Free Republic

The future of Donald Trump's social media network Truth Social could be decided this week as its parent company fights for a deal that would allow it to go public. The Trump Media & Technology Group (TMTG), which owns the platform the one-time president frequently uses instead of his formerly beloved Twitter, is facing a potential make or break shareholder vote this week on whether it can merge with Digital World Acquisition Corporation (DWAC), which has raised $300 million from investors. In October 2021, TMTG announced it would be merging with DWAC, a special-purpose acquisition company [SPAC], or "blank-check" acquisition...

Former Disney CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg named national co-chair of Biden's 2024 campaign ... A former Disney CEO and his wife recently donated more than $1.7 million to a joint fundraising committee authorized by Biden's campaign, despite their deep ties to China. Biden’s campaign announced on April 25 that former Disney and DreamWorks Animation chief Jeffrey Katzenberg would serve as one of its national co-chairs. Two days later, on April 27, the Biden Victory Fund, the campaign’s joint fundraising vehicle, received a donation totaling $889,600 from Katzenberg’s wife, Marilyn. ... Katzenberg has deep and longstanding ties to China's communist government.. potentially...

DALLAS - The search for life around the universe will now take place around the clock. The SETI (Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence) Institute plans to have 42 radio astronomy dishes up and running in northern California by the end of 2007, which will enable it to scan the heavens for alien radio waves on a continuous basis. "There are a number of groups around the world doing SETI research. They are listening for radio signals out there, but it is not 24/7," said Scott Hubbard, who holds the Carl Sagan Chair for the Study of Life in the Universe at...

CAIMITO, Cuba (Reuters) - They do not come to Cuba for the beaches and tropical mystique that draw more than 2 million other visitors each year. Instead they come to spend their vacations working in the countryside under a blazing sun, eating rice and beans and sharing a room without air-conditioning or toilet with seven others. They are so-called revolutionary tourists who arrive each year from about 50 countries for a "total immersion" in one of the world's few remaining socialist countries. "I call it a revolutionary vacation. I dedicate my free time to doing something concrete for the Cuban...

Ma-ma, da-da, bling bling. Being born with a silver spoon in your mouth no longer makes you the royal ruler of the playground. To wear that baby bonnet you have to be rocking a big rock. Today's parents of means can't seem to get enough jewels for their little gems. From tennis bracelets to two-carat diamond stud earrings, pint-sized jewelry has become almost as common as diaper rash. "It's become quite popular. It used to be that earrings for babies were popular among certain ethnic groups, but it never went beyond that," said Sharon Bountain, president and CEO of North...

Instead of rocking with Bono and The Edge, hundreds of U2 fans were forced to ``walk away, walk away'' from the sold-out FleetCenter show Tuesday night when their scalped tickets proved bogus. Some heartbroken fans broke down in tears as they were turned away clutching worthless pieces of paper they shelled out as much as $2,000 for. ``There was a number of people that were just crying,'' recalled Matt Whelan, the FleetCenter's director of ticket operations. ``There were people that didn't know what to do. They were stunned. They had come from all over the world.'' It took Whelan and...

BERLIN - A volume of the forged diaries of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler which fooled the world in 1983 fetched 6,500 euros in a Berlin auction on Friday. Forger, painter and military antiques dealer Konrad Kujau, who died in 2000, copied Hitler's handwriting and sold 60 volumes of the diary to Stern magazine for about $5 million. The manuscript is the last in the series, with the final entry dated April 30, 1945, the day Hitler committed suicide with Eva Braun in his bunker as the Third Reich collapsed. The starting price was 5,000 euros, the estimate 7,000 euros, a...