Free Republic

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...

German authorities say they have made four arrests of suspected Hamas members linked to an alleged plot to attack Jewish sites. Prosecutors said the suspects intended to store weapons in Berlin for possible use in an attack. Danish authorities also said they had arrested three people accused of preparing an attack. Denmark's intelligence agency said the Danish and German investigations were not directly linked. German prosecutors said in a statement that three suspects linked to Hamas were arrested in Berlin and one in the Netherlands. Hamas, which runs Gaza, is banned across Europe as a terrorist group. The arrests came...

If anyone actually cared about these Africans, the last thing they’d do is bring them over to the most expensive and overcrowded cities on earth, where every single item and service costs more than almost anywhere else, and instead try to help them where they are, or as close as possible to where they are. You could build a proper brick and mortar house for every official refugee (real or not) on earth with just the money Germany spent on housing them in the past couple of years.

@historyinmemes Ronald Reagan was giving a speech in West Berlin when a balloon popped very loudly. He was completely unfazed. This occurred in 1987, which was 6 years after John Hinckley Jr. tried to assassinate the President.

Segments of the Jewish population in Berlin are being forced to consider a question many once thought unthinkable in the wake of the atrocities committed by Adolf Hitler and his Nazi followers and the subsequent promises of “never again” — is it time to leave Germany? Spiegel International reports testimonies from a host of Jews in the national capital worried about their futures and those of their families as a rising tide of antisemitism is seen once more to cast a shadow across the city. The despair has arrived on the back of the Hamas terrorists attack that killed 1,400...

Homes across Berlin have seen the Star of David painted onto their doors, as people look to point out where Jews are living. The Star of David has been painted on several doors across Berlin, Germany as a way to mark out who is Jewish within communities amid the growing tensions between Jews and pro-Palestine supporters. There has long been conflict and tension between the two groups because of the long-standing issues over in the Middle East, but following the Hamas attack on Israelis, things have called all over Europe. Spanish police arrest five people part of gang smuggling migrants...

The front door of an apartment building in Berlin was marked with the Star of David this week amid increasing tension across Europe in the wake of the Hamas terror attacks on Israel. Harkening back to the dark days of the 1930s when the Nazis would brand Jewish businesses with the Star of David, a young woman of Jewish heritage was horrified to find that her home in the Prenzlauer Berg area of the German capitol had been branded with the same symbol this week.