Free Republic

WASHINGTON — A provision tucked into the funding package the Senate passed Monday night as part of a bipartisan deal to reopen the government would allow senators to sue the federal government for potentially millions of dollars if their data is obtained without notifying them. The legislative language would uniquely benefit eight Republican senators who were recently found to have had their phone records — but not the contents of their calls or messages — accessed as a part of the investigation that led to former special counsel Jack Smith’s probe of the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S....

Throughout the arid regions of Iran, agricultural and permanent settlements are supported by the ancient qanat system of tapping alluvial aquifers at the heads of valleys and conducting the water along underground tunnels by gravity, often over many kilometres.Each qanat comprises an almost horizontal tunnel collecting water from an underground water source, usually an alluvial fan, into which a mother well is sunk to the appropriate level of the aquifer. Well shafts are sunk at regular intervals along the route of the tunnel to enable removal of spoil and allow ventilation. These appear as craters from above, following the line...

NORFOLK, Virginia — The two houses at the center of New York Attorney General Letitia James’ legal trouble have been magnets for police activity since she bought them — with cops dispatched two dozen times since her ne’er-do-well kin moved in, The Post has learned. James’ serial crook grandniece, Nakia Thompson, 36, moved into one home with her three children soon after James closed on the house in August 2020, for which she paid $137,000. Since then, cops have been summoned to the residence on 12 occasions, according to police records — including several instances in which they were called...

Ireland’s media regulator began an investigation into social media platform X on Wednesday over concerns it is not giving users a chance to appeal content moderation decisions and that its internal complaint-handling systems are not easy to access. The probe, the first opened by the regulator in its role supervising the compliance of platforms established in Ireland with the European Union’s Digital Services Act, will assess Elon Musk-owned X’s compliance with parts of the law. […] The investigation arose from concerns held by the Irish regulator’s supervision team, as well as information provided by a non-governmental organization, HateAid, and a...

The House on Wednesday passed a funding bill that will end the government shutdown, the longest in U.S. history, by a margin of 222-209. President Donald Trump is scheduled to sign the bill later Wednesday. The legislation will fund the government through Jan. 30 and provide funding for some government agencies for the remainder of the fiscal year.

The police have warned of a new method that scammers are deploying to fraudulently open accounts with payment service providers (PSPs) — using digitally modified copies of Singapore identity cards (IC). Scammers would use a softcopy of a IC and use digital tools to replace the original facial image on that copy with another facial image. They would then submit the doctored copy online to PSPs to set up payment service account. When PSPs conduct mandatory facial liveness checks, the scammers would then instruct an accomplice who resembles the doctored image to undergo the checks. -Advertisement- The police said some...

~ The FReeper Canteen Presents ~ ~ Remembering Our Troops!! ~ Can You See Me Now?” Sgt. Trevor Nicholas Tate, 6th Brigade Engineer Battalion, 2nd Infantry Brigade Combat Team (Airborne), 11th Airborne Division, provides roadside security during exercise Joint Pacific Multinational Readiness Center-Alaska 23-02 in the Yukon Training Area, Alaska. (Army photo/John Pennell) Canteen Mission StatementShowing support and boosting the morale ofour military and our allies' militaryand family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. This is how you handle terrorists! Students with the Marine Corps Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps program from Tolleson High School, Arizona,...

A court in Vietnam handed jail sentences on Wednesday (Nov 12) to two former local officials who wagered millions of dollars under false foreign names, in a closely-watched gambling trial, state media reported. The pair were part of an illegal gambling ring run by South Koreans out of a swanky Hanoi hotel and comprising more than 140 people, prosecutors had alleged. The outfit was said to include former government and communist party officials, entertainers and businesspeople who placed bets totalling more than US$106 million. The slot, roulette and baccarat machines at the gilded King Club in the capital's five-star Pullman...

Reuters reports that Peruvian authorities announced the discovery of a major lost ancient city in the country's Barranca province. The site of Peñico was founded high in the Andes mountains between 1800 and 1500 b.c. following the collapse of the nearby Caral culture, which is often considered the oldest civilization in the Americas. The site features a monumental central plaza with a large circular structure and walls bearing relief sculptures and depictions of pututus, or conch shell trumpets. Over the past several years, archaeologists have uncovered 18 buildings that include residential complexes and ceremonial temples. Among the objects they recovered...

Pennsylvania Sen. John Fetterman defended his voting record and addressed the criticism he's received from some in his own party for meeting and sometimes voting with President Trump. "I vote a 91% Democratic line, and if Democrats have a problem with somebody that votes 91% of the same times as you are, more than nine out of 10 times, then maybe our party has a bigger problem," he said in an interview that aired Wednesday on "CBS Mornings." Fetterman voted with Republicans over a dozen times to fund the government and end the government shutdown while most Senate Democrats held...

The world wants an American climate leader, and Gavin Newsom is happy to play the part — even if the country he represents isn’t quite ready to follow.BELÉM, Brazil — Gavin Newsom can’t get out of a meeting or a talk at the international climate talks here without being swarmed by reporters and diplomats eager for a quote, a handshake, a photo.On a tour Tuesday of a cultural center with Gov. Helder Barbalho, the leader of the Brazilian state hosting the talks, a passerby recognized them both. “There’s the governor,” he exclaimed. “And there’s the California governor.” Later in the...

New words are routinely popping up to describe an evolving relationship landscape - but also paint a largely dispiriting picture. If buzzy dating terms and trends are anything to go by, 2025 hasn’t made relationships sound too appealing. Granted, the course of true love never did run smooth and all that, but considering how modern dating in a digital age leaves many confused, disillusioned and frequently reporting that it’s akin to wading through the bin juice of humanity, it’s hardly surprising that the ever-growing relationship glossary veers towards the negative. New words are routinely popping up to describe the evolving...

SOCIALIST WAVE? NOT HAPPENING — YET.2025 Election Reality Check: The Left’s Cracks Are Showing, and America’s Still Fighting BackAs a conservative, I take no joy in watching the radical left's grip tighten on our cities and states—yet even the most disheartening Democratic wins should remind us that their internal fractures are America’s opportunity. What unfolds in the Democrat Party doesn't just echo in blue strongholds; it reverberates nationwide, dragging us all toward higher taxes, open borders, and woke extremism. Take New York City: Zohran Mamdani, that Islamo-Marxist firebrand with a history of bigoted rants and socialist fever dreams, slimed his...

A key Atlantic current could be pushed to the brink of collapse within decades, supposedly ushering in a new ice age and dramatically raising sea levels, climate scientists have claimed in a controversial new study published in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. The apocalyptic predictions came as a result of a collaboration between researchers at the Institute of Oceanology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (IOCAS) and the University of California, San Diego — weeks after one-time climate alarmist Bill Gates publicly downplayed the impact of temperature fluctuations on the planet.

A federal judge ordered the release of more than 600 people arrested as part of the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown in Illinois, according to CNN affiliate WLS, dealing a blow to federal efforts to detain and deport as many undocumented people as possible. US District Judge Jeffrey Cummings on Wednesday morning sided with attorneys from the National Immigrant Justice Center and the ACLU. The plaintiffs alleged more than 3,000 people were arrested between June and October in “Operation Midway Blitz.” Now, 615 of those arrested must be granted bond by noon on November 21, according to the ruling, which applies...

The AI models were prone to safety failures and discrimination, a new study found. Robots powered by artificial intelligence (AI) are not safe for general use, according to a new study. Researchers from the United Kingdom and United States evaluated how AI-driven robots behave when they are able to access people’s personal data, including their race, gender, disability status, nationality, and religion. For their study, which was published in International Journal of Social Robots, they ran tests on how the AI models behind popular chatbots – including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, Microsoft’s Copilot, Meta’s Llama, and Mistral AI – would...

Archaeologists in Egypt have discovered three New Kingdom tombs,,. The burials were found within a cemetery now known as Dra Abu el-Naga, which is near modern-day Luxor (ancient Thebes).The three deceased individuals, all men, each held important roles in ancient Egypt's temples and grain silos. So it's no surprise they were buried at the Dra Abu el-Naga cemetery, which is located near the Nile and is a necropolis for important non-royal people.One of the tombs belongs to a man named "Amun-Em-Ipet" who served in a temple or estate that was dedicated to Amun, a god associated with ancient Thebes, Egypt's...

Things are going from bad to worse for Chuck Schumer.Leading congressional Democrats thought they had it made. Force a government shutdown, sabotage President Donald Trump’s agenda – at least for a time – and then extort their Republican opponents on Capitol Hill for all kinds of cash to fund their pet projects. Then Sunday (Nov. 9) rolled around, and seven Senate Democrats and one Independent voted with Republicans to push through a temporary government funding bill. That sets up a fight on the House floor, but the 41-day-old shutdown is, for all intents and purposes, over.Democrats got nothing but a...

I attended Jim's graveside service. I feel like I should post something about it, to give Freepers and his Family some peace. I'm sure his son Chris has many things to do besides make a post about this, so I'm going to do one for him. Hope he doesn't mind. It was a small and Solemn service. A Navy Funeral Presence was there... from the near by base of Lemoore Naval Air Station. They did the United States Flag folding ceremony, and also played Taps. The Rabbi who presided over it, said a wonderful prayer, about mourning death... it wasn't...

Over the past couple of days, my fellow pro-life student leaders and I witnessed first-hand the hostility that many young adults have to the idea that unborn babies shouldn’t be murdered in the womb. Students for Life of America spokesperson Lydia Taylor Davis held a speaking event Monday on my campus, the University of Mary Washington, during her “Make Gen Z Anti-Abortion” tour. I’m on the leadership team of Students for Life of America’s University of Mary Washington chapter. Throughout the weeks leading up to that event, our flyers advertising it were frequently taken down by other students. In light...