Free Republic

You could be forgiven for not knowing much about Mike Johnson, the newly elected speaker of the House. Most senators, including many Republicans, don’t know much about him, either. For example, Senator Susan Collins, the ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, told a reporter that she had to google him. Senator John Barrasso, the third-highest-ranking GOP senator, said that he primarily knew about Johnson from what he had “read in the paper.” “I don’t know him,” Senate Minority Whip John Thune said on Wednesday morning. “May have met him, but that’s about it.” After Johnson’s election, Thune struck a...

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...

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...