Free Republic

Russia's war against Ukraine should "culminate" by the summer of 2023 Retired Major John Spencer told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Georgian service that he doesn't share the opinion that the war will last for years, due to Ukraine's strength on the battlefield and support from Western allies. Russian President Vladimir Putin's initial strategy of overtaking Kyiv in April was a failure, Spencer said, followed by another unsuccessful attempt to alienate Ukrainian allies. Russia's continued attacks on critical Ukrainian infrastructure to literally "freeze" Ukraine and its people are "futile," he said. "I think it's clear that Putin is not going to...

Fumbling blindly through cratered farms, the troops from Russia’s 155th Naval Infantry Brigade had no maps, medical kits or working walkie-talkies, they said. Just a few weeks earlier, they had been factory workers and truck drivers, watching an endless showcase of supposed Russian military victories at home on state television before being drafted in September. One medic was a former barista who had never had any medical training. Now, they were piled onto the tops of overcrowded armored vehicles, lumbering through fallow autumn fields with Kalashnikov rifles from half a century ago and virtually nothing to eat, they said. Russia...

A former Russian commander and prominent military blogger has given another scathing assessment of Moscow's invasion of Ukraine in which he described how Vladimir Putin's troops had already been dealt a "strategic defeat" by Ukraine. Igor Girkin, also known as Igor Strelkov, is an army veteran and former intelligence officer who played a key role in Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the conflict in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. He is among a number of milbloggers who give candid accounts of Russia's war effort that are far removed from the picture portrayed by Kremlin-backed television channels. On his Telegram...

Trenches are not new to Ukraine. Trench warfare has long been a feature of the battle in eastern Ukraine for the Donbas region. Ukrainians fight from their own trenches on their side of the line near Popasna, where Russians are waging an intense campaign to dislodge Ukrainian troops from the city of Bakhmut. But the pace and the scale of Russian construction over the last couple of months is unmatched. All of the structures in the image above appeared within six days. The fortifications show how Russia’s military is trying to set up more robust, defensible positions against Ukrainian pressure,...

Russia is increasingly concerned about the war in Ukraine, and rightly so. Ukrainian forces have the initiative in battlefield momentum, morale, equipment, and training. So serious are Russia's concerns that the Kremlin has now grudgingly accepted that the reality cannot be completely hidden from domestic social media and news reporting. Leshkov said he volunteered before being conscripted. But when it came to his military training, Leshkov said, "I and most of the servicemen were not satisfied with its quality. ... In our free time, we had to prepare ourselves, beg the officers to conduct additional classes with us." Leshkov added...

The United States will not be able to stop Israel from retaliating against Lebanon if Hezbollah decides to attack it over the Karish gas field, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly told the Lebanese prime minister in a recent meeting. According to Saudi media reports, Blinken told Prime Minister Najib Mikati that even if Hezbollah only demonstrates a small show of force, Washington will not be able to stop Israel. Earlier this month, the Lebanese Al-Akhbar newspaper claimed that Washington had increased its pressure on Israel to finalize a maritime deal following intelligence according to which Hezbollah has c

(The Hill) — President Joe Biden is leading former President Donald Trump and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in two hypothetical, head-to-head match-ups for the 2024 presidential election, according to a new poll. The survey, conducted by Marquette Law School, found that 43 percent of adults nationwide would support Biden if the 2024 presidential election were held today, while 33 percent would vote for Trump in a one-on-one match-up. Sixteen percent said they would choose a different candidate, while 6 percent said they would not vote. In a hypothetical race against DeSantis, 41 percent of adults nationwide said they would...

Those who are unvaccinated were nearly six times more likely to be hospitalized with severe COVID illness in August than those who have received the vaccine, according to a New Jersey Hospital Association analysis of COVID hospitalizations. Nearly three in every four patients hospitalized with COVID, or 73.3 percent, had not received a single dose of the vaccine, according to data reported by N.J. hospitals through the NJHA COVID-19 Data Portal. A new bulletin from NJHA's Center for Health Analytics, Research and Transformation provides a snapshot view of data from Aug. 31, as reported by hospitals through the NJHA COVID-19...

Trump supporters who back his claim that the 2020 vote was rigged are running to become the top election officials in key states. -- Republicans who sought to undercut or overturn President Joe Biden’s election win are launching campaigns to become their states’ top election officials next year, alarming local officeholders and opponents who are warning about pro-Trump, “ends justify the means” candidates taking big roles in running the vote. The candidates include Rep. Jody Hice of Georgia, a leader of the congressional Republicans who voted against certifying the 2020 Electoral College results; Arizona state Rep. Mark Finchem, one of...

A number of prominent Republicans have spoken out in opposition to the plan, spearheaded by Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX), to object to Joe Biden electors from the 2020 battleground states being contested by President Donald Trump. Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) was first to announce he would object to Biden electors in Pennsylvania. Cruz and 11 other Republican senators followed suit, announcing they would object to electors in every battleground. The senators are not claiming, like Trump, that the election was rigged, but simply that there are enough allegations of fraud from the losing candidate to justify objecting to the results....

The economy has gone from President Donald Trump's greatest political asset to perhaps his biggest weakness. Unemployment is spiking at an unprecedented rate. Consumer spending is vanishing. And GDP is collapsing. History shows that dreadful economic trends like these spell doom for sitting presidents seeking reelection. The coronavirus recession will cause Trump to suffer a "historic defeat" in November, a national election model released Wednesday by Oxford Economics predicted. The model, which uses unemployment, disposable income and inflation to forecast election results, predicts that Trump will lose in a landslide, capturing just 35% of the popular vote. That's a sharp...

North Korea appears to be preparing to test a new ballistic missile submarine capable of launching nuclear missiles, significantly bolstering the regime’s ability to conduct long-distance attacks. Satellite photographs taken Monday of the Sinpo South Shipyard in North Korea show the new submarine with nearby cranes and support craft, suggesting the submarine may be in preparation for a launch test. Last month, North Korea claimed that Kim Jong Un had inspected a “newly built submarine” at the shipyard. The new photographs appear to confirm the claim, say Joseph Bermudez and Victor Cha of Beyond Parallel, a research project backed by...

longest government shutdown in history over nothing. Democrats have agreed to fund $1.375 billion for 55 miles of physical barrier along the border, which is only a little different than what Trump would have gotten under a continuing resolution that funded the government at current levels — and far less than the $5.7 billion Trump demanded to build 230 miles of barriers that experts and the Department of Homeland Security said they need to secure the border. But Trump can still get the rest of the money — without a government shutdown or declaring a national emergency... To win, Trump...

Karen Pence, the wife of America's vice president, Mike Pence will be teaching art at a Christian school in Virginia that bans LGBTQ children and requires employees to declare their religious beliefs. Like a real-life setting for "The Handmaid's Tale," Immanuel Christian School insists applicants initial a pledge to "live a personal life of moral purity." Listen to what else the pledge says: "I understand that the term 'marriage' has only one meaning; the uniting of one man and one woman in a single, exclusive covenant union as delineated in Scripture." It asserts that God intended sexual acts only between...

DENVER – Once a swing state in presidential elections, Colorado has teetered on becoming solidly Democratic. Donald Trump may have pushed it over the edge. Trump’s disparaging words about Mexicans, negative comments about women and weak campaign organization have punctuated the state’s shift from a nip-and-tuck battleground to one that’s Democrat-friendly. ... And it’s not just Colorado. Trump’s inflammatory rhetoric and weak campaign structure could ensure that perennially competitive Nevada and New Mexico are out of reach as well.

Donald Trump latest's close-up is coming from the unlikeliest of magazines: Rolling Stone. The magazine, well known for its progressive bent, interviewed and photographed Trump for its September 24 cover. The article's most-talked-about passage on Wednesday was a Trump comment about rival Republican 2016 candidate Carly Fiorina. Writer Paul Solotaroff was sitting with Trump watching a newscast when a video clip zoomed in on Fiorina. "Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that?" Trump said to Solotaroff. "Can you imagine that, the face of our next president. Trump added, "I mean, she's a woman, and I'm not s'posedta say...

Saturday, May 28, 2016 09:00 PM +0900 This is an American tragedy: Republicans must step up and defeat Donald Trump It's time for honest Republicans to speak out against this dangerous, unprincipled vulgarian. Who has the courage? Seán Patrick Donlan As a Democrat, part of me delights in the opportunities provided by the coming elections. With Trump at the top of the Republican ticket, Democrats might – just might – find themselves not only with the presidency, but in control of the Senate. But the state of our politics is so grave that it’s difficult to derive much joy out...

Officially, the top world leaders who gather Thursday at the Group of 7 summit meeting will talk about shared concerns, like global trade or the Islamic State. But their private discussions are likely to cover a topic that is not on the agenda: Donald J. Trump. President Obama now hears questions in his meetings with world leaders about whether Mr. Trump has a realistic shot at becoming president. For months, Mr. Obama has answered those questions with an emphatic “no.” But this week’s summit meeting in Japan is the first among major allies since Mr. Trump moved decisively toward securing...

This is really happening, people. Either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump is going to be the next president of the United States. Just saying it still feels strange, but then again, pretty much everything about this most shocking and chaotic of election seasons has been deeply surreal.

Donald Trump is the catalyst who could force a decisive break between Miami-Dade County’s influential Cuban-American voters and the Republican Party, a new poll has found. Local Cuban Americans dislike Trump so much — and are increasingly so accepting of renewed U.S.-Cuba ties pushed by Democratic President Barack Obama — that Trump’s likely presidential nomination might accentuate the voters’ political shift away from the GOP, according to the survey shared with the Miami Herald and conducted by Dario Moreno, a Coral Gables pollster and a Florida International University associate politics professor...