Free Republic

July 1 (Reuters) - Ukraine has struck a Russian oil refinery in the city of Ufa, more than 1,300 km (800 miles) from the frontline for the second time, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday, as Kyiv steps up its strikes deep in Russia. "Every day, our plan for imposing Ukrainian long-range sanctions is being implemented," Zelenskiy said on X, referring to Ukrainian attacks deep inside Russian territory. "This is an entirely just response to everything Russia is doing against us." Zelenskiy also reported a strike on what he said was a "strategic" Russian military-industrial facility in the Penza region,...

WASHINGTON – President Trump will take his new Air Force One for its first flight on Wednesday when he heads to North Dakota to open the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. The trip is part of the nation’s 250th birthday celebrations. The president will also take a train ride, boarding the BNSF Freedom 250 Train as part of the journey to the library site. A ceremonial Rough Riders Troop will accompany the presidential motorcade to the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. The group on horseback will evoke the legacy of Theodore Roosevelt and the volunteer cavalry regiment that helped define his public...

In an interview with FOX News host Laura Ingraham, Vice President J.D. Vance said communism is the result of the Democratic Party being run by universities and professors. LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS: You've been following what's going on with the Democrat party and the rise of socialism. The president calls it communism and says this is this is really the biggest threat to the country now, an internal threat, and you've seen what happens when the base of the party, a party, turns on its establishment beginning with the Tea Party in 2009, ultimately resulting in President Trump's election twice....

Hi Friend — This has been a hard week for those of us who care about election integrity, particularly as it relates to mail-in ballots. But there's an opportunity to have our voices heard — a United States Postal Service call for public comment that ends this Thursday, July 2. Quick background: First, in the courts. Two rulings landed in the past week, and neither went our way. On June 25, a federal judge in Massachusetts ruled in a case brought by 23 states and the District of Columbia. She struck down the President's March 2026 executive order on mail-in...

AB 2691 by Assemblywoman Dawn Addis (D-San Luis Obispo) prohibits persons convicted of “sexual assault” and “human trafficking” from running for any state or local elective office in California. It’s a good bill, with good intent… or was. Recent amendments made on June 24, 2026 added in exemptions for pedophile adults who target children for sex

Recent studies on fossils found at the Dmanisi archaeological site in the Republic of Georgia are changing the way scientists have understood the initial migration out of Africa by humans. For decades, the commonly accepted theory about the earliest migration out of Africa was that one species of human, Homo erectus, migrated out of Africa approximately 1.8 million years ago. But the new study, which was published in PLOS ONE, now indicates that this pivotal migration could have involved more than one human species.This facial reconstruction represents a male individual from the Dmanisi excavation. Credit: Cicero Moraes et al. (Luca...

In the last few decades especially, archaeologists have been forced to admit a humbling truth: our timelines and tidy narratives are incomplete, and in some places, wildly so. Below are fifteen ruins and archaeological cultures that either emerged from total obscurity or still sit at the edge of what we can confidently say. Some are contenders for full-blown “lost civilizations,” others are enigmatic cities that do not fit neatly into our old stories. Together, they show just how much of human history is still hidden – literally – under our feet. Imagine a flash flood tearing through a quiet valley...

A Florida woman picked up an extra felony charge when she wildly tried to smuggle nearly 4 grams of cocaine into a county jail through her “jail purse.” Brevard County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested Reagan Cox, 30, on Saturday for resisting arrest during a traffic stop. When she arrived at the Brevard County Jail, staff noticed something abnormal with Cox’s “lower region” — or her “jail purse area if you will.” Corrections deputies escorted Cox to a changing room, where she attempted “to shield” her buttocks with her hand, authorities said. When staff removed her hand, a baggie dropped to...

"Coming to Him as to a living stone . . . you also, as living stones, are being built up as a spiritual house for a holy priesthood. . . . You are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession. . . . You are the people of God. . . . You have received mercy" (1 Pet. 2:4-10). You have enormous privileges in Christ. A university student once confessed to a pastor, "I've come to the conclusion that I don't believe in God." "I see," the pastor replied. "Please tell me...

Just a few years ago, wearing a sombrero on Halloween could get you banished from polite society for the social crime of “cultural appropriation.” Nutrition experts argued that preventing obesity was a form of racialized “fatphobia,” even as scientific names of songbirds were purged in a moral campaign presumably aimed at white supremacy. Meanwhile, a slew of studies and papers and articles argued that punctuality, excellence, and other forms of professionalism are “the systemic, institutionalized centering of whiteness.” Today, as universities are dismantling their DEI bureaucracies, corporations are scaling back antiracism training, and academic trigger warnings and diversity pledges have...

It's July 1, and that means it's time for Mets fans everywhere to wish each other a Happy Bobby Bonilla Day! Why? On Wednesday, 63-year-old Bobby Bonilla will receive a check for $1,193,248.20 from the New York Mets, as he has and will every July 1 from 2011 through 2035.Because of baseball's unique salary structure, Bonilla's annual payday is often more than some of the game's current young stars will make in a given year.The Mets are certainly not alone in handing out deferred payments to star players long after they last suited up for the team, with past MVPs...

The Department of Transportation announced today a return to a technology of the past that feels like it's from the future. Supersonic flight is returning to commercial airlines once again. For too long, outdated rules based on old technology held back American aerospace innovation. Now, we are updating those rules for the first time since the 1970s.Today @USDOT announced a new proposal to enable civil supersonic flight by replacing speed limits with noise… pic.twitter.com/vwR4J88W1F— Director Michael Kratsios (@mkratsios47) June 30, 2026 Ever since the famous Concorde retired in 2003, supersonic flights - with speeds reaching well beyond the speed of...

Victor Willis, 74, the lead singer of the 1970’s disco-group Village People, has died, his team said Wednesday.

The MONTHLY Victory Garden Thread is a gathering of folks that love soil, seeds and plants of all kinds. From complete newbies that are looking to start that first potted plant, to gardeners with some acreage, to Master Gardener level and beyond, we would love to hear from you. If you have specific question about a plant/problem you are having, please remember to state the Growing Zone where you are located. This thread is a non-political respite. No matter what, you won’t be flamed, and the only dumb question is the one that isn’t asked. It is impossible to hijack...

The House was initially expected to have votes on Wednesday and Thursday, but House Republican leaders canceled those votes and have now sent lawmakers home after final votes took place at 5:15 p.m. Eastern. he House on Tuesday evening canceled votes for the remainder of the week amid tensions over the SAVE America Act, which means lawmakers can go home for the Fourth of July holiday and a week-long recess next week. The House was initially expected to have votes on Wednesday and Thursday, but House Republican leaders canceled those votes and have now sent lawmakers home after final votes...

Volkswagen has thrown in the towel. Is this the beginning of the end for the German economy? Volkswagen is planning to eliminate up to 100,000 jobs. It is the most devastating blow yet to the stomach of Germany's believers in the green transformation, climate crusaders, and eco-socialists. Whether this shock will be enough to force the country onto a new political course, however, remains an open question. Volkswagen is far more than just another German automaker. The Wolfsburg-based company symbolizes both the extraordinary heights and the painful decline of modern Germany. It embodies the country's moral failures born of political...

1 July 2026 Wednesday of week 13 in Ordinary Time Carmel Mission, CA Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: A(II).First readingAmos 5:14-15,21-24Seek good and not evil so that you may liveSeek good and not evilso that you may live,and that the Lord, God of Hosts, may really be with youas you claim he is.Hate evil, love good,maintain justice at the city gate,and it may be that the Lord, God of Hosts, will take pityon the remnant of Joseph.I hate and despise your feasts,I take no pleasure in your solemn festivals.When you offer me holocausts,I reject your oblations,and refuse to...

President Trump promised on Day One to end the permitting nightmare that buries American projects for years. One year later, the numbers are in. The White House published a release on June 30, 2026 marking the milestone, and the scale of the overhaul is bigger than most people realized. The release says more than 60 agencies and departments have now reformed, or are in the process of reforming, their procedures after CEQ reviewed thousands of pages of rules and related materials. The core problem is a law called NEPA. For decades, the White House argues, the review process was used...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem🇮🇱 (7/1/26)[Prayer]Personalities1 Samuel 2:12-18 12 Now the sons of Eli were sons of Belial; they knew not the Lord. 13 And the priest's custom with the people was, that, when any man offered sacrifice, the priest's servant came, while the flesh was in seething, with a fleshhook of three teeth in his hand; 14 And he struck it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; all that the fleshhook brought up the priest took for himself. So they did in Shiloh unto all the Israelites that came thither. 15 Also before they burnt...

In the late nineties, my boss sent me to an HR training conference. As I entered the elevator up to the conference room, a middle-aged black man and I acknowledged each other with a nod and a smile. We rode up alone and in silence. One of the first hourlong presentations was on race relations, and the man I’d shared the elevator with was the speaker. To my openmouthed astonishment, he began by talking about me. He said he’d ridden the elevator that morning with a white man, and that I hadn’t spoken to him because he was black and...