Free Republic

If China invades Taiwan and cuts off its chip exports to American companies, the tech industry and the U.S. economy would be crippled.Federal officials have for years tried to wean Silicon Valley from its dependence on Taiwan, an island democracy roughly the size of Maryland that makes 90 percent of the world’s high-end computer chips. In secret briefings held in Washington and Silicon Valley, national security officials warned executives from companies like Apple, Advanced Micro Devices and Qualcomm that China was making plans to retake Taiwan, which Beijing has long considered a breakaway territory. A Chinese blockade of Taiwan, the...

US stocks retreated on Monday as investors grappled with the fallout from the Supreme Court's rebuff of President Trump's most sweeping tariffs, which has thrown major trade deals into doubt. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) led the way down, losing roughly 1.3%, or over 600 points. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) both fell roughly 0.6%, coming off a volatile but winning session on Friday. Growing uncertainty about the global trade landscape is unsettling markets amid debate about Trump's next moves and reaction from countries that have signed US trade pacts. The Supreme Court's...

Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen is turning down an offer from President Trump, who has openly sought to acquire the island from Denmark, to send a Navy hospital ship to his country. “It’s going to be a no thank you from here,” Nielsen wrote on Facebook. “President Trump’s idea to send an American hospital ship here to Greenland is noted. But we have a public health system where treatment is free for citizens. It’s a deliberate choice. And a basic part of our society. It’s not like that in the United States, where it costs money to go to the...

After much talk of an economic slowdown, February brought reassuring headlines. The official unemployment rate had fallen as another 130,000 jobs were added to the US economy, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. That is good news, but it is not the whole story. The official unemployment rate counts only people actively looking for work – it does not capture those who would like a job but have stopped searching. The official unemployment rate is so narrow that it hides long-term changes in the economy. In fact, things are far worse than the official figures suggest. This matters for...

U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer on Sunday said the Trump administration would need guidance from the courts on how to handle tariff refunds after the Supreme Court struck down duties authorized under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act. “Well, we need the court to tell us what to do. They’ve created a situation where they struck down the tariffs and gave zero guidance on this,” Greer said during an appearance on ABC’s “This Week.” “Historically, you know, as a trade attorney, in my experience, courts will normally give you some instruction on what to do, when.” “The Court of International...

Victor Schwartz, 67, became the face of the battle to strike down the president's controversial tariffs when he sued the government last April. Schwartz has owned VOS Selections in Manhattan since 1987 and feared the tariffs would devastate his small business. He argued that the US President lacked the authority to impose tariffs without congressional approval, becoming one of the few dissenting corporate voices to publicly oppose the fees

President Donald Trump said Friday he will sign an executive order imposing a new 10% “global tariff,” hours after the Supreme Court struck down his sweeping “reciprocal” import duties in a major rebuke of his trade agenda. The new tariffs will come on top of the existing levies that remain intact following the high court’s decision, Trump said as he raged at the ruling during a White House press briefing.

President Donald Trump raged over some disappointing economic news shortly before his Commerce Department delivered it to the public on Friday morning. “The Democrat Shutdown cost the U.S.A. at least two points in GDP. That’s why they are doing it, in mini form, again. No Shutdowns!” declared the president in a 7:50 a.m. Truth Social post. “Also, LOWER INTEREST RATES. ‘Two Late’ Powell is the WORST!!!,” he added. Less than an hour later, his administration announced that the United States’ GDP grew at an annualized rate of 1.4% in the fourth quarter of 2025. The 43-day government shutdown last fall...

ith all eyes on the U.S. military buildup around Iran right now, the Russia-Ukraine War has been temporarily upstaged. It will not play second fiddle for long. The recent trilateral talks in Geneva involving the Russian Federation, Ukraine, and the United States have been unable to resolve a principal issue of disagreement: Ukraine’s martial-law-president Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s refusal to cede any land and Russia’s insistence that the Donbas region — specifically the four eastern territories that have already held a referendum in support of becoming part of the Russian Federation — be acknowledged as sovereign Russian territory. As the war heads...

The talks are still alive. Just. Iranian and US diplomats, engaging indirectly through Omani intermediaries, have yet to make any substantive progress towards a framework of understanding that governs further talks – as Kafkaesque as that might sound – but they are talking, and that is the best that the diplomats can hope for right now. What separates Iran and America is a vast chasm between their respective red lines, and beyond that, the very substance of the talks themselves. The US is not willing to countenance an Iran that enriches uranium, has a ballistic missile programme and arms proxies...

The husband of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer has been barred from the department’s headquarters after at least two female staff members told officials that he had sexually assaulted them, according to people familiar with the decision and a police report obtained by The New York Times. The women said Ms. Chavez-DeRemer’s husband, Dr. Shawn DeRemer, had touched them inappropriately at the Labor Department’s building on Constitution Avenue. One of the incidents, during working hours on the morning of Dec. 18, was recorded on office security cameras, the people said. The video showed Dr. DeRemer giving one of the women an...

Tucker Carlson, Joe Rogan, and Charlie Kirk are by far among the most popular media figures among Republican voters, according to polling conducting by Rich Barris of Big Data Poll, obtained exclusively by Breitbart News.Among the Republicans surveyed, a whopping 74.7% viewed the late Charlie Kirk either very or somewhat favorably. Similarly, Joe Rogan was viewed favorably by 62.4% of Republicans, while Tucker Carlson received a 52.1% favorability rating.Conversely, rightwing commentators such as Mark Levin, Laura Loomer, and Nick Fuentes scored far lower on this key favorability index, with significantly larger portions not recognizing their names.Mark Levin received a 39.7%...

The Trump administration is closer to a major war in the Middle East than most Americans realize. It could begin very soon.Why it matters: A U.S. military operation in Iran would likely be a massive, weeks-long campaign that would look more like full-fledged war than last month's pinpoint operation in Venezuela, sources say.The sources noted it would likely be a joint U.S.-Israeli campaign that's much broader in scope — and more existential for the regime — than the Israeli-led 12-day war last June, which the U.S. eventually joined to take out Iran's underground nuclear facilities. Such a war would have...

"The South Carolina GOP senator is using golf, good humor and frequent White House visits to try to influence foreign policy and keep Trump close as he faces a primary challenge.I’m his north star,” Graham told NBC News in an interview this week, a bold remark few in his party would dare make. “We disagree, but he knows where I am coming from. He sees me helping him as much as anybody in the Senate.” ADVERTISING Late last month, Graham temporarily blocked a $1.2 trillion deal to avert a government shutdown. Asked by reporters why he would block something that...

President Trump sent Tom Homan to Minneapolis to declare victory and go home, and so he has. Trump’s border czar announced the end of the ICE surge that had roiled the city and our national politics. Homan says ICE is getting more cooperation from county jails in handing over incarcerated illegal aliens, and immigration authorities have detained many of the illegal immigrants they had been targeting. It’s not clear how extensive the supposed new cooperation is, but Homan certainly forged a better relationship with state and city officials. The big story here is that semiorganized resistance on the streets, with...

@ElectionMapsUK "Yesterday, Rupert Lowe MP launched a political party named Restore Britain. If there were a General Election tomorrow, how would you vote in that election?" RFM: 25% GRN: 20% LAB: 15% CON: 13% RES: 10% LDM: 10%

It's NOT ENOUGH: Voters Say Trump WINS Aren't WORKING!

A 23-year-old British woman who was shot dead by her father had argued with him about Donald Trump earlier that day, an inquest has heard. Lucy Harrison, a fashion buyer from Warrington, Cheshire, was staying with her father, Kris Harrison, and his family at their home in Prosper, Texas, in January last year. Ms Harrison's boyfriend, Sam Littler, who made the trip with her, told Cheshire Coroner's Court she would often become upset with her father when he spoke about his gun ownership. He said that on the morning of 10 January - when the couple were due to fly...

Representative Jamie Raskin has said unredacted copies of certain documents in the Epstein files appear to contradict President Donald Trump’s longstanding assertion that he barred the late sex offender from his Florida club. *** the Maryland Democrat said one of the documents he reviewed at the Justice Department’s new satellite office in Washington, D.C., was an email from Jeffrey Epstein to his co‑conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell. He said the email included details relayed by Epstein’s lawyers about a conversation with Trump’s attorneys around 2009. Raskin*** said Trump was quoted as saying that while Epstein was never a member of his Mar-a-Lago...

CCTV footage of the moment prison guards discovered Jeffrey Epstein’s body in his cell has been unearthed by The Telegraph. Epstein was being held in the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in New York on sex trafficking charges when he was found unresponsive on Aug 10, 2019. The circumstances of the financier’s suicide and his ties to high-profile public figures, including presidents, media tycoons and the Royal family, have fuelled conspiracy theories that his death may have involved foul play. Until now, no footage of that moment has been published. The FBI says Epstein took his own life and this was corroborated...