Free Republic

Disney's silence on a leak suggesting the US could end nationwide legal abortion has triggered speculation it has learned to keep quiet after meddling in a controversial new Florida law. Protests have sprung up throughout the country in big cities as well as small towns since Politico released a draft decision last week showing that the conservative Supreme Court majority would put an end to the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling giving women a constitutional right to terminate their pregnancies. But Disney - which has previously spoken out against laws that would prohibit abortions - has yet to issue a...

A New York court halted the use of a DNA crime fighting tool that has helped crack cold cases and put murderers behind bars, but has also raised privacy and racial discrimination concerns, because state lawmakers never approved the practice. Known as familial DNA searching, the technique allows law enforcement agencies to search the state’s DNA databank for close biological relatives of people who have left traces of genetic material at a crime scene. A panel of judges on a mid-level appeals court ruled Thursday that regulations for the technique were invalid because a state committee implemented them without consent...

A group of smash and grab robbers raided a Virginia eyeglass store and stole more than $20,000 of products. This week, Fairfax County released in-store surveillance footage of four men raiding a MyEyeDr. store near Richmond Highway in Alexandria at about 6.30pm on April 19. The suspects are all black men and are believed to be between the ages of 17 and 23. A fifth suspect, who was the group's getaway driver, is also wanted by police. The men are believed to have fled in an older-model black Toyota Camry with tinted windows and black hubcaps. Detectives are following up...

Celebrated author Margaret Atwood says ‘enforced childbirth is slavery’ in response to the leaked draft decision from the Supreme Court that could potentially overturn the Roe v. Wade. Atwood, 82, has seen her seminal work The Handmaid's Tale - and the recent TV adaptation - become oft-cited by liberals warning of the consequences of conservative policies on social issues. Activists will often dress like characters from the show at protests. In an edited extract from her new book Burning Questions published in The Guardian Sunday, Atwood made the point that anti-abortion laws could force women to choose 'illegal' forms of...

Green Bay Packers President and CEO Mark Murphy has a monthly column on the team website where he answers questions from fans and shareholders. It generally appears to be softball questions like any fun events planned for the shareholders meeting and the Paul McCartney concert was awesome, but for some reason this month's edition also featured an absolutely wild letter from a shareholder named Marilyn. She does not waste time getting to her point. Via Packers.com: A question from Marilyn, a longtime Packer fan and shareholder: "Out of the 11 players drafted by the Packers in the 2022 NFL Draft...

Calvinist Libertarian Ingram Spencer is in jail in Australia. He is a candidate for Federal Parliament in the election where voting concludes on May 21. Ingram'ss party has not disendorsed him. People in Australia think that you can solve a problem if you do not talk about it. They hope a problem which is ignored will go away. I think that almost every human solution to a human problem starts with discussing it. Hymn singer Tim Renouf lights a candle for Ingram. Awareness helps.

CNN — When two pink vertical lines on a pregnancy test stared back at Taylor Esche last summer, she was contemplating her options before even leaving her bathroom. On paper, Esche, 28, and her now fiancé seemed to be perfect candidates for parenthood, she tells CNN: Esche is a business owner, her fiancé is a lawyer and the two own a home together in Nashville, Tennessee. But the results of a positive pregnancy test last June didn’t bring the excitement they expected. They didn’t feel ready or properly equipped to welcome a child into the world, Esche says. So, the...

Judge limits some Durham evidence ahead of Sussmann trial "Circumstantial" evidence shows Sussmann is connected to the data gathering effort, the judge said. A federal judge is limiting some of the evidence Special Counsel John Durham can use during the trial of Democratic lawyer Michael Sussmann to show a "joint venture" involving Hillary Clinton’s 2016 presidential campaign, Democratic operatives and others.

During an online meeting of the leaders of the Group of Seven countries earlier, Kishida had announced that Japan will ban Russian crude oil imports "in principle" as part of a G-7 campaign. "[For Japan] oil imports contribute to a long-term, inexpensive and stable energy supply," Kishida told reporters. "We will take steps to phase out imports in a way that minimizes the adverse impact on people's lives and business activities." "We will consider how to reduce oil imports and the timing of the suspension based on actual conditions," he added. Regarding alternative energy, the prime minister said that "we...

Bitcoin continues to fall, extending its losses from the past week. The largest cryptocurrency by market value dropped 4% in the last 24 hours, according to CoinGecko, breaching a key support level and hitting a daily low of $34,406. It’s currently trading at around $34,519, down 9% in the last seven days and down 40% year to date. Ether, the second-largest, is also in the red, down 6% in the last day and down 7.4% in the last week. Overall, the cryptocurrency market is taking a hit, down 4.2% in the last 24-hours. Though weekends are typically bad for Bitcoin...

China's armed forces carried out another round of exercises near Taiwan last week to improve joint combat operations, the People's Liberation Army said on Monday, after the Chinese-claimed island reported a spike in activity. Taiwan has complained for the past two years about frequent Chinese military activity near it, mostly concentrated in the southern and southwestern part of the island's air defence identification zone, or ADIZ. Taiwan's air force scrambled planes on Friday to warn away 18 Chinese aircraft that entered its air defence zone, and reported further incursions on Saturday and Sunday, though with fewer aircraft. read more The...

A Portland-area trans woman is among a group of three trans suspects and a man who have been convicted and sentenced on May 6, 2022, over their role in a transgender porn production company that victimized a seven-year-old. Tools used in the child sex abuse video included neck collars, sex devices and a cage. The pedophile convicts ran Rosy Hills Productions and called it a “family-owned transgender pornography production studio specializing in amateur, BDSM and taboo fetish content.” Marina Volz, 32, formerly known as Matthew Volz, of Vancouver, Wash. (near Portland, Ore.), was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Volz...

Fewer Americans are moving than ever before, according to recent U.S. Census Bureau data — but a new report says the people who are taking the plunge are flocking to some familiar cities.Houston, Las Vegas and Phoenix topped this year's edition of truck rental company Penske's annual Top Moving Destinations report, which uses data from its one-way consumer truck rental reservations to compile a list of the country's 10 most popular cities for movers. More generally speaking, the Sun Belt led the way, with Dallas, Austin and San Antonio also ranking highly.Eight of the 10 cities made the list in...

The United States will face "unimaginable consequences" if it plays the Taiwan card and Beijing will not be intimidated by sanctions like those on Russia, a Chinese foreign vice-minister has said. Le Yucheng told an online security forum on Friday evening that it was "ridiculous" to blame China for Russia's invasion of Ukraine and accused the US of sacrificing Ukraine for its own geopolitical interests. China has been criticised for not condemning Russia's invasion, and the US and its allies have expressed concern over the security of Taiwan, which Beijing considers a breakaway province be to reunified with the mainland...

On Sunday, the Former Deputy prime minister of Russia, Dmitry Rogozin, threatened the Starlink founder for assisting Ukraine — “Elon Musk, thus, is involved in supplying the fascist forces in Ukraine with military communication equipment. And for this, Elon, you will be held accountable like an adult – no matter how much you’ll play the fool.”“The word “Nazi” doesn’t mean what he seems to think it does,” Musk tweeted.” If I die under mysterious circumstances, it’s been nice knowin ya— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) May 9, 2022 The word “Nazi” doesn’t mean what he seems to think it does pic.twitter.com/pk9SQhBOsG>— Elon...

The Turk's a jerk.Get rid of him.President Donald John Trump's endorsement of Dr. Mehmet Oz was a bewildering move that now is a national security threat. No one less than Mike Pompeo said so, and with good reason because Oz voted in the last election in Turkey!Pompeo told reporters, "Maybe it’s all innocent, [or] maybe it’s all straight up, but we and the people of Pennsylvania and the Americans who he will be representing as one of the 100 members of the United States Senate voting on important national security matters need to understand the scope and depth of his...

As it looks increasingly likely that Elon Musk is serious about buying Twitter and taking it private, reporters have been scrambling to figure out precisely what the richest man in the world plans to do with the company once the deal closes. That’s expected to take another six months before all of the wrangling is complete. In usual Musk fashion, Elon isn’t making it easy to figure out because he has yet to release any sort of official agenda, instead just tweeting out various ideas and proposals. But the New York Times got hold of a “pitch deck” that Musk...

A top business group warns China’s zero-COVID policy has made European companies weigh a shift of investment out of China.The strict COVID lockdown and supply chain disruptions have rattled business confidence, according to a survey by the European Chamber of Commerce in China published on May 5.“Our members are weathering the storm for now, but if the current situation continues, they will increasingly evaluate alternatives to China,” said Jorg Wuttke, the chamber’s president.“A more expensive, functioning market is better than one that is relatively cheaper but paralysed,” Wuttke said.Some 92 percent of businesses responded to the survey saying they had...

Several top Food and Drug Administration (FDA) officials, including Commissioner Robert Califf, admitted that Americans will now have to accept COVID-19 as another respiratory virus, comparing it to influenza.Califf, Principal Deputy Commissioner Janet Woodcock, and top vaccine official Dr. Peter Marks wrote for the Journal of the American Medical Association that COVID-19 will be around for the foreseeable future while suggesting that it will require yearly vaccines targeting the most threatening variations of the virus.“Widespread vaccine- and infection-induced immunity, combined with the availability of effective therapeutics, could blunt the effects of future outbreaks,” the officials said, referring to another name...

Zelensky is also not the Churchill of the Second World War. The struggle in Ukraine will not decide the fate of Western civilization the way the struggle against Hitler did. But by portraying it as such, Bush has sided with those in our country who want America and NATO to get more deeply involved in the war, which would heighten the already serious risk that the war will widen to engulf all of Europe and beyond, especially if the nuclear threshold is crossed. We are in very dangerous times. The last thing we need is a former president who botched...