Karim Khan, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), was suspended late Monday following a two-year probe investigating him over long-standing sexual harassment allegations.
The post ICC Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan Suspended After Sexual Misconduct Investigation appeared first on Breitbart.
The biggest race to watch may be in Maine, where Nazi-tattoed woman abuser Graham Platner—dogged by controversy—is expected to face longtime Republican Sen. Susan Collins, who has held the seat for three decades.
Every parent knows the moment. The phone call. The ultrasound. The doctor walking back into the room. The uncertainty.
We all tell some version of the same joke: “I just hope the baby has 10 fingers and 10 toes.” We spend nine months praying for a healthy baby. We celebrate reassuring scans. We cling to every piece of good news.
Some decisions are so intimate and consequential that they do not belong in the marketplace of clicks and comments.
But over those nine months, we learn the ultimate lesson of parenthood and life: We are not in control.
Last week, the country got a front-row seat to one family’s struggle with that lesson. Jesse Ridgway, a YouTuber known as “McJuggerNuggets” with more than 4 million subscribers, took to X to update followers on a pregnancy he and his wife had documented for months.
“This week, my wife and I made the very difficult decision to terminate the pregnancy due to Trisomy 21,” Ridgway wrote. He added that he had not realized the child would be “fully dependent on others for the rest of their life.” He concluded, “We made a difficult decision that we believe in the long run will be beneficial for our family.”
I suppose the baby was not yet considered part of the family.
I do not doubt that the Ridgways were scared. Every parent can sympathize with fear. Every parent can sympathize with grief over shattered expectations. But what happened next was not merely a story about fear. It was a story about what we do with fear.
The entire enterprise of parenthood is uncertainty.
Healthy babies develop cancer. Healthy babies lose their sight. Healthy babies suffer traumatic brain injuries. Healthy babies develop learning disabilities. Healthy babies struggle with addiction. The moment you become a parent, you sign a contract with uncertainty.
Parenthood does not give you guarantees. It gives you responsibility.
We do not love our children because of the outcomes they produce. We love them because they are ours. If a child develops a disability at age 6, do we decide his life no longer has value? Of course not.
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Then why would we decide that at 6 months in the womb?
What is so unique about Down syndrome? It involves suffering, imperfection, and uncertainty. But so does every human life. Down syndrome simply makes those realities visible sooner.
The question is not whether this child would face challenges. The question is why challenges suddenly make a life disposable.
If Down syndrome is enough to make a life disposable before birth, what other conditions qualify? Blindness? Autism? Cerebral palsy? A missing limb? A learning disability?
Where exactly is the line?
I will make this personal. Our second child faced a possible cystic fibrosis diagnosis. The meeting with the specialist was dark. She was preparing us for devastating news. I remember sitting in my car afterward, calling my dad, and bawling my eyes out.
But the conversation was never, “Should this child live?” The conversation was, “How do we prepare to raise this child?”
That distinction matters.
Fast-forward to our fourth child, now 5 months old. Her scans showed what doctors believed was a significant kidney defect that would require either in-utero surgery or surgery immediately after birth. Again, my wife and I were terrified. Again, we began preparing.
And again, it was all for nothing.
In both cases, the doctors were wrong.
Doctors are incredibly skilled. They are not prophets. A probability is not a person.
Ridgway mentioned that doctors told him and his wife that up to 90% of women terminate after learning their child has Trisomy 21. That statistic is often cited as evidence of how difficult these diagnoses can be.
I see it differently.
I see it as evidence of how quickly our culture has confused hardship with hopelessness.
This hit me on another personal level. I volunteer at a special-needs ministry. Some of the happiest people I know have Down syndrome. Through all their challenges, they radiate a level of joy, affection, and sincerity that our country desperately needs.
After reading Ridgway’s announcement, I could not stop wondering what one of them would think if he read it. Imagine opening your phone and discovering that people are publicly discussing whether lives like yours are worth living. Imagine being told that your diagnosis makes your existence negotiable.
Parenthood can never be reduced to consumer choice. Children are not products we order. They are gifts we receive.
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lchumpitaz via iStock/Getty Images
The deepest moments of parenthood often arrive when life refuses to follow the script. A parent’s love is measured by what remains after expectations disappear.
The decision itself was not the only thing that struck me. So did the need to announce it.
Some moments should produce reflection, not engagement. Some decisions are so intimate and consequential that they do not belong in the marketplace of clicks and comments. Have we reached the point where even the death of a child becomes content?
As of this writing, Ridgway’s post has more than 24 million views.
He has faced a mountain of criticism online, much of it hateful and cruel. As a Christian, I am taught to hate the sin and not the sinner. I will leave judgment to God.
But I hope this tragic and very public episode forces us to think carefully about what parenthood requires.
A child does not earn the right to live by meeting our expectations.
Parenthood begins when we decide to love a child even when life does not unfold the way we hoped. The measure of parenthood is not how we respond when life follows the script.
It is how we respond when it does not.
President Trump confirmed two crew members of a U.S. Army Apache Helicopter that crashed near the Strait of Hormuz are uninjured and "fine".
The post U.S. Apache Helicopter Crashes Over Strait of Hormuz, Pilots Safely Recovered Says Trump appeared first on Breitbart.
Left-wing candidate Nithya Raman looks set to oppose incumbent Karen Bass in the Los Angeles mayor's runoff in November, multiple reports Tuesday forecast, with Republican candidate Spencer Pratt pushed to the electoral wayside only after mail-in votes were added.
The post Reports: Karen Bass, Nithya Raman Ready for L.A. Mayoral Race Primary as Spencer Pratt Pushed Aside appeared first on Breitbart.
France and Germany agreed to scrap their joint-yet-troubled 100 billion euro project to build a next-generation European fighter jet after stakeholders failed to agree on just which country would be in overall charge.
The post Europe Rearm Blunder: France and Germany Scrap Troubled 100B Euro Fighter Jet Project appeared first on Breitbart.
One father said the violent crime on the streets had gotten so bad that a bullet was fired into the bedroom of his weeks-old infant, just a few feet from where the child slept.
That's just one of the many stories that led to residents in Seattle expressing their frustration with sex trafficking and crime by marching and demanding change from city officials.
Residents said they believed the increase in gunfire was from pimps fighting over prostitutes and their turf.
Residents told KOMO-TV that their vehicles and homes had been hit by gunfire, and many believed the growing problem with sex trafficking on Aurora Avenue was to blame.
"We're really out here demanding action — it's as simple as that," said a homeowner named Aaron who reported numerous shootings in his neighborhood this year. "From King County to the city of Seattle and the state at this point, because it's really scary."
Some local officials met with the protesters, but many of the residents noted that Mayor Katie Wilson was notably absent.
"I think it's unfortunate that she's not able to be here, but I think the message needs to be to her office that we're ready to see a concrete action plan," another woman said.
"North Aurora belongs to people of Greenwood, North Park, Licton Springs, Phinney Ridge, Bitter Lake, and Haller Lake. Not the ... johns, not the ... pimps," a man named Andrew Steelsmith said.
Other residents said they believed the increase in gunfire was from pimps fighting over prostitutes and their turf.
Some in the neighborhood resorted to setting up their own metal planter blockades to stop some traffic and prevent the shootings. The city took them down and installed staggered concrete barriers.
KOMO reported that the mayor's office eventually got around to releasing a statement about the anti-crime protests.
"Every neighborhood should be a place where people feel safe, supported, and able to go about their daily lives without fear. We are actively working with Aurora-area residents, Seattle Police, and the Seattle Department of Transportation to address community concerns," the statement reads.
"SPD continues to conduct emphasis patrols and re-task members of the Gun Violence Reduction Unit to focus on the area and, in about a week, SDOT will have completed its analysis of roads in the area for future safety improvements," the statement continues. "The Deputy Mayor, public safety staff, and our community liaisons have met with area residents, and we will continue to find ways to support neighbors."
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Pope Leo XIV strongly condemned abortion and euthanasia in an address to the socialist-dominated Spanish Parliament on Monday.
The post Pope Leo XIV Receives 7-Minute Standing Ovation at Spanish Parliament After Rebuking Abortion, Euthanasia appeared first on Breitbart.
Prime Minister hopeful Andy Burnham has faced accusations of political interference and of impeding free speech after Manchester's Fire and Rescue Service appeared to pressure firefighters against supporting or standing in elections for Nigel Farage's Reform UK party.
The post Burnham Accused of Political Interference as Firefighters Warned Not to Stand for Farage’s Reform UK appeared first on Breitbart.