Free Republic

Edwin Poots has resigned as leader of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP) after colleagues rebelled over a deal to revive the Northern Ireland assembly, triggering a new political crisis in the region. Poots quit on Thursday night after just 21 days in the job, the latest drama in a leadership meltdown in Northern Ireland’s biggest party that could sink the power-sharing assembly at Stormont.

SACRAMENTO, Calif. - Governor Gavin Newsom on Thursday signed an emergency proclamation to free up additional energy capacity amid California's scorching heat wave. With another Flex Alert called by the state grid operator for Friday evening, Newsom's proclamation suspends certain permitting requirements. The order allows the use of back-up power generation and frees up additional energy capacity to help alleviate the heat-induced demands on the state’s energy grid. Much of the Western United States is seeing triple digit heat. In the Bay Area, cooling centers have opened to alleviate those who may be without air conditioning or who need shelter...

“Georgia on my mind“ Check out his video 🏎😎

David Niekerk, who helped design the company's warehouse-management system, told the publication that founder Jeff Bezos' belief that people are inherently lazy helped shape the company's policies. He pointed to a short-term employment model that doesn't provide employees many opportunities for advancement and to the way Amazon used technology to keep workers on task. Amazon doesn't guarantee wage increases after a worker's first three years, the report said, as a way to oust employees who might become too comfortable at Amazon. The practices that Niekerk described are some of the company's most contentious - like firing employees for a single...

The 2020 election audit in Arizona’s largest county is projected to end by June 26, officials said in a new update. Audit teams, led by Florida-based Cyber Ninjas, finished counting virtually all of the nearly 2.1 million ballots earlier this week, except for under 100 braille ballots. Workers were shifted to performing evaluation measures on the ballots after they finished the counting. Teams are looking at “anything related to whether the ballot was authentic,” Ken Bennett, the former Arizona secretary of state who is serving as the state Senate’s audit liaison, told The Epoch Times last week. That includes examining...

First son Hunter Biden used the racial slur “yellow” to refer to Asian women in a January 2019 text message to cousin Caroline Biden about getting fixed up with someone, according to a new report. The Jan. 26, 2019, conversation was preserved on Hunter Biden’s abandoned laptop and was first reported by DailyMail.com. In a screenshot posted by the outlet, Caroline — the daughter of President Biden’s brother James — suggests setting Hunter up with one of her friends. “Do you want foreign or domestic,” she asks at one point before adding: “I can’t give you f—ing Asian sorry. I’m...

WASHINGTON—Russian oil imports have set a new record in the United States despite the strained relationship between Washington and Moscow. Industry experts believe the Biden administration’s climate policies will make the country more dependent on foreign oil producers. The United States imported record levels of crude oil from Russia in March and is expected to continue importing at high levels in coming months, according to the Western Energy Alliance, a trade association that represents 200 independent natural gas and oil producers in the United States. Imports of crude oil and petroleum products from Russia reached 22.9 million barrels in March,...

Former President Donald Trump on Wednesday came as close as he’s ever been to conceding his 2020 election loss in an interview with Fox News host Sean Hannity, also claiming he is rooting for President Joe Biden’s success on the world stage. Trump said that although he did “much better” in 2020 than he did in 2016 in terms of total votes, “we didn’t win,” adding that the result was “shocking.”

The St. Louis, Mo., couple who went viral after staring down a group of protesters from their front porch have agreed to plead guilty to lesser charges in connection with the incident, pay fines and lose the guns seized during the investigation. Mark and Patricia McCloskey, two attorneys in their 60s, were charged in the summer of 2020 after a swarm of Black Lives Matter protesters broke down an iron gate and ignored a "No Trespassing" sign on their private street. The couple said they felt threatened and armed themselves before heading outside to warn off the crowd, which was...

Four young and healthy British Airways pilots recently passed away and the airline is claiming there is no link to the Covid-19 vaccine. The photo of the four books of condolence sitting next to framed pictures of the pilots was posted to Twitter and authenticated by Reuters. “Reuters presented the claims to British Airways, which said they were unfounded and that no such talks were underway with the government. The spokesperson, however, confirmed the authenticity of the four condolence books, as four company pilots had recently passed away. “Our thoughts are with their family and friends,” they said, adding that...

Last month, a group of 18 scientists published a letter calling for a deeper investigation into the origins of COVID-19 which would give serious consideration to the lab-leak hypothesis - which posits that the virus escaped from the Wuhan Institute of Virology.Now, several of those scientists, including MIT and Harvard geneticist Alina Chan, admit that scientists avoided the lab-leak hypothesis because they didn't want to be associated with then-President Trump, according to NBC News.Chan said there had been trepidation among some scientists about publicly discussing the lab leak hypothesis for fear that their words could be misconstrued or used to...

Singer and actress Cher said Thursday on MSNBC’s “Deadline” that she still wanted to wear a mask even though she was vaccinated for coronavirus. Anchor Nicolle Wallace said, “I want to talk about everything you are doing, but how is your life? Is life back the normal for you?” Cher said, “Well, you know, I still feel like I need to wear a mask when I go outside. I just have that feeling.” Wallace said, “Me too.” Cher said, “Yeah. I just feel — you know, and I’ve been vaccinated and all that, but I have that just little eh....

A senior NASA scientist has been sentenced to 30 days in prison, months after he pleaded guilty to lying about his ties to a program backed by the Chinese regime designed to harvest talents from the West and transfer intellectual property to China. Meyya Meyyappan, 66, of Pacifica, California, was sentenced on June 16 for making false statements to the FBI, NASA’s Office of Inspector General, and the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, the Justice Department announced in a news release. He was also ordered to pay a fine of $100,000. Meyyappan joined NASA in 1996...

Racism against black Chicago residents constitutes a public health crisis within the city, Mayor Lori Lightfoot declared on Thursday. Lightfoot said in a press conference that it is “way past time that as a city” made the declaration, which followed the publication of a Tuesday report by the Chicago Department of Public Health reporting the difference in life expectancy between black and non-black residents is 9.2 years. “We’ve made undeniable progress in our city, and I’m standing here today as the first black woman and first LGBTQ mayor as a testament to that progress,” the mayor said. “But no one...

I went to Canadian Tire to buy a knapsack, because the handle of mine had torn completely off and these knapsacks aren't really repairable once they become damaged with a big hole on the side. For those who may not be aware of what Canadian Tire, it's a hardware department store that sells automobile services as well as automobile supplies, reasonably priced and quality tools, camping and sporting goods and seasonal furniture. I had my face bandana on, but was not wearing it over my face. I walked through the store and found my knapsack and was walking towards tills...

More than 200 rabbis sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, ridiculing her for not more strongly condemning Democratic Rep. Ilhan Omar and accusing the Minnesota Democrat of inciting attacks on American Jews. "We reiterate that the mob attacks on American Jews today are directly attributable to the rhetoric of Rep. Omar and those who stand with her within and beyond Congress," the rabbis wrote in the letter Wednesday, which was organized by the Coalition of Jewish Values and its president, Rabbi Pesach Lerner. The coalition said Pelosi’s response to the controversial comments was “far too mild” and argued...

The UK recorded the most coronavirus cases in a day since mid-February, amid warnings the current wave of infections driven by the highly transmissible delta variant may still be weeks from peaking. More than 11,000 new cases of the disease were reported on Thursday, along with 19 deaths, according to the Department Health. A study by Public Health England showed infection rates increasing across all age groups, but are highest among people aged 20 to 29. Separately, the government said eight in 10 adults have now had their first vaccine dose.The data illustrates how the delta variant, first identified in...

16th June Covid vaccine: four dead due to adverse effects in Scotland By Sara Paciaroni Multimedia reporter Four people in Scotland have died due to adverse effects of coronavirus vaccines, according to the latest official data. A report from National Records of Scotland (NRS) said that by the end of May there had been four deaths where the “underlying cause of death was adverse effects of Covid-19 vaccines”.

Grammy, Emmy, and Academy Award-winning singer Cher discusses with Nicolle Wallace her efforts to help vaccinate underserved communities and life after lockdown