Free Republic

Chicago police are investigating the shooting death of a man shot while in the middle of a Facebook Live stream on the city's West Side. A video viewed almost two million times on Facebook showed Kevin Watson, 42, getting out of a car. Seconds later, gunfire can be heard. It happened mere blocks away from a police station in South Austin. Close friends of the victim who witnessed the deadly shooting spoke exclusively with ABC7. The shooting happened around 6:14 p.m. Wednesday in the 5000 block of West Madison Street in South Austin, Chicago police said. Watson was sitting in...

"Israel is likely to launch another war with Iran before December--perhaps even as early as late August" Trita Parsi-"Foreign Policy' Commentary 8/11/2025... "So here is the great news. The moment your country is free Israel's top water experts will flood into every Iranian city... We will help Iran recycle water...we'll help Iran desalinate water... I urge you to be bold and brave...take to the streets...protest tyranny" Portions Of Israeli Prime Minister's Video Message To The People Of Iran 8/12/2025... The next round of the Israel-Iran War is on the way with signs of US-Israeli activity to appease nations neighboring Iran...

Aug 14, 2025

From First Lady to first aid! Sources tell Page Six that the Michelle Obama sprang into action at a Martha’s Vineyard tennis club recently when a fellow player took a bad tumble and tore his hamstring. We hear two men — including NYC restauranteur and hospitality whiz David Rabin — were playing on a Martha’s Vineyard court next to Obama, who had security posted around the outside corners of the area. “The other guy goes to chase a lob over his head,” a spy told Page Six of the incident. “It’s like he’s showing off for Michelle Obama and he...

Researchers at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai have found that prenatal exposure to acetaminophen may increase the risk of neurodevelopmental disorders, including autism spectrum disorder and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), in children. The study, published today in BMC Environmental Health, is the first to apply the rigorous Navigation Guide methodology to systematically evaluate the rigor and quality of the scientific literature.Acetaminophen (often sold under the brand name Tylenol®,) is the most commonly used over-the-counter pain and fever medication during pregnancy and is used by more than half of pregnant women worldwide. Until now, acetaminophen has been considered the...

Former First Lady Michelle Obama weighed in on the rivalry between Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese during a recent interview. “I think the tough thing is the social media element to it, but that’s true across the board,” Obama said Thursday via All The Smoke. “I mean, we’ve talked about this on our show. It just, you know, it just takes a normal occurrence. You know these young kids today, what they have to go through, what they have to be able to withstand because social media is such a huge part of their world.” Obama seemed to suggest that...

The United States Department of Agriculture and other agencies are fighting criminals who steal from a food fund for the hungry. The federal agency has replaced $322 million in benefits across 53 states from fiscal year 2023 to 2025. The agency feeds about 42 million people through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. Nearly 679,000 households have reported stolen benefits across 1.9 million transactions. These states submitted the most food stamp fraud claims, according to a dashboard. New York: 151,738 California: 85,978 Texas: 57,187 Illinois: 41,565The criminals steal funds by installing fake card readers in public places, phishing scams, and more....

When leftists attack our health care system for its supposedly market-driven forces, they fail to grasp a key fact. American health care has rarely functioned like a market because few, if any, patients know the price of their care in advance. A recent personal experience illustrated this problem and reinforced the rules the Trump administration must finally implement to make prices transparent.A Surprise Bill After the FactLast April, I went to the Surgery Center of Chevy Chase just outside Washington for outpatient foot surgery. Staff informed me in advance that my estimated financial responsibility would total $574.12 — an amount...

Here is your perfect prescription for poor writing and analytics: let “artificial intelligence” do your work for you. I’ve learned this from real experience.For a while, I enjoyed letting AI take a look at my content prior to publication. It seemed valuable for facts and feedback.Plus I enjoyed all the personal flattery it gave me, I admit. The engine was always complimentary.When I would catch AI in an error, the engine would apologize. That made me feel smart. So I had this seeming friend who clearly liked me and was humble enough to defer to my expertise.I’m not sure if...

There is a large and growing faction of the left that hates Catholics. Well, unless they are pro-death and anti-natal. As long as a Catholic bows down to the alphabet gods, they are fine by Democrats. Think Nancy Pelosi and Joe Biden. The FBI famously labeled traditional Catholics--read, those who hew most closely to catechism--as domestic terrorists in waiting. They placed informants in churches, for God's sake, as if they were Islamist terrorists because they were skeptical of birth control and abortion. The Little Sisters of the Poor are an order of Catholic nuns who have cared for the elderly...

The Communist Party of China imposed a 75.8-percent tariff on Canadian canola products on Thursday, claiming that Canada was intentionally “dumping” underpriced canola seed into the Chinese market to hurt domestic farmers. The measure appeared to be a response to the Canadian government, still under radical leftist Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the time, imposing a 100-percent tariffs on Chinese electric vehicles (EVs) last year to protect Canada’s fledgling homemade EVs. Chinese state media explicitly mentioned Canada’s “trade protectionist and restrictive measures against China” in reporting the canola seed tariffs, accusing Ottawa of violating World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. Beijing...

Donald Trump has said Vladimir Putin is “not going to mess around with me” on the eve of his critical meeting with the Russian leader in Alaska. The two leaders are set to meet in person at a US military base on Friday for talks aimed at negotiating a potential ceasefire in Ukraine. The leaders are scheduled to begin discussions at 11.30am local time in Anchorage (8:30pm BST).

Defunding Victories: 41 Planned Parenthoods Have Closed or Announced Closure Washington, D.C. – The nation’s leading political pro-life group has launched an interactive map tracking Planned Parenthood closures, as the One Big Beautiful Bill’s defunding provision begins to hit America’s largest abortion businesses. This year, 34 Planned Parenthoods have closed their doors and seven have announced they will. SBA Pro-Life America’s new tracker includes a table with Planned Parenthood closures while also pointing to community health centers within a 50-mile radius where women on Medicaid can receive better, more comprehensive care. The map is now live at lifesavinglaws.com under the...

A candidate for South Carolina's governor race was caught going on a bizarre rant in the back of a cop car after he was found wandering around in his underwear. Democrat William 'Mullins' McLeod, 53, was arrested by Charleston Police on May 15 after he was found 'yelling at the top of his lungs' while walking around the city in only underwear and shoes, reported WCBD. McLeod, a prominent Charleston attorney who ran for governor in 2010, became the first Democrat to enter the 2026 race on Monday officially. New camera footage of his arrest, which was released on Tuesday,...

Gateway Pundit journalist and LindellTV White House Correspondent Cara Castronuova questioned President Trump on two major issues the corporate media refuses to confront — the Democrats’ ongoing misinformation campaign to terrify America’s seniors about their Social Security, and alarming allegations that D.C. police are “cooking the books” to conceal the true extent of violent crime in the nation’s capital. Thursday’s Oval Office event marked the 90th anniversary of the Social Security Act. President Trump used the occasion to highlight what he calls the largest tax cut for seniors in American history, pointing to his administration’s elimination of taxes on most...

“One of the most important discoveries made in Israel this century.” —Ariel David and Ruth Schuster, reporters for the Israeli newspaper Haaretz.1 “A stunning trio of early Christian (3rd century) inscriptions.” —Christopher Rollston, Professor of Northwest Semitic Languages and Literatures and chairman of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations at the George Washington University.2 What is it that has these reporters and a linguistic expert so excited? It is the discovery and further study of three mosaic texts in pristine condition that were excavated in 2005 by Yotam Tepper3 on behalf of the Israel Antiquities Authority...

The high school teacher who blew the whistle on allegations that Virginia’s Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) enabled a minor student’s abortion now says that she has raised concerns about the claims seven times since May 2022. CatholicVote previously reported that Zenaida Perez, a teacher at Centreville High School, met with a school investigator in May to tell him about the allegations that a school social worker facilitated one abortion for a student and tried to convince another to go through with an abortion. According to the claims, both students were minors at the time and their parents were not...

[Catholic Caucus] Bishop Strickland: Archbishop Lefebvre will be ‘recognized by history’ for sustaining the Latin MassBishop Strickland lauded Archbishop Lefebvre for helping to preserve the Latin Mass as something ‘vital to the life of the Church.’Bishop Joseph Strickland praised Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre, founder of the Society of St. Pius X (SSPX), for helping to preserve the Traditional Latin Mass, declaring that his service will be “recognized by history.”In an exclusive interview with The Catholic Herald, Bishop Strickland defended the TLM and Archbishop Lefebvre; criticized the ideal of Church “unity” not based in truth; and warned that Pope Leo XIV is...

Chinese researchers are developing the world’s first humanoid robot capable of simulating pregnancy, with a prototype expected to launch in 2026. The device, created by Guangzhou-based Kaiwa Technology, features an artificial womb integrated into a robotic abdominal module to replicate the full gestation. The artificial womb is an advanced incubation pod that mimics the conditions of a uterus and is designed to handle the full human pregnancy cycle, from conception to birth. Priced below 100,000 yuan, or about $14,000, the robot aims to assist infertile couples and individuals who prefer to avoid biological pregnancy, especially young women who wish to...

Archaeologists have conducted a study of lithic material from the Pilauco and Los Notros sites in north-western Patagonia, revealing evidence of human occupation in the region prior to the Younger Dryas period.The Younger Dryas, which occurred circa 12,900 to 11,700 years BP), was a cooling event which marked a return to glacial conditions, temporarily reversing the climatic warming of the preceding Late Glacial Interstadial.The period in which humans arrived in South America, in particular, north-western Patagonia, has been the subject of an ongoing debate by academics for many years.Previous archaeological evidence and palaeogenetic studies have suggested human presence between 16...