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." China's fertility rate of 1.16...

Explanation: Inside the Cocoon Nebula is a newly developing cluster of stars. Cataloged as IC 5146, the beautiful nebula is nearly 15 light-years wide. Climbing high in northern summer night skies, it's located some 4,000 light years away toward the constellation Cygnus the Swan. Like other star forming regions, it stands out in red, glowing, hydrogen gas excited by young, hot stars, and dust-reflected starlight at the edge of an otherwise invisible molecular cloud. In fact, the bright star found near the center of this nebula is likely only a few hundred thousand years old, powering the nebular glow as...

On August 14, The Atlantic published a blasphemous article by Daniel Panneton titled, “How Extremist Gun Culture Is Trying to Co-Opt the Rosary.” In it, he tries to portray the sacramental, first promoted by Saint Dominic, as an extremist far-right symbol that poses a violent threat to society. Here are some of the things the author said in his article: * Attacking those who faithfully recite the Rosary in reparation for sin, he stated that “armed radical traditionalists have taken up a spiritual notion that the rosary can be a weapon in the fight against evil and turned it into...

Memorial of Saint Monica Matthew 25:14–30 Friends, on this day we remember St. Monica, who prayed persistently for the conversion of her son, St. Augustine of Hippo. Even though petitionary prayer—asking God for something—seems simpler and more basic than contemplation, it’s more difficult to make sense of theologically. If God is omniscient, what is the point of telling him what you need? And if God cannot change, what is the point of asking him for anything? The prayer for the liturgy of St. Monica sheds some light on these questions. The text begins as follows: “Lord, you graciously received the...

Haven't we been told for the past 2 years that elections were secure, safe, and beyond corruption?' For nearly two years now, we've been told that people who question our election integrity are a "threat to our democracy" and anyone who says otherwise is just leading the American people "down this path of lies." It was strange then, that President Joe Biden told a group of rallygoers in Maryland on Thursday that Democrats have plans to "make sure no one, no one, ever has the opportunity to steal an election again." [Emphasis added.] "If we elect two more senators, we...

Russia is pulling all of its fighter jets out of Crimea in an apparent response to recent explosions at Russian military outposts in the region, a secret NATO report seen by Insider said. Russia has already moved ten aircraft — six Su-35S and four MiG-31BM jets — out of Crimea and into Russia and is set to continue until all fighter jets are removed, the report, which was dated August 22, said. The first ten jets were moved from Belbek airfield in Crimea to Kushchevskaya and Marinovka, two regions in Russia, the report said. "Russia has dispersed 10x fighter aircraft...

The FBI was at one time thought to be the premier law enforcement agency in the world. Sadly, it has become nothing more than a shield for the democrat party. It became egregious in 2016 We learned that in the final days of the 2016 presidential race, when the Clinton campaign came up with the Steele dossier, a collection of sensational and unsupported allegations about Trump and Russia, the FBI used the dossier to win approval to wiretap Carter Page, a low-level former Trump campaign adviser. Then we learned that also in 2016, the FBI used a confidential informant, a...

The mainstream media is following Deep State’s orders again and pushing a story about a young “Ukrainian woman” who inserted herself into the White House, putting President Trump and the records he stored at Mar-a-Lago at risk. Unfortunately, the evidence shows that this whole story is almost certainly another Deep State setup of President Trump. The New York Post reported: A Ukrainian woman posing as a member of the Rothschild banking family has been outed as a fraud after she allegedly infiltrated former President Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate, according to reports. Inna Yashchyshyn, 33, lied to ritzy resort members that...

A Madeira Beach woman ended up in handcuffs after trying to impress a Pinellas County deputy with pirouettes during a field sobriety test following a car crash. According to an arrest report, Amy Harrington, 38, had rear-ended another vehicle along Gulf Boulevard shortly before 10:30 p.m. on April 27. A deputy responding to the crash said Harrington had slurred speech, glassy eyes and was unsteady on her feet. The affidavit also states that the deputy smelled alcohol on Harrington, who refused to provide a breath test. In body camera video, the deputy can be heard giving Harrington explicit instructions to...

New York law went into effect last year but enforcement has just begun recently at some Capital Region stores Be prepared to show your ID at the grocery checkout if you want to buy whipped cream in a canister. In New York, the popular dessert topping has joined alcohol and tobacco products on the list of items age-restricted for purchase to those 21 and older, and proof of age is now required at the point of sale. The chargers that propel whipped cream through a canister nozzle are filled with nitrous oxide gas, which can be inhaled to produce a...

Three members of the Dutch Commando Corps were found wounded by police outside of a Hampton Inn in Indianapolis around 3:30 am Two of the men are in critical condition in a local hospital Police have said that there were plenty of witnesses to the shooting but that no arrests have been made The group was in Indiana as part of a training program in urban conflict

The Trump family has criticized the release of the redacted affidavit which was used to obtain a search warrant at the former president's Florida home with a series of memes and jokes. -snip In response to the unsealing of the document, Trump and two of his children, Donald Trump Jr. and Eric Trump, who have all said the FBI raid for classified documents was unjust and politically motivated, mocked the release of the affidavit which contained several heavily redacted pages. In a statement and via his Truth Social account, Trump wrote "they missed a page!" while sharing an edited affidavit...

Central banks will fail to control inflation and could even push price growth higher unless governments start playing their part with more prudent budget policies, according to a study presented to policymakers at the Jackson Hole conference in the United States. Governments around the world opened their coffers during the COVID-19 pandemic to prop up economies, but those efforts have helped push inflation retest their highest levels in nearly half a century, raising the risk that rapid price growth will become entrenched. Central banks are now raising interest rates, but the new study, presented on Saturday at the Kansas City...

Here we go again. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has denied Trump’s request to trademark the name Truth Social. CBS News reported: "A U.S. government agency has rejected a trademark application by Donald Trump’s Truth Social because the social network’s name isn’t unique enough. In a filing from August 2, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office said Truth Social’s name is too similar to other businesses, which could cause consumers to be “confused, mistaken or deceived as to the commercial source of the goods and/or services of the parties.”" The reason cited is that the name is not unique...

“Then Jesus lifted up his eyes, and seeing a great multitude coming toward him, he said to Philip, ‘Where shall we buy bread, that these may eat?’ But this he said to test him, for he himself knew what he would do” (John 6:5-6, NKJV). Jesus took Philip aside and said, “Philip, there are thousands of people here. They are all hungry. Where are we going to buy enough bread to feed them? What do you think we should do?” How incredibly loving of Christ! Jesus knew all along what he was going to do, yet the Lord was trying...

“Two blind men followed Him, crying out, ‘Have mercy on us, Son of David!’” (Matthew 9:27). The attitude of the heart that Christ honors and accepts is one in which the sinner understands his or her personal unworthiness. That was the attitude of the two blind men as they came to Him. They realized they didn’t deserve Jesus’ help, but they also must have known that “The Lord is gracious and merciful; slow to anger and great in lovingkindness. The Lord is good to all, and His mercies are over all His works” (Ps. 145:8–9; cf. Joel 2:13). It seems...

A months-long standoff for power in Libya has pitted the Tripoli-based Government of National Unity (GNU) under Abdulhamid al-Dbeibah against a rival administration under Fathi Bashagha that is backed by the eastern-based parliament. Clashes erupted overnight as one of Tripoli's main groups assaulted a base held by another, witnesses there said, leading to hours of shooting and blasts. The fighting intensified later on Saturday morning, with small-arms fire, heavy machine guns and mortars deployed in different central areas. Columns of black smoke rose across the Tripoli skyline and shooting and blasts echoed in the air.

What does the city of tomorrow look like? For billionaire Marc Lore, it’s eco-friendly buildings constructed from scratch and spread across some 150,000 acres in the Southwest desert. Lore, 51, has recently released details for his “Telosa” metropolis — Telosa being a name derived from the Greek word for “highest purpose,” Axios first reported. It’s one of nearly a dozen proposals across the world aiming to build sustainable and ultra-modern cities from scratch that seem more science fiction than reality. For Lore, Telosa will encompass 36 districts across a swath of Nevada, Arizona or Utah. It will be home to...

Nate Silver claimed “liberal public health elites” pressured Pfizer to delay fast-track approval of its COVID-19 vaccine until after the 2020 presidential election — thus denying then-President Donald Trump a political win before voters headed to the polls. The number-crunching data journalist reacted to an article by Politico that cited a House report that claimed the Trump administration sought to expedite approvals for both vaccines and “unproven treatments” for COVID-19. “‘Trump pushed for vaccine approvals too fast’ is the worst possible critique of the Trump administration’s COVID policy,” Silver, founder of the Disney-owned FiveThirtyEight political news and analysis website, tweeted....

As in Sophocles’s tragedy Oedipus Rex, we are witnessing a generational drama in which inheritors kill their proverbial father to marry their mother, in this case Mother Earth. The psychology behind this pattern is above my pay grade, but many of the richest people on the planet, and their heirs, now seem anxious to disparage the economic system that created their fortunes. With few exceptions, the new rich, and particularly their children and ex-wives, embrace a racial, gender and environmental agenda that, while undermining merit and economic growth, still leaves them on top of the heap. The ideology of the...