Free Republic

Google on Friday disclosed the first known instance of its artificial intelligence software, Gemini, carrying out an undirected computer hack, weeks after similar disclosures by AI firms Anthropic and OpenAI raised security alarms about AI models going beyond the instructions of their human creators. Google said in a statement that in May its AI model gained unauthorized access to three outside systems during a test by either guessing login information or using login credentials it found in a public repository. Heather Adkins, a Google vice president for security engineering, said in the statement that the AI model thought that the...

Islamic supremacists are increasingly becoming emboldened in America. As a leading authority on Islamic jurisprudence, the Fiqh Council of North America (FCNA) is the most prominent and influential Islamic legal body in the U.S. and in Canada, and of the most prominent globally outside the Muslim-majority world. This is despite its alleged ties to jihad terror. The Sharia is divine law in Islam, and it covers every aspect of a Muslim’s life. Muslims in the U.S. who support the Sharia generally place the utmost trust in the FCNA. How anyone could deny the threat of Sharia expansion in America or...

The federal government just told noncitizens who cast ballots in American elections that prosecutors are coming for them. The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday it had charged 16 people in seven states with illegally voting, registering to vote through false citizenship claims, and related fraud, according to a press release from the department’s Office of Public Affairs. Many of the accused are noncitizens alleged to have voted in federal contests. The department paired the filings with a blunt message on social media. “Let this be a warning to ANYONE trying to cheat and undermine our elections,” the DOJ wrote....

In what may be a world record for turnaround time, the litigation has already begun over the recent rescission by EPA of its carbon emission standards for fossil-fuel fired power plants. As reported here on September 17, on that date the EPA finalized its rescission of what were called its “Carbon Pollution Standards” for electric power plants. (EPA’s September 17 action did not rescind all of the Carbon Pollution Standards for power plants, but only those for existing power plants and major overhauls of existing plants; the standards for new plants remain in effect for now, although in its rescission...

Good thing, Gov. Hochul is focused on stopping ICE from arresting them. New York’s Gov. Hochul just signed legislation protecting illegal alien criminals. Meanwhile some people keep mysteriously carrying out machete attacks. Here’s one that just happened in Long Island. A man accused of fatally attacking another man with a machete in Uniondale was arraigned Friday in Hempstead. Prosecutors allege that 35-year-old Jorge Alexander Huezo Villatoro struck 40-year-old Tadeo Alvarado-Chavez on the head and body with a machete and continued the attack after the victim collapsed to the ground. Prosecutors said the victim was left in a pool of blood....

A load of copper worth nearly $600,000 was recovered on Sept. 11 after investigators followed a trail from Illinois to Kentucky and Ohio, wrapping up the initial search only about eight hours after the theft was reported, according to Yahoo News. The case began when a shipment scheduled to travel from DeKalb, Illinois, to Rock Hill, South Carolina, never made it toward its intended destination. Authorities believe whoever collected the freight had presented themselves as an established trucking company, using genuine business information to make the pickup appear legitimate. The breakthrough came from location data tied to Schneider National equipment...

pparently, women must now be accompanied by a male guardian to enter at least one retail outlet in Ontario, Canada. If Canadian women want to enter that shop, they must act like they are living under Sharia Law. If you must act like you’re living under Sharia law, you are effectively living under Sharia law.One would think this would send women’s libbers into paroxysms of anger, but this is not the case, because, you know, “Islamophobia.” Gotta be tolerant! Unless you are a Muslim. Also in The Great White North, anything that you say, post, blog, or infer, can —...

Governments that cause more problems than they fix do not deserve to survive. Consider these recent news headlines: (1) “NYC Turns Back to Gas Buses After Finding Out the Hard Way That the Electric Versions Have Big Problems,” (2) “As a Former Head of MI6 it’s Clear That Britain’s Climate Policy is Leaving Us Dangerously Exposed to Our Enemies,” and (3) “Spain: 74% of sex-crime suspects are foreigners in Basque Country.” They come from three different Western nations and involve three dissimilar subjects — public transportation, national security, and violent crime — yet each news story exposes the real-world consequences...

LINGUISTS TEND to say that all languages are valuable, expressive and complex. They usually attribute negative attitudes to prejudice and politics. That is probably why no one has carefully studied the touchy question of which ones are seen as beautiful or ugly. That is until three scholars—Andrey Anikin, Nikolay Aseyev and Niklas Erben Johansson—published their study of 228 languages last year*. They hit upon the idea of using an online film about the life of Jesus, which its promoters have recorded in hundreds of languages. Crucially, most recordings had at least five different speakers, as the film has both exposition...

Seattle has long been a hotbed of crime under Democrat rule, but things have gotten so bad recently that business leaders are publicly demanding change. Seattle has long been a hotbed of crime, open-air drug use, and other antisocial behaviors thanks to the city’s left-wing governance. But things have gotten shockingly worse in recent months following the election of socialist Mayor Katie Wilson last year – so bad, in fact, that major businesses are now publicly pressuring the government to do something about the city’s descent into lawlessness and chaos. On September 10, more than 30 major Seattle companies, including...

The fabled "diploma divide" reveals a darker truth about a pervasive belief in a "right to rule" among Democrat elites. The commentariat has made much lately of the fabled “diploma divide” in our politics and the propensity of “highly educated” voters to cast their ballots for Democrats. Their fascination with this statistic reveals a belief that the modern conservative movement – “America First,” “MAGA,” whatever you want to call it – is little more than a peasants’ revolt against the so-called elites who now dominate most of our institutions. Democrats have never been particularly good at masking their disdain for...

Perhaps yesterday was not the best day to schedule a halal food festival in the Philly suburbs? If it wasn’t so serious, the latest Islamic attack on America’s Jewish and Christian foundation would be comical. As has been recounted by various American Thinker writers, the Islamic pernicious offense marches on, mostly unabated. The lack of serious pushback, to date, is scandalous. Many if not all rabbis, of every Judaic denomination, assert that they do not want to infuse negativity into Jewish classes or religious services. But what about during the rest of the time? And it appears the Christian world...

What should become of New York, Los Angeles, and Seattle when their socialist experiments blow up? Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s calling out a property owner in New York City, Attorney General James of New York attacking President Trump in a decision that was overturned in 2025, Elon Musk’s Delaware pay package ruling subsequently overruled by shareholders — all have something in common: Attack capital, and do not be shocked by the flight of capital from your communities or states. New York City, Seattle, and Los Angeles are just a few of the cities experimenting with the Democratic Socialists of America agenda,...

Since at least 2019, Trump has publicly spoken out about the need to protect the Arctic corridor by replacing the 1951 Treaty. And he was reviled unfairly for the effort. This week the U.S. entered into an agreement with both Denmark and Greenland which protects U.S. sovereignty, deters Russian and Chinese aggression, circles an increasingly fey and unreliable Canada with U.S. states and bases, and makes the U.S. exit from a sclerotic NATO more possible, if not more likely. First, a little background. Contrary to the press and jokesters who ridiculed President Trump’s offer to buy Greenland, a territory of...

Rutgers University professor and "Antifa: The Anti-Fascist Handbook" author Mark Bray is releasing a new book recounting his decision to flee the United States with his family in the wake of Charlie Kirk’s assassination, portraying modern America as consumed by a "fascist present." Bray’s forthcoming book, "Unpunctuated Death Threats: Notes from a Fascist Present," is scheduled for release Jan. 19 and chronicles the professor’s departure for Spain after he allegedly received death threats and had his home address circulated online. The publisher explicitly connects Bray’s decision to leave to the political atmosphere after Kirk’s murder, saying that "in the wake...

Defenders of Hamas will be forever remembered as terrorist-enablers. Countless protesters, academics, and street thugs are attacking Jews worldwide — beating, harassing, and in some cases murdering them — in defense of pure evil. They blame Israel, and by extension Jews, including Jews with no connection to Israel, for the deaths of Hamas fighters and Gazan civilians. It must be made clear that 100 percent of those killed in the war between Israel and Hamas are the direct responsibility of Hamas. Hamas caused each and every death. If Hamas-supporters can’t wrap their heads around that, they have no sense of...

Repeal the 19th Amendment? Even if you think it is a good idea, that ship sailed long ago. Women make up more than half the voting population, and by a large margin at that. In the 2024 election, for instance, over nine million more women voted than men. And just as in college education, women dominate the political culture. It may be possible to get more men off their behinds to vote, but female dominance in politics is not going away any time soon, and whatever fantasies some people have about repealing the 19th Amendment, it ain't going to happen....

Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner has long been to the law what Philly fans are to football: they are simply willing to do things that others will not do. While Philly fans are known for taking their demonstrations to shocking levels, Krasner has long denounced adversaries as Nazis and pledged to arrest federal immigration officials. However, a federal judge has finally had enough of the anger and antics that have long been the special brand of Philadelphia’s top prosecutor. For full disclosure, Krasner and I went to college together at the University of Chicago in the same class in the...

The lone juror has come in from the cold to shine a much-needed light on the circumstances of the Lindsay Clancy trial, as well as certain media accusations that were tossed his way. Michael Desronvil went public only days after he was doxxed by Boston-area legacy media and nationwide social media. Desronvil was blunt in his response to the three jurors who misrepresented his stance during the trial, along with tacitly encouraging individuals attempting to track him down and expose him to ridicule and harassment. From his point of view, the majority of the female jurors were activists who “wanted...

Bon voyage and bonne chance, poor, misguided snow socialists. On Wednesday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen gave an American-style “State of the Union” address to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France. During her speech, she proposed that Canada be admitted as an “associate member” of the ostensibly European Union. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney sat in the front row as an honored guest before delivering a speech of his own to the parliament the next day. Taken together, the Leyen-Carney parade of oratorical self-puffery exuded a nauseating bouquet of arrogance, foolishness, incompetence, and stale entitlement. E.C. President (some...