Free Republic

Germany moved one step closer to banning “conversion therapy” targeting transgender and gay people after its Cabinet approved a draft bill on Wednesday morning. The bill will next be presented to Germany’s lower house, Health Minister Jens Spahn told the Redaktionsnetzwerk Deutschland news group (RND). If the bill passes both houses of parliament, advertising or offering conversion therapy will be banned and infringements will carry fines of up to €30,000 ($33,000). After the proposed ban, only adults who freely seek out the controversial “therapy” will be legally permitted to undergo it. It is estimated that up to 2,000 conversion therapies...

Declared by the us Congress the sanctions against the "Nord stream — 2" pipeline has caused a sudden and unanimous condemnation on part of the officials of Germany and the German public. First responded the foreign Minister of Germany Heiko Maas, who categorically rejected foreign intervention and sanctions. According to him, the energy policy of Europe is determined in Europe and not in USA. The decision of the Congress was criticized by the Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel. She said in the Bundestag that the German government does not accept the extraterritorial sanctions. The governor on coastal Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania Manuela Sweig...

European leaders warned Friday that Britain could become a formidable rival, just hours after a big victory by Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s conservatives all but sealed the UK’s Brexit divorce. But the EU chiefs, meeting in Brussels, also expressed relief that British voters had sent a clear message, bringing to an end the first phase of a crisis that has dogged Europe for more than three years. Led by France and Germany, EU member states said they would pursue a swift trade deal with a tight deadline of end 2020, but insisted that any new arrangement must uphold European values...

The most potent non-military threat to Israel’s existence is the opposition to Jewish communities in Judea, Samaria, Jerusalem and the Golan Heights by the international community, led by the European Union. The EU is the largest single donor to the Palestinians – more than a half-billion euros annually. It funds over two dozen anti-Israel propaganda organizations (NGOs) dedicated to demonizing Israel – over €6 million annually. In addition, these NGOs also receive millions from individual European countries. The EU is the largest contributor to UNRWA, which is dedicated to Israel’s demise. The EU supported US president Barack Obama’s “deal” with...

The eurozone's stagnating economy has suffered its worst performance for six years with uncertainty over Brexit partly to blame, economists said today. The forecast mirrors the gloom also predicted by the European Central Bank, which downgraded growth in the eurozone for next year to a feeble 1.1 per cent.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel used her weekly podcast on Saturday to sound the alarm on the country’s skilled labor shortage, saying it could force companies to move elsewhere. […] Germany wants to tackle the shortfall domestically by providing “good training for as many people as possible,” Merkel said. At the same time, Berlin is looking to recruit qualified people from other European Union countries, and further afield. There are already 2.5 million people from EU countries working in Germany. “But that alone is not enough, and that is why we also have to look for skilled workers from outside the...

If Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn wins Britain’s general election on Thursday, he’s promising a remix of British society, with a strong emphasis on raising the lot of Britain’s disenfranchised and forcing tax-dodging corporations and wealthy individuals to pick up part of the tab. Corbyn’s key theme is that decades of unbridled free market capitalism in Britain has created a capitalist elite at the expense of working people, who have seen public services slashed and aspirations dampened. […] While Johnson has taken his party to the right, Corbyn has tacked to the left and endured the departure of some prominent...

NEW YORK (AP) — A high-drama telecom deal is heading to court. T-Mobile, in its attempt to buy Sprint for $26.5 billion, has already notched approvals from key federal regulators. Now it must convince a federal judge that the 14 state attorneys general suing to stop the deal are wrong. A trial starts Monday in U.S. District Court in New York and is expected to last several weeks. If T-Mobile prevails, the number of major U.S. wireless companies would shrink to three from four. A combined T-Mobile-Sprint would become a fiercer competitor to larger Verizon and AT&T . But the...

The European Union’s anti-trust authority approved €3.2 billion ($3.5 billion) in subsidies aimed at helping Europe boost its lagging competitiveness in the electric battery sector. The subsidy from seven members states — Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Belgium, Sweden and Finland — will go to 17 different companies, a statement from the European Commission said. The investment injection will help generate an extra €5 billion in private investment, it added. Electric battery production is an important industry sector for the Europe, and the push for subsidies is part of a broader push led by France and Germany to make sure Europe...

Boris Johnson has revealed plans to bring back pounds and ounces once Brexit is done as he attacks Jeremy Corbyn as “the most extreme Left-wing candidate produced by the Labour Party in a century” entering Number 10. In a wide-ranging interview with the Daily Mail, the Prime Minister laid out his post-election blueprint to lift the EU ban on imperial measurements and hark back to the old system. He said: “We will bring back that ancient liberty. I see no reason why people should be prosecuted.” The Conservative leader added: “I think the reality is a lot of people are...

France rejects a U.S. proposal this week that would let companies opt out of a proposed international tax reform, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Friday, urging Washington to negotiate in good faith. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin raised serious questions about OECD international tax reform proposals in a letter made public on Wednesday, jarring international officials by floating the idea of a "safe harbor regime". Le Maire said that would mean U.S. companies could opt in or out as they pleased, which he said would be unacceptable to France and other OECD countries. He urged Washington therefore to...

Since Hong Kong’s anti-government demonstrations began in June, the pro-democracy movement has been pleading for international support. And the recent confirmation of China’s systematic internment of Muslim Uighurs in the country’s western Xinjiang province has strengthened international calls for action against China’s human rights abuses. Now, human rights advocates and some German politicians are calling for German Chancellor Angela Merkel to take a stronger stance on human rights issues in China. […] However, during six months of unrest in Hong Kong, and the ongoing reports of minority oppression in Xinjiang, Chancellor Merkel has been careful not to explicitly support the...

France’s Interior Ministry vowed on Wednesday to create a dedicated office for combatting hate crimes after more than 100 Jewish graves were found desecrated at a cemetery near the city of Strasbourg. “The republic itself has been desecrated,” said Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said after a visit to the 16th-century cemetery. “Hatred has struck; there is hatred on our national territory. We will do everything so that the people who have done this are convicted.” […] According to national statistics, police reports of anti-Semitic incidents rose 74% in 2018 compared to the previous year, prompting widespread concern in the country...

A majority of Germans are in favor of reducing Germany’s reliance on the United States militarily, according to a YouGov poll commissioned by the German news agency DPA. According to the poll, 55% of Germans believe that European members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) should protect themselves from an attack without US help. In addition, a majority of poll participants believe the US should partially (23%) or completely (26%) withdraw its 30,000 troops stationed in Germany. Conversely, 54% said NATO should work more closely with Russia rather than relying on deterrence. Meanwhile, 37% are for lifting sanctions against...

Officials representing the EU on diplomatic and foreign affairs tell local politicians ‘Hong Kong can count on the EU’ hours after President Trump signed the act allowing sanctions against the city’s government. Hong Kong can rely on the support of the European Union in troubled times, a visiting EU delegation to the city said on Thursday, after talks with local politicians. “True friends stand by each other at difficult times, and Hong Kong can count on the EU in this regard,” Gunnar Wiegand, managing director for Asia and the Pacific at the European External Action Service (EEAS) said in a...

European lawmakers have voted to declare an EU-wide climate emergency, in a symbolic move aimed at increasing pressure on the incoming European Commission to take a stronger stance on climate change. The climate declaration was passed on Thursday in Strasbourg during a European Parliament (EP) debate on the upcoming United Nations’ COP25 climate summit that kicks off December 2 in Madrid. In a statement on Twitter after the vote, EU lawmakers urged the European Commission “to fully ensure all relevant legislative and budgetary proposals are fully aligned” with the 1.5-degree-Celsius target limit on global warming. The resolution calls on the...

There is a disconnect between citizens of Germany and the United States when it comes to their perceptions of the relationship between the countries, according to a survey released Tuesday. The survey, carried out by the Pew Research Center in Washington and the Hamburg-based nonprofit Körber Foundation, reveals that Americans view their country’s relationship with Germany far more positively than Germans view their country’s with the United States. Three-quarters of Americans saw the relationship as good, while nearly two-thirds of Germans (64%) saw the relationship as bad. Despite the gap in opinion, the latest data indicates that views in Germany...

Tim Berners-Lee, a British engineer credited with having invented the World Wide Web in 1989, has released an ambitious plan detailing steps for better online governance, addressing problems like misinformation, data surveillance and censorship. The Contract for the Web was created by Berners-Lee’s World Wide Web Foundation in cooperation with representatives from governments, companies and civil society to “keep knowledge freely available,” while strengthening laws, regulations and companies “to ensure pursuit of profit is not at the expense of human rights and democracy.” The plan is backed by more than 150 organizations, including internet giants like Google, Microsoft and Facebook,...

German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas visited Hiroshima on Friday to commemorate victims of the 1945 nuclear attack and promote a nuclear-weapon-free world. “One day living in a nuclear-weapon-free world has to remain our goal,” he said. “Even though that will not be easy and may take a long time.” However, the foreign minister said he was against a unilateral German withdrawal of nuclear weapons. “It’s no use if nuclear weapons are just moved from one country to another. If they are to disappear then they should disappear everywhere,” he said. “As far as nuclear disarmament is concerned, we need agreements...

A German woman suspected of being an “Islamic State” member has been repatriated along with her three children, according to German media and a Kurdish official. A child from the US has gone through the same process. Syria’s Kurds completed the handover of three German children and their mother, as well as a toddler from the US, to their respective ministries, a Kurdish official confirmed on Saturday. Abdelkarim Omar, a senior official with the Kurdish authorities in northeastern Syria, said the transfer of the individuals had taken place on Friday. […] German authorities had previously ordered for the mother, who...