Free Republic

I'm in Victory Park, Moscow's giant memorial complex dedicated to the Soviet Union's defeat of Nazi Germany. A new open-air exhibition has just opened. But it has nothing to do with World War Two. On display is Western military hardware captured by the Russian army in Ukraine. They are war trophies and Russia has decided to flaunt them. Among the armour here is a British Army Husky tactical support vehicle which had been donated to Ukraine. Its windscreen is covered in bullet-holes. Opposite the Husky I can see Western tanks that had been transferred to the Ukrainian military. There's an...

WASHINGTON, April 18 (Reuters) - Donald Trump said on Thursday the survival of Ukraine is important to the United States, a shift in tone days before the Republican-led U.S. House of Representatives is due to vote on a $61 billion aid package.

Fast food giant McDonald's is to buy back all its Israeli restaurants following a boycott of the brand in response to the Israel-Hamas war. The company said it had reached an agreement with franchisee Alonyal for the return of 225 outlets across the country employing 5,000 people. McDonald's was criticised after Alonyal started giving away thousands of free meals to Israeli soldiers. Sales in the region have slumped since the conflict began in October. On Thursday, McDonald's said a deal had been signed with Alonyal which has been running the chain of Golden Arches in Israel for more than 30...

Former President Donald Trump is urging his supporters to buy a "God Bless the USA" Bible for $59.99 as he faces mounting legal bills amid his third presidential run.

By a long shot, the enduring image of a NATO-standard modern main battle tank in the Russo-Ukraine War is a video of a stopped vehicle getting hammered by cheap FPV drones, before it gets set on fire and burns down to a six-million-dollar hulk. Combat video posted by the 79th Air Assault Brigade on Tuesday, reportedly from the eastern Avdiivka sector, was typical, showing a stationary US-made M1A2 Abrams tank hit with a detonation in the back of the turret, probably by a Russian FPV drone. Three crew hurl themselves from the main battle tank (MBT) as ammunition stored in...

Maxim Kuzminov, a Russian pilot who dramatically defected to Ukraine by flying his helicopter across the border, is dead, according to Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate (GUR). The news comes after the Spanish Civil Guard in Alicante province told CNN that a man had been shot to death on February 13 inside the parking garage of an apartment building in Villajoyosa, a seaside resort on the Mediterranean Sea. Initially, the Civil Guard said the victim was a 33-year-old Ukrainian but later said the identity of the body was still to be determined and part of an investigation, which had been sealed...

HUR Confirms Death of Russian Helicopter Pilot Who Defected to Ukraine With Mi-8 28-year-old Captain Maxim Kuzminov seized control of a Russian armored combat Mi-8 helicopter and brought it safely to an airbase in the Kharkiv region in August of 2023.

Mr. Biden’s signature accomplishment, according to the historians, was evicting Donald J. Trump from the Oval Office.President Biden has not had a lot of fun perusing polls lately. He has a lower approval rating than every president going back to Dwight D. Eisenhower at this stage of their tenures, and he trails former President Donald J. Trump in a fall rematch. But Mr. Biden can take solace from one survey in which he is way out in front of Mr. Trump.A new poll of historians coming out on Presidents’ Day weekend ranks Mr. Biden as the 14th-best president in American...

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — As he closes in on the Republican presidential nomination, former President Donald Trump made a highly unusual stop Saturday, hawking new Trump-branded sneakers at “Sneaker Con,” a gathering that bills itself as the “The Greatest Sneaker Show on Earth.” Trump was met with loud boos as well as cheers at the Philadelphia Convention Center as he introduced what he called the first official Trump footwear. The shoes, gold lame high tops with an American flag detail on the back, are being sold as “Never Surrender High-Tops” for $399 on a new website that also sells Trump-branded “Victory47”...

NEW YORK, Feb 15 (Reuters) - Donald Trump will become the first former U.S. president to stand trial on criminal charges after a New York judge on Thursday set a March 25 trial date and denied his request to dismiss the case, which stems from hush money paid to a porn star.

Joe Biden is old. Like each of us, he comes from a particular place in history, in his case the LBJ years. And that’s one big reason why his first term has been so full of accomplishment: His age, often cited as the greatest obstacle to his reelection, is actually his superpower. The first presidential election in which Joe Biden was eligible to vote featured Lyndon Johnson beating Barry Goldwater. History remembers LBJ’s presidency as chaotic because of his tragic adventuring in Vietnam, but in other respects it was remarkable. His Great Society echoed Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal (FDR was...

White House officials did not support or object to the planned ouster of Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, saying it’s President Volodymyr Zelensky’s sovereign choice, people familiar with the matter saidThe government of Ukraine has informed the White House that President Volodymyr Zelensky has decided to fire his top military commander, Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, in what would be the most consequential personnel shake-up of the war, said two people familiar with the discussion.

American consumers, including Democrats and Republicans, are feeling better about the U.S. economy, the University of Michigan's consumer survey showed on Friday, in what could be welcome news for President Joe Biden who has struggled to convince voters that he is best equipped to manage the economy heading into the presidential election in 2024. Consumer sentiment jumped 13 percent in January to its highest level since July 2021. The feeling of confidence about the economy cut across age, income, education, geography and even political affiliation. Democrats and Republicans showed their most favorable readings since the summer of 2021, according to...

Former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has trimmed former President Donald Trump’s lead in the Republican primary race in New Hampshire to single digits, according to a new CNN Poll conducted by the University of New Hampshire. Trump still holds a meaningful lead in the poll, with the backing of 39% of likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire compared to Haley’s 32%. The rest of the field lags far behind in the poll, with former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie at 12%, entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy at 8%, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis at 5% and former Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson...

Former President Trump and former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley have made gains among likely Republican primary voters in New Hampshire, according to a recent survey. The American Research Group poll found Haley polling at 33 percent among likely Republican primary voters in the Granite State in a survey taken between Dec. 27 and Jan. 3 — up four points from a December survey.

Former President Donald Trump put out a video message Tuesday night urging his supporters to turn out for the 2024 Republican Iowa caucus in 20 days, but also accused his opponents of cheating. Trump began the video clip by thanking his “Trump caucus captains” and urging them to “turn out” their voters on caucus night. Trump, in typical fashion, then accused the process of being rigged by his opposition. “And that’s what you have to do. You know, the other side does cheat!” he insisted, adding: "And we’re not going to let that happen. We cannot let that happen. But...

GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley is edging within four percentage points of longtime Republican front-runner former President Donald Trump in a new New Hampshire poll. Haley, who served in the Trump administration as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was supported by 29% of likely New Hampshire Republican primary voters, according to a recent poll by American Research Group conducted by telephone, Dec. 14-20. The poll showed that 33% of likely New Hampshire Republican voters said they would support Trump.

Rudy Giuliani has filed for bankruptcy, days after being ordered to pay $148 million in a defamation lawsuit brought by two former election workers in Georgia who said his targeting of them led to death threats that made them fear for their lives. In his filing Thursday, the former New York City mayor listed nearly $153 million in existing or potential debts, including close to a million dollars in tax liabilities, money he owes his lawyers and many millions of dollars in potential legal judgements in lawsuits against him. He estimated his assets to be between $1 million and $10...

Haley recently received a coveted endorsement from Gov. Chris Sununu.Nikki Haley is closing the gap on former President Donald Trump in a key early voting state.A CBS News/YouGov poll released Sunday found that 29% of likely GOP primary voters in New Hampshire would vote for Haley, while 44% said they’re backing Trump. It’s the latest good news for Haley out of the Granite State, where she recently received a coveted endorsement from Gov. Chris Sununu, who has pledged to put “110 percent” behind the former South Carolina governor in the run-up to the state’s Jan. 23 primary.

Vivek Ramaswamy, a candidate for Republican nominee for US president in 2024, inspired accusations of taking the rightwing talking point about “draining the swamp” too literally when his microphone appeared to broadcast himself urinating during an X Space conversation with Elon Musk, Alex Jones, Andrew Tate, Matt Gaetz and others. On the same day that Musk welcomed Jones – the notorious conspiracy theorist – back to X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter that banned Jones in 2018 for abusive behavior, Musk invited him to speak with a constellation of far-right media figures and politicians. The conversation reportedly...