Free Republic

Poland demands Vatican dismiss two bishops over sermons against illegal immigrationThe liberal Polish government claimed the comments violated the 1993 concordat between the Holy See and Poland.The Polish government has called on the Vatican to punish and dismiss two Catholic bishops who spoke out against the country’s immigration policy.Poland’s ambassador to the Holy See, Adam Kwiatkowski, delivered a diplomatic note to the Vatican’s Secretariat of State complaining about the recent statement by two Polish bishops on immigration and the Polish government.The document accused the bishops of making speeches that “undermine good Polish-German relations, slander the government, and indicate clear support...

People belonging to extremist organisations, including the far-right AfD party, will be blocked from taking up government positions in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate, the state's interior minister has announced. Members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won't be able to enter public service positions in the state of Rhineland-Palatinate going forward, the state’s interior minister, Michael Ebling (SPD), announced on Thursday in Mainz. The western German state is changing the rules around recruitment for civil servants. Specifically, applicants for government positions will be required to declare that they do not belong to an extremist organisation (and have not...

Last week, on June 26th, the European Parliamentary Forum for Sexual and Reproductive Rights (EPF) launched The Next Wave, a “report” that purports to expose the rise of so-called “anti-gender” and “anti-feminist” religious actors in Europe, whose goal is to “dismantle decades of hard-won sexual and reproductive rights across Europe.” Cloaked in the language of human rights, the document is, in truth, a politically charged dossier; reading more like a counter-terrorist threat assessment, and explicitly paints religious advocacy groups as part of an organized extremist threat that needs to be stopped at all costs. “A new alliance of religious extremists,...

First Trump officials were trying to get Europe to accept chlorinated chickens and hormone-infused beef from the United States. Now, it seems they are trying to foist the toxicity of our social media platforms and a laissez-faire approach to harmful content onto Europe, as well. Evidence suggests the Trump administration is targeting content moderation laws in the United Kingdom designed to curb hate speech and misinformation as a part of trade negotiations. Last week, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer acknowledged to Parliament that “a review of online safety rules [is] on the table in trade talks with the United States,”...

The World Health Organization (W.H.O.) announced on Wednesday that its negotiators had completed a final draft of a proposed international legal document to govern pandemic response, to be voted on at the World Health Assembly in May. Negotiations on drafting the pandemic agreement took years of often heated debate as W.H.O. negotiators pressured countries to agree to provisions to share medical technology with poor countries at discounted prices and accept international authority on public health policies. The drafters have not yet apparently agreed on what kind of international legal document the agreement will be — a covenant, treaty, or other...

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...

The EU Parliament has lifted the immunity of AfD foreign policy spokesman Petr Bystron because he shared a photo of Angela Merkel on Twitter in 2022. The reason? Bizarre: since Merkel is seen raising her arm in the image, it’s being interpreted as a Nazi salute – but only because Bystron posted it. Prosecutor: Waving is not a Nazi salute This farce has a backstory: In 2022, during a protest against COVID-19 measures, Bystron waved to the crowd. The public prosecutor immediately launched an investigation: “Nazi salute!” In response, hundreds of AfD supporters filed complaints against Angela Merkel, who had...

Work is under way to make all men in Poland undergo military training, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said. In a speech to the Polish parliament, Tusk said the government aimed to give full details in the coming months. Efforts are being made to "prepare large-scale military training for every adult male in Poland," he told the Sejm. "We will try to have a model ready by the end of this year so that every adult male in Poland is trained in the event of war, so that this reserve is comparable and adequate to the potential threats." SNIP

...CEO and Co-Founder of the Christian prayer app Hallow, took to X (formerly Twitter)...announcing that the European Union (EU) would no longer allow its citizens access to the app. Jones explained that “over-regulation” targeting all religious apps would make it impossible for Hallow to be available in the EU. This news comes shortly after China removed Hallow from its app store in July 2024. In his post, Jones expressed his heartbreak over the news as Hallow was in the works of expanding its content to Polish, French, Italian, and German audiences. Since its launch in December 2018, Hallow has seen...

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

The UK government has demanded that Apple creates a backdoor in its encrypted cloud service, in a confrontation that challenges the US tech firm's avowed stance on protecting user privacy.The Washington Post reported on Friday that the Home Office had issued a "technical capability notice" under the Investigatory Powers Act (IPA), which requires companies to assist law enforcement in providing evidence.The demand, issued last month, relates to Apple's Advanced Data Protection (ADP) service, which heavily encrypts personal data uploaded and stored remotely in Apple's cloud servers, according to the Post, which said this was a "blanket" request that applied to...

The Polish Parliament looks set to debate a proposal to ban the Sacrament of Confession for those under 18 years of age. The move follows the submission of a petition to the Sejm, Poland’s lower House of Parliament, in October 2024. The petition has gathered around 13,000 signatures. A similar petition was presented to the Polish Parliament in 2023, but it was rejected because it did not meet the necessary conditions for admission, reports the Observatory on Intolerance and Discrimination against Christians in Europe (OIDAC Europe). The latest petition attempt “met the formal requirements”, it adds. OIDAC Europe notes that...

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto on Saturday called Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk a "Soros agent" following his threats against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, saying that Hungary's government plays "for the Hungarian team." Earlier in the day, Tusk warned Orban of "consequences" if he blocks further EU sanctions against Russia, saying that he is "playing in [Russian President Vladimir] Putin's team." "Maybe it is hard for a Soros agent to understand, but when it comes to teams, we play for the Hungarian team. That is why we represent Hungarian interests: we are not ready to continue...

France’s war on nativity scenes is a calculated assault on Christianity, aiming to erase the nation’s cultural roots while empowering Islam, leaving the defense of France’s identity to bold local leaders.The administrative court of Nîmes delivered yet another blow to France’s Christian heritage last Friday, ordering the mayor of Beaucaire, Nelson Chaudon, to remove the Provençal nativity scene from the town hall. The charge? A supposed violation of secularism, gleefully pursued by the left-wing Human Rights League (LDH)—an organization that seems to consider any public expression of Christianity an existential threat.This is not an isolated incident. Across France, nativity scenes...

Polish officials said they will arrest Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu in compliance with a warrant from the International Criminal Court if he attends the 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. "We are obliged to respect the provisions of the International Criminal Court," Władysław Bartoszewski, Poland’s deputy foreign minister, told Polish newspaper Rzeczpospolita on Friday. Dozens of world leaders are expected to attend the anniversary event on January 27, which will honor the estimated 1 million Jews who died in the Nazi genocide. Netanyahu is not due to attend the ceremony, according to Rzeczpospolita. The ICC issued an arrest...

Senior Labour figures have rejected comments by Donald Trump’s vice-presidential pick, JD Vance, that the UK could become the first “truly Islamist country that will get a nuclear weapon” under the party. They were reacting to comments that were made by Vance, a junior senator for the state of Ohio who has been announced as Trump’s running mate, at a conference for US conservatives. Angela Rayner, the deputy prime minister, told ITV that Vance had said “quite a lot of fruity things in the past” and she looked forward to meeting him and Trump if they won the US election...

A Christian counselor in England is appearing before an employment tribunal this week, claiming she was wrongfully dismissed by a school over her social media posts on marriage. The counselor, 37-year-old Gozen Soydag, who worked as a pastoral manager, says her beliefs were deemed "incompatible" with the ethos and mission at St. Anne's Catholic High School for Girls in North London, prompting her dismissal in February 2023. Soydag, a social media influencer with nearly 40,000 followers across various Instagram accounts, alleges she was terminated after complaints arose about content on her profiles, according to the group Christian Legal Centre, which...

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. ...

Benjamin Netanyahu could be detained if he visits Britain after Sir Keir Starmer backed the International Criminal Court's decision to issue an arrest warrant. The Hague-based court, which Foreign Secretary David Lammy last month said the UK 'supports', today issued warrants for Netanyahu and his former defence minister Yoav Gallant, as well as the leader of Hamas. Britain, along with 123 other members of the ICC, will now be obliged to detain Netanyahu 'on sight' under international law. A spokesperson for Downing Street said the Government respected the court and refused to rule out he would be arrested if he...

German officials attempted to start a criminal investigation into a Gab social media user who allegedly called a left-wing female politician "fat," but the platform refused to comply with the German authorities' invasive demands to uncover the person's identity, the platform told Fox News Digital. The Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt-BKA) contacted Gab about a user insulting the weight of politician Ricarda Lang, a prominent leader of an environmental party in Germany. It requested information that would identify who the individual was, under the suspicion they resided in Germany, so that they can continue their criminal investigation. Torba called Germany's...