Free Republic

With only hours of oxygen left in the submersible that was touring the Titanic, it has gone missing over the wreckage. By 12 pm on Thursday, the oxygen will be depleted. The sub, carrying five people, has been missing since Sunday when it lost all contact while exploring the wreckage of the famous ship 13,000 ft under the sea. GB News said the US is holding up a possible rescue. Rescuers say it’s not a rational decision. Even if it is located, it would not be easy to rescue those on board, given the depths. It’s down about two miles....

World-renowned explorer Hamish Harding is among the five people who went missing aboard a tourist submarine visiting the shipwreck of the Titanic Monday morning, his family has confirmed. Harding’s family said the 58-year-old British millionaire was aboard the missing OceanGate Expeditions submarine on Monday, a day after he shared his excitement about the trip on Instagram. “We started steaming from St. Johns, Newfoundland, Canada yesterday and are planning to start dive operations around 4am tomorrow morning. Until then we have a lot of preparations and briefings to do,” Harding wrote alongside picture of himself signing a banner celebrating the expedition....

It seems that hardly a day goes by without reports of another tourist offending local customs on Bali. There are bikini-clad yoginis doing ‘downward dog’ poses in temple gateways and half-naked hooligans arguing with traffic police over their lack of a crash-helmet. While the world asks what’s caused this sudden rush of inappropriate behaviour, travellers who know the island well are wondering why it’s taken so long for Balinese to stand up and say, “enough is enough!” In 1972 the iconic surf-movie Morning of the Earth showed a naked hippy teaching elderly Balinese fishermen how to smoke cannabis. Four centuries...

Business leaders warn that New York City’s summer tourism season could become a hot mess if asylum seekers take over too many hotel rooms. “I’m worried about summer tourism. We’re 30 to 45 days out from summer tourism internationally,” said Queens Chamber of Commerce president Tom Grech. “My concern is that asylum seekers will take up space normally reserved for tourists. I’m concerned we’re going to lose tourists this summer. This is ridiculous.” Even hotels in Queens near Kennedy and LaGuardia airports that typically serve tourists are sheltering migrants — at least temporarily. Earlier Wednesday, Mayor Eric Adams reported that...

Southern California law enforcement agencies are focusing on the trend of burglary tourism, where thieves travel internationally to the U.S. to burglarize homes, then return to their home country. The Orange County Register reported these South American theft groups are often comprised of Chilean or Colombian nationals who operate as “‘Lanzas Internacionales,’ or international thieves in the Spanish-speaking world.” Authorities say the thieves are professionals who surveil homes before breaking in when residents are away. They often bring heavy-duty tools to steal or break into safes that are bolted down or mounted. “Some of these residential burglars have been recorded...

Doug Emhoff departed Thursday for an historic trip to Poland and Germany aimed at combating the rising tide of antisemitism around the world as he steps up his own role within President Joe Biden's administration. Emhoff's six-day trip will include a stop at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, a visit to Schindler's Enamel Factory Museum, and a meeting with European envoys in Berlin.

While Democrats have been boasting that their characterization of any limits on abortion as extremism was a successful ploy to win, their actions since the election have to make one wonder who are the most extreme on this issue. Over the past five years, attacks on churches and pro-life facilities, included 342 acts of vandalism, 58 arson attacks or attempts, 12 gun-related incidents, 11 bomb threats, and 19 others, including assault, threats, and interruption of religious services. In a bid to discourage such attacks, the House of Representatives just passed a resolution condemning them. All but three Democrats voted against...

HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Police are searching for two armed suspects following a shooting near a busy Waikiki intersection on Friday night that left a man critically injured. Honolulu EMS said the victim, in his 20s, suffered multiple gunshot wounds. The shooting happened about 10 p.m. near the intersection of Kalakaua Avenue and Lewers Street. Video: The Honolulu Police Department confirmed they are looking for two armed suspects. Sources said the two are believed to have fled in a vehicle. Paramedics treated the victim on scene before transporting him to a hospital in critical condition. The road was closed in the...

Honolulu police have opened a first-degree robbery investigation after three male suspects allegedly robbed a visitor in Waikiki. Police said the suspects approached the victim, 23, in the 400 block of Ena Road brandishing knives and a handgun and demanded money at about 2 p.m. Wednesday. The suspects fled on foot with money taken from the victim. No injuriies were reported.

Hong Kong attracted around 56 million visitors a year before the pandemic, and now the popular destination is taking significant steps to win tourists back after over two years of some of the world's toughest travel restrictions. Just days after dropping its longstanding mandatory hotel quarantine requirement, Hong Kong has confirmed plans to give away half a million airline tickets in a bid to boost tourism. The move, first announced two years ago, was confirmed to CNN by a spokesperson from the Airport Authority Hong Kong (AAHK), which said that the 500,000 tickets, worth around $254.8 million, would go to...

The Corinth Canal is a waterway that crosses the narrow isthmus of Corinth to link the Gulf of Corinth to the Saronic Gulf...It is believed that Periander, the tyrant of Corinth (602 BC), was the first to conceive of the idea of digging the Corinth Canal. As the project was too complicated given the limited technical capabilities of the times, Periander constructed the diolkós, a stone road which allowed ships to be transferred on wheeled platforms.Later on, Macedonian king Dimitrios Poliorkitis (c. 300 BC) tried to dig the canal, but his team of engineers warned him that if a connection...

Florida has become a “refuge of sanity in a world gone mad.” That was the assessment of Gov. Ron DeSantis, R-Fla., in remarks Saturday evening at the third National Conservatism Conference in Miami. DeSantis’ speech focused on the core theme of how Florida has become a bastion of liberty—a refuge for those seeking better governance and a freer life. He said that his state, in many ways, has gone in the opposite direction compared with many other states and the federal government. “It is said that our federalist system creates ‘laboratories of democracy’ where different states can approach things in...

Mark Keam, a long-serving Democratic member of the House of Delegates from northern Virginia, has resigned his seat, a move that will set up a special election to fill the vacancy in the blue-leaning district. An attorney who was first elected to his Fairfax County-based seat in 2009, Keam said in an interview Tuesday that he had stepped down to take a job in the International Trade Administration of the U.S. Department of Commerce. Keam said he will serve as a deputy assistant secretary running the National Travel and Tourism Office, which is focused on bringing foreign travelers to the...

This week, with hardly a whisper from its chief public health officers, Australia largely abandoned its vaccine mandates. For the most part, they remain in force only for those working in health and aged care or with those with disabilities. There has been no explanation given as to why unvaccinated workers can now be ‘welcomed back’ into workplaces. There has been no apology to those who lost their jobs for refusing to be jabbed, or who lost their lives, or their good health, following vaccination. So far, 889 deaths have been reported to the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) which may...

MAMMOTH HOT SPRINGS, WY – Parkwide vehicle entries over the Memorial Day weekend in 2022 showed a 34% decrease over the same weekend in 2021. Visitation statistics (*vehicle entries) per day for May 27-30, 2022, compared to May 28-31, 2021, are listed below.

The Hawaii Department of Health is urging all eligible to get vaccinations and boosters as the number of new COVID-19 infections in Hawaii continues to surge. Read more [Pay wall]

Despite grappling with a new COVID outbreak in remote Western Australia, where authorities recorded a record 257 new COVID cases on Saturday and another 200+ on Sunday, the Australian government is finally raising its "drawbridge" on Monday as it allows the first tourists to enter the county after two years of stringent travel restrictions.As Reuters quips early in its report on the occasion, Australia's notoriously strict policy earned it the nickname "Fortress Australia." And while the "drawbridge" approach helped its eradicate COVID for a time, case numbers finally surged to record highs during the global omicron wave, which hasn't quite...

AMISH IN SARASOTA, FLORIDA As with elsewhere in Florida, snowbirds are a regular sight here. But intermixed with the more stereotypical visitors to Sarasota, a city and county on the Gulf of Mexico coast in southwest Florida, is a large community of Amish. Like other snowbirds, the Amish come from locales with cold winters. Think central Ohio, northern Indiana and, of course, the unofficial Amish capital of Lancaster County in Pennsylvania. At the height of the season, about 5,000 winter-weary Amish and Mennonites call Pinecraft, an enclave about 20 minutes from the popular St. Armand’s Circle, home. In the summer,...

Visit Inverness Loch Ness launches promotional video to aid area’s Covid-19 recovery.A new video is aiming to entice people to come to Loch Ness in search of its most famous inhabitant. Created by Visit Inverness, the clip shows the wonder of Loch Ness and the surrounding area and is inspired by tales of the legendary Loch Ness Monster. As part of VisitScotland’s Year of Stories, it's hoped the video will encourage visitors to come and spend time in the area and discover its stories, including the legend of Loch Ness, and aid the area’s recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic. The...

This is the incredible moment two six-ton bull elephants clashed in a 10-minute blockbuster battle just yards away from a walking tour. The mighty animals flattened trees as they stomped around and wrestled with their trunks. Chris Bates was on a tour in Kruger National Park, South Africa, when he filmed the incredible clash on the trail.