Free Republic

The German Justice Minister Heiko Maas claims that social media sites don’t do enough to combat hate speech online and has threatened sites with further European Union (EU) regulation.

What is your assessment of contemporary Western Europe, and in particular the EU? All major political parties in Western Europe, regardless of their different names and party programs, are nowadays committed to the same fundamental idea of democratic socialism. They use democratic elections to legitimize the taxing of productive people for the benefit of unproductive people. They tax people, who have earned their income and accumulated their wealth by producing goods or services purchased voluntarily by consumers (and of course especially the “rich” among those), and they then re-distribute the confiscated loot to themselves, i.e., the democratic State that they...

Fourteen years after the introduction of the Euro in cash, Germans are still holding onto their Deutschmarks (DM), mainly for the sentimental value attached to them. The DM, which was introduced in West Germany in 1948 under Allied rule and adopted in East Germany in 1990, was replaced by the Euro in 2002. On the 31st of December 2001, DM banknotes to the value of €76.57 billion were in circulation. Since then, “more than 95% of DM banknotes in circulation have been exchanged” for Euros, Dorit Feldbrügge from the Bundesbank (German Central Bank) told The Local. But that means that...

A German soldiers’ union has come out against proposed plans to allow non-German citizens into the Bundeswehr which could hamper plans for a European Union (EU) army.

Despite the shock and surprise with which many observers reacted to last month’s “Brexit” vote, the result of which begins the United Kingdom’s divorce from the European Union, the seeds of the breakup were long in the making – and entirely understandable. Notwithstanding efforts by some pro-EU proponents to paint the “Leave” camp as being filled with anti-immigrant racists, polls in the U.K. show that the primary motivation for “Leave” voters was concern over the loss of political, cultural, and economic identity that continued membership in the European Union was accelerating -- in a word, loss of sovereignty.The document at...

A study released by the Pew Research Center on Monday shows a startling development in European attitudes towards Middle Eastern refugees. In eight of the ten countries surveyed, majorities of citizens polled believe incoming refugees increase the likelihood of terrorism at home. Respondents in Hungary, Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Sweden, Greece, and the United Kingdom all responded that they believe incoming refugees increase the risk of terrorism. Respondents in Hungary are most likely (at 76 percent) to believe incoming refugees increase the risk of terrorism, while respondents in Spain are the least likely to believe incoming refugees increase the likelihood of terrorism (at 40...

<p>What should you drink to mark Britain leaving the European Union? That was the question pondered by Russian state television’s ringmaster, Dmitry Kiselev, in a recent, heavily ideological weekly dispatch.</p> <p>“A glass of Scotch? But then you might been seen as a separatist,” the presenter mused. “A German beer? But then people will think you support Merkel and her migration policies, which are what led to the collapse of the EU.”</p>

Many political pundits are upset over Brexit because they believe that Europe—the entire world, actually—needs more “harmonization” of financial regulators. They see Brexit as a threat to EU bureaucrats’ efforts to “police” global derivatives. But why should Britain—or any other country for that matter—follow the same international blueprint that harmonized bank capital requirements? The Basel accords, first implemented in the late 1980s, completely missed the mark on account that international bureaucrats were wrong about pretty much everything. Britain should ignore these voices, as well as those of anyone else preaching that forcing everyone to do exactly the same thing is...

Supporters of Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Saturday rejected a proposal to include a statement in the party's platform calling for Israel's "end to occupations and illegal settlements," CNN reported. ... While the committee voted against the addition 95-73, CNN reported that the move garnered the loudest negative response of the day from the audience. ... One crowd member was escorted out of the meeting after he stood up and yelled that the party had "sold out" to AIPAC (the American Israel Public Affairs Committee).

The former president of the of the European Commission, the European Union’s (EU) unelected executive arm, has been recruited as the new boss of international operations at Goldman Sachs, who funded the official anti-Brexit campaign. In May, in the run-up to the referendum, figures released by the Electoral Commission revealed that Goldman Sachs had quietly donated £500,000 to Britain Stronger in Europe – the official, government back anti-Brexit campaign – shortly before February when donations had to be declared.

The Times quoted the mother of three as saying having children meant she had "a very real stake" in Britain's future... It is the Conservative Party membership that votes on who should be leader and there may well be some who would like their next leader and prime minister to be a mother...

The British government has rejected an online petition signed by 4.1 million people calling for a new referendum on whether to leave the European Union. Britons voted by 52 to 48 percent, or 17.4 million votes to 16.1 million, to leave the EU in a June 23 referendum, a result which most politicians have said should be respected but which some who voted "remain" are struggling to accept. The petition called for the government to enact a rule that there should be another referendum if the vote for "remain" or "leave" was less than 60 percent based on a turnout...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s popularity has rebounded after the British vote to leave the EU, an opinion poll showed Saturday, reversing a fall in her appeal caused by the refugee crisis. The poll was the second in a few days to suggest a popularity boost for the German leader. Saturday’s poll, commissioned jointly by Stern magazine and Die Welt newspaper and carried out by the Forsa market research institute, showed Ms. Merkel’s appeal up two points to 48 percent. “What’s more, three quarters of CSU supporters now back Merkel,” said Forsa director Manfred Gullner, referring to the southern German affiliate...

BRISTOL, UK — Among cheering crowds, four street preachers were arrested in the UK on Wednesday for causing a “disturbance” while exhorting men to “obey God and keep His commands.” The incident occurred as local resident Mike Overd was open air preaching outside of the Bristol shopping center, while others engaged passersby in conversation and/or held gospel signs. Some of those joining Overd in the evangelism effort included American citizens visiting the country to share the gospel. “The purpose of mankind is to worship God and enjoy Him,” Overd preached, according to recorded footage of their arrest. “You need to...

Pat Condell finally weighs in :) Enjoy.

Britain's next prime minister, tasked with negotiating the country's exit from the European Union, will be chosen by Sept. 9 following a vote of the ruling Conservative Party's 150,000 grassroots members. After two votes by Conservative lawmakers, the two candidates for the job are interior minister Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom, a junior energy minister. For more information on the candidates see: Below are the key details of how the next leader is chosen and who gets to decide: *snip* WHAT DO THEY WANT NEXT? - A YouGov poll conducted after the referendum showed 63 percent of the party's members...

Secretary of State John Kerry is planning to attend the preliminary foreign ministers' meeting that France is convening in advance of a French-sponsored Middle East peace conference, Haaretz reported Monday. The Palestine Liberation Organization's Saeb Erekat told the newspaper that Kerry has told Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas that he plans to attend the summit, to take place in Paris on May 30. At this stage, however, State Department officials will not confirm that Kerry will be attending the foreign ministers' meeting, and Washington has been reluctant to express support for the French initiative. For his part, Erekat told Haaretz...

Official PA daily: Israel was behind the terror attacks in France because Israel "was the only one to benefit from them" Israeli Intelligence Service Mossad planned the attacks because Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu wanted - to encourage Jewish immigration from Europe - to take "revenge on European governments... because of their positions on the Palestinian cause" Poll: 84.4% of Palestinians think "Israel behind the murder of French [citizens]"   Nan Jacques Zilberdik    Following the terror attacks against the Charlie Hebdo magazine and a Jewish store in which Muslim terrorists killed 17 people in France earlier this month, columnists writing...

In 2014, the year before the murder rampages at the Charlie Hebdo offices and the kosher supermarket in Paris, about seven thousand French Jews (out of a community of about half a million) emigrated to Israel.With Muslim and other antisemitic harassment and violence constantly intensifying in France, that was twice the number of the previous year, and a record high.Even before this monthÂ’s terror attacks, a higher number of French Jewish immigrants to Israel was expected for 2015. Now, after the attacks, a higher number yet is expected, possibly fifteen thousand. There is even talk of the Jews leaving...

By Joel Leyden Israel News AgencyJerusalem, Israel — January 12, 2015 … As one who has lived in Israel for over 25 years, served in a combat unit in the Israel Defense Forces and has consulted the Israeli government at varying levels, I have never been so proud of an Israeli leader. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu read with sadness of the murders of the editorial staff of Charlie Hebdo in Paris by members of Islamic terror groups. Netanyahu’s eyes swelled with tears as he heard that a Jewish market had been attacked and Jewish hostages were being shot dead...