Free Republic

Can Arabs wage a Holy War?Lake Success, L.I., 29. (By Ruth Karpf, Special Correspondent for *La Patrie*).The Arabs have drawn their scimitars and brandish them beneath the very eyes of the United Nations. They drew them on the day the United Nations voted to partition Palestine, and they made them flash—for the first time in the eyes of the world—during the meetings of the General Assembly, when spokesperson after spokesperson for the Arab nations hurled a challenge at the United Nations, whose decisions and authority they had, only moments before, sworn to respect.

Sam Altman, the co-founder of OpenAI, which launched ChatGPT, is not overweight. Gay tech billionaires rarely are. Even so, as he explained in a recent interview, he was keen to try a GLP-1, one of those drugs that have revolutionised weight loss in the past five years. You can understand why he was curious. Ozempic or Mounjaro might appear to have nothing in common with artificial intelligence, but both phenomena have created a sensation that we’re entering an era of accelerating and uncontrollable change. Alas, he screwed it up. He had someone inject him with a megadose, puked all night...

Deep in the archives of the Vatican library, a mysterious hand-written book, scrawled with strange symbols, had lain unread for more than 400 years. Its cryptic pages apparently concealed secret remedies "for affections of the human body", according to some text scratched inside the cover. Such healing practices were kept under wraps at the time since they could attract suspicion or even accusations of witchcraft.Known as the Borg cipher, the 408-page-long manuscript is mostly incomprehensible -- coded using 34 obscure symbols with a few Roman letters and a front page written in Arabic. There was no known key to reveal...

Imagine a world run by AI agents. What does it look like? What are the values or societal priorities? Is it a safer or more dangerous world? Enterprise AI startup Emergence AI is trying to find out. The company just launched Emergence World, a research lab dedicated to stress-testing the long-term viability of continuously-running AI systems. The organization ran five 15-day simulations, each governed by a different AI: Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, and a fifth simulation run by a mix of models to see what kind of world each one builds, and whether it holds.Each simulation netted wildly different outcomes....

This video features commentary on the recent refurbishments at Meridian Hill Park (also known as Malcolm X Park) in Washington, D.C., attributing these improvements to the current administration. Key takeaways from the video: Park Improvements: The video highlights the cleaning and restoration of Meridian Hill Park, specifically noting that the iconic 13-tier cascading fountain is operational again for the first time in nearly a decade (0:00-0:25). Political Commentary: The creator frames the park's restoration as a fulfillment of campaign promises to "clean up" D.C. The narrative argues that the city has become cleaner and safer under President Trump's administration, often...

Please join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media.1 Timothy 2:1-2 I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness.Religion Forum threads labeled “Prayer” are closed to debate of any kind.

Jill Biden said she was "shocked" that former Vice President Kamala Harris lost the 2024 election, saying the enthusiasm she saw on the campaign trail made her believe Harris would win.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told CBS News in an exclusive interview that his government has evidence that Russia is abducting Ukrainian children and training them to fight against fellow Ukrainians. It is an allegation that may constitute a war crime, according to the International Criminal Court. This is the first time that Zelenskyy has publicly made this accusation, which goes beyond the documented evidence that Russia has a state-sponsored program of taking Ukrainian children to camps for reeducation or "Russification." "When these children grow up and they push these boys to the battlefield," Zelenskyy said. Zelenskyy said "yes have evidence...

HOUSTON/GEORGETOWN, May 30 (Reuters) - Guyana was already the world’s fastest growing economy before the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran drove up oil prices. Now, the tiny Caribbean nation of nearly 1 million people will reap an even bigger bonanza as the conflict reshapes global energy markets. The war that caused one of the largest energy disruptions in history highlights the growing importance of countries including Guyana that offer political stability and geographically unrestricted access to their estimated ​11 billion barrels of oil reserves. This growing windfall from crude brings pressure from business owners and locals on the government to use...

Joe Negri, the actor and musician who delighted children for more than three decades on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood, has died at 99. Negri died Saturday, just days before he would have turned 100 on June 10, according to TribLive. His oldest daughter, Lisa Negri, confirmed to the publication that he died of natural causes, though his exact cause of death has not yet been revealed. Negri, who appeared on Mister Rogers' Neighborhood as Handyman Negri, is credited with appearing on 331 episodes of the show from the year of its debut, 1968, to the end of its run in 2001....

Researchers at the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) are taking significant steps that can help boost production of oil and natural gas that can be recovered from unconventional formations. The method focuses on recovering these additional resources in shale and other tight reservoirs that have already produced hydrocarbons through hydraulic fracturing in primary recovery operations but still contain large amounts of oil and gas trapped within rocks. In unconventional formations, only a small percentage of hydrocarbons in place are typically extracted. While the new research could help ensure affordable, reliable, and secure energy for the United States. Primary recovery from...

The Young Turks’ chief pundit Cenk Uygur was barred from entering the United Kingdom over government concerns his presence would not be “conducive to the public good,” The Times reported on Sunday. Uygur was set to appear at the SXSW London festival later this week. But British Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood decided the leftist commentator was not fit to enter the country, due in part to his rants against Israel. The Times reported: The decision to block Uygur from travelling to the UK is understood to have been based on several grounds, including fears that his presence would risk exacerbating...

In recent months, at least 20 Yemeni Christians have been arrested for the crime of following Christ... Far more than a crackdown on religious minorities, they demonstrate a growing Christian presence in Yemen significant enough to provoke a response from various ruling entities, including the Houthis... Even secular human rights sources have noted the arrests of Yemeni Christians in recent months in Houthi-controlled areas. Human Rights Watch and ministries in contact with Christians in Yemen confirm that arrests have been made, with some believers confirmed to be in Yemeni prisons while others have simply disappeared. This acknowledgment itself is significant....

“You need Chevron, I need Chevron.” That’s the message from Democratic gubernatorial frontrunner Xavier Becerra, who’s making waves by breaking with the left on one of California’s most ambitious climate policies — as he refuses to fully back the state’s plan to phase out new gas-powered vehicle sales by 2035. The former Health and Human Services secretary, who leads polling ahead of the June 2 primary to replace Gov. Gavin Newsom, stopped short of endorsing the state’s target to ban new gas and hybrid vehicle purchases starting in 2035. “California should transition from gas-powered vehicles when it makes sense —...

For the freedom you enjoyed yesterday... Thank the Veterans who served in The United States Armed Forces. Looking forward to tomorrow's freedom? Support The United States Armed Forces Today! ~ Hall of Heroes ~ Charles George Info from here. Charles George (August 23, 1932 November 30, 1952) was a U.S. Army soldier who received the Medal of Honor for his actions in combat on November 30, 1952, during the Korean War. He was fatally wounded when he threw himself on a grenade to protect other soldiers in his company and was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor. George was...

Big Tech, in addition to its ambition to blot out the sun for Climate Change™, also has big plans to use bioengineered insect species of various sorts to achieve their aim of saving the planet — or, alternatively, for those inclined to “conspiracy theories,” destroying it.Related: Supercomputer Given Authority to Decide Whether to Block Out Sun For Climate ChangeVia California Post (emphasis added):California could soon become a testing ground for one of Google’s most ambitious public health projects yet.The tech giant is seeking federal approval to release up to 32 million specially treated mosquitoes in California and Florida over the...

Brazilian health authorities are monitoring two patients for possible Ebola infection in Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, officials said, sparking further concern of the deadly virus outbreak in central Africa spreading abroad. A 37-year-old man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where the outbreak has been concentrated, "exhibited symptoms such as fever, meeting the definition of a suspected case" of Ebola, the Sao Paulo state government said in a statement on Saturday. While initial tests did not detect the Ebola virus in the patient, he is being monitored and isolated as a precautionary measure at a specialized infectious...

Morris Katz, the supposed wunderkind behind New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani, is also the campaign strategist for Maine Democrat U.S. Senate candidate Graham Platner. At present, Katz has failed to live up to his title. Instead, he is doing cleanup on Aisle 7 because he refused to strategize in order to get ahead of the self-inflicted landmines that have blown up all around his candidate. As RedState reported, the latest scandal involves Platner sexting with at least 12 women soon after he was married, and doing this through an app that has known associations with pedophilia and sex trafficking. hese...

Colombia's presidential election will go to a runoff on 21 June between a leftist and right-wing candidate on opposite ends of the political spectrum, after Sunday's vote produced no overall winner. The right-wing Abelardo de la Espriella, an admirer of Donald Trump, came top in the vote, followed closely by the left-wing senator Iván Cepeda, an ally of the current president Gustavo Petro. The campaign was plagued with violence, including drone strikes, kidnappings, homicides and the assassination of a presidential candidate at a rally last year. Both men offer differing visions for how to solve Colombia's violent internal armed conflict...

The Taliban has introduced a new family law with no minimum age for marriage, prompting warnings from rights groups that the rules risk normalising child weddings in Afghanistan. UN Women's special representative in Afghanistan, Susan Ferguson, said the new legislation represented 'another serious development' in the erosion of women's rights nearly five years after the group returned to power. The agency warned the rules failed to establish a minimum age for marriage and mark a departure from laws in force before the Taliban takeover in August 2021, when Afghanistan criminalised forced child marriage. According to UN Women, the new regulation...