Free Republic

If the Trump administration succeeds in blocking Harvard from enrolling international students, the hardest-hit group would be students from China, who make up the school’s biggest share of current students from overseas.The consequences are likely to extend far beyond those select few who could gain entry to the prestigious university. The move could reshape the broader relationship between the two countries by cutting off one of the few remaining reasons that people in China still admire the United States.The flow of students from China to the United States has long been one of the most reliable ballasts in the two...

McALLEN, Texas (AP) — The Trump administration has continued releasing people charged with being in the country illegally to nongovernmental shelters along the U.S.-Mexico border after telling those organizations that providing migrants with temporary housing and other aid may violate a law used to prosecute smugglers. Border shelters, which have long provided lodging, meals and transportation to the nearest bus station or airport, were rattled by a letter from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that raised “significant concerns” about potentially illegal activity and demanded detailed information in a wide-ranging investigation. FEMA suggested shelters may have committed felony offenses against bringing...

No Surrender chose to perform at another venue after a Toms River bar owner told them his city “is red and won’t stand for [Springsteen’s] bullshit” Over here on E Street, it’s pretty quiet now that a Jersey Shore bar owner questioned whether No Surrender, a Bruce Springsteen cover band, should perform at his establishment after the real Springsteen openly criticized Donald Trump. The group had booked a gig at Riv’s Toms River Hub, in Toms River, New Jersey, on May 30 (a Friday night, always a great night for Springsteen), but found out Sunday night the concert was in...

Jonathan Lemire let the laugh--or at least the chuckle--out of the bag. And in doing so, he let slip the liberal media's disdain for the Trump administration, and its knee-jerk defense of elite liberal institutions. On today's Morning Joe, Lemire couldn't stifle a chuckle [video at 0:36] as he mentioned the claim by the Trump administration explaining its decision to revoke Harvard's right to enroll foreign students: "The DOJ also accused the university of coordinating [chuckles] with the Chinese Communist Party."Get the rest of the story and view the video here.

Summary Grok AI use raises privacy and conflict-of-interest concerns DOGE team allegedly pushes Grok at DHS without approval Experts warn of potential unfair advantage for Musk's xAI in federal contracts May 23 (Reuters) - Billionaire Elon Musk’s DOGE team is expanding use of his artificial intelligence chatbot Grok in the U.S. federal government to analyze data, said three people familiar with the matter, potentially violating conflict-of-interest laws and putting at risk sensitive information on millions of Americans. Such use of Grok could reinforce concerns among privacy advocates and others that Musk's Department of Government Efficiency team appears to be casting...

Anthropic said its latest artificial intelligence model resorted to blackmail when told it would be taken offline. In a safety test, the AI company asked Claude Opus 4 to act as an assistant to a fictional company, but then gave it access to (also fictional) emails saying that it would be replaced, and also that the engineer behind the decision was cheating on his wife. Anthropic said the model “[threatened] to reveal the affair” if the replacement went ahead. AI thinkers such as Geoff Hinton have long worried that advanced AI would manipulate humans in order to achieve its goals....

FLOTUS Melania Trump participates in the Senate Spouses Luncheon at the National Gallery of Art - May 21,2025

WASHINGTON, D.C. (7News) — Travelers who are looking to book last-minute flights for Memorial Day weekend may want to think twice about flying out of Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport (DCA). The air passenger rights company, AirHelp, took a closer look at U.S. airports and collected data on which ones had the most and least flight disruptions in April. It may or may not come as a surprise, but DCA ranked number five for the worst airports. Here's a breakdown. Philadelphia International Airport – 20.9% of flights disrupted O’Hare International Airport – 21.1% of flights disrupted New York LaGuardia Airport...

Donald Trump says that iPhones need to be built in the US, or they'll face a 25% tariff.But it doesn't matter what Trump says: iPhones are never going to be built in the US.That's according to Patrick McGee, a journalist who just published "Apple In China: The Capture of the World's Greatest Company" — a detailed look at all of the money and effort Apple spent over decades to enmesh itself in China.McGee, who has covered Apple for the Financial Times, explains why this has been enormously helpful to Apple — because it created an ecosystem that lets it make...

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has signed into law a bill allowing land seizures by the state without compensation - a move that has put him at odds with some members of his government. Black people only own a small fraction of farmland nationwide more than 30 years after the end of the racist system of apartheid - the majority remains with the white minority. This has led to frustration and anger over the slow pace of reform. While Ramaphosa's ANC party hailed the law as a "significant milestone" in the country's transformation, some members of the coalition government say...

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul (R) immediately announced his opposition to the House-passed bill Thursday, vowing to vote against it unless Senate Republican leaders remove a provision to raise the federal debt limit by $4 trillion over the next two years. Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), an outspoken fiscal hawk, said Thursday that there are four Senate Republican conservatives who will vote against the House bill as currently drafted, which would be enough to sink the bill if there is full attendance. Johnson said: “I think I’ve got at least four right now that this is not going anywhere.”

My grandmother who passed away in 1996 had this thing where she was buying coins. I got a few ziplocks full of them stashed away in a draw that i'm thinking of checking out.

Australian National Maritime Museum announced that a team of archaeological divers believe they have located the wreck of Koning Willem de Tweede. The 800-ton Dutch merchant sailing vessel was lost in Guichen Bay off South Australia in 1857. The team used marine magnetometry and underwater metal detectors in an area where the ship reportedly went down and were able to identify the ruins of a large ship measuring 460 feet long by 140 feet wide, which match the Dutch vessel's documented dimensions. Components from what appears to be the ship's windlass were also seen protruding from the seafloor and fragments...

This week, Alisa Perales will graduate from Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa, Calif., with associate degrees in both math and multiple sciences. She's planning to study at University of California, Irvine, starting this fall and major in computer science. She's also 11 years old. Honestly, she thinks the whole thing is pretty neat. “It’s really exciting for me that I’m actually graduating at 11 with two degrees,” Alisa Perales tells PEOPLE. “It’s just cool.” Alisa’s single dad, 51-year-old Rafael Perales, decided to shelve his law practice and homeschool his daughter full-time starting when she was only a year old. (The...

"I’m sincerely sorry to disappoint our audience," Joel says in a statement after revealing normal pressure hydrocephalus diagnosis Billy Joel is canceling every concert on his itinerary, 17 shows in total booked at stadiums across North America and England, due to a recent diagnosis of normal pressure hydrocephalus (NPH). “This condition has been exacerbated by recent concert performances, leading to problems with hearing, vision, and balance,” reads a statement from Joel’s team. “Under his doctor’s instructions, Billy is undergoing specific physical therapy and has been advised to refrain from performing during this recovery period. Billy is thankful for the excellent...

..."The unusually well-preserved mummy in the church crypt of St Thomas am Blasenstein is the corps of a local parish vicar, Franz Xaver Sidler von Rosenegg, who died in 1746," said Dr Andreas Nerlich, a pathologist at Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität and first author of the Frontiers in Medicine article. "Our investigation uncovered that the excellent preservation status came from an unusual type of embalming, achieved by stuffing the abdomen through the rectal canal with wood chips, twigs and fabric, and the addition of zinc chloride for internal drying."The team conducted extensive analyses, including CT scanning, focal autopsy, and radiocarbon dating. The mummy's...

BREAKING: 3 people have life-threatening injuries after a mass-stabbing at the central train station in Hamburg. 12 people were stabbed.

South Africa’s human rights court deemed the song permissible and not a hate crime. While the EEF is an opposition party for the ruling Democratic Alliance (DA), President Ramaphosa failed to comment after the rally. Trump demanded that Malema be arrested and explained that such an event would not be allowed in the US—or elsewhere, for that matter. The African National Congress (ANC) came to power under Nelson Mandela in 1994 and implemented a series of racially-based policies under Black Economic Empowerment (BEE) and Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE). White state workers in every sector were immediately fired and forced...

A federal judge on Friday turned a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) into a preliminary injunction blocking the Trump Administration’s effort to overhaul and reorganize 20 agencies in the Executive Branch. In February, President Trump implemented an executive order to completely overhaul the Executive Branch through the work of DOGE. US District Judge Susan Illston, a Clinton appointee, said in order for President Trump to make such large-scale overhauls, he needs approval from Congress. Judge Illston blocked any reduction-in-force (RIF) notices to workers in 20 federal agencies.

Oscar Mayer unveils the “Wienie 500,” a first-ever Wienermobile race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, streaming live May 23 ahead of Sunday’s Indy 500.Oscar Mayer is putting mustard on the pedal to the metal with the first-ever “Wienie 500,” a race between all six of its iconic Wienermobiles ahead of the Indianapolis 500. The oversized hot dogs on wheels will compete in a lighthearted race on the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway track on Friday at 2 p.m. EST as part of the Indy 500 weekend. "The Wienie 500 will also mark the first ‘meat-up’ of all six Wienermobiles in over...