Free Republic

STRENGTHENING STRATEGIC PARTNERSHIPS FOR ECONOMIC PROSPERITY: Today in Saudi Arabia, President Donald J. Trump announced Saudi Arabia’s $600-billion commitment to invest in the United States, building economic ties that will endure for generations to come. The first deals under the announcement strengthen our energy security, defense industry, technology leadership, and access to global infrastructure and critical minerals. The deals celebrated today are historic and transformative for both countries and represent a new golden era of partnership between the United States and Saudi Arabia.

It’s about time. Both houses of the state legislature passed Gov. Kathy Hochul’s massive $254 billion state budget package Thursday night following days of debate and over a month delay past the April 1 deadline. Lawmakers made the final votes on the spending plan Thursday evening after fierce debate over a provision slipped into the budget — first revealed by The Post — that could leave state taxpayers on the hook for millions of dollars of legal fees for Attorney General Letitia James. “This certainly is the height of hypocrisy,” state Sen. Andrew Lanza (R-Staten Island) said during debate on...

Keir Starmer has been posting new policies concerning immigration. Here are a few: "We're charging employers more to recruit from overseas and, if they do, they must prove they are investing in British workers and increasing British skills. That's the fair and right thing to do." "This is my promise to British people: Every area of our immigration system will be tightened up, so we have more control. And migration numbers will fall." "Promise made. Promise delivered." "Under the Tories, nearly one million people came to the UK from overseas between 2019 and 2023. My Labour government is taking back...

So what’s happening to the bill in the Ways and Means committee? We’d guess it’s realpolitik. It sounds like Cox and Rep. Kustoff have recognized that they have a snowball’s chance in Hell of passing the bill delisting suppressors and rather than throwing their hands up and saying, ‘Oh well, we gave it the old college try,’ they’ve decided to take a big step in the right direction.A tax stamp has cost $200 since it was enacted as part of the NFA in 1934. While inflation has whittled the real value of that away over the decades, it’s still not...

On March 28th, 2025, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake struck Myanmar, causing a rupture in about 460 kilometers (290 miles) of the Sagaing fault line that runs through most of the country, causing shaking of at least intensity X on the Modified Mercalli scale. As heavy shaking was felt throughout much of Myanmar as well as other neighboring countries, the fault line moved side-to-side by as much 6 meters (20 feet) in some places, a movement which was captured by the camera in this video. This is the first (and currently only) known instance of a fault line motion being captured...

According to the US President special envoy, if direct talks between Russia and Ukraine bring any result, there will be "a strong chance to getting an end to this conflict"WASHINGTON, May 13. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump insists that Moscow and Kiev should hold direct negotiations, Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said, warning that Washington will otherwise walk away. "The [US] president has issued an ultimatum to both sides that without those direct talks and if they don’t occur quickly, then he believes the United States ought to step back from this conflict whatever that means and just not be...

A Democratic National Committee panel on Monday recommended a new election for the post held by Vice Chair David Hogg, whose effort to challenge “asleep at the wheel” Democrats sparked a firestorm in the national party. While the panel’s move was based on a procedural complaint unrelated to the broader controversy surrounding Hogg, the committee is giving DNC members another option to squeeze the vice chair after he promised to spend $20 million in Democratic primaries against incumbent House members in safe blue districts Hogg and DNC chair Ken Martin have been dueling over Hogg’s plans. Most recently, Martin said...

CNN host Jake Tapper said Tuesday on “News Central” that White House aides were hiding how much President Joe Biden was struggling to do his job because of his “deterioration both physical and cognitive.” Tapper said, “The White House physician, Doctor Kevin O’Connor, was telling White House aides that President Biden’s deterioration of his spine, the degeneration was so significant that if he fell one more time that he might have to be in a wheelchair and serve in a wheelchair for his second term but everybody pushed off the notion that he used a wheelchair until after the election....

When I write collapse, I’m not referring just to a financial meltdown. I’m referring to a broad-based social collapse that could call into question the rule of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), which some historians refer to as the Peasant Dynasty. In order to understand the vulnerability of China, it helps to consider the counter-narrative that the China is a rising great power. We’ve heard for decades that Chinese GDP would soon exceed U.S. GDP to make China the largest economy in the world. China has also long been known as having the largest population in the world. The latest...

Charges have been dropped against a 19-year-old college student who was arrested during a traffic stop in Dalton earlier this month—a case that has drawn national attention and sparked outrage among immigration advocates and members of the community. The City of Dalton confirmed Monday that all charges against 19-year-old Ximena Arias-Cristobal were dismissed after a review of police dash-cam video showed she was not the driver who committed the traffic violation that led to her arrest on May 5. Arias-Cristobal had been cited for making an improper turn and driving without a valid license. However, Dalton police now say she...

Journalists covering President Donald Trump’s arrival to Saudi Arabia on Tuesday observed the presence of a mobile McDonald’s set up at a press center for covering the event in Riyadh, an apparent nod to the president’s love of the burger restaurant. Officials reportedly set up the mobile McDonald’s, which was “still shuttered” as of Tuesday, in a “Media Oasis” for journalists, according to the Associated Press. The “Oasis” featured various displays of Saudi government propaganda touting the government’s construction projects, including the controversial, still-unbuilt “city of the future” Neom and venues for the 2034 FIFA World Cup, which Saudi Arabia...

On May 12, 2025, the White House issued a joint statement with China on trade, in which the countries have “paused” the trade war for 90 days. More specifically, the United States has slashed tariffs from 145 percent to an effective rate of 30 percent. China has likewise slashed tariffs from 125 percent to an effective rate of 10 percent. Tariffs remain on certain industries including steel, aluminum, and automobiles. Other licensing deals respecting rare earth minerals and semiconductors remain in place. This deal is a mistake. A 90-day pause does nothing but burn precious political capital, waste time, and...

[Snip] UnitedHealth Group’s shares plunged over 10% in premarket trading on Tuesday after the sudden announcement of CEO Andrew Witty’s departure and the suspension of its 2025 financial forecast. The company cited “personal reasons” for Witty’s exit but offered no further details. Stephen Hemsley, UnitedHealth’s longtime leader who previously served as CEO for over a decade, is returning to helm the company during this turbulent period. [Snip] The market response was swift. UnitedHealth’s stock ($UNH) has now dropped nearly 45% in the past month, wiping out around $300 billion in market value. On April 17, shares fell 22% — its...

Federal agents have arrested Utah oil magnate James Lael Jensen, his wife Kelly Anne Jensen, and two of their sons, Maxwell Sterling Jensen (aka “Max”) and Zachary Golden Jensen, in connection with a sprawling $300 MILLION smuggling and money laundering conspiracy tied to Mexican criminal organizations. Court records reveal that all four members of the Jensen family were arrested on Wednesday, April 23 — with sons Max and Zachary taken into custody in the Rio Grande Valley, while James and Kelly Jensen were apprehended at their 26,893-square-foot mansion in Sandy, Utah, reportedly worth over $9.1 million. The arrest was carried...

Israel Government Press Office CNN — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gifted US President Donald Trump a golden pager during their meeting in Washington on Tuesday, an Israeli political source told CNN.

Majority Leader Thune and Speaker Johnson reportedly pushing back on Trumps EO on prescription drug prices. Since 1997, Thune has received over $1.2 million and since 2018, Johnson has received over $300,000 from the pharmaceutical companies. Hmm 🤔. ... 1. Tammy Baldwin (D-WI): $600,000 2. John Barrasso (R-WY): $500,000 3. Michael Bennet (D-CO): $1,500,000 4. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN): $600,000 5. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE): $320,793 6. John Boozman (R-AR): $200,000 7. Mike Braun (R-IN): $150,000 8. Katie Britt (R-AL): $50,000 9. Ted Budd (R-NC): $100,000 10. Laphonza Butler (D-CA): $50,000 11. Maria Cantwell (D-WA): $200,000 12. Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV):...

Space junk in Earth's orbit may increase because of the effects of the same heat-trapping gases that are polluting the air and warming the planet, according to a recent study. What's happening? A team led by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers determined that, with Earth's warming, space debris could accumulate enough to reduce the low Earth orbit area available for satellites by between a third and 82% by the year 2100, as the Associated Press detailed. The reason for this, per the study published in Nature Sustainability in March, is that climatic changes high above ground could reduce the effectiveness...

Inflation unexpectedly slowed in April to 2.3% over the year, progressing toward the Federal Reserve's 2% target and the smallest increase since February 2021

Afrikaners, white South Africans long reviled as the architects of a racist state, are now being recast by Donald Trump as the victims of one. The U.S. president has accused South Africa’s Black-majority government of plotting to seize white farms and failing to stop “violent attacks on innocent disfavored minority farmers.” His top adviser, white South Africa-born billionaire Elon Musk, has accused some of the country’s politicians of actively promoting a “white genocide.” Trump, who has centered his presidency on a promise to evict millions of migrants from the U.S., is clearing away obstacles so that white Afrikaners who want...

Just a hair over a week ago (ten days to be exact), an official arm of the German government declared the populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party - now polling as Germany's most popular party in the country - a 'right-wing extremist' group. Yeah, right - so big deal, no? I mean, they've been calling them that forever. Actually, it was a big deal. It made the epithet an official label, opening the party and every last one of its members to constant, sanctioned (instead of surreptitious) government surveillance. It was also the first necessary step in the process of...