Free Republic

It turns out Volodymyr Zelensky did have another card to play.Ukraine’s astonishing drone attack on military airfields and critical assets deep inside Russia on Sunday blindsided the Kremlin, destroyed at least a dozen strategic bombers and marked a seismic shift in modern warfare.The mission, dubbed Operation Spider’s Web, was a fresh reminder to leaders of the world’s most advanced militaries that the toughest threats they face today are not limited to their regular rivals with expensive gear. Instead, swarms of small, off-the-shelf drones that can evade ground defenses can also knock out billions of dollars of military hardware in an...

This week, President Donald Trump’s border czar said that he is “convinced” there will be a major terrorist attack in the United States as a direct result of former President Joe Biden’s open border policies. “It’s coming,” Homan said in an interview on Fox News, adding that there were 2 million “got aways” who crossed the border during Biden’s tenure. “Why did 2 million illegal aliens pay more to get away?” Homan told Hannity. “They could have paid half of what they paid to cross the border, turn themselves in to Border Patrol agents, get released that same day, get...

The Dutch government collapsed on Tuesday after the Party for Freedom led by Geert Wilders pulled out of the coalition over the government’s asylum policy. Wilders had been adamant leading up to the collapse that without strict restrictions on immigration, his party would leave the coalition government. Wilders made good on those threats Tuesday. “We had no choice. I promised the voters the strictest asylum policy ever, but that was not granted to you,” said Wilders, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Netherlands’ prime minister, Dick Schoof, said Tuesday following the Party for Freedom’s exit that he would hand...

BEIJING (AP) — For most Chinese, the 36th anniversary of a bloody crackdown that ended pro-democracy protests in China passed like any other weekday. And that’s just how the ruling Communist Party wants it.Security was tight Wednesday around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where weeks of student-led protests shook the party in 1989. Under then-leader Deng Xiaoping, the military was sent in to end the protest on the night of June 3-4. Using live ammunition, soldiers forced their way through crowds that tried to block them from reaching the square. Hundreds and possibly thousands of people were killed, including dozens of soldiers.The...

The Justice Department on Tuesday charged two Chinese researchers with attempting to smuggle a fungus dubbed "Fusarium graminearum," into the U.S. which it claimed scientific research "classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon." The two researchers, identified as 33-year-old Yunqing Jian and 34-year-old Zunyong Liu, were allegedly receiving funding from the Chinese government for their research, and were allegedly citizens of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The pair, who were supposedly dating, allegedly lied to U.S. officials about the fungus in Detroit last year, with Liu stating he did not know how the material ended up in his luggage. He...

Momentum has built for the U.S. government to formally designate the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist organization in the weeks since President Donald Trump’s Middle East trip, lawmakers and other sources familiar with the effort tell the Washington Free Beacon. While the parties involved iron out the final details, sources working on the effort said that lawmakers have multiple avenues to financially cripple the Muslim Brotherhood, a global Islamist organization that preaches terrorism against Israel, the United States, and Western governments. The recent push began building steam last month, when the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy...

Three days after Ukraine launched its most complex attack against Russia since the full-scale war began, details of how it was carried out and the damage it caused to Russia’s strategic bomber fleet are still emerging. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the operation, dubbed “Spider’s Web”, as “absolutely brilliant”, although the extent of Russian military losses remains unclear. On Wednesday, he said that of the 41 planes damaged, half cannot be repaired. The attacks targeted at least four Russian military air bases, the furthest of which from Ukraine is the Belaya base in the Siberian region of Irkutsk, around 4,850...

Citigroup announced Tuesday that it’s ending its policy restricting banking services to businesses selling firearms, citing “regulatory developments, recent executive orders and federal legislation.” The policy, which required retailers to limit gun sales to people over 21, was originally implemented in 2018 after a 19-year-old shot and killed 17 students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. However, in a statement released Tuesday, the bank indicated it will “no longer have a specific policy regarding firearms.” “The policy was intended to promote the adoption of best sales practices as prudent risk management and didn’t address the manufacturing of...

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that recent U.S. tariff increases will reduce federal deficits by $2.8 trillion over the next decade, primarily through increased customs revenue and lower interest payments on federal debt—more than enough to offset the projected cost of President Donald Trump’s proposed tax cut bill. In a separate analysis, the CBO recently estimated that extending the 2017 tax cuts, as proposed in the administration’s new tax and spending bill, would increase the deficit by roughly $2.4 trillion over the same period. That legislation would reduce federal revenues by $3.67 trillion while cutting spending by $1.25 trillion,...

The Army announced on Tuesday that it "surpassed" its fiscal year 2025 recruiting goal of bringing in 61,000 recruits, and there are still four months left to go. This year’s goal is more than 10% higher than the 55,000 recruits targeted in fiscal 2024, demonstrating a surge in interest and enthusiasm for Army service. Recent recruiting momentum has seen average contracts per day exceeding last year’s levels by as much as 56% during the same period. The Army has not reached its recruiting goals this early in the year since 2014, Army officials said in a statement. Army Chief of...

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had a "good conversation" with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a call about Ukraine's recent drone attack and Iran. Following Ukraine's major drone attack deep on air bases inside Russia, Trump reported that Putin told him Russia "will have to respond". Trump also warned in a social media post that the phone call, which lasted more than an hour, would not "lead to immediate Peace". The two leaders also discussed Iran, and Putin suggested he could help with nuclear talks with the country. The conversation between the two leaders marks the first...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The United States Navy announced this morning that the USS Harvey Milk will be officially renamed the USS No Homo. Christened the 'Harvey Milk' four years ago in honor of the infamous gay sexual predator, the ship's name change reflects a broader effort by military leadership to clarify that the Navy isn't actually that gay. "Despite the uniforms, the Navy isn't just nancy boys and fairies," said Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth. "The names of our ships ought to reflect that non-gayness. It's hard enough for them already, wearing their fruity little sailor outfits, without also having...

President Donald Trump said early Wednesday morning that Chinese President Xi Jinping is “very tough” and “extremely hard to make a deal with” as the United States attempts to advance trade talks with China. While the president’s top trade officials have met with their Chinese counterparts, Trump has yet to sit down with Xi since imposing massive tariffs on Chinese imports. A senior White House official told CNBC that Trump and Xi would likely speak “very soon,” potentially this week. “I like President Xi of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO...

A 22-year-old man has been arrested in Pakistan and confessed to the murder of 17-year-old social media influencer Sana Yousaf, according to police. Authorities say they believe Umar Hayat murdered Ms Yousaf at her home in Islamabad on Monday after she rejected what they called his "offers of friendship". He allegedly also repeatedly tried, and failed, to meet her. They say he broke into her home, fired two shots, stole her phone and fled. Her last video on Instagram, posted last week, showed her surrounded by balloons and cutting a cake for her birthday. Given her high profile in Pakistan,...

[snip] Juliette Kayyem is a former Obama DHS official who is now a CNN senior national security analyst. Introducing her on Tuesday's CNN This Morning, host Audie Cornish didn't disclose Kayyem's Obama affiliation. Cornish proceeded to tee up Kayyem to criticize the Trump administration in connection with the Boulder attack: "Given the cuts to the Justice Department grant programs that actually deal with hate crimes and prevention, is this DOJ even positioned to deal with a rising problem [of antisemitic incidents]? Kayyem was only too happy to swing at that tee ball: "It is in a tougher position than it...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — In a merciful miracle, the Spirit of the Lord strengthened Elon one last time to push the pillars of Congress over, bringing the government crashing down. According to sources at the Capitol, the miracle occurred just in time to stop Congress's "big, beautiful" spending bill from being passed, while also causing the entire Capitol Building to violently collapse. Experts say the bill now has little chance of passage, as it is buried in rubble along with several hundred politicians. "Elon called to the Lord," said one witness. "He said, 'O Lord God, please remember me and...

Former White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has a book out this fall that promises a close look at President Biden’s decision not to run for reelection and calls for thinking beyond the two-party system. Jean-Pierre herself has switched her affiliation to independent after working in two Democratic administrations, according to Legacy Lit, a Hachette Book Group imprint that will publish “Independent: A Look Inside a Broken White House, Outside the Party Lines” on Oct. 21. “Until January 20, I was responsible for speaking on behalf of the President of the United States,” Jean-Pierre, the first Black woman and openly...

Here are 50 reasons why President Donald J. Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill is the best chance in a generation to pass critical reforms for which Americans voted:It delivers the largest tax cut in American history. This means an extra $5,000 in Americans’ pockets with a DOUBLE-DIGIT percent DECREASE to their tax bills. Americans earning between $30,000 and $80,000 will pay around 15% less in taxes.It makes the Trump Tax Cuts permanent, preventing the largest tax increase ever. If the bill doesn’t pass, Americans will see the largest tax increase in history.It raises Americans’ take-home pay by as much as...

In just the last six months, a socialist torched the governor’s mansion in Pennsylvania. A trust-fund psycho stalked a healthcare CEO and then shot him in the back. An illegal alien from Egypt named Mohammed threw Molotov cocktails at a group of Jewish demonstrators. Mobs of visibly unhealthy Antifa activists attacked a Christian concert in Seattle, injuring several people and sending one police officer to the hospital. (And then the attackers effectively received an endorsement from the mayor of Seattle.) A man from Massachusetts was arrested at the Capitol after admitting that he planned to set fire to the conservative...

Americans have been warned about the risks posed by dating apps after several kidnappings in Mexico. The U.S. Consulate General Guadalajara said it had confirmed reports of U.S. citizens "kidnapped by individuals the victims met on dating apps in recent months in the Puerto Vallarta and Nuevo Nayarit areas," adding the violence is not limited to one geographic area. "Victims and their family members in the United States have at times been extorted for large sums of money to secure their release," the security alert said.