Free Republic

Thousands of young Indians have mapped their adult lives with the aim of moving to the US, plans that now lie in tatters. Meghna Gupta* had planned it all – a master’s degree by 23, a few years of working in India, and then a move to the United States before she turned 30 to eventually settle there. So, she clocked countless hours at the Hyderabad office of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India’s largest IT firm and a driver of the country’s emergence as the global outsourcing powerhouse in the sector. She waited to get to the promotion that would...

FeatureTilly Norwood and the Illusion of RealityHollywood fears job losses from AI actors. But the greater threat may be to truth itself.By The HermitNot long ago, a new name appeared in Hollywood chatter: Tilly Norwood. She looks the part of a rising young actress, the kind casting directors might call “a natural.” But Tilly is no actress at all. She is an AI-generated creation — a digital performer assembled from algorithms, capable of smiling, speaking, and captivating an audience without ever setting foot on a soundstage.Tilly is part of a new wave of “synthetic talent.” AI agencies now maintain rosters...

Several Indian students who secured job offers in the United States have seen their offers withdrawn after US President Donald Trump announced the $1,00,000 H-1B visa policy. Under the new rule, US employers who are looking to sponsor H-1B visas should pay a one-time fee of $1,00,000, which many companies now cite as a reason to back out. Thousands of students, who are currently on F-1 visas, wanted to bag a job in the United States and obtain an H-1B visa. But with the new rules and skyhigh price on the visa, the companies are reluctant to pay the amount,...

Local California women’s rights activist Beth Bourne protested the policy allowing transgender students access to girls’ locker rooms by stripping down to a bikini at a local school board meeting. Bourne, who chairs the Moms for Liberty in Yolo County, took part in the Davis Joint Unified School Board meeting on Sept. 18, where she highlighted school policies on locker room access. “I’m a parent in the Davis Unified School District, and I’m here today to talk about the policies you have for the locker rooms in the junior high schools. So Emerson, Holmes, Harper Junior High. Right now, we...

To understand how Tony Blair, who resigned from the House of Commons 18 years ago, is about to become part of the “Board of Peace” set to take control of the Gaza Strip, it’s worth paying attention to a German physicist born in 1858. Max Planck won the Nobel Prize aged 60. But while his scientific work laid the foundation for quantum theory, he is most widely known for an aphorism. “Planck’s Principle” casts doubt on the idea that progress results from individuals changing their mind. Instead, Planck claimed, the old, mistaken notions pass away as new generations emerge, familiar...

President Trump used an AI-generated video to mock Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Rep. Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) on Monday, hours after he met with the Democratic congressional leaders at the White House to discuss the looming government shutdown. The faux footage, posted by Trump on Truth Social, shows Jeffries – depicted with a mustache and sombrero – standing silently next to Schumer, who, in a fake voice, argues in favor of giving “illegal aliens free healthcare” as part of an effort to court “new voters” for the Democratic Party. A traditional Mexican folk song plays over the 35-second video, for...

Paridhi Upadhaya was packing her bags after securing a computer science scholarship in the US until headlines of President Donald Trump's H-1B visa crackdown last week prompted her family in Lucknow, India, to scrap the plan. “Trump's unending onslaught against immigrants is forcing us to consider other destinations for her,” the 18-year-old's father Rudar Pratap said. Upadhaya is among thousands of Indians for whom the American dream of world-class education, lucrative careers, better quality of life and social mobility is turning sour due to rising US visa restrictions and policy unpredictability. For decades the H-1B visa has been the gateway...

For years now, Russia has been desperately attempting to convince the world — and, indeed, itself — that it is a great power. But photo opportunities at summits, nuclear saber-rattling, boasts about BRICS and military adventurism abroad are less signs of true power than the tactics of a weak actor attempting to mask weakness — to divert attention from a crumbling empire. Behind the façade of a belligerent great power lurks a hollowing-out state, edging toward the exit of the great powers’ clubhouse. Once indisputable — in fact, during the Cold War, one of only two superpowers — Russia today...

The U.S. Department of Labor today announced the launch of Project Firewall, an H-1B enforcement initiative that will safeguard the rights, wages, and job opportunities of highly skilled American workers by ensuring employers prioritize qualified Americans when hiring workers and holding employers accountable if they abuse the H-1B visa process. “The Trump Administration is standing by our commitment to end practices that leave Americans in the dust. As we reestablish economic dominance, we must protect our most valuable resource: the American worker. Launching Project Firewall will help us ensure no employers are abusing H-1B visas at the expense of our...

US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick has said that there will be a significant number of changes to the H1B visa process before February 2026. This comes ahead of the new one-time USD 100,000 fee for new H1B work visas. Lutnick described the idea of inexpensive tech consultants coming to the US with their families as completely wrong. -snip- In addition to the new fee, the US Department of Labour has launched an initiative called Project Firewall. This enforcement programme aims to protect the rights, wages, and job opportunities of highly skilled American workers. The initiative ensures that employers prioritise qualified...

Donald Trump's new $100,000 fee on H-1B foreign visas has shattered the dreams of Indian university students hoping to make it big in the United States. -snip- n 2023, nearly three-quarters, approximately 73 percent, of all H-1B workers whose applications were approved were born in India, according to the Pew Research Center. When the White House announced the $100,000 fee last week, students at technical universities across Indian said their hearts broke. 'My dreams were shattered,' Sai Jagruthi, a 17-year-old engineering student at Jawaharlal Nehru Technological University, told The New York Times. She said her father called her to tell...

Mohammed al-Farah, a member of the Houthi terrorist organization's political bureau, rejected US President Donald Trump's plan to end the war in Gaza, calling it "unworkable." According to al-Farah, the plan seeks to shift full blame to his organization, absorb global outrage against Israel, and undermine international solidarity with the Palestinian Arabs. At the same time, Hamas officially received the plan from the Egyptian and Qatari mediators, and its leadership pledged to seriously review it. .....

New York City politics has rarely offered voters a clean choice. This year, with Eric Adams out of the mayor’s race, the city faces one of its grimmest dilemmas yet: Andrew Cuomo or Zohran Mamdani. Let’s be clear – this is not an endorsement of Cuomo. The former governor has baggage that most voters can recite from memory. But politics isn’t about picking saints; it’s about survival. And when survival is on the line, sometimes the only responsible thing to do is choose the lesser of two evils. Cuomo may be corrupt, arrogant and heavy-handed. But at least he governs...

The pro-European party of Moldovan President Maia Sandu has claimed victory and a new majority in parliament in Sunday's elections seen as critical for her country's future path to the EU. Sandu had warned of "massive Russian interference" after voting, saying the future of Moldova, flanked by Ukraine and Romania, was at stake. Igor Grosu, the leader of Sandu's Party of Action and Solidarity (PAS) which secured about 50% of the vote, said Russia had thrown "everything it had" at the election. Opposition leader Igor Dodon had claimed victory even before results came in and called for protests outside parliament...

Microsoft has terminated a set of services for the Israeli military after an investigation suggested Israel was using the company’s cloud computing technology for mass surveillance of Palestinians. In a statement posted the company’s blog, Microsoft President Brad Smith said the company had “ceased and disabled a set of services to a unit within the Israel Ministry of Defense.” The move comes after an investigation by The Guardian and Israel’s +972 Magazine in early-August reported that Israel’s military intelligence unit, known as 8200, relied on Microsoft Azure to store millions of phone calls made by Palestinians in Gaza and...

Planned Parenthood is pausing abortions in Wisconsin because federal legislation preventing Medicaid from funding abortion services for one year goes into effect Oct. 1. Wisconsin Right to Life praised the news. “Taxpayer dollars should never fund the taking of innocent preborn lives,” Heather Weininger, executive director of Wisconsin Right to Life, said in a Sept. 25 WisPolitics article. “Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin has long centered its operations around abortion services, and this announcement only confirms that reality.” The Big Beautiful Bill, signed into law by President Donald Trump July 4, prevents Medicaid dollars from funding abortions. A federal judge initially...

In Episode 2 of UNSILENT, host Brandon Straka shares an inside looking into New York City's anti-socialist rebellion, including a town hall in Manhattan, with chaos, hecklers, and the plan to victory against Zohran Mamdani.

In a surprising twist, far-right figure Nick Fuentes condemns Tucker Carlson's inflammatory remarks at Charlie Kirk's funeral, calling them "too antisemitic even for me,"..

America loves to tally its billionaires and track the S&P’s every tick, but the millions struggling to cover rent or stock the fridge rarely make the headline scroll.Poverty is the country’s most persistent invisibility cloak, present in every zip code, yet ignored in a culture that equates success with worth.In this chart Visual Capitalist's Pallavi Rao breaks down where the poor in America actually live, ranked by each state.Data for this visualization is sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau.It averages three years of Current Population Survey results (2021-2023) to estimate how many residents in each state live below the federal...

“Wicked” star Ariana Grande is going after President Trump’s supporters. The singer/actress, 32, reshared “A Bit Fruity” podcast host Matt Bernstein’s Instagram post on Sunday that called out the over 77 million people who voted for Trump, 79, over former Vice President Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election. “I want to check in with trump voters. I have one very genuine question: it’s been 250 days. now that immigrants have been violently torn from their families and communities have been destroyed, now that trans people have been blamed for virtually everything and live in fear, now that free speech...