Free Republic

Professional protester Greta Thunberg was arrested Tuesday in Central London while part of a mass gathering backing the Palestine Action terrorist group. The 22-year-old Swede was detained as she expressed support for the proscribed organization. In a video shared by the Prisoners for Palestine protest group, Thunberg can be seen holding a sign reading “I support the Palestine Action prisoners. I oppose genocide” at the demonstration outside the central London offices of Aspen Insurance. Two activists sprayed red paint over the front of the building before police arrived and made arrests. Prisoners for Palestine said its protest had targeted the...

Denmark said Monday it will summon the US ambassador after President Donald Trump announced he had appointed a special envoy to Greenland, the Danish autonomous territory he has threatened to annex. In response, European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Costa said they stood "in full solidarity with Denmark and the people of Greenland". Denmark said Monday it would summon the US ambassador after President Donald Trump appointed a special envoy to Greenland who immediately vowed to make the Danish autonomous territory "a part of the US". Since returning to the White House in January,...

A Palestinian doctor living in County Meath, whose family members have been killed in the war in Gaza, has called for more aid for the people of the enclave. Four of Dr Mahmoud Abumarzouq’s close relatives were killed in an Israeli strike earlier this year. At his home in Navan, Dr. Abumarzouq is going through some family photos. He knows more than most about the misery the war has brought. […] The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza has said 70,000 people have been killed, since the outbreak of the war and the 7 October attacks. …

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly said the US "needs" Greenland for security reasons and has refused to rule out using force to secure it.Denmark summoned the United States ambassador on Monday (Dec 22) after US President Donald Trump appointed a special envoy to Greenland who immediately vowed to make the Danish autonomous territory "a part of the US". Since returning to the White House in January, Trump has repeatedly said the US "needs" the resource-rich Arctic island for security reasons and has refused to rule out using force to secure it. On Sunday, Trump appointed Louisiana governor Jeff Landry...

Denmark said Monday it would summon the U.S. ambassador after President Trump appointed a special envoy to Greenland, the Danish autonomous territory he has often expressed interest in obtaining. Since returning to the White House in January 2025, Mr. Trump has said the U.S. needs the resource-rich island for security reasons and has refused to rule out the use of force to secure it. On Sunday, Mr. Trump appointed Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry as special envoy to Greenland. Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen said Monday he was "deeply angered" by the move and warned Washington to respect Denmark's sovereignty....

Activists have recreated the nativity scene in Dublin to draw attention to the conflict in Gaza. The Gaza Solidarity Nativity, organized by the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, was enacted beside the Molly Malone Statue less than a week before Christmas. The event heard reflections that if Jesus had been born today, he “would be born under siege, displaced, without access to medical treatment or nutrition”, while the wise men and the shepherds who visited him “would be taken hostage and they would be illegally detained in Israeli prisons”. It also heard a call for the Government to “move beyond empty platitudes,...

Paris insists that the decision to cancel its New Year’s Eve open-air concert on the Champs-Élysées is merely a matter of crowd control. Officials speak of logistics, unpredictability and prudence. Yet few observers truly believe this is the whole story. The reality, uncomfortable though it may be, is that Europe’s great capitals are quietly recalibrating public life in response to a persistent and ideologically driven threat — one that has now asserted itself far beyond Europe’s borders. Seen in this light, Paris’s muted New Year feels less like administrative caution and more like an admission of reality – Europe’s Muslim...

A survey from the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) has found that at least one in three Muslims living in France believe that the Sharia law should be instituted globally. In a follow up to its annual survey of Muslim opinion in France, IFOP released another poll of 1,005 Muslims over the age of 15 to specifically examine “the influence of political Islamism” in the country, notably through the Muslim Brotherhood, which the French government has accused of engaging in a decades-long campaign to undermine Western civilization. According to the survey, 32 percent of Muslims in France consider Islam...

The ammunition boxes stacked on the stage opened up to reveal figurines of angels and an infant Jesus lying in his manger. Six actors sang plaintive carols, accompanied by readings of the brooding poetry of Kharkiv writer Serhiy Zhadan. The audience sat, transfixed by the almost unbearable intensity of the spectacle. The nativity play, performed on a recent evening at Kharkiv’s puppet theatre, was a reminder that conflict has seeped into the fabric of almost everything in Ukrainian life over the past four years. “We can’t just put on comedies and escape from reality,” said Oksana Dmitrieva, the nativity play’s...

The last day for national letter delivery in Denmark is fast approaching as state-run postal service PostNord switches strategy to concentrate on parcel delivery following two decades of sharply decline in letter volumes. The postal operator announced earlier this year that it will deliver its final letter on Dec. 31 after 400 years, saying physical mail is no longer economical because the country has mostly shifted to digital correspondence and that the massive growth in online shopping requires fast, reliable parcel service.

As the Euro-Globalist failing leaders try to whip their countries into an anti-Russia Frenzy, Germany is trying to come out of this process as the country with the largest military and – it appears – the meanest intelligence services. (snip) “Spies will also be allowed to install spyware on computers belonging to enemy suspects and secretly enter their homes. When operating overseas, spies will be allowed to install tracking devices on enemy technology or weaponry – or destroy it altogether.”

European Union leaders have struck a late-night deal to lend Ukraine €90bn (£79bn; $105bn) over the next two years, after failing to agree on using frozen Russian assets. Ukraine was set to run out of cash by next spring, and European Council chief António Costa said the loan would be paid back only when Russia paid reparations for its full-scale war. "We committed, we delivered," said Costa, while Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliya Svyrydenko praised the deal as "a decisive step for economic resilience". A bid to use €210bn in Russian cash frozen in the EU, mainly in Belgium, ultimately failed...

Police, who held a line at the very gate of the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium on Thursday were pelted with potatoes by angry farmers worried a new free trade deal will see their livelihoods and industry destroyed. A government-authorized protest for 50 tractors in Brussels turned into a demonstration with “around 1,000” tractors present and over 7,000 farmers on Thursday. While the protest largely passed off without incident, there were clashes at the European Parliament building, where farmers threw potatoes and eggs and received tear gas and water cannon in return. […] The farmers are protesting the forthcoming EU-Mercosur...

A new report from the Sustainable Energy Authority of Ireland (SEAI) says that although energy related emissions in Ireland have fallen by 16% since 2018, the country has not broken the link between economic growth and fossil fuel use in a meaningful way. The SEAI says Ireland needs to double down on decarbonization, especially in transport, which is still 93% powered by fossil fuels. Ireland is legally obliged to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2030. SEAI Energy in Ireland 2025 report notes total energy-related emissions have fallen to the lowest level in over 30 years. This has been...

Downing Street insists the $40bn Tech Prosperity Deal between the US and UK that is on hold is not permanently stalled. The BBC reported on Tuesday evening that the prime minister’s office claimed that the UK remains in “active conversations with US counterparts at all levels of government” about the wide-ranging deal for the technology industries in both countries to cooperate. The agreement, previously billed as historic, was paused after the US accused the UK of failing to lower trade barriers, including a digital services tax on US tech companies and food safety rules that limit the export of some...

The EU looks set to scrap a landmark 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel cars on Tuesday, as part of a package of reforms aimed at supporting Europe's embattled auto industry. Carmakers and their backers have lobbied hard for Brussels to relax the ban over the past year – in the face of fierce competition from China and a slower-than-expected shift to electric vehicles (EVs). Set in 2023, the ban was a cornerstone of the EU's environmental Green Deal, which has come under increased pressure from businesses and right-wing politicians as the EU seeks to bolster its industry.

Hungarian Justice Minister Bence Tuzson said Budapest “will not allow Brussels to force it to accept migrants.” Hungary has filed a lawsuit against the European Court of Justice (ECJ) over migration-related fines requested by Brussels, Justice Minister Bence Tuzson announced on Monday, December 15th, describing the move as an “unprecedented step in EU history.” According to the minister, Hungary had already amended its rules following a 2020 ECJ ruling on transit zones. Despite these changes, he said, the European Commission continued to push for sanctions in order to force a change in Hungary’s migration policy and took the case back...

If there is going to be peace, why are we witnessing the largest military buildup in Europe since the end of the Cold War? When it comes to the major players on the geopolitical stage, it is far more important to watch what they do than it is to listen to what they say. And right now the actions that the major European powers are taking are telling us that they are preparing for a huge war with Russia. Ukraine was supposed to be the final piece of the puzzle for the European Union. It is an enormous chunk of...

FOR THE respectable men running western Europe’s three biggest countries, misery is heaped upon misery. All are presiding over stagnant living standards and declining global influence. In Britain and France their rivals from the populist right are itching to take power (even the Alternative for Germany, or the AfD, may win a couple of state elections next year). And America, their key ally, has just accused them of hastening Europe towards what it calls “civilisational erasure”. Those three leaders also warn of a catastrophe—if the parties of the populist right should triumph. Friedrich Merz, Germany’s chancellor, describes his government as...

In Donald Trump’s telling, London is governed by a “horrible, vicious, disgusting mayor”, Sadiq Khan. European leaders are “weak”, their nations “decaying” and the EU was established to “screw” the US. Trump reserves much of his sharpest criticism for America’s allies in Europe. The US president’s frustration with Nato members over their failure to meet the alliance’s defence spending targets was well known. The level of antipathy was not. “It came kind of out of nowhere,” said Jeremy Shapiro, research director of the European Council on Foreign Relations, who has studied recent foreign policy debates within the Republican party. “This...