Free Republic

Friedrich Merz is spending his first day as leader of Germany visiting France and Poland, promising a “fresh start” to EU relationships and signalling defiance to President Trump in saying they will never accept an “imposed” peace on the Ukraine War. The French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed newly appointed Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Paris on Wednesday, the leaders of the two largest and richest countries in Europe publishing a joint statement vowing greater cooperation on defence, economics, and the Ukraine War. Merz will later today travel to Poland for more meetings, which in both cases he said were to launch...

The U.S. services sector picked up speed in April, according to the Institute for Supply Management, with growth broadening across key components of the economy’s largest segment. The Services PMI rose to 51.6 percent last month, up from 50.8 percent in March and beating expectations for a modest dip. The increase marks a reversal from the prior month’s slowdown and suggests the sector may be reaccelerating heading into the second quarter. Three of the four major subindexes that feed directly into the headline PMI improved in April, with increases in new orders, supplier deliveries, and employment. Only the business activity...

Iran unveiled a new solid-fueled ballistic missile and claims it has stationed similar systems nationwide, according to state-run TV, which cited military officials promising the ability to strike U.S. bases and interests “wherever they are” if war breaks out. On Sunday, Iranian state media broadcast images of the new “Qassem Basir” missile during a televised appearance by Defense Minister Gen. Aziz Nasirzadeh, amid rising tensions with Washington over Tehran’s growing missile capabilities and nuclear enrichment program. The missile reportedly boasts a 745-mile range, precision strike capacity without GPS, and improved defense-evading agility. According to Nasirzadeh, the system was last tested...

President Trump has ordered himself a ritzy private plane after giving up hope that Boeing could hand over a revamped Air Force One. The commander in chief is getting an L3Harris jet decked out with suites, plush carpeting, leather couches and more that was once owned by the Qatari government, according to The Wall Street Journal. The interior of the opulent plane was done by famed French interior design firm Alberto Pinto Cabinet — and boasts gold-colored walls and gold furnishings, reminiscent of Trump’s opulent home in Trump Tower. L3Harris is working to transform the lavish plane into one with...

The City Council passed a slew of bills Thursday — including one that would ban noisy non-essential helicopter flights from city heliports following the horrific crash in the Hudson that killed a family of tourists and another to add a new gender ID to city documents. The two bills easily passed the Democratic-majority council but still need Mayor Eric Adams’ signature to become laws. A proposal aimed at cracking down on tour and commuter helicopters passed near unanimously — just two weeks after a couple and their three young kids visiting from Spain and a Navy veteran pilot all died...

She can finally have some pride in her job! Former President Joe Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre has landed a new gig out of the White House as a grand marshal of NYC Pride Parade. Jean-Pierre, who became the first openly gay spokesperson to hold press briefings for a US president, will be among those to head the Big Apple’s famed annual parade in June, CBS reported. “It goes back to that trail-blazing career that she’s had in politics and representing the community at the highest microphone that exists,” NYC Pride spokesperson Chris Piedmont said of Jean-Pierre. Jean-Pierre, 50 —...

Putting partisan politics far above patriotism (if he has any), top Democrat Rep. Jamie Raskin is outright threatening vengeance on foreign leaders who work with the Trump administration. Yes, he washes it through rhetoric about fighting “authoritarianism in our country,” but that’s simply cover for goonish threats. Raskin (D-Md.) issued it on the “Pod Save America” podcast, after progressive host Tommy Vietor cited (surely left-wing) Latin America experts as urging Democrats to warn off “any foreign government that participates in the extraordinary rendition of American citizens.” Reality check: No one is proposing any “extraordinary rendition of American citizens.”

Tuesday on FBN’s “Mornings with Maria,” Rep. Steve Scalise (R-LA) acknowledged the short-term pain associated with the Trump administration’s tariff policy but acknowledged there would be tangible benefits in the long term. According to the Louisiana Republican lawmaker, the proof was in other nations’ efforts to negotiate a resolution with the United States. “[T]he problem is, is, with all of this uncertainty around tariffs, this bill becomes so much more important, just for clarity for the markets, so that we don’t see a deterioration in market value. The White House says almost 70 countries have reached out to negotiate on...

A bombshell report from a clean energy group admitted that shifting to solar and wind may mean chaos for New York’s power grid as the state’s green energy law creates hurdles for cost and reliability. The report from the New York Affordable Clean Power Alliance, which represents solar and wind energy firms, noted that the state’s timetable to phase out energy generated by fossil fuel is unrealistic — and even dangerous. “The New York City area is forecasted to experience a generation shortfall starting in 2033, driven by an increase in peak demand and the planned retirement of existing dispatchable...

WASHINGTON — President Trump spoke Friday with Canada’s new prime minister as the US prepares to slap 25% tariffs on all Canadian imports — and referred to Mark Carney by his title, dropping the “governor” moniker he applied to predecessor Justin Trudeau. “I just finished speaking with Prime Minister Mark Carney, of Canada,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “It was an extremely productive call, we agree on many things, and will be meeting immediately after Canada’s upcoming Election to work on elements of Politics, Business, and all other factors, that will end up being great for both the United States...

FBI Director Kash Patel hopes to expand the bureau’s new task force to all 50 states after rounding up dozens of migrant gang members since its debut, and prosecutors on Long Island — which has seen its communities terrorized by MS-13 — are urging Gov. Hochul to roll out the red carpet. “Gov. Hochul should be open to a conversation about having a gang task force here. I support it. We should do everything in our power to take down these gangs,” Nassau County District Attorney Anne Donnelly told The Post. “In Nassau, we always work closely with our federal...

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (WTVO) — A new proposal in Springfield would change how Illinois funds its roads, by charging drivers by the mile instead of a gas tax. The proposal, filed by Sen. Ram Villivalam (D-Chicago) and Sen. Christopher Belt (D-East St. Louis), calls for starting a pilot program to study the effectiveness of charging drivers by the mile, something the state is considering due to the prevalence of more fuel-efficient and electric vehicles on Ilinois roadways. Since fuel-efficient cars use less gasoline, fewer tax dollars will be available for road infrastructure. Electric vehicle owners currently pay a $100 premium on...

Alejandro Mayorkas, the nation’s top border official from 2021 to 2025, is denying blame for President Donald Trump’s smashing victory in 2024, which has scattered and impoverished the Democratic Party’s many interest groups. Instead, Mayorkas is blaming Texas GOP Gov. Greg Abbott and the upstart new media that he could not control as he gambled the party’s future by importing more than 10 million migrants for use by businesses and progressives.

On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) wondered what the federal government is “doing as they find a new COVID virus in China and we’re not part of the World Health Organization?” Co-host Boris Sanchez asked, “The argument from supporters of DOGE is that the federal government, as the president put it, is bloated and overgrown, that spending levels are unsustainable, that the country would go, de facto, bankrupt, as Elon Musk put it, without drastic changes to spending. Where do you think DOGE should focus then? Where should we see cuts?” Dingell answered, “

A duck farm on Long Island has hatched a new generation of chicks — beginning to replace the nearly 100,000 mallards they were forced to kill due to the spread of avian flu. Crescent Duck Farm in Aquebogue welcomed 3,700 new chicks just over a month after farm operators were forced to cull 99,000 ducks when an outbreak of H1N5 — bird flu — spread across the susceptible flock. About half of the newborn birds are female — with hens beginning to lay their own eggs at the age of six months. New York state had sanitized 15,000 eggs from...

No new water storage infrastructure has been built in California, more than a decade after voters approved a $7.5 billion water bond in Proposition 1 of 2014. The San Jose Mercury-News reported Wednesday that officials are deciding what to do with nearly half a billion dollars of available cash after the “collapse” of a project to expand the Los Vaqueros Reservoir, which is east of San Francisco. Other projects have received funding for planning and permitting, but nothing has been built. The newspaper noted: A majority of the seven board members of the California Water Commission, a state agency that...

Democratic National Committee Chair Ken Martin said the party was “not dead” despite the party’s loss of the White House and Senate majority in last fall’s elections. “We’re not dead as a party. We’re still alive and kicking, and we’re going to fight for our values, and we’re going to fight for American values at this time, when people are seeing what Donald Trump and the Republicans are doing at this time,” Martin said during a Monday appearance on MSNBC’s “The Rachel Maddow Show.” Martin won the race to become the next DNC chair on Saturday in a highly-contested race....

A California law that went into effect January 1, 2025, requires licensed gun dealers to warn customers about the alleged dangers of gun ownership. USA Today reported the law, AB 1596, “requires firearm dealers to provide consumers with a pamphlet covering the reasons for and risks of firearm ownership.” Among the warnings, dealers are to make customers aware of the claim that gun ownership “[increases] risk of death to someone in the household by suicide, homicide, or unintentional injury.” Another law that went into effect in California on January 1, 2025, strengthens a pre-existing law against buying more than one...

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