Free Republic

The Chinese government is tightening the screws on American investment in its artificial intelligence sector. The core purpose is to keep U.S. capital out of technologies it deems “strategically sensitive” to national security. The protective action is a reminder that Washington also needs to prioritize insulating our own critical sectors from foreign adversaries.Few industries are more important to our national security than healthcare. More than 131 million people - nearly two-thirds of all U.S. adults - use prescription medications. Yet the United States has allowed its pharmaceutical supply chains to become dangerously dependent on foreign rivals - particularly China. That...

The Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais saw the justices narrow Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and disallow race-based congressional districts. With the dust on redistricting mostly settled, Republicans appear poised for a double-digit swing of House seats in their favor in the 2026 midterms, at least if all goes according to plan. The Supreme Court’s decision in Louisiana v. Callais saw the justices narrow Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act and disallow race-based congressional districts. The move triggered map redraws across the South and is expected to result in more than a dozen seats moving...

A strike by thousands of Long Island Rail Road employees brought the nation’s busiest commuter railroad to a standstill early Saturday, disrupting travel across the New York metropolitan area and setting up a major labor standoff between transit officials and union leaders. Train service was halted shortly after midnight when five labor unions representing nearly half of the railroad’s workforce launched a walkout after contract negotiations with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority collapsed. It marks the first rail strike on the system in roughly 30 years. The shutdown immediately affected commuters traveling between New York City and Long Island, with officials...

Wes Streeting has called for a “proper contest” to replace Sir Keir Starmer and confirmed he would stand if the race is triggered, as he and other senior Labour figures make their pitch to replace the Prime Minister. In his first public appearance since resigning as health secretary, Mr Streeting set out a fledgling policy platform for a run at the Labour leadership. He said Britain must pursue a “new special relationship” with the European Union and signalled he wanted to see the country rejoin the trade bloc in the future. Mr Streeting is among the senior Labour figures to...

Using new data from the Gallup Workforce Panel, we document a persistent partisan gap in self- reported AI use at work: Democrats are consistently more likely than Republicans to report frequent use. In 2025:Q4, for example, 27.8% of Democrats report using AI weekly or daily, compared with 22.5% of Republicans. Democrats also report deeper task-level integration, using AI in 16% more work activities than Republicans. Consistent with this, Democrats are employed in occupations with higher predicted AI exposure based on task-content measures and report larger perceived differences in AI-related job displacement risk. However, in regression models the partisan gap in...

Jerome Powell is not quite done running the Federal Reserve yet. The Federal Reserve Board voted on Friday to designate Jerome Powell as chair pro tempore until Kevin Warsh is sworn in as the new chair. The move was announced in a terse press release: “This temporary action to name the incumbent as chair pro tempore is consistent with past practice during similar transitions between chairs.” The press release did not explain what statutory authority the Board was relying on. Nor did it address the fact that the claim of consistency with precedent is, in critical respects, unsupported by the...

-The UK government will introduce legislation banning new North Sea oil and gas exploration licences as part of its Energy Independence Bill. -Critics argue the policy will increase Britain’s reliance on imported fossil fuels while damaging Scotland’s oil and gas industry. -Rising oil prices and disruptions tied to the Iran conflict have intensified political pressure on Labour to reconsider the ban. The government will make it illegal to grant new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, the King said at the state opening of Parliament, in a sign ministers are refusing to buckle in the face of a...

A large Coca-Cola bottling plant in Southern California will shut down permanently this summer, ending a longstanding relationship between the company and the city. Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling made the announcement in a May 8 WARN (Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification) notice – a legally required 60-day "heads-up" that employers must give to workers before a major layoff or office closure. "We regularly assess our locations, products, and services to ensure we can continue driving sustainable growth and innovation across our business," a spokesperson for Reyes Coca-Cola Bottling wrote to SFGATE. "As such, we have announced the closure of our Ventura...

Authorities are investigating after a fiery explosion Friday at a lumber mill in Searsmont, Maine. Officials have not yet released the number of injuries or fatalities. Camden Fire & Rescue confirmed it has a crew providing assistance. "Our thoughts are with the injured, medical professionals providing care and first responders working to control the situation," the department wrote in a statement on Facebook. "We anticipate having personnel committed to helping for several days." Ben Hamel, the mill's purchasing manager, told the Bangor Daily News that the fire started in an area where wood shavings are packaged. The fire then spread...

Key Points Canada is allowing 49,000 Chinese-made electric vehicles to be imported for retail sales annually at a tariff rate of 6.1%. That’s opening the market for auto dealers in the country to sell Chinese EVs. “I think it is going to a be a huge eye-opener,” Michael MacGillivray, who oversees 10 dealerships in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada, told CNBC. ============================================================ HALIFAX, Nova Scotia — Michael MacGillivray sees the arrival of Chinese electric vehicles in Canada as a potential game changer. “I think it is going to a be a huge eye-opener,” said MacGillivray, who oversees 10 dealerships...

Surging Treasury yields sent the stock market a warning on Friday amid a sell-off in global bonds.The 30-year Treasury yield (^TYX) rose 10 basis points to reach 5.12%, its highest level since June 2007. The 10-year benchmark yield (^TNX), meanwhile, climbed 11 basis points to 4.57%, its highest level since May 2025. Bond yields and prices move in opposite directions, meaning that when yields rise, prices fall.Both bonds broke above the key psychological levels of 5% and 4.5%, respectively. As Yahoo Finance’s Jared Blikre has written before, the 5% zone for the so-called long bond represents a danger zone that...

California is pulling the plug on the wildly recognizable Kars4Kids jingle after a judge ruled the charity’s ads misled donors about who actually benefits from their money. Orange County Superior Court Judge Gassia Apkarian found that the organization violated California false advertising and unfair competition laws by failing to disclose that donations primarily fund Orthodox Jewish programs tied to Oorah Inc., a New York- and New Jersey-based outreach organization. The ruling was published May 8 and comes after California resident Bruce Puterbaugh sued the charity in 2021, claiming he donated his car after repeatedly hearing the famous ad and believed...

US President Donald Trump has indicated that an agreement with China for 200 Boeing commercial aircraft could rise to 750, if the planemaker does a “good job”. President Trump was speaking to reporters on Air Force One as he left China following an official state visit to meet with President Xi in Beijing. The US president first announced that he had secured an order from China for 200 Boeing aircraft on May 14, 2026, but his latest comments went much further. Speaking on May 15, 2026, President Trump said: “We made a lot of great trade deals, including over 200...

Key FactsNew York lawmakers are planning the tax, Bloomberg reported, citing unnamed people familiar with the state budget negotiations who noted the proposal would be levied at 1% of the buying price and be paid by buyers. The legislators are also considering expanding the tax to $1 million or more cash purchases in the state that would incorporate the suburbs and upstate New York, Bloomberg added. The tax in New York City alone could generate up to $160 million, according to the unnamed sources Bloomberg cited. A spokesperson for Gov. Kathy Hochul, D-N.Y., told Bloomberg she “announced a general agreement...

"They're looking to explore Alaska" is the latest word on how Communist China might reduce its dependence on uncertain Persian Gulf oil imports, according to a Fox News report on Thursday. As you must know by now, President Donald Trump and his impressive entourage are in Beijing for a two-day summit with Chinese Communist Party boss Xi Jinping, which always makes for great TV. I grew up watching presidents Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, and George H.W. Bush meet with an accelerating array of Soviet party bosses, usually so that they could agree that neither side would build more nuclear missiles...

The Senate Parliamentarian on Thursday struck down three key provisions of the Senate’s reconciliation bill Last month, the House of Representatives passed the Senate-approved package to fund the Department of Homeland Security by voice vote, ending the 75-day shutdown. ICE and Border Patrol were to be funded separately through a reconciliation package. Senate Republicans put together a $72 billion reconciliation package to fund ICE and Border Patrol. On Thursday, Democrat and Republican staffers met with Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough to go through the reconciliation package. Elizabeth MacDonough, the Obama-era Senate Parliamentarian, struck down key provisions: Main Border Patrol funding, additional...

A new estimate from the Congressional Budget Office suggests that the cost of building and maintaining the proposed “Golden Dome” missile defense system could reach roughly $1.2 trillion over two decades, far exceeding the $185 billion figure previously cited by Pentagon leadership. The ambitious program aims to significantly expand existing U.S. missile defense infrastructure. Plans include bolstering ground-based interceptors, upgrading sensor networks and enhancing command systems, while also introducing a major space-based component designed to identify, monitor and potentially intercept threats from orbit. This orbital layer would rely on a large network of satellites, including systems capable of engaging incoming...

Key Points Cuban Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy told state media the island nation has run out of fuel oil and diesel. Protests broke out in Havana on Wednesday as blackouts in the capital continued. The Trump administration, which has effectively blocked oil shipments to Cuba since January, has offered assistance in exchange for political reform. =========================================================== Cuba has run out of oil and diesel, its energy minister said on Wednesday, as an ongoing U.S. blockade starves the island nation of fuel. “The sum of the different types of fuel: crude oil, fuel oil, of which we have...

The Fake News won't want to show this meltdown. "Illegals deserve bank access" narrative BOMBED! 🔥 "This would apply to EXISTING customers." Sources say Trump could issue an executive order requiring passports or proof of citizenship — no more illegals banking in America, laundering money, or wiring billions home! This is a MASSIVE step in the immigration crackdown — make it impossible for illegals to function here, and watch self-deportation skyrocket! Do you firmly support President Trump forcing banks to verify citizenship and CUT OFF illegals from the system?

The Supreme Court of the United States handed down its decision in Montgomery v. Caribe Transport II, LLC, this morning. It was unanimous. Nine to zero. Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote the opinion. Justice Brett Kavanaugh filed a concurrence, joined by Justice Samuel Alito, saying the case was closer than the majority opinion suggested, but agreeing with the result. A negligent-hiring claim against a freight broker is not preempted by the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act. The FAAAA’s safety exception, 49 U.S.C. Section 14501(c)(2)(A), saves it. States retain authority to regulate safety “with respect to motor vehicles,” and require a...