Free Republic

Moore v. Harper focuses on a new North Carolina voting map created by court-appointed experts after earlier maps proposed by the Republican-led state legislature were struck down. The North Carolina Supreme Court in February ruled that the maps offered by the state general assembly were partisan gerrymanders, violating free speech, free assembly and equal protection provisions of the state constitution. But the state legislature appealed that decision to the U.S. Supreme Court, which has agreed to take up the issue of redistricting and possibly restore the Republican-drawn map. Central to the petitioners' argument is the so-called "inde­pend­ent state legis­lature" theory...

Russian President Vladimir Putin met with fellow heads of state on Wednesday at a massive table in Turkmenistan that dwarfed a comically long table at the Kremlin that previously captured global attention. Meeting with the leaders of Turkmenistan, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Azerbaijan, Putin sat far from other leaders at a massive rectangular table as they discussed cooperation in the Caspian Sea region, the Kremlin said. According to the Turkmenistan government, the 6th Caspian Summit was held at the "luxurious Arkadag Hotel."

The admission into Nato of... Sweden and Finland... sevenfold increase in Nato forces on high alert, the establishment of the first permanent US operational headquarters (V Corps) on the alliance’s eastern flank in Poland, the increase in the number of US troops in the region, or a new 10-year strategy that dispenses of any notion of partnership with Russia... The French president, Emmanuel Macron, could not have been more blunt in his criticism of Putin, or clearer that avenues to a ceasefire are closed... Biden promised another $800m in defence assistance in the next few days, including a new advanced...

Faced with a deepening personnel crisis within its military, Russia is scrambling to find fighters for its war in Ukraine and recruiting heavily from its North Caucasus region to form new units along ethnic lines who are then deployed with minimal training. Regional officials from Daghestan, Ingushetia, and Kalmykia have announced plans to form rifle companies that are each made up of soldiers from a particular Russian republic. According to reporting by Caucasus.Realities, a regional news outlet of RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service, these national units are formed primarily of contract soldiers who have previous military training and have been targeted...

Russian forces have withdrawn from Ukraine's Snake Island, a strategic outpost in the Black Sea, Russia's defence ministry and Ukraine's president's office said on Thursday. "KABOOM! No Russian troops on the Snake Island anymore. Our Armed Forces did a great job," Andriy Yermak, head of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office, wrote on Twitter. Russia's defence ministry confirmed Russian troops had withdrawn from Snake Island, calling it a "goodwill gesture"

The conflict in Ukraine is driving a modernization of NATO weaponry, honing the alliance’s ability to face off against Russia and adding to the list of unintended consequences from Moscow’s invasion of its smaller neighbor. Former East Bloc NATO members have been arming Ukraine with Soviet-designed equipment similar to Kyiv’s existing gear. That has permitted a military housecleaning of their own arsenals on a scale that would have been unimaginable months ago. In turn, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will help its eastern members replace those arms with newer ones, greatly improving efficiency.

The US will significantly increase its military deployments in Europe with additional troops and weaponry, as part of the largest scaling up of Nato defences since the cold war in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The US will establish a permanent headquarters for its 5th Army Corps in Poland, send 5,000 additional troops to Romania and increase rotational deployments in the Baltic states, Biden said, as part of efforts to stiffen Nato’s first line of defences against possible attack. Two squadrons of US F-35 fighter aircraft will be sent to the UK, Biden added, in addition to stationing air...

The transgender skateboarder, 29, who claimed first prize in a New York City women's competition this weekend, defeating her 13-year-old and 10-year-old competitors, is a divorced, ex-Navy father-of-three who was rejected from the women's Olympic qualifiers last year because her testosterone levels were too high. Ricci And Tres, 29, beat 13-year-old Shiloh Catori to claim first prize at The Boardr street skating contest at the Lower East Side Coleman skatepark in New York City on Saturday, taking home $500. The competition was open to all ages and abilities, but its heats and finals were segregated by gender. Tween Shiloh, who...

Let’s debunk the biggest fake widely used by kremlin to justify the russian invasion in Ukraine. You hear it from russian media, you read it in the commentaries left by russian bots, but what do the official numbers say? Let’s check out the report of the OHCHR that russians themselves are often referring to. ----- InformNapalm’s database of russian regular units identified in Donbas between 2014-2021: https://informnapalm.org/db/russian-aggression/#lang=en&page=m_unit ----- StopFake’s investigation on the staged russian shelling in Donietsk:https://www.stopfake.org/en/fake-ukrainian-military-shelled-bus-station-in-donetsk/ ----- Bellingcat’s research on russian artillery shelling Ukrainian forces across the border in 2014:https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2015/02/17/origin-of-artillery-attacks/The research on russian propagandists forging videos:https://www.bellingcat.com/news/uk-and-europe/2015/02/17/origin-of-artillery-attacks/Debunking dubious footage forged...

Germany and the Netherlands will provide Ukraine with six more Panzerhaubitze 2000 self-propelled artillery units. This was announced in Madrid by German Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht and her Dutch counterpart kaise Ollongren, the Censor informs.No with a link to DW. "In Germany, we decided that we could give Ukraine three more Panzerhaubitze 2000s. Together with the Netherlands, it will be six," Lambrecht said. If they say what they need, we do everything possible to provide it. And in this case, Germany and the Netherlands were able to do just that," Ollongren said. At the same time, Lambrecht said that now...

FORT CAMPBELL, KY – Hundreds of Screaming Eagle soldiers departed today from Campbell Army Airfield on a nine-month deployment to Europe, to assure NATO allies and deter Russian aggression in the region.

... Assessment The fight for Lysychansk is unfolding much more rapidly in Russia’s favor than did the exceedingly slow grind at Severodonetsk. Another slow-grind siege will play heavily into Russia’s hands. The UGS needs to find a way to regain some mobility and initiative and reopen supply lines or pull out troops, collapse the salient and withdraw to a more defensible perimeter. Hopes that the arrival of new weapons will turn the tide are misplaced. The arrival of such arms might allow for a counteroffensive from a stronger line of defense rather than simply leading to another defeat and loss...

NATO meets in Madrid on June 28. As the West’s peace camp increases its din, it’s a good moment to consider the consequences of a Ukrainian defeat. They would be catastrophic. Any peace that secures Russian assent will be tantamount to Russian victory. Russian victory will divide and in time destroy the Atlantic Alliance, severely weakening the United States’ long-term position in Eurasia. Putin may not have entered this war with grandiose ambitions vis-a-vis NATO. But his war has become his defining policy action. The West should understand that Russian victory would fundamentally transform the Eurasian order.

Vladimir Putin could be assassinated with a '****ing hammer to the head' in a secret plot by his own inner circle, a former CIA chief has claimed. .. 'Nobody's gonna ask, "Hey Vladimir, would you like to leave?" No. It's a f***ing hammer to the head and he's dead. 'Or it's time to go to the sanatorium. They schwack him for it. That's what they'll do.' Hoffman speculated that the three key figures who could be behind a plot are defence minister Sergei Shoigu, head of the Security Council Nikolai Patrushev, and the director of the FSB Alexander Bortnikov. He...

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of Roscosmos and former Russian deputy prime minister in charge of the defense industry, sent a shocking call on his Twitter account on Monday night, calling for a genocide in Ukraine, “for the sake of our grandchildren.”“In general, what has happened in place of Ukraine poses an existential threat to the Russian people, Russian history, the Russian language and Russian civilization,” “It simply came to our notice then [pe ucraineni] now, unfortunately, our grandparents did not finish it with them, we will have to die, but at an even higher cost for our grandchildren. So let’s...

Vladimir Putin will visit two small former Soviet states in central Asia this week, Russian state television reported on Sunday, in what would be the Russian leader’s first known trip abroad since ordering the invasion of Ukraine. -snip- Pavel Zarubin, the Kremlin correspondent of the Rossiya 1 state television station, said Putin would visit Tajikistan and Turkmenistan and then meet Indonesian President Joko Widodo for talks in Moscow. In Dushanbe, Putin will meet Tajik President Imomali Rakhmon, a close Russian ally and the longest-serving ruler of a former Soviet state. In Ashgabat, he will attend a summit of Caspian nations...

Putin has called an obese general out of retirement to take command of forces in Ukraine after yet another round of purges of top commanders has left him 'scraping the barrel'. The 20 stone General Pavel, 67, has been summoned from his comfortable life in the Moscow suburbs and told to don his specially-made army fatigues and go to the front lines of eastern Ukraine. He will now take charge of Russian special forces operating in the region after the unit's former commander was seriously injured in an artillery strike. A veteran of the Soviet Union's ill-fated invasion of Afghanistan...

The newest car model unveiled by Russia's biggest auto manufacturer earlier this month is generating buzz, but not necessarily for the right reasons. The buzz about AvtoVAZ's Lada Granta Classic -- priced to sell at 678,300 rubles ($12,500) -- is about what it doesn't have: No airbags. No antilock brakes. No electronic stability system. No pretensioners to make the seat belts work properly. No GPS. An engine that complies with emissions standards from 26 years ago. The reason for all this? Western sanctions, imposed to punish Russia for its invasion of Ukraine, that have disrupted imports and roiled supply chains...

ELMAU, Germany (AP) — President Joe Biden and western allies opened a three-day summit in the Bavarian Alps on Sunday intent on keeping economic fallout from the war in Ukraine from fracturing the global coalition working to punish Russia’s aggression. Britain’s Boris Johnson warned the leaders not to give in to “fatigue” even as Russia lobbed new missiles at Kyiv.The leaders were set to announce new bans on imports of Russian gold, the latest in a series of sanctions the club of democracies hopes will further isolate Russia economically. They also were looking at possible price caps on energy meant...

VIDEOSo many Russian generals have been killed in Ukraine that Vladimir Putin has been forced to appoint General Artie Lange to lead the Russian forces there.