Free Republic

Coinbase chief executive Brian Armstrong informed employees in an early morning message Tuesday that the cryptocurrency exchange would eliminate roughly 14% of its workforce — about 700 jobs — as the company restructures around artificial intelligence. Armstrong shared the memo publicly on social media shortly before 7 a.m., telling staff the cuts were necessary as AI rapidly reshapes how work is done across the tech industry. The billionaire co-founder said impacted employees would receive additional details within the hour, though some workers later said their access to company systems had already been limited by the time the email landed. “I...

New data shows 18%, or nearly 1 in 5, of tested students and staff at Archbishop Riordan High School in San Francisco were diagnosed with either latent or active tuberculosis during an outbreak that started in November.New testing is scheduled to start today.In total, 96% of the school community was tested, seven people were diagnosed with active cases during the course of the outbreak and 241 latent cases were reported, according to data released by the San Francisco Department of Public Health on April 27 to the school community.

Long-serving Charlotte, North Carolina Mayor Vi Lyles, who faced calls to resign after urging compassion for the deranged vagrant accused of brutally stabbing Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska aboard a city train last year, announced she will leave her post just six months after being re-elected. The five-term Democrat, 73, said in a press release that she would resign June 30 and would not be seeking another term next year when her term ends, but offered no concrete reason for her sudden and unexpected departure. “Serving as Charlotte’s mayor has been the honor of my life. I am proud of our...

As Iran says it's reviewing the latest U.S. proposal to end the war, it is also attempting to formalize its control over the vital shipping lanes of the Strait of Hormuz, which were free and open prior to the U.S.-Israeli attacks on Iran. Shipping intelligence firm Lloyd's List says the strait is now closed, as Iran says an agency it just created is in charge of clearing vessels for transit.President Trump is again voicing optimism for a peace deal, saying the war will be "over quickly" and insisting it's going "unbelievably well." But he also warned Wednesday that if Iran...

THE home of one of “Britain’s first gay dads” has been raided by cops as part of a probe into rape and human trafficking allegations. Officers swooped on reality TV star Barrie Drewitt-Barlow’s Essex mansion as part of the ongoing investigation. Officers raided the multi-millionaire’s home, where he lives with husband Scott Hutchinson, as well as properties in nearby Braintree and Maldon. Police cars and forensic teams could be seen lining the driveway and the country road leading up to the lavish pad near Danbury. Essex Police said two suspects were arrested on suspicion of rape, human trafficking for sexual...

Jewish community leaders are blasting California’s Secretary of State for publishing a voter information guide statement from a fringe gubernatorial candidate who espoused anti-Jewish conspiracy theories. Don J. Grundmann, an independent with no party affiliation and no prior political experience, is among dozens of candidates who qualified for the ballot. California residents are receiving their voter guides in the mail this month ahead of the June primary. Grundmann’s statement includes a litany of conspiracies, including claims that conservative commentator Charlie Kirk was killed by an Israeli bomb and that Israeli “art students” brought down the Twin Towers on 9/11. “These...

My recent article “A Roadmap to Take Back Higher Education” got a mixed reaction from tradition-minded professors. They liked the general framework of the scale of the problem facing the humanities, the suggestion to support the new autonomous schools being developed rather than individual professors, and the suggestion that philanthropists dedicate large-scale grants for these schools. They didn’t like my suggestion that philanthropists need to focus on supporting teaching, not research: If [philanthropists] fund professors with 2-2 teaching loads and a half-dozen worthy books to their credit, they will have wasted their money. Their dollars will be far more effective...

Muslims polled ahead of this week's local elections will 'punish' the Government by supporting pro-Gaza candidates, reports suggest.

“The antiabortion movement is turning on Trump,” was a headline that ran in The Wall Street Journal this week. Pro-life groups, including Susan B. Anthony Pro-Life America, are frustrated with President Trump, as the article detailed, because his administration’s policy allows states (and thereby their residents) to decide abortion policy. Total abortions in the U.S. have slightly increased since the 2022 overturning of Roe v. Wade, despite widespread state bans. “Trump is the problem. The president is the problem,” Marjorie Dannenfelser, president of Susan B. Anthony, told The Journal. No, Marjorie. President Trump is not the problem. He has been...

Tennessee state Rep. Justin Pearson, a 30-year-old progressive activist and lawmaker who gained national attention as one of the "Tennessee Three," is launching a primary challenge against longtime Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen. Pearson's campaign, framed around the slogan "It's About Us," highlights Memphis's 22.6% poverty rate -- nearly double the state average -- and pledges "urgent solutions to persistent crises" in Tennessee's only Democratic congressional district. Pearson's bid is part of a broader wave of intraparty contests pitting younger progressives against long-established incumbents.

The video celebrates Tennessee Republicans passing a new congressional redistricting map that eliminates the state's only Democrat-held district (in Memphis), turning all congressional seats into safe Republican ones. Key Points: Redistricting action: The Tennessee House passed the map (64-24 vote), splitting the Democrat-controlled Memphis district into two others. The Senate also approved it, and it heads to Governor Bill Lee (expected to sign). This follows similar moves in states like Florida. Context: Benny Johnson argues Tennessee (won overwhelmingly by Trump) had an unconstitutional/"racist" carve-out DEI-style district with no justification. The new map better reflects the state's strong Republican lean (Trump...

An outbreak of hantavirus on board a cruise ship is not the start of a pandemic, the UN health agency has said. Maria van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the World Health Organization (WHO), told a news briefing that it was not the same situation as six years ago with Covid-19, because hantavirus spreads through "close, intimate contact". Health authorities are racing to trace dozens of people who have recently disembarked from the Dutch vessel MV Hondius. On Thursday, the WHO said that overall, five of eight suspected cases of hantavirus had been confirmed. Three people have died, including...

Explanation: A long time ago, in a distant galaxy, a massive star was destroyed in a supernova explosion. The light of this event travelled for tens of millions of years and reached Earth last week as Supernova 2026kid. The featured video shows a time-lapse over three nights of the host galaxy NGC 5907, an edge-on spiral also known as the Splinter or Knife Edge Galaxy, as the supernova appears and becomes brighter. (The occasional streaks are satellites in Earth orbit.) At its brightest, a supernova can outshine the sum of all other stars in its galaxy. Supernova 2026kid appears relatively...

Many Democrats wish former Vice President Kamala Harris would have run for governor of California rather than potentially making another bid for the presidency in 2028, according to a new report. Amid a hotly contested gubernatorial race in the Golden State in which numerous candidates are splitting the Democratic vote, The New York Times highlighted how Harris could have decisively changed this in a piece headlined, "A California Dream? Some Democrats Fear Harris Picked the Wrong Race." "Maybe, they say, she should have run for governor instead of publicly pondering a third run for president," the Times noted. California has...

Move comes days after supreme court ruling weakened Voting Rights Act protections against racial gerrymanderingTennessee’s Republican-dominated legislature passed redistricting maps on Thursday, eliminating the state’s one Democratic, Black-majority congressional district a week after the US supreme court effectively gutted a major section of the Voting Rights Act.The move cracks Tennessee’s ninth congressional district, which covers Memphis, into three pieces, each of which contains almost exactly a third of the city’s Black voters. The new maps mean that all nine of Tennessee’s congressional districts are Republican-leaning.The district had closely occupied the south-west corner of the state. Now three districts snake out...

President Donald Trump accused House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., of inciting the most recent assassination attempt against him, further escalating his feud with the top Democrat. Trump argued in a Truth Social post on Thursday that Jeffries should be arrested after promoting "warfare" against Republicans just days before the assassination scare at the White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in April. "This lunatic, Hakeem "Low IQ" Jeffries, should be charged with INCITING VIOLENCE!" Trump wrote on social media. He included images of Jeffries standing with a sign displaying the words "maximum warfare" and the faces of Trump and his aide...

Anthropic is releasing new AI agents tailored to banks and other financial services businesses—part of the artificial intelligence company’s plan to expand its reach among enterprise customers as it charts a path to an anticipated initial public offering as early as this year. On Tuesday, the company announced 10 new AI agents that help automate what it described as the most common forms of financial work, among them, building pitchbooks, closing the books and drafting credit memos. Earlier this week, Anthropic partnered with Fidelity National Information Services to develop AI-driven software that would help banks police accounts for signs of...

Archaeologists uncovered the 11,000-year-old site near Saskatchewan in western Canada, saying it confirms that highly organized societies existed in the region far earlier than previously believed. Excavations uncovered stone tools, fire pits and toolmaking materials, suggesting the area was a long-term settlement rather than a temporary hunting camp. Charcoal layers also indicate that early Indigenous inhabitants practiced controlled fire management, aligning with longstanding oral traditions. The team also uncovered remains of the extinct Bison antiquus, a massive species that weighed up to 4,400lb and likely served as a key hunting target for the ancient civilization. Dr Glenn Stuart of the...

Germany is so far gone that even immigrants have their own jokes about themselves all being on welfare while the natives work to pay for their lifestyle.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made a fence-mending visit to the Vatican on Thursday to underscore strong bilateral ties, after U.S. President Donald Trump's broadsides against Pope Leo XIV for his opposition to the Iran war angered the Holy See and sparked ongoing sparring between them. The U.S. State Department said that the meetings with Leo and the Vatican's top diplomat covered peace in the Middle East and "underscored the strong relationship between the United States and the Holy See," and reflected the "enduring partnership" between them.