Free Republic

BUENOS AIRES, Aug 20 (Reuters) - Argentine authorities have quarantined a cargo ship in the Parana River over a suspected case of mpox onboard, the government said on Tuesday, as global public health authorities remain on alert for a new faster-spreading variant of the virus. The quarantined Liberian-flagged ship was sailing from Santos, Brazil - also a major commodities hub - to pick up soy cargo, according to the health ministry and industry body the Argentine Naval League. The World Health Organization (WHO) last week declared mpox a global public health emergency for the second time in two years as...

The Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has never done anything like this before. The agency is poised to declare a “public health emergency of continental security” as early as next week. Since the beginning of last year, mpox cases have been surging in the Democratic Republic of Congo, with children making up the majority of the 14,000 reported cases and 511 deaths so far in 2024. Those numbers roughly match the number of cases reported in all of last year in the country. Why Africa is so worried In the last couple weeks, there’s been a new and...

Caltrain, the oldest continually operating rail service west of the Mississippi River, once again became a pioneer Saturday with the debut of its new electric fleet

A​n Alaskan community located near the cold Arctic Ocean preliminarily shattered an all-time record for the hottest temperature so far north in the nation's 49th state. T​uesday afternoon's temperature hit 89 degrees in Deadhorse, Alaska. That shattered the location's all-time record of 85 degrees set July 13, 2016. On top of that, it's the hottest temperature ever reliably measured so far north in the state, according to a post on X by Brian Brettschneider, an Alaska-based climatologist. The temperature is short of Alaska's all-time record for any location in the state which is 100 degrees set in Fort Yukon on...

Donald Trump’s comments on Wednesday questioning whether Vice President Kamala Harris is Black were not an off-the-cuff expression of racism, but part of a broader campaign strategy that Trump and many of his key lieutenants plan to make a heavy focus of their final three-month sprint to retake the White House.Asked on Wednesday about Republicans accusing Harris of being a “DEI hire” or “DEI candidate,” Trump responded by questioning Harris’ racial identity. “She was always of Indian heritage, and she was only promoting Indian heritage. I didn’t know she was Black until a number of years ago when she happened...

The University of Missouri has announced it is closing its Diversity, Equity and Inclusion office — a decision made at a campus that, nearly a decade ago, saw students pioneer how racial activists can protest on campuses to force sweeping policy changes in the modern era. Shuttering the DEI office is being blamed on pressure from Republican lawmakers and described as a preemptive decision to ward off any new laws, University of Missouri System President Mun Choi told reporters at a news conference. Many lawmakers in red states have passed legislation over the last two years curbing DEI programs at...

Air New Zealand has abandoned a 2030 goal to cut its carbon emissions, blaming difficulties securing more efficient planes and sustainable jet fuel.

A manipulated video that mimics the voice of Vice President Kamala Harris saying things she did not say is raising concerns about the power of artificial intelligence to mislead with Election Day about three months away. The video gained attention after tech billionaire Elon Musk shared it on his social media platform X on Friday evening without explicitly noting it was originally released as parody. The video uses many of the same visuals as a real ad that Harris, the likely Democratic president nominee, released last week launching her campaign. But the video swaps out the voice-over audio with another...

If nothing else, Kamala Harris knows her base. Kamala Harris is set to make a guest appearance Friday on the Paramount+ series RuPaul’s Drag Race All Stars. The segment was taped before Joe Biden announced Sunday that he is quitting his re-election campaign.

Hollywood star Sharon Stone has revealed that she is considering moving to Europe if former President Donald Trump wins in November. In a red carpet interview at the Taormina Film Festival in Sicily, where she was being honored with a lifetime achievement award, Sharon Stone didn’t mention Trump by name but made her political opinion abundantly clear. “Well I’m certainly considering a house here, and I think that’s an intelligent construct at this time,” the Basic Instinct star told Deadline.

He deployed a gator “aid.” No can opener? No problem. A reveler is going viral after using a wild alligator’s jaws to open a beer in what viewers are dubbing “the most Florida thing” ever. The jaw-dropping clip was first posted to the X account Catch Up Bites but was recently shared by user Wall Street Silver, amassing more than 3.1 million views. In the jaw-some footage — its exact location and creator are unclear — an unidentified boater uses his hand to lure a small gator to his vessel. The reptile swims up to the boat with its jaws...

Christian nationalists aim to impose their beliefs on others.Whenever a politician cites “Judeo-Christian values,” I find it’s generally followed by something unsettling.Last month brought two flagrant instances. In both cases, Republican officials introduced state laws that formalize precepts of the Christian nationalist movement — in the words of the National Association of Christian Lawmakers (A.D. 2019), “doing everything we can to restore the Judeo-Christian foundation of our nation.”On June 19, Gov. Jeff Landry of Louisiana signed legislation requiring public classrooms to display the Ten Commandments, a practice struck down as unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1980. A rich endorsement...

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) appeared to criticize MSNBC anchor Katy Tur during a discussion Monday about job losses during the Trump administration by suggesting she was an “apologist” for the former president for mentioning the COVID-19 pandemic—a charge which Tur promptly denied. On Katy Tur Reports, the former House Speaker began by stating that Trump hasn’t shown that he “ever valued or did anything to support a democracy.” “I have sympathy and respect for everybody who votes. I’m just glad people vote. I know some of them will always reject those of us who might look different to them in...

Gov. Kristi Noem has “no shot” at being Donald Trump’s running mate after revealing in a forthcoming book that she shot and killed her puppy, sources close to the 45th president tell The Post. *** “She was already unlikely to be picked as VP, but had a shot,” the person said of Noem, who has been widely projected to be on Trump’s shortlist. “After this, it’s just impossible.” Noem writes, according to the Guardian, that she executed Cricket, a 14-month-old wirehaired pointer, after determining that the pooch’s “aggressive personality” made her “untrainable” as a hunting dog. “It was not a...

The leftists at the Harvard Crimson have spoken out against transgender athlete bans and claimed that the evidence to support the case that men have a physical advantage over women is “less conclusive.” However, in the process of making the assertion, the article ignored all evidence to the contrary to support their own claim that transgender athlete participation is wholly benign. In the college paper’s April 16 editorial, entitled, There Are Many Obstacles Facing Women’s Sports. Trans Athletes Aren’t One, writer Jonathan G. Yuan writes for The Crimson Editorial Board that the “science” is “less conclusive” that “transgender women hold...

Founder and CEO Mike Grondahl detailed a history of rampant abuse at the company and alleged it misrepresented its financials during a recent interview with controversial right-wing X user Libs of TikTok. This comes after weeks of calls for boycotts of the brand after the company canceled the membership of a Planet Fitness gym goer after speaking out about a biological male in the women's locker room. Planet Fitness's policy allows gym members to use the locker room associated with their gender identity. But this policy has led to a few high-profile cases of women feeling uncomfortable in Planet Fitness...

Two dozen young women have quit an Australian soccer league after officials allowed one team to add five transgender athletes, some of whom went on to injure girls on other teams. Parents rose up in anger last month after the Flying Bats Football Club added the five male-born players to their girl’s soccer team and then went on a tear winning every single game for the pre-season Beryl Ackroyd Cup tournament in the Sydney, Australia-based league. “Flying Bats FC won every game they played over the course of the four-week competition, winning the grand final 4-0 at Macquarie Park on...

Is Taylor Swift the last hope for Biden’s flailing presidency? Rob Reiner seems to think so. Rob Reiner is begging Taylor Swift to publicly endorse President Joe Biden’s reelection bid, saying he’d “give anything” for the pop star to make an announcement. Swift has remained conspicuously silent on the 2024 presidential election, after endorsing Biden four years ago. The singer must weigh the damage such an endorsement would do to her personal brand at a time when 81-year-old Biden is facing record-low popularity, especially among young Democrats, millions of whom have soured on his presidency. “I’d give anything for her...

Electric-vehicle startup Fisker said on Wednesday it was cutting the prices of its 2023 electric Ocean SUV model, signaling an attempt by the cash-strapped firm to drum up demand and ease concerns regarding its uncertain future. The company slashed the price tag of the entry level version - Ocean Sport - by around 36%, or $14,000, bringing it down to $24,999 from $38,999 earlier. The company said it will reduce the price of the top-end version of the vehicle, called "Extreme", by around 39%, or $24,000, to $37,499. Fisker also cut the price of its Ocean Ultra version to $34,999...

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/music-news/elliot-page-lgbtq2-rights-juno-awards-1235859335/#recipient_hashed=9e3182e527018d7a4287c84a6b05ef6fc439383cb673b09c79546377b26a30f2&recipient_salt=033f0cdf936cc9231f8f544532ddab055a675f19b1417ab664d902fc9216dbd4:~:text=The%20%E2%80%98Umbrella%20Academy,2024%207%3A24PM Elliot Page came to the Junos Awards on Sunday night to denounce a rollback of LGBTQ2+ rights after the Umbrella Academy star came out as a transgender and nonbinary at the end of 2020. “We are at a time in history where the rights of LGBTQ2+ people are being revoked, restricted and eliminated throughout the world, and the effects are devastating,” Page said when citing the work by the Tegan and Sara Foundation to support and build social change for trans and queer youth at the Junos in his hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia.