Free Republic

Canada held prime minister debates on Wednesday and Thursday, the first in French and the second in English. The Thursday debate was, by all accounts, a more spirited joust between interim Prime Minister Mark Carney and his rivals from the Conservative, NDP, and Bloc Quebecois parties. Carney, an investment company executive and former central banker who has never been elected to anything, ascended to leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada and the prime minister’s office when deeply unpopular Prime Minister Justin Trudeau resigned in March. Trudeau’s departure, and President Donald Trump’s tariffs, revived the Liberal Party’s fortunes after a...

A top economic adviser to President Trump confidently predicted Monday the US would not experience a recession this year — despite widespread uncertainty over the administration’s tariff regime. National Economic Council Director Kevin Hassett told Fox Business Network “100% not, 100% not” when asked by host Maria Bartiromo about the possibility of a sustained downturn. “If you look at the jobs numbers, they’re very, very strong,” Hassett explained. “When I talk anecdotally to CEOs, I say things like, ‘Well, jeez, is the uncertainty over tariffs looking like it’s gonna be a big drag?’ And they’re saying things like, ‘No, in...

Former President Trump on Monday insisted he does not want to “terminate” the Constitution, responding to broad backlash after he said over the weekend its rules and laws should be disregarded so he can return to the White House. Trump, in a pair of posts on Truth Social, responded to the fallout from his comments on Saturday that the 2020 election should be redone or he should be put back in office. The former president weighed in after internal Twitter communications showed company officials deciding to limit the spread of posts about allegations against Hunter Biden, President’s Biden’s son, in...

3:03 Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), a critic of former President Donald Trump, insists that he has “not thought” about a 2024 presidential run, but he has yet to rule out the possibility entirely. Kemp told NBC News’s Vaughan Hillyard that he has “not thought about 2024” after facing Democrat Stacey Abrams and winning his reelection bid. Instead, he said, he is focused on helping Republican Herschel Walker win his senatorial bid in next week’s runoff against Democrat incumbent Sen. Raphael Warnock.

Worst. Administration. Ever. The Justice Department today released a statement insisting Attorney General Eric Holder was not playing the race card when he played the race card in an article published yesterday in The New York Times. Clearly this incompetent Obama official thinks we’re all stupid. Eric Holder needs to go. They won’t own up to their incompetence and think we’re stupid.

Sydney - President Barack Obama hit back at claims that the US had stalled in Afghanistan and vowed foreign forces would not be needed "in perpetuity", in a rare Australian TV interview aired on Thursday. Obama, speaking to public broadcaster ABC's 07:30 Report in Washington, also backed President Hamid Karzai to lead Afghanistan into the 21st century, dismissing recent controversies.

President Barack Obama says his White House is more open than previous administrations and is disputing complaints he hasn't fulfilled a campaign promise to negotiate health care on C-SPAN. Obama said Wednesday that he started his restructuring of health care with a media event in the East Room and has often invited photographers to take pictures of him meeting with health care executives. He says at some point, the meetings just become too numerous to invite news organizations.

TEHRAN, Iran - Iran's hard-line president said Tuesday that the country has joined the club of nuclear countries by successfully enriching uranium for the first time — a key process in what Iran maintains is a peaceful energy program. The announcement from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was certain to heighten international tensions surrounding Iran's nuclear program. The U.N. Security Council has demanded that Iran stop all enrichment by April 28 because of suspicions the program is designed to make nuclear weapons. Ahmadinejad warned the West that trying to force it to abandon uranium enrichment would "cause an everlasting hatred in the...

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Saddam Hussein testified Wednesday for the first time at his trial, and the judge closed the court after the ex-dictator's speech calling for Iraqis to end sectarian violence and fight U.S. troops instead. Even as the judge repeatedly yelled at Saddam to stop making what he called political speeches, the deposed leader read from a prepared text, insisting he was still Iraq's president. "Let the (Iraqi) people unite and resist the invaders and their backers. Don't fight among yourselves," he said, praising the insurgency. "In my eyes, you are the resistance to the American invasion." Finally, Chief...

Between forkfuls of angel-hair pasta, Metra engineer Mike Smith calmly told his story Monday, detail by agonizing detail, of the ill-fated Rock Island line train that jumped the tracks under his control. At Nick and Tony's restaurant downtown, Smith talked to reporters for the first time, saying he was sorry that his passengers -- "the most precious cargo" -- suffered and died in the horrific crash. But last month's derailment that killed two women and injured dozens of others was not his fault, he said. "I can say I'm sorry even though I had nothing to do with it," said...

PYONGYANG, North Korea - North Korea will not rejoin nuclear arms control treaties or allow international nuclear inspections until it receives an atomic reactor for power from the United States, a top diplomat told The Associated Press on Thursday. "In order to recover relations of trust between North Korea and the U.S., the U.S. should show its intent to turn words into actions," Kim Yong Guk, section chief of the European department of North's Foreign Ministry, told Associated Press Television News. "The physical foundation of consolidating trust between our nations is a light water reactor." The North's demand for a...

Washington—In a stunning, White House-busting development, Rep. John Conyers, D-MI, has insisted that Karl Rove be marched to Gitmo till he reveals that he’s the source of the leak uncovering CIA agent Valerie Plame. In a letter that is now being circulated in the U.S. House of Representatives, the Michigan Democrat cited recent reports that Rove discussed Plame with Time magazine reporter Matthew Cooper before she was outed as a CIA agent in July 2003, conclusively linking Rove as the new ‘Deep Throat’ and this case as the Watergate of its day. The Conyer letter urges Bush to require Rove...

UNITED NATIONS - Relieved at the end of a "horrible year," Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) insisted Tuesday he has no intention of resigning over an embattled U.N. program to aid Iraqis and will pursue sweeping reforms in his remaining two years in office. At a year-end news conference, the secretary-general said allegations of corruption in the oil-for-food program had "cast a shadow" over the United Nations (news - web sites) and especially over the U.N. relations with the United States, the world body's largest financial contributor. While Annan said he had "the confidence and support" of the...