Free Republic

HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam abolished its long-standing two-child limit Tuesday to try and reverse declining birth rates and ease the pressures of an aging population. The National Assembly passed amendments scrapping rules that limit families to having one or two children, state media Vietnam News Agency reported Wednesday. The rules were usually stricter for Communist Party members, who could miss out on promotions or bonuses if they had a third child. Vietnamese families are having fewer children than ever before. The birth rate in 2021 was 2.11 children per woman, just over the replacement rate required for a population...

Love Island star Liana Isadora Van Riel has shared the heartbreaking reason she decided to have an abortion. The reality star, who appeared in the 2016 series of the ITV2 show, revealed that she fell pregnant seven months after giving birth to her baby daughter. In a video posted on TikTok, Liana told her followers that she wanted to share her story for 'awareness and transparency.' The reality star, who worked as a stripper in both Cardiff and Magaluf, welcomed a baby daughter with her boyfriend last year. Liana told her followers that she learned she was pregnant while seven...

Hyderabad: A six-month pregnant tribal woman passed away in Hyderabad after her husband allegedly forced her to unknowingly consume abortion pills. Pravalika, 23, and Sepurwar Prashanth, both natives of Adilabad, had been married for three years with a two-year-old son. She was in the sixth month of her second pregnancy. The couple were constructing a new house in Maharashtra. According to a police complaint registered by Pravalika’s brother, V Rajesh, the husband and his family held superstitions, believing it was misfortune for a woman to undertake part in the rituals of a new house while pregnant. On May 30, Prashanth...

A recent study involving 684 adults has uncovered a significant connection between gut microbiota, aging, and bone health, particularly in relation to osteoporosis. The study emphasized how gut bacteria may influence bone mineral density (BMD). The study revealed significant associations between microbial pathways related to L-arginine biosynthesis and butyrate production with higher BMD. L-arginine is an amino acid that is essential for nitric oxide (NO) production, which has been shown to inhibit osteoclast-mediated bone resorption, ultimately promoting bone health. These findings suggest that enhancing the production of L-arginine and butyrate through gut bacteria could be an important strategy in maintaining...

The Shatt al-Arab floodplain outside of Basra is marked with thousands of manmade earthen ridges and canals. Archaeologists have long suspected that these may have been part of an ancient agricultural system, but they did not know when or by whom it was built. New research has demonstrated that not only is this theory true, but that the massive infrastructure was dug by a huge labor force of enslaved Africans. The Associated Press reports that researchers identified more than 7,000 features spread across 300 square miles that formed an extensive farming network. Using radiocarbon dating and a technique called optically...

“Sometimes you see two young children fighting like crazy,” Mr. Trump said on Thursday in an Oval Office news conference. “They hate each other, and they’re fighting in a park, and you try and pull them apart. They don’t want to be pulled. Sometimes you’re better off letting them fight for a while and then pulling them apart.” “And I gave that analogy to Putin yesterday,”“I said, ‘President, maybe you have to keep fighting and suffering a lot, because both sides are suffering, before you pull them apart, before they’re able to be pulled apart.’” Merz had come to Washington...

One reason America has become the economic superpower is that the 50 states comprise one giant free trade zone. The Europeans wanted to emulate that model with the creation of the EU, but it hasn’t worked. Here is a stunning fact from the Wall Street Journal’s Joe Sternberg: The International Monetary Fund calculates that Europe’s complex economic regulations impose the same costs as would a 44% tariff on goods traded between EU countries. For services, the costs of complying with different national rules are equivalent to a 110% tariff. By comparison, the regulatory costs associated with trading manufactured goods across...

US President Trump and Elon Musk schedule call for Friday to "broker peace."

The moment had finally come, and it was every bit as lowdown, vindictive, personal, petty, operatic, childish, consequential, messy and public as many had always expected it would be. “One thing’s for sure,” Elon Musk posted on X midway through his relentless hourslong attack on Donald Trump, “it ain’t boring!” The clash of the titans was upon us, and the gloves were off. The speed of the fallout was breathtaking. Up until about 14 seconds ago, Mr. Musk was flying on Mr. Trump’s planes, staying at his homes, socializing with his children. On Friday, Mr. Trump celebrated him with an...

Here’s a brilliant idea from our friend, John Goodman, who writes to us: “If you do this the right way, it will (1) save a ton of money, (2) make it easier for enrollees to get health care.”It would also save people on Medicaid from losing a whole day of working instead of waiting in an emergency room for routine care, and provide higher quality care at the same time.Goodman explains:Private companies managing Medicaid (or the state itself) should be able to make deposits to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs) that would cover, say, all primary care. Enrollees would be restricted...

Chemotherapy is one of the most popular ways to treat breast cancer. Even though it has proven to be effective, it also has downsides, such as a higher risk of side effects, as it doesn't only attack the cancer cells but can also affect normal cells. Chemotherapy-related side effects such as fatigue, weakness, and proneness to infections can influence treatment adherence and undermine the effectiveness of the therapy and the patients' quality of life. Probiotics are among the emerging alternative supplements being studied for their potential benefit in cancer treatment. A new study published in the open-access journal Pharmacia explored...

Stephen K. Bannon, one of Elon Musk’s most vocal critics, said he was advising the president to cancel all of the tech billionaire’s contracts and launch several investigations into the world’s richest man. “They should initiate a formal investigation of his immigration status, because I am of the strong belief that he is an illegal alien, and he should be deported from the country immediately,” Mr. Bannon, the former top aide to President Trump who is now an influential ally and informal adviser, said in an interview. ...Mr. Bannon said the Trump administration should also investigate Mr. Musk’s drug use,...

VIVEX Biologics, Inc. sponsored research reports positive outcomes for patients with chronic lumbar discogenic pain treated using a single intradiscal injection of VIA Disc NP, an allogeneic nucleus pulposus product derived from cadaveric disc tissue. Researchers conducted a prospective, single-arm clinical study at six U.S. sites to assess the impact of intradiscal injection of VIA Disc NP on back pain severity and functional impairment in patients with chronic lumbar discogenic pain unresponsive to conservative management. A total of 28 adults were enrolled, with 22 participants completing the 12-month follow-up. Patients received a single injection of 100 mg of VIA Disc...

As Israel continues to wage a defensive war against the terrorists who invaded and slaughtered hundreds of Jews on October 7, the Jewish State is under attack as never before in the West. I found this out for myself when I was invited on to Piers Morgan Uncensored to discuss the situation in Gaza.What my appearance and censorship on the ironically named “Uncensored” show demonstrated was a refusal, perhaps even a fear, to hear the reality, the facts and the law when it comes to the war against Hamas. This is in stark contrast to…As Israel continues to wage a...

The United States Department of Education has opened investigations into California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, for ignoring anti-Semitic behavior on its campus, according to Campus Reform. The lawsuit was brought against the university after complaints were lodged by two non-profit organizations, Jewish on Campus and The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law. The initial complaint, made on March 6th, said that six Jewish students were subject to physical and verbal abuse, and they were barred and forced out of specific areas on campus. It further stated that pro-Palestinian activists put fake blood on Jewish students, yelled anti-Jewish...

House Oversight Chairman James Comer subpoenaed Biden’s White House physician to testify on the growing autopen and mental decline scandal. James Comer previously demanded testimony from Dr. Kevin O’Connor and four former aides related to the Biden health scandal. Chairman Comer had demanded testimony from: Biden White House physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor, Director of Domestic Policy Council Neera Tanden, Former Assistant to the President and Senior Advisor to First Lady Jill Biden Anthony Bernal, Former Assistant to the President and Deputy Chief of Staff Annie Tomasini, Former Special Assistant to the President and Deputy Director of Oval Office Operations Ashley...

The base, which hosts strategic bombers, was previously targeted in past long-range attacks.

Last year, Irish archaeologists working at a fort on the Drumanagh promontory north of Dublin uncovered a 2,000-year-old charred fig, the oldest evidence of the exotic Mediterranean fruit ever found on the island. RTE Ireland reports that they recently made another remarkable discovery -- an intact Roman pot. Although the Roman Empire's boundaries enveloped much of Europe, they never reached Ireland. That did not mean, however, that Roman influence and goods did not land on the Emerald Isle. Previous archaeological work at Drumanagh has demonstrated that although there was not a settlement located there, people with a Roman background or...

Scientists were recently baffled by DNA evidence that revealed the existence of a genetically unknown group of early South American settlers. Archaeologists are continually adapting their models for how human populations spread from Asia through North America to South America, and this new research is bound to alter those theories once again. The Associated Press reports that the researchers analyzed ancient DNA from 21 individuals who lived in Colombia's Altiplano Cundiboyacense region thousands of years ago. Located near current-day Bogotá, this area was also close to the ancient land bridge connecting South and Central America, the route that early human...

Meet Bob and Chuck. Brilliant scientists at a new company have determined that Chuck will outlive Bob, so Bob may as well be discarded. See how unfathomably twisted that is? And yet it’s the model for a new, pricey business that somehow got a glowing piece in The Wall Street Journal. Nucleus Genomics, in its infinite wisdom (that’s dripping with sarcasm), has revealed a $5,999 analysis of embryos, which can reveal certain factors, like likelihood of age-related diseases, height, and IQ. It basically allows prospective parents using in vitro fertilization to go window shopping for the “best” possible baby, as...