Free Republic

Russia could launch another hypersonic ballistic missile in Ukraine in the coming days, but Washington does not consider the Oreshnik weapon a game-changer in the war, a U.S. official said on Wednesday. Russia first fired the Oreshnik missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Nov. 21, in what President Vladimir Putin cast as a response to Ukraine's first use of U.S. ATACMs ballistic missiles and British Storm Shadows to strike Russian territory with Western permission. Putin has previously said Russia may use the Oreshnik again, including to hit "decision-making centers" in Kyiv, if Ukraine keeps attacking Russia with long-range...

Russia has been making more nuclear threats lately but there's a growing sense in Moscow that they aren't working like they used to. Putin has become the boy who cried nuke.When Russian President Vladimir Putin warned earlier this month that Western approval for Ukraine to strike deep inside Russia would mean Moscow was at war with NATO, Russian propagandists rushed to rattle the nuclear saber.Alexander Mikhailov, director of the Bureau of Military Political Analysis, called for bombing plywood mock-ups of London and Washington — complete with reproductions of Buckingham Palace, Big Ben and the White House — to simulate nuclear...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has suffered an emabarassing setback as his feared Satan 2 nuclear arsenal failed four out of five missile tests, according to arms experts and satellite imagery from the launch site. High-resolution satellite images of the launch pad at Russia's Plesetsk test site, where the RS-28 Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile exploded, shows extensive damage. A crater approximately 60 meters wide at the launch silo at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome in northern Russia, along with visible damage in the surrounding area that was not present in images taken earlier in the month. -snip- The missile's liquid-fuel engine likely exploded...

Need a master class on the Mueller report before Robert Mueller testifies before Congress? Join PBS NewsHour correspondent and producer William Brangham, senior broadcast producer Mike Melia and digital politics editor and senior writer Daniel Bush on July 24 as they answer questions and walk viewers through the Russia investigation and Mueller's findings. The livestream kicks off at 7:40 a.m. EDT with a breakdown of the major findings and moments from Mueller's report. Between deep dives on parts of the report, your hosts will answer select questions from the live chat and social media. To ask a question, use our...

Former Saturday Night Live co-workers Dennis Miller and Dana Carvey are touring together this summer. On Sunday, The Washington Post published an interview with Carvey as the two head to the Kennedy Center in the nation’s capital for a show on July 12. While Miller now delights the right with a radio show and humorous appearances on Fox News, Carvey claims “I ride both sides.” But it became clear he doesn’t mock Barack Obama, because somehow he’s so much more serious than our other presidents and presidential candidates: “When we had the Southerners in there — [George] W. [Bush]and [Bill]...

The father of Trolley Square shooter Sulejmen Talovic apologizes over and over for the ordeal. Suljo Talovic says no one who knew his son saw this coming, and he believes someone pushed him to do it. Suljo Talovic doesn't know where his son got the guns or how he learned how to use them. Suljo Talovic, Father of Shooter: "Somebody got (the guns)…and maybe (they were) training him and tell(ing) him (to), ‘go shoot somebody.'" Question: So you think that somebody influenced him maybe to do this? Suljo Talovic: "Yeah. I think somebody." Talovic says the tragedy is taking a...

I'll get to First Lady Laura Bush's bawdy stand-up routine in a minute. But I want to highlight a related new book out about how young conservatives are shaking up the dominant liberal media culture. It's called "South Park Conservatives." My name is listed on the cover along with many other (mostly) right-leaning pundits, websites, and bloggers, but I must confess to having mixed feelings about the honor. The best-selling book's author, Brian C. Anderson of the Manhattan Institute, writes a fun, breezy survey documenting the rise of talk radio, FOX News, the Internet, conservative publishing, and college Republican activism....