Free Republic

The U.S. is back on top as the most competitive country in the world, regaining the No. 1 spot for the first time since 2008 in an index produced by the World Economic Forum, which said the country could still do better on social issues. America climbed one place in the rankings of 140 countries, with the top five rounded out by Singapore, Germany, Switzerland and Japan. All five countries’ scores rose from 2017, with the U.S. notching the second-biggest gain after Japan’s. The top spot hasn’t gone to the U.S. since the financial crisis stalled output and triggered a...

The humanitarian superpower Sweden has once again shown that it has no problem giving one vulnerable person preference over another when deciding whom to expel and who should be allowed to stay for humanitarian purposes. When Denis was only 5 years old, his mother was found dead in an apartment in Södertälje. As his Ukrainian father has renounced custody, he is now an orphan. Now the Swedish Migration Agency has decided that he will be expelled to Ukraine all by himself. There, he will probably end up in an orphanage since he has no family there who can take care...

Munich police have confirmed that the case of a 19-year-old Afghan national who gave officers the Hitler salute, which is illegal, will be listed as a “right-wing” politically motivated crime. The confirmation came on Twitter in response to a question by user @culinart who replied to a press release posted on the Munich Police account that described the incident in which the 19-year-old Afghan was arrested at Oktoberfest after giving the banned gesture on October 6th. The user wrote to the police saying: “Dear Munich police, one thing I am very interested in: How is this crime classified? As a...

15h25. L’auteur de la prise otage est « gravement blessé » des suites de son arrestation. Il est « en cours de réanimation » annonce la police

The Christian Social Union (CSU) is expected to win around 34 percent of the vote and is set to lose the absolute majority for the first time since the end of the war.

German and Romanian officials are attending a memorial service for the 30,000 people, mostly Ukrainian Jews, murdered on October 22-23, 1941. The massacre has been a long overlooked page of WWII history — until now. On October 12, 2018, Shalimovka, an area of new housing development on the outskirts of Odessa, will be the site of an unusual event. The German and Romanian ambassadors will make appearances there, and Holocaust victims' organizations will travel to take part, too. During the event, a speech from German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be read aloud, the RathsChor choir from the northern German city...

The Christian Social Union (CSU), who have almost single-handedly ruled the wealthy beer-and-lederhosen state since the 1960s, are expected to lose their absolute majority, polls say. The other partner in Merkel's fragile 'grand coalition', the Social Democrats, are also set to do poorly while the far-right and anti-immigration AfD look certain to enter the state assembly. The biggest winners, however, may be the left-leaning Greens who have doubled their poll ratings to around 18 percent since the last state elections, which would make them the second strongest party. If the surveys prove correct, the Bavarian election will mark another step...

Voters in the southern German state of Bavaria go to the polls on Sunday in a regional election that could shake the fragile coalition of Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin. The Christian Social Union (CSU) -- a conservative sister party to Merkel's Christian Democrat Union (CDU) -- has dominated Bavarian politics for almost seven decades. Apart from a three-year period in the 1950s, the party has continuously governed the state since 1949. At this election, however, the CSU could lose votes to the anti-immigration, far-right Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) party and to the left-wing, environmentalist Greens.

GERMAN Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen says the structures for a European Defence Union have been “activated”, and also hopes to develop a system that tells Europeans when to use their “forces”.

A man protecting his 21-year-old daughter against a bottom groping African will be charged with causing bodily harm. At the Munich Hackerbrücke train station, a drunk 28-year-old migrant from Eritrea grabbed a German woman under her skirt on Tuesday. When her father saw the sexual assault, he punched the African man in the face to make him stop. An employee of the German railway company Deutsche Bahn, witnessed the incident and alerted federal police. The German police decided to file two charges: One against the migrant for sexual assault and one against the father for causing bodily harm. Many Germans...

German historians on Wednesday accused far-right leader Alexander Gauland of paraphrasing Adolf Hitler in a newspaper column taking aim at a "globalised class" that he claimed threatens all that is good in his "homeland". The co-leader of the far-right AfD rejected allegations of parallels with a 1933 speech by Hitler, but the latest episode is yet another controversy raising questions over his anti-migrant party's views on the Nazi-era. In a guest commentary for Saturday's Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ), Gauland wrote that the "globalised class" occupies positions in mainstream organisations from international corporations to the media to universities, and are also...

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told his cabinet on Sunday that he is preparing for a military solution to the violence on the country’s southern border. “If the reality of civil distress in Gaza is diminished, that is desirable, but that is not certain to happen, and so we are preparing militarily,” Netanyahu said in the cabinet meeting. “That is not an empty statement.” The prime minister’s remarks come after the Defense Ministry ordered IDF troops to send reinforcements to the region on Thursday in preparation for a possible escalation.

German police have launched a manhunt for a suspected Syrian bomb plotter after raiding a building in the eastern city of Chemnitz. The suspect was identified as Jaber Albakr from Damascus and police urged anyone with information about his whereabouts to come forward. "We have to assume that the person is dangerous," Tom Bernhardt, spokesman for the state criminal police, was quoted as saying. An image released by police showed a dark-haired man wearing a hooded sweatshirt. He was said to have been wearing similar clothes when he was last seen. Police raided an apartment in the Fritz-Heckert-Gebiet neighbourhood after...

German police have ended a far-right concert early after eight officers were slightly injured by neo-Nazis throwing bottles and rocks at them. The German news agency dpa reported Sunday that some 800 neo-Nazis attended the concert late Saturday in the eastern German town of Apolda, while around 500 people came for a counter-protest holding vigils and attending a late-night church service. Police officers had to use pepper spray and batons when some neo-Nazis tried to break through police barriers. The eastern state of Thuringia has long been a center for neo-Nazi concerts. Efforts to ban the concert didn't succeed because...

Former Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke out against President Donald Trump in an interview with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria on Sunday, blasting his anti-press rhetoric, the retreat from the world stage, and his insults of U.S. allies.

Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour on Friday launched a racial attack against Sen. Susan Collins, saying the Maine Republican was guilty of espousing “white supremacy” with her decision to support the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Brett Kavanaugh. Ms. Sarsour, a prominent Palestinian-American activist, blasted Ms. Collins on Twitter as a “white woman” and the “mother & grandmother of white women in America who gave us a Donald Trump presidency.”

Winner of the award announced on Friday in Oslo The winner of this year’s Nobel peace prize is set to be announced on Friday in Oslo, and while the committee does not make the nominees public there has been plenty of speculation over who could win the prestigious award. All that is known is there are 331 nominees – 216 individuals and 115 groups – according to the Nobel committee. The selection process is highly secretive, but here is a list of potential winners based on bookmakers, that includes controversial figures such as Kim Jong-un and Donald Trump. Kim Jong-un...

Syria’s foreign minister, Walid al-Moualem, told the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday that the country was ready for the voluntary return of refugees who fled during the more than seven-year conflict. ... We welcome any assistance with reconstruction from those countries that were not part of the aggression on Syria

""Pompeo Terminates Iran Treaty After UN Court Hands Tehran A Victory In Sanctions Lawsuit Against Washington"" Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Wednesday the U.S. will terminate a 63-year-old treaty with Iran, hours after a top United Nations court ruled in favor of Tehran in a lawsuit challenging U.S. sanctions. Pompeo said the abrogation of the 1955 Treaty of Amity was “39 years overdue,” referring to the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran that resulted in the overthrow of the U.S.-friendly shah. Until Pompeo’s announcement, the Treaty of Amity had remained in force even though Washington and Tehran have not had...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel threatened to scrap her visit on Wednesday to Israel if the Jewish state destroyed the illegal Bedouin outpost of ...