Free Republic

President Biden on Monday met with union workers in Las Vegas, seeking to bolster his support with a key constituency on the eve of the state’s primary and ahead of the general election. Biden spoke to members of the Culinary Workers Union at the Vdara Hotel, shaking hands and taking photos. His visit came after the union, which represents hospitality workers in Las Vegas, reached an agreement with several hotel-casinos in the city to avert a potential walkout. “Wall Street did not build America. The middle class built America. Unions built the middle class. There would be no middle class...

This past weekend, Ai Weiwei, a prominent artist whose gallery delayed his show after he tweeted about the war in Gaza, compared censorship in the West to forms of political oppression he experienced in China under Mao Zedong, describing the situation as “sometimes even worse” that what he faced growing up. “Today I see so many people by giving their basic opinions, they get fired, they get censored,” he told Sky News. “This has become very common.” By way of example, he spoke about the case of two New York University professors who were fired after making Gaza-related comments. The...

State’s licensing process has created too much product and not enough places to sell it, a consultant and retail-store applicant sayNew York state has only opened about 50 legal stores, yet state-legal cannabis farmers grew enough product this past summer and fall to supply up to 1,500 stores, a consultant who works in the industry said. [Snip] Meanwhile, the illicit market continues to thrive, with thousands of unlicensed shops. While the state has issued 460 retail licenses to nonprofits and people displaced by the war on drugs under its CAURD program, it’s been difficult for most licensees to find real...

The Lenbachhaus museum in Munich has redacted part of the title of a 112-year-old August Macke painting depicting Native Americans, a decision that has spurred controversy in Germany. The Macke work, previously titled Indians on Horseback Near a Tent (1911), has been in Lenbachhaus’s collection since 1964, and has hung ever since with that name. But the museum recently changed it so that the word “Indians” now appears as “I******” in its English label, with a similarly styled version for its German counterpart. The right-wing tabloid Bild accused the museum of “woke madness” in its display copy for its story...

Installing razor wire along the U.S.-Mexico border has led to a “massive reduction” of illegal immigrants crossing into the United States, according to state governor Greg Abbott, who said he has widespread support for the defensive measure. “More than half of the governors are now joined together in support of a very important proposition. And that is, we are guaranteed by the United States Constitution the right of self-defense if states face imminent harm or invasion,” Gov. Abbott said in an interview with Fox News on Sunday.

"There have been racial barriers, and it has been challenging to be accepted as Japanese." That's what a tearful Carolina Shiino said in impeccable Japanese after she was crowned Miss Japan on Monday. The 26-year-old model, who was born in Ukraine, moved to Japan at the age of five and was raised in Nagoya. She is the first naturalised Japanese citizen to win the pageant, but her victory has re-ignited a debate on what it means to be Japanese. While some recognised her victory as a "sign of the times", others have said she does not look like a "Miss...

Scientists from the University of Wisconsin–Madison have achieved a significant milestone in neurological research by developing the first 3D-printed brain tissue that mimics the growth and functionality of natural brain tissue. The achievement holds promise for profound advancements in understanding the human brain and the treatment of various neurological and neurodevelopmental disorders, including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. “This could be a hugely powerful model to help us understand how brain cells and parts of the brain communicate in humans,” Dr. Su-Chun Zhang, co-author and professor of neuroscience and neurology at UW–Madison’s Waisman Center, said in a press release. “It could...

Last week’s dead cat bounce in Chinese stocks – after Beijing did everything but launch a multi-trillion fiscal stimmy bazooka (something it will do, later if not sooner) – is a distant memory, and as Asian markets open for trading in the news week, Chinese markets are cratering with the Shanghai Composite plunging as much as 3.1% to a fresh five-year low.. … while the broader CSI 1,000 Index is also in free-fall and also on pace to re-test the 2018 lows with as many as 990 of the 1000 companies of the index in the red. Putting the latest...

President Joe Biden spent much of his third year in the White House trying to brag about what he'd done for the American economy. In February, speaking to a chapter of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers in Maryland, he declared, "For the past two years, we've been carrying out my economic plan that grows the economy from the bottom up and the middle out, not the top down." Biden then recited a laundry list of economic indicators. The unemployment rate was 3.4 percent. Gas prices had dropped by $1.60 per gallon. In his first two years in office, he...

Explanation: What's happening in the core of the Carina Nebula? Stars are forming, dying, and leaving an impressive tapestry of dark dusty filaments. The entire Carina Nebula, cataloged as NGC 3372, spans over 300 light years and lies about 8,500 light-years away in the constellation of Carina. The nebula is composed predominantly of hydrogen gas, which emits the pervasive red and orange glows seen mostly in the center of this highly detailed featured image. The blue glow around the edges is created primarily by a trace amount of glowing oxygen. Young and massive stars located in the nebula's center expel...

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, America First Legal (AFL) and Boyden Gray PLLC filed a brief in the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of Senator Tom Cotton, Representative Jim Jordan, and 21 other Members of Congress in support of Joseph W. Fischer, an American who was subjected to a weaponized criminal prosecution by the Biden Administration for an alleged violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2). Mr. Fischer was indicted for his alleged participation in events around the entrance of the U.S. Capitol building on January 6, 2021, and charged with a violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1512(c)(2)–a statute...

Israel Police officers shot and killed a teenage Palestinian boy on Monday in the West Bank village of Azzariyeh near Jerusalem, after he attempted to stab Border Police officers, according to police. The teen was later identified as 14-year-old Wadee' Oweisat. Police say the boy raised the suspicion of Border Police officers who were operating in the village. One of the officers searched the teen, who took a knife out of his coat and tried to stab them. The wounded officer, along with other policemen, shot him dead. Border Police Commander, Yitzhak Brik, told police officers that Oweisat "came here...

Using only her art, the legendary Tracy Chapman took to the Grammy stage Sunday night and made the most American of statements. The story behind Chapman’s iconic, Grammy-winning hit “Fast Car” dates back 36 years to 1988, when it was first released. She was only 23 then, but in the synthesized-saxophoned eighties, “Fast Car” was something all its own. The Clevelend-born Chapman was lucky. America was still a young country then, a country eager to embrace The New, an anxious culture always glancing over the shoulder of the latest superstar, eager for whatever was next. The stagnant America we live...

Famous rapper 50 Cent recently expressed his displeasure over news that New York City is planning to allocate millions of dollars to give migrant families pre-paid credit cards to migrant families. In a new Instagram post, the rapper even went so far as to say that the policy might even motivate him to vote for former President Donald Trump in 2024

A clear majority see that His Fraudulency Joe Biden is in mental decline and believe (correctly) that the media are trying to cover this frightening fact up. Between January 28-30, Rasmussen Reports surveyed 934 likely voters and asked, “Do you feel like, over time, Joe Biden is getting less and less mentally sharp?” Across every gender, racial, and age line, a majority said yes. Of everyone polled, 59 percent said yes, while only 33 percent disagreed. Looking at the internals, 61 percent of men said yes, as did 57 percent of women, 63 percent of those aged 18-39, 60 percent...

Telecom firms linked to the UN-recognised Yemen government have said they fear Houthi rebels are planning to sabotage a network of submarine cables in the Red Sea critical to the functioning of the western internet and the transmission of financial data. The warning came after a Houthi-linked Telegram channel published a map of the cables running along the bed of the Red Sea. The image was accompanied by a message: “There are maps of international cables connecting all regions of the world through the sea. It seems that Yemen is in a strategic location, as internet lines that connect entire...

Historians have found themselves caught in the middle of America's debate over gun control ever since the Supreme Court ruled in 2022 that firearms laws must be consistent with American "tradition." That decision in New York State Rifle & Pistol Association v. Bruen set off a new wave of challenges to state and federal restrictions on guns. "What's happening now is a fight over what the Second Amendment ultimately means," says Chuck Michel, president and general counsel at the California Rifle & Pistol Association, which is suing the state over newly passed limits on concealed firearms. "This truly is a...

[Catholic Caucus] The Level of Francis' Appointments: Missing Cardinal Speaks of "Stupid Prank"Spanish-born Cardinal José Luis Lacunza, 79, of David, Panama, has described his mysterious two-day disappearance in Panama as a "stupid prank"."It was a stupid prank, something I didn't do when I was 15 years old, and I did it now when I'm about to turn 80. The older I get, the more stupid I get," the Cardinal told parishioners at a Eucharist on Sunday.This is the shocking level of the cardinals named by Francis. "I want to apologise and ask for your forgiveness for the displeasure I have...

Indiana GOP Rep. Victoria Spartz has decided to reverse her decision to retire from Congress. She will run for reelection, she told Politico. “I will file this week. The country is too much in trouble,” Spartz told POLITICO on Monday morning. Spartz continued in a statement later Monday morning, explaining her decision to run for reelection in Indiana’s 5th Congressional District. “Deciding where your duty lies - family, work, or country, is never an easy task. Earlier last year, I decided to take some time off from running for public office to recharge and spend more time in Indiana with...