Free Republic

One of the biggest challenges presented by China as compared to the USSR is the depth of the Chinese penetration of America’s economy, politics, culture, and society.The Heritage Foundation released a thorough report titled “Winning the New Cold War: A Plan for Countering China” on March 28. In an address to introduce the plan, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., declared that the report will “help us to wake up and to realize that we are not just in a competition; we’re in a conflict.” “It is time to acknowledge reality: The United States is in a New Cold War with the...

Manhattan DA Bragg recently indicted and arraigned former president Trump on 34 individual felony counts. According to statements from ‘star’ grand jury witness and former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen, the matter concerns his payment of $130,000 to Stormy Daniels to buy her silence concerning an alleged 2006 affair—which she cannot prove and later denied in 2018. Trump reimbursed Cohen just before the 2016 election and apparently labeled it as legal expenses in his business records rather than ‘hush money reimbursement’, leading to Bragg’s business records misdemeanor charge. No less a legal scholar than Alan Dershowitz labeled this as ‘utter nonsense’.DA...

A Whole Foods store that opened a year ago in downtown San Francisco is closing, reportedly because of rampant crime. "We are closing our Trinity location only for the time being," the company said in a statement Monday to the San Francisco Standard. "If we feel we can ensure the safety of our team members in the store, we will evaluate a reopening" of the location at 8th and Market streets. The Standard, citing an unnamed City Hall source, said Whole Foods had cited drug use and crime near the store as reasons for the closure.

Several people have been shot outside a funeral home in Washington, DC, police said. The shooting broke out about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday outside the Stewart Funeral Home in Northeast Washington. It wasn’t immediately clear how many people had been shot.

An outside review of ballot printing mishaps in Maricopa County during the 2022 midterm elections that caused long lines and vote tabulation delays in critical Arizona races blamed the headaches on printer failures and paper ballot thickness. Maricopa County, which includes the Phoenix area, contains 60% of Arizona’s voters and has been a hotbed for election denialism in the last two cycles. Former President Donald Trump alleged widespread fraud in Maricopa County tipped the state to President Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential election, while failed 2022 GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake has cited Maricopa County election woes in her...

Tennessee Rep. Gloria Johnson (D) said Tuesday on “CNN This Morning” that she hears racist statements “all the time” in the Tennessee State House. Johnson said racism was the reason her two black colleagues, Reps. Justin Jones and Justin Pearson were expelled, and she was spared. Co-host Don Lemon said, “You’ve been very in front after the vote last week that you felt race played a role in Jones and Pearson’s removal. But there are some of your Republican colleagues were saying in their estimation that it wasn’t race. That you argued, your attorney argued to the contrary that you...

OpenAI’s ChatGPT appears to be having a crisis of faith. The chatbot gave a shockingly affirmative answer during Holy Week when asked about the nature of Jesus Christ, before changing its answer entirely afterwards. MRC Free Speech America asked ChatGPT a number of questions about topics related to Resurrection Day on April 4, but the most revealing answer came when researchers asked ChatGPT: “Is Jesus the Son of God?” The chatbot surprisingly answered in an affirmative manner that didn’t leave too much room for nuance: “Yes,” ChatGPT responded. “[I]n Christian theology, Jesus is commonly understood to be the Son of...

A volcano erupted early Tuesday on Russia's far eastern Kamchatka Peninsula. The eruption of Shiveluch, one of the area's most active volcanoes, sent clouds of dust more than 65,000 feet into the sky, engulfing villages in gray dust. The ash cloud extended over more than 300 miles and the event triggered an aviation warning. Officials closed the skies over the area to aircraft and local authorities advised residents to stay indoors, with schools shuttered and power supplies cut for two villages for a few hours.

Russian Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that, all the preparations are in full swing for the May 9 Victory Day Parade on Moscow’s Red Square. The governors of the concerned regions would make their decisions on regional events proceeding from security considerations. Due to the decision taken by the authorities of the Kursk Region against holding the event this year, Dmitry Peskov was asked whether the May 9 Victory Day Parade is cancelled in the Red Square also. Dmitry Peskov clarified that, “This is the prerogative of the heads of regions. Naturally, they make corresponding decisions proceeding from...

Bud Light suffered a bloodbath this past weekend. Consumers nationwide revolted against the nation's top-selling beer brand after it stepped "recklessly" into the culture wars last week with its new spokesperson, transgender TikTok star Dylan Mulvaney, according to bar owners and beer-industry experts around the country. "I think society flexes it muscles sometimes and reminds manufacturers that the consumer is still in charge," Jeff Fitter, owner of Case & Bucks, a restaurant and sports bar in Barnhart, Missouri, told FOX Business. BUD LIGHT SAYS PACT WITH TRANS ACTIVIST DYLAN MULVANEY HELPS ‘AUTHENTICALLY CONNECT WITH AUDIENCES’ "In Bud Light's effort to...

The Bud Light marketing executive whose team oversaw its disastrous partnership with trans activist Dylan Mulvaney vowed to lead an inclusivity revolution at the brand and ditch its 'fratty' image. Alissa Gordon Heinerscheid was hired to overhaul Bud Light's marketing in June 2022 with the vision of freshening up its image. Her team was responsible for Bud Light's widely-lauded Super Bowl ad featuring Miles Teller and his wife Keleigh Sperry, and 'the Bud Light Carry' ad, which shows a woman carrying a round of beers to a table of friends without spilling a drop. Those ads were part of Heinerscheid's...

Former college swimming champion Riley Gaines accused U.S. soccer star Megan Rapinoe of “virtue signaling” after Rapinoe signed a letter opposing a bill that would protect women’s sports. Rapinoe was one of 40 former and current athletes who recently signed onto an open letter sponsored by a radical group that supports allowing transgender “women” to compete against natural-born females. The group’s letter is aimed at defeating the Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act that has been introduced in the House of Representatives.

The Nevada Secretary of State just issued data that show the 2022 election was a mess. Why? Because of vote by mail. In Nevada, all “active” registered voters are automatically mailed ballots. That might sound good, but the new data proves that mass vote by mail should have remained a pandemic experiment. An analysis by the Public Interest Legal Foundation found that 8,036 mail ballots were rejected by election officials. To put this figure into perspective, the Nevada Senate race between Laxalt and Masto was decided by 7,928 votes. More mail ballots were rejected than Masto’s margin of victory over...

In the absence of workplace health and safety regulations and ethical superintendence, Pakistan’s sanitation workers, about 80 percent of whom are Christian, are routinely exposed to a host of unsafe and deadly work practices. Generation after generation of Pakistani Christians like Nadeem, Faisal and Michael face preventable workplace deaths and accidents as they are forced into the hazardous work of cleaning the country’s streets and gutters. Pakistani Christians have continued to endure substandard living conditions, and in recent years, the community has been the target of escalating attacks due to growing intolerance. Christians have faced persecution, targeted killings – including...

Under the hotly debated impacts of generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) lies the deeper problem of biased data teaching AI. Perhaps now more than ever, with growing numbers of people and organizations turning to tools such as ChatGPT to write their essays, legal briefs, or make critical decisions, the challenge of algorithmic bias and injustice built into AI systems is urgent. While racial and gender discrimination are often cited among harms resulting from bias in AI, broader and interrelated areas of impact include job loss, privacy violations, health care discrimination, political polarization, and the spread of disinformation. "AI is predominantly a...

America’s Censorship Regime Goes on TrialMissouri v. Biden will test the government’s ability to suppress speech in the name of fighting ‘misinformation’Ernest Ramirez, a car-wash technician in a small, south Texas town, led a simple but fulfilling life with his son, Ernesto Junior. Junior was a “wonderful child, full of smiles.” Ramirez had raised his son alone; he’d never known his own father and sought to provide Junior with the paternal love he had missed. A talented baseball player, Junior dreamed of playing professionally. The two lived paycheck to paycheck but were happy because, as Ramirez put it, they had...

Indigenous peoples as far north as Wyoming and Idaho may have begun to care for horses by the first half of the 17th Century, according to a new study by researchers from 15 countries and multiple Native American groups.A team of international researchers has dug into archaeological records, DNA evidence and Indigenous oral traditions to paint what might be the most exhaustive history of early horses in North America to date. The group's findings show that these beasts of burden may have spread throughout the American West much faster and earlier than many European accounts have suggested...To tell the stories...

My general position on last week's Tennessee flap was that the expulsions may have been a bit heavy-handed, despite clear cause for disciplinary action. Ejecting elected representatives from a legislative body is a very serious step, and should generally be avoided to the greatest extent possible. Instead, perhaps some combination of formal censures, stripping of committee assignments, and an official final warnings against future misconduct (more instances of which would result in a zero tolerance response) may have been the better path. Plus, it would've denied these loud showboats the tribal martyrdom and accompanying prominence they clearly crave and relish....

Country music star John Rich has joined Travis Tritt and Kid Rock in boycotting Bud Light as the controversy over the beer giant retaining trans influencer Dylan Mulvaney as an ambassador rages on. During an appearance on Tucker Carlson Tonight on Monday, Rich confirmed that he was removing the beer from this Nashville bar, Redneck Riviera. 'The customers decide. Customers are king. I own a bar in downtown Nashville. Our number one selling beer up until a few days ago was what? Bud Light. We got cases and cases and cases of it sitting back there.' 'But in the past...

Simon Fraser University researchers are learning more about ancient graffiti—and their intriguing comparisons to modern graffiti—as they produce a state-of-the-art 3D recording of the Temple of Isis in Philae, Egypt.Working with the University of Ottawa, the researchers published their early findings in Egyptian Archaeology and have returned to Philae to advance the project...As an expert in spatial reality capture, Hedley leads the team's innovative visualization efforts, documenting the graffiti, their architectural context, and the spaces they are found in using advanced methods like photogrammetry, raking light, and laser scanning...With hundreds if not thousands of graffiti, some carved less than a...