Free Republic

Iran has accused the US of denying visas to "integral" members of its national football team's backroom staff, hours after Washington confirmed Iranian players had been given permission to travel to the upcoming World Cup. US officials said visas had been issued to all players and "necessary support staff" on Friday, 10 days before Iran's opening fixture in Los Angeles on 15 June. They also said Iran would not be allowed to "abuse this system to sneak terrorists into the United States under false pretences". Iran's embassy in Turkey accused the US of "politically biased interference in sport" by denying...

I started out asking Copilot about a news story that identified an organization as racially segregated, and ended up having a very interesting discussion about AI's political biases. I've skipped the initial parts of the conversation and omitted identifying details, because I don't know it's not racist, and that's not the point of posting this here. My point is to identify the grave situation conservatism is in with AI, and how to have useful discussions anyway. User: Since journalists have been dominated by those whose politics align with a single political party [rephrased], do you really think it's fair to...

A dog famous in China for traveling around with its owner was reportedly stolen, sold for less than $30 and eaten, according to media reports from Asia. The South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported that the dog’s name was Chutou and that he was an eight-year-old border collie who gained over a million followers on China’s version of TikTok, Douyin, for accompanying his owner, identified by multiple outlets simply as “Guo,” on journeys across China over many years. Guo, according to SCMP, took a solo trip to Georgia last month and left Chutou behind in the care of his father...

Families in a New Jersey school district were left outraged after a cafeteria menu distributed for June displayed a watermelon graphic on Juneteenth — prompting school officials to condemn the image as racially offensive and demand immediate action from the district’s food-service contractor. Montclair Public Schools said the image appeared on a June cafeteria menu prepared by food-service provider Sodexo and sparked complaints from students, families, staff and community members. Superintendent Ruth Turner said those who saw the menu were “hurt, disappointed, and offended” by the graphic’s appearance alongside the June 19 holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the...

Far-left politicians want to annihilate property rights — and a large share of young voters are buying into it. That’s a red flag: Our school systems have become socialist indoctrination factories. This week Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a leftist agenda-setter, called on the federal government to confiscate half the value of the nation’s largest artificial intelligence companies. He’s targeting OpenAI, Anthropic (creator of Claude) and xAI, for starters. Making his announcement on Facebook and in a New York Times opinion essay, Sanders said he’ll introduce legislation to slap these companies with a 50% “ownership tax” — literally grabbing company stock...

Explanation: A darkened and mysterious north polar region known to some as Mordor Macula caps this premier view of Charon, Pluto's largest moon. The high-resolution image was captured by the interplanetary space probe New Horizons near its closest approach to distant Pluto on July 14, 2015. The combined blue, red, and infrared image data was processed to enhance colors and follow variations in Charon's surface properties with a resolution of about 2.9 kilometers (1.8 miles). A stunning image of Charon's Pluto-facing hemisphere, it also features a clear view of an apparently moon-girdling belt of fractures and canyons that seems to...

Four years ago, our Nation and Empire stood alone against an overwhelming enemy, with our backs to the wall. Tested as never before in our history, in God’s providence we survived that test; the spirit of the people, resolute, dedicated, burned like a bright flame, lit surely from those unseen fires which nothing can quench.Now once more a supreme test has to be faced. This time, the challenge is not to fight to survive but to fight to win the final victory for the good cause. Once again what is demanded from us all is something more than courage and...

The horrific death of high school athlete Austin Metcalf on April 2, 2025, sent shockwaves through the Frisco, Texas, community when it happened. So it should come as little surprise that the ongoing trial has been emotionally charged. It's been so charged that even the alleged murderer, Karmelo Anthony, appears to have had a visible response to footage of that tragic night. According to the New York Post, Anthony "squirmed" and was "fidgeting" while some of the more disturbing footage from the incident was being shown. At other points of the trial, Anthony rubbed his eyes and "quivered." Things even...

A few hours after Lionel Messi and the Argentine World Cup team checked into their training base in Kansas City, a series of thunderstorms pounded the area, knocking out power, felling trees and bringing flood and tornado warnings. Hardly ideal conditions for the world’s biggest soccer tournament. Yet that’s likely just the opening salvo of a disruptive weather system that could affect the 38-day competition, which kicks off next week with games in Mexico, Canada and the U.S. “It’s pretty safe to say climate change is going to have a mark on this World Cup,” said Kaitlyn Trudeau, a senior...

Just when you think you’ve seen the bottom of the internet, this happens on a NYC subway. A guy loses it completely, yelling and abusing a mannequin as riders jump up and run for their lives. What in the world is happening to America?

The list of 90’s era Contemporary Christian Music stars rushing to cheer on and celebrate the new “gay anthem” version of Avalon’s ‘Testify to Love’ is growing, including Point of Grace (ed. note - Mr. Passons was their keyboardist in the 2000's) and Nicole Nordeman, with more supporters being added each day. 2026’s Testify to Love was rerecorded earlier this month by two former members of the multi-platinum Contemporary Christian group Avalon, hitting the top of the iTunes Christian charts. Founding member Michael Passons, who left the group in 2003 and came out publicly as gay in 2020, joined forces...

One of TV’s longest-running children's shows is facing backlash for once again linking its puppets to homosexuality on social media. Sesame Street shared a post on social media Tuesday, which read: “Happy Pride Month from Sesame Street! Join us in celebrating and uplifting the [gay and lesbian] members of our community.” The post also included an image featuring different rainbow-colored furs resembling puppet characters from Sesame Street, such as Elmo, Cookie Monster and others. Primarily geared toward toddlers, the series, (which moved in 2015 from PBS to HBO, and in 2025) was acquired by Netflix — drew the ire of...

WASHINGTON (AP) — After Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth cut nine Navy officers, including all the women, from a promotion list, several female officers say they see the unusual intervention as a sign that their careers now have a ceiling and worry for the future generation of female military leaders.The Navy had selected 31 sailors to promote from the rank of captain to one-star admiral, but Hegseth recently intervened to strike nine people from the list, including three women and two Black men, according to a defense official who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss information not permitted to be...

One of the WNBA’s most prominent voices wants her league to consider the place of women in America at the birth of the country before agreeing to wear a celebratory jersey patch. Aces forward Brianna Turner, the players association treasurer, balked at the idea that WNBA All-Stars should wear the “USA 250” patch on their jerseys that other professional sports leagues have adopted to celebrate America’s upcoming 250th birthday.

While spending money on video games is not uncommon, EVE Online stands out because players' assets can be permanently destroyed; their real-world cash outlay gone in seconds. The game's financial system is so complex that in 2025, a former economist from the Central Bank of Iceland was hired to oversee it. Players can amass huge virtual fortunes by mining raw materials or fighting as mercenaries, but they aren't allowed to convert in-game wealth back into real-world cash. Playing EVE Online can take hundreds of hours. Some see it as a second job, dedicating up to 35 hours per week to...

Today we remember the D-Day invasion, 82 years ago today. That was the Greatest Generation, in its most courageous and finest moment. The end of the war was in sight. And now, almost all those brave men are gone. In many ways, it was like the Republican victory in November 2024. There was still a lot of hard fighting ahead. Nazi Germany, like the Democratic Party, was still very dangerous. But that day made total victory almost inevitable.

Thomas Albert Howard's "God and the Atlantic..." is a thoroughly researched examination of the contrasting religious paths between Europeans and Americans... Moving beyond Alexis de Tocqueville’s oft-quoted appraisal of American religiosity, Howard’s analysis progresses in two directions. First, he examines negative assessments both from the left (America viewed as overly religious) and the right (America’s religion is too distinct from Europe and thus represents bad religion). Second, he explores two European elites who each wrote about and lived in the United States: Philip Schaff, a Swiss-German Protestant church historian, and Jacques Maritain, a French Catholic philosopher... British intellectuals who were...

Thousands of people attended the 24th Jerusalem Pride Parade on Thursday, in honor of Pride Month. As part of the opening to the event, former prime minister Yair Lapid announced that in the first 100 days of the next government, they would pass a law ensuring that all couples in Israel would be equal. "Mother and father, father and father, mother and mother, all will have the same rights, all will be equal before the law," he said. "We stand here with the entire gay community today to say: The situation is not a given, reality is not a decree...

It's June, which means the baseball world will be on edge for the next 25 days or so. A tradition unlike any other in this country! For those who don't know (and that's none of you, because it's everywhere), June is Pride Month. Haven't you heard?! You know in October when the NFL wears pink for a month? That's June in Major League Baseball, except it's rainbow hats and social media posts. And, of course, the Texas Rangers angering half the country because they don't do any of it.

My fellow Americans: Last night, when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at that moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far.And so, in this poignant hour, I ask you to join with me in prayer:Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity.Lead them straight and true; give strength...