Free Republic

In the Russian-occupied cities of Donetsk and Mariupol, an escalating water crisis has pushed daily life to the brink of survival. Water trickles out of taps for only a few hours every few days, often discolored and undrinkable. Entire neighborhoods have resorted to survival tactics like hauling water in buckets and collecting rainwater. Local residents and observers in eastern Ukrainian cities have called on Russian-imposed authorities to tackle what they have said is a devastating situation that demands immediate attention. 'We Live In A Water Desert' Once industrial heartlands of Ukraine, both Donetsk and Mariupol, as well as smaller towns...

Abbas' advisor: "Emotionally Oct. 7 stirred the emotions of all of us". Criticizing Hamas for the "disaster" suffered by Palestinians because of Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 massacre and ensuing war, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas' advisor admitted that the massacre itself was "praised and cheered" by Palestinians. In fact, the murder of over 1,100 Israelis including over 800 civilians, the wounding of over 5,000, and the kidnapping of 251 "stirred their emotions"..

Trump is rewriting the rules of politics, economics, and culture—and no one, not even the experts, knows what happens when the old orthodoxy finally breaks. Donald Trump’s far-ranging counter-revolution, to quote the old Star Trek mission statement, seeks “To boldly go where no one has gone before.” Because no conservative president has dared to question the last 70 years of progressive cultural, social, economic, and political dominance, all traditional wisdom, all our renowned “experts,” and all the self-described “authorities” have no real credibility in their mostly flawed analyses and wrong prognoses. Read what our legacy media predicted in March for...

In 2022, the ATF changed the procedures for filling out a Form 1 to make your own silencer. The ATF denied about 850 applications. The ATF claimed “Solvent Traps” were actually suppressors, started denying Form 1 applications, and required much more information about how a silencer was to be manufactured, and what parts would be used to make the silencer. Senators and representatives sent two letters, one from Representatives and one from Senators, to the Biden ATF asking for clarification of what the ATF was doing. Here is an excerpt from the Senate letter submitted to ATF on March 16,...

A man attending a recent Major League Soccer game claimed his choice of attire resulted in him being "asked to leave" the sporting event, according to a video posted on social media. The man, who identified himself in the video as Michael Weitzel, was seen wearing a red "Make America Great Again" hat at Energizer Park, St. Louis City SC's home stadium. "I am Michael Weitzel and I have been asked to leave because of the Donald Trump hat," he states in the video during an exchange with security personnel and law enforcement officers. A member of the venue's security...

An analysis of three recent statewide elections found that problems with voting machines were rare and easily fixed. This article is made possible through Spotlight PA’s collaboration with Votebeat, a nonpartisan news organization covering local election administration and voting. Sign up for Votebeat’s free newsletters here. Pennsylvania voters encountered only scattered voting-machine malfunctions that rarely affected their ability to cast ballots in recent elections, according to a Votebeat and Spotlight PA analysis of problems reported to the state. Counties reported a smattering of common problems with machines at polling places, such as paper jams and error messages. Such issues were...

On July 29 — the same day that EPA initiated the process of revoking the absurd “endangerment finding” that demonizes CO2 emissions from energy production (covered at Manhattan Contrarian here) — there was another equally momentous development on the energy front at the federal government. On that day, the Department of Energy released a lengthy Report with the title “A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate.” (Although the Report bears a date of July 23, the 29th appears to be the date when it was signed by Energy Secretary Chris Wright and officially released.)...

I once considered pitching publishers a book called 101 Things That Are Now Suddenly Gay, cataloguing the increasing number of completely non-gay things that fanatical homos now claim are gay after all, from ball bearings to hovercraft, upon no rational basis whatsoever. Yet I have already been beaten to it by a temporary daily series from the pages of lefty U.K. newspaper The Guardian to celebrate this summer’s annual Gay Pride Month(s). This was called “My Unexpected Pride Icon” and was basically my old proposed book in short serial form—but taken seriously, not as a rainbow-mocking joke. ...

Fact Check: Real photo shows Epstein accuser Chauntae Davies giving Bill Clinton shoulder massage in 2002 Claim: A 2002 photo accurately depicts 22-year-old Chauntae Davies, an accuser of Jeffrey Epstein, giving former President Bill Clinton a shoulder massage. Rating: Rating: True As rumors heated up in July 2025 surrounding the relationship between U.S. President Donald Trump and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein (who died by suicide in jail in 2019), a claim about a different presidential connection made the rounds online: a resurfaced photo that purportedly showed former President Bill Clinton receiving a massage from then-22-year-old Chauntae Davies, one of...

The weekend saw big protests. Plus, a bonus observation about what happened to the famous British Bobbies (i.e., police). For the last three decades, and with an explosively accelerating force in the last decade, Britain has opened its doors to the Third World, especially the Muslim Third World. In 1980, 5-6% of the British population was foreign-born. As of 2021, around 16% of the population was foreign-born, with estimates that the percentage may now be as high as 18%. This is a huge increase for a welfare state, especially one that is dedicating its resources to housing, feeding, and providing...

A SHOCKING Revelation in Washington during the NTSB's 3-day July Hearings on the January 29, 2025, DC Mid-Air Crash Between a US Army Black Hawk Training Helicopter and an American Airlines Passenger Jet. Pilot Rebecca Lobach, who was at the controls of the Black Hawk at the time of the crash, had a medical history of Vertigo and was heard on the Cockpit Voice Recorder Complaining that she felt dizzy seconds before the Mid-Air Fatal Crash. Also Who leaked the CVR to the New York Times #breakingnews #Planecrash #Flight5342 #americanairlines #NTSB SAY THANKS! Plus YouTube won't take 40 PERCENT! Get...

“The herdsmen ran away, and went to the city and reported everything, including what had happened to the demoniacs. And behold, the whole city came out to meet Jesus; and when they saw Him, they implored Him to leave their region” (Matthew 8:33–34). It’s startling to realize that some people do not respect Jesus as much as the demons do. But that was exactly the case for this city (probably ancient Gerasa). The populace wanted nothing to do with the Lord but actually begged Him to leave their area. Mark’s account of the incident gives us more clues to their...

Altman warned that AI has already rendered voice, face and other biometric authentication methods ineffective, urging immediate adoption of new identity technologies. Developed by Altman’s company Tools for Humanity, World ID verifies users via iris scans and stores their identity data using blockchain, aiming to distinguish real humans from AI bots online.

BERLIN — Historians have uncovered a blue jeans ad featuring Adolf Hitler from 1942. "Hitler has good jeans," declared the newly-unearthed advertisement, a clarion call for the violent establishment of a dominant Aryan race. "This blue jeans ad was truly the moment when Hitler's ambitions became clear," said historian Steve Marks. "The jeans, the sexy pose, the open call for eugenics to destroy deplorables... this photograph truly encapsulates the very heart of Naziism. Horrifying." While scholars have long speculated that Hitler must have modeled blue jeans as part of his fascist rule, the shocking ad has roiled historians. "We always...

We are living through an era of professional gaslighting so refined it could qualify for a Ph.D. in psychological warfare. The latest example? After years of establishment indifference, we are now being told -- loudly, breathlessly -- that Jeffrey Epstein’s legacy of elite depravity is the national scandal of the hour. Apparently, six years after his death, this is now urgent. That Donald Trump crossed paths with Epstein is supposed to be more damning than the years Epstein was welcomed by the Clinton inner circle, the Gates orbit, and the upper crust of academia, finance, and intelligence. Let me offer...

You can be excused for having flashbacks to October 2020 and 51 former intelligence officials claiming that the damning material (later revealed as true) on Hunter Biden's laptop have all the hallmarks of Russian disinformation if you had read the latest works of Rolling Stone.Why? Because they are rolling out that worn, sad trope again in a pathetic attempt to discredit the recent shocking Russiagate findings based on material in John Durham's annex. Without seeming to have any sense of shame or embarrassment, Rolling Stone published this story on Friday by Nikki McCann Ramirez, "MAGA’s New Russiagate ‘Evidence’ Was Likely...

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov did not rule out on Monday the possibility of a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and United States Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff. Witkoff is supposed to travel to Russia sometime this week, with Peskov saying Moscow is "always happy" to host him and describing him as "important, meaningful and very useful." Commenting on US President Donald Trump's decision to deploy two nuclear submarines after a Russian official's "foolish and inflammatory statements," Peskov said that "there can be no winner in a nuclear war" and stressed that the Kremlin is "very attentive...

Ron Paul is turning 90 this month. One of the most influential political figures of his time, Paul has meant many things to many people. Here’s at least a part of what he’s meant to me. When I was 20 years old, I supported Pat Buchanan for president. A southerner living in Boston, I was there for his 1996 Lexington battlefield campaign rally where Buchanan jeered at student protesters. “Come on, children, stop it or I’ll take away your Pell grants.” It was also exciting to see Buchanan on the covers of TIME and Newsweek, and to be living next...

There is no shortage of Internet forums filled with energetic contributors all predicting the imminent collapse of the West. Communicating about current events, culture, war, and the economy, a multitude of anonymous speakers publicize their worries every day. Western governments — increasingly insecure, hostile to tradition, and unmoored from any abiding principles — have decided that the best way to project strength is to silence critics. As European governments more overtly embrace censorship and criminalize speech, the incremental push toward a regulated online system requiring authenticated digital identities promises a future when only government-engineered narratives will be approved for public...

The Kremlin said on Monday that everyone should be careful about nuclear rhetoric, in its first response to a statement by U.S. President Donald Trump that he had ordered a repositioning of U.S. nuclear submarines. -snip- Peskov declined to answer directly when asked whether the Kremlin had tried to warn Medvedev to tone down his online altercation with Trump. "Listen, in every country, members of the leadership... have different points of view on events that are taking place, different attitudes. There are people who are very, very tough-minded in the United States of America and in European countries, so this...