Free Republic

Russia's war on Ukraine is devouring its finances. War spending now totals 16.8 trillion roubles ($238 billion) — nearly 40% of the entire 2026 budget — and Putin's own finance minister, Anton Siluanov, has privately warned of a possible economic collapse, urging deep cuts to avert it. -The deficit is the largest since the 2022 invasion, growth has flatlined at 0.4%, and analysts say Moscow is faking its books. According to a 30 May report in the Financial Times, Russian government spending on the war in Ukraine is on track to exceed budget allocations by about 2 trillion Russian roubles...

Well, I gave him a chance, offering my services.I was willing to give the young novice a primer on what a mayor can and can’t do, and let him know City Hall is a reality show like no other he’s been on. But Spencer Pratt didn’t call me in response to my column last week.I did, however, hear from a slew of his most ardent supporters.Steven C. had this to say: “You’re a left-wing idiot, and … it’s time for you to retire. You’re a joke!!! You always have been!!! God bless Spencer Pratt and the 45th and 47th President...

SummaryNew law in effect from December allows descendants of Canadians beyond first generation to claim citizenship Nearly half of new approvals are Americans, Canada's immigration agency says Americans' interest in Canadian citizenship partly fueled by US political divisions, lawyers ​say TORONTO, May 30 (Reuters) - While U.S.-Canadian relations have frayed under U.S. President Donald Trump, data on ‌Canadian citizenship approvals under recently widened rules suggests many Americans would welcome the chance to become Canadian. Under the new rules, which allow more descendants of Canadians to claim citizenship compared with just first-generation descendants previously, approvals for proof of citizenship by descent...

In some parts of Europe, Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine can feel like a distant threat. But in Romania, that war is right next door and increasingly dangerous.In Galati, there is an apartment block with a hole in the roof that proves it.Residents have just begun returning to check on their homes, after an attack drone slammed into the building early on Friday as dozens of people slept.It sparked a fire and panic.We climbed 11 floors up to the roof on Saturday to see where the drone punched through the concrete. There's a jagged hole, a couple of metres wide,...

Reports of an explosion from people across New England on Saturday afternoon sent police agencies and others scrambling to understand what caused a double boom that shook buildings in Massachusetts and Rhode Island. The American Meteor Society said that the booms people heard were actually caused by a meteor about 3 feet (nearly 1 meter) wide entering the atmosphere around the New Hampshire border with Massachusetts, north of Boston. NASA officials confirmed that the meteor was natural material, not a satellite or space debris, and that it entered the atmosphere at 2:06 p.m. American Meteor Society program monitor Robert Lunsford...

On social media Friday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy identified the driver as 48-year-old Jing Dong, a naturalized U.S. citizen from China who received his CDL from New York State. Duffy said Dong does not speak English.

The twelve apostles included "Judas Iscariot, the one who betrayed Him" (Matt. 10:4). God can use even an apostate like Judas to teach us some important lessons. Judas is history's greatest human tragedy. He had opportunities and privileges known only to the other disciples, but he turned from them to pursue a course of destruction. Yet even from his foolishness we can learn some important lessons. Judas, for example, is the world's greatest example of lost opportunity. He ministered for three years with Jesus Himself but was content merely to associate with Him, never submitting to Him in saving faith....

Some Black New Yorkers are demanding cash reparations from the government as state officials consider some form of compensation for slavery or other past racial injustices. “We need $800,000 for each foundation of Black Americans. That’s simple,” Aubrey Muhammud told Fox News Digital. “That’s — in New York — that’s about the cost of living that’ll get you a home or a small business or for you to recover from any financial duress.” The New York State Community Commission on Reparations Remedies held a public hearing last Saturday. The hearing followed up on when Gov. Kathy Hochul in 2023 signed...

Bob Fosse's career as a Hollywood director looked to be over after just one film when the failure of Sweet Charity at the box office nearly took down Universal Studios in 1969 and ended the era of the big-budget movie musical. He'd always have work on Broadway but his new status as toxic in Hollywood was a blow his ego couldn't accept and he was desperate for a comeback. The abiding fame of numbers like "Hey Big Spender" and "Rich Man's Frug" on Fosse highlight reels and as YouTube clips have lent Sweet Charity posthumous influence that nobody would have...

The rapid spread of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of Congo has created a "deeply alarming" situation, the medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has warned. Speaking two weeks on from the outbreak being declared, MSF Deputy Director Dr Alan Gonzales said never before had "so many cases" been recorded so soon. His comments came as the head of the World Health Organization (WHO), Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, visited the eastern Congolese province of Ituri - the worst-hit area - to oversee virus containment efforts. There are now more than 1,000 suspected Ebola cases in the DR Congo, and at...

"Anyone who checked out [This Book Is Gay] from this church should have their hard drive checked immediately," critic says. Talarico's church defends its "banned books" but doesn't name or describe them in detail. The more Texans hear that their Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate, James Talarico, is aiming to reclaim Christianity for the progressive left, the more they're likely to learn what his home church believes and practices. The Daily Wire reviewed the books accessible to children in the library at St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Austin, where Talarico's sermons as a seminary student included calls for "abortion...

Center for Scholars & Storytellers at UCLA study finds Gen Z and Gen Alpha want to see caring, affectionate dads and men showing vulnerability in movies and TV, rejecting outdated masculine stereotypes. Joyful fatherhood was the single most requested portrayal of masculinity by adolescents surveyed by the researchers, with nearly 60% of young people asking to see more fathers openly showing love and enjoying parenting. 46% of respondents are seeking content that shows men asking for help, including with their mental health. "For today’s young audiences, the most compelling hero isn’t the one standing alone, but the one who has...

The establishment political consensus has long held that it’s impossible to rein in illegal immigration until Congress passes “comprehensive immigration reform.” The Congressional Budget Office has recently made clear that all it really takes is a president willing to enforce federal immigration laws, as he is constitutionally required to do.The CBO recently revised its estimates concerning the number of illegal aliens entering or leaving the United States. More than a year ago, just before Inauguration Day, the CBO estimated that a net 1.1 million “other foreign nationals”—those lacking “a legal immigration status”—would be added to the U.S. population in 2025....

Across California, progressives enter the June 2 primaries with rare chances to score major wins. In the governor’s race, billionaire climate activist Tom Steyer is running as a progressive class traitor. He enjoys the monetary resources necessary to challenge the party establishment-backed Xavier Becerra, a veteran congressman who was secretary of Health and Human Services under the Biden administration. In Los Angeles, City Councilwoman Nithya Raman is an insurgent attempting to unseat Karen Bass, the embattled incumbent mayor endorsed by Kamala Harris and California Gov. Gavin Newsom. Yet progressives are undermining their own prospects. California’s top-two “jungle primaries,” in which...

The number of homicides fell to a 60-year low after city leaders finally decided to start taking violence seriously enough.Say “Baltimore,” and people think of crime. Shows like The Wire and Homicide: Life on the Street depicted the city as gritty, gun-ridden, and plagued by gang violence. These fictional representations weren’t far off what statistics show about the city’s reality. Since the turn of the millennium, young black men have been three to four times more likely to die by homicide in Baltimore than in the nation as a whole.And as violent as it already was, things got worse a...

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, citing police, said on social media that [the truck driver] Dong, a native of China, does not speak English. NTSB board member Tom Chapman revealed few new details but said the bus was moving at a high rate of speed. “It seems fairly clear that if there was any braking there wasn’t much, because of the speed and severity of the collision,” Chapman said. [The Tragic Result] A family of four from Massachusetts who were killed when a bus crashed into multiple vehicles in Virginia were traveling to a wedding with a carload of homemade desserts...

I swear, I am really beginning to adore this guy, Graham Platner. The designated savior of the Senate by the Democratic Party and the national press, running for the seat in Maine, has delivered yet another disqualifying hit to his character. The man with a Nazi death camp tattoo, a history of anti-social social media posts, and a possible predilection for Porta Potty self-pleasuring, continues to bring the goods. For the latest, the man whom the Left cannot make enough excuses for has now been exposed as having a history of salacious sexual texts with several women. A pair of...

Thank you very much. It’s an honor to be here, and I’d like to thank the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation and Institute for inviting me to join you. Of course, this year’s forum carries special significance as we celebrate 250 years of the American story. But milestones of this magnitude demand more than ceremony. They ask something of us. They invite us to reflect not just on the creation of our country, but on its condition. And as we focus today on America’s economic future, they compel us to confront—and correct—decisions that have diminished our sovereignty in recent decades. President...

Thousands of tickets remain unsold for the United States’ high-priced World Cup opener, with data captured by The Athletic and other sources suggesting that the game is not on pace to sell out at current prices and purchasing rates. As of Thursday evening, two weeks before the 2026 World Cup begins, there were more than 3,500 tickets available on FIFA’s primary portal for the June 12 match between the U.S. and Paraguay. There were also over 6,500 tickets listed on FIFA’s resale platform, meaning there are over 10,000 tickets available for the match, which was initially billed as one of...

Explanation: What is so micro about tonight's blue micromoon? Just after sunset, a full moon will appear slightly smaller and dimmer than usual. The reason is that the Moon's fully illuminated phase occurs within a short time of apogee - when the Moon is farthest from the Earth in its elliptical orbit. In fact, tonight's micromoon will be the farthest, smallest, and dimmest Moon this year. But tonight's micromoon is notable for yet another reason: it is also a blue moon, meaning that it is the second full moon in the same month (moon-th). Pictured here, a supermoon -- when...