Free Republic

New York's Democratic Representative Alexandria Ocasio‑Cortez’s highest‑profile outing on the world stage yet at the Munich Security Conference last week has sharpened speculation about her long‑term political ambitions. Newsweek has reached out to Ocasio‑Cortez via email for comment. Why It Matters Ocasio‑Cortez’s emergence on an international platform comes as Democrats begin to look beyond President Donald Trump's time in office and toward a generational reshaping of party leadership. How seriously she is taken as a future contender is increasingly reflected in both betting odds and prediction markets. What To Know Ocasio‑Cortez’s trip to Germany marked her most prominent international appearance...

In 2023, newly disclosed documents related to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein revealed meetings and financial interactions between Epstein and the eminent linguist and public intellectual Noam Chomsky. The disclosures did not accuse Chomsky of criminal conduct. But they confirmed that, years after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for soliciting a minor, Chomsky met with him multiple times and discussed financial matters. Chomsky’s response was characteristically blunt: his meetings with Epstein, he said, were “none of your business.” The tone may have been legally defensible. Culturally and symbolically, it was something else. Because Chomsky is not merely a professor emeritus at MIT....

Young Scottish actress Mandipa Kabana has been cast to play Joan of Arc in a 2026 Scottish theatrical production that explores the “power of youth-led change”. 'Classic tale of war, duplicity, power and wealth gets a fresh new treatment' writes The Herald about the upcoming theatre adaption of Joan of Arc. Stewart Laing, the theatre director who cast Mandipa, had compared the French Patron Saint to Greta Thunberg: "Look at someone like Greta Thunberg. There are young people with loud voices protesting against those in power."

Follow live updates on New York City politics as Mayor Zohran Mamdani announced a record $127 billion budget proposal Tuesday. The eye-popping amount — that one insider called “insanity” — is up around $11 billion from the current year. The socialist city leader’s plan includes a whopping 9.5% proposed property tax hike on New Yorkers, which he claims would be a “last resort” — while allocating another $1.2 billion for migrants. Mamdani, 34, unveiled his preliminary budget from the Blue Room at NYC City Hall this afternoon. Get the latest news, analysis and more from our local politics reporters with...

A California Teacher of the Year finalist has been arrested for trying to pay for sexual acts with an undercover cop posing as a 13-year-old boy. Ruben Guzman, an assistant principal and math teacher at Sunrise Middle School in San Jose, was snared when he organized for them to meet up last week. The 31-year-old, who was also recognized by the San Francisco 49ers for his work in the classroom, was cuffed by San Jose police and the FBI on the scene. It came as part of a wider bust that saw 10 others across the region caught over alleged...

Selloff wipes out nearly $1 trillion from software and services stocks as investors debate AI's existential threat Summary: Companies: Software stocks fall on AI disruption fears, but selling intensity eases Scramble to shield portfolios as AI muddies valuations, business prospects Selloff has been overdone, analyst says Software and service stocks shed $830 billion in market value in six trading days Feb 4 (Reuters) - Investors were assessing on Wednesday whether a selloff in global software stocks this week had gone too far, as they weighed if businesses could survive an existential threat posed by artificial intelligence. The answer: It's unclear,...

A twisted New Jersey teacher who groomed and abused two students ended up getting pregnant by one of the teens — then broke his heart by getting an abortion, it was revealed as she was sentenced to 10 years in prison. Julie Rizzitello, who was an English teacher at Wall Township High School, had told one of her victims that she’d gotten pregnant after convincing him to have unprotected sex with her on his birthday, it was revealed in court Wednesday, according to Jersey Shore Online. The 37-year-old mom later informed the teenager, whom she’d groomed as a freshman, that...

An old newspaper page from 1986 has resurfaced on social media, showing math teachers protesting against the use of calculators in the classroom, until upper grades. Back then, the concerns were not only about students' academic dependency, but many feared that it would replace human skills and take away jobs that depended on manual calculation. Years later, the history appears to repeat itself. This time, the conversation has shifted from calculators to Artificial Intelligence, as an AI tool can take on tasks like -- writing, designing, teaching, and problem-solving, eventually weakening critical thinking, creativity and overall learning process. Just like...

I just watched a TV ad for the new Unrivaled woman's basketball league. A player comes on and says:...the new Unrivaled league is unpresidented I guess they don't allow the President to watch. Public education probably allows her to say this, but how does this slip by the ad company?

Abstract AIs have made rapid progress on research-oriented benchmarks of knowledge and reasoning, but it remains unclear how these gains translate into economic value and automation. To measure this, we introduce the Remote Labor Index (RLI), a broadly multi-sector benchmark comprising real-world, economically valuable projects designed to evaluate end-to-end agent performance in practical settings. AI agents perform near the floor on RLI, with the highest-performing agent achieving an automation rate of 2.5%. These results help ground discussions of AI automation in empirical evidence, setting a common basis for tracking AI impacts and enabling stakeholders to proactively navigate AI-driven labor automation....

Why 95% of enterprise AI projects fail to deliver ROI: A data analysis American enterprises spent an estimated $40 billion on artificial intelligence systems in 2024, according to MIT research. Yet the same study found that 95% of companies are seeing zero measurable bottom-line impact from their AI investments. The pattern is remarkably consistent across industries. Companies invest millions in AI infrastructure, train models on internal data, deploy systems to assist sales teams or automate marketing workflows—and then watch as adoption stalls or results disappoint. The technology works in demos but fails in daily operations. MIT's Project NANDA calls it...

The heated exchange centered around a recent resolution criticizing ICE officers — a move critics say was rushed through without public awareness.

A North Carolina celebrity sheriff who opposes Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) also lacks a basic grasp on the three branches of government – and which one he serves under. [...] Sheriff McFadden has made a name for himself by opposing ICE. Soon after taking over as the county’s top cop in 2018, McFadden announced he would no longer cooperate with the federal agency under the 287(g) program. This allows local law enforcement to receive funding to help with immigration enforcement.

In this article, I want to focus on one particular document from 2018. It is a wire transfer request form that is dated June 12th that shows that six 55 gallon drums of sulphuric acid were purchased for Epstein’s private island. Interestingly, June 12th was also the exact day when the FBI began investigating Epstein’s sex trafficking operation…

Reports identify Jesse Strang as the alleged transgender suspect in the Canada mass shooting at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, though authorities have not officially confirmed the shooter’s identity. Canada shooter identfied? Authorities launched an intense investigation after two mass shootings in Canada on Tuesday (Feb 10). At least nine people were reported killed, and dozens were injured after an alleged shooter launched open fire at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School. What did Police say? The police said they were aware who the suspect was, but did not disclose their identity, except that it was a woman with brown hair and wearing...

A mother was brutally assaulted by a mob of high school students during an anti-ICE protest at Issaquah High School in Washington state. The incident was captured on video and widely shared on social media. On Monday morning, hundreds of students from Issaquah High School poured out of classrooms to protest U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The victim, who has chosen to remain anonymous due to fears of retaliation, described the ordeal as completely unprovoked. The woman, who reportedly wishes to remain anonymous, said she was simply in the area when students suddenly surrounded her, bumping into her, cursing,...

A grief-stricken mother says her 12-year-old daughter who was shot in the head and neck by a transgender school shooter in Canada will not survive the night. Maya Gebala was one of at least two-dozen children and teachers wounded when Jesse Strang, 18, opened fire at Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, killing eight people before committing suicide. Strang was born a male and started identifying as a girl aged 12, Royal Canadian Mounted Police confirmed on Wednesday. Maya's mother Cia Edmonds shared a heartbreaking update from her daughter's bedside in Vancouver Children's Hospital. 'We were warned that the damage to her...

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A New Report Says AI Layoffs Are Backfiring and Half of Companies Will Start Rehiring, Organizations are starting to come to terms with the limits of AI. Businesses and workers are actively adopting artificial intelligence tools to automate various workplace tasks and boost their productivity in the process, surveys indicate. Still, managers should probably think twice about using the tech to replace employees anytime soon. Many companies that have swapped people for chatbots will be reversing course and hiring cut staffers back before long, according to top consultancy Gartner. Recent studies have captured the significantly increased pace with which workplaces...

Students who use AI to solve STEM problem sets can evade detection, but they skip the mental work that builds understanding, says chemistry tutor Kelvin Ang.During last year’s exam season, a student showed me her answer to the 2024 GCE A-Level Chemistry Paper 3 question. The task was straightforward: Draw three curly arrows to complete a reaction mechanism. ChatGPT provided a diagram with clean lines, proper notation, and technical precision. But the arrows were completely wrong, misplaced in ways that would cost full marks. Here’s another example from the same year. Students were asked why calcium fluoride does not dissolve...