Free Republic

The WNBA and its associated entities continue to be their own worst enemies when it comes to maximizing their product.Any time a good wave comes barreling in, they’d rather watch it crash on the shore than get on and ride it.It’s been obvious since sensation Caitlin Clark was drafted first overrall by the Indiana Fever in 2024.In what has become a viral meme, Indiana Fever guard Sophie Cunningham points to Phoenix Mercury forward-guard DeWanna Bonner (not seen) following a scuffle. While there’s a never-ending push to help athletes make more money and grow the league into a sustainable enterprise with...

Iran is avoiding a broad, direct attack on Israel because it fears Israeli strikes on senior regime figures and institutions vital to its survival, Iran researcher Beni Sabti told 103FM on Sunday. Sabti, an Iran researcher at the Institute for National Security Studies, spoke with Ron Kofman and Prof. Aryeh Eldad following an Al Hadath report citing an Israeli security source who said that Iranian Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei was not in the Islamic Republic. ***“The Iranian regime fears our involvement because they know that we are going straight to the center. We are targeting the most important part and...

In the span of about an hour, the X owner replied “I’m down” to a viral pitch asking him to hand Mel Gibson $100 million for a historically accurate adaptation in Homeric Greek. Then he pinned a post vowing that his own AI video generator will produce a feature-length version of Homer’s epic before the year is out. “Before this year ends, Grok Imagine will make a full-length movie of The Odyssey that is historically accurate and true to the art of Homer,” Musk wrote. The Pinned Pledge: A Grok-Made Odyssey By DecemberThe Grok post is the concrete one. Musk...

Arizona state Rep. Alexander Kolodin, an election attorney, is projected to defeat former state GOP chair Gina Swoboda in the Republican primary to take on Secretary of State Adrian Fontes (D) in November, according to Decision Desk HQ. Kolodin is best known for his efforts to contest the 2020 election results, with the State Bar of Arizona ultimately sanctioning him over the move. In 2023, the Arizona state House Republican supported legislation alongside most of his GOP peers in both chambers that would have given counties the ability to hand-count ballots instead of tabulating them through machines. Some Republicans have...

Join with fellow FREEPERS to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business; End to Sex Slavery; Healthcare, Education, Churches, and the Media. This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to His will, He hears us. (1 John 5:14) I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness. ~ 1 Timothy 2:1-2 Religion Forum Threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to...

The Justice Department (DOJ) said on July 20 that it was investigating whether Harvard University violated Title VI by excluding American students from financial aid programs funded by China-based sources. The DOJ announced that Harvard's foreign funding disclosures raised concerns about its compliance with Title VI of the Civil Rights Act, which prohibits discrimination based on national origin.Universities are required by federal law to report gifts and contracts from foreign sources that exceed $250,000 in a year. Harvard had disclosed nearly $4.5 billion in foreign funding, of which $630 million came from sources based in China - the university's largest...

Spain are the world champions again. Ferran Torres came off the bench and smashed home the only goal of the 2026 World Cup final in the 106th minute against Argentina. The next day, as the open-top bus rolled through Madrid and nearly two million Spaniards packed the streets, the hero of the final stood shirtless, draped in the national flag, and wearing a bright red baseball cap that read "Make Spain Great Again."The image spread instantly. It was impossible to miss the deliberate echo of President Donald Trump's signature slogan. Trump himself had been on the pitch the night before...

A 14-year-old ranch kid from Big Timber, Montana, had a rope in his hand when cries for help erupted from the Yellowstone River. He sprinted into the water, threw one loop and caught a struggling man around the arm and neck, pulling him safely to shore. Jory Thomas, 14, was absent-mindedly flipping loops with a rope while visiting his grandparents' campground on the Yellowstone River over the Fourth of July weekend when he heard someone start screaming for help. Within seconds, the Montana ranch kid emptied his pockets, splashed across a side channel and waded chest-deep into the river. Then...

The Trump administration plans to accelerate its overhaul of federal research by supporting more individual scientists and the use of artificial intelligence rather than universities, its latest attempt to accelerate technological discovery to combat China. In a new report and memo released Tuesday, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy argues individual scientists can help the nation move faster to use AI in scientific research. The directives from the office will help shape a roughly $200 billion annual federal research and development budget across the government for the rest of President Trump’s second term. The new guidance could...

The Iran-backed Houthi militants in Yemen announced today that they were closing the Red Sea to ships from Saudi Arabia.The Houthis have repeatedly threatened to close the Bab el-Mandeb Strait during the U.S.-Iran war. The strait is a choke point for commercial ship traffic that connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and global markets.The militants, in a statement carried by state news, accused the Saudis of laying an “aggressive siege” against them. Tensions escalated last week after they claimed that Riyadh had bombed Sanaa International Airport.It's actually a bit confusing why the Houthis took this action today....

New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani floated the ridiculous idea of trying to arrest Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu when he came to the U.S. in September for a United Nations meeting. His little theatre kid performance for his anti-Israel base was smacked down with reality from the U.S. Ambassador to the U.N., Mike Waltz, President Donald Trump, and even CNN legal analyst Elie Honig. Mamdani was told he had no legal ability to do any such thing and that, in the words of Trump, "no way, no how" was it happening. Mamdani was finally forced to concede that he didn't...

In every war, there comes a point where the battlefield expands beyond missiles, fighter jets and tanks. It becomes psychological. The objective is no longer simply to destroy your opponent's military capability, but to break their political will.That is why recent comments from members of Iran's parliament deserve far more attention than they have received.According to reports circulating from Iran, some lawmakers have openly discussed the possibility of invading neighboring Kuwait, seizing American military personnel stationed there, transporting them back to Iran and using them as human shields against future U.S. attacks.Could they actually accomplish something like that?Probably not.The United...

With the pointless war of choice in Iran going poorly, the Trump administration has declared a virtual war on the international criminal court (ICC). Secretary of state, Marco Rubio, vowed on Monday to “dismantle” the court as a supposed threat to US sovereignty. His rationale is laced with sophistry. The administration’s real goal is to secure impunity for war crimes, even those committed on the territory of ICC member states. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed and a video posted on X, Rubio conjures up a dystopia in which local American officials such as police officers or border patrol agents...

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps said it has attacked Amazon’s data infrastructure in Bahrain, according to a statement reported by Fars, an IRGC-linked state media outlet. Fars News Agency said on Tuesday the IRGC had “attacked the central data infrastructure of the American company Amazon in Bahrain with several cruise missiles and destroyed it,” according to a translated Telegram post. CNBC was unable to independently verify the information. CNBC has reached out to the National Communication Center of Bahrain and Amazon for comment. Hostilities between the U.S. and Iran have ratcheted up over the past 10 days as President Donald...

Faithful Catholics beg Pope Leo to stop official recognition of Germany’s Synodal WayPro Fide Ecclesiae, co-founded by Bishop Marian Eleganti, warned plans to recognize Germany’s ‘Synodal Conference’ would ‘permanently alter the hierarchical constitution of the Church.’A new Catholic lay group co-founded by Bishop Marian Eleganti has called on Pope Leo XIV to stop the German Synodal Way.The newly established Pro Fide Ecclesiae (PFE) seeks to give voice to those who do not feel represented by Germany’s largest body of lay Catholics, the Central Committee of German Catholics (ZdK), and who do not feel heard by the German Bishops’ Conference (DBK).In...

For better or worse, we live in an increasingly short attention span world. One driven by doom scrolling, TikToks, Instagram stories and memes. So any time a cultural institution can break through the noise with an instantly recognizable, iconic image that captures the public's imagination, it needs to embrace it. Whether that be the entertainment industry, corporations, governmental agencies, name it. It's possible the last presidential election was decided by one candidate navigating this new way of communicating better than the other. The one who performatively worked a McDonald's drive-thru and drove a garbage truck ended up sweeping the swing...

In the summer of 2018, almost no one thought Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez could beat Joe Crowley. Crowley was a 10-term incumbent, the fourth-ranking Democrat in the House, a man some thought would one day be speaker. A 28-year-old former bartender and democratic socialist was the longest of long shots to succeed him. But ever since she did, the political establishment has been trying to decide whether to take her seriously.For a while it decided not to. The Missouri representative Emanuel Cleaver said the Democratic caucus did not need her “sniping”, while the then senator Claire McCaskill dismissed her as a “bright...

A violent criminal on parole was charged with attempted murder for allegedly tossing an elderly woman onto Midtown subway tracks in a terrifying weekend attack, cops and sources said. Zaki Smith, 36, was picked up by eagle-eyed cops during the Monday evening rush and charged in connection to the 11:30 a.m. Saturday attack at the 57th Street and Seventh Avenue station that left the 70-year-old victim with a head wound, police said. Smith — who has 14 previous arrests — was also charged with felony and misdemeanor assault in the senseless shove, authorities said. Commuters who witnessed the attack heroically...

As temperatures rise this summer, Japanese men are baring more leg at work than ever before. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is pushing company employees to ditch their usual suit and tie for more casual attire, featuring t-shirts, trainers - and shorts. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike introduced "Tokyo Cool Biz" in April, hoping to expand on her signature cool down initiative which has now become a widely recognised annual summer tradition. Almost four months in, the newly allowed shorts in the office policy is getting mixed reviews. Some commentators enjoy the relaxed rules, helping them work more comfortably. Others say the...

Nearly half of Americans say they believe the Supreme Court is ruling on President Trump’s policies based on ideology instead of the law, according to a new poll. The Washington Post/Ipsos survey, conducted July 8-13, found that 46 percent of 2,648 respondents said they believe the nine justices are ruling on cases impacting the president’s agenda based on ideology. A quarter of respondents said the high court is ruling on those cases based on the law, while 28 percent had no opinion and 1 percent skipped the question.The Supreme Court has given Trump multiple unfavorable rulings during his second term....