Free Republic

The governor has been an unmitigated disaster for California. Why is he urging global resistance to a duly elected president? Mr. Newsom is in Davos, Switzerland this week, not for a ski holiday, but to attend the 2026 World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting. His latest appearance exemplifies the petulant, sore-loser mentality that plagues him, the California legislature, and the national Democratic Party post-2024. Newsom is using the global stage not for constructive dialogue but to shockingly lambaste world leaders for their supposed “complicity” in dealing with Trump, urging them to instead “buck up” and “grow a backbone” against the president’s...

Violent protests erupted in several Swiss cities as American flags were burned and riot police clashed with demonstrators ahead of President Trump’s arrival in Davos, Switzerland, for the World Economic Forum. Trump is scheduled to arrive Wednesday and is expected to deliver a speech at the annual gathering of global political leaders and corporate executives. His visit comes amid heightened tensions with European leaders after Trump doubled down on his push to acquire Greenland for U.S. national security reasons and declined to rule out military options. The Davos forum, held in eastern Switzerland, is one of the world’s most high-profile...

The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) remains Europe’s largest data enforcer by a wide margin, having issued €4.04 billion in fines since May 2018. The annual Data Breach Survey from law firm DLA Piper found that Ireland’s GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) fine total is almost four times more than second-placed France. The DPC issued the largest fine of 2025, a €530 million penalty against TikTok over the transfer of the personal data of European users to China. TikTok is currently appealing the ruling. The Data Breach Survey shows that European GDPR fines totaled approximately €1.2 billion in 2025, consistent...

Just as Europe needs its Franco-German power couple to unite to tackle U.S. President Donald Trump’s growing menace to Greenland, relations between Paris and Berlin are under strain. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is vowing to form a joint front with his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in the coming days — revving up the cross-Rhine alliance often described as the engine of the EU — to secure a breakthrough with Trump. But building what Merz calls a “common position” with Macron doesn’t come at an easy moment. Both sides will need to put aside months of frustration, suspicion and bad blood....

Prime Minister Mark Carney delivered a frank assessment of how he views the world in a provocative speech in Davos, Switzerland, on Tuesday, where he said the longstanding U.S.-led, rules-based international order is over and middle powers like Canada must pivot to avoid falling prey to further "coercion" from powerful actors. Without invoking U.S. President Donald Trump by name, Carney referenced "American hegemony" and said "great powers" are using economic integration as "weapons." "Canadians know that our old, comfortable assumption that our geography and alliance memberships automatically conferred prosperity and security is no longer valid," Carney said. As it grapples...

Dear friends — Today’s subscriber-only article marks a genuinely unexpected turn. Speaking to the BBC, Broglio went further than anyone anticipated: he said Catholic service members could, in good conscience, refuse an order to invade a friendly nation. What makes this moment extraordinary is not only the substance of Broglio’s warning, but the source. This is the same archbishop who until recently was reluctant to challenge Trump-era policies at all. Yet in just a few months, he has now issued three public rebukes of the administration — on religious freedom, on extrajudicial violence, and now on the prospect of unjust...

Donald Trump’s proposed takeover of Greenland is causing rifts inside Nato that have resulted in officials withholding intelligence sharing with the US. Sources from both sides of the Atlantic warn that the US-UK security relationship is at its lowest ebb since the 1950s, putting European security at risk. For more than 70 years, the special relationship between Britain and America has been a cornerstone of the Western alliance, with intelligence and military officials working together to combat all manner of threats, from direct war to clandestine operations. But Trump’s ambitions to acquire Greenland for national security reasons is destroying trust...

President Trump is correct to want to exercise control over Greenland, but his methodology is problematic. The present situation is unworkable since we are forced to spend money and risk our personnel with little benefit to us during the immediate period. Ownership is not the only solution to this conundrum. There are several possible methods to fulfill the requirements that Trump seeks. One proposal would be modeled after the arrangement Great Britain had with China for Hong Kong, in which the former had a 99-year lease for the territory. There are many variations on this theme. Mineral resources secured could...

Former U.S. ambassador John Bolton criticizes President Trump's escalating rhetoric on acquiring Greenland, possibly by military force, because of security concerns. "This is a tragedy that just unfolds day by day, causing us more and more harm," Bolton tells "NewsNation Prime." Trump's Greenland threats aren't real, but they're harmful: John Bolton | 5:24 NewsNation | 2.52M subscribers | 302,702 views | January 18, 2026

🚨ALICE WEIDEL ANNOUNCES GERMANY WILL LEAVE THE EU When the AfD wins the next election she intends to give Germans the chance to vote to leave the "Monstrous EU" This will bring the whole thing crashing down This is why they don't want her to win

The EU has strengthened its energy security by cutting gas demand by over 20% between 2021 and 2024 and curbing gas imports from Russia. However, this progress masks a new vulnerability for the EU: Incentivising imports of US liquefied natural gas (LNG) has created a potentially high-risk new geopolitical dependency. Following Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the EU has gradually reduced its reliance on Russian gas. The bloc’s imports of Russian gas (including pipeline gas and LNG) fell by 75% between 2021 and 2025. Despite this shift, Russia remains one of the EU’s largest gas suppliers. The EU...

Americans who fled to the Netherlands in a bid to escape the Trump administration are now living in filthy refugee camps, it has emerged. According to Dutch immigration authorities, 76 US citizens claimed asylum in the country last year, a significant increase from the nine that did in 2024. Many of those who have left are transgender or parents to transgender children and are housed in the 'queer block' of an overcrowded camp in the northern village of Ter Apel, The Guardian reported. The camp, which resembles a prison, has guards stationed at every gate and offers less than desirable...

Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre replied Monday to President Donald Trump’s highly controversial letter linking his desire to acquire Greenland to being snubbed for the Nobel Peace Prize, which is given out by a committee of five chosen by the Norwegian parliament. “I can confirm that this is a text message that I received yesterday afternoon from President Trump. It came in response to a short text message from me to President Trump sent earlier on the same day, on behalf of myself and the President of Finland Alexander Stubb,” Støre replied, adding: "In our message to Trump we...

The Kremlin has announced that Vladimir Putin has been invited to join Donald Trump’s “board of peace”, set up last week with the intention that it would oversee a ceasefire in Gaza. The Kremlin spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, told journalists on Monday that Russia was seeking to “clarify all the nuances” of the offer with Washington, before giving its response. The claim of an invitation comes with Putin showing no signs of ending his invasion of Ukraine, in which hundreds of thousands have been killed and Russian troops have carried out atrocities against civilians. The Russian president has repeatedly rejected proposals...

A permanent seat on US President Donald Trump's "Board of Peace" aimed at resolving conflicts will cost countries $1 billion each, according to its charter. Invited world leaders include Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungarian premier Viktor Orban and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney. US President Donald Trump's government has asked countries to pay $1 billion for a permanent spot on his "Board of Peace" aimed at resolving conflicts, according to its charter, seen Monday by AFP. The White House has asked various world leaders to sit on the board, chaired by Trump himself, including Russian President Vladimir Putin, Hungarian premier...

Donald Trump has not ruled out using force to seize Greenland from Denmark as tensions escalate between the US and NATO. The president was asked in a telephone interview on Monday if he would use military force to take Greenland if a deal could not be reached over the Danish territory. Trump gave a simple response: 'No comment.' The president ramped up pressure as he imposed tariffs on eight European nations over their support for Greenland. The tariffs will start at 10 percent next month and rise again to 25 percent in June, remaining in place until a deal is...

Donald Tusk’s government has replaced the words “woman” and “man” in key official documents with gender-neutral terms so that same-sex marriages conducted elsewhere can be recognised in Poland. This follows the European Court of Justice’s November ruling that Poland must recognise a gay couple’s foreign marriage despite the country itself forbidding same-sex marriage. But a host of politicians and legal experts have argued that Warsaw was not obliged to introduce this change of language. Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, however, appeared to concede that the move was voluntary, saying his team “wanted to” recognise same-sex marriages. In a statement released...

The prime minister will take to the Downing Street lectern this morning, after another extraordinary weekend of diplomatic turmoil prompted by US President Donald Trump. Sir Keir Starmer knows that people and businesses in the UK will expect him to respond, in front of the cameras, to the prospect of the UK and European allies being hammered by more US tariffs. It is the latest twist in the row over Greenland, the autonomous Danish territory Trump wants to get his hands on. Trump has said he will impose new taxes on eight US allies - Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the...

European leaders are increasingly discussing the creation of an alternative security framework outside NATO, amid growing doubts about the reliability of the United States as a long-term ally following threats by US President Donald Trump to annex Greenland, Politico reported on January 19. According to European officials cited by the outlet, Trump’s remarks about Greenland—a sovereign Danish territory—marked a turning point, convincing many capitals that Washington may no longer be a dependable security guarantor. Behind closed doors, officials described the idea of annexation as reckless and warned that it crossed a clear red line for Europe’s allies. The debate has...

The return of hard-power politics is no longer a theoretical debate for Europe. From U.S. military action in Venezuela to President Donald Trump’s renewed pressure over Greenland, long-standing assumptions about a rules-based international order are being openly tested as geopolitical competition sharpens. Sir Robin Niblett, Distinguished Fellow at Chatham House, told TVP World’s On the Record that the Trump administration represents a fundamental break with decades of U.S. alliance policy. “This is a U.S. administration that believes in ‘might is right,’” Niblett said. “The view of President Trump himself is that alliances are sources of leverage, not sources of solidarity.”...