Free Republic

WASHINGTON — A senior Russian general had advance knowledge of Yevgeny Prigozhin’s plans to rebel against Russia’s military leadership, according to U.S. officials briefed on American intelligence on the matter, which has prompted questions about what support the mercenary leader had inside the top ranks.The officials said they are trying to learn if Gen. Sergei Surovikin, the former top Russian commander in Ukraine, helped plan Prigozhin’s actions last weekend, which posed the most dramatic threat to President Vladimir Putin in his 23 years in power.Surovikin is a respected military leader who helped shore up defenses across the battle lines after...

Federal investigators have quizzed former Donald Trump lawyer Rudy Giuliani as part of their investigation into the 45th president’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election. The former New York City mayor was joined by his attorney Robert Costello for the recent interview, though it is not entirely clear which topics were broached during the questioning, CNN reported late Tuesday. “The appearance was entirely voluntary and conducted in a professional manner,” Giuliani adviser Ted Goodman told the outlet. Special counsel Jack Smith was tasked last year with overseeing the Justice Department’s two investigations revolving around the 77-year-old Trump: his role in...

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach weighed in on the controversy surrounding comedian Roseanne Barr’s sarcastic remark that "nobody died in the Holocaust." Barr made the remarks during a discussion on free speech and misinformation on Theo Von’s podcast “This Past Weekend.” When Von asked if the 2020 presidential election was rigged, as former President Donald Trump has claimed, Barr exclaimed, “Of course not! 36 counties have 81 million people in them. That’s the truth and don’t you dare say anything against it or you’ll be off YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and all the other ones. Because there’s such a thing as the truth...

The Drag March in Manhattan's East Village featured topless women and plenty of drag performers chanting "We're coming for your children." A clip from Timcast of the event, the chanting, and the festivities went viral on social media, infuriating many who value childhood innocence. In response, NBC defended the chant, saying that it was just for fun, and is a way for LGBTQIA+ people to "own" the slurs that have been leveled against them. "We're here, we're queer, we're coming for your children," they sang to each other. NBC asserted that the drag marchers were saying "We're here, we're queer,...

On Sunday, left-wing New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed a bill to protect minors’ access to experimental, irreversible transgender surgeries and hormone treatments. The new measure will prohibit state courts from enforcing laws of other states that may authorize a child to be taken from their parents for providing transgender surgeries and treatments. In addition, it will not not allow state courts to consider gender transition care for children as child abuse. The bill also prohibits state and local authorities from cooperating with out-of-state agencies regarding “gender-affirming” care in New York, according to a report from NBC News. Hochul...

Dave Rubin of “The Rubin Report” shares a clip of Dr. Phil hosting a conversation about gender inclusivity and witnessing a 5th grade teacher school guests Eli Erlick, Dr. Yalda Safai, and Asra Nomani on if men can menstruate.

Roughly 100 migrants protested outside of the Portland Exposition Building Wednesday morning, briefly blocking traffic along a busy Park Ave, to raise alarm about the “awful conditions” inside the shelter, with one man telling the Maine Wire that there was not enough food and limited ability to shower. The migrants also complained about the uncertain future they face when taxpayer-funded benefits paying for their accommodations run out later this year. “We have children here, but the life is not very good,” said Reagan Mayemba, a migrant staying at the Portland Expo. Mayemba said that they will be “kicked out” in...

I am 81 years old. I am not running for President of the United States. Eighty is an age that consumes relentlessly. It presents visual challenges, plays with the mind, messes with the limbs, garbles syntax, disassociates memory from fact. To name a few. Also among the many reasons I am not running for the presidency is that few people have actually heard of me, and many of those who have might not consider me to be presidential timber. That brings us to Joe Biden: Though I very much dislike his policies, I wince but don’t laugh at his gaffes...

[Catholic Caucus] Disobedience In The Times Of The Pygmy Cardinals.Cardinal Mueller has just ordained six new priests. With a Traditional Latin Mass. Mueller is, God knows, no Traditionalist. In fact, I think his orthodoxy has been found lacking in past years, particularly in regard to his extremely unhealthy sympathy for the so-called liberation theology. Still, one must say that the guy is, a lot of the times, recognisably Catholic. Mueller is also not linked to the FSSP, or to some other Traditionalist order. His celebrating this important Mass in the Vetus Ordo can only signify that he wanted the whole...

LONDON -- Russia’s Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, has announced that Wagner Mercenary Group is to continue its operations in Africa and its troops are set to remain in place following the aborted armed mutiny by Wagner mercenary fighters in Russia on Saturday. Speaking in an interview with Russia Today, Lavrov said that the rebellion led by Wagner chief Yevgeny Prigozhin would not alter the group’s presence in Africa, saying "the work will continue."

Last week, we learned from IRS whistleblower Gary Shapley that U.S. Attorney David Weiss told multiple witnesses that the DOJ had instructed him not to pursue charges against Hunter Biden in California and Washington, D.C., even though Weiss and Attorney General Merrick Garland had insisted publicly that Weiss had complete authority in his investigation. Shapley’s claims have been confirmed by the New York Times.“But in mid-2022, Mr. Weiss reached out to the top federal prosecutor in Washington, Matthew Graves, to ask his office to pursue charges and was rebuffed, according to Mr. Shapley’s testimony,” the New York Times reported on...

With a looming implementation date of Saturday, July 1st, Leon County circuit judge J. Lee Marsh denied a plea on Tuesday to prevent a portion of the law that bars government workers from having union fees automatically deducted from their wages. The decision arrived after three unions and three union members from South Florida sought a temporary injunction against the imminent changes. This decision follows a similar ruling on Monday where a federal judge refused a similar request made by teachers unions. The law in question, SB 256, was signed into effect by Governor Ron DeSantis last month, sparking the...

Joe Biden on Wednesday stopped to chat with reporters on the South Lawn before he departed en route to Chicago, Illinois. A reporter asked Biden about Hunter’s threatening message to a Chinese business associate. .... Snip.... The July 2017 WhatsApp message Hunter Biden sent to Henry Zhao is as follows according to the IRS whistleblower: “I am sitting here with my father and we would like to understand why the commitment made has not been fulfilled. Tell the director that I would like to resolve this now before it gets out of hand, and now means tonight. And, Z, if...

Over 3,000 were already canceled or delayed by midday Wednesday, as the spate of severe weather battering the Northeast continued to impact major airlines. As of noon Wednesday, 799 flights within, into, or out of the US had been axed in addition to 2,457 delays, according to FlightAware. United Airlines was the worst hit, with 379 total cancellations and over 400 delays. JetBlue was also struggling with over 200 delays before 8 a.m. ET, Fox News Business said. A spokesperson for United told the outlet that the ongoing cancellations and delays were due to severe weather in the Northeast.

[Catholic Caucus] Papal Authority over Liturgy: A DialogueThe following fictional dialogue between hyperpapalist “Rockmeteller” (apologies to P.G. Wodehouse for stealing the name) and papal critic “Traddeus” is based on many real dialogues conducted online. It’s not intended to be systematic but to provoke thought about key issues (pun intended) that will only gain in importance as the blight of synodality—a delivery device for a certain brand of papally-shoved progressivism—continues to afflict the vineyard of the Church. PAK Rockmeteller: Traddeus, you’re always talking about “limits” to the pope’s authority over the liturgy. But what do you make of Pius XII’s Mediator...

On this date in 1906, four Egyptian villagers were hanged by the British after a UK soldier died in riot begun by a pigeon hunt. The Denshawai Incident — which is still to this day commemorated by its own museum — as an isolated event was one of those little local indignities that comprise a foreign military occupation. By the intersection of highhandedness on the one side and accumulated anger on the other it would become what George Bernard Shaw dubbed “the Denshawai Horror.” On June 13, a mere 15 days before the executions in this post, a gaggle of...

"Someone may well say, 'You have faith, and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.' You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?" (James 2:18-20). Even demonic faith is better than dead faith! In recent years there has been an alarming rise in the number of professing Christians who believe that there's no necessary relationship between what they believe and what they do. They say...

The Spirit has made it clear to me that all my praying is in vain unless I pray in faith. I could weep, fast, intercede, agonize and travail in prayer and still make no impact with the Lord at all unless I am doing it with simple, childlike faith. God will not act on our behalf without faith. Scripture says, “Let not that man [the doubter] suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:7, NKJV). Despite this, we often have very little confidence in God, so little faith in his willingness and desire to answer our heart’s...

LAS VEGAS (KLAS) — A wrong-way driver who died in a double-fatal crash she caused on a Las Vegas freeway had a blood-alcohol level nearly four times the legal limit and cocaine in her system, documents the 8 News Now Investigators obtained Tuesday said. The crash happened around 2:30 a.m. on Sunday, Feb 5. Quinyana Long, 39, the driver of a Cadillac, was traveling south in the northbound lanes of the 215 beltway, south of South Town Center Drive, state police said. Long was in the far-left lane when she hit a red Chevrolet pickup head-on, police said. As the...

During our honeymoon, my wife and I were blessed to tour the southern end of Ireland. It is a place brimming with history and beauty. We saw little villages, the Cliffs of Moher, and churches that have stood for somewhere in the neighborhood of a thousand years. And we met the people. Kind, funny, generous, and wise, despite the sad and troubled history of the island. It was in a pub in Ireland that a bartender taught me how to pour a “proper Guinness.” Almost a year ago, the government was making noises about creating “no prayer zones” around places...