Free Republic

The money will be allocated from Spain’s share of the European Union’s Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, a fund centred on post-Covid recovery in the bloc. The idea, which has been discussed in industry circles since the 1970s, is to connect Spain and Morocco via an underwater rail tunnel. The project was formalised in the 1980s but suffered many setbacks and was officially dropped in 2009 in the wake of the global financial crash. However, strong signals from governments on both sides of the Gibraltar Straight in 2023 have reignited the discussion. In April, at the first meeting between Spanish...

A little more than a week from today, the Museum of West African Art (MOWAA) in Benin City, Nigeria, will open its MOWAA Institute, the first building to be finished of a planned 15-acre campus that will also include a contemporary art exhibition space (the Rainforest gallery), among other facilities. The complex is expected to be completed in 2028. In advance of the opening, Antiquity magazine has published an updated report on pre-construction archeological investigations conducted at the Institute’s building site and that of the Rainforest gallery. Running from 2022 to 2024, the MOWAA Archeological Project was a collaboration among...

Tunisia has repatriated about 10,000 irregular migrants so far this year, most of them from sub-Saharan African countries, Foreign Minister Mohamed Ali Nafti said on Tuesday, as the North African country faces pressure from the European Union to stem crossings across the Mediterranean. Nafti told lawmakers that the repatriations were carried out through a voluntary return program coordinated with the International Organization for Migration (IOM), with weekly flights arranged to help migrants return home. He said that Tunisia has reiterated to its European partners that "it will not become a transit zone." Tunisia repatriated about 7,200 migrants in 2024 under...

Rap superstar Nicki Minaj recently thanked President Donald Trump for shedding light on the persecution of Christians in Nigeria. “Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria. Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter,” Trump wrote in a post on Truth Social on Friday. “The United States cannot stand by while such atrocities are happening in Nigeria, and numerous other countries. We stand ready, willing, and able to save our great Christian population around the world!” Minaj is open about her Christian faith and said that the president’s statement made her “feel a...

The Shadow of Arab Supremacy: Racism and the (roughly) 5 Million Victims of Sudan's Endless ConflictsSudan, Africa's third-largest country, has been scarred by decades of violence rooted in deep-seated ethnic divisions, where Arab identity has been weaponized as a tool of supremacy and exclusion. Since the mid-20th century, conflicts pitting the Arab-dominated north against non-Arab populations in the south and west have claimed roughly 5 million lives, driven by policies of Arabization, racial hierarchies, and genocidal campaigns. This Arab racism—manifested in derogatory slurs like "abd" (slave) for Black Africans, favoritism toward Arab tribes, and state-sponsored militias targeting non-Arabs—has fueled mass...

President Donald Trump warned that if the Nigerian government continued to allow Christians in the country to be killed, the United States military “may very well” go into Nigeria “guns-a-blazing.” In a post on Truth Social, Trump instructed the Department of War to “prepare for possible action,” adding that if the U.S. does attack, “it will be fast, vicious, and sweet.” Trump also threatened to “stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria” if the Nigerian government continues to allow the killing of Christians. “If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all...

The South African government has criticised the US's decision to prioritise refugee applications from white Afrikaners, saying claims of a white genocide have been widely discredited and lack reliable evidence.It highlighted an open letter published by prominent members of the Afrikaner community earlier this week rejecting the narrative, with some signatories calling the relocation scheme racist.The limited number of white South African Afrikaners signing up to relocate to the US was indication that they were not being persecuted, it added.On Thursday, the administration of US President Donald Trump announced its lowest refugee annual cap on record - to just 7,500.The...

After weekly pro-Hamas demonstrations for the last two years, European cities from Dublin to Rome remained eerily quiet amid reports of a real genocide unfolding in Sudan. Videos posted on social media in recent days show the Arab militia, Rapid Support Forces (RSF), executing unarmed civilians while invoking the Islamic war cry of ‘Allahu Akbar.’ “Fighters from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have executed a number of unarmed people after capturing the Sudanese city of el-Fasher, new videos analysed by BBC Verify show,” the UK-based broadcaster reported Thursday. “Several videos have since emerged showing men wearing military fatigues and...

Sudan's military government has ordered two senior officials at the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) to leave the country amid widespread famine sparked by a gruelling civil war that erupted in April 2023. The WFP said directors of its Sudan operation were declared "personae non grata" and told to go within 72 hours, without explanation. The decision comes days after the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), captured the key city of el-Fasher in Darfur from the military after an 18-month siege, which included a food blockade. The WFP said the expulsions came a "pivotal time" as humanitarian needs in Sudan...

Socialist New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani recently celebrated his wedding to his artist wife at a lavish compound owned by his family in Uganda. Mamdani, 33, shocked the political world when he defeated Andrew Cuomo to win the Democrat nomination to run the Big Apple, campaigning on far left policy and drawing controversy for his anti-Israel views. The state assemblyman recently took a break from the campaign to visit Uganda, where he was born and spent the first few years of his life being raised by his filmmaker mother Mira Nair and academic father Mahmood Mamdani. The far-left...

His father’s values explain why he hates the America you love. In today’s political landscape, few figures embody the fusion of imported radicalism and homegrown extremism more vividly than Zohran Mamdani. His rise is not an isolated phenomenon. It’s the product of a layered history that stretches from the British Empire’s colonial machinations in East Africa to the ideological battleground of New York City. Understanding his ideological roots reveals not only where this movement came from but where it may be heading. The story begins in colonial Uganda, where the British cemented their rule by granting privileged status to Indian...

The New York State Department of Health has confirmed a case of locally acquired chikungunya on Long Island, marking the first case of the virus reported to be locally acquired in New York and the first locally acquired case to be reported in the United States since 2019. Laboratory testing at the department’s Wadsworth Center confirmed the case in Nassau County on Long Island, according to health officials. “An investigation suggests that the individual likely contracted the virus following a bite from an infected mosquito,” officials said. “While the case is classified as locally acquired based on current information, the...

Skynet-1A was launched in 1969. Image Credit: NASA, Image ID: KSC-69P-0941 via Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain, Modified by IFLScience A military spacecraft launched 56 years ago was moved from its orbit – and nobody is quite sure who did it, or why. In 1969 the UK launched Skynet-1A, a military communications satellite placed in orbit above the east coast of Africa in order to relay information to British armed forces. It stopped working due to hardware issues around 18 months after it started operating, and the spacecraft was left to the laws of physics to orbit the Earth – it...

CAPE TOWN, South Africa (AP) — Fifty years ago, Banhine National Park in Mozambique was a wildlife haven, teeming with herds of giraffe, buffalo and antelope. Then, it was stripped nearly bare by decades of civil war and unchecked poaching.But a project is underway to restore Banhine to its former glory. Fences have been rebuilt and roads fixed. Finally, the trickiest part: bringing in the animals.Private conservationists working with the government of Mozambique have moved nearly 400 animals — zebra, wildebeest and several species of antelope — by truck to Banhine. It’s an attempt to restart a game reserve that...

We wuz everybody, apparently. Vikings, Samurai, Native Americans, Shakespeare — all of it. The greatest identity theft in history, presented as scholarship, swallowed by people with the IQ of a shoe. This is the “Collect Them All Edition” of WeWuzzery, where Erik the Red turns into Erik the Black, the Bard of Avon becomes the Bard of Abuja, and the Olmec heads get drafted into the Congo.

Nick Sortor @nicksortor 🚨 BREAKING: ICE just ARRESTED the Superintendent of Des Moines Iowa schools, who is an illegal immigrant from AFRICA, per @BillMelugin_ He was armed, and attempted to FLEE WTF? He led the LARGEST school district in Iowa. Our kids are NOT SAFE with Democrats in charge. INSANE Ian Andre Roberts will now be sent back to Guayana.

ROME (AP) — Italian news reports say a young Sudanese bus passenger grabbed the steering wheel and tried to pull the vehicle off the road in Sicily before off-duty soldiers on board intervened. The ANSA news agency says there were moments of fear among the other passengers aboard the bus, which was heading from Trapani to Palermo on Tuesday. A motive hasn't been ascertained, but Palermo prosecutors are investigating.

[Catholic Caucus] African cardinal: Same-sex ‘blessings’ document ’caused a lot of harm’Cardinal Ambongo said he believes Pope Francis ‘changed his mind’ about the release of Fiducia Supplicans after speaking with the African prelate.Cardinal Fridolin Ambongo Besungu has said that Fiducia Supplicans “caused a lot of harm to the Catholic faithful” and was a “bad chapter” in Pope Francis’ pontificate.Ambongo, who is the archbishop of Kinshasa in the Democratic Republic of Congo, made his latest critical comments about Francis’ document permitting homosexual “blessings” during a visit to Poland for the 12th Council of Gniezno peace summit.He told OSV News that a...

Marketed as a natural wellness product and widely available, 7-OH seemed like a viable alternative for Hayden resident Kevin McAuliffe to use as an energy and mood booster. However, McAuliffe said it became “absolutely impossible for me to ween off 7-OH because basically I became highly addicted to it, and I was waking up in the middle of night with withdrawal symptoms.” “I was having extreme health side effects,” McAuliffe said of the product 7-Hydroxymitragynine, known as 7-OH, which is a chemically concentrated derivative of the kratom plant. Addiction treatment professionals, UCHealth physicians, valley residents and the U.S. Food and...

Despite being a staple food for millions of people worldwide, the genetic secrets of the sweet potato have long remained a mystery to scientists. That is, until now. New research has revealed the complexities behind the genetic makeup of these tubers, widely considered to be a superfood for their health benefits. What science reveals about them is surprising, revealing a previously unknown evolutionary history involving a “hybrid ancestry” behind the beloved vegetables. The research, led by Professor Zhangjun Fei at the Boyce Thompson Institute, was recently published in Nature Plants. The Hybrid Ancestry of Sweet Potatoes Sweet potatoes carry six...