Free Republic

This week, South Korea's intelligence services offered a glimpse of the upgraded alliance between Russia and North Korea in action. North Korea has been sending vast shipments of artillery ammunition to Russia, a lifeline in the invasion of Ukraine that has isolated it from much of the world. Citing an intelligence report, a South Korean lawmaker said that since 2022 North Korea had sent more than 13,000 shipping containers to Russia that may contain up to 6 million shells. .... A new use for old gunsOld-fashioned munitions have become vital once more in Ukraine, where fighting often resembles the grueling...

Havrylyuk said that people were seen as expendable by Putin in his mission to conquer Ukraine, but economic issues and problems supplying its troops with ammunition and equipment could soon blunt its campaign. The ISW said that high casualties were part of Russian President Vladimir Putin's strategy to grind out a victory in Ukraine through a war of attrition. "The recent increase in reports of entire Russian units becoming combat ineffective due to losses highlights the tactics on which Russian forces are relying on to pursue Putin's theory of a slow, gradual, grinding victory in Ukraine," it said. Vladimir Putin...

Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine's president, is warning with increasing urgency that his country could lose the war if it doesn't get $60 billion in US aid that Republicans in Congress are refusing to release. "Can we hold our ground? No," Zelenskyy recently told PBS of Ukraine's prospects should it not get the funding. On the front line in east and south Ukraine, reports say the situation is increasingly desperate, with Russia outfiring Ukraine at a rate of three to one. Parts of the front line are also dangerously close to collapse.

As the second anniversary of Russia's unprovoked invasion approaches, the situation is beginning to look bleak for Ukraine.Last year's counteroffensive brought hopes that Ukraine could capitalize on its successes in 2022 and drive back Russian forces from occupied territories in southern and eastern Ukraine.But the offensive failed to achieve a breakthrough, and Ukraine is now seeing crucial support from its allies bleed away. Meanwhile, its troops are experiencing shortages of personnel and ammunition.There are problems at the top, too. Its senior command has been engulfed in chaos, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy replacing Valery Zaluzhny, a senior commander, amid reported...

Russian President Vladimir Putin is urging women to have as many as eight children as the number of dead Russian soldiers continues to rise in his war with Ukraine, worsening the country's population crisis. Addressing the World Russian People's Council in Moscow on Tuesday, Putin said the country must return to a time when large families were the norm. "Many of our grandmothers and great-grandmothers had seven, eight, or even more children," Putin said. "Let us preserve and revive these excellent traditions. Large families must become the norm, a way of life for all of Russia's people. The family is...

Donald Trump in 2018 signed a sweeping national security bill into law. The bill increased punishments for those who mishandle classified information. The measure is of note after the Mar-a-Lago raid, thought to be connected to government documents.

Members of the Russian elite are turning against the Ukraine war, Bloomberg reported. They best they can hope for is losing without humiliation, the report said. However Putin shows no sign of wanting to end the conflict, it said. Many members of Russia's elite are growing doubtful about the ability of their president, Vladimir Putin, to win the war in Ukraine, Bloomberg reported. The best they can hope for is a "frozen" conflict or a loss in which Russia isn't humilated, the report said. Despite this deepening gloom, Putin shows no sign of wishing to end the war, according to...

A rift has opened in Donald Trump's legal team over how to respond to Mar-a-Lago classified documents case, The New York Times reported. According to the Times, the rift was prompted by the Department of Justice telling Trump's team it believes he still possesses government records, even after the FBI raid in August which seized hundreds of files from his home.

Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly and publicly called for the release of an FBI affidavit that formed the basis of the bureau's search of his Mar-a-Lago club and private residence. On Thursday, a federal judge granted Trump's request, ordering the release of a redacted version of the affidavit. But legal and national-security experts say the former president should be careful what he wishes for and that the document's release could land him in more hot water. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart ruled that the Justice Department must file a redacted version of the affidavit to the public docket by noon...

Aides to former President Donald Trump believe that a member of his family may have tipped off the FBI about the presence of classified documents at Mar-a-Lago, The Guardian reported. Multiple sources close to Trump told the publication that after the August 8 search of Trump's resort in Palm Beach, Florida, aides began speculating about who could have been speaking to the agency. In the search, agents took more than a dozen boxes of items, as well as highly classified information. They appeared to have specific information about what to look for. Speculation initially focussed on Trump's political aides, and...

Republican lawmakers privately support to Rep. Liz Cheney but refuse to do so in public for fear of former President Donald Trump, according to extracts from a new book. The claim appeared in "Thank You For Your Servitude," by Mark Leibovich, a political writer who speak years at The New York Times Magazine and now writes for The Atlantic. The book is devoted to exploring Trump's circle, and alleges that many people who support him in public are hypocrites who privately dislike him. One Republican member of Congress to vocally oppose Trump is Cheney, who was stripped of a party...

Donald Trump has wielded the power of his endorsement in his bid to maintain his control over the GOP, and one of the first serious tests of its power came in the Republican primaries Tuesday. The results were mixed, but several high-profile Trump allies slumped to defeat. Most of the 26 Trump-backed candidates on the ballot Tuesday were running in safe seats, meaning that on paper, the results validated the former president's endorsement power. But in other competitive races, the results were less positive for Trump. In North Carolina, Rep. Madison Cawthorn, who has built his political career on being...

He says Putin overestimated Russia's military, not realizing its budget had been embezzled. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has stalled amid tough Ukrainian resistance. A former Russian foreign minister claimed that widespread corruption is among the reasons for the Russian military's apparently poor performance in the invasion of Ukraine. Andrey Kozyrev, who served as foreign minister under President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, put forward what he said were misjudgments made by President Vladimir Putin in ordering the invasion. In the thread, he claims Putin overestimated the Russian military, which he dedicated billions of dollars to modernizing. But this money, Kozyrev...

Andrey Kozyrev laid out reasons why Putin may have misjudged his invasion of Ukraine. He says Putin overestimated Russia's military, not realizing its budget had been embezzled. Russia's invasion of Ukraine has stalled amid tough Ukrainian resistance. A former Russian foreign minister claimed that widespread corruption is among the reasons for the Russian military's apparently poor performance in the invasion of Ukraine. Andrey Kozyrev, who served as foreign minister under President Boris Yeltsin in the 1990s, put forward what he said were misjudgments made by President Vladimir Putin in ordering the invasion. In the thread, he claims Putin overestimated the...

Facebook refused to remove an attack ad falsely linking Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar to Hamas, even after her aides said similar claims had resulted in death threats to the lawmaker in the past. The ad was produced by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, the pro-Israel lobbying group, and showed the face of the Minnesota lawmaker, who is Muslim, superimposed onto rockets fired by Gaza militants toward Israel. "When Israel targets Hamas, Rep. Omar calls it an act of terrorism," the caption said. The ad is still live on Facebook. The ad seemed to be based on a tweet by...

The Trump administration is stepping up its war against measures to address climate change, according to The New York Times. The administration reportedly plans to prevent the National Climate Assessment, a report funded by the federal government, from assessing worst-case scenarios in its four-year reports. The US Geological Survey will also be made to change its modeling to project only until 2040, not a century ahead, as in previous assessments, The Times said. "What we have here is a pretty blatant attempt to politicize the science — to push the science in a direction that's consistent with their politics," Philip...