Free Republic

Every year ahead of the June 4 commemoration of the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Chinese government tightens online censorship to suppress domestic discussion of the event. Critics, dissidents and international groups anticipate an uptick in cyber activity ranging from emails with malicious links to network attacks in the days and weeks leading up to the anniversary.Much of this cyber activity by Beijing is done covertly. But a recent restructuring of China’s cyberforce and a document leak exposing the activities of Chinese tech firm i-Soon have shed some light on how Beijing goes about the business of hacking.As a China expert...

The jury in Donald Trump’s hush-money payments trial has found the former president of the United States guilty of falsifying business records in relation to payments made to adult film star Stormy Daniels. The guilty verdict marks the first felony conviction of an American president.Speaking to reporters after the verdict, Trump called the trial a “rigged decision, right from Day 1.” He is likely to appeal the verdict.Trump had been facing 34 felony charges stemming from his conduct in the lead-up to the 2016 U.S. presidential election. He faces three other criminal indictments that won’t likely go to trial before...

This Memorial Day, we honor the brave women and men who made the ultimate sacrifice for our Nation’s freedom. We recommit to keeping our sacred obligation to their survivors, families, and caregivers. Together, we vow to honor their memories by carrying on their work to forge a more perfect Union. Since our Nation’s founding, members of our Armed Forces have been willing to lay down their lives — not for a person or a place but for an idea unlike any other in human history: the idea of the United States of America. We are the only Nation in the...

Christian activists will show people this Saturday how to turn weapons of violence into instruments of peace using a hammer − and some faith − to forge guns into garden tools. The event, hosted by Delaware and Maryland churches belonging to the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is an effort to get people to think differently about guns and how to handle conflict without violence. The "Youtherans," young people who attend Lutheran churches in Delaware and Maryland, are also organizing this free event at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, north of Wilmington. "It's to say that there's a different way," said...

Bing, Microsoft’s search engine, isn’t working properly right now. At first, we noticed it wasn’t possible to perform a web search at all. Now it seems search results are loading properly. But this outage also appears to still be affecting Bing’s application programming interface (API), which means that other services that rely on Bing aren’t working properly. For instance, DuckDuckGo and Ecosia, two alternative search engines that rely on Bing’s search results, aren’t returning any search results right now. Microsoft Copilot isn’t loading either. ChatGPT Plus subscribers, who have the ability to perform web searches, also get an error when...

IN THIS SPRING of 1953 the free world weighs one question above all others: the chance for a just peace for all peoples. To weigh this chance is to summon instantly to mind another recent moment of great decision. It came with that yet more hopeful spring of 1945, bright with the promise of victory and of freedom. The hope of all just men in that moment too was a just and lasting peace. The 8 years that have passed have seen that hope waver, grow dim, and almost die. And the shadow of fear again has darkly lengthened across...

Today’s gun control politicians are making it clear. It’s not just guns they despise. There are two other primary obstacles to civil disarmament that they loathe.One is the Second Amendment itself. The other, well, it’s you – the gun owner.It wasn’t that long ago when President Barack Obama lambasted gun owners who refused to roll over to his gun control agenda. Stumping for his first election to The White House, he told fundraisers at a San Francisco event of smalltown Pennsylvania voters that were left behind, especially by the political elites.“And it’s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling...

Coming home from school to watch SpongeBob was a major part of my childhood. Over the past 25 years, we've seen some truly hilarious and heartwarming episodes, complete with iconic quotes and memes that have traversed generations. So, in honor of the show's 25th anniversary, I decided to rank the top 25 episodes of all time. Let's start with some honorable mentions. Honestly, the first few seasons of SpongeBob were so strong it would be easy to argue for any episode to make the top. Here are some that came thiiiis close to making the list: • Ripped Pants (Season...

Ocean temperatures that have gone “crazy haywire” hot, especially in the Atlantic, are close to making the current global coral bleaching event the worst in history. It's so bad that scientists are hoping for a few hurricanes to cool things off. More than three-fifths — 62.9% — of the world's coral reefs are badly hurting from a bleaching event that began last year and is continuing. That's nearing the record of 65.7% in 2017, when from 2009 to 2017 about one-seventh of the world's coral died, said Derek Manzello, coordinator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Coral Reef Watch...

… Bx, a Twitter libertarian and “independent investigator,” recently tweeted about a first date she went on that almost ended in disaster. Or as she wrote, “Last night I was on a first date and at the end of the night he opened my car door for me and my holstered gun fell out of my new purse and hit the road and my Shield Arms mag exploded and sent 9mm ammo flying everywhere, and then we spent the next 15 minutes trying to find all the ammo and the mag spring. Am I getting a second date?” She added,...

With the new Amy Winehouse biopic “Back to Black” in U.S. theaters as of May 17, 2024, the late singer’s relationship with alcohol and drugs is under scrutiny again. In July 2011, Winehouse was found dead in her flat in north London from “death by misadventure” at the age of 27. That’s the official British term used for accidental death caused by a voluntary risk.Her blood alcohol concentration was 0.416%, more than five times the legal intoxication limit in the U.S. – leading her cause of death to be later adjusted to include “alcohol toxicity” following a second coroner’s inquest....

“I had the hormonal urges,” said Prof Camille Parmesan, a leading climate scientist based in France. “Oh my gosh, it was very strong. But it was: ‘Do I really want to bring a child into this world that we’re creating?’ Even 30 years ago, it was very clear the world was going to hell in a handbasket. I’m 62 now and I’m actually really glad I did not have children.” Parmesan is not alone. An exclusive Guardian survey has found that almost a fifth of the female climate experts who responded have chosen to have no children, or fewer children,...

On May 16 the world will mark the UN International Day of Living Together in Peace. It is a rallying call for people to listen respectfully to others and promote tolerance and understanding. Perhaps someone should tell tech entrepreneurs Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk. The online platforms they head up – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X – have become synonymous with fake news, hate speech, misinformation and other online harms. Social media has been widely blamed for destabilising democracies and fomenting civil unrest in Europe and North America. In July 2023, the French president, Emmanuel Macron, proposed restricting access to online platforms...

Forty years ago, on July 12, 1979, what was supposed to be a wacky promotional stunt by shock-rock DJ Steve Dahl to sell tickets to a double-header White Sox baseball game at Chicago’s Comiskey Park turned ugly — when piles of vinyl records, many by artists of color, were destroyed as thousands of anti-disco rioters, 39 of whom were eventually arrested for disorderly conduct, stormed the field. Dahl has always vehemently denied that 98.7FM WLUP’s infamous “Disco Demolition Night” had any racist or homophobic undertones or intentions, arguing that “annexing this event to today’s advocacy is lazy academically and inappropriate...

<p>Over a 30-year-plus career in the public eye, as a drummer with Nirvana and frontman for Foo Fighters, Dave Grohl has built up a reputation as one of the kindest people in rock 'n' roll. Seemingly a regular, down-to-earth person who can get along with most anyone in the chaotic world of music, he also speaks out for important causes. This is, after all, the guy who accepted a playful drumming challenge from a 10-year-old and brought rescued miners to a Foo Fighters concert and a meet-and-greet.</p>

A couple weeks ago, reviews for a new wearable AI device started hitting the market. While the device reviews aren’t great, they do give us a hint at the future of wearable technology. If used right in the future, the technology could be used to make people, armed or unarmed, a lot safer from criminal attackers. But, before we get to my ideas on the potential for this technology, let’s first share one of these reviews and discuss what the technology is supposed to do: https://youtu.be/TitZV6k8zfA What It’s Supposed To Be, But Falls Short Of In short, the Humane AI...

The National Rifle Association of America (NRA) has announced that President Donald J. Trump will address NRA members as the keynote speaker at the 2024 NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits on Saturday, May 18, in Dallas, Texas. This marks President Trump's ninth address on NRA’s stage, reaffirming his strong commitment to the NRA, the Second Amendment, and the rich American tradition of firearm ownership. President Trump first addressed the NRA in Nashville in 2015. Since then, he has been a steadfast advocate for the NRA, the Second Amendment, and self-defense rights—including his promise in 2016 to never let NRA members...

During a recent appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, Tucker Carlson made a bold claim about the August 1945 decision by the United States to bomb the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki—a move that effectively put an end World War II. He said:My ‘side’ has spent the last 80 years defending the dropping of nuclear bombs on civilians… like, are you joking? If you find yourself arguing that it’s a good thing to drop nuclear weapons on people, then you are evil.I like Tucker Carlson and find myself in agreement with him on many topics. I am especially...

The only time we go on LinkedIn is to unsubscribe from getting emails about LinkedIn but if it’s full of this sort of content then we might be missing a trick. It’s a guy who proposed to his girlfriend – ahhh – who then shared what his proposal taught him about B2B sales. Aarrrgh! Now there’s always the distinct possibility that this is deep cover – surely it is! – but it’s a very funny read either way (with wildly varying amounts of facepalm). Here’s how it first went viral... And here are just a few of the many responses...

St. Joseph, the beloved spouse of the Blessed Virgin Mary and earthly father of Jesus, is celebrated twice by the Catholic Church every year — first on March 19 for the feast of St. Joseph, husband of Mary, and again on May 1 for the feast of St. Joseph the Worker. While the saint’s March feast dates back to the 10th century, his May feast wasn’t instituted until 1955. What was behind it? Pope Pius XII instituted the feast of St. Joseph the Worker on May 1, 1955 so that it would coincide with International Workers Day, also known as...