Free Republic

Into the depleted field of journalism in America, a handful of websites have appeared in recent weeks with names suggesting a focus on news close to home: D.C. Weekly, the New York News Daily, the Chicago Chronicle and a newer sister publication, the Miami Chronicle. In fact, they are not local news organizations at all. They are Russian creations, researchers and government officials say, meant to mimic actual news organizations to push Kremlin propaganda by interspersing it among an at-times odd mix of stories about crime, politics and culture. While Russia has long sought ways to influence public discourse in...

Ken Paxton hit the campaign trail with a smile last week. Beaming in photos he posted of events in Collin County, Denton County, Grayson County and Tarrant County, the Texas Republican attorney general campaigned and promoted more than a dozen candidates on the ballot in this week’s primary election. Most are new faces to the Republican Party, because Paxton, the legally embattled but popular statewide official, isn’t seeking to shore up his party’s incumbents: Paxton is out for revenge. “It’s time for a whole new slate in Collin County,” he wrote in one post with a photo of him and...

First came a single helicopter, flying low over the marshes around the river outside the village, then the rattle of automatic fire scattered the crowds gathered for the weekly market. Next came more helicopters, dropping troops off around the homes and cattle pens. The soldiers moved swiftly, ordering men into the centre of the village, gunning down those trying to escape. When some armed militants fired back, the shooting intensified. Soon at least 20 civilians and a dozen alleged members of an al-Qaida affiliated Islamist group, were dead. Over the next five days, hundreds more would die in the village...

Russia’s scaled-down Victory Day military parade showed not only Moscow’s insecurities over possible Ukrainian attacks but also highlighted the country’s depleted military resources due to the conflict, political analysts said. May 9 is a public holiday in Russia when it commemorates the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. It is arguably the most important day in Russia’s public calendar and history, forming a central part of the country’s modern national identity. This year’s military parade through Red Square in Moscow and celebrations around the country were noticeably smaller than in previous years or entirely canceled, with...

Russia-installed managers at the Moscow-occupied atomic energy power plant in Zaporizhzhia are trying to leave the site over concerns about Ukraine's expected counteroffensive, according to the country's nuclear operator. Energoatom said on Telegram that the Moscow-appointed director of the site, Yuriy Chernichuk, had left the town of Enerhodar, where the plant is located, for occupied Crimea on Monday. The Ukrainian state enterprise had also said that the "pseudo management" of the site had urgently asked to go on leave. "The current so-called managers of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant show a desire to 'rest' en masse closer to the Kerch...

The Kremlin has issued a list of guidelines for Russia’s state media outlets on how to cover Ukraine's impending counteroffensive, the independent news outlet Meduza revealed on Tuesday. The guidelines, which recommended emphasizing the fact that Ukraine is being armed by NATO while discouraging any suggestion that Kyiv is underprepared, appear aimed at giving Moscow the chance to spin any outcome of the expected counter-attack positively. "If Ukraine, with the help of weapons from the U.S. and Europe, is successful and occupies some territories, the [Russian] loss will be understandable: the entire West has concentrated huge efforts on the front,...

At least 39 dead including two children and 100 hurt as Russian missile hits Ukrainian railway station packed with hundreds of civilians trying to flee: President Zelensky condemns 'evil that has no limits' Ukraine's state railway company announced attack on Kramatorsk's station, a city in the east of the country The governor of Ukraine's Donesk region said later on Friday the death toll had risen to at least 39 people Pictures from outside the station showed bodies strewn across the ground. Some were in body bags Other pictures showed wreckage of a missile with Russian text written on the side...

The shock-and-awe financial sanctions on Russia have rekindled an old trope: that the weaponization of the dollar will end its role as the global reserve currency. Why would foreign countries use dollars, the argument goes, if the dollar can be turned against them? Why wouldn’t China, soon to be the world’s largest economy, build the renminbi into a rival reserve currency? And if not China, what about crypto? This dollar defeatism is vastly overblown. Russia, China and other U.S. adversaries would love to escape the financial hegemony of Uncle Sam. But they have been trying for years and have little...

As Americans, there is little that is more important to us than freedom — but we must never forget that our democracy, and the freedoms it protects, relies on responsibility. Perhaps nowhere is this ideological collaboration more evident than with guns and the Second Amendment. But this all-important balance has been stretched to the breaking point in state after state, most recently in Texas. Last week in Houston, an armed robbery turned into a tragedy of the worst kind. The victim of an armed robbery turned around and became the perpetrator, accidentally killing a 9-year-old girl as he fired at...