Free Republic

In mid-2022, Gazprom restricted gas flows to Europe in what was seen as a move by Putin to get both leverage against Kyiv's allies ahead of the winter season and retaliate against Western sanctions and support of Ukraine. But the EU managed to find alternative long-term sources of gas imports and free itself from most Russian piped-gas imports ... Gazprom's revenue fell by 41 percent year-over-year in the first half of 2023, while sales profits dropped 71 percent and gas production by 25 percent... The report said the company's upstream gas-production base is now isolated because infrastructure connecting its main...

Russian central bank assets. Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said the move will hand Ukraine up to €3 billion (about $3.3 billion) this year. "We have approved in the EU using revenues from Russia's central bank's frozen assets to help Ukraine," wrote Lipavsky on X, formerly Twitter. "Up to €3B only this year, 90% goes for Ukraine's military. Russia must pay for its war damages." The financial assets were frozen shortly after Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Reuters reported this month that the EU has estimated that by 2027, windfall profits from Russia's central bank...

The ship’s first power outage occurred after a crew member mistakenly closed an exhaust damper while conducting maintenance in port, causing one of its diesel engines to stall, according to the report. A backup generator automatically came on and continued to run for a short period — until insufficient fuel pressure caused it to kick off again, resulting in a second blackout. While recovering from those power outages, crew members made changes to the ship’s electrical configuration, switching to a different transformer and set of breakers, according to safety investigators. “Switching breakers is not unusual but may have affected operations...

While more than 9,500 women and 14,500 children were reported among the fatalities by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) on May 6, two days later that number was revised significantly downward. Today, under 5,000 women and 8,000 children are now officially listed by the UN as casualties. David Adesnik, director of research at the Washington-based Foundation for Defense of Democracies (FDD), told the National Post he suspects the discrepancy stems from the UN’s decision to quietly stop using figures provided by the Hamas-run Government Media Office (GMO). “So you see May 6 and before, the...

“You say it’s not a MeToo case,” Maher pressed Daniels at the time. “It’s not a MeToo case,” Daniels replied. “I wasn’t assaulted. I wasn’t attacked, or raped, or coerced or blackmailed.” ... Daniels [Friday] claimed that Trump “was bigger and blocking the way,” that at the end of it, saying “my hands were shaking so hard,” and “I just wanted to leave.” She also claimed that she “blacked out” during the encounter... Maher contended that Daniels’ testimony now has deviated from her original iteration of the alleged encounter. “She’s talking about ‘he was bigger and blocking the way.’ It’s...

A “Gaza solidarity encampment” popped up at Fordham University on Wednesday, just hours after tent cities at the other two schools were destroyed by police. Seven tents were erected inside the University’s Leon Lowenstein Center, and 25 students have occupied the building. The University has unfurled blue tarps over the windows of the building, and has allegedly warned the pro-terrorist campers to leave or face arrest. Two prison buses have arrived at the encampment. “There are police coming in and out. They have barricaded some parts of the lobby," a demonstrator told The Post. “The administration refuses to meet with...

"Military pay, ammunition, tanks, planes, and compensation for dead and wounded soldiers, all contribute to the GDP figures. Put simply, the war against Ukraine is now the main driver of Russia's economic growth" Foucart said... Other areas of Russia's economy are hurting as the war drags on. Moscow is slammed with a severe labor shortage, thanks to young professionals fleeing the country or being pulled into the conflict. The nation is now short around 5 million workers, according to one estimate, which is causing wages to soar. Inflation is high at 7.4% — nearly double the 4% target of its...

A major part of his [1966 election] platform was to “clean up the mess at Berkeley” and other college campuses throughout the state that were experiencing protests and strikes over issues that included the military draft, civil rights and “women’s issues.” In a campaign speech, Reagan said many leftist campus movements had transcended legitimate protest, with the actions of “beatniks, radicals and filthy speech advocates” having more to do “with rioting, with anarchy” than “academic freedom.” He faulted university administrators and faculty, who “press their particular value judgments” on students, for “a leadership gap and a morality and decency gap”...

The British government said on Tuesday it would commit its largest-ever tranche of military aid to Ukraine as part of a package worth £500 million ($622 million). The assistance will include further deliveries of Storm Shadow air-launched, precision-guided missiles, as well as vessels and vehicles. The Paveway IV—the latest in the Paveway series of bombs—converts unguided munitions, also known as "dumb bombs," into precision-guided weapons. They can use laser guidance or satellites to find their way to a target. "The Paveway IV will enable Ukraine to strike back" at Russian forces and target high-value assets such as command centers and...

Ukraine's air force has previously said Russia has used the Tu-22M3 aircraft to fire Kh-22 cruise missiles at Ukrainian territory. The HUR said the bomber that was downed "carried out a missile attack against Ukraine on the night of April 19." The aircraft was shot down "as a result of a [HUR] special operation in cooperation with the Air Force," it said, adding that it was struck at a distance of about 300 kilometers from Ukraine. The HUR added: "It should be noted that this is the first successful destruction of a strategic bomber in the air during a combat...

The pro-Palestinian staffers — who wore traditional Arab headscarves as they stormed and occupied the office of a top executive in California on Tuesday — were terminated late Wednesday after an internal investigation, Google vice president of global security Chris Rackow said in a companywide memo. “They took over office spaces, defaced our property, and physically impeded the work of other Googlers,” Rackow wrote in the memo obtained by The Post. “Their behavior was unacceptable, extremely disruptive, and made co-workers feel threatened.” The fired staffers are affiliated with a group called No Tech For Apartheid, which has been critical of...

Russian President Vladimir Putin insisted last August that a drop in the importance of the U.S. dollar was "irreversible"—but there appears to be no sign that the global economy is turning its back on the greenback. "The U.S. Dollar was used in 48% of international payment transactions last year, the highest level in more than a decade. But Brics...," it said next to the graph, which showed the euro making 23.2 percent of transactions and the Chinese yuan way behind at 3.47 percent. "BRICS countries would like their currencies to be used in world trade, but each has a major...

Our indecisiveness in eastern Europe signalled to our enemies that we are weak and divided — so is it any surprise that they are now trying to exploit this to their advantage? Our adversaries — led by Russia, Iran, China and, to a lesser extent, North Korea — understand this. And they understand that, by working together, they can achieve their shared foreign policy goals and eventually reshape the global order to their advantage... Our enemies are different heads of the same, frightening hydra — and together they have shown a great deal of discipline, coordination and aggression in pursuit...

“In fact, it shows Louis Tomlinson fans near Four Seasons Hotel in Buenos Aires, Argentina last week,” a fellow BBC fact-checker said of the 32-year-old singer and one-time Harry Styles bandmate in One Direction. The footage, also shared by numerous online influencers, was just one of a number aired by Iran’s state TV claiming to show scenes of devastation from the weekend’s air strikes, despite Israel shooting down around 99% of the drones and missiles fired at the Jewish state. Another that IRINN claimed to be the fiery aftermath of a missile strike was actually from a February forest fire...

Iran's massive missile and drone barrage targeting Israel over the weekend is similar to Russian tactics used in frequent strikes on Ukraine, according to a new assessment, after Iran launched its first-ever direct strike from its own territory into Israel. "Iran's use of drones and missiles shows how Iran is learning from the Russians to develop increasingly dangerous and effective strike packages against Israel," the U.S. think tank, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Saturday. Russia has launched thousands of missile and drone strikes on Ukraine in nearly 26 months of all-out war in the country....

Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence (HUR) has released video of its claimed sabotage operation against a Russian missile corvette on Sunday in the Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad, which the intelligence service said had "disabled" the vessel. The footage purportedly showed a fire being set somewhere inside the Serpukhov Buyan-M class corvette, which is part of the Baltic Fleet and can be armed with either Kalibr or Oniks cruise missiles. The video also showed what were claimed to be blueprints of the vessel, presumably used by HUR operatives to plan the attack. The claimed HUR attack took place while the...

Afire broke out on the Russian missile ship Serpukhov in the Kaliningrad region, causing significant damage, according to RBC-Ukraine source within special services. The source says the fire engulfed the Serpukhov on April 7. It is a small missile ship of Project 21631 Buyan-M (the fifth ship in the series). Since the full-scale war against Ukraine began, the Russians have already lost many ships, including those of the Black Sea Fleet. Recently, the Ukrainian military attacked large landing ships in Crimea, Yamal and Azov. The Ukrainian Navy also confirmed the damage to the Russian medium reconnaissance ship Ivan Khurs. On...

Reuters said Novatek had stopped operations at its Arctic LNG 2 project, which processes gas from the Utrenneye field on West Siberia' Gydan Peninsula, in the latest blow to Russian fuel exports. It comes as Russian exports funding Putin's war have been hampered by repeated drone strikes on oil facilities, blamed on Ukraine. One energy industry expert told Newsweek that state oil giant Rosneft had reduced daily oil processing in March by a fifth. Sanctions have caused a lack of specialist tankers to transport the LNG from Russia through thick sea ice. Six Arc7 tankers were due to be built...

The Russian-made app, according to a new report from Guardio, has, in recent times, evolved into a thriving center where experienced cybercriminals and beginners can openly share illegal tools and knowledge—a "scammers paradise." As a result, a dark and well-organized supply chain of tools and victims' data has emerged... As the Guardio report clearly demonstrated, there is very little, if anything, secure about Telegram, contrary to popular reports. The paradox lies in Telegram's emphasis on its security and privacy features, despite there being no automatic end-to-end encryption in place; instead, message protection relies on policies rather than technology. Such a...

Members of Russian military intelligence unit 29155, who allegedly have access to microwave or ultrasound weapons, had been placed at the scene of reported attacks that resulted in US personnel suffering health problems, according to a year-long investigation by the Latvia-based Insider in collaboration with CBS’s “60 Minutes” and Germany’s Der Spiegel. Christo Grozev, the head of investigations with The Insider, told “60 Minutes” that he uncovered accounting records that show a 29155 officer received a bonus for work related to the development of “non-lethal acoustic weapons.” Unit 29155 has reportedly operated around the world since 2008, and is suspected...