Free Republic

"US Immigration and Customs Enforcement is quietly removing some of the recruits it hired during last year’s rapid expansion, raising fresh questions about a hiring campaign that brought thousands of new employees into the agency — and about what happens to the generous incentives offered to attract them. An investigation by The Washington Post found that ICE has begun firing some employees recruited during the push to expand its immigration enforcement workforce. The campaign was launched to provide additional manpower for the Trump administration’s mass-deportation programme. The rapid recruitment drive was backed by unusually large financial incentives. What happens to...

A law enforcement initiative in Memphis, Tennessee, has resulted in 189 missing children being found and the arrest of 12,747 individuals over the past year, with overall crime expected to hit a 25-year low, the White House said on Tuesday.Arrests made by the Memphis Safe Task Force, a multi-agency initiative established by presidential memorandum in September 2025, include 1,408 known gang members, as well as 1,363 people apprehended for narcotics offenses, 1,276 for firearms violations, 131 for homicide, and 125 for sex offenses, the White House said on the task force's first anniversary.One of the individuals arrested through the task...

US officials embraced an algorithm for detecting signals of harm from mRNA covid-19 vaccines that they knew was broken and suppressed efforts to fix it.

Last month I wrote about how we can build a positive and safe future for everyone: meta.com/thefutureisfor… Every lab has the responsibility and incentive to move at the pace required to train its models safely, and the ability to take its own actions to ensure that happens. The reality is: - People won't want to use agents that are misaligned with them and that don't do what they ask, so labs have a strong natural incentive to make their models more aligned. There is a lot of debate about slowing progress on capabilities until alignment catches up. My view is...

Ollie Millroy’s (GBR) FIST Team AAI Ferrari was struck by Chen Weian’s (CHN) Harmony Racing Ferrari after clashing with the BC by 610 Racing BMW of Neil Verhagen (Connecticut) on the back straight. Chen and Verhagen went sliding through the grass before the two Ferraris collided at the hairpin, causing Millroy’s car to burst into flames. Having seen the incident unfold in front of him, Loek Hartog (NED) stopped his Phantom Global Racing Porsche at the scene of the crash and pulled Millroy from the inferno. Hartog tried to extinguish the car. The race was red-flagged and ultimately abandoned. “I...

Under the leadership of the Trump administration, the FBI has announced that violent crime has had the largest drop in recorded history in 2025. ⏬Largest year-to-year decline in murder on record⏬In 2025, our country saw the largest year-to-year decrease in murder and nonnegligent manslaughter, thanks to this FBI and its commitment to crush violent crime. Each day, this FBI works tirelessly to continue to save lives and the results are showing. pic.twitter.com/kLynxJB9ea— FBI (@FBI) August 18, 2026According to data released by the FBI, the violent crime rate in the United States dropped by nearly 10 percent last year. That marks...

An Arizona man showing off a gun he was trying to sell at a yard sale wound up shooting a person in their colon and another in the hand, groin and leg, according to police. Clarence Bodiford, 61, immediately fled the scene after accidentally opening fire on the two victims as they were shopping at a yard sale he was having in the Pima County community of Green Valley, police say. Bodiford went on the run for more than two months before being caught in Florida this week and arrested. He is facing two counts of aggravated assault with a...

Since Waymo arrived on the public stage as Google’s self-titled autonomous-driving project almost 20 years ago, the promise that self-driving cars would dramatically curtail crashes has remained just that. A handful of companies operate autonomous ride-hailing services in some cities (San Francisco is downright lousy with autonomous cars), but high-profile mishaps show how elusive real progress is. Yet Waymo may be heading in the right direction, according to the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. The nonprofit organization backed by the insurance industry and known for very thorough crash tests recently took a look at Waymo’s safety record. In a study...

US House of Representatives passes a $1.15T defense bill with provision deepening Pentagon-Israel weapons tech cooperation and funding $750M for joint defense programs.

Sunday morning, July 5, 2026. St. John’s Lutheran Church in Effingham, Illinois, sat peaceful under a quiet sky. Volunteers had just begun to arrive to prepare for services. Just the ordinary rhythm of a house of worship going about its day. Then a man driving a stolen car slipped inside, asking for the pastor. Church security didn’t blink. They noticed the out-of-state plates and saw the man approach. Safety team members made contact as he entered. The man asked for the pastor, but the safety volunteers sensed something was wrong. They called 911. Police rolled in. There was a struggle....

New Gallup data show that people are growing increasingly distrustful of major technology companies such as Meta, Apple, and Google, as well as a newer player in the surveillance industry, Flock Safety. Some people are even taking matters into their own hands by destroying the AI-powered surveillance cameras appearing in communities across the country. Flock Safety, a private surveillance technology company founded in 2017, has been earning a reputation as a herald of the much-feared Orwellian “surveillance state.” Although a private company, Flock’s business model operates by selling AI-powered camera and audio detection systems to local and state governments for...

Imagine a world run by AI agents. What does it look like? What are the values or societal priorities? Is it a safer or more dangerous world? Enterprise AI startup Emergence AI is trying to find out. The company just launched Emergence World, a research lab dedicated to stress-testing the long-term viability of continuously-running AI systems. The organization ran five 15-day simulations, each governed by a different AI: Claude, ChatGPT, Grok, Gemini, and a fifth simulation run by a mix of models to see what kind of world each one builds, and whether it holds.Each simulation netted wildly different outcomes....

Gov. Greg Abbott is pushing a sweeping criminal justice package next legislative session that would expand state oversight of local prosecutors, create a governor-appointed state prosecutor, and make district attorneys subject to impeachment. During a Thursday press conference with law enforcement officials and Republican lawmakers, Abbott framed the proposals as necessary to protect victims and keep repeat offenders off the streets. “Our top priority must be public safety,” Abbott said. “We want to protect communities and prosecute criminals.” Abbott argued that too many dangerous offenders are being released back onto the streets because of decisions made by judges and prosecutors....

There have been 63 school shootings – meaning any time there is gunfire on a school campus – so far in 2026. They happen so often that preparing for one has become normal. Students as young as 4 years old routinely practice for the possibility of a school shooting with lockdown drills – typically, hiding in the corner of a dark classroom, behind a locked door. Pauls Valley High School in Pauls, Oklahoma, went into lockdown on April 7, 2026, after an armed gunman fired shots inside the building. Kirk Moore, the school’s principal, tackled the gunman and got shot...

One of the distinct differences between the Deomocrat and Republican candidates vying to be the state's next governor were their answers to the question of whether truck drivers should be able to understand English in order to be licensed to drive on the roads? Riverside County Sheriff Chad Bianco (R) says "yes, it is a matter of public safety. The inability to read and understand roadside signs has a direct impact on crashes that kill other drivers and the passengers in their vehicles. Drivers who do not understand English make serious errors--like going the wrong way on freeway lanes, making...

Most people have never heard of Mrinank Sharma. That is part of the problem.Earlier this month, Sharma resigned from Anthropic, one of the most influential artificial intelligence companies in the world.He had led its Safeguards Research Team, the group responsible for ensuring that Anthropic’s AI could not be used to help engineer a biological weapon.His final project was a study of how AI systems distort the way people perceive reality. It was serious, consequential work for humankind.His resignation letter was seen more than 14 million times on X.It opened with the words, “the world is in peril.”And it ended with...

This video shows bodycam footage and other recordings of the aftermath of UPS Airlines Flight 2976, which crashed on October 31, 2025. The crash occurred shortly after takeoff, with the plane landing on a recycling facility and causing a massive fire and explosions due to the combination of jet fuel and stored fuel oil (5:09). Key points from the video: Initial Response (0:11-1:59): First responders arrive to a chaotic scene of heavy black smoke and a large fire. Police work to evacuate people and shut down roads. Worsening Situation (2:45-5:47): Officers discover the plane was fully loaded with fuel for...

El Salvador earns the U.S. State Department's top safety rating amid harsh crackdown on gangs, while European countries face rising security threats. The U.S. State Department has dramatically updated its travel advisory for El Salvador, granting the country a Level 1 safety rating—its highest—making it now safer than many European nations, including France, Germany, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, and Sweden. These countries, which all remain at Level 2, continue to warn travelers to 'exercise increased caution.' This marks a stark contrast, particularly as the advisory highlights the escalating risk of terrorism in these European nations, compounded by...

Even foods most Americans consider "healthy" can pose serious foodborne illness risks, experts warn — and several say salads, sprouts and deli meats are among the everyday items they personally refuse to eat. One Seattle attorney who has spent decades litigating some of the country's worst foodborne illness outbreaks recently told The Washington Post that his well-done burger and steak order has prompted chefs to come out and ask what's wrong with him. "I explain what I do for a living," Bill Marler told the outlet. "It's an occupational hazard." He said he no longer touches bagged salads, fruit cups...

The families of victims killed in the UPS Airlines MD-11 freighter crash last month are set to file a wrongful death lawsuit against multiple parties. According to reports, the suit alleges negligence on the part of UPS and also names engine manufacturer GE Aerospace and planemaker Boeing, which took over McDonnell Douglas, the MD-11's original manufacturer. Last month's tragic crash led to the death of 14 people, including the three-person crew and another 11 people on the ground, after the McDonnell Douglas MD-11 freighter's left engine ripped off the airframe during takeoff, sending it plummeting into an industrial park. The...