Free Republic

The European Commission has requested a meeting with X to discuss its artificial intelligence chatbot, Grok. Last week, European countries and lawmakers called on the Commission to amp up scrutiny on the social media platform after the AI chatbot spewed out antisemitic remarks. Those included glorifying Nazi leader Adolf Hitler as the best-placed person to deal with alleged “anti-white hate.” Poland’s Minister of Digital Affairs Krzysztof Gawkowski said the government would consider banning the app, later asking the Commission to take action in a letter. X said it had removed the posts and that the problem was not related to...

California Governor Gavin Newsom defended his pandemic record after podcaster Joe Rogan texted in to ask if he felt “any remorse” for “draconian” COVID vaccine mandates and doing the bidding of “Big Pharma” while he was on another podcast, jibing that Rogan wouldn’t interview him. Newsom appeared on the Shawn Ryan Show podcast on Monday for a wide-ranging interview with host Shawn Ryan — but found himself ambushed at the outset by Rogan, who texted in a pointed challenge to the governor. Ryan explained that his Patreon subscribers were given opportunities to ask the guests questions and that Rogan had...

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Monday he would hold off on advancing a closely watched package of sanctions targeting Russia’s trading partners after President Donald Trump said he was prepared to act himself later this summer if Russian President Vladimir Putin doesn’t move toward a peace deal with Ukraine. “It sounds like right now the president is going to attempt to do some of this on his own,” Thune told reporters. “If at some point the president concludes that it makes sense and adds value and leverage that he needs in those negotiations to move the bill, then we’ll...

A federal appeals court just threw out a new government regulation that would have required subscription services to give consumers an easy way to cancel. The Federal Trade Commission’s click-to-cancel rule was set to take effect next week, and would have required everything from your gym membership to Amazon Prime subscription to let customers cancel their recurring payments as easily as they signed up, and through the same method. Last fall, industry groups representing companies that benefit from subscription revenue — including cable providers, entertainment studios, advertising companies, and home security firms — sought to block the rule in court,...

While sourdough might seem like just another type of bread you can make or buy, it actually used to be one of the only options. Until the development of commercial yeasts in the 1800s, sourdough, made with naturally occurring yeasts and lactic acid bacteria, was the main type of leavened bread consumed worldwide. Sourdough undergoes natural fermentation rather than relying on additives found in baker's yeast. This means that, compared to other breads, it is easier to digest, has a less significant impact on blood sugar, and is potentially more nutritious. 1. It's Easier to Digest The fermentation process used...

For such seminal moments in American history such as the Declaration of Independence, and the Revolutionary War, it would surprise one to know that not too many films revolve around these events. In fact, you would find more movies made about the Roman empire and many crucial moments and leaders within its history as a world power, than you do the American Revolution. What I particularly find interesting about this dynamic is that in America’s History, the foundation of what was once colonies that belonged to the British Empire, was fought and won by regular people uniting and banding together...

The Beginning: “A day after OSI training ended nobody knew what to do with me and they had me filing and typing when a Major taped me on the shoulder.” Even then there was less of men actually touching a woman but the idea of sexual harassment or inappropriate touching was slow to catch on. There was nothing inappropriate, I was just startled to be touched by a senior officer. “Colonel Blom* wants to see you. Now.” (An asterisk indicates name changed. Colonels don’t send Majors to fetch a Captain. With a shiver of dread, I knocked at the door...

Happy 250th our beloved US. God bless

Today is a double occasion for me: Independence Day and my birthday, both o which I celebrate. A bit o Independence Day trivia: One President was born on this date; three died on this date. Can you name them? Also, what do Mickey Mantle and Adam Dunn have in common? (It relates to the Fourth of July.)

ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith warned on Monday that Democrats will be electorally doomed if they embrace the politics of presumptive Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani of New York City. Mamdani is a democratic socialist and has pushed for a slew of left-wing policies during his campaign, such as city-run grocery stores, a $30 minimum wage, free buses and free childcare. Smith, on “The Stephen A. Smith Show,” argued that socialism conflicts with America’s capitalistic values and that socialists would not generally be viable candidates. “Ladies and gentlemen, let me be very, very clear: If the Democratic Party becomes the likes...

Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark and her WNBA contemporaries just took a step closer to an offseason strike following a weak first collective bargaining agreement proposal from the league. There have been rumblings for months that the WNBA and its players could be headed to a work stoppage after this season. How much players make has always been a hot-button topic around the league. And throughout its existence, its athletes did not have much leverage in CBA talks with the WNBA often taking losses. However, Caitlin Clark and the class of 2024 rookies helped expand the league’s popularity. And led...

Viktor Belenko, the former Soviet Air Defence Forces pilot who defected to the West in 1976 in a MiG-25 high-speed interceptor, has passed away on Sep. 24, 2023 Alert 5 first noted. He died in a nursing home in a small town in Southern Illinois on Sep. 24. However, journalists learned about his death only now. The New York Times quoted Belenko’s son, Paul Schmidt, on Nov. 20 as saying that his father had died after a brief, unspecified illness in a nursing home in Rosebud, Illinois. Viktor Belenko was born into a simple family of Soviet workers on Feb....

A Muslim cleric walks into a food store in Houston owned by another Muslim and threatens the proprietor with harassment and protest demonstrations in front of his store if he does not stop selling pork, alcohol and lottery tickets within 30 days.

When it comes to aircraft carriers, the nation with the most is the United States. The U.S. Navy operates 11 nuclear aircraft carriers of various designs, and more are on the way as the service replaces its aging fleet of Nimitz-class carriers with the new Gerald R. Ford-class carriers. These are massive ships and the largest warships ever constructed in military history. Each Ford-class vessel displaces around 100,000 tons of seawater and measures 1,092 feet in length, with a flight deck width of 256 feet. That's a lot of ship to move around, but despite its mass, a Ford-class carrier...

Members of the European Parliament, a Christian legal agency, and other experts convened to discuss the dangers of the Digital Services Act (DSA), a European Union law nicknamed by some as the “Digital Surveillance Act.” Co-hosted by ADF International and European Parliament members Stephen Bartulica and Virginie Joron, the “The Digital Services Act and Threats to Freedom of Expression” conference was held May 21 in Brussels, Belgium, after the U.S. Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor voiced concern about the law’s effect on free speech. The DSA took effect in February 2024. The law mandates that search engines and...

Right-wing influencers have reacted to New York State Assembly member Zohran Mamdani’s apparent win in New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary with anti-Islam attacks. “.@ZohranKMamdani hasn’t even been a US citizen for 10 years. He is literally supported by terrorists. NYC is about to see 9/11 2.0,” right-wing activist Laura Loomer, who has a history of anti-Muslim comments, said on the social platform X late Tuesday. Mamdani, a democratic socialist, shocked American political observers Tuesday as he seemed to be on the path to winning the Democratic nomination for the Big Apple’s mayor over former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo....

It could be a while until a winner is declared in Tuesday’s New York City mayoral primary. That’s in large part because of the city’s ranked choice voting system, where voters can select up to five candidates in order of preference on their ballots. Unless one of the 11 candidates on the ballot receives more than 50 percent of first-choice votes — an unlikely feat with such a crowded field — the ranked choice system will kick into place. In that scenario, the candidate ranked first by the fewest number of people will have their votes reapportioned to voters’ second...

You just knew this was coming. Nancy Pelosi and Democrats are now attacking President Trump for destroying the Iranian regime’s nuclear sites with bunker-busting bombs. On Saturday night the United States military under the direction of President Donald J. Trump bombed three nuclear facilities in Iran in Operation Midnight Hammer. The US dropped 14 bunker busting bombs on Iran’s largest nuclear site in Fordow. It was the largest ever attack by B-2 stealth bombers by the United States. It was also the longest flight the bombers have made since 2001. The US strike involved more than 125 US aircraft. Following...

NATO members are rushing to show President Donald Trump they’re shoveling money into defense — some with a dose of creative math — as Russia’s battle with Ukraine grinds on and war threatens to consume the Middle East. The group’s summit this week in The Hague, which Trump plans to attend, will attempt to set a deadline for members to spend 5 percent of GDP on defense. Trump has complained about European defense budgets since his first term, claiming the U.S. gets ripped off by countries that rely on Washington for a security blanket. The way allies approach this at...

The Russian president was asked at a press conference why Moscow was not helping Tehran more and replied that 'almost two million Russian-speaking people live in Israel'; The Ukrainian president claimed that 20 of the bodies transferred by the Russians were actually those of their soldiers - including an unnamed Israeli citizen