Free Republic

Smoke from the Canadian wildfires has traveled across the Atlantic Ocean and reached Europe as part of the worst fire season in history for the northern forests, officials say. The smoke that left New York City covered in an orange smog earlier this month was spotted arriving in the United Kingdom on Monday, with pictures from space depicting the arrival of the haze, according to the UK Met Office. Fortunately for the British, the powerful jet-stream winds that carried the smoke across the pond helped dissipate the strength of the smog by the time it reached the shores of the...

Jen Psaki thought she was being cute. So much so that the former Biden spox turned MSNBC host actually chuckled as she said, "I don't spend too much time on right-wing websites." Psaki's dismissive sneer came in response to Mika Brzezinski's question on Tuesday's Morning Joe as to how the Biden "White House" [sic, campaign] can exploit Donald Trump's legal challenges, given that people getting their information from "right-wing websites or certain TV channels" don't hear much about those matters? Psaki's boast about her ignorance of right-wing websites reflects how relatively easy it is for liberals to live in a...

The state Department of Transportation responded this week after a Confederate flag was seen flying over a paving project on Route 2 in Fitchburg. The flag was captured on camera in a video shared with 7NEWS. In addition to the flag, the video showed crews working in the area. In a statement, MassDOT said a subcontractor from Bloomfield, Conn. displayed the flag while doing work. “MassDOT prohibits the display of the confederate flag and similar paraphernalia and has informed the contractor that they will not be allowed to perform further work until steps are taken to remove the flag,” MassDOT...

That sound you may have detected rising from the ether of social media this weekend was the gnashing of teeth by COVID conspiracy-mongers, outraged by a U.S. government report debunking their most cherished claims. The long-awaited report released Friday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, or ODNI, put the lie to the theory that the Sars-CoV-2 virus, which causes COVID, leaked from a virology lab in Wuhan, China, where the disease was first detected in humans. The lab-leak conspiracists were certain that the report would validate their contentions, for which there has never been any valid scientific...

...I think the reason I felt this connection with a television program [Roots] about a person and a place so far from my experience was that the Anglophone culture that dominated my early upbringing was not Britain's, the country that had colonized Nigeria, but America's, the heavyweight champion of the Anglophone world. Sure, I enjoyed British entertainment like Mr. Bean, James Bond, and the early Harry Potter films. But I adored World Wrestling Entertainment (before it became WWE) and Arnold Schwarzenegger movies. American culture was thrilling and infectious and full of confidence. But that culture is a reflection of an...

NYC Drag Marchers chant “we’re here, we’re queer, we’re coming for your children”

An old clip from the Discovery Channel show “MythBusters” demonstrating how a deep-sea explorer could implode in a depressurized diving suit has gone viral after the Titanic sub disaster. The 2009 clip has racked up more than three-quarters of a million views after being posted Thursday, when it was discovered that the five passengers had died aboard a Titanic wreckage-bound submersible that imploded. In the show’s science experiment, a human-shaped mannequin was recreated from pig parts including bones, muscle, fat, skin and guts. It was then sunk about 300 feet underwater — where pressure is roughly nine times greater than...

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) expressed doubt Tuesday about whether Donald Trump is the best bet for the GOP to regain the White House next year. “Can he win that election? Yeah he can,” McCarthy told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” morning show. “The question is, is he the strongest to win the election? I don’t know that answer.”

A UK man on vacation with his family in Jamaica died after attempting to partake in a challenge that involved drinking all 21 cocktails featured on a bar’s menu. Timothy Southern had finished 12 of the menu’s various cocktails when he returned to his hotel room at the Royal Decameron Club Caribbean in Saint Ann, where he later died, ITV News reported. A pathologist in Kingston said the 53-year-old Staffordshire man’s cause of death was “acute gastroenteritis due to alcohol consumption.” Staffordshire-area coroner Emma Serrano ruled his death was alcohol-related, the outlet reported.

A British father died in Jamaica after attempting a challenge at a hotel pool bar to try and drink all 21 cocktails on the menu, an inquest has heard. Timothy Southern, from Lichfield, Staffordshire, had drunk 12 of the cocktails when he went to his room at the Royal Decameron Club Caribbean, in Saint Ann. The 53-year-old was on holiday with his sister, children, and other relatives when tragedy struck in May, 2022. Loved-ones rushed to Timothy's room after the alarm was raised. One of them told his inquest: 'He was on his back choking. I put him in the...

President Trump blocked Mark Milley's forever war plot.Joe Biden’s Department of Justice leaked audio of President Trump to CNN on Monday night. The tapes do not prove Trump was reading from classified documents, as CNN claims. However, the recordings do prove that Trump saved America from another forever war planned by General Milley.In the tapes, Trump said, “Well, with Milley, let me see that. I’ll show you an example. He said I wanted to attack Iran.”Trump goes on to explain that Milley and the deep state were the ones who wanted to attack Iran, saying, “This [plan to attack Iran]...

VIDEOIs YouTube telling creators who filed video appeals to have their channels remonetized that they have "carefully reviewed" their appeal videos when in fact NO ONE actually looked at them? In my case, I have evidence that they DID NOT look at my video appeal. Not surprising since I sent the appeal video to them yesterday (June 26) AFTERNOON and by 2:08 AM PDT on June 27 they somehow managed to not only "see" my video but also reviewed and passed judgement upon it. "See" in quotes because they did NOT see the video.As a fringe benefit for seeing the...

Ukrainian forces are now pushing over the defacto border established in the 2014 Russian invasion, taking back long-occupied territory in the Donbas region for the first time, the United Kingdom says. There have been “small advances” — which is on trend for the progress of the counter-offensive so far, per reports — around Krasnohorivka near Donetsk city, an area that has been occupied by Russian and pro-Kremlin forces for nearly a decade.

A recording of former President Donald Trump discussing General Mark Milley’s eagerness to start a war with Iran has been leaked, suggesting it confirms that President Trump was holding on to “secret information” at his Secret Service-guarded Mar a Lago residence.The 45th president can be heard referring to “secret information” as the papers are discussed, with a staffer joking that Hillary Clinton would print such information out regularly. “[S]he’d send it to Anthony Weiner, the pervert,” Trump responds, prompting laughter.The entire clip appears to be jocular in nature – a fact left out by CNN in its previous characterizations of...

In Massachusetts, acting principal Heather Tucker and Middleborough Public Schools Superintendent Carolyn Lyons barred 12-year-old Liam Morrison from wearing a T-shirt with the words "there are only two genders." Since other T-shirts saying "celebrate gay pride" are permitted at the school, Morrison sought attorneys to help him defend his right to freedom of speech. Lyons defended suppressing the shirt, saying "it targeted students of a protected class; namely in the area of gender identity. This is hate speech that cannot be permitted. Liam's return to school wearing a shirt saying 'there are censored genders' mocked our authority and also had...

CNN contributor Paul Begala said Monday on “The Lead” that if former President Donald Trump won the presidential primary, it would be a “catastrophe for the Republican Party.”Guest host Bianna Golodryga said, “I want to read an excerpt from The New York Times op-ed written by a retired and staunchly conservative Judge J. Michael Luttig. He called the Republican base spineless for its continued support of Trump. He said if he is convicted on espionage charges and fails to shake the Republican Party to its political senses, that it is beyond saving, nor ought to be saved. Were you surprised...

Matthew 7:6, Matthew 7:12-14Friends, today’s Gospel raises a crucial question about heaven and hell: Who will be in and who will be out? Origen argued that all people will be saved. For how could God’s love allow even one person to be damned? And St. Augustine argued that the vast majority of human beings were going to be damned.Here’s how I approach this issue. The doctrine concerning hell is a corollary of two more fundamental truths: that God is love and that we are free. Love is all that God is. He’s not loving to some and not to others....

Matt Hancock was heckled by a widower upon entering the Covid inquiry this morning, as he prepared to apologise to the victims of Covid. As he exited a black 4x4 Jaguar, the former Health Secretary was met by six members of the Covid Families for Justice group. Lorelei King, 69, confronted Hancock with two A4 posters, one of which depicted a photo of her late husband, who died in a care home in March 2020 at the age of 68, shaking Hancock’s hand. The other poster showed her husband’s coffin with the caption: “This was my photo op after your...

Clip from Joey B vs. the World #28: Generation Zero

New problems undermine the country’s old playbook as manufacturing powerhouse.. Europe’s largest nation and its main growth engine has become the biggest drag on its economy. ... In past economic crises, Germany could rely on its factories to pull it out of any recession by tapping the world’s insatiable demand for made-in-Germany products. But a mixture of short-term and structural problems means this is no longer the case. ... A sharp rise in energy prices last year made producing goods more expensive. And with inflation and interest rates up around the world, foreign consumers can’t always afford the higher price...