Free Republic

You may have noticed an interesting trend with the Associated Press recently. For a while there, they were still at least kinda-sorta trying to pretend that they were a news organization, and even though they weren’t really fooling us, they did try to keep up appearances. But then Democratic Montana State Rep. Zooey Zephyr happened, and the AP threw any last semblance of journalism out the window. Their job was no longer to cover the news, but to advocate for radical trans activists. And now, they don’t even need Zephyr as an excuse to do it. Take a look at...

CLAIM: Anheuser-Busch is closing half of its U.S. breweries following backlash over a Bud Light marketing initiative. AP’S ASSESSMENT: False. The claim stems from a website that publishes satirical content. No such widespread brewery closure has been announced by Anheuser-Busch. THE FACTS: Blog posts claiming that Bud Light’s parent company is closing half of its breweries in the U.S. have spread widely across social media in recent days, following the brand’s partnership with a transgender influencer and subsequent calls for boycotts by some prominent conservatives. SNIP But the claim is fabricated. It was first published by a website that is...

The Kremlin celebrated bringing fresh hell to Ukraine on Friday with a wave of early morning missile strikes that killed at least 22 civilians, including four young kids. “The strike has achieved its goal,” Defense Ministry spokesman Lt. Gen. Igor Konashenkov crowed of the first large-scale cruise missile bombardment in nearly two months. “All the designated facilities have been hit,” the Kremlin official said, claiming without evidence that the struck buildings housed Ukrainian military reserve units awaiting deployment. Images instead showed deadly devastation in a number of cities across Ukraine, including a nine-story apartment block in Uman with a huge...

For Ruslan, an engineer in the Belarus capital of Minsk, Russia’s war in neighboring Ukraine suddenly seemed closer than ever when a conscription office recently sent him a summons for military training. It’s part of an effort that will see thousands of men in Belarus attend drills amid fears that the staunch Moscow ally could be drawn into the fighting. “They are telling us that Belarus won’t enter the war against Ukraine, but I hear Russian warplanes roar over my house heading to the Machulishchi air base outside Minsk,” the 27-year-old told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. He...

A ban on dozens of semi-automatic rifles cleared the Washington state Legislature on Wednesday and the governor is expected to sign it into law. The high-powered firearms — once banned nationwide — are now the weapon of choice among young men responsible for most of the country’s devastating mass shootings. The ban comes after multiple failed attempts in the state’s Legislature, and amid the most mass shootings during the first 100 days of a calendar year since 2009. The Washington law would block the sale, distribution, manufacture and importation of more than 50 gun models, including AR-15s, AK-47s and similar...

WASHINGTON (AP) — The song is simple and tinny, but that hasn’t stopped it from being embraced by former President Donald Trump and his allies in their campaign to rewrite the history of the deadly Capitol riot. The tune, “Justice for All,” is the Star-Spangled Banner, and it was sung by a group of defendants jailed over their alleged roles in the January 2021 insurrection. Recorded over a prison phone line, the national anthem sounds more like a dirge than celebration and is overlaid with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance. Despite its low fidelity, “Justice for All” has garnered...

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg visited Ukraine on Thursday for the first time since Russia invaded more than a year ago, a highly symbolic trip that underscores the alliance’s commitment to helping Kyiv defend itself. The Kremlin quickly warned that Ukraine must not be allowed to join NATO. Russia has given various and shifting justifications for going to war, but it has repeatedly pointed to the expansion of the military alliance toward its borders in recent years, including citing fears that Kyiv would be admitted. Images published in local media showed Stoltenberg apparently paying tribute to fallen Ukrainian soldiers in Kyiv’s...

NEW YORK (AP) — Legally, the most important words former President Donald Trump said after he was charged with 34 felonies by the Manhattan District Attorney last week were “not guilty.” But, politically, the most significant may be “election interference.” Trump’s repetition of those words, which have been taken up by other top Republicans, show how he is trying to turn his historic position as the first former president charged with crimes to his advantage. It’s another example of what’s been a consistent refrain throughout his political career — claiming without evidence that an election is being rigged against him....

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — This Easter, Americans will devour more than 1 billion Peeps — those radiant marshmallow chicks whose appearance on store shelves each year is as much a herald of spring as azaleas at the Masters. What makes the treats so vibrant is erythrosine, a chemical that shows up on ingredient labels as Red No. 3. It's one of several chemicals, along with titanium dioxide, used to color some of the most popular candy in the country — including Skittles and Hot Tamales. Both chemicals have been linked to cancer. More than 30 years ago, U.S. regulators banned Red...

Russia lost elections to three United Nations bodies this week, a sign that opposition to its invasion of Ukraine over a year ago remains strong. The votes in the 54-member U.N. Economic and Social Council follow approval of six non-binding resolutions against Russia by the 193-member U.N. General Assembly. The latest — on Feb. 23, the eve of the first anniversary of the invasion — called for Moscow to end hostilities and withdraw its forces and was adopted by a vote of 141-7 with 32 abstentions. In the ECOSOC votes, Russia was overwhelmingly defeated by Romania for a seat on...

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee has become a new front in the battle for the future of American democracy after Republicans expelled two Black lawmakers from the state Legislature for their part in a protest urging passage of gun-control measures. The removal of the lawmakers, who were only recently elected, reflects a trend in dozens of states where Republicans are trying to make it harder to cast ballots and challenging the integrity of the election process. At least 177 bills restricting voting or creating systems that can intimidate voters or permit partisan interference were filed or introduced in dozens of...

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A judge canceled the air quality permit for a natural gas power plant that’s under construction along the Yellowstone River in Montana citing worries over climate change. State District Judge Michael Moses ruled Thursday that Montana officials failed to adequately consider the 23 million tons of planet-warming greenhouse gases that the project would emit over several decades. Many utilities across the U.S. have replaced coal power with less polluting natural gas plants in recent years. But the industry remains under pressure to abandon fossil fuels altogether as climate change worsens. The $250 million plant is being...

BRUSSELS (AP) — The blue-and-white Finnish flag rises outside NATO headquarters Tuesday afternoon, making Finland a member and doubling Russia’s border with the world’s biggest security alliance. The move is a strategic and political blow to President Vladimir Putin, who has long complained about NATO’s expansion toward Russia and partly used that as a justification for his country’s war with Ukraine. “What we see is that President Putin went to war against Ukraine with a declared aim to get less NATO,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said. “He’s getting the exact opposite.” Like all NATO members, Finland will benefit from the...

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A lawsuit that Louisiana and other Republican-leaning states filed challenging figures the Biden administration uses to calculate damages from greenhouse gasses was dismissed Wednesday by a federal appeals court. The unanimous decision by three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans was the latest defeat for states challenging the Biden “cost of carbon” policy. It leaves the administration to continue using a damage cost estimate of about $51 per ton of carbon dioxide emissions as it develops environmental regulations. That estimate is under review by the administration and could increase. The...

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump has made history so many times. The first president without government or military experience. The first to be impeached twice. The first to aggressively challenge the certification of his successor. Now, he adds another: Even as he hopes to return to the White House in 2025, he is the first former president to be indicted. The latest line crossed by Trump challenges again the aura of the American presidency, nurtured in the infallibility of George Washington but made human over and over, through scandals born of greed and the abuse of power, corruption and...

Russia’s top security agency arrested an American reporter for the Wall Street Journal on espionage charges, the first time a U.S. correspondent was put behind bars on spying accusations since the Cold War. The newspaper denied the allegations against Evan Gershkovich. The Federal Security Service said Thursday that Gershkovich was detained in the Ural Mountains city of Yekaterinburg while allegedly trying to obtain classified information. The FSB, which is the top successor agency to the Soviet-era KGB, alleged that Gershkovich “was acting on the U.S. orders to collect information about the activities of one of the enterprises of the Russian...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors disclosed Wednesday that a witness expected to testify for the defense at the seditious conspiracy trial of former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four associates was secretly acting as a government informant for nearly two years after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, a defense lawyer said in a court filing. Carmen Hernandez, a lawyer for former Proud Boys chapter leader Zachary Rehl, asked a judge to schedule an immediate emergency hearing and suspend the trial “until these issues have been considered and resolved.” Lawyers for the other four defendants joined...

The incident – which was broadcast by Russian state television – happened as Putin was filmed chatting with purported residents outside what appeared to be a freshly-built apartment complex in the besieged Ukrainian city. "It’s all lies, it’s all just for show!" a woman’s voice could be heard yelling in the background, according to the BBC. The person who yelled could not be seen in the footage. Right after the outburst, men standing beside Putin could be seen looking around.

NEW YORK (AP) — As former President Donald Trump braces for a potential indictment related to hush money payments made on his behalf during his 2016 campaign, Republicans blasting the case as politically motivated are blaming a frequent target: George Soros. The 92-year-old billionaire investor and philanthropist — who has been falsely accused of everything from hiring violent rioters to committing election crimes — doesn’t know and didn’t donate directly to the New York prosecutor steering the probe. But that hasn’t stopped Trump and other high-profile Republicans from accusing Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who convened the grand jury investigating...

Soon after a train derailed and spilled toxic chemicals in Ohio last month, anonymous pro-Russian accounts started spreading misleading claims and anti-American propaganda about it on Twitter, using Elon Musk’s new verification system to expand their reach while creating the illusion of credibility. The accounts, which parroted Kremlin talking points on myriad topics, claimed without evidence that authorities in Ohio were lying about the true impact of the chemical spill. The accounts spread fearmongering posts that preyed on legitimate concerns about pollution and health effects and compared the response to the derailment with America’s support for Ukraine following its invasion...