Free Republic

Sex offender Wesley Hawkins is now in the corner of the judge who once sentenced him to jail as Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson undergoes her Supreme Court confirmation hearings. In 2013, Hawkins pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography, a felony. Jackson sentenced him to three months in jail, far below the sentencing guidelines of eight to 10 years and below the prosecution’s call for a two-year sentence. The case has emerged as a major point of concern for Senate Republicans, who have noted that Jackson regularly offers lighter sentences to sex offenders than recommended in sentencing guidelines. Hawkins has...

Another stunning victory for the Ukranian military!

“They were talking about the massive corruption of Ukraine, and how horrible it was over there. And now, all of a sudden, they’re looking at it like they’re heroes.”.. Joe Rogan noted on his podcast that the Western narrative on Ukraine has flipped 180 degrees in a few weeks from the country having a horrible corrupt government to being heroic allies against the Russian scourge. “I have this screenshot that someone sent me,” Rogan stated, “about the way the people on the left were talking about the Ukraine situation before the war.” He continued, “This is one of the things...

128 brigade captured the high-ranking staff of the 58th Russian army. Lieutenant Colonel Rosarmia was dressed in a skirt of underwear and socks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In the process of a combat clash with the rosarmia of the 128 separate mountain storm brigade captured the head of the Russian army's information-psychological counterpart group of the 47084 military unit (on one of the photos is a battlefield and destroyed by our fighters ro a sia truck). Here are the data of the prisoner - Koshel Alexander Olegovich, born April 5, 1982, personal number F-905994, military title - lieutenant...

Japan reacted angrily on Tuesday after Russia withdrew from peace treaty talks with Tokyo and froze joint economic projects related to the disputed Kuril Islands because of sanctions imposed by the Kishida administration over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. Moscow and Tokyo have still not formally ended World War II hostilities because of the stand-off over islands just off Japan’s northernmost island of Hokkaido, known in Russia as the Kurils and in Japan as the Northern Territories. The islands were seized by the Soviet Union at the end of second world war. Japan has imposed sanctions on 76 individuals, seven banks...

BREAKING: Putin’s Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov says Russia would use nuclear weapons if faced with "existential" threat. “…If it is an existential threat, a threat for our country, then it can be used in accordance with our concept."pic.twitter.com/X5Z6XBlSnq— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 22, 2022

Heavy fighting is continuing across much of Ukraine. In one small rural town, Voznesensk, Ukrainian troops, backed by local people, have seen off an attack by the Russian army. When Russian forces arrived in tanks they were trapped in an ambush that turned into a rout. Ben Brown in Lviv presents BBC News at Ten reporting by Andrew Harding in Voznesensk.

ALEXANDR DUGIN, top Russian philosopher, on the war in Ukraine: "... This is not a war with Ukraine. It's a comparison with globalism as a whole planetary phenomenon. It’s a comparison on all levels - geopolitical and ideological. Russia rejects everything in globalism - unipolarism, atlantism, on the one hand, and liberalism, anti-tradition, technocracy, Grand Reset in one word, on the other. It is clear that all European leaders are part of the Atlantic liberal elite. And we’re at war with this exactly. Here's their legitimate reaction. Russia is now excluded from the globalist networks. She has no choice anymore:...

The U.S. State Department on Tuesday that it "strongly condemns" what it called Russia's "orchestration of a sham trial" against Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny after a court found him guilty of large-scale fraud and contempt of court, a move likely to extend Navalny's jail time by years.

The Biden administration is preparing to unveil as early as this week a plan to expedite and streamline the resettlement of some Ukrainian refugees in the U.S., three sources familiar with the plan said. The plan would allow vulnerable Ukrainians, specifically activists, journalists and those who are part of the LGBTQ community, to safely enter the U.S. at least temporarily. It would also expedite the reunification of Ukrainians with U.S.-based family members, the sources said. The exact authority President Joe Biden would use to speed the passage of Ukrainians remains unclear, the sources said.

System set up outside Iran’s borders conducted tens of billions in banned trade, according to documents, intelligence officials WASHINGTON—Iran established a clandestine banking and finance system to handle tens of billions of dollars in annual trade banned under U.S.-led sanctions, enabling Tehran to endure the economic siege and giving it leverage in multilateral nuclear talks, according to Western diplomats, intelligence officials and documents. The system, which comprises accounts in foreign commercial banks, proxy companies registered outside the country, firms that coordinate the banned trade, and a transaction clearinghouse within Iran, has helped Tehran resist the Biden administration’s pressure to rejoin...

Ohio Rep. Jim Jordan said that Donald Trump was 'right on target' to suggest Hillary Clinton's operatives should be executed after the former president accused her campaign of treason. [cut] Jordan added that the 'spying' was 'worse than [we] thought.'

President Joe Biden on Monday issued a warning that the Russian government is preparing widespread cyberattacks against the United States. Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin would be responding to the Administration’s crippling sanctions amid Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. “I have previously warned about the potential that Russia could conduct malicious cyber activity against the United States,” Pres. Biden said in a statement, “including as a response to the unprecedented economic costs we’ve imposed on Russia alongside our allies and partners. It’s part of Russia’s playbook. Today, my Administration is reiterating those warnings based on evolving intelligence that the Russian...

During the 2008 presidential campaign, Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin warned that if Senator Barack Obama were elected president, his “indecision” and “moral equivalence” may encourage Russia’s Vladimir Putin to invade Ukraine. Palin said then: After the Russian Army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama’s reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence, the kind of response that would only encourage Russia’s Putin to invade Ukraine next. For those comments, she was mocked by the high-brow Foreign Policy magazine and its editor Blake Hounshell, who now is one of the editors of Politico magazine. In light of recent...

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the ensuing military violence and instability have mobilized far-right extremists, playing into Russian President Vladimir Putin’s propaganda about “neo-Nazis” running the country as justification for invading Ukraine. In a speech given just before Russia launched its ongoing attack on Ukraine, Putin justified what he described as a “special military operation.

President Biden on Monday confirmed that Russia launched a hypersonic missile in Ukraine over the weekend and said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s may launch cyberattacks against the US and use chemical weapons in Ukraine next because his “back is against the wall.” Biden said Ukraine’s military is “wreaking havoc on the Russian military,” making Putin increasingly desperate in his nearly month-old invasion of Ukraine. “The more his back is against the wall, the greater the severity of the tactics he may employ,” Biden warned at a Business Roundtable event

More mercenaries connected to the Russian Wagner private military company arrived in Ukraine on Sunday with the objective of assassinating top Ukrainian military and political leadership, Ukraine's Intelligence Directorate claimed on Sunday. The directorate asserted that the main targets of the mercenaries included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Presidential Chief of Staff Andrii Yermak and Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal. Russian President Vladimir Putin "personally ordered another attack by one of his proxies," said the Directorate. "All previous attempts ended in the failure and elimination of terrorists. Zelensky was allegedly nearly assassinated three times in the week of March 4, according to...

Lame-duck Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-IL) suggested Sunday that the U.S. should withhold aid to Israel unless the Jewish state provides weaponry to Ukraine for its fight against Russian invasion. which he portrayed as a clash between good and evil. Israel has provided humanitarian assistance, and has offered to mediate talks between Ukraine and Russia, since it has good relations with both. But it has been reluctant to antagonize Russia, whose troops and sailors are next door to Israel in Syria. Kinzinger, who has been pushing for aggressive military action to defend Ukraine, blasted Israel after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky appealed...

The Ministry of Defense reported that Russian troops are completing the defeat of the nationalist battalion...The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation refutes the information of the Ukrainian General Staff about the alleged large-scale losses of the RF Armed Forces in Ukraine. According to the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, during the special operation in Ukraine, the Russian Armed Forces lost 9,861 people killed, 16,153 people were injured.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia said on Monday that it “won’t bear any responsibility” for a shortage in global oil supplies after a fierce barrage of attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels affected production in the kingdom, the world’s largest oil exporter. The unusually stark warning marked a departure from the giant oil producer’s typically cautious statements, as Saudi officials remain aware that even their smallest comments can swing the price of oil and rattle global markets. The state-run Saudi Press Agency quoted the Saudi Foreign Ministry as saying that the kingdom “declares that it will not bear...