Free Republic

For years now, Russia has been desperately attempting to convince the world — and, indeed, itself — that it is a great power. But photo opportunities at summits, nuclear saber-rattling, boasts about BRICS and military adventurism abroad are less signs of true power than the tactics of a weak actor attempting to mask weakness — to divert attention from a crumbling empire. Behind the façade of a belligerent great power lurks a hollowing-out state, edging toward the exit of the great powers’ clubhouse. Once indisputable — in fact, during the Cold War, one of only two superpowers — Russia today...

The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the launch of Project Firewall, an H-1B enforcement initiative that will safeguard the rights, wages, and job opportunities of highly skilled American workers by ensuring employers prioritize qualified Americans when hiring workers and holding employers accountable if they abuse the H-1B visa process. “The Trump Administration is standing by our commitment to end practices that leave Americans in the dust. As we reestablish economic dominance, we must protect our most valuable resource: the American worker. Launching Project Firewall will help us ensure no employers are abusing H-1B visas at the expense of our...

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said that there will be a significant number of changes to the H1B visa process before February 2026. This comes ahead of the new one-time USD 100,000 fee for new H1B work visas. Lutnick described the idea of inexpensive tech consultants coming to the US with their families as completely wrong. -snip- In addition to the new fee, the US Department of Labour has launched an initiative called Project Firewall. This enforcement programme aims to protect the rights, wages, and job opportunities of highly skilled American workers. The initiative ensures that employers prioritise qualified...

Donald Trump's new $100,000 fee on H-1B foreign visas has shattered the dreams of Indian university students hoping to make it big in the United States. -snip- n 2023, nearly three-quarters, approximately 73 percent, of all H-1B workers whose applications were approved were born in India, according to the Pew Research Center. When the White House announced the $100,000 fee last week, students at technical universities across Indian said their hearts broke. 'My dreams were shattered,' Sai Jagruthi, a 17-year-old engineering student at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, told The New York Times. She said her father called her to tell...

Mohammed al-Farah, a member of the Houthi terrorist organization's political bureau, rejected US President Donald Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza, calling it "unworkable." According to al-Farah, the plan seeks to shift full blame to his organization, absorb global outrage against Israel, and undermine international solidarity with the Palestinian Arabs. At the same time, Hamas officially received the plan from the Egyptian and Qatari mediators, and its leadership pledged to seriously review it. .....

New York City politics has rarely offered voters a clean choice. This year, with Eric Adams out of the mayor’s race, the city faces one of its grimmest dilemmas yet: Andrew Cuomo or Zohran Mamdani. Let’s be clear – this is not an endorsement of Cuomo. The former governor has baggage that most voters can recite from memory. But politics isn’t about picking saints; it’s about survival. And when survival is on the line, sometimes the only responsible thing to do is choose the lesser of two evils. Cuomo may be corrupt, arrogant and heavy-handed. But at least he governs...

The pro-European party of Moldovan President Maia Sandu has claimed victory and a new majority in parliament in Sunday's elections seen as critical for her country's future path to the EU. Sandu had warned of "massive Russian interference" after voting, saying the future of Moldova, flanked by Ukraine and Romania, was at stake. Igor Grosu, the leader of Sandu's Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) which secured about 50% of the vote, said Russia had thrown "everything it had" at the election. Opposition leader Igor Dodon had claimed victory even before results came in and called for protests outside parliament...

Microsoft has terminated a set of services for the Israeli military after an investigation suggested Israel was using the company’s cloud computing technology for mass surveillance of Palestinians. In a statement posted the company’s blog, Microsoft President Brad Smith said the company had “ceased and disabled a set of services to a unit within the Israel Ministry of Defense.” The move comes after an investigation by The Guardian and Israel’s +972 Magazine in early-August reported that Israel’s military intelligence unit, known as 8200, relied on Microsoft Azure to store millions of phone calls made by Palestinians in Gaza and...

Planned Parenthood is pausing abortions in Wisconsin because federal legislation preventing Medicaid from funding abortion services for one year goes into effect Oct. 1. Wisconsin Right to Life praised the news. “Taxpayer dollars should never fund the taking of innocent preborn lives,” Heather Weininger, executive director of Wisconsin Right to Life, said in a Sept. 25 WisPolitics article. “Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has long centered its operations around abortion services, and this announcement only confirms that reality.” The Big Beautiful Bill, signed into law by President Donald Trump July 4, prevents Medicaid dollars from funding abortions. A federal judge initially...

In Episode 2 of UNSILENT, host Brandon Straka shares an inside looking into New York City's anti-socialist rebellion, including a town hall in Manhattan, with chaos, hecklers, and the plan to victory against Zohran Mamdani.

In a surprising twist, far-right figure Nick Fuentes condemns Tucker Carlson's inflammatory remarks at Charlie Kirk's funeral, calling them "too antisemitic even for me,"..

America loves to tally its billionaires and track the S&P’s every tick, but the millions struggling to cover rent or stock the fridge rarely make the headline scroll.Poverty is the country’s most persistent invisibility cloak, present in every zip code, yet ignored in a culture that equates success with worth.In this chart Visual Capitalist's Pallavi Rao breaks down where the poor in America actually live, ranked by each state.Data for this visualization is sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau.It averages three years of Current Population Survey results (2021-2023) to estimate how many residents in each state live below the federal...

“Wicked” star Ariana Grande is going after President Trump’s supporters. The singer/actress, 32, reshared “A Bit Fruity” podcast host Matt Bernstein’s Instagram post on Sunday that called out the over 77 million people who voted for Trump, 79, over former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. “I want to check in with trump voters. I have one very genuine question: it’s been 250 days. now that immigrants have been violently torn from their families and communities have been destroyed, now that trans people have been blamed for virtually everything and live in fear, now that free speech...

For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. That applies not only to Newtonian physics but also to markets, even in things like housing. Doral, Florida, is a suburb of Miami, peopled heavily with Venezuelan immigrants. Some of them are citizens, some are in the country legally, and some are not in the country legally. According to a piece in Monday's Wall Street Journal, some of these people are leaving Doral, in no small part due to President Trump's crackdown on illegal immigration, resulting in a spike in Doral's rental housing vacancy rate. That's a good thing. Here's...

* Stand with thousands of pro-life individuals throughout the USA and Canada in honor of millions of babies whose lives have been lost to abortion. Pray for people in crisis situations and for our nations. * You'll be a light in a darkened world as you help put an end to abortion through prayer! * Bring your whole family! * Water, lawn chairs, umbrellas and strollers are welcome and encouraged! * Rain or shine! * Signs proclaim "Abortion Kills Children," "Adoption the Loving Option," "Jesus Forgives & Heals," "Lord, Forgive Us and Our Nation," "Abortion Hurts Women," "Life - the...

Tucker Carlson's most current interview of Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger (at https://x.com/i/status/1972716529608237173) brings up a nine-point list of Wikipedia policy reforms, of interest since the interview asserts that Wikipedia has a gargantuan influence, much greater than other media giants, on the total body of current knowledge--this in the information age. Question to ChatGPT: Wikipedia co-founder Larry Sanger maintains a 9-point list of reform measures for Wikipedia's policies at https://larrysanger.org/nine-theses/?utm_source=chatgpt.com#6-reveal-who-wikipedias-leaders-are. Presuming there will be no response from the Wikipedia governing body to item number 6, "Reveal who Wikipedia’s leaders are", is there a way for the identities of those anonymous leaders...

[Catholic Caucus] Three heroic Catholic priests were massacred by North Korean communists 75 years agoServants of God Msgr. Patrick Brennan, Fr. Tommie Cusack, and Fr. Jack O'Brien were imprisoned and murdered by North Korean forces after refusing to divulge the names of Korean Catholics. This week marked the 75th anniversary of the massacre of the Taejon Martyrs in the Korean War. Three priests – whose cause for sainthood has been opened by the Vatican – were executed by the North Korean communists after a heroic imprisonment where they spent their final days praying and ministering to others. The massacre at...

Blair has faced a similar task in the past – and did not succeed. The former British prime minister Tony Blair is a man for all seasons, a political operator who knows precisely on which side his bread is buttered, the side of the super-rich oil and gas sheikhs and the well-connected elites of the Middle East. It is no coincidence, then, that his name has emerged as a potential candidate for a role envisioned by President Donald Trump’s administration: effectively serving as governor of Gaza if, and when, the ongoing war there comes to an end. Driving his candidacy...

YouTube has agreed to pay $22 million to settle a lawsuit filed by President Donald Trump after the company suspended his account over the January 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, according to a court filing Monday. The online video platform, a subsidiary of Google parent Alphabet, is the latest Big Tech firm to settle with Trump after he lodged legal cases challenging his broad deplatforming after January 6. The $22 million will go toward Trump's latest construction project at the White House, through a nonprofit called Trust for the National Mall, which is "dedicated to restoring, preserving, and elevating...

Elon Musk wants H-1B visas because he says America needs more tech workers. The real reason for these visas is our schools aren’t teaching math well enough. By law, H-1B visas go to foreigners who do specialized jobs, mostly in tech. Every year, 65,000 regular visas are handed out, plus 20,000 for advanced degrees. A 2023 federal report showed 65% of H-1B jobs are computer-related, but less than 1% go to social sciences. America’s math problem is getting worse. In 2024, a staggering 72% of eighth-graders failed to score at the proficient level in math, which is up from 66%...