Free Republic

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has signed off on legislation that would significantly expand the government’s regulatory power over the news media, a measure that journalists have warned will erode press freedom.Mr. Zelensky, whose administration has been criticized for undermining press freedoms, ordered the drafting of a law increasing media regulation in 2019.The measure was passed by Ukraine’s Parliament earlier this month along with a spate of other bills that lawmakers say were intended to help the country meet the European Union’s legislative conditions for membership. The bills included measures to protect the rights of national minorities. Mr. Zelensky signed...

Raids have been conducted on homes of current and former European Union members who are the focus of a probe.Reports out of Brussels are that this weekend, authorities have been conducting a series of raids stemming from an investigation into various Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) over suspicions of corruption and bribery. Over a dozen raids were conducted by Belgium federal police forces concerning alleged offenses of criminal organization, corruption, and money laundering.The investigation was initiated by one of the factions inside of the EU to look into the issue of corruption over the suspected payments to members by...

There was no U.S. statesman who advocated for Ukraine more than John McCain. He was right about Putin’s nefarious intentions. Today we are driven by Sen. McCain’s legacy in Ukraine and we stand behind the Ukrainians who are fighting for freedom and democracy. From the 2022 Sedona Forum, watch Stand Up & Fight: The Story of John McCain and Ukraine. Video: https://www.mccaininstitute.org/resources/in-the-news/stand-up-fight-the-story-of-john-mccain-and-ukraine/

ITALIAN police have arrested several neonazis affiliated with the Ukrainian Azov Battalion fighting against the Russians.The police arrested five members of the Italian organisation called the Order of Hagal on Tuesday while another member of their gang is still wanted by the authorities.The remaining gang member, Ukrainian national, Anton Radomsky, is in Ukraine fighting the Russians alongside the Azov Battalion — a neonazi unit within the Ukrainian army.The group is accused by the Italian authorities of stockpiling weapons and planning to conduct terror attacks against civilian and police targets in the country.

Hundreds of Chinese-manufactured drones have been detected in restricted airspace over Washington, D.C., in recent months, a trend that national security agencies fear could become a new means for foreign espionage. The recreational drones made by Chinese company DJI, which are designed with “geofencing” restrictions to keep them out of sensitive locations, are being manipulated by users with simple workarounds to fly over no-go zones around the nation’s capital. Federal officials and drone industry experts have delivered classified briefings to the Senate Homeland Security, Commerce and Intelligence committees on the development, three people privy to the meetings said. A spokesperson...

The Biden administration has been hesitant to send the drone to Ukraine amid fears that sensitive technologies may end up in Russian hands. What's happening: A group of 16 bipartisan senators, led by Joni Ernst (R-Iowa) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), is urging Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to answer a series of questions on transferring the MQ-1C Gray Eagle, since the armed drone is Ukraine’s “highest priority” military transfer request. The Biden administration considered transferring the MQ-1C for the last several months across 24 assistance packages. During that time, Russia has started using Iranian TB-2 drones, and the technology is threatening...

According to new FEC documents, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell grabbed large sums of money from FTX and quietly pocketed it. The documents show McConnell’s Senate Leadership Fund receiving $2,500,000 from someone at FTX, the crypto company that collapsed last week. Thelibertydaily.com reports: The money goes from taxpayers, is sent as “aid” to Ukraine, which gives a good chunk of the laundered money to FTX, which contributes to the Uniparty Swamp. This prompts the Uniparty Swamp to repeat the process, and as we’ve seen over the past several months, it’s working wonders. Corporate media barely reports on all the money...

The FTX crypto slush fund run by now-disgraced Sam Bankman-Fried (and his MIT college buddies) laundered money for Ukraine into nearly $40 million worth of campaign donations for Democrats in the 2022 mid-term elections. Over the last year, Joe Biden and the Democrats have pushed through well over $50 billion in funding for Ukraine, using US taxpayer money. Internationally, over $100 billion has been donated to Ukraine, according to Devex.com which has compiled worldwide donations and grants to the Ukrainian cause. FTX simultaneously processed donations to Ukraine by using its crypto infrastructure. As CoinDesk.com reported in May of this year,...

Detailed commentary with maps from a bird's eye view along with Denys Davydov expertise in all kinds of vehicles and weapons.

Leaked audio from days after the 2016 election, before Trump’s inauguration—Biden calls Poroshenko, then head of state of Ukraine, and threatens him with assassination if he cooperates with the incoming Trump administration.

A newly released transcript of a call between Russian President Vladimir Putin and French President Emmanuel Macron on the eve of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reveals Putin prioritized a game of ice hockey ahead of scheduling peace negotiations with U.S. President Joe Biden.The transcript of the Feb. 20 phone call between Putin and Macron was obtained and jointly published by AFP and the French-language publication Le Temps. The transcript revealed that during the call between Macron and Putin, the French president asked Putin to agree to meet U.S. President Joe Biden in Geneva, Switzerland for peace talks…

Russian President Vladimir Putin would not have started the war in Ukraine if he was a woman, according to British Prime Minister Boris Johnson. "If Putin was a woman, which he obviously isn't, but if he were, I really don't think he would've embarked on a crazy, macho war of invasion and violence in the way that he has," Johnson told German broadcaster ZDF on Tuesday evening. Putin's invasion of Ukraine is "a perfect example of toxic masculinity," he said, calling for better education for girls around the world and for "more women in positions of power."

General Timo Kivinen said Finland has prepared for decades for a Russian attack and would put up stiff resistance if it happened. He added a crucial factor is Finns would be motivated to fight. The defence chief said: "Ukraine has been a tough bite to chew [for Russia] and so would be Finland." He added the Nordic country has built up a substantial arsenal. General Kivinen said: "We have systematically developed our military defence precisely for this type of warfare that is being waged there [in Ukraine], with a massive use of firepower, armoured forces and also airforces." Helsinki has...

The conflict in Ukraine is driving a modernization of NATO weaponry, honing the alliance’s ability to face off against Russia and adding to the list of unintended consequences from Moscow’s invasion of its smaller neighbor. Former East Bloc NATO members have been arming Ukraine with Soviet-designed equipment similar to Kyiv’s existing gear. That has permitted a military housecleaning of their own arsenals on a scale that would have been unimaginable months ago. In turn, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will help its eastern members replace those arms with newer ones, greatly improving efficiency.

Member states of both NATO and the European Union, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have repeatedly called on NATO to provide a substantial increase in the number of foreign troops stationed in the region following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. The Baltic countries have also pushed for an urgent update to the alliance’s so-called “tripwire” approach. That’s because, under NATO’s existing strategy, Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has warned that the former Soviet state and its historic capital city of Tallinn would be “wiped off the map” in the event of a Russian attack, according to The Financial Times....

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany, June 27 (Reuters) - Two top OPEC oil producers, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, can barely increase oil production, French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday said he had been told by the UAE's president. Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been perceived as the only two countries in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) with spare capacity to boost global deliveries that could reduce prices. "I had a call with MbZ," Macron was heard telling U.S. President Joe Biden on the sidelines of the G7 summit, using shorthand for UAE leader Sheikh Mohammed bin...

Posted Jun 20, 2022 by Martin Armstrong Britain’s Military Chief of the General Staff had just taken that position and he has already told the army they need to prepare for war against Russia in Europe. He has told every soldier to prepare to fight Russia in a potential World War III. He has pledged to forge an Army that can beat Russia in battle and said that we must now prepare “to fight in Europe once again.” He added on his fourth day on the job: “There is now a burning imperative to forge an Army capable of fighting...

A document released by a news outlet on Tuesday reportedly shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ordered that his government destroy all the documents related to the nation’s biolabs being run in collaboration with the Hunter Biden-connected firm Metabiota. NBC may have actually caught this destruction on camera. ...

President Biden said the United States "has never seen anything like Putin’s tax on both food and gas," after the Labor Department announced Friday that inflation hit a new four-decade high in May. The Labor Department said Friday that the consumer price index, a broad measure of the price for everyday goods, including gasoline, groceries and rent, rose 8.6% in May from a year ago. Prices jumped 1% in the one-month period from April. Those figures were both higher than the 8.3% headline figure and 0.7% monthly gain forecast by Refinitiv economists. The president, from the Port of Los Angeles...

Since progress is reportedly being made on the Russian-Turkish talks to open up a “grain corridor” in the Black Sea, it makes sense why Moscow might have ordered its naval forces to pull back a bit to show that it’s negotiating in good faith, although there hasn’t yet been any confirmation from the Kremlin about this. Kiev claimed that its forces coerced the Russian navy to “retreat” 100 kilometers from the Ukrainian Coast, though this development hasn’t been independently confirmed. In the event that there’s any credibility to Moscow’s reported naval movements, then it’s unlikely that they were done under...