Free Republic

"It is a very unusual day", said Social Democrat MP Helge Lindh as he approached the German Bundestag by foot Wednesday morning. He was referring to crowds of protesters gathering outside the parliament building. Their goal was to stop the new infection protection law, intended to make it easier for the government to swiftly introduce lockdown measures in the fight against the coronavirus pandemic. Several hundred demonstrators defied bans to protest outside the parliament buildings and in the surrounding government district. Some protesters even tried to block access to the building, before the protests were dissolved by police. "It must...

BALLINA, Ireland - Some 3,000 miles east of Delaware, nestled inland from Ireland's wild Atlantic coast, lies the small town of Ballina, the ancestral home of President-elect Joe Biden. Since his projected win, the close-knit town of 10,000 people in County Mayo has erupted in joy over the success of the man they claim as their own. American flags fly on street corners, a large painted Biden mural overlooks the town square, while photographs of a beaming Biden hang proudly in shop windows, with slogans that read: "Our man in the White House." In 2016, he brought his children and...

In a memoir to be released on Tuesday, former US President Barack Obama offered a slew of praise for German Chancellor Angela Merkel. […] Over the years, he found Merkel to be increasingly agreeable, he said, calling her "reliable, honest, intellectually precise and friendly in a natural way." […] He additionally outlines Merkel's career in brief for readers, saying that while growing up in the former East Germany, Merkel initially "kept her head down." Over the course of her rise to the top of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) party, however, Obama writes that Merkel demonstrated what went on to...

Constitutional amendment proposed to enshrine defence of so-called ‘Christian values’ Moments before Hungary entered a second coronavirus lockdown on Wednesday, the far-right government signalled its intention to pass a range of new legislation, including to make it harder for opposition political parties to join forces and to change the constitution to enshrine the defence of so-called “Christian values”. Opposition politicians criticised both the substance and timing of the moves. The proposed constitutional amendment, submitted to parliament by the justice minister, Judit Varga, late on Tuesday, is the latest assault on LGBT rights in the country, where legal recognition for gender...

Proposals follow creation of ‘LGBT-free zones’ in Poland and Hungary’s proposed ban on adoption Brussels has put itself on a collision course with the Polish and Hungarian governments after proposing to criminalise hate speech against LGBTQ+ people under EU law and secure recognition of same-sex partnerships across the bloc’s borders. Věra Jourová, a European commissioner, said the measures followed new “worrying trends”, with the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights reporting that 43% of LGBT people had declared feeling discriminated against in 2019, compared with 37% in 2012. The proposals were announced as part of the commission’s first ever strategy to...

Prime Minister Boris Johnson described his phone call with former Vice President Joe Biden as “refreshing”, in an apparent dig at President Donald Trump, who he referred to as the “previous president”. On Tuesday, Boris Johnson revealed that he had spoken to the 77-year-old Democrat, to congratulate him after the mainstream media declared him the winner of the presidential election, as well as to discuss future ‘Build Back Better’ opportunities on issues such as climate change.

The latest spate of terror attacks in France and Austria will not hamper the cooperation between the government and Germany’s Muslim community, Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Tuesday. “We won’t let terrorism and extremism derail us,” Seehofer said at the start of this year’s German Islam Conference. Seehofer praised an Islamic theology program for German-speaking imams in the city of Osnabrück as a significant contribution towards preventing radicalization. The interior ministry-funded project is “money well-spent for societal cohesion in our country,” Seehofer said. […] With many imams receiving their religious training abroad, very often in Turkey with the contentious...

The European Union is poised to move next week to impose tariffs on $4 billion of U.S. imports in retaliation for U.S. subsidies for planemaker Boeing, EU diplomats said, teeing up an eleventh-hour showdown with U.S. President Donald Trump.

On this date in 1920, 18-year-old Irish Republican Army Section Commander Kevin Barry was hanged in Dublin’s Mountjoy Prison for the murder of English Private Harold Whitehead in an IRA ambush just six weeks prior to the execution. Denying the authority of the British (civilian) court, the young medical student went undefended, insouciantly reading the newspaper in court as the government built its case against him. His was the first execution of the Irish War of Independence, and stoked Irish nationalist sentiment on the island and abroad.

Yes, It's Appropriate for Francis to Remain Silent on the Nice Attacks in His Angelus Address -- It Would Be Grotesque Otherwise Vincent Loquès - Simone Barreto Silva - Nadine Devillers (Nice Martyrs) Usually, at the Angelus/Regina Caeli sung each Sunday on St. Peter's Square, the bishop of Rome mentions some important events of the past week that are of his concern. Today, Francis remained absolutely silent about the most terrifying event of the week for Catholics, the terrorist attack in Nice, which victimized three Catholics, are new Martyrs Nadine Devillers, 60; Vincent Loquès, 45; and Simone Barreto Silva,...

Homosexuals in Ireland believe that Pope Francis should initiate church blessings for same-sex couples. On October 21, 2020, We Are Church Ireland, a Catholic reform group that supports LGBT values, announced that the pope, who spoke out in favor of legalizing same-sex marriage, should initiate a church blessing for these marriages, according to Novenanews.com. We Are Church Ireland said in a press release that the organization "warmly welcomes the excellent news that Pope Francis is supporting civil unions for couples of the same sex." According to representatives of the organization, this is "a very important step for Pope Francis and...

Britain's main opposition Labour party has suspended its former leader Jeremy Corbyn, in a stunning development that followed the release of a damning report by the UK's human rights watchdog. The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) on Thursday identified "serious failings" with how Labour dealt with anti-Semitism in the party during Corbyn's time as leader. Corbyn responded to the report by saying that while he condemned anti-Semites, the scale of the problem under his leadership had been "dramatically overstated for political reasons." Those comments drew a swift and dramatic response from the party. "In light of (Corbyn's) comments made...

Both Germany and France announced new nationwide lockdowns on Wednesday as Europe enters a deadly new phase of the coronavirus pandemic. Chancellor Angela Merkel says German officials have agreed to a four-week shutdown of restaurants, bars, cinemas, theaters and other leisure facilities in a bid to curb a sharp rise in coronavirus infections. Merkel and the country's 16 state governors, who are responsible for imposing and easing restrictions, agreed on the partial lockdown in a videoconference Wednesday. It is set to take effect Monday and last until the end of November. Merkel said, "We must act, and now, to avoid...

The European Space Agency (ESA) signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on Tuesday (Oct. 27) formalizing its collaboration on Gateway, a planned outpost in lunar orbit that NASA sees as key to its Artemis program of crewed moon exploration. Under this new agreement, ESA will provide Gateway with a habitation module and a refueling module, both of which the European agency will operate once the hardware is up and running. ESA contributions will also include two additional service modules for NASA's Orion capsule, the spacecraft that will launch Artemis astronauts from Earth atop the agency's Space Launch System (SLS) rockets....

Germany will be plunged back into lockdown with restaurants, bars and theaters closed for a month to stop the rapid spread of COVID-19, officials announced Wednesday. Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s 16 state governors said the partial shutdown will go into force Monday, saying it’s needed after a recent surge in new infections. “We must act, and now, to avoid an acute national health emergency,” Merkel said in a videoconference.

Chancellor Angela Merkel on Tuesday urged Germans to “stick to what we know” about the coronavirus as the country battles a second wave of infections. “We know how we can protect ourselves. We can proceed with a more targeted response,” she said in Berlin. “But we also see with the rising numbers that if we do not stick to what we know about the virus, we get ourselves back into situations are that are decidedly difficult.” Merkel was speaking ahead of a key meeting with state leaders, brought forward to Wednesday, at which she is expected to push for tougher...

<p>But it leaves in place the right of legal abortions in cases of rape, incest, and the health of the mother.</p> <p>Apparently, this just isn’t good enough for the pro-abortion crowd that wants abortion on demand anytime and all the time.</p>

Under new Covid restrictions passed into law last night in the Dail, a priest can now be fined, or imprisoned, or both, for saying Mass in public. The same applies to any minister of religion who holds a public act of worship. This is drastic, draconian and unacceptable and must raise questions about the Constitutionality of the measure, quite apart from its total disproportionality. Aside from Wales, the Republic of Ireland appears to be the only place in Europe where public worship has stopped, and in our case, now attracts penal sanctions. Prior to this pandemic, when did such a...

German Medical Association president Klaus Reinhardt has been forced to clarify his position on mask-wearing after his claim that there was no “scientific evidence they are actually helpful” sparked an outcry from politicians and doctors. Reinhardt told a TV talk show on public broadcaster ZDF that he had doubts wearing simple non-medical masks outdoors was effective against the coronavirus. Such face coverings, he said, offered “no protection at all” to those wearing them, and only “very little protection against infecting others.” A sharp rise in coronavirus cases across Germany in recent weeks has led to stricter rules in many cities,...

The town of Fermoy in County Cork has cut ties with its Polish twin, Nowa Dęba, over a motion opposing “LGBT ideology”. All six councillors in Fermoy voted to sever the town’s 14-year relationship with the eastern Polish town, which had included exchange visits and cultural events, said Councillor Noel McCarthy who proposed the vote. “We terminated because we felt that their local authority had discriminated against the LGBT community,” Mr. McCarthy said, referring to a motion passed by Nowa Dęba in 2019. […] Nowa Dęba’s 2019 resolution pledged to “defend our tradition, culture and religion against aggressive, deceptive and...