Free Republic

Does a nation have a right to defend its culture? Or does opposition to massive immigration of people from different cultures with a history of non-assimilation amount to racism? The latter was clearly the view of two of Joy Reid’s guests on her MSNBC show this morning. Reacting to President Trump’s criticism of massive European immigration, expressed during an interview with the UK’s The Sun newspaper, guest Bobby Ghosh said: “[Trump] is saying Europe has allowed too many immigrants; it’s spoiling European culture. That is classic racist speak." A bit later, David Cay Johnston said:Get the rest of the story...

Donald Trump apologised to Theresa May over an incendiary interview criticising her premiership, and hailed UK-US relations as the “highest level of special”. After intensive talks at Chequers, an emollient US president showered praise on the “incredible” Prime Minister and said she was “doing a fantastic job”.

President Trump has warned at a NATO summit that German dependence on Russian gas poses a major security threat to the West. It’s about time somebody said it! This problem has been brewing for decades. In fact it goes right back to the communist era of the Soviet Union, when the Russians saw the burgeoning green movement as the perfect way to undermine their enemies in the free West. Originally, the Soviets funded the “Peace Movement” in Western Europe mainly as a way of promoting the campaign for nuclear disarmament (in the West, that is, not behind the Iron Curtain)....

UK premier Theresa May is reported to have told her Cabinet that a change to her Brexit plan was not possible, after consulting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. The two leaders have met twice in the past week.

LIKE vinyl records and popped collars, rows between the United States and Europe over Russian energy are making a comeback. In the early 1980s Ronald Reagan’s attempts to thwart a Soviet pipeline that would bring Siberian gas to Europe irritated the West Germans and drove the French to proclaim the end of the transatlantic alliance. The cast of characters has shifted a little today, but many of the arguments are the same. In Nord Stream 2 (NS2), a proposed Russian gas pipeline, Germany sees a respectable project that will cut energy costs and lock in secure supplies. American politicians (and...

THE crisis in Ukraine has alarmed the rest of Europe—not just because of the prospect of war, or chaos on its borders, but because a row with Russia over Ukraine's unpaid gas bill threatens energy security in the rest of the continent. Europe could survive a short interruption of a few weeks to the pipelines across Ukraine, assuming that other Russian gas kept flowing. The European Union has built in more resilience since the last upset in Ukraine, in 2009. Now it is hurrying to reduce its reliance further. But measures such as better storage, more interconnectors and diversification of...

Trump joined world leaders at the Art and History Museum in Brussels •He and First Lady Melania Trump were greeted while a jazz band played •Waiters carried trays with white wine, but neither Trump nor Melania grabbed one •He could be seen smiling and chatting amiably with world leaders •Melania, who speaks German among other languages, spoke one-on-one with Germany's Angela Merkel •She changed out of her navy blue Calvin Klein dress into a white $7,450 Elie Saab dress •Earlier Trump posed for a 'family photo' •He demanded countries DOUBLE defense spending to 4 per cent of GDP •Early he...

America is a nation obsessed with political approval ratings like no other. But the U.S. media seems ignorant to the fact that President Trump is currently one of the most popular leaders of a major Western nation in the world today. Guffaw if you like, but those who are both regarded and regard themselves as “better” leaders have lower numbers than the American president — and while his are trending up, some of theirs are in free fall. When Barack Obama left the world stage, having commanded a mid-40s average approval rating over the course of his presidency, the New...

President Donald Trump exposed in a spectacular way, in front of millions of home viewers, how the Europeans milk money from the United States for “protection against Russia,” while they give millions of dollars for getting supplied with oil and gas from the same, supposedly “enemy,” country. Trump is not the first U.S. president who brings this up to the European allies. But he will be the first U.S. president who will definitely do something to fix this decade-long anomaly. Thomas Lifson adds: Trump's critics that contend he is in Putin's pocket have some explaining to do how this fits...

The U.S. ambassador to Germany urged Berlin on Tuesday to stop Iran withdrawing large sums of cash from bank accounts in Germany to offset the effect of new U.S. sanctions imposed after Washington withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal. Richard Grenell, a longtime critic of the accord, told the mass-circulation daily Bild that the U.S. government was extremely concerned about Tehran’s plans to transfer hundreds of millions of euros in cash to Iran. “We encourage the highest levels of the German government to intervene and stop the plan,” Grenell said. […] Bild first reported on Monday that German authorities were...

After a day filled with tension and fissures in the powerful NATO military alliance, President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump gabbed with their counterparts at a cocktail party with a jazz band. The pair arrived at a cocktail party with fellow world leaders and spouses at Cinquantenaire, a park designed in the 19th century. The first lady wore a $7,450 Elie Saab white patterned dress, changing out of a navy blue dress by Belgian designer Raf Simmons for Calvin Klein.

Angela Merkel appeared to hit back at US President Donald Trump's claim that "Germany is a captive of Russia" by drawing on her own upbringing in Soviet-controlled East Germany. "I wanted to say that, because of current events, I have witnessed this myself, that a part of Germany was controlled by the Soviet Union. And I am very happy that we are today unified in freedom as the Federal Republic of Germany," she said in an arrival statement at the NATO Summit Wednesday. Merkel, who was born in Hamburg in 1954, has spoken on numerous occasions about her upbringing under...

Brussels (AFP) - US President Donald Trump traded barbs with German Chancellor Angela Merkel at a tense NATO summit Wednesday after he accused Berlin of being "captive" to Russia and demanded it immediately step up defence spending. The two-day meet in Brussels is shaping up as the alliance's most difficult in years, with Europe and the US engaged in a bitter trade spat and Trump demanding that NATO allies "reimburse" Washington for defending the continent. Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany, shot back that she knew what it meant to be under Kremlin domination and Germany had the...

“Germany is totally controlled by Russia … They will be getting between 60 and 70 percent of their energy from Russia and a new pipeline, and you tell me if that is appropriate because I think its not,” Trump said. The U.S. president was speaking at a press conference in front of NATO representatives ahead of a two-day summit. The Trump administration’s policies indicate it views security and trade as intimately linked. And when it comes to the trade balance, no ally will be spared. Speaking in Brussels, Belgium on the first leg of his European trip, the U.S. president...

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Canada is throwing in the towel when it comes to trying to find a suitable buyer for dozens of aging Leopard C2 main battle tanks. A potential deal to sell them to Jordan has apparently fallen through amid that country’s own plans to trim back its heavy armored forces and now the bulk of the C2s look destined for the junk heap. Canada’s Global News was first to report on the development after learning of the negotiations with the Jordanian government through its source’s and the country’s access to information law. Canadian authorities have been trying to sell off the...

THE resignation of David Davis as Brexit Secretary has confirmed the UK government’s descent into “utter chaos”, Nicola Sturgeon has said. The First Minister said Theresa May’s administration was now simply a “shambles”. Ms Sturgeon tweeted her verdict as SNP MPs were being asked to attend a Downing Street briefing on the Prime Minister’s Chequers deal by her of chief of staff Gavin Barwell. Mr Barwell has offered a briefing on Mrs May’s Brexit proposals to all opposition MPs, in a sign Number 10 knows it cannot rely on the support of Tory MPs alone to make them work. Leading...

The French government insisted on Sunday that Washington should expect united retaliation from Europe to further tariff increases after Germany signaled it was prepared to negotiate. With Germany’s powerful car industry facing the threat of higher U.S. duties, Chancellor Angela Merkel said last Thursday she would back a lowering of European Union levies on imports of U.S. cars. “If tomorrow there is an increase in tariffs, like in the car industry, our reaction should be united and strong to show that Europe is a united and sovereign power,” French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said. “The question is no longer...

Google Translation from the original German: The asylum dispute between CDU and CSU has harmed all coalition parties in the electorate and the AfD got a surge. In the Sunday trend, which Emnid raises weekly for the "Bild am Sonntag", the AfD rises by three points to a record 17 percent. For the first time, it is as strong as the SPD, which yields two counters. The CDU / CSU loses two points, only 30 percent would currently vote for the Union. That's the worst value in this poll since November. Overall, the grand coalition comes in the Sunday trend...

Slovakia will open a cultural embassy in Jerusalem for now. But that appears to be a prelude to a larger move. “Slovakia is on its way to relocating its embassy to Jerusalem,” Head of the Slovak National Council Andrej Danko told Israel’s President Reuven Rivlin on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the visiting delegation of Slovak lawmakers announced the Eastern European country would open a cultural center in the Israeli capital. The move, when it materializes, would mark a break from European Union policy on Jerusalem. Slovakia would join the Czech Republic and Bulgaria as the other European Union member states to...