Free Republic

The Irish government has abandoned plans to implement controversial new hate speech laws following widespread backlash from free speech advocates. Justice Minister Helen McEntee confirmed on Saturday that Dublin will drop new hate speech provisions in the proposed Criminal Justice Bill, admitting that the “incitement to hatred” section of the legislation did “not have a consensus,” the Irish Times reports. Critics of the speech restrictions have noted that the government failed to actually define what constitutes “hate” and therefore the law would have given broad powers to the state to crush dissent. The scope of the draconian powers would have...

After years of trying to unload his Florida mansion, Billy Joel has finally struck a deal. The Piano Man has found a buyer for his sprawling pad after a six-year saga of price changes and market re-listings, The Post has learned. Joel snagged the oceanfront Manalapan property for $22.1 million in 2015. But the price tag saw major fluctuations in value — first hitting the market for $33 million in 2018, reemerging in 2022 at a whopping $64.9 million and falling by $10 million by January 2024. The final listing settled at $49.9 million. The purchase price? Still under wraps,...

President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris plan to meet in the White House Situation Room on Monday with the US hostage deal negotiating team after the murder of six hostages, including American citizen Hersh Goldberg-Polin, by Hamas on Saturday. The White House said the focus of the meeting is to discuss efforts to drive toward a deal that secures the release of the remaining hostages. The meeting is closed to the press. Mobs of protesters took to the streets in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv and other cities Sunday after the bodies of the hostages in Gaza were returned to Israel,...

Supporters of former President Donald Trump turned out in massive numbers for his rally in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, on Saturday. Video footage posted to X appeared to show a massive crowd of people inside the Mohegan Sun Arena. The Mohegan Sun Arena is reported to have 8,000 seats and a capacity of roughly 10,000 people for events such as concerts.

The Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and other banks were targeted on Wednesday as part of a significant cyber attack that led to widespread disruptions in the country's banking system, Iran International reported. #BREAKING A major cyberattack has targeted the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) and several other banks, leading to widespread disruptions in the country’s banking system, @IranIntl has learned. Initial assessments indicate this could be one of the largest cyberattacks ever against… pic.twitter.com/6TiuNrxosL — Iran International English (@IranIntl_En) August 14, 2024 According to reports, all the computer systems of the banks in Iran were paralyzed following the cyber...

Kamala Harris is kicking kick off her "Battleground State Tour" in Philadelphia Tuesday with her running mate by her side for the first time. The rally will be held at Temple University's Liacouras Center in North Philadelphia at 5:30 p.m. According to the Liacouras Center’s website, the event space seats up to 10,000 people and is the largest indoor public assembly venue north of City Hall in Philadelphia at 340,000 sq. ft. ... The tour will continue on to Eau Claire, Wisconsin; Detroit, Michigan; The Research Triangle in North Carolina; Savannah, Georgia; Phoenix, Arizona; and Las Vegas, Nevada; through August...

AT&T has announced that the company believes a hacker stole records of calls and texts from nearly all of AT&T's wireless customers, according to a financial filing from the company. "The data does not contain the content of calls or texts, personal information such as Social Security numbers, dates of birth, or other personally identifiable information," AT&T said in their statement released early Friday morning. "These records identify the telephone numbers with which an AT&T or MVNO wireless number interacted during these periods, including telephone numbers of AT&T wireline customers and customers of other carriers, counts of those interactions, and...

AT&T suffered a massive data breach that saw data from 'nearly all' of its customers' accounts illegally downloaded, the company has confirmed. The compromised data included records of calls and texts of wireless subscribers and landline customers over a five month period in 2022. AT&T listed it had 110 million wireless customers that year, which would make this hack one of the biggest breaches of private communications data in recent history. Although the exposed data did not include customer names, there are 'publicly available online tools' capable of connecting numbers with people's identities, the company said. AT&T admitted it had...

Florida is taking a strong stand against retail theft and “porch piracy.” Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday signed into law a bill that would crack down on criminals participating in shoplifting rings and engaging in other types of property crime. While doing so, he took some shots at California and New York for going easy on those committing these offenses. Amid widespread retail theft occurring across the nation, state and local governments are grappling with putting a stop to these operations while others are simply responding with a shrug. In a post on X, formerly known as Twitter, DeSantis announced...

A massive fire near Moscow has destroyed a plant that supplies body armour for Vladimir Putin’s troops. Video footage shows flames engulfing the plant on Entuziastov Avenue, Obukhovo, in the Moscow region this morning, and no casualties have been reported. Law enforcement in Russia is investigating whether the inferno was caused by an act of sabotage or arson. The fire has destroyed 86,000 feet of a warehouse and a workshop. Workers were evacuated from the plant just as it took hold and more than 100 firefighters tried to save the key production line. It has been sanctioned by Ukraine for...

Former President Donald Trump leads President Joe Biden in a hypothetical two-way race for the presidency, as well as in a deeper field, while he approaches 70 percent support among GOP primary voters, per a Harvard-Harris poll. In the poll published Monday, 53 percent of the 2,581 registered voters surveyed nationally back Trump in a head-to-head race with Biden when undecided voters were pushed to choose a candidate they leaned toward. Biden garners 47 percent of the response, marking a one percent loss of support compared to October’s Harvard-Harris poll. Trump gained one percent month-over-month.

Former President Donald Trump outlined his southern border and immigration policy platforms in great detail Saturday night, including laying out a vision to end “automatic citizenship for the children of illegal aliens,” resurrecting all “incredibly successful border policies” from his first term, and moving “massive portions” of federal law enforcement into immigration enforcement. Speaking at the Faith & Freedom Coalition’s Road to a Majority Conference in Washington, DC, Trump went into his border and immigration plans in great detail. He first blasted automatic citizenship as “so unfair for our country” and vowed to end it on his first day in...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is urging her troops to get behind a massive bill to fund the government through most of next year, touting new funding for Democratic priorities and citing an urgency to get the package to President Biden’s desk before a potential shutdown at week’s end. In a letter to fellow Democrats, the outgoing Speaker cited a number of Democratic victories in the package, including provisions to hike nutrition funding for low-income children, provide a huge increase in money for veterans health care, and lend assistance to the victims of natural disasters around the country.

The nation's largest annual conference for Millennial and Gen-Z conservatives, AmericaFest, drew tens of thousands of attendees who seem divided on who should win the 2024 nomination—a troubling sign for the former president. As Trump acolytes, like his eldest son Donald Trump Jr. and unsuccessful gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, sang praises for Trump's 2024 campaign, many event speakers avoided endorsing the former president and interviews with attendees revealed that many aren't prepared to commit to another Trump term just yet. The four-day event in Phoenix, Arizona, is a glaring red flag for Trump's campaign. It signals there may not be...

President Biden on Monday approved an emergency declaration for New York and ordered federal assistance to help respond to the severe winter storm in the western part of the state. His action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security and Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to coordinate all disaster relief efforts to supplement state and local response efforts in place since the snowstorm hit over the weekend. The federal government can now coordinate disaster relief in 11 New York counties, including Cattaraugus, Chautauqua, Erie and Niagara.

Facing reverses on the frontline, Russian forces are intensifying strategic strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure, with a renewed bombardment of Kyiv (Kiev) cutting off power and water in the capital. Vitali Klitschko, the former heavyweight boxing champion who serves as the capital city’s mayor, said an energy facility powering “about 350,000 apartments in Kyiv” had been rocked by five explosions in the early hours of Monday morning.

MADRID (Reuters) - NATO will increase the number of its forces at high readiness massively to over 300,000, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Monday.

Former President Trump announced his endorsement of Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.) on Tuesday, after previously calling for him to be kicked out of the Republican Party. “Congressman Thomas Massie is a Conservative Warrior for Kentucky’s 4th Congressional District!” Trump wrote in his statement. “An MIT graduate and a first-rate Defender of the Constitution, Thomas fights hard to Protect your Liberties, especially the First and Second Amendments, which are under siege by the Radical Left.”

In early March, Tucker Carlson invited Iowa Corn and soybean farmer Ben Riensche on his top-rated program to discuss the massive inflation we are about to see in food prices here at home. According to Rienshe, grocery prices may increase up to $1,000 per month due to Russia’s sanctions on fertilizer. ... “It’s embarrassing how little most people know about fertilizer, what it means, tell us the implications of this sanction?” Carlson asked. .... Soaring fertilizer prices are likely to spike food prices,” Riensche said. “If you’re upset that gas is up a dollar or two a gallon, wait until...

HARRISBURG, Pa. – Wintry weather made travel difficult in parts of the Northeast on Saturday, including in central Pennsylvania, where more than 70 vehicles were involved in a crash along State Route 581. The crash forced troopers in Cumberland County to shut down the roadway for hours to allow crews to clean up the wreck. Buses were also brought in to transport people involved in crashes to the local fire department.