French President Emmanuel Macron was caught on camera being struck in the face by his wife, Brigitte, upon the couple's arrival in Vietnam on Monday.

Confused, Starving Reporters Now Desperate for Food After Killing American Journalism By John Kass Sunday May 25, 2025 Excerpt After it destroyed its own credibility by twisting the truth to protect Joe Biden and hide his senility, can American corporate legacy news media hope for rebirth? No. It’s dead. Journalism killed itself covering up Joe […] The post Confused, Starving Reporters Now Desperate for Food After Killing American Journalism appeared first on www.independentsentinel.com.

Not everyone pines for the days without cell phones, but what about social media? Would you erase social media from the history books if you could? If you said yes, you share the feelings of a staggering 46% of teenage respondents to a recent survey from the British Standards Institution (BSI), which also found that […] The post Young Adults Joining ‘Offline Clubs’ Across Europe–to Replace Screen Time with Real Time appeared first on Good News Network.

Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of today’s video from Daily Signal Senior Contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to our YouTube channel to see more of his videos. Hello, this is Victor Davis Hanson for The Daily Signal. I’d like to talk about debt, debt, debt. All during the last few days, we’ve heard some startling news. Moody’s, the bond evaluator, for the first time in its history, since 1917, has lowered the credit rating of the United States government from Aaa to Aa1. It didn’t do that during the 2008 meltdown. It didn’t do that during the Great Depression. It didn’t do that during 9/11. It didn’t do that during the Biden years when we borrowed $7 trillion. But it did it now. At the same time, Jerome Powell, the head of the Fed, will not lower interest rates even though there’s been a good jobs report, a good inflation report, a good corporate profits report. Gross domestic product is gonna be evaluated, apparently, upward and there’s been low energy cost. That mortgage is still 4.25% Fed rate to 4.5%. And that means mortgages are still 6.5%, 7%. And that housing market is slowing as a result. And this has got President Donald Trump very angry, that they’re doing this, given the prior administration borrowed $7 trillion and helped run up from $29 trillion in national debt to $37 trillion, and left Trump with a $3 billion-a-day interest payment. So, he’s jawboning all this and trying to get down. So, what is Trump trying to do? And is it working? Well, he’s the first president since Bill Clinton and Newt Gingrich, the speaker of the House at that time, who’s talking about reducing a $2 trillion budget deficit, a $1.2 tirllion trade deficit, and addressing a $37 trillion national debt. But is he actually doing it? On the plus side of the ledger, you’ve got the Department of Government Efficiency. And DOGE in the first 100 days has identified about $160 billion in cuts. That’s encouraging if two things are following: if they can keep up that rate of identifying cuts and get up to the $500 billion or even $700 billion and maybe make 25% or 30% reduction in the $2 trillion deficit. And if the Trump administration exercises fiscal discipline. The problem is twofold: that while he’s addressing verbally, rhetorically the debt and the deficit, you look at the big, beautiful bill under consideration and it’s going to have to pass or the Trump administration will be completely humiliated. They need to get it through reconciliation but there are sizable increases in the defense budget from everything that’s justifiable, from salaries, from an Iron Dome-like missile defense—you name it. More drones—good. But it’s more money. And there’s more subsidies to farmers. And there’s not a lot of cuts—at least when balanced with the increases. So, the budget deficit, for all the talk of DOGE and for all the talk of physical sobriety, might not actually go down. And if it doesn’t go down, the Fed may not lower rates. And if it doesn’t lower rates, then you still are stuck with a trillion dollars a year in interest payments. That’s killing us. So, you’ve got to get that down. And the way Trump has to do it is just two ways: Either cut the budget or raise taxes—which will strangle the economy—or continue the tax cuts. And hope two things: that the tax cuts—the extension—will prime the economy, along with cheap interest rates. And the question that we all have now: Is cutting taxes on tips, is cutting taxes on Social Security, is cutting taxes on first responder, etc.—all of which Trump has mentioned—is that really stimulus as opposed to, say, accelerated depreciation investment for businesses? I don’t know the answer. But I do know, as a historian, that if you do not cut the deficit and the national debt and you have bond raters like Moody’s or the Fed that will not lower interest rates, you’re going to be in a crisis. And in the antiquity—from Greece and Rome, through the Middle Ages, to the Renaissance—there were three ways of dealing with unsustainable debt and are not good. They’re all civilizational killers. No. 1: As the Weimar Republic did in Germany, you pay back what you owe in cheap dollars. They inflated the marks. And bankrupt really helped cause the depression. You can do that, pay back the $37 trillion in inflated dollars. It’s not a good option. No. 2: You can confiscate private wealth. People do that all the time throughout history. That destroys the legitimacy of the government. And it makes private investors hide their money. When I say confiscate wealth, you can already see articles in financial left-wing journals that say, well, maybe the trillionaire, billionaire, whatever term they use, oligarchical class will get credit, some Social Security or get some kind of credit for us taking some of their 401(k) money. Something like that. That never works. It never worked in Athens. It never worked in Rome. It never worked in Renaissance Italy. The third is the most drastic and it’s a killer too and we’ve seen countries in South America try it. And that’s to renounce the debt. Just say: You know what? All you bondholders, you guys have U.S. savings bonds—40% of them abroad, you know, here in America—you have so much money anyway. We’re just not gonna pay you back—the government. We’re gonna renounce it and start from zero. Who would ever buy a bond again if we were to do that? So, bottom line is incumbent upon the Trump administration to make real cuts and show progress that you’re reducing the annual budget deficit and more importantly, you have mechanisms to grow the economy. Final note. We have a lot of confidence—this administration—that tariffs will give revenue and maybe also help reduce the budget deficit. I’m not sure that’s happening. Only 1% or 2%, maybe 3% of the $5 trillion in federal revenue today is made up by tariff income. Even with these huge new tariffs, if they’re actually reified, you might get a trillion dollars. You might get a trillion dollars over 10 years. That’s $100 billion out of $5 trillion in revenue. So, I’m not sure we can count on tariff income at all. What we should count on is cut, cut, cut. Seek a balanced budget and grow the economy with tax cuts that encourage investment and economic expansion. We publish a variety of perspectives. Nothing written here is to be construed as representing the views of The Daily Signal. The post Trump Must Avoid These 3 ‘Civilization Killers’ When Tackling the National Debt appeared first on The Daily Signal.

THE CENTER SQUARE—President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance and others on Monday thanked those U.S. service members who died serving their country during a Memorial Day event at Arlington National Cemetery. “We gather today to honor the incredible service members who rest in glory in this cemetery and burial grounds around the world, and in thousands of lonely places known only to God.” Trump said. “And every hour of peril and every moment of crisis, American warriors have left behind the blessings of home and family to answer their nation’s call. They’ve offered all that they had within them and given their last breaths to each and every one of us so that we might live safe and breathe free.” Trump recognized the surviving family members of the fallen. “Each of the service members who have made the supreme sacrifice for our nation has also left an unfillable void and an unbreakable silence in the lives of all who loved them,” he said. The president also noted the coming 250th anniversary of the United States and those early soldiers who fought for the nation’s independence.  “This Memorial Day is especially significant as we commemorate 250 years since the first American patriots fell in the field of battle,” he said. “Two and a half centuries ago … brave minutemen and humble farm boys were the first to give their lives for a nation that did not yet have a name.” Earlier, Trump placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, followed by the playing of Taps and a moment of silence. The tomb is a memorial honoring three unidentified soldiers, one each from World War I, World War II and the Korean War, and serves as a tribute for all those unidentified service members who lost their lives serving the country. “Since the founding of our great nation, over one million of our sons, daughters, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, brothers and sisters have donned the cloth of our nation and never come home,” General Dan Caine said.”Every one of them believed that defending our great nation when duty called is a righteous and worthy cause. And they were right. It is.” Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth followed Caine, commemorating the unknown soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice. “This is the story of the unknown, the story of the fallen soldier who we have gathered today to honor,” Hegseth said. “It is the story of the American warrior.” Vice President JD Vance thanked the Gold Star families in attendance. They are the survivors of service members who died in the line of duty. “For those who have given their lives for this country, we remember you today, and certainly, to our Gold Star families, who are so thrilled and so grateful to have you in attendance,” Vance said. “This is a sacred place, an eternal resting spot for our nation’s sons and daughters.” Originally published by The Center Square The post WATCH: Trump Honors Fallen Soldiers During Memorial Day Ceremony appeared first on The Daily Signal.

'Globalize the Intifada' and the Evils of Left-Wing Political Violence