Free Republic

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose Monday as investors weighed concerns over tariffs and comments by President Donald Trump criticizing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell. The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield was 8 basis points higher at 4.401%. The 2-year Treasury yield was 1 basis point lower to 3.788%. One basis point is equal to 0.01%. Yields and prices move in opposite directions. The moves come after Trump on Friday levied another salvo at Powell for not lowering interest rates. The president vocalized his discontent with the Fed chair’s economic policy leadership during a question-and-answer session with reporters....

U.S. President Donald Trump's moves to take China to task on trade are likely to backfire as his sweeping global tariffs hit allies as well as rivals, according to former national security advisor John Bolton.

Key Points * Saudi Arabia last year increased the valuation of its unexploited mineral resources from $1.3 trillion to $2.5 trillion, boosted by the discovery of rare earth elements and metals. * The kingdom on Wednesday announced a new mineral investment project valued at $100 billion, with $20 billion already in the final engineering phase or under construction. * Investment in critical minerals mining and processing must be happening “as fast and furious as possible” in Saudi Arabia, its energy minister said at the Future Minerals Forum in Riyadh. =============================================================================== RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia is pushing ahead to...

Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel forcefully condemned Russia’s war in Ukraine in her first public speech since leaving office in December of last year. Premising her comments by saying that she did not want to give advice from the sidelines, Merkel described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as a “barbaric war of aggression” which constituted a “far-reaching turning point” and the most “glaring breach of international law” in Europe since the Second World War.

Key Points: Iranian President Hassan Rouhani lashed out at the U.S. and Europe in a televised speech on state TV on Wednesday. Rouhani slammed the EU’s “failure to keep it promises” under the 2015 nuclear deal and blamed the U.S. for making the Middle East insecure. ==================================================================== DUBAI, United Arab Emirates ⁠— In an angry speech on state television, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani lashed out at the U.S. and Europe for its presence in the Middle East and for what he described as the latter’s failures in upholding the 2015 Iranian nuclear deal. U.S. troops are “insecure” in the region...