Free Republic

The European Union’s top five economies are warning the United States that its massive tax overhaul could violate some of its international obligations and risks having “a major distortive impact” on trade. In a letter to U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Steven Mnuchin, the finance ministers of Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Spain wrote they had “significant concerns” about three tax initiatives in particular. In the letter, seen by The Associated Press, the five wrote that “it is important that the U.S. government’s rights over domestic tax policy be exercised in a way that adheres with international obligations to which...

Police in Spain discovered a 12-year old boy hidden inside the dashboard of a BMW car at a checkpoint at the border with Morocco in the north African enclave of Melilla. A Moroccan pensioner who was driving the car was arrested for trying to smuggle in the youth, who was curled up inside the tiny space behind the dashboard. Border guards discovered the boy, who is believed to be from Guinea, after detecting his heartbeat using a special machine designed to screen vehicles for stowaways. When the child was freed from his cramped hiding space he was reportedly disorientated and...

The Royal Norwegian Navy has been around, in one form or another, for over a millennium. Though once a loose conscription of seafaring coastal communities, the Royal Norwegian Navy has, for the last 200 years, been an organized force responsible for the defense of the Nordic country’s deceptively long coast. During the Cold War, the Norwegian Navy turned to fast patrol boats armed with guided missiles and torpedoes. Most of these vessels were armed with the “Penguin” anti-ship missile, which had a range of roughly 34 miles and used infra-red homing for deadly precision. Additionally, some of the Norweigan patrol...

BERLIN (Reuters) - The German Defence Ministry said on Monday that the European fighter jet was the leading candidate to replace its Tornado jets, which it wants to start phasing out in 2025. The ministry’s position appears to contradict that of the German air force, whose chief indicated last month that he preferred Lockheed Martin’s F-35, which meets the military’s requirements of stealth and long-distance operational capabilities. In a letter to a Greens lawmaker who had inquired about the deliberations, the ministry said the F-35 and Boeing’s F-15 and F-18 fighters were secondary options. “The indicated view of the inspector...

LABOR’S Sam Dastyari today quit the Senate as the accumulation of questionable ties to Chinese contacts made his continued service impossible. The 34-year old former party whiz-kid said he wanted to “spare the party any further distraction”. His decision to quit the Senate ultimately was his own, Bill Shorten said today. But the Opposition Leader pointed to his own barbed comments last Friday that Senator Dastyari’s career was going nowhere. “His career in federal politics is over. He’s resigned. It was a tough decision,” Mr Shorten told reporters in the Sydney seat of Bennelong. ..... His shock decision followed claims...

BEIJING, Dec 11 (Reuters) - Bank lending in China hit a fresh record after a much stronger-than-expected surge in credit in November, even as authorities step up efforts to reduce risks in the financial system from a rapid build-up in debt. Chinese banks extended 1.12 trillion yuan ($169.27 billion) in net new yuan loans in November, data from the People's Bank of China showed on Monday, well above analysts' expectations. Analysts polled by Reuters had predicted new yuan loans would rise to 800 billion yuan, from October's 663.2 billion yuan. The November figure was well above the highest forecast in...

After the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) had warned that China was trying to recruit German informants for intelligence services via social media networks, Beijing denied these accusations on Monday. They are “baseless accusations” for which there is no evidence, said Lu Kang, a Chinese state department spokesman, adding that the relevant organizations and the German government should act “more responsibly.” The BfV had previously warned that Chinese intelligence were trying to infiltrate parliaments, ministries and authorities with informants, particularly via the professional social media network LinkedIn. […] The BfV added that the aim of Chinese...

A federal judge was aghast over the Trump administration’s assertion it could indefinitely detain a U.S. citizen as an enemy combatant without providing access to a lawyer, saying the Justice Department’s defense of the practice amounted to “an end run” around the man’s Constitutional rights. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan is weighing a request by the American Civil Liberties Union to allow the group access to the man in order to provide him legal representation. “He wants counsel, which is an assertion and a request that I don’t think I can ignore,” Judge Chutkan said Monday, adding that she plans...

A report released by the Department of Homeland Security finds up to 70 percent of immigrants enter the U.S. through chain migration.

Don't read too much into the fact that Akayed Ullah, the suspect in Monday's New York terrorist attack, is a Bangladeshi immigrant to the United States. While Bangladesh is a predominantly Muslim nation, it is no hotbed of terrorism and shouldn't be added to Trump's travel ban list. Of course, some aligned with the alt-right are jumping on Ullah's citizenship as further evidence of America's looming infection by Muslim extremism. Take John Cardillo... John Cardillo @johncardillo Thank God Bangladeshi pipe bombs are the same shitty quality as everything else made in Bangladesh. 3:27 PM - Dec 11, 2017 John Cardillo‏...

U.S. ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley knew exactly how to respond to CNN anchor Jake Tapper's depressing assessment of the U.S. embassy move from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem during their interview on Sunday. "President Trump is supposed to be a master negotiator," Tapper noted. "Isn't this just cashing in a chip and getting nothing for it? How does this move the peace process forward in any way?" Watch Video HereIn addition to leading questions like that, Tapper quoted the Arab League calling the move a "dangerous development," then played a clip of the PLO Secretary-General declaring that Trump had...

A Pentagon official tells The Associated Press that transgender people can enlist in the military beginning Jan. 1, despite President Donald Trump's opposition. The new policy reflects growing legal pressure on the issue and the difficult hurdles the federal government would have to cross to enforce Trump's demand to ban transgender individuals from the military. Two federal courts already have ruled against the ban. Potential transgender recruits will have to overcome a lengthy and strict set of physical, medical and mental conditions that make it possible, though difficult, for them to join the armed services. Maj. David Eastburn says the...

Westerns analysts have concluded that Russia’s fifth-generation Sukhoi Su-57 stealth fighter is unlikely to enter operational service before 2027. Postponements, cost-overruns and research and development-related problems mar the project. This should come as no surprise. The Su-57 program was never really viable. Back in early 2006, Russian president Vladimir Putin integrated all of Russia’s aviation companies into a single, state-owned holding — the United Aircraft-building Corporation. Over the time, UAC absorbed more than 20 aviation companies, and re-organized these into four aircraft-manufacturing divisions. One for combat aircraft, one for military transport aircraft, one for civilian aircraft and one for aircraft...

India's top secret nuclear submarine project reached another decadal milestone last month with the launch of a second ballistic missile submarine, the Arighat . On November 19, Union defence minister Nirmala Sitharaman cracked the auspicious coconut on the fin of the submarine in the drydock of the Ship Building Centre (SBC) in Visakhapatnam in a low-key ceremony. Following this, the SBC's drydock was flooded and the submarine quietly floated out. It will be at least another three years before the navy commissions the Arighat. The event skipped the high-profile public ceremony of the Arihant's launch in 2009 even as the...

Defence group BAE Systems’ shares jumped in early trading as investors reacted to a long-awaited export sale of the company’s Typhoon jet fighters. BAE shares rose almost 3pc after a £5bn sale of 24 of jets along with a training and support package to Gulf nation Qatar was announced on Sunday afternoon. BAE, Airbus and Italy's Leonardo each have a one-third share in the Typhoon programme. The deal also threw a lifeline to BAE’s programme building the Hawk training jet - the aircraft flown by the Red Arrows - whose production line is running out of orders. Qatar’s purchase also...

The EU's diplomatic chief Monday bluntly rejected Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's suggestion that Europe would follow the US in recognising Jerusalem as the Jewish state's capital, saying there would be no change to its stance on the holy city. Netanyahu said the controversial announcement by US President Donald Trump -- which prompted diplomatic alarm and street protests across the Islamic world -- had "put facts squarely on the table". As he arrived for talks in Brussels, Netanyahu said he expected "all or most" European countries would follow the US -- but the 28-nation bloc's foreign policy head Federica Mogherini...

High winds and heavy snow in Europe on Monday stranded thousands of travellers, kept schoolchildren at home and even played havoc with international diplomacy. It was the second day running of nasty weather across the continent, with Britain still digging out from its deepest snowfall in four years. The snowed-over runways in Brussels on Monday provoked about 90 flight cancellations and some 100 delays, including for the plane carrying Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu back home. He tweeted a video from his plane that opened with a shot of the white tarmac at the close of his European visit marked...

French and Algerian fighters, some arriving from Syria, have joined the ranks of the Islamic State group in northern Afghanistan where the militants have established new bases, multiple international and Afghan sources have told AFP. It is the first time that the presence of French IS fighters has been recorded in Afghanistan, and comes as analysts suggested foreigners may be heading for the war-torn country after being driven from Syria and Iraq. It is also a troubling sign as France, which has faced the worst of the IS-inspired violence in Europe since 2015, debates how to handle hundreds of its...

An alliance of those who believe the French region of Corsica should have greater autonomy and those who want it to become fully independent have scored a resounding victory in last night’s election. After winning in the first round of voting, yesterday’s final vote saw Pe a Corsica pick up 41 of 63 seats in the Assembly, receiving over 56% of the vote. The movement is led by the pro-autonomy Gilles Simeoni and the pro-indy Jean-Guy Talamoni. Following the result, Simeoni said: “Paris today has to take stock of what is happening in Corsica.”

The number of Salafists in Germany has risen to its highest ever level, according to the country’s intelligence chief, sparking fears radical Islamist extremism is on the up. Hans-Georg Maassen said people adhering to the fundamentalist Islamic ideology had ‘risen to an all-time high’, with the German intelligence agency BfV claiming it is now at 10,800 – it was at 9,700 in December last year. He said recruitment to Salafism is now taking place in ark corners of the internet, which is hard to police. Maassen also said Islamists coming from the North Caucasus were especially dangerous as many of them had...