Free Republic

The AI saga takes a bizarre turn: don’t make Grok your guru; media melts down over Trump’s ‘insurrectionist’ label; RFK Jr. fires CDC vax panel; Trump unveils baby investment accounts; more. Today we return to our ongoing coverage of the AI revolution — toggling from optimism back to the surreal and spiritually sci-fi. On Sunday, we explored some good news: AI might be hitting a ceiling on reasoning skills, which could cap the AI apocalypse. But now, the weirdest AI wrinkle yet: people losing their loved ones to AI-fueled spiritual fantasies. Behold, a bizarre, cautionary story Rolling Stone published last...

Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-California, called out President Donald Trump for refusing to send in the National Guard during the Jan. 6 riot, in contrast to his deploying the National Guard and Marines against protesters in Los Angeles. “Something is very wrong with this picture.”

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The lights have finally gone out on this project. In an extraordinary fire sale, the state Power Authority is auctioning off a huge storehouse of unused decorative bridge lights — which were supposed to be part of a $106 million project to brighten up the city’s spans by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo, but which never got installed. With a minimum bid of just $25, the lights are only expected to fetch pennies on the dollar — and leave the state out a massive amount of cash for the failed lighting project, officials told The Post of the sale, which was...

FBI Director Kash Patel said the Bureau is investigating the source of funding that is fueling the riots in Los Angeles, California. Sections of Los Angeles have seen rioters engaging in property damage, looting stores, clashing with law enforcement authorities, and vandalizing police vehicles. The riots are a response to a series of raids Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) carried out in the area last week. However, many view the unrest as a statement against the Trump administration’s mass deportations of illegal immigrants. In a statement to Just the News, Patel confirmed that the FBI “is investigating any and all...

Join us for a special No Kings Day Town Hall on June 10, 2025, at 6:00 pm ET, featuring: Randi Weingarten, President, AFT Governor Andy Beshear, Governor of Kentucky Leah Greenberg, Co-Founder and Co-Executive Director, Indivisible Project Rev. Al Sharpton, Baptist Minister and Civil Rights Leader Together, we’ll get ready to organize, mobilize, and build power for the future

Key Points * The Investment Company Institute says President Donald Trump's tax bill impacts most foreign investments in U.S. stocks, according to documents seen by CNBC. * In the letter, the ICI also suggests that the U.S. fund management industry would be "collateral damage" due to the impact of Section 899. * Fund managers say investors in Europe who are focused on dividend-distributing U.S. companies would be "thinking quite carefully" about their holdings. ============================================================= American fund managers are lobbying Congress over a provision tucked inside President Donald Trump's tax bill that they say could lead to foreign investors "quickly" pulling...

The New York State Senate passed a controversial bill Monday night that would legalize assisted suicide, a move critics warn could endanger vulnerable populations. The Medical Aid in Dying Act, approved by a vote of 35-27, now heads to Governor Kathy Hochul, who will consider signing it into law. Jessica Rogers, Coalitons Director for the patients Rights Action Fund, described what happened to LifeNews: With a heavy heart I must inform you that the New York State Senate voted last night to pass a dangerous and discriminatory bill to legalize assisted suicide. After a decade of attempting to pass assisted...

Missouri GOP Sen. Josh Hawley plans to introduce legislation Tuesday to raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour — a position that aligns one of the most conservative Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill with some of the most liberal members of Congress. The legislation, called the "Higher Wages for American Workers Act," would raise the federal standard starting in 2026 and would also call for an increase in subsequent years to match inflation, CBS News has exclusively learned. Vermont Democratic Sen. Peter Welch has signed on as a co-sponsor. "For decades, working Americans have seen their wages flatline....

Republican senators are considering watering down “no taxes on tips,” “no taxes on overtime” and more. Senate Finance Republicans are increasingly looking to dial back key items on President Donald Trump’s tax policy wish list. And it’s pitting them against the architect of the House-passed tax legislation, Ways and Means Chair Jason Smith — and potentially even the White House. The rub is this: The House version of the megabill would restore tax incentives for research and development, business equipment and debt interest through 2029, which Trump has indicated he supports. But Senate Republicans are dead-set on making them permanent,...

Even with the high-profile arrests of suspects by masked immigration agents and the plane loads of migrants swiftly ferried out of the U.S., President Trump was falling short of the number of daily deportations carried out by the Biden administration in its final year. So in late May, Stephen Miller, a top White House aide and the architect of the president’s immigration agenda, addressed a meeting at the headquarters of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, known as ICE. The message was clear: The president, who promised to deport millions of immigrants living in the country illegally, wasn’t pleased. The agency had...

Archaeologists from the Israel Antiquities Authority have unearthed parts of a Roman and Byzantine settlement just outside the modern city of Kiryat Gat. The researchers believe the settlement was founded in the first century b.c. and flourished for more than 600 years, thanks to its location along an important road connecting the Judean Mountains with the coastal plain. The settlement seems to have been especially prosperous during the fifth and sixth centuries a.d., based on evidence of an extensive building campaign as well as distinctive types of pottery, coins, and decorative marbles found at the site. Also dating to this...

One of the most spectacular Byzantine mosaics ever discovered in Israel was finally revealed to the public for the first time, according to a statement released by the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). The so-called Be'er Shema (Birsama) mosaic was first uncovered three decades ago near Khirbat Be'er Shema in the western Negev, but spent years undergoing intensive conservation and preservation work. "Over the ensuing years since its discovery, the mosaic floor's state of conservation deteriorated," said IAA's Ami Shahar. "Upon completion of our expert team's intensive efforts, the results enable the public to view and appreciate a spectacular 1,600-year-old work...

A Brazilian comedian said a judge took issue with his Wikipedia page when she handed down an eight-year prison sentence. Comedian Leo Lins, whose full name is Leonardo de Lima Borges Lins, was about three years removed from his comedy special when Judge Barbara de Lima Iseppi ruled the comedian made "discriminatory" remarks while on stage. The comments the judge made during her ruling have been perceived as "power-hungry" by other comedians, who expressed shock at their compatriot's conviction. Lins' 2022 special "Disturbing," or "Perturbador" in Portuguese, was ordered to be taken down from the internet by the Brazilian government...

One thing I've said repeatedly since January 20 is that it's nice to have adults in charge again. Terrorists, criminals, and radical leftists with wacky agendas aren't able to run amok and do whatever they want anymore, especially when they're using our taxpayer dollars to do so or they're putting the safety of our communities and our national security at risk. That's exactly what's going on in Los Angeles right now. The Democrats who are supposed to be in charge of protecting their constituents and their best interests are doing anything but as riots break out across the city. President...

A man accused of being “a Hamas operative” based in London is a key figure behind Greta Thunberg’s Gaza-bound aid boat, it emerged on Monday. Zaher Birawi, who was described in Parliament as a person with links to Hamas, called himself a “founding member” of the Freedom Flotilla International Coalition, which arranged the voyage by the aid boat Madleen. Israeli forces boarded and seized the boat on Sunday, detaining the 12 pro-Palestinian activists it was carrying, including Ms Thunberg, as it attempted to bring a “symbolic” amount of aid to Gaza in defiance of an Israeli naval blockade. Mr Birawi,...

An influential group of GOP hawks has launched a behind-the-scenes lobbying offensive pressing President Donald Trump to not only back off his administration’s quest for a nuclear deal with Iran, but greenlight an attack on Tehran by Israel. The campaign is raising alarms among Trump and his allies, who have launched a counteroffensive to keep the president’s diplomacy on track. During a private lunch with the president at the White House last Wednesday, conservative talk show host Mark Levin told Trump that Iran was days away from building a nuclear weapon, an argument Trump’s own intelligence team has told the...

LA Rioters Rob Sushi Restaurant The so-called peaceful ICE protesters in Los Angeles are lighting cars on fire across the city, attacking law enforcement, destroying police cars, hurling explosives at an ICE facility, and now looting local businesses. What’s new? This is how most leftist “protests” ultimately turn out. This is especially true for the well-organized demonstrations, where participants are provided with supply drops and masks, as seen on Monday afternoon when a black pickup truck pulled up to a crowd of pro-illegal immigration protesters carrying the riot necessities on Monday afternoon. New footage from the days-long insurrection in LA...

Mexico’s president is threatening to “mobilize” the country against a Republican proposal to tax remittances, which advocates say would choke off cash flow to Mexican drug cartels. Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum raged against the proposal in a speech against the law, which imposes a tax on money sent out of the United States by foreign nationals. “If necessary, we’ll mobilize,” Sheinbaum said. “We don’t want taxes on remittances from our fellow countrymen. From the U.S. to Mexico.” President Donald Trump’s “one big, beautiful bill” includes a 3.5 percent tax on remittances, a policy that experts told The Daily Wire is...

The world's largest group of oil producers, OPEC+, stuck to its guns on Saturday with another big increase of 411,000 barrels per day for July as it looks to wrestle back market share and punish over-producers.Having spent years curbing production - more than 5 million barrels a day (bpd) or 5% of world demand - eight OPEC+ countries made a modest output increase in April before tripling it for May, June and now July.They are spurring production despite the extra supply weighing on crude prices as group leaders Saudi Arabia and Russia seek to win back market share as well...