Free Republic

Russian lawmakers Tuesday endorsed a bill mandating year-round military conscription, rather than just in the spring and fall, as authorities seek to fill the ranks as fighting in Ukraine grinds through a fourth year. The legislation, which was approved by the lower house, the State Duma, in a third and final reading of the measure, turns conscription into a permanent process. Once the bill is vetted by the upper house and signed into law by President Vladimir Putin, it would allow conscription offices to summon draftees for medical exams and other procedures at any time of the year. The bill’s...

WASHINGTON — Vladimir Putin is feeling the sting of President Trump’s new oil sanctions — so much so that he dispatched one of his top henchmen on a desperate charm offensive across the US. Kirill Dmitriev, the Kremlin-linked financier who once served as Moscow’s backchannel to Washington, spent the weekend trying to schmooze top Trump officials and going on a media blitz. But the move failed spectacularly, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent bluntly blasting Dmitriev as a “Russian propagandist,” and NATO Amb. Matt Whitaker flatly rejected his overtures — saying the administration’s energy crackdown would continue. On one of the...

Department of Justice Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche on Thursday warned top California Democrats to “stand down or face prosecution” after Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) threatened to have federal law enforcement agents operating in her district arrested. Pelosi stated in a press release Wednesday that San Francisco police may arrest federal agents if they are found violating state law during U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raids. Blanche stated on Friday that any officer who lays a hand on federal law enforcement will be committing a crime. The former speaker issued the press release in reaction to “reports of a...

Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa will use talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to formally request that Moscow hand over Bashar Assad to face trial over alleged crimes against Syrians, two Syrian sources told Reuters on Wednesday. Sharaa, who once headed the Syrian branch of al Qaeda and who toppled predecessor Bashar al-Assad, a close Russian ally, late last year, was speaking at the start of Kremlin talks with Putin on his first visit to Russia since coming to power. Sharaa's visit was sensitive. Russia had used its military muscle to back Assad for years against Syrian rebels, and Moscow granted...

A 30-year-old Texas businessman and owner of Boundaries Coffee in suburban Dallas, Daniel Keene, faced severe backlash after posting a video on X in early September showing a local Ganesh Chaturthi procession. In the now-deleted post, he criticised Indian immigrants and called for ending H-1B visas, stating, "We have to cancel the H-1Bs. I want my kids to grow up in America. Not India." The post went viral, leading to his expulsion from his church and gym, significant business losses, and alleged extortion threats. Despite the controversy, Keene remains unapologetic, claiming his intent was to highlight the policy's real-world impact....

Moldova's economy is forecast to accelerate next year, supported by a landslide victory by a pro-European party in parliamentary elections last month. The Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) won 50.2% of the votes and 55 of 101 seats in the parliamentary election, despite alleged interference by Moscow. The pro-Russian Patriotic Electoral Bloc (PEB) received 24.2% of the vote on September 28. "The outcome of Moldova's parliamentary election reduces near-term political uncertainty and will support greater integration with the EU," Fitch Ratings said on September 30. Strong European Union (EU) support has "helped Moldova navigate successive shocks in recent years,...

Gerry Nolan: "Kiev’s Gleiwitz Gambit: Europe on the Edge of 1939 Redux History doesn’t just repeat — it mutates. In 1939, the world stumbled into catastrophe after Nazi operatives staged the infamous Gleiwitz incident: a radio station seized, a body left as “proof,” and a lie broadcast to justify war. Eighty-six years later, whispers from the battlefield suggest Kiev may be scripting its own Gleiwitz 2.0. Only this time, the stage is NATO’s eastern flank, the props are repurposed Geran drones, and the audience is a sleepwalking Europe. Hungarian journalists were the first to sound the alarm: several downed Russian...

President Trump’s dramatic pronouncement Tuesday that Russia is a “paper tiger” is based on new US intelligence that shows the Kremlin is spiraling toward economic ruin and battlefield defeat as a result of its invasion of Ukraine. Meanwhile, Trump’s insistence in the same statement that Ukraine can regain all the land currently occupied by Russia is the president’s latest “strategic move” to try and bring Russia to the negotiating table, sources inside and outside the White House told The Post Wednesday. -snip- “The president is making it very clear that Russia is in a very weak position,” White House press...

A plane carrying European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was hit by GPS jamming over Bulgaria in a suspected Russian operation, a spokesperson said Monday. The plane landed safely at Plovdiv airport in central Bulgaria and President von der Leyen will continue her planned tour of the European Union’s eastern front-line nations, said commission spokesperson Arianna Podestà. “We can indeed confirm that there was GPS jamming,” said Ms. Podestà. “We have received information from the Bulgarian authority that they suspect that this was due to blatant interference by Russia.” The incident with President von der Leyen’s plane is the...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has praised the strengthening cooperation between Russia and China within the BRICS group, stating that the two countries are actively working to enhance the bloc’s influence as a core mechanism of the international architecture. In an interview with China’s Xinhua News Agency, a partner of TV BRICS, Putin said the two nations are jointly promoting initiatives aimed at expanding the economic development opportunities of member states. “We are actively cooperating with China within BRICS to enhance its influence as one of the core mechanisms of the international architecture. Together, we are promoting initiatives aimed at expanding...

Ukraine has unveiled new video footage of the long-range Flamingo cruise missile, with the developer Fire Point saying the system is already in serial production. The footage shows test firings and what are described as combat launches against targets inside Russia. The footage was first released by Ukrainian outlet ZN.UA after an interview with Fire Point. According to the company, the missile was built around three priorities: range, warhead mass, and rapid deployment. Fire Point claims Flamingo has a range of more than 3,000 kilometers (1,860 miles), a warhead weighing 1,150 kilograms (2,535 pounds), and resistance to electronic warfare. Production...

A Russian navy tugboat, the Kapitan Ushakov, sank on August 9, 2025, at a shipyard in St. Petersburg. It was expected to be delivered to the Northern fleet. The Project 23470 began listing to starboard on August 8. The sinking of the ship occurred at a time when it was in the final stages of outfitting and about to be completed at the Baltic shipyard in St. Petersburg. The shipyard team made efforts throughout the night to stabilise the vessel, but failed ultimately. By the morning of August 9, the tugboat flipped and capsized on the seabed near the dock....

All flights grounded due to a system wide failure. Thats is all they are saying. Currently stuck on the tarmac in Denver

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A growing number of young Ukrainians have been unknowingly recruited by Russian forces as unwilling suicide bombers as the Ukraine-Russia War drags on in its third year, the Guardian reported last week. Russian forces have been recruiting Ukrainians, mainly teenagers, to bomb police stations, post offices, or military targets under the guise of odd jobs postings on Telegram as part of an ongoing shadow war. For example, 19-year-old Oleh told the Guardian that he was offered $1,000 to video himself vandalizing a police station in western Ukraine with provided materials. He collected a rucksack from a given exchange point with...

When President Vladimir Putin traveled to the Kursk region this month for the first time since Russia expelled Ukrainian forces, his helicopter reportedly came under fire from Ukrainian drones. And that’s exactly how the Kremlin designed it. As ordinary Russians continue to bear the domestic brunt of Putin’s war, the Kremlin and the security services staged this PR stunt to convince the public that Putin, too, is making sacrifices for the country, four current and former Russian officials told The Moscow Times. All of these sources spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive details related to Putin’s security. With...

A claim by the Russian Defence Ministry that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin was "in the epicentre of a drone attack" has turned out to be a staged performance by the Kremlin. Russian state media claimed earlier this week that when Putin visited Kursk Oblast for the first time since the hostilities began in the area, his helicopter came "under fire from Ukrainian drones". In reality, this was not a combat incident but a meticulously staged event. Four sources within the government and the Kremlin told The Moscow Times that security officials promoted this shocking and "risky" episode in the media...