Free Republic

Ireland’s 40-year-long era of burning coal — the dirtiest fossil fuel imaginable — to generate electricity came to an end in June. That was when ESB announced it had ceased burning coal at its Moneypoint power station in County Clare, six months ahead of schedule. Throughout those 40 years, the coal was transferred on noisy conveyer belts through what must surely have been the longest, ugliest, sequence of brown tunnels in the country. They ran from the jetty at Moneypoint, where the coal ships pulled up, to a huge coal storage yard and then right into the powerplant and furnaces...

Washington is “done with the funding” of Ukraine’s war against Russia, JD Vance, the US vice-president, has said, as Europe scrambles to build a united defence before in-person negotiations between Presidents Trump and Putin.Speaking in an interview after an emergency summit with European and Ukrainian officials, co-hosted by David Lammy at Chevening, the foreign secretary’s mansion in Kent, Vance said Americans were fed up with paying towards the cost of the war.“What we said to the Europeans is simply, first of all, this is in your neck of the woods. This is in your back door,” he told Fox News....

Nothing says "saving democracy" and "preserving norms" like totally rigging the system. It's like calling sterilizing and mutilating children "care." A complete inversion of reality wrapped up in comforting words. Since at least 2016, the Democrats have focused all their attention on rigging elections, both within their own party and for the electorate as a whole. As the Democrats have seen their coalition disintegrate, they have responded by employing ever more Byzantine tactics to ensure victory. Not that victories have been ensured, yet...they have only stacked the deck in their favor...so they move on to the next step. Let's take...

Republican push for gerrymandered congressional maps triggers down-and-dirty from new generation – will it work?It was a stirring speech that brought Democrats to tears. “When someone is cruel or acts like a bully, you don’t stoop to their level,” Michelle Obama told them in Philadelphia in 2016. “No, our motto is: ‘When they go low, we go high.’”Fast forward to Ken Martin, chair of the Democratic National Committee, speaking in Chicago this week. “This is not the Democratic party of your grandfather, which would bring a pencil to the knife fight,” he insisted. “This is a new Democratic party. We’re...

In Canada, free speech is no longer a thing. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney utilized an August 5 press conference in British Columbia to dismiss concerns over Liberal legislation (Bill C-18) that would forbid news outlets from sharing news on social media, particularly during emergencies. The Canadian Commie globalist didn’t just refuse to rescind the aforementioned Bill C-18. No siree, he also urged his fellow Canucks to rely on government-funded CBC News for fair and unbiased information. In light of the fact that heads of government steadfastly refuse to tell the truth, I have taken the liberty to translate Carney’s...

Democrats rigged the 2020 Census. There are 20-30 Democrat seats in the House that would NOT exist if illegals weren't counted. Let's fix this.

The German economy is sinking far deeper into recession than previously thought. Recent revisions to the national accounts by the Federal Statistical Office paint a dramatic picture. Quietly and without fanfare, the Federal Statistical Office released new data this week on Germany’s economic output. And, as expected, the figures were revised downward. Instead of shrinking by 0.2% in 2023 as initially reported, Germany’s GDP actually contracted by 0.9%. The outlook for 2024 has also worsened: a projected contraction of 0.5% instead of the previously assumed stagnation. Three Years of Ongoing RecessionAnyone who still clung to the illusion of stability must...

LONDON — Most Ukrainians now favor ending the war with Russia through negotiations, as support for fighting until victory has dropped sharply since the early days of the conflict. Although their hopes for joining NATO and the European Union have faded and approval of U.S. leadership has plummeted, Ukrainians still see the EU, U.K. and U.S. as key to ending the war. Yet, most doubt that will happen anytime soon. More than three years into the war, Ukrainians’ support for continuing to fight until victory has hit a new low. In Gallup’s most recent poll of Ukraine — conducted in...

The White House is considering inviting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to Alaska, where President Donald Trump is scheduled to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15, NBC News reported on Saturday. The report cited a senior U.S. official and three people briefed on the internal discussions. "It's being discussed," one of the people briefed on the talks was quoted as saying. The report added that no Zelenskiy visit was finalized and that it's unclear if the Ukrainian leader would ultimately be in Alaska for meetings but it remained a possibility.

As a result of the eleventh-hour trip from US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow, a meeting between Donald J. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin became a reality – and what’s more, both sides now firmly believe that there’s an acceptable plan being negotiated that will put an end to the war in Ukraine.What exactly this plan is the public hasn’t been told, which leaves plenty of space for the MSM to fill in the blanks with propaganda aimed at disrupting the summit and the peace progress.Besides that, there’s also the fact that – as expected – Ukraine has...

Location matters, former real estate mogul US President Donald Trump said. Moments later he announced Alaska, a place sold by Russia to the United States 158 years ago for $7.2 million, would be where Russian President Vladimir Putin tries to sell his land deal of the century, getting Kyiv to hand over chunks of land he’s not yet been able to occupy.The conditions around Friday’s summit so wildly favor Moscow, it is obvious why Putin leapt at the chance, after months of fake negotiation, and it is hard to see how a deal emerges from the bilateral that does not...

Federal agents detained day laborers outside of a Home Depot in Van Nuys during two raids Friday morning, raising questions over whether their actions may violate a court order that bans agents from using racial profiling to carry out indiscriminate immigration arrests.The operations took place around 7:35 a.m. and then again at 11:50 a.m. outside the Home Depot on Roscoe Boulevard, according to Maegan Ortiz, executive director of Instituto de Educación Popular del Sur de California, which runs a resource center for day laborers directly next to the store. The Department of Homeland Security, which includes Customs and Border Protection...

The Department of Justice has launched two new investigations into New York Attorney General Letitia James and her office over her allegedly malicious targeting of political enemies. The U.S. attorney in Albany, Daniel Hanlon, issued two subpoenas to James, the first one related to her office’s civil fraud case against President Trump, the New York Times reported. The Justice Department reportedly believes her prosecution of Trump violated his Constitutional rights. The second subpoena is related to her office’s long-running effort to dissolve the National Rifle Association (NRA), according to the Times. Attorney General Pam Bondi has signed off on the...

A Texas judge ruled Friday against Beto O’Rourke and his nonprofit in a case brought by state Attorney General Ken Paxton, who accused them of illegally raising funds to support Democratic lawmakers fleeing the state to block GOP redistricting legislation. Tarrant County District Judge Megan Fahey handed down a temporary restraining order Friday evening against O'Rourke, a former congressman and Democratic presidential candidate, and his group, Powered by People, over alleged "unlawful fundraising practices" tied to efforts to support Texas Democrats who fled the state — including funding air travel, lodging, logistics and daily fines. "Defendants have and will continue...

In a case of strange bedfellows, William Barr, former U.S. attorney general to President Donald Trump, has teamed up with Fani Willis, the Democratic prosecutor who tried the president before being tossed off the case, to try and take Trump down. A whistleblower in the investigation has alleged that Barr conspired with Willis to stop Trump’s return to the White House through her prosecution, which saw the president and 18 co-defendants charged with attempting to overturn Georgia’s 2020 election results. Barr, whistleblower Patrícia Lélis said, joined Willis and other participants like media figure Armstrong Williams for secret meetings in Washington,...

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled 2-1 Friday that U.S. District Judge James Boasberg cannot move forward with possible contempt proceedings against the Trump administration. The case involves the administration’s alleged violation of an emergency court order blocking the administration from using a 1798 law to summarily deport hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador — the latest in an evolving, high-stakes court clash that has played out for months in various courts. Judges Gregory Katsas and Neomi Rao, two Trump appointees on the majority-Democrat bench, sided with the Trump administration Friday in blocking Boasberg’s contempt...

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin are planning on meeting in Alaska, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Mr. Trump confirmed on Truth Social the meeting will take place in Alaska on Friday, August 15. One senior White House official told CBS News the planning for next Friday's summit is still fluid, and that it is still possible that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy could end up being involved in some way. The White House said earlier this week that Mr. Trump is open to meeting with both Putin and Zelenskyy, but Mr. Trump suggested Friday he may...

A former host of The View thinks the daytime opinion program could soon be taken off the air. Rosie O'Donnell made the remarks in a pointed post to TikTok Wednesday where she said ABC was 'reviewing the [show's] liberal bias'. Days before, a Media Research Center study found the show had welcomed 102 liberal-leaning guests so far this year and not a single conservative. The results pertained only to guests who discussed politics. O’Donnell, in turn, claimed 'The View' does not have any bias, but that the 'review' was 'code' for the show's cancellation. She claimed her old network was...

In the charred aftermath of Malibu’s January wildfires, one buyer has been moving in silence. While much of La Costa Beach remains a barren stretch of sand, a foreign investor has quietly acquired nine oceanfront lots — spending more than $65 million to secure some of the most coveted parcels along the Pacific Coast Highway, according to Realtor.com. Working through luxury agents Weston Littlefield and Alex Howe of the Weston James Group, the buyer is targeting properties with at least 40 feet of frontage, betting that once the coastline is rebuilt, demand from wealthy buyers will return in force. ......

CONNECTICUT — Gov. Ned Lamont signed a new gun control bill into law that places the marketers of firearms clearly in the crosshairs."This law is just one more step as we try and make sure that it's not just Connecticut law enforcement doing all the enforcing; we hold the manufacturers and sales people accountable as well," Lamont told reporters on shortly after the bill's signing Thursday.And it's the manufacturers and resellers who are the target. Effective Oct. 1, both groups will be vulnerable to lawsuits if they fail to implement "reasonable controls."