Free Republic

A widely condemned Israeli settlement plan that would cut across land which the Palestinians seek for a state received final approval on Wednesday, according to a statement from Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich. The approval of the E1 project, which would bisect the occupied West Bank and cut it off from East Jerusalem, was announced last week by Smotrich and received final go-ahead from a defense ministry planning commission on Wednesday, he said. […] A German government spokesperson commenting on the announcement told reporters on Wednesday that settlement construction violates international law and “hinders a negotiated two-state solution and an...

Michelle Obama has been married to former President Barack Obama for more than 30 years, but she wasn’t so sure about him at first. On a recent episode of her IMO podcast, which she cohosts with her brother Craig Robinson, Michelle explained how she met her husband. She also revealed that she thought he was “kind of weird.” (snip) “I was on the Harvard recruiting team,” she said. “So I knew of him, this Barack Obama.” But while others around her seemed super impressed by Barack, Michelle remained skeptical. “Everybody was abuzz about him, right?” she continued. “All the partners...

The political establishment is in a full-blown meltdown over Zohran Mamdani, and their reaction is as predictable as it is revealing. Since the democratic socialist’s victory in the NYC mayoral primary, a flood of right-wing attacks has sought to paint him as a dangerous radical. But these narratives are a house of cards. When you examine the facts, the smears about him being a “communist” or an “antisemite” collapse, revealing a deep-seated fear — not of his ideology, but of his specific, popular policies that threaten corporate profits. This is a factual takedown of the panic and an explanation of...

Abstract: Here are two commonly held moral views. First, we must save strangers’ lives, at least if we can do so easily: you would be required to rescue a child drowning in a pond even if it will ruin your expensive suit. Second, it is wrong to eat meat because of the suffering caused to animals in factory farms. Many accept both simultaneously—Peter Singer is the pre-eminent example. I point out that these two beliefs are in a sharp and seemingly unrecognised tension and may even be incompatible. It seems universally accepted that doing or allowing a harm is permissible—and...

The head of Iran's Atomic Energy Organization, Mohammad Eslami, recently announced on Iranian state television that Iran has begun building a new uranium enrichment facility, in a secure and secret location. He said the facility is expected to begin operating in the near future. Our pilots know the drill…

Long before she was a Fox News host who pushed pro-Trump election conspiracy theories, Jeanine Pirro was an ambitious New York politician whose career stalled after she was recorded plotting to bug her then-husband’s boat to catch him in an affair. The revelation rocked Pirro’s campaign for New York attorney general nearly 20 years ago, resulting in days of front-page headlines in the city’s tabloids (“BUG THIS LOVE BOAT!” blared the Daily News cover). The conversation took place in 2005 between Pirro and the former commissioner of the New York Police Department, Bernard Kerik, a close ally of Rudy Giuliani’s....

Rosie O’Donnell is looking back at life now, and then. The comedian, 63, recently detailed having a friendship with Lyle Menendez, 57, who along with his brother Erik Menendez, 54, was convicted of the 1989 murders of their parents Kitty and Jose Menendez. “He started calling me on a regular basis from the tablet phone thing they have,” O’Donnell told The New York Times on Saturday. “He would tell me about his life, what he’s been doing in prison and, for the first time in my life, I felt safe enough to trust and be vulnerable and love a straight...

Pope Francis marks 12 remarkable years leading the Catholic Church from his hospital roomToday, March 13, marks the 12th anniversary of the election of Pope Francis as the 265th successor of St. Peter. As he enters the 13th year of his ministry as bishop of Rome, Francis is not in the Vatican; he is instead a patient in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital, where he has been treated for double pneumonia for the past 28 days and is now out of imminent danger and recovering.Gemelli Hospital has become a second Vatican, a Vatican 2, one might say, because Francis continues to govern...

ATLANTA (WANF/Gray News) - For the first time, an openly transgender woman has announced her intention to compete for the Miss Georgia USA title. The decision is sparking controversy, but Bella Bautista says she is optimistic about competing in the competition. The Cartersville native is currently Miss Buckhead USA and is dreaming even bigger. “I was like, this could honestly be a true reality for me. This dream could one day come true. And just because there hasn’t been a first in Georgia, I could be that first,” she said. In 2021, Kataluna Enriquez from Nevada made history when she...

SNIPOn Thursday’s edition of The Dean Obeidallah Show, Obeidallah asked Rep. Goldman “Are you concerned he’s actually make our nation less safe?” — and got an emphatic response:DEAN OBEIDALLAH: Are you concerned he’s actually make our nation less safe?REP. DAN GOLDMAN: I’m not concerned–. I know he is making our nation less safe.And it takes too long. It takes a long time to explain how. But I alluded to it.These CIA agents, these FBI agents are well-trained. Many have learned of different languages. Many are expert at developing sources.Now, sources are double agents from other governments who are giving us...

When Elon Musk debuted the Department of Government Efficiency recently at the Capitol, House Speaker Mike Johnson enthusiastically predicted the coming Trump administration would bring “a lot of change around here.” Three weeks in, the change the Trump administration has brought is a disruption of the federal government on an unprecedented scale, dismantling longstanding programs, sparking widespread public outcry and challenging the very role of Congress to create the nation’s laws and pay its bills. Government workers are being pushed to resign. Entire agencies are being shuttered. Federal funding to states and nonprofits was temporarily frozen. And the most sensitive...

Donald Trump, Elon Musk, Fox News, Republican lawmakers, and countless prominent right-wing commentators across social media are pushing a ridiculous lie about the Biden administration funding the media. It started on Tuesday when staff at Politico reportedly didn’t receive their paychecks on time because of technical glitch. The right began speculating that the delay was related to Musk taking a blowtorch to the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), with many pointing out that the government had ferried $8.2 million to Politico over the past year.

Nvidia called DeepSeek’s R1 model “an excellent AI advancement,” despite the Chinese startup’s emergence causing the chip maker’s stock price to plunge 17% on Monday. “DeepSeek is an excellent AI advancement and a perfect example of Test Time Scaling,” an Nvidia spokesperson told CNBC on Monday. “DeepSeek’s work illustrates how new models can be created using that technique, leveraging widely-available models and compute that is fully export control compliant.” The comments come after DeepSeek last week released R1, which is an open-source reasoning model that reportedly outperformed the best models from U.S. companies such as OpenAI. R1′s self-reported training cost...

In a nutshell * Scientists have developed a plant-based cheese using a specific pea protein and oil blend (25% coconut oil, 75% sunflower oil) that matches the texture and melting properties of dairy cheese while containing less saturated fat. * The breakthrough challenges the common belief that high saturated fat content is necessary for proper cheese texture, as the new formulation achieved similar firmness (80 Newtons) to versions made with 100% coconut oil. * The research demonstrates that carefully selected plant proteins can create healthier cheese alternatives without sacrificing the stretchy, melty qualities consumers expect, potentially revolutionizing the plant-based dairy...

House Speaker Mike Johnson has thwarted the installation of a plaque, approved by Congress, honoring officers who protected the Capitol. It is vital that partisans aren’t allowed to whitewash history simply because it makes some people uncomfortable. On Monday, Donald Trump will visit the scene of a crime, laying his hand on a Bible and vowing to preserve and protect the Constitution as he swears a formal oath to become the nation’s 47th president.The bloodstains of the Jan. 6 insurrection have long ago washed away. The shattered windows of the Capitol are mended, the broken doors replaced. You’d never know...

Beyonce half time show at Ravens/Texans game.

I've lost count on how many Rosie O'Donnell meltdowns we've had just one month post-Trump victory, but this one is immediately the leader in the clubhouse. Frankly, I'm not sure how Rosie's gonna top it. She's so unhinged, and so insane, that I almost don't want to give her any free airtime. BUT, when she hops on the internet with what she describes as a possible case of the herpes, and proceeds to blast MAGA voters, I simply have to write about it. Sorry, it's in the handbook. You can't give the Libs an inch. If you do, they'll walk...

Donald Trump's 2024 election victory is fueling claims of fraud on both sides of the political divide. His right-wing supporters claim the outcome vindicates their debunked claims that the 2020 election was stolen from him. To a smaller degree, those on the left are circulating their own baseless claims casting doubt on this year's results. The election denial movement Trump inspired has spent the past four years building an infrastructure and community around false claims that 2020 was rigged. This year, it invested heavily in raising similar alarms that voting would again be compromised — only for those claims to...

Former Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) said Monday on ABC’s “The View” that she was proud to vote for Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris. Cheney said, “Look, I think, first of all, there is only one serious responsible adult in this race. There’s just one. It’s not a race where we have the luxury of being able, you know, sometimes conservatives will say, ‘Well, I’m going to write in an alternative. I’m not going to vote for Trump, but I’m going to write somebody in.’ I want to make sure people all across the country understand you don’t have...

We’re only one month away from the U.S. presidential election, and anticipation is at an all-time high (and so is misinformation). Several politicians are trying to mitigate misinformation in the light of AI-generated and AI-manipulated content, and one of them is California Governor Gavin Newsom. He brought a law that would combat AI deepfakes, but a California judge blocked it.Newsom was in the news recently for shooting down SB 1047, the bill that would have brought some major regulation to major AI companies. He didn’t pass the bill for a handful of reasons including a lack of specificity regarding the...