Free Republic

Later this week, visitors to the Magic Kingdom will be able to go maskless — for photos, at least. Disney World said Tuesday that customers will be allowed to temporarily take off their masks while posing for outdoor photos beginning Thursday. Disney World did not comment further on what prompted the updated guidelines, which now say that “face coverings must be worn at all times except when dining or swimming,” or taking photos outside. The Orlando, Fla.-based theme park, which reopened in July, has strictly enforced mask wearing and social distancing during the pandemic. However, there have been cases where...

When the Hummer EV SUT (sport utility truck) and its newly-unveiled SUV variant hit dealer show floors in the fall of 2021 and 2023, respectively, they’ll be among the first models in GM’s new electrified lineup to be built atop the company’s Ultium battery system. General Motors is no stranger to the electric vehicle market. GM began its electrified venture in 1996 with the EV1, one of the very first viable battery-powered sedan models produced by a major automaker which continued its run until being discontinued in 2003. It was superseded by the BEV2 platform of which the 2016 Chevy...

Outdoor clothing company Patagonia announced on Monday that it would donate $1 million to multiple voting rights groups in Georgia in direct response to the restrictive voting legislation that recently passed in the state. In a press release, Patagonia celebrated the record amount of voter turnout seen in the 2020 election, reiterating the assessment made by many voting officials that they were "safe, secure elections." "But instead of celebrating democracy in action, a group of lawmakers in Georgia and states across America are doing everything in their power to make it harder for their constituents to vote," Patagonia CEO Ryan...

The EU authorized the French government on Tuesday to double its stake in Air France and inject up to €4 billion into the struggling airline after the pandemic hit passenger traffic. The agreement follows weeks of negotiations with the EU commission, which must ensure that state aid does not give companies an unfair advantage. Air France posted a €7.1 billion loss in 2020 as its business, like that of the rest of the world’s airlines, suffered from coronavirus restrictions which all but grounded global air traffic. In return for its green light, the commission, which is the EU’s anti-trust regulator,...

The IRS is mailing out “probably thousands” of threatening letters that warn taxpayers their property is about to be seized for unpaid taxes — even though the government already got its money, The Post has learned. The scary situation is the latest snafu involving the hated agency, which last year issued similarly baseless threats to confiscate state tax refunds to cover purportedly unpaid federal taxes, CNBC reported at the time. That blunder came after House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Richard Neal (D-Mass.) in August called on the IRS to stop sending out notices for unpaid taxes because it had...

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Arkansas General Assembly has voted to override Gov. Asa Hutchinson’s veto of a bill that would ban certain medical treatments for transgender youth. The vote came one day after the announcement of Hutchinson’s veto of HB1570, called the “SAFE Act” by its sponsors.

Germany is in the grip of a cold front. And it’s going to stay that way until at least the weekend, according to meteorologists. It’s snowing, hailing and raining — and in some parts of Germany temperatures have even dipped to below freezing, with thick blankets of snow covering the landscape. The reason is a persistent cold front, which will continue to provide cool weather that fluctuates between bursts of snow, rain and sun in the coming days. Germany lies in the influx of cold polar air from Arctic latitudes, wrote the German Weather Service (DWD) on its website. On...

A team of robbers held a Vietnamese couple in Oakland hostage, ransacking their home and taking most, if not all, of their life savings. And they did this in front of the family’s seven-year-old daughter. The violent attack took place late Tuesday night in their home near the Dimond District, after a visit to the temple, just as the family was getting ready for bed. Roseni, whose last name was not provided to KGO’s Dion Lim out of fear of retaliation, heard the sound of glass shattering. She locked her bedroom door. But the group of four was able to...

The Supreme Court issued an order today that President Donald Trump is now free to block whomever he chooses on Twitter, which will be difficult now that the liberal social media web site has banned his account. But ( an opinion Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas issued) is drawing significant attention. Thomas warned Big Tech that legislatures or the Supreme Court may soon have to step in and stop social media platforms for denying free speech rights to pro-life conservatives — saying places like Facebook and Twitter are silence people “at any time for any or no reason.”“As Twitter made...

As I’ve grown into adulthood, my appreciation for tradition has increased and I realized that there is something beautiful about paying respect to the people that came before you. Tradition shows itself in a variety of ways within a particular culture. For example, you can practice certain religious traditions, culinary traditions and celebratory traditions, all of which help to continue the legacy of those that came before you with a level of respect even though times have clearly changed. That respect that people used to have, in my opinion, is slowly eroding the more technology that we create and the...

On March 12th, 1938, German troops marched into Austria, annexing the German-speaking Austrian nation into the Third Reich. This annexation was not an instinctive act from Adolf Hitler. It was something that he had envisaged and planned for quite a considerable amount of time beforehand. In 1938, Austrian Nazis conspiring with Germany attempted to seize the Austrian government by force and unite the nation with Germany. Austrian Chancellor Kurt Von Schuschnigg, learning of the conspiracy, met with German Chancellor Adolf Hitler to try to resolve the crisis peacefully and avert a disaster for Austria. But Adolf Hitler was not for...

ANCHORAGE (Reuters) - Alaska Republican Lisa Murkowski Wednesday became the first U.S. senator in more than 50 years to win an election with a write-in campaign as she established an unassailable lead over conservative Tea Party movement favorite Joe Miller. The result of the last undecided Senate race of the November 2 congressional elections does not alter the makeup of the chamber, where Republicans picked up six seats but the Democrats retained their majority. Murkowski had a lead of about 10,000 votes with only 752 ballots left to be counted, a state election official said on Wednesday. According to the...

A new economic report lambasting President Joe Biden’s multitrillion-dollar infrastructure agenda was shoved under the rug by the ABC, CBS and NBC evening networks. The Tax Foundation released a new analysis March 31 on Biden’s plan headlined “President Biden’s Infrastructure Plan Raises Taxes on U.S. Production.” The report summarized that “[t]he proposal’s tax increases on corporations are among the most harmful options to pay for the increased spending.” The report continued: “While the President’s plan emphasizes making goods in America, the tax increases will raise the cost of production in the U.S, erode American competitiveness, and slow our economic recovery.”...

The two Texas brothers accused of slaughtering four family members before killing themselves said they easily got weapons because gun control is “a joke” — and were sent off the rails partly from watching TV’s “The Office.” In a rambling 12-page note initially linked to his Instagram page, Farhan Towhid, 19, said that he and his 21-year-old brother, Tanvir Towhid, were united in manic depression and all-day TV watching sessions. “The first and most important show we watched was ‘The Office’,” Farhan wrote in the note that started, “Hey everyone, I killed myself and my family.” The Steve Carrell comedy...

COVID-19 has reawakened America’s spirit of misdirected anxiety, inspiring businesses and families to obsess over risk-reduction rituals that make us feel safer but don’t actually do much to reduce risk—even as more dangerous activities are still allowed. This is hygiene theater.

March 31, 2021 (LifeSiteNews) –– A host of global leaders issued a call for a global pandemic treaty, purportedly in order to prevent future pandemics, distribute vaccinations, and implement a unilateral approach to global governance.U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the head of the World Health Organisation (WHO), as well as 20 other world leaders, joined forces in penning a joint letter with the apparent intent of winning popular support for the globalist plan.Writing in U.K. paper The Telegraph, as well as other publications such as Le Monde in France, the leaders declared...

U.S. authorities caught more than 171,000 migrants at the U.S. border with Mexico in March, according to preliminary data shared with Reuters, the highest monthly total in two decades and the latest sign of the mounting humanitarian challenge confronting President Joe Biden. The total includes about 19,000 unaccompanied migrant children and 53,000 family members traveling together, the preliminary figures show. Single adults made up roughly 99,000 of the total. The Biden administration is struggling to find housing for unaccompanied children who have been backed up in crowded border stations and processing centers for days. The shelter system that houses the...

COLUMBIA, S.C. (WBTW) — A lawsuit was filed Tuesday against Governor Henry McMaster for ordering state employees to return to in-person work. The lawsuit was filed by Deborah Mihal — a College of Charleston employee — and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of South Carolina. The lawsuit claims the order discriminates against women by forcing some of them to choose between childcare and their job. It also claims McMaster doesn’t have the power to issue an order like this. “The Governor’s order forces me to choose between protecting the safety of my family and a paycheck,” Mihal said. “Since...

@PeterSchiff If it's racist to require ID to #vote, then it's also racist to require ID to open a bank account, buy a gun, rent a car, check into a hotel, enter a bar or board an airplane. If you're not smart or responsible enough to get an ID, then you're too dumb or irresponsible to vote!

When Joe Biden was inaugurated in January, several key foreign policy issues topped his to-do list: Rejoin the Paris Climate Accords, tick. Rejoin the World Health Organization, tick. End the Muslim travel ban, tick. Rejoin the Iran nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA) – well, actually, no tick.