Free Republic

---SNIP--- The government, a major recipient of U.S. military aid that maintains ties with Israel, has arrested and charged 186 activists with threatening state security since the war began, according to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights. Many of them said they were protesting peacefully and collecting donations for Gaza. Still, the severity of the crackdown surprised European activists. Antonietta Chiodo, who traveled to Cairo from Italy, said those awaiting further instruction had been detained, interrogated, treated harshly by Egyptian authorities or deported.

Over the past two decades, a reclusive Swiss billionaire has poured more than $800 million into left-wing causes across America, and now states are fighting back. Hansjörg Wyss, 89, a Swiss national with an estimated net worth of roughly five billion dollars, has quietly become one of the most influential donors on the American left. He has spent more than $800 million bankrolling hundreds of left-wing causes across the United States, donating millions to climate change groups, abortion activists, and the Clinton Foundation. Information about him is sparse, but his sister once wrote that Wyss seeks to “(re)interpret the American...

The European Commission is issuing burner phones to officials traveling to the United States amid fears of espionage in Trump’s America. It’s the kind of security measure typically saved for trips to China or the Ukraine, where the fear of IT surveillance is high. But three European Commissioners will test out burner phones and basic laptops at International Monetary Fund and World Bank meetings in Washington next week, sources told the Financial Times. The move from the European Commission, the primary executive arm of the European Union, marks a new era of American-European relations, which have all but dissipated since...

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is facing global blowback after announcing a dramatic series of tariffs on countries around the world, with U.S. adversaries and allies alike promising crushing responses that could devastate the American economy.Stock markets in the United States, Europe and Asia plunged in the aftermath of President Trump’s announcement, which included a 10% base rate hike on nearly all foreign imports. Still other countries and trading blocs, including China, the European Union, South Korea and Japan, were hit with higher rates.“We’re now preparing for further countermeasures to protect our interests and our businesses if negotiations fail,” Ursula...

A judge in the United Kingdom has ordered President Trump to pay more than $820,000 in legal fees to the company representing former British spy Christopher Steele after he unsuccessfully sued over a dossier. In 2022, Trump filed a claim against Orbis Business Intelligence, a firm founded by Steele, a former MI6 agent who published a 35-page dossier that featured claims about Trump ahead of the 2016 election. Trump argued the company violated British data protection laws and that he suffered a personal and reputational damage because of the claims. However, in 2024, London Judge Karen Steyn tossed out the...

Germany’s outgoing Chancellor voices the frustrations felt across the European ruling class at President Donald Trump tearing up the status quo on trade, decrying an “attack”.The European Union, which has been hit with tariffs twice as high as post-Brexit Britain given the bloc’s protectionist policies and tariffs on imports, is expressing its distress and even outrage at President Trump’s bid to reform the United States’ trade relationship with the world.Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz who is still technically in power nearly six weeks after he lost the Federal elections in February spoke in defence of the globalist status quo on Thursday....

The response from the EU is exactly what we would expect to see from the end of the 80-year-old Marshal Plan.EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyden has three big concerns with the new trade/tariff reset. I strongly suggest everyone to read the EU concerns slowly to fully absorb decades of hypocrisy now surfacing:#1 The EU will not be able to compete for U.S. market share with 20% general tariffs and 25% auto tariffs.#2 The EU must deploy countermeasures against the risk of losing industrial capacity and manufacturing to the United States.And #3 The EU must defend itself against China...

Key Points “That is what I see, that Donald Trump will buckle under pressure, that he corrects his announcements under pressure,” German economy minister Robert Habeck said Thursday. Elsewhere, outgoing German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said he believed the latest tariff decisions by Trump were “fundamentally wrong,” according to a CNBC translation. On Wednesday, Trump imposed 20% levies on the European Union, including on the bloc’s foremost economy Germany. ****************************************************************

Norway boosts spending on Ukraine by NOK 50 billion ($4.6 billion) Has benefited from high gas prices Norway lags Nordic neighbours on Ukraine aid OSLO, March 6 (Reuters) - Norway will more than double its financial pledge to Ukraine this year while also hiking its own defence spending, the prime minister said on Thursday, declaring the Nordic country faced its most serious security situation for 80 years. Norway, home to the world's largest sovereign wealth fund with assets of $1.8 trillion, has seen soaring income from gas sales to Europe as a result of Russia's 2022 Ukraine invasion, and faces...

The Russia-Ukraine War: It Should Never Have Started Three years ago, I went on Fox News to give my assessment of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. In that segment, I pointed out to host Trace Galligher that the reason for the invasion was the prospect of NATO expansion into Ukraine. Even as the invasion was mere hours old, I argued that if the Ukrainian government “would finally just make a deal that they’re not going to go into NATO, that will probably be enough for” Putin to end the war. --SNIP-- NATO: The Spark for the Russia vs. Ukraine War?...

Europeans sat aghast after Vice-President J.D. Vance dared to suggest that their socialist democracies have become illiberal, intolerant, authoritarian—and on the wrong side of global populism. Like some addict that knows his habit is killing him, and yet who cannot resist another fix, so the Euros war on fossil fuels and hollow out their middle classes. They keep borders open to massive, illiberal illegal immigration. Yet they know the result bankrupts social services, spikes crime, and turns “diversity” into dangerous ethnic and religious chauvinism and contempt for generous host countries. The recent Euro Ministers in Vance’s audience both publicly and...

President Trump stunned, strangled and humiliated Europe — leaving America's closest continental ally dazed and dumbfounded. The big picture: No amount of "Trump-proofing" could have prepared Europe for the MAGA-shaped hurricane that swept across the continent this week, wreaking torrential havoc on America's closest allies. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth perplexed and perturbed allies on his first visit to NATO by seemingly taking some of Ukraine's bargaining chips off the table before those talks began. He also demanded that Europe take ownership of its own defense so the U.S. could focus on the more urgent threat from China. But it...

"Democracy and free speech are certainly under challenge in many European countries.. The challenge is not coming from governments" "These criticisms are pretty rich coming from a President who is quite uniquely authoritarian" "Democracy and free speech are under challenge in a much bigger way in the United States, and his boss, Donald Trump, is the man who is mainly responsible for that"

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz risked the wrath of Donald Trump as blasted the U.S, President for being 'selfish'. -snip- 'The words of US President Donald Trump about the use of Ukraine's natural resources in exchange for military assistance are selfish.' Scholz argued the valuable minerals should be sold by Ukraine to pay for what it will need to rebuild after the war. He also suggested that 'all of us' - as in European allies who helped Ukraine - should be allowed access to the materials. But Ukraine seems more open to the idea of doing it Trump's way. Sharing Ukrainian...

Victor Davis Hanson 00:00 Introduction to Davos and Its Aspirations 00:41 The Elite Gathering at Davos 01:11 Critique of Davos Ideals 02:21 Donald Trump's Opposition to Davos 03:49 The Impact of Davos Policies 05:19 Conclusion and Final Thoughts “[Davos] have actual disgust for elected governments because you see elected governments make mistakes in their view. They elect people and then they do the wrong thing. They have these 19th century borders. They believe in legal-only immigration. They don't believe in redistribution of money. They believe in free market capitalism. They are opposed to diversity, equity, and inclusion. And they don't...

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck called US President-elect Donald Trump's demand that NATO allies increase their defense spending to 5% of gross domestic product unrealistic, in an interview out on Thursday. "What Donald Trump is proposing is unrealistic. We will not end up with 5%," Habeck told the Funke media group. The Greens minister called for increasing defense spending to 3.5% of GDP, stressing that the increase would be temporary. "3.5% is roughly what is currently being discussed in NATO as a medium-term goal... If we ensure a reasonable level of security for Germany...

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.

German Vice Chancellor Robert Habeck said that Europe must enact strict speech regulations on Elon Musk’s X platform to fight so-called “disinformation”. Habeck, the likely candidate for chancellor for the leftist Green party in the upcoming elections, laid out his vision for Germany and Europe in a speech to the Neuhardenberg Castle Foundation on Saturday, including more internet censorship in the wake of Donald Trump’s victory. “We cannot put democratic discourse in the hands of Elon Musk and Chinese software,” Habeck said, per Welt. Therefore, he argued, strict EU regulations must be applied to platforms such as TikTok and X.

A German newspaper published an explicit single world headline after Donald Trump emerged as the victor in the 2024 presidential election. Die Zeit, which is the country's biggest weekly paper, posted a reaction piece this morning headlined : 'F***'. The piece outlined factors that could result in scenarios for his political opponents, and was penned by Nele Pollatschek for the outlet, which has been published in the city of Hamburg since it was founded in 1946. In the article, seen by The Latin Times, she wrote: 'Last time, Trump's advisors stopped him from doing too much nonsense. 'Except that he...

Gird your loins Europe!!