Free Republic

Former George W. Bush adviser Karl Rove said Wednesday on Fox News Channel’s “America Reports” that anti-Israel protests at the Democratic Party’s Chicago convention in the summer are likely. Discussing President Joe Biden, Rove said, “On the one hand he came out against the protests and the attacks on Israel and Jewish students and on the other hand recognizing the plight of Palestinians. The statements of the written statements and the spokesman for the White House have been generally pretty tough, but the president himself set the tone by answering that question.”

The athletes competing at the Paris Summer Games will have plenty of condoms, but they will not have air conditioning. “We designed these buildings so that they would be comfortable places to live in in the summer, in 2024 and later on, and we don’t need air conditioning in these buildings because we oriented the facades so that they wouldn’t get too much sun during the summer, and the facades, the insulation is really efficient,” said Yann Krysinski, who is directing the service of infrastructure for the Games. The buildings housing the athletes will apparently have some sort of cooling...

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- There's been a spike in the number of COVID-19 workplace outbreaks in Los Angeles County over the past month. As more and more employees return to in-person work, it's not surprising there's been an increase. L.A. County health officials say the rise in cases remind us the risk of COVID infection is always present.

Japan recorded its highest average temperature this summer in 125 years, the nation's weather agency said on Friday (Sept 1). Based on measurements at 15 locations around the country from June through August, the average temperature deviation was +1.76 degrees Celsius, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) said. That exceeded the previous record of +1.08 degrees in 2010. JMA's data goes back to 1898. Average temperatures were considerably higher in the northern, eastern, and western parts of the country, the JMA said.

A late-summer wave of coronavirus infections has touched schools, workplaces and local government, as experts warn the public to brace for even more Covid-19 spread this fall and winter. Hospitalizations have increased 24 percent in a two-week period ending Aug. 12, according to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Wastewater monitoring suggests a recent rise in Covid infections in the West and Northeast. In communities across the United States, outbreaks have occurred in recent weeks at preschools, summer camps and office buildings. Public health officials said that the latest increase in Covid hospitalizations is...

(NEXSTAR) – As more students head back to classrooms, public health officials are keeping a close eye on the rising COVID-19 numbers around the country. The number of people being admitted to the hospital with the virus has been rising week after week, most recently jumping by 21% nationwide. Will the back-to-school season worsen the summer spike we’re seeing? Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at the University of California, San Francisco, expects the trend to look pretty similar to last year. “Overall, I would expect cases and hospitalizations to increase – then decrease again before they rise in...

Roughly 130 million people in 22 states are under various heat warnings, watches and advisories as a dangerous heat dome settles over a huge section of the county. The searing August heat wave is forecast to continue through at least the end of this week. The National Weather Service says a potent upper-level ridge is anchored over the Mid-Mississippi Valley, trapping the hot air. It is bringing oppressive heat from the central U.S. to the Gulf Coast. High temperatures throughout these areas are forecast to reach into the upper 90s and low 100s through Thursday.

The New York Times took eco-sensationalism to a new level by making couples planning summer weddings out to be victims of … climate change. The Times’s headline read like a piece of poorly written satire: “‘It Was Pretty Miserable’: Planning a Wedding Amid Climate Change.” Couples planning summer weddings, according to The Times propaganda, “have had to contend with a slate of extreme weather conditions, from flooding and unrelenting heat to poor air quality.” The leftist rag made it seem like couples got hitched with Judgment Day right around the corner: “This summer’s record-breaking weather has tested the entire wedding...

To mask, or not to mask? That is the question facing many doctors, public health officials and concerned citizens worldwide, as cases of COVID-19 once again tick upward. Meanwhile, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Thursday that there’s a new, “highly mutated variant” of the coronavirus named BA.2.86 that’s spreading worldwide. Recent data from the New York state Department of Health, released Aug. 2, showed that COVID cases spiked by 55% over the prior week, with an average of 824 reported cases per day across the state. The rise in COVID-19 cases isn’t limited to New York:...

Could Taylor Swift’s mega-tour have fans seeing red on their next COVID test? There has been some cautious optimism among public health officials that this summer might be the first during which California doesn’t experience a major coronavirus wave — and there’s no evidence at this point that one is on the way. But California is not in the clear or out of the woods just yet. Transmission does appear to be on the upswing, and there’s no denying the virus’ enduring power to spread, particularly in crowded settings. And crowded hardly begins to describe Swift’s concerts, let alone the...

COVID-19 cases are once again on the rise in the U.S., with data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) showing virus-related hospital admissions, positive test rates, and wastewater indicators trending upward. The virus has ebbed and flowed repeatedly since 2020—but this time is unique, since it’s the first notable uptick in spread since the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) officially ended in May, bringing to a close a variety of pandemic-era policies and programs. While much of the advice around COVID-19 stays the same, the post-PHE landscape does look a bit different. Here’s what to do...

Four out of every five humans alive experienced at least one day of abnormally hot temperatures in July — a global onslaught of extreme heat that would not have been possible without climate change, according to new research. The sweltering month appears to have been the hottest month ever recorded on the planet, although official verification from federal meteorological agencies is still pending. But an analysis of daily temperatures in 4,700 cities found that climate change-attributed heat touched 6.5 billion people — or 81% of the world's population — in July. The report, released Wednesday by nonprofit news organization Climate...

@Channel4News "You have to be on the right side of history." @GretaThunberg speaks exclusively to @Channel4News to make a plea to British politicians as she warns this summer's heatwaves are the beginning of a "rapidly escalating existential crisis" of climate.

COVID infections, hospitalizations and emergency room visits appear to have ticked up for the first time in 2023. JUANA SUMMERS, HOST: Yet another summer wave of COVID infections may have started. That is according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. But so far, COVID's toll looks nothing like the last three summers. NPR health correspondent Rob Stein joins us now to explain. Hi, Rob. ROB STEIN, BYLINE: Hey, Juana. SUMMERS: So Rob, I just have to be honest with you - this is not the kind of update many people want to hear.

Ukraine is trying to breathe fresh life into a largely stalled campaign to push back Russia’s forces, launching a major push in the southern Zaporizhzhia region this week. After six weeks of slow gains, Kyiv and Washington insist a second phase of the counteroffensive could unleash intensified attacks on Moscow’s forces and hasten Ukrainian gains in occupied areas. “Ukraine has a substantial amount of combat power that it has not committed to the fight,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said last week. “It’s at that moment, when they make that commitment, that we will likely see what the...

As the extreme heat now baking the U.S. and other spots around the globe is being fueled by climate change, scientists say we are likely to see similarly hot summers in the future. But, while this type of heat is expected more often, that does not mean every summer will look like this year’s. “We have very high scientific confidence that the world will continue to experience summers like this one and in fact that the frequency of extreme heat will intensify further in response to further global warming,” said Noah Diffenbaugh, a professor of Earth system science at Stanford...

WASHINGTON (AP) — With millions of Americans facing broiling heat across the Southwest, President Joe Biden on Thursday plans to announce new steps to protect workers, improve weather forecasts and make drinking water more accessible, the White House says. White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre described the heat wave as “a difficult time” and said Biden was treating climate change with “the urgency it requires.” The Democratic president is directing the Department of Labor to increase inspections of potentially dangerous workplaces such as farms and construction sites. He also wants heightened enforcement of heat safety violations. As part of the...

The New York Times is being roasted online for “fear-mongering” over an article questioning whether it is “safe to go outside” this summer. The article, headlined “Is It Safe to Go Outside? How to Navigate This Cruel Summer,” was published on Thursday and presents a “guide to determine when it’s safe to head out,” in light of the recent heat wave, flash flooding and smoke from wildfires experienced across the country. “So you want to go outside — despite the heat, heavy rainfall and poor air quality affecting millions this summer. Here’s how to determine whether it’s safe to leave...

A baby was rescued from a searing hot car in southern Texas earlier this week after the kid’s family accidentally left the keys in the vehicle. Footage of the rescue taken by a bystander shows the scene unfolding in the parking lot of an HEB in Harlingen, which is at the southernmost tip of Texas. [snip] The bystander who filmed the scene told outlets that what was not recorded was a woman who climbed through the broken front windshield to reach the baby and hand the child out. The heat index for that day was more than 100 degrees.

The southwest is dealing with a dangerous heat wave that could bring temperatures as high as 130 degrees in the desert, as 113 million Americans currently live under heat warnings. Blistering conditions will build Friday and throughout the weekend in the central and southern parts of the state, where many residents should prepare for the hottest weather of the year, the National Weather Service warned. Known as a 'heat dome' to meteorologists, the phenomenon is now set to persist through much of the month - scorching metros in Arizona, Nevada, and California in the process. Midday highs were mostly expected...