Free Republic

A panel of advisors to HHS is meeting Thursday to discuss a draft plan that would significantly increase funding for medical care and other support for those with autism. Earlier this year, the Interagency Autism Coordinating ​Committee came up with a draft of a more than 300-page strategic plan. It calls for a boost of federal funding to agencies such as the NIH and CDC to $747.4M annually from $390.4M, according to Reuters. The document notes that present ​federal spending for autism is significantly less than other diseases, such as Alzheimer's, despite the economic impact autism has. While the plan...

Americans define being truly American more by a person's respect for political institutions and laws than by their birthplace or religion, the August 7 - 10 Economist / YouGov Poll finds.The survey asked Americans how important each of five things is for being truly American, and many put civic obligations ahead of birthplace or religion: 67% say it is very important to respect American political institutions and laws and 63% say the same about having American citizenship. 54% say it is very important to speak English; fewer say it is very important to have been born in the U.S. (31%)...

On this Feast of St. Monica, I guess we Catholics need to add another wayward soul to our prayer list. This one's quite a lulu. Emma Cieslik, a 'museum specialist' at, not surprisingly, the Smithsonian, who claims to be Catholic, but not as loudly as she claims to be "queer, disabled and neurodiverse" in her social media bios, wrote this guest column for the National Catholic Reporter: August is Transgender History Month, a time to reflect on the transgender people who have led the way for transgender people's rights and who continue fighting for legal recognition and protection. This history...

So close, and yet so far. Only last week, Canada and the US were finally on the cusp of reaching a long awaited trade deal. Already Trump had announced the joyous news on Truth Social, already Canadian prime minister Mark Carney had celebrated securing the “best terms” for Canada and called for provinces to lift the ban on US alcohol. Then, somehow, defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory. Late last Friday, Carney told Canadian negotiators to walk away, saying Washington was offering “a bad deal.” Trump promptly reimposed the 50 percent tariffs on goods imported from Canada that...

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe paid an unannounced visit to Moscow yesterday, spending eight hours in the Russian capital before returning to the US. Though he visited the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that they had met – though Ratcliffe certainly spoke to his counterpart Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s SVR external intelligence service, and other top Russian security officials. The list of topics urgent enough to prompt the first personal visit of a US cabinet-level official to the Kremlin in six months is short. Ratcliffe could have been responding to reports of a planned Russian escalation...

Join with fellow FREEPERS across the world to pray for AMERICA: For those in Authority in Government, Family, Military, Business, Agri-Business, Healthcare, Education, Churches, Technology, Religious Freedom and the Media. "I urge, then, first of all, that requests, prayers, intercession and thanksgiving be made for everyone: for kings and all those in authority that we may live peaceful and quiet lives in all godliness and holiness." (1 Timothy 2:1-2) Religion Forum threads labeled [Prayer] are closed to debate of any kind. "Finally, brothers, rejoice. Set things in order. Be encouraged. Agree with one another. Be at peace. And the God...

Jonathan Hunt report on Iran talks that irked Trump ...

Socialism may no longer be a dirty word among Democrats, following a wave of hard-Left primary victories, but "woke" certainly is. Prominent progressive figures have distanced themselves from the politics of 2020, when defunding the police and "decolonising" Thanksgiving became articles of faith among the party's grassroots. That shift could have a seismic effect on the race to be the Democratic presidential nominee in 2028, which is gradually taking shape. In particular, it could spell doom for Kamala Harris, still seen as one of the front-runners in the contest, whose flirtation with woke politics cost her dearly. The 2024 election...

Republicans are setting sights on Democrat Senate candidate James Talarico’s questionable response to efforts from Chinese nationals to buy vast swaths of land across the state. Republican candidate Ken Paxton hosted an event outside of Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph in Universal City, Texas on Tuesday morning to shed light on Talarico’s poor record. Paxton claimed that Talarico’s votes in the Texas House aided China in their efforts to “steal Texas land.” Talarico is noted to have voted against SB 17, which restricted property purchases in the state from foreign nationals from adversarial countries, and SB 667, to prevent state agencies...

On Thursday, Florida became the first state to bar recipients of the Temporary Cash Assistance program (TCA) from using those funds on purchases like tattoos and body piercings, theme park tickets, video games, vaping products, and other items that are not considered "basic needs." It is a move that the Trump administration hopes other states will adopt. TCA is a program funded through the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, separate from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. However, individuals can be recipients of both programs. The Department of Health and Human Services' Administration for Children and...

A narrow majority of Icelanders support restarting negotiations on joining the European Union in a nationwide referendum set for Saturday, according to a ​new opinion poll, down slightly from the previous survey. The August 29 ballot ‌is not a vote on membership itself and any deal with the EU would require Iceland to hold a second referendum on whether to join the bloc based on ​the terms agreed in the negotiations. The August 21-25 survey of 1,019 ​people by polling agency Maskina showed 51.3% of respondents support ⁠holding negotiations with Brussels on joining the bloc, while 48.7% are opposed, ​Icelandic...

FR CANTEEN MISSION STATEMENT Showing support and boosting the morale of our military and our allied military and the family members of the above.Honoring those who have served before. FReeper Canteen Cafe Come on in, we're open Need a place just to hang out? This is it. It's casual FRiday here at the Canteen. Pull up a seat and relax. We serve coffee, tea, conversation and music. Our AWESOME military, our AWESOME allies, and their families are welcomed and honored here. No worries in the FReeper Canteen Just Hangin' Cafe. Grab a cup or a glass, and start a conversation....

The millionaire parents of the silver-spoon socialist DSA leader were slapped with a $2,500 fine after they were caught renovating their ritzy Brooklyn row home without permits. The parents of Gustavo Gordillo, boss of the New York City chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America, were slapped with a summons for the $1.4 million rehaul of their Decatur Street digs in Bed-Stuy where their self-proclaimed anti-capitalist nepo baby lives. The property, which was purchased for just under $1 million but was valued around $1.5 million before the extensive work, made headlines last week when The Post revealed the DSA co-chair...

The devastating flash flood that has ripped through the border communities of Nepal and Tibet has heightened fears that the climate crisis is destabilising the geology of mountain and polar regions, threatening millions of people. Satellite imagery suggests a glacier collapse high in the Himalayas was the primary cause of the deadly torrent of mud, water and ice that tore along the Bhotekoshi River on Wednesday. It swept away buildings and roads and left at least 360 dead and 1,400 missing. A magnitude 4.4 earthquake was initially blamed for the collapse. However, it is now thought to have been caused...

Twenty-one universities in Canada announced on Thursday the hiring of dozens of researchers to join their top academic ranks, poaching the majority of the recruits from the United States. Of the incoming 64 researchers, 48 will leave American campuses including Harvard, Yale and M.I.T., and the remainder are from Europe, Asia and Australia. Turmoil in American academia, precipitated by a crackdown on prestigious universities by the Trump administration and attacks on scientific research groups, has allowed Canada a rare opportunity to lure some of those schools’ top minds north. Their hiring is paid for through a Canadian government investment of...

Two workers at Germany’s busiest airport have died of malaria amid an outbreak in the travel hub believed to be caused by mosquitoes that arrived on a plane. Two Frankfurt Airport workers died after contracting the illness transmitted by mosquitoes, a spokesperson for Fraport, which operates the airport, told the BBC late Wednesday. The pair of workers, who have not yet been identified, were sickened in a rare outbreak first detected in July, according to the airport. A total of six male airport employees in different jobs and areas of the airport were infected with malaria in the outbreak, the...

Mayor Zohran Mamdani publicly mourned an accused career criminal killer who died on Rikers Island this week — and the family of the victim slain in the sick, unprovoked attack is now livid, The Post has learned. Hizzoner said on X that he was “deeply saddened” by the in-custody death — the seventh so far this year at the troubled jail complex — adding that, “my thoughts are with his family and loved ones as they grieve this loss.” The inmate was identified as 41-year-old Clarence Woodward, an ex-con with nearly 30 arrests on his rap sheet, who was found...

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith and Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe gave separate press conferences on Wednesday in which they refused to impose retaliatory tariffs against the United States on natural resources, in defiance of leftist Prime Minister Mark Carney’s trade war agenda.Smith and Moe said they had no problem with matching U.S. tariffs dollar-for-dollar, but they rejected Carney’s urge to escalate the trade war by applying punitive tariffs to vital natural resources in their provinces, such as oil and potash. (snip) The Conservative Party of Canada was pressing Carney’s government to release the full text of the U.S. trade proposal rejected...

Mr Justice McKendrick has ruled that providing clinically assisted nutrition and hydration to sustain the life of a 28-year-old man suffering from a prolonged disorder of consciousness is contrary to his best interests and should cease. The judgment, released today following a 4-day trial last week, overrules the unanimous view of the young man’s family and all his treating clinicians that the life-sustaining treatment should continue, agreed at a ‘best interests meeting’ in March. Mr Justice McKendrick has ruled that providing clinically assisted nutrition and hydration to sustain the life of a 28-year-old man suffering from a prolonged disorder of...

What a difference a few years make. Not long ago, politicians said climate change was going to kill us, so we must move to “net zero” emissions. This is theoretically possible: Since vegetation removes carbon, we could get to net zero by burning fewer fossil fuels. Governments everywhere pledged to do just that. President Joe Biden and European leaders promised “net zero by 2050.” For a while, it seemed like it might happen. Spain invested billions in its solar-power grid; Germany claimed to get most of its power from renewables. But now they realize that they made a mistake. European...