Free Republic

... Financially, the [wind power] industry is teetering, with a parade of companies planning to renegotiate or pull out of contracts, jeopardizing plans for projects that were expected to provide electricity for millions of homes. Inflation is erasing profits, causing some of the largest energy firms in the world to back away. “Returns on offshore wind are becoming more and more challenged,” Shell CEO Wael Sawan told Barron’s last month, just days after a Shell joint venture said it would pull out of a power contract in Massachusetts. Shell won’t build renewable projects that can’t earn initial returns of 6%...

We find out what's going on along the border between Bulgaria and Turkey, as Sofia seeks Schengen Area accession amid worrying reports of abuse and violence towards migrants by Bulgarian border police. Bulgaria has long sought to join the Schengen Area of free movement which allows border-free travel between Schengen Area EU countries without being subject to border checks The European Parliament and EU Commission both say that Bulgaria is ready to join the borderless zone, and have urged the EU Council to give the green light before the end of 2023. But Schengen Area accession requires unanimity among member...

Please vote YES on issue 1. This is so important that dems are running ads to get their people to vote no. Tell your neighbors, friends and social media about this special election. Thank you. Voting begins today on a proposed amendment that could make it more difficult for citizens to change Ohio’s constitution. Early voting continues through Aug. 6 for the Aug. 8 special election the legislature set after the Republican-led effort passed a 60-vote threshold by only two votes in the House. Gov. Mike DeWine recently signed included $15 million to cover the cost of the single-issue election....

Excessive drinking during the covid-19 pandemic increased alcoholic liver disease deaths so much that the condition killed more Californians than car accidents or breast cancer, a KFF Health News analysis has found. Lockdowns made people feel isolated, depressed, and anxious, leading some to increase their alcohol intake. Alcohol sales rose during the pandemic, with especially large jumps in the consumption of spirits. While this led to a rise in all sorts of alcohol-related deaths, the number of Californians dying from alcoholic liver disease spiked dramatically, with 14,209 deaths between 2020 and 2022, according to provisional data from the Centers for...

Taiwanese-American influencer Fan-Pei Koung traveled from her native Houston to the front lines of the Ukrainian conflict to offer her services as an "emotional support stripper," she told the Daily Beast on Friday. The beauty pageant contestant turned self-described "globe-trotting girlfriend" offers racy photos of herself in skimpy variations of military gear posing with armaments on erotic pay-per-view platform Onlyfans, though she says the content is free to Ukrainians, soldiers and volunteers. That's not the only thing that's free, according to her profile on the DIY porn site, which lists "free emotional breastfeeding to soldiers and volunteers" as one of...

Undocumented sub-Saharan African migrants in Tunisia received three billion dinars (about $1 billion) in remittances from their countries during the first half of 2023, an official from the national security council said in a meeting late on Friday. President Kais Saied, who chaired the meeting, said, "This figure is shocking and indicates that Tunisia is being targeted." Saied denounced this year undocumented sub-Saharan African immigration to his country, saying in comments criticised by rights groups that it was aimed at changing Tunisia's demographic make-up.The amount of the announced transfers for undocumented migrants is higher than revenues of the vital tourism...

More than 50 Christian converts have been arrested in a rash of new incidents across five Iranian cities over the past seven days, with fears the number could rise much higher as fresh reports keep coming in. At least 51 of those arrested at their homes or house-churches – in the cities of Tehran, Karaj, Rasht, Orumiyeh and Aligoudarz – remain in detention on unknown charges, while others have been released on bail. Article18 cannot at this time share any more details about the incidents, but after very few publicly reported arrests of Christians so far this year, the news...

A sum of its parts, every U.S. state plays an integral role in the country’s overall economy. Texas, for example, generates an economic output that is comparable to South Korea’s, and even a small geographical area like Washington, D.C. outputs over $129 billion per year. *** California is by far the biggest state economy in the U.S. at $2.9 trillion in real GDP—and when comparing its nominal value ($3.6 trillion) with national GDPs worldwide, the Golden State’s GDP would rank 5th overall, just below Germany and Japan. *** Altogether, California, New York, and Texas account for almost one-third of the...

Democratic primary rival Robert Kennedy Jr. says he backs a probe of the $10 million bribery claim leveled against President Biden and his son by an Ukrainian oligarch who headed the “notoriously corrupt” Burisma energy company. “The issues that are now coming up are worrying enough that we really need a real investigation of what happened,” Kennedy told Fox News Sunday Morning Futures show host Maria Bartiromo. “I mean, these revelations …where you have Burisma, which is this notoriously corrupt company, that paid out apparently $10 million to Hunter and his dad, if that’s true, then it is really troubling....

The Long Island man whose tip proved key to nailing Gilgo Beach murder suspect Rex Heuermann wants to know why it took police more than a decade to follow up on his lead. “I gave them the exact description of the truck and the dude,” David Schaller said in his first interview since the accused serial killer’s arrest July 13. “I mean, come on! Why didn’t they use that?” Schaller, who lived with Gilgo Beach victim Amber Lynn Costello before she disappeared in September 2010, told cops at the time that the man he believed to be her abductor looked...

Anyone interested in getting to know a well known singer in other parts of the world - and getting more popular here in the States? Simply known as "Dimash" His full name is Dimash Qudaibergen Dimash is a 6'3" (only putting that in there because I thought he was on the shorter side - and was amazed he was that tall), 29 year singer/composer from Kazakhstan with a 6-octave and 2 semitones voice. (A2 to D8 with a highest whistle tone of G7) He's is university trained in classical and contemporary music, has performed songs in 13 languages and plays...

Otter 841 has quickly become a phenomenon ever since the viral video back in mid-June. Folks from around the world have made their way to West Cliff Drive to try and get a peak at Santa Cruz’s most wanted sea otter. "I'm up here visiting friends, but I have also heard about 841 and I thought I'd come up and see her in the wild,” said Peter Cresco, visiting from Los Angeles. The craze is turning into dollar signs for some choosing to capitalize on the otter’s popularity. Anything from shirts, jackets, and mugs can be found online with a...

A black man in New York City appears to have failed his way into millions of dollars. According to a report from the New York Post, he has been awarded more than $2 million in supposed lost compensation plus interest after he repeatedly failed a mandatory teacher's test that a court later determined was racially biased. On July 5, Herman Grim, 64, of Queens was awarded $2,055,383 as part of a series of judgments expected to cost NYC perhaps more than $2 billion. The judgments stem from the Liberal Arts and Sciences Test, which all NYC teachers and prospective teachers...

Speaking to President Vladimir Putin in St. Petersburg, Belarussian President Alexander Lukashenko, claimed that Moscow’s forces had taken out at least 15 German-made Leopard tanks and over 20 US-made Bradley Fighting Vehicles in a single battle, Russia Today reports. Putin claimed that “[we] have never destroyed so much in one day”, noting that Ukrainian units were “fully equipped with foreign hardware.” Putin also claimed that Russia had eliminated a number of Western mercenaries serving in Ukraine, blaming their “stupidity.” The PMCs were reported to include Polish and German volunteers.

Fargo, North Dakota appears to have avoided a serious terrorist attack last week, but sadly, at a great cost. City officers were ambushed by Mohamad Barakat, 37, who was armed with a rifle and almost 2,000 rounds of ammo, while the officers were investigating a routine car crash. Officers Jake Wallin, Andrew Dotas and Tyler Hawes were shot by Barakat from about 15 to 20 feet away before they could even reach for their guns. Wallin was killed with Dotas and Hawes were wounded. Officer Zach Robinson was nearby when the attack occurred and killed Barakat during the confrontation.It has...

"According to His great mercy" (1 Pet. 1:3). Every dimension of life, whether physical or spiritual, is a testimony to God’s mercy. When God saved you and granted you an eternal inheritance, it wasn't because you were special or more deserving of His love and grace than others. It was because He sovereignly chose to love you and extend His great mercy to you. That's why Paul said, "God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you...

The ghost of Ronald Reagan seems to be haunting — or at least consulting — Joe Biden’s White House. The administration’s recent embrace of the term “Bidenomics,” which echoes “Reaganomics,” seeks to turn a less-than-complimentary jab from the Wall Street Journal and Financial Times into a positive talking point about Biden’s economic accomplishments. Just before Biden delivered a major economic speech in Chicago last month, his press office announced that Bidenomics is “the word of the day, word of the week, word of the month, word of the year.” As a strategic move, however, this particular presidential coinage might not...

Leaders of major metros around the U.S. have pushed for more progressive immigration policies in recent years by declaring themselves safe havens for illegal immigrants. Now, however, as the realities of the financial and social impacts of those policies sink in, some local leaders are thinking twice. Millions of illegal immigrants have flowed across the southern border since President Joe Biden took office, with many seeking haven in self-proclaimed "sanctuary cities." “The policies of the Biden administration have certainly upped the ante on this sort of virtue signaling in recent years,” Ira Mehlman from the Federation for American Immigration Reform...

At 23, the most people would expect to go through is heartbreak — but this woman had an unexpected bout of heart failure which nearly took her life. On April 22, Kang Ziying felt a sudden pain in her chest alongside dizziness and vomiting which prompted her to seek medical help. Kang, a student at Republic Polytechnic, was immediately warded as her condition quickly became life-threatening. Kang's electrocardiogram showed that she had an accelerated heart rate. Her breathing also became more laborious, and the last thing she could recall was being wheeled off into an operating theatre. According to the...

Putin held a video conference on Thursday with members of Russia’s Security Council. I hope folks in the West pay attention to what he said, which is why I’m presenting the entirety of his remarks following a presentation by the Director of the Foreign Intelligence Service. Based on public source information and Russia collected intelligence, Russia believes that Poland is planning to seize Ukrainian territory west of the Dnieper River as Ukraine’s much ballyhooed counter offensive collapses. Let me give you Putin’s bottomline up front: Regarding the policy of the Ukrainian regime, it is none of our business. If they...