Free Republic

The invasion of Ukraine left Russians with a stark choice: carry on as normal or make a stand against the war. But speaking out in Russia carries huge risks. How is the opposition managing to resist the regime – and at what personal cost? 00:00 - One year on 01:37 - The first wave of protests 05:43 - Crackdown on dissent 10:04 - Individual acts of rebellion 13:51 - Partial mobilisation 16:20 - Russia’s mass exodus 23:06 - The future of Russian rebellion

Houthi rebels have stormed the American embassy in Yemen and taken hostages, the Washington Free Beacon reported Thursday. State Department officials told the Free Beacon that “the majority of the detained have been released, but the Houthis continue to detain additional Yemeni employees of the embassy.” Houthi fighters reportedly took the compound on Wednesday, demanding “large quantities of equipment and materials,” per the Middle East Media Research Institute. Yemen has been embroiled in a brutal civil war between the Houthi rebels — who are backed, financed, and armed by the Iranian government —and the standing Yemeni government, which has the...

Communist guerrillas in the Philippines have trained their sights on Chinese state-owned firms building infrastructure and military bases in the country, projects that have the backing of President Rodrigo Duterte. The Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP) has ordered its military wing, the New People’s Army, to target firms involved in the construction of seven Chinese military bases in the West Philippines Sea (the eastern parts of the South China Sea that are part of the Philippines’ exclusive economic zone).The CPP claims the projects violate Philippine sovereignty and destroy marine resources within its exclusive economic zone, according to a statement.While...

The controversial issue of the Rebels nickname for athletic teams at Walpole High has simmered for many years. Like many matters of racial tension, it has come to a boil in recent weeks. On Thursday night, the Walpole School Committee voted unanimously 9-0 to cease use of the name due to the negative connotations of the Rebels nickname, which opponents argue remains closely associated with the Confederacy and its racist legacy.

ERBIL (Kurdistan 24) – A US official confirmed coalition forces exchanged fire with armed groups on October 15 near Manbij as suspicions rise that they were Turkish-backed rebel factions.“They [coalitions forces] received gunfire from undisclosed persons and returned fire, and it ended quickly, skirmish at best,” Army Colonel Sean Ryan, Spokesman for Operation Inherent Resolve (OIR), told Kurdistan 24.“But we don’t know who fired and it was during a US-MMC [Manbij Military Council] patrol,” he added.Syrian Kurdish journalist Hosheng Hesen posted a video on his Twitter account that reportedly showed the clashes between US troops in Manbij and armed rebel...

Turkey’s President Recep Erdogan has lashed out at the United States, accusing Washington of supplying crude oil to a rebel group calling itself the People’s Protection Units, or YPG, which Turkey classifies as related to the Kurdistan Workers’ Party PKK, which Ankara has designated a terrorist group. Turkish news outlet Ahval quoted Erdogan as telling local media that, “They are currently suppyling terrorist organizations, such as the YPG, in [Syria’s] Deir ez-Zor with oil. Terrorist organizations receive 300 million dollars income from crude oil.” The comments were made after a meeting Erdogan had with Syrian President Bashar Assad and Vladimir...

Israel armed and provided funding for Syria-based rebel groups battling against ISIS and Iran proxy Hezbollah, according to published reports. At least 12 rebel groups operating in southern Syria were given cash and munitions in order to fight Iran-sponsored insurgents who were affiliated with the Islamic State in order to prevent them from becoming entrenched near the occupied Golan Heights,

Yemen government forces — backed by the Arab coalition — launched on Wednesday morning an offensive on the rebel-held port city of Al Hodeidah.

Dr. Sebastian Gorka, a now former Deputy Assistant to President Donald J. Trump, says that the West Wing Democrats, the left, and the Fake News Industrial Complex will never succeed in stopping him and others from battling for the president’s agenda. During an appearance on Breitbart News Saturday on SiriusXM Patriot Channel 125, Gorka—a former Breitbart News national security editor who served in the White House in a senior position pushing the president’s message—compared former White House chief strategist Stephen K. Bannon leaving the White House to when Darth Vader struck down Obi Wan Kenobi in Star Wars. “We...

Wisconsin is quietly home to America's northernmost Confederate cemetery. On Thursday, Madison Mayor Paul Soglin ordered it taken down. MADISON, WI — As public officials across the country grapple with calls to take down Civil War statues erected in honor of the Confederacy's military history, the Mayor of Madison, Wis. has ordered the removal of the state's lone memorial to fallen Confederate soldiers. About 140 Confederate soldiers died at Camp Randall during the Civil War as prisoners of war, and their graves were honored in the "Confederate Rest Cemetery" within the Forest Hill Cemetery. Soglin stated he ordered staff to...

For nearly four years, Syrian rebels have clung to a programme of CIA assistance as a symbol of US support in their battle against Bashar al-Assad’s regime. So reports that Donald Trump’s administration will stop the limited scheme to arm and train Syria’s opposition forces have sparked anger and confusion. Rebels say they have not been informed of any changes to the policy introduced by Barack Obama as US president in 2013 as part of efforts to put pressure on Syria’s president and bring about a political settlement. Mr Assad’s main backer, Russia, has long pushed for the US to...

President Trump has decided to end the CIA’s covert program to arm and train moderate Syrian rebels battling the government of Bashar al-Assad, a move long sought by Russia, according to U.S. officials. The program was a central plank of a policy begun by the Obama administration in 2013 to put pressure on Assad to step aside, but even its backers have questioned its efficacy since Russia deployed forces in Syria two years later. Officials said the phasing out of the secret program reflects Trump’s interest in finding ways to work with Russia, which saw the anti-Assad program as an...

Pro-Turkey Syrian rebel fighters of the Euphrates Shield Brigades. File photo The Kurdish National Council in Syria (KNC) on Monday accused Turkey-backed rebel groups of displacing hundreds of Yezidi civilians from the village of Elî Qîno, in Syria’s northwestern Aleppo province.Furthermore, the KNC also accused pro-Turkey Islamists of kidnapping Kurdish civilians in northern Aleppo.Yezidi villagers of Elî Qîno, which belongs to the Afrin district, were given one hour to empty the village. After this the properties were confiscated, including olive groves, livestock and furniture.The KNC did not blame a specific rebel group, but said that the residents were forced...

NOTE: Ole miss is the school of Shep Smith, Thad Cochran, and Trent Lott. OXFORD – More fallout from the NCAA's probe into Ole Miss' football program continued Sunday. Rebel Rags, an Oxford-based retail clothing store specializing in Ole Miss gear, has filed a lawsuit against Mississippi State's Leo Lewis and Kobe Jones, and Lindsey Miller in Lafayette County Circuit Court. Charlie Merkel, one of the attorneys representing Rebel Rags, confirmed the suit was filed Friday afternoon and the servicing process was completed Sunday. Mississippi State had no comment on the situation.

When the American Confederacy lost the Civil War in May 1865, 10,000 Southerners fled the US for a small city in Brazil, where they could rebuild their lives and carry on their traditions. Now, 150 years later, their story has been seemingly erased from the history books. But deep in the heart of Brazil, descendants of these confederate expats gather annually to celebrate their controversial history and maintain their traditions and culture. In 2015, Vice's Mimi Dwyer attended the festival and revealed what life is like in the city called Americana. Each year, the small Brazilian city of Americana throws...

The United States should stop arming the world. We should stop arming rebels, moderate rebels, freedom fighters, opposition forces, insurgencies, regimes, and most -- if not all -- nation states. These armaments spill American blood and the blood of people unrelated to the fray in which we picked sides. It is easier to act with moral clarity and mission purpose while striking military bases than while arming strangers. President Obama shipped pallets of unmarked bills to our enemy, and lied about it, right around the time social-media campaigns began dubbing his the “scandal-free presidency.” United States companies selling equipment and...

The evacuation of more than 3,000 Syrians that was scheduled to take place Sunday from four areas as part of a population transfer has been postponed, opposition activists said, a day after a deadly blast that killed more than 120 people, many of them government supporters.Snip ..Rami Abdurrahman said Saturday's blast --which hit an area where thousands of pro-government evacuees had been waiting for hours -- killed 126. He said the dead included 109 people from Foua and Kfarya, among them 80 children and 13 women. SNIP ...Airstrikes by the U.S.-led coalition had killed dozens of civilians over the past...

Permit me to suggest a semester’s worth of work that some college students may wish to undertake: Study the life of John Lennon and, after you finish reading two or three biographies of the famous leader of The Beatles, go read The Bell Curve by Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray. When you have completed those assignments, read Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers. The purpose of this proposed curriculum is to understand how the abandoned son of an English sailor became one of the most influential figures in popular culture during the remarkable decade of the 1960s. What was it about Lennon,...

I am so happy to report that Obama’s CIA backed so-called moderate Syrian rebels are not receiving their paydays any longer. Last month the money did not come, and the Obama gang is really up in arms about being cut out of CIA loop. I think it would be more accurate to say, they are down in arms, so they cannot give anymore to ISIS. Now they will all defect to the ISIS camp, as if they had not already, but Obama never gave up on them…(sarcasm). Hillary and Obama must be so upset to learn aide had been frozen...

Clinton's secret arms dealing -- and how it led to disaster in Libya. Hillary Clinton led the charge in the Obama administration to go to war in Libya. Her objective was to overthrow the regime of Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi. Not one to be deterred by opponents in the Pentagon and Congress to her reckless interventionist plans, Hillary decided to end-run them. Her State Department helped facilitate what Andrew P. Napolitano in his scathing article has called “Hillary’s secret war.” When the secret war began to backfire, as arms ended up in the hands of anti-American jihadists, Hillary Clinton and other...