Free Republic

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Some new Ukrainian soldiers refuse to fire at the enemy. Others, according to commanders and fellow fighters, struggle to assemble weapons or to coordinate basic combat movements. A few have even walked away from their posts, abandoning the battlefield altogether. While Ukraine presses on with its incursion into Russia’s Kursk region, its troops are still losing precious ground along the country’s eastern front – a grim erosion that military commanders blame in part on poorly trained recruits drawn from a recent mobilization drive, as well as Russia’s clear superiority in ammunition and air power.

At least 35 Palestinians were killed Sunday in an Israeli strike on a tent encampment, Gaza health officials said, that the Israeli military claims targeted two senior Hamas officials. The strike targeted a humanitarian zone in Rafah which the Israeli military previously instructed displaced Palestinians to shelter from attacks, the Gaza Health Ministry said. The ministry said most of the 35 dead were women and children, and that the death toll is likely to rise as “countless” are trapped in rubble. The attack comes just days after the International Court of Justice (ICJ) ordered Israel to stop its operations in...

Bring back the Redskins! God, I would love to see this! A Native American group is attempting to rebrand Washington‘s NFL franchise back to the original “Redskins” name, and it’s gaining some serious steam as Americans left and right are opposing cancel culture. You’ve heard of “MAGA,” now meet NAGA — the Native American Guardian’s Association — which is a North Dakota-based nonprofit organization. They’ve started a Change.org petition meant to gloriously bring back the iconic “Washington Redskins” moniker, and it fantastically surpassed 100,000 signatures Tuesday. Created on June 21, the petition wants a return to the original name to...

A Native American group has threatened a national boycott of the Washington Commanders unless the NFL team reverses course and changes its name back to the Washington Redskins. The Native American Guardians Association (NAGA) wrote on Twitter — now X — that the group, along with its Founder and President Eunice Davidson, have sent a letter to the “Washington ‘Commanders’ Ownership & Key Leadership Formally Requesting The Team Revitalize it’s Relationship With The American Indian Community & Rightfully Change Their Name Back to ‘The Redskins.'” In a letter that addressed what the group called the “cancel culture” against the Native...

DETROIT -- Four Lions players, including 2022 first-round pick Jameson Williams, were among five players leaguewide to be suspended for violating the NFL's gambling policy after an investigation by the league. Lions wide receiver Quintez Cephus and safety C.J. Moore have been suspended indefinitely for betting on NFL games, as was Washington Commanders defensive end Shaka Toney. They can reapply for reinstatement after one year, although Detroit announced that its two players have been released. Second-year wide receivers Williams and Stanley Berryhill are being suspended for six games each for mobile betting that occurred at the Lions' Allen Park facility....

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos responded to a report Monday that claimed that he was considering selling The Washington Post so he could purchase an NFL team from an owner who hates the newspaper. The New York Post reported that Bezos is looking to potentially buy the Washington Commanders from team owner Dan Synder. Snyder, however, despises the newspaper because it reported on the alleged toxic management of the NFL franchise. After the report was published on Monday, representatives for Bezos and The Washington Post both told CNN that the newspaper was not for sale. The New York Post report comes...

The drama around Washington Commanders owner Dan Snyder is escalating to new levels. A bombshell ESPN report on Thursday morning details how Snyder and his fellow owners are moving toward a showdown that could ultimately lead to his ouster. The story alleges that Snyder has been digging up dirt on his fellow owners, including allegedly hiring private investigators through his law firms, in a brazen attempt to keep control of his scandal-scarred franchise and has enough information to “blow up” several of them. One owner told the website that Snyder told him he “has dirt on Jerry Jones,” his one-time...

Commanders owner Dan Snyder believes he has enough “dirt” on fellow NFL owners, commissioner Roger Goodell and league officials that he could “blow up” several people and organizations, ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr., Seth Wickersham and Tisha Thompson reported Thursday. “He’s backed into a corner,” a veteran owner told the network. “He’s behaving like a mad dog cornered.” ESPN’s report comes at a time when the embattled owner is facing investigations from the league and a congressional committee looking into workplace misconduct in the franchise. Yet, Snyder reportedly told associates he does not plan to lose the Washington team “without...

Brian Robinson Jr., rookie running back for the Washington Commanders (formerly the Redskins) NFL football team, was shot and wounded in a carjacking attempt in the revitalized H Street corridor in Northeast Washington, D.C. late Sunday afternoon. Robinson, from Alabama, who has been rumored to be named a starter for the Commanders after an impressive preseason, suffered non-life threatening wounds after being hit twice, according to reports. The carjacking attempt took place in the 1000 block of H Street Northeast, across from a Ben’s Chili Bowl restaurant before 6 p.m. D.C. police say they are looking for two young Black...

The U.S. House of Representative's Oversight Committee, one of Congress' top investigative arms, recently requested that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and Commanders owner Daniel Snyder testify at a hearing Wednesday regarding workplace misconduct inside the Washington franchise. One of them has officially declined the invitation, with Axios reporting last week that Snyder will not attend the hearing over concerns he and his lawyers have over "due process." The Washington Post then reported that Goodell has accepted the invitation to testify, although he will appear remotely. On Friday, the committee's chairwoman, Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), wrote a letter trying to get Snyder...

House Democrats have ramped up their investigation of the Washington Commanders football team and owner Dan Snyder, relying on a familiar "Me Too" playbook to do it. Reps. Carolyn Maloney (D., N.Y.) and Raja Krishnamoorthi (D., Ill.) have invited Snyder and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell to testify before the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee on June 22 as part of their sprawling probe into the football team. Democrats opened the investigation last year after the NFL fined the team $10 million for workplace harassment issues. The probe has expanded to include sexual misconduct allegations against Snyder himself and an...

Washington Commanders defensive coordinator Jack Del Rio has been fined $100,000 by the team for his comments about protests in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd and the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.Coach Ron Rivera announced the fine in a statement Friday after meeting with Del Rio earlier in the day. He said Del Rio’s statements were hurtful to members of the local community and did not reflect the views of the organization.Asked Wednesday about a social media post he made earlier in the week, Del Rio downplayed the deadly insurrection and questioned why the...

Two more Russian commanders have been killed on the frontline in Ukraine after a top general was shot dead by snipers, a Western official has claimed. Major General Andrey Sukhovetsky, 47, was reportedly killed by a Ukrainian sniper while the latest deaths, since Russia invaded last week, were also both senior officers. One was a divisional commander and the other was a regimental commander, the Telegraph has reported.

Jonathan Allen apologized on Wednesday for a tweet about Hitler. The Washington Commanders defensive lineman issued his apology on Twitter, describing the earlier tweet as "dumb." So what did Allen write? Early Wednesday, he invited his followers to "ask me anything?" He was asked the conversation starter: "If you could have dinner with three people, dead or alive, who are you inviting?" To which Allen responded: "My grandad, hitler and Michael Jackson." "He’s a military genius and I love military tactics but honestly I would want to pick his brain as to why he did what he did," Allen wrote...

The NBC broadcaster might have been joking, but social media wasn't. Comrade Al Michaels won't get credit for inventing the Washington Commanders new nickname, but he might have helped popularize it. During his appearance on The Pat McAfee Show, Michaels joked that the team may become known as something else entirely. And after the two-year process to come up with the new name, it could come across as something of a red scare to owner Dan Snyder. “People will get used to it,” Michaels said. “They'll start calling them the Commies and social media will have a blast with it.“...

SUMMERFIELD, MD—The Washington Football Team changed its name this week, finalizing a year-long transition from 'Redskins' to 'Commanders.' Along with the shiny new name, the team announced a brand new mascot: General George Custer. "We wanted a mascot that would represent the ultimate commander," said team owner Dan Snyder. "Someone the fans could rally behind as we make our last stand on defense." General Custer, who famously said, "There are not enough Indians in the world to defeat the Seventh Cavalry," will be on the sidelines every game to cheer on the Commanders with the crowd. Native American leaders have...

Rifts have emerged between U.S. military leaders and the Obama White House on Washington’s future role in Libya, with the generals questioning the White House’s argument that the recent success against Islamic State shows Libya can go it alone in the fight against terrorism, without direct U.S. assistance. Marine Corps Gen. Thomas Waldhauser, the White House’s pick to lead U.S. Africa Command, called for increased American military action in Libya to ensure the Islamic State, or ISIS or ISIL, does not reconstitute itself in the country as pressure ramps up against its strongholds in Iraq and Syria. Gen. Waldhauser told...

The Pentagon is ordering the top brass to incorporate climate change into virtually everything they do, from testing weapons to training troops to war planning to joint exercises with allies. A new directive’s theme: The U.S. Armed Forces must show “resilience” and beat back the threat based on “actionable science.” It says the military will not be able to maintain effectiveness unless the directive is followed. It orders the establishment of a new layer of bureaucracy — a wide array of “climate change boards, councils and working groups” to infuse climate change into “programs, plans and policies.” The Pentagon defines

The armed wing of Hamas announced Thursday that three of its senior commanders were killed in a pre-dawn Israeli air strike in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip. Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades in a statement identified the leaders as Mohammed Abu Shamalah, Raed al-Atar and Mohammed Barhum. Emergency services spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said eight people were killed in the strike. Witnesses said a four-storey family home was completely destroyed in a series of air strikes. The airstrike was carried out based on intelligence provided by the Shabak (Israel Security Agency), which led to the identification of two central Hamas figures.

An air strike in southern Somalia has killed two senior commanders of the militant Islamist group, al-Shabab, residents have told the BBC. The strike destroyed the vehicle the militants were travelling in between the towns of Jilib and Barawe, seen as a major base of al-Shabab, they said. The US launched a failed raid in Barawe earlier this month to capture an al-Shabab commander. Al-Shabab is the main al-Qaeda-linked group in East Africa. A Kenyan military source told the BBC their troops had raided Jilib, and that there might have been some casualties. However, correspondents say it is unlikely that...