Free Republic

Russian MPs have voted unanimously to ban any form of sex change, with President Putin’s allies claiming that the move was necessary to defend the motherland against “western anti-family ideology”. The bill, which was approved in its first reading, will prohibit “medical interventions aimed at changing the sex of a person” and “the state registration of a change of gender without an operation”. Pyotr Tolstoy, deputy speaker of the Russian parliament, said that the law would “erect a barrier” against what Putin had described as a western threat to the country’s “traditional values”. “I really want the guys who are...

The Pentagon has given a tacit endorsement of Ukraine’s long-range attacks on targets inside Russia after President Putin’s multiple missile strikes against Kyiv’s critical infrastructure. Since daily assaults on civilians began in October, the Pentagon has revised its threat assessment of the war in Ukraine. Crucially, this includes new judgments about whether arms shipments to Kyiv might lead to a military confrontation between Russia and Nato. This represents a significant development in the nine-month war between Ukraine and Russia, with Washington now likelier to supply Kyiv with longer-range weapons. “We’re still using the same escalatory calculations but the fear of...