Free Republic

If it were up to Larry Ellison, the exorbitantly rich cofounder of software outfit Oracle, all of us will soon be smiling for the camera — constantly. Not for a cheery photograph, but to appease our super-invasive, if not totally omnipresent, algorithmic overseers. As Business Insider reports, the tech centibillionaire glibly predicts that the wonders of AI will bring about a new paradigm of supercharged surveillance, guaranteeing that the proles — excuse us, "citizens" — all behave and stay in line. "We're going to have supervision," Ellison said this week at an Oracle financial analysts meeting, per BI. "Every police...

During a press briefing on Tuesday, Fox News senior White House correspondent Peter Doocy asked Jean-Pierre, "How many more assassination attempts on Donald Trump until the president and vice president and you pick a different word to describe Trump, other than ‘threat?’" snip "In asking a question about the admin's use of the word ‘threat’ to describe Trump, KJP accuses Doocy of being ‘dangerous’ for asking the question!" she wrote.

Sep 17, 2024 Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL) announces an executive order to open a probe into the assassination attempt of former President Trump under the purview of Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody.

A jury today convicted Omali Yeshitela, 82, Penny Hess, 78, Jesse Nevel, 34, all of St. Louis, and Augustus C. Romain Jr., 38, of Atlanta, of conspiracy to act as agents of a foreign government. The defendants were charged in a superseding indictment on April 13, 2023. According to evidence presented at trial, from at least May 2015 until July 2022, Yeshitela, Hess and Nevel agreed to act on behalf of the Russian government within the United States. Aleksandr Viktorovich Ionov, a resident of Moscow, was the founder and president of the Anti-Globalization Movement of Russia (AGMR), an organization headquartered...

A Pakistani citizen residing in Canada, Muhammad Shahzeb Khan, 20, also known as Shahzeb Jadoon, was arrested on Sept. 4 in Canada in connection with a complaint filed in the Southern District of New York. Khan was charged with attempting to provide material support and resources to a designated foreign terrorist organization (FTO), the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS). “The defendant is alleged to have planned a terrorist attack in New York City around October 7th of this year with the stated goal of slaughtering, in the name of ISIS, as many Jewish people as possible,” said Attorney...

The governor of Ohio will send law enforcement and millions of dollars in healthcare resources to the city of Springfield as it faces a surge in temporary Haitian migrants that has landed it in the national spotlight. Republican Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said Tuesday he doesn’t oppose the Temporary Protected Status program under which some 15,000 Haitians have arrived in the city of about 59,000 people since 2020, but said the federal government must do more to help impacted communities. His news conference was held just hours before the presidential debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former Republican President...

BANGKOK, Sept 3 (Reuters) - Thailand's Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra on Tuesday said part of the government's vaunted 450 billion baht ($13.1 billion) "digital wallet" handout will be distributed in cash, in another change to its flagship populist policy. Details are still being finalised and will be announced in a policy statement to parliament, she added. The digital wallet handout had previously entailed transferring 10,000 baht ($292) in credit to 50 million Thais via a smartphone application to spend in their localities within six months.

Released by the Shanahan campaign. Ask your doctor about INDEPENDENCE! 0:00 [Music] 0:00 are you or your loved ones suffering 0:02 from illnesses such as TDS also known as 0:04 Trump derangement syndrome do you 0:06 dismiss or deny the current issues 0:08 facing our country such as historic 0:10 inflation illegal immigration corporate 0:12 corruption World War III escalations and 0:15 the chronic disease epidemic are you 0:17 willing to elect someone who was the 0:19 least popular vice president in modern 0:21 history and who offers no policy or 0:23 vision for America simply because your 0:25 brain...

BENGHAZI, Aug 26 (Reuters) - Oilfields in eastern Libya that account for almost all the country's production will be closed and production and exports halted, the eastern-based administration said on Monday, after a flare-up in tension over the leadership of the central bank. There was no confirmation from the country's internationally recognised government in Tripoli or from the National Oil Corp (NOC), which controls the country's oil resources. NOC subsidiary Waha Oil Company, however, said it planned to gradually reduce output and warned of a complete halt to Libya's production, citing unspecified "protests and pressures". Another subsidiary Sirte Oil Company...

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Argentine authorities have quarantined a cargo ship in the Parana River over a suspected case of mpox onboard, the government said on Tuesday, as global public health authorities remain on alert for a new faster-spreading variant of the virus. The quarantined Liberian-flagged ship was sailing from Santos, Brazil - also a major commodities hub - to pick up soy cargo, according to the health ministry and industry body the Argentine Naval League. The World Health Organization (WHO) last week declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years as...

Starbucks just closed a 30 year location that operated in Manhattan NYC since the 90's, and was once the largest of its kind in the city. Store workers blame rent increases which the landlord disputes, but local residents think the store may have had other problems that lead to its closure... NYC crime, homelessness, and employee safety all play into this review of why the largest Starbucks in NYC is gone.

Aug 12 (Reuters) - Russia and Ukraine accused each other of starting a fire at the dormant Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in Ukraine on Sunday, but both sides reported no sign of elevated radiation. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) nuclear watchdog said its staff had seen thick, dark smoke coming from the northern part of the vast six-reactor plant in southern Ukraine, currently in "cold shutdown", after multiple blasts. "These reckless attacks endanger nuclear safety at the plant and increase the risk of a nuclear accident. They must stop now," IAEA chief Rafael Grossi warned in a separate...

The U.S. unemployment rate has drifted upward over the past year, fueling recession concerns. The unemployment insurance program buckled during the Covid-19 pandemic under a deluge of claims. Experts say the system for unemployment benefits is ill equipped to handle the next economic downturn. Renewed fears of a U.S. recession have put a spotlight on unemployment. However, the system that workers rely on to collect unemployment benefits is at risk of buckling — as it did during the Covid-19 pandemic — if there’s another economic downturn, experts say. “It absolutely isn’t” ready for the next recession, said Michele Evermore, senior...

OpenAI is reportedly facing another lawsuit on its supposed artificial intelligence training methods, this time by YouTuber David Millette. Lawyers for David Millette, a YouTube user from Massachusetts, claim in a lawsuit filed on Friday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California that OpenAI secretly transcribed videos from Millette and other creators to train the models for their AI-powered chatbot platform, ChatGPT, and other generative AI tools and products. The complaint reportedly alleges that OpenAI significantly benefited from the creators' work by gathering this data, while also infringing copyright law and YouTube's terms of service which...

The US and UK issued warnings Saturday to their nationals to immediately leave Lebanon amid fears of a wider escalation with Israel. The US Embassy in Beirut said some flights by several airlines have been canceled but “commercial transportation options to leave Lebanon remain available.” “We encourage those who wish to depart Lebanon to book any ticket available to them, even if that flight does not depart immediately or does not follow their first-choice route. US citizens who lack funds to return to the United States may contact the embassy for financial assistance via repatriation loans,” it said in a...

When people think of the US immigration crisis, the southern border normally comes to mind, but as it turns out the fastest way to NYC is to enter the country along New York's border with Canada. A difficult journey many asylum seekers are now making more often...

To authorize the use of United States Armed Forces against the Islamic Republic of Iran for threatening the national security of the United States through the development of nuclear weapons. Whereas: Long list of abuses (snip) Resolved by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. Authorization for the use of military force against the Islamic Republic of Iran. The President is authorized to use all necessary and appropriate force against the Islamic Republic of Iran if the President determines that the Islamic Republic of Iran— (1) is in the process...

A Pentagon statement said the new deployments would "improve US force protection... increase support for the defence of Israel, and ... ensure the US is prepared to respond to various contingencies". The deployments would include additional ballistic missile defense-capable cruisers and destroyers, it said. The US military had also intensified deployments before 13 April, when Iran launched an attack on Israel with drones and missiles. Israel and its allies shot down almost all of roughly 300 drones and missiles that were fired. Israel has not commented directly on the strike which killed Haniyeh. But Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said his...

A ransomware attack against blood-donation nonprofit OneBlood, which services more than 250 American hospitals, has "significantly reduced" the org's ability to take, test, and distribute blood. In a notice today, OneBlood revealed the intrusion disrupted a "software system," and had forced the organization to use manual processes and procedures to remain operational. The outfit provides blood for healthcare facilities across Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina. "Manual processes take significantly longer to perform and impact inventory availability," OneBlood spokesperson Susan Forbes explained in a statement. "In an effort to further manage the blood supply we have asked the more...

A digital security firm got the shock of a lifetime when it came to light that one of its remote workers was actually a North Korean hacker after he infected his new company laptop with malware. "The moment it was received, it immediately started to load malware," security firm KnowBe4 wrote in a blog post about the incident. The company stressed that "no illegal access was gained, and no data was lost, compromised or exfiltrated on any KnowBe4 systems." "KnowBe4 needed a software engineer for our internal IT AI team," the company explained. "We posted the job, received resumes, conducted...