Free Republic

Head teachers are warning that schools are having to act like "mini-welfare states" in having to provide food, spare uniform and even to wash clothes and provide showers for some pupils. The National Association of Head Teachers says such welfare support is costing £43.5m from school budgets. Heads' leader Russell Hobby said it was a "hidden national scandal". A Conservative spokesman said "the number of children living in poverty has fallen by 300,000". The warning from members of the NAHT, as they gather for their annual conference in Liverpool, is that schools are having to step in with welfare support...

Beginning March 31, 2018, all new vehicles sold in the European Union will be required to carry an emergency call system that automatically dispatches assistance to the scene of a crash. The "auto SOS" system, dubbed eCall, was approved by European Parliament yesterday after two years of debate over privacy concerns, reports BBC News. In the event of a crash, the device calls the E.U.'s 911 equivalent (112) and transmits to authorities important information including location, time, and number of passengers in the vehicle. An in-car button will also be installed in all vehicles. The eCall requirement will add an...

Here’s an astonishing statistic; more than 30pc of all government debt in the eurozone – around €2 trillion of securities in total – is trading on a negative interest rate. With the advent of European Central Bank quantitative easing, what began four months ago when 10-year Swiss yields turned negative for the first time has snowballed into a veritable avalanche of negative rates across European government bond markets. In the hunt for apparently “safe assets”, investors have thrown caution to the wind, and collectively determined to pay governments for the privilege of lending to them. On a country by country...

The annexation of Crimea and the consequent threats of gas supply cuts by Russia have been a reminder of an inconvenient truth: when it comes to politics, Europe will always be influenced by its dependency on Russian gas. According to the European Parliament, in 2013 Russia provided 43.2% of the European Union’s gas imports, 31.38% of its oil imports, and 26.7% of its coal imports. But the dependency runs both ways.

The security situation in the Mediterranean will continue to deteriorate to the point where we can expect Islamist raids on European islands, a recently retired Royal Navy Admiral has told Breitbart London. [snip] Rear Admiral Chris Parry CBE, the straight-talking former Director General of the Ministry of Defence Development, Concepts, and Doctrine Centre, ... made the comments in an interview this week as European nations gathered to discuss the sudden migrant crisis gripping the Mediterranean. THE THREAT OF ISLAM Parry, who warned in a government paper in 1990 that Islam would replace Communism as the main threat against the West...

The French nuclear regulator says anomalies found in Areva’s nuclear reactor technology are “very serious” and may be costly to fix. Areva announced April 7 that it found weak spots in the bottom and lid of the European Pressurized Reactor (EPR) vessel, which could reduce the resistance of the metal. Areva said it discovered the flaw during mechanical and chemical tests of a representative model and reported the findings to the French Nuclear Safety Authority (ASN). The ASN told Reuters that a similar Areva forging technique had been used in five EPRs currently in the planning stage or under construction....

A former Auschwitz guard being tried on 300,000 counts of accessory to murder has testified that it was clear to him Jews were not expected to leave the camp in Nazi-occupied Poland alive. "I couldn't imagine that" happening, former SS Sgt. Oskar Groening told the Lueneburg state court on Thursday during the third day of his trial, the DPA news agency reported. The 93-year-old's answer came in response to a question from attorneys representing Auschwitz survivors who have joined the trial as co-plaintiffs, as allowed under German law...

No one in Russian-speaking Kharkiv wants to follow rebels into open revolt. But locals say Kiev has no idea how badly it's aggravating the region with its initiatives, including the 'Great Wall of Ukraine.' It's been nicknamed the "Great Wall of Ukraine." Its planned combination of barbed-wire fences, watchtowers, berms, and tank traps along Ukraine's 1,300-mile border with Russia look like something you'd find on one of Israel's borders with its hostile neighbors. If it's ever completed, the wall will seal a frontier that, until last year, had always been wide open. Inaugurating construction here last fall, Prime Minister Arseniy...

One of the more interesting aspects of this flood of human misery is that it is not entirely spontaneous. Jihadi groups are doing their best to encourage it. ... That would not be surprising. In 2004 Europe agreed to pay Muhammar Gaddafi four billion pounds a year in exchange for a promise to halt people smuggling to Europe. Experts have also drawn links between the massive rise in would-be migrants and a so-called ‘deal in the desert’ struck by Tony Blair in 2004 – which saw the late Muammar Gaddafi agree to crack down on human traffickers as well as...

Following are excerpts from an interview with Egyptian Islamist researcher Ali Abd Al-Aal, which aired on Mayadeen TV on October 12, 2012. Watch it – it’s an eyeopener. TV host Yahya Abu Zakariya: It has become customary for the sheiks preaching in mosques to talk, in their sermons and lectures, about “the infiltrating infidel West,” “the European-Crusader West,” “the abode of infidels and the abode of Islam.” I have presented claims that the Muslims in Andalusia engaged in fornication, homosexuality, and debauchery. Today, if you go to the West and tour the European continent, where there are 50 million Muslims…...

A British journalist is being called “controversial” because she has spoken the truth about Italy’s efforts to save Islamist warriors from drowning off its shores. Katie Hopkins has called for gunships to finish off what is left of the latest invasion of Europe by crazed Islamists bent on destroying the continent in a fiery holocaust to please their god. Hopkins has suggested that, “You may as well set up a Libya-to-Italy P&O ferry,” which unfortunately is just what has developed between Libya and Italy. Common sense is always in very short supply when politicians consider how to respond to the...

Sixteen EU states have said products made by Israeli settlers should be marked in shops so that European consumers can decide whether to boycott them. The group - which includes France, Italy, Spain, and the UK - made the appeal in a letter to EU foreign relations chief Federica Mogherini on Monday (13 April). They said “EU-wide guideline on the labelling of settlement produce/products … is an important step in the full implementation of EU longstanding policy in relation to the preservation of the two-state solution”.

LONDON: Foreign nationals in UK, including many from India may soon face deportation first before being able to appeal against it. David Cameron announced on Tuesday while releasing the Conservative Party's election manifesto ahead of the May 7 general election that if he returns as Britain's prime minster, he will roll out a "deport first, appeal later" policy on illegal immigrants more aggressively. He also announced that he will introduce a satellite tracking for every foreign national offender subject to an outstanding deportation order or deportation proceedings. He will also make it mandatory for all landlords to check the immigration...

Gov. Scott Walker heads to Europe this week on a trade mission featuring private meetings with business and government representatives in Germany, France and Spain, as he ramps up for a likely bid for the Republican presidential nomination in 2016. The most high-profile event on Walker's itinerary comes Tuesday when he's slated to deliver a 15-minute speech titled "Opportunities for bilateral trade and investment" at the Hannover Messe trade show in Germany. That is the world's largest industrial fair, Walker's office said in the documents detailing the trip provided to The Associated Press. Walker's only other event that's open to...

Eight Muslim schools in England have been featured in the top 50 schools of the examination league tables for 2014. The schools that featured in the league table are: Al-Furqan Community College (Birmingham), Al-Burhan Grammar School, (Birmingham), Al-Khair School, (Croydon), Islamia Girls’ High School, (Brent), Tayyibah Girls’ School, (Hackney), Lantern of Knowledge Secondary School, (Waltham Forest), Al-Ashraf Secondary School for Girls, (Gloucestershire) and Jamiatul Ummah School, (Tower Hamlets). Of the 75 schools featured in The Muslim News performance table, 42 managed to achieve a higher pass rate than the national average. That is also two more schools as compared to...

Teachers are avoiding class discussions on Islamic extremism for fear they may have to report pupils to the police, a teachers' union says. New counter-terror rules aiming to expose radicalisation require schools to report any concerns about pupils. The National Union of Teachers says the rules are too heavy handed and stifle much-needed debate in schools. The Conservatives said the guidance made clear that no teacher should feel unable to talk about sensitive issues. A party spokesman said teaching about "fundamental British values" actively encouraged such discussions. In certain circumstances teachers could also face prosecution if they failed to alert...

Czech President Milos Zeman has said the US ambassador is not welcome at his Prague Castle residence, reports say. The apparent snub follows remarks by US envoy Andrew Schapiro seen as critical of the president's decision to attend forthcoming World War Two commemorations in Moscow. Several world leaders are boycotting the ceremony over Russia's role in the Ukraine conflict. Mr Zeman is considered more sympathetic to Russia on the issue. The US embassy has declined to address Mr Zeman's comments.

Benefits and welfare schemes are often blamed for making people less likely to want to work. But a study has found that the opposite may be true. A Europe-wide survey of 19,000 people revealed that the more a country paid to the unemployed or sick, and invested in employment schemes, the more likely its residents were to want a job.

A UKIP parliamentary candidate who said in a Facebook post that Israel should "kidnap" US President Barack Obama has been replaced by his party. Jeremy Zeid, who was standing in Hendon, said President Obama should be "locked up" by the Israelis for "leaking state secrets". He was referring to the declassifying of documents on Israel's secret nuclear programme. Mr Zeid also said Israel should "do an Eichmann" on President Obama.

BOSTON, England - Boston is a typical English town — ancient church, traditional shops, Polish supermarkets, Baltic bakeries. Amid the bargain-hunting crowds on market day, eastern European languages are almost as common as the local Lincolnshire accent. Immigration has transformed Boston in the last decade. At least one in eight residents comes from eastern Europe, and the population is growing at double the national rate. "I think there are a few too many of the foreign brigade here at the moment," said butcher Nigel Lote. His customers come almost exclusively from the long-settled English population of Boston, a town of...