Free Republic

Conservationists in Germany are incensed as 120,000 trees in an ancient forest have started to be felled in order to make way for a wind farm. The forest in Sababurg, Reinhardswald, which is in the central German state of Hesse, is said to be an inspiration for the Brothers Grimm mythical tales, but now it’s being destroyed to facilitate the country’s latest green energy project. The site of the tree-toppling is next to the famous Sleeping Beauty Castle, which takes its name due to its fairytale architecture and its proximity to the mystical forest. However, now the castle will be...

Americans’ satisfaction with the nation’s global image under President Joe Biden is at its lowest mark (33 percent) since 2017, a Gallup poll found on Monday. In contrast, 53 percent were satisfied with the position of the U.S. in the world under former President Donald Trump in February 2020. Gallup tracked the question of America’s global image since 2000. The current mark of 33 percent is lower than previous years under Biden’s leadership. Thirty-seven percent were satisfied with the United States’ global image in Biden’s previous three years, still far below Trump’s 2020 record, according to the poll: The last...

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...In his State of the Union speech, Joe Biden repeated, without any hint of skepticism, the figure put out by Hamas, unverified and unverifiable, of the number of Gazans killed in the current war. This is quite a change for the President. On October 26, when asked by a reporter about Hamas’ figures on casualties, Biden replied “I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed. I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s the price of waging a war.”Then, after adding that Israel should be “careful”...

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...Information on the latest poll of American attitudes on Israel, Hamas, and Gaza can be found here: “Vast Majority of American Voters Back Israel in War Again Hamas, New Poll Reveals,” by Ben Cohen, Algemeiner, February 28, 2024:A heavy majority of respondents — 78 percent — agreed that Hamas needed to be removed from governing Gaza. Asked about who should administer the territory after the war, 34 percent answered Israel, while 39 percent expressed support for a new authority created by Arab states. Only 28 percent believed that the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority (PA) should...

With the nation still in shock over the latest in an ongoing string of violence resulting in Americans being killed by illegal immigrants, Democrats warned that migrants committing murder could result in more people referring to them by the wrong term. Following the murder of Georgia nursing student Laken Riley, leading Democrats expressed apprehension that such unconscionable acts may lead to an increased risk of people cruelly calling the perpetrators "illegal." "This is of grave concern to us," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. "With more and more Americans being murdered by migrants, there is a genuine threat of something...

Fifty-seven percent of Democrat voters would oppose Congress certifying the 2024 election if former President Donald Trump wins, a Rasmussen Reports poll found Monday. The poll asked likely voters: “Some Democrats in Congress have said that if Trump wins this year’s election, they will vote against certifying the election results because of Trump’s role in the January 6, 2021, Capitol riots. Do you support or oppose Democrats refusing to certify the election results if Trump wins?” 57 percent of Democrats would oppose certification. Nearly two-thirds of “liberals” said they would oppose certification. However, Democrats do not form the majority of...

A doctor who went viral for her post mocking those who had refused the COVID-19 vaccine has died suddenly from a reported heart attack. While Dr. Vicky Jennings’s death has not been disclosed publicly, reports say she died from a heart attack.

The Virginia woman believed to have been killed alongside her husband by escaped prisoners who commandeered the couple’s yacht in the Caribbean was allegedly raped by one of their murderers, according to police. One of the three men charged with the couple’s murder allegedly raped Kathy Brandel, 71, before the trio killed her and her 66-year-old husband, Ralph Hendry, on their sailboat last month, according to the Royal Grenada Police Force. Ron Mitchell, Atiba Stanisclaus and Trevon Robertson were all charged Thursday with two counts of capital murder as well as escaping lawful custody, housebreaking, robbery and two counts of...

Ordinarily, such a conclusion would prompt a change in venue. However, Democrat operative Marc Elias made this observation gleefully "with a jury pool drawn from a population in which only 5% voted for Trump in the 2020 election the odds of him being found guilty regardless of any evidence are extremely favorable." Jury pool aside, Judge Tanya Chutkan, who is overseeing the case, is already on record bemoaning the fact that Trump isn't in prison. She told defendants convicted for trespassing in the Capitol on January 6, 2021 that "the people who mobbed that Capitol were there in fealty, in...

SYDNEY -- At least 50 people were injured Monday by what officials described as a "strong movement" on a Chilean plane traveling from Sydney to Auckland, New Zealand. LATAM Airlines said in a statement that there was "a technical event during the flight which caused a strong movement." It did not elaborate on what happened. Passengers were met by paramedics and more than 10 emergency vehicles when the flight touched down in Auckland. About 50 people were treated at the scene for mostly mild injuries, with 13 taken to a hospital, an ambulance spokesperson said. One patient was believed to...

It was a nightmare-bnb experience. A UK family had to cancel their dream Spanish vacation just hours before departure after losing more than $5,000 in an elaborate Airbnb “clone” scam. “I felt devastated for my children and my husband,” Emma Last, 48, told PA Real Life of the holiday hornswoggling. “One [of her children] didn’t speak for a day.” The Lancashire resident had planned an eight-night trip to Majorca — one of Spain’s idyllic Balearic Islands — in August 2023 with her husband Zak, 51, Last’s parents and their three children: Scarlette and Henri, both 17, and Xander, 14. The...

Megyn Kelly said, 'I realize now I was part of this problem. My heart was in the right place. I wasn't trying to push anything bad on the kids. I thought I was being supportive of them. I thought I was promoting anti-bullying.' (LifeSiteNews) — Former Fox News anchor Megyn Kelly has expressed contrition for having once supported transgender ideology. Having interviewed Isabelle Ayala, a 21 year old detransitioner first took cross-sex hormones at 14, and Ayala’s lawyer Jordan Campbell, Kelly made a passionate speech. “Remember that segment I did on the pronouns … when I was at NBC?” she...

The Biden administration scrambled behind the scenes to prepare for the imminent possibility that Russia would use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine, a shocking new report revealed. In 2022, the CIA warned President Biden of a 50% change or higher that Russia would reach for its nuclear arsenal if it found its forces were decimated and the illegally annexed territory of Crimea was at risk, according to the New York Times. Those reports caused Biden to deliver his famous “Armageddon” speech at an Oct. 6, 2022, fundraiser in New York City, in which he warned, “We have not faced the...

A beloved father of 13 children who saved his family from a house fire started by their landlord was gunned down outside of a Brooklyn brownstone early Sunday morning in an apparent targeted attack. Lavel Fraiser, 40, known by friends as “Flip,” was ambushed and fatally shot in the torso by a group of gunmen who were “waiting for him,” neighbors and police said. Fraiser was found in the backyard of a building at 673 Sterling Place just after 1 a.m., police said. “He got shot outside in front. He staggered in all the way to the back. He was...

Daily Readings from the USCCBNow there was a royal official whose son was ill in Capernaum. When he heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and asked him to come down and heal his son, who was near death. Jesus said to him, “Unless you people see signs and wonders, you will not believe.” John 4:46–48Jesus did end up healing the royal official’s son. And when the royal official returned to discover his son healed, we are told that “he and his whole household came to believe.” Some came to believe in Jesus only...

Americans don’t get more daylight. Plants don’t enjoy an extra hour of sunshine. The only difference it makes is to harm our health. When you woke up this morning, were you groggier than usual? When the alarm sounded, were you a bear awakened in the middle of January? When you left home for work, did you grumble about the extension of darkness where just yesterday the glow of a preborn sun had been? If you answered “Yes,” congratulations! Your body was screaming that you had once again been scammed by daylight savings time (DST). DST is a fraud guarded by...

Europe is continuing its shift to the right, as voters in Portugal on Sunday rejected socialist governance and cemented the populist-nationalist Chega party as a major political force in the country and potentially a coalition partner in the next government. Following a corruption scandal hitting the highest levels of the socialist government of António Costa, whose own chief of staff and other government ministers were arrested on suspicion of corruption, forcing the PM to announce his resignation and call for an early election, the party has tumbled in the weekend’s election.

Powering the nation’s long-haul trucks with electricity would require the same amount of electricity for more than 46 million homes every year. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In 2022, California adopted regulations that required all new cars, trucks and SUVs sold in the state to be zero emissions by 2035. Immediately, 17 states eyed the electric vehicle mandates and started considering their own. That was on top of the Biden administration’s own tailpipe standards, which many say function as a federal EV mandate. The vision of a forced electric vehicle transition hasn't quite gone as California and the Biden administration have hoped. But in...

The Department of Veterans Affairs office dedicated to rooting out racism and harassment is itself a “hostile, toxic work environment with a permissive culture of rampant gossiping and innuendo,” where multiple layers of top officials participated in and covered up sexual harassment, an internal agency review concluded.At one point, a senior manager fired a mid-level manager because both men wanted to sexually harass the same employee. When a complaint was filed, a political appointee sat on it, apparently partly for racial reasons.

Many people posing as journalists acknowledge problems, while also working very hard to cover up the cause of the problem. A recent article from Matt Egan at CNN admits that Americans have a problem paying for things… but neither he, nor any of the outlet’s other employees ever bring up Joe Biden or his policies as a significant cause of the problem; read here: Americans’ cost of living remains a massive headache, even as recession fears fadeThe long-rumored recession has been postponed – or perhaps canceled altogether. The soft-landing vibes are real. Inflation is cooling. The economy is growing at...