Free Republic

President Donald Trump announced on Wednesday that roughly 70 million American children under the age of 18 are now automatically enrolled in “Trump Accounts,” expanding access to the federal government’s investment initiative aimed at building long-term wealth for the next generation. The completion of the larger auto-enrollment rollout is a significant shift from the program’s original setup, which relied on parents actively filing paperwork to register their children. The transition to automatic enrollment follows new Treasury Department and Internal Revenue Service guidance designed to streamline access and maximize participation nationwide. Under previous rules, parents or legal guardians were required to...

[Note: This is the Abstract of an ACM study, which I broke up into paragraphs for readability.] AI assistants are increasingly framed as digital coworkers rather than tools. In immersive settings such as VR, AI embodiment design choices can become salient social signals that shape human–AI interaction. We investigate how such choices influence users’ perceptions of and behavior toward AI coworkers by employing three functionally identical AI assistants varying in human-likeness and gender presentation. In a controlled study, 189 knowledge workers completed work tasks with them, provided ratings, and allocated monetary rewards; we additionally interviewed 34 participants. Our results show...

Employees at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago are unionizing over their working conditions, claiming their benefits have been cut and workloads are increasing just four months after the center opened in June. Workers circulated a letter to staff Wednesday announcing their intent to unionize, complaining about “increasing” workloads “vague responses” from administrators to a list of complaints they’d raised, the Chicago Sun Times reported. Some of the complaints suggested that the $900 million presidential center could already be facing financial trouble. Such complaints have led to a “high turnover rate,” with exiting employees “taking with them their institutional knowledge...

Four astronauts returned to Earth Thursday morning, splashing down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Los Angeles after spending nearly eight months aboard the International Space Station. The SpaceX Dragon spacecraft carrying NASA astronauts Jessica Meir and Jack Hathaway, European Space Agency astronaut Sophie Adenot and Russian cosmonaut Andrey Fedyaev splashed down at 8:34 a.m. PDT, according to NASA. The landing marked the end of the Crew-12 mission, which began in February and included scientific research and four spacewalks aboard the orbiting laboratory. The crew launched from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida on Feb. 13 aboard...

About 1 in 15 house cats may be carrying a common intestinal parasite that can also infect humans, according to a new study examining more than 157,000 cats across North America. Researchers found that 6.3% of cats tested positive for Giardia duodenalis, a microscopic parasite that causes an intestinal illness commonly known as “beaver fever.” Nearly one in five infected cats carried strains with the potential to spread to humans. The findings, published Wednesday in the peer-reviewed journal PLOS One, also revealed that kittens younger than 1 year old were significantly more likely to test positive than older cats. Researchers...

The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits fell to 197,000 last week, the Labor Department said Thursday. This was 2,000 lower than the the previous week’s revised estimate and 3,000 below the consensus forecast. New claims for unemployment benefits are a proxy for layoffs. These have been near the lowest levels in 57 years for the past several week. The four-week moving average of claims, which smooths out weekly volatility, fell to 198,000. This average was hit twice in 2022. Prior to that, average claims have not been that low since 1969.

In what the Wall Street Journal's editorial page dubbed "the speech of the year," Secretary of State Marco Rubio laid out that President Trump's vision for America and the world is closely tied to the ideals of ancient Greece, which brought forth the great civilization of the West. It was extraordinary in its depth and projection. Imagine a Democrat -- or even Pope Leo --giving a speech like this, standing against the Acropolis itself in Greece, fiercely affirming that the Western civilization brought about by Greece is worth fighting for and dying for: [video at source] The buildup is slow...

Here’s to the virtue-signalling “Free Palestine” NPCs who pivoted in an eyeblink to “Don’t Free Iran” – may they choke on their hypocritical bile! And to the kefiyyeh-wearing street-blockers and their prayer-rug roadshow - let them drink Guinness through a straw! And not the Zero version! And to our gutless so-called leaders, who pee their pants at the thought of upsetting their jihadi imports - may the tail finally wag the dog straight off a cliff! Now sing it with me, boys… Oh you know where you can shove your Palestine? You can stick it where the sun don't shine!...

Secretary of War Pete Hegseth has announced that the execution of convicted Fort Hood Islamist terrorist Nidal Malik Hasan will be "PUBLIC," with American soldiers carrying out the firing squad at the very military installation where Hasan murdered 13 people and wounded 32 others in 2009. The Trump administration has scheduled the execution for December 3, 2026, at 1 p.m. Central Time, returning the convicted mass murderer to Fort Hood, Texas, at approximately the same time of day he launched his deadly rampage nearly 17 years ago. Hegseth revealed the plans during an exclusive interview with conservative commentator Jack Posobiec...

Here's your reminder that the judges are out of control: Post The Vigilant Fox 🦊 @VigilantFox A 19-year-old charged with stabbing a man in Pittsburgh so badly his intestines were hanging out was released the SAME DAY without posting a dime. Eight days later, he’s the prime suspect in ANOTHER stabbing. District Judge Dan Butler let Delvin Dobbins walk on a non-monetary bond. Just a promise to show up to court. Pittsburgh Police Chief Jason Lando couldn’t believe he was out. “How can that be? I mean, he just stabbed someone in the stomach a week ago.” And it’s happened...

A newly released police bodycam video shows the tense moments after a 6-year-old boy shot his teacher at a Virginia school, with the foul-mouthed child gunman challenging the responding officers to a fight, and admitting he stole the gun from his mom. The video, obtained by The Virginian-Pilot and the Daily Press earlier this week, shows officers responding to a classroom at Richneck Elementary School where the shocking 2023 shooting had occurred, and encountering the boy, who has only been identified in court docs as “JT.” The teacher who was shot, Abigail Zwerner, and other students had fled the room...

A man armed with a gun and a knife was shot dead at a federal courthouse in Nashville on Thursday. According to News 3, the attacker tried to discharge his gun but it wouldn't fire so he used a knife to attack the security guard. The security guard fatally shot the gunman. The gunman was identified as an out-of-state US Marshal. The motive for the attack is unknown. Local 3 News reported: The shooter was identified as an out-of-state U.S. Marshal, who police say entered the front door armed with a pistol. The gunman is dead and there is no...

The Trump administration argues that its proposed multibillion-dollar Russian oil deal would advance American foreign policy interests and lower energy prices. But most of the ownership in the deal would go to a group of Middle Eastern investors, including some with business ties to key U.S. officials involved in the negotiations, according to people familiar with the talks. The deal, for a worldwide portfolio of oil fields, refineries and gas stations now owned by the sanctioned Russian energy giant Lukoil, has become intertwined with the U.S. talks with Russia over ending the war in Ukraine. The United States government, through...

Hurricane Rachel took a sharp turn in the Pacific Ocean and is moving toward Southern California, with forecasters predicting it could arrive early Sunday. It is projected to weaken into a tropical storm before making landfall. “The current forecast shows it coming ashore about 100 miles south of San Diego, but the path could shift as far north as Orange County,” the New York Post reports. More from the New York Post: The National Weather Service says a large weather system moving in from the northwest will push Rachel off course. “This will cause Rachel to slow down and then...

You may know King Harold II for one thing: losing the Battle of Hastings in 1066. But is this Harold's whole story? In 2023 a remarkable coin hoard was discovered in Yorkshire, England, that shows Harold in a different light. This is the first recorded hoard of coins which can definitely be dated to the year 1066. Containing only coins struck during Harold’s brief reign of 282 days, the hoard reveals a king whose authority was recognised across England, and whose government could produce new coins with great speed. Join Elina Screen, Curator of Medieval and Modern Coin Collections at...

He’s supposed to give Texas Republicans a run for their money in the U.S. Senate race. Ken Paxton is supposed to lose, if you believe the polling. So, where the hell is Democrat James Talarico? He’s been missing for almost two weeks. No, it’s not an Unsolved Mysteries episode, but politically, he’s been MIA from the campaign trail in a race where Democrats can’t have their people running silent and deep. Is it because we learned earlier this month that Talarico is a Marxist? Where is this guy (via PJ Media):

Harvey Weinstein, the Hollywood heavyweight who was a longtime supporter of the abortion industry, has been sentenced to 15 years in prison for sex crimes. Key Takeaways: * Disgraced Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein has faced numerous charges of rape and sexual assault in multiple states, giving rise to the #MeToo movement. * He was convicted of committing a first-degree criminal sexual act in New York against production assistant Miriam Haley, though this conviction was later overturned. * Weinstein was again found guilty, and sentenced to 15 years in prison in New York, though there are other legal battles continuing in...

Explanation: How was the Saturn system imaged so clearly? Astrophotographer Tom Williams captured such exquisite details due to one night of exceptional atmospheric conditions above the United Kingdom. This means more than a cloudless sky. Pockets of air at different temperatures and densities move around and bend light as it travels through Earth’s atmosphere, distorting astronomy images. This is called “seeing.” Less atmospheric turbulence means clearer images. The astrophotographer reduced the impact of seeing with the lucky imaging technique: thousands of short-exposure images are taken very quickly with a high-speed camera and the clearest images are added up. Which object...

Young teenagers are less likely to identify as lesbian, gay or bisexual than they were a few years ago, according to a new analysis of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data. The decline is particularly striking among ninth-grade girls, according to Jean Twenge, a professor of psychology at San Diego State University who published her analysis of the 2025 data on her Substack “Generation Tech.” In 2021, 30 percent of ninth-grade girls identified as lesbian or bisexual. Last year, 17 percent did. “It really does look like a free fall,” Twenge said. “But what’s causing it is unclear.” Twenge...

Atlanta police charged 30-year-old Phelan Thorpe after he allegedly attacked her in Midtown on Saturday, then stole and crashed a police car on Monday. The next day, Coleman discovered an unnerving message saved to her stolen phone's voicemail greeting. "I don't even give a f— about the phone no more," the man's voice said. "I'm gonna come air that b—- out, on God. Boy, when I found out I [had] your ID, f—- that, shorty, I need $600 on my cash app."