Free Republic

Whitmire says redistricting will be debated in Austin By JUAN A. LOZANO Associated Press Sept. 3, 2003, 3:12PM The first Democratic senator to break ranks with the boycotting legislators who fled to New Mexico said today that ultimately congressional redistricting will have to be debated on the Texas Senate floor. Sen. John Whitmire, a Houston Democrat, said if Republican Gov. Rick Perry decides to continue calling special legislative sessions on the issue, the governor can outlast the 10 Senate Democrats who remain in Albuquerque, N.M. "We cannot remain in New Mexico indefinitely. At some point in time, unless you're prepared...

Two Israeli political heavyweights on Sunday said they would join forces in elections scheduled for later this year in an effort to unseat longtime Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Naftali Bennett and Yair Lapid served as prime ministers in a rotation agreement as part of a coalition government they formed in 2021, ending 12 years of Netanyahu’s rule. Now they plan to merge their parties into single faction headed by Bennett, calling it a partnership between the center and the right. Bennett said if elected, the new government on its first day would establish a state commission of inquiry into the...

WASHINGTON (AP) — A team of researchers has uncovered what they say is the first reported use of artificial intelligence to direct a hacking campaign in a largely automated fashion. The AI company Anthropic said this week that it disrupted a cyber operation that its researchers linked to the Chinese government. The operation involved the use of an artificial intelligence system to direct the hacking campaigns, which researchers called a disturbing development that could greatly expand the reach of AI-equipped hackers.While concerns about the use of AI to drive cyber operations are not new, what is concerning about the new...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Okello Chatrie’s cellphone gave him away.Chatrie made off with $195,000 from the bank he robbed in suburban Richmond, Virginia, and eluded the police until they turned to a powerful technological tool that erected a virtual fence and allowed them collect the location history of cellphone users near the crime scene.The geofence warrant police served on Google found that Chatrie’s cellphone was among a handful of devices in the vicinity of the bank around the time it was robbed.Now the Supreme Court will decide whether geofence warrants violate the Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches. It’s the latest...

The U.S. Navy is reviewing the design and costs of one of its most high-tech and expensive warships — the Ford-class aircraft carrier — and the service’s top boss is not ruling out canceling future versions of its design. Navy Secretary John Phelan told reporters Tuesday that the review, which should be complete next month, was “a prudent and practical” move aimed at examining “the costs of the designs and the systems to make sure that they make sense and they have all the systems and requirements that we want going forward.” The review of the design comes after years...

Despite listing the charges in the indictment of the Southern Poverty Law Center and without even questioning their validity, the Associated Press writes it off as a 'political weapon' on the part of the Trump administration.The AP's Collin Binkley, Alanna Durkin Richer, and Rebecca Boone came up with this remarkable summary of the indictment on Tuesday in "Southern Poverty Law Center charged with defrauding donors with payments to extremist informants."They gave an inclusive summary of the serious charges against the SPLC ...before essentially writing them off as politically motivated.

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...

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,...

https://x.com/Real_RobN/status/2047008750608023938 RealRobert@Real_RobN·2hThis is:The President of the United States:—Just signed an order revoking Chris Krebs’s security clearance and has directed DOJ to investigate him for his role in the overthrow of the U.S. government on November 3, 2020.Krebs was the head of CISA, who weaponized his position and conspired with the FBI and Big Tech to censor—truth, evidence, proof, and testimony about the 2020 election—and who designated November 3, 2020, as the most “secure election in American history.”———————Freedom of Information Act:Documents obtained by investigative journalist @yehuda_miller through the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) reveal:—A secret meeting organized on election day, November...

Progressive activist Analilia Mejia soundly defeated Republican Joe Hathaway in a special election Thursday in the 11th Congressional District, delivering a victory for Democrats in the runup to this fall’s midterm elections. “In November, when I jumped into this race, the odds were stacked against us. But you know — we did the impossible, and we won,” Mejia said in a crowded hall at the Montclair Art Museum Thursday evening. Mejia will fill the seat, vacated by Gov. Mikie Sherrill after Sherrill won the governorship in November, until Jan. 3, 2027. The Associated Press called the race just seven minutes...

A majority of U.S. Catholic voters supported Donald Trump in his 2024 presidential victory. Yet across the broad Catholic political spectrum – even among conservative-leaning bishops – there is dismay over Trump’s unprecedented verbal assault on Pope Leo XIV, the first American to lead their church. Leo says he is sharing a Gospel message and not directly attacking Trump or anyone else with his appeals for peace and criticism of attitudes fueling the war. Criticism of Trump came from Archbishop Paul Coakley, head of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and from Minnesota-based Bishop Robert Barron, who only a few...

Iran’s ambassador to India said Tehran is open to talks with the United States if Washington refrains from making “unlawful demands.” Mohammad Fathali was referring to talks held in Islamabad and said the main sticking points were Iran’s nuclear program, war reparations and sanctions relief. Asked about the prospects for future negotiations, Fathali told reporters in New Delhi, “If they (the U.S.) accept our conditions, it is possible.”

RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan warned Thursday that the Kingdom’s restraint in the face of escalating Iranian attacks “is not unlimited,” signaling that military action remains on the table — as Arab and Islamic states issued a unified call for Tehran to halt its aggression. “The Kingdom and its partners possess significant capabilities, and the patience we have shown is not unlimited. It could be a day, two days, or a week — I will not say,” he told reporters following an emergency meeting of foreign ministers in Riyadh. In some of his strongest remarks since...

U.S. Central Command announced the blockade would involve all Iranian ports, beginning on Monday at 10 a.m. EDT, or 5:30 p.m. in Iran, to be “enforced impartially against vessels of all nations.” Inside Iran, there was new exhaustion and anger after months of unrest that began with nationwide protests against economic issues and then political ones, followed by weeks of sheltering from U.S. and Israeli bombardment.“We have never sought war. But if they try to win what they failed to win on the battlefield through talks, that’s absolutely unacceptable,” Mohammad Bagher Karami said in Tehran.els of all nations.”

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. (AP) — A Long Island architect accused in a string of long-unsolved slayings known as the Gilgo Beach killings is expected to plead guilty on Wednesday, closing a case that bedeviled investigators, agonized victims’ relatives and tantalized a true-crime obsessed public for years. Rex Heuermann, 62, is charged with murdering seven women, many of them sex workers, over a 17-year span. A guilty plea would put him in prison for the rest of his life.

Iran on Monday rejected a 45-day ceasefire proposal and said it wants a permanent end to the war, even as Israel attacked a major gas field and U.S. President Donald Trump’s ultimatum to open the Strait of Hormuz loomed. “We only accept an end of the war with guarantees that we won’t be attacked again,” Mojtaba Ferdousi Pour, head of Iran’s diplomatic mission in Cairo, told The Associated Press. He said Iran no longer trusts the Trump administration after the U.S. bombed the Islamic Republic twice during previous rounds of talks. Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency said Tehran conveyed its...

The European Union is expanding its powers to track, raid and deport migrants to " return hubs ″ in third countries in Africa and elsewhere, quietly adopting tactics of the Trump administration that have drawn public criticism across the 27-nation bloc. The EU continues to tighten migration policies after right-wing parties took power in some countries in 2024. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, from the center-right European People’s Party coalition, has said that the new measures will prevent a repeat of the 2015 crisis caused by Syria’s civil war, when about 1 million people arrived to seek asylum....

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iranian-backed Houthi rebels entered the month-old war in the Middle East on Saturday, claiming two missile launches at Israel. About 2,500 U.S. Marines arrived in the region. And Pakistan’s government said that regional powers plan to meet Sunday to discuss how to end the fighting.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Iran threatened to target recreational and tourist sites worldwide and insisted it was still building missiles. Its supreme leader issued another defiant statement on Friday, nearly three weeks into U.S.-Israeli strikes that have killed a slew of Tehran’s top leaders and hammered its weapons and energy industries.The United States was meanwhile deploying three more warships and roughly 2,500 additional Marines to the Middle East, a U.S. official told The Associated Press.Iran fired on Israel and energy sites in neighboring Gulf Arab states as many in the region marked one of the holiest days on...