Free Republic

FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) - Hundreds of people protested in European cities on Saturday against U.S. President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk, following a bruising week for financial markets after Trump unveiled sweeping global tariffs.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Mary Glantz was in her room at a Hampton Inn in Columbia, South Carolina, last Friday night during a trip visiting friends when her phone began pinging furiously with messages at 9:30 p.m. They were from panicked colleagues at the U.S. Institute of Peace, an independent, congressionally funded organization in Washington that had found itself in the crosshairs of billionaire Elon Musk's cost-cutting Department of Government Efficiency. At 10:09 p.m., Glantz's own termination notice arrived in an email telling her she was being fired, effective immediately. Most of USIP's 300 staff were laid off that night. Glantz...

The U.S. Internal Revenue Service will lay off about 6,700 employees on Thursday, in a restructuring that could strain the tax-collecting agency’s resources during the critical tax-filing season, a person familiar with the matter said. The workers being cut are probationary employees who have typically been at the agency for less than one to two years, and enjoy fewer protections than longer-term workers. The IRS has a total of roughly 17,000 probationary employees. The reductions at the IRS come amid a broader slashing of personnel across the federal government at the directive of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who...

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - Republicans are registering formerly Democratic voters at four times the rate that Democrats are making the reverse conversion in the battleground state of Pennsylvania, a warning sign for Democrats as they try to keep control of the U.S. Congress. The Republican gains in Pennsylvania, home to a critical U.S. Senate race, follow a pattern seen in other states that could have competitive contests in November's elections, as high levels of disapproval with President Joe Biden's handling of his job are helping narrow the long-held advantage held by Democrats in numbers of registered voters. "I just got fed...

A partisan review of the 2020 presidential election commissioned by Arizona Republicans has confirmed President Joe Biden's victory over Donald Trump in the state's most populous county, according to a draft report of the review's findings. Maricopa County announced what it said were the main findings on its Twitter feed late on Thursday, saying a draft report "confirms the county's canvass of the 2020 General Election was accurate and the candidates certified as the winners did, in fact, win".

When lifelong Wyoming Republican Tage Benson and Democrat Chamois Andersen met for the first time at the Owl in the Attic antiques store in Laramie this past weekend, they quickly put their political differences aside. Their home state's embattled Republican congresswoman, Liz Cheney, needed to be supported, they agreed, for standing up to former President Donald Trump and contesting his false stolen-election claims. “This is where Democrats and Republicans can come together,” said Anderson, 51, a wildlife advocate who often disagrees with Cheney on policy. "She is a hero," said Benson, 67, who was working the store's register. He told...