Free Republic

ROME: A group of young German tourists posing for pictures to post on social media have been accused of toppling a valuable statue at a villa in northern Italy, the villa's manager said on Thursday (Aug 3). Two of the group climbed into a fountain to hug the work "Domina" by the artist Enrico Butti and another pushed it with a stick before the 1.7m statue crashed to the ground, Bruno Golferini, the manager of Villa Alceo in the town of Viggiu, said. Golferini said he had lodged a complaint with the local police against all 17 German tourists who...

Social media users are sharing pictures of burgers without tomatoesFast food chain McDonald's has stopped using tomato in its food preparations at most of the stores in northern and eastern parts of the country citing the non-availability of quality products, amid the price of the commodity surging up to Rs 200 per kg. McDonald's India - North and East said it is constrained to "hold tomatoes for the time being" and is trying to resolve this issue by employing sustainable agriculture practices. "Due to seasonal crop issues arising out of farm fields in a few regions, there are not enough...

During an interview with Milwaukee’s TMJ4 News on Thursday, Vice President Kamala Harris answered a question on demands for protections for the unborn at the point of viability while still allowing some abortion by stating that “the government should not be telling women what to do with their bodies.” TMJ4 Chief Political Reporter Charles Benson asked, “Wisconsin has an 1849 abortion ban law in place after the Supreme Court decision was reached on Roe v. Wade. Prior to that, it was a 20-week ban on abortion. So, my question for you is, what is your position on protecting reproductive rights...

Maj and Emma, two self-proclaimed climate activists, took part in a duo protest at the National Museum in Stockholm, Sweden, this past week, involving a Monet painting. The activists decided to smear red paint onto a piece titled The Artist’s Garden at Giverny. This renowned painting from 1900, which is currently exhibited as part of the “The Garden – Six Centuries of Art and Nature” exhibition at the National Museum, showcases a vibrant landscape featuring pink and purple irises. The painting was loaned to the museum from the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, where it has been held since 1983. However,...

Explanation: A Full Moon rose as the Sun set on August 1. Near perigee, the closest point in its almost moonthly orbit, the brighter than average lunar disk illuminated night skies around planet Earth as the second supermoon of 2023. Seen here above Ragusa, Sicily, cloud banks cast diverging shadows through the supermoonlit skies, creating dramatic lunar crepuscular rays. The next Full Moon in 2023 will also shine on an August night. Rising as the Sun sets on August 30/31, this second Full Moon in a month is known as a Blue Moon. Blue moons occur only once every 2...

Oregon and Washington appear on the verge of joining the Big Ten. The programs, both charter members of the Pac-12 dating back to 1915, informed Pac-12 presidents Friday that they plan to accept an invitation from the Big Ten once extended, according to Yahoo Sports. The Big Ten is preparing to make those formal offers later Friday, according to multiple reports. Oregon and Washington would be the third and fourth Pac-12 schools joining the Big Ten ahead of the 2024-25 season with USC and UCLA previously announcing their planned departures last summer. The Big Ten would then stand as an...

A riot has broken out at New York City's Union Square sparked by YouTubers Kai Cenat and Fanum handing out free Playstation 5s.

A former chief of Russian space agency Roscosmos has voiced doubt over the authenticity of the 1969 Apollo 11 Moon landing.“About 10 years ago, when I worked in the government, I sent an official request to Roscosmos to provide me with documentary evidence of the Americans' stay on the moon,” Dmitry Rogozin said in a statement on Telegram on Sunday.Rogozin said that he was “embarrassed” about the return of Soviet cosmonauts from space expeditions barely able to stand on their feet and undergoing long recoveries, while US astronauts crawled out of their lunar ships, in his words, “like cucumbers from...

Talk abut a fishy thing to do! Some Hamptons teens threw a giant fish off the roof of the fancy Le Bilboquet restaurant in Sag Harbor, sources exclusively tell Page Six — and the incoming catch of the day crashed down on tables, causing chaos among well-heeled diners. A source told us of the packed-to-the-gills hot spot: “A 20-pound striped bass was thrown from the roof of Bilboquet by two teenagers and landed on a table, sending glasses and plates flying!” The East End insider said, “Medics were called for a woman who was cut and bleeding, and the cops...

Jack Smith isn’t a stupid man. A number of definitions apply to Smith, but stupid isn’t one of them. A zealot? A vainglorious, demagogic political hack who is doing the bidding of another political hack? Yes, to both. But Jack Smith isn’t dumb. Smith was the head of the public corruption unit at DOJ when, in 2014, he brought public corruption charges against sitting Virginia Governor Bob McDonnell. McDonnell was charged with 14 counts. Those counts included honest services wire fraud, obtaining property under “color of official right,” and extortion under “color of official right.” Like most DOJ attorneys with...

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis on Friday offered his strongest dismissal of the election fraud theories at the heart of former President Donald Trump's push to overturn the 2020 election. Asked by a reporter during a campaign stop in Iowa whether the 2020 election was "stolen," DeSantis said the fraud theories "did not prove to be true." He did not, however, mention the name of his top rival for the GOP nomination, who was just indicted for allegedly working to overturn the last presidential election. "I've said many times the election is what it is," DeSantis said. "All those theories that...

Anheuser-Busch, the beverage company that used trans activist Dylan Mulvaney as its spokesperson for Bud Light earlier this year, has laid off hundreds of US workers as it reported a $395 Million in its second quarter. Bud Light parent company Anheuser-Busch announced yesterday that they are laying off 350 employees. Losing a job is never easy and it's unfortunate their company decided to prioritize woke ideology over doing what was best for the brand. So we want to help. If any laid off Bud Light employee reaches out to @officialpsq or @RedBalloonWork , we will help you find a new...

Located at the crossroads of North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, Niger is the largest country in West Africa and the 6th largest country in Africa, yet it is hardly a familiar name like Nigeria, Ghana, or Kenya. That is about to change.

A cultural stigma around traditional “blue-collar” jobs runs alive and well – and could potentially hurt the next workforce generation and America’s infrastructure. “You’re not just a widget manufacturer. You’re not just an excavation company. You are building America. You’re building a future for your family. You’re learning the work ethic that leads to good souls for your kids. There’s more to it than just work,” RedBalloon CEO Andrew Crapuchettes told Fox News Digital. From electricians and plumbers to homebuilders and stonemasons, the U.S. labor market is seemingly desperate to fill skilled labor positions. Since the start of this year,...

George Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley has posted at length about the perils of indicting Trump, namely that most of the charges he could face would be protected by the First Amendment, though he added that the temptation to indict Trump in DC—an anti-Trump bastion—might prove “irresistible” for the Justice Department. He was right, along with the free speech concerns, too.

Former President Donald Trump is leading his Republican competitors in Iowa by double digits, data from a recent New York Times/Siena survey found.The survey, taken among 432 likely Iowa caucus goers, showed Trump leading his competitors in the Hawkeye State with 44 percent support. As is consistent with other surveys, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis comes in a distant second, 24 points behind Trump with 20 percent support.No other candidate listed broke double digits, as South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott came in third place with nine percent support. Anti-woke businessman Vivek Ramaswamy came in fourth place with five percent support, followed...

Most Americans oppose Congress authorizing additional funding to support Ukraine in its war with Russia, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, as the public splits over whether the US has already done enough to assist Ukraine.Overall, 55% say the US Congress should not authorize additional funding to support Ukraine vs. 45% who say Congress should authorize such funding. And 51% say that the US has already done enough to help Ukraine while 48% say it should do more. A poll conducted in the early days of the Russian invasion in late February 2022 found 62% who felt...

ROCKFORD, Ill. (AP) — A federal judge has blocked a new Illinois law that allows the state to penalize anti-abortion pregnancy centers if they use deception to interfere with patients seeking the procedure. U.S. District Judge Iain Johnston said Thursday the new law “is painfully and blatantly a violation of the First Amendment.” The law signed by Gov. J.B. Pritzker last week bans anti-abortion pregnancy centers, often referred to as “crisis pregnancy centers,” from using “misinformation, deceptive practices, or misrepresentation” to interfere with access to abortion services or emergency contraception. Violators faced fines of up to $50,000. The bill was...

A woman in blackface showed up at a Target store ... that's outrageous enough, but wait till you hear how she went off the rails. Ersilia Campbell sauntered into a Target in the Aurora area of Colorado and beelined it for a store employee -- demanding to know where to find the Pride section. The employee explained Pride month was over, and she then suggested the LGBTQ community had hijacked the American flag with the Pride flag. The employee was clearly taken aback ... Campbell said what she was doing was no different from Lester Holt dressing up for Halloween...

"It is Election Interference, & the Supreme Court must intercede. MAGA!" Trump wrote on TRUTH Social. Forrmer President Donald Trump on Friday called on the Supreme Court to intervene in the numerous lawsuits against him, citing it as election interference. "CRAZY! My political opponent has hit me with a barrage of weak lawsuits, including D.A., A.G., and others, which require massive amounts of my time & money to adjudicate," Trump posted on TRUTH Social. "Resources that would have gone into Ads and Rallies, will now have to be spent fighting these Radical Left Thugs in numerous courts throughout the Country,"...