Free Republic

According to the Slovak prime minister, foreign "specialists" have already arrived in SlovakiaPRAGUE, January 22. /TASS/. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has called an emergency meeting of the republic’s Security Council after security services received intelligence about an impending coup d’etat with the involvement of "foreign experts" who helped launch the color revolutions in Georgia and Ukraine, the Dennik N web portal said. Fico stressed that he was ready for anything "but the country cannot be overthrown." According to him, foreign "specialists" have already arrived in Slovakia. He said that attempts to overthrow legitimate authorities may be carried out by...

After years of concerns raised by scientists, EU has banned Bisphenol A from contact with foodThe European Union regulation banning the use of bisphenol A in materials that come into contact with food officially took effect on 20 January, in an attempt to minimise exposure to the harmful endocrine disruptor. The European Union has officially banned Bisphenol A (BPA) from all contact with food products as of Monday. This endocrine disruptor, commonly found in cans, food containers, and water bottles, has been linked to potential contamination of food. The new regulations extend to the use of BPA in the manufacture...

Under the Digital Services Act, Elon Musk and his social media platform, X, could face heavy penalties should investigators for the European Union find that he manipulated the site's algorithm in order to influence voters. The DSA was adopted in 2022 to prevent disinformation and other illegal activities online. In July, the European Union found that X had violated multiple tenets of the DSA by not providing access to data to researchers, failure to complay with advertising-transparency requirements, and selling access to its "blue check" verification system in a way that allowed fraudsters to impersonate celebrities and public officials. On...

France’s top diplomat fires a warning shot across the bows of Donald Trump, warning Europe considers Greenland part of its “sovereign borders” and should be left alone. European leaders are reacting with alarm as past and future President Donald Trump talks up the importance of the United States acquiring Greenland, the world’s largest island and a strategically valuable if underdeveloped Arctic territory in the North Atlantic. As Trump’s son flew into Greenland on the Trump jet this week the French foreign minister has appeared to tacitly put the notion of the United States buying territory off an ally on a...

(Reuters) -The cut-off of Russian gas supplies to Moldova's breakaway Transdniestria region has forced the closure of all industrial companies except food producers, an official said on Thursday....The local energy company cut heating and hot water to households on Wednesday, and urged families to keep warm by gathering in a single room... Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has described the end of Russian gas transit as "one of Moscow's biggest defeats" and urged the United States to supply more gas to Europe.... Maria Zakharova said the loss of Russian gas was hurting Europe economically, and the U.S. was the beneficiary. "Responsibility...

VIDEOGee! Where have we heard that before? Oh yeah, it happened in 2016 when Donald Trump to the surprise of the Democrats and the Deep State won the presidential election. First they tried to undermine the results by trying to influence presidential electors not to vote for him in December of that year. When that failed they promoted the Russia Russia Russia election hoax by pretending that there was Trump-Russia election collusion based on the Steele Dossier that Hillary Clinton financed. Ultimately their plans failed when the much anticipated Mueller Report FAILED to reveal any Trump-Russia collusion. This past year...

It’s been a bad few months for democracy. Election results offensive to the European Union were annulled in Romania; an attempted coup occurred in Georgia over elections that didn’t go the way the west wanted; the French government, widely hated, teetered over the abyss as president Emmanual Macron tried to ignore the last election; on December 16, Washington’s pet German government fell; lots of funny-business happened in the Moldovan referendum and election, amid widespread disenfranchisement of Moldovan voters living in Russia; elections were long ago cancelled in dictatorial Ukraine; and South Korea hosted an attempted coup. In short, western democracies’...

Thousands of Spanish fisherman gathered in protest of an EU proposal which would cut the number of days trawlers can be at sea from the current 130 to 27 or 28 days. Fisherman in Spain continued their strike on Tuesday protesting proposed European cuts that would largely restrict the number of days they can fish in the Mediterranean. The European Union wants to decrease the number of fishing days for Mediterranean trawlers by 79% in an effort to improve fish stocks and protect biodiversity. Protesters argue that these cuts would badly harm Spain's economy and damage the fishing industry. They...

QUESTION: I want to apologize and thank you. I thought you were just a Trump supporter, but your warning that his tariffs can send the world into a depression demonstrated not just that I was wrong but that you are a genuinely impartial and independent voice in the wilderness. Here in Europe, for the last six months, the newspapers have presented Trump as the devil with no hope whatsoever. Everything you warned here about our economy with climate change and warmongering is correct. The migrant crisis combined with the economy turning down, you warned, would lead to rising civil unrest...

There was a fourth night of protests in Georgia over the ruling party's decision to suspend accession talks with the European Union. Tens of thousands of Georgians protested on the streets of several cities. Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze said demonstrators had fallen victim to opposition lies and rejected calls for new elections. ...

The European Parliament voted against the resolution on the Commission’s recommendations for smoke-free environments.A resolution on smoking bans, initially backed by a majority of MEPs, was widely rejected after attempts by right-wing groups to exclude novel tobacco products from the text. The European Parliament has overwhelmingly voted by 378 votes against a resolution on recommendations for smoke-free environments - with only 152 in favour, and 26 abstentions. The proposal which originated from the Commission was jointly presented by the European People’s Party (EPP), the Socialists and Democrats (S&D), Renew Europe, and the Greens/EFA. But despite joint backing from four powerful...

A popular Thanksgiving dinner staple in the United States is banned in several European countries and Japan due to two ingredients being linked to cancer. Stove Top Stuffing, an instant boxed stuffing mix that is popular to have with Thanksgiving dinner, contains two ingredients, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT), that are “known human carcinogens and may cause other health problems,” Dr. Neha Pathak, MD, who serves on the Medical Team for WebMD explained to the New York Post. The product is banned in the United Kingdom, the European Union, and Japan. Pathak explained that “these types of preservatives”...

Bluesky, the rapidly growing social media platform, is violating EU regulations by failing to disclose important details, a European Commission spokesperson told reporters during a daily briefing on Monday. “All platforms in the EU even the smallest ones which are below the threshold, which is the case for Bluesky, have to have a dedicated page on their website where it says how many user numbers they have in the EU and where they are legally established. This is not the case for Bluesky as of today,” the spokesperson said.He also stated that since Bluesky falls below the threshold and is...

'We are witnessing a worrying surge in racism and discrimination against Muslims in Europe,' says EU officialThe EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) reports that nearly half of Muslims in EU member states experience discrimination and hate speech in their daily lives. A survey titled “Being Muslim in Europe: Experiences of Muslims,” conducted by the FRA with 9,600 Muslim participants from 13 EU member states, indicates a significant increase in racism and discrimination against Muslims between 2016 and 2022. The study reveals that discriminatory discourse and actions impact all aspects of daily life for European Muslims, highlighting challenges in...

An AI was asked to create images of what Europeans think the average American from different states looks like - and the results are shocking. According to the tech, Europeans hold racist and sexist stereotypes about Americans, and generally see people from the US as gluttonous, overweight consumers who only eat McDonalds. That belief churned out a series of startling images - only of women - that presents how Americans are seen. In the bot's view, only Florida and Texas have attractive women. The images presented to represent those states were of scantily-clad blonde beauties. The other states were summed...

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has made a striking assertion: the West is losing the war in Ukraine. This situation, he claims, is unprecedented for nations that have traditionally emerged victorious since World War II. Orban’s statement paints a bleak picture, saying, “They are up to their ears in a losing war,” which raises significant questions about the effectiveness of the West’s ongoing support for Ukraine. In a bold critique, Orban specifically targeted the European Union’s unity in its support for Ukraine, suggesting that the collective approach is flawed and ineffective. He emphasized that Hungary has successfully “managed to stay...

Moldovans have voted by a razor-thin majority in favour of joining the European Union, nearly final results showed on Monday after a pivotal referendum clouded by allegations of Russian interference. On Sunday, Moldova held key votes in a presidential election and a referendum on EU membership, marking a critical moment in the continuing struggle between Russia and the west for control over the small, landlocked nation in eastern Europe, home to 2.5 million people. After nearly 99.5% of votes were counted in the referendum that asked voters to choose whether to enshrine in the country’s constitution a path toward the...

The three most right-wing groups of the European Parliament and their members are all known as "far-right" — but they have some crucial differences. The members of Patriots for Europe met in Brussels for the first time on Thursday, convening on the sidelines of the European summit. The group is one of three at the right-wing end of the European Parliament, joined by Europe of Sovereign Nations (ESN) and the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR). The parties making up these three parliamentary groups are generally nationalist, sovereigntist, conservative and Eurosceptic, thoguh their positions differ on Russia and Ukraine and on...

The new Italian law restricting overseas travel for surrogacy services goes further than other countries, but same-sex couples face family planning hurdles across Europe. A new law that bans Italians from travelling abroad for surrogate pregnancies is expected to make it harder for LGBTQ people to become parents – but Italy is far from the only country where family planning is a challenge for same-sex couples. Italy’s restrictive approach to surrogacy isn’t new – or unique. Many European countries ban surrogacy outright, while others have strict rules about citizenship, payment, and relationship status. Those rules have prompted some couples to...

The European Union has warned X that it may calculate fines against the social-media platform by including revenue from Elon Musk’s other businesses, including Space Exploration Technologies Corp. and Neuralink Corp., an approach that would significantly increase the potential penalties for violating content moderation rules. Under the EU’s Digital Services Act, the bloc can slap online platforms with fines of as much as 6% of their yearly global revenue for failing to tackle illegal content and disinformation or follow transparency rules. Regulators are considering whether sales from SpaceX, Neuralink, xAI and the Boring Company, in addition to revenue generated from...