Free Republic

Macron will offer an oak sapling taken from the scene of a key World War One battle, where the Marine Corps repelled a German offensive in the final year of the conflict almost exactly a century ago, the French presidency said on Sunday. The sapling grew close to the so-called “Devil Dog” fountain, a spot that has become legendary within Marines ranks. It is where U.S. soldiers are said to have gathered after the battle, which took place in June 1918 in Belleau Wood, about 100 km (60 miles) northeast of Paris in the Champagne region. It won’t be Macron’s...

Gen Identity England @GenIdentEngland 2h2 hours ago .@Lauren_Southern and @BrittPettibone are in the French Alps covering the #DefendEurope Alps Mission. Already we have shown how little it takes to successfully defend the border, as no migrants have come through the pass into France. #StopMigrantsAlpes

For more than a decade, we – Europeans, Americans, and the international community – have feared the imminent threat of a nuclear-armed Iran. To counter this threat and make the Middle East a safer place, the international community came together, using the might of diplomatic negotiations and the force of sanctions, agreed by most of the major economic powers. After 13 years of joint diplomatic effort, we reached a major breakthrough and signed the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), an agreement between Iran, France, the UK, Germany, the US, China, and Russia, regarding Tehran‘s nuclear programme. With that, we...

The Iran lobby is digging deep in an effort to drum up support from anyone and anywhere to preserve the Iran nuclear deal including circulating a letter from members of the French, British and German parliaments addressed to the U.S. Congress.The letter is rife with the same common misperceptions that the Iran lobby has worked hard to foist on an unsuspecting world. None have done as much spadework in engineering this plethora of fake news than the National Iranian American Council.Among the common misperceptions in the letter are:“The only reason we were able to achieve this breakthrough is that we stood...

Greece is to lease two French frigates by August to boost its defensive capabilities in the Aegean, according to Greek media reports. The acquisition of the FREMM-type vessels was confirmed after letters were exchanged between Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras and French President Emmanuel Macron, Greek daily Kathimerini reports. The decision by France to lease Greece the two vessels, equipped with high-accuracy anti-aircraft systems, for five years is seen as a firm message of support from Paris, the paper reports. It adds that at the end of the five-year lease, Greece is to take delivery of its first Belh@rra frigate. Greece...

Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on Thursday urged policymakers to steer clear of all protectionist measures amid rising trade tensions between the United States and its major trading partners. "Trade restrictions have not been proven helpful and we suspect that they might even dent confidence," Lagarde said at a press conference during the spring meetings of the IMF and the World Bank, adding all countries should "work together to resolve disagreements without using exceptional measures." The spring meetings of the two leading international financial institutions come after the Trump administration recently announced additional tariffs on...

French rail workers spoke of their anger over the government’s proposed reforms to France’s national rail service as they took part in a day of mass protests on Thursday. President Emmanuel Macron faced mass protests Thursday as trade unionists seek to galvanize striking train drivers, angry students and public sector workers and into a joint movement against his multi-pronged drive to overhaul the French economy. The hard-line CGT union has urged the broad spectrum of groups opposed to Macron’s overhauls to come together on the streets, with some left-wingers dreaming of a re-run of the huge May 1968 demonstrations that...

A woman was denied French nationality after refusing to shake hands with officials during the official citizenship ceremony, it has been reported this week. The Algerian woman was attending the official ceremony in Isère, southeast France, after her successfully applying for citizenship via her marriage to a French national.But she “expressly refused to shake hands with the secretary-general of the prefecture and another local official”, according to a case heard by France’s highest court the Conseil d’État (State Council) that was published on the French government’s justice website LegiFrance. The woman claims her actions at the ceremony in Isère, eastern...

They can't be this dumb, can they? They just can't be. Our progressives Democratic friends aren't that stupid, right? But they are counting on the American people being stupid when it comes to world affairs. And there's very little to suggest they won't be successful in that endeavor. Be it the president saying ISIS is "contained" hours before the group unleashed evil on the streets of Paris, or the secretary of state saying the Paris attacks were crazy, unlike the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo, where there was "legitimacy" and a "rationale" to them, nothing they say can...

You my children are my lightning bolts of boldness, and thunder of my presence as you declare my word for truly I watch over my word to perform it in the glory and majesty of who I AM. Therefore press forward for I have Already conquered the enemy for you by the The Cross. Dissolve the lies of the enemy with my word and declare grace to the mountains for my life is alive in you. • ACTS 17:28 For in him we live and move and have our being.' As some of your owr.cn poets have said, 'We are...

BREAKING: IDF sources said to confirm Iran has established air forces in Syria and are planning retaliatory attacks in Israel.

Round one occurred on Feb. 10, when an Iranian drone launched by a Revolutionary Guards Quds Force unit operating out of Syria’s T4 air base, east of Homs in central Syria, was shot down with a missile from an Israeli Apache helicopter that was following it after it penetrated Israeli airspace. “This is the first time we saw Iran do something against Israel — not by proxy,” a senior Israeli military source told me. “This opened a new period.” It certainly helps to explain why Israeli jets launched a predawn missile raid on the Iranian drone’s T4 home base last...

The same resolve the US, Britain and France showed in standing up to Syrian President Bashar Assad's use of chemical weapons in Syria needs to be shown in preventing terrorist states and organizations from getting nuclear capabilities, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in a phone conversation Saturday night with British Prime Minister Theresa May. Netanyahu, who was referring to Iran, spoke about this conversation at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. US President Donald Trump has given the European powers – France, Britain and Germany – until May 12 to fix the Iranian nuclear agreement signed in 2015. If...

Hundreds of police were deployed after residents rioted and torched cars in Toulouse following a police stop of a woman wearing an illegal full-face Islamic veil. The incident that allegedly sparked the riots took place Sunday after 5 pm when local police stopped a woman in the Toulouse district of Bellefontaine who was wearing a full-face Islamic veil, which is illegal in France.Police asked the woman for identification and when she presented a poor photocopy of her government identification, they ordered her to remove her veil, broadcaster Franceinfo reports. The woman refused to lift her veil and is said to...

He has said that in the coming months he will announce “a blueprint for the whole organization” of Islam. And those trying to anticipate what that will look like are turning their attention to Hakim El Karoui, a leading voice on how Islamic traditions fit within French culture. It’s hard to miss that the man who appears to have Macron’s ear on this most sensitive of subjects cuts a similar figure. Like the president, El Karoui is an ex-Rothschild investment banker with an elite social pedigree who favors well-tailored suits, crisp white shirts and the lofty province of big ideas....

French President Emmanuel Macron defended his country’s participation in a massive missile strike over the weekend, which saw more than 100 missiles fired from US, British, and French ships and aircraft at sites used by the Assad regime’s chemical weapon program. The three countries struck eight targets at three separate facilities over the weekend a week after the Syrian government allegedly used sarin nerve gas and chlorine gas to kill dozens of civilians in a suburb of Damascus. The Western allies informed the Kremlin of the attacks ahead of time, allowing Russia to remove its forces from the targeted compounds...

Angry youths in a deprived area of the French city of Toulouse have attacked police, torched cars and set fire to garbage during two nights of clashes that have led to 18 arrests, police said Tuesday. The rioting in the Mirail area of the southern city, a high-crime neighborhood once home to several jihadists, was apparently sparked by the death of a local man in prison and an identity check by police on a veiled woman on Sunday. After nearly four hours of clashes on Sunday night that saw gangs throw stones at the local police station and set fire...

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and French President Emmanuel Macron have discussed a renewed economic partnership to boost growth, jobs and investments in their two countries. […] Trudeau said “we already see the results” of the new trade rules, called the Canada-European Union Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement Implementation Act (CETA). Canadian imports from France have increased 4 percent last year and Canadian investments in France have jumped 23 percent, he said. …

It's hard to think of the last time America didn't have a wartime president. From Franklin Roosevelt on, the U.S. military has been ordered to engage in hostilities at least at one point during each administration. Donald Trump, the nationalist businessman from Queens who spoke with isolationist tones on the campaign trail, had the potential to break this cycle. Trump violated Republican orthodoxy by denouncing the Iraq War as foolish, disparaging the legacy of NATO, and decrying how much blood and treasure we've lost to Middle East nation-building. It's one year into his presidency, and things have changed. Trump, working...

Macron says France has convinced Trump to "stay in Syria long-term"https://twitter.com/AFP/status/985594653075439616