Free Republic

Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, has called for Hamas to “hand over its weapons,” immediately free all hostages and cease ruling Gaza, the French presidency said on Tuesday after receiving a letter from him. The letter was addressed to President Emmanuel Macron of France and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of Saudi Arabia, who will jointly chair a U.N. conference in New York next week to explore the creation of a Palestinian state. Mr. Macron has set a number of conditions for the possible French recognition of such a state at that meeting, including the disarmament of Hamas. “Hamas...

Reform UK’s newest MP called for the burqa to be banned in Britain during Prime Minister's Questions. Sarah Pochin, the MP for Runcorn and Helsby, used her first question at the weekly Commons session to ask Sir Keir Starmer if he would follow other European countries that have made it illegal for people to cover their faces in public places. She said: “Given the Prime Minister’s desire to strengthen strategic alignment with our European neighbours, will he, in the interests of public safety, follow the lead of France, Denmark, Belgium and others and ban the burqa?” Her question prompted an...

On January 20, 2025, the first day of his second presidential term, Donald Trump signed an executive order: “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” The bad old days of the “censorship-industrial complex,” allegedly responsible for suppressing online speech under President Joe Biden, were over.Except they weren’t. The driving force behind online censorship had never been the U.S. government, which meant that freedom of speech could not be restored by the stroke of a president’s pen. Rather, the European Union has wielded its Digital Services Act (DSA) to restrict the speech not just of Europeans but especially of Americans...

French nationalist politician Marine Le Pen launched a scathing attack on the trajectory of the European Union at the Patriots for Europe rally in France on Monday, declaring, “We don’t want to leave Europe. We want out of this Europe, because it is not Europe.” Addressing a crowd of allies and supporters from across the continent, Le Pen opened her speech with a rejection of the EU’s current direction, accusing it of becoming a “merchant, wokist, ultraliberal empire” that tramples national sovereignty and democratic choice. “Our Europe does not reside in Brussels,” Le Pen said. “What we are seeing today...

The United Arab Emirates is spending $20 billion on OpenAI’s Stargate UAE. The project is billed as a sovereign AI capability, yet it relies entirely on American chips, software, and infrastructure. This is the sovereign AI paradox: The harder nations push for AI independence, the deeper their dependencies become.The UAE is not alone. From Paris to New Delhi, governments are pouring billions into so-called “sovereign” frontier models. France backs Mistral. India promotes BharatGPT. Each promises strategic autonomy yet is dependent on a globalized stack.The term “AI factories,” adopted by Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang, rebrands data centers as strategic infrastructure akin...

Thunberg’s pathetic, self-serving stunt ended with sandwiches and water. As Israel’s Foreign Ministry says, the ‘show is over’.. The picture of Greta Thunberg being offered a sandwich and a bottle of water by an IDF soldier is perfect. Here she is, smiling sheepishly, revealing the utter hollowness of her activism. .. Thunberg and her fellow passengers aboard the MV Madleen, the boat which tried to run the naval blockade of Hamas-run Gaza, have been now taken into custody by the Israeli navy. No injuries ... Israel described the Madleen as a “media provocation”, but whatever images the activists hoped to...

Veterans gathered in Normandy on Friday to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings — a turning point in World War II that ultimately precipitated the downfall of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s regime. Roughly two dozen veterans who served in World War II traveled to the beaches of Normandy to honor the thousands that died on D-Day, as well as the tens of millions that died in the second World War. D-Day marked a significant turn in World War II as it set the stage for the defeat of Nazi Germany by effectively establishing a Western front. It essentially...

The comments, in an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, were Trump’s clearest indication to date that he was unsure he would be able to quell Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine.Ukraine and Russia may need to keep fighting, President Donald Trump said Thursday, comparing the warring nations to squabbling children in what appeared to be a signal that the U.S. leader was losing interest in brokering peace in a conflict he once promised to end in a day. The comments, in an Oval Office meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, were Trump’s clearest indication to date that...

THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Dutch opposition parties called Wednesday for fresh elections as soon as possible, a day after anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders sparked the collapse of the country’s four-party coalition government.Prime Minister Dick Schoof’s 11-month-old administration fell apart when Wilders withdrew his Party for Freedom ministers. Schoof and the ministers of three remaining parties remain in power as a caretaker Cabinet.The government, with limited powers, now has to lead the country for months before new elections and during what could — again — be protracted talks to cobble together a new coalition in the fragmented Dutch political landscape...

The Dutch government collapsed on Tuesday after the Party for Freedom led by Geert Wilders pulled out of the coalition over the government’s asylum policy. Wilders had been adamant leading up to the collapse that without strict restrictions on immigration, his party would leave the coalition government. Wilders made good on those threats Tuesday. “We had no choice. I promised the voters the strictest asylum policy ever, but that was not granted to you,” said Wilders, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Netherlands’ prime minister, Dick Schoof, said Tuesday following the Party for Freedom’s exit that he would hand...

France didn’t plan to blow the whistle on the Muslim Brotherhood’s attempt to take over Europe. But that’s exactly what it did a couple of weeks ago, when a classified report from the Ministry of the Interior leaked to the newspaper Le Figaro. The 73-page document, marked confidentiel-défense, was meant for top officials only. Based on intelligence files, field investigations, and dozens of interviews, it lays out a stark diagnosis: The Muslim Brotherhood has built an extensive ideological infrastructure in France—not through violence, but through schools, charities, mosques, and soft power. It states: “The Brotherhood’s strategy is to install a...

MADRID (AP) – Spain has cancelled a deal for anti-tank missile systems that were to be manufactured in Madrid by a subsidiary of an Israeli company, in a bid to move away from Israeli military technology, the Defense Ministry said Tuesday. The decision will affect the license for 168 SPIKE LR2 anti-tank missile systems with an estimated value of 285 million euros ($325 million). The systems would have been developed in Spain by Pap Tecnos, a Madrid-based subsidiary of Israel´s Rafael Advanced Defense Systems, according to local press. “The goal is clear…a total disconnection from Israeli technology,” government spokesperson Pilar...

US Ambassador to Israel Mike Huckabee dismissed France’s potential upcoming recognition of a Palestinian state, calling the move “revolting” while Israel fights Hamas in the Gaza Strip. “It’s incredibly inappropriate in the midst of a war that Israel is dealing with to go out and present something that I think increasingly Israelis are steadfast against,” he told Fox News. Huckabee’s comments came after French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday that recognizing a Palestinian state, with conditions, is “not only a moral duty, but a political necessity.” Macron also said that European countries should “harden the collective position” against Israel if...

The riots followed Paris Saint-Germain's victory in the Champions League game.At least two people were killed and hundreds more were injured in Paris following a European soccer championship, as protesters waved Palestinian flags and clashed with police. Chaos erupted across the city after thousands of people took to the streets to celebrate Paris Saint-Germain winning the Champions League, the most prestigious title in European soccer. Videos and photos from the riots showed people clashing with police, crashing through barriers, destroying vehicles, climbing monuments, and causing mayhem. Protesters waived Palestinian flags amid the chaos, following an anti-Israel protest during the championship...

Feckless French authorities were seen standing by and doing nothing today as illegal migrants carried toddlers onto dangerously overloaded small boats ready to cross the Channel for Britain. In infuriating scenes the French police officers were seen with their hands on their hips and with their mobile phones out filming the moment the youngsters were crammed onto the deathtrap vessels. French authorities are failing to stop almost two-thirds of would-be Channel-crossing migrants, despite Britain paying our European neighbour almost £500,000 every day to do so. These astounding images were taken on the beaches of northern France this morning (Saturday May...

The democratic will of the Hungarian people to clamp down on the proliferation of LGBTQ+ ideology should be punished by the European Commission, a group of 16 EU countries demanded on Wednesday. In response to recent legislation passed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s conservative government to ban Pride parades in Hungary, over half of fellow European Union member states signed an open letter demanding that Budapest reverse course or face punishment from Brussels. The “declaration” was signed by the countries of Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Sweden. […]...

About 200 migrants broke into the Channel Tunnel from France while several hundred others held up lorries near Calais port on Saturday in renewed tension on the route for migrants trying to reach Britain. Scores of migrants forced their way into Eurotunnel's French terminal overnight, clashing with staff and police and causing a temporary suspension of rail services, Eurotunnel (GETP.PA) said.

The tunnel connecting Britain and France was closed to train traffic for up to 6 hours, as hundreds of ‘migrants’ engaged in a planned assault to use it to enter the UK. The Daily Express reports: Eurotunnel services between Folkestone and Calais have been suspended until at least 10am in both directions – with passengers facing delays of up to six hours. Officials believe the "large and co-ordinated" group planned the intrusion before attempting to reach Britain at around 12.30am on Saturday. A Eurotunnel sokesman said: "It's a massive invasion and intrusion by a very large and co-ordinated group of...

Eurotunnel services were suspended on Saturday after more than 200 migrants broke into its French terminal in a “massive and organised” assault. Passenger and freight services through the tunnel were halted for several hours while French police struggled to contain the invasion and remove the migrants. Two police officers and four migrants suffered minor injuries during scuffles, local authorities of the Pas-de-Calais region said. Around 100 of the migrants managed to walk as far as 15 kilometres into the Channel Tunnel during the mass break-in before police intervened to stop them getting any further.

Train services through the Channel Tunnel were on Monday halted once again by migrants, who broke through the barriers in Calais to walk along the tracks. Eurotunnel and Eurostar services were both suspended for an hour while the migrants were removed from the train lines. On Sunday the services had been disrupted for three and a half hours, after migrants were spotted clinging to a freight train in Calais. And the delays came as a Sudanese migrant appeared in court in Kent charged with trespass, having walked through the tunnel and arrived in Britain on August 4. Abdul Rahman Haroun,...