Free Republic

We have a big event happening tomorrow. Katie will get the official unveiling, but a major trade deal was struck between the United States and “a big, and highly respected, country.” Is it the United Kingdom? That’s been circling the rumor mill. We are in trade talks with our cousins across the pond, but they’re not the only ones. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent will meet with Chinese officials in Switzerland over the weekend. Talks with India are ongoing, but their recent armed spat with Pakistan might put those on hold. Who knows, but trade deals are being hashed out, as...

As President Trump brings manufacturing back to the US — and closes in on trade deals with India, Japan, and South Korea — China’s days as “the world’s factory floor” are numbered. And Beijing is furious. In a move harking back to the Cultural Revolution, Chinese schoolchildren are again being taught to hate the US. Class time is devoted to shouting anti-American slogans like “China must win the China-US trade war!” ... But it turns out that — in secret — Beijing has been quietly retreating as fast as it can. Trump divulged in a Time magazine interview on April...

LEWISTON, Idaho (AP) - Some prosecutors say a federal law is forcing them to deal domestic violence cases down to lesser charges. Under the law, passed in 1996, anyone convicted of a misdemeanor crime of violence against a spouse or partner will forever lose the right to own a gun. Nez Perce County Prosecutor Daniel Spickler said the federal law clashes with Idaho's gun culture and leads many domestic violence defendants to hold out for lesser charges that would not invoke the ban. "A law that is perfectly appropriate for New York City or Los Angeles is probably not equally...

Guarded by hundreds of armed rebels deep in a malaria-infested jungle, three American captives pass the time playing with a homemade deck of cards and dreaming of their families. The threat of death always hangs nearby. The three U.S. military contractors have been cut off from the outside world since their capture by rebels seven months ago. That isolation was broken when a Colombian journalist traveled for days over rough roads and jungle rivers with a rebel escort to interview them July 25 in remote southern Colombia. "They were nervous, and there were traces of fear on their faces," freelance...