Free Republic

At the center of this debate lies approximately 210 billion euros ($246.42 billion) in Russian state assets .... The EU’s financial system has benefited for decades from a reputation for stability, predictability, and political restraint. Sovereign investors from Asia, the Gulf and the Global South have viewed European financial infrastructure as relatively insulated from geopolitical turbulence. The perception that sovereign reserves can be repurposed under political pressure threatens to erode that trust. This is not a hypothetical concern. Efforts to diversify reserves, reduce exposure to Western financial systems and develop alternative clearing mechanisms have been accelerating for years. The frozen...

Russia's Foreign Ministry has begun evacuating the families of diplomats from Venezuela, a European intelligence official told AP on Monday, as the United States pursues its third sanctioned oil tanker in the Caribbean and President Donald Trump convenes senior national security officials at his Mar-a-Lago resort. The evacuations, which started Friday and include women and children, come as Russian officials assess the situation in Venezuela in what the intelligence source described as "very grim tones." The withdrawals signal heightened concerns about stability in the South American nation as the Trump administration escalates its four-month pressure campaign against President Nicolas Maduro's...

The U.S. Navy has confirmed to TWZ that the armament package for its first “flight” of its new FF(X) frigates will not include a built-in Vertical Launch System (VLS). There had been widespread questions about whether the ships would include a VLS array after renderings were released with no such feature readily apparent.A lack of any type of VLS on the FF(X) design is a glaring omission that can only raise questions about the operational utility and flexibility of the ships. At the same time, the new frigates will be able to carry modular payloads, including containerized missile launchers, on...

There is a Christmas manufactured for display windows and marketing campaigns, bright, hurried, and quickly forgotten. There is the Christmas our Founders knew, quiet, severe, inward, and bound to something far older and more demanding than comfort. They did not inherit a nation wrapped in ribbon. They brought one into being through cold hands, empty stomachs, and resolute faith. When George Washington crossed the Delaware on Christmas night, there were no speeches to stir the heart and no crowds to bear witness. There was no certainty of success. There was only an obligation. The men who followed him were unpaid,...

John Robert Wooden was born in Martinsville, Indiana, on October 14, 1910. While attending high school in Martinsville, he won All-State prep honors in basketball three times while leading them to the State title game in his sophomore, junior and senior seasons. In 1927, his high school team won the State title.

A 75-year-old woman named Jeanette Marken had her eye gouged out because Seattle refused to lock up a 42-year-old violent serial criminal named Fale Vaigalepa Pea. komonews.com/news/local/newly-released-video-75-year-old-downtown-seattle-police-department-spd-law-enforcement-king-county-superior-court-wooden-board-charges-filed-courthouse https://youtube.com/watch?v=Z95uGty1kAA

Dozens of NFL players urge Trump, Congress to protect Nigerian Christians from persecutionMore than 60 current and former NFL players are calling on Washington leaders to take action against anti-Christian terrorism in Nigeria, including Tony Dungy, Kirk Cousins, and others.In an era where professional athletes have too often succumbed to amplifying woke ideology and promoting leftist causes, it is refreshing to see NFL players channel their religious beliefs and courageously stand up for initiatives that make a difference for Christ.Earlier this week 60 high-profile current and former NFL players and coaches co-signed a letter calling on leaders in Washington, D.C....

A Mexican Navy aircraft carrying medical patients crashed Monday near Galveston, Texas, resulting in at least two confirmed deaths. According to Fox News, the Mexican Navy said eight people were on board the aircraft – four naval crew members and four civilians. The U.S. Coast Guard conducted search and rescue operations. A Mexican Navy Beechcraft King Air 350i crashed into Galveston Bay in southeastern Texas while approaching Scholes International Airport. Local authorities and the U.S. Coast Guard are conducting ongoing search-and-rescue operations. More from Fox News: Search and rescue protocols were immediately activated following the crash in coordination with the...

A crime that has haunted East Texas for more than four decades has finally found closure. The Texas Rangers announced this week that they’ve identified the last suspect in the 1983 Kentucky Fried Chicken murders. It was a case that shocked Texas and the nation when five people were abducted from a Kilgore KFC and later found executed on a remote oil lease in Rusk County.

Following a strong endorsement of JD Vance by Charlie Kirk’s widow, Erika Kirk, Vice President Vance appears at the Turning Point USA event to deliver the keynote address. The crowd chanted, “JD, JD, JD!”Vice President JD Vance began his remarks by thanking Erika Kirk for her 2028 endorsement, and noting the MAGA coalition is all inclusive for all Americans regardless of their unique attributes or special interests. This speech marks JD Vance entering the 2028 election campaign. WATCH:

Democrats are allowing people to be murdered by illegal immigrants so they can brag that they are not cooperating with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This is the reality of the most recent case in Fairfax County, Virginia. There, El Salvadoran national Marvin Morales Ortez had been jailed and charged with multiple crimes after “maliciously wounding” someone who was living in the same home with him. When the alleged victim did not show up to testify, Fairfax County Commonwealth Attorney Steve Descano’s office dropped the charges, and a judge ordered Ortez to be released. He was then arrested after allegedly murdering...

The letter to chief federal judge in Miami is an extraordinary injection by Brennan's defense team and likely signals his lawyers fear an indictment is imminent. =============================================================== Former CIA Director John Brennan's lawyers have taken the extraordinary step of confirming their client is a "target" of a criminal grand jury investigation in Florida and are asking the chief federal judge in Miami to stop the proceedings on the grounds that the Justice Department is "judge shopping." The revelations came in a letter that defense lawyers Ken Wainstein and Natasha Harnwell Davis sent Monday to U.S. District Judge Cecilia M. Altonaga,...

~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Naval Support Facility Indian Head, MarylandNaval Surface Warfare Center, Indian Head Division, also known as Naval Support Facility Indian Head, is a United States naval military installation in Charles County, Maryland, that is a NAVSEA Warfare Center enterprise dedicated to energetics (explosives, propellants, pyrotechnics, reactive materials, and their application in propulsion systems and ordnance). NSWC IHD began as the Naval Proving Ground, Indian Head during World War I. Surrounded by the Potomac River and Mattawoman Creek, Naval Support Facility Indian Head is strategically situated less than 30 miles south of the nation’s capital....

New photos obtained by Fox News Digital show Vice President JD Vance training with U.S. Navy SEALs in California — a 90-minute workout the vice president later said left him feeling like he’d been "hit by a freight train." Images show Vance carrying logs, rowing in the ocean, running on the beach and climbing a rope obstacle course alongside a group of seals. "Just finished PT with the Navy SEALs for 90 minutes," Vance wrote in an X post Monday. "They took it easy on me and I still feel like I got hit by a freight train." Vance used...

I am in shock right now, and completely heartbroken for his family and friends. Unfortunately about an hour ago, news broke that Adam The Woo has passed away. I don't want to believe it, and it's so difficult to accept, but his father and several of his close friends have confirmed it, yet that's all the information that is available right now. I never got to meet Adam in person, but he was absolutely instrumental in my own personal youtube journey, and I always hoped one day to just have a conversation with him about the mechanics of youtube, and...

[Catholic Caucus] Diocese of Charlotte will require seminarians to spend extra ‘pastoral year’ teaching, living as laityCHARLOTTE, North Carolina (LifeSiteNews) — The Diocese of Charlotte under Bishop Michael Martin, OFM, plans to add an extra “pastoral year” to its seminary formation that will require seminarians to work in Catholic schools full-time while largely living as ordinary laymen, beginning the next academic year.The changes to priestly formation, announced in a December 15 email memo obtained by The Pillar, will require seminarians to spend an additional “pastoral year” in between their required philosophy and theological studies, teaching full-time at local middle or...

A federal judge ruled Monday to keep a temporary order in place, preventing Trump officials from re-detaining illegal Salvadoran immigrant and alleged gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia. “U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis said she was concerned the administration might try to take Abrego back into custody ‘in the middle of the night’ before she could take steps to ensure due process in his case, and she dressed down a Justice Department lawyer for repeated misrepresentations by the U.S. government,” The Washington Post reported. “Once again, I’m making a finding that these representations, which are misrepresentations, are in bad faith,” she...

The group of men challenging their deportations include migrants who were deported to a prison in El Salvador under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act in March, over allegations that they were members of Tren de Aragua. ================================================================= Federal District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled Monday that the Trump administration must allow Venezuelan men who were deported earlier this year to return to the United States to fight allegations they were part of violent gangs. The group of men challenging their deportations include migrants who were deported to a prison in El Salvador under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act in March,...

Fighter jets intercepted a civilian aircraft that violated restricted airspace over President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida, on Dec. 21, military officials said. The aircraft entered restricted airspace at about 9:20 a.m., prompting an F-16 fighter jet to conduct what is called a “headbutt maneuver,” in which the jet flies directly in front of a civilian plane to get the pilot’s attention, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said in a news release. NORAD, which oversees the airspace of the United States and Canada, did not specify the type of aircraft involved or its point of origin...

Police have charged a truck driver from the Hamilton area in a hit-and-run crash that killed a tow truck operator who had been stopped while helping a driver on the side of Highway 401 outside Woodstock, Ont. The arrest comes after a nearly three week-long search that saw Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) investigators appeal to the public for help in identifying the suspect vehicle. On Monday, police said 32-year-old Sandeep Singh of Mount Hope, Ont., has been charged with dangerous operation causing death and failure to stop after an accident causing death. Police initially reported the Dec. 3 crash had...