Free Republic

In Berlin’s Charlottenburg district, there is an unusual library. The Library of Conservatism (Bibliothek des Konservatismus or BdK) was founded in 2012, based on Caspar von Schrenck-Notzing’s extensive private collection of right-wing and libertarian non-fiction books. Today, it has a catalogue of roughly 35,000 titles from German and European writers—including early prints from authors such as Roger Scruton, Edmund Burke, Ernst Jünger, and Carl Schmitt. Soon, though, none of these titles will be accessible to many German academics and researchers. Without any explanation, the BdK is being thrown out of the Gemeinsamer Bibliotheksverbund (GBV), one of the largest library networks...

No further Nato expansion. Occupied Ukrainian territory recognised as Russian, including by the US. No prosecution for Russia for war crimes. These are some of the clauses – part of a ‘surrender document’, brokered by Donald Trump – that Ukraine is facing after almost four years of war. Buried in the middle of the 28-point ‘peace blueprint’ being hammered out between the US and Russia, clause 14 stands out like a flashing sign. It offers up $100 billion in frozen Russian assets – repackaged as a fund for reconstruction, with the US pocketing half the profits. Meanwhile, Russia would be...

The US State Department will focus on “natural rights” like freedom of speech in its next human rights report, a senior State Department official said Thursday, as the Trump administration targets traditional European allies for alleged freedom of speech restrictions. The move further institutionalizes changes seen in the latest report released in August, which covered the 2024 calendar year. That report alleged “significant human rights issues” in allied countries including the United Kingdom, France and Germany over “serious restrictions on freedom of expression.” The State Department instructed all embassies and consulates in a diplomatic cable Thursday to begin preparing the...

Nov 18 (Reuters) - Hamas rejected the United Nations Security Council passing a U.S.-drafted resolution endorsing U.S. President Donald Trump's Gaza plan, saying it fails to meet Palestinians' rights and demands and seeks to impose an international trusteeship on the enclave that Palestinians and resistance factions oppose. "Assigning the international force with tasks and roles inside the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the occupation," the group added.

It’s been a weird year for Spanish tourism. Scroll through the British press and you’d think Spaniards are fed up with tourists altogether, from protests in Mallorca to “Tourists go home” graffiti in Barcelona. But behind this noise, travel experts say something else is happening: misinformation. Now, British travel agencies have had enough. The UK’s main travel association, ABTA, has launched a guide to help agents explain the situation to worried clients. In doing so, they push back against what they call a “distorted picture” of Spain’s relationship with tourism. A guide for Brits travelling to Spain Speaking at the...

Ireland’s media regulator began an investigation into social media platform X on Wednesday over concerns it is not giving users a chance to appeal content moderation decisions and that its internal complaint-handling systems are not easy to access. The probe, the first opened by the regulator in its role supervising the compliance of platforms established in Ireland with the European Union’s Digital Services Act, will assess Elon Musk-owned X’s compliance with parts of the law. […] The investigation arose from concerns held by the Irish regulator’s supervision team, as well as information provided by a non-governmental organization, HateAid, and a...

The hunt for the assets of the former East Germany’s ruling party has the hallmarks of a thriller. There are dubious characters, bags of cash, and key witnesses who suddenly die. At its heart is the question: How do you stash away 6 billion marks?

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is not “afraid” of Donald Trump unlike other western leaders and dismissed reports that their last meeting in Washington was volatile, adding that he had good relations with the US president. He also said in an exclusive interview with the Guardian that King Charles had helped build relations with Trump and described the British monarch as “very supportive” of Ukraine. The Ukrainian president denied claims Trump had tossed maps of the battlefield aside in a stormy exchange in October at the White House, where he had arrived hoping to secure supplies of US Tomahawk cruise...

Embedded video linked to X Pro-Palestinian protesters attempted to firebomb a concert by the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris on Thursday night. During the performance, which was held at the prestigious Philharmonic Hall in Paris, dozens of protesters broke into the hall, chanted anti-Israel slogans and lit flares. The music was stopped and the musicians began to leave the stage. A post published by the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University read: "Pro-Palestinian protesters firebombed a concert and the musicians were removed from the stage. After the matter was resolved, the they were brought back on stage to...

After New York City’s race for mayor catapulted Zohran Mamdani from state assembly member into one of the world’s most prominent progressive voices, intense debate swirled over the ideas at the heart of his campaign. His critics and opponents painted pledges such as free bus service, universal childcare and rent freezes as unworkable, unrealistic and exorbitantly expensive. But some have hit back, highlighting the quirk of geography that underpins some of this view. “He promised things that Europeans take for granted, but Americans are told are impossible,” said the Dutch environmentalist and former government adviser Alexander Verbeek in the wake...

Democratic candidate Zohran Mamdani has won the New York City mayoral election. His victory comes despite many distortions and false claims circulating about him — including one from President Donald Trump. A fact check. As they chose the next mayor of New York City, voters faced a pivotal decision that reflects a broader generational and ideological divide with national implications. The race for mayor of the biggest city in the United States pitted Democratic nominee Zohran Kwame Mamdani against independent candidate and former Governor Andrew Cuomo and Republican repeat contender Curtis Sliwa. Mamdani's win marks a historic moment: he will...

A senior EU official has said he expects the US "not to interfere" in global climate negotiations in Brazil next week, citing aggressive behavior at last month’s International Maritime Organization (IMO) meetings in London. At those talks, US officials reportedly intimidated diplomats from Africa and the so-called Small Island States, warning some they might lose US transit rights or face entry restrictions for themselves and their families if they did not help block the UN-backed Net Zero Framework for shipping. The official said they were unaware whether commission staff had been targeted directly. “We have no indication our colleagues were...

The establishment’s supposed love of democracy ends exactly when democracy—as expressed by the popular vote—stops loving the establishment. And so, with the AfD looking increasingly likely to gain power in one or more German states after next year’s elections—especially in Saxony-Anhalt, where it recently crossed the 40% mark in a regional poll for the first time—mainstream figures are preparing to make it as difficult as possible for the party to govern. That is, if they can’t simply strip the AfD of its hard-won power altogether. Politicians are considering destroying documents before the opposition enters office, and even handing state power...

Officials have said the prospects of EU environment ministers agreeing ambitious targets to reduce carbon emissions by 2040 will go down to the wire when they gather for an emergency meeting in Brussels. Member states have been tasked with agreeing on a 2040 target at today’s meeting so that they could in turn agree on an interim target for 2035, which the EU would then bring to the United Nations COP30 summit in Brazil on Thursday. However, officials have said securing an agreement will be “challenging”. The European Commission had proposed a target of cutting carbon emissions by 90% by...

Back aways, we reposted a story that told the grim truth about the fate of babies with Down syndrome in Denmark. In 2019 there were virtually none—just 18! When I read “The last children of Down Syndrome” by Sarah Zhan, I immediately thought of the 2017 story from CBS News about Iceland titled “What kind of society do you want to live in? Inside the country where Down syndrome is Disappearing.” Zhan’s is a brilliantly written piece that appears in the Atlantic magazine. The subhead puts the story in the larger context: “Prenatal screening is changing who gets born and...

Europe’s deepening economic crisis and a rising conservative front in Eastern Europe are putting the European Union under pressure. Brussels is responding repressively to this growing strain, stepping onto the thin ice of censorship and thought control. This policy forces submission or encourages secessionist tendencies. Two well-documented political flashpoints best illustrate the EU Commission’s shift in mindset. On one hand, the Brexit process, sabotaged by Brussels and London, and on the other, the ongoing conflict with Viktor Orbán’s Hungary. Orbán has built a political model on resisting open-border policies, deliberate demographic shifts, and the escalating Ukraine conflict. His message is...

BOMBSHELL REPORT: Nearly $2 BILLION in foreign dollars were poured into policy advocate groups in the U.S., including to the group behind anti-Trump protests in Washington D.C.

A shocking poll shows that two years after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre that murdered more than 1,200 Israelis, a majority of Palestinians still say the terror group was right to launch the attack — and, equally disturbing, an overwhelming 86 percent deny that Hamas committed the well-documented atrocities against civilians. According to the Ramallah-based Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research (PCPSR), 53 percent of Palestinians say Hamas’s decision to launch the October 7 assault was correct; support is strongest in the West Bank at 59 percent, while 44 percent in the Gaza Strip back the attack — a...

A group of sick Palestinian children have been evacuated from Gaza to Ireland to receive medical treatment, the Tánaiste and Minister for Health have confirmed. Seven children arrived in Dublin on Saturday evening, with 29 accompanying family members.It marks the third medical evacuation from Gaza following Government approval in September last year in response to an appeal from the World Health Organization (WHO) to address the health needs of Gazans. Doctors from Children’s Health Ireland (CHI) worked with the WHO to identify sick and injured children who would benefit from treatment in Ireland. The group traveled from Gaza to Jordan...

Germany’s globalist political class is once again talking about going to war with Russia. Officials in Berlin have suggested that Europe should “prepare for conflict,” a statement that’s raised alarms across the continent. But while Germany rattles sabers, another European Union member is already at war, not with Moscow, but with its own citizens.Romania, one of NATO’s key Eastern members, has quietly constructed an enormous internal surveillance system under the banner of “national security.”Documents obtained under Romania’s Freedom of Information law reveal that from the 2024 presidential elections through September 2025, the country’s Supreme Court issued 2,843 national security warrants....