Free Republic

Growing up in St. Petersburg, Dasha, a 29-year-old marketer and artist, dreamed of having a “complete family.” Raised by her mother and grandmother, her father left when she was in elementary school. ”I grew up thinking that I would be married and have a family of my own before I turned 25,” she told Fortune. But Russia’s political instability and financial uncertainties have recently led her to renounce having kids. In Dasha’s lifetime, Russian President Vladimir Putin has invaded Ukraine twice; the war’s consequences have taken a heavy toll on everyday Russians like her. Life in Russia has become “too...

Concerns over a new multi-front Russian offensive in Ukraine are legitimate but exaggerated. Lukashenko is deeply hesitant to participate in Putin's war. The dictator has so far resisted significant pressure from Putin to join. Lukashenko recognizes the battlefield crisis facing Russia and wants to avoid further Western sanctions against his struggling country's economy. Even if he is an odd character, Lukashenko is not stupid. He knows that the war unpopular in Belarus, and the Belorussian military is relatively small. If the Belorussian military enters the war and suffers major losses, Lukashenko risks losing his means of controlling restive population. That...

There were explosions in the Russian city of Shebekino, Belgorod Oblast, which is not far from the border with Ukraine. Part of the city has been left without electricity, and there is a wounded person.Source: Russian Telegram channels; Vyacheslav Gladkov, Governor of Belgorod Oblast, on TelegramQuote from Gladkov: "The Shebekino City district is being shelled. According to preliminary information, there is one casualty, a man with fractured forearm bones.The power supply has been disrupted as a result of the shelling. One-third of the city’s residents are left without power.", ' , , . ³ Telegram- pic.twitter.com/aon4roTaD1— ✌️ (@ukrpravda_news) December 20,...

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) requested at least 19 earmarks totaling over $60 million in the $1.7 trillion, 4,155-page omnibus bill. If the bill passes both chambers of Congress, Murkowski’s state of Alaska will be granted by Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-KY), on behalf of American taxpayers, $60,852,000 worth of pork for housing and urban development, along with infrastructure. The specifics of the many line items include: Providence Alaska-Permanent Supportive Housing for Providence Alaska Foundation ($7,500,000) Cabin Community Projects for Sitka Homeless Coalition ($1,000,000) Rehabilitation of Bering Sea Women’s Shelter for Bering Sea Women’s Group ($2,000,000) Norton Sound Health Corporation Housing for...

Outgoing Senate Appropriations Committee Vice Chair Richard Shelby (R-AL) slipped $656 million worth of earmarks into the $1.7 trillion omnibus spending bill. Congressional leaders dropped the $1.7 trillion, 4,155-page omnibus spending bill at 1:30 a.m. ET, giving lawmakers little time to digest the implications of the mammoth legislation. While the bill may have many major reforms that are readily apparent, lawmakers also slipped hard-to-find earmarks into the bill. Many lawmakers, such as Shelby, are retiring and face few political repercussions for pushing a bill that contains many special interest carveouts and increases the deficit.

Vladimir Putin on Tuesday angrily gave marching orders to Russia’s security forces to redouble their efforts to root out traitors and spies working to undermine his regime. -snip- “Maximum composure, concentration of forces is now required from counterintelligence agencies, including military intelligence,” Putin said. “It is necessary to harshly crack down on the actions of foreign special services, promptly identify traitors, spies and saboteurs.” In an uncharacteristic break from the official line that the so-called “special military operation” is going according to plan, Putin admitted the situation was “difficult” in the four regions of Ukraine that were illegally annexed by...

Three people have died after a blast tore through a pipeline near the Russian–Ukrainian border in the third explosion to hit infrastructure in days. Photos and video today showed pillars of fire erupting from the Urengoy-Pomary-Uzhgorod pipeline in the Vurnar district of Chuvashia, Russia, per Reuters. Local officials on Telegram and the TASS news agency said the flow of gas through the pipeline has been cut off as of 1:50pm local time. Three people have died and one has been injured, emergency services told TASS. The Chuvashia regional Emergencies Ministry said the pipeline blew up during planned upkeep work new...

I miss Rush so much. There are a few people in my life who constantly look to me to inspire them, tell them there is hope, encourage them. But the person who did that for me was Rush Limbaugh. “I’ll tell you when it’s time to panic,” he used to say. Except you know what? Deep down, Rush was never going to come to that point where it was time to panic. He had a deep-seated, abiding faith in America and her institutions; of her founding by God; of her (still) unique place in all the world. For those reasons,...

All of North Korea’s ICBM tests have been performed at a steep angle to avoid neighboring countries. Some experts have said without the standard-trajectory launch of ICBMs, the reliability of North Korean weapons cannot be guaranteed. Touching upon those doubts, Kim Yo Jong suggested North Korea might fire an ICBM at a normal trajectory, a launch that could be considered as a much bigger provocation to the U.S. as the weapon would fly toward the Pacific Ocean. “I can clear up their doubt about it. They will immediately recognize it in case we launch an ICBM in the way of...

OUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Police charged a 26-year-old man with murder after a former Eastern High School student was killed in a wrong way crash on Hurstbourne Parkway over the weekend. According to Alicia Smiley, a spokeswoman for the Louisville Metro Police Department, Porfirio Cruz Hernandez is charged with murder, wanton endangerment, driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs and operating a motor vehicle without a valid operator's license. As of Monday afternoon, Hernandez remained hospitalized with non-life-threatening injuries. The crash took place around 4 a.m. Sunday at the intersection of South Hurstbourne Parkway and Fegenbush Lane. Police said...

Carina Nebula (NGC 3324) captured by Webb’s Near-Infrared Camera (NIRCam) (NASA/ESA/CSA/STScI) The powerful James Webb Space Telescope is a mighty technological tool. Astrophysicists first conceived it over 20 years ago, and after many twists and turns, it was launched on December 25, 2021. Now it's in a halo orbit at the Sun-Earth L2 point, where it will hopefully continue operating for 20 years. It's only been a few months since its first images were released, and it's already making progress in answering some of the Universe's most compelling questions. In a newly-released image, the JWST peered deep inside massive clouds...

What can regular people do to take back their country from woke radicals? Take over local institutions, one at a time. One of the things I get asked from time to time by readers is, what can ordinary people on the right, Christians and conservatives, do to help save the country — besides voting on Election Day? It’s a good question, and it comes from the very understandable feeling of helplessness many people feel about the direction of the country and, let’s be honest, the collapse of Western civilization that’s now well underway. It’s especially easy to get frustrated after...

Ukraine’s Ministry of Finance has announced that it received $2 billion from the US, allocated through the World Bank (WB) mechanism to support the Ukrainian state budget, Report informs with reference to TASS. “The state budget of Ukraine received grant funds in the amount of $2 billion from the World Bank trust fund,” the country’s Ministry of Finance said in a statement. “The funds were provided by the United States through a World Bank Trust Fund under the Public Expenditure Support for Sustainable Governance in Ukraine project,” the agency added.

Maybe you've read of the often life-threatening plight of Americans who've been injured by COVID-19 vaccines, and you want to help. Please start by giving generously to React19, an organization that represents more than 20,000 COVID-19 vaccine–injured Americans. Founded in November 2021 by a small group of vaccine-injured folks, React19 is a nonpartisan organization raising awareness of the struggles of vaccine-injured people by telling their stories, offering support, and lobbying elected officials. While the Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System has tallied more than 400,000 people who've been injured by these vaccines, the government hasn't developed a plan to study them....

The White House press office declared a mid-morning “lid” on Tuesday as the Supreme Court weighs the fate of the Title 42 pandemic migration policy — while border communities and major US cities brace for a potential humanitarian crisis. A White House pool report sent at 10:35 a.m. relayed that President Biden’s staff declared the lid, which means that no public events are planned or likely to happen. It’s unusual to call a presidential lid so early in the day, since major domestic or international news could prompt schedule changes. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts paused plans Monday to...

CDC said that increases in Strep A, flu and RSV cases are tied to lockdowns ... Leading US health officials have finally acknowledged that pandemic restrictions they supported may have fueled a boom in respiratory bugs currently overwhelming hospitals. Healthcare systems across the country have been pushed to the brink after an unseasonably high number of flu and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases with some pediatric units forced to erect inflatable tents to treat patients in parking lots. ... In a statement to DailyMail.com, the CDC said it was 'hearing from some doctors and state health departments about an apparent...

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There's nothing like gathering the family during the holidays to watch a good old-fashioned Christmas movie! There are so many timeless classics out there, full of iconic moments we love to relive again and again! Our researchers watched all the Christmas films ever made and found the 9 absolute greatest Christmas movie moments: That time when John McClane throws a terrorist out the window onto a police car and says "Welcome to the party, pal!": Aw yeah, CLASSIC. That part where John McClane puts a Santa hat on that dead German terrorist and sends him down the elevator: I HAVE...

(NEXSTAR) – Officials across several U.S. states are warning against a rise in scams that leave SNAP beneficiaries without any money in their account and no other way to buy groceries. One mom in Oklahoma didn’t realize she had been victimized until she tried to buy a $1 drink. Her EBT card was rejected for “insufficient funds,” Nexstar’s KFOR reported. She later found out someone had spent all $462 at a market in Brooklyn, New York. A single father of eight kids, also in Oklahoma, recently had $800 stolen from his account. “I don’t have that extra support. I can’t...

It's time for every American to wake up to what our nation has become. Now that we're approaching the three-year anniversary of COVID-1984's global demolition (or "Great Reset" in World Economic Forum parlance), reality looks very different from what many people once perceived it to be. Raise your hand if you thought "free" nations would declare the authority to close millions of small businesses until they went bankrupt and folded. Or whether never-before-used, experimental cocktails of mRNA "vaccine" would be coercively injected into citizens. Did you think governments would conspire to cover up "vaccine"-related injuries and deaths? Did you expect...