this," says Estonia’s steely Prime...

Dr. Anthony Fauci, former director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, remained steadfast that the "probability weighs much more heavily" that the COVID-19 pandemic was a "natural occurrence" and not a lab leak. Fauci also admitted that social distancing guidance "sort of just appeared" and that he "might have" seen studies to support masking children, but that he's not sure. The Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic released transcripts of Fauci's testimony that he gave to the panel behind closed doors in January. Committee Chair Brad Wenstrup, R-Ohio, released the trove of transcripts — and a 17-page...

North Korea is sending more balloons carrying rubbish across the heavily fortified southern border, South Korea's military has said. It comes just days after North Korea appeared to send at least 200 balloons carrying rubbish over the border in retaliation for propaganda leaflets sent from the south. South Korea's defence minister Shin Won-sik called it "unimaginably petty and low-grade behaviour" while the military added it is examining the contents of the bags floated over the border by the balloons. North Korea has yet to comment on the latest batch of balloons, but on Thursday, vice-defence minister Kim Kang Il warned...

(AFP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived Saturday at a Singapore security forum, as he seeks to rally support for Kyiv while a Russian offensive gains ground. AFP reporters saw Zelensky enter the lobby of the luxury hotel hosting the Shangri-La Dialogue, which is attended by defence ministers from around the world. Zelensky will speak at the security forum on Sunday, according to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, which organised the three-day event.

Slovak PM Robert Fico’s independent stance earned him the wrath of NATO and the EU. Did a Western-directed plot to remove his troublesome government from office trigger his assassination attempt? On May 15, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico was almost murdered in broad daylight. While shaking hands with supporters during a public appearance, a gunman shot him twice in the abdomen and once in the shoulder. The attack left him fighting for his life while authorities raced for clues, and many observers at home and abroad puzzled about the would-be assassin’s motives and whether foreign actors were in some way...

The party once led by Nelson Mandela hit by worst election result since apartheid ended 30 years ago

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — The African National Congress party lost its parliamentary majority in a historic election result Saturday that puts South Africa on a new political path for the first time since the end of the apartheid system of white minority rule 30 years ago. With more than 99% of votes counted, the once-dominant ANC had received just over 40% in Wednesday’s election, well short of the majority it had held since the famed all-race vote of 1994 that ended apartheid and brought it to power under Nelson Mandela. The final results are still to be formally declared by the...

Some top officials in Europe raced to the defense of Donald Trump on Friday, a day after the former president was convicted by a New York jury on 34 felony counts related to falsifying business records. The loudest support for Mr. Trump came from some of his closest European allies, including Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “Solidarity and full support for @realDonaldTrump, victim of judicial harassment and a process of political nature,” Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini said in a social media post. “In Italy, we are sadly familiar with the weaponization of the justice system by the left,...

This summer the Supreme Court will rule on a case involving what a district court called perhaps "the most massive attack against free speech" ever inflicted on the American people. In Murthy v. Missouri, plaintiffs ranging from the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana to epidemiologists from Harvard and Stanford allege that the federal government violated the First Amendment by working with outside groups and social media platforms to surveil, flag, and quash dissenting speech – characterizing it as mis-, dis- and mal-information – on issues ranging from COVID-19 to election integrity. The case has helped shine a light on...

The George and Amal Clooney Foundation's Docket Project plans to obtain secret arrest warrants for prominent Russian journalists in Europe. The initiative targets journalists considered propagandists, leveraging European countries' criminal codes that prohibit war propaganda.The George and Amal Clooney Foundation for Justice's Docket Project is undertaking a significant legal initiative aimed at prominent Russian journalists across Europe. Led by legal director Anna Neistat, the project seeks to obtain secret arrest warrants for these journalists, leveraging specific provisions in the criminal codes of certain European countries.Anna Neistat has confirmed the foundation's plans, stating, "We plan to hunt down Russian journalists through...

We are in uncharted waters. Donald Trump is a convicted felon. The whole thing is perverse. The American brand has been dragged through the mud, sunk to the level of a banana republic where rulers take their political enemies out to the jungle to disappear. This great nation now stands diminished in the eyes of international investors. And the economic consequences for ordinary Americans could be dire.

Russia pummeled Ukraine's energy infrastructure with a large-scale drone and missile attack Saturday, injuring at least 19 people, local officials said. The strikes were part of a series of sustained attacks by Russia against Ukraine's power grid, which has been ongoing since March. Ukraine's largest private energy firm, DTEK said that two of its power plants had been seriously damaged in what it said was the sixth attack on the company's plants in two and a half months.

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” CNN Senior Political Commentator and former Obama adviser David Axelrod stated that he thinks “it’s a good thing in this country if, no matter who you are, you are held accountable when you break the law.” But acknowledged that the case against 2024 Republican presidential candidate former President Donald Trump relied on a “novel legal theory” but Trump’s crime “was there for everybody to see.”

The National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) rescinded an award for actor Robert De Niro on Wednesday, after he made an appearance outside of the trial of former President Donald Trump this week. De Niro made his appearance on behalf of President Joe Biden's presidential campaign on Tuesday, and blasted Trump as someone who would "never leave" the White House if he makes a return in November, and will be a "dictator for life." A spokesperson for the NAB said the group rescinded his Service to America Award because his recent political activities have taken away from the charity works the...

On Tuesday, Harvard officials announced that the university would adopt a formal stance of ideological neutrality on political events and other controversial issues. The decision comes after months of tumultuous campus protests over the war between Israel and Hamas. Earlier this month, a faculty-led working group published a report that strongly recommended adopting a neutral stance on topics that do not directly concern the university itself. "The university has a responsibility to speak out to protect and promote its core function. Its leaders must communicate the value of the university's central activities. They must defend the university's autonomy and academic...

Argentine authorities are working with El Salvador, a pioneering nation in bitcoin adoption, aiming to boost cryptocurrency adoption in Argentina. High-ranking officials from Argentina's National Securities Commission (CNV), the country's securities regulator, met with El Salvador's National Commission of Digital Assets on May 23 to discuss the use of cryptocurrencies, according to an official announcement by the CNV. The talks focused on El Salvador's experience in adopting bitcoin and its regulatory framework. "El Salvador has emerged as one of the leading countries, not only in the use of bitcoin, but it has also stood out in the world of crypto...

America's most insane occupational licensing law is about to get a whole lot better. Louisiana is the only state in the country that requires florists to be licensed by the government. A bill that is now on the way to Gov. Jeff Landry's desk sadly won't change that fact, but it will eliminate the mandatory test that prospective florists in Louisiana must pass before being allowed to earn a living by placing different types of flowers together in an arrangement. Going forward, obtaining a florist license will require only the payment of a fee to the state. The bill cleared...

Just when you think the media’s smear campaign against conservative Supreme Court justices can’t get any more despicable, they find a way to prove you wrong. On Wednesday, Rolling Stone magazine’s Andrew Perez published a hit piece against Justice Amy Coney Barrett that amounts to nothing more than a dud for Democrats’ war on SCOTUS. The “scandal,” according to the outlet, is that Barrett’s husband is representing Fox Corporation — Fox News’ parent company — in an ongoing defamation case involving one of its local stations. “The defamation case was filed by Lavell Redmond, an Illinois man who was convicted...

Juan Manuel Merchan is a Colombian-born American judge and former prosecutor. Most curious, he is NOT a formal judge, he is ONLY an acting justice of the New York State Supreme Court in New York County. How did a former prosecutor who is NOT a formal judge get assigned this case? This is not just a possible rigged proceeding, but this is UNCONSTITUTIONAL insofar as the alleged crime is a federal crime when there is no subject matter jurisdiction by this ACTING JUDGE in a state court to preside over a federal crime. Now this ACTING Judge will be sentencing...

Democrats and their allies in the liberal media launched a smear campaign against Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito earlier this month in an effort to prompt his recusal from upcoming cases related to former President Donald Trump and the Jan. 6 protests. Jodi Kantor, running lead on the initiative for the New York Times, failed to land a decisive blow with her May 16 flag story, which the Washington Post had years earlier wrote off as a nothing-burger. Meatless, but desperate for results, Kantor found another flag to concern-monger about: the "Appeal to Heaven" flag, also known as the Pine...