Free Republic

Can better urban planning help prevent terrorist attacks? The idea sounds fanciful, even disrespectful to victims of extremist violence. But officials in Paris, still reeling from last month’s deadly terrorist attacks on a satirical magazine and a kosher deli, are putting some hope in a plan to re-zone the city and annex the notorious inner suburbs, or banlieues, where the terror plot was born. In what would be perhaps the greatest redesign of Paris since Baron Haussmann laid out its famed boulevards in the mid-19th Century, the “Métropole du Grand Paris” would attempt to bring the poor, heavily immigrant neighborhoods...

Poverty levels in Germany have reached an all-time high, with 15.5 percent of the population—or 12.5 million people—affected. Single parents and unemployed people were the hardest hit, according to a report from a welfare association. Over 40 percent of single parents and almost 60 percent of the unemployed are poor, according to the Paritätische Gesamtverband, an umbrella organization for associations focusing on social services. Older people and retirees, around 15 percent of whom are considered poor, are the fastest growing demographic group in terms of poverty, according to the report released on Thursday. One of the report authors, Christian Woltering,...

To many on the outside, Germany looks like a big, rich country enjoying the benefits of being Europe's largest economy. Inside, Germans know that looks can be deceiving. As in any nation, parts of Germany suffer from poverty, and Germans have always assumed they knew which parts: the west is rich and the east is poor. But a new report reveals the truth isn't that simple. The wealth imbalance in Germany isn't just between east and west; there are also large regional differences between the country's north and south. And across the country there are pockets of poverty more crushing...

Yet of all of the secessionist movements from the Atlantic to the Urals, none imperils a vital interest of the United States. None is really our business. And none justifies a war with Russia. Indeed, what is it about this generation of Americans that makes us such compulsive meddlers in the affairs of nations we could not find on a map? Consider if you will our particular affliction: Putin paranoia.

Swedish public radio apologized on Tuesday after a presenter questioned the Israeli ambassador about the responsibility of Jews for anti-Semitism, in the wake of the shooting of a Jewish man in neighboring Denmark, AFP reported. Relations between Israel and Sweden are already strained over the Swedish parliament's decision last year to formally recognize the state of “Palestine”. On Tuesday, a journalist for Sveriges Radio (SR) asked Israeli ambassador Isaac Bachman on air, "Are Jews themselves responsible for the progression of anti-Semitism?" The ambassador appeared shocked by the suggestion, and replied, "I purely and simply reject the question." When the journalist...

Feb. 15, 2015 Hundreds Of Jewish Tombs Damaged In Northern France Hundreds of graves have been vandalized at a Jewish cemetery in eastern France, in what the president called an "odious and barbaric" anti-Semitic act against French values. The vandalism comes at a time of growing insecurity among French Jews and amid general religious tensions in Europe, after Islamic radicals attacked a kosher market and a satirical newspaper in Paris last month and similar attacks hit Denmark this weekend. French Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a statement Sunday that a criminal investigation team is at the damaged cemetery in...

...The latest growth figure offers "a clear sign that lower oil prices have found their way into consumers' pockets," ING-DiBa economist Carsten Brzeski said. Germany "looks set to continue surfing on a wave of economic well-being," he said, with low unemployment, wage increases, low energy prices and low interest rates encouraging spending. "At the same time, the weak euro will definitely benefit German exports."

The Jewish community is an integral part of Danish society and it ought to remain in the country despite this weekend’s terror attacks, Copenhagen’s envoy to Israel said on Sunday. “The solution for the Jews of Denmark is not to leave in the wake of the terror attacks in Copenhagen on Saturday,” the ambassador, Jesper Vahr, said on Sunday. “Our prime minister said that an attack on the Jewish community is an attack on all of Denmark’s citizens. I echo this sentiment. We will do everything in our power so that the Jewish community in Denmark feels safe.” Vahr made...

A carnival parade has been called off at short notice in Braunschweig, northern Germany, due to the threat of an Islamist attack, police said. A "specific threat of an Islamist attack" was identified by state security sources, they said in a statement. Police urged people planning to attend to stay at home. The parade - a well-known regional attraction - was cancelled only 90 minutes before it was due to start. "Many people arriving at the train station were already dressed up and very disappointed - but we didn't want to take any risks," police spokesman Thomas Geese was quoted...

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Essen will distribute the German Constitution in response to Salafists’ plans to give out free copies of the Koran in the city on Saturday. But Muslim residents say they’re creating a false opposition. “In a time when the threat from Islamist criminals is greater than ever, we have to combat the Salafists with all democratic means.”, president of the local CDU chapter Franz Joseph Britz told the Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung. But some Muslim residents of Essen were dismayed by the way the CDU had chosen to counter the Salafists. …

Galvanized by the recent terror attacks in France, European Union leaders on Thursday debate a range of ambitious steps to better protect their 28 nations, including exchanging airliner passenger manifests, tightening controls at the border and combating extremism on the Internet. “Europe is facing an unprecedented, diverse and serious terrorist threat,” Gilles de Kerchove, the bloc’s counter-terrorism coordinator, warned EU member governments in a report last month. Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics, whose nation holds the EU’s six-month revolving presidency, said Tuesday the often fractious members had reached broad consensus on what actions to take, and share the “strong will”...

A leading Israeli NGO has slammed the European Union over its alleged role in financing illegal Arab settlements in Judea and Samaria, saying its direct attempts to “subvert” Israeli internal affairs amounted to a form of “colonialism.” The remarks, made by the grassroots Im Tirzu organization, came in response to an article in the UK’s Daily Mail, which cited figures showing how the EU has channeled European taxpayers’ money into building some 400 homes and other buildings illegally in Area C of Judea and Samaria. Under the 1993 Oslo Accords—signed not only by Israel and the Palestinian Authority, but by...

EU member states have been readying themselves to enforce sanctions on Israel for Jewish communities in Judea-Samaria, diplomats revealed Tuesday—and will strike hours after the March 17 elections. Israeli officials in recent weeks met with Europe’s most important foreign ministries at the EU headquarters in Brussels, an Israeli official told Walla! News on condition of anonymity, and said that the planned measures in Europe will be focused on “the illegality of the settlements under international law”—without any distinction between “settlement blocs” generally agreed upon to remain in Israel and isolated communities. “The guiding principle is their deepening and emphasizing the...

Leading Jewish groups have slammed the German government for creating a new commission on anti-Semitism without including a single Jew. Julius Schoeps from the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies on Tuesday called it “a unique scandal” that the Interior Ministry did not include any Jewish scientists or community leaders on the commission it created to fight anti-Semitism and support Jewish life in Germany. …

Greece’s finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has spelled out the negotiating strategy of the Syriza government with crystal clarity. “Exit from the euro does not even enter into our plans, quite simply because the euro is fragile. It is like a house of cards. If you pull away the Greek card, they all come down,” he said. “Do we really want Europe to break apart? Anybody who is tempted to think it possible to amputate Greece strategically from Europe should be careful. It is very dangerous. Who would be hit after us? Portugal? What would happen to Italy when it discovers...

The European Commission is hoping that a new global reporting standard will eradicate tax evasion and tax fraud in the wake of the latest revelations in Switzerland. “We are hoping that the coming into force of this new agreement at the very latest by 2018 will put an end to tax evasion and fraud by the use of secret bank accounts,” European Commission spokesperson Vanessa Mock told reporters in Brussels on Monday (9 February). The EU and Switzerland negotiated an agreement on the taxation of savings back in 2014. The plan is to unravel the Swiss tradition of banking secrecy...

British motorists caught speeding or committing other motoring offenses in Europe will face fines and could even lose their licences under new EU laws. At present, motorists using their own vehicles abroad avoid punishment if they are caught by speed cameras. They only face fines if they are stopped by a police officer at a roadside. The European Parliament is on Wednesday expected to vote in favor of new measures that will give police forces the power to issue fines across Europe and to pursue offenders in courts abroad. […] Next year the European Commission will also, under the same...

Despite the 2012 Levy Report proving the legality of Israel’s presence in Judea and Samaria under international law, the European Union (EU) has bitterly opposed that presence and even threatened sanctions—however, a new report reveals that it is in fact the EU that is guilty of “illegal settlement” in the region. Judea and Samaria was divided into Areas A, B and C in the 1993 Oslo Accords, which created the Palestinian Authority (PA); and under the agreements, Area C is under complete Israeli administrative and security control. However, the new report by Regavim, a NGO watchdog group for Jewish national...

A British parliamentary committee on Friday accused the accounting firm PwC of promoting tax avoidance on an industrial scale and urged the government to step in and do more to regulate the tax industry. The Public Accounts Committee issued a scathing report, accusing PwC of mass-marketing tax avoidance plans and diverting profits to Luxembourg through intra-company loans. “We believe that PwC's activities represent nothing short of the promotion of tax avoidance on an industrial scale,” committee chair Margaret Hodge said. “The effect has been to reduce the amount of corporation tax that some multinational companies pay in the countries in...

In an interview with Munich-based daily Süddeutsche Zeitung published on Thursday, American Vice President Joe Biden discussed possible solutions to the Ukraine-Russia conflict ahead of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s U.S. visit. Biden’s interview left no doubt that the U.S. would not be answering Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko’s request for weapons aid from NATO countries against Russia’s advances in the country’s eastern regions. “We’ve said from the beginning that for this crisis, there is no military solution,” he said in the written interview with Süddeutsche and its European news partners. …