Free Republic

You don’t have to be a Eurosceptic to have issues with Big Europe. Given five years of record unemployment and austerity budgets in Europe, elections for the European Parliament, held last week, were always expected to produce victories for the populist parties that reject the EU and its political values. But the scale of their success – parties described as “far right” gained about one-sixth of the seats in the Strasbourg-based assembly, and a couple polled better than their own governing parties at home -- has given a jolt to the European establishment. Tens of millions of people are...

UKIP have topped the European polls in the UK, with the Labour Party vying with the Conservatives for second place. Sources from the other main parties have conceded Nigel Farage's party will win, with the leader hailing an "earthquake" in British politics. It will be the first time a party other than the Conservatives or Labour has topped a nationwide poll for the first time in 108 years.

Nigel Farage tonight claimed victory in the European elections, becoming the first 'insurgent party' to top a national vote. With results still being declared, Mr Farage broke cover to predict he will humiliate the Westminster parties, pushing Labour and the Tories into second and third. Support for Ukip has surged by more than 12 per cent, outstripping a more modest boost in votes for Labour, while the Lib Dems faced near-wipeout, with some calling for Nick Clegg to resign. Mr Farage said: 'Ukip is going to win this election and yes that will be an earthquake because never before in...

The Anti-Defamation League created a stir last week by releasing the results of a global survey of antisemitism, the most comprehensive ever.These results are considered shocking by many. Actually, for those who bother to keep up with reality, they contain no surprises.The Middle East and North Africa come out worst, with 74 percent among population groups qualifying as antisemitic according to the poll’s 11-question index. The most antisemitic political entities in the world? The West Bank and Gaza, coming in at 93 percent. (Yes, those same Palestinians with whom Israel is always under pressure to “make peace.”) The next worst...

While Scottish government draft guidelines currently allow teachers with moral objections to opt-out of certain aspects of the country’s new sex-ed curriculum, several National Health Service boards have objected to the opt-out clause. They are also objecting to provisions allowing parents to opt their children out of the classes. “It is extremely concerning that teaching staff would be provided an opportunity to refuse to participate in this particular aspect of the curriculum,” said the board, one of the largest in the country. Another NHS board warned against allowing parents too much influence over children, saying that the decision about whether...

Lawmakers in the Kremlin-controlled parliament picked up on swelling outrage in the socially conservative country at Conchita Wurst's weekend triumph by proposing a Russian-based contest in which family values prevail. "The last Eurovision contest's results exhausted our patience," Communist Party deputy Valery Rashkin told the Interfax news agency. "We must leave this competition. We cannot tolerate this endless madness." Rashkin said he would push for the creation of a "Voice of Eurasia" songfest instead, which would primarily group nations from the former Soviet Union. It was a suggestion picked up quickly by advisers to Belarus President Aleksander Lukashenko -- a...

A top EU court has ruled Google must amend some search results at the request of ordinary people in a test of the so-called "right to be forgotten". The European Union Court of Justice said links to "irrelevant" and outdated data should be erased on request. The case was brought by a Spanish man who complained that an auction notice of his repossessed home on Google's search results infringed his privacy. Google said the ruling was "disappointing".

Fascism returns to the continent it once destroyedWe easily forget how fascism works: as a bright and shining alternative to the mundane duties of everyday life, as a celebration of the obviously and totally irrational against good sense and experience. Fascism features armed forces that do not look like armed forces, indifference to the laws of war in theirapplication to people deemed inferior, the celebration of “empire” after counterproductive land grabs. Fascism means the celebration of the nude male form, the obsession with homosexuality, simultaneously criminalized and imitated. Fascism rejects liberalism and democracy as sham forms of individualism, insists on...

Nicholas Wade, a British-born science reporter and editor for more than 30 years with The New York Times, is no longer with the newspaper — just days after the release of his latest book, in which he depicts blacks with roots in sub-Saharan Africa as genetically less adapted to modern life than whites and Asians. Was The New York Times uncomfortable with Wade’s science or his conclusions? It’s unclear. Neither Wade nor his former employer returned requests for comment. Wade’s last Times article appeared April 24. His Penguin Press book “A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History” arrived in...

War in Western eyes involves an orderly sequence of ultimatums, declarations of war, invasions, counterattacks, second and third fronts, and finally a negotiated surrender, payment of reparations and a new territorial settlement. Annoyingly, Vladimir Putin is not following that script Edward Lucas writes. The Latvian defence analyst Jānis Bērziņš has written an excellent new paper (available at is.gd/berzins) outlining Russia’s approach to “new-generation warfare”, based on analysis of material in the Russian military press. He argues that the new frontline in this kind of conflict is mental, not physical. Russia uses psychological warfare, intimidation, bribery, and propaganda to undermine resistance...

Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt on Wednesday urged young voters to head to the European parliamentary polls on May 25th "to cure the European disease of nationalism".

Ukraine has launched a military assault on the flashpoint town of Slavyansk, raising the stakes in the showdown with Russia, which has promised "catastrophic consequences" if Kiev stepped up operations. Insurgents shot down two army helicopters, killing two servicemen, including a pilot, as the army tightened its noose around the rebel-held town of 160,000 people. Ukrainian soldiers and a helicopter near Slavyansk (EPA) The predawn offensive drew a sharp response from Moscow, where a spokesman for President Vladimir Putin said it dealt a "final blow" to a deal clinched last month in Geneva meant to ease the crisis.

Just over 8,000 years ago a huge landslide occurred off the coast of Norway, known as the Storegga Slide. The event created a catastrophic tsunami, with waves almost half as high as the Statue of Liberty, that battered Britain and other land masses. And now the most accurate computer model ever made of the tsunami suggests that it wiped out the remaining inhabitants of a set of low-lying landmass known as Doggerland off the coast of the UK. A new model by researchers at Imperial College London has revealed the devastating effects of a tsunami caused by a landslide off...

I periodically (some would say over and over and over again, though occasionally made more palatable by using humor and cartoons) warn that the United States should not become a European-style welfare state. But I wonder whether I spend enough time explaining why this would be a bad idea. After all, some people may think that you get more security and benefits with the European approach, so why not head in that direction. And these folks aren’t just pointing with approval to the Nordic nations. A writer for the New York Times actually thinks we should copy Italy. So it...

JERUSALEM, Israel -- Anti-Semitism continues to rise in Europe amid a surge in popularity of extremist parties in the region, according to a new study by the Kantor Center for the Study of Contemporary European Jewry at Tel Aviv University. The study's findings were released Monday ahead of Israel's Holocaust Memorial Day. "Normative Jewish life in Europe is unsustainable," Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress, said in a presentation of the study's results, the Jerusalem Post reported. "Jews do not feel safe or secure in certain communities in Europe." "The Jews in Europe do not have a future,"...

Ukraine’s growing gas debt may lead to the failure of the country’s transit obligations and the reduction of gas supplies to south-eastern Europe, said the Russian Energy Ministry. Officials from Russia, including Energy Minister Alexander Novak and Gazprom CEO Alexei Miller, and officials from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Moldova held talks in Moscow on Saturday. The meeting, also attended by officials from the Russian Ministry of Economic Development and the Finance Ministry, was held in the form of consultations on the security of gas transit through Ukraine. All sides expressed deep concern about Ukraine’s growing debt, Novak told journalists. “Currently Ukraine’s...

The Times led its print edition Monday with an article based in part on photographs that the State Department said were evidence of Russian military presence in popular uprisings in Ukraine. The headline read: "Photos link masked men in East Ukraine to Russia." ... The Times has published a second article backing off from the original [link at URL] and airing questions about what the photographs are said to depict, but hardly addressing how the newspaper may have been misled. ...

You can see the video of this speeech by clicking on the "Enza Ferreri Blog" link above. Here is the transcript. In all probability you wonder why you should vote for another new party, why this small party Liberty GB should make any difference, that others haven't made. Yet, in all probability you are also one of the 70% of people in this country who want immigration to be reduced or stopped completely, and one of the many and increasing number of people who are worried about Islam. You are right to feel that way on both counts. Immigration is...

Russia Warns It May Enter Recession As Soon As This Quarter Tyler Durden 04/21/2014 08:14 -0400 While hardly coming as a surprise to anyone, Russia is getting increasingly more vocal about the near certainty that the country is about to slam headfirst into a technical (at first), and then outright recession. Bloomberg reports that Russia’s economy may halt or contract in 2Q or 3Q, citing Maxim Oreshkin, head of Finance Ministry’s strategic forecasting dept. "It seems that we’ll get negative growth again in the second quarter compared with the previous quarter." Oreshkin says He added that capital outflows may reach...

Though officials at the World Health Organization are feverishly working to stop the spread of the Ebola virus in what is now seven African nations, their efforts may be for naught. In Guinea, a hot spot for the deadly contagion, government health officials have said that the outbreak is nearly under control. Yet, Reuters reports that the government “planned to stop publicly releasing the death toll to avoid causing unnecessary panic.” But panic may be in order. Despite the best efforts of emergency health workers it appears that virus may have crossed out of Africa into Europe.