Free Republic

A temporary open-air pool erected outside Berlin’s iconic theater was supposed to represent the ultimate low-barrier urban oasis. Instead, a plan to allow only Black people to attend on Fridays has sparked outrage and accusations of racism. Conceived as a free, non-commercial refuge requiring no identity checks — though reliant on a competitive online reservation system — the €300,000 project was introduced to the public as a shared summer meeting point. However, the organizers have implemented a protocol that excludes anyone non-Black one day a week, a clearly discriminatory practice.

Hamas terrorists were quietly building a sprawling European terror network for years — stockpiling guns, scouting targets, and even filming a martyrdom-style video — as they plotted a massacre on the continent to mirror the horrific October 7 attack on Israel, according to a bombshell investigation released last week. The chilling scheme, uncovered through a joint probe by European intelligence agencies and reported by Swiss outlet Neue Zürcher Zeitung, spanned at least seven countries: Greece, Cyprus, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Poland, and Britain. The terror group eyed the second anniversary of its 2023 rampage, October 7, 2025, as a possible attack...

The man believed to be behind a deadly vehicle attack near Berlin's Pride celebration over the weekend left a video on his phone pledging allegiance to the terrorist group Islamic State, German prosecutors said on Tuesday. Though the person in the video was masked, authorities assume it shows the suspected attacker, 21-year-old German citizen Abdul Ballout, a spokesperson for the federal prosecutors' office said. He would not specify when the video was recorded. Ballout, who was shot dead by police on Sunday, is suspected of plowing a vehicle into crowds in Tiergarten park near the Brandenburg Gate late on Saturday,...

A major police operation is under way in Berlin after a vehicle was driven into a crowd. One person is dead and at least 17 injured. The nearby Pride parade was cancelled hours after it began. Follow the latest on this story below. .... At least one person has died, with more than a dozen injured, several seriously, after a transporter reportedly drove into a crowd. A manhunt is under way, and police say a suspect was known to police as a member of the "Islamist scene." The suspect is said to have fled after crashing into a tree. Helicopters...

The Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) has launched an interactive online tool tracking knife attacks across Berlin, as the party seeks to make rising violent crime a central issue in the city’s election campaign. The so-called “knife app” provides a detailed overview of incidents reported by police over the past 30 days, including an interactive map showing where attacks occurred, the number of injuries, and comparisons with official police crime statistics (PKS). AfD leader Kristin Brinker accused the ruling CDU-SPD coalition of failing to provide sufficient transparency on violent crime, arguing that public concern over safety has grown. Domestic policy spokesman...

They are preparing for large-scale violent jihad in Europe against Jewish targets. And there are likely to be more attempts, as Stephan Weh, Berlin police union chief, suggested when he said: “As a Western metropolis, Berlin remains a focal point for radical Islamist networks, which today primarily recruit new members and supporters via social media.” Nonetheless, Weh states that this Berlin court ruling was important, given the precedent it establishes, and especially since Hamas is not a designated terror group under German law. As Western authorities become more knowledgeable about organized jihad groups, they still lag too far behind. They...

Four men were sentenced to prison in Berlin on Wednesday for operating a covert Hamas weapons-stockpiling network across Europe in preparation for potential terrorist attacks — a landmark ruling marking the first time a German court convicted members of the Palestinian terrorist group under the country’s terrorism laws. The Berlin State Protection Senate — a special national-security chamber within the Berlin Court of Appeal — convicted the defendants of stockpiling weapons for future attacks in Europe, including possible targets in Germany, sentencing them to four and a half to six years in prison for membership in a foreign terrorist organization...

A Muslim preacher calls on Muslims to show themselves during a banned demonstration in support of Palestinians at Richardplatz, Neukölln, Berlin on October 11, 2023, four days after the October 7 Hamas pogrom in Israel. JOHN MACDOUGALL / AFP. The last thing Berlin needs is a day against Islamophobia—what it does need is better politicians. Last Sunday, March 15th, was Berlin’s first “Day of Action and Commemoration against Islamophobia”—an event the city’s senate claimed was intended to strengthen “diversity and social cohesion.” It might better be described as a ‘day of intimidation’ directed at the many Berliners who disagree with...

According to sources, the van plus machete attack at a LGBTQ pride parade in Berlin, Germany on the weekend was carried out by the usual lone wolf: * Twenty-year old man born in Berlin of Lebanese descent. * Investigated for attempt to join IS in Syria. * Brought back from Lebanon to Germany to stand trial. * "Sentenced to 13 months for attempting a terror attack but the judge converted it to probation." * After his release in May of this year from the juvenile justice system, he attended two "screening" sessions and was scheduled to attend the third today...

The suspect in the deadly Berlin Pride attack that left one person dead and 29 injured was shot and killed by police during a confrontation on Sunday in a suburb of the city, authorities said. Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots, was killed following a search that lasted nearly 24 hours after the attack in downtown Berlin. Prosecutors said he had previously sought to join the militant Islamic State group. Ballout was suspected of driving a van into a crowd near Berlin’s Pride festival Saturday night before apparently stabbing others with a machete in what authorities believe was...

Authorities say the 21-year-old suspect was fatally shot after allegedly charging at officers with a knife, a day after an attack left one dead and 29 injured. Berlin police shot and killed the suspect in this weekend’s deadly attack in the city’s Pride festival after he allegedly charged at officers with a knife while they tried to arrest him Sunday, authorities said.

German authorities on Saturday canceled a popular pride festival after numerous people were injured and one killed when a white van rammed the festivities in Berlin. "We are currently deployed with numerous police forces as well as rescue units from the Berlin Fire Department in the Großer Tiergarten," Berlin Police said in a translated X post, after telling festivalgoers to leave the area. Police said the injured were being treated by rescue personnel.

This 41-year-old man has been a Catholic priest for a few weeks now. He was ordained at St. Hedwig’s Cathedral in Berlin by Archbishop Heiner Koch. This makes him a true exception in Germany: apparently, there are no other Catholic priests in the entire country with a similar background Around seven million Muslims live in Germany. One of them was Senad Mrkaljevic. He converted to Catholicism a few years ago and is now a priest. This makes him an exception.News When he entered a church for the first time in his life, in his early twenties, he initially felt unsure....

German media are reporting that a suspect wanted after a vehicle was driven into a crowd gathered at a Pride event in Berlin has been shot and killed. One person has been confirmed dead in the incident and at least 29 injured.

Suspect Abdul Ballout has alleged ties to Germany's Islamist scene, officials sayA suspect with alleged ties to Germany's "Islamist scene" is on the run after allegedly plowing a van into a crowd near Berlin's Pride festival and attacking others with a machete in what officials believe was an Islamic terror attack that left one person dead and at least 29 others injured.German authorities on Sunday launched an intensive manhunt for Abdul Ballout, a German citizen with Lebanese roots whom officials say may be armed and dangerous."Everything we see here points to us dealing with an Islamic terror attack," German Interior...

Direct YouTube Link: Secretary Rubio delivers opening remarks at the Ministerial on the Resurgence of Political TerrorismA whole industry grew up in our countries around the study of extremism. We have think tanks and fellowships and journals and consultancies, with the unspoken understanding among them that the only kind of political violence that was a true threat to our system – I’m sorry – that only one kind of political violence was a true threat to the system. A bomb planted by a neo-Nazi group was a nefarious and murderous act of evil. It is. But a bomb planted by...

A Swiss judge has issued an arrest warrant for the former head of Iran's secret police for his role in the killing of a leading Iranian dissident 16 years ago. Ali Fallahian is charged with masterminding the assassination of Kazem Rajavi, a renowned human rights advocate, near Geneva in April 1990. According to a report in Lausanne-based newspaper Le Matin Dimanche, the international arrest warrant was issued by Swiss investigating magistrate Jacques Antenen on March 20. It called on law enforcement agencies to arrest Fallahian – who for years headed Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and is currently...

While the Trump administration continues to put the economic squeeze on what and who is left of the Iranian government, the Iranian royal family in exile hasn't been silent. Reza Pahlavi, the Crown Prince and heir to his father, the late Shah of Iran, has been keeping up the constant drumbeat of return, even though he has been effectively iced out of any negotiations between the Trump administration and the Islamic regime. That is as it must be. Operation Epic Fury had distinct parameters for the security of the world and the United States, and not one of them was...

Iran’s exiled Crown Prince Reza Pahlavi was splattered with red liquid on Thursday as he left a building in Berlin. Pahlavi had just departed a news briefing, during which he criticized the ceasefire between the United States and Iran, when the incident occurred outside Germany’s federal news conference building. He appeared unhurt by the liquid coating the back of his blazer and neck, and waved to his supporters before he got into a car that drove away. Police said the liquid appeared to be tomato juice. The alleged perpetrator, whose name was not released in line with German privacy rules,...

Berlin, 12 Oct. (IPS) To the dismay and anger of the families of the victims, a German court has decided to free an Iranian charged 11 years ago for the assassination of four Iranians in a Berlin restaurant, including the then General Secretary of the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (DPIK), two other members of the same Organisation and an opponent to the Islamic Republic. The Federal German Prosecutor announced on Wednesday that Mr. Kazem Darabi, the coordinator of the Iranian-Lebanese terror squad that assassinated Mr. Sadeq Sharafkandi, the General Secretary of the DPIK and three others on 17 September...