Free Republic

The heatwave wreaking chaos across Europe is a “dramatic warning” to reject climate naysayers, a European Commission vice-president says. Teresa Ribera, executive vice-president for a clean, just and competitive transition, lambasted those who listened to the “vested interests” of the fossil fuel industry rather than scientists and their own citizens. “This is a dramatic warning being sent once again by nature on what it means to have a different climate system,” she told the Guardian. “What we are experiencing today [in the form of record heat] is what we knew could happen, but we have not been smart enough to...

Spain's plan to grant legal residency and work rights to undocumented migrants will be the largest scheme of its kind in European history. There have been at least 1.3 million applications made, more than double the 500,000 the centre-Left coalition government expected. The deadline for applications is on Tuesday. Pedro Sánchez, Spain's prime minister, said the amnesty was an act of justice but also of necessity, to continue Spain's strong economic growth and safeguard public pensions by bringing younger workers into the country. It began on April 16 and by mid-June 360,000 people out of 900,000 applications had been granted...

You’ve probably seen it by now. A chart, passed around on social media with the kind of grim satisfaction that only statistics can produce: more Europeans die each year from summer heat than Americans die from gun violence. The implication cuts both ways—Europe’s lack of air conditioning is deadlier than America’s lack of gun control—and it has been lighting up feeds across the political spectrum ever since. Turns out, it’s mostly true. And this summer is making it impossible to ignore.This semi-true graph is picking up steam online.Hannah Ritchie’s By the Numbers SubstackEurope is currently in the grip of its...

He says the situation is worse than it looks and that family members have been denied access by the military and police in their attempts to find their children. Save the Children NGO is already operating in Venezuela. “They are taking traumatized and orphaned children for child trafficking.” “It’s not even humans doing it. These people are evil.” Video Transcript SummaryThe X post by @ShadowofEzra shares a video of a man (split-screen with disaster footage of a child being held amid rubble) who claims that elites have quickly begun trafficking children in Venezuela following a major earthquake. Key claims in...

“They are stealing the children… they are taking the children who are found alone.” A desperate mother says her daughter was rescued after the earthquake, but when she went to claim her, she was allegedly told the child’s last name had been changed. The little girl has since disappeared. She claims that many children found alone are being taken, with their identities altered. Video Transcript Summary Transcription / Translation of the video (based on post context and caption):The X post features a video of a desperate Venezuelan mother speaking about her missing daughter after an earthquake. Key content from the...

As ordinary Venezuelans dig their neighbors out of their monster two-earthquake rubble with their hands, the Venezuelan government is doing all it can to sit on its hands, loot the victims, obstruct the rescue teams, harass the aid givers, block the reporters, and hide the body count. It's a foul picture, but one incident stands out: #AHORA | Parte de la delegación de rescatistas de EEUU enfrenta a Diosdado Cabello y le reclama porque le están saboteando sus esfuerzos de rescatar a las víctimas. “¿No quieres que vaya y ayude a la persona que está allí?”. pic.twitter.com/TzuSG3WKzM — Orlando Avendaño...

The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) is investigating whether Hampshire Police’s wrongful arrest of white murder victim Henry Nowak was influenced by nearby anti-immigration protests.

It's summer, which means the weather is hot again. In Europe, which is in the grip of a heatwave, the BBC says some 1,300 people have died from the rising temps. Despite that, Europeans remain reluctant to consider air conditioning. Sure, there are some areas where people are fighting over air conditioning units, but the climate change hysteria has been so ingrained in the culture that many people would rather drop dead than plug in an air conditioning unit that uses an infinitesimal amount of energy. In Germany, a public broadcaster is waging an 'anti-AC campaign' telling people air conditioning...

A shooting at a youth welfare facility in northern Germany on Monday left six people dead, police said. The suspected shooter was arrested. Five people – four women and one man – died at the scene of the shooting in Stade, police said. A sixth, also an adult, died later at a hospital. Police said several people were wounded, some of them seriously, German news agency dpa reported, but they did not give a specific figure or information on the victims’ identity. Police said the shooting took place in the facility on Dankersstrasse, a street south of the town center....

Austrian Commissioner: protection will not be granted to those whom the Ukrainian authorities did not allow to leave. The European Commission has proposed to revoke the temporary protection status in the European Union for incoming Ukrainian refugees who are fit for military service. This initiative was previously supported by the Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, and Sweden. Experts note that under the current losses of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, it is impossible to replenish personnel through mobilization, which is why Kyiv has asked the European Union to take such measures. The EU also finds this beneficial now, as European society is...

The U.S. CDC raised its response to the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic ​Republic of Congo to its highest level on Friday, but said the risk ‌of the disease spreading in the United States remained low. The move, reserved for the most severe health crises, signals growing concern over the rare strain's rapid spread. The outbreak of the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola has infected over ​1,200 people in Congo, including 321 deaths, and 20 cases in neighboring Uganda, ​reaching the highest first-month total of any episode of the disease, the ⁠World Health Organization said this week. The Centers for Disease...

The United States and Iran “will stand down for now” following an exchange of fire near the Strait of Hormuz over the last several days, a Trump administration official said on Sunday. “Both sides will stand down for now and vessels can move freely,” the official said. It’s not yet clear what Iran’s position is on the matter. The United States and Iran have agreed to meet in Doha, Qatar, on Tuesday for further discussions, according to another US official.

(DHS Secretary) Mullin estimated that the primary border wall would be finished by early June 2027 during recent congressional testimony... ...The outlet (Axios) noted that the rate would need to rise to over 13 miles each week to achieve Mullin’s timeline. Mullin gave his estimate during his June 2 testimony on DHS’s fiscal year 2027 budget before the House Homeland Security Committee. “On the border wall, first of all, we are on track to have the primary wall done — completed from the Pacific to the Gulf of America — this time next year. We will have all the contracts...

Iran doubled down on its control of the Strait of Hormuz Sunday — declaring on state-run TV that all ships must get permission from the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps before sailing through the critical choke point. The announcement followed Iranian attacks on two ships that were transiting the strait in recent days — prompting strikes by the US, and tit-for-tat retaliation by the Islamic republic.The violence threatened to unravel the delicate peace deal less than a week after the two sides met in Switzerland for talks on a permanent agreement. President Trump accused Iran of violating the cease-fire and warned...

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Iran again launched drone and missile attacks targeting Bahrain and Kuwait on Sunday following new U.S. airstrikes against the Islamic Republic and threatened a “complete halt” in negotiations to end the war if Washington continues its attacks.Efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz without Iran's oversight have sparked days of crossfire. A multinational maritime body overseen by the U.S. Navy said Saturday it would expand a route near Oman for inbound and outbound traffic, setting up a new flashpoint with Tehran.Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi reiterated the claim Sunday that Tehran alone must govern the...

WASHINGTON, June 28 (Reuters) - Migrants in the United States on temporary protected status should seek permanent residence or leave for their home ​countries, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin said on Sunday. The remarks to CNN's "State of ‌the Union" program follow last week's split Supreme Court decision allowing President Donald Trump's administration to strip hundreds of thousands of Haitian and Syrian immigrants of a humanitarian status that protects them from deportation to home countries plagued by ​conflict and destitution. "Either try to fill out the paperwork and be here underneath a permanent ​status or we'll help you get...

Gunther Eagleman™ @GuntherEagleman 🚨 65% OF TPS HOLDERS ARE ON TAXPAYER WELFARE. Rep. Chip Roy just dropped the hammer: “65% of the people who come here who are on TPS status are on welfare. The President is correct to end TPS.” Temporary Protected Status? Try PERMANENT welfare magnet. Haiti TPS since the 2010 earthquake, 16 YEARS later. 91% of them entered ILLEGALLY first, then got the work permits and protection. While American families grind, pay taxes, and watch their hard-earned money subsidize households that were never supposed to stay forever. This is the exact scam the Trump administration is finally...

China is closing in on the US in the AI race after the superpower developed its cybersecurity capabilities to match those of its American rivals. Beijing-based tech firms 360 Security Technology and Z.ai, also known as Zhipu AI, have narrowed the gap with American competitors when it comes to finding bugs. 360 Security Chief Executive Zhou Hongyi told a cybersecurity conference in the Chinese capital that the company's bug-finding tool, called Tulongfeng, is now comparable to Anthropic's Mythos, which serves the same function. 'This kind of powerful weapon that can alter the landscape of cyberwarfare can't remain solely in American...

As Western leaders departed the G7 summit in Évian talking of a “strategic awakening in support of Ukraine,” the night sky over Moscow was illuminated by the fires of a burning oil refinery just nine miles from the Kremlin. This unprecedented Ukrainian drone strike on Russian territory was met in Western capitals with quiet endorsement rather than anxiety. During the tensest moments of the Cold War, Western statecraft was anchored by a healthy fear of the unknown. Today, that prudence has been replaced by confidence that conflict can be precisely managed. When Franklin D. Roosevelt famously declared that "the only...

A nightmare scenario has been playing on eastern European minds with increasing intensity since Donald Trump returned to the White House: what if Russia attacks and the US does not join the fight? On the rare occasions the question is posed out loud, nobody much likes the answer. In mid-May, at a gathering in Tallinn, the US undersecretary of state Thomas DiNanno was asked directly whether American troops would fight if Russia invaded the Baltic states. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair, then gave a meandering answer. It did not include the word “yes”. Politicians from the region usually try...