Free Republic

If fire departments on land have problems unleashing the torrent of water needed to extinguish a single burning EV, the crew of a ship doesn't stand a chance against hundreds of flaming lithium-ion batteries. A cargo ship carrying around 3,000 vehicles across the Pacific Ocean caught fire on Tuesday. The Morning Midas, a 600-foot cargo ship, was in the middle of a voyage from Yantai, China to Lazaro Cardenas, Mexico when the fire broke out. Zodiac Maritime, the ship's London-based operator, noted that smoke was first spotted on a deck carrying 800 electric vehicles. Once the blaze got out of...

The woman who was set on fire and burned to death on a New York City subway car has finally been identified, more than a week after an illegal migrant threw a lit match at her and watched her gruesome death. The victim was identified as Debrina Kawam, of Toms River, New Jersey, police announced on Tuesday. After authorities struggled to identify her for over a week due to how badly her body was burned, the 61-year-old was finally identified through fingerprint analysis. Kawam was homeless, according to the Coalition for the Homeless. She was sleeping on the F Train...

Horrific new photos show the gruesome scene inside a Brooklyn subway car where an illegal Guatemalan migrant allegedly set a sleeping woman on fire and then calmly watched her burn — later telling cops he had no memory of the savage killing. Surveillance images captured by MTA cameras in the F train car allegedly show Sebastian Zapeta-Calil standing in the mostly empty F train car, his hands in his hoodie pockets, as flames engulf the woman. The alleged victim, who was seated on the train at the time she was set ablaze, appeared to require a walker — the mobility...

A mother and daughter are in custody for the alleged murder of a 71-year-old grandmother whose decomposing remains were sniffed out by police after she had been dismembered with a chainsaw and burned on a charcoal grill. Candace Craig, 44, is accused of killing her mother Margaret Craig and enlisting in the help of her 19-year-old daughter Salia Hardy to dispose of the body, according to Prince George's County police. Officers on Friday conducted a welfare check on the matriarch at the Landover, Maryland, and immediately smelled the odor of decomposition. They discovered 'what appeared to be brain matter' in...

A man was rushed to the hospital with severe burn wounds after setting himself on fire outside the Israeli consulate in Boston. Matt Nelson said in a video he uploaded to YouTube before arriving at the location that he was about to engage in an “extreme act of protest” due to “the ongoing genocide in Gaza.” Nelson’s identity and motive were not immediately apparent following the incident, which took place Wednesday evening. The video surfaced on Friday. The incident marks at least the third instance of self-immolation in the United States outside of an Israeli consulate or embassy in protest...

Swedish prosecutors said on Wednesday they would put two men on trial for setting fire to the Quran in a series of incidents last year that prompted outrage in the Muslim world and raised fears of attacks by jihadists. The two men committed "offenses of agitation against an ethnic or national group" on four separate occasions when burning Islam's holy book outside a mosque and in other public places, the Swedish Prosecution Authority said in a statement. Sweden's domestic security service raised its terrorism alert level as a result of the burnings, while neighboring Denmark, which also saw a spate...

Riots broke out in a multicultural area of the English city of Leeds on Thursday evening, with hundreds of residents setting fires, throwing stones, and clashing with police. Horrific images poured out from the heavily Pakistani Harehills area in east Leeds, with a double-decker bus being burnt to a crisp, a police car overturned, and widespread chaos. The incident reportedly broke out after four children were removed from their families by social services, which apparently enraged the local population, The Telegraph reports.

It's not a laptop in first class or a cheap Chinese scooter smoking ominously in the plane's cargo hold. Nor is it a massive commercial ship packed to the gills with cars being transported across an ocean that has had one of the EVs parked onboard light off, and now the whole vessel is hopelessly ablaze. It's not another fiery EV in a driveway or garage or the solar panels on a rooftop, even though I have covered all of those. Comments regular Global Traveler turned me on to an ongoing drama in, of all places, San Diego County that...

Former Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R), candidate for the state’s U.S. Senate seat, said in an interview that aired Sunday that he did not have a “burning desire” to be senator but was compelled to run for the seat because of the “broken” system. “I still don’t have any burning desire to be a senator. I wasn’t looking for a title. I don’t need a job. But I’m just so frustrated with how broken our political system is,” Hogan said in an interview with CNN’s Melanie Zanona. Hogan was a late entry into the race, which has picked up steam...

BRYAN, Texas – A fire at Feather Crest Farms in Northeast Brazos County ignited on Monday evening and officials said the chicken farm may be burning for days until it’s fully extinguished. KBTX in Bryan said the fire started at 5 p.m. east of Kurten and multiple fire departments from Brazos, Robertson, and Madison counties responded. The cause of the fire is unknown at this time. KBTX reported the flames were contained in two buildings.

Israeli experts on rape and sexual abuse have documented Hamas's sex crimes during its Oct. 7 attack and denounce the world's silence.. Experts in the fight against rape and sexual abuse demanded to know why international women's organizations have remained silent about the horrific sex crimes Hamas committed in Israel on Oct. 7... And there's no doubt that they did: the experts, all women, who spoke on Nov. 12 in an online seminar organized by Jewish professional students at Harvard University, have been systematically gathering evidence since the attack. The one who headed up that effort spoke about the unspeakable....

The fallout from the chaotic 2023 iteration of Burning Man continues as the local sheriff slammed attendees for leaving trash strewn across the Nevada desert in the wake of the washed-out festival. 'As usually happens in what burners refer to as the "default world" people allow their emotions to override their reasonableness and they are lashing out at each other as they leave the playa and attempt to make it to their next destination,' Pershing County Sheriff Allen told the San Francisco Chronicle. 'This behavior definitely does not fall within the 10 principles of Burning Man, but that is not...

These aren’t your ordinary anti-capitalist climate crusaders. Extinction Rebellion, the radical environmentalists who tried to blockade traffic to counterculture festival Burning Man on Sunday - only to be rammed aside by tribal police - are funded by some of the biggest names in Hollywood, along with an heir to the Getty fortune and outdoor retailer Patagonia. The group calls itself part of a “decentralized, international and politically non-partisan movement” demanding climate action - and until now has largely stuck to causing disruption in Europe. Under its banner, protesters have superglued themselves to the Speaker’s chair in the British parliament, blockaded...

Those who disobeyed the barricaded road closures during the Maui fires survived the disaster, while many of those who heeded orders to turn around perished in their cars and homes with no way out... At least 114 people were killed in the fires earlier this month, and the FBI is estimating that up to 1,100 more are unaccounted for. Officials are facing increased scrutiny for the emergency response, including why the emergency sirens were not set off and whether closing the roads prevented people from getting to safety. ... Officials closed Lahaina Bypass Road due to the fires, blocking the...

The Missouri Democrat Party used its official Twitter account to openly call for someone to burn down a Trump supporter’s house. Flagged by Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO), the tweet from the Missouri Democrats was responding to a question from Jon Cooper about a house draped in Trump flags. “What would you do if this was your next-door neighbor?” Jon Cooper asked. “The roof, the roof is on [fire emoji]. We don’t no water, let insert your word’ burn!” the Missouri Democrats responded.

The French government said Sunday that hundreds more had been arrested in a fifth night of rioting sparked by the police killing of a 17-year-old, as police deployed reinforcements to flashpoint cities around the country. Protesters, mostly minors, have torched cars, damaged infrastructure and clashed with police in an outpouring of rage since an officer shot Nahel M. point blank as he attempted to flee a traffic stop on Tuesday. The killing was captured on video, which spread on social media and fueled anger over police violence against minorities, exposing severe racial tensions in France. A day after Nahel was...

Remember the George Floyd riots of 2020? I do. Vast swathes of my city were burned down including a police precinct–a first. The City of Minneapolis actually evacuated and abandoned a police precinct and let rioters burn it down. It was pretty traumatic for the city. It took days to get the city back under control. The National Guard had to be called out, and even then it took days to retake the city. I lent my neighbor a gun. As a Black man, he was surprised I would and very grateful. We were in it together, protecting each other...

Should the public burning of the Qur’an be allowed? Should the public burning of the holy scriptures of any religious tradition be allowed? Swedish authorities have recently come up with a novel answer to these questions, an answer that is certain to cause them more problems than it will solve. Book burning is generally associated with a brutish war against human knowledge and enlightenment and conjures up images of sweaty, fiendishly grinning National Socialists standing before bonfires of books that challenged their evil ideology. The Danish activist Rasmus Paludan and others in Europe, however, have begun burning the Qur’an in...

Malik Fard Muhammad, 25, and his girlfriend Kristin McGuire traveled from Indianapolis, Ind., to Portland, Ore., to fight with cops. Muhammad will be extending his stay for an extra ten years, compliments of the feds. Muhammad is alleged to have traveled to Portland with his girlfriend from their home in Indianapolis for the specific purpose of violently engaging in civil disorder during recent area riots. On September 5, 2020, during a large civil disturbance in east Portland, demonstrators threw dangerous objects at police, including commercial grade fireworks, Molotov cocktails, and bottles. At least one demonstrator was seriously burned by a...

On Christmas Day 1013, Danish ruler Sweyn Forkbeard was declared King of all England and the town of Gainsborough its capital. But why is so little known of the man who would be England's shortest-reigning king and the role he played in shaping the early history of the nation? For 20 years, Sweyn, a "murderous character" who deposed his father Harold Bluetooth, waged war on England. And exactly 1,000 years ago, with his son Canute by his side, a large-scale invasion finally proved decisive. It was a brutal time, which saw women burned alive, children impaled on lances and men...