Free Republic

If someone says, “Trust the science!” these days, it’s usually an effort to short-circuit debate over weighty policy issues. “Trust the science” has been deployed in the past five years to prevent debate over COVID school closures and mask mandates, over electric-car subsidies, and over sex changes for boys and girls. For my entire time in Washington, though, “trust the science” has been used to oppose a missile defense system for the United States. For my first 20 years as a journalist, I was told that a missile defense system simply cannot work and that anyone who disagreed was a...

Reporters at The Washington Post wanted answers about major job cuts during a contentious one-hour meeting Wednesday with top brass. The paper announced on Tuesday that it would be offering buyouts, with the aim to cut 240 jobs from the newsroom. But management offered little clarity about who would be affected or why the cuts were necessary. A day later, Post journalists pressed their interim CEO on why their jobs were on the chopping block, with reporter and Guild president Katie Mettler telling Stonesifer she was frustrated by reporters “bearing the consequences of very poor decisions” made by management. Interim...

The far-left New York Times quietly admitted this week that deaths from the coronavirus were overcounted by 30 percent. Gee, another “right-wing conspiracy theory” is proven true… The Times’ dishonesty is on full display even in the reporting of this breathtaking news. Does this amazing revelation earn its own headline? Nope. Does this amazing revelation sit at the top of the story? Nope. Here’s how the propagandists at the Times bury the truth: Headline: “A Positive Covid Milestone.” Sub-headline: “In a sign that the pandemic really is over, the total number of Americans dying each day is no longer historically...

The passengers that died on the Titan submersible would have been aware of the impending catastrophe for a minute before the implosion, an expert has said. Spanish submarine expert José Luis Martín suggested the submersible lost stability due to an electrical failure that left it without propulsion, causing it to fall toward the seabed 'like an arrow vertically' with its porthole facing down. 'The Titan changed position and fell like an arrow vertically, because the 400 kilos of passengers that were in the porthole compromised the submarine. They all rushed and crowded on top of each other,' Martín added. 'Imagine...

The man behind a massive leak of U.S. government secrets that has exposed spying on allies, revealed the grim prospects for Ukraine’s war with Russia and ignited diplomatic fires for the White House is a young, charismatic gun enthusiast who shared highly classified documents with a group of far-flung acquaintances searching for companionship amid the isolation of the pandemic. United by their mutual love of guns, military gear and God, the group of roughly two dozen — mostly men and boys — formed an invitation-only clubhouse in 2020 on Discord, an online platform popular with gamers. But they paid little...

Ramzan Kadyrov, a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has begun rattling off threats about attacking Poland after Ukraine.Kadyrov, the head of Chechnya, suggested Monday that Russia should “denazify and demilitarize” Poland next.“What if, after the successful completion of the NMD, Russia begins to denazify and demilitarize the next country? After all, after Ukraine, Poland is on the map! I will not hide that I personally have such an intention,” Kadyrov said on Telegram. “I personally have such an intention, and I have repeatedly stated that the fight against Satanism should continue throughout Europe and, first of all, on...

An oil depot at or near the plant evidently exploded with fire damage spreading to the Borisovsky Bridge Metal Structures Plant. 'At night, a civilian industrial facility in Borisovka was attacked by the Armed Forces of Ukraine,' said regional governor Vyacheslav Gladkov. He said 'no one was injured, the company's employees were evacuated in time. 'Now everything is being done to ensure that the damage is minimal.' A report from Telegram channel Horizontal Russia said: 'A large fire started at the plant due to shelling in the Belgorod region. 'The shells hit the territory of an industrial plant in the...

Wagner Group is a Russian paramilitary organisation, first deployed in the annexation of Crimea in 2014 and now a private extension of the Russian army in Ukraine with close ties to Putin. The source told the outlet how squadrons of prisoner conscripts are sent in waves over and over, leapfrogging to move the front line slightly closer to the enemy while Russian artillery continues to explode overhead. The source said: 'Sometimes there is an order not to wait for the shelling to end - the 'Musicians' [Wagner recruits] are so disciplined that they will go anyway because they stand a...

Southwest of the city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian soldiers Andriy and Borisych live in a candle-lit bunker cut into the frozen earth. For several weeks they have been confronting hundreds of fighters belonging to the Russian private military contractor Wagner throwing themselves against Ukrainian defenses. Disguised in a balaclava, Andriy recounts one seemingly endless firefight when they came under attack by a flood of Wagner fighters. “We were fighting for about 10 hours in a row. And it wasn’t like just waves, it was uninterrupted. So it was just like they didn’t stop coming.” Their AK-47 rifles became so hot from...

A Russian company today said it will offer five million roubles (£58,000) in cash to the first soldiers who destroy or capture Western tanks in Ukraine after the Kremlin vowed that any allied armoured vehicles shipped to Kyiv would 'burn'. The United States, Germany and more Western allies are lining up to join Britain in sending dozens of heavy tanks to Ukraine over the next few months to help boost the country's military capacity as the war approaches the 12-month mark. The decision by the NATO allies has been criticised by the Kremlin as a dangerous esclation, with Moscow warning...

Ukraine's defence minister has said Russia is preparing a major new offensive, and warned that it could begin as soon as 24 February. Oleksii Reznikov said Moscow had amassed thousands of troops and could "try something" to mark the anniversary of the initial invasion last year. The attack would also mark Russia's Defender of the Fatherland Day on 23 February, which celebrates the army. Mr Reznikov said Moscow had mobilised some 500,000 troops for the offensive. In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a general mobilisation of some 300,000 conscripted troops, which he said was necessary to ensure the country's...

Wagner Group mercenaries saw a spike in infectious diseases due to their poor hygiene, Ukraine said on Tuesday. Ukraine's latest statement about the dire condition of Russian troops comes more than 11 months after Russian President Vladimir Putin launched the Ukraine "special military operation" in February 2022. Putin initially hoped his troops would carry him to a quick victory, but Ukrainian successes have translated to losses for Putin's troops, compelling Moscow's military leaders to turn to the Wagner Group, a paramilitary unit founded by Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin. Wagner mercenaries in January delivered a key victory to Russia in Soledar....

The Russian military blogger Igor Girkin has issued his latest broadside against how Russian President Vladimir Putin is conducting his invasion of Ukraine. Also known as Igor Strelkov, Girkin is a former Russian intelligence officer who played a major role in Russia's annexation of Crimea in 2014 and the conflict in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region. He has given perceptive but unflattering assessments of Russia's military failures in Ukraine and his views on the military shortcomings of Putin and his commanders. In a video posted on his Telegram social media channel on Monday, Girkin told an audience in St. Petersburg how...

e-mail 302 shares 418 View comments A Russian frigate carrying 'unstoppable' Mach 9 nuclear-capable hypersonic cruise missiles has deviated from its course and is sailing towards the US coast, reports have claimed. The Admiral Gorshkov, armed with Zircon missiles which Vladimir Putin boasts has 'no equivalent in the world', is being closely monitored by NATO navies during its maiden voyage. Earlier this month, the frigate was escorted through British waters by the Royal Navy, and French and Spanish ships then escorted it through the Atlantic. It was scheduled to head south past South Africa to the Indian Ocean then enter...

Shocking news about secret arms-for-hostage deals rocked Washing­ton in late 1986. The first hint came with a White House announcement on November 2, that David Jacobsen, an American held hostage in Lebanon by Iranian-directed Islamic forces, had been released. As Secretary of State George Shultz read a draft White House statement about the development, he noted that it referred to freed “hostages,” with the “s” crossed out. That told him that the White House had expected Jacobsen would not be alone. Shultz suspected that the news meant that clandestine White House efforts to free captive Americans in the Middle East...

#Russian president #Putin is not an ordinary person, and so is his "friendship" with the leadership of some countries. Recently, one could observe how Putin and his envoys "cajole" the #Iranian leadership. 1/12 Image The Russian president meets and calls #Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi regularly. Relations between the leadership of #Russia and #Iran have not always been smooth. There were many problems, such as the spread of #COVID-19, #Syria, #Iran's refusal to pay for... 2/12 Image the construction of the Bushehr and Bushehr-2 nuclear power plants by #Russia and other difficulties (you can find the details in our earlier posts)....

While Germany’s Olaf Scholz was dragging his feet over tanks for Ukraine, the Baltic states and Poland gained moral ground ...reports from Berlin indicate that, far from being apologetic about his dithering, Scholz believes that he has acquitted himself well. He kept his Social Democratic party united on a profoundly controversial question. He also persuaded the Americans to supply their tanks alongside Germany’s. Sadly, much of this positive narrative is wishful thinking, for it ignores both the abrupt collapse of Germany’s influence in Europe and the continent’s profound strategic transformation because of the Ukraine war. The decision to supply Ukraine...

Footage from a fierce ongoing battle around Vuhledar, southwest of Donetsk, shows Russian soldiers retreating after their five vehicles were hit by Ukrainian artillery. The Russian troops were forced to run away and leave their wounded crawling behind them after being struck by airburst ammunition. -snip- Russia is said to be planning a 'new pre-emptive strike' in Ukraine according to satellite photos which show Putin's forces building up fortifications. The new offensive will reportedly take place ahead of the first anniversary of their invasion on February 24.

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki accused Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday, International Holocaust Remembrance Day, of building "camps" for the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Morawiecki posted on Facebook, "On the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, let us remember that to the east Putin is building new camps." Morawiecki, who has advocated for Ukraine since the start of the invasion, did not elaborate on his claim any further. However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has made similar past accusations against Russia. In October, Zelensky described Olenivka as a “concentration camp” where Ukrainians prisoners are kept.

Russia is sending drug addicts to war in an effort to meet its mobilization quota, according to a report by the Ukrainian Center of National Resistance. “The information about the massive mobilization of drug addicts was confirmed by one of the Russian soldiers who surrendered to the Resistance Movement,” the Center reported. “According to him, he was not cured of addiction and continued to use drugs while fighting in Zaporizhzhia. The man took the drugs with him as medicine.” A similar report was made by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. “Among the already recruited personnel, there...