Free Republic

Midway through 2026, energy is the issue of the moment. The standoff in the Strait of Hormuz, soaring gas prices, the race to build AI data centers, and intensifying competition with China all point to the same question: Who will produce the energy that powers the modern world? That question is headed to the US Supreme Court. In a few months, the justices will hear arguments in one of the most consequential energy cases in decades, Suncor v. Boulder County. It’s one of dozens of lawsuits brought by progressive state and local governments seeking to make oil and gas companies...

Pope Francis has accused Britain of placing greed over humanity by refusing to hand over a disputed island archipelago in the Indian Ocean to Mauritius. In an unusually muscular foreign policy intervention, the pope suggested that Britain’s failure to heed a United Nations vote calling on it relinquish sovereignty over the British Indian Ocean Territory was uncivilised. “Not all things that are right for humanity are right for our pocket, but international institutions must be obeyed,” the pope told journalists as he left Mauritius at the end of a three-nation tour of Africa. “If there is an internal dispute or...

The Chagos Islands may be little more than specks in the middle of the Indian Ocean, but they are at the center of a looming diplomatic row over a key American military base and the rise of Chinese power. Lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic have raised fears that the British government's decision to begin negotiations to hand over the islands to Mauritius could allow China the chance to build its own military facility on the archipelago — right under the nose of American forces at Diego Garcia. The issue is one of the most important strategic locations in...

WASHINGTON – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) warned the United Kingdom that it could damage its relationship with the United States if it threatens the future of the joint U.S.-U.K. military base on the island of Diego Garcia by ceding sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius. Key excerpts of the speech are below: “Do you know who is loving all of this? China, because China has a close relationship with Mauritius. And do you know what? It is going to get a lot closer. “This is insane. This is cell-deep stupid. This is bone-deep, down-to-the-marrow stupid. Because the United Nations...

A recent report exposes the concerning ways in which the Chinese Communist Party has leveraged the University of California system to shape California’s climate and energy policies — prioritizing China’s strategic interests while undermining American economic independence, energy stability, and national security. Titled “Behind the Climate Curtain: China’s Hidden Role in California’s Energy Mandates and University Partnerships,” this report by Ian Oxnevad, senior fellow at the National Association of Scholars (NAS), examines how California’s aggressive climate agenda, facilitated through partnerships between the University of California (UC) and China’s Tsinghua University, has benefited Beijing’s economic and military ambitions at the expense...

Australian beef exports to China could be hit with a 55 per cent tariff within days. Earlier this year, Beijing announced a quota on Australian beef of 205,000 tonnes a year...

... nations failed to establish or effectively enforce comprehensive legal prohibitions against importing goods produced wholly or partly through forced labour.While a subset of countries — including Canada, Mexico, Pakistan, Indonesia, and the European Union — will see 10% tariffs imposed due to specific enforcement failures, Australia has been grouped with jurisdictions like China and India under the higher 12.5% tariff bracket...

The White House is considering a plan to buy the Chagos Islands from Mauritius, the Telegraph reported on ​Sunday. U.S. officials have drawn up a proposal to bypass the U.K. ‌and make their own deal to take control of Diego Garcia, the report said. The plan is among several options being drafted by the White House, in a paper aimed at providing alternatives ​to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer ceding sovereignty of the Indian Ocean archipelago ​to Mauritius, the report said. "President Trump has been consistent in his position ⁠that the United Kingdom should not give away the British Indian...

The Great Nicobar Island is part of an archipelago that lies deep in the Indian Ocean. It's governed by India but is so distant that it takes a flight from the mainland and a 30-hour ferry ride to arrive. The upcoming Great Nicobar Project is set to transform this sleepy island into a bustling township over the next three decades. Once complete, the island will have a civilian and military airport, a transshipment port that caters to container ships, a power plant and a new town equipped to host a million tourists a year... In a press release in May,...

At an amusement park in China, a humanoid robot demonstrating martial arts accidentally struck a kindergarten boy in the abdomen. According to Yonhap News on June 5, a martial arts performance featuring a humanoid robot was recently held at an amusement park in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China. In China, events where various moves are programmed into humanoid robots and showcased have recently been gaining popularity. During the performance, as a large crowd gathered, a kindergarten boy leaned in close to the robot and was struck in the abdomen by the robot's foot while it was executing...

An American who worked as an editor and commentator for state-run media in China, Thomas Pauken II, pleaded guilty Thursday to working as an unregistered agent for the Chinese government in the U.S. During a roughly 40-minute hearing in Alexandria, Virginia, Pauken, 51, told U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema he was unaware of the legal requirement to register before acting for a foreign government, but he also said he understood that his lack of knowledge was not a defense to the charge.

Capt. Wendel Penetrante, Capt. Edwin Catubig and Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Dean Howell were relieved on Wednesday. No specific reason for their firing has been given. The commanding officer, executive officer and senior enlisted leader of a Navy ship repair facility in Yokosuka, Japan, have been fired, service officials announced on Wednesday. Capt. Wendel Penetrante, Capt. Edwin Catubig and Master Chief Petty Officer Thomas Dean Howell were relieved of their duties on Wednesday as commanding officer, executive officer, and command master chief, respectively, a Navy news release says. They were all assigned to the U.S. Naval Ship Repair Facility...

The lead organizer of the communist, pro-China organization Code Pink has crossed a bright red line after attacking a brave member of Congress on Wednesday. Rep. Anna Paulina Luna (R-FL) revealed on X that she was leaving the hearing with Secretary of State Marco Rubio when the "head honcho" of Code Pink harassed Paulina Luna and then smacked her arm, a clear case of assault. "The head honcho of Code Pink here on Capitol Hill decided to try to harass me as I was leaving my hearing with Rubio and smacked my arm," Paulina Luna revealed. "I have no issues...

ZURICH, May 27 (Reuters) - Hong ​Kong has overtaken Switzerland as the top global booking centre for cross-border wealth, ‌a first that is unlikely to be reversed as hubs in Asia grow faster than the European safe-haven, Boston Consulting Group said on Wednesday. Wealth from China and an IPO boom in 2025 helped ​Hong Kong rise to a $2.95 trillion offshore behemoth for the world's rich, narrowly ​surpassing Switzerland's $2.94 trillion in cross-border wealth, according to BCG's 2026 Global Wealth ⁠Report. "Hong Kong is cementing its role as China's gateway to global markets, though that ​same concentration ties its trajectory...

The Communist Chinese government rebuked a U.S. Army general for using the words “dagger” and “shield” to respectively describe regional allies South Korea and Japan. Four-star Gen. Xavier Brunson, the commander of the United States Forces Korea (USFK) and United Nations Command, made the analogy during a May 22 podcast interview conducted by the United States Army War College, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) first reported. Nearly a week later, the Chinese embassy in South Korea responded by issuing what it called a “solemn warn[ing]” to the general, claiming his use of figurative language to characterize the U.S.’s East...

Fox News is reporting that the coalition of anti-Trump nonprofits that have been leading the Anti-ICE protests notified its network to mobilize against Operation Epic Fury.They knew about the strikes even before they were announced, likely because they were notified by their Chinese Communist Party allies overseas.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, citing police, said on social media that [the truck driver] Dong, a native of China, does not speak English. NTSB board member Tom Chapman revealed few new details but said the bus was moving at a high rate of speed. “It seems fairly clear that if there was any braking there wasn’t much, because of the speed and severity of the collision,” Chapman said. [The Tragic Result] A family of four from Massachusetts who were killed when a bus crashed into multiple vehicles in Virginia were traveling to a wedding with a carload of homemade desserts...

Justice Clarence Thomas delivered a scathing dissent Tuesday as the Supreme Court refused to let Florida sue California and Washington over their lawless practice of handing out commercial driver’s licenses to illegal aliens who cannot read English road signs. The Court denied Florida’s motion for leave to file a bill of complaint in the original jurisdiction case, leaving the state with “nowhere else to bring” its claims, Thomas wrote. He was joined by Justice Samuel Alito. This decision comes after the horrific August 12, 2025, crash on the Florida Turnpike. Illegal alien Harjinder Singh, an Indian national who entered the...

On social media Friday, Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy identified the driver as 48-year-old Jing Dong, a naturalized U.S. citizen from China who received his CDL from New York State. Duffy said Dong does not speak English.

The driver of a bus involved in a deadly Virginia crash that killed five people doesn’t speak English, authorities said, according to US Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy who called it “unacceptable.” Five people were killed and dozens were injured when the driver of an E&P Travel bus heading from New York to North Carolina failed to slow down near a work zone and slammed into several cars on Interstate 95 in Stafford County, the Virginia State Police said. The crash happened around 2:35 a.m. Friday. A 13-year-old girl and 7-year-old boy, who were in the car ahead of the one...