Free Republic

EVERETT — A Chelan County hearing examiner approved a conditional use permit on Tuesday, allowing Everett-based Helion Energy to construct what could become the world’s first fusion power plant in the town of Malaga near the Columbia River. Helion broke ground for the facility in July. The decision this week clears the way for it to build a 100,000-square-foot “fusion generation building,” a 55,000-square-foot substation and a 26,800-square-foot assembly building, according to project documents. “This is another important step toward a future of abundant, clean, safe, affordable energy,” said David Kirtley, Helion’s co-founder and CEO, in a press release. “As...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) highlighted how he wanted “to see” transgender children, and that there is “no governor that’s done more pro-trans legislation” than he has. During an interview on an episode of The Ezra Klein Show, with New York Times columnist Ezra Klein, Newsom described President Donald Trump as being “One of the most destructive presidents and human beings” in Newsom’s lifetime. […] “We didn’t get into trans sports. That’s an issue no one wants to hear about because 80 percent of the people listening disagree with my position on this,” Newsom shared. “But it comes from my...

Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson argued that the president of the United States should not be able to fire government experts such as scientists, doctors, economists, and PhDs, and she claimed it is “not in the best interest” of American citizens. During oral arguments for Trump v. Slaughter, while talking to U.S. Solicitor General D. John Sauer, Jackson said she did “not understand” why “agencies aren’t answering to Congress.” Jackson pointed out that “Congress established them and can eliminate them.” The oral arguments come after the Supreme Court, in September, allowed President Donald Trump to remove Rebecca Kelly Slaughter,...

More than 8 in 10 households headed by Somali refugees in the state of Minnesota are on one or more forms of American taxpayer-funded welfare, new data published by the Center for Immigration Studies (CIS) reveals. The data, based on 10 years of data from the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey (ACS), shows drastic disparities between native-born American households and Somali-born households in Minnesota, where nearly 80,000 residents have Somali ancestry compared to zero who had Somali ancestry in 1990. In particular, the data shows that 81 percent of Minnesota households headed by Somali refugees are on one or more...

Trump officials have been accused of bigotry after the portrait of former President Joe Biden's transgender assistant secretary for health was altered to reflect her birth name. Admiral Rachel Levine's portrait has hung in a hallway of the Humphrey Building in Washington DC - the Department of Health and Human Services's headquarters - since she became the first trans woman to win Senate confirmation in 2021. Following the 68-year-old's four years of service under the Biden administration, her name was reverted to Richard Levine, the name she was given at birth. Levine's dead name - a trans person's original name...

An illegal migrant was deported twice before returning to America where he stabbed a man on a train in North Carolina, just months after the life of a Ukrainian refugee was taken on the same rail line. Oscar Gerardo Solorzano-Garcia, 33, was removed and sent back to his home country of Honduras two times, before he re-entered and knifed a man on December 5 in Charlotte. The victim, Kenyon Kareem-Shemar Dobie, was found near the train station around 5pm after riding the city's blue light rail line, eerily similar to Iryna Zarutska, who had been stabbed to death in August....

A new mutant strain of mpox has been detected in England, health officials warned today. The unnamed patient had recently come to the UK after traveling to Asia. Seeking medical advice, the case was flagged with the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) who undertook laboratory testing and discovered the strain contained elements of both 'clade Ib and clade IIb mpox'. The clade 1b mutation kills up to one in 100 of those infected and is believed to be behind a wave of miscarriages in Africa, where it emerged. A different, less severe, form of mpox, called clade II, sparked alarm...

A 29-year-old Afghan migrant has been sentenced to six years in prison for stabbing a 27-year-old teacher at random on the street, in the middle of the day, in the German city of Kirchheim unter Teck. However, despite stabbing his victim four times in the back and twice in the thigh, the fact that the Afghan stopped stabbing her once she screamed was enough to convince the court in Stuttgart to drop the attempted murder charge. Based on the fact that he stopped stabbing her and ran away, the court claimed this was a “withdrawal from attempted murder,” The Afghan...

An Airbnb customer overstayed her reservation and is now refusing to leave the rented property by claiming she has tenant's rights. Alleged squatter Shadija Romero reserved Rochanne Douglas's short-term rental in Washington DC for 32 days, ending on March 29 this year. Romero failed to leave the home and began claiming residency after just 30 days, according to court filings obtained by the Daily Mail. She is still residing at the property more than 10 months later. The accused squatter allegedly tried to place utilities in her name and has tampered with security cameras. She removed Douglas's personal property from...

A woman is accused of drowning her six-year-old niece during a wedding celebration because the child “looked prettier than her.” The woman, who goes by Poonam, reportedly drowned her young relative in a tub of water after her family gathered for a ceremony in Panipat, northern India, on Monday. The girl, named Vidhi, had attended the wedding with her father, mother, 10-month-old brother and her grandmother

He has a 1,300-acre estate and a nine-month supply of frozen sperm — now he just needs a “good breeder.” Sir Benjamin Slade, 79, of Britain has made Tinder accounts, taken out newspaper ads and starred in a TV series all in an effort to find a wife to produce an heir — and a spare — for his multimillion-dollar fortune. SNIP Scorpios, Guardian news-outlet readers and people from countries beginning with the letter ‘I’ or with green in the flag need not apply, Sir Benjamin said.

Dublin councilors halted plans to rename a park currently honoring a past Israeli president that had drawn criticism from the Irish and Israeli governments, the city council said on Sunday. The park, located near Dublin’s sole Jewish school, is named after Ireland-born Chaim Herzog, Israel’s sixth president. Ireland, home to about 3,000 Jewish people, has been among the most outspoken critics of Israel’s war against Hamas in Gaza, and the move to rename “Herzog Park” followed a campaign by anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian activists, but official council documents did not disclose a reason for the proposal. The proposal had been scheduled for...

Last Tuesday, the European Union’s top court ordered Poland to recognize the marriage of a same-sex couple who had wed in Germany. In delivering its verdict, the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) kept the language broad, referring to the obligation of “a member state” to recognize same-sex marriages registered in other EU member states. It means that a Czech, Romanian or Bulgarian court — or any other EU member state where same-sex marriage is not recognized — will now have to take the verdict into consideration if a similar case arises in their jurisdiction. The case in...

The inventor of iconic classic children's toys like Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots, Lite-Brite and Mouse Trap has died at 99 years old. Burt Meyer, who invented the popular games and gadgets in the 1960s, passed away on October 30, according to Rebecca Mathis, the executive director of the retirement community in Illinois where he lived. Born in Illinois in 1926, he enlisted in the Navy and served for two years as an aircraft mechanic before his toy making career. Meyer's many inventions were born during his time working at a Chicago toy studio called Marvin Glass & Associates. The...

This is why we have trust issues.If you’ve spent any time watching Catfish on MTV, you’re probably familiar with the risks of online dating. People posing as someone they’re not is something all singles need to watch out for as they swipe on apps. But apparently there’s a chance you might not be catfished by another person at all—you might be getting scammed by a restaurant. A trend is emerging where restaurants are posing as eligible singles on dating apps to lure users to dine at their establishment. The scam has been dubbed “food digging,” derived from the term “gold...

A drug-resistant 'super fungus' that targets the groin and bum is spreading rapidly across Britain. Cases of trichophyton indotineae - which triggers unsightly, stubborn skin lesions all over the body - are now rocketing in the UK, despite being virtually unknown just a few years ago. Cases have surged by 500% in the past three years, with one fungus expert describing it as "a really big problem". The infection is triggered by a highly contagious fungus and is typically caught through direct skin contact with somebody who's infected. However it can also be transmitted via contaminated surfaces, household objects or...

EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner has said Ireland is “very well” placed to adopt the Migration and Asylum Pact, and described the Citywest accommodation center for International Protection applicants as an example of “best practice”. He was speaking in Dublin after visiting Citywest, holding meetings with senior gardaí and the head of the Criminal Assets Bureau, as well as speaking to Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan. The Migration and Asylum Pact becomes operational this June and seeks to introduce a more harmonized approach to asylum, migration and border checks, with swifter screening, mandatory health and security checks and a streamlined...

This is a video I've wanted to make for many years. I've always liked this song, but no one ever created a half-decent edit with it.

Elon Musk’s AI assistant Grok boasted on Thursday that the billionaire had the “potential to drink piss better than any human in history,” among other absurd claims championing its creator. After the AI assistant praised Musk’s physique and claimed he ranked “among the top 10 minds in history, rivaling polymaths like da Vinci or Newton,” social media users quickly discovered that Grok was programmed to say positive things about Musk, no matter the topic. But according to 404 Media, in a series of deleted X posts, Grok boasted that Musk had the “potential to drink piss better than any human...

American troops pulled up on a Mexican beach in a dramatic escalation of tensions after Donald Trump threatened to bomb the country. US 'contractors' arrived by boat on Monday at Playa Bagdad, driving signs into the sand near where the Rio Grande empties into the Gulf of Mexico. Alarmed witnesses quickly alerted officials and heavily armed Mexican security personnel rushed to the scene on trucks mounted with machine guns in a terrifying standoff. Written in English and Spanish, they claimed that the beach was the property of the US Department of Defense and had been declared restricted by 'the commander.'...