Free Republic

For the better part of this year, I have been noticing publicly on the Twitter, and on these pages, how the financial interests of the global/political establishment elite, and a host of affiliated Technocrats formerly outlined as the Sea Island group, seemingly have been working an operation to divide MAGA.That operation is to separate President Trump from his support base.President Trump has been navigating this dynamic, sometimes failing -not surprisingly given the scope of the issue- yet keeping his focus on the larger objective, the ‘ultimate solutions’ approach he is known for.ISRAEL – To wit, many people have criticized President...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday he wants to order 25 Patriot air defense systems from the United States, as Ukraine desperately tries to fend off relentless Russian aerial attacks that have brought rolling blackouts across Ukraine on the brink of winter.Zelenskyy acknowledged that the Patriot systems are expensive and that such a large batch could take years to manufacture. But he said European countries could give their Patriots to Ukraine and await replacements, stressing that “we would not like to wait.”Combined missile and drone strikes on the power grid have coincided with Ukraine’s frantic efforts to...

Ukraine's anti-corruption bureau said on Monday that it was conducting a large-scale operation to uncover corruption in the country's energy sector. "The activities of a high-level criminal organization have been documented," the bureau said about the investigation which involves 1,000 hours of audio recordings and took 15 months of work. "Its members have built a large-scale corruption scheme to influence strategic enterprises in the public sector, in particular JSC 'Energoatom'," according to the post on the Telegram messaging app.

Donald Trump has exempted Hungary from sanctions the US has placed on top Russian oil producers as he met Viktor Orbán, the country’s prime minister, at the White House on Friday. The US president’s decision will be a huge relief for Orbán, a fellow rightwing populist, who had been angling for a reprieve after Trump imposed sanctions on Lukoil and Rosneft last month out of frustration with Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s reluctance to offer concessions for a peace deal in Ukraine. A White House official confirmed the exemption for Hungary on Friday evening, adding it would last one year. Trump...

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is not “afraid” of Donald Trump unlike other western leaders and dismissed reports that their last meeting in Washington was volatile, adding that he had good relations with the US president. He also said in an exclusive interview with the Guardian that King Charles had helped build relations with Trump and described the British monarch as “very supportive” of Ukraine. The Ukrainian president denied claims Trump had tossed maps of the battlefield aside in a stormy exchange in October at the White House, where he had arrived hoping to secure supplies of US Tomahawk cruise...

Russia's foreign ministry denounced on Saturday "excessive military force" by the United States in the Caribbean Sea deployed as part of a drive against drug trafficking and reaffirmed its support for Venezuela's leaders. "We firmly denounce the use of excessive military force in carrying out actions in anti-drugs operations," foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in a commentary on her ministry's website. "Such actions are in violation of both U.S. domestic legislation ... and the norms of international law." (snip) In her comments, Zakharova said Russia "confirms our firm support for the Venezuelan leadership in defending its national sovereignty."

President Donald Trump announced that he has ordered the United States to resume nuclear weapons testing "immediately," saying he directed the Department of War to match other nations’ programs. He called the move a necessary step to maintain global parity. Trump wrote in a Truth Social post Wednesday night: "The United States has more Nuclear Weapons than any other country. This was accomplished, including a complete update and renovation of existing weapons, during my First Term in office." "Because of the tremendous destructive power, I HATED to do it, but had no choice! Russia is second, and China is a...

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced that his country’s military successfully tested a massive nuclear-torpedo dubbed the Poseidon capable of leveling coastal cities with 1,600-foot high radioactive tsunamis. The despot, while enjoying tea with wounded Russian soldiers at a hospital in Moscow Wednesday, said the underwater bomb was launched from a submarine the day before and was a “huge success.” “For the first time, we managed not only to launch it with a launch engine from a carrier submarine, but also to launch the nuclear power unit on which this device passed a certain amount of time,” Putin said.

Those of us who came of age during the Cold War remember such movies as 'Testament' and 'On The Beach', which depicted the aftermath of a full-scale nuclear exchange between the US and USSR. We also remember real-world events such as the Cuban Missile Crisis and the downing of Flight 007 over Korea in 1983.Are we naive enough to believe that just because the USSR no longer exists, today's Russia no longer possesses a stockpile of 6500+ nuclear warheads and the means to deliver them anywhere on the planet?

Kirill Dmitriev, the Kremlin’s top economic envoy, arrived in the United States with holes in his sails and no wind to push him forward. He was a man on a desperate mission. A phone call between Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, and Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, had not gone well. The meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, expected to take place within two weeks, was shelved. The US president had finally lost patience with his Russian counterpart’s refusal to support a ceasefire in Ukraine. On Wednesday, he slapped Moscow’s largest oil firms with crippling sanctions. With...

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...

A planned summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin was put on hold on Tuesday, as Moscow's rejection of an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine cast a cloud over attempts at negotiations. A senior White House official told Reuters "there are no plans for President Trump to meet with President Putin in the immediate future" after Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had a "productive call" but opted against an in-person meeting. Trump had announced last week that he and Putin would meet soon in Hungary to try to bring an end...

Donald Trump is working on establishing a Ukraine victory fund which will be bankrolled by fresh tariffs on China. The US president instructed Scott Bessent, his treasury secretary, to float the plan to European counterparts ahead of Volodymyr Zelensky’s visit to Washington DC on Friday. Mr Trump, who previously claimed Mr Zelensky did not “hold the cards” for a military victory, is increasingly losing patience with Vladimir Putin, and his proposal for a Ukraine war shift marks a significant change in his position. His language was mimicked by Pete Hegseth, the US secretary of defence, who told a meeting of...

U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth warned Moscow on Wednesday that the United States and its allies would "impose costs on Russia for its continued aggression" if the war in Ukraine does not come to an end. "If we must take this step, the U.S. War Department stands ready to do our part in ways that only the United States can do," Hegseth said at a meeting of the Ukraine Defence Contact Group of Kyiv's allies at NATO headquarters. Hegseth did not elaborate. His comments came as U.S. President Donald Trump's administration is considering a request by Ukraine for long-range Tomahawk...

Russian forces occupied Bucha, on the outskirts of Kyiv, for just under a month. Across those 29 days in early 2022, they committed acts of such barbarity that this Ukrainian town will forever be synonymous with war crimes; this conflict’s Srebrenica. Residents were killed and tortured in their hundreds; more than 100 were buried in a mass grave outside the Orthodox Christian church. Others were murdered as they fled. The basement of a children’s summer camp was converted into a torture chamber where women and children were systematically raped. Soldiers slashed throats, mutilated victims and killed parents in front of...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met on Wednesday, one day after President Donald Trump called Moscow a "paper tiger" and said Ukraine could win back its seized land. Rubio and Lavrov sat with their delegations on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Mike Waltz was also present. The meeting lasted roughly 50 minutes. Lavrov didn't respond to questions as he left, including whether he was concerned about the shift in tone from Trump or whether the U.S. president had turned his back on...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy praised his "productive meeting" with U.S. President Donald Trump on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly on Tuesday, after which Trump appeared to jettison his long-held skepticism of Kyiv's battlefield ambitions. Shortly after the meeting, Trump wrote on social media, "After getting to know and fully understand the Ukraine/Russia Military and Economic situation and, after seeing the Economic trouble it is causing Russia, I think Ukraine, with the support of the European Union, is in a position to fight and WIN all of Ukraine back in its original form." (snip) But on Tuesday, the...

Donald Trump has signed an executive order to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War.

President Trump is facing outcry from some of his supporters after saying he plans to allow 600,000 students from China into the U.S. “It’s a very important relationship. We’re going to get along good with China,” Trump told reporters Monday during a meeting with the president of South Korea. “I hear so many stories about, ‘We’re not going to allow their students,’” he continued. “We’re going to allow their students to come in. We’re going to allow it. It’s very important — 600,000 students. It’s very important.” Trump’s comments marked a shift from earlier in the year, when Secretary of...