Free Republic

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett shocked an arena full of his shareholders Saturday by announcing that he wants to retire at the end of the year. Buffett said he will recommend to Berkshire Hathaway’s board that Greg Abel should become CEO at the end of the year. “I think the time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end,” Buffett said. Abel has been Buffett’s designated successor for years, and he already manages all of Berkshire’s noninsurance businesses. But it was always assumed he wouldn’t take over until after Buffett’s death....

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation to determine if toothpaste that contains fluoride is being illegally marketed to kids. While the recommended dosage of toothpaste says no more than a pea-sized smear or a drop the size of a kernel of rice should be used, Paxton says toothpaste manufacturers continue to flavor their products and deceptively market them in ways that encourage kids to ingest more than the safe and recommended amount of fluoride toothpaste. Now the attorney general wants to know if kids are ingesting too much fluoride based on how toothpaste is advertised to children. Toothpaste...

Buffett had largely avoided commenting on politics during the afternoon part of the annual meetings Q&A and seemed reluctant to directly address a question on what he thought about Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s efforts to cut government spending through the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. What Buffett did say was Congress isn’t doing its job to reduce the fiscal deficit. “We are doing something that is unsustainable,” he said. Buffett said the gap between revenue and spending was about twice as large as what can be maintained and that the more the gap widens, the more risk of it...

DOGE has referred 57 cases of potential voter fraud to the U.S. Justice Department ... Antonio Gracias noted that the individuals were "resident aliens who were registered to vote ... Musk, the hard-charging business tycoon who has been spearheading the DOGE initiative, has indicated that he plans to spend less time on the effort going forward. "Not stepping down, just reducing time allocation now that @DOGE is established ... "The federal government is a gigantic beast — very complicated — and so if you’re trying to figure out how to stop waste and fraud, you’ve got to map the territory,"...

The Chicago-born songbird’s years of paying dues were rewarded with a hit single that traveled far and wide.The tragedy of Minnie Riperton’s death from cancer at the age of just 31 in 1979 is a story for another day. For now, we’re celebrating the pinnacle of her chart career four years earlier. After topping the Billboard Hot 100, her signature hit “Lovin’ You” came close to repeating that success in the UK. After years of paying dues, as a solo artist and with the group Rotary Connection, the Chicago-born songbird had failed to make the impression she was hoping...

The frontman of the influential, avant-garde rock band was heralded for his untamable voice and spiritDavid Thomas, the founder and frontman of the influential, avant-garde rock band Pere Ubu, died yesterday (April 24) at his home in Brighton, England, the band wrote on Facebook. The statement attributed his death to a long illness, adding, “MC5 were playing on the radio. He will ultimately be returned to his home, the farm in Pennsylvania, where he insisted he was to be ‘thrown in the barn.’” Thomas was 71 years old. During their initial run from 1975 to 1982, Pere Ubu were an...

For as long as there has been war, there has been a need to reveal what the enemy is planning. This was no less true in ancient Greece where generals and statesmen relied on espionage to reveal the intentions and capabilities of their adversaries. The philosopher Plato believed that the ancient Greek states were in a constant state of war, whether declared or undeclared. It was within this grey zone that the subtleties of espionage took place, a dimension of foreign affairs that remains true to this day. Like the practice of spying itself, the sources regarding espionage in ancient...

When Congress passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in March 2021, it allocated $350 billion in assistance to state and local governments – providing the largest infusion of cash to local governments since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. For New Orleans, that money represented a desperately needed lifeline. The city had been hit particularly hard by COVID-19. It was an early hotspot for the virus. And Black residents, who comprise about 60% of the city’s population, were disproportionately impacted, accounting for more than 75% of COVID deaths in the first few months of the pandemic. As...

Moniece Slaughter has gone on a serious rant online after her car was reportedly broken into. But it’s not just about the robbery; her comments about Black people have sparked major controversy and have a lot of people talking. After falling victim to a car break-in, she went on a scorched-earth rant that had social media gasping, critics furious, and Black Twitter calling for accountability. According to reports, Moniece took to her Instagram Story on Wednesday (April 30th) to vent about the people who broke into her truck and stole her belongings, including production equipment, a full talent wardrobe, props,...

Kilmar Abrego Garcia will return to the national spotlight when the Senate votes on a resolution calling for a report on his detention in El Salvador. In the coming weeks, the Senate will take up a Democratic resolution that would require the Trump administration to detail the human rights record of El Salvador, including its treatment of inmates in the megaprison where Abrego Garcia, a mistakenly deported illegal immigrant, was briefly detained.

With the new mineral rights deal between Washington, D.C., and Kyiv, President Donald Trump fulfilled his pledge to hold Ukraine financially accountable for the billions of dollars that has already been provided in military assistance. This now opens a new avenue for the U.S. to provide weaponry to the country without using any taxpayer funds. Following months of discussions, the deal was signed on Wednesday. It established a common investment fund to which both countries will contribute, including through the sale of mineral rights, oil, and gas licenses in Ukraine — with a 50/50 profit split. The agreement states that...

An emotional Prince Harry says he feels "devastated" after losing a legal battle over security during visits to the UK, as ITV News' Royal Editor Chris Ship reports Prince Harry has called for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to intervene after losing a Court of Appeal challenge over his security arrangements while in the UK. The Prince made the remarks in an interview with the BBC, where he also revealed his father, King Charles, "no longer speaks to him" over the row - which he described as a "family dispute". On Friday, the Prince lost his attempt to overturn the...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Congressional Democrats sounded an alarm Friday, warning that cutting funding for state-sponsored propaganda programs would lead to fascism. In a swift executive action, President Donald Trump ended government funding of both PBS and NPR over concerns of reporting bias and leftist propaganda, which Democrats say will undoubtedly cause fascist ideologies to spread unimpeded across the nation. "In Normandy, brave men and men identifying as women invaded German-occupied France to preserve our way of life," said Senator Chuck Schumer in a passionate speech on Capitol Hill. "Now President Trump has carelessly thrown away everything they died for by...

U.S. — Democrats have updated the famous "New Colossus" poem on the Statue of Liberty to simply read, "Give us your wife beaters." The change is intended to clarify that in lieu of huddled masses yearning to be free, Democrats prefer to import criminals who beat their wives and threaten to murder them. "These are our people," said Senator Van Hollen as the finishing touches were put on the plaque. "If you're out there in some other country, smacking your wife around, the Democratic party wants you in America. We will literally travel across the globe to bring you back...

By Dr. John BergsmaThis week is the Third Sunday of Easter, and our readings highlight the primacy of Peter among the Apostles, and the primacy of love in following Jesus. In the First Reading this week (Acts 5:27-32, 40b-41) we see Peter’s primacy (“Peter and the apostles said in reply …”) in leading the early Church through the experience of persecution, and in boldly proclaiming the Gospel despite sustained and serious cultural opposition. As commentators point out, we witness here a power struggle between the new and the old priestly leadership of the people of God. the Sanhedrin represents the...

Microsoft is optimistic that our reliance on passwords is coming to a close. Microsoft is once again moving closer to a passwordless future. In a bold step toward embracing passkeys – which uses cryptography to better protect data from hackers and phishing scams – new Microsoft accounts will now be passwordless by default. Instead, the company will issue a prompt to set up passkeys as part of an effort to make the process more secure. The need to get a better grasp on password protection comes at a time when many big tech companies are pushing to eliminate passwords altogether....

Friday, during Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) discussed the difficulty of working with people on the other side of the aisle when their political beliefs and ambitions are not compatible with reality. The Oklahoma Republican said the hurdles included Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) beliefs in socialism and Sen. Chris Murphy’s (D-CT) presidential ambitions. “Now, the delusion among the leading Democratic Party is almost hard to believe,” host Sean Hannity said. “Why can’t they just be honest with the American people? I don’t know. That would be refreshing. Here to help answer that...

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a prominent populist congresswoman and Trump-ally, voiced concerns in a long Friday post on X about the state of the Trump administration, criticizing the current position of the administration on Iran, Ukraine, as well as a host of domestic issues. “I campaigned for no more foreign wars,” Greene wrote. “And now we are supposedly on the verge of going to war with Iran.” Greene was also highly critical of the so-called “Minerals Deal” between the U.S. and Ukraine, opining: And on top of that, now we are told that we have signed a deal for mineral...

College graduates are calling their degrees worthless. According to new data from Indeed, piling student loans and fears of AI reshaping the workplace are to blame. While experts say higher education is still important, Gen Z should constantly prioritize “upgrading their toolkit” to be successful. College is often advertised as the best four years of one’s life, but many Americans now have regrets.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Ukraine will not adhere to a three-day cease-fire proposed by Russia, saying such a short truce would not help in negotiations for a lasting peace. The Russian counteroffer of a three-day cease-fire covering the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, an important political holiday in Russia, was merely a “theatrical show,” Mr. Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv. Mr. Zelensky said Saturday that Russia’s offer was also intended to “create a soft atmosphere of an exit from isolation” for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and to assuage security worries of...