Free Republic

New research shows 8,000-pound sloths once dug caves, adapted to oceans, and roamed widely—until climate and humans brought their downfall. (Artist’s concept.) Credit: SciTechDaily.com ================================================================= Long before they became tree-hugging symbols of chill, sloths were 8,000-pound giants that roamed deserts, dug caves into cliffs, and even swam like manatees. Scientists have now pieced together the epic story of their evolution, using ancient DNA and hundreds of fossils to explain how sloths once grew to mammoth proportions—bigger than most cars—and why they eventually shrank or vanished altogether. Sloths’ Strange Family Tree Most of us know sloths as the slow-moving, tree-loving creatures...

Radical Islam in Latin America By Chris Zambelis In the wake of the September 11 attacks, the possibility of al-Qaeda infiltrating Latin America became a priority for U.S. intelligence and law enforcement officials. However, the most publicized incidents of radical Islamist activity in Latin America have not been linked to al-Qaeda but instead to the Lebanese Shi’ite Hezbollah, which is ideologically and politically close to Iran. These include the March 1992 bombing of the Israeli Embassy in Buenos Aires, Argentina and the July 1994 attack against the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association (AIMA), also in the Argentine capital, allegedly in retaliation for...

Disembarkation is always hectic, but the chaos was taken to the next level in Texas’s Galveston Cruise Port on Saturday, April 26, 2025, by an unruly – and violent – group of passengers. The cruise guests were in the process of disembarking from Carnival Jubilee – which had just returned from a 7-night Western Caribbean sailing that embarked from Galveston on April 19, 2025 – when a massive fight broke out in the luggage pickup area. It’s not clear what triggered the altercation, but video footage shows a group of people beating up at least two other men while several...

The Tren de Aragua rose to power in Nicolas Maduro’s anarchotyranny. Now they’re in Florida. Last week, El American broke the news that members of the Tren de Aragua, the largest criminal organization in Venezuela (after the government), had crossed the southern border and were living in Orlando, Florida. The news came a week after Breitbart had claimed that Venezuelan criminals were crossing the border to live in the U.S.—more than likely continuing their criminal enterprises. The source told El American that the criminals were living in Bogotá, Colombia, and were able to change their identity by bribing Venezuelan officials....

On December 2, 1823, President James Monroe gave his 7th State of the Union address before Congress, using the occasion to advance what would later become known as the Monroe Doctrine. After a string of former Spanish colonies in the Americas declared their independence, Monroe said the United States would oppose further predation in the region from the European empires to preserve the newly emancipated states. As American power exploded during the 19th and early 20th centuries, the Monroe Doctrine evolved and increasingly came to mean Washington's opposition to any potentially hostile foreign power establishing itself in the Americas. With...

BREAKING: 8.0-magnitude earthquake hits the Caribbean Sea - PTWC

The leftist Labour Party government is reportedly considering talks with Caribbean nations on the issue of reparations for the British Empire’s role in the slave trade. According to a report from The Telegraph, the Foreign Office is planning on holding a meeting with the Reparations Commission of the Caribbean Community (Caricom), a fifteen-nation bloc that advocates for slavery reparations from the West. The potential trip is reportedly being organised by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who has previously called on former colonial powers to pay her country £3.9 trillion in reparations for slavery.

The width and color of tree rings provides an extraordinary glimpse into a tree's history. (Dmitr1ch/Shutterstock) How extreme weather leaves a lasting mark on trees and shrubs POZNAŃ, Poland — In the Arctic’s harsh borderlands, where trees wage a constant battle for survival, an international research team has discovered that extreme cold leaves lasting fingerprints in wood. These “blue rings,” visible only under a microscope, reveal centuries-old stories of climate disasters that once brought summer temperatures plunging to near-freezing. The study, published in Frontiers in Plant Science, examined pine trees and juniper shrubs in the Arctic. The research team ventured...

In the November 14 edition of the Miami Herald, in an article titled: Report: Majority of trafficked guns in Caribbean are from the U.S., shipped from Florida, reporters Jacqueline Charles and Jay Weaver claim a lack of restrictive gun laws in the United States cause high murder rates in Caribbean countries. From the article: A new report from the U.S. government’s lead investigator on gun trafficking in the Caribbean area is confirming what region leaders have long said: Most of the firearms wreaking havoc in their vulnerable nations and being used in 90% of the homicides are coming from the...

DARIEN GAP, Panama—The grind of heavy machinery breaks the silence of the Darién jungle, where the Pan American Highway ends at Yaviza in Panama. Construction workers have cleared towering trees to make way for a steel and concrete bridge mighty enough to withstand flooding from the Chucunaque River. An onsite worker for the construction company Cusa told The Epoch Times the construction project will cut 4 miles into the Darién jungle at a cost of $42 million and includes a second bridge crossing the Tuira River. That would leave some 55 miles to finish the Pan American Highway, also known...

At least 70 people have been killed in a gang massacre in Haiti, the UN has said. Armed gunmen belonging to the Gran Grif gang passed through the town of Pont-Sonde with automatic rifles, shooting at residents on Thursday, according to the United Nations' Human Rights Office.

The Dominican Republic says it plans to expel as many as 10,000 Haitian migrants per week, despite a longstanding call from the United Nations to end forced returns to Haiti amid a surge in gang violence there. Homero Figueroa, a Dominican presidential spokesman, said on Wednesday that the “operation aims to reduce the excessive migrant populations detected in Dominican communities”. Figueroa added that the expulsions to Haiti, which shares a border with the Dominican Republic on the Caribbean island of Hispaniola, would begin “immediately”. The announcement comes just days after the UN reported that at least 3,661 people had been...

TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — A tropical depression could form next week as an area of low pressure in the Caribbean moves toward the Gulf of Mexico, the National Hurricane Center said Friday. “A tropical wave likely develops in the western Caribbean early next week. Right now, there’s a 40% chance in seven days,” Max Defender 8 Meteorologist Legh Spann said. “Many of the models drift the system north into the Gulf of Mexico by the middle of next week.” As of Friday afternoon, most of the models appeared to zero in on a northern Gulf coast landfall. However, Spann said...

The Royal Navy has intercepted its first-ever “narco sub” – filled with £160m ($208M) worth of cocaine. HMS Trent seized the vessel in the Caribbean Sea. In eight drugs busts in seven months, the Portsmouth-based patrol ship has stopped nearly £750m ($979M) of narcotics reaching the streets of the UK in eight months. Trent’s latest operation, alongside the US Coast Guard and a US Maritime Patrol Aircraft, was the first “narco-sub” the Royal Navy has ever intercepted. The ship’s boarding team – comprising US Coast Guard personnel, Royal Marines from 47 Commando and specialist sailors – clambered aboard the semi-submersed...

The world's largest cruise ship caught fire while docked in Costa Maya, Mexico. Flames hit the Icon of the Seas on Tuesday afternoon, but Royal Caribbean told Cruise Law News that they were "quickly extinguished." At one point, "power failed throughout the ship, impacting elevators, air conditioning, service stations, and cabins," according to Cruise Radio. There were no reported injuries.

The administration of United States President Joe Biden has called for the rapid deployment of a Kenyan-led security force to Haiti following the killing of three US missionaries in the violence-hit Caribbean country. The appeal on Friday came shortly after US non-profit Missions in Haiti Inc announced that three of its missionaries were fatally shot by armed gunmen on Thursday night in the Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince. The deaths are the latest in months of spiralling violence in Port-au-Prince, which remains largely under the control of powerful armed groups that have unleashed a wave of deadly attacks across the city. They...

On a Caribbean island just 220 miles from the shore of the U.S. Virgin Islands, a black-clad Chinese security guard swept an arm at more than a thousand acres of woodland and a glittering, aqua-green marine reserve beyond."It's like a small country," he said in Chinese.

Haiti a country of nearly 12 million people in the Caribbean is on the brink of total State collapse around 200 0:06 different heavily armed gangs have managed to seize control over large swats of the country's territory and are operating with near impunity while some 0:13 of the more heavily armed gangs that are more similar to paramilitaries have managed to seize control over as much as 90% of hades's capital and largest city 0:20 Port of Prince these gangs have been able to completely overpower what little is left in the country of the former 0:26 Haitian government...

VIDEOIn just 38 days as of this writing on April 27, my wife and I will be embarking to the ABC islands of the Caribbean again aboard the Celebrity Beyond. In September 2022 we made the same cruise aboard the Celebrity Equinox. In this video, I attempt to relay the incredible excitement of embarkation day. The moment we stepped aboard the Equinox we were enveloped in luxury which included the surroundings, the food, and the drink... lots of drinks as you can see. Embarkation day is always memorial. This time we are looking forward to catamaran sailings with our group...

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...