Free Republic

Last night, the U.S. House of Representatives approved an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) introduced by pro-life Congresswoman Beth Van Duyne. This amendment bars the Biden Administration from funding or reimbursing service members for costs associated with abortions. It garnered support from a majority of Republicans but faced opposition from most Democrats, resulting in a vote of 214-207. Essentially, this amendment overturns the current Pentagon policy of reimbursing travel expenses for service members seeking abortions in states where it’s legal, but where the service member is stationed in a state where babies are protected from abortion. Some...

As sea levels rise and storms intensify, coastal real estate is seeing flooding and erosion like never before. From Dana Point, California, to Long Island, New York, and Nantucket, Massachusetts, some of the nation’s priciest coastal real estate is in an increasingly precarious position due to climate change. This year’s hurricane season is already underway, and the forecast is for “above-normal” activity, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). It predicts up to 13 hurricanes, with four to seven categorized as “major” storms. Various risk models have shown myriad projections for falling real estate values, but the effects...

Opposition to wind and solar projects on the state and local level increased significantly last year, according to a new study by Columbia University’s Sabine Center for Climate Change Law. In 2023, the report found 73% more local restrictions than the previous year’s report released in May 2023, and 111% more state-level restrictions. “In nearly every state, local governments have enacted laws and regulations to block or restrict renewable energy facilities, or project opponents have succeeded in forcing the delay or cancellation of particular projects, or both have occurred,” the report states.

A new COVID-19 variant called KP.3 has surged to dominance in the United States, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).1 As of June 8, KP.3 accounted for 25% of cases, per the CDC. The variant has surpassed the previous dominant variant, KP.2, which now makes up about 22% of cases. Both have knocked down JN.1, the top strain circulating this past winter. With SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID, mutating consistently, it’s natural to be concerned each time a new variant rises to prominence. Here’s what you need to know about KP.3, including...

Italy’s largest paper reported on a curious incident involving President Joe Biden during the G7 Summit with world leaders in Italy on Thursday. Corriere Della Sera, a paper based in Melon and in circulation since the 1880s, reported a Thursday episode that appeared to show Biden wandering off into the distance before Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni turned him back to the group of world leaders watching a skydiving show. Joe Biden appears to wonder off into the distance… With Jill Biden absent her responsibility, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni directed him back to the group pic.twitter.com/3Iszqr9zki — Wendell Husebø...

A bill passed by New York’s legislators requiring gun store owners to place a warning sign by the entrance of their businesses now awaits Gov. Kathy Hochul’s (D) signature. WHAM reported the signage is to address the alleged risks associated with owning a firearm. Ammoland explained the warning sign is supposed to say, “Access to a weapon or firearm in the home significantly increases the risk of suicide, death during domestic disputes, and/or unintentional deaths to children, household members and others. If you or a loved one is experiencing distress and/or depression, call the national suicide prevention lifeline at 988.”

The History of Flag Day The first celebration of the U.S. Flag's birthday was held in 1877, on the 100th anniversary of the Flag Resolution of 1777. However, it is believed that the first annual recognition of the flag's birthday dates to 1885 when schoolteacher BJ Cigrand organized a group of Wisconsin students to observe June 14, the 108th anniversary of the official adoption of The Stars and Stripes as the Flag's Birthday. Cigrand, now known as the Father of Flag Day, continued to publicly advocate the observance of June 14 as the flag's birthday, or "Flag Day," for years.

Nearly 100 illegal scooters were seized from Queens streets and sidewalks in the latest clampdown on menacing mopeds, authorities said Thursday. A four-day blitz by Queens District Attorney’s Office detectives and NYPD cops hauled in 99 unregistered and uninsured scooters, prosecutors said. All the illegal mopeds, plus another five legit scooters, were parked illegally across Corona, Elmhurst, Jackson Heights and beyond during the crackdown’s span starting June 4 and ending Tuesday, officials said. “Illegal scooters have become a significant concern in our city, as we see them increasingly being used while carrying out violent crimes,” said Queens District Attorney Melinda...

PITTSBURGH (KDKA) — A heat wave is coming to Pittsburgh, and almost all of the city's 200 public water fountains have yet to be turned on. But now a Pittsburgh City Council member is crafting a plan to get the water flowing after the Pittsburgh Department of Public Works director said this week that he didn't have the means to get the fountains working anytime soon. "I have one plumber working for the city," Pittsburgh Department of Public Works Director Chris Hornstein said. "We have over 200 drinking fountains."

A Pentagon-funded company is seeking proposals to feed America’s soldiers lab-grown meat in a bid to "reduce the CO2 footprint" at Defense Department outposts. BioMADE, a public-private company that has received more than $500 million in funding from the Defense Department, announced earlier this month that it is seeking proposals to develop "innovations in food production that reduce the CO2 footprint of food production at ... DoD operational environments," according to an online announcement. These include "novel cell culture methods suitable for the production of cultivated meat/protein," or lab-grown meat, a product that is still in its experimental phases. This...

Nineteen Democrats and one independent are calling on U.S. financial regulators to do more to address financial risks posed by the changing climate. The lawmakers, led by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.), wrote to leaders of the Federal Reserve, Office of the Comptroller of the Currency and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) on Thursday to call for more action. “The United States’ lack of progress and innovation in establishing robust measures to address the financial and economic risks from climate change places us behind our international peers and is counterproductive to American interests,” they wrote,...

The West Is Sick of the New Woke Jihadism By Victor Davis Hanson - RCP ContributorJune 14, 2024 The West Is Sick of the New Woke JihadismFR159526 AP What are the mobs in Washington defiling iconic federal statues with impunity and pelting policemen really protesting? What are the throngs in London brazenly swarming parks and rampaging in the streets really angry about? Occupations? They could care less that the Islamist Turkish government still stations 40,000 troops in occupied Cyprus. No one is protesting against the Chinese takeover of a once-independent Tibet or the threatened absorption of an autonomous Taiwan.

The Supreme Court ruled Friday that a ban on bump stocks — attachments that allow semi-automatic rifles to fire more quickly — implemented by President Donald Trump in 2017 was unconstitutional. In a 6-3 ruling, the court found that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives had overstepped its authority by classifying bump stocks as illegal machine guns. “We conclude that semiautomatic rifle equipped with a bump stock is not a ‘machinegun’ [sic],” Justice Clarence Thomas wrote for the majority, “because it does not fire more than one shot ‘by a single function of the trigger.'” “Even if a...

The mother of 19-year-old Israeli hostage Liri Albag told the media Friday that freed hostage Noa Argamani said that female Israeli hostages, including Albag, were used as slaves in a “luxury villa” in Gaza, doing forced domestic labor. The Times of Israel reported: The mother of Liri Albag, a 19-year-old female soldier abducted on October 7, shares information about her daughter that she received from Noa Argamani, who was rescued from captivity in Gaza last week. “Noa said that they were slaves, and so were the [female soldiers], including Liri,” Shira Albag says in a statement. “They cleaned the yard,...

South Africa’s new government is a “Government of National Unity” (GNU) between the formerly dominant African National Congress (ANC), the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA), and the Zulu Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP). The new government is the result of a coalition agreement that was announced Friday, shortly before a deadline to cast votes in Parliament for the country’s president. Current President Cyril Ramaphosa will be returning to office. The ANC fell from 57% in 2019 to just over 40% in the 2024 elections last month. The DA, with nearly 22% of the vote, was the second-largest party. The radical Economic Freedom...

Israeli agents — including women — infiltrated into the city of Nuseirat in central Gaza and gathered intelligence for weeks before the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) launched a successful raid on Saturday to rescue four Israeli hostages. That’s the report from the UK Jewish Chronicle, which published what it said was a detailed account of the rescue mission in which Noa Argamani, 25, Almog Meir Jan, 21, Andrey Kozlov, 27, and Shlomi Ziv, 40, were saved. The Chronicle reported: In order to finally verify the information and to prepare the ground for the operation, another team of undercover soldiers (including...

... Witness the idiotic protests opposing Israeli military action in Gaza. Gender-fluid, blue-haired protesters straight out of central casting seem unconcerned that their Hamas heroes would label them as deviants and gladly throw them off the roof of the nearest building if given the chance to do so. Feminist protesters decry “the patriarchy” while ignoring the reality that Palestinians regard gang rape as an acceptable tactic in war. For such people, it makes total sense that the Republic will rise or fall based on the fortunes of Ukraine and that we should be more involved in the never-ending Israel-Palestine blood...

A Democratic candidate who blamed former President Donald Trump and other Republicans for "Hinduphobic" messages sent to him on social media was arrested after an investigation found that he had sent them himself. Taral Patel is a candidate for commissioner for Fort Bend County, but he is going viral for being implicated in an alleged impersonation racial hoax. In Sept. 2023, Taral Patel lambasted his political opponents over the vile racism sent to him on social media. “As your Democratic candidate for County Commissioner, I am always open to criticism of my policy positions and stances on issues. However, when...

The U.S. Supreme Court has now ruled unanimously to keep a controversial abortion drug on the market even after the court ruled two years ago to overturn Roe v. Wade. In FDA v. Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine, a group of pro-life medical practitioners and their organizations had sued the FDA for relaxing restrictions on mifepristone, the first of two drugs used in a medical abortion. The plaintiffs argued that these relaxed standards would "jeopardize women’s health across the nation." SCOTUS justices apparently considered the case on technical grounds rather than on the ethical issues regarding killing unborn children and ruled...

Last Wednesday, over lunch, I had another heart attack (mild), necessitating a trip to hospital, where a couple of days later I had yet another (milder). If you're going to have heart attacks, a medical facility (other than the NHS or the University of Vermont Medical Center) is about the best place to have them, so the doctors and nurses couldn't understand why I was so eager to bust free of their ministrations and leap on a flight to Heathrow for the additional stresses of a hearing in the English High Court: Before MRS JUSTICE FARBEY DBE | COURT 2...