Free Republic

Many Ukrainians see Volodymyr Zelensky as a dictator who has betrayed his own country for a handful of silver. From tomorrow, May 20th, Zelensky’s presidential term is formally at an end—but no new elections will be held as long as Ukraine is under martial law because he would be overwhelmingly voted out. He preaches that Ukraine is fighting for freedom and then denies them the right to vote on his policies – so much for freedom and democracy. Zelensky has no incentive for peace at this point in time. Zelensjy won the election, which some say was rigged, promising PEACE...

There are 13,000 UNRWA employees in Gaza. We already know, thanks to the relentless investigations conducted by Hillel Neuer of UN Watch, that some of those UNRWA members joined Hamas operatives on October 7, taking part in the atrocities inflicted that day, joining in the fun of rape, torture, and murder of Israeli men, women, and children. Other UNRWA members in Gaza have subsequently expressed support for Hamas’ actions. UNRWA schools still use textbooks full of antisemitic passages. UNRWA’s European and American donors have repeatedly demanded that such material be excised from the schoolbooks; UNRWA solemnly promises that it will...

Hamas footage showing former hostages Ela and Dafna Elyakim while they were being held hostage in Gaza. (photo credit: IDF SPOKESPERSON'S UNIT) The IDF released footage soldiers found of former hostages Ela and Dafna Elyakim in Gaza on Sunday. The footage shows Ela, an eight-year-old resident of Nahal Oz, in a video seemingly filmed by Hamas asking for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to free her and noting that she was "being held hostage by Hamas." A banner of Hamas's al-Qassam Brigades was displayed behind Ela. Elyakim sisters released in November The Elyakim sisters were released as part of the hostage...

The United Nations confirmed Saturday that 800,000 Palestinians have left the town of Rafah, in southern Gaza, as Israel begins its attack on Hamas battalions there. Philippe Lazzarini, the commissioner-general of the controversial United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), announced the number of evacuees — and warned of the risks they face. The number of evacuees far exceeds the estimates that were discussed in advance of the Israeli operation, which began on May 6, amid U.S. opposition. The Biden administration warned that an attack on Rafah could cause civilian casualties there.

On Friday’s “CNN News Central,” Rep. Jared Moskowitz (D-FL) stated that President Joe Biden’s threat to withhold certain weapons from Israel took pressure off Hamas and in doing so made it less likely to get a ceasefire deal, which makes it harder to get aid into Gaza and free the hostages. Moskowitz said that while he has issues with the House bill to force Biden to transfer weapons to Israel, the bill won’t become law anyway, so those concerns aren’t hugely relevant, and “my main purpose for voting for the bill is what I said earlier when the President decided...

Venezuela has moved “substantial quantities of [military] personnel and equipment to the border with Guyana amid its territorial dispute over the Essequibo region. The update comes from the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington D.C., *** The think tank talks about an expansion of a military base on Anacoco Island in the area, with new roads and a bridge getting built in the past few months. A local airport is also being expanded, CSIS also said, citing satellite imagery and social media posts According to the report’s authors, the activity could be preparation for a “manufactured crisis” before...

“Russia launches a division sized recon in force operation 20 kilometers North of Ukraine's second largest city, Kharkiv.…”

For a long time, the US Army assumed the US Air Force would protect it from enemy aircraft. Which is why, in the 1990s, the Army shuttered many of its short-range air-defence, or SHORAD, units. This process only accelerated during the counterinsurgency campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan, where the Army was fighting an enemy with no aircraft. By the time Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, the Army was down to just 300 or so aging Avenger air-defence vehicles, each firing infrared-guided Stinger missiles out to a distance of three miles. This to protect a million troops, if you count active...

It turns out that a Gaza based al-Qaeda affiliated group known as Jaysh al-Ummah has joined Hamas in the jihad against Israel. On December 8, Jaysh al-Ummah published a statement saying that its fighters had been clashing with the IDF in the north of the Gaza Strip and in Sheikh Radwan in Gaza City:Al-Qaeda is currently fighting in Gaza as Jaysh al-Ummah on the side of Hamas against the Zionists. A Jaysh al-Ummah-Statement from 8. December, 2023, announcing to have repelled the ‘Israeli’ army in fighting in the north of the Gaza Strip and in Sheikh Radwan in Gaza-City. https://t.co/g3o29r8OJG...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) continued to attack Hamas terrorists in Rafah and throughout Gaza on Monday, which was Israel’s independence day, despite continued international criticism and caution from the White House. In a statement, the IDF said: IDF troops continue their operations against terror targets in the area of eastern Rafah and on the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing. IDF troops eliminated several armed terrorist cells in close-quarters encounters on the Gazan side of the Rafah crossing. In eastern Rafah, IDF troops eliminated a number of terrorists and located weapons. An IAF aircraft struck a terrorist cell that...

Last week we supposedly got “good news” on Social Security and Medicare, because the trust funds are in slightly better shape than a year ago. But here’s the rest of the picture. Interest payments on the ballooning national debt have now for the first time exceeded every other individual item in the budget except Social Security. Debt interest through the first seven months of this fiscal year has just topped $500 billion, reports the U.S. Treasury — about $4,000 for every household in the country. Repeat: This is just the interest. Think of the national debt as an interest-only mortgage....

A top Biden official said Monday the U.S. does not believe Israel’s “total victory” over the militant group Hamas is “likely or possible.” Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell spoke about the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas during the NATO Youth Summit in Miami just days after the Biden administration paused certain arms shipments to Israel. “I think in some respects, we are struggling over what the theory of victory is. Sometimes when we listen closely to Israeli leaders, they talked about mostly the idea of some sort of sweeping victory on the battlefield, total victory,” Campbell said. “I...

A U.S. Army officer working at the Defense Intelligence Agency has resigned from the military citing his objection to Israel’s war in Gaza, according to an open letter he published online Monday saying he is distressed that his work has contributed to the deaths of Palestinian civilians.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia's defense minister reshuffle was a further indication of Russian President Vladimir Putin's "desperation to sustain" his invasion of Ukraine, U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Monday. Putin tapped a civilian economist as his surprise new defense minister on Sunday in an attempt to gird Russia for economic war by trying to better utilize the defense budget and harness greater innovation to win in Ukraine.

There have been some unsettling developments in the Gaza Strip this weekend, suggesting a situation that many analysts had previously warned us about. Israel has been portraying the assault on Rafah as essentially being the "last stand" for Hamas, where the IDF would take out the terrorist group's four remaining battalions of fighters. But yesterday, fighting broke out in Jabaliya and Gaza City in the northern part of the Strip that Israel had cleared months ago. The IDF was attacked in multiple locations. Some of the attackers may have been Hamas fighters that were missed in the original clearing efforts...

It looks like Joe Biden's betrayal of Israel is worse than we thought. According to a new report, Joe Biden has been withholding intelligence from Israel regarding the whereabouts of Hamas leaders and their underground command tunnels."The Biden administration, working urgently to stave off a full-scale Israeli invasion of Rafah, is offering Israel valuable assistance if it holds back, including sensitive intelligence to help the Israeli military pinpoint the location of Hamas leaders and find the group’s hidden tunnels, according to four people familiar with the U.S. offers," reports the Washington Post. President Biden and his senior aides have been...

Senator Chris Murphy (D-CT) said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union” that President Joe Biden was “squarely where the middle of the country is” on the Israel-Hamas war. Anchor Dana Bash said, “Do you think that when the president said what he said to Erin Burnett this week that what ended up happening is he tried to, I don’t want to take away from what he tried to do on policy, but just on the politics that it ended up kind of pleasing no one. Is that a potential problem, or do you think that is what he said...

A British toddler born with a genetic condition resulting in deafness can now hear in one ear thanks to a pioneering new gene therapy treatment. The case was reported at the American Society of Gene & Cell Therapy’s annual meeting which is taking place this week in Baltimore, MD. The girl—18-month-old Opal Sandy from Oxfordshire—received an experimental treatment for auditory neuropathy, a condition that results from a mutation in a gene called Biallelic otoferlin gene (OTOF), as part of an ongoing clinical trial. As the BBC reports, the mutation results in incorrect development of tiny hairs in the cochlea that...

he Venezuelan government called the military drills of two U.S. planes in Guyana a "provocation" and said the country has "become a new colony" of the North American country. "The Bolivarian Navy strongly rejects the reiterated provocations by the U.S. Southern Command and approved by the government of Guyana, which has become a new American Colony," said Venezuelan Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino López. He added that the country's defense systems are "activated against any attempt to breach the Venezuelan geographical space."

Intelligence chiefs have warned ministers they fear Britain and other key Ukrainian allies are being targeted by Russian saboteurs following a series of suspicious incidents in recent months. These include a wave of fires at arms factories and military-related industrial sites in the West that are supplying Ukraine. There have also been attacks on computer systems, train derailments and even jamming of satellite signals for civil air flights. Last night, a senior British security source said Western intelligence agencies feared a spate of industrial fires were connected to Moscow, saying 'the b******s' were trying to set Europe alight. 'Lots of...