Free Republic

Chinese officials have long used their willingness to cooperate to stem the flow of fentanyl to the United States as leverage in talks over broader disputes.When Donald J. Trump was first in the White House trying to strike a trade deal with China, Beijing tried to curry favor with the American president by banning all variants of the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl. Now, as China and the United States are deadlocked in a bitter trade war that has roiled the world, offering to do more to further stem the flow of fentanyl and the chemicals used to make it could...

This week, President Donald J. Trump celebrated his 100th day in office — and set the course for the next 100 days of growth, prosperity, and success for the American people.Here is a non-comprehensive list of wins in week 15:The economy added 177,000 new jobs in April, according to the latest jobs report — smashing expectations for another month as the workforce grows and businesses onshore jobs.President Donald J. Trump’s relentless pursuit of manufacturing dominance spurred onshoring and additional U.S. investment. Mercedes-Benz announced it will move production of another vehicle to its Tuscaloosa, Alabama, manufacturing facility.AstraZeneca announced it will shift...

Today, the Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council (Permitting Council) announced the second installment of critical mineral production projects to be featured as FAST-41 transparency projects. This second batch of projects is part of an ongoing series of critical projects receiving the transparency of the Federal Permitting Dashboard in response to President Trump’s Executive Order, Immediate Measures to Increase American Mineral Production.“The Permitting Council is excited to grow our portfolio of critical mineral production projects with this latest tranche,” says Manisha Patel, Permitting Council Acting Executive Director. “The transparency that these projects will receive as a result of being featured on...

Today, Mercedes-Benz announced it will move production of another vehicle to the U.S. — the latest result of President Donald J. Trump’s relentless pursuit of American manufacturing dominance.The automaker will produce the vehicle at its Tuscaloosa, Alabama, plant following signals earlier this year that the company will make additional investment in its U.S.-based operations.Mercedes isn’t the only automaker onshoring production as President Trump incentivizes making things in America again:BMW is considering adding shifts to boost production at its South Carolina plant.Honda plans to shift production of the Civic from Japan to the U.S.Hyundai announced a $20 billion investment — including...

President Donald Trump told NewsNation on Wednesday that historically Black colleges and universities should not be concerned about federal funding cuts to their budgets. In 2019, during his first term in office, President Trump signed a bipartisan bill that permanently provides more than $250 million a year to the nation’s historically Black colleges and universities. “I took care of the Black colleges and HBCUs,” Trump said. “You know that better than anybody.” Last week, Trump signed an order establishing a White House Initiative on HBCUs to enhance capacity and “deliver high-quality education to a growing number of students,” according to...

For years, President Donald Trump blamed “communists” for his legal and political troubles. Now, the second Trump administration is deploying that same historically loaded label to cast his opponents — from judges to educators — as threats to American identity, culture and values.Why? Trump himself explained the strategy last year when he described how he planned to defeat his Democratic opponent, then-Vice President Kamala Harris, in the White House election.“All we have to do is define our opponent as being a communist or a socialist or somebody who is going to destroy our country,” he told reporters at his New...

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett shocked an arena full of his shareholders Saturday by announcing that he wants to retire at the end of the year. Buffett said he will recommend to Berkshire Hathaway’s board that Greg Abel should become CEO at the end of the year. “I think the time has arrived where Greg should become the chief executive officer of the company at year end,” Buffett said. Abel has been Buffett’s designated successor for years, and he already manages all of Berkshire’s noninsurance businesses. But it was always assumed he wouldn’t take over until after Buffett’s death....

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton launched an investigation to determine if toothpaste that contains fluoride is being illegally marketed to kids. While the recommended dosage of toothpaste says no more than a pea-sized smear or a drop the size of a kernel of rice should be used, Paxton says toothpaste manufacturers continue to flavor their products and deceptively market them in ways that encourage kids to ingest more than the safe and recommended amount of fluoride toothpaste. Now the attorney general wants to know if kids are ingesting too much fluoride based on how toothpaste is advertised to children. Toothpaste...

Buffett had largely avoided commenting on politics during the afternoon part of the annual meetings Q&A and seemed reluctant to directly address a question on what he thought about Tesla CEO Elon Musk’s efforts to cut government spending through the Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. What Buffett did say was Congress isn’t doing its job to reduce the fiscal deficit. “We are doing something that is unsustainable,” he said. Buffett said the gap between revenue and spending was about twice as large as what can be maintained and that the more the gap widens, the more risk of it...

DOGE has referred 57 cases of potential voter fraud to the U.S. Justice Department ... Antonio Gracias noted that the individuals were "resident aliens who were registered to vote ... Musk, the hard-charging business tycoon who has been spearheading the DOGE initiative, has indicated that he plans to spend less time on the effort going forward. "Not stepping down, just reducing time allocation now that @DOGE is established ... "The federal government is a gigantic beast — very complicated — and so if you’re trying to figure out how to stop waste and fraud, you’ve got to map the territory,"...

When Congress passed the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) in March 2021, it allocated $350 billion in assistance to state and local governments – providing the largest infusion of cash to local governments since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. For New Orleans, that money represented a desperately needed lifeline. The city had been hit particularly hard by COVID-19. It was an early hotspot for the virus. And Black residents, who comprise about 60% of the city’s population, were disproportionately impacted, accounting for more than 75% of COVID deaths in the first few months of the pandemic. As...

Kilmar Abrego Garcia will return to the national spotlight when the Senate votes on a resolution calling for a report on his detention in El Salvador. In the coming weeks, the Senate will take up a Democratic resolution that would require the Trump administration to detail the human rights record of El Salvador, including its treatment of inmates in the megaprison where Abrego Garcia, a mistakenly deported illegal immigrant, was briefly detained.

With the new mineral rights deal between Washington, D.C., and Kyiv, President Donald Trump fulfilled his pledge to hold Ukraine financially accountable for the billions of dollars that has already been provided in military assistance. This now opens a new avenue for the U.S. to provide weaponry to the country without using any taxpayer funds. Following months of discussions, the deal was signed on Wednesday. It established a common investment fund to which both countries will contribute, including through the sale of mineral rights, oil, and gas licenses in Ukraine — with a 50/50 profit split. The agreement states that...

An emotional Prince Harry says he feels "devastated" after losing a legal battle over security during visits to the UK, as ITV News' Royal Editor Chris Ship reports Prince Harry has called for Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to intervene after losing a Court of Appeal challenge over his security arrangements while in the UK. The Prince made the remarks in an interview with the BBC, where he also revealed his father, King Charles, "no longer speaks to him" over the row - which he described as a "family dispute". On Friday, the Prince lost his attempt to overturn the...

Friday, during Fox News Channel’s “Hannity,” Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) discussed the difficulty of working with people on the other side of the aisle when their political beliefs and ambitions are not compatible with reality. The Oklahoma Republican said the hurdles included Sen. Bernie Sanders’ (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s (D-NY) beliefs in socialism and Sen. Chris Murphy’s (D-CT) presidential ambitions. “Now, the delusion among the leading Democratic Party is almost hard to believe,” host Sean Hannity said. “Why can’t they just be honest with the American people? I don’t know. That would be refreshing. Here to help answer that...

Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), a prominent populist congresswoman and Trump-ally, voiced concerns in a long Friday post on X about the state of the Trump administration, criticizing the current position of the administration on Iran, Ukraine, as well as a host of domestic issues. “I campaigned for no more foreign wars,” Greene wrote. “And now we are supposedly on the verge of going to war with Iran.” Greene was also highly critical of the so-called “Minerals Deal” between the U.S. and Ukraine, opining: And on top of that, now we are told that we have signed a deal for mineral...

College graduates are calling their degrees worthless. According to new data from Indeed, piling student loans and fears of AI reshaping the workplace are to blame. While experts say higher education is still important, Gen Z should constantly prioritize “upgrading their toolkit” to be successful. College is often advertised as the best four years of one’s life, but many Americans now have regrets.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Ukraine will not adhere to a three-day cease-fire proposed by Russia, saying such a short truce would not help in negotiations for a lasting peace. The Russian counteroffer of a three-day cease-fire covering the anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, an important political holiday in Russia, was merely a “theatrical show,” Mr. Zelensky told reporters in Kyiv. Mr. Zelensky said Saturday that Russia’s offer was also intended to “create a soft atmosphere of an exit from isolation” for President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, and to assuage security worries of...

A woman has died in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki after a bomb she was carrying exploded in her hands. The 38-year-old woman was apparently carrying the bomb to place it outside a nearby bank at around 5am on Saturday, police said. Several storefronts and vehicles were damaged by the explosion. Police said the woman had a criminal record related to drugs and prostitution and had been involved in at least one robbery and thefts in the past. The Greek police’s division for organised crime was investigating the incident while authorities were also looking into whether the woman might...

On Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time,” host Bill Maher criticized and mocked Republicans and stated that they lied about raising taxes on the wealthy and said that raising taxes on the rich “never really happens” and responded to the argument that he could just voluntarily pay more in taxes himself if he wants to and no one will stop him from doing that by saying, “that’s not going to happen.” While discussing the budget proposal from the Trump administration from earlier in the day, Maher said that the administration is increasing the budget for the Defense Department in their...