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Receipts from U.S. tariffs hit a record level in April as revenue from President Donald Trump’s trade war started kicking in. Customs duties totaled $16.3 billion for the month, some 86% above the $8.75 billion collected during March and more than double the $7.1 billion a year ago, the Treasury Department reported Monday. That brought the year-to-date total for the duties up to $63.3 billion and more than 18% ahead of the same period in 2024. Trump instituted 10% across-the-board tariffs on U.S. imports starting April 2, which came on top of other select duties he had leveled previously.

On May 9, 2025 Turning Point USA founder Charlie Kirk visited the University of California Riverside as part of his nationwide American Comeback Tour and was enthusiastically greeted by students, faculty, staff and visitors. His presentation began with a hat toss as dozens of iconic Make America Great Again (MAGA) baseball caps were thrown into the audience.

Climate activist Greta Thunberg blamed Israel for the drone attack on a vessel transporting humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip that occurred in international waters off Malta early on Friday in a video posted to Instagram. In the video, Thunberg stated that she had planned to board the ship in a mission with the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) to “end the siege and open a humanitarian blockade” in Gaza. “This is yet another crystal clear example of how international law and human rights are being completely disrespected,” Thunberg claimed in the video while wearing a keffiyeh scarf, commonly associated with...

Edan Alexander reunited with his family on Monday at the Re'im Camp in southern Israel after 584 days in Hamas captivity. After a moving hug to his parent's he was surprised by how much his younger brother had grown, and exclaimed: "This kid is a giant, who is he?!" Kan News reported that Edan described being tied hand and foot inside a cage, deprived of daylight, and suffering from extreme hunger in a Hamas-controlled tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip. During his release, Alexander was visibly weakened, struggling to walk due to the toll of prolonged confinement. Lots of pics...

Footage shows the moving moment released American-Israeli hostage Edan Alexander reunited with his family in Israel... Edan described being tied hand and foot inside a cage, deprived of daylight, and suffering from extreme hunger in a Hamas-controlled tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip. During his release, Alexander was visibly weakened, struggling to walk due to the toll of prolonged confinement

A Democratic National Committee subcommittee on Monday recommended that the organization invalidate one of its February vice-chair votes over claims that it unfairly disadvantaged female candidates. The move, which won't be official unless the entire DNC votes to approve it, could open up new races for the positions held by David Hogg, a Florida activist, and Malcolm Kenyatta, a Pennsylvania state legislator.

Representative LaMonica McIver (D-NJ) said Monday on CNN’s “The Lead” that “everything” President Donald Trump says is a lie. When discussing Newark Mayor Ras Baraka’s arrest at the Delaney Hall Detention Center last week, McIver said, “Along with Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman and Congressman Rob Menendez from New Jersey, we decided to show up at this facility to conduct an oversight visit.” Host Jake Tapper said, “What do you say to the DHS spokesman’s claim of body slamming?”

California voters have sharply differing views over two of the state’s most prominent Democrats, according to a new poll. Former Vice President Kamala Harris, who is expected to decide by the end of the summer whether she runs for California governor in 2026, has near universal name recognition among California voters, and 50% view her favorably, according to a survey by UC Berkeley’s Institute of Governmental Studies that was co-sponsored by The Times. ***Harris, despite losing the presidential election to Donald Trump in 2024, is faring better than Bass among California voters as she weighs a gubernatorial bid next year...

Poland's foreign minister says his country has evidence that Russia recruited people on the Telegram messaging service to carry out last year's massive shopping centre fire in Warsaw. Speaking to the BBC in an exclusive interview, Radek Sikorski said Moscow's actions were "completely unacceptable" and that a second Russian consulate in Poland had been closed as a result. His comments come after a Polish investigation concluded that the Marywilska shopping centre fire was orchestrated by Moscow's intelligence services. Russia denied its involvement, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accusing Poland of being "Russophobic".

Patriotic Millionaires lobby group wants higher taxes on the rich, but critics say it could drive away wealthA group of wealthy Canadians calling themselves "Patriotic Millionaires" is banding together to lobby governments to increase the amount of taxes they must pay, with a campaign patterned after similar movements in the United States and United Kingdom. But there is already pushback on the concept — even before the group officially launches in Canada — with the opposing view being that higher taxes would drive entrepreneurship away from this country. Speaking exclusively to CBC News in advance of the group's Canadian launch,...

Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom is under new federal scrutiny as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) opens an investigation into whether the state improperly funneled taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens. The DHS probe, led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Los Angeles, focuses on the state’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI) — a 100 percent state-funded program designed to provide monthly benefits to non-citizens ineligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) due to their immigration status. According to a Title 8 subpoena issued by HSI Los Angeles, federal officials are demanding records from the Los...

* Currently, there’s a $10,000 limit on the federal deduction on state and local taxes, known as SALT, which will expire Dec. 31, 2025, without action from Congress. House Republicans are calling for a higher limit on the deduction for state and local taxes, known as SALT, as part of President Donald Trump’s tax and spending package. The House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees tax, released the full text of its portion of the bill on Monday afternoon. The SALT provision would raise the cap to $30,000 for those with a modified adjusted gross income of $400,000 or less....

BREAKING: The first set of White South Africans fleeing Genocide have arrived in the United States Notice how there’s women & children?

U.S. stocks leapt after China and the United States announced a 90-day truce in their trade war. The S&P 500 jumped 3.3% Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose more than 1,100 points, and the Nasdaq composite rallied 4.3%. Hopes for an economy less encumbered by tariffs also sent crude oil prices higher. The U.S. dollar strengthened against other currencies, and Treasury yields jumped on expectations the Federal Reserve won’t have to cut interest rates so deeply this year in order to protect the economy.

A school board in Colorado cannot remove sexually explicit, profane, and “transgender” books from school libraries because the school board is conservative, according to a federal judge touted as the first openly lesbian judge west of the Mississippi. The ACLU’s Colorado chapter filed a suit on behalf of two minors, the NAACP Wyoming State Area Conference, and the Authors Guild, claiming that the school district engaged in viewpoint discrimination when removing the books. The judge granted a preliminary injunction in March, forcing the Elizabeth School District (in Elizabeth, a suburb southeast of Denver) to restore the books. Judge Charlotte Sweeney...

Christian evangelist Franklin Graham is urging Americans to pray for President Donald Trump ahead of the commander-in-chief’s trip to the Middle East. “Pray for President @realDonaldTrump as he travels to the Middle East for meetings,” Graham wrote on Monday morning. “There will be much pressure put on him relating to Israel, Gaza, and the Palestinians.” “Pray for God’s protection, and may God give him wisdom,” he added. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt previewed Trump’s four-day trip to the Middle East on Friday, telling reporters that Trump plans to “reemphasize his continued vision for a proud, prosperous, and successful Middle...

Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom is under new federal scrutiny as the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) opens an investigation into whether the state improperly funneled taxpayer-funded benefits to illegal aliens. The DHS probe, led by Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in Los Angeles, focuses on the state’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants (CAPI) — a 100 percent state-funded program designed to provide monthly benefits to non-citizens ineligible for Supplemental Security Income (SSI) due to their immigration status. According to a Title 8 subpoena issued by HSI Los Angeles, federal officials are demanding records from the Los...

Good Monday morning, everyone! The title of this missive is not some signal of defeat, hardly so. However, it is a realization of a ground truth that Texans must accept, or run the risk of being a Colorado or other former red states. It was not too long ago, in November 2024, that we celebrated a resounding political victory here in Texas. Donald Trump increased his margin of victory from 2020 from 6 percent to 15 percent. We also saw 12 of 14 border counties in Texas go for Trump. In the so-called “hotly contested” Texas Senate race, Ted Cruz...

A newly enacted Tennessee law prohibits schools from punishing employees and teachers for referring to trans-identified students by their given name and pronouns, as public school staff in other states have faced professional repercussions for declining to use trans-identified students' preferred names and pronouns. Tennessee's Republican Gov. Bill Lee signed House Bill 1270 into law Friday. Lee's approval of the legislation follows its passage by the Republican-controlled Tennessee House of Representatives in a 77-18 vote and the Republican-controlled Tennessee Senate in a 27-6 vote. The vote in the Senate fell along party lines, with all support for the measure coming...

Pope Leo XIV urged reporters to do their part in protecting the “precious gift of free speech” in his first address to the media on Monday – and also called on governments around the world to release journalists they have imprisoned. The pope called for an improved model of communication that “does not seek consensus at all costs, does not use aggressive words, does not follow the culture of competition, and never separates the search for truth from the love with which we must humbly seek it.” “The Church must face the challenges posed by the times. In the same...