Free Republic

The U.S. trade deficit in goods and services narrowed sharply in April, falling to $61.6 billion from $138.3 billion in March—the largest monthly improvement on record—driven by a steep drop in imports and continued strength in American exports. The 16.3 percent decline in imports, the biggest on record, coincided with the introduction of new U.S. tariff schedules and followed months of accelerated purchasing by companies anticipating higher duties. Analysts noted that much of the shift reflected a hangover after months of elevated imports as businesses rushed to bring in goods ahead of the tariff hikes. At the same time, exports...

The German government handed out a record number of citizenships to immigrants last year, rising to nearly a quarter of a million passports, with Syrian and Turkish nationals representing the largest cohorts. According to data collected by 13 of 16 federal states in Germany and provided to the Welt Am Sonntag newspaper, 249,901 foreigners were granted citizenship in 2024, the highest number since records began in 2000. This number surpassed the previous record set in 2023, when 200,095 people were awarded citizenship. Last year’s record naturalisation number is likely much higher, given that the states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and...

Breaking records has become as routine as free throws for Caitlin Clark. The star Indiana Fever guard and face of the WNBA is just two games into her second season, but is already seeing more records fall with her instantly strong performance to start off the season. Clark opened up the season in midseason form with a 20-point, 10-assist, 10-rebound triple-double in a dominant 93-58 win over the Chicago Sky. Then, in her second game of the year, Clark once again filled up the stat sheet on her way to breaking a record. Against the Atlanta Dream, which saw the...

The Kennedy Center broke its all-time attendance record for a public event March 29, with over 11,000 attendees for the EARTH to SPACE: Arts Breaking the Sky fireworks show, the Daily Caller has exclusively learned. The history-making moment was celebrated amid a flurry of criticism from liberals about President Donald Trump’s takeover of the entertainment facility. Critics voiced concerns about Trump’s understanding and appreciation for the arts when he took control of the Kennedy Center. However, attendance numbers have told a different story. With a focus on shifting away from politically-charged programming, the facility experienced tremendous success with a widely-attended...

A 13-year-old boy battling incurable brain cancer is on a quest to set a Guinness World Record for being sworn in by 1,000 law enforcement agencies across the country. Devarjaye "DJ" Daniel, whose dream is to become a police officer, was thrust into the national spotlight when he was sworn in by President Donald Trump as a Secret Service agent before a joint session of Congress March 4. Daniel has already been sworn in by 914 agencies, making the record-setting dream a near reality. He already holds multiple records, including having the most keys to the city and the most...

Approximately 3.2 million numberholders, all listed age 120+, have now been marked as deceased.

The factory sector came roaring back in President Trump’s first full month in office. Industrial production in the United States surged in February, rising 0.7 percent, more than triple the 0.2 percent increase economists had expected. The latest data from the Federal Reserve marks a significant expansion in industrial activity, with total output reaching its highest level on record. Manufacturing output, which accounts for roughly three-fourths of total industrial production, rose 0.9 percent, the largest monthly gain in a year. A particularly notable driver of February’s expansion was the auto sector, where motor vehicle and parts production jumped 8.5 percent....

Consumer sentiment fell sharply in March, with Democrats’ expectations for the economy hitting an all-time low, according to the University of Michigan’s latest consumer sentiment survey, highlighting an unprecedented partisan divide in economic outlook. The survey’s headline index dropped to 57.9, down from 64.7 in February, reaching its lowest level since November 2022. While sentiment declined across income levels and age groups, Democrats saw the sharpest deterioration, with their expectations index plunging to 28.2—a level lower than during the 2008 financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, or Donald Trump’s first term. By contrast, Republican expectations remained high at 95.7, marking a...

New York City has broken a 30-year record for the fewest number of shootings in the first two months of the year, police revealed Monday. The city saw 93 incidents of gun violence between January and February, the fewest for those months since 1993, officials said. Newly released NYPD statistics for February not only showed that dramatic drop in shootings, but also a 14.5% decline in overall serious crimes compared to the same month last year. “In the first two months of 2025, New York City experienced the fewest number of shooting incidents in the past 30 years, and the...

The Senate GOP has been working in overdrive to confirm key officials for President Donald Trump's administration faster than his predecessors. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., and Republicans in the upper chamber have successfully approved 18 of the 22 Cabinet positions. The most recent was former Sen. Kelly Loeffler, who was confirmed to lead Trump's Small Business Administration (SBA). With the successful confirmation of Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick last week, the 17th official put in place, Republicans and Trump officially outpaced former President Joe Biden, who had just seven nominees confirmed at the same point in 2021. Senate...

Joe Biden is the least popular living US president, according to a new poll, as his former Republican rival Donald Trump is enjoying a bounce in his favorability rating. The Gallup survey conducted last month found Biden, 82, is viewed unfavorably by a whopping 57% of Americans, whereas just 39% had a favorable opinion of him. At least 60% of independents and 20% of Democrats were among those who disapproved of Biden. By contrast, 48% of US adults have a positive impression of Trump, 78, while 50% do not. Just 7% of Democrats have a glowing view of the current...

Canadians are in for another year of record-breaking heat, according to Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC)'s latest report. The Canadian Centre for Climate Change Modelling Analysis forecasts a global mean surface temperature of 1.45 C above pre-industrial levels in 2025. It's slightly cooler than the record-high temperature of 1.55 C above the level in 2024, but the forecast is certain that it will be hotter than any year on record before 2023. "High temperatures are forecasted to persist despite the end of the El Niño event that warmed the tropical Pacific and boosted global temperatures in 2023 and 2024,"...

British police forces have been accused of being afraid of getting called racist as the recording of criminal ethnicity fell to the lowest rate in at least 15 years. According to Ministry of Justice data unearthed in Freedom of Information requests by former Tory minister Neil O’Brien, the percentage of instances in which British police failed to log the ethnicity of child sex offenders stood at 28.7 per cent last year, up from 11.6 per cent in 2010. For sex crimes as a whole, police failed to record the ethnicity of 29 per cent of perpetrators, up from 15 per...

People across America are feeling the sting of the rising cost of eggs in part being driven by the bird flu outbreak. In October, Vice President-elect Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) pointed to the skyrocketing price of eggs as evidence of President Joe Biden (D) and Vice President Kamala Harris’s (D) economic policies, per Breitbart News. “Eggs, when Kamala Harris took office, were short of $1.50 a dozen. Now, a dozen eggs will cost you around $4, thanks to Kamala Harris’ inflationary policies,” he said.

The nameplates on CEO offices are changing at what appears to be an historic pace. In the first 11 months of the year, 1,991 CEOs announced their departures, according to a report from outplacement firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas. That’s up 16% compared with the same timeframe last year and the highest tally on record since the firm began tracking CEO changes in 2002. This year’s high-profile breakups included Nike and John Donahoe, Intel and Pat Gelsinger, and Boeing and Dave Calhoun. With the economy going strong, the stock market on a two-year bull run, and consumer spending trending upward,...

October 2024 was both the second-warmest and second-driest October ever recorded in the U.S., according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). The 48 contiguous U.S. states saw an average temperature of 59 degrees Fahrenheit in October, 4.9 degrees warmer than the 20th century average, according to NOAA. Only one previous October, 1963, was hotter in the 130 years of NOAA’s records. Multiple states experienced their outright warmest October on record, including Arizona, New Mexico, Texas and Utah, while California, Colorado, Montana and Wyoming all saw their second warmest. The month was among the 10 warmest Octobers for a...

Actor-director Mel Gibson hinted that he will be voting for former President Donald Trump while saying Vice President Kamala Harris has an “appalling track record” with an “IQ of a fence post.” The Braveheart director issued his comments in a brief interview with TMZ while walking through the airport. While Gibson did not explicitly say that he will be voting for Trump, he did strongly hint at it. “The president is being voted on in days. What’s your thoughts,” the TMZ reporter asked.

McDonald’s released a statement Sunday admitting it has no record of Kamala Harris ever working there, as she has repeatedly claimed. This deepening scandal, which social media has dubbed Stolen McValor, finally got the spotlight it deserved Sunday when former President Trump spent some time making French fries and working the drive-thru at a Pennsylvania McDonald’s. It was a win-win for the man now widely seen as the 2024 frontrunner. He had the opportunity to show off his charming side and ability to connect with everyday people while pointing to what looks more and more like a shameless lie in...

Americans’ trust in the establishment media to report current events “fully, accurately and fairly” plummeted to a record low in 2024, Gallup polling found Monday. The decline in trust indicates the media lost credibility due to pushing false narratives, such as Hunter Biden’s laptop story, Russian collusion, the source of the 2020 pandemic, the January 6 investigation, and numerous hoaxes: As a result, only 31 percent of Americans have a “great deal” or “fair amount” of confidence in the media to tell the truth, one point below its low watermark of 32 percent in 2016 and 2023.

On Monday’s “CNN Newsroom,” Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD), stated that “The Biden-Harris administration has an excellent record of trying to engage the international community to calm things down. They’re doing that right now in the Middle East.” But acknowledged Hezbollah is an Iran-enabled organization that is attacking Israel and the U.N. and other countries in the region haven’t done enough to combat Iran. Cardin said, “International events are occurring, I don’t think they’re directed towards American politics. The timing of elections [is] always inconvenient in regards to international events. The Biden-Harris administration has an excellent...