Free Republic

The head of Russia's mercenary outfit Wagner said it could take months to capture the embattled Ukraine city of Bakhmut and slammed Moscow's "monstrous bureaucracy" for slowing military gains. Russia has been trying to encircle the battered industrial city and wrest it ahead of Feb. 24, the first anniversary of what it terms its "special military operation" in Ukraine. "I think it's (going to be in) March or in April," Wagner head Yevgeny Prigozhin said in one of several messages posted online overnight. "To take Bakhmut you have to cut all supply routes. It's a significant task," he said, adding:...

Stepping into the van guarded by armed soldiers with five surgeons and nurses, Zheng Zhi didn’t know he was entering into a world that would haunt him for the next quarter of a century. Dr. Zheng, then a resident doctor at one of China’s largest military hospitals, knew little more than they were on a “secret military mission” near a military prison located around the northeastern Chinese city of Dalian. A light blue fabric covered the four sides of the vehicle, shielding it from any curious glances. When the door opened, four burly soldiers carried in a man whose limbs...

Palestinian armed group Hamas published a video of now-released hostages, chronicling their final moments in captivity. In a shocking twist, the video also featured snippets of Israelis still being held by Hamas. The two hostages spoke on camera as well. Hamas released six living hostages on February 22, as part of the final swap under terms of the truce’s first phase. However, Israel refused to free Palestinian prisoners, citing Hamas’ “humiliating release ceremonies” as one of the reasons. Watch the video for full details.

Ceasefire in jeopardy as Israel says it will wait ‘until release of next hostages is guaranteed’ and Hamas scraps ‘degrading’ handover ceremoniesHamas released six Israeli hostages on Saturday, but Israel suspended the handover of more than 600 Palestinians it was due to free from its prisons in exchange, putting the five-week-old ceasefire agreement once more in jeopardy. In a statement on Sunday, the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “In light of Hamas’ repeated violations – including the disgraceful ceremonies that dishonour our hostages and the cynical use of hostages for propaganda – it has been decided to delay the...

A group campaigning for Kamala Harris served union workers in Wisconsin an “insulting” lunch — possibly put together by “prison labor” — as it made their 2024 pitch for the vice president last month, a tradesman told The Post. The uninspiring meal — consisting of a “single-slice-of-ham sandwich” on “stale” store-brand bread, a bag of chips and a “tiny apple” — was accompanied by an uninspiring speech, bashing President-elect Donald Trump, that workers building a $1 billion Microsoft data center in Racine County were subjected to on Oct. 21. “I mean, it’s not like we were expecting a steak dinner,...

In a report reviewed exclusively by Breitbart Texas, human intelligence developed by frontline Border Patrol intelligence officers reveals the possibility of a formal covert operation being conducted by the Maduro regime. The operation is designed to infiltrate the United States using released inmates and pairing them with Venezuelan intelligence operatives to “neutralize” human targets within the United States. The report’s narrative, generated by the Rio Grande Valley Sector Intelligence Unit (SIU), indicates that released inmates from Venezuelan prisons have been directed to travel to the United States alongside Venezuelan intelligence officers to track down former Venezuelan military members, politicians, and...

Kamala Harris kept hundreds of black men in prison past their release date so she could use these men for cheap California state labor at $2 per day. That alone should have disqualified Kamala Harris from public office. Extending prison sentences for cheap labor sounds like criminal activity! In February 2019, Jackie Kucinich at The Daily Beast wrote about Kamala Harris’s Attorney General office keeping inmates locked up so the state could use them for cheap labor. Just like slavers. Kamala also locked up 1,500 people for marijuana violations.

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman urged international organizations Sunday to respond to a claim that several Ukrainian prisoners of war were executed in Russia’s Kursk region, where Kyiv had launched an incursion in August. DeepState, a Ukrainian battlefield analysis site close to Ukraine’s Defense Ministry, said Russian troops shot and killed nine Ukrainian “drone operators and contractors” on Oct. 10 after they had surrendered. Dmytro Lubinets said on Telegram that he sent letters to the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross regarding the claim, calling it “another crime committed by the Russians.”

Democrat Party is filled with radical, extreme, Marxist, communist traitors who want to destroy America. Pure evil. Satan inspired. They are the enemies of good patriotic Americans. They are the real “domestic terrorists.” But my party- the GOP- is a party of weak-willed, feckless, cowards afraid of their own shadow, and sellouts who claim to be Republicans, but really play for the other side.” ... January 6th prisoners- who have become political hostages, enduring cruel and unusual punishment. Jake Lang stands out as one of the most egregious cases in this country’s history. He’s spent almost four years in prison...

Sir Keir Starmer is expected to authorise emergency measures this week to automatically release criminals less than halfway through their sentence in an attempt to tackle the prisons crisis. There are fewer than 700 spaces left in men’s jails in England and Wales, The Times has been told, before a critical week in the prisons overcrowding crisis. A Ministry of Justice (MoJ) source said “the immediate crisis is quite severe” after the general election stalled its ability to free up more space over the past six weeks. Shabana Mahmood, the new justice secretary, has been presented with a list of...

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis (D) signed a bill Friday setting up a voting program for inmates held in county jails, a first-of-its-kind effort expanding the ability to vote to those in local custody. The law requires counties to designate an employee to coordinate voting access for those in custody, including at least one day of in-person voting. People convicted of felonies are not eligible to vote in Colorado, though those who were convicted of a misdemeanor or are awaiting trial are eligible.

Ukraine authorities in the eastern Donetsk region of the country launched a war crimes-murder investigation after six seriously wounded Ukrainian troops allegedly were executed by Russian forces as they were waiting to be medevacked from Avdiivka. The alleged murders by a Russian soldier of two Ukrainian POWs in the nearby village of Vesele, 12 miles northeast of the frontline city of Bakhmut, is the subject of a second separate investigation, the Donetsk regional prosecutor's office said Sunday in a social media post. Advertisement The probe of the executions of prisoners in Avdiivka, which fell to Russian forces at the weekend,...

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, the Buzynov brothers, their mother, and Mykyta's girlfriend fled their home in Chernihiv in the north of the country to avoid the conflict. They went to the village of Mykhailo-Kotsiubynske, but by early March, Russian soldiers arrived there too. "We've come to liberate you from your government. Putin is cool," the soldiers exclaimed. Volodymyr says the soldiers searched the village, confiscating phones and accusing his family of sharing the location of the Russian army - something they all deny. Then, Volodymr says, the soldiers set up what sounded like a fake execution. "They...

WASHINGTON (AP) - While sentencing a North Carolina man to prison for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot, a Republican-appointed judge issued a stark warning: Efforts to portray the mob of Donald Trump's supporters as heroes and play down the violence that unfolded on Jan. 6, 2021, pose a serious threat to the nation. U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth condemned the depiction by Trump and Republican allies of Jan. 6 defendants as “political prisoners” and “hostages." Lamberth also denounced attempts to undermine the legitimacy of the justice system for punishing rioters who broke the law when they invaded the...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Officials in Ukraine said Russia has provided no credible evidence to back its claims that their own forces shot down a military transport plane carrying Ukrainian prisoners of war who were to be swapped for Russian POWs. The Ukrainian agency that deals with prisoner exchanges said late Friday that Russian officials had “with great delay” provided it with a list of the 65 Ukrainians who Moscow said had died in the Wednesday plane crash in Russia’s Belgorod region.

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business; End to Sex Slavery; Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14) Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind.

Dozens of Hamas terrorists surrendered to Israeli forces in northern Gaza Thursday, according to reports. The group turned themselves in after being pushed back by the advancing Israel Defense Forces near Jabaliya, the Times of Israel reports. Local Channel 13 showed images of the surrender, which featured dozens of men lined up on a street, sitting in rows with their hands over their heads.

Jake Lang rescued Philip Anderson from a stampede at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (Courtesy of Jake Lang)On Oct. 12, Jake Lang passed a milestone: 1,000 days in jail without a trial. To mark the anniversary, he wanted to share with the American people "the horrific conditions of confinement," which he says he and many of his fellow Jan. 6 prisoners have had to endure."During this time, I've done 20 months of solitary confinement," Mr. Lang told The Epoch Times. "For 15 months of that, I wasn't allowed to have a haircut or a shave."This was intentional, he...

Because I’m a stickler for getting to the root of things, and will always follow up on important issues as they develop, I wanted to start with a continuation of a previous line. In one of the last reports we talked about the potential mobilizations on both sides, troop numbers, and how that relates to upcoming conflict developments in the medium-term future. I related how there had been new indication that Russia’s newly recruited 300k force would be used to rotate the previously mobilized troops from September-October of 2022. However State Duma Chairman Andrey Kartapolov has now put speculation to...

The Biden administration has made a deal with Iran to release $6 billion in frozen funds in exchange for the release of five American prisoners. The agreement issuing a blanket waiver for international banks to transfer sanctioned Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without fear of U.S. sanctions includes the release of five Iranian citizens held in the U.S. The Iranian-Americans include businessmen Siamak Namazi, 51, and Emad Shargi, 58, along with environmentalist Morad Tahbaz, 67. Secretary of State Antony Blinken signed off on the deal late last week, but Congress was not notified of the decision until Monday,...