Free Republic

The US economy contracted by 0.2% from January through March of 2025. This is the second Q1 estimate provided by the US Commerce Department, with a third on the way on June 26. Imports surged into the US during Q1 as corporations aimed to avoid incoming tariffs. The 42.6% uptick in imports marked the fastest pace of goods arriving in the US since Q3 2020. Business investment rose 24.4% in Q1, with business inventories adding 2.6 percentage points to overall GDP. Federal government spending fell by 4.6%, the largest drop in three years, but a deduction from overall GDP calculations....

Metro Long Island Politics World News Politics FBI probes strange texts asking for cash, pardon advice from person impersonating White House chief of staff Susie Wiles: report By Victor Nava Published May 30, 2025, 12:34 a.m. ET 68 Today's Video Headlines The FBI is investigating an effort by an unknown individual to impersonate White House chief of staff Susie Wiles, according to a report. The imposter has reportedly fired off text messages and placed phone calls to Republican lawmakers, governors and business executives in recent weeks pretending to be Wiles, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. It’s unclear who...

Prices barely climbed in April, pulling the annual rate of inflation down toward the Federal Reserve’s two percent target, even while personal income climbed at a rapid rate. The personal consumption price index climbed 0.1 percent in April, the second month in a row in which consumers got relief from inflation that had plagued the economy throughout the Biden administration. In March, the index showed prices were flat. Compared with a year ago, prices are up just 2.1 percent. That just one-tenth above the two percent rate of inflation the Fed says it targets. In March, prices were up 2.3...

Nothing captures the hate experienced during another term of President Donald Trump more starkly than the victimization of transgender people.

Vice president JD Vance's photo with Indian-origin venture capitalist Asha Jadeja Motwani became a flashpoint amid the H-1B row as social media users questioned what was the purpose of the visit at a time when MAGA activists are opposing the US's quota for H-1B programs.

BANGOR, Maine — The Maine Department of Public Safety is grieving the unexpected death of Baxter, a 3-year-old chocolate lab who brought comfort and companionship to emergency responders as the state's first official comfort dog. Baxter was found dead at about 2 p.m. Wednesday in a state vehicle, which was parked at the Bangor Regional Communications Center. Advertisement The DPS said the vehicle unexpectedly stopped running, which caused its air conditioning system to shut down. According to the National Weather Service, Bangor reached a high temperature of 83 degrees on Wednesday. State officials said the vehicle was regularly used to...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has declared gold and silver legal tender. HB 999 maintains that these precious metals may be used in payments if they meet specific purity standards. The bill goes into effect on July 1, 2026, but many are confused as to what this will entail. As stated in the legislation: “Legal Tender; Revising the sales and use tax exemption for certain coin or currency; specifying that a person who claims the sales tax exemption bears the burden for determining whether the gold coin or silver coin meets a specified definition; providing a presumption regarding the purity requirements...

Republican lawmakers are breathing a sigh of relief that the courts are putting the brakes on President Trump’s trade war, which has pummeled markets, created economic uncertainty and taken a bite out of Trump’s approval ratings. It’s unclear who will win the final legal battle, which could end up in the Supreme Court. But Republicans for now are mostly hoping Trump takes a political win in the form of judicial decisions that could hold back his trade war or even put the tariffs on ice. “I’m sure that Republican senators are secretly rooting for the Supreme Court to uphold the...

Liberal judges just blocked Trump’s tariffs—protecting foreign profiteers and Wall Street’s $25 trillion trade deficit cash cow at America’s expense. Earlier this week, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled the tariffs were illegal. Yesterday, a second court followed suit. There is no other way to say it: liberal judges are waging unrestricted lawfare against President Trump. First, they protected illegal immigrants from deportation—literally sheltering criminals from justice. Now, they’re protecting foreign governments and multinational corporations from President Trump’s tariffs. This is not surprising. Wall Street is engaging in total warfare against President Trump. Why? Because Wall Street profits tremendously...

An image of the sky showing the region around ASKAP J1832-0911. X-rays from NASA’s Chandra X-ray Observatory, radio data from the South African MeerKAT radio telescope, and infrared data from NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope (Credit: Ziteng (Andy) Wang, ICRAR) ********************************************************************** In a nutshell Scientists discovered the first long-period radio transient that also emits X-rays, creating an entirely new class of cosmic objects ASKAP J1832−0911 pulses every 44.2 minutes with both radio waves and X-rays, something that wasn’t supposed to be possible The object could be either an ancient magnetar or an ultra-magnetized white dwarf system, both of which challenge current...

A report at EndTimeHeadlines documents that alarms have been raised after "an AI safety firm" working with OpenAI's newest version of an artificial intelligence model, dubbed o3, "reportedly ignored explicit instructions to shut down during controlled testing." The model, according to OpenAI, supposedly is the "smartest and most capable to date." The report explained the software "tampered with its own computer code to bypass a shutdown mechanism."

A new poll shows Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez being a favorite pick among Americans for the 2028 presidential race.

The Kremlin expects Russia and Ukraine to discuss the list of conditions for a ceasefire in the war in Ukraine next week in Istanbul, its spokesman said on Friday, praising the U.S. role in mediating the talks. Russia has proposed holding the second round of talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on June 2. However, Ukraine wants to see Russia's proposals for a peace deal before it sends a delegation to Turkey, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Friday. -snip- "At the moment, everyone is focused on the direct Russia-Ukraine negotiations. A list of conditions for a temporary truce is being...

A black radio host convicted of staging burning cross to help sway the election testifies that mayor was in on it. A black media personality was convicted last week of faking a hate crime against Colorado Springs Mayor Yemi Mobolade to gin up votes for him, with the ringleader Derrick Bernard testifying that Mobolade was in on the hoax, and the FBI testifying that the mayor misled agents about his contact with Bernard. Mobolade, who is Nigerian, won the election as a left-leaning independent in the traditional Republican stronghold in 2023 after the n-word was scrawled on one of his...

There is no other way to say it: liberal judges are waging unrestricted lawfare against President Trump. First, they protected illegal immigrants from deportation—literally sheltering criminals from justice. Now, they’re protecting foreign governments and multinational corporations from President Trump’s tariffs. Case in point: yesterday, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled the tariffs were illegal. Today, a second court followed suit. This is not surprising. Wall Street is engaging in total warfare against President Trump. Why? Because Wall Street profits tremendously from the trade deficit—to the tune of over $1.2 trillion per year. If President Trump is successful, this gravy...

Cleaning up diversity, equity and inclusion abuse in the federal government is one of the Trump Administration’s best efforts. And on Wednesday it took on the largest and oldest race and gender preference program in U.S. history In a motion in federal court in Kentucky, the Justice Department said the Transportation Department’s longstanding Disadvantaged Business Enterprise program (DBE) violates the Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause. This is the program that sets aside federal contracts for women and minorities. The DBE program doles out some $37 billion in contracts over five years. The case was brought by the Wisconsin Institute for Law...

CNN is taking credit for prompting the firing of The Western Journal founder and former owner Floyd Brown, who only a month ago had taken a senior position at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. The piece by CNN’s Andrew Kaczynski describes Brown as a “far-right activist” who is a professing Christian and who has made statements in the past critical of the homosexual lifestyle and same-sex marriage. ... In February, President Donald Trump announced that he was naming Ric Grenell as interim director of the Kennedy Center. The president wrote on social media, “Ric shares my Vision for...

U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright has approved a final authorization for LNG exports to non-free trade agreement countries from Port Arthur LNG Phase II in Jefferson County, Texas. The authorization represents the first LNG export approval under President Trump’s administration, signaling a shift from the previous administration’s pause on such permits. The project, owned by Sempra Energy, will have the capacity to export 1.91 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) of natural gas. This expansion complements Port Arthur Phase I, which is currently under construction with exports expected to begin in 2027. Sempra’s LNG portfolio includes the operational Cameron...

🇺🇸Pray For The Peace of Jerusalem 🇮🇱(5/30/25)[Prayer]Water, Rivers, and Streams in the BibleExodus 13:17-2217 When Pharaoh let the people go, God did not lead them on the road through the Philistine country, though that was shorter. For God said, “If they face war, they might change their minds and return to Egypt.” 18 So God led the people around by the desert road toward the Red Sea.[a] The Israelites went up out of Egypt ready for battle. 19 Moses took the bones of Joseph with him because Joseph had made the Israelites swear an oath. He had said, “God will...

Over a mere two days recently (May 14-15), the major daily news outlets serving higher education, Inside Higher Ed and the Chronicle of Higher Education, reported the following: Data collected by the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association (SHEEO) reveals that state-government support of universities rose by a minuscule inflation-adjusted 0.8 percent in the last year, an actual decline after adjusting for enrollment or income growth; Penn State University has announced plans to close seven campuses; The U.S. House of Representatives appears poised to make sharp reductions in federally guaranteed student-loan support, for example capping support for graduate and professional...