Free Republic

A Texas judge invited Disney to move from Florida amid its ongoing feud with Gov. Ron DeSantis. In a letter addressed to Walt Disney Company CEO Bob Chapek, Fort Bend County Judge KP George invited the company to consider Fort Bend County as "a welcoming and diverse place to do business."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s “main” plea when he meets with Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on Sunday will be for more arms, Ukraine officials said. “First and foremost is the delivery of weapons,” said Igor Zhovkva, a top diplomatic adviser to Zelensky, to NBC’s Kirsten Welker. “We really need armored vehicles. We really need artillery systems … We need tanks in order to defend ourselves on the ground, in order to unblock such cities as Mariupol, in order to withstand the potential offensive of Russian armed forces in the Donbas,” the official said. “That’s...

Cases handled by special counsel John Durham have produced a flurry of notable discoveries that shed more light on the sprawling yearslong investigation. Durham so far has three indictments and one guilty plea under his belt, with some indications that there may be more in the pipeline. Durham was tasked around March-May 2019 with reviewing the 2016-2017 FBI investigation of alleged nefarious ties between candidate and later President Donald Trump and Russia. In October 2020, then-Attorney General William Barr appointed Durham a special counsel. In February 2021, Durham resigned his position as a federal prosecutor after 35 years with the...

The dreams of the “People’s Convoy” quickly died in the Bay Area after a critical tactical error: turning onto a street with a Safeway and a group of bored kids. The trucker convoy, which aimed to emulate the disruptive Canadian protests against COVID-19 restrictions, has failed spectacularly at every turn. During a few weeks of driving around Washington, D.C., the convoy was held up by a single bicyclist, and some convoy members said they were having difficulty finding places for bathroom breaks and, as a result, were forced to urinate in their pants. After an anemic showing in Washington, the...

Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is getting ready to reunite with the Glamazons — making a return appearance on RuPaul’s reality TV series. Pelosi will make a “special appearance” on the upcoming season of “RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars,” Paramount+ announced Friday. The new season of the drag queen competition premieres on May 20 on the streaming network and will follow previous winners who are duking it out to earn the title of “Queen of All Queens” and a $200,000 cash prize. It’ll mark a reunion of sorts for Pelosi, who made a cameo on “RuPaul’s Drag Race: All Stars” in...

A bill in Washington will soon take effect striking the word "marijuana" from all state laws after progressive lawmakers deemed the term "racist." The change removes the word, swapping it out for the term "cannabis" instead. Gov. Jay Inslee signed the bill, which passed unanimously and changes every Revised Code of Washington, into law March 11. The changes take effect in June. Supporters of the bill, House Bill 1210, say the word "marijuana" has a long history of racism, claiming its usage is racist against black and brown people. "The term 'marijuana' itself is pejorative and racist," Washington state Rep....

The White House has contradicted Dr. Anthony Fauci on mask mandate decisions, saying that the judiciary plays an "important role" and simply made an "incorrect decision." "Obviously, the judiciary has an important role to play," White House COVID Coordinator Ashish Jha said on Sunday’s "State of the Union." "What you heard out of the administration, out of the Department of Justice, is the assessment that this is an incorrect decision and the DOJ is now appealing this decision." A U.S. district court judge in Florida this week struck down the travel mask mandate for mass transit, leading to the Transportation...

Fox Nation host Piers Morgan said Sunday on FNC’s “Media Buzz” that former President Donald Trump did walk out of his interview, which is set to air on his new show “Piers Morgan Uncensored” on Monday. When asked about Trump’s temperament during the exchange, Morgan said, “It was uncomfortable. I’ve never seen him like that. He was very angry. Quite profane, in fact.” Piers Morgan said, “At the end, I thanked him, and I shook his hand, which is completely true. But then he just got up, barked at our cameras. ‘Turn the camera off.’ And then he walked off....

Tech firms are buying up new washing machines so they can harvest their computer parts in a desperate bid to beat the global microchip shortage. Once solely used in PCs and mobile phones, semiconductors are now vital in cars, kitchen appliances, TVs, smart speakers, thermostats, smart light bulbs and even some dog collars. Microchip manufacturers are unable to meet the ever-growing demand – accelerated by families buying more computers and gadgets during lockdown – as it takes two years and billions of pounds to build each factory.

With record-high profits and talks of more boosters, it seems peculiar that high executives from Moderna and Pfizer would step away from their positions. However, the CFOs of both pharmaceutical giants stepped down around the same time earlier this month.

Can one politician save the world? Volodymyr Oleksandrovych Zelensky (born 25 January 1978) is a Ukrainian politician, former actor, and comedian, who is the sixth and current president of Ukraine. Zelenskyy grew up as a native Russian speaker in Kryvyi Rih, a major city of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in central Ukraine. Prior to his acting career, he obtained a degree in law from the Kyiv National Economic University. He then pursued comedy and created the production company Kvartal 95, which produced films, cartoons, and TV shows including the TV series Servant of the People, in which Zelenskyy played the role of...

The White House has contradicted Dr. Anthony Fauci on mask mandate decisions, saying that the judiciary plays an "important role" and simply made an "incorrect decision." Fauci said Thrusday he was "surprised and disappointed" with the court decision and stressed that such decisions should fall to CDC authority. "We are concerned about that, about courts getting involved in things that are unequivocally public health decisions," he said. "This is a CDC issue. It should not have been a court issue." He also told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto that it’s a "bad precedent when decisions about public health issues are made...

A climate activist who died after setting himself on fire in front of the Supreme Court on Earth Day is a buddhist who hinted at his future self-immolation with a fire emoji under a Facebook post from 2020. Wynn Bruce, 50, of Boulder, Colorado, lit himself on fire on the court's plaza at around 6.30pm Friday. He suffered critical burns and was pronounced dead at a local hospital on Saturday. On October 30, 2020, he shared a link to an online class on climate change offered by edX, a free online course platform created by Harvard and MIT. Last April,...

Explanation: Just now, before you hit the button, two future universes are possible. After pressing the button, though, you will live in only one. A real-web version of the famous Schrödinger's cat experiment clicking the red button in the featured astronaut image should transform that image into a picture of the same astronaut holding one of two cats -- one living, or one dead. The timing of your click, combined with the wiring of your brain and the millisecond timing of your device, will all conspire together to create a result dominated, potentially, by the randomness of quantum mechanics. Some...

A 13-year-old boy from Minnesota will soon earn his bachelor's degree from college - with a major in physics and a minor in math - and has been accepted into the University of Minnesota's Physics PhD program. Now his parents are trying to figure out how to pay for it. Elliott Tanner, known as a profoundly gifted child, is maintaining a 3.78 grade point average at the University of Minnesota and is participating in undergraduate research while also tutoring classmates. He wants to be a high-energy theoretical physicist and eventually a professor of physics at the university, however, tuition costs...

The Easter Bunny confirmed what most of the nation already knew — nobody should ask questions of President Biden. At the recent White House Easter Egg Roll, the Bunny whisked Biden away when a journalist asked an impromptu question. When the Easter Bunny has to be enlisted to run presidential interference, the game is clearly over.

TOKYO — In almost every way, Akihiko Kondo is an ordinary Japanese man. He’s pleasant and easy to talk to. He has friends and a steady job and wears a suit and tie to work. There’s just one exception: Mr. Kondo is married to a fictional character. His beloved, Hatsune Miku, is a turquoise-haired, computer-synthesized pop singer who has toured with Lady Gaga and starred in video games. After a decade-long relationship, one that Mr. Kondo says pulled him out of a deep depression, he held a small, unofficial wedding ceremony in Tokyo in 2018. Miku, in the form...

CHICAGO -- At least 35 people have been shot, five fatally, in weekend violence across Chicago, police said. A man was shot and killed after an argument Sunday morning in West Garfield Park on the West Side. The man, 57, was arguing with someone in the 400-block of South Pulaski Road about 4:45 a.m. when he was shot multiple times throughout the body, Chicago police said. He was pronounced dead at the scene, police said. A 17-year-old girl was found shot early Sunday morning in Lawndale on the West Side. The teen was found in the rear of a house...

Twitter Inc. TWTR 3.93% is re-examining Elon Musk’s $43 billion takeover offer after the billionaire lined up financing for the bid, in a sign the social-media company could be more receptive to a deal. Twitter had been expected to rebuff the offer, which Mr. Musk made earlier this month without saying how he would pay for it. But after he disclosed last week that he now has $46.5 billion in financing, Twitter is taking a fresh look at the offer and is more likely than before to seek to negotiate, people familiar with the matter said. The situation is fast-moving...