Free Republic

Russia will only agree to security guarantees for Ukraine if it has the power to veto them, its foreign minister has said.Sergei Lavrov said that any attempt to bolster Ukrainian security that did not involve Moscow was a “road to nowhere” and “will not work”.Mr Lavrov said a “very good example” of a potential blueprint could be found in the Istanbul framework of 2022.Under a draft discussed at the time, Ukraine would have received guarantees from a group of countries including the five permanent members of the UN Security Council – China, Russia, the United States, Britain and France. Kyiv...

A serial pedophile has agreed to be castrated as part of a plea deal after he was caught trying to sexually assault a seven-year-old girl. Thomas Allen McCartney, 37, is classified a 'Tier Three' offender and is considered one of Louisiana's worst child predators. McCartney has agreed to be both physically and chemically castrated as part of plea deal Tuesday in order to reduce his prison sentence - although he'll still spend 40 years in prison, according to local station Fox 12. Louisiana is the first and only state to allow surgical castration to be used as a punishment for...

Dick Eastland warned for decades about the hidden dangers of the beautiful but volatile Guadalupe River, a peril he saw firsthand while running his family’s youth camp alongside its banks. Eastland saw floods damage Camp Mystic again and again – and his pregnant wife was even airlifted to a hospital while the camp in central Texas was cut off by floodwaters. He successfully pushed for a new flood warning system after 10 children at a nearby camp were swept to their deaths in 1987, and in recent years served on the board of the local river authority as it supported...

President Donald Trump signed an executive order in April enforcing regulations already on the books for truck drivers. "America’s truck drivers are essential to the strength of our economy, the security of our Nation, and the livelihoods of the American people. Every day, truckers perform the demanding and dangerous work of transporting the Nation’s goods to businesses, customers, and communities safely, reliably, and efficiently," the order states. "Proficiency in English, which I designated as our official national language in Executive Order 14224 of March 1, 2025 (Designating English as the Official Language of the United States), should be a non-negotiable...

Some viral videos this month claim that Spain’s humanitarian aid dropped in Gaza contained pork or allegedly stale food. The controversy started after a clip, posted by a Palestinian journalist named Alam El-Din Sadiq, showed a young boy opening a bag of aid in Khan Yunis, alleging the supplies were mouldy and later sold in markets for over NIS 300 (about €75). Other reports claim that Spanish humanitarian aid in Gaza included ‘pork meatballs’ and pork, a food that the Islamic religion prohibits Muslims from eating. Spanish authorities’ response: “It’s halal-certified!” Over the last two months, Spain has dropped roughly...

The Army is launching a massive new artillery ammo factory in the heart of the Midwest, Axios reported on Wednesday. The Future Artillery Complex is set to go up at the Iowa Army Ammunition Plant, aiming to produce approximately 36,000 shells a month, according to Axios. MSM Group North America, a U.S.-based defense manufacturer under the Czechoslovak Group, will spearhead the facility’s construction with a $635 million contract. “Our principle objective is to expand the depth of the industrial base, particularly ammunition,” MSM Group CEO Jason Gaines told Axios. “The companies we have partnered with are all extremely capable in...

A technology company in southern China is developing a humanoid robot equipped with an artificial womb, designed to carry and give birth to human children. The project, announced by Kaiwa Technology and expected to debut by 2026, marks a significant step in artificial gestation. As China develops a pregnancy robot capable of full-term human reproduction, experts are closely watching the ethical and scientific implications. Guangzhou-based Kaiwa Technology revealed that the robot will be capable of carrying a fetus through a ten-month gestation cycle and assisting in childbirth. The company says it plans to sell the product for under 100,000 yuan,...

The rural Kentucky judge gunned down in his own chambers last year ran a twisted sex ring in which young women were coaxed into performing sexual favors just to get out of trouble, one of the alleged victims claims. Tya Adams alleges she was among those caught up in Judge Kevin Mullins’ apparent sex-for-favors scheme that saw him and others in the tiny town of Whitesburg demand sex in exchange for cash, or to get offenders off the hook. Adams told NewsNation’s “Banfield” that Mullins — who was shot execution-style in his Letcher County chambers, allegedly by his longtime sheriff...

Democrat lawmakers in California thought they could get away with a reckless bill that would allow for the trafficking of children, but they thought wrong! On Tuesday, thousands of people rallied against it at the state’s Capitol and online, as RLN Founder and Calvary Chapel Chino Hills Senior Pastor Jack Hibbs encouraged all those opposed to keep fighting for children. While the advancement of AB 495 is delayed, RLN’s Daniel Cohen exposes the danger and why it’s imperative to stay vigilant until it’s officially put on ice. Video is 4 minutes long

Omygosh! Voldemoort Zelenskyy stars in a Ukrainian sitcom about how an ordinary Ukrainian is installed as President of Ukraine.

Major liberal philanthropies are pledging $50 million to keep NPR and PBS member stations afloat after President Donald Trump pulled $1.1 billion in funding from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the primary source of federal support for NPR and PBS, according to a Monday report. "The Knight Foundation is committing $10 million to the fund, which aims to disburse the money before the end of the year," the New York Times reported. "Together with Knight, the Ford Foundation, the MacArthur Foundation, the Schmidt Family Foundation, Pivotal Ventures and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation have already committed nearly $27 million for...

The parents of children who were among the 27 killed at Camp Mystic on Texas' Guadalupe River during the historic Fourth of July flash flooding that devastated the Hill Country region gave emotional testimony on Wednesday before a state legislative committee probing the disaster. A coalition of Camp Mystic parents testified before the Texas Senate Disaster Preparedness and Flooding Select Committee, which is considering reforms to increase safety at youth camps across the state. Cici Williams Steward told the committee that her 8-year-old daughter, Cile Steward, is the only Camp Mystic camper still missing, and one of two flood victims...

Sen. Amy Klobuchar is calling for new legislation to address “deepfakes” after a highly realistic AI-generated video that appeared to show her making outrageous statements about Sydney Sweeney’s American Eagle jeans ad went viral. The Minnesota Democrat took to the opinion page of the New York Times Wednesday to clear the air after the video made the rounds online, appearing to show her speaking at a recent Senate Judiciary subcommittee meeting on data privacy. In her op-ed, Klobuchar decried the bogus footage, which she noted was viewed online more than a million times.

Meetings between NATO and U.S. defense officials left allies concerned that President Donald Trump would leave Europe to ensure a lasting peace in the war-scarred country.“There’s the dawning reality that this will be Europe making this happen on the ground,” said a NATO diplomat who was briefed on the talks. “The U.S. is not fully committed to anything.” The meetings — which occurred days after Trump and European leaders met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House in a sign of unity — underscore the massive task ahead for allies as they weigh plans to send a peacekeeping...

AI-related fraud attempts surged by nearly 200 per cent in 2024, according to a cybersecurity firm. CNA takes a closer look at deepfake voice phishing, an increasingly common method used by scammers.“Hi, how have you been? So I heard about this restaurant that just recently opened up. Want to go check it out the next time we meet?” These were the innocuous sentences used in a simple experiment to find out if people in my social circle could distinguish my real voice from an AI-cloned version. The result was some confusion - but more importantly, the ease with which the...

A 13-year-old male who already had 18 felony arrests on his record recently was charged in connection with a spree of armed carjackings and robberies, WBFF-TV reported, citing Baltimore Police. Around 6:44 a.m. July 26, officers responded to an attempted carjacking, the station said. The victim reported that in the 2300 block of Guilford Street, two male juveniles exited their car and ran toward her vehicle, WBFF said. When the victim re-entered her car, the suspects entered it, too, and struck her multiple times with an unknown black object, the station said. The victim managed to reverse her car, after...

Russia is sending signals that it intends to slow-walk a peace deal on Ukraine, showing some daylight between the Kremlin and President Trump’s intentions to end the war. From a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to suggestions of security agreements for Kyiv, Russian officials have expressed doubt about some early prospects of a peace deal, parts of which are also being backed by a contingent of European Leaders. Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov tamped down any progress made at a summit at the White House earlier this week where Trump met with seven foreign leaders as well as Zelensky,...

Progressive activist Miriam Krinsky was at the top of her game in early 2024. As the founder and leader of Soros-backed Fair and Just Prosecution (FJP), she helped support the day-to-day work of the nationwide wave of progressive prosecutors elected in the late 2010s and early 2020s. Then it all came to a screeching halt when her own staff accused her of being a racist, according to emails obtained by the Washington Free Beacon. FJP, funded by billionaire financier George Soros’s Open Society Foundations, played a key role in supporting elected progressive prosecutors under Krinsky’s leadership from 2017 through 2024....

Bryan Kohberger has filed a sexual harassment complaint and is begging for a transfer after a fellow inmate threatened to “-—- -–-” him, and another made a crude sexual remark within days of his arrival at Idaho’s hellhole max security prison. The convicted killer of four University Idaho undergrads had barely made it one night in his maximum security prison before requesting to be moved to another part of Idaho Maximum Security Institution in Boise on July 30, according to documents obtained by People. The request complains of “minute-by-minute verbal threats/harassment,” as well as prisoners flooding their own cells with...

President Donald Trump emphasized his involvement in multiple international conflicts during meetings with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders at the White House. He criticized media coverage, saying outlets fail to recognize his efforts to broker peace and manage crises abroad. 1. Armenia and Azerbaijan – August 2025 Leaders from Armenia and Azerbaijan signed a peace agreement at the White House after decades of conflict over Nagorno-Karabakh. Trump described the deal as a step toward long-term stability, declaring the countries would now “be friends a long time.” The agreement includes a major transit route between the territories, which Trump...