Free Republic

The recent election of Republican Dean Tran of Fitchburg to the Massachusetts state Senate was an embarrassing rebuke to the state’s top Democrats, including U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Despite their opposition, Tran defeated Democrat Susan Chalifoux Zephir, a Leominster city councilor who had the support of the state’s Democrat Party hierarchy, as well as Charlene DiCalogero of Berlin an unenrolled candidate Claire Freda.

Since opening its doors in 2015, no unaccompanied minors have been deported from Germany. That is soon set to change, as Berlin has started building centers in Morocco to house deported minors, according to a report. The German government started constructing two youth centers in northern Morocco to house local “street children” as well as unaccompanied Moroccan minors who have been deported by Germany, according to a report from the Welt am Sonntag newspaper on Sunday. The pilot project creates a legal pathway for Germany to start deporting youths without needing to necessarily locate their families first. In recent years,...

German police descended on a Christmas market in Berlin after two bags of bullets were found under a nearby mosque last night. About 200 rounds of ammunition was found in an underground car park in West Berlin - but officers quickly ruled out any terror link. The discovery came with Germany still on high alert after a wave of terror attacks and almost a year after a jihadist killed 12 by crashing a lorry through a market in the city.

Relatives of the 12 people who were killed in last year's horrific terror attack at a Christmas market in Berlin have spoken out publicly against the treatment they've gotten from German Chancellor Angela Merkel. One of their complaints is that, although it was a widely publicized and horrific attack, Merkel has not expressed personal condolences. Apparently, "Mutti Merkel" is so busy creating an even bigger and more powerful EU that she can't spare the time to reach out to terror victims' families. The relatives wrote an open letter that was published by German news magazine Der Spiegel on Friday. In...

Debate has recently flared in Germany as to whether the prevalence of English in urban areas is a nuisance. We spoke to expats who told us why they have not learned the local language. When Jens Spahn, a politician from the Christian Democrats (CDU), recently condemned people who live in Berlin but speak English as “provincial, elitist hipsters,” he stirred up a national debate on the importance of learning the local lingo. Spahn argued that the use of English leaves out locals who can’t speak the global language and is detrimental to other newcomers who dedicate their time to learning...

The news report below shows the polarization in the crowd at a recent campaign rally for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. Many thanks to Nash Montana for the translation, and to Vlad Tepes for the subtitling. A note from the translator: That last sentence is very cryptic. I do not know what they mean. Do they mean to say that most who will vote in Berlin, will vote for others such as AfD? There’s no explanation for this, and comments are disabled on the original video.

Germany’s leading Jewish newspaper has fired sharp criticism at the capital city, arguing that Berlin is failing to take a strong enough stance against anti-Semitic activist groups. The Jüdische Allgemeine Zeitung (JAZ) published the strongly-worded article on Wednesday after several artists dropped out of a music festival currently being held in the capital when they found out that it was being backed by the Israeli embassy. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, which seeks to isolate Israel internationally, put “massive pressure” on artists to withdraw from the Pop-Kultur festival due to a €500 donation from the Israeli embassy, JAZ...

From August, a train station in Berlin will be the testing ground for surveillance cameras with biometric face recognition capability. Here is an overview of the most important information and a look at the controversy. The test phase will take place at Berlin’s Südkreuz train station. It will include only selected participants and be conducted by the German federal police, Federal Criminal Police Office and the Interior Ministry in conjunction with Deutsche Bahn, the station operator. […] For the test phase, three specialized cameras have been installed that will film a particular entrance and an escalator leading to the station...

Schoolteachers and other school officials in Berlin have noticed a rising trend of anti-Semitism among pupils and say the expression “You Jew!” has become a common insult. A report conducted by the American Jewish Committee (AJC) of 21 schools in Berlin shows the level of antisemitism is growing among the primarily Turkish and Arab Muslim pupils. The group also found a disturbing rise in support for radical Islamism, according to German broadcaster RBB.

While the United States has continued to debate so-called “bathroom bills” targeting transgender people, Berlin’s justice minister is hoping to open up government building bathrooms to all. According to an audit report by the Berlin justice ministry seen by Tagesspiegel on Monday, many of the bathrooms in Berlin’s government administrative buildings could be converted into unisex facilities without great effort. “The building scan showed that having toilets for all sexes in many places would be simple to implement,” said justice minister Dirk Behrendt, who is also responsible for anti-discrimination projects. Such unisex toilets are intended to reduce discrimination against transgender...

Under the watch of Chancellor Merkel, millions of Muslim migrants have flooded Germany. Amid a spike in rapes, another frightening trend is emerging within Europe’s largest economy — Sharia Police.Gatestone Institute reports: A hundred Islamists are now openly enforcing Sharia law on the streets of Berlin, according to local police who are investigating a recent string of violent assaults in the German capital. The self-appointed morality police involve Salafists from Chechnya, a predominantly Sunni Muslim region in Russia. The vigilantes are using threats of violence to discourage Chechen migrants from integrating into German society; they are also promoting the establishment of a parallel...

The female founder of a new “liberal” mosque in Berlin has found herself under 24-hour police protection after receiving over a hundred death threats. Female lawyer Seyran Ates is the founder of the liberal Ibn Ruschd-Goethe mosque, which was established earlier this year. Ms. Ates, a Kurdish Muslim born in Turkey, blames the Turkish government of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, saying Erdoğan supporters were behind the daily death threats, Kronen Zeitung reports. Diyanet, the Turkish government’s religious authority, immediately slammed Ates and her mosque accusing the founders of being close to the Gulen movement who they blame for the attempted...

"The Abedin emails include a mid-August 2009, email exchange in which Band urges Abedin to follow up on a request from Newsmax CEO Chris Ruddy to set up a meeting with then-Ambassador to Panama Barbara Stephenson on behalf of lobbyist Amb. Otto Reich, President Reagan’s ambassador to Venezuela who maintained high-level government positions during the tenure of both President George H.W. Bush and President George Bush. In early September, Ruddy then was contacted by State Department Deputy Assistant Secretary for the Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs, Roberta S. Jacobson, at the behest of Band and Abedin, in reference to Ruddy’s...

RUSH: Now, Barack Obama. He is upset. Barack Hussein Obama — do not doubt me on this — this trip of Trump’s starting in Saudi — and I know it’s not pronounced Saudi. Some people do, though. The Saudis, Saudi, but if you go over there you’ll hear some people say Saudi Arabia. The Palestinians, have you heard how they pronounce “Israeli”? The Israelis. The Israelis. They say it routinely. Even Arafat said it that way. We Americanize “the Israelis.” There are people that say, the Saudis. Even though it’s not the House of Saud, it’s the House of Saud....

BERLIN (AP) — Barack Obama received a rock-star welcome in Berlin as he appeared at a public debate Thursday with Chancellor Angela Merkel, whom he praised as one of his "favorite partners" during his presidency. ... At the beginning of their discussion, Obama praised Merkel to the excited cheers of a crowd of young Protestants, who had traveled from all over Germany and beyond to attend the religious gathering. "Not only do I love this city, but one of my favorite partners throughout my presidency is sitting next to me," Obama said with a big smile. Merkel smiled right back...

Police in the capital have “thought through every scenario” as they prepare to keep visitors safe during Protestant Reformation celebrations, which include a visit by Barack Obama. Around 140,000 visitors are expected in Berlin for the Church Congress marking 500 years since the start of the Protestant Reformation, which kicks off on Wednesday evening and lasts until Sunday. Former US President Obama will be the star guest in the proceedings, discussing “engaged democracy” with Chancellor Angela Merkel in front of a crowd of 80,000 at the Brandenburg Gate on Thursday. “Unfortunately, the terror threat has been constantly high for a...

First daughter and Special Assistant to the President Ivanka Trump was booed and hissed by an audience in Germany on Tuesday when she attempted to defend Donald Trump's record on women's issues. Speaking before the W-20 panel on women's issues as part of the G-20 summit in Berlin, the first daughter was met with loud disapproval when she described the president as a lifelong advocate of women. "That is something I'm very proud of my father's advocacy, long before he came into the presidency, he championed this in the primaries," she said. "He's been a tremendous champion of supporting families...

Berlin’s neutrality law is most often discussed in relation to the Islamic headscarf. But one Christian teacher has found that it applies to other religions as well. A Protestant teacher working in the Wedding district of Berlin was told to immediately stop wearing her cross necklace, the German Catholic News Agency (KNA) reported on Tuesday. Consistorial president of the Berlin-Brandenburg Protestant Church Jörg Antoine confirmed last week that the woman had been given the instructions, which were based on Berlin’s neutrality law that prohibits teachers and other public sector workers from wearing religious symbols. The neutrality law has generally applied...

A protest by Muslim parents against a gay man looking after their children at a Kindergarten has led to a public debate in the liberal capital city. The parents of preschool children in the northern district of Reinickendorf threatened to gather names for a petition against the kindergarten when they found out that one of the nursery teachers was gay, Tagesspiegel reported on Wednesday. At first the protest led the young man to request to be transferred to another kindergarten. But the management of the preschool put their foot down and gave the parents the choice: either accept that a...

On the 60th anniversary of the start of the European Union, at least 3,500 demonstrators in Berlin joined an international protest to show their opposition to the UK leaving its member states behind. As British Prime Minister Theresa May prepares to trigger Article 50 next week, setting into motion negotiations for an EU without the UK, thousands in Berlin and other major cities took to the streets on Saturday, marking 60 years since the Treaties of Rome laid the foundations for the modern-day Union. Brexit has been largely viewed as unpopular in Germany even before the referendum vote last summer,...