Free Republic

China’s exports shrank unexpectedly in October, Beijing’s official commerce data showed, dragged down by a sharp fall in shipments to the U.S. amid the trade battle with President Donald Trump. There was a 25 percent drop in Chinese shipments to the U.S. during the month, according to the data released Friday. This was compounded by a 1.1 percent drop in China’s global exports in October compared to a year earlier, the weakest since February, following an 8.3 percent increase in September. October 2024 was a high comparable base, which sharpened the fall this year, because American firms had loaded up...

Embedded video linked to X Pro-Palestinian protesters attempted to firebomb a concert by the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris on Thursday night. During the performance, which was held at the prestigious Philharmonic Hall in Paris, dozens of protesters broke into the hall, chanted anti-Israel slogans and lit flares. The music was stopped and the musicians began to leave the stage. A post published by the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University read: "Pro-Palestinian protesters firebombed a concert and the musicians were removed from the stage. After the matter was resolved, the they were brought back on stage to...

The United States is preparing to establish a military presence at an airbase in Damascus to help enable a security pact that Washington is brokering between Syria and Israel, six sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. The US plans for the presence in the Syrian capital, which have not previously been reported, would be a sign of Syria's strategic realignment with the US following the fall last year of longtime leader Bashar al-Assad, an ally of Iran. The base sits at the gateway to parts of southern Syria that are expected to make up a demilitarized zone as part...

It’s unclear whether the measure will pass after administration officials tried to reassure Republicans who signaled they may support the effort.The Senate will vote Thursday on a bipartisan measure to block President Donald Trump from attacking Venezuelan territory in a new test of Republicans’ willingness to oppose his use of military force in Latin America. It is unclear whether the largely symbolic effort will attract enough GOP support to pass, or whether a recent push by the administration to walk back Trump’s repeated threats of escalation has reassured those lawmakers who have suggested they might join the effort. On Wednesday,...

There will be plenty of warmth on display as US President Donald Trump welcomes Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban at the White House on November 7, but alongside the strong personal chemistry there will be a full plate of issues as they sit down to lunch. Long united by ideology and words, the two leaders are on opposite sides of the policy fence when it comes to imports of Russian oil. Meanwhile, plans for Orban to host Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Budapest have been placed very much on the back burner. An exemption from...

Nations were poised to approve the first fee on pollution from ships. That’s when the Trump administration began the threats.More than 100 nations were poised last month to approve a historic deal to slash pollution from cargo ships. That’s when the United States launched a pressure campaign that officials around the world have called extraordinary, even by the standards of the Trump administration’s combativeness, according to nine diplomats on its receiving end. An ambassador from Asia was told that, if he voted in favor of the plan, his country’s sailors would no longer be allowed to disembark at American ports....

LONDON, Nov 6 (Reuters) Russian oil major Lukoil's , opens new tab Volgograd refinery has halted operations after it was struck by Ukrainian drones, three sources familiar with the matter said on Thursday. Ukraine has for several months been striking Russian oil refineries, depots and pipelines, while Ukrainian energy infrastructure has also been the target of Russian strikes in a war that is approaching its fourth year. They said that the primary processing unit, CDU-5, with a daily capacity of 9,100 metric tons, or 66,700 barrels per day - a fifth of the plant's total capability - and a hydrocracker...

A global plea is growing for Elon Musk to rescue three Chinese astronauts stranded in space after their return capsule was reportedly struck by an 'unknown object.'The Shenzhou-20 team, mission commander Senior Colonel Chen Dong and crew members Colonel Chen Zhongrui and Colonel Wang Jie, launched to China's Tiangong space station in April and were set to return home on November 5. But officials revealed this week that their spacecraft may have sustained damage while docked in orbit for the past six months.Chinese officials are unsure what struck the spacecraft, but the damage is believed to have been caused by...

President Trump was under attack on Thursday as world leaders lined up to criticise his stance on climate change ahead of the global COP30 summit. The US leader, who is absent from the gathering in the Amazonian city of Belém, was called a liar for his rejection of climate science and "against humankind" for his rollback of key climate policies. UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer acknowledged the waning political consensus on the issue. He said climate change was once a unity issue but "today however, sadly that consensus is gone". Over the next two weeks countries will try and...

The Trump administration has slashed refugee resettlement, reorienting the program in line with the desires expressed by the American people last November, a top State Department spokesperson told Breitbart News. Trump’s moves deliver on a key campaign promise after the Biden administration abused the program to facilitate mass migration into the United States and radically transform American communities. Under President Trump, just 7,500 refugees, will be admitted into the United States in fiscal year 2026. Those numbers mark a 94 percent drawdown from the Biden administration’s goal of accepting 125,000 migrants through the refugee admissions process in its final year,...

Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani has won the New York City mayoral election. His victory comes despite many distortions and false claims circulating about him — including one from President Donald Trump. A fact check. As they chose the next mayor of New York City, voters faced a pivotal decision that reflects a broader generational and ideological divide with national implications. The race for mayor of the biggest city in the United States pitted Democratic nominee Zohran Kwame Mamdani against independent candidate and former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican repeat contender Curtis Sliwa. Mamdani's win marks a historic moment: he will...

Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó emphasized the visit as the beginning of a new chapter in relations between the two countries, a stark contrast to what he called the “hostile” approach of the previous liberal U.S. administration. “With President Trump’s victory, the golden age of Hungarian-American bilateral relations began,” declared FM Szijjártó. Reflecting on the Biden years, he recalled a period defined by punitive measures against Hungary, including the suspension of the visa waiver program, political sanctions, and the halting of the Paks nuclear expansion. These actions, he said, were driven by political revenge rather than strategic reasoning. In contrast, the...

The Chinese government has issued guidance requiring new data centre projects that have received any state funds to only use domestically-made artificial intelligence chips, two sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. In recent weeks, Chinese regulatory authorities have ordered such data centres that are less than 30% complete to remove all installed foreign chips, or cancel plans to purchase them, while projects in a more advanced stage will be decided on a case-by-case basis, the sources said. The move could represent one of China's most aggressive steps yet to eliminate foreign technology from its critical infrastructure amid a pause...

All mothers have sleepless nights. We lie awake worrying needlessly that our offspring may be in danger, but Nicky’s fears for her girls are not just fears. She believes she has very good reason to fret that her three daughters, and millions of other people’s children, are not safe. “To be honest with you, I think it’s inevitable that one day I will turn on the TV news and there will be some man I have granted asylum to and he will have raped or murdered a young girl, just like my girls.” Nicky, whose name I have changed to...

Russia said on Wednesday that its forces were advancing north inside Pokrovsk in a drive to take full control of the Ukrainian city, but the Ukrainian army said its units were battling hard to try to stop the Russians from gaining new ground. Ukraine has acknowledged that its troops face a difficult position in the strategic eastern city, once an important transport and logistics hub for the Ukrainian army... Russia sees the city as the gateway to its capture of the remaining 10%, or 5,000 square km (1,930 square miles) of Ukraine's eastern industrial Donbas region... The Russian defence ministry...

Five people have been injured, two of them seriously, after a driver rammed into pedestrians and cyclists on Île d’Oléron, a popular tourist destination off France’s Atlantic coast, authorities have said. “This morning, starting at 8.40am, an individual driving his vehicle went on a journey during which he deliberately hit several people who were in his path, either on bicycle or on foot,” the French interior minister, Laurent Nuñez, said on Wednesday. “Five people were hit during his journey, which lasted about 35 minutes,” he told reporters on the island. He confirmed media reports that the man had shouted “Allahu...

A driver “shouting Allahu Akbar” has ploughed his car into a crowd of pedestrians on a French holiday island. The male driver rammed into pedestrians and cyclists on Ile d’Oléron, off the Atlantic Coast, on Wednesday morning shortly before 9am local time, Laurent Nunez, France’s interior minister, said. Five people were hit during the “35-minute rampage”, said Mr Nunez. Two were seriously injured, including a 22-year-old woman suffering multiple trauma injuries, and three others sustained minor injuries, he added. The suspect, a 35-year-old man from the island, has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder and an investigation has been...

A top Hamas leader said Tuesday that the terror group and the Palestinian Authority have come to an agreement regarding the establishment of a temporary committee that will manage the Gaza Strip on behalf of the PA. The committee’s responsibilities will include overseeing the border crossings and the security forces in the Strip, Moussa Abu Marzouk told Al Jazeera, adding that it will be headed by a PA minister. Abu Marzouk didn’t clarify during the interview whether this decision was approved by the US as well as the PA, meaning it was unclear whether there is any weight to the...

RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — When summer heat comes to the Arara neighborhood in northern Rio, it lingers, baking the red brick and concrete that make up many of the buildings long after the sun has gone down. Luis Cassiano, who’s lived here more than 30 years, says he’s getting worried as heat waves become more frequent and fierce. In poor areas such as Arara, those who can afford air conditioning — Cassiano is one — can’t always count on it because of frequent power outages on an overloaded system. “The sun in the summer nowadays is scary,” Cassiano said....

Beginning at 9:30 a.m., we will be live blogging as the court hears oral arguments in Learning Resources, Inc. v. Trump.