Free Republic

Germany isn’t exactly a fiscal role model. Tax rates are too onerous and government spending consumes about 44 percent of economic output. That’s even higher than it is in the United States, where politicians at the federal, state, and local levels divert about 39 percent of GDP into the public sector. Germany also has too much red tape and government intervention, which helps to explain why it lags other European nations such as Denmark and Estonia in the Economic Freedom of the World rankings. But I have (sort of) defended Germany a couple of times, at least on fiscal policy,...

Free-trade talks between the United States and the European Union are in danger of being derailed by populist groups opposing everything from globalization to multinationals, EU ministers and business leaders said on Friday. The rise of anti-EU parties, reports of U.S. spying in Europe and accusations that a trade pact would pander to big companies have combined to erode public support for a deal that proponents say would dramatically increase economic growth. "We have an uphill battle to make the argument that this EU-U.S. free-trade agreement is a good one," he said in remarks that were broadcast to reporters.

The nation’s top military commander painted a dark picture Tuesday of future U.S. defense capabilities clouded by shrinking Pentagon budgets and adversaries’ technological advances that he said would erode American battlefield superiority. Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, provided his sobering views as part of the Quadrennial Defense Review, a congressionally mandated evaluation of U.S. military strength issued every four years. Dempsey predicted that it would become increasingly difficult to balance the competing demands of protecting allies abroad, securing Americans at home and deterring future wars. “The smaller and less capable military outlined in...

Today, a Supervisor with the Department of Homeland Security called a member of our legal team to inform us that the Romeike family has been granted “indefinite deferred status”. This means that the Romeikes can stay in the United States permanently (unless they are convicted of a crime, etc.) This is an incredible victory that can only be credited to our Almighty God. We also want to thank those of who spoke up on this issue–including that long ago White House petition. We believe that the public outcry made this possible while God delivered the victory. Via Home School Legal...

Uwe and Hannelore Romeike came to the United States in 2008 seeking political asylum. They fled their German homeland in the face of religious persecution for homeschooling their children. They wanted to live in a country where they could raise their children in accordance with their Christian beliefs. The Romeikes were initially given asylum, but the Obama administration objected – claiming that German laws that outlaw homeschooling do not constitute persecution. “The goal in Germany is for an open, pluralistic society,” the Justice Department wrote in a legal brief last year. “Teaching tolerance to children of all backgrounds helps to...

Polish news site Thenews.pl is reporting that President Obama in a telephone call on Sunday to Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski “assured him ‘unequivocally as to Poland’s security, knowing that Poland is not only a neighbor of Ukraine but Russia as well.’ Speaking Monday after a meeting of Poland’s Nations Security Council – with Poland’s Defense Minister, Foreign Minister, Prime Minister and opposition party leaders in attendance - Komorowski informed the media that he had directed Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski to “request NATO consultations under Article 4 of the alliance’s founding treaty.” Article 4 of the North Atlantic Treaty that was...

Germany’s Chancellor Angela Merkel is reported to have become “really annoyed” about Russian President Vladimir Putin and has questioned whether he “was still in touch with reality.” The German mass circulation Bild newspaper wrote on Monday that during a telephone conversation she held with US President Barack Obama to discuss the growing crisis in Ukraine she complained that Mr Putin was “living in another world.” “She appears to have become really annoyed,” Bild remarked. The paper said it had gained inside information on the telephone exchange between the US and German leaders from American sources. The two leaders roundly criticised...

The U.S. Supreme Court declined on Monday to hear an appeal from the Romeikes, a German homeschooling family that had asylum in the United States. The U.S. Justice Department sought to deport them back to Germany where they could lose custody of their children due to their religious beliefs. "Today, the United States Supreme Court declined to review Uwe and Hannelore Romeike's asylum case," Michael Farris, chairman of the Home School Legal Defense Association, wrote in a letter to supporters. "We knew it was an uphill battle since the Court only accepts 80–100 out of nearly 10,000 requests each year....

The Supreme Court has declined to hear an appeal from a German family seeking asylum in the United States because their home country does not allow home-schooling. The justices rejected an appeal from Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, who claim the German government is persecuting them because they want to raise their children in accordance with their Christian beliefs.

For the next several months, Washington won’t be seeing as much of President Barack Obama as usual. In February, March and April, the president is traveling to nine countries: Mexico, Netherlands, Belgium, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Korea, Malaysia and the Philippines. His trip to Mexico is next week. He is heading to Europe in March and Asia in April. On Friday, Mr. Obama is traveling to California to visit the drought-stricken Central Valley and meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah II at Sunnylands, the Annenberg estate in Rancho Mirage. The president’s domestic travels are expected to pick up as the midterm...

The Anti-Defamation League, one of the US's most powerful Jewish organizations known for its advocacy on behalf of Israel, criticized Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday for comments he made in Munich regarding the negative consequences that Israel can expect if efforts to achieve a two-state solution break down. In a letter to Kerry, ADL chief Abe Foxman said that while he appreciated Kerry's efforts to move the peace process forward, the remarks about Israel's likely ostracism in the event that no deal is reached will only spur the pro-boycott elements and the Palestinians to become further entrenched in...

Hundreds of Germans will lose their jobs through US Army troop withdrawals under cutbacks announced by the American military. The military announced last week that 554 Germans directly employed by US forces would be made redundant. But the communities around the army bases warned the knock-on effect would be far greater than the headline job loss figure. …

Remarks made by Iranian foreign minister signal Tehran won't agree to dismantle atomic facilities in talks with world powers on final settlement of decade-old dispute over its nuclear activity.By ReutersNEW DELHI - Iran is willing to address international concerns about its atomic activities but will keep its nuclear program "intact", not close it down, Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said on Thursday. His remarks signaled that Tehran will not agree to dismantle any of its atomic facilities in talks with six world powers on a final settlement of the decade-old dispute over its nuclear activity. Related: Those negotiations got under...

In the full throes of realization that their top-down, heavily subsidized energy-sector transition from fossil fuels and nuclear power to renewable sources has directly resulted in energy prices around three times higher than those in the United States — not to mention a resurgence of coal to close the practicality gap left by those renewables — the German government has been looking for a way to steeply revise the Energiewende program of which they were once so loud and proud. On Thursday, a group of German government officials submitted their recommendations to Chancellor Merkel for saving Germans some of the...

Hamburg - Rising energy costs are becoming a problem for more and more citizens in Germany . Alone from 2008 to 2011 , the proportion of so-called energy- poor households in the Federal Republic rose from 13.8 to 17 percent. This is clear from a reply from the federal government to a request of the Green Parliamentary Group , which is present SPIEGEL ONLINE . This is true now more than every sixth household as low energy . Although there is still no generally accepted definition of the concept of energy poverty. However, the definition is widespread , according to...

A myriad small German parties, including the neo-Nazi NPD, could enter the European Parliament following a ruling by the Constitutional Court on Wednesday (26 February) to abolish the minimum threshold for the vote. The verdict, approved with 5 out of the 8 votes in the judging panel, says fringe parties are being discriminated against with the current three-percent threshold. …

The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) has stepped up its surveillance of senior German government officials since being ordered by Barack Obama to halt its spying on Chancellor Angela Merkel, Bild am Sonntag paper reported on Sunday. Revelations last year about mass U.S. surveillance in Germany, in particular of Merkel´s mobile phone, shocked Germans and sparked the most serious dispute between the transatlantic allies in a decade. Bild am Sonntag said its information stemmed from a high-ranking NSA employee in Germany and that those being spied on included Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, a close confidant of Merkel.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said she will fully support efforts by US Secretary of State John Kerry to relaunch the Middle East peace process during her upcoming visit to Israel. “We need, as soon as possible, a stable two-country solution, with a Jewish state of Israel and at the same time a state for the Palestinians,” Merkel said in her weekly podcast. …

Inspired the character of Louisa in 1965 movieMaria von Trapp, the last surviving member of the Trapp Family Singers, the itinerant singing group whose escape from Nazi-occupied Austria inspired the The Sound of Music, died at the age of 99 in her Vermont home last Tuesday. Von Trapp was the last surviving member of the seven Trapp Family Singers, made famous in The Sound of Music, the Associated Press reports.

Germany’s foreign minister says his country vigorously supports U.S.-mediated peace talks and encourages Israel to take the “difficult but necessary decisions” to make them succeed. […] Germany is Israel’s closest European ally and the two governments hold a joint Cabinet session each year. But tensions have arisen of late over Israel’s West Bank settlement policies. …

Germany has no desire to dominate other countries, but it needs to leverage its post-war experiences of democracy and prosperity to play a bigger role on the global stage, President Joachim Gauck said. Germany, still haunted by its Nazi past seven decades after the end of World War Two, remains reluctant to send troops abroad even on peacekeeping missions. It faced criticism from allies in 2011 for abstaining in a U.N. vote backing military intervention in Libya and declined to join the operation. Gauck, 74, a former pastor and human rights campaigner in communist East Germany, caused a stir with...

Maria von Trapp, whose family's story was told in The Sound of Music, has died. She was the last surviving member of the musical family of seven brothers and sisters and passed away in her sleep at home in Vermont at the age of 99 on Tuesday, PEOPLE confirms. Von Trapp, who was the second-eldest daughter, and her family fled their home in Austria to escape from the Nazis in the 1930s and eventually ended up in the U.S., where their story inspired a Rodgers & Hammerstein musical and the popular 1965 movie starring Julie Andrews.

The United Auto Workers (UAW) filed a legal challenge late Friday with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to the certification of the organizing vote it lost last Friday at Volkswagen's auto plant in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The challenge was submitted just hours before the seven day post-election filing deadline expired. On Tuesday, attorney Joseph Farelli, a nationally recognized labor law expert, told Breitbart News the UAW would have little chance of success if it filed a challenge to NLRB certification of the election. "I don't think the NLRB is willing to break new ground and state the conduct of a...

Technology to bring 3D printing closer to the mass market is accelerating, though most 3D printed items tend to be rather small in size. To help demonstrate the effectiveness of printing larger items, BigRep, a company founded in 2014, opens the door to printing items such as furniture. The device is launching worldwide at large trade shows, and begins shipping in two months, with a $39,000 MSRP.The BigRep One can print full-scale objects in sizes up to 45x39x47 inches, and has the ability to print plastics, nylons, Laywood (wood fibers mixed with polymers), and Laybrick (something similar to sandstone-type of...

BERLIN — In a series of home raids, Germany has arrested three men — aged 88, 92 and 94 — suspected of being former SS guards at the Auschwitz death camp. The three elderly men underwent medical tests and then faced a judge who confirmed their fitness to be detained in a prison hospital, prosecutors said in a statement Thursday. The men were suspected of having served as Auschwitz SS guards from 1942 to 1944 and of having participated in murders at the Nazis’ extermination camp in occupied Poland, where more than 1 million people were killed in the Second...

Germany is to offer Israeli citizens consular assistance in states such as Indonesia or Malaysia where Israel has no official diplomatic representation, under a new deal to be signed by Angela Merkel when she visits Jerusalem next week.

Europe's Largest Defense Program Looks to Middle East and Asia for Sales The decision by Germany to cancel a multibillion-euro order for Eurofighter Typhoon jets on Wednesday leaves Europe's largest defense program even more reliant on a shrinking band of potential buyers in the Middle East and Asia. Germany had initially pledged to buy up to 250 of the advanced fighters but, like others in the four-nation consortium that funded the jet, has opted to cut orders because of domestic budget pressures. The makers of the Eurofighter, including BAE Systems BA.LN -0.18% PLC, Airbus Group EADSY -0.88% NV DICO.AE -0.42%...

Hydrogen and natural gas are among the alternative fuels starting to get more attention as car companies work to reduce emissions. But Audi is exploring yet another option that you may not have heard much about yet: e-fuels.

Bernd Osterloh, who is the Volkswagen AG General and Group Works Council chairman, said that future investments in the South might be hurt if workers will not unionize, according to Reuters. The comments come days after Volkswagen Chattanooga workers voted against representation by the United Auto Workers Union. After years of quiet work by union leaders and a contentious campaigning period, officials announced Friday night that Volkswagen employees opted against UAW representation with a 712-626 vote. But at that announcement, Volkswagen Chattanooga President Frank Fischer said the vote wasn't against the works council and that there is still support for...

German-Israeli relations are at a nadir as German Chancellor Merkel begins her third term. When leaders of the countries meet next week, deals on smaller issues may be possible, but divisions over Israeli settlements will persist. […] Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman—with whom (German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter) Steinmeier already had a tepid relationship—read out a laundry list of complaints to his colleague from Berlin. It even included lesser issues, like research and scientific cooperation, an area in which Israel claims Germany is imposing unacceptable conditions. Lieberman said Berlin often hides behind European Union positions rather than presenting its own views....

<p>TEL AVIV – The Palestinian Authority received a pledge from the U.S. that by the end of 2014, the Obama administration will issue an official written declaration presenting general highlights of a future Palestinian state, a senior Palestinian negotiator told WND.</p>

Labor: Union bosses have contended for some time that a secret ballot isn't needed to unionize a workplace. All that's needed, they said, was employees' signatures on cards. But Chattanooga proved them wrong. For months the United Auto Workers have said a majority of workers at the Volkswagen plant in Tennessee had signed cards expressing their interest in unionizing. Why bother with a secret ballot when the workers had already spoken through the "card check" approval process? Before a much-anticipated and widely followed union-representation vote held last week, the AP reported that Gary Casteel, Tennessee-based regional director for the UAW,...

MOSCOW (Reuters) - While others in Europe debate how best to contain Vladimir Putin, Germany's foreign minister is on a mission to revive damaged ties with Moscow with a combination of public flattery and behind-the-scenes diplomacy. Frank-Walter Steinmeier's Social Democrats (SPD), junior partner in Chancellor Angela Merkel's new coalition, enjoy better chemistry with Russia's leaders than her previous center-right government and he hopes this can open channels on Syria and Ukraine and help Brussels and Moscow to see eye-to-eye. But Germany may be overestimating the leverage its trade ties give it over Russia and risks appearing naive if it mutes...

German leader Angela Merkel has said she will hold talks with France on creating “safe communication networks” in the EU in the wake of the US spy scandal. She said in her weekly podcast on Sunday (16 February) that: “We will speak to France about this and about all things regarding what kind of European providers we have who can offer security for our citizens: So [that] we don’t even have to go with our emails and other information over the Atlantic, but that we can set up safe communication networks within Europe.” She noted the EU is currently in...

This coming Monday (17.02.2014), EU trade chief Karel de Gucht and his US counterpart Michael Froman are scheduled to meet in Washington to discuss the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), a transatlantic free trade area. They are expected to make a political assessment of the past three rounds of US-EU trade talks and to discuss the upcoming fourth round of negotiations in March. The pact would unify standards and licensing procedures across a EU-US trade zone and would waive tariffs on goods traded between the EU and the US. According to the Munich-based IFO institute, the treaty will create...

Germany's Constitutional Court ruling last Friday marks a significant escalation in efforts to rein in the European Central Bank. The ruling's message? Either the European Court of Justice has to stop bond purchases or German justices will. It is also a clear indication that Germany's highest court is extremely skeptical of the ECB. Draghi's 2012 announcement that the ECB would embark on unlimited sovereign bond purchases from ailing euro-zone member states, the court found, is incompatible with European law. The ruling notes that OMT "exceeds the mandate" of the ECB and "encroaches on the responsibility of the member states for...

Turkey took a major step in altering the naval balance in the eastern Mediterranean by contracting the construction of a multi-purpose amphibious assault ship. In late December 2013, Turkey took a major step in altering the naval balance in the eastern Mediterranean by contracting the construction of a multi-purpose amphibious assault ship that can function as an aircraft carrier, potentially providing Turkey an unprecedented measure of sea control in the region. The heightened threat perception for Israel, Cyprus and Greece will impact the imminent decision regarding whether Israel will export its natural gas to a planned Cypriot LNG terminal with...

CIA Director: Jonathan Pollard Is In Prison Because He's JewishBy Karen Levy Israel News AgencyJerusalem — February 9, 2014 ... There have been many senior US officials who have called for Israeli Jonathan Pollard to be released, but none ever came from this highest of security institutions. Former CIA Director James Woolsey has reiterated his call for the immediate release of Jonathan Pollard, now in his 29th year behind American bars over charges of spying for Israel. Speaking to the Israel News Agency, Woolsey stated: "It's enough. After a quarter century the time has come to free Pollard. That doesn't...

Last week I attended a discussion with Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammed Javed Zarif and witnessed his ability to mesmerise his listeners. The event took place at the German Council of Foreign Affairs in Berlin. Mr. Zarif succeeded in dazzling his audience – about 250 foreign policy experts — with commonplace sentences such as: “global security is indivisible”, “dialogue is necessary” or “war is not a good option.” He came across as an Iranian Gorbachev, a good-hearted reformer defying the powers of darkness. Yet a few days earlier he had bowed his head before the grave of a particularly sinister figure...

"If these negotiations [with Iran] fail, there are two grim alternatives," said Sen. Richard Durbin, "a nuclear Iran, or war, or perhaps both." Sens. John McCain and Lindsey Graham returned from the Munich security conference saying that even John Kerry agrees that President Obama's Syrian policy has failed. They are urging another look at air strikes. North Korea is warning that should the annual U.S.-South Korean military exercises go forward in March, it could mean war, possibly nuclear war. Philippines President Benigno Aquino III this week compared his country's situation to Czechoslovakia in 1938, and the disputed islets off his...

...Illustrating how testy relations with Washington have become, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, earlier the target of American monitoring of her cellphone, issued an unusually sharp statement saying that Ms. Nuland’s remarks were “completely unacceptable.”...

Germany's Angela Merkel has said a US official's apparent insult of the EU's efforts to mediate in the Ukraine crisis is "totally unacceptable". Victoria Nuland has apologised after she referred disparagingly to the EU's role during a conversation said to be with the US ambassador to Ukraine. Germany's Angela Merkel has said a US official's apparent insult of the EU's efforts to mediate in the Ukraine crisis is "totally unacceptable". Victoria Nuland has apologised after she referred disparagingly to the EU's role during a conversation said to be with the US ambassador to Ukraine. A recording of the exchange was...

As they map Germany's changing coastline, members of a research team called SINCOS are learning about settlements that were covered by water 6000 to 8000 years ago On a warm afternoon in September, archaeologist Harald Lübke looked out from the pilot house of the Goor, a bright red dive boat moored 200 meters off Germany's Baltic seacoast. Three meters below the water's glassy surface, divers in bulky drysuits were excavating a prehistoric hunting camp. A deafening motor mounted on the Goor's deck powered a pressure pump, which they were using to suck sediment from the sea bottom into mesh bags....

Yascha Mounk’s new book on Jewish identity leaves readers with a question: Are people destined to see themselves as the descendants of victims or oppressors?It’s a perennially reoccurring question: What makes someone Jewish? Answers vary, touching everything from the blood in your veins to the prayer book on your shelf to the egg bagel on your plate. Yascha Mounk, a 31-year-old German Jew who’s a doctoral candidate at Harvard, has offered another definition: You are a Jew if your parents or grandparents were called out as Jews, persecuted as Jews, and killed as Jews. “In a sense, this was enough,”...

Last week Secretary of State John Kerry raised the hackles of Israelis when he warned that if the Jewish state didn’t make enough concessions to allow him to achieve a peace deal with the Palestinians it would be targeted for boycotts. The stark threat was partially walked back later by the State Department when it claimed Kerry was merely taking note of a development he opposes. But he made his point. Israelis are acutely aware that they are particularly vulnerable to economic pressure from their European trading partners. Nor has it failed to come their attention that the BDS—boycott, divestment,...

Whether intentional or not, says a UNESCO body, the boycott of Israeli academics bears a similarity to the practice of German doctors, who were leaders in the Nazi party, of segregating out their Jewish colleagues Of all the surprising opponents of the boycott of Israeli academic institutions by the American Studies Association, perhaps the most surprising is one that has not yet received any attention. A small but official organization of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) came out with an unabashedly strong criticism of the ASA boycott in one of the very first waves of condemnations....

The Israeli Navy is preparing for scenarios in which, using the “Yakhont” missiles, there will be an attempt to hit Israel’s oil rigs. Therefore it tries to convince the members of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that it should be equipped with small and more sophisticated boats rather than the veteran missile boats The Minister of Defense, Moshe Ya'alon, used his visit to the Munich Security Conference last weekend for advanced negotiations with seniors of the German security establishment, including the new Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, for the acquisition of medium-sized destroyers (frigates), which will be used,...

SPEYER, Germany -- Islam continues to grow in power and influence across Europe. But at a recent concert in Germany, one Christian woman decided to stand up to it. "The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace" by Welsh composer Karl Jenkins was supposed to be an interfaith event to bring Christianity and Islam together. But when the Muslim imam began his call to prayer during the concert, he was interrupted by a small woman in the balcony proclaiming that "Jesus Christ alone is Lord of Germany," and shouting, "I break this curse." She also invoked the name of Martin Luther...

David Cameron is planning to lay on a major welcome for Angela Merkel, the German Chancellor, when she visits Britain later this month. The Prime Minister is arranging for Mrs Merkel to address both MPs and Lords in Parliament and hold an audience with the Queen during her visit on or around February 27. The scale of the events – just short of a full state visit - is in stark contrast to last week’s Anglo-French summit when Francois Hollande, the French president. Mr Cameron met Mr Hollande for a few hours at a windy airfield in Oxfordshire, held a...

BERLIN (Reuters) - The U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) bugged the phone of former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder from at least 2002, a German newspaper reported on Wednesday, compounding the most serious row between between the allies in a decade.