Free Republic

The Tesla Model Y was Europe’s most popular electric car in 2025, leading all EV models by a wide margin despite a year marked by production transition, intensifying competition, and anti-Elon Musk sentiments. The result highlights the Model Y’s continued strength in the region even as Volkswagen overtook Tesla as the top-selling EV brand overall. As per data compiled by JATO Dynamics and reported by Swedish outlet Allt om Elbil, the Tesla Model Y recorded 149,805 registrations across Europe in 2025. That figure placed it comfortably at No. 1 among all electric car models in the region. The Model Y’s...

An annual gathering of top international security figures that last year set the tone for a growing rift between the United States and Europe opens Friday, bringing together many top European officials with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and others. The Munich Security Conference opens with a speech by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, one of 15 heads of state or government from European Union countries whom organizers expect to attend. The many other expected guests at the conference that runs until Sunday include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi. In keeping with the conference's tradition,...

Retired British Army Col. Richard Kemp, who commanded U.K. forces in Afghanistan in the early 2000s, is warning about the current sad state of his country’s military. In a Wednesday piece for The Telegraph, he wrote that the British military has an alarmingly low level of ammunition on hand. “Knowledgeable observers have suggested that our munitions stocks — from rifle bullets and artillery shells to long range missiles and drones — would see out only about a week of intensive fighting,” Kemp recounted. “That’s even taking account of the fact that our Armed Forces are now very small, having been...

MP Rupert Lowe, who launched an independent inquiry into the mass child rape that occurred throughout England at the hands of clans of mostly Pakistani Muslim men, has called on the government to launch an investigation into cases of missing girls in grooming areas to determine whether they may have been trafficked to Pakistan as sex slaves. “I believe there are currently countless British women being used as sex slaves overseas. This may sound insane. It is not. Look at these gangs. Nobody would have believed the extent of the evil before it was uncovered. This is very real,” the...

As a general rule, once a city erects turnstiles to tourist attractions which were once free to visit, it is time to go elsewhere. Never more so than in the case of Rome. Last week the Italian capital introduced a €2 charge to visit the Trevi Fountain. Tight-fisted tourists like me will still be able to see the Trevi from a distance – it happens to stand in a public street. The charge will be only for sad Instagrammers who want to get close enough to chuck their coins in the water. The city’s tourism department has suggested the fee...

Immediately ahead of tomorrow’s EU summit, French President Emmanuel Macron is calling for the introduction of Eurobonds. Collective debt financing would be the final salvo in the march of Brussels’ central planners.As the 27 EU heads of government convene today with EU Commission president Ursula von der Leyen, the stakes are high from a fiscal perspective. A decisive item on the agenda at Belgium’s Alden Biesen Castle is the so-called Draghi Plan. The question hovering above it all is as simple as it is explosive: How can the obvious productivity and growth weakness of the Eurozone economy be overcome? For...

‼️ Wow Meloni goes hardcore in Italy by using the Navy to block migrant boats from landing. Proposed legislation was agreed by ministers yesterday. She isn’t bowing to the pressure of the UN or the ECHR, she’s protecting Italy and delivering her election promise.

Guess what the main topic of debate at the European Parliament in Strasbourg this week is. It is what the Euro-elites consider the most concerning issue of the moment: “State violence in Minneapolis and the rule of law in the United States.”This is a typical example of seeing the speck in your brother’s eye while ignoring the beam in your own. The European Union is criticizing the rule of law in America, while there are indications that Ursula von der Leyen’s European Commission has in the past two years actively tried to interfere in eight parliamentary and presidential elections on...

Former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjørn Jagland has been charged with "gross corruption" over his ties with the US sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, police have said. The charge was brought after the Council of Europe lifted Jagland's immunity, which he enjoyed because of his past diplomatic role. He denies criminal liability and is willing to cooperate, his lawyer says. Emails released by the US government are thought to show that Jagland planned solo and family visits to Epstein's homes in Paris, New York and Palm Beach after the billionaire was convicted of a child sex offence. Three of Jagland's properties were...

EU Europe is increasingly abandoning a civilized approach to dissenting opinions. The raid on the Paris offices of Elon Musk’s company X appears to be just the tip of the iceberg. Today, those who resist are being attacked on multiple levels, while those who submit are largely spared. It is time to increase pressure on Brussels. Elon Musk’s communications platform X has become caught between systemic fronts. On one side stands the American understanding of free speech, which has experienced a political revival under Donald Trump’s new presidency. On the other, an increasingly repressive EU control regime is eroding the...

Regional elections were held in Spain's Aragón area yesterday, and they turned into a rout for Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's party. Surging conservative parties either picked up seats or held theirs to be able to form coalitions to fend off the slumping ruling Socialists.Spain’s ruling Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) suffered a crushing setback in the snap regional elections in Aragón.In the ballot yesterday, it slumped to one of its worst historical performance, losing ground amid a surge by the right-wing Vox party.Provisional results from the Government of Aragón and the National Electoral Commission, with more than 98 per cent...

Oh, the horror! The sheer, unmitigated brutality! Vice President JD Vance's motorcade descended upon the Winter Olympics in Milan like a fleet of rogue armored personnel carriers, "wreaking havoc" in ways that would make even the most dramatic speed skating wipe-out look tame. At least, that's the breathless hysterical narrative spun by the Daily Beast in its latest masterpiece of journalistic gymnastics, headlined "Vance's Clunky Motorcade Wreaks Havoc at Winter Olympics." Penned by the intrepid "Breaking News Reporter" Vic Verbalaitis, this exposé reveals the true villain of the 2026 Games: not doping scandals or judging controversies, but a convoy of...

The French leader acknowledged that the strategy European countries had chosen for dealing with the US had proven ineffectiveLONDON, February 10. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump despises the EU and is seeking its collapse, French leader Emmanuel Macron said. In an interview with The Financial Times, he emphasized that the current US administration is "openly anti-European", "shows contempt" for the EU and "wishes its dismemberment." Macron also acknowledged that the strategy European countries have chosen for dealing with the US has proven ineffective. "When there’s a clear act of aggression, I think what we should do isn’t bow down or...

Greece will cooperate with Israel on anti-drone systems and cybersecurity, Greek Defence Minister Nikos Dendias said on Tuesday after meeting his Israeli counterpart in Athens."We agreed to exchange views and know-how to be able to deal with drones and in particular swarms of unmanned vehicles and groups of unmanned subsea vehicles," Dendias said in joint statements with Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz."We will also work together in order to be ready to intercept cyber threats."With strong economic and diplomatic ties, Greece and Israel operate an air training centre on Greek territory and have held joint military drills in recent years.Greece...

The British government said it had referred Peter Mandelson's correspondence with Jeffery Epstein to police because it appeared that "market sensitive information" had been "compromised."LONDON — A rare royal apology, resignations and allegations of leaked government intel: The new release of Epstein documents has provoked outrage and a demand for answers in Europe over ties between prominent figures and the late sex offender. Norway’s royal family has found itself at the center of a storm over the more than 3 million documents the Justice Department released Friday. And in Britain, the former Prince Andrew and his ex-wife, Sarah Ferguson, have...

@TRobinsonNewEra It's becoming very common of invaders waiting outside nightclubs and frogmarching drunk women away to rape. Be careful out there, girls stay in groups, they've imported beasts. Hat's off to the guy filming, very likely saved these girls from rape.

The Greek government has launched an exhaustive operation to identify and shut down all illegal mosques in the municipality of Athens, estimated at around 60, most managed by immigrants from Bangladesh and Pakistan. This initiative, announced by the Minister of Migration and Immigration, Thanos Plevris, includes the simultaneous deportation of foreigners operating these sites, emphasizing that those who do not comply with Greek law will face automatic expulsion. The operation is activated following a landmark case in the Agios Nikolaos area, where the residence permit of a Bangladeshi citizen accused of running an illegal mosque was revoked. This individual was...

World War I not only toppled empires and redrew borders—it remade the modern world, with few nations feeling the effects as profoundly as Great Britain. The country’s deadliest war—from which 6 percent of its men never returned—accelerated sweeping social, economic and political changes that fractured the rigid British class system and weakened the aristocracy. For centuries, hereditary landowners exercised a near feudal dominance of the British countryside. As late as 1873, fewer than 5 percent of Britons owned all of England’s property. But an agricultural depression in the late 1800s had already begun to erode their dominance as the First...

Spanish civil engineers have renewed urgent warnings over the deteriorating condition of the country’s dams, as flooding linked to Storm Leonardo heightens public concern and exceptional rainfall is forecast to continue until the weekend. Experts say the storm has exposed long-standing structural weaknesses in Spain’s water infrastructure and highlighted decades of insufficient investment in safety and maintenance. Professional engineering bodies warn that around one third of Spain’s state-owned dams require urgent structural reinforcement, while roughly half have defective bottom outlet systems, a critical component for controlling water levels during extreme weather events. They argue that the risks are growing as...

MILAN (AP) — American athletes received an enthusiastic welcome at the opening ceremony for the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics, but the mood shifted when cameras briefly turned to Vice President JD Vance. Led by speedskater and flag bearer Erin Jackson, Team USA was among the last delegations to enter Milan’s San Siro stadium in the parade of nations on Friday. The crowd cheered for the Americans but jeers and whistles could be heard as Vance and his wife, second lady Usha Vance, were shown on the stadium screens, waving American flags from the tribune. Support for the U.S. among its...