Free Republic

Toyota announced Thursday it will no longer sponsor LGBTQ parades and events and will no longer make efforts to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Toyota told employees it will no longer participate in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index and other corporate surveys. Instead, it will “narrow our community activities to align with STEM education and workforce readiness,” the automaker explained in a memo to its 50,000 employees and 1,500 dealers. The change follows after conservative activist Robby Starbuck started a social media campaign highlighting the company’s prior support for LGBTQ events and other woke policies.

Life expectancy in the United States fell for the second straight year, fueled by COVID-19, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) published Wednesday. The two-year decline was steep, down 2.7 years between 2019 and 2021. Life expectancy was 76.1 years in 2021, down from 77 years in 2020 and 78.8 years in 2019.

At the beginning of this year’s midterm campaign, analysts and political operatives had every reason to expect a strong Republican showing this November. President Biden’s approval rating was in the low 40s, and the president’s party has a long history of struggling in midterm elections. But as the start of the general election campaign nears, it’s becoming increasingly hard to find any concrete signs of Republican strength. Tuesday’s strong Democratic showing in a special congressional election in New York’s 19th District is only the latest example. On paper, this classic battleground district in the Hudson Valley and Catskills is exactly...