Free Republic

A comprehensive communication-scanning regime would allow national authorities to identify political opponents far more quickly -- a tool capable of making life hell for anyone inconvenient to those in power. It is Ursula von der Leyen’s personal flagship project: the surveillance of private chats. All signs suggest that as early as Wednesday, the EU will make a renewed attempt to establish a dedicated spying authority. Wednesday could mark a turning point in the history of the European Union. As MCC Brussels and MEP Martin Sonneborn warned on Monday, a decisive vote on the EU’s proposed “chat control” is scheduled for...

BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers voted on Tuesday to deepen integration of the bloc’s defense industry with Ukraine as a U.S. peace plan remains in flux and Russia’s unconventional warfare operations rattle the 27-nation bloc. European Parliament legislators voted 457-148, with 33 abstentions, to approve a 1.5-billion euro ($1.7 billion) program, with 300 million euros ($345 million) slated for the Ukraine Support Instrument. Raphaël Glucksmann, an EU lawmaker from France’s S&D party, said that the defense program “will enable us to build a more resilient and sovereign Europe” through partnering with Ukraine to build a cutting-edge military industrial complex....

According to the former head of European diplomacy, the EU should recognize the shift in American policy and respond accordinglyBRUSSELS, November 25. /TASS/. Europe can no longer consider the United States an ally after American President Donald Trump put forward his plan for the Ukrainian settlement without any input from the EU, former head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell said. As evidenced by the 28-point plan for a Ukrainian settlement, the United States under Trump can no longer be considered an ally of Europe, which is not even consulted on issues affecting its own security, he wrote on X. According...

A new “grass to gas” agricultural biomethane plant is set to provide enough energy to heat two pharmaceutical manufacturing sites by the end of next year. The state-of-the-art plant is being launched by Carbon AMS in Duleek in County Meath today. The plant is a partnership between the anaerobic digestion company, local farmers and biopharmaceutical company Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease. Carbon AMS is focused on the production of biomethane in Ireland by converting “grass to gas” through anaerobic digestion. When operational, the plant will cover 100% of the heating needs of Alexion’s two manufacturing sites in Dublin and Athlone by...

EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner has said Ireland is “very well” placed to adopt the Migration and Asylum Pact, and described the Citywest accommodation center for International Protection applicants as an example of “best practice”. He was speaking in Dublin after visiting Citywest, holding meetings with senior gardaí and the head of the Criminal Assets Bureau, as well as speaking to Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan. The Migration and Asylum Pact becomes operational this June and seeks to introduce a more harmonized approach to asylum, migration and border checks, with swifter screening, mandatory health and security checks and a streamlined...

The 28-point plan hammered out by US and Russian envoys and put to Ukraine this week came with a deadline and an implicit threat: Sign up or face the risk of being abandoned. US President Donald Trump said Friday that Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky would “have to like” the US plan, suggesting he is in no mood to negotiate. Since then, Trump has sent mixed messages, saying the plan was not his final offer but adding that if Zelensky did not accept it he could “continue to fight his little heart out.” Zelensky recognized the stark choice in a somber...

Will the European Court Decide Whether to Recognize Polygamy as a Right?The European Union, in words, boasts of being a bulwark of Western civilization, a guarantor of international peace, a guardian of free enterprise, democracy, stability, and peace among peoples, having created the largest single market in the world and promoting “rights, freedoms, and cooperation.” In reality, as repeated in other analyses, the European Union is undergoing a drastic Sinicization, with all that this entails.Moreover, to confront the steep demographic decline and the growing Islamization of the continent, bureaucrats—especially the more progressive ones, though not only them—must reckon with internal...

While Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government is catapulting Germany into a debt spiral, long-struggling Argentina has begun paying down its liabilities. President Javier Milei is holding up a mirror to Berlin’s debt-addicted political class -- and the reflection is one of unmistakable failure. It took Argentina’s President Milei barely six months, right in the middle of the severe economic crisis he inherited from his socialist predecessors, to clean up a completely ruined public budget. That was in June of last year. This week, the Finance Ministry in Buenos Aires reported something that, in Germany today, would probably be dismissed as fiscal...

The head of the French armed forces said his country must be prepared to send its children to die in a war with Russia. “Russia is convinced that the Europeans are weak. However, we are strong, fundamentally stronger than Russia,” Chief of the French Defense Staff General Fabien Mandon said. “We have all the knowledge, all the economic and demographic strength to dissuade Moscow’s regime. What we are lacking, and that is where you have a major role, is the strength of soul to accept pain to protect what we are.” He added, “If our country is weak because it...

The United States government has warned that mass migration represents an “existential threat” to Western civilization and has warned Europe against the continuing open borders policies and the creation of two-tier justice systems that favor foreigners over native populations. In a shot across the bow against the open borders ideology that has taken hold in the halls of power in many Western European capitals, the U.S. State Department urged its allies “to take bold action and defend citizens against the threats posed by mass migration.” The diplomatic arm of the Trump administration also warned that its embassies will be actively...

In Berlin’s Charlottenburg district, there is an unusual library. The Library of Conservatism (Bibliothek des Konservatismus or BdK) was founded in 2012, based on Caspar von Schrenck-Notzing’s extensive private collection of right-wing and libertarian non-fiction books. Today, it has a catalogue of roughly 35,000 titles from German and European writers—including early prints from authors such as Roger Scruton, Edmund Burke, Ernst Jünger, and Carl Schmitt. Soon, though, none of these titles will be accessible to many German academics and researchers. Without any explanation, the BdK is being thrown out of the Gemeinsamer Bibliotheksverbund (GBV), one of the largest library networks...

No further Nato expansion. Occupied Ukrainian territory recognised as Russian, including by the US. No prosecution for Russia for war crimes. These are some of the clauses – part of a ‘surrender document’, brokered by Donald Trump – that Ukraine is facing after almost four years of war. Buried in the middle of the 28-point ‘peace blueprint’ being hammered out between the US and Russia, clause 14 stands out like a flashing sign. It offers up $100 billion in frozen Russian assets – repackaged as a fund for reconstruction, with the US pocketing half the profits. Meanwhile, Russia would be...

The US State Department will focus on “natural rights” like freedom of speech in its next human rights report, a senior State Department official said Thursday, as the Trump administration targets traditional European allies for alleged freedom of speech restrictions. The move further institutionalizes changes seen in the latest report released in August, which covered the 2024 calendar year. That report alleged “significant human rights issues” in allied countries including the United Kingdom, France and Germany over “serious restrictions on freedom of expression.” The State Department instructed all embassies and consulates in a diplomatic cable Thursday to begin preparing the...

Nov 18 (Reuters) - Hamas rejected the United Nations Security Council passing a U.S.-drafted resolution endorsing U.S. President Donald Trump's Gaza plan, saying it fails to meet Palestinians' rights and demands and seeks to impose an international trusteeship on the enclave that Palestinians and resistance factions oppose. "Assigning the international force with tasks and roles inside the Gaza Strip, including disarming the resistance, strips it of its neutrality, and turns it into a party to the conflict in favor of the occupation," the group added.

It’s been a weird year for Spanish tourism. Scroll through the British press and you’d think Spaniards are fed up with tourists altogether, from protests in Mallorca to “Tourists go home” graffiti in Barcelona. But behind this noise, travel experts say something else is happening: misinformation. Now, British travel agencies have had enough. The UK’s main travel association, ABTA, has launched a guide to help agents explain the situation to worried clients. In doing so, they push back against what they call a “distorted picture” of Spain’s relationship with tourism. A guide for Brits travelling to Spain Speaking at the...

Ireland’s media regulator began an investigation into social media platform X on Wednesday over concerns it is not giving users a chance to appeal content moderation decisions and that its internal complaint-handling systems are not easy to access. The probe, the first opened by the regulator in its role supervising the compliance of platforms established in Ireland with the European Union’s Digital Services Act, will assess Elon Musk-owned X’s compliance with parts of the law. […] The investigation arose from concerns held by the Irish regulator’s supervision team, as well as information provided by a non-governmental organization, HateAid, and a...

The hunt for the assets of the former East Germany’s ruling party has the hallmarks of a thriller. There are dubious characters, bags of cash, and key witnesses who suddenly die. At its heart is the question: How do you stash away 6 billion marks?

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said he is not “afraid” of Donald Trump unlike other western leaders and dismissed reports that their last meeting in Washington was volatile, adding that he had good relations with the US president. He also said in an exclusive interview with the Guardian that King Charles had helped build relations with Trump and described the British monarch as “very supportive” of Ukraine. The Ukrainian president denied claims Trump had tossed maps of the battlefield aside in a stormy exchange in October at the White House, where he had arrived hoping to secure supplies of US Tomahawk cruise...

Embedded video linked to X Pro-Palestinian protesters attempted to firebomb a concert by the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra in Paris on Thursday night. During the performance, which was held at the prestigious Philharmonic Hall in Paris, dozens of protesters broke into the hall, chanted anti-Israel slogans and lit flares. The music was stopped and the musicians began to leave the stage. A post published by the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music at Tel Aviv University read: "Pro-Palestinian protesters firebombed a concert and the musicians were removed from the stage. After the matter was resolved, the they were brought back on stage to...

After New York City’s race for mayor catapulted Zohran Mamdani from state assembly member into one of the world’s most prominent progressive voices, intense debate swirled over the ideas at the heart of his campaign. His critics and opponents painted pledges such as free bus service, universal childcare and rent freezes as unworkable, unrealistic and exorbitantly expensive. But some have hit back, highlighting the quirk of geography that underpins some of this view. “He promised things that Europeans take for granted, but Americans are told are impossible,” said the Dutch environmentalist and former government adviser Alexander Verbeek in the wake...