Free Republic

Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) said on Sunday he does not think the law would allow President Trump to send United States citizens convicted of violent crimes to Salvadoran prisons, despite the president’s suggestion that he might be open to that possibility. “No, ma’am. Nor should it be considered appropriate or moral,” Kennedy told NBC News’s Kristen Welker when asked on “Meet the Press” whether he thinks such a move would be legal. “We have our own laws,” he continued. “We have the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution. We shouldn’t send prisoners to foreign countries in my judgment.” Trump, in a...

An extra fee is showing up on more shopping bills lately, and it carries a not-so-subtle message: These tariffs weren’t our idea. From bathroom-fixture makers to toy shops, companies are starting to tack tariff surcharges onto invoices as a separate line item. Some are a $5 flat fee, while others represent as much as 40% of the subtotal. The tactic is a way to pass on at least some tariff costs to consumers—especially on Chinese-made goods, with levies totaling 145% since January—while passing the buck to President Trump. “We think transparency is the way to go here, and I am...

Ontario Premier Doug Ford said he had agreed to suspend a 25% surcharge on electricity imports into the U.S. after conversing with U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in the wake of President Donald Trump's threats to hike steel and aluminum tariffs on the nation by 50%. In a statement issued with Lutnick and posted on X, Ford said he and Lutnick would now be meeting Thursday alongside the United States Trade Representative to discuss a renewal of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada free trade act ahead of Trump's self-imposed April 2 "reciprocal tariff deadline." "In response, Ontario agreed to suspend its 25 per...

General Motors CEO Mary Barra said there are so many companies trying to sell EVs in China right now that it's driving a price war that isn't sustainable. Barra made the comments at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in San Francisco on Tuesday, responding to a question about the explosion of EV sales in China. More than 120 brands sold EVs in China in 2023 compared to around 60 in the US — putting into perspective just how much competition there is for GM and other manufacturers. The EV market in the country is oversaturated, Barra said Tuesday, echoing comments she's...

Channel 13 reports that police have managed to reach a video of the Glilot ramming in which the driver was seen trying to attack a police officer with a pointed stick just before being neutralized. The truck is seen accelerating and veering toward the pedestrians on the sidewalk. The police are still awaiting the autopsy of the suspect to determine whether a medical event may have caused him to lose control of the truck. One policeman who said that when he approached the truck following the collision, the driver got out and attacked him with a pointed stick. Two civilians...

This story has been updated since publication.In a major reversal from her guidance just days ago, Secretary of State Jane Nelson now says non-citizen driver’s licenses may not be used as a form of voter identification.The Texas Department of Public Safety issues driver’s licenses and personal identification cards to lawfully present noncitizens, which are clearly marked “Temporary Visitor” or “Limited-Term” and expire after one year or when the individual’s period of lawful presence ends.An advisory from the Secretary of State issued Tuesday afternoon stated that while citizens should not use these types of IDs to vote, poll workers should nonetheless...

President Nicolás Maduro has won Venezuela's presidential election, according to partial results published by the electoral council. The head of the National Electoral Council (CNE), Elvis Amoroso, who is a close ally of Mr Maduro, said that with 80% of votes counted, President Maduro had 51.20% of the vote, compared to 44.02% for his main rival.

The WNBA is finally getting eyeballs, and what we see is a bunch of nasty women brutalizing Caitlin Clark because this is what predictably happens concerning women in the workforce. Whether it be on the court or in corporate America, it’s women bullying other women that breeds actual toxicity. Clark was the first overall pick. She’s starting to play better on a very bad and rebuilding Indiana Fever team. She’s doing her job, but the rest of the league seems to have a bounty on her. Clark won’t break and probably will soak up the intense scrutiny surrounding her impact...

Despite the time and political capital spent on the $60 billion aid for Ukraine, some Biden administration officials are skeptical it’s enough for Ukraine to win its two-year war with Russia. Battlefield dynamics have shifted a lot in the last few months, partly because Ukraine ran low on weaponry and ammunition while Congress debated authorizing more aid, according to three U.S. officials, all granted anonymity to detail sensitive internal thinking. During that period, Ukraine struggled to maintain eastern territory, though Russia didn’t make significant gains, either. Russia maintains a manpower and weapons advantage, and it would take a lot to...

In George Orwell's famous novel, "1984," an oppressive government – symbolized by the phrase "Big Brother" – is continually spying on everyone and manipulating how and what they think. In many ways, today's Central Intelligence Agency seems to be America's version of "Big Brother" – or perhaps even to exceed it. By multiple reliable accounts, the CIA has been involved in everything from manipulating the media, to trafficking drugs, to flipping governments, to controlling Hollywood, even to participating in the assassination of a U.S. president. And of course, spying on Americans.

Investors’ curiosity has peaked as central banks are increasing their gold purchases. We are not going back to a Bretton Woods type situation and that is not the issue. You must understand that gold is neutral. Central banks are buying gold because the Neocons have weaponized the dollar. Russia was removed from the SWIFT system, and private citizens’ assets were confiscated. When Russian assets were removed from SWIFT, a threat to the world was issued to say, “Hey, if you don’t do what we tell you to do, we will take you out of SWIFT.” This is not the end...

The long-awaited counteroffensive last year failed. Russia has recaptured Avdiivka, its biggest war gain in nine months. President Volodymyr Zelensky has been forced to quietly acknowledge the new military reality. The Biden Administration’s strategy is now to sustain Ukrainian defense until after the U.S. presidential elections, in the hope of wearing down Russian forces in a long war of attrition. This strategy seems sensible enough, but contains one crucially important implication and one potentially disastrous flaw, which are not yet being seriously addressed in public debates in the West or Ukraine. The implication of Ukraine standing indefinitely on the defensive—even...

But upcoming Biden administration and German decisions concerning the deployment of precision deep-strike weapons — namely ATACMS and the Taurus cruise missile — are likely weighing heavily on Putin’s mind, along with the coming introduction of F-16 fighter jets. Ditto bilateral security guarantees, some signed just days ago, with the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Denmark, Italy and Canada — and Sweden’s and Britain’s announcements last week of additional military assistance. Europe is not giving up on Ukraine. Propaganda wins aside, it was a losing week for Putin... As many as 65 soldiers from Russia’s 39th Separate Guards Motorized Rifle Brigade...

Did it snow a lot in your neck of the woods? Climate change! Are you seeing less snow this year? Climate change did that, too. <[> You may never see snow again, we predict. Climate change means that too. In the space of two weeks, the New York Times has stories that say climate change will end snow forever, reduce the amount of snow somewhat, or cause more snow than ever before.

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg warned that the Western military alliance should be ready for bad news from the Ukrainian front as Kyiv continues to defend against Russia's all-out invasion. "Wars develop in phases," Stoltenberg said in an interview Saturday with German broadcaster ARD. "We have to support Ukraine in both good and bad times," he said. "We should also be prepared for bad news,” Stoltenberg added, without being more specific. His comments come as Western allies debate over ammunition and financial aid for Ukraine, and as Moscow boosts its troop levels. Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Friday...

Reinfections cleared faster than initial COVID-19 infections, including among people who never received a COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new study.Colorized scanning electron micrograph of a cell (purple) infected with a variant strain of SARS-CoV-2 virus particles (pink), isolated from a patient sample. (NIAID via The Epoch Times)People infected with COVID-19 for a second time cleared the illness a mean of 6.6 days, compared with a mean of 9.3 days for the initial infection, U.S. and British researchers reported in the paper.Researchers drew the findings from 1,796 first infections and 193 second infections.The difference held for a subset of 71...

Medical exams are an important part of our health regimen, and most aspects of it are pretty painless. However, there’s one part of the physical that remains as confusing as it is uncomfortable, no matter how old you get: The testicle exam. When a doctor holds your testicles and asks you to cough, they are checking for a hernia — specifically the intestines pushing through into your testicles. A hernia occurs when an organ pushes through an opening in the muscle or tissue that holds it in place, and although they are most common in the abdomen, according to Healthline,...

Preliminary findings indicate it wasn’t surface-to-air missile that took down Wagner leader’s plane. The plane carrying Yevgeny Prigozhin, the head of the Wagner paramilitary group, crashed as the result of an assassination plot but wasn’t shot down by a surface-to-air missile, U.S. officials said. The preliminary U.S. government assessments, which officials stressed are incomplete, suggest that a bomb exploded on the aircraft or that some other form of sabotage caused the crash northwest of Moscow.

The U.S. Air Force warned military units against heavy reliance on autonomous weapons systems last month after a simulated test conducted by the service branch using an AI-enabled drone killed its human operator.The Skynet-like incident was detailed by the USAF’s Chief of AI Test and Operations, Col. Tucker’ Cinco’ Hamilton, at the Future Combat Air and Space Capabilities Summit held in London between May 23 and 24, who said the drone that was tasked to destroy specific targets during the simulation turned on the operator after they became an obstacle to its mission. Hamilton pointed out the hazards of using...

Former deputy national security adviser under former President Donald Trump, K. T. McFarland, joined Maria Bartiromo’s Wall Street on Friday to discuss the Durham Report and others.In a stunning allegation, McFarland said that the FBI, Justice Department, and CIA are planning to rig the upcoming 2024 U.S. presidential election.According to McFarland, these intelligence agencies, having succeeded in rigging the 2016 and 2020 elections, aim to prevent Donald Trump from winning.“We now have black-and-white evidence that the FBI interfered in the 2016 election. When they failed to elect Hillary Clinton, they set out to destroy the Trump administration,” said McFarland. ......