Free Republic

Former Los Angeles mayor has received more than $1 million in campaign contributions and other financial support from fossil-fuel interests during his decades in public life. His support of the oil industry illustrates a broader divide in the Democratic Party about wanting to fight climate change, but not to the detriment of low-income Americans. As California positions itself as a leader on climate change, former Los Angeles mayor and gubernatorial candidate Antonio Villaraigosa is pivoting away from his own track record as an environmental champion to defend the state’s struggling oil industry.Villaraigosa’s work to expand mass transit, plant trees and...

Sir Keir Starmer has sent his thoughts to those injured and affected by a car ramming incident in Liverpool and is being "kept up to date" with developments as they come in. Merseyside Police confirmed a 53-year-old man has been arrested after a car collided with pedestrians in Liverpool city centre during Liverpool FC's Premier League victory parade. Emergency services rushed to Water Street after Merseyside Police were contacted just after 6pm on Monday with reports of the incident. The car stopped at the scene and a man was detained by police. Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: "The scenes...

U.S. President Donald Trump, in remarks posted to his Truth Social account on May 26, accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of “causing problems” with every word he says and reignited criticism of Ukraine’s role in the war, echoing themes he has pushed since the 2024 campaign. “President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop,” Trump wrote on his social media platform, Truth Social. He again asserted that Russia’s war against Ukraine would never have happened if he had been...

Summary EU seeks mutually beneficial trade deal with Washington U.S. demands unilateral concessions to cut goods trade deficit EU Commission says leaders' call has given new impetus to talksBRUSSELS, May 26 (Reuters) - The European Union may have won a reprieve from U.S. President Donald Trump's threatened 50% tariffs, but it remains unclear how the bloc will square its push for a mutually beneficial trade deal with Washington's demands for steep concessions. Trump backed away from imposing the levies on EU imports from June 1 after a call with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, restoring a July...

The New Jersey Libertarian Party’s Executive Board recently approved a resolution denouncing the rhetoric and online messaging shared by the state party affiliates from Colorado and New Hampshire. The denunciation does not include a call for censure or disaffiliation. The state party originally approved the resolution by a 7–2 vote last Monday, later announcing it this past Saturday. According to the party, Libertarian National Committee Region Representative Pat Ford was present during the board’s vote. The resolution states that it represents “Concerned Libertarian Party Members from across several State Affiliates,” and comes in response to an “alarming growth in the...

The house of cards is collapsing at Harvard, and this time, it’s not just conservative media sounding the alarm. Even The New York Times is reporting that Harvard has quietly admitted it’s in “a major, major, major crisis.”

Car plows into crowd during Liverpool victory parade The incident took place as fans gathered in Liverpool City to celebrate the club’s Premier League victory. Several people are believed to be injured. Authorities have confirmed that one man is in custody.

On the eve of the 2020 election, FBI agents discussed an active money-laundering case against Hunter Biden just hours after casting doubt on the authenticity of his incriminating laptop during meetings with social media companies.. The FBI’s refusal to confirm the laptop’s existence and instead allow a false narrative to take hold that it was Russian disinformation came on the same day that The Post published bombshell emails from the device revealing Joe Biden’s involvement in his son’s lucrative influence-peddling schemes when he was vice president. ... Truth silenced .. FBI analyst Peter Courtney .. began to respond that the...

The Pentagon rolled out a pulse-pounding new ad for Memorial Day weekend, narrated by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and President Trump, that touted efforts to root out wokeness in the military. Declaring that America’s fighting men and women are “laser-focused on our mission,” the spot shows service members taking part in intense training drills and battlefield combat while dramatic music swells and excerpts from speeches delivered by Trump and Hegseth play in the background. “No more distraction, no more electric tanks, no more gender confusion, no more climate change worship. We are laser-focused on our mission of warfighting,” the defense...

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Federal judges are considering hiring armed private security forces amid fears that US Marshals will not protect them because they work for Donald Trump. The judiciary has been dealing with rising number of threats against magistrates who have ruled against the Trump administration's agenda. .... Snip.... Some judges are concerned the security provided by the Marshals Service will not be enough to protect them, or that the White House will revoke their services as retaliation for their rulings. The idea for private security came up in a series of closed-door meetings in March, when a group of roughly 50 judges...

Trans folks went topless outside Downing Street during a protest calling out the oppression of the community across the UK. The protest action – which took place on Sunday (25 May) in London – was organised by activism group STRIVE (Standing for Trans Rights, Inclusion and Visibility Everywhere) as a means of “bringing our voices to the very place where too many harmful policies and decisions have been made” about the “safety, dignity, and rights of trans people across the UK”. Trans people and their allies came out in force for the demonstration and marched from Marble Arch to Downing...

“Is the Blue Party really only the customer service desk for the administrative state?” —Jeff Childers It’s pretty universally acknowledged that America’s recent wars — say, starting with Vietnam — have been stupid, pointless, and fake in instigation. And yet the soldiers we sent into these fiascos acted bravely and honorably for the most part. So, it has felt a little weird to celebrate their sacrifices minus any sense of political justice, victory, or meaning in the endeavors they sacrificed for. Ergo, the holiday is lately reduced to a celebration of grilled meat. This Memorial Day, for a change, the...

President Donald Trump is visiting Arlington National Cemetery for Memorial Day on Monday hours after blasting his political opponents and perceived enemies as “scum” in a social media post marking the solemn occasion honoring America’s war dead. In the early morning Truth Social post, Trump criticized members of the federal judiciary as “USA hating” as well as “monsters,” and his predecessor, former President Joe Biden, as “incompetent.” The all-caps message, posted just before 7 a.m. ET, sees the president wishing a “Happy Memorial Day to all, including the scum that spent the last four years trying to destroy our country...

A Russian military expert stunned Kremlin hawks when he revealed that Ukraine's army currently enjoys a significant advantage over Putin's army. There is growing confidence among Russia's pro-war faction that Vladimir Putin can achieve all his military goals in Ukraine. Western analysts believe that Putin's aims have not changed since he launched his full-scale invasion of the neighbouring country, and that he is more than ever determined to seize all of Ukraine. With Donald Trump seemingly unwilling to get tough with Russia, many Kremlin supporters are starting to smell victory. However, Andrey Klintsevich warned that Ukraine's army was still a...

(AFP) — Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday that Germany along with Ukraine’s other key Western backers had lifted range restrictions on weapons they send to Kyiv to fight against Russia. Merz, who took office early this month, also vowed that “we will do everything in our power to continue supporting Ukraine, including militarily”, in close coordination with other supporters. “There are no longer any range restrictions on weapons delivered to Ukraine — neither by the British nor by the French nor by us nor by the Americans,” he said. “This means that Ukraine can now defend itself, for example, by...

Sales of electric vehicles are on the rise in the United States, but the road ahead for charging infrastructure looks a whole lot bumpier. Despite growing interest in EVs, the pace of building high-speed chargers isn’t just lagging, it’s actively falling behind. Add in looming policy shifts under the Trump administration, and the gap between supply and demand could widen even further. It’s understood that the number of high-speed EV chargers being installed across the US dropped more than 21% through the first quarter compared to last year. With this in mind, BloombergNEF has cut its expectations for EV installations...

At least 11 people were injured Saturday night when gunfire erupted during a Memorial Day weekend gathering on a docked charter boat in Little River, South Carolina, police said. Horry County Police said in an online statement Monday morning that 10 of the people hurt in the shooting were hospitalized with gunshot wounds, including one who was in critical but stable condition. An eleventh victim suffered a non-gunfire-related injury, police said. A motive for the shooting remains under investigation, and detectives are working to identify those responsible for the shooting. "Thus far, the investigation indicates that the shooting was an...

Gunfire erupted in a Jackson, Tennessee, park Saturday night leaving seven people, including juveniles, injured and police seeking the perpetrators of the shooting, authorities said. The shooting occurred at the Kate Campbell Park northeast of downtown Jackson, according to the Jackson Police Department. One of the gunshot victim was hospitalized in critical condition, two were in stable condition and four others were treated and released, police said in an updated statement Sunday morning. Police officers responded to the park after receiving reports at around 8:41 p.m. of a shooting incident involving juveniles, authorities said in an earlier statement.

Merz will tell Netanyahu "not to overdo it" in a call this week, though notes Germany will remain more guarded in its criticism than others for 'historical reasons'. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Monday that Israel's recent attacks on Gaza are taking a humanitarian toll on civilians that can no longer be justified as a fight against terrorism. "Harming the civilian population to such an extent, as has incresingly been the case in recent days, can no longer be justified as a fight against Hamas terrorism," he told broadcaster WDR in a televised interview...