Free Republic

Andrei Klepach, the chief economist at Russian state development corporation VEB.RF, was reportedly fired on Aug. 16, a day after Russian media widely circulated his warnings that Russia was losing its economic and technological competition with the West. Russian independent media outlet The Bell reported Klepach’s dismissal on Aug. 16, citing two people familiar with the matter. The report came two days after The Moscow Times published excerpts from Klepach’s May remarks, which were subsequently picked up by other Russian media. Speaking at an event organized by the Moscow Exchange’s Nikitsky Club, Klepach reportedly said Russia would be unable to...

Restaurants and other businesses have lost their challenge to Denver ordinances that forbid them from using natural-gas appliances, as a judge has found they are not preempted by federal law. The Restaurant Law Center and the National Association of Home Builders were among the trade associations that sued Denver in July 2024, arguing rules passed in Denver this decade were preempted by the federal Energy Policy and Conservation Act. Judge Philip Brimmer disagreed in an Aug. 7 ruling granting the city’s motion to dismiss. Preemption only applies to energy use requirements on manufacturers before the appliances reach consumers, Brimmer wrote....

[Catholic Caucus] Unspeakable horror: lay Eucharistic Ministers and Communion in the handIf you are presently receiving Communion in the hand or serving as a Eucharistic Minister, then please prayerfully stop. Here's why...Not a great photo but if you look carefully, you’ll see the angels catching Our Lord’s Precious Blood with chalices. There’s a reason for that so please read on…Among the many moving scenes in Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ film is the scourging at the pillar. Often sugar-coated in fine art over the centuries, Gibson depicted it as it was all those centuries ago in pagan-occupied Palestine: sheer,...

[Catholic Caucus] Vatican Held Secret Vote on Medjugorje Apparitions: Two-Thirds Rejected it For years, the Vatican’s investigation into Medjugorje remained shrouded in secrecy. Now, the verdict of the Ruini Commission has been disclosed: A two-thirds majority of the voters rejected the supernatural character of the apparitions, so why did the Church move toward pastoral acceptance rather than a definitive judgment? This is ultimately about discernment, obedience, Tradition... and the strange new logic of the Synodal Church.The Synodal Church and Međugorje: A History of an Eloquent RelationshipLast August 6, the Italian journalist David Murgia published an exclusive report concerning the secret...

This video by historian Dr. Mark Felton provides a critical examination of the current state of the Royal Navy, specifically focusing on what he describes as the "white elephant" aircraft carriers, HMS Prince of Wales and HMS Queen Elizabeth. Key takeaways from the video include: Operation Firecrest (0:15 - 1:18): The video analyzes a 2026 deployment of HMS Prince of Wales to the Arctic, arguing that it was an ineffective "saber-rattling" exercise that exposed the UK's naval limitations. Lack of Escorts (1:23 - 3:00): Due to a severely depleted fleet of destroyers and frigates, the carrier could only be provided...

President Donald Trump ordered the Pentagon on Sunday to scale back planned joint military exercises with South Korea after the Republican president said South Korea declined to help denuclearize Iran. Trump said in a social media post that the exercises slated to begin this week are costly and “send a signal that is totally inappropriate and hostile” to North Korea, which he said “has been unthreatening and respectful” while Trump has been in the White House. The 11 days of exercises involving 18,000 South Korean soldiers were designed to beef up readiness against North Korean threats. A day earlier, Trump...

In 1791, before Washington DC became the capital of the United States, surveyors placed a series of 40 boundary stones to mark the original 100-square-mile District of Columbia. Today, many of those historic markers still survive -- hidden in neighborhoods, parks, and along roads around the capital. Join me as I drive around Virginia, Maryland, and Washington DC searching for these forgotten pieces of American history and visit several of the original boundary markers placed between 1791 and 1792. These stones witnessed the birth of the nation's capital and are some of the oldest surviving monuments connected to the creation...

A provocative new book by journalist and former political aide Gil Durán argues that a tightly networked circle of Silicon Valley billionaires and venture capitalists have spent three decades methodically constructing an ideological and political apparatus aimed at replacing democratic governance with corporate rule. The book, The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy, published by Simon & Schuster, is scheduled for release on August 18, 2026 — and its claims are already igniting debate across the political spectrum. Key Facts ►Gil Durán’s book, The Nerd Reich: Silicon Valley Fascism and the War on Democracy, is published...

A well known University of California-Berkeley mathematics professor has slammed admissions standards at the top-flight university — where she says huge portions of her students are failing to keep up with college calculus and she’s forced to teach middle-school algebra and fractions students. “Some students are five to eight years behind in mathematics. Office hours that should be spent discussing integrals instead become lessons on fractions and basic algebra you would expect students to learn in middle school,” wrote Zvezdelina Stankova, of UC Berkeley, in an op-ed piece on Saturday for the San Francisco Standard. Stankova — who rose through...

The largest Chinese embassy in Europe is set to rise in the heart of London: a 20,000 square meter complex at Royal Mint Court. Local councillors rejected it twice. But the government approved it anyway, and a High Court challenge from residents was dismissed this summer. Standing against it is Luke de Pulford, founder of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China—an international coalition of lawmakers opposing CCP infiltration. Why does this embassy matter, and why should America care? The site sits directly above fiber-optic cables carrying sensitive financial data between the City of London and Canary Wharf, Britain's two main financial...

At least one person was killed in a storm-related car crash on Hawaii’s Big Island as Hurricane Lala struck late Saturday night. Gov. Josh Green confirmed the death, along with 19 roofs ripped off buildings after what he described as an “enormous storm.” Powerful waves pounded the Big Island’s coast as Lala slowly passed by. Howling winds whipped palm trees and waterways swelled with fast-moving runoff from relentless rain that blew nearly sideways. Lala was downgraded to a tropical storm as of Sunday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center. More than 130,000 households were without power Sunday morning across...

DUBAI — Iran’s parliament approved on Sunday the general principles of a bill that ​would criminalize interviews and other communications with media deemed hostile to the ‌Islamic Republic, including US or Israeli media and outlets financed by either country, Iran’s Shargh newspaper reported. Osman Salari, a member of parliament’s judicial and legal commission, said the individual provisions of the bill, ​which is aimed at countering foreign intelligence influence, have yet to be ​debated and approved. Reports about the bill’s details should not yet be ⁠considered final, Salari told the Mizan news agency. Under the proposed bill, interviews or participation ​in...

WASHINGTON — Former Sen. Kyrsten Sinema opened up about the sordid details of her dalliance with her then-married ex-bodyguard during a deposition in the $75,000 “homewrecker” suit brought by his angry ex-wife. Sinema (I-Ariz.), the first openly bisexual person elected to Congress, fessed up to having repeated sex with Matthew Ammel in cities across America in an affair that upended his 14-year marriage. She confessed that she first had sex with Ammel, her then-bodyguard, around Memorial Day of 2024, two years after he began working on her security team. “We were staying at an Airbnb in Napa, California. We were...

Where sex is concerned, human reproductive biology is pretty standard: Humans are sexually bipolar, with two sexes, male and female. This is determined genetically at conception; barring a few rare and usually debilitating genetic disorders, an XX chromosome pair results in a female, and an XY pair, a male. That's just how it is. These are facts. And another fact is that the XY pairing gives the resulting child and, in time, adult, a significant advantage in sports. Now, the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) doesn't seem to understand that, especially with regards to "trans-women" - men - playing in...

Ukraine on Sunday launched one of its largest aerial attacks on Russia since the start of the war, firing hundreds of drones and killing at least six people. A separate attack sparked a fire at a warehouse owned by the Russian online retail giant Wildberries in the town of Podolsk.

A career criminal with a lengthy record of burglaries and thefts who broke into a Portland countertop fabrication business and was shot three times by the owner while attempting to flee is now seeking $10 million in a civil lawsuit, arguing the property owner used excessive force against him.

Democrat Rep. Eugene Vindman walked into a meeting with local party activists expecting to talk about the midterms. He walked out after members of his own side confronted him, tempers exploded and the exchange turned profane. The August 11 meeting in King George County, Virginia, was supposed to help rally Democrats behind Vindman’s reelection campaign. Instead, transgender constituents pressed him over a vote he cast with House Republicans earlier this year. The first report on the confrontation is below: The Advocate reported that at least two transgender women and one transgender man challenged Vindman during the meeting. Several said they...

Explanation: The Milky Way was not created by an evaporating lake. The colorful pool of water, about 10 meters across, is known as Silex Spring and is located in Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming, USA. Illuminated artificially, the colors are caused by layers of bacteria that grow in the hot spring. Steam rises off the spring, heated by underground magma associated with the Yellowstone Hotspot. Unrelated and far in the distance, the central band of our Milky Way Galaxy arches high overhead, a band lit by billions of stars. The picture features a 16-image panorama taken in 2014. If the...

A clever swap has extended the historic Voyager 2’s mission in interstellar space. Engineers are hoping to do the same for Voyager 1. An ambitious effort to boost an aging probe on its journey through the uncharted territory of interstellar space seems to have found success. Engineers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, have spent the last few months implementing what they nicknamed the “Big Bang” fix to buy the historic Voyager 2 spacecraft more time to continue its science mission. Voyager 2 is roughly 21.35 billion kilometers (13 billion miles) away from Earth, while its twin, Voyager...

This artist’s concept shows the red supergiant star Betelgeuse and a companion star orbiting within the supergiant’s tenuous outer atmosphere. Artwork: NASA, ESA, Elizabeth Wheatley (STScI); Science: Andrea Dupree (CfA) Betelgeuse has always been something of a mystery. And by “mystery,” I mean a source of endless fun, fascination and frustration for astronomers. Betelgeuse is one of the brightest stars in the sky, marking the right shoulder of the constellation Orion. It’s a red supergiant, a massive star with more than a dozen times the sun’s heft, that’s blasting out many tens of thousands as much light as our own...