Free Republic

Beijing’s epic military parade in early September triggered Western anxiety over China’s mounting hard-power potential. Indeed, the weapons trotted out were fearsome... But there’s a danger in fixating on China’s military upgrades. In fact, the country is fast eclipsing liberal democracies in more pragmatic ways — or already has. Grand set pieces of military theatre highlight combat threats to be taken seriously. Yet the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is positioning the nation as a twenty-first-century leader for different reasons. Among these are China’s near monopoly on critical mineral processing and refinement, its application-centric approach to artificial intelligence (AI), and...

Multinational retail giant Costco has sued the US government to secure a full refund of import duties if the Supreme Court rejects President Donald Trump's authority to impose tariffs without congressional approval. Costco's lawsuit urges the federal trade court to declare Trump's 'emergency' tariffs illegal, an authority the president says he has under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA). Two lower courts have already ruled that Trump exceeded his authority by using emergency powers to impose tariffs. The case has now reached the Supreme Court, and several companies are trying to protect their rights to refunds should the justices...

Nigerian human rights advocate: Cardinal Parolin is ‘emboldening’ Muslim attacks against ChristiansCardinal Parolin downplaying the Islamic genocide of Nigerian Christians ‘provides cover for those perpetrating the violence’ and ‘emboldens’ Muslim terrorists, Emeka Umeagbalasi said. The board chair of a Nigerian human rights organization, during an interview last week with Crux, slammed Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin for downplaying the role of Islam in the brutal genocide against the country’s Christians and said that he is encouraging further acts of Islamic terrorism against the faithful.During the interview, which was published on November 27, Emeka Umeagbalasi, the board chair of...

Rep. Eric Swalwell announced Thursday that he will run for California governor, the latest Democrat to join the crowded race to succeed outgoing Gov. Gavin Newsom. Swalwell, who has served in Congress since 2013, will face a list of high-profile Democrats that includes former Rep. Katie Porter, former Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, former Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, and activist billionaire Tom Steyer, who entered the race to lead the deep-blue state on Wednesday. Swalwell announced his gubernatorial run on ABC's "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" On his new campaign website, the California Democrat focused on the need to...

The woman Larry Summers asked for advice on how to get “horizontal” with in emails to Jeffrey Epstein is a high-flying economist, The Post can reveal. The ex-Treasury Secretary was referring to Chinese macro-economist Keyu Jin, 43 — then a tenured London School of Economics professor and Harvard graduate — and daughter of a top Chinese associate of President Xi Jinping. In several messages from 2018 and 2019, married former Harvard president Summers, 70, confided in his “wing man” Epstein about a woman he was chasing and delivered blow-by-blow updates of his pursuit. Jin Keyu speaking at the World Economic...

Western automotive and green energy executives who visit China are returning humbled — and even terrified.As The Telegraph reports, the executives are warning that the country’s heavily automated manufacturing industry could quickly leave Western nations behind, especially when it comes to electric vehicles.“We are in a global competition with China, and it’s not just EVs,” Ford CEO Jim Farley told The Verge last month. “And if we lose this, we do not have a future at Ford.”“You get this sense of a change, where China’s competitiveness has gone from being about government subsidies and low wages to a tremendous number...

Donald Trump has doubled down on his plan to bring in over 600,000 Chinese college students to the United States, in a polarizing move that has divided the MAGA base. However, the president has batted away criticism, declaring, “I know what MAGA wants better than anybody else.” His plan will see the annual number of visas offered to Chinese students increase to the new figure over the next two years, up from the current 300,000. (snip) Laura Ingraham grilled the president, telling Trump that “a lot of MAGA folks are not thrilled” about his plan. “Yeah, but you would have,...

Former Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., condemned President Donald Trump as a "vile creature" and the worst person on the planet in an interview with CNN published Monday. "He’s just a vile creature. The worst thing on the face of the earth," she said. "You think he’s the worst thing on the face of the earth?" interviewer Elex Michaelson asked. "I do, yeah. I do," Pelosi affirmed. Voting is underway for California’s Proposition 50, in a special election that will have a significant effect on next year's battle for the U.S. House majority. California voters are deciding whether to pass the proposition...

Federal officials have charged a Chicago woman with laundering large volumes of suspected narcotics proceeds after a months-long investigation linked her to cash exchanges tied to Mexican drug cartels and Chinese cryptocurrency networks, according to a recently unsealed federal complaint. Homeland Security Investigations arrested Xiao Mei of Canaryville on allegations that she coordinated a series of large cash exchanges in Chinatown and River North between February and July 2024. Prosecutors said Mei, described as a Chicago-based broker for a Chinese money-laundering network, regularly used WeChat to arrange pickups of bulk U.S. currency from associates of drug traffickers and transferred equivalent...

Facts contradict Vatican secretary’s claim that persecution in Nigeria ‘not a religious conflict’The Holy See’s Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin this week suggested that the violence against Christians in Nigeria is not a matter of Islamists targeting Christians but merely a series of conflicts stemming from non-religious disputes. But according to facts gathered by the Observatory of Religious Freedom in Africa (ORFA), however, the claim that Christians are not targeted for persecution is a “myth.”Speaking to journalists at the Pontifical Augustinian Institute in Rome as the advocacy organization Aid to the Church in Need launched its latest Religious Freedom...

Former Vice President Harris said on Thursday that any checks and balances to hold back President Trump have not worked. On tour to promote her new book about her campaign, “107 Days,” Harris spoke with journalist and podcaster Kara Swisher at the Warner Theatre to a sold-out audience. “The point is that the guardrails have failed, for the most part,” Harris said. “Except one, which is the people and the power of God.” “So right now, in this moment, if the Supreme Court isn’t a guardrail … what is, from a legal point of view, the guardrail that you see?”...

BREAKING: Congressman Eric Swalwell announces he will TARGET and INVESTIGATE private citizens who work with President Trump "when" Democrats win in 2026. "Accountability is COMING. It's all coming out. I hope this deters people from doing more of these deals for the president!" "We will subpoena the DOJ, but also private actors who've done these drug deals with the administration!" So they are just announcing their plans to weaponize government now.

[Catholic Caucus] Cardinal Chow denies persecution in Hong Kong, breaking with ZenCardinal Stephen Chow of Hong Kong has said there is no religious persecution in the territory, putting himself at odds with his predecessor Cardinal Joseph Zen, who has long warned that the Chinese Communist Party is steadily tightening its grip on the Church.Speaking in Parramatta on 15 September during a public dialogue in the “Bishop Vincent Presents” series, The Catholic Weekly reported that Cardinal Chow declared Beijing wanted to keep Hong Kong’s religious freedom “intact” and insisted: “I want to invite any one of you, everyone, to come to...

The Australian Government’s 2035 emissions target is ambitious, and the vehicles we buy are included in the pathway. Earlier this week the Federal Government announced it had set a national target to reduce overall emissions by 62 to 70 per cent (compared to 2005 levels) by 2035, something it called “ambitious, achievable, and in Australia’s national interests”. Spearheaded by the Climate Change Authority, the 2035 Targets Advice is the most aggressive planned reduction in emissions ever seen in Australia, and of course vehicles have their role to play. According to the CCA, to help meet this target approximately 85 per...

Rep. Eric Swalwell, D-Calif., donned a "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" hat during an interview with CNN on Thursday, after the late-night host's show was pulled. "Congressman, I see you are wearing a hat. What does that hat say?" CNN host John Berman asked the lawmaker, who responded with, "You're damn right I am, John." Disney said Wednesday it was pulling late-night host Jimmy Kimmel's program after the liberal comedian's remarks about the death of Charlie Kirk. "It should shake every American that the president of the United States is out there firing comedians who make fun of him. That is not...

President Donald Trump announced the United States is prepared to accept up to 600,000 Chinese students as part of a trade deal his administration is trying to strike with China. “We’re going to allow, it’s very important, 600,000 students,” Trump told reporters Monday at the White House. “We’re going to get along with China. But it’s a different relationship that we have now with China.” Trump made the announcement ahead of a bilateral meeting with South Korean President Lee Jae Myung after he was asked when he would sit down with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Friday on MSNBC’s “The Weeknight,” Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) said that President Donald Trump was a “Kremlin kiss ass” during his Anchorage, Alaska summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin. Swalwell said, “If you’re a Republican in Congress, you just saw a Kremlin kiss ass in the president of the United States. Somebody who squandered an opportunity to confront a ruthless dictator who is killing innocent children and kidnapping innocent children every single day. I don’t know what this meeting accomplished other than taking the Epstein files and inflation out of the news, but you have meetings like this to achieve...

Rep. Eric Swalwell (D-CA) claimed that President Donald Trump was “America’s Hitler” during a “No Kings Protest” outside of Union Station in Washington, D.C. “Donald Trump is America’s Hitler,” Swalwell is heard saying, according to a video posted to X. During the “No Kings Protest,” Swalwell also spoke about how the United States needed “more independent- minded journalists” who would not “cave or fold” to Trump. “We need more independent-minded journalists who are not going to cave or fold to Donald Trump,” Swalwell said, according to a video posted to X by Marisela Ramirez, a White House producer for Newsmax....

Tim Walz, failed Democrat vice presidential candidate and leftist governor of Minnesota, recently speculated that communist China might hold “moral authority” when it comes to the conflict between Israel and Iran that erupted on Friday. Walz, who was former Vice President Kamala Harris’s (D) choice for running mate in 2024, was speaking during an event hosted by the Center for American Progress when he made the comments, Fox News reported on Friday. Asked about the strikes, he replied, “Iran has to retaliate, in their mind,” adding that the “Middle East is back on fire in a way that has now...

A former Democratic candidate for New York state Assembly allegedly stole $160,000 in taxpayer cash by defrauding the state’s new campaign matching-funds program, federal prosecutors said Friday. Dao Yin, who lost his long-shot bid for the Assembly’s 40th District in Queens last year, was slapped with a wire fraud charge and arraigned in Brooklyn federal court Friday. Yin, 62, is accused of submitting bogus signatures to inflate the number of campaign contributions he received in order to boost the amount of public matching-funds he was entitled to receive, according to the feds. “Through lies and deceit, the defendant allegedly stole...