Free Republic

Former British foreign minister Boris Johnson called again on Sunday for U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May to change course on Brexit, accusing her of forcing through a deal to keep the country locked in the EU's customs union in a "total surrender." It was the latest call by Johnson, a key figurehead in Britain's campaign to leave the European Union, for May to drop her so-called Chequers plans in favour of negotiating a clean break with the bloc and securing a free trade deal similar to the one the EU recently sealed with Canada. His comments come days after his...

A majority of Germans say the level of mass migration has left them feeling “like a stranger in their own country”, according to a new study. Presented as part of this year’s Leipzig University research into “authoritarian” attitudes in the country, the figure showed a rise of 12 points since the Competence Center for Right-Wing Extremism and Democracy Research tested Germans on the same questions in 2014, with 56 per cent of Germans expressing the sentiment in 2018. Other findings from the 328-page study, for which 2,416 Germans were interviewed between May and July this year, were that 44 per...

An Arab newspaper reported on Saturday that Israel and Qatar are hammering out a deal that would allow Hamas to operate a sea crossing between Gaza and Cyprus. According to the Lebanese Al Akhbar, the prospective seaport is part of a wider Egyptian-brokered cease-fire between Hamas and Israel. While Hamas demands that the crossing be monitored through video cameras, Israel wants both Israeli forces and international elements to monitor the seaport to prevent weapons smuggling. The report comes as a long-term cease-fire between Israel and Hamas appears to be gaining traction. A central part of the deal has been Qatar's...

"He was a great soldier, it's a fact," Macron said, though he stressed that Petain had made "disastrous choices" during World War II. His comments drew fierce criticism from rival politicians as well as Jewish leaders, reopening a painful chapter in France's history which continues to divide the nation decades on. Francis Kalifat of the CRIF association of French Jewish groups said he was "shocked" by Macron's comments praising a leader who helped deport thousands of Jews to their deaths. "The only thing we will remember about Petain is that he was convicted, in the name of the French people,...

The European Commission decided to ask Italy to change its 2019 budget plan and to submit the new version by November 13. However, back in Rome, government members have said they will not change their spending plans. The European Commission will announce on November 21, an opinion on all of the euro zone's draft budgets. If there is no change in the budget plan, Brussels could eventually open an excessive deficit procedure (EDP) — a legal step that aims to help countries respecting European fiscal rules and putting their finances back on track. Pierre Moscovici, commissioner for economic affairs, told...

French President Emmanuel Macron has reiterated calls for a European Union army, this time saying that it is needed to protect the bloc from China, Russia, and even the United States. The progressive leader, a proponent of greater EU federalisation which will result in the reduction in sovereignty for European nations, told Europe 1 Monday night that the bloc needs a “real European army”. “We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America,” Macron said, according to Agence France-Presse. (snip) “We will not protect the Europeans unless we decide to have a...

FULL TITLE: EU votes for total ban on organizations opposed to mass Muslim migration, thought police to be created “The Parliament is concerned by the increasing normalisation of fascism, racism and xenophobia and calls on EU states to ban neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groups.” The problem with this is that the EU labels as “neo-fascist” and “neo-Nazi” all those who oppose their agenda of mass Muslim migration and want to preserve European states as free societies. “MEPs argue, that there is a legal laxity towards ‘right-wing organisations’ in some member states and that this is one of the reasons behind the...

Two years ago, eleven HDP deputies were arrested in Turkey. After two years of imprisonment, the European Court of Human Rights is now to decide. On 4 November, eleven deputies of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) were arrested in Turkey. In the middle of the night, party leaders Selahattin Demirtaş and Figen Yüksekdağ, as well as Nursel Aydoğan, Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Selma Irmak, Ziya Pir, Ferhat Encü, Gülser Yıldırım, İdris Baluken, Leyla Birlik and İmam Taşçıer were brought out of their homes. While Sırrı Süreyya Önder, Ziya Pir and İmam Taşçıer were later released against mandatory reporting, others were remanded...

European leaders are opening the door to possible sanctions on Iran in the wake of terror plots across the continent -- even as they criticize the Trump administration for reimposing sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s oil exports and financial dealings. Denmark’s intelligence agency on Tuesday said that it had foiled an Iranian plot to kill an opposition activist, and had arrested a Norwegian of Iranian descent. The suspect has denied the allegations and is being held in custody. Iran’s Foreign Ministry has denied any involvement and has issued a “strong protest” to the Danish government. The Wall Street Journal reported...

In a response to the UN, the government failed to include information regarding its practice in asylum cases involving female genital mutilation (FGM) in Somalia. Although the country’s refugee agency Flygtningenævnet, which is part of the Ministry of Immigration and Integration, wished to submit the information, a section relating to FGM was removed, making the response less controversial, according to a report by newspaper Information. The decision to remove such information was taken by the ministry in consultation with the Ministry of Justice’s section for state and human rights (Stats-og Menneskeretskontor), according to the report. Information reports that public documents...

Now we know why Denmark cut itself off from Germany and Sweden and launched a massive security operation in September. It wasn’t against an ISIS-style terror attack, but against an Iranian plot to murder Ahwaz activists. The plot caused Copenhagen to close its bridges. Now the full story can be told and it may rock Europe and EU relations with Iran. Denmark’s ambassador is on the way home from Tehran. Iran’s pro-government Fars News is complaining about a bias against Iran, denying Iran had anything to do with the plot. Danish Prime Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen described the suspected plot as “totally unacceptable” Here...

Thousands of US soldiers depleted all of the beer in Iceland’s capital over the weekend. More than 6,000 soldiers were in Reykjavik for four days participating in the Trident Juncture 18 — a NATO-led military exercise. After their drills, the troops reportedly visited the city’s downtown bars, where they finished off the entire beer supply. According to Icelandic magazine Visir, the brewery Ölgerð Egils Skallagrímssonar had to send emergency cases of beer to the bars.

The Secretary-General of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, says the Defence Alliance was informed last week about the Russian missile test off the Møre Coast. – "Russia has a significant presence in the High North, even close to Norway. They exercise large forces, and they do so regularly. This is a reported exercise from the Russian side, and we note that they will practice, as they have done several times before, in the same area", Stoltenberg tells NTB on the flight to the Trident Juncture exercise in Norway. He assumes that Russia will behave professionally and properly and avoid dangerous situations. –"...

An Islamic school which taught that only Muslims and animals were saved on Noah’s ark has become the first to be successfully prosecuted for operating illegally. The Al-Istiqamah Learning Centre in west London marketed itself as a study centre where home-educated children had part-time tuition, but Ofsted inspectors found that almost 60 children of compulsory school age were regularly attending the centre during school hours. The case was referred to the Crown Prosecution Service after the centre failed to respond to Ofsted’s warning notice in November 2017. Director Nacerdine Talbi and Headteacher Beatrix Kinga Bernhardt have now become the first...

The White House has confirmed that there has been a complete disconnect between the Palestinian Authority and the Trump administration. Former US secretary of state John Kerry met in London with a close associate of PA President Mahmoud Abbas, Hussein Agha. Stall, play for time, do not break. Trump will not remain in office for a long, within a year Trump would not be in the White House. Kerry offered to help Sheppard his alternative peace initiative and promised to help garner international support from Europeans, Arab states and the international community. He promised to use all his contacts and...

The leaders of Turkey, Russia, France, and Germany have reiterated calls for a UN-backed political process to end the war in Syria that has killed hundreds of thousands of people.German Chancellor Angela Merkel said after a summit in Istanbul on October 27 that "the meeting demonstrated there is common determination to solve the problem."A joint solution can be achieved, not through military means, but only through political effort under the UN aegis," she added.Along with Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, and French President Emmanuel Macron gathered for the talks in search of an end to...

Eurozone failures mean Iceland should stay out of the EU, its prime minister told EU Observer. She would also quit NATO if she had her say. “I don’t think we should enter the EU right now. I don’t think there is any reason to apply,” Katrin Jakobsdottir said in an interview with this website, as Iceland’s new government prepared to celebrate its first anniversary in power. “Personally, I’m critical towards the economic policies of the EU — the creation of the eurozone without any real centralized policies on taxes or fiscal policies,” she said. “The European Central Bank has become...

Italy’s far-right League party intervened on Sunday to block efforts by a Muslim association to turn a former hospital chapel into a mosque. The Muslim group last week made the highest offer for the chapel in the northern city of Bergamo at an auction organized by a local hospital, outbidding the Romanian Orthodox Church which had been using the building for its religious services. But the project proved short-lived, with League leaders in the wealthy Lombardy region, which includes Bergamo, announcing they would halt the sale by using a 2004 law that enables them to intervene and safeguard cultural sites....

The party of Angela Merkel has seen an eleven percent decline in support and its partner party has also lost support in today's election in the German state of Hesse. In the 2013 election they had 38.3 percent support but now the (CDU) (Christian Democrats) are projected at 27.2 percent support in today's election. In 2013 the SPD (Social Democrats) were at 30.7 percent and today they are projected at 19.8 percent support. The anti-mass immigration, anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany will be in the Hessian parliament for the first time with 13.2 percent support projected.......

In Mohammed’s time — a time of rampant infant mortality and low life expectancy — notions of adulthood and marriageability were conflated with puberty. The coupling of men and girls was not uncommon or considered condemnable. Indeed, as observed by Myriam Francois-Cerrah, a progressive scholar of Islam, five centuries after Mohammed married Aisha, King John of England, at age 33, married 12-year-old Isabella of Angoulême. The problem is not that, in the seventh century, Mohammed married a young girl. It is that, while the West evolves because it venerates reason, much of Islamic culture regards Mohammed as the perfect role...