Free Republic

Members on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee are divided over whether President Donald Trump should pardon Jeffrey Epstein’s convicted co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell in exchange for her cooperation in the panel’s Epstein investigation, Chair James Comer said in an interview Wednesday. Maxwell, who was deposed by the Oversight Committee as the sole convicted accomplice in the Epstein sex trafficking scheme, previously invoked her Fifth Amendment right in declining to answer the panel’s questions. Her lawyer has said that she would only speak if granted clemency — a power available solely to Trump, who has not ruled out the prospect...

Working at a 24/7 bodega in the heart of Brooklyn, Tajuken Deli employees are prepared for almost anything – except having guns pointed at their heads by cops. That’s what seemed to be happening one early April morning last year, when four armed men dressed in police uniforms flashed their badges, yelling “NYPD” as they stormed the neighborhood shop. Surveillance video shows one worker being quickly knocked to the ground and zip-tied into submission before being dragged to the back of the store. Another worker and customer were also subdued as the masked thieves dressed as cops made off with...

Government agencies are under increasing pressure to do more with less, all while working to maintain security, compliance, and public trust. High-quality data is one of the few levers that directly supports all three. Accurate citizen address data may seem like a basic operational detail. Yet it underpins everything from citizen communications to fraud prevention, compliance, and emergency response. When data is outdated or inaccurate, consequences ripple across entire programs and leave citizens underserved. Public agencies need to adopt a strategic mindset in support of citizen data accuracy. They otherwise risk sending critical communications like tax documents, benefits information, public...

Justice Sonia Sotomayor issued a rare apology after criticizing the background of her conservative colleague Justice Brett Kavanaugh. She had questioned whether he understood the lives of hourly workers during a speech at a law school. Sotomayor said Kavanaugh’s reasoning showed a disconnect from regular people because his parents were professionals. “This is from a man whose parents were professionals. And probably doesn’t really know any person who works by the hour.” The liberal justice later walked back those comments and confirmed she apologized to Kavanaugh directly. The case at the center of the fight involved the Supreme Court’s conservative...

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi was splattered with red liquid on Thursday as he left a building in Berlin. Pahlavi had just departed a news briefing, during which he criticized the ceasefire between the United States and Iran, when the incident occurred outside Germany’s federal news conference building. He appeared unhurt by the liquid coating the back of his blazer and neck, and waved to his supporters before he got into a car that drove away. Police said the liquid appeared to be tomato juice. The alleged perpetrator, whose name was not released in line with German privacy rules,...

The regime appears to be trying to prevent a widespread outbreak of protests by reinforcing its presence on the ground, according to Effi Banai, a lecturer and researcher of social networks.

The stablecoin issuer said the action followed U.S. law enforcement requests as global watchdog FATF warned of growing role of digital dollars in illicit money flows.

An $81 billion Warner-Paramount mega merger has received shareholders’ stamp of approval, propelling a deal that could vastly reshape Hollywood and the wider media landscape closer to the finish line… That corporate drama may now be over, but the implications remain. Thousands of actors, directors, writers and other industry professionals have voiced “unequivocal opposition” to the deal, in a letter arguing that further consolidation will lead to job losses and fewer choices for filmmakers and movie goers… The merger would bring together two of Hollywood’s remaining five legacy studios. It would also join two major streaming platforms — Paramount+ and...

It’s one thing to see a graph saying, “12 million illegal migrants entered Europe since 2008.” It’s another thing to actually see it. Every blip in this animation represents 100 people. (Click link to watch 15 second video)

Germany announced a new military strategy with the goal of building “Europe’s strongest conventional army” by 2039. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius revealed the proposal speaking to the German parliament on Wednesday, and detailed a public outlining for the “future direction” of the Bundeswehr, the German Armed Forces. One of the goals of the plan, the German Defense Ministry said in a statement, is for Germany to take “more responsibility” within NATO. “We are developing the Bundeswehr into the strongest conventional army in Europe. In the short term, we are increasing our defense and resilience, in the medium term we are...

If the Senate wants to fight inflation and put the US economy on an even keel, it should confirm Kevin Warsh to head the Federal Reserve Board as soon as possible. Warsh’s confirmation hearing Tuesday before the Senate Banking Committee should remove any doubt that he’s the right man to head the Fed. A Stanford professor who served on the Fed board from 2006 to 2011, he’s won the respect of almost everyone, including many Democrats. Warsh made that clear Tuesday, echoing what he stressed in 2010: “Independence in the conduct of monetary policy is at the core of advanced...

Global power generation from fossil fuels fell in the first month since the start of the Hormuz closure, with the fall in gas-fired generation offset by large increases in solar and wind power, rather than coal. The power generation dataset prepared for this analysis covers countries that disclose near-real-time data. The dataset covers 87% of global coal power generation and over 60% of gas-fired power generation. Total power generation from fossil fuels in countries with near-real-time data fell 1% year-on-year, with coal-fired generation flat and gas-fired generation falling 4%. The dataset covers the world’s largest power markets: China, the U.S.,...

For about the past ten years, the left has been running the same tired little hustle on repeat: men are toxic, masculinity is dangerous, boys are broken, and women are the noble, enlightened victims forced to endure all of it. Every cultural message they pump out points in the same exact direction. Blame men, lecture them, and shame them. Make sure they know they’re the problem, then act shocked when they stop showing up.

A transgender woman and her partner were arrested Monday for allegedly kidnapping her 10-year-old son and flying him to Cuba – where the child’s biological mother feared he would undergo gender reassignment surgery. Trouble emerged after Rose Inessa-Ethington, 42, and her partner, 32-year-old Blue Inessa-Ethington, purportedly took Rose’s kid under the guise of going on a camping trip in Canada, the US Attorney’s Office said in a Tuesday press release. The blended family crossed the northern border but never checked into their hotel. Aside from one brief phone call on March 28, they cut off all communication with the boy’s...

... Promoters of assisted suicide always couch their arguments in the language of compassion for those suffering from terminal illness, and 11 US states also permit assisted suicide, all of them except for Montana being dominated by the Democratic Party. This practice always has been couched in the language of “death with dignity,” and it generally has strong support from the political left ... ... ... what began as a way ostensibly to end the suffering of terminally ill people has morphed into a program responsible for one in 20 Canadian deaths, with more than 100,000 people killed since the...

oundation Industries chief strategic adviser Eric Trump, the son of President Donald Trump, and company CEO Sankaet Pathak joined Fox Business host Maria Bartiromo to hail the U.S. as the “greatest economy in the world” after the company scored a $24 million Pentagon contract for its battlefield robotics project. Eric Trump, who is an investor in Foundation and was appointed chief strategic adviser in March, appeared on Mornings with Maria to tout the deal and the company’s Phantom 2 technology, a humanoid robot it envisions could be deployed to the frontlines in war and in heavy industry contexts. The company’s...

A Georgia congressman is proposing a controversial new idea -- he’s calling the “Make D.C. Square Again Act." He said it would expand Washington, D.C. by adding Arlington and Alexandria into the nation's capital. In a post on X, Congressman Rick McCormick said Arlington and Alexandria were “always meant” to be part of D.C., arguing the change would simplify long-running debates over political maps and representation. "What we want to do is make D.C. square again. It's a simple concept. Square. We repeal that unconsituational law, gIve back Virginia exactly what it should have, give D.C. what it should have...

The Finance Ministry said Tuesday it will issue commemorative ¥1,000 [US$6.25] coins marking the 100th anniversary of the 1926 start of the Showa Era. The coins will be priced at ¥34,800 [US$218] apiece. The obverse design features a Shinkansen bullet train, Tokyo Tower and expressways in color, symbolizing postwar reconstruction and rapid economic growth. The reverse depicts Mount Fuji, cherry blossoms and doves. A total of 40,000 coins will be issued. Japan Mint will accept applications for about three weeks starting Aug. 20. This marks the first coin honoring a Japanese era since silver coins were issued in 2018 to...

At the beginning of last year, the mother’s only child died in a traffic accident. His family hoped to conceal the news from his mother, who is in her 80s and has heart disease. The man’s son contacted Zhang, asking him to create a digital twin of his father by providing numerous pictures, videos and audio recordings of him speaking in his dialect. The creation looks exactly like the dead man and even mimics his habit of leaning forward while speaking, the report said. The virtual son talks to the mother every day via a video call at a chat...

AI chip design startup Verkor.io claims, in a research paper published in March, that its agentic AI system, Design Conductor, autonomously produced a complete RISC-V CPU core — taking a 219-word requirements document and generating a verified, layout-ready design in 12 hours, which is orders of magnitude faster than the standard 18- to 36-month timelines seen in commercial chip design. This is the first time an autonomous agent has built a working CPU from spec to GDSII layout file, according to Verkor. The resulting processor — VerCore — is a five-stage pipelined, in-order, single-issue core that met timing at 1.48...