Free Republic

The horrors of Islamic war rage in Syria. A young Alawite girl, Mira, was kidnapped and married to an Afghan jihadi fighter. Her father was threatened with death if he did not keep quiet and the government forces protected the Afghan man who raped the Alawite girl. The government forces also fabricated a false story to justify this marriage and that the girl had run away with this Afghan man. ... The young woman Mira Jalal Thabat (20 years old), the only child of her parents from the village of Al-Makhtabiyah in Talkalakh, went missing inside the Teacher Training Institute...

With the new mineral rights deal between Washington, D.C., and Kyiv, President Donald Trump fulfilled his pledge to hold Ukraine financially accountable for the billions of dollars that has already been provided in military assistance. This now opens a new avenue for the U.S. to provide weaponry to the country without using any taxpayer funds. Following months of discussions, the deal was signed on Wednesday. It established a common investment fund to which both countries will contribute, including through the sale of mineral rights, oil, and gas licenses in Ukraine — with a 50/50 profit split. The agreement states that...

Russia's president signs decree late Tuesday, amid visit to city earlier that day Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree renaming the international airport situated in the city of Volgograd to its historical name of Stalingrad. “In order to perpetuate the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, I decree to assign Volgograd International Airport with the historical name ‘Stalingrad’,” said the decree published by the Kremlin late Tuesday. The renaming of the airport comes as Putin conducted a visit to the city earlier that day, which also included talks with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander...

Scientists have been wondering for years which dinosaur could run the fastest. Now, new simulation models are offering a fresh look at dinosaur speed. This renewed interest has roots in a major discovery from 1964, when paleontologist John Ostrom and his team uncovered Deinonychus—a dinosaur with a lightweight body, long claws, and strong legs. Its features challenged the long-held image of dinosaurs as sluggish reptiles and instead pointed to an active, fast-moving predator. This discovery helped launch what scientists call the “dinosaur renaissance,” a major shift in how experts understood dinosaur behavior. Instead of slow-moving reptiles, some dinosaurs began to...

Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, President Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, called the Russian proposal for a three-day ceasefire next week “absurd” and said the U.S. wants a more lasting peace deal in Ukraine. “A three-day ceasefire is absurd. What the president wants is a permanent, comprehensive ceasefire — sea, air, land, infrastructure — for a minimum of 30 days, and then we can extend that,” Kellogg said in a Fox News interview Tuesday.

A detailed list of the destroyed and captured vehicles and equipment of both sides can be seen below. This list is constantly updated as additional footage becomes available