Free Republic

A new research project by Israeli and international scholars has digitally transcribed the texts featured in hundreds of thousands of fragments from the celebrated Cairo Geniza, as well as thousands of additional Hebrew manuscripts, the National Library of Israel announced on Monday. The project, dubbed MiDRASH (which is meant to loosely correspond to Migrations of Textual and Scribal Traditions via Large-Scale Computational Analysis of Medieval Manuscripts in Hebrew Script), was launched in 2023 after securing a €10 million ($11.5 million) grant over six years from the EU’s European Research Council (ERC). Virtually all the 400,000 fragments from the geniza have...

Summary Pope Leo meets President Erdogan at start of first overseas trip Leo visiting Turkey and Lebanon from November 27 to December 2 Pope says 'the future of humanity is at stake' amid conflicts Leo meeting Orthodox Christian leaders in Turkey ANKARA, Nov 27 (Reuters) - Pope Leo lamented during his first trip outside Italy as Catholic leader on Thursday that the world was seeing an unusual number of bloody conflicts, and warned that a third world war was being "fought piecemeal" with humanity's future at risk.In his first speech given overseas since his election in May to lead the...

Actor Charlie Sheen, during a conversation with Megyn Kelly, discusses how he "changed the channel" and discovered that "legacy" media is "very much like state-run media." MEYGN KELLY: Are you getting more comfortable with your politics and expressing them? CHARLIE SHEEN: I am. I think I talked to you about this early on. I had to feel something different, because I think we all, or a lot of us, remain beholden to the structure of the house that we were raised in. ... And yeah, okay for a while, but then I've paid the most taxes of anybody in my...

A strong winter storm is set to hit parts of the US Midwest and Great Lakes region this weekend, threatening flight delays and road safety for millions after the holiday. Winter Storm Watches are now in effect across Illinois, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska, South Dakota and Minnesota, impacting around 50 million Americans. Forecasters warned of potentially heavy snowfall, with accumulations of 6–12 inches or more possible in many areas, especially north of Interstate 70 and along and south of Interstate 90. The heaviest snow is currently expected across central and northern Illinois, eastern Iowa, southern and eastern Wisconsin,...

The problem with getting a free pass on your responsibilities is that, after a while, you begin to think that you don’t have any. That’s what’s happened to the Democrats. They’ve gotten so used to thinking the rules don’t apply to them because ORANGE MAN BAD that when the rules do get applied to them, it feels like outrageous oppression. Take the “illegal orders” video, a combination of stupidity, narcissism, treachery, and blue falconry rarely equaled even by the low standards of the Dems. The six schmucks who appeared in it have been congratulating themselves on their “courage” for the...

Trump White House Communications Director Steven Cheung absolutely destroyed a lefty reporter for blaming President Trump for the tragic shooting and Islamic terrorist attack against two National Guard members. 29-year-old Afghan National and terrorist, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, ambushed two West Virginia National Guard members and shot them at close range in DC on Wednesday. Rahmanullah Lakanwal entered the US in September 2021 after Joe Biden’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal. He overstayed his visa and was in the US illegally at the time of the Wednesday’s terrorist attack. It was also revealed that Lakanwal worked for the CIA as a member of a...

ESPN sports analyst Stephen A. Smith gave a fiery take on Democratic Senator Mark Kelly’s illegitimate orders to defy the President of the United States on Wednesday, screaming into the camera in a strong condemnation of the Democrats. During a Wednesday episode of his “Straight Shooter” podcast, discussing the National Guard shooting in DC and Democrats’ calls for military betrayal, Smith eviscerated Kelly and his five Democratic accomplices in the seditious conspiracy against Trump. As The Gateway Pundit reported, the Department of War announced that the Senior Democratic Senator from Arizona, Mark Kelly, may be recalled into active duty to...

2025 FORMULA 1 QATAR AIRWAYS QATAR GRAND PRIX - Live Thread. Circuit: Lusail International Circuit First Grand Prix: 2021, Number of Laps: 57, Circuit Length: 5.419 km, Race Distance: 308.611 km, Lap Record: 1:24.319 Max Verstappen (2023)

Explanation: Big, beautiful spiral galaxy NGC 1055 is a dominant member of a small galaxy group a mere 60 million light-years away toward the aquatically intimidating constellation Cetus. Seen edge-on, the island universe spans over 100,000 light-years, a little larger than our own Milky Way galaxy. The colorful, spiky stars decorating this cosmic portrait of NGC 1055 are in the foreground, well within the Milky Way. But telltale pinkish star forming regions and young blue star clusters are scattered through winding dust lanes along the distant galaxy's thin disk. With a smattering of even more distant background galaxies, the deep...

A former World Trade Center worker who also "narrowly escaped" the September 11 terror attacks in 2001 has been beaten to death in New York City by three teenagers. One of the teens was just 12 years old at the time of the beating. Long Island native Roger Borkum, 64, was found after three teenagers were seen “kicking and stomping” on him, according to an arrest report in Florida. Borkum was found with blood around his head and a "blood trail extending down the sidewalk,” a police report said. Justin Curry, 13, Marcavion Lacey, 19, and Robert Pope, 17, have...

Republicans are growing increasingly anxious over a once sleepy special election in Tennessee District 7 next month in a district that President Trump comfortably won by 22 points last year. While the congressional race has historically been a GOP shoo-in, Republicans are alarmed by a recent poll and fearful that an upset could see their majority in the House slip to a zero-vote margin. “I’m very concerned about it. Of course, it’s an off-year election. It’s right after Thanksgiving. A lot of the Republicans are out of town. And I worry about them showing up on Election Day,” Rep. Tim...

The Afghan national suspected in the shooting of two National Guard troops in Washington, DC was brought into the US through a Biden-era refugee program after the former president's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan that led to the death of 13 US military members. The same program is known to have given suspected terrorists protected status as refugees in the US. Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, has been charged with shooting West Virginia National Guard troops Andrew Wolfe, 24, and Sarah Beckstrom, 20, in Washington, DC on Wednesday. The case is now under a terrorism investigation by the FBI. However, Republican lawmakers have...

FBI officials are investigating the D.C. Afghan suspect shooter Rahmanullah Lakanwal’s associates and activities in the United States. “Working with the United States Attorney’s offices here at the Department of Justice and prosecutors across the country, we were able to serve search warrants literally overnight and through the night,” FBI Director Kath Patel said Thursday morning. He added: We were able to hit the house in Washington State. During that process, we seized numerous electronic devices, to include cell phones, laptops, iPads and other material that is being analyzed as we speak. Pursuant to that investigation and any known associates...

NEW YORK -- NEW YORK (AP) — Black Friday may no longer be the retail bacchanalia of years past, when the promise of one-time bargains caused people to leave Thanksgiving tables for malls where some customers got into fistfights over toys or TVs. But the event still has enough enthusiasts to make it the biggest shopping day in the U.S. For that reason, the day retains its crown as the official start of the holiday shopping season. This year's kickoff comes as companies navigate an uncertain economic environment and wrestle with the volatility of President Donald Trump 's wide-ranging tariffs...

The devastated dad of one of the National Guard members gunned down in a suspected terror attack has revealed that she will not survive her injuries. Sarah Beckstrom's father, Gary, provided the update on Thursday, just one day after his daughter was shot in Washington, DC. 'She has a mortal wound, it's not going to be a recovery,' he told the New York Times, speaking from her bedside. 'I'm holding her hand right now.' Beckstrom was 'ambushed' alongside fellow West Virginia National Guard member Andrew Wolfe, 24, who was described as in a critical condition. Afghan suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29,...

At Mass this morning, our good priest reflected in his homily on thankfulness, as is proper on this Thanksgiving Day here in the US. He specifically called out how we Americans can tend to obsess over our First World problems which can cause us to forget to give thanks for the blessings we have. He gave a general example of the millions upon millions of people on earth who wonder how they will feed their children anything at all each day. Meanwhile, we get upset if the baked potatoes get a little burnt, or if the pasta sauce is watery....

The ACLU used to pretend it supported free speech. Then it abandoned free speech and joined the rat pack of radical leftist groups trying to out-radical each other. That means commemorating Thanksgiving by, according to the ACLU, beginning with a ‘land acknowledgement’. “Start by acknowledging the land beneath you. All land in the United States is Indigenous land” Like St. Matthew Island, Alaska. Which belongs to the ice. “Challenge the false and harmful Thanksgiving origin story.” Always the best way to start a family get-together. “Many foods prepared for Thanksgiving are Indigenous foods: squash, corn, beans, pumpkins, and more. When...

A federal watchdog report found that former President Joe Biden's Operation Allies Welcome program, which brought tens of thousands of Afghan evacuees into the United States in 2021, suffered from major breakdowns in recordkeeping and oversight. The findings resurfaced Thursday after authorities confirmed that the suspect in the shooting of two National Guard members in Washington, D.C., had entered the country through the program. The Department of Homeland Security Office of Inspector General determined in a report published last year that the systems used to document Afghan arrivals contained widespread data errors. Investigators found that many evacuees were assigned multiple...

Conservatism may be the superior political ideology, but don't beat yourself up, liberals. There's still plenty to be thankful for this year. Here are just a few examples: 1. Trump will probably die before he's 100, so he can only be president for like 20 more years: No one lives forever. 2. Trump got totally owned by Jimmy Fallon or Kimmel or whatever his name is: Tens of people saw it. 3. The right is currently tearing itself to shreds, arguing about whether they should team up with literal Nazis, so the future for Democrats is pretty bright actually: Just...

Explanation: How much of Jupiter's moon Europa is made of water? No one is sure, but probably a lot. Based on the Galileo probe data acquired during its exploration of the Jovian system from 1995 to 2003, Europa possesses a deep, global ocean of liquid water beneath a layer of surface ice. The subsurface ocean plus ice layer could descend over 100 kilometers in average depth. Adopting a high-end estimate of 100 kilometers depth, if all the water on Europa were gathered into a ball, it would have a radius of over 800 kilometers. To scale, this intriguing illustration compares...