Free Republic

An American retired lawyer and university professor was caught on camera on Tuesday shooting dead two climate change protesters in Panama. Kenneth Darlington, 77, appeared before a judge in the town of La Espiga on Wednesday afternoon, and after a two-hour hearing was remanded in custody. Eliécer Plicett, a lawyer for the two victims, both of them teachers, said Darlington was being charged with murder and illegal possession of a gun, TVN Noticias reported. Darlington was seen on Tuesday, in front of a large number of photographers and television crews, walking up to a road block on a section of...

An elderly American has been arrested after a gunman was caught on camera walking up to environmental protesters blocking a Panamanian highway Tuesday and blasting two of them to death. Disturbing footage showed a man with gray hair and glasses casually approaching the blockade on the Pan-American Highway and waving his finger while arguing with the demonstrators — before pulling out a gun and opening fire. Other footage showed people standing around bodies in the road in the Chame sector west of Panama City as well as the gunman being cuffed and led to a squad car. Police later shared...

Ukrainian forces have faced dense minefields while carrying out counteroffensive operations. It has forced Ukrainian units to move slowly on foot rather than using tanks or other vehicles. Ukrainian officials are now calling for F-16 jets and more mine-clearance equipment.Ukraine has been forced to change its counteroffensive strategy after repeatedly coming up against dense Russian minefields, a report says.Ukrainian units are leaving behind the battle tanks and infantry fighting vehicles donated by Western allies and advancing slowly on foot, The Washington Post reported."You can no longer do anything with just a tank with some armor because the minefield is too...

United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) inspectors have found no evidence that Russia has planted mines at the Zaporizhzhya Nuclear Power Plant in southern Ukraine, Bloomberg reported on July 5, with reference to the agency's spokesperson. "Inspectors from the IAEA have reported that they’ve seen no evidence of anti-personnel mines installed in the plant’s grounds that could endanger reactor safety," the report said. The IAEA spokesman stated that inspectors at the facility continue to monitor the situation. Earlier, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine warned that the Russian forces had placed objects resembling explosive devices on...

Where is the Ukrainian army’s 117th Mechanized Brigade? The answer to that question has implications for Ukraine’s 18-day-old southern counteroffensive, which has been making slow progress along several axes in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk Oblasts. Kyiv and its foreign allies spent months standing up, training and equipping nine new brigades specifically for the counteroffensive, plus additional brigades that would function as a reserve. But so far we’ve seen just three, maybe four, of the brigades in action alongside older Ukrainian formations. The 117th Mechanized Brigade is one of the missing brigades. Where the brigade is, and what it’s waiting for, could...

On the morning of June 6, in the Kherson region, it became known about the breakthrough of the dam of the Kakhovskaya HPP. Kiev blamed Russia for the explosion of the hydroelectric power station, Russia stated that the reason for the dam break was allegedly the shelling of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (while local residents, including those who lived close to the dam, did not report anything about the shelling). MAIN TOPIC: the breakthrough of the dam of the Kakhovskaya HPP in the Kherson region. What has already been flooded, how could it happen and what will be the...

An order signed recently by Defense Minister Yoav Gallant indicates that there is a gold smuggling operation between Iran and Venezuela that is funding Hezbollah terror activity. It was revealed that, in May, dozens of kilograms of gold were smuggled on an Iranian Mahan Air flight, which is subject to American sanctions, from Venezuela to Tehran. The funds from the smuggled gold were transferred to Hezbollah.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — During a tense Congressional Hearing, deductive polymath Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez put a widespread conspiracy theory to rest when she vocally insisted that there were no hysterectomies being performed on minors because most of them are too busy working in the mines anyway. The truth-filled gavel drop utterly destroyed the claim by conservatives that the Boston Children's Hospital was performing the irreparable surgeries on minors. "How can minors find the time to travel via minecart to far-away Boston when they're busy mining for coal, iron, and lapis lazuli," explained Ocasio-Cortez to an awestruck chamber. "And it's not just...

As if John Fetterman’s debate with Dr. Oz wasn’t enough of a campaign killer, Joe Biden announced today that he will be closing coal plants in favor of wind and solar power.Joe Biden just said that he’s going to shut down coal plants all over America and replace them with wind and solar.Retweet so every voter in Pennsylvania and Ohio will see this.pic.twitter.com/65BvGIqzVG— Ryan Fournier (@RyanAFournier) November 4, 2022Let’s see how that goes over with Pennsylvania voters, especially considering that Fetterman claimed a while back he is against fracking, although he flip-flopped when asked about this in the debate.What happens...

Uganda has announced that it has struck a deposit of 31 million tonnes of gold ore, with extractable pure gold estimated to gross 320,000 tonnes.President Museveni broke news of the find in his State-of-the-Nation Address yesterday, but provided little detail, pointing in general that it would fetch the country more than $12 trillion.Technocrats in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, Mr Museveni noted, had informed Cabinet that the country was positioned to get slightly under $700m in royalty payments, with the investors poised to cash in on the windfall.Citing six local gold refineries, among them Africa Gold Refinery in...

At a moment global humanitarian and hunger relief groups are warning of a “catastrophe” for already vulnerable populations particularly in Africa and the Middle East which rely heavily on Ukrainian and Black Sea region grain exports, the United Nations has said it will likely take “months” to de-mine Ukraine’s ports. The war-torn country is the fourth biggest exporter of grain in the world. Hundreds of merchant vessels had been stranded in the war’s opening months at Ukrainian ports following the Russian invasion, and still nearly 100 remain stuck along with their crews. This week a special advisor on maritime security...

MOSCOW (AP) – Russian President Vladimir Putin says that Ukraine should remove sea mines from areas near its ports to allow safe shipping. Putin made the statement in Friday’s call with Austria’s Chancellor Karl Nehammer, according to the Kremlin readout of the conversation. It said that Putin and Nehammer “had a detailed exchange of views on issues regarding food security” with Putin rejecting Western claims that Russia’s actions have exacerbated a global food crisis. Global Food Crisis: Russia Tells West it will End Grain Blockade Once Sanctions are Liftedhttps://t.co/ukIJEp4jcR — Breitbart London (@BreitbartLondon) May 27, 2022 The Kremlin noted that...

Civil vessels may safely use the Azov Sea port of Mariupol in Ukraine as the danger from mines has been eliminated, the Russian defence ministry said on Thursday. It said a maritime humanitarian corridor was opened on Wednesday in the Azov Sea. ...

... The Pentagon admits all Ukraine ports are blocked by mines making shipping of goods and weapons impossible.

The DPR People’s milita provided evidence that despite having signed international treaties banning their stockpiling and their use, Ukraine still possesses and uses anti-personnel mines, especially in the Donbass. For the seventh year, the Donbass residents live in a state of continuous war. The armed forces of Ukraine use heavy artillery, mortars and shooting weapons. The use of anti-personnel mines, which are prohibited by international treaties, by the Ukrainian military is of particular concern. During the briefing of the official representative of the DPR People’ s Militia Eduard Basurin, based on collected photos and video materials, we will show all...

Russian forces have riddled Ukrainian fields with mines and destroyed equipment in areas they once occupied, in what returning farmers and the Kyiv government allege is a campaign by Moscow to hobble the country’s agricultural industry. Russia’s invasion already has decimated shipments of corn, wheat and sunflower oil from what was until recently one of the world’s biggest food exporters. Prices have soared, adding to global food-price inflation and heaping misery on developing countries that had been dependent on imports from the region. The extent of damage to some farms, together with port disruption and a shortage of fertilizer, demonstrates...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. Navy said Wednesday it will begin a new task force with allied countries to patrol the Red Sea after a series of attacks attributed to Yemen's Houthi rebels in a waterway that's essential to global trade. Vice Adm. Brad Cooper, who oversees the Navy's Mideast-based 5th Fleet, declined four times to directly name the Iran-backed Houthis in his remarks to journalists announcing the task force. However, the Houthis have launched explosive-laden drone boats and mines into the waters of the Red Sea, which runs from Egypt's Suez Canal in the north, down...

The risk of hitting floating mines in the major Black Sea shipping route is adding to perils for the few merchant ships still sailing in the region, and governments must ensure safe passage to keep supply chains running, maritime officials said according to Reuters. The Black Sea – whose waters are shared by Bulgaria, Romania, Georgia and Turkey, as well as the warring Ukraine and Russia – is key for shipping grain, oil and oil products. Ukraine and Russia have accused each other of laying mines in the Black Sea, and in recent days, Turkish and Romanian military diving teams...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned Saturday that Russian troops are creating a "catastrophic" situation for civilians by leaving mines around homes, abandoned equipment and the bodies of those killed. "It’s still not possible to return to normal life, as it used to be, even at the territories that we are taking back after the fighting," the president told his nation in a nightly video message. "We need to wait until our land is demined, wait till we are able to assure you that there won’t be new shelling," he said.

<p>A major nickel mine in a Philippines rainforest has continued to expand, mowing down acres of trees as global demand for minerals essential for electric vehicle manufacturing surges.</p><p>The Rio Tuba mine in the region of Palawan supplies an important mineral for electric vehicle batteries in Tesla and Toyota cars, but the mine is nearing an expansion that would cause it to grow from four square miles to 14 square miles, according to an NBC News investigation. The growth of the mine would cause massive deforestation of the land which environmentalists warn could destroy the area’s ecosystem.</p>