Free Republic

China will discourage abortions and take steps to make fertility treatment more accessible as part of efforts to boost one of the world’s lowest birth rates, its National Health Authority said on Tuesday. Support measures from taxation and insurance to education and housing would be improved and implemented, with local governments encouraged to boost infant care services and family friendly workplaces, according to guidelines published on the authority’s website. The authority said it would carry out reproductive health promotion to enhance public awareness while "preventing unintended pregnancy and reducing abortions that are not medically necessary".

Oklahoma executed a man on death throw on Thursday for a 1997 killing, despite a recommendation from the state's Pardon and Parole Board that his life be spared. James Coddington, 50, received a lethal injection at the Oklahoma State Penitentiary in McAlester and was pronounced dead at 10.16 a.m. Governor Kevin Stitt declined to commute Coddington's sentence to life in prison without parole and rejected his petition for clemency. Coddington was the fifth Oklahoma inmate to have been put to death since the state resumed executions last year. He was originally convicted and sentenced to die for beating his friend...

On a small, unassuming cul-de-sac in Alaska, the mother of two young daughters came face-to-face with the growing phenomenon of adolescent girls identifying as the opposite sex due to a social desire to appear transgender. Critics call the social contagion theory “unfounded” and “absurd.” But for Susie, whose name I’ve changed to protect her family’s privacy, she watched it unfold in her own neighborhood, inside her own home. After returning to the United States in 2020 from a four-year assignment abroad, Susie’s family settled into a house on a street where two out of the eight girls identified as boys....

TWENTY-FIRST WEEK IN ORDINARY TIME MATTHEW 24:42–51 Friends, in today’s Gospel, Jesus praises the faithful servant who served his master in a theo-drama. We are called to serve our Master in the same way. A theo-drama is written and directed by God. On the great stage that is the created universe and according to the prototype that is Christ, we are invited to “act,” to find and play our role in God’s theater. The problem is that the vast majority of us think that we are the directors, writers, and above all, stars of our own “ego-dramas,” with other people...

Dugong swims with its nose touching a shoal of yellow fish IMAGE SOURCE,PATRICK LOUISY Researchers have declared a mammal related to the manatee - said to have inspired ancient tales of mermaids and sirens - extinct in China. Only three people surveyed from coastal communities in China reported seeing the dugong in the past five years. Known as the ocean's most gentle giant, the dugong's slow, relaxed behaviour is likely to have made it vulnerable to overfishing and shipping accidents. It still exists elsewhere in the world but is facing similar threats. Prof Samuel Turvey, from the Zoological Society of...

We now have two separate polls showing Pennsylvania’s closely-watched U.S. Senate and gubernatorial races are too close to call. After a series of polls showed Democrat U.S. Senate candidate and former Mayor John Fetterman with what looked like an insurmountable lead over GOP candidate Dr. Mehmet Oz, that lead is not looking so insurmountable now. An Emerson poll shows it’s just a four-point Senate race, with Fetterman up 48 to 44 percent. Trafalgar, which has proven over three election cycles to be a remarkably accurate pollster, also shows a four-point race, with Fetterman up 48 to 44 percent. Oz’s hurdle...

Dozens of citizens in Baltimore have just received their mail-in ballots for the 2020 election — some two years too late. USPS confirmed this week that it “discovered” a tray of the mail-in ballots earlier this month and that the 26 blank ballots were finally delivered on August 6. “We deeply regret the late delivery of these mailpieces,” USPS spokesperson Tom Ouellette told WMAR-2 News. “The Postal Service takes these issues very seriously and is working to help avoid issues like this by going over our processes and procedures with all employees ahead of the general elections.” The statement explicitly...

Steven Hoffenberg, one of Jeffrey Epstein's associates and the one-time owner of The New York Post, has died at the age of 77, DailyMail.com can reveal. Police were called to his Hoffenberg's home in Derby, Connecticut, yesterday by a concerned friend. They found Hoffenberg him lying on the floor of his bedroom. The cause of his death remains unconfirmed, but there were no visible signs of trauma to his body, a police source says. His body was so decomposed that police believe he had been there for at least a week. A medical examiner is now using his dental records...

Townhall senior writer Julio Rosas spent more than a month preparing for a trip to Minneapolis, where he planned to report on the breakdown of law and order and observe police officers on the front lines. He received approval July 25 to participate in ride-alongs with Minneapolis police. But when he arrived this week, he was told he could no longer do a ride-along because it “had not been approved by City Hall,” according to a Townhall report. “One of Julio’s MPD sources familiar with the situation told him that the denial for Julio to do a ride-along with the...

Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene reported that she was swatted for a second time in as many days on Wednesday night. This after having been swatted on Tuesday night, as well. (snip) "The suicide chat line that was used could not get a location due to the person(s) using a VPN."

Electric Hummer A test has found that it costs over $100 to fully charge the battery of an electric pickup truck, far more than it would cost to fill up the gas tank of a large gas-powered truck of similar quality. In 2010, General Motors stopped manufacturing Hummers, a brand of pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) that were massively criticized for being massive gas-guzzlers. In late 2020, GMC, a division of General Motors, came out with the new GMC Hummer EV, a line of electric battery-powered pickup trucks and SUVs. (Related: Range test finds gas pickup can tow...

Since winning the Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate back in May, John Fetterman has been hidden away from public view. Just days before voting began he suffered a stroke and nearly died. He was in the hospital when the votes were tallied on Election Day. Now, when he does show up at rare campaign events, it's for just a few minutes. Usually wearing an oversized sweatshirt and basketball shorts, his appearance is sloppy. His words are even more incoherent and usually Democrat friendly media outlets are starting to take notice. CNN: "Legitimate questions do remain about Fetterman's health” after...

It sounded like a dream come true, complete with a handsome prince riding to the rescue: the construction of 109 new, sustainable, flood-proof and affordable houses in New Orleans’s Hurricane Katrina-ravaged Lower Ninth Ward, all thanks to movie star Brad Pitt. But the houses that were built fell far short of Pitt’s 2006 promises: they were plagued by mold, electrical fires and unclean water. On Tuesday, 13 years after Hurricane Katrina victims started moving into the buildings, Pitt and his foundation agreed to a settlement that will pay $20.5m to homeowners whose properties began to deteriorate almost as soon as...

A test has found that it costs over $100 to fully charge the battery of an electric pickup truck, far more than it would cost to fill up the gas tank of a large gas-powered truck of similar quality. In 2010, General Motors stopped manufacturing Hummers, a brand of pickup trucks and sport utility vehicles (SUVs) that were massively criticized for being massive gas-guzzlers. In late 2020, GMC, a division of General Motors, came out with the new GMC Hummer EV, a line of electric battery-powered pickup trucks and SUVs. (Related: Range test finds gas pickup can tow 2,000-lb trailer...

On April 19, 2018, the California State Assembly approved Bill AB 2943. According to this bill, the Church can no longer preach or teach that homosexuality is wrong and cannot try to correct that behavior. Many are concerned about the ramifications of this. Even psychotherapy for gender dysphoria is against this law. One astute Facebook user commented, "editing the Bible would be the next logical step." The California Assembly, by a vote of 50-18, approved this bill, telling churches and other institutions that uphold traditional beliefs that if they advocated their views about gender and sexual orientation, they could get...

Astronomers may have detected a previously undiscovered "mini-moon" in the solar system: a rocky object orbiting a small asteroid near Jupiter. If the rocky satellite, which is just a little wider than the width of Manhattan, is confirmed to be a proper moon, it would be one of the smallest moons ever spotted. The tiny satellite was discovered by scientists working on NASA's Lucy mission, which is sending a space probe to study some of the Trojan asteroids, two massive groups of space rocks that are located on each side of Jupiter on its orbit around the sun. The Lucy...

Maria Shriver looked unrecognizable while out and about over the weekend. The former first lady of California was photographed in Santa Monica, Calif., sporting a new look while seemingly going makeup-free. In photos obtained by Page Six exclusively, the 66-year-old headed to her car after stopping by the construction site where she is building a new home. While Shriver seemed to be in great spirits, her face looked different than it has in recent years. The niece of the late President John F. Kennedy kept things casual in black leggings, a purple T-shirt and a pair of gray sneakers. Shriver...

"I direct that any additional resources… shall not be used to increase the share of small businesses or households below the $400,000 threshold that are audited relative to historical levels,” Treasury Secretary Yellen wrote to IRS Commissioner Charles Rettig. That directive has been used by media "fact checkers" to deny that the massive increase in IRS personnel under Biden’s Inflation Increase Act will also increase audits of the middle class. Yellen’s statement initially seems reassuring until you look closely at its curious language. Treasury Department spokeswoman Julia Krieger used the same phrasing when claiming that "audit rates relative to historical...

The Washington Post cheered a reported ban of a gamer who made a pro-America modification that offended the rainbow-praising Big Tech overlords. The Post seethed in a story headlined — “‘Spider-Man’ modification scene turns into Pride flag battlefield” — about how the celebration of the newly released PC version of the LGBTQ+-friendly 2018 game “Marvel’s Spider-Man” was being spoiled by “United States flags.” Huh? In The Post’s own words, some gamers tried to thwart any celebration around last week’s release of the PC game “by taking aim at a very specific target: Pride flags.” The offending gamer, “a modder going...

Doubts about continuing to pump weapons and other aid into Ukraine are especially prevalent among independents, at 37%, while 18% of Americans oppose the shipments altogether.The survey suggests waning support for US involvement as the conflict drags on, contributing to surging inflation on the home front. In fact, 40% of Americans now agree with the statement that “the problems of Ukraine are none of our business, and we should not interfere.” That compares with 31% when the same question was asked in April.Moreover, 59% of survey respondents, including 69% of Republicans, agree with the statement that “given the current economic...