Free Republic

Suffolk OTB will break ground on a $210 million expansion of Jake’s 58 Casino Hotel ahead of its competitors vying for the coveted NYC casino licenses. “We’re not vying for one of the licenses, and as a matter of fact, I think that wherever those casinos are located, we are going to be able to compete very well,” Suffolk OTB CEO Phil Boyle told the Post. The expansion — the first since the casino opened in 2017 — is expected to increase annual revenue by as much as 42% and double terminals to 2,000 and increase parking from 600 spaces...

For more than a decade, the United States has nurtured a secret intelligence partnership with Ukraine that is now critical for both countries in countering Russia... Nestled in a dense forest, the Ukrainian military base appears abandoned and destroyed, its command center a burned-out husk, a casualty of a Russian missile barrage early in the war. But that is above ground. Not far away, a discreet passageway descends to a subterranean bunker where teams of Ukrainian soldiers track Russian spy satellites and eavesdrop on conversations between Russian commanders. On one screen, a red line followed the route of an explosive...

As NATO prepares to celebrate its 75th anniversary next year, the bloc’s original architects would have been stunned by its broad membership and growing agenda today. In helping design the new alliance for the purpose of containing the Soviet Union in Europe after World War II, the U.S. diplomat George Kennan argued that NATO should take its name literally and include only North Atlantic countries—excluding Mediterranean states such as Greece, Italy, and Turkey. His rationale was that only countries on the Atlantic seaboard could be effectively supplied by ship in the event of war with the Soviets, whereas including others...

WASHINGTON, Sept 26 (Reuters) - Former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton needled Russian President Vladimir Putin about NATO enlargement on Tuesday, saying: "Too bad, Vladimir. You brought it on yourself." Returning to the State Department for the unveiling of her official portrait, Clinton also used the occasion to display distaste for the policies of Republican former President Donald Trump, who defeated her in the 2016 U.S. presidential election. Clinton suggested that there may have been questions about the U.S. ability to muster support for Ukraine to resist Russia's 2022 invasion because of Trump's legacy of alienating allies.

Highlights: French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that the expansion of the BRICS group signals the intention to build a new world order. . French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that the expansion of the BRICS group signals the intention to build a new world order.Macron said in a speech at the annual conference of ambassadors of the Republic at the Elysee Palace: "The expansion of the BRICS indicates the intention to build an alternative world order, which is seen as too Western.Macron explained that this creates the risk of "fragmentation of the world" that must be avoided,...

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on Sunday warned of an “authoritarian expansion of power” by the Supreme Court after it released several controversial opinions in it’s last week of the term. “The courts, if they were to proceed without any check on their power, without any balance on their power, then we will start to see an undemocratic and, frankly, dangerous authoritarian expansion of power in the Supreme Court,” Ocasio-Cortez said on CNN’s “State of the Union.’

Former President Donald Trump has filed a personal financial disclosure report, which shows the former president’s vast business empire—valued at around $1.2 billion—expanding since his return to private life.The 101-page report (pdf) was filed with the Federal Election Commission as he campaigns to secure the Republican nomination for president in 2024.Trump’s business acumen, which he campaigned on ahead of the 2016 election and has repeatedly highlighted since then, appears in sharp focus in the filings.Since leaving office in January 2021, Trump has approximately doubled his number of business holdings, with a total estimated value of at least $1.2 billion.In terms...

The Democrats’ new reconciliation bill isn’t just going to be the largest-ever expansion of a government agency, it’s going to be the largest expansion of the domestic police state in American history. Only a statist could believe that a federal government, which already collects $4.1 trillion every year—or $12,300 for every citizen—needs 80 new battalions of new IRS cops.So, it’s completely rational for law-abiding citizens to fear an agency that isn’t bound by fundamental due process, has no regard for your privacy, and is empowered to target anyone without any genuine oversight. Most American are less concerned about cops with...

Thinking Through the Ukraine Crisis — the Causes“It would be extraordinarily difficult to expand NATO eastward without that action’s being viewed by Russia as unfriendly. Even the most modest schemes would bring the alliance to the borders of the old Soviet Union. Some of the more ambitious versions would have the alliance virtually surround the Russian Federation itself.” Beyond NATO: Staying Out of Europe’s Wars (p. 45). I wrote those words in 1994, at a time when expansion proposals merely constituted occasional speculation in foreign policy seminars in New York City and Washington, D.C. I added that expansion “would constitute...

The Chinese government has greatly “accelerated” its nuclear weapons program due to a revised threat assessment of risk posed by the United States, according to a new in-depth Wall Street Journal report that cites both Chinese and US officials. It follows a Pentagon assessment from last year which laid out Beijing’s drive to “modernize, diversify and expand” its nuclear arsenal. The fresh WSJ investigative report appears to confirm the prior US military assessment that China seeks to expanding “land, sea and air-based nuclear delivery platforms” while establishing more necessary infrastructure to support it. While its nuclear goals predate Russia’s invasion...

TOPLINE The upper house of the Russian parliament approved President Vladimir Putin’s request to use military force outside of Russia, adding to fears of a full-scale invasion of Ukraine may come soon. KEY BACKGROUND Putin recognized the Russian-backed separatist states of Donetsk and Luhansk Monday, earning widespread condemnation for violating international law as the states are within Ukraine’s internationally recognized borders. Donetsk and Luhansk declared independence from Ukraine in 2014, both proclaiming themselves as “People’s Republic,” and have been propped up by Russia. Putin warned Monday there would be a “bloodbath” if the Ukrainian government resisted Russia’s support of the...

Oakland officials are eyeing an expansion to the city’s police force to confront the increase in violent crime, which has resulted in more than 115 homicides so far this year. Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf (D) said her office is drafting a proposal to put before the City Council that would increase the number of active police officers and require the city to maintain a larger police force, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. The mayor is also reportedly planning to propose that the budget cuts set to take effect next summer are reversed. The reductions would freeze 50 police department...

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-S.C.) on Wednesday said it would be “unAmerican” not to prioritize Medicaid expansion in the Democrats's social spending package amid an intra-party clash over health care priorities. Clyburn is a leading advocate of including in President Biden’s Build Back Better plan a provision for the federal government to step in and provide Medicaid coverage in the 12 GOP-led states that have so far declined the coverage under the Affordable Care Act.

A once-in-a-decade population census has shown that births in China have fallen to their lowest level since the 1960s - leading to calls for an end to birth control policies. But some in China say these policies aren't the only thing that's stopping them. Despite being hassled by her mum about it, Beijing resident Lili* is not planning to have children any time soon. The 31-year-old, who has been married for two years, wants to "live my life" without the "constant worries" of raising a child. "I have very few peers who have children, and if they do, they're obsessed...

Beijing may consider sending a peacekeeping force to Afghanistan if the security situation in the South Asian country poses a threat to the neighbouring Chinese province of Xinjiang after American troops pull out, analysts said. US President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that he would withdraw all remaining US troops – about 2,500 – from Afghanistan by September 11, the 20th anniversary of the terrorist attack in New York. The withdrawal may pose a threat to Afghanistan’s security and stability, which could spill over into Xinjiang and disrupt China’s counterterrorism efforts.

We are about to witness, for the first time, the power of a fully operational Affordable Care Act (ACA). The American Rescue Plan made 3.7 million more people eligible for the ACA’s premium subsidies. The Biden administration had already opened up enrollment after taking office, and 200,000 Americans signed up in the first two weeks. Now the administration is extending enrollment until August 15, backed by millions of dollars in advertising. Insurers are expanding into new markets, and some who abandoned it long ago in the law’s fraught early years are now reentering. The individual mandate is gone, but, as...

OK, before I blow a blood pressure cuff on this issue, please keep in mind the warnings provided on these pages about DHS now starting to assemble lists of dissident citizens under the guise of domestic extremists. {Go Deep} Also remind yourself the same DHS and FBI are now using private contractors embedded in Big Tech to scour public information on social media and provide feedback to help DHS assemble those lists. {Go Deep} Now, we take that foundation and build it one step further…. This well-written report about the recent Senate Armed Services Committee discussion with the National Security...

BEIJING – China will allow its coast guard to use weapons when foreign ships involved in illegal activities in waters it controls fail to obey orders, such as to stop, a bill unveiled by a body of the country’s parliament showed Wednesday. As Beijing claims that the Senkaku Islands, which are administered by Tokyo, are part of its territory, the envisioned law could target Japanese vessels navigating around the uninhabited islets. The tiny islands in the East China Sea are called Diaoyu by Beijing. The Japanese government said earlier in the day that a Chinese ship was spotted in the...

Google has leased four office buildings in a vast north San Jose tech campus where it could employ 3,600 workers or more, and has bought a trio of old office buildings in north Mountain View for a quarter-billion dollars, marking eye-popping new expansions of the search giant’s Silicon Valley operations. The latest moves come as the search giant continues to plan for a huge San Jose complex that would dramatically expand its footprint in the Bay Area’s largest city. Google paid $250.2 million for the north Mountain View buildings, according to public documents filed on Tuesday with Santa Clara County....

There’s a crisis brewing in the cosmos. Measurements over the past few years of the distances and velocities of faraway galaxies don’t agree with the increasingly controversial “standard model” of the cosmos that has prevailed for the past two decades. Astronomers think that a 9 percent discrepancy in the value of a long-sought number called the Hubble Constant, which describes how fast the universe is expanding, might be revealing something new and astounding about the universe. The cosmos has been expanding for 13.8 billion years and its present rate of expansion, known as the Hubble constant, gives the time elapsed...