Free Republic

There is growing alarm about the pace and prospects of Ukraine’s counteroffensive, with few signs of progress in recent weeks and Russian lines holding strong.Those concerns picked up steam in the past week after Ukraine launched a second push in the southern Zaporizhzhia region and has still come up mostly empty in the eyes of Western allies.U.S. officials told CNN on Tuesday that significant progress was “highly unlikely,” especially with fall and winter fast approaching. And another U.S. official told NBC News, “There is a frustration that they have not used more of the combat power that they have.”The Quincy...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday told his country to prepare for another wave of Russian missile strikes as citizens struggle with widespread power outages and a lack of heat in the aftermath of last week’s attacks. Zelensky said the “terrorists are preparing new strikes” and would continue to shell their country so long as Russia has missiles. He urged Ukrainians to pay attention to air alerts and respond to the attacks with unity, adding that “our mutual assistance is one of the elements of protection against terror and our strength.” “The upcoming week can be as hard as the...

Former Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Michael Chertoff on Sunday called potential Republican efforts to impeach the agency’s current leader, Alejandro Mayorkas, a “political stunt.” In an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation” moderator Margaret Brennan, Chertoff, who served under former President George W. Bush, said House Republicans threatening to impeach Mayorkas would be engaging in performative politics, calling any effort to do so a “very sad day.”

A new survey from the Texas Republican Party has Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) defeating former President Trump by 11 points in a hypothetical match-up. Among voters likely to participate in a 2024 presidential primary in Texas, 43 percent said they would support DeSantis and 32 percent said they back Trump, according to the survey results. DeSantis, a rising star in the Republican Party who has flirted with a 2024 White House bid, continues to gain ground in hypothetical match-ups against the former president. Texas GOP Chairman Matt Rinaldi tweeted his support for DeSantis after the Florida governor cruised to...

Bob Woodward writes in a new op-ed that former President Trump “continues to lead” a “seditious conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election” that the veteran Washington Post journalist believes will “destroy democracy” in the U.S. Woodward writes that “Trump has learned where the levers of power are” in the American government and is seeking to to pull them to gain full control. “And full control means installing absolute loyalists in key Cabinet and White House posts,” Woodward writes. “The record now shows that Trump has led — and continues to lead — a seditious conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election,...

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) on Tuesday released a report detailing how a white supremacist gunman who opened fire at a Buffalo supermarket in May and killed 10 people in a racially motivated attack was radicalized by fringe websites like 4Chan. While Payton Gendron’s online posts and activity were previously known, the attorney general office’s 49-page report offers a deeper examination of what led up to the May 14 shooting, when he shot 13 people at a supermarket in a majority-Black neighborhood on the East Side of Buffalo, N.Y.

Russian troops shot and killed an orchestra conductor who refused to perform at a concert Russia allegedly staged in the occupied southern region of Kherson, according to Ukrainian officials. The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine said in a Facebook post that it confirmed Friday that Russian soldiers shot Yuri Kerpatenko in his own home. Kerpatenko, the main conductor of the Gileya Chamber Orchestra, refused a Russian invitation to perform a concert with the orchestra group “to demonstrate the so-called ‘improvement of peaceful life’ in Kherson,” according to the ministry. The late conductor was also affiliated with the...

Ukrainian diplomat Andriy Melnyk told billionaire Elon Musk to “*— off” after the SpaceX and Tesla CEO proposed Ukraine give up some territory and hold new elections in contested regions to end the war with Russia. Musk tweeted out a poll on Monday asking respondents to weigh in on his proposal to end the war: redoing elections of annexed region under United Nations supervision, giving up the Crimean peninsula to Russia and maintaining Ukraine as a neutral country between Russia and the West.

Senior leaders at the Secret Service reportedly confiscated the cellphones of 24 agents who were involved with the Jan. 6, 2021, response and delivered the phones to the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) inspector general. A source familiar confirmed to The Hill that the phones were handed to Inspector General Joseph Cuffari’s office after a July 19 letter was sent to the agency from DHS investigators indicating he had begun a criminal probe. NBC News first reported the development.

Conservative radio host and author Larry Elder said he’s considering a run for president in 2024 — even if former President Trump announces another bid. Elder, a former California gubernatorial candidate, told Iowa’s Des Moines Register that if he chooses to seek the Republican nomination in 2024, he doesn’t “feel” like he’d be running against Trump, who has repeatedly floated a White House comeback.

More than 150 Michigan Republicans launched a new campaign effort to boost the reelection prospects of Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) against GOP opponent Tudor Dixon, who is backed by former President Trump. Republicans for Whitmer is led by a leadership council of 35 Republicans from Michigan, including business leaders, former lawmakers and staff who served under former state GOP governors John Engler and Rick Snyder. Bill Parfet, the chairman and CEO of commercial real estate company Northwood Group, said he was supporting Whitmer because she was seeking to build a common bridge between Democrats and Republicans.

A spokesman for former President Trump told The New York Times that former Vice President Mike Pence is “desperate to chase his lost relevance” amid rising tensions between the two former allies, who could clash for the Republican presidential nomination in 2024. In a Times article about Pence laying the groundwork for a potential 2024 bid, Trump spokesperson Taylor Budowich said the former Indiana governor was “set to lose a governor’s race in 2016 before he was plucked up and his political career was salvaged.”

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Sunday pushed to label Russia a state sponsor of terrorism and called for the expansion of the western security alliance NATO to deter the Kremlin from future invasions. Graham told “Fox News Sunday” guest host Brett Baier the U.S. was fighting “for the future of Europe” against Russia amid the war in Ukraine.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) on Sunday said the U.S. is not fighting a proxy war with Russia by arming and funding Ukraine’s resistance against Moscow’s invasion. Menendez, the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” the U.S. will continue to “help Ukraine and defeat Russia,” but emphasized the U.S. is not fighting a proxy war or trying to weaken Russia.

Ukraine’s forces regained full control of the region around capital city Kyiv on Saturday for the first time since Russia invaded the country at the end of February, according to a Ukrainian official. Hanna Malyar, the deputy minister for Ukraine’s defense ministry, shared the news in a Facebook post. Malyar said Ukrainians should still refrain from returning to their homes, citing ongoing efforts to clear the area, including from leftover mines.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams (D) said he plans to start clearing out homeless encampments in the city. In an interview with The New York Times published on Friday, Adams said he was seeking to clear the encampments within a two-week period, but did not say when.

Former President Trump on Tuesday called Russia's recognition of two breakaway territories in eastern Ukraine a "genius" move ahead of its military invasion. In an interview on "The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show," Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin's recognition of the Donetsk and Luhansk people’s republics in eastern Ukraine on Monday was "smart" and "pretty savvy." "I went in yesterday, and there was a television screen, and I said, 'This is genius,'" he said. "Putin declares a big portion of the Ukraine — of Ukraine — Putin declares it as independent. Oh, that’s wonderful." "I said, 'How smart...

Former President Donald Trump said during a rally in Texas on Saturday that he would consider pardoning those charged in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, saying he would treat them "fairly" if he were reelected. At Saturday's rally in Conroe, Tex., Trump said, "If I run, and if I win, we will treat those people from Jan. 6 fairly." "And if it requires pardons, we will give them pardons," he continued. "Because they are being treated so unfairly."

More than half of Americans view right-wing militia groups as a threat to the U.S., with a third saying they pose an "immediate and serious threat" to the country, according to a poll from The Economist/YouGov. The poll was taken following the first anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection, when Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an effort to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 election. Members of known right-wing extremist groups including the Oath Keepers, the Proud Boys and the Three-Percenters, have been charged in connection with the attack.

At least 20 states are beginning the new year by increasing their minimum wages, while Puerto Rico and several cities and counties are also bumping up pay for workers in 2022. A total of 26 states will have minimum wage increases go into effect in 2022, with wage hikes beginning in 22 states on Jan. 1, according to Wolters Kluwer Legal & Regulatory U.S., a company providing information on finance, regulatory compliance and the law. A wage increase in New York state began a day earli