Free Republic

William Shakespeare's birthplace will be de-colonised over fears that portraying his success as the 'greatest' playwright 'benefits the ideology of white European supremacy'. Shakespeare's Birthplace Trust owns buildings in the playwright's hometown of Stratford-upon-Avon. It wants to 'create a more inclusive museum experience' and announced it will move away from Western perspectives after concerns were raised that Shakespeare's ideas were used to advance 'white supremacy' ideas. The trust also said that some of its items could contain language or depictions that are racist, sexist, or homophobic. It comes amid an ongoing backlash against the writer. Some productions of his works...

Folk rock legend Neil Young and his band Chrome Hearts will open an upcoming European tour with a free concert in Ukraine, according to a post on his website. The 79-year-old Toronto-born musician, who was part of the supergroup Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, said it would be “a free concert for all.” Details are still being worked out, including the show’s date and location: “We are currently in talks,” Young said. “Keep on Rockin’ in the free world,” he ended the statement, a reference to his 1991 hit song, alongside an image of the Ukrainian flag against a blue...

EU Commission NGO manipulation highlights decade-long corruption in plastic policy, says Symphony Environmental With NGO financing from the EC coming to light, plastic policy needs greater transparency to remove corruption and confusion from legislation. Recent reports from the “Brussels Morning” newspaper said that the Dutch newspaper De Telegraaf had uncovered findings that are now shaking the entire European Union. They discovered that the European Commission had been financing non-governmental organizations (NGOs) lobbying for the policies of former EU Commissioner Frans Timmermans and influencing politicians to push through his “Green Deal.” It has now come to light that the EU commission...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the formation of an “Armed Forces of Europe” in a speech delivered before the Munich Security Conference in Germany on Saturday. While the Trump administration has drawn feigned outrage throughout European capitals for daring to suggest that they meet their NATO defence spending obligations, President Zelensky was hailed with applause at the Munich Security Conference as he called for an international European army. Zelensky argued that a European army would be necessary for Europe to take back its own destiny and to ensure its safety if America refused to come to its rescue.

While Europe’s politicians learnt their lesson from 2017 and appear to have decided to play nice in public with the incoming President Trump second term, the continent’s legacy media feels no such restraint and morning-of-inauguration coverage is loaded with dire predictions, accusations, and even unfavourable comparisons to dictators. While the top story slots for Europe’s newspapers on Monday morning were reserved for the news and images of the Israel hostage deal, as the morning ground on and the clock counted down to Trump-hour these stories were rapidly displaced with inauguration content, with many publications incapable or unwilling of hiding their...

French President Emmanuel Macron is reportedly leading efforts to deploy a European force of up to 100,000 troops to Ukraine as peacekeepers in the event of ceasefire deal brokered by incoming President Donald Trump. According to a report from Reuters, President Elect Trump impressed upon Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky during a meeting on the sidelines of the reopening of the Notre Dame Cathedral earlier this month that American troops will not play a role in guaranteeing the safety of Ukraine following any peace deal negotiated with Moscow.

A European couple who videotaped the subway chokehold death of Jordan Neely could be “incredibly favorable” to ex-Marine Daniel Penny’s defense at his upcoming trial, his lawyers say — but the mystery lovebirds have refused to testify. Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Maxwell Wiley revealed Monday that the two European eyewitnesses have rebuffed prosecutors’ bid to get them to turn over the footage and return to the city for Penny’s trial next month, according to a transcript obtained by The Post. The couple “apparently took a video of the incident, and since that time have declined to testify in the Grand...

The UK has become the first European country to approve lab-grown meat to be sold to the public, with the synthetically developed protein expected to appear on the shelves as early as this year. British regulators have given the approval to UK-based firm Meatly to begin selling its lab-grown meat as dog food to the public. The approval paves the way for taste-test trials with dogs to begin for its new pet food, which will include proteins derived from cultivated chicken cells. The co-founder and CEO of the startup, Owen Ensor told The Telegraph on Wednesday: “The European Union has...

In reaction to the attempted assassination of Donald Trump, leading left-wing political figures in Europe pointed the finger at gun rights in America, with the former head of the UK Labour Party in the European Parliament saying that Republicans “reap what they sow” for defending the Second Amendment. The failed assassination attempt on former president and current frontrunner in the 2024 election Donald Trump at a campaign rally, which claimed the life of an audience member and left two others critically wounded, is already being used for political points scoring to forward the anti-gun agenda of the left in Europe....

In what part of the world were cats first found? And how did the different breeds arise? Cats were first domesticated about 10,000 years ago in the area known as the Fertile Crescent. This area stretches from Turkey to Northern Africa and includes Iran, Iraq and Egypt. Research data from the School of Veterinary Medicine at the University of California, Davis, where cat genetics are studied, suggests that Turkey is one of the sites of origin for the domestication of cats. Cats started living close to people when people ceased being nomadic herders and became farmers raising livestock and crops....

Sports news and commentary Deadspin has been sold again — and its entire staff has been laid off. Deadspin, once owned by Gawker Media, became part of G/O Media in 2019. In a memo to company staff Monday, G/O Media CEO Jim Spanfeller announced that Deadspin was sold to European firm Lineup Publishing. With the sale, the staff of Deadspin is getting pink-slipped. “Deadspin’s new owners have made the decision to not carry over any of the site’s existing staff and instead build a new team more in line with their editorial vision for the brand,” Spanfeller wrote in the...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Western leaders descended on Kyiv Saturday to mark the second anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen traveled overnight to Kyiv by train along with Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. They arrived shortly after a Russian drone attack struck a residential building in the southern city of Odesa, killing at least one person. Three women also sustained severe burns in the attack Friday evening on a residential building, regional Governor Oleh Kiper said on his social media account....

The Jerusalem Post reported on Monday that the nation of Hungary, on two occasions, blocked attempts by the European Union to make a consensus statement against the anticipated Israeli military operation against Hamas in the southern Gaza town of Rafah, where the bulk of Hamas terrorists are thought to be concentrated.EU’s Foreign Policy Chief Josep Borrell reportedly tried to unite all 27 member states behind a statement calling for an “immediate humanitarian pause” in the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, a move that Israel argues would allow Hamas to regroup and rearm its terrorist elements.According to the report, Borell eventually succeeded...

And so it begins. Nine months still to go before the next US presidential election and already the Republican party favourite and former President Donald Trump is sending eyebrows and blood pressure skywards in Nato capitals with his provocative statements. And yet they will delight many of his supporters. Suggesting at a rally in South Carolina that he would "encourage" aggressors (for example Russia) "to do whatever the hell they want" with Nato countries that fail to pay their dues has prompted an immediate condemnation from the White House. A spokesman called the comment "appalling and unhinged", saying it was...

The cost of racial and ethnic diversity is incredible. In just 6 years the United Kingdom has seen a 5 billion pound increase in spending on police services (www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-funding-for-england-and-wales-2015-to-2023/police-funding-for-england-and-wales-2015-to-2023) in England and Wales, a 41% policing budget increase. In just the first 9 months of 2023 Ireland’s Garda overtime budget has surged by 54%, and a further 25% increase is planned for 2024. (www.citizensinformation.ie/en/money-and-tax/budgets/budget-2024/)

Travel was halted across Europe Saturday as heavy snow blanketed cities and freezing temperatures set in following a week of deadly early-season storms. Flights were grounded in Munich and Dublin Saturday after a winter storm dumped snow across southern Germany and parts of Austria, Switzerland and the Czech Republic, disrupting travel across the continent.

The fervent push from Brussels to admit Ukraine into the European Union would see €186 billion transferred to Kyiv from other member states in addition to the billions poured into the country to subsidise the war effort against Russia. According to leaked internal assessments from the secretariat of the EU Council of the cost of admitting nine new countries into the bloc, many states that hitherto were net beneficiaries of wealth transfers would need to begin sending their limited resources abroad and wealthier economies such as France, Germany, and The Netherlands would need to significantly increase their foreign contributions

President Joe Biden’s foreign policy advisers are concerned that a victory by Italian leader Giorgia Meloni could weaken the united European coalition pushing back against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Meloni represents a populist-nationalist shift in power after Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi sought to align Italy with the European Union and teamed up with the G7 nations to push back against Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Sir Isaac Newton vs. the EC There are plenty of formal peer-reviewed industry papers and articles published in specialized international oil & gas journals regarding theoretical “huge volumes” of supposed European nat-gas “reserves”. Supposedly, such reserves would “solve” the absolutely unnecessary self-inflicted European nat-gas crisis. Furthermore, there are lots of curious back-of-the-envelope ´calculations´ plus added blah blah blah with the very same prognosis in mind. And even some European Commission members are on record describing a highly optimistic outlook on how long ( months ! ) would Europe´s natural gas reserves ´easily´ last after Russia stops delivering its traditional and...

European banks have joined Wall Street in allowing clients to trade Russian debt once again after the US Treasury gave the green light last month for investors to wind down their positions.The global market for Russian sovereign and corporate bonds froze in June after US investors were banned from buying Russian securities on the secondary market as part of the wests sanctions against Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine.