Free Republic

He is preparing for an investiture vote which is expected to see him form a new government and avoid a repeat election. That can only happen if he can secure the parliamentary support of Catalan separatists. The Socialists were runners-up in July's general election, behind the conservative People's Party (PP). However, PP leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo failed to form a government in an investiture vote in September, receiving only the support of the far-right Vox out of the main parties. It is now Mr Sánchez's turn and he is close to securing enough parliamentary support to form a new administration...

Senior EU officials were furious on Friday after Twitter owner Elon Musk pulled the platform out of the bloc’s online censorship project. Elon Musk has pulled Twitter out of the EU’s “Code of Practice”, a pro-censorship project aimed at countering so-called “disinformation” online, prompting fury from those in Brussels. It comes after months of mixed messages from the billionaire, who had publicly stated that he wanted to support free speech on the platform while repeatedly insisting that he would support the European Union in its pro-censorship crusade. According to a report by POLITICO, it appears that the Big Tech entrepreneur...

It wasn’t just Spanish boaters feeling blindsided and rudely attacked this past week. Like the yachts sailing through the Straights of Gibraltar who ran into orcas with attitudes schooled in the arts of maritime destruction by a she-whale named White Gladis, the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) – led by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez – received a thumping of epic proportions this past Saturday. The results have stove in a section of the Socialist hull, left them rudderless, and they are bailing water madly.Spain’s ruling Socialists suffered heavy losses to opposition conservatives in Sunday’s local election, with around 95%...

Spain’s conservative opposition Popular Party (PP) made significant gains in local and regional elections, offering a perilous assessment of public feeling towards the country’s ruling left-wing coalition ahead of general elections in December. MADRID -- Spain's conservative opposition Popular Party made significant gains in Sunday's local and regional elections, offering a dire assessment of public feeling towards the ruling left-wing coalition ahead of general elections in December. In the local vote, the Popular Party, or PP, won 31.5% of votes compared with 28.2% for the Spanish Socialist Workers Party, or PSOE, which leads the central government, with more than 97%...

“I took the decision when looking at the results of the elections of yesterday,” Sanchez told the nation in a televised address. Sanchez’s Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and its junior ally PODEMOS lost ground during the regional elections held on Sunday, while rival conservative People’s Party and far-right party Vox outperformed.

Socialist Spain is leading the way in attempts to ban private messaging technology in the European Union, according to a leaked survey of member state opinions on encryption.A leaked document from the European Council, originally obtained by the tech magazine Wired, which surveyed EU member states on the proposed law that would force messaging companies, like WhatsApp and Signal, to break their encryption and scan the content of private messages to supposedly stop the spread of child pornography.The proposed legislation has been criticised by privacy rights campaigners as well as by tech experts, who say that it is not possible...

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez appeared with an open collar at a press conference to personally model his proposed solution for Europes's looming gas crisis. "I would like you to see that I am not wearing a tie," Sanchez said. He explained that wearing open collars would make white-collar work more comfortable, and lead to reduced air conditioning usage. "This way, we can all save energy." Deutsche Welle reports that Sanchez has asked all government employees, including ministers, to avoid neckties, and hopes that the private sector will make similar changes to its dress code. Spain has worked to limit...

The State of Oregon now requires everyone entering a business over the age of five to wear a mask-muzzle with no exceptions...Businesses have been told to call police if people enter a business without a muzzle covering their faces... In Miami-Dade County, Florida a coronavirus curfew imposed again... New Jersey Democrat Governor Phil Murphy signing an executive order this weekend extending the: "public health emergency"... Italy ordering more closures and restricted hours over a rise in coronavirus cases... Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announcing a nationwide 'state of alarm' which will impose curfews on all of Spain excluding the Canary...

Mainstream media journalists in Oregon including investigative reporter Rob Davis of the "Portland Oregonian/OregonLive" have been able to obtain detailed information about Covid-19 cases in the state including the race and ethnicity of those testing positive, the underlying conditions in reported deaths and details about reported cases at nursing homes and retirement communities.... President Trump issuing an executive order tonight to keep meat processing plants open in the United States..... Yesterday's ramming attack on two French police officers in a Paris suburb being investigated as a terrorist attack.... Rioting in northern Lebanon with one dead and dozens injured in the...

As the coronavirus claims lives, ruins livelihoods and wreaks economic havoc, tensions are rising between European Union countries over how best to respond as the pandemic overwhelms some member nations, once more raising troubling questions about the EU’s ability to stand united in times of crisis. Almost 16,000 people infected with the virus have died in Europe. Over a quarter of a million had tested positive, as of Friday. Countries hit especially hard, like Italy and Spain, are imploring their partners to do more, particularly on the economic front, and to do it now. “The consequences of COVID-19 should be...

Three Americans killed, two wounded in an Al Qaeda linked Al Shabaab attack on a military base in Kenya today but first..... Iran announcing the removal of all limits on uranium enrichment tonight..... Massive crowds in the hundreds of thousands in the Iranian city of Ahvaz today mourning the assassination of General Qasem Soleimani..... Legislation moving forward in Iraq's parliament that pushes for the withdrawal of US and other foreign forces.... President Trump tonight threatening Iraq with sanctions if it expels US troops from the country. Prime Minister Adil Abdul-Mahdi told lawmakers before the vote that General Soleimani had arrived...

Breaking News: The United States carrying out the targeted assassination of a top Iranian general at the order of President Trump. General Qaesm Soleimani was killed in a drone strike near Baghdad's international airport. His killing comes after an attack on the US Embassy in Baghdad Tuesday by thousands of protesters that the United States attributed to Iran. General Soleimani was the commander of the elite Quds Force of the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Guards Corps. It is worth noting that the Deputy Commander of the Iraqi Defense Forces PMU militia was also killed in the attack. President Trump has designated...

Spain's Socialist Party achieved a first place finish in the country's general election. Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez improved the position of his party in Spain's Parliament, but fell short of a majority in the lower house...... Police in Sri Lanka killed the father and two brothers of the man believed to have organized the eight terrorist attacks last Sunday..... Four people suspected of planning a terrorist attack on French police were arrested last Friday April 26th.... One of two suspected spies for the United Arab Emirates committed suicide while in a Turkish prison..... The commander of the detention facilities at...

This weekend marks the three month anniversary of the Yellow Vests protests in France and nationwide protests are planned today with a special protest in Paris tomorrow...... "California will see you in court" is the response from Democrat Governor Gavin Newsom to President Trump's emergency declaration to erect a barrier on the US-Mexico border..... Former Massachusetts Governor William Weld wants to challenge President Trump in 2020. Weld forming an exploratory committee for a candidacy that would oppose the President for the GOP nomination.... Five are dead in a workplace shooting incident in Aurora, Illinois..... General Joseph Votel, commander of US...

Chinese government media has produced a video purported to be that of a Muslim Uighur musician reported to have died in a Chinese detention facility. The video dated Sunday shows Abdurehim Heyit saying he is in good health..... The ISIS holdouts are under assault from the US backed Kurdish forces in eastern Syria in what is reported to be the final assault to take the Islamic State out..... Senator Amy Klobuchar, Democrat Senator from Minnesota, announced her candidacy for President Sunday..... Politics in Israel and Supreme Court Justice Hanan Melcer, chairman of the Central Elections Committee, ordered a probe into...

MADRID — Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s Socialist Party took a beating Sunday in an election in Andalusia that saw the far right win seats in one of the country’s regional parliaments for the first time in decades. The Socialists (PSOE) — which have ruled the southern region uninterrupted for 36 years — came in first but could lose their grip on power if parties on the right team up against them. Juanma Moreno — the local leader of the Popular Party — said as the results came in that he would try to replace the Socialists’ incumbent regional leader,...

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez faces growing pressure from within his Socialist Party to call an early election, before scandals besetting his four-month-old minority government undermine a surge in voter support. Riding high in the polls, Sánchez aims to serve a full term to mid-2020 as he focuses on approving next year’s budget and countering renewed independence moves in the Catalonia region. But last week, his science minister was forced to deny media reports he cheated on his taxes, days after a recording emerged of the justice minister using a homophobic slur. Two other ministers have already been pushed out,...

Spain’s Socialist leader, Pedro Sánchez, has apologized after he accidentally voted for a law requiring girls under 18 to obtain parental consent for abortions. The law, introduced by the governing People’s Party and long opposed by the Socialists, was promised by the conservative PP last autumn after it abandoned its controversial attempt to reverse the country’s abortion laws. The legislation being proposed then would have turned Spain into one of the toughest places in Europe to obtain an abortion. […] On Wednesday, as social media poked fun at the opposition leader’s blunder, likening him to Homer Simpson at the control...