Free Republic

As Russia and China race to expand their fleets of icebreakers, NATO countries are scrambling to keep up. And at the center of this growing Arctic power game stands an unlikely key player: Finland. According to Business Insider, a senior Norwegian military official recently warned that NATO is falling behind Moscow and Beijing in the ability to operate in the High North. Icebreakers – specially built ships that can cut through thick polar ice – are crucial in any future Arctic conflict. They secure access to sea routes, enable troop movement, and protect supply lines in frozen waters. Russia currently...

Yenny/El Ateneo, Argentina’s oldest and largest bookstore chain, publishes weekly charts of the top 10 bestselling books in their retail stores across the country. The Spanish edition of Letters for Life, a new book on the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Torah-based advice for emotional wellbeing, surprised the country’s publishing wizards and emerged as #5 on the list. As a result, the book is now being sold in airports and malls across Argentina. The book’s popularity follows the increased interest in the Lubavitcher Rebbe caused by Argentina’s philo-Semite president Javier Milei. Milei has visited the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s Ohel several times on his trips...

NEW: Marion County school resource officer strikes student athlete in head with stun gun during baseball game A School Resource Officer at Pee Dee Academy in Marion County, South Carolina, is under investigation after hitting a student athlete on the side of the head with a stun gun while trying to restrain him during a baseball game this week. The student was from the opposing team. Cell phone video and eyewitness accounts captured the incident amid multiple ongoing events at the game. The Marion County Sheriff’s Office has reassigned the deputy pending the outcome of the investigation, which has been...

A series of fireballs — very bright meteors — were spotted across North America from March 17-23, 2026. People in Ohio reported one on March 17. The next sightings were in California on March 19, Michigan and Georgia on March 20, and Texas on March 21, where a fragment crashed through a house roof. It's happening beyond the U.S. Vancouver saw a fireball on March 3. France and Germany reported sightings on March 8 and 11. Many fireballs lasted a long time and were seen across wide areas. Some caused pressure waves and sonic booms. ... The emerging picture is...

Here I am offering a simple but different perspective involving the creation and meaning of the name Abraham.Genesis 171 And when Abram was ninety years old and nine, the LORD appeared to Abram, and said unto him: 'I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be thou wholehearted. 2 And I will make My covenant between Me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.' 3 And Abram fell on his face; and God talked with him, saying: 4 'As for Me, behold, My covenant is with thee, and thou shalt be the father of a multitude of nations.5 Neither shall...

Children in Finland start school at the age of seven. They are only in classrooms half the time as most other countries. Its students outperform most others across the world. Why is that?

Explanation: What are these Earthlings trying to tell us? The featured message was broadcast from Earth towards the globular star cluster M13 in 1974. During the dedication of an upgrade to the Arecibo Observatory - then the largest single radio telescope in the world - a string of 1's and 0's representing the diagram was sent. This attempt at extraterrestrial communication was mostly ceremonial - humanity regularly broadcasts radio and television signals out into space accidentally. Even were this message received, M13 is so far away we would have to wait almost 50,000 years to hear an answer. The featured...

“I wanted to know the truth of life. I wanted to live a good life, I wanted to live with purpose and know why I am on the earth.” Methodology • 28 South Asian Muslim believers in Christ interviewed • 15 born in UK, 8 came as young children, 5 more recent arrivals • 24 Sunni, 2 Shia, 1 Ahmadiyya, 1 mixed Ch/Mus parents • Ages - Youngest 21, Oldest 61, Average 38 • Christians for: Newest 9 months, Longest 29 yrs, Average 14 yrs • Baptised: 26 (2 not) • Singles 12, Marrieds 12, Divorced 4 (3) • Self-Designation:...

Russia has quietly become Iran’s most consequential external partner. Public reporting shows Moscow feeding Tehran real time satellite imagery of U.S. and Israeli positions — a simple but powerful boost to Iranian targeting and battle damage assessment. Russia has also helped upgrade Iran’s Shahed drones with better navigation and communications systems. These aren’t glamorous contributions, but they matter: they force the United States to burn multimillion dollar interceptors on cheap, disposable threats. None of this changes the balance of power. But it absolutely changes the tempo of the war. China’s support looks different — quieter, but just as important. Beijing...

The European Union is expanding its powers to track, raid and deport migrants to " return hubs ″ in third countries in Africa and elsewhere, quietly adopting tactics of the Trump administration that have drawn public criticism across the 27-nation bloc. The EU continues to tighten migration policies after right-wing parties took power in some countries in 2024. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, from the center-right European People’s Party coalition, has said that the new measures will prevent a repeat of the 2015 crisis caused by Syria’s civil war, when about 1 million people arrived to seek asylum....

Join us as the Artemis II crew answers questions from NASA's Kennedy Space Center, where they're in protective quarantine ahead of their upcoming flight around the Moon. NASA's Artemis II Q&A from Quarantine | 53:49 NASA | 12.8M subscribers | 20,828 views | March 29 2026(Streamed live 2 hours ago)

This week, one of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents Trump sent to JFK Airport in New York City to assist the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) saved a one-year-old child from choking to death by using the Heimlich maneuver. House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY), who had previously asserted that "the last thing that the American people need are for untrained ICE agents to be deployed at airports all across the country potentially to brutalize or in some instances kill them," now cautions "against letting down our guard against these dangerous and undisciplined brutes. A lion may peacefully lie...

A journal called Liberal Currents recently invited me to contribute to a scholarly symposium on what the editor, Adam Gurri, described as “how we can move to a new, stable democratic regime after Trump.” He was particularly interested in “what sort of accountability model should be pursued, especially if it has to be done on a partisan basis by a Democratic trifecta.” I disagreed with the premise of the symposium and declined. The idea of “restoring democracy” after Donald Trump is widespread on the left. When we realize what this means, it should prompt those loyal to our Constitution to...

Nurses from the country's largest nurses union, National Nurses United (NNU), will join rallies across the United States as part of the March 28 No Kings protests. Nurses continue to condemn the Trump administration's authoritarian politics and call for the abolition of ICE, an end to Trump's war in Iran, and demand what's collectively needed for a healthy future for our society. "Nurses will continue to take to the streets to protect our neighbors and protest the fascist politics Washington is trying to force on everyday people at home and abroad," said Mary Turner, RN and NNU president. "We will...

Alarming footage on social media has captured the moment No Kings protesters were seen coughing and choking after tear gas was deployed in Los Angeles, California. The intense standoff between a small group of protesters and authorities was filmed at the Metropolitan Detention Center in downtown L.A. The Los Angeles Police Department's incident commander declared a "tactical alert" for the City of Los Angeles after the event. "Federal Authorities have deployed more tear gas due to demonstrators throwing large concrete blocks, bottles and other objects over the fence," LAPD wrote in a statement on X. A dispersal order was issued...

In Preston Sturges' posthumous memoir Sturges by Sturges, finished by his widow Sandy and published in 1990, the director recounts an outlandish story from his childhood that would end up inspiring one of the most chaotic sequences in his 1942 screwball masterpiece The Palm Beach Story. His mother, a socially and culturally ambitious woman who was friends with dancer Isadora Duncan and had an affair with satanist Aleister Crowley, had brought him to Dresden while she worked on an operetta and the two of them (plus maid) were heading back to Paris in a train compartment stuffed with masses of...

The Public Theater celebrated the opening night of the world premiere play Public Charge on Wednesday evening, welcoming a range of political leaders and theater artists to mark the occasion. See photos of the event. The play is co-written by former U.S. Ambassador Julissa Reynoso and Michael J. Chepiga and draws from Reynoso’s experiences working for Hillary Rodham Clinton. The Public Theater celebrated the opening night of the world premiere play Public Charge on Wednesday evening, welcoming a range of political leaders and theater artists to mark the occasion. See photos of the event. Clinton attended the opening and offered...

A Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department deputy died after suffering a medical emergency while participating in the 2026 Baker to Vegas Challenge Cup Relay race, officials announced. The deputy, assigned to the San Dimas Sheriff’s Station, was among numerous law enforcement personnel representing their agencies at the annual event when the medical emergency occurred, according to a statement shared by the department on social media. ... Officials described the deputy as a 13-year veteran whose loss is being felt across the LASD community. The Baker to Vegas Challenge Cup Relay is an annual long-distance relay race that draws teams from...

The Secret Service continues to make headlines, though not always for the right reasons. In 2024, the agency’s actions, particularly its failure to protect Donald Trump during the July rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, fueled calls for its dissolution. Moreover, there were serious security breaches involving Biden officials. In 2023, a drunk individual entered the home of then-National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, managing to bypass his Secret Service detail. And now, an agent on Jill Biden’s detail shot himself in the butt while escorting the former first lady through Philadelphia International Airport on Friday. Susan Crabtree of RealClearPolitics had the backstory:...

Ukraine signed a defense cooperation pact with Saudi Arabia on Friday, as Gulf countries look to Kyiv for assistance on defending against drone attacks from Iran. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed the agreement with senior Saudi officials during his two-day visit to Riyadh. The accord "lays the foundation for future contracts, technological cooperation, and investment. It also strengthens Ukraine’s international role as a security donor," Zelenskyy announced Friday morning. "We are ready to share our expertise and systems with Saudi Arabia and to work together to strengthen the protection of lives. Now into the fifth year, Ukrainians are resisting the same...