Free Republic

…So it has been maddening to see people claim that Mamdani’s win was a victory for antisemitism…I can certainly understand why Jews who see anti-Zionism and antisemitism as synonymous find Mamdani’s rise alarming. There’s no question that he sympathizes with the Palestinians over the Israelis. New York’s past mayors — even the left-leaning Bill de Blasio — supported Israel reflexively. After the International Criminal Court issued a warrant for the arrest of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on war crimes charges, Cuomo joined his defense team. Mamdani, by contrast, has said he’d enforce the warrant if Netanyahu ever comes...

As America’s largest trading partners race toward deals, they are increasingly worried about being hit with future tariffs on their critical industries.Governments around the globe are racing to negotiate trade deals with the United States in order to forestall President Trump’s punishing tariffs, which could kick in on July 9. But the discussions have been slowed because Mr. Trump has threatened to impose more tariffs even if those deals are in place. Mr. Trump announced what he refers to as “reciprocal tariffs” on April 8, which he said were in response to other countries' unfair trading practices. But he agreed...

Wind and solar companies were already bracing for Congress to end federal subsidies. But the Senate bill goes even further and penalizes those industries.Senate Republicans have quietly inserted provisions in President Trump’s domestic policy bill that would not only end federal support for wind and solar energy but would impose an entirely new tax on future projects, a move that industry groups say could devastate the renewable power industry.The tax provision, tucked inside the 940-page bill that the Senate made public just after midnight on Friday, stunned observers.“This is how you kill an industry,” said Bob Keefe, executive director of...

The Supreme Court has set a new, higher bar for judges seeking to block Trump administration policies nationwide. But some legal routes remain open.A Supreme Court ruling limiting the ability of judges to block White House policies will bring a wave of urgency and uncertainty to the federal courts, experts said, as plaintiffs pursue new ways of blocking President Trump’s agenda and judges sort out how to apply the court’s complex ruling. On Friday, the Supreme Court ruled that district court judges likely exceeded their authority with so-called nationwide injunctions. Also known as universal injunctions, they have been used by...

The court tied the hands of judges at a time when Congress has been cowed and internal executive branch constraints have been steamrolled.The Supreme Court ruling barring judges from swiftly blocking government actions, even when they may be illegal, is yet another way that checks on executive authority have eroded as President Trump pushes to amass more power.The decision on Friday, by a vote of 6 to 3, will allow Mr. Trump’s executive order seeking to end birthright citizenship to take effect in some parts of the country — even though every court that has looked at the directive has...

Both Jennifer and Greg are security specialists. But while Jennifer works for Fox, Greg calls NPR his professional "home." Prior to working at NPR, he spent 20 years as a correspondent for both The New York Times and The Associated Press (via NPR).

President Donald Trump suggested Thursday that Democrat lawmakers are responsible for leaking top secret intelligence about last week’s strikes on Iranian nuclear sites. “The Democrats are the ones who leaked the information on the PERFECT FLIGHT to the nuclear sites in Iran,” the president posted on Truth Social. “They should be prosecuted!” The post comes as the Pentagon, along with assistance from the FBI, is actively working to identify the source of leaks about a preliminary Central Command battle damage assessment. At least one anonymous source leaked the information, which was preliminary, to CNN and the New York Times. Both...

On the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage nationally, supporters say they are secure but also wary and watchful.Could same-sex marriage be next?Gay Americans and their allies have much to celebrate on Thursday, the 10th anniversary of Obergefell v. Hodges, the Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. Same-sex marriage has, by almost every indication, become ingrained in everyday American life. Since the decision, there have been 591,000 same-sex marriages, and today, nearly two-thirds of Americans approve of the policy. Same-sex couples are staples in contemporary movies and television shows, and reside, often with their...

While Zohran Mamdani won over some Jewish supporters, other Jewish Democrats suggested that concerns about their community’s safety are being dismissed in a movement and a city they helped build.New York’s annual parade celebrating Israel has been a standard stop for the state’s politicians for the last 60 years, drawing in governors, senators and every mayor since Robert F. Wagner to pay their respects to the Jewish community.Now, as Israel’s standing in the United States has fallen precipitously since the Gaza war, New York City Democrats have nominated a mayoral candidate who does not shy away from his record of...

A preliminary classified U.S. report says the American bombing of Iran’s nuclear sites sealed off the entrances to two of the facilities but did not collapse their underground buildings, according to officials familiar with the findings. The early findings conclude that the strikes over the weekend set back Iran’s nuclear program by only a few months, the officials said.

You can’t put a price on beauty; you can put a price on a name. When the National Gallery in London exhibited a painting of Christ in 2011 as a heretofore lost work by Leonardo da Vinci, the surprise in art historical circles was exceeded only by the salivating of dealers and auctioneers. The painting, “Salvator Mundi,” is the only Leonardo in private hands, and was brought to market by the family trust of Dmitry E. Rybolovlev, the Russian billionaire entangled in an epic multinational lawsuit with his former dealer, Yves Bouvier. On Wednesday night, at Christie’s postwar and contemporary...

.. every objective metric, support for trans rights is worse now than it was six or seven years ago. And that’s not isolated to just trans issues. I think if you look across issues of gender right now, you have seen a regression. Marriage equality support is actually lower now than it was a couple of years ago in a recent poll. support that we saw for trans rights in 2016, 2017 — it was a mirage of support in some ways. Because I think, in the postmarriage world, there was a transfer of support from the L.G.B. to the...

She is one half of a Trump-world power couple. But she’s on Team Elon. It’s gotten complicated. It was the three-word gavel-bang heard across Washington — the conversation-ender meant to cow colleagues and cabinet secretaries, deployed daily by a slight woman with a big job: “Elon wants this.” For months, Katie Miller, the all-purpose operative for the world’s richest man, had been entrusted to help execute Elon Musk’s merry rampage through the federal government, conveying his priorities, his vision, his likes and dislikes with the tacit force of an executive order. When she spoke, Ms. Miller implied to Trump acolytes...

Schools say the Trump administration’s cuts to higher education are forcing them to consider extreme cost-cutting measures, even as more students than ever are heading to college this year.Public universities in the Midwest are raising prices for out-of-state students, as Florida schools consider making the same move for the first time since 2012.Cornell and Duke are among the colleges weighing layoffs. The University of Minnesota is cutting hundreds of jobs, even as undergraduate tuition soars as much as 7.5 percent.Just as America’s colleges are preparing to welcome what could be the largest freshman class in the nation’s history, political and...

The New York Times is still force-feeding its readers agitprop that the long-awaited inflation Armageddon it's been hawking for months is still nigh. That’s despite a bevy of welcome economic news in recent weeks that has defied the retrospectively stupid predictions of President Donald Trump’s most pompous critics still high on their bloated egos. “Where’s the Inflation From Tariffs? Just Wait, Economists Say,” doom-mongered Times reporter Colby Smith in a June 13 crystal ball item passed off as news. They always locate "Economists" to say what they want to impose as conventional "wisdom." “Tariffs raise consumer prices. It’s a view...

The drama offers a case study in how Elon Musk’s team sought to run a critical government agency through misinformation and social media blasts — and how longtime employees responded.Elon Musk stood before a giant American flag at a Wisconsin political rally in March and rolled out an eye-popping allegation of rampant fraud at the Social Security Administration. Scammers, he said, were making 40 percent of all calls to the agency’s customer service line. Social Security employees knew the billionaire’s claim had no basis in fact. After journalists followed up, staff members began drafting a response correcting the record. That’s...

The Trump administration has abruptly shifted the focus of its mass deportation campaign, telling Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials to largely pause raids and arrests in the agricultural industry, hotels and restaurants, according to an internal email and three U.S. officials with knowledge of the guidance. The decision suggested that the scale of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign — an issue that is at the heart of his presidency — is hurting industries and constituencies that he does not want to lose. The new guidance comes after protests in Los Angeles against the Trump administration’s immigration raids, including at farms...

New York Times columnist Tressie McMillan Cottom said Friday that former President Barack Obama will not be coming to Democrats' collective rescue as the party struggles to find national leadership in the wake of their stinging defeat in 2024. Cottom argued that Democrats desperate for Obama to save the party are "undignified" and weak, asserting that change will not come from above, but rather from "the streets." "We must start asking how we can save ourselves. We are seeing the start of that in places like Los Angeles, San Antonio and Raleigh, N.C.," she wrote, referencing the anti-ICE protests occurring...

A federal judge on Wednesday barred the Trump administration from continuing to detain Mahmoud Khalil under a rarely cited law invoked by the secretary of state — and suggested that Mr. Khalil could be released as early as Friday. However, the judge, Michael E. Farbiarz, paused his own order to give the administration a chance to appeal, saying it would not go into effect until 9:30 a.m. on Friday. And he left a pathway for the government to continue to detain Mr. Khalil for other reasons, though he suggested he would be skeptical were authorities to do so. ***Though Judge...

As images of protests in Southern California have flooded television and social media in recent days, a key question has emerged: Why are so many protesters carrying Mexican flags at an American political protest? The sea of red, white and green Mexican flags at anti-deportation protests this week in Los Angeles has been seized upon by conservatives who argue that the demonstrations are inherently un-American, causing some protesters to consider leaving them at home. Photos of masked provocateurs waving Mexican flags atop burning Waymo taxis spread instantly across conservative social media this weekend. Republicans pointed to them as a prime...