Free Republic

During an interview with CNBC on Thursday, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo stated that “We want China’s economy to flourish.” But they can’t have “our most sophisticated, leading-edge AI chips or the equipment that makes those chips.” CNBC Washington Correspondent Megan Cassella asked, “[T]here’s been some reporting recently that the U.S. is looking at further export restrictions to limit the amount of China’s access to our chips and sophisticated technologies. Can you give us any information on sort of what’s under consideration and what to expect?”

China will boost its defense spending by 7.2% this year, fueling a military budget that has more than doubled under Xi Jinping’s decade-plus in office as Beijing hardens its stance on Taiwan, according to official reports on Tuesday. The increase mirrors the rate presented in last year’s budget and comes in above the government’s economic growth forecast for this year. China also officially adopted tougher language against Taiwan as it released the budget figures, dropping the mention of “peaceful reunification” in a government work report delivered by Premier Li Qiang at the opening of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s...

A township ordinance that limits firing guns to indoor and outdoor shooting ranges and zoning that significantly restricts where the ranges can be located does not violate the Second Amendment, Pennsylvania's Supreme Court ruled Wednesday. The man who challenged Stroud Township's gun laws, Jonathan Barris, began to draw complaints about a year after he moved to the home in the Poconos in 2009 and installed a shooting range on his 5-acre property. An officer responding to a complaint said the range had a safe backstop but the targets were in line with a large box store in a nearby shopping...

Joe Biden has revoked an executive order from President Trump that was aimed at keeping foreign countries and firms away from America’s bulk power systems, especially entities tied to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The change in direction was part of Biden’s “Executive Order on Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis,” released on the Democrat’s first day in office. Section 7 of the Biden order, which also includes revocation of the Keystone XL Pipeline, features termination of climate change and energy-focused orders enacted during the Trump administration. Subpoint C states that “Executive...

https://youtu.be/vXrpFxHfppI https://youtu.be/zhrygUrJFmQ

BELFAST — President Joe Biden arrives in Northern Ireland on Tuesday to salute the 25th anniversary of its U.S.-brokered peace accord. But it will be a hollow celebration. Power-sharing between British unionists and Irish nationalists, the central vision of the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, is failing. Northern Ireland has for nearly a year had no elected government at Stormont, the grand parliament building overlooking Belfast

Residents of the U.S. Southwest could one day power their homes with solar energy generated across the border — if a multi-pronged plan from the Mexican government comes to fruition. A 120-megawatt capacity photovoltaic (PV) plant in the Sonoran seaside city of Puerto Peñasco already began feeding the national grid last month, while another 300 megawatts are expected to be online next year. “Who could have told me that a state like Sonora, a net importer of energy that has historically been a net importer, now has the potential to be an energy-exporting state?” Sonora Gov. Alfonso Durazo asked at...

As the United States focuses on national security threats emanating from China and Russia, it hasn’t lost sight of the threat posed by Iran and North Korea. At a congressional hearing on Thursday, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley said Iran threatens to destabilize the Middle East with its continuing support for terrorists and proxy forces. “Also, Iran is taking actions to improve its capabilities to produce a nuclear weapon, should it make the decision to do so, while continuing to build its missile forces,” Milley told the the House Appropriations Committee on Defense. …

President Biden participated in a second reception this week for the Democratic National Committee in Las Vegas, Nevada, where he urged those in attendance to take climate change more seriously. Just one day after a fundraiser in Rancho Santa Fe, California, where Biden accidentally revealed a previously unknown detail about former President Jimmy Carter’s health, he made a number of off-the-cuff comments about climate change including one about the Colorado River drying up. "You’re not going to be able to drink out of the Colorado River," Biden said to a crowd of about 60 people. He also likened climate change...

SINGAPORE— Chinese leader Xi Jinping plans to speak with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for the first time since the start of the Ukraine war, likely after he visits Moscow next week to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin , according to people familiar with the matter. The meetings with Messrs. Putin and Zelensky, the latter of which is expected to take place virtually, reflect Beijing’s effort to play a more active role in mediating an end to the war in Ukraine, some of the people said. "The meetings with Messrs. Putin and Zelensky, the latter of which is expected to...

The number of people employed by government in the United States increased by 46,000 in February, according to the employment report released today by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In January, according to BLS’ seasonally adjusted numbers, there were 22,449,000 people employed by government in this country. In February, that increased to 22,495,000. […] From January to February of this year, federal government employment increased by 7,000, rising from 2,881,000 to 2,888,000. State government employment increased by 2,000 from January to February, rising from 5,162,000 to 5,164,000. State-government employment in the United States hit its all-time high in February 2020,...

The United States purchased $38,232,900,000 in imports from the People’s Republic of China in January of this year, according to newly released data from the U.S. Census Bureau. That was more than Americans spent on imports from any other country during that month, according to the bureau. Because the United States exported only $13,092,600,000 in goods to China in January, the result was that this country ran a $25,160,300,000 trade-in-goods deficit with China for that month. That was also the largest trade deficit the United States ran with any country during January. […] After China, Mexico and Canada, the other...

The Biden administration is preparing to relax COVID-19 testing restrictions for travelers from China as soon as Friday, according to two people familiar with the decision. The people, who were not authorized to comment publicly and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the administration has decided to roll back the testing requirements as cases, hospitalizations and deaths are declining in China and the U.S. has gathered better information about the surge. The restrictions were put in place on Dec. 28 and took effect on Jan. 5 amid a surge in infections in China after the nation sharply eased pandemic...

Beijing will speed up its “reunification” plan for Taiwan, a deputy to the top legislature said ahead of its annual meeting that starts this weekend. “The [Communist] Party’s overall strategy for resolving the Taiwan issue in the new era has basically taken shape, and the strategic goals and focus of the future reunification cause have also become very clear,” National People’s Congress deputy Li Yihu said. “The mainland will promote national reunification on a fast development track,” Li told China Review News Agency in an interview published on Monday. Tensions have escalated across the Taiwan Strait, which separates the island...

DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told CNN’s “Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace” on Sunday that when he says the border is secure, he does not mean that people aren’t able to cross the border illegally, because “by that measure, the border has never been secure.” When asked how he can say the border is secure, Mayorkas said, “Right now, the United States has millions of jobs opening due to the economic success of this administration. We have progressed in conquering the pandemic far more than the countries to the south of Mexico, and that makes the United States an appealing place...

While speaking to the National Association of Counties Tuesday, President Biden pushed for more gun control and said there is “no rationale…for magazines that hold 50, 70 bullets.” He did not say what he believes to be a rational magazine capacity nor did he note whether 70-round magazines exist. Biden said, “I’m going to say something that’s always controversial, but there is no rationale for assault weapons and magazines that hold 50, 70 bullets.”

Tucker Carlson could scarcely believe what he was reporting. It was one of the most dastardly plots ever. Tucker Carlson dropped a bombshell about how Joe Biden asked Mike Pence to betray Trump. In discussing classified documents turning up at Mike Pence’s home in Indiana, Carlson explained to viewers that this was part of an anti-Trump strategy gone awry. “So here’s the latest example of unexplained weirdness in the news,” Carlson continued. “Mike Pence, of all people, has just swooped in to save Joe Biden. Yes. Mike Pence, a man so flamboyantly pure, he won’t have dinner with ladies not...

Pipeline workers who had secured jobs on the Keystone XL project before President Biden revoked its federal permits said they are still struggling to recover two years later. The workers told Fox News Digital that they and their fellow workers lost their jobs on the pipeline after Biden’s decision nearly two years ago in January 2021 and have since struggled to make ends meet. Immediately after taking office, Biden signed an executive order effectively shutting the project down despite the thousands of jobs it was expected to create and arguing the U.S. “must prioritize the development of a clean energy...

In 2020, America elected Joe Biden to be not-Trump—a role for which he seemed well-suited. In 2016, the country voted for burn-it-all-down upheaval. Trump was the tribune of those who felt betrayed and misled and mistreated. Four chaotic years later, alarmed voters fled into the arms of an aging former vice-president and senator—a man they had twice rejected as a presidential contender—who seemed the personification of the steady hand. No one expected Biden to be transformational or extraordinary, but we did need him to be the anti-Trump in the most important ways. We needed him to be sober and responsible,...

Two Georgia women, who in 2020 were alleged to have hidden suitcases filled with ballots under the table where they worked, were among those honored Friday with the Presidential Citizens Medal. President Joe Biden used the anniversary of the Capitol incursion to honor 14 people for their actions on Jan. 6, 2021 and in the tumult over the 2020 elections. Fulton County poll workers Ruby Freeman and Shaye Moss were later cleared of the allegations. During the ceremony, Biden praised the honorees for their efforts on “July 6th.” “A violent mob of insurrectionists assaulted law enforcement, vandalized sacred halls, hunted...