Free Republic

JUST IN - German Defense Minister Pistorius says Trump's proposals for territorial cessions from Ukraine to Russia are "going too far" and has assured Ukraine of more weapons from Germany.

Freedom of speech is a virus! And censorship is a vaccine!" Ursula von der Leyen called for “vaccinating” society against uncomfortable information .

European governments backed the International Criminal Court in The Hague following its decision on Thursday to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and slain Hamas terror leader Mohammed Deif. Josep Borrell, the European Union’s outgoing foreign-policy chief, claimed that the ruling was “not political” and should be respected.

A House committee revealed Friday that the Pentagon, other US agencies and the European Union — in addition to the State Department — have funded a for-profit “fact-checking” firm accused of suppressing The Post. House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote a letter to the firm, NewsGuard, demanding more details about the public-private collaboration that led last year to the State Department being sued by conservative outlets that were labeled more “risky” than their liberal counterparts..... The Oversight panel in June opened its investigation into NewsGuard’s apparent participation in a government-funded “censorship campaign” to allegedly discredit and even demonetize...

The EU warns Elon Musk about tonight’s Donald Trump livestream on X. EU Commissioner Thierry Breton says the EU will watch for “spillovers” that violate the Digital Services Act, such as “content that may incite violence, hate and racism in conjunction with major political - or societal - events around the world, including debates and interviews in the context of elections.”

Political violence against the right is raging, but the left appears to tacitly — and sometimes openly — endorse it... On Wednesday, the Patriots for Europe Group in the European Parliament initiated a plenary debate and a resolution condemning political violence, including the attempted assassination of former U.S. President Donald Trump, the current presidential candidate, but the majority of MEPs voted against it, Kinga Gál, the group’s first vice-president, said in Strasbourg. At her press conference, Kinga Gál criticized the EU parliament for doing virtually nothing to combat the political violence that has already been rife in Europe. She cited...

I have been waiting for quite a while to see the war between Elon Musk and the European Union break out into the open. Ever since Elon bought Twitter the Establishment has been panicked by their loss of control over the Narrative™, and they have been making noises about pushing Twitter/X out of Europe or imposing fines if Musk doesn't shut down free speech on his platform. The Elite have been waging an open financial war on the platform, driving advertisers away and trying (and failing) to come up with competitors that will drive Twitter/X out of the market. The...

The House Judiciary Committee released a damning report Wednesday morning with shocking details of corporate collusion to silence conservative viewpoints through targeting Breitbart News, Joe Rogan, and Twitter (now X) among others.The committee released its report just hours before hearing testimony from Herrish Patel, President of Unilever USA, and Christian Juhl, Global Chief Executive Officer of GroupM. Chairman Jim Jordan (R-OH) alleges those companies, as members of the Global Alliance for Responsible Media’s (GARM) Steer Team, may have violated antitrust laws in their efforts to deprive conservative media outlets and personalities as well as companies daring to platform conservative viewpoints...

Senior European officials have called on the US Democratic Party to axe Joe Biden following his disastrous Thursday night performance over fears a win for Trump could spell disaster for Ukraine. 'We're very concerned because we, more or less, understand what it means for Ukraine, a Biden presidency, and we really don't know a Trump presidency,' Oleksiy Goncharenko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament, told CNN. ....Trump has meanwhile boasted that he could stop the war in Ukraine in just 'one day'. Speaking on GB News last year he said: 'If I were president, I [would] end that war in...

Germany on Friday condemned Israel’s move to regulate five communities in Judea and Samaria, part of a package of measures approved by the Cabinet in response to the Palestinian Authority’s (PA) steps against Israel. “The federal government clearly condemns the so-called legalization of Israeli outposts and the approval of new housing. Israel's policy of building settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories constitutes a serious violation of international law and undermines efforts to achieve a two-state solution,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Sebastian Fischer said at a news conference in Berlin, according to the Anadolu news agency. “The expansion of settlements endangers the...

A radical Italian Antifa activist accused of attacking people with a hammer in Budapest has been elected to the European Parliament, potentially paving the way for her to be freed from custody in Hungary. Ilaria Salis, a 39-year-old schoolteacher and “anti-fascist” activist currently under house arrest in Hungary, has won a seat in the EU parliament on behalf of the Green-Left Alliance (AVS) in Italy, ANSA reports. Salis has been accused of being part of a leftist group of mostly Germans who allegedly attacked a group of supposed “neo-Nazis” on February 11th in 2023 as they honoured the Nazi Waffen...

The European Union has become the first international body to criminalise the most serious cases of environmental damage that are “comparable to ecocide”. Ecosystem destruction, including habitat loss and illegal logging, will be punished with tougher penalties and prison sentences under the EU’s updated environmental crime directive. In a vote in the European Parliament on Tuesday, EU lawmakers overwhelmingly backed the move with 499 votes in favour, 100 against and 23 abstentions. Member states now have two years to enshrine it in national law. Here’s what you need to know about the updated law, which experts are calling revolutionary. Environmental...

The introduction of biometric digital identity cards could be used by governments to track “who actually got a vaccination or not,” Queen Máxima of the Netherlands said at the annual World Economic Forum meeting in Davos this week. Queen Máxima, a longtime social justice campaigner who has served as the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Advocate for Inclusive Finance for Development (UNSGSA) since 2009, urged for the wider adoption of biometric digital ID cards globally during a WEF panel discussion titled “Comparing Notes on Financial Inclusion” on Thursday. “When I started this job, there were actually very little countries in Africa...

On Thursday, a panelist at the World Economic Forum's Davos conference suggested creating "exclusion lists" to demonetize sources sharing so-called "disinformation," the Daily Caller News Foundation reported. Jeanne Bourgault, the president and CEO of Internews, an international nonprofit that provides "support" to independent media outlets in more than 100 countries, addressed how to prevent the spread of what she considers inaccurate information during a Davos conference panel titled "Defending Truth." "Global trust in institutions is eroding, reflected in how 40% of people consistently trust news. Empowering internet users with media information literacy, advancing information integrity and enhancing transparency are vital...