Free Republic

Pennsylvania governor Josh Shapiro is on the shortlist to be Vice President Kamala Harris’s running mate and with his newfound national profile comes plenty of scrutiny. In addition to progressive furor over his stance on the Israel-Hamas war, Shapiro is also under fire for allegedly covering up a case of sexual harassment in his office. National media organizations have acknowledged that Governor Shapiro’s office settled a sexual harassment complaint for nearly $295,000 just last year. Former cabinet secretary Mike Vereb, a top aide to Shapiro, was accused of repeatedly making sexual advances and inappropriate comments toward a female office employee....

4 August 2024 18th Sunday in Ordinary TimeSt John Vianney Catholic Church, Houston, TX -Readings at MassLiturgical Colour: Green. Year: B(II).First readingExodus 16:2-4,12-15The Lord sends manna from heavenThe whole community of the sons of Israel began to complain against Moses and Aaron in the wilderness and said to them, ‘Why did we not die at the Lord’s hand in the land of Egypt, when we were able to sit down to pans of meat and could eat bread to our heart’s content! As it is, you have brought us to this wilderness to starve this whole company to death!’...

I saw Twisters last night. What fun! I’ve always been fascinated by tornadoes, so I was going to be a sucker for this sequel, but it’s genuinely great. The blockbuster special effects are compelling, the characters are enjoyable, and the plot is clichéd, but okay enough for this kind of fare (there’s nothing woke, although there is an evil capitalist). Glen Powell, who plays a YouTube-star cowboy chaser, is a real movie star. Pass the popcorn.

The Boston Globe has apologized for its headline that called Algerian Imane Khelif a “transgender boxer.” The heavily criticized headline ran in both the print edition of the paper last week and on its mobile edition with a story written by the Associated Press’ Greg Beacham. “Transgender boxer advances,” it read. However, on Saturday the Globe issued a statement in which it apologized for the inaccurate nature of the headline. “A significant error was made in a headline on a story in Friday’s print sports section about Algerian boxer Imane Khelif incorrectly describing her as transgender. She is not. Additionally,...

Derek Bok has served as president of Harvard twice, from 1971 to 1991 and again from 2006-07. He has written much about higher education and is by no means a reflexive defender of the status quo—see, for example, his The Struggle to Reform Our Colleges, which I reviewed here. Bok’s latest book is Attacking the Elites: What Critics Get Wrong—and Right—About America’s Leading Universities. He explains that his motivation for it was the absence of response from our “elite” higher-education institutions to the surge in criticism from both sides of our political divide. As his subtitle suggests, he thinks that...

Scheffler shoots course record 62 to win gold.. Scottie Scheffler shot a bogey-free course record 62 at Le Golf National on Sunday for a come-from-behind gold medal victory. Sure, the impact of the victory will have on his all-time legacy may not be up there with his two green jackets or even his two Ryder Cup victories. But it's no secret that this was his most emotional reaction to a victory. ... While standing on the podium for the medal ceremony, Scheffler burst into happy tears during the playing of the national anthem. ... Scheffler now shifts his focus to...

The UK is at risk of sliding into a civil war, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said, commenting on the ongoing anti-immigration protests in the country that have turned violent. Several cities in the UK, including Liverpool, Nottingham, Leeds, Belfast, Stoke-on-Trent, Blackpool, and Hull, were plunged into chaos after a knife attack in Southport, England left three children dead and several others injured. The attack was carried out by Axel Rudakubana, a 17-year-old born in Britain to Rwandan parents... The tragedy has sparked numerous protests, with videos showing demonstrators chanting anti-immigrant and anti-Islam slogans, setting fires, and setting...

Paleoanthropologist Lee Berger revealed details about the fascinating discovery in South Africa of remains belonging to a previously unknown species of pre-humans, dating back over two million years.Numerous traces of this species were found in an underground chamber in Dinaledi, leading to the conclusion that it served as a burial site—a ritual previously thought to be exclusively human. Subsequent evidence of stone tools and even the use of fire were also discovered, indicating a species the size of a chimpanzee that predates the Neanderthals.Lee Berger | New discoveries in human originsPorto | GLEX ignition 2024 | 31:33GLEX Summit | 1.62K...

You might not know it—and Democrats would prefer you didn’t—but Joe Biden is still president, with 5½ months to go. Republicans would be foolish to overlook his agenda and substantial power to gild Kamala Harris’s path to the White House. Not that Mr. Biden will be giving many speeches on her behalf. His gifts will be transactional, the buying of constituencies. The latest example: Mr. Biden’s embrace this week of the most destructive assault on the Supreme Court since FDR’s court-packing scheme. Ms. Harris quickly signed on to Mr. Biden’s call for term limits and an “enforceable” ethics code, winning...

It was revealed that the day former President Donald Trump narrowly escaped an assassination attempt was also the first time Secret Service counter snipers were deployed to protect him during the 2024 campaign. The U.S. Secret Service held a critical news briefing on Friday to address its “colossal security failure” at the Butler, Pennsylvania Trump rally, in light of the attempted assassination of former President Donald Trump. “Can you confirm that this was the first 2024 campaign event that counter-sniper teams were assigned to the former president?” CBS News reporter asked Rowe. “As part of their advance, they identify those...

0:00 [Music] 0:07 good evening Ladi and gentlemen welcome back to 2ctv uh with some breaking news 0:12 unfortunately the chaos that we are seeing across the United Kingdom is escalating as the mainstream media and 0:20 press specifically Daily Mail have now cross the line in this video we're going 0:26 to give you give you guys the latest update on what the daily male have done which is uh what we call 0:33 doxing they have revealed Tommy Robinson's family a current 0:39 location and the islamists on the farle have said that they want to Target 0:45...

This is a must watch. Transcript linked below.

Educators in Oklahoma are refusing a state order to incorporate the Bible into their lesson plans, setting up an inevitable showdown with the start of the school year just weeks away.Ryan Walters, the state superintendent of public instruction, last week released guidelines to schools for how they should be integrating the Bible into classrooms, saying educators who are against the initiative “will comply, and I will use every means to make sure of it.”The message from some schools in the state: Bring it on.“I suspect that the first thing that will happen is he will target a specific school district...

Remember Gargamel from the Smurfs? If Gargamel became a tranny this is what would happen. The only thing this guy was missing was Azrael the cat.

A smiling former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi denied reports that she spearheaded the Democratic mutiny that culminated with President Biden dropping out of the race last month. “No, I wasn’t the leader of any pressure [campaign],” Pelosi (D-Calif.), 84, told CBS News. “Let me say things that I didn’t do: I didn’t call one person. I did not call one person. I could always say to him, ‘I never called anybody.’” Pelosi’s behind-the-scenes machinations during the outpour of Democrats calling on Biden, 81, have been widely reported. She has long had a reputation for being a savvy and ruthless political...

A far-right-led mob of masked rioters tried to set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers as further violence flared across the country at anti-immigration protests. Some 700 people gathered outside the Holiday Inn Express in Rotherham, before clashing with police. Some rioters hurled pieces of wood, bottles and chairs, and sprayed fire extinguishers at police officers. South Yorkshire police said at least 10 officers had been injured, including one who was left unconscious with a head injury. Footage from the scene showed a bin on fire and protesters, some draped in St George and union flags, chanting: “Get them...

PARIS (AP) — Overcome with emotion, Algerian boxer Imane Khelif left the ring in tears after a resounding victory this weekend. Khelif has faced days of hateful comments and false accusations about her gender following her first fight against an Italian opponent who quit seconds into their bout. “It’s because she’s African, because she’s Algerian,” 38-year-old Algerian fan Adel Mohammed said Saturday, when Khelif clinched an Olympic medal. “These comments are coming from white people … it’s a kind of racism.” Female athletes of color have historically faced disproportionate scrutiny and discrimination when it comes to sex testing and false...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign on Sunday was launching “Republicans for Harris” as she looks to win over Republican voters put off by Donald Trump's candidacy. The program will be a “campaign within a campaign,” according to Harris' team, using well-known Republicans to activate their networks, with a particular emphasis on primary voters who backed former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley. The program will kick off with events this week in Arizona, North Carolina and Pennsylvania. Republicans backing Harris will also appear at rallies with the vice president and her soon-to-be-named running mate this coming week, the campaign...

Once home to a luxury steakhouse frequented by stars like Mae West, a century-old building on the outskirts of downtown Los Angeles went up in flames during the early morning hours Saturday. First opened in 1921, the Pacific Dining Car restaurant was housed inside a replica of a railway train car, lending a unique atmosphere to what would become a favorite of Old Hollywood. Over the next nearly 100 years, it was a fixture of fine dining in LA and a filming location for television shows and movies including 1974's "Chinatown" starring Jack Nicholson and Faye Dunaway and the 2001...

Explanation: What would it look like to return home from outside our galaxy? Although designed to answer greater questions, data from ESA's robotic Gaia mission is helping to provide a uniquely modern perspective on humanity's place in the universe. Gaia orbits the Sun near the Earth and resolves stars' positions so precisely that it can determine a slight shift from its changing vantage point over the course of a year, a shift that is proportionately smaller for more distant stars -- and so determines distance. In the first sequence of the video, an illustration of the Milky Way is shown...