Free Republic

~Here's a cheery headline from the Russian press: Markov: an attack on Russia's strategic aviation is grounds for the use of nuclear weapons. That would be Sergey Markov, former advisor to Tsar Vlad, who admittedly is somewhat partial to nuke-rattling: in the early stages of the Ukraine war, he threatened to nuke the UK, for what reason I forget - the exciting new Islamic blasphemy laws? the paedo rape gangs? This time, however, Mr Markov was responding to the weekend's Ukrainian drone strike deep inside Russia. By "deep", I mean Siberia. Which supposedly took out forty of Putin's 120 strategic...

The audacious attacks on Russian airfields highlight the power of unconventional, asymmetric warfare — and the threat to U.S. strategic bases and ports, experts say.Ukraine’s surprise Sunday strike that used relatively inexpensive drones to knock out a significant portion of Russia’s long-range bomber capability was arguably the single largest blow to Moscow in its three-year war on its neighbor and a stunning display of asymmetric warfare. The out-of-the-blue drone blitz elicited glee among Ukraine’s backers in Washington, but also a chilling realization: The United States is increasingly vulnerable to just such a low-tech, low-cost strike. “The Pentagon should be very...

President Donald Trump said Wednesday he discussed the recent drone attacks by Ukraine on Russia and developments concerning Iran in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed the two spoke. During the conversation, Putin told Trump that Russia will have to respond to the Ukrainian drone attacks, the U.S. president said. "It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace," he said in a Truth Social Post. "I stated to President Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon and, on this, I believe that we...

It turns out Volodymyr Zelensky did have another card to play.Ukraine’s astonishing drone attack on military airfields and critical assets deep inside Russia on Sunday blindsided the Kremlin, destroyed at least a dozen strategic bombers and marked a seismic shift in modern warfare.The mission, dubbed Operation Spider’s Web, was a fresh reminder to leaders of the world’s most advanced militaries that the toughest threats they face today are not limited to their regular rivals with expensive gear. Instead, swarms of small, off-the-shelf drones that can evade ground defenses can also knock out billions of dollars of military hardware in an...

The Dutch government collapsed on Tuesday after the Party for Freedom led by Geert Wilders pulled out of the coalition over the government’s asylum policy. Wilders had been adamant leading up to the collapse that without strict restrictions on immigration, his party would leave the coalition government. Wilders made good on those threats Tuesday. “We had no choice. I promised the voters the strictest asylum policy ever, but that was not granted to you,” said Wilders, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Netherlands’ prime minister, Dick Schoof, said Tuesday following the Party for Freedom’s exit that he would hand...

BEIJING (AP) — For most Chinese, the 36th anniversary of a bloody crackdown that ended pro-democracy protests in China passed like any other weekday. And that’s just how the ruling Communist Party wants it.Security was tight Wednesday around Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, where weeks of student-led protests shook the party in 1989. Under then-leader Deng Xiaoping, the military was sent in to end the protest on the night of June 3-4. Using live ammunition, soldiers forced their way through crowds that tried to block them from reaching the square. Hundreds and possibly thousands of people were killed, including dozens of soldiers.The...

The Justice Department on Tuesday charged two Chinese researchers with attempting to smuggle a fungus dubbed "Fusarium graminearum," into the U.S. which it claimed scientific research "classifies as a potential agroterrorism weapon." The two researchers, identified as 33-year-old Yunqing Jian and 34-year-old Zunyong Liu, were allegedly receiving funding from the Chinese government for their research, and were allegedly citizens of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The pair, who were supposedly dating, allegedly lied to U.S. officials about the fungus in Detroit last year, with Liu stating he did not know how the material ended up in his luggage. He...

Three days after Ukraine launched its most complex attack against Russia since the full-scale war began, details of how it was carried out and the damage it caused to Russia’s strategic bomber fleet are still emerging. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy described the operation, dubbed “Spider’s Web”, as “absolutely brilliant”, although the extent of Russian military losses remains unclear. On Wednesday, he said that of the 41 planes damaged, half cannot be repaired. The attacks targeted at least four Russian military air bases, the furthest of which from Ukraine is the Belaya base in the Siberian region of Irkutsk, around 4,850...

The Army announced on Tuesday that it "surpassed" its fiscal year 2025 recruiting goal of bringing in 61,000 recruits, and there are still four months left to go. This year’s goal is more than 10% higher than the 55,000 recruits targeted in fiscal 2024, demonstrating a surge in interest and enthusiasm for Army service. Recent recruiting momentum has seen average contracts per day exceeding last year’s levels by as much as 56% during the same period. The Army has not reached its recruiting goals this early in the year since 2014, Army officials said in a statement. Army Chief of...

US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday he had a "good conversation" with Russian President Vladimir Putin, in a call about Ukraine's recent drone attack and Iran. Following Ukraine's major drone attack deep on air bases inside Russia, Trump reported that Putin told him Russia "will have to respond". Trump also warned in a social media post that the phone call, which lasted more than an hour, would not "lead to immediate Peace". The two leaders also discussed Iran, and Putin suggested he could help with nuclear talks with the country. The conversation between the two leaders marks the first...

President Donald Trump said early Wednesday morning that Chinese President Xi Jinping is “very tough” and “extremely hard to make a deal with” as the United States attempts to advance trade talks with China. While the president’s top trade officials have met with their Chinese counterparts, Trump has yet to sit down with Xi since imposing massive tariffs on Chinese imports. A senior White House official told CNBC that Trump and Xi would likely speak “very soon,” potentially this week. “I like President Xi of China, always have, and always will, but he is VERY TOUGH, AND EXTREMELY HARD TO...

If fire departments on land have problems unleashing the torrent of water needed to extinguish a single burning EV, the crew of a ship doesn't stand a chance against hundreds of flaming lithium-ion batteries. A cargo ship carrying around 3,000 vehicles across the Pacific Ocean caught fire on Tuesday. The Morning Midas, a 600-foot cargo ship, was in the middle of a voyage from Yantai, China to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico when the fire broke out. Zodiac Maritime, the ship's London-based operator, noted that smoke was first spotted on a deck carrying 800 electric vehicles. Once the blaze got out of...

In the dawn light of a South African savanna, a team of rangers huddle around a satellite dish aimed skyward. Their phones spring to life with a signal – an unthinkable result just months earlier in this remote, off-grid conservation zone. The source is Starlink, Elon Musk and SpaceX’s satellite internet service, offering encrypted, high-speed connectivity far from state-controlled networks. But in South Africa, this signal didn’t just connect – it disrupted. And that disruption provides some subtext to the extraordinary “Wild West Wing” showdown between Donald Trump and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa in May, which played out in...

A Chinese national couple was hit with criminal charges Tuesday for allegedly smuggling a dangerous fungus into the US capable of destroying crops and poisoning humans and livestock. Zunyong Liu, 34, was caught by US Customs and Border Protection officers attempting to smuggle Fusarium graminearum – a biological pathogen considered to be “a potential agroterrorism weapon” – into the US via the Detroit Metropolitan Airport last July, according to a criminal complaint filed in a federal court in the Eastern District of Michigan. Liu initially made false statements about his visit to the US and his knowledge of the pathogen...

The US States Planning to Ban Sales of Gas-Powered Cars 8 US States are currently planning on banning the sale of Gas-powered vehicles in the near future. Here are the States that are planning on doing so and by when, as well as if this legislation is likely to come into effect.

The massacre hoax and attacks on aid to Gaza expose the media’s true agenda. When Israel kills Hamas terrorists, that’s “controversial”. When Israel insists on existing, that’s not only controversial, it’s very nearly provocative, and even when Israel hands out food to its worst enemies who raped and murdered its citizens, and held its children hostage, that’s also… “controversial”. “Controversial” is the word that the United Nations, the political establishments of multiple countries and the media would like the public to associate with Israel bringing aid into Gaza. After UN lies about a famine in Gaza no matter how much...

FBI agents participated in joint operations with federal and local police partners to help arrest more than 10,000 illegal migrants since Trump was inaugurated on Jan. 20, 2025. There doesn't appear to be any sign of letting up. ============================================================== The swanky Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket communities on the Massachusetts coastline are best known for politicians like Barack Obama who flock there for summer vacation or for the Hollywood elites who filmed iconic movies like Jaws on their beaches. But over Memorial Day week, a new class of visitors hit the island enclaves – G-men from the FBI and Immigration and...

Newark Mayor Ras Baraka said Tuesday on MSNBC’s “The Beat” he was suing New Jersey’s acting Attorney General Alina Habba and a Department of Homeland Security special agent on allegations of false arrest at an ICE detention facility in Newark because it was “egregious” and “authoritarian. Baraka said, “You know, putting out information even before I was, you know, processed that I was a criminal. I did something wrong. I disobeyed the law. I’m not above the law. and ultimately, I didn’t break any law, right, I was cuffed or fingerprinted, took pictures of twice, once there and once in...

A man has been fined after he set fire to a Qur’an outside the Turkish consulate in London, in an act that was deemed “motivated at least in part by a hatred of Muslims” by a judge. Hamit Coskun, 50, who was found guilty of a religiously aggravated public order offence on Monday, called his prosecution “an assault on free speech”. In February, Coskun travelled from his home in the Midlands to Rutland Gardens, Knightsbridge, where he set fire to a copy of the Islamic holy book and shouted “fuck Islam”, “Islam is religion of terrorism” and “Qur’an is burning”....

Former Republican New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu detailed Democratic Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s track record of antisemitism during a “CNN NewsNight” panel Monday night. Pro-Hamas demonstrations erupted at multiple universities and colleges since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas that killed over 1,200 people in Israel, seeing protesters occupy buildings, chant a slogan that has connotations of wiping out Israel and block Jewish students from parts of campus. Sununu said that Omar, whose daughter was reportedly suspended for her part in the pro-Hamas protests, and Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York were “joining in.” ... “You guys are...