Free Republic

T he Australians are coming to London – and they want to take Britons back with them to solve a shortage of key workers Down Under. Teachers, police officers, nurses and doctors are among the targets of government officials from Western Australia who have over 30,000 job vacancies left open by a booming economy. And they are not shy about their intentions. “We are here to steal your workers,” said Paul Papalia, the Western Australia police and defence industry minister, who will lead a delegation that arrives in the UK on February 25. The misson’s timing comes toward the end...

George Soros wants to destroy the Republican Party. He’s made that very clear many times. So when Trump loyalists started spreading a video of remarks he made recently purporting to show Soros endorsing Ron DeSantis over Trump for the Republican nomination I knew there was something very fishy going on. Soros did express hope that DeSantis is the Republican nominee, but not because he thought the governor would make a good president. He hates DeSantis just as he hates Trump. What he wants is a 3-way race for president, which would guarantee a Democrat victory.He is convinced that if DeSantis...

There’s a lot more to this story than just the uncovering of another Rachel Dolezal. I’m not sure if the subtext was clear to the Intercept, who published this story today, but it’s pretty glaring to me.Members of the American Friends Service Committee, a prominent Quaker organization known for its progressive values and social justice advocacy in the U.S. and abroad, have raised an alarm about a woman holding a leadership position within the organization who they say has misrepresented her ethnic background for years and who they fear may be working on behalf of groups seeking to undermine their...

A RUSSIAN defence official has mysteriously died after falling from a window of a high-rise building in St Petersburg. The head of the financial support department of the Western Military District Marina Yankina, 58, was said to have left documents on the balcony before plunging 160ft to her death.

The American economy needs fewer bachelor’s degrees and more ironworkersThousands of high-paying blue-collar jobs that don’t require a college degree sit empty because too many people think college is necessary, according to the Hechinger Report.“While a shortage of workers pushes wages higher in the skilled trades, the financial return from a bachelor’s degree is softening, even as the price, and the average debt into which it plunges students, remain high,” the higher education news outlet reported.So many high school graduates have been coached and primed to get a bachelor’s that highly paid jobs requiring less expensive and time-consuming training are...

Augustus Gloop is no longer fat, Mrs Twit is no longer fearfully ugly, and the Oompa-Loompas have gone gender-neutral in new editions of Roald Dahl’s beloved stories. The publisher, Puffin, has made hundreds of changes to the original text, removing many of Dahl’s colourful descriptions and making his characters less grotesque. The review of Dahl’s language was undertaken to ensure that the books “can continue to be enjoyed by all today”, Puffin said. References to physical appearance have been heavily edited. The word “fat” has been removed from every book - Augustus Gloop in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory may...

Patients with resectable non–small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who were treated with neoadjuvant nivolumab had improved five-year recurrence-free and overall survival rates compared with historical outcomes, according to results. Forde, Rosner, and colleagues previously reported safety and efficacy results from a phase II clinical trial in which patients with stage I-III resectable NSCLC were treated with two doses of neoadjuvant nivolumab. Major pathological responses were observed in 45% of patients, independent of tumor PD-L1 expression, and 73% of patients whose tumors were surgically resected were recurrence-free 18 months following surgery. The latest publication reports the final analyses from this trial,...

His name is Carsten Linke and he was recently promoted to a top post in Germany’s intelligence service, the B.N.D. The NY Times reports he was the “director of technical reconnaissance — the unit responsible for cybersecurity and surveilling electronic communications.” He was also a double-agent being paid cash to pass information to Russia. He was apparently asked for specific information on the location of US HIMARS launchers in Ukraine:Russia’s FSB spy service asked Carsten Linke last autumn via a courier to pass on precise information on the positioning of the Himars and Iris-T rocket systems that had been supplied...

NEW YORK -- Republican presidential candidates will be blocked from the debate stage this summer if they do not sign a pledge to support the GOP's ultimate presidential nominee, according to draft language set to be adopted when the Republican National Committee meets next week. The proposal sets up a potential clash with former President Donald Trump, who has raised the possibility of leaving the Republican Party and launching an independent candidacy if he does not win the GOP nomination outright. While RNC officials and Trump aides downplay that possibility, such a move could destroy the GOP's White House aspirations...

Going cashless has become increasingly common on an international scale, with many vendors eliminating hard currency in favor of card payment or digital apps. Cultural venues, street festivals, outdoor concerts, and eateries worldwide are also embracing electronic payment as the preferred monetary transaction of the future. The Czech Republic has long been considered a trailblazer in this area, however, many smaller restaurants and shops outside of the capital remain strongholds of cash-only payment and, according to research from 2021, some 20 percent of Czechs prefer to make cash-in-hand payments. The right to do so, however, won’t be protected in the...

I remember the first time I saw actress and comedienne Roseanne Barr perform her stand-up routine. It was on the gold standard of late night talk shows, “The Tonight Show With Johnny Carson.” Her appearances in 1985, which introduced Barr and her term “domestic goddess,” struck a cord with every day Americans just trying to live their lives and raise a family.The exposure Barr got from Carson’s support went a long way to snagging a sitcom deal for a show she wrote and created, “Roseanne.” The show, which started in 1988 and ran for nine seasons, went on to win...

Former President Donald Trump leads Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) in a potential Republican primary matchup by 23 percentage points, or by double the governor’s support, a Harvard Cap/Harris poll released Friday found.Donald Trump earned 46 percent support of the poll’s respondents. DeSantis received 23 percent, exactly half of Trump’s total support.While DeSantis has not jumped into the Republican primary against Trump, many expect he will.The poll showed that if the Republican primary is a two-way race, Trump is favored by 12 points over DeSantis (56-44 percent).

The Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) is alleging Canadian elections have been targeted for influence by Chinese operatives since at least 2019.The CSIS alerted Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and other cabinet members to the issue in January. Global News in Canada reports CSIS offered briefings and memos that lay out Beijing’s attempts to influence and “subvert” Canadian elections.Delivered to the prime minister and several cabinet members in a series of briefings and memos first presented in January, the allegations included other detailed examples of Beijing’s efforts to further its influence and, in turn, subvert Canada’s democratic process, sources said.Based on...

Feb. 17 (UPI) -- Liam Neeson thinks the many Star Wars spinoff series are "diluting" the franchise. The 70-year-old actor discussed the possibility of starring in a Star Wars spinoff about his character Qui-Gon Jinn during Thursday's episode of Watch What Happens Live. Neeson played Qui-Gon in Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace (1999) and recently appeared as the character in the Disney+ series Obi-Wan Kenobi starring Ewan McGregor. On WWHL, Neeson was asked if he is interested in his own spinoff. "No, I'm not. There's so many spinoffs of Star Wars. It's diluting it, to me, and...

6:13 PM EST: Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine and FEMA make joint announcement of Biden administration's reversal to send disaster relief to Ohio. The White House also reversed itself and pledged to “provide any additional federal assistance the states may need” to address the disaster.

The average person in the U.S. is around $96,400 in debt... but, as Statista's Katharina Buchholz notes, if Americans would be charged by their hometowns and cities for the debt they have taken on in the name of their residents, a fairly big sum would be added to that tally.According to a report by think tank Truth in Accounting, 50 out of the 75 largest cities in the U.S. are currently running a deficit - in some cases a major one.You will find more infographics at StatistaIf New York City would divide the money amiss in its FY2021 budget among...

Microsoft's Bing AI chatbot has gone full HAL, minus the murder (so far).While MSM journalists initially gushed over the artificial intelligence technology (created by OpenAI, which makes ChatGPT), it soon became clear that it's not ready for prime time. For example, the NY Times' Kevin Roose wrote that while he first loved the new AI-powered Bing, he's now changed his mind - and deems it "not ready for human contact."According to Roose, Bing's AI chatbot has a split personality:One persona is what I’d call Search Bing — the version I, and most other journalists, encountered in initial tests. You could...

This ruling demonstrates how enabling and protecting the deliberate creation of motherless and fatherless babies violates children’s natural rights.An Oklahoma judge ruled on Thursday that a baby created for a lesbian couple using purchased sperm belongs with his biological mother and father, not his mom’s female ex. Kris Williams argued that because she helped raise the toddler with her now ex-wife Rebekah Wilson and since she is listed on his birth certificate, she deserves full parental rights. Oklahoma County District Judge Lynne McGuire rejected that claim and said that Oklahoma law detailing parentage trumps the state’s legalization of same-sex marriage....

North Dakota took a major step towards securing its elections on Wednesday after the state’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives passed a bill banning ranked-choice voting (RCV). The move aligns with the Republican National Committee, which disavowed RCV in its January meeting.In a 74-19 vote, North Dakota’s lower chamber approved HB 1273, which specifies that RCV “may not be used in determining the election or nomination of any candidate to any local, state, or federal elective office.” No North Dakota jurisdiction currently employs ranked-choice voting for elections, according to a local state news outlet.Under RCV, which critics call ” rigged-choice voting,”...

The Idaho House passed a resolution on Wednesday to begin talks with the Oregon Legislature about potentially expanding the Idaho border into eastern Oregon.Such a resolution has its roots in the Greater Idaho movement, which seeks to absorb 11 Oregon counties, or 63 percent of the state’s landmass, into Idaho. The rationale for such a move is that the leftist residents of northwest Oregon — Portland, Salem, Eugene — control the politics of the state, and therefore rural, conservative residents in eastern and southern Oregon are effectively silenced on matters of state governance.“The aspirations of Portland-area and northwestern Oregon voters...