Free Republic

A baby born with a rare heart defect is at the center of a bitter legal dispute between the child’s biological parents and the woman who gave birth to the baby as a surrogate against their wishes. McKenna West, 28, agreed to act as a surrogate for Los Angeles couple Omar Ahmed and Nausheen Gilkar. The couple opted to terminate the pregnancy at around 20 weeks after it was revealed that the boy had a rare and life-threatening congenital heart condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome, in which the left side of the heart doesn’t develop fully. According to a...

The city of Malibu has declared a local emergency, paving the way for officials to clear homeless encampments ahead of peak wildfire season. The Malibu City Council approved the emergency declaration Aug. 10, allowing encampments to be cleared the same day notices are issued. City officials fear a spark from an encampment could be whipped up by winds and quickly develop into a large wildfire. According to city data, 41 fires in Malibu are believed to have been started by individuals experiencing homelessness.

Children’s YouTube and Netflix star Ms. Rachel has added support for reparations over slavery and Jim Crow Laws to her growing catalogue of left-wing causes, taking her latest stance via an Instagram post to her five million-plus followers.Ms. Rachel, AKA Rachel Accurso, took an excerpt from Ta-Nehisi Coates’ 2014 essay The Case for Reparations to illustrate the need to “reckon” with America’s history of slavery.

🔥 WOW! This footage is resurfacing of Charlie Kirk MIC DROPPING communist Hasan Piker to his face KIRK: "Why don't YOU give 95% of your money away and go live on a commune!" PIKER: "Do you really think that's how it works?!" KIRK: "Why not? Go live what you PREACH. I live what I preach. I am a free market capitalist. I employ people. I took a risk. I have my own startup business. Every single day, I practice what I preach." "HE wants OTHER people to contribute to what he considers to be a good idea. What he considers...

[Catholic Caucus] ‘Stop this’: Parents beg Leo XIV to halt pro-LGBT sex-ed in Catholic schoolsHundreds of parents appealed to Pope Leo XIV and filed a canonical complaint against the local archbishop, but the anti-Catholic sex-ed program is set to take effect regardless. A pro-LGBT sex-education program is set to take effect August 20 in 15 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of Hamburg, Germany, despite a canonical complaint against Archbishop Stefan Heße and a direct appeal to Pope Leo XIV that the Holy See has left unanswered.Hundreds of Catholic parents in the Archdiocese of Hamburg are opposing a sex-education program approved...

Federal law requires the retention of voting records for 22 months after an election. Democrats don't like that. They believe in keeping things tidy by deleting all the evidence ASAP. With BleachBit, if possible. (Anthony Fauci, call your office.) And there is no set of records they want cleaned up and tidy quite like election records; otherwise, you face the need to fight like hell in court to keep them locked away, as Fulton County did for years until the FBI got a warrant and seized them. And even after that, Fulton County has fought to keep them sealed. Nothing...

Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport is planning to install Islamic foot-washing stations in two bathrooms by the end of the year. The project “aims to prevent water on standard restroom floors and protect sink counters,” per local reporting. White House correspondent Natalie Winters drew attention to the $300,000, privately funded project in a post on X this past Wednesday. The project is titled “DFW – Wudu – Ablution stations – Terminal D” on the Texas Department of Licensing and Regulation project details page. The page states that “ablution [washing] stations” will be installed in both the men’s and women’s restrooms in...

New Mexico is still advising that children receive the normal vaccine schedule after the Trump administration’s Monday executive order, which called for paring down the number of recommended vaccines and spacing out existing shots. “Here in New Mexico, nothing has changed,” said Dr. Miranda Durham, chief medical officer for the New Mexico Department of Health. Durham said NMDOH follows the American Academy of Pediatrics childhood vaccine schedule, which makes all vaccines available to parents if they choose. Insurance coverage for vaccines will not change either — New Mexico Medicaid plans and private insurance will continue to cover childhood vaccines regardless...

newly approved flu vaccine based on mRNA technology will provide better protection than traditional flu vaccines, according to Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health’s Kizzmekia Corbett-Helaire. Corbett-Helaire, assistant professor of immunology and infectious diseases, was quoted about the benefits of the new vaccine in an August 7 GBH article. She said it trains people’s immune systems more effectively. “Think of it like a picture,” she said. “If I saw a picture of your face, it could be blurry or it could be high definition. So, typically mRNA presents proteins to the body in a very high-definition way, so the...

Open Letter to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV - by Bishop Robert MutsaertsWe have often published the great texts of Bishop Rob Mutsaerts (Auxiliary of s-Hertogenbosch /Bois-le-Duc), Netherlands. He has just published (in English and Dutch) an open letter to His Holiness Pope Leo XIV on the need for concern for the salvation of souls amidst the confusion of synodality and other trends.Holy Father,With reverence for the office entrusted to you as successor of Saint Peter, and in communion with the Church which Christ built upon the apostles, I address you with this open letter. I don't do so lightly....

What does it say when an organization has to call an all-hands meeting to define the word "woman"? Especially when the organization literally has that word in its title? And what does it say about the organization when it fails to do so? The Women's National Basketball Association held a league-wide meeting yesterday to address the issue of eligibility restrictions. Its charter makes clear that only "women" can compete in the league, a term which, up until a hot second ago, everyone understood perfectly. And after everyone cogitated for the entire day on what the word "women" means, the league...

#Hugh Laurie #Sophie Cunningham #Graham Linehan Hollywood Loses Their Minds After Hugh Laurie Says This... | 5:40 JosiahRises | 494K subscribers | 372,676 views | August 11, 2026

A Massachusetts teenager who allegedly used ChatGPT for searches about 'killing his family' before murdering his mother and brother flashed a wide-eyed stare in court, as prosecutors claimed he spent $2,000 on cereal bars following the murders. Arjun Aravind, 17, was arraigned in Concord District Court on Thursday after being accused of killing his mother Sudha Venkatesan, 45, and his younger brother, Siddharth Aravind, 14, inside their $1 million home in Acton two days prior. Aravind, who had his hands and ankles cuffed, glanced around the courtroom at times, with his dark, wavy hair partly obscuring his face. A police...

On the eve of surrendering herself at San Francisco’s Hall of Justice at 850 Bryant St., Wynd Kaufmyn was a flurry of activity: Tailoring an old pair of jeans while chatting with reporters about her upcoming incarceration, stopping to pick up coffee and doughnuts for her official send-off at the courthouse Friday morning, and preparing for dinner with friends at one of her favorite restaurants, Ben ‘N Nick’s in Oakland. It was, after all, her 69th birthday.

WASHINGTON - Authorities have taken into custody the suspect accused of vandalizing the World War II Memorial on the National Mall, where bubbles filled a fountain and "Clean hands dirty $" was written in red paint. In a post on X, U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro identified the suspect as Melissa L. Farris. Pirro called the vandalism "a despicable attack on a sacred monument" and said her office is filing two felony charges, Depredation Against Property of the United States and Destruction of Veterans’ Memorials, offenses that carry penalties of up to ten years in prison. She said Farris is now...

On Monday, at a get out the vote event in Sun Prairie, a blue-leaning suburb of Madison, Hong was confronted over her past views. “You know, I was actually trying to become a sports journalist when I first went to college. So I learned then you have some hot takes, sometimes bad takes on Twitter, and I let my feelings out into the world,” Hot takes, huh? Like Stephen A. Smith spouting off about the Cowboys? Or your friend who likes Nickelback? The hot takes fired off by Hong earlier in her thirties — the ones she’s halfheartedly walked back...

Trump's policies are already delivering lower inflation and improving purchasing power for American workers — a recovery he portrayed as remarkable given the damage he said the administration inherited. Bessent's interview came as new federal data showed prescription drug costs saw their biggest decline in 60 years after President Trump made lowering prices a national priority. Bessent said Americans have legitimate reasons to remain frustrated after years of elevated prices. "People should be upset," Bessent said, arguing the Biden years left households facing a substantial loss of purchasing power, with working Americans hit especially hard by higher costs for automobiles,...

Air India pilots were due to undergo mandatory drug screening from Thursday, after a plane captain involved in a mid-air plunge last week tested positive for use of marijuana. Existing rules require airlines to randomly test at least 10% of their flight crew for psychoactive substances each year. But AFP reported it had seen an internal memo following the mid-air drama on a flight from Thailand to New Delhi. It said: “We have decided to undertake a full screening of all Group pilots for any substances or medications that are not permitted under prevailing regulations. Testing is mandatory and will...

What is it with Democrats and their fake supporters, fake accents, fake backgrounds, fake accomplishments? Is it because they think voters are that shallow and stupid? Or because they don’t want anyone to know how incredibly out of touch they are with regular Americans? This week, to cite just the most recent example, a group of “Republicans for Talarico” disbanded after it turned out that they were actually just a bunch of lifelong Democrats in disguise, but not before MS NOW gave them some free airtime. “The people that [Talarico] had come out and say that they were on his...

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the top US priority in the Iran war was keeping oil and gasoline prices low for Americans, with preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon ranking second.The remarks contrasted with President Donald Trump's repeated framing of the fight: that entering the war had the sole objective of preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, even if that meant short-term economic sacrifices for Americans.Vance's comments also underscored the growing reality that the war now centers on control of the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran has forced to the top of the negotiating agenda. "I...