Free Republic

President Catherine Connolly has said the story of Saint Patrick symbolises the "resilience and courage" of migrants. Ms Connolly used her first St Patrick's Day message to celebrate migrants and warn against the "normalisation of war" ahead of Taoiseach Micheal Martin's meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Tuesday. A week ago she criticised the "deliberate assaults on international law" in the Middle East and said the UN charter "cannot be ignored". While not naming the US or Israel explicitly, this was seen as a rebuke of the Irish government after ministers avoided stating that the bombing campaign...

“What does Trump expect a handful of European frigates to do that the powerful U.S. Navy cannot?” German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Monday. “This is not our war, and we didn’t start it.” “Neither the United States nor Israel consulted us before the war, and ... Washington explicitly stated at the outset ​of the war that European assistance was neither necessary nor desired,” German spokesperson Stefan Kornelius added.

A clear left-right split among voters is showing the further decline of the establishment political parties. The RN’s Franck Allisio, 2024. TrisHR (cropped). The first-round of the French municipal elections have seen a strong showing for the National Rally (RN), which could in turn predict a strong performance in next year’s French presidential race. Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) also performed well. In contrast, the traditionalist parties of recent history—Socialists and Les Républicains—are undergoing a process of collapse. In Marseille RN candidate Franck Allisio tied with the incumbent leftwing mayor, Benoît Payan, with both securing more than 35.4%...

In an expedited procedure, the European Commission recently raised tariffs on ceramic and porcelain products from China. Additional tariff measures are also being considered to protect the European internal market from the Chinese export engine. Is the EU economy now facing a trade war with Beijing, alongside the potential import halt on rare earths? Tensions in international trade policy are escalating on multiple fronts. After the U.S. Supreme Court initially declared the tariff regime implemented by President Donald Trump since April of last year unlawful, it appears the administration has explored new ways to stabilize its tariff policy going forward....

European Union foreign ministers showed “no appetite” to expand an EU naval mission in the Middle East to the Strait of Hormuz for the time being, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas says. US President Donald Trump has called on other nations to help police the strait after Iran responded to US-Israeli attacks by using drones, missiles and mines to ‌effectively close the channel for tankers that normally transport a fifth of global oil and liquefied natural gas. The EU’s Aspides mission — named after the Greek word for “shields” — was established in 2024 to protect ships from attacks...

Almost 40 per cent of new homes built by 2030 will be needed for migrant housing, Conservative Party analysis shows. The research is based on the Office for Budget Responsibility's latest Economic and Fiscal Outlook which expects a net migration of 1,172,792 people between 2026 and 2030. The means there would need to be around 499,000 extra homes to house new arrivals, according to the ONS average household size. During the next four years, the UK is forecasted to build 1.34million new homes, meaning 37.1 per cent could be used to home migrants. The figure was used to hit out...

In a public statement released Monday, Sturm Ruger said Beretta is attempting to “stealthily” gain control of it through discounted share purchases and strategic board appointments. Ruger further alleged its proposals for a collaborative business relationship with Beretta were rebuffed, and that the company threatened to “go to war” if its takeover demands were not met. “Beretta sought to buy Ruger stock at a 15% discount from Ruger in a private placement and to obtain disproportionate board representation and voting power that would give it near-veto power over important matters,” the company said. “Ruger’s board will continue to protect Ruger’s...

https://fakti.bg/en/world/1040027-ukraine- The Supreme Court of Ukraine recognized for the first time a de facto marriage between two men, UNIAN reported, quoted by tsn.ua. The men in question are Zoryan Kissa, first secretary of the Ukrainian Embassy in Israel, and Timur Levchuk, a social activist. This was reported by the non-governmental organization Insight LGBTQ (NGO "Insight"). „Opponents of equality tried to interfere in the personal lives of two people and annul their victory. But the country's highest court gave a clear answer – a third-party organization that has no connection with the couple cannot simply come and annul decision concerning their...

President Catherine Connolly has described the situation in the Middle East as a “deliberate assault on international law”. President Connolly’s comments come after the US and Israel’s conflict with Iran entered its second week. She said that “violations of the UN Charter cannot be ignored” and described what is being witnessed as “shocking and numbing”. In a statement marking International Women’s Day, President Connolly said: “What we have witnessed in recent days in the Middle East, and beyond, are not political disputes. They are deliberate assaults on international law, the international laws that have underpinned global peace for 80 years....

Germany’s “social-ecological market economy” is a textbook illustration of this dynamic. The state declares hydrogen and other favored technologies to be the “future,” pours billions into subsidies, and attempts to construct markets by decree. Yet even an official body like the Federal Audit Office now describes this as a “planned economy approach” and doubts that the government will reach its own goals. In all likelihood, Germany is about to confirm once again what Mises showed in theory a century ago: planned economies do not deliver their promised outcomes. Instead, they generate rising costs, failing projects, and increasing chaos—while making society...

EU Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné on Wednesday presented a strategy shutting Beijing out of EU public funding by introducing a European preference in strategic sectors. Countries which limit access to their own markets through local content rules would also be cut off. The European Commission on Wednesday unveiled its long-awaited industrial plan, rolling out a “European Preference” that shuts China out of European public funding and tightens the screws on Beijing’s future investments in the European Union. The move comes after 200,000 European jobs were wiped out in energy-intensive industries and the automotive sector since 2024, with 600,000 losses projected this...

***Marco Rubio insisted Tuesday that he was misunderstood one day prior when he said the US attacked Iran on Saturday because “we knew that there was going to be an Israeli action” that would “precipitate an attack against American forces.” Rubio walked back his prior statements after President Trump flatly denied that Israel chose the timing of the attack — maintaining in an Oval Office pool spray hours earlier, as he had in interviews, that he chose to attack after unsuccessful US-Iran talks Thursday in Geneva. “This was a question of timing, of why this had to happen as a...

The US launched preemptive strikes against Iran after learning Israel was about to attack — and American troops in the region faced an imminent threat of retaliation, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday. Rubio made the revelation on Capitol Hill, where he briefed a small group of congressional leaders on the joint US-Israel offensive.'There absolutely was an imminent threat,' Rubio stated. 'And the imminent threat was that we knew that if Iran was attacked, and we believed they would be attacked, that they would immediately come after us, and we were not going to sit there and absorb a...

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot held a call on Monday with his ​Chinese counterpart Wang Yi to discuss ‌the Iran war and both agreed to work on de-escalation, Barrot's office said in a statement. Both ministers ​committed to seeking a political solution ​that would guarantee collective security and take ⁠into account the aspirations of the ​Iranian people, the statement said. Barrot "reiterated the Iranian ​regime's responsibility for the ongoing escalation, after it unjustifiably attacked several countries in the region," the statement ​said. He also criticised the Iranian regime for ​refusing to respect the resolutions from the United Nations' ‌Security ⁠Council...

Britain, France and Germany have announced coordinated cooperation with the United States and its allies regarding the escalating confrontation with Iran, signalling a widening international involvement in the crisis. In a joint statement issued on Sunday evening, the three European powers said they had agreed to work alongside Washington and partner states and were examining defensive measures aimed at neutralising Iran’s missile capabilities.

President Trump announced the US is going to “cut off all trade with Spain” over Madrid’s lack of support for the attack on Iran. “We were going to cut off all trade with Spain. We don’t want anything to do with Spain,” he said during an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Trump spent several minutes complaining about the NATO allies’ refusal to allow the US to use their military bases to attack Iran and argued that they don’t spend enough on defense. “Spain has been terrible,” he said. “Spain actually said that we can’t use their bases.”...

The Jewish Representative Council of Ireland has expressed “deep concern” about the number of anti-Semitic incidents recorded here over a six-month period up to January this year. A community reporting mechanism established by the JRCI has reported 143 such incidents in that time period. The JRCI has called for the development of “a dedicated national plan to counter growing anti-Semitism”. The incidents were recorded through a JRCI online reporting form between July 2025 and January 2026. The report says some incidents were recorded by JRCI staff acting as intermediaries, based on information received through direct contact, email, or follow-up conversations....

With St. Patrick's Day taking place on Monday, Ireland had a rather curious day of celebrating the saint who spent years of captivity there. As video footage shows over X, the Ha’Penny Bridge bridge in Dublin has not only featured Irish flags, but Palestinian flags over the weekend as well. Despite how anti-Israel the Irish government has been, other social media posts, especially when it comes to pro-Palestinian accounts over Instagram, claim that the flags were flown by protesters because their government isn't Palestinian enough. Irish celebrate St Patrick’s Day in Ireland by waving PALESTINIAN flags next to Irish flags....

A court in Cologne found no clear evidence that the AfD’s overall political direction amounted to an “anti-constitutional tendency.” AfD co-leader Alice Weidel speaks at the Bundestag on January 29, 2026 in Berlin.A court in Cologne has dealt a significant blow to Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, ruling that it may not, for now, classify the opposition Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” organisation. In a decision published on Thursday, February 26th, the Administrative Court said that the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) must await the outcome of the main legal proceedings before treating...

Basil the Great@BasilTheGreatRupert Lowe asks "What about the human rights of the British people not to be raped, stabbed or killed by foreigners who should never have been in our country to begin with"OTHER MP'S ARE OUTRAGED AND HECKLE HIMWhat the f*ck is going on?