Free Republic

This was Preston Davey. A one-year-old from England. The baby boy had been placed in the care of two gay men who were in the proces of adopting him. Within months, the men raped Preston to death. The gay men, named Jamie Varley (a head teacher!) and John McGowan-Fazakerley, both worked with children and also face a list of other charges, including possession of CSAM. They will appear in court tomorrow. Rest in peace Preston. I hope one day you and the many victims of these horrific crimes will finally be enough to stop these cruel sacrifices on the altar...

Reform UK’s newest MP called for the burqa to be banned in Britain during Prime Minister's Questions. Sarah Pochin, the MP for Runcorn and Helsby, used her first question at the weekly Commons session to ask Sir Keir Starmer if he would follow other European countries that have made it illegal for people to cover their faces in public places. She said: “Given the Prime Minister’s desire to strengthen strategic alignment with our European neighbours, will he, in the interests of public safety, follow the lead of France, Denmark, Belgium and others and ban the burqa?” Her question prompted an...

Standing in a town square, quietly holding a sign, two people were arrested by police Thursday in Brussels, Belgium. The offending message? “Children are never born in the wrong body.” Lois McLatchie Miller, a senior legal communications officer for Alliance Defending Freedom International, and Chris Elston, a Canadian advocate for children who goes by the nickname “Billboard Chris,” said they were in police custody for several hours before having their signs confiscated. According to Elston, they were initially told they were being charged with disturbing the peace, but were eventually let go. The arrest is just the latest instance of...

The bad news is that Brussels is no longer Brussels. Over the last month, we've seen an attack on Governor Josh Shapiro's home, the killing of a young couple in D.C., and now a Molotov cocktail thrown at people peacefully protesting. By the way, what do these incidents have in common? The targets are all Jewish and the guy in Boulder, Colorado somehow managed to get a work permit after his visa expired. Where else is stuff like this happening? Let's check out Brussels, once a very traditional European city that tourists loved to visit. Well, check again because Brussels...

A statement released by KU Leuven revealed that Belgian geneticists and their international colleagues conducted the largest-ever DNA study of remains from a medieval cemetery.In 2019, excavations beneath the main square in Sint-Truiden uncovered 3,000 skeletons buried in a former parish graveyard between the eighth and the eighteenth century. The researchers analyzed the remains of 400 of those individuals, which has provided unprecedented new information about the genetic history of the Low Countries.One of the most surprising results was that in the early Middle Ages, the population of Sint-Truiden was far more genetically diverse than in later periods. The scientists...

The democratic will of the Hungarian people to clamp down on the proliferation of LGBTQ+ ideology should be punished by the European Commission, a group of 16 EU countries demanded on Wednesday. In response to recent legislation passed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s conservative government to ban Pride parades in Hungary, over half of fellow European Union member states signed an open letter demanding that Budapest reverse course or face punishment from Brussels. The “declaration” was signed by the countries of Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Sweden. […]...

Belga News Agency reports that modern construction work beneath the Brusselsestraat in Leuven unearthed a rare and remarkably well-preserved Roman wooden water pipe, which the city council has described as a "unique and exceptional find." The conduit was located about 13 feet beneath the level of the modern city street. Extending between 65 and 100 feet long, the pipeline was constructed from hollow tree trunks measuring around six feet each. While similar features have been found in other Belgian cities such as Tienen and Tongeren, they have typically been very badly decayed. Archaeologists believe that the pipe was installed sometime...

Nine EU states are targeting the Strasbourg-based European Court of Human Rights in a wider bid to deport unwanted migrants. A letter spearheaded by Denmark, which is set to take over the rotating EU presidency from July, is demanding more leeway on deporting people who have committed crimes. Published on Thursday (22 May), the letter was signed by leaders of Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Italy, and Poland. It faults the court for placing rights restrictions on deportations of "criminal foreign nationals". They are also unhappy on how the court interprets the European Convention on Human Rights,...

In a massive sting operation straight out of a crime thriller, Spanish police have smashed one of Europe’s most powerful underworld banks – a slick, secretive syndicate laundering millions using the ancient and shadowy “hawala” method. Cash, crypto and contraband – the works. In unbelievable scenes, Spain’s National Police, backed by EUROPOL and EUROJUST, swooped on a web of luxury and illegality. The secret January raids – now revealed – saw over 250 officers hit 13 locations across Spain and Belgium in a coordinated blitz, nabbing 17 suspects, seizing mountains of loot and blowing apart a money-moving machine that had...

A casual hike on the slopes of Zvičina Hill in the Czech Republic led to a remarkable discovery when two hikers stumbled upon a lost gold treasure worth more than $340,000. The find, made in early February but only recently announced, includes 598 gold coins, jewelry, and other artifacts. The entire collection weighs about seven kilograms, with gold coins accounting for nearly 3.7 kilograms. While exploring the landscape near the Polish border, the hikers uncovered a tin container packed with nearly 600 gold coins. The coins were carefully stacked in eleven piles and wrapped in black cloth. Not far from...

An earthenware dish designed and signed by Pablo Picasso in 1953, depicting a bullfight, was discovered by an employee of a second-hand shop in Antwerp, according to a local news outlet. “It’s a beautiful work. It required knowledge and training to spot it, though,” Davy van Basteleare, the Kringwinkel Antwerpen’s auction manager, told VRT News. The dish is in excellent condition, according to Lander Janssens, Head of Sales and Marketing at Kringwinkel. It is made of white earthenware with brown-green decoration in engobe (clay or clay powder), enamel, and oxidised paraffin. On the back of the dish are two stamps:...

The two men had entered Kenya on a tourist visa and were staying in a guest house in the western town of Naivasha. Their lawyer said that her clients did not know what they were doing was illegal. Two Belgian teenagers who were found with thousands of ants valued at more than €8,000 and allegedly destined for European and Asian markets will be sentenced in two weeks, a Kenyan magistrate has said. Njeri Thuku, sitting at the court in Kenya's main airport, said she would not rush the case but would take time to review environmental impact and psychological reports...

Western nations are experiencing a spiritual awakening as church pews fill up and baptismal fonts overflow. From France to Belgium, from the United Kingdom to the United States, a dramatic surge in Christian faith is sweeping across the West—a revival many are calling a “silent revolution” against the failures of globalism, mass migration, and leftist cultural engineering. British conservative commentator Mahyar Tousi highlighted the trend in a powerful new video, reporting on a massive rise in church attendance and adult baptisms this past Easter. With soaring numbers across multiple countries, it’s clear that Christianity is no longer in retreat—it’s fighting...

Ninety per cent bored stiff, nine per cent frozen stiff and one per cent scared stiff. That was - historian Andy Robertshaw insists - the experience of most soldiers in the First World War. It was not one of constant fighting, never-ending trench foot and heartless aggression from commanding officers, despite the impression to the contrary given by most film depictions. As for how I felt on a chilly but sunny day last week when I toured Andy's faithful reconstruction of a real British trench, I will let you decide from the pictures. The trench dug in woodland at Detling...

A court in the Flemish Brabant city of Leuven has refrained from passing sentence on a 24-year-old medical student found guilty of the rape of a fellow student in November 2023. The judge decided not to pass sentence which means that although found guilty of rape the student will not have a criminal record or have to pay a fine, serve a custodial sentence or have to abide by any probation conditions. "It is undeniable that he crossed the line of what is acceptable, but he is still young”, the judge said. The rape took place in Leuven on 8...

The European Parliament has, once again, found itself at the heart of a corruption scandal, this time involving the Chinese tech giant Huawei. Police raids have been carried out across Belgium and Portugal amid suspicions of bribery, forgery, money laundering, and organized criminal activity. The European Parliament’s latest corruption scandal unfolds even as the previous one—the so-called ‘Qatargate’ affair—remains under investigation and litigation, further deepening preexisting concerns about foreign influence in EU institutions. The Qatargate scandal, which surfaced more than two years ago, involves allegations that Members of the European Parliament (MEPs), lobbyists, and their families accepted substantial sums of...

An explosion in southern Lebanon last week destroyed what is believed to have been a Hezbollah weapons depot. This latest in a series of mysterious “accidents” in Hezbollah-controlled precincts proved, as one Israeli official wryly remarked, that those who “sleep with rockets and amass large stockpiles of weapons are in a very unsafe place.” With the Party of God’s overland supply route through Syria choked off by the 22-month-long uprising against Syrian president Bashar al-Assad, and Israel virtually in total control of the maritime route, Hezbollah’s stockpile is being systematically degraded.Yet the arsenal of Iran’s other regional proxy force, Hamas,...

... "This was a desperate attempt in cooperation with Brussels."

Conservative Bart De Wever was sworn in Monday as Belgium’s new prime minister, after striking a hard-fought coalition deal that moves the country to the right. Struck late Friday after seven months of tortuous negotiations, the agreement makes De Wever the first nationalist from Dutch-speaking Flanders to be named Belgian premier. The 54-year-old — who in recent years has backed off on calls for Flanders to become an independent country — took the oath of office before King Philippe, in a ceremony at the royal palace in Brussels.

WASHINGTON — Paul Goffin has spent much of his adult life solemnly remembering the American Army Soldiers who fought to free his home country, Belgium, during World War II. Yet, it wasn’t until Goffin retired in 1990 from the World Bank in the Washington, D.C., area that he could dedicate serious time to help recognize the men who fought during the Battle of the Bulge, the largest and deadliest conflict of the war. “They represented everything,” said Goffin, now 100, during an interview at his northern Virginia home. "They brought back the freedom which we didn't have, the hope for...