Free Republic

Click link to watch a very interesting video report by CNN reporting on the ground in Ukraine.

There are no minimally confrontational interviews with Zelensky from our "journalists". See if you can watch this short CNN interview video without feeling queasy from propaganda overdose. (CLICK LINK FOR VIDEO)

Video at link

Rumors are making the rounds in Kiev that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will fire the head of his armed forces, General Valerii Zaluzhny. Zelensky and Zaluzhny have been at odds for some time. The excuse is likely to be losses in and around Avdeevka, which is a Ukrainian military stronghold just north of Donetsk. The rumor says that Kyrylo Budanov, head of military intelligence, will replace Zaluzhny. Field reports show that the Russians have advanced in the southern part of the town, knocking out numerous trenches and fortifications, with the Russian operation gaining momentum and strength as new troops are...

Tucker Carlson broke the news on X, saying: "Gonzalo Lira, Sr. says his son has died at 55 in a Ukrainian prison, where he was being held for the crime of criticizing the Zelensky and Biden governments. Gonzalo Lira was an American citizen, but the Biden administration clearly supported his imprisonment and torture. Several weeks ago we spoke to his father, who predicted his son would be killed." It was just over a month ago that Carlson interviewed Lira's father. Lira had been critical of the Zelensky regime in Ukraine and had spoken out against the war that was being...

Men between the ages of 18 and 60 are forbidden from leaving the country without special exemption. A contentious new bill seeks to mobilise another 500,000 men for military service. Border Guard officers anticipate that the new mobilisation will increase the numbers trying to flee the country. In the initial stages of the war, most men trying to flee the country used fake papers stating they were exempt because they were carers or had three children or more. Many hid themselves in vehicles leaving Ukraine over official border crossings. Men make attempts every day to cross the borders between Ukraine,...

Alaska Airlines Total Transformation. Click link for Video

Few people understand what the war in Ukraine means for big business. It’s not just the weapons and reconstruction contracts. Ukraine’s vast agricultural lands—among the most fertile in the world—are up for grabs, and American companies like BlackRock are at front of the line. (CLICK LINK FOR VIDEO)

After an initial outpouring of patriotism in the months after Russia's invasion began, the realities of the battlefield -- and mobilisation -- have largely set in among Ukraine's population. Heavy casualties and almost two years of grinding trench warfare have sparked a fierce debate on the future of the draft, an ever more pertinent topic as the army struggles to fill its ranks. President Volodymyr Zelensky warned last month the military wanted to mobilise up to half a million people to battle the 600,000 or so Russian soldiers deployed in Ukraine. The patriotic impetus of the early months, when Ukrainians...

After the failure of Ukraine’s 2023 counteroffensive, Kiev finds itself at a major crossroads with no easy options. The demand late last year by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, for the mobilization of an additional 500,000 troops over the next few months signals both resolve and desperation. If adopted and implemented, the new approach to mobilization will also add significant strain for already stretched Ukrainian state institutions and society. As publicly confirmed by senior Ukrainian officials, large numbers of volunteers for frontline service simply no longer exist. So the government proposes coercive measures to ensure continuing enlistment. These range from...

The Biden administration is importing millions of third world immigrants to live here illegally, and at same time telling them that white people are the source of their problems. How’s that going to work out in the end? (Click link for video)

Russia's position in the global oil market remains largely undiminished heading into 2024 despite Western sanctions and a price cap of $60 per barrel, with a little help from China and India. The Kremlin's counter-tactic of diverting oil cargoes from Europe to what it describes as friendly countries in Asia has been hugely successful. Russia's Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said: "The main partners in the current situation are China, whose share (of our exports) has grown to approximately 45-50%, and, of course, India. Earlier, there were basically were no supplies to India. In two years, the total share of...

Russia is heading towards victory in Ukraine with the initiative unequivocally transferring to Moscow, one of Britain’s most senior former officers has told The National. In a wide-ranging interview, Gen Sir Richard Barrons argued that Ukraine’s military “has got nothing left in the locker right now” after its gruelling summer counter-offensive. “The initiative in this war is unequivocally transferring to Russia and that is not the situation we expected at the start of this year but it’s an honest appraisal of where we are,” said Gen Barrons. “That's a combination of the failure of the Ukrainian counter-offensive to deliver even...

A deputy mayor in France who labeled the government’s proposed immigration bill “shameful” and “disgusting” was hospitalized on Wednesday evening after being brutally attacked by a gang of North African men just meters from her own front door. Oriane Filhol, the deputy mayor to Mathieu Hanotin of the Socialist Party (PS) in Saint-Denis, was returning home from a work meeting when she was assaulted by several men on the driveway to her home at around 9.30 p.m. The elected official, who is in charge of solidarity, women’s rights, and fighting against discrimination in her constituency, was “hit violently in the...

A senior Ukrainian Defence Ministry official has been detained over allegations he embezzled 1.5 billion Ukrainian hryvnia ($40 million) relating to an artillery shells contract, according to the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU). The SBU says the official signed an agreement with a special export company to purchase a wholesale batch of artillery shells in December last year. However, a more favourable contract for the supply was later signed with the same manufacturer – one that did not involve intermediaries. According to the SBU, the defense official extended the original – more expensive - contract and funds totalling 1.5 billion Ukrainian...

The new recruits came from a variety of backgrounds, but they shared one thing: after rudimentary training in western Europe, none of them expected to be deployed to an assault unit at the hottest section of the Ukrainian front line. Some had signed up voluntarily, expecting to be given places in units that suited their profiles: as drone operators or artillery men. Others were plucked from their villages with little warning. One older recruit didn’t even have the chance to pick up his false teeth. After less than a week in the trenches of the Donbas, in eastern Ukraine, the...

Soon after Russian troops invaded his country, the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, made a plea to Western companies: “Leave Russia,” he said. “Make sure that the Russians do not receive a single penny.” Hundreds of companies answered the call. Politicians and activists predicted that it would help strangle the Russian economy and undermine the Kremlin’s war effort. President Vladimir V. Putin had other plans. Mr. Putin has turned the exits of major Western companies into a windfall for Russia’s loyal elite and the state itself. He has forced companies wishing to sell to do so at fire-sale prices. He has...

With Ukraine’s military facing mounting deaths and a stalemate on the battlefield, army recruiters have become increasingly aggressive in their efforts to replenish the ranks, in some cases pulling men off the streets and whisking them to recruiting centers using intimidation and even physical force. Recruiters have confiscated passports, taken people from their jobs and, in at least one case, tried to send a mentally disabled person to military training, according to lawyers, activists and Ukrainian men who have been subject to coercive tactics. Videos of soldiers shoving people into cars and holding men against their will in recruiting centers...

Went up a few percent in 6 hours. I suppose it's "only" 3 percent and the end result is just recovering back to where it was a week ago. Still the upward spike seems unusual.

CEO of IBM Arvind Krishna admits to using coercion to fire people and take away their bonuses unless they discriminate in the hiring process. “You got to move both forward by a percentage that leads to a plus on your bonus," Krishna said about hiring Hispanics, "and by the way if you lose, you lose part of your bonus.” After pulling ads from X for 'racism,' IBM chief Arvind Krishna says he will fire, demote or strip bonuses from execs who don't hire enough blacks, Hispanics — or hire too many Asians "Asians are not an underrepresented minority in tech...