Free Republic

Germany has been accused of violating basic Western values yet again, as a news editor in Germany faces a hefty fine and a seven month prison sentence for posting a meme mocking the government’s “hatred” of free speech. The Bamberg district court in Bavaria sentenced Deutschland-Kurier editor David Bendels this week to seven months in prison on probation and a fine of nearly sixty per cent of his annual income, or 210 ‘daily rates’, for posting an image on social media of Interior Minister Nancy Faeser holding an altered sign. The common meme tactic of changing the words on signs...

WASHINGTON — The government and publishing titan Penguin Random House exchanged opening salvos in a federal antitrust trial Monday as the U.S. seeks to block the biggest U.S. book publisher from absorbing rival Simon & Schuster. The case comes as a key test of the Biden administration’s antitrust policy. The Justice Department has sued to block the $2.2 billion merger, which would reduce the Big Five U.S. publishers to four. The government’s star witness, bestselling author Stephen King, is expected to testify at Tuesday’s session of the weekslong trial in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. Mr. King’s works are...

Germany, a country of 82 million, welcomed from 800,000 to over one million migrants and unvetted “refugees” in 2015. Mrs Merkel, who last month announced she was controversially stepping down as leader of her party but not as Chancellor of Germany despite previously saying the two roles go hand in glove, said ceding power to a superstate is a better form of patriotism. She told the event, titled ‘Parliamentarianism Between Globalisation and National Sovereignty’: “In this day nation states must today – should today, I say – be ready to give up sovereignty. “But of course in an orderly procedure.”...

Germany's Federal government has announced it's new "trojan horse" computer software which will allow it to spy on citizens computers and smartphones. The German Interior Ministry has formally announced that they have created a new "Bundestrojaner" or government trojan horse software to enable them to track the communications of anyone that downloads it according to the German press, in addition to purchasing an "off the shelf" tool from a company which is said to help authoritarian regimes track their citizens. Trojan horse software is malicious software (often called malware) that is disguised as something innocent like a free screen saver...

Hundreds of thousands of flags in black, red and gold are flying over town squares across Germany, where crowds of Germans are enthusiastically cheering, "Deutschland! Deutschland!" In the past, such a sight would be greeted by the rest of the world with anxiousness, even fear. To the neighboring countries of France, the Netherlands and Poland, especially, images of patriotic Germans bring back dark memories of the Third Reich's dominance over Europe prior to and during World War II. Even in modern Germany itself, a show of national pride was met with raised eyebrows and discomfort. Those who paraded the national...