Free Republic

CHICAGO — Valerie Jarrett has gone from friend, confidante and special senior advisor to Barack Obama during his two terms in office to CEO of the Obama Foundation. And with less than a month to go, she’s about to witness the birth of the Obama Presidential Center. The 19.3-acre campus in Chicago’s Jackson Park neighborhood is set to open to the public June 19. “It exceeds my wildest expectations. I think we’ve really done a great job. We worked with the community to help us on the design and the jobs and the feel,” she said. “I think people will...

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — The Trump administration is pushing to unleash the power of artificial intelligence for the U.S. military while facing calls to put up guardrails around the rapidly developing technology from some companies — and even notes of caution from top leaders in uniform.Adm. Frank Bradley, head of U.S. Special Operations Command, told attendees of a recent annual special forces conference in Tampa, Florida, that troops “have to be very careful about how we come to (AI’s) employment and its inspiration into the delivery of lethality.”Bradley said he can see a future where AI determines what targets to...

President Trump posted several mock-up images of the “drone port” he hopes to build at the top of the proposed White House ballroom over the weekend — while taking a jab at the judge who is trying to delay construction. “The DronePort at the White House Ballroom will be, perhaps, the most sophisticated anywhere in the World!” Trump boasted on Truth Social. “It will safeguard our Nation’s Capital, Washington, D.C., long into the future. “Judge Richard Leon should stop playing games with America’s Security! If anything happens, he will be held responsible for the Death and Destruction caused to our...

The hiring of Seahawks assistant G.M. Nolan Teasley as the Vikings’ new G.M. will carry a specific benefit for his former team. Per the league, Teasley qualifies as a diverse candidate under the NFL provision that gives the former team of a newly-hired G.M. or head coach a pair of third-round compensatory draft picks.

The Communist Chinese government rebuked a U.S. Army general for using the words “dagger” and “shield” to respectively describe regional allies South Korea and Japan. Four-star Gen. Xavier Brunson, the commander of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) and United Nations Command, made the analogy during a May 22 podcast interview conducted by the United States Army War College, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) first reported. Nearly a week later, the Chinese embassy in South Korea responded by issuing what it called a “solemn warn[ing]” to the general, claiming his use of figurative language to characterize the U.S.’s East...

POTTSVILLE, Pa. -- A Schuylkill County school show put on by kindergartners was stopped short on Wednesday, following an altercation in the audience, officials say. Now police say two Pottsville men are facing charges. Parents took off from work and arrived Wednesday morning to watch their kindergarten students' end-of-the-year concert at John S. Clarke Elementary Center. "It's what every parent dreams to go and check out, see their cuteness. It was awesome," said Jay Rose, a parent of one of the kindergarteners performing that day. While the students took center stage during the school day, it was a handful of...

In Los Angeles, City firefighters are lashing out at Mayor Karen Bass' neglect to sufficiently budget for fire safety. Councilwoman Traci Park, the lone dissenter on the City Council's priorities for spending said "here we are a year and a half after the worst disaster in our city's history, and our fire department investments are being deferred. Our firefighters are being asked to do more with less. Response times have lengthened. Work shifts have become longer and some paychecks have been missed." The Mayor insisted that "the fact that Park is consistently one vote against the fifteen other Council members...

A transatlantic United Airlines flight from Newark to Palma de Mallorca made an emergency diversion back to New York on Saturday night because a Bluetooth speaker carried by a teen passenger on the flight had been named ‘BOMB.’ United flight UA-236 had departed nearly two hours late at around 6:08 pm on May 30 due to a technical issue with the Boeing 767 used for the service, but this turned out to be a minor drama compared to what was to come next. screenshot of flight radar 24 showing the diversion of UA236 on May 30 Courtesy Flight Radar 24....

At 96 years old, Clint Eastwood has had one of the most illustrious careers in Hollywood. Born in San Francisco on May 31, 1930, Eastwood first served in the army before he ventured into acting. He got his big break in 1959, starring as Rowdy Yates on CBS' Rawhide and his career took off from there. Throughout his 66-year-long career, Eastwood has starred in classics such as Escape from Alcatraz, Dirty Harry, Mystic River, Million Dollar Baby, Bridges of Madison County and has directed a staggering 40 films, including American Sniper, Heartbreak Ridge, Flags of Our Fathers and more. Eastwood's...

Few biblical tales have stirred the imagination across cultures as powerfully as the legendary meeting between King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Told in the First Book of Kings (10:1–13), the story describes a mysterious monarch who traveled from a distant land with caravans of gold, spices, and precious stones to test Solomon with riddles and witness his famed wisdom... Yet, despite the vividness of the episode, the identity and location of her kingdom remain one of the Bible’s enduring mysteries. The two most widely accepted views place Sheba either in southern Arabia (present-day Yemen) or in Ethiopia... Proponents...

31 May 2026 The Most Holy Trinity Solemnity The tomb of St. Petronilla of Rome, altar of St. Petronilla, St. Peter's Basilica Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: White. Year: A(II).First readingExodus 34:4-6,8-9'Lord, Lord, a God of tenderness and compassion'With the two tablets of stone in his hands, Moses went up the mountain of Sinai in the early morning as the Lord had commanded him. And the Lord descended in the form of a cloud, and Moses stood with him there. He called on the name of the Lord. The Lord passed before him and proclaimed, ‘Lord, Lord, a God of...

A survey has found that over seven in ten people in France believe that crime is “out of control”, with fears that the country is sliding towards a “Mexinization” in which public authority is destroyed. According to a poll this week from CSA for Le Journal du Dimanche, 72 percent of French people believe that crime is out of control. This belief is firmest among supporters of the center-right Républicains at 92 percent, followed by 83 percent of National Rally, and 62 percent of supporters of President Emmanuel Macron’s neo-liberal bloc. The sentiment was also held by a majority of...

President Donald Trump wants someone to go count the gold at Fort Knox. On May 31, Trump posted an image to Truth Social reading "Time to Physically Audit Fort Knox." It was attached to a New York Post story headlined "Former CIA official arrested after feds find $40M worth of gold bars stashed at his home." The post drew more than 10,000 likes....

Most people think a civil war starts with a gunshot. It doesn't. It starts the moment half the country concludes the rules of the game have been permanently rigged against them — and that there is no legitimate way to change that. We may be closer to that moment than most people realize. And I can show you exactly how we get there — step by step.

Racial justice advocates descended on Capitol Hill to slam the Trump administration’s policies that they say are an “attack on the Black economy,” as Black Americans see rising unemployment and disproportionate impacts of America’s affordability crisis. “The state of the Black economy is under attack,” said U.S. Rep. Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.), who hosted a press conference on Wednesday with coalition groups, including the NAACP, Color of Change, the National Urban League, and The Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. “We are plagued by an economic crisis that is a direct result of Trump’s reckless financial policies that are...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Sen. Patty Murray said she broke her ankle earlier this week after tripping while running down the stairs, but said she planned to return to the Capitol next week for votes and hearings. (snip) "Earlier this week, while running down the stairs in a rush, I tripped and ended up breaking my ankle—I wouldn’t recommend it. Next week, I’ll be back at the Capitol for votes and hearings and doing everything else I can to be a voice for Washington state in the Senate—I’ll just be swapping one of my tennis shoes for an ankle brace for...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said he is still hoping to land a major deal to buy advanced US military drones, saying it would be a potentially “huge’’ game-changer in the war. His comments came as he warned that Ukraine was set to be brutally pummeled by Russia by air again for the second week in a row. Zelensky argued that fusing the dramatic advancements Ukraine has made with its drone technology because of its battlefield experience against Moscow with America’s remarkable military capabilities would be “huge” and beneficial for both countries. “American technological companies, they have a lot...

If the standoff in the Strait of Hormuz is a game of chicken, it sounds as though the Iranians will either swerve first – or accelerate. One way or the other, though, the blockade appears to have succeeded in bringing the regime to its crisis point. As discussions around a potential deal (really a pre-deal) continue, the IRGC has begun to demand an end to the US Navy's complete siege on Iranian ports. That message has come from the top of the food chain today, including the Nepo Babytollah's supposed attaché: [X links at source article] The "direct action" threat...

Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon. “Anyone who is able to include Israel on the same list as Hamas terrorists and rapists has no sense of morality,” he said. “Antonio Guterres, who justified the October 7 massacre, whitewashed the involvement of UNRWA employees in the massacre, and led the organization to an unprecedented low, is using the last months of his term to advance political and false accusations against Israel.” - The United Nations has added Israeli entities to a blacklist of countries that commit sexual violence in conflict zones, The Jerusalem Post has learned. The list includes Hamas and...

A judge in Schenectady County has handed down the maximum sentence of 25 years to life to a mother convicted of the depraved indifference murder of her 11-month-old daughter, Halo Branton. During the trial, the court reviewed harrowing evidence: video footage showed Nelson placing her infant into a pitch-black, 8-foot-deep hole in freezing conditions and walking away. Despite having 28 minutes to change her course, she left the child to succumb to hypothermia while she sought shelter. In an emotional sentencing hearing, the court dismantled the defense's argument that this was an accident, citing the defendant's conscious decisions and lack...