Free Republic

The UK is significantly expanding a training programme in Britain to turn potentially tens of thousands of Ukrainian recruits into frontline soldiers to fight Russia, Sky News has learnt. The combat course is being extended in length to five weeks from three weeks, keeping more of the training in the UK, away from the threat of Russian missile strikes - a hazard for anyone learning how to become a soldier at sites inside Ukraine, it is understood. Some 4,700 personnel have already been through the training at military bases in the north, southwest and southeast of England since it began...

The Biden administration is arming Ukraine with weapons that can do serious damage to Russian forces, and, unlike early in the war, U.S. officials don’t appear worried about Moscow’s reaction. In the past several months, Washington has detailed tranches of new drones, harder-hitting missiles and deadly rocket systems as part of billions of dollars pledged to the former Soviet country. The clear support is a far cry from the early days of the war, when the U.S. government seemed hesitant to list exactly what was being sent into Ukraine so as not to tip off or draw the ire of...

VIENNA — Joe Biden was rejected from the Vienna Academy of Fine Arts Friday after failing his second entrance exam. Professor Alois Delug said Biden's art was a mimicry of other, more successful works. "He has a talent for mimicry, I'll give him that. Not sure why he didn't make a go at still life. Still life painters just sit and copy whatever they're staring at. It would've been a natural fit for him, I think. Instead, he kept trying to pass off imitations of Thomas Kinkade as his own." Delug shook his head sadly. "And I like Thomas Kinkade!"...

Well, that was quite the show. The Nazi background theme was an interesting choice. I'd love to know who came up with that one. Using US Marines in a thinly veiled threat against fellow Americans was in bad taste. The implication that Biden is going to use the military to eradicate MAGA Republicans is the concerning. Karine Jean-Pierre, the nitwit who masquerades as the White Press Secretary, assured us ahead of time that Biden's speech was going to be optimistic and not political. Lying is about the only thing she does well. After Biden's Hitleresque diatribe she declared that the...

The only city captured intact by Putin’s forces remains a hotbed of resistance and partisan activity. It was the news many in Kherson had waited six months to hear. The Ukrainian counter-offensive launched this week to recapture the southern city was cheered by those who have suffered under Russian rule since Moscow’s forces took over in March. Residents in Kherson, strategically located on the Dnipro river that cuts across the country, reported hearing missile strikes and explosions around the city, which had made the Russian patrol increasingly jumpy. “The pro-Ukrainian activity of people who remain in Kherson is very high,”...

The White House on Friday defended the presence of U.S. Marines at President Biden’s speech in Philadelphia the previous evening, arguing their positioning during the prime-time speech was to demonstrate the president’s respect for service members. “The presence of the Marines at the speech was intended to demonstrate the deep and abiding respect the president has for these service members to these ideals and the unique role our independent military plays in defending our democracy no matter which party is in power,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters.

When candidate Joe Biden promised that if elected president he would unite the country, did he think he could do it alienating roughly half the population? Or did he mean he would unite the Democrats and independents against the “MAGA Republicans”? Thursday’s speech clearly indicates what he had in mind was the latter. Last week, Biden smeared Donald Trump supporters, calling them semi-fascists who practice “burn-it-all-down politics” and face “​​backwards full of anger, violence, hate and division.” One of the most appropriate and fitting responses we saw to this was Libby Emmons’ Biden Is The Semi-Fascist He’s Looking For in...

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen declares an energy emergency. The crisis will not be contained to Europe. EC President Seeks 'Emergency Intervention' in Electricity Market Please note Ursula von der Leyen Calls for 'Emergency Intervention' in Electricity Market. "The skyrocketing electricity prices are now exposing, for different reasons, the limitations of our current electricity market design," the European Commission president said on Monday while addressing the Bled Strategic Forum in Slovenia. "[The market] was developed under completely different circumstances and for completely different purposes. It is no longer fit for purpose. "That is why we, the Commission, are...

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will sound an alarm Thursday night about what he views as “extremist” threats to American democracy from the restive forces of Trumpism, aiming to reframe the November elections as part of an unceasing battle for the “soul of the nation.” Nearly two years after he defeated Donald Trump, it’s a reprise of Biden’s 2020 campaign theme, casting the midterm election stakes in as dire terms as those that sent him to the Oval Office. His prime-time speech at Independence Hall in Philadelphia will lay out what he sees as the risks from those he...

The ships laden with grain recently leaving the ports of Ukraine might be taken to suggest that those who doubted it was possible for Ukraine and Russia to negotiate had been wrong. But with the exception of a brief meeting between U.N. Secretary General António Guterres, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelensky, there have been no recent diplomatic attempts to negotiate an end to the war. Instead, the U.S. has consistently discouraged negotiations. U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson told Zelensky not to negotiate with Russia. In his dying days as prime minister, he repeated that call...

On August 24, Belarus' authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, sent a congratulatory message to Ukraine for its 31st Independence Day. Lukashenko said Belarus would "continue to stand for the preservation of harmony" and development of "mutually respectful contacts" and wished Ukrainians "peaceful skies, tolerance, courage, strength and success in restoring a decent life." It was a bizarre message from a leader who has not only made Russia's invasion of Ukraine possible but has done almost everything he can to assist Russia in its war. Under Lukashenko, Belarus has emerged as Russian President Vladimir Putin's greatest ally on the world stage and...

Russian tourists in Kazakhstan have faced anger from locals and even fines from police for sporting pro-war Z stickers on their cars.

"Demilitarization" continues: OK " Yug " told about the situation in Kherson region Ukrainian soldiers in the Kherson region continue to inflict losses on the Russian invaders. On August 31, the Armed Forces of Ukraine again hit the Antonovsky automobile and Antonovsky railway bridges in Kherson and launched targeted strikes on several locations of the Russian invaders. Video of the day Advertisement: 0:09 The day is not over yet, but the elimination of at least 65 Russian invaders has already been confirmed. This was stated by the speaker of the Operational Command "south" Colonel Vladislav Nazarov. As of 14: 50,...

When Viktor Zolotov, director of the Russian National Guard, briefed his boss, President Vladimir Putin, on Tuesday on the status of military operations in Ukraine, one remark in particular stood out. “I especially want to emphasize that we feel the support of the population in the liberated territories,” Zolotov told a stone-faced Putin. In reality, Russia has been struggling to rally the support of its own troops, according to internal government documents obtained exclusively by Yahoo News that detail drunken acts of insubordination six months into Putin’s invasion. The documents include an incident and homicide report by the Russian Investigative...

According to Yanushevich, Ukrainian strikes have completely decommissioned almost all the major bridges in the region - Antonivskyi (road and railway), as well as the Nova Kakhovka Dam Bridge. “As a result of these actions, the Russian army was cut off from the supply of weapons and personnel from the territory of Crimea and the left-bank part of Kherson Oblast,” Yanushevich explained. He also confirmed that the Armed Forces of Ukraine have launched an offensive in all directions in southern Ukraine, but added that the authorities can only provide official information from the military. “We must remain calm and not...

President Joe Biden’s net approval rating dropped a full seven points in one week, according to a Reuters/Ipsos poll released Tuesday. Only 38 percent approved of Biden this week, while 58 percent disapproved for a net approval rating of -20. Last week, 41 percent approved of Biden and 54 percent disapproved for a net approval rating of -13.

The Taliban jihadist terror organization celebrated the final withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan on Wednesday, the anniversary of the occasion, with fireworks and a celebration at Bagram Air Base, formerly America’s largest military facility in the country. As they did on August 15, the day of their seizure of Kabul, the Taliban declared Wednesday a national holiday and organized a series of ceremonies across the country to mark the departure of American troops.

.... Biden drove his classic 1967 C2 Corvette Stingray and talked cars with Jay Leno on Friday as the two filmed a segment for the comedian’s CNBC show. “It was really good. It was even more fun driving my old Corvette,” Biden told reporters after taping the clip for “Jay Leno’s Garage” at the James J. Rowley Training Center, a Secret Service facility, in Beltsville, Md.

The war currently underway in Ukraine, which pits Ukraine as a proxy for the collective West against Russia, is primarily an ideological or religious one, with Russia representing what is left of Christian Europe, and “the West” representing a totalitarian ideology that abhors religion in general and Christianity in particular. This statement may sound strange, given the fact that some Westerners – though fewer every day – still see “the West,” (basically Europe and North America) as Christian, and Russia as Communist, or crypto-Communist.