Free Republic

Gyeongju, South Korea – United States President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping have agreed to call off a mutual escalation in their countries’ trade war, lowering the temperature in a heated confrontation that has threatened to upend the global economy. Trump and Xi sealed a one-year trade truce on Thursday on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in South Korea, where the two leaders met face-to-face for the first time since 2019. But while Trump and Xi’s agreement offered a reprieve to businesses unsettled by months of back-and-forth trade salvoes, it did little to roll...

Here's a look at how US tariffs on Chinese goods have changed during President Trump's second term so far. February: Trump imposes a 10% tariff on Chinese goods due to what he said was the flow of the drug fentanyl to the US. March: The president adds another 10% tariff on goods from China, accusing it of not doing enough to address the fentanyl flow to the US. April: Trump adds a 34% levy on all Chinese imports as part of his sweeping "Liberation Day" tariffs. This brings the total to 54% on Chinese goods. This is on top of...

Behind a large glass wall, a worker in full protective gear watches as hundreds of tiny glass bottles whizz by every minute, sterilized, filled and packaged by a ballet of robotic arms. Inside each ampule is the substance at the heart of the geopolitical strife between the United States and China: fentanyl, the deadly opioid set to be top of the agenda when Presidents Donald Trump and Xi Jinping meet Thursday. NBC News got exclusive access to the headquarters of Yichang Humanwell Pharmaceutical, the largest producer of the drug in China, and indeed Asia, at its sprawling complex in the...

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis bans H-1B visas at state universities, ordering institutions to hire Americans instead of foreign workers, citing visa abuse and prioritising local graduates for taxpayer-funded jobs. In a bombshell directive shaking up higher education, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis on Wednesday announced that state universities will no longer be allowed to hire foreign workers on H-1B visas, ordering institutions to prioritise American citizens and Florida residents for all university positions. “Universities across the country are importing foreign workers on H-1B visas instead of hiring Americans who are qualified and available to do the job,” DeSantis declared. “We will...

While a U.S.-China nuclear war is not inevitable due to mutual deterrence, the risk of “accidental” escalation is rising. China’s rapid nuclear expansion—adding 100 warheads annually since 2023—erodes stability. A future conventional war, fought at “blinding speed” with cyber and space weapons, could lead to a tragic miscalculation. A U.S. conventional strike on a “dual-use” Chinese target might be misinterpreted as a disarming first strike, prompting a nuclear “use or lose” response.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley has launched an investigation into the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, and the Ford Foundation over reports the organizations funneled millions of dollars to the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliates. Grassley sent letters to each foundation asking whether the reports are accurate and how any such payments comply with federal tax laws governing 501(c)(3) charitable status. “According to recent reports, [your organizations], through grants and direct payments, have funded the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and its allies,” Grassley wrote. “To maintain tax exempt status, an organization’s activities must be...

China's state-owned COFCO bought three U.S. soybean cargoes this week, two trade sources said, the country's first purchases from this year's U.S. harvest ahead of this week's summit of leaders Donald Trump and Xi Jinping. COFCO purchased about 180,000 metric tons of soybeans for December and January shipment through Pacific Northwest port terminals, the sources said. COFCO did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment. Benchmark Chicago soybean futures prices jumped this week to their highest in 15 months, rebounding from recent five-year lows on hopes for a U.S.-China trade deal.

n anti-Israel transgender rabbi who was once tossed out of the White House has become the face of a “Jews for Zohran” ad — as she tries to rally support for socialist mayoral front-runner Zohran Mamdani in the final days of the election. Abby Stein, a part-time rabbi at Brooklyn’s progressive Kolot Chayein synagogue, is among a handful of female rabbis featured in the ad recently put out by the Jews for Racial and Economic Justice (JREJ). “We know Zohran will fight to make our city affordable and safe for our families,” Stein declared in the campaign ad.“As Jews, as...

Photo of "rabbi" Abby Stein omitted, to minimize reader nausea. An ad campaign from the “Jews for Zohran” caught our attention yesterday. We tracked down the “rabbis” in the ad. You won’t believe it, but one of them, “Rabbi” Abby Stein, is a transgender rabbi who was booted from a Biden White House shindig for disrupting the event with demands to end U.S. aid to Israel. This is my shocked face. Stein, a biological man, is the type of committed Jew who sat down for an interfaith dialogue with Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian just days before he launched nearly 200...

On Friday, I started a regular series that I'll post at the end of each week called "The New Monroe Doctrine." (And thank you all for the wonderful feedback I've received. It's encouraging.) My goal with that is to tell you what's going on in the Western Hemisphere each week as it relates to the United States. Donald Trump and Marco Rubio are making this a priority, thank goodness, and I'm going to cover it every step of the way. In that article, I mentioned that I was also planning to launch a second, complementary column specifically about China's influence...

Late in World War 2, in the European theater, the Germans hit the Allied air forces with something new: Jet fighters. Chief among them was the Messerschmitt Me-262, a big, brutal twin-engine beast packing four 30-mm cannons. It was considerably faster than the American P-51 Mustang, generally considered the best piston-engine fighter in the air at the time. It was near-impossible to defeat in the air, but it was slow and cumbersome on taxi, vulnerable during takeoff and landing, and required a long runway. So we went after them when they were on the ground, destroying aircraft and bases alike....

Shield AI's X-BAT designed to counter China's strategy of destroying American aircraft before they leave the ground Analysts say China has developed a chilling strategy for fighting a war with the United States: destroy America’s fighter jets before they ever leave the ground. In nearly every modern conflict, disabling enemy aircraft on the ground has been the first move. When Israel struck Iranian nuclear sites earlier this year, it began by destroying Iranian runways — grounding Tehran’s air force before it could take off. Russia and Ukraine have done the same throughout their ongoing war, targeting airfields to cripple enemy...

In a speech before the House of Commons on May 13, 1940, referencing the war against Nazi Germany, Winston Churchill stated, “What is our policy? … To wage war against a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark lamentable catalogue of human crime.” The Prussian military theorist Karl von Clausewitz once observed that “war is the continuation of politics by other means.” Various political and moral interpretations exist regarding what constitutes a “just war.” That usually depends on one’s point of view. As the saying goes, one man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter. What if there were a country...

🚨 JUST IN: Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) accuses President Trump of doing what CHINA and IRAN do when he "executes" narco-terrorists "I would call them extrajudicial killings. This is akin to what China does, what Iran does with drug dealers -- they summarily execute people without presenting evidence to the public. So it's WRONG."

FBI Director Kash Patel announced that the federal agency is “on the verge” of unmasking the intricate funding sources and command structure behind Antifa, a decentralized left-wing terrorist organization responsible for civil unrest and extreme acts of violence against political enemies Speaking to Just the News, Patel said that “there are indications that support for anti-American radical groups is coming from America’s enemies overseas,” and that the bureau is “following the money.” Furthermore, Patel indicated that funding is also coming from US nonprofits with IRS tax-exempt status. Investigations have been launched. “Look, the thing I can tell you is that...

Washington describes first day of negotiations between Scott Bessent and He Lifeng as ‘very constructive’The US and China kicked off high-stakes trade talks in Malaysia on Saturday that Washington described as “very constructive” ahead of Donald Trump’s trip to Asia for a summit with Xi Jinping.Following weeks of mounting tensions between the world’s two biggest economies, US Treasury secretary Scott Bessent and Chinese vice-premier He Lifeng held negotiations in Kuala Lumpur that will help shape the outcome of the summit on Thursday.This month Beijing announced sweeping export controls on rare earths, prompting Trump to threaten an extra 100 per cent...

When the headlines scream about trillion-dollar defense budgets vanishing into black holes, it’s a rare jolt to see the Pentagon back a project that actually delivers firepower without draining the taxpayer’s wallet dry. Enter Castelion, [https://www.castelion.com/], the scrappy California-based defense outfit that’s just locked in contracts to bolt its Blackbeard hypersonic missile onto Army and Navy gear—real platforms, not pie-in-the-sky prototypes. Announced yesterday, this deal is a straight shot at fielding weapons that can outpace threats from Beijing to Moscow, all while keeping costs grounded in reality. Castelion, barely three years old and holed up in Torrance with outposts in...

For Xi, rare-earths bombshell signaled a new toughness, while TikTok was ‘spiritual opium’ that could be turned into a low-cost bargaining chipDuring his first term, President Trump often frustrated Xi Jinping with his freewheeling mix of threats and bonhomie. This time, the Chinese leader believes he has cracked the code.Xi has thrown out China’s traditional diplomatic playbook and tailored a new one specifically for Trump, said people close to Chinese policymakers, who describe Xi as appearing confident and emboldened. The new strategy, these people said, embraces Trump’s self-image as a master dealmaker, offering concessions on high-visibility issues he personally cares...

Volkswagen will continue to operate...despite cutoff of chips made in China... US and Chinese officials holding trade talks this weekend... US military drones are flying over Gaza... ...airports in Vilnius and Kaunas, Lithuania shut down tonight... Ontario Premier Doug Ford backing down from an advertising campaign... 17 people killed when a rubber boat carrying migrants capsized... Explosions in Kiev late tonight... Attacking Ukrainian drones taken down as they approached Moscow... A secret donor stepping forward...pay US military salaries... ...temporary pause issued by a federal appeals court against President Trump's deployment... United States imposing sanctions on the President of Colombia... Three...

Chinese and Russian operatives are using “sex warfare” to seduce and spy on Silicon Valley professionals, industry insiders have told The Times. James Mulvenon, the chief intelligence officer of Pamir Consulting, which provides risk assessments for American companies investing in China, said he was one of the many men recently targeted by foreign seductresses hoping to gain access to US tech secrets. “I’m getting an enormous number of very sophisticated LinkedIn requests from the same type of attractive young Chinese woman,” said Mulvenon. “It really seems to have ramped up recently.” Mulvenon also described how, at a business conference on...