Free Republic

Pope Francis has placed a ban on plastic in Vatican City State to 'stand in solidarity' with environmentalists, according to reports. The Pontiff made the announcement while aboard the papal plane during a long-haul flight back from a trip to Africa. The Catholic leader said he was disturbed by a conversation with chaplains and fishermen who described how they had found six tons of plastic over the course of a few months.

President Trump made the correct decision in canceling the peace talks with the Taliban of Afghanistan. These were never really peace talks. They were surrender talks. The primitive and barbarous Taliban represented them as such and to underline the point, engaged in a number of bombing atrocities in a cluster to correspond with their ill-considered invitation to Camp David to discuss peace with the Afghan government. The American manager of these discussions⁠—the well-respected former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Afghanistan, and Iraq, Zalmay Khalilzad—tentatively arranged for a complete American withdrawal from Afghanistan if the Taliban would promise not to...

An Amsterdam-based abortionist who prescribes abortion pills to clients over the internet is suing the FDA for seizing abortion pills she illegally prescribed to U.S. patients after she violated an FDA cease and desist letter. Dr. Rebecca Gomperts, an abortionist who once plied her trade by boat but later moved her business model to the internet and even drones, together with her lawyer Richard Hearn, filed the federal lawsuit in Idaho Monday. Gomperts claims that by cracking down on the illegal distribution of abortion pills, the government is denying women a “constitutionally protected right to terminate their unwanted pregnancies.” Gomperts...

Tommy Robinson is in the same prison cell formerly occupied by Michael Adebelajo – one of the two Islamic terrorists who murdered Fusilier Lee Rigby. Of all things I learned from my visit to see Robinson that detail was perhaps the most extraordinary: a man convicted for the venial slip of ‘contempt of court’ should end up being given the same treatment as a vicious killer who ran over an off-duty soldier in broad daylight on a London street and then nearly severed his head with a knife. Belmarsh maximum security jail houses many of Britain’s worst terrorists. Security is...

California landlords would no longer be allowed to reject prospective tenants solely because they hold federal Section 8 housing vouchers under a bill passed by the state Legislature on Wednesday. 300,000 Californians who receive the vouchers. The program provides the largest direct federal subsidy for low-income tenants. “Why do we continue to criminalize and penalize and have bias against people who are poor?”

Washington D.C., Sep 10, 2019 / 06:06 pm (CNA).- Pro-life groups are decrying an effort by a European doctor to sue the United States Food and Drug Administration in order to continue selling medical abortion pills online. Dr. Rebecca Gomperts is a licensed physician in Austria and the founder of Aid Access, a European company that prescribes and mails misoprostol and mifepristone, the drugs required for a medical abortion, to women in the United States. In March, the FDA issued a cease-and-desist to Aid Access, ordering the group to stop prescribing and mailing the drugs to patients in the United...

I hadn’t heard of The Epoch Times when it first crossed my radar in the past year or so. I read some of their investigations and found them extremely in-depth, well researched and well sourced. Complex topics were also explained in a way far less arcane than other print publications. I also noticed that The Epoch Times takes on topics and controversies without the typical slant. American readers are thirsty for such options. Since that time, I have contributed a few news articles to the publication. Other readers have discovered The Epoch Times, as well. And its independence–the fact that...

Federal investigators on Thursday released a preliminary report on the Conception boat that killed nearly three-dozen people earlier this month off the coast of California, and said the entire crew was asleep when the blaze began. National Transportation Safety Board officials have said the full investigation could take more than a year, and preliminary findings highlight remaining questions as much as they provide answers as to how the tragedy happened. “A crew member sleeping in the wheelhouse berths was awakened by a noise and got up to investigate,” the report said. “As crew members awoke, the captain radioed a distress...

Any thoughts on decade anniversary of Free Republic patriot DC march Sept 12, 2009?

A federal judge has temporarily halted a North Dakota law that required doctors to tell patients the effects of abortion drugs can be reversed. U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Hovland issued an order Tuesday granting a preliminary injunction on that part of the law, known as H.B. 1336. "Legislation which forces physicians to tell their patients, as part of informed consent, that 'it may be possible' to reverse or cure an ailment, disease, illness, surgical procedure, or the effects of any medication—in the absence of any medical or scientific evidence to support such a message—is unsound, misplaced, and would not...

After suffering several miscarriages, Kiera Meldrum, 20, was delighted to learn she was pregnant again in July 2018. But roughly five months into her pregnancy, the United Kingdom woman was told her unborn daughter was suffering from a serious medical condition that spurred doctors to recommend abortion. But Meldrum, of York, refused … fourteen times, she claims. “I refused to terminate Lillee-Rose every time they told me to, and I'm so happy I listened to my heart instead of the doctors,” Meldrum told SWNS of her now 6-month-old daughter. Doctors told Meldrum her child had Grade 3 severe ascites to...

he biggest insult of Trudeau’s choice is to the family and loved ones of the 26 Canadians who lost their lives on Sept. 11, 2001 For the benefit of our American readers, when and how elections are held in Canada differ from those held in the United States. Although not necessary, Canada has legislated fixed election dates, the next one scheduled to be held on Oct. 21 of this year. Although not written in stone, the government is keeping with the date fixed by statute. While the campaign has been going on unofficially for weeks, certain things must be done...

A group of local motorcyclists say Fresno anti-gang officers overreacted in a raid on their clubhouse Saturday, but a sheriff’s spokesman said the officers had no choice after an armed Hells Angel ran and hid inside the building. “It was crazy, bro,” said Jay Upton, vice president of the Savage Assassins. “We were racially profiled.” Upton said he is heavily tattoed, and “my appearance sometimes doesn’t accommodate people.” The sheriff’s spokesman, Tony Botti, said there were two armed Hells Angels at the event and dismissed the idea that members of the MAGEC gang unit should have let club members eject...

The inspector general for the Department of Housing and Urban Development said in a new report that investigators found no evidence of misconduct by Secretary Ben Carson concerning a controversial order for expensive furniture in late 2017. Speaking on Fox Business Network’s “Varney & Co.,” Carson said the report proves what he’s been saying all along. “I was so disgusted with that story, because they try to claim that I want to buy expensive furniture while I’m trying to take money away from the poor people,” he said. “There’s probably no one in Washington who cares less about furniture than...

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) and Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) are engaged in a Twitter feud, with Cheney claiming Paul's motto is "terrorists first" and Paul accusing the House Republican Conference chairwoman of "warmongering. Both Republicans are arguing with each other over which one actually stands with - and has the support of - President Trump. Cheney, resurfacing a 2015 tweet from Trump in which he called the libertarian-leaning senator and then-GOP presidential rival a "spoiled brat without a properly functioning brain," tweeted that "no truer words were ever spoken."

A married gay couple are taking legal action against a Trump administration policy that has hindered their baby daughter’s fight for US citizenship. Roee and Adiel Kiviti, who are both US citizens, ran into trouble with the State Department after welcoming baby Kessem via a surrogate in Canada earlier this year. The couple are both listed on Kessem’s Canadian birth certificate, but the State Department treats the children of same-sex couples as “born out of wedlock,” only recognising her link to biological father Adiel. The out-of-wedlock status has hindered the application for the birthright citizenship that she would be entitled...

It hasn't been a good year for anti-abortion activists in Illinois. While other states across the Midwest and South were busy passing abortion bans this spring, Illinois went the other direction. Over Memorial Day weekend, lawmakers in Springfield passed the "Reproductive Health Act," a more than 100-page piece of legislation that expands access to abortion and codifies the procedure into law as a "fundamental right." When Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker signed the legislation on June 12, he said the abortion protections in the law made the state a "national leader in protecting reproductive rights." Not everyone is happy about that....

"Remarkably, the device is able to generate electricity at night, when solar cells don't work," "Beyond lighting, we believe this could be a broadly enabling approach to power generation suitable for remote locations, and anywhere where power generation at night is needed The device developed by Raman and Stanford University scientists Wei Li and Shanhui Fan sidesteps the limitations of solar power by taking advantage of radiative cooling, in which a sky-facing surface passes its heat to the atmosphere as thermal radiation, losing some heat to space and reaching a cooler temperature than the surrounding air. This phenomenon explains how...

Catherine Glenn Foster had an abortion when she was just a teenager. Today, she’s leading the fight against abortion as president of one of the nation’s largest pro-life groups. In this episode, she sits down for an exclusive interview to share her story, what she’s doing now, and the recent achievements of the pro-life movement. Read the transcript, posted below, or listen on the podcast: ****PODCAST ON LINK IF YOU WANT TO LISTEN**** Rachel del Guidice: We’re joined today on the Daily Signal podcast by Catherine Glenn Foster. She’s the president and CEO of Americans United for Life. Catherine, thank...

With great fanfare last month, Pete Buttigieg has announced “Phase Three” of his presidential campaign. Campaign adviser Lis Smith described the first two phases as teaching people how to pronounce his name and then raising gobs of money. For this new phase, the Buttigieg team plans to “blow them out of the water with our organization.” To that end, 20 new field offices in Iowa are opening this month, plus another 12 in New Hampshire. Here’s a more accurate description. In Phase One, Buttigieg milked $32 million from 390,000 donors, most of whom knew next to nothing about his record,...