Free Republic

Roger Waters tells Richard Branson to ‘back off’ over Venezuela in bizarre dispute over benefit concert Pink Floyd rocker Roger Waters has warned Richard Branson to “back off” over efforts to raise money for humanitarian aid in Venezuela with a Live Aid-style concert, telling the entrepreneur that it has “nothing to do with their needs.” Waters’ pointed criticism at his countryman comes as Branson, founder of the Virgin Group, says he is hoping to raise $100 million on Friday for people suffering in the South American country, which is currently undergoing a leadership and economic crisis with the regime of...

SAN FRANCISCO – Gov. Jerry Brown railed Thursday against politicians who doubt climate change, calling them "political lemmings" and the chief obstacle in the fight against global warming. "The main thing we have to deal with in climate change is the skepticism, the denial and the cult-like behavior of the political lemmings that would take us over the cliff," the Democratic governor said at a high-profile conference on climate change at the California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco. At a conference that included Brown's predecessor, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, Brown said climate change has...

LONDON — The British government announced Sunday that it would bring Northern Rock, the struggling mortgage lender, under its control. It was the first nationalization of a bank in more than a decade and a huge blow for the government of Prime Minister Gordon Brown. The government rejected two takeover proposals for the lender, which ran into trouble last year because of a funding shortage that followed the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States. The government was forced to shore up the company with about £55 billion, or $107 billion, in loans and guarantees. “The government has completed its...