Free Republic

What would Macron’s second term look like?Emmanuel Macron, with eagle eyes, is staring at Europe like stout Cortez. Elected president of France almost five years ago aged just 39, he dreams beyond the renewal of his lease on the Élysée Palace in the April election. Now Angela Merkel has left the world stage, Macron’s ambition is to replace her as Europe’s de facto leader and to father a European federation, a United States of Europe, with France and himself at its centre. On New Year’s Day, France assumed the rotating six-month presidency of the European Council, the supreme institution of...

Ukrainian government servers were hit by a "massive cyberattack" overnight that saw government websites taken down, including the homepage for the Foreign Ministry, which temporarily displayed a message warning Ukraine's people to "be afraid and expect the worst." Just hours before the latest digital sabotage, Ukraine's ambassador in Washington told CBS News that her country believed a cyberattack would precede any major military action by Vladimir Putin's forces. There was no claim of responsibility for the cyberattack, but Ukraine has blamed groups with links to the Russian government for similar previous sabotage.

PARIS -- French president Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to a pair of leading European figures Friday as France formally took the reins of the 27-nation bloc for the next six months with big ambitions.... ...Among the main themes France wants to promote are the introduction of an EU minimum wage, a carbon tax on imported products, and the reform of the EU's fiscal rules... ...Detailing the goals of the French presidency, a senior French government official said the EU needs to be more sovereign ,,,“There is a risk for Europeans to simply go out of history," the official said. “In...

Russia’s lead negotiator for coming talks with the U.S. said that Moscow’s demands on Ukraine must be addressed urgently and warned the Biden administration against resorting to the economic pressure it has threatened to try to get the Kremlin to back down. In advance of Monday’s talks with the U.S. in Geneva, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov sketched out an unyielding stance. He said the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s military ties to Ukraine represent a threat to Russia even if the country isn’t formally admitted into the alliance. Mr. Ryabkov rebuffed the Biden administration’s calls for the Kremlin to reverse...

The United States is now the world's leading exporter of liquified natural gas as Europe's energy crisis and shortages in China send demand for American shipments soaring. LNG exports from the United States topped 7 million tonnes (7.7 million tons) in December, according to ship-tracking data from ICIS LNG Edge, narrowly edging out rival producers Qatar and Australia for the first time. The United States only shipped its first LNG cargo from the lower 48 states in 2016, and has risen to become the world's top exporter in just six years as a shale gas revolution boosted domestic production and...

Blinken: Russian military buildup near Ukraine is an 'immediate and urgent challenge to peace and stability in Europe.'

Dec 30 (Reuters) - Coronavirus deaths in Eastern Europe topped 1 million on Thursday, according to a Reuters tally, as the Omicron variant threatened to batter the region. Three out of the five countries reporting the highest number of daily deaths in Europe are from the East, including Russia, Poland and Ukraine, Reuters data through Thursday showed.... ...The region includes Belarus, Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Russia, Slovakia and Ukraine... ...Relatively few cases of Omicron have been detected in Eastern Europe...

Germany will pull the plug on three of its last six nuclear power stations on Friday, another step towards completing its withdrawal from nuclear power as it turns its focus to renewables. The government decided to speed up its phasing out of nuclear power following Japan's Fukushima reactor meltdown in 2011 when an earthquake and tsunami destroyed the coastal plant in the world's worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl 25 years earlier. The reactors of Brokdorf, Grohnde and Gundremmingen C, run by utilities E.ON and RWE, will be shut down on Friday after three-and-a-half decades in operation. The last three nuclear...

The Russian Foreign Ministry has acknowledged that NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg has proposed holding a meeting of the NATO-Russia Council next month, but the Kremlin has not yet said whether it will take part. “We are considering it,” a spokesman for the Kremlin was quoted on December 26 as saying, according to TASS. The format of the meeting and the composition of the Russian delegation are being looked at, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Aleksandr Grushko said, TASS reported on December 26. A spokesman for NATO was quoted by AFP as saying that the alliance has contacted the Kremlin to secure...

Russia now has about 265,000 troops stationed within 250 miles of its border with Ukraine, according to a new assessment of troop movements by Ukrainian Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council Oleksiy Danilov. Danilov revealed the assessment of Russian military activity during a visit to the Ivano-Frankivsk region, the Ukrainian state-run National News Agency of Ukraine (also known as Ukrinform) reported on Wednesday. Danilov said of the 265,000 Russian troops, 122,000 are located within 200 km (125 miles) of the Russian border with Ukraine. Another 143,500 troops are located between 200 and 400 km (250 miles) of the...

MOSCOW (AP) — Russian and U.S. negotiators will sit down for talks early next year to discuss Moscow's demand for Western guarantees precluding NATO's expansion to Ukraine, Russia’s top diplomat said Wednesday. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Russia in January will also start separate talks with NATO to discuss the issue, adding that separate negotiations under the auspices of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe will also be held. Last week, Moscow submitted draft security documents demanding that NATO deny membership to Ukraine and other former Soviet countries and roll back the alliance’s military deployments in Central...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands -- The European Union’s drugs regulator gave the green light Monday to a fifth COVID-19 vaccine for use in the 27-nation bloc, granting conditional marketing authorization to the two-dose vaccine made by U.S. biotech company Novavax. The European Medicines Agency decision to recommend granting conditional marketing authorization for the vaccine for people aged 18 and over, which must be confirmed by the EU’s executive commission, comes as many European nations are battling surges in infections and amid concerns about the spread of the new omicron variant. Novavax says it currently is testing how its shots will hold...

If US-led bloc refuses Moscow's proposal, 'regional conflicts would increase' By Yang Sheng Published: Dec 19, 2021 10:29 PM Updated: Dec 19, 2021 10:37 PM The intense situation around Ukraine between Russia and NATO is unlikely to ease, as it is almost impossible that NATO will accept the security guarantee proposed by Moscow due to entrenched hostility to Russia, Chinese analysts said, adding that the US-led bloc will not give up expansion to the east, and Russia will definitely take action to retaliate. They noted that although China hopes the two sides can resolve the situation peacefully, the two sides...

EDINBURGH, SCOTLAND—According to sources, a dangerous right-wing extremist named J.K. Rowling has taken to the internet to spread hateful rhetoric. Authorities have called for decisive action to silence the bigoted fascist before she further spreads her message. "Men aren't women," said the disgusting transphobe in a recent Twitter post. She then doubled down on her controversial message by also saying "Women aren't men." "This is a hate crime," said EU Diversity Minister Günter Schreiber. "Everyone knows that women aren't a real thing, but rather a fantastical state of being that ebbs and flows through the human imagination like a wisp...

The ruling applies to the entire 27-nation bloc, including 11 countries that do not recognize same-sex ‘marriage.’(LifeSiteNews) – The top court of the European Union ruled Tuesday that all EU countries must recognize homosexuals and their legal children as family members regardless of national laws on same-sex parenting or homosexual “marriage.” In a ruling that applies to the entire 27-nation bloc, the European Court of Justice (CJEU) in Luxembourg declared that member countries must allow a same-sex couple to move and reside freely with a child legally recognized as their son or daughter by another EU state. Eleven EU nations,...

Western allies on Thursday rejected Russia's bid to thwart Kiev's NATO ambitions and urged Moscow to halt its military build-up along Ukraine's border and return to talks led by France and Germany. European Union leaders, meeting in Brussels, insisted on "the urgent need for Russia to de-escalate tensions caused by the military build-up along its border with Ukraine and aggressive rhetoric". Separately, NATO's members used similar language, rejecting "the false Russian claims of Ukrainian and NATO provocations" and urged Moscow to "immediately de-escalate, pursue diplomatic channels, and abide by its international commitments." Both organisations, which share most of their member...

Christine Anderson of the E.U. Parliament answers cries for help from Australia. She says: "At no point in history, have the people forcing others into compliance, been the good guys. The welfare of humanity has always been the alibi of tyrants."

RUSSIA has threatened to deploy intermediate range nuclear missiles in Europe, as tensions over Ukraine intensify. The warning from the country’s foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov comes amid fears of a Russian invasion of Ukraine, where the Kremlin has massed 175,000 troops. Vladimir Putin has been warned of “massive consequences” if he invades Ukraine as Russia masses troops on its neighbour’s border. Ryabkov has now threatened to revive Intermediate-range nuclear missiles, deployed in large numbers by both sides in the Cold War in the early 1980s. He denied Russia was planning to invade Ukraine said Moscow would “respond militarily” if Nato...

The Group of Seven economic powers told Russia on Sunday to “de-escalate” its military buildup near the Ukrainian border, warning that an invasion would have “massive consequences” and inflict severe economic pain on Moscow. Foreign ministers from the United States, Britain and the rest of the G-7, joined by the European Union’s foreign affairs chief, issued a joint statement declaring themselves “united in our condemnation of Russia’s military buildup and aggressive rhetoric towards Ukraine.” The G-7 called on Russia to “de-escalate, pursue diplomatic channels, and abide by its international commitments on transparency of military activities,” and praised Ukraine’s “restraint.” “Any...

The Russian incursion in Ukraine, according to political scientist Oskar Krejčí is not going to happen. "What would be Russia's gain in Ukraine, which teeters on the brink of economic collapse? I'm more concerned of the attack by Kiev on rebel areas in the east of the country than the invasion of the Russian army into Ukraine,“ says the well-known professor. The West, according to him, shouldn't be interested in a conflict. "It was stated clearly, even for the pro-government press to realize that Washington and Brussels do not promise Kiev military assistance in case of major armed conflict in...