Free Republic

Moscow’s advantage on the Ukraine battlefield is waning, experts say. But President Donald Trump seems disinclined to ramp up pressure on the Kremlin to engage in ceasefire talks.Russia’s battlefield strength in Ukraine has started to wane and it could run into serious shortages of manpower and weaponry by next year, even as President Donald Trump retreats from pressure on Moscow to end the war, according to senior U.S. and European officials and military experts. In recent days, Trump appears to have abandoned the threat of harsh financial sanctions he repeated as recently as two weeks ago if Moscow doesn’t agree...

Nathan’s Famous has found a foothold in Ukraine, a hot dog-loving country.The hot dog statue wore tennis shoes and held a Ukrainian flag in its left hand and an American flag in its right. (The hot dog had hands.) Standing outside the flagship store of the Ukrainian gas station chain Socar, the statue displayed a sign advertising “Nathan’s Famous” hot dogs in the same green curlicue script that promotes the chain at its original location in Brooklyn’s Coney Island and Nathan’s outlets everywhere. On a recent Wednesday afternoon, Ivan Pozniak, a 35-year-old airline pilot, walked past the statue and into...

ATLANTA (AP) — The billionaire heir and the former bartender.Many Democrats have been in and out of the spotlight as the party looks for effective counters to President Donald Trump and his second administration. But two disparate figures, Gov. JB Pritzker of Illinois and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, have seen their national profiles rise by delivering messages that excite a demoralized and fractured party. The governor, a 60-year-old heir to the Hyatt hotel fortune, and the congresswoman, the 35-year-old with working-class roots, both won their first elections in 2018. Both have urged mass resistance and accused their party...

PAINTSVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Janet Lynn Stumbo leaned on her cane and surveyed the two dozen or so voters who had convened in a small Appalachian town to meet with the chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party.A former Kentucky Supreme Court justice, the 70-year-old Stumbo said the event was “the biggest Democratic gathering I have ever seen in Johnson County,” an enclave where Republican Donald Trump got 85% of the presidential vote last November.Paintsville, the county seat, was the latest stop on the state party’s “Rural Listening Tour,” a periodic effort to visit overwhelmingly white, culturally conservative towns of the...

SummaryJudicial reform raises concerns over rule of law in Mexico Critics fear reform may increase organized crime influence Election agency could disqualify ineligible candidates after vote CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico, May 24 (Reuters) - When residents in the state of Durango vote in Mexico's first judicial elections next weekend, Leopoldo Chavez will be on the ballot for federal judge - despite the nearly six years he served in a U.S. prison. Chavez was convicted on drug offenses: for smuggling over 4 kilograms of methamphetamines in 2015. Durango is part of Mexico's Golden Triangle, a cartel-controlled region growing marijuana and opium poppies....

President Donald Trump this week enjoyed one of his biggest legislative victories during his second administration. "THE ONE, BIG, BEAUTIFUL BILL" has PASSED the House of Representatives!" Trump touted in a social media post Thursday. The president's post came soon after the GOP-controlled House passed Trump's sweeping tax and spending cuts package by a razor-thin margin. The Republican-crafted measure is full of Trump's campaign trail promises and second-term priorities on tax cuts, immigration, defense, energy and the debt limit. Ahead of the House vote, two surveys released earlier in the week indicated that the president's poll numbers remained underwater.

A frightening moment played out in front of a KTLA news crew along a popular shopping corridor in Pasadena Friday morning. While setting up a live shot outside an Apple Store on Colorado Boulevard, KTLA reporter Kimberly Cheng and photojournalist Andre Cox encountered an agitated man carrying several cases.

“This is an existential crisis — it’s an extinction event,” said Beau Flynn, a producer of big-budget movies like “San Andreas,” which despite being about an earthquake in California was filmed mostly in Australia. “These are real things. I am not a dramatist, even though I’m in the drama field.” Michael F. Miller Jr., a vice president at the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, who oversees film and television production for the union, said that roughly 18,000 full-time jobs have evaporated in the past three years, primarily in California. “We are allowing California to become to the entertainment industry...

In a new study, researchers at Purdue University have harnessed the power of advanced computer modeling to unravel the complex reasons why the United States has more tornado activity than any other region in the world.The study, spearheaded by Dr. Dan Chavas, an associate professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, delves into the geographical and climatic factors that make America the country with the strongest, most violent, and numerous tornadoes worldwide...The United States averages over 1,200 tornadoes every year, a staggering figure that surpasses the total annual twisters of all European countries combined. The country that...

May 21, 2025 LOUISIANA FIRST STATE TO UTILIZE NEW VOTER LIST MAINTENANCE DATABASEBATON ROUGE, La. — Louisiana has become the first state to utilize a new voter list maintenance database from the federal Department of Government Efficiency. This database combines information on individuals’ immigration status and death records.“Since taking office, I have repeatedly requested this critical data from the federal government to check Louisiana’s voter registration list,” Secretary of State Nancy Landry said. “After being stymied by the previous administration, I am thankful to President Trump for his quick work in crafting a cost-free, user-friendly database with valuable information that...

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna @RepLuna 🚨 According to eyewitness testimony from Dr. Don Curtis, who was present in the operating room with President Kennedy’s body on the day of his assassination in 1963, at least three distinct entry wounds were visible—located in separate areas—indicating that multiple bullets were fired from different directions. "How many bullets did you say?" "That were fired? Four." 5:49 PM · May 21, 2025

Rep. Anna Paulina Luna @RepLuna 🚨 According to Douglas P. Horne, Frm. Assassinations Record Review, President Kennedy sustained multiple bullet wounds, with photographic evidence to support this claim—evidence that was deliberately concealed and withheld from the official record. "8 different sets of photographs are not in the official collection today, and never have been." 5:45 PM · May 21, 2025

Target is struggling. Employees are worried. Online message boards used by hundreds of in-store staff are lighting up with fears about job security, increased workloads, and potential store closures. 'We are cooked,' one employee said on Reddit. 'Less and less hours with little to no change with what the expectations are from us all.' Another wrote: 'All we can do is ride it out and hope for the best. If it comes down to it, prepare a resume just in case.' Several workers have also posted TikTok videos showing backrooms overwhelmed with merchandise that hasn’t made it to the sales...

Germany may reinstate compulsory military service if a revamped volunteer system fails to meet recruitment goals, the defense minister said in comments published Saturday. In an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, Boris Pistorius laid out a timeline for Germany’s new military service model, which aims to bolster the understrength army. The initial program will rely on voluntary enlistment, but Pistorius warned that could change. "If the time comes when we have more capacity available than voluntary registrations, then a decision may be made to make recruitment mandatory. That is the roadmap," he said. He said the government of Chancellor...

The Saudi newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat reports that Hamas is facing a severe financial crisis amid ongoing fighting with Israel across Gaza. Sources within the terror group revealed that Hamas is struggling to pay salaries — not only to government employees, but also to members of its military wing and staff in other affiliated bodies at all levels. The sources added that the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas' military wing, have not paid salaries to terrorists for approximately three months and are facing serious financial difficulties in acquiring essential equipment...

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) pressed Senate Republicans to advance President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill,” which the House passed earlier this week. Gingrich said that GOP senators have “every right” to formulate their version of the president’s mega bill, but if they care about the United States economy and their constituents, they will eventually vote to pass it through the upper chamber and get it to Trump’s desk for signing. “It blocks a huge tax increase, it creates much better regulatory environment. It takes out a great deal of the waste in government. It’s not perfect. Look. We balanced the...

A prominent trans activist based in Philadelphia is currently standing trial on charges of sexually assaulting two young boys. Attorneys for Kendall Stephens, born Johnathan, are seeking access to personal documents related to the young victims in a bid to exonerate their client. Stephens, 39, identifies as transgender and was formerly a prominent LGBTQ+ advocate in Philadelphia. He was arrested on December 18, 2023, after charges involving multiple counts of child sexual abuse were filed against him by the Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General. Stephens allegedly engaged in oral sex with a boy, identified in court records as Z.B.,...

The father of a teen football star who was stabbed to death at a college track meet has challenged a school's decision to let his killer graduate. Jeffrey Metcalf has filed a formal complaint about Centennial High School awarding Karmelo Anthony his diploma - despite being accused of murdering his son Austin. Anthony, 18, is alleged to have pulled the knife on 17-year-old Austin at the stadium in Frisco, Texas, on April 2, before his victim bled out in his twin brother's arms. The sickening attack has since sparked a toxic culture war as some rowed in behind the attacker...

Leader of White Supremacist Group ‘Maniac Murder Cult’ Recruited Others to Bomb and Poison the Jewish Community and Racial Minorities Defendant Allegedly Planned Scheme to Distribute Poisoned Candy on New Year’s EveGeorgian national Michail Chkhikvishvili, also known as Mishka, Michael, Commander Butcher, and Butcher, 21, of Tbilisi, was extradited to the United States from Moldova on May 22, and will be arraigned in federal court in Brooklyn today. Chkhikvishvili was arrested in Chișinău, Moldova, in July 2024 in connection with a four-count indictment returned in the Eastern District of New York charging him with soliciting hate crimes and acts of...

A Colombian national was sentenced today in the Southern District of Florida for her role in kidnapping and assaulting two members of the U.S. military who were on temporary duty in Bogotá, Colombia.Kenny Julieth Uribe Chiran, 35, was sentenced to 262 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay $24,115 in restitution. She is the third and final defendant to be sentenced and held accountable for this criminal conspiracy. She pleaded guilty in March 2025 to conspiracy to kidnap an internationally protected person.“Uribe Chiran and her co-defendants mercilessly preyed on U.S. soldiers when they...