Free Republic

Just sayin. The entire world changed.

German police said they arrested an 18-year-old man suspected of planning a “politically motivated” attack in Berlin. The target, according to multiple media reports, was the Israeli Embassy. The man, a Russian national, was taken into custody late Thursday in the eastern state of Brandenburg, which surrounds Berlin, a statement from police and prosecutors said, adding that the suspect appeared in court Friday and was remanded in custody. Authorities did not provide additional information about the alleged attack plan. […] The suspect wanted to join the terrorist militia “Islamic State,” according to sources quoted by DPA. The new agency’s sources...

In the early hours of the New Year, an American-born citizen with a black ISIS flag drove a truck down Bourbon St. in New Orleans, killing fifteen revelers and injuring about three dozen others. His name was Shamsud-Din Jabbar. The New Orleans attack followed hard upon another vehicular incident at a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, which led to the deaths of at least five people while injuring 200 more. Vehicular terror events are becoming more common throughout the world. In 2021, a driver rammed into a Christmas parade in Waukesha, Wisconsin, killing at least five people and injuring 48...

Teachers at a Berlin school have issued an urgent plea for help, citing escalating violence, severe educational deficits among students — largely attributed to challenges from mass immigration — and a lack of systemic support... Teachers at the Friedrich Bergius School in Berlin’s Schöneberg district have issued a stark warning about escalating issues they say are exacerbated by the city’s approach to mass immigration and integration. In a seven-page letter to the district council, the staff described an environment of increasing aggression, violence, and educational struggles that has left them overwhelmed and desperate for support. The letter highlights a central...

Jews and homosexuals are no longer safe in Berlin and should hide their identity in certain neighborhoods, Berlin police chief Barbara Slowik has claimed.In a wide-ranging interview with Berliner Zeitung about security risks, anti-Semitic danger zones in Berlin, and the effects of austerity measures on police work, Slowik warned that the German capital has become less tolerant in areas with high Arab populations and the police have insufficient resources to tackle the problem.While she maintained that Berlin is “as safe as many other cities in Germany and safer than some other European capitals,” Slowik admitted there are parts of the...

A Russian spy at the British embassy in Berlin was caught by a sting operation, the OId Bailey has heard. Briton David Ballantyne Smith, 58, was working as a security guard when he passed secret information to Russian authorities. The court heard how two fake Russian operatives working undercover helped lead to his arrest in August 2021. Prosecutors claim Smith held strong anti-UK views and was paid for information. ... Items seized from his flat included travel documents and sheets of blank embassy headed paper. Photographs taken at that address showed a Russian Federation flag, a Soviet military hat, a...

Russian TV host Vladimir Solovyov, a prominent ally of Vladimir Putin, said that U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is "in no way" a friend of Russia. -snip- "We won't bargain about our constitutional territories, Solovyov said on his program Evening with Vladimir Solovyov. "But [we] can discuss with Trump whether we're going to take Berlin. 'OK, we're not going to take Berlin today,' figuratively speaking. I mean, it's a question of the system of relations. "But Trump will demand something different. He has repeatedly said that the most important thing is that there should be no alliance between Russia and China....

(AFP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky voiced hope Friday that the war with Russia will end next year, speaking during a visit to Berlin to ask for sustained military support. As Ukraine faces a gruelling third winter at war, Zelensky has been seeking support on a two-day whirlwind tour of European capitals that took him to London, Paris and Rome. Visiting Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Zelensky, dressed in his trademark military clothes, thanked Germany for its backing and said that “it is very important for us that this assistance does not decrease next year”.

Bernhard Weiss was the Jewish police chief of Berlin who modernized German law enforcement... He went to law school, and then volunteered for the military and served in World War I, one of only a few Jewish officers in the German army. For his bravery he received the nation’s highest military honor, the Iron Cross First Class. During the years of the Weimar Republic (1918 to 1933) Bernhard led the effort to transform the Berlin police department into an effective and humane “citizens force.” He created the first modern forensics department, using the latest technology in microscopes, polygraphs and hematology....

BERLIN ON THE BRINK: How criminal clans and extremists are taking over the German capital | WELT New Year's Eve: street fights with fireworks. Most of the rioters have a migrant background, and their hatred and violence reveal the widespread failure of Berlin's integration policy. Berlin is turning into a capital city of criminal parallel societies that skim from the welfare state and openly challenge the rule of law. A climate where criminal clans and Islamists can easily go about their business and schemes. Left-wing extremism/theme pictures Left-wing extremists are also combating the free and democratic system of values, with...

A Berlin Holocaust memorial honoring non-Jews who protested against the persecution of their Jewish family members was vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti on Wednesday, according to the Berlin Police and European Jewish Congress. "Jews are committing genocide," was scrawled across the Rosenstrasse protest memorial according to EJC. A Palestinian flag and the slogan "free Palestine" was spraypainted on the ground in front of the sculptures. The Berlin police said that it covered the graffiti and the investigation was transferred to state law enforcement that investigates politically-motivated crime.Gem "This outrageous disrespect of Shoah victims doesn't advance the Palestinian cause," said the EJC....

The Harris-Biden administration is a boon to Putin. A Trump presidency will destroy all that. Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich and former US Marine Paul Whelen, both of whom have been languishing in the Soviet, I mean, Russian prisons for years on trumped-up espionage charges, have been released. It appears that their release is part of a larger, multi-nation prisoner swap that includes the exchange of prisoners from Germany, Great Britain, the US, and Slovenia on the one side and Russia and Belarus on the other. The basis for the suspicion about the multi-national, multi-prisoner release is the sudden...

On this date in 1987, then President Reagan made his famous Tear Down This Wall Speech. “General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace–if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe–if you seek liberalization: come here, to this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall.”

Scientists have calculated the rotational speed of asteroid 2024 BX1, which exploded over Berlin earlier this year, by letting it trail in images of the sky. It turns out, 2024 BX1 was spinning faster than any other near-Earth object ever seen...The space rock, dubbed 2024 BX1, turned into a fireball and exploded over Berlin in the early hours of Jan. 21. Although small asteroids on collision courses with Earth are typically detected only when they crash into the atmosphere, scientists spotted this one roughly three hours before impact.That's not the only way 2024 BX1 was unusual, according to a paper...

“Mostly peaceful” has been eclipsed as the most ludicrous euphemism for violence and anarchy by a newly-coined German invention: “mostly trouble-free.” Yes seriously—that’s how German police and media described the chaos of April 30th, or the night before May Day, where “protesters” hurled eggs and rocks at law enforcement and masked agitators “torched” a fleet of Amazon delivery trucks. Here’s the story, from a report out at Breitbart News yesterday:Berlin Police deployed 3,100 officers overnight in Berlin and despite some clashes and incidents of thrown eggs and stones, Die Welt notes the force said the five protests city-wide were ‘mostly...

In the summer of 2013, a Moscow restaurant owner was gunned down in the Russian capital. A hooded man jumped off a bike and shot his victim twice before fleeing. Six years later, an exiled Chechen commander, Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, was murdered in a busy Berlin park in eerily similar circumstances, shot by a man on a bike with a silenced Glock 26 in broad daylight. The assailant was arrested after dumping a pistol and wig in the River Spree close to the Reichstag, the building housing the German parliament. A passport bearing the name "Vadim Sokolov" was found on the...

The German government is insane. They control the entire culture, as in a dystopian novel. In the US, the situation is more or less the same, arguably, but it’s at least more complicated and less surreal. In a democracy, the supposed ability of the people to petition grievances is via voting. This is different than in an “autocracy,” where you directly petition the government for policy change.

Germany has taken a sharp turn in its migration policy compared to the 'welcoming measures' associated with the 'Merkel era'. Euronews reporter Monica Pinna went to Berlin to discover what has changed and why. For many, Germany is the land of immigration. More than three million refugees and asylum seekers live there, which is more than in any other European country. Some migrants are attracted by the high demand for skilled workers and Germany's generous benefits. But last year, asylum applications increased by more than 50 per cent. The migrant reception system went into crisis mode. The far right, amid...

A woman and her companion were attacked in the Berlin district of Neukölln on Saturday night, allegedly for anti-Semitic reasons. The 24-year-old and the 27-year-old had been talking in Hebrew in a McDonald’s on Hermannplatz (photo), Berlin police said. Two men at the neighbouring table, who are said to have spoken Arabic, made derogatory remarks about them and when the two Israelis asked the two men not to insult them, the situation escalated. One of the aggressive neighbours at the table is said to have poured an alcoholic drink in their direction. He then took a chair and hit the...

Several Muslim suspects have been arrested in France, Germany and Austria for allegedly planning Christmas terror attacks, according to reports, which say there’s a “very high level of terrorist threat” from Islamic terrorists in France. Spain is also on alert.In France, five men, aged 20 to 23, were apprehended in Meurthe-et-Moselle, Le Parisien reported, saying French intelligence services had been surveilling the men for links to criminal terrorist associations and they were found scouting Strasbourg Christmas market.A video filmed at the market featuring one suspect saying, “And there, we shoot,” was found during a raid. These men are believed to...