Free Republic

US lawmakers are trying to extend the use of facial recognition at airports, despite many airline passengers objecting to the practice. US airports have used facial scanners since 2017, when the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) started trials of the tech in the hope it would improve security and speed boarding times. 250 airports currently use facial recognition. According to a May 2025 report [PDF] by the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board (PCLOB), facial recognition at airports is accurate. The report cites National Institute of Standards and Technology research that fewer than one percent of recognition attempts produced a false...

Washington is “done with the funding” of Ukraine’s war against Russia, JD Vance, the US vice-president, has said, as Europe scrambles to build a united defence before in-person negotiations between Presidents Trump and Putin.Speaking in an interview after an emergency summit with European and Ukrainian officials, co-hosted by David Lammy at Chevening, the foreign secretary’s mansion in Kent, Vance said Americans were fed up with paying towards the cost of the war.“What we said to the Europeans is simply, first of all, this is in your neck of the woods. This is in your back door,” he told Fox News....

When Nike picked Colin Kaepernick to front its new campaign in 2018, it marked the high water mark for social justice advertising. Kaepernick, the former NFL star who began taking the knee in protest against racial injustice, was out of work and had accused the NFL of blacklisting him for his political protests on the field. Nike ran posters saying: “Believe in something, even if it means sacrificing everything.” Seven years on, the backdrop could hardly be more different. “Woke” adverts are fading from relevance in the US. Instead, an all-American, red-blooded spirit has taken hold – aimed squarely at...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth reposted a CNN segment about a pastor who believes women should not vote on the social media platform X. The segment largely focuses on Pastor Doug Wilson, a Christian nationalist who cofounded the Communion of Reformed Evangelical Churches (CREC) in Idaho. The report shows Wilson advocating for a Christian nation and entertaining the idea that women should not vote. “I would like to see this nation being a Christian nation, and I would like this world to be a Christian world,” Wilson said. The clip also shows fellow pastor Toby Sumpter, saying, “In an ideal society,...

This film explores the unprecedented global rollout of mRNA vaccine technology - and the complex scientific and regulatory questions it continues to raise. At its heart, the story follows scientists and physicians who voice concerns about potential gaps in data transparency, risk assessment, and long-term safety - not to discredit science, but to uphold its highest standards. “We turned the body into a factory, with no clear controls.” Dr. Robert Redfield - Former CDC Director Regulators and much of the scientific community maintain that COVID-19 mRNA vaccines are safe and effective. Meanwhile, the technology is rapidly expanding - from new...

The entertainment industry has long been shaped by traditional gender roles, but in recent years, there has been a noticeable shift in how language is used to describe those who perform in movies, television shows, theater, and other media. One significant change is the move toward calling female performers “actors” rather than the historically used term “actress.” This change reflects a broader cultural movement toward gender equality and challenges longstanding stereotypes. In this article, we will explore why females are now increasingly being called “actors” and how this shift reflects evolving attitudes about gender in society. 1. Historical Context of...

Connecting The Dots: A Comprehensive Advanced AI Analysis Of The Declassified Durham Annex And Its Criminal ImplicationsExecutive Summary The following is a lengthy AI conversation I had with Perplexity Pro AI discussing the details of the recently declassified documents released by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard. It consisted of open-ended questions based specific linked stories in the news, where the AI then gathered its own citations before forming its response to me. The portion of the conversation that I’m including here is from the end of the conversation; I’m not including some of the earlier Q&A that laid the...

A former campaign staffer for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has been charged with making terroristic threats, raising serious questions about the judgment and character of those aligned with the progressive left. Iman Addul, a former youth organizer for the Squad member, allegedly posted a screenshot on Thursday showing the location of Leon M. Goldstein High School for the Sciences in Manhattan Beach on Google Maps, accompanied by a threatening message. “If anyone needs a public school in NYC to attack for whatever reason … Lexus driving Israhell (sic) loving Zionisits (sic) all attend here,” the post, which has since been...

A North Carolina Republican has a theory about why Democrats oppose a bill requiring state and local government agencies to detain people wanted by federal immigration officials. Republicans in the GOP-controlled General Assembly hope to enact the bill, known as the "North Carolina Border Protection Act", after Democratic Gov. Josh Stein vetoed it in June. They overrode Stein’s veto in the state Senate; the House of Representatives has yet to vote on an override. State Rep. John Blust, a Guilford County Republican, said during the bill’s June 4 House debate that Democrats benefit from having a large population of people...

It is inconceivable to me that we do not hold people accountable before they run for office. True the Ballot is in the process of being established to change that. The link above is to a website under construction. It gives a good idea of what this is about. Starting in St. Joseph County, Indiana, anyone who took the oath of office will be put on notice: We know who you are, and your name will be publicly available as to your grade in taking and passing our examination or ignoring it as if the oath is a mere technicality...

The Saudi Al-Hadath news channel reports: "Iran sent messages to Hezbollah last night, stating that it will start channeling additional funds to the organization through various countries around the world, as well as transferring weapons and means of warfare to Lebanon – with the aim of effectively taking control of all parts of the country and establishing a new coalition in Lebanon where Hezbollah is the sovereign."

The furious wife of a philandering Staten Island principal blew the whistle on her husband’s affair with a younger teacher at his school, where he helped his lover win tenure... Principal Anthony Cosentino, 43, engaged in a “consensual sexual relationship” with the married staffer, Jacqueline Sinodinos, 28, the Special Commissioner of Investigation for city schools found in a newly released report accusing him of possibly violating the city’s conflict-of-interest rules. The scandal broke up two marriages. Both Cosentino’s wife and Sinodinos’ husband filed for divorce. .... Cosentino, 43 .. remained on the DOE payroll making $187,632 despite what SCI Anastasia...

Just as Americanists opposed and condemned as communist the Anti-Defamation League and similar organizations (including the American Jewish Congress), many Americanist leaders distrusted and denounced Zionism and the State of Israel. “[There is] more ideological and cultural kinship between Israel and the Soviet Union than between Israel and the United States,” declared Dan Smoot in 1969.97 “Behold, then, this strange situation,” he added: “Israel and the Soviet Union, with harsh words, are pursuing a common objective in the Middle East; to isolate all Arab countries from the United States and drive them into the Soviet orbit . . .” 98...

Explanation: What's that strange light down the road? Dust orbiting the Sun. At certain times of the year, a band of sun-reflecting dust from the inner Solar System appears prominently just after sunset -- or just before sunrise -- and is called zodiacal light. Although the origin of this dust is still being researched, a leading hypothesis holds that zodiacal dust originates mostly from faint Jupiter-family comets and slowly spirals into the Sun. Recent analysis of dust emitted by Comet 67P, visited by ESA's robotic Rosetta spacecraft, bolsters this hypothesis. Pictured when climbing a road up to Teide National Park...

How CarShield operates… it’s something folks should know before calling that number. The video talks about how CarShield will deliberately not cover certain parts. Then they claim it’s that part that went bad. Buyer beware.

One of President Trump’s core objectives heading into negotiations with Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin will be to prevent a third invasion of Ukraine, according to Sen. Lindsey Graham. “I am here to tell you that President Trump will end this war in a way to prevent a third invasion and not to entice China to take Taiwan,” Graham (R-SC), who went golfing with Trump on Saturday, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We’re not out to humiliate Putin, we’re out to get a deal to make sure there’s no third invasion.” -snip- “Militarily, we need to keep Ukraine strong, keep flowing...

"California has way more House seats than it should because they have such a high population of illegal aliens," Vance says Vice President Trump J.D. Vance called on the GOP to fight "as aggressively" on redistricting as Democrats have in blue states.President Trump recently directed the U.S. government to begin work on a new Census and argued that illegal immigrants should not be counted.Democratic legislators in Texas left the state last week after a committee approved a congressional map that could give 5 additional seats to the GOP."So, California has way more House seats than it should because they...

A 6-year-old Southern California boy was dragged and attacked by a coyote at a softball game .. Enoch Palomar was attending his sister’s game at Del Amo Park in Carson when the attack unfolded... A person filming the action on the field captured audio of Enoch’s screams as the wild animal was biting him behind the softball field. , .... “It just kept biting me and I was trying to kick it,” Enoch told KTLA. “It was too fast and it just jumped. I was trying my hardest and then it didn’t work, and then I yelled.” Enoch’s mom, Melissa...

Nothing says "saving democracy" and "preserving norms" like totally rigging the system. It's like calling sterilizing and mutilating children "care." A complete inversion of reality wrapped up in comforting words. Since at least 2016, the Democrats have focused all their attention on rigging elections, both within their own party and for the electorate as a whole. As the Democrats have seen their coalition disintegrate, they have responded by employing ever more Byzantine tactics to ensure victory. Not that victories have been ensured, yet...they have only stacked the deck in their favor...so they move on to the next step. Let's take...

Most Republicans and Democrats would agree that nobody should be denied access to financial services because of politics or religion. That’s essentially what President Trump’s executive order on Thursday declares, though preventing “debanking” may require Congress. President Trump’s family business sued Capital One this year for allegedly closing the company’s accounts after the Jan. 6, 2021, riot and claimed other large banks rejected $1 billion in his cash deposits. We can’t confirm his claims, but people across the political spectrum in recent years have said their accounts were cancelled for unexplained reasons.Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen last autumn said he was...