Free Republic

ari Weiss, famously bullied out of her job at the New York Times for thoughtcrimes stemming from independent reasoning, has been at the helm of CBS News for one year. One year into Weiss’s tenure, and facing an ongoing revolt from her progressive underlings, Weiss’s attempts at reform have seemingly hit a dead end. To make good on Weiss’s promises of reform, here are ten modest suggestions for topical news stories for 60 Minutes, the flagship program of CBS News. The Conviction of Karmelo Anthony for the Murder of Austin Metcalf The Berlin Gay Pride Terror Attack The National Crisis...

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth, in his latest effort to boost the role of religion in military life, announced the establishment of the Office of Religious Affairs during his Sept. 30 “State of the Force” address in Quantico, Virginia. The office will give military chaplains a “direct line” to him, he said, without “staff filters” and “bureaucratic dilution” that he characterized as an impediment to meeting service members' religious needs. “The experts, our chaplains, will finally have an advocate at the highest levels,” he said. “Policy and resources will serve the mission, not smother the mission.” He also framed it as...

Edmund, the main antagonist in Shakespeare’s “King Lear,” observes at one point that he is branded with “baseness,” and so decides to become more evil to match the perception. Artificial intelligence developers think their models are doing the same thing. Citing Edmund, researchers at Anthropic wrote that they believed when large language models learned to “cheat” in one area, they embrace their new identities as wrongdoers and behave in this way more broadly. A.I. experts are worried that models that learn to cheat — what’s problematically called “reward hacking” — will basically become Shakespearean evildoers that break the rules and...

AI is killing their A+. More than three fourths of teens use AI to do their schoolwork — but it’s causing test scores to plunge as they rely on the tech “to think,” according to a new survey. Meanwhile, Google is pushing to increase the use of its Gemini AI on school-issued Chromebook computers — which have become nearly universal in American classrooms. A total of 70% of teens ages 13 to 17 said they use AI for homework and assignments in class — with 63% admitting they take the shortcut simply “to get answers,” according to a survey by...

Leo XIV praises foundational Lutheran document: The Augsburg Confession by MelanchthonLeo XIV praises foundational Lutheran document: The Augsburg Confession by Melanchthon.Today, Leo XIV received a delegation of the Lutheran World Federation. He said: “Renewed communion in the apostolic faith, in the sacraments [!], and in the ministries is the goal of our ecumenical journey of grace.”Leo XIV focused particularly on the year 2030, which will mark the 500th anniversary of the Augsburg Confession, presenting it as an opportunity to advance Catholic-Lutheran ecumenism and the pursuit of “full, visible unity.”He claimed: “The Augsburg Confession was originally intended as a document of...

The U.S. Senate failed to advance a bill Wednesday that would have banned congressional stock trading after every Democrat voted against it.The Stop Insider Trading Act, introduced by Rep. Brian Steil, R-Wis., passed the House earlier this year with bipartisan support. It would bar members of Congress, their spouses, and their dependent children from buying new stock issued by public companies while in office.It also includes a provision requiring individuals to present valid photo identification when voting in-person for federal elections.“Democratic Senators have once again let Americans down by voting down the Stop Insider Trading Act,” House Majority Whip Tom...

[Catholic Caucus] Theologian laments how ‘anything goes’ in the Church now'The loss of substance within the Church due to inconsistency is enormous,' writes Professor Hubert Windisch.Professor Hubert Windisch, a German priest and retired professor of theology at the University of Freiburg, has written a piercing assessment of the situation of the Catholic Church that is at the same time encouraging. He sees the growing loss of substance, clarity, and leadership, not only on the level of the Catholic Church in Germany, but also in Rome.“Everything is now called a (pastoral) process,” he writes. “Truth is synodal, the journey is the...

The “Cornell 7” gang rape case is descending into the same lynch-mob hysteria as the notorious Duke lacrosse or “mattress girl” hoaxes of old — only with social media making ­everything worse. It seems we have learned nothing from past injustices... A young woman who goes by “Jane Doe” has filed a civil lawsuit two years after she alleged she was gang-raped by seven men in a sordid, drug-fueled sexual encounter at the Chi Phi fraternity house at the elite Cornell University, where she was a student at the time... Yet, according to Tompkins County District Attorney Matthew Van Houten,...

Complete Transcript SummaryOverall summary The September 30 broadcast revolves around three major themes. International instability: Jones sees the Russia-NATO confrontation, the Iran war, and terrorism as interconnected threats that could produce wider conflict and economic disruption. Concentrated institutional power: His discussions of AI, wealth, surveillance, defense contractors, and UFO disclosure share a common argument: powerful corporations and government-connected organizations allegedly exercise influence without sufficient public accountability. The conflict within conservative media: The extended Candace Owens discussion focuses on the distinction between questioning official accounts and making unsupported accusations. Jones criticizes Owens's investigative methods while also defending his own record and...

Some 20,000 bottles of rare wine worth millions of dollars remain unclaimed more than three years after the implosion of New York City wine store Sherry-Lehmann, The Post has learned. Cratefuls of rare vintages are sitting in the basement floor of a tower at Blue Hill Plaza, a nondescript office development in Rockland County, after the FBI raided the space as part of an ongoing fraud investigation, according to a lawyer representing the landlord. The landlord, Hong Kong-based Glorious Sun, took charge of the $16 million collection after Sherry-Lehmann’s storage business defaulted on its rent at Blue Hill Plaza. Now,...

There are good reasons to be concerned about AI and good reasons to be concerned about the anti-AI movement whose rhetoric is rife with alarmism and short on facts. An instant moral panic with pop-up experts has led to bad policy decisions before. The D.C. governmental phase of the movement began when Sen. Bernie Sanders, an 84-year-old socialist politician whose previous position on technology was that he had no apps on his phone, didn’t seem to recognize the names of major platforms, and had a woman named ‘Melissa’ tell him what he was doing, suddenly announced that he was teaming...

The Biden administration rubber-stamped more than 99% of sponsor applications for unaccompanied migrant children in fiscal year 2024 — leaving kids vulnerable to rapists, gang members and murderers because of the “less stringent” vetting process, according to a memo obtained by The Post. The Department of Health and Human Services processed almost half-a-million migrant kids between 2021 and 2024 who were placed with sponsors by the Office of Refugee Resettlement — but by Biden’s final year in office virtually none of the applications from households taking in the kids were denied. In one horrific instance investigated by HHS, a 15-year-old...

Muslim communist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani officially receivd his federal security clearance this week. It’s unthinkable that such a stone-cold national security threat would be given access to classified intel when he has deep doumented terrorist ties and has deeper allegiances with our enemies than America herself. This is sheer suicidal insanity. It’s official… America has lost her ever-loving mind. It’s unfathomable, but Muslim communist New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani has officially been granted a federal security clearance, giving the Jihadist a green light to spread his venom even further. Mamdani is an apocalyptic Twelver, has met...

Judge William Sullivan denied a request from Lindsay Clancy's attorney to find her not guilty of murder following her first trial. In a ruling Thursday, the judge said that evidence introduced by prosecutors was "sufficient" to justify sending the case to a jury. Kevin Reddington, Clancy's attorney, had made the motion, known as a motion for a required finding of not guilty, numerous times throughout trial – including at the close of the prosecutors' case and the close of the defense's case. Each time it was denied, but as is custom, he renewed the motion following the declaration of a...

Democratic efforts to revamp the Supreme Court gained momentum Thursday as an influential center-left think tank released a plan to limit justices’ terms and misconduct. Third Way’s proposal, shared first with POLITICO, highlights growing unity across the ideological spectrum in the Democratic Party for significant changes to the high court as Americans’ trust in the institution hovers at historic lows. The group says it also wants to inject ideas to overhaul the court — including legislation to set an 18-year term limit and an enforceable ethics code — into the party’s conversations leading up to the 2028 presidential race. “This...

The economic damage from Russian strikes, resulting in lost sales, disrupted workdays and logistical snarls, is in the billions of dollars. The war of attrition between Russia and Ukraine is expanding to encompass both countries’ economies. Military targeting officers are operating as economists in reverse. Increasingly, the objectives of missile and drone strikes are declining output, lost jobs and logistical bottlenecks. Ukrainian officials are calling the current Russian campaign “total war” for its focus on economic impact, rather than on narrower goals like battlefield gains or infrastructure damage. While Moscow has targeted commercial assets throughout the war, its assaults have...

Lawsuits challenging President Donald Trump’s move to cancel $810 million in congressionally approved spending are piling up in courtrooms throughout the country as states and groups that receive federal dollars fight to keep the cash flowing. In the final hours before the fiscal year ended late Wednesday, a half-dozen states went to federal court to challenge Trump’s latest use of a controversial “pocket rescission.” A group that helps students from migrant families go to college also filed suit, trying to preserve about $25 million in education funding Trump is seeking to claw back. At least one federal judge so far...

This video, presented by Black Conservative Perspective, critiques the prevailing media narrative of an inevitable "Blue Wave" in the upcoming elections, arguing that internal Democratic Party divisions and surprising polling data suggest a much more competitive landscape. Key Takeaways: Challenging the Narrative: The creator disputes the idea that the GOP is facing a collapse, pointing to tight Senate races in traditionally blue states like Minnesota (where Peggy Flanagan and Michele Tafoya are effectively tied) and internal tensions within the Democratic Party in Texas and Michigan (0:00 - 3:51). Polling Skepticism: Citing CNN data, the video explores the history of poll...

Explanation: Have you ever seen the full moon rise? This colorful image was photographed last weekend in Sicily, just outside the town of Nicosia, in Italy. It is a composite photograph that shows the Moon rising as the sky turns darker. Lower clouds are reflecting the colors of antitwilight, while ash and gas from Mount Etna are seen higher in the background. The pink band lower in the sky is called the Belt of Venus. During a full moon, the Moon and the Sun are in opposition in the sky: the moon rises as the sun sets. The lunar phase...

A Texas woman allegedly took a child to a pedophile doctor to have sex with in exchange for prescription meds. Alicia Evonne Sanchez, 37, was busted Wednesday and accused of taking the youngster — only described as a child under the age of 14 — to be abused by Kenneth Haygood, 56, at his doctor’s office in Tyler, KLTV reported. Sanchez, also known as Alicia Evonne Seguin, took the child to Haygood at least 10 times — and stayed in the room while the abuse took place, according to the report. The child would cry and beg for Haygood to...