Free Republic

In the span of just a few days, Donald Trump’s financial position has moved from seemingly dire—facing the seizure of prized real estate if he doesn’t obtain a large bond—to potentially dazzling, with revelations that his social-media company could bring him more than $3 billion. It is nothing new for a man who has long ridden a roller coaster of luck, acquiring and losing valuable assets repeatedly. When his financial position appears to be the most at risk, again and again, he finds a way to squirm out of it and emerge strong. A big question: Would the windfall come...

Supporters who have driven up share price are expected to vote Friday to take company public Donald Trump’s supporters are pushing to hand him a nearly $3.5 billion windfall by driving up the value of his also-ran social-media platform, which is on the cusp of getting approval to list on the stock market. Trump’s winning lottery ticket would come from Truth Social, the social-media platform he launched in 2021. After a twisted path that included tens of millions of dollars in losses and insider-trading convictions, the shell company taking Truth Social public became the market’s latest meme stock. Trump’s supporters...

Likewise, the supply, which was extremely scarce, doubled in the city of Buenos Aires. One of the most important measures from Argentine President Javier Milei, the repeal of the Rental Law (Ley de Alquileres), is already generating positive effects in the real estate market, which under previous administrations was heavily regulated. According to the local newspaper El Cronista, just a month after the repeal of the Rental Law, the market has already reacted positively. The supply of apartments in the city of Buenos Aires, which had been extremely scarce, doubled; going from 400 to 800 units, and prices fell by...

In a rare display of public criticism, a Gaza resident tells the Al-Jazeera TV channel that the lack of aid to residents of the Strip is due to Hamas stealing it. Asked about the supposed trickle of aid coming into Gaza, the woman, says there is plenty of aid, but “all aid goes down (into Hamas tunnels).” “The aid does not reach the nation, all the people,” she says. When the journalist from the pro-Palestinian Qatari channel tells her that only a small amount of aid is coming in and it is all being distributed, she shakes her fingers at...

Hertz is slowing down plans to include more electric cars in its fleet. The firm said EVs have higher repair costs and have depreciated significantly. Hertz said it would buy 100,000 Teslas in 2021. Embracing electric cars is proving much more complicated than Hertz anticipated. The car-rental giant is hitting the brakes on a wide-ranging plan to integrate more electric vehicles into its fleet as it runs into challenges, such as high repair costs and depreciation. Hertz isn't giving up on EVs entirely, but it's starting to take a more measured approach. "Our in-fleeting of EVs will be slower than...

KEY TAKEAWAYS ...Over 50 organisations have raised concerns about Germany's proposed legal amendments that intend to criminalise sea rescue. The amendments could lead NGOs to face a maximum imprisonment of ten years for rescuing individuals in the Mediterranean. Organisations like Amnesty International and Doctors Without Borders caution that the changes may blur the line between profit-driven smuggling and humanitarian assistance...

... This can be averaged to 68.75 rounded to 69.This figure needs to be corrected because the test was administered to groups rather than individually and the test has been standardized in Britain for individual administration. A previous study has shown that in an Arab sample of this age group that took the test individually and in groups, the group administration gave a score 12.5 IQ points lower than individual administration (Bakhiet & Lynn, 2014). Thus, we propose that 12.5 needs to be added to the 69 to give 81.5 as the best estimate of the British-scaled IQ of the...

Trade between the US and China hit a record high last year even as their diplomatic relations deteriorated. Imports and exports between the two countries totalled $690.6bn (£572.6bn) in 2022, official figures show. Relations between the countries have hit new lows in recent days after a Chinese balloon travelled across the US. Beijing denies US claims it was used for spying. The world's two biggest economies have also been in a trade war since 2018. The new figures show that US imports from China increased to $536.8bn last year as American shoppers spent more on Chinese-made goods, including toys and...

The UK foreign secretary, James Cleverly, has said all Nato allies are backing a plan to give Ukraine a fast track to Nato membership of the kind offered to Sweden and Finland earlier this year. Speaking on the margins of the two-day Ukraine Recovery conference in London, Cleverly said the UK was “very, very supportive” of Ukraine being able to join Nato without the usual need for it to meet the conditions set out in a Nato membership action plan (Map). The French foreign minister, Catherine Colonna, was more cautious but said circumstances had changed since 2008 when Ukraine was...

For years, two administrators at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology (TJ) have been withholding notifications of National Merit awards from the school’s families, most of them Asian, thus denying students the right to use those awards to boost their college-admission prospects and earn scholarships. This episode has emerged amid the school district’s new strategy of “equal outcomes for every student, without exception.” School administrators, for instance, have implemented an “equitable grading” policy that eliminates zeros, gives students a grade of 50 percent just for showing up, and assigns a cryptic code of “NTI” for assignments not turned...

President Joe Biden on Thursday is announcing the infusion of nearly $36 billion to shore up a financially troubled union pension plan, preventing severe cuts to the retirement incomes of more than 350,000 Teamster workers and retirees across the United States. The money for the Central States Pension Fund is the largest amount of federal aid provided for a pension plan, the Biden administration said, and comes from the American Rescue Plan, a $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package that he signed into law in 2021. Many union retirement plans have been under financial pressure because of underfunding and other issues....

Sam Brinton, one of the first “openly genderfluid individuals in federal government leadership,” was charged with felony theft last month after allegedly stealing a woman’s luggage at MSP Airport. The MIT grad went viral earlier this year when he announced his new role as the deputy assistant secretary of the Office of Spent Fuel and Waste Disposition in the U.S. Department of Energy. “As one of if not the very first openly genderfluid individuals in federal government leadership, I was welcomed with open arms into the Department of Energy all the way up to the Secretary whom I shared the...

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Construction of the Obama Presidential Center has been suspended after builders found a noose at the project site. Lakeside Alliance, the company constructing the center, released a statement saying in part, "This morning we were informed that an act of hate was discovered at the project site. We reported the incident to the police and will provide any assistance required to identify those responsible." The company said it has a zero tolerance policy for "any form of bias or hate on our worksite" and said it is suspending all operations for another series of anti-bias training and...

Clash of the titans: Who said it best? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qjc_wW9Zb5s

Kari Lake, a Republican running for governor of Arizona, has savaged the conduct of veteran Australian journalist Liam Bartlett during a fiery video leaked online. Ms Lake walked out of the interview in protest, accusing the Australian journalist of being biased and a "joke." Mr Bartlett, who works for current affairs program 60 Minutes, conducted the fiery interview via Zoom. The 25-minute interview started respectfully enough before Mr Bartlett accused the Trump-backed Republican of xenophobia and perpetuating conspiracy theories. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gog0mdDIGsw

Kari Lake @KariLake Governor candidate, AZ . @KariLake to the Fake News: “you’re in a frenzy panic because your chosen candidate is not winning. You didn’t wanna cover [new polls] so you had to run with a completely garbage, bullshit story

Two “crazy” dads have been charged with attempted murder after allegedly opening fire and hitting each other’s daughters in a terrifying road-rage gun battle in Florida, authorities said. Strangers William Hale, 35, and Frank Allison, 43, shot at each other’s vehicles with semi-automatic handguns during a high-speed “cat and mouse” chase late Saturday — and were finally busted when they got out and started brawling on the highway, according to cops. During the gun battle, Hale’s 5-year-old daughter was hit in the leg and Allison’s 14-year-old daughter was shot in the back, leaving her with a collapsed lung, Nassau County...

Eating green and feeling blue? Vegetarians experience depressive episodes twice as frequently as meat eaters, according to a new study by Brazilian researchers published in the Journal of Affective Disorders. There’s a “positive association between the prevalence of depressive episodes and a meatless diet,” the study read. Scientists set out to investigate the potential association between a meatless diet and depression among adults, surveying 14,216 participants aged 35 to 74 years over six months. They were evaluated using the Clinical Interview Schedule-Revised instrument, a tool used to diagnose common mental health disorders. Vegetarians were found to have double the number...

President Joe Biden has gotten another round of bad news ahead of crucial midterm elections that will define the remainder of his first term. According to an Ipsos poll released last week, just 39 percent of respondents approved of the job Biden is doing as president. Worse, just 9 percent said they believe the country is heading in the right direction under Biden and Democratic leadership, with a whopping 74 percent saying America is on the wrong track. Meanwhile, 54 percent disapprove of Biden’s job performance. Just 25 percent of Independents say they approve of Biden’s performance...

Elon Musk offered to buy Twitter for $54.20 a share, saying the social media company needs to be transformed privately. “I invested in Twitter as I believe in its potential to be the platform for free speech around the globe, and I believe free speech is a societal imperative for a functioning democracy,” Musk wrote in a letter sent to Twitter Chairman Bret Taylor and disclosed in a securities filing...