Free Republic

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticized French President Emmanuel Macron over his call to halt arms deliveries to Israel to use in Gaza. Macron told France Inter radio that "the priority is what we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza."... Netanyahu responded: "Shame on them", referring to Macron and other Western leaders who have called...

* The European Union on Friday voted to adopt definitive tariffs on China-made battery electric vehicles (BEVs). * "Today, the European Commission's proposal to impose definitive countervailing duties on imports of battery electric vehicles (BEVs) from China has obtained the necessary support from EU Member States for the adoption of tariffs," the EU said in a statement. * The EU added that it was still working in China to look for "an alternative solution" even as the tariffs are adopted.The European Union on Friday voted to adopt definitive tariffs on China-made battery electric vehicles (BEVs). "Today, the European Commission's proposal...

The newspaper "Le Monde" covered the assassination of the Secretary General of Hezbollah and the terrorist with flattering descriptions of his love for sports: "a die-hard fan" • Journalist Alba Ventura was outraged and responded on the local TV channel: "to read and vomit". Sports Staff. 1/10/2024, 01:50, updated 1/10/2024, 01:53 Shame and disgrace. The assassination of Hezbollah Secretary General and terrorist Hassan Nasrallah, a welcome move that was one of the significant bright spots in light of the tense security situation in recent times, was widely covered in Israel as well as in the world. However, not all media...

France has in many ways become accustomed to the savagery that has swept the country in the last decade. But the murder of a 19-year-old female student last month may prove a turning point. The young woman, named only as Philippine, was a student in Paris, described by her peers and her lecturers as clever, conscientious and compassionate. A member of the Scouts, Philippine was one of six children all brought up in the Catholic faith. She lived in Paris during the week but returned to her home near Versailles each weekend, where she would attend church each Sunday. The...

No more diplomatic games from Biden and Blinken.. Biden has seen enough. On Sept. 26, the United States joined nine other countries and the European Union to demand a three-week ceasefire across the Lebanon-Israel border. "It is time," the group said in a statement, "to conclude a diplomatic settlement that enables civilians on both sides of the border to return to their homes in safety." I've consumed a lot of multilateral mush during the Biden years. Never have I encountered a statement as disingenuous, deluded, and feckless as this. Notice who signed it: the United States, Australia, Canada, the EU,...

A Moroccan migrant rapist suspected of killing a 19-year-old French girl in Paris was set free from prison early and despite having a deportation order was not removed from the country before the murder, sparking demands that the new government finally crack down on immigration. France has once again been rocked by another gruesome murder apparently at the hands of a migrant, as the body 19-year-old student, named as Philippine, was discovered Saturday half-buried in the Bois de Boulogne park of the affluent 16th arrondissement of Paris. The murderer, referred to as “Taha O.”, is a 22-year-old migrant from Morocco...

Electric cars are up to twice as expensive as petrol or diesel vehicles to run... Running an electric vehicle (EV) can cost more than 24p per mile, while a diesel vehicle is 12.5p .. 80p per kilowatt hour ... A typical electric car will travel 3.3 miles for every kWh of electricity used, meaning rapid and ultra-rapid chargers currently cost the equivalent of 24.1p per mile. ... This is about double the average diesel car, which will do 43 miles per gallon, resulting in a cost of 12.5p per mile at current prices. A typical petrol car costs 14.5p per...

Donald Trump doesn’t know how to stop the war in Ukraine, despite claiming he could end it on his first day as US president, Volodymyr Zelensky has said.In his harshest criticism yet of the Republican presidential nominee, the Ukrainian president also described Trump’s running mate JD Vance as “dangerous” and “too radical”.“His message seems to be that Ukraine must make a sacrifice,” Mr Zelensky said of Mr Vance in an interview with the New Yorker magazine before he flew to the US to present his “Victory Plan” to the White House this week. “But I believe that we have shielded...

Axe-wielding Algerian was recently arrested and the entrance of a synagogue was set ablaze, adding to tension in the countrySuppressed identity politics has burst into the open in France, a country that hosts Europe's largest Jewish and Muslim population, as attacks against French Jews increase in number and violence. “Words like Jewish, Zionism and anti-Semitism are being used by different people with different intentions,” said Jewish human rights lawyer Arie Alimi. “There isn't enough education about what those words mean.” France's social model, in which citizens are expected to be moulded by Republican values and keep religious beliefs private, is...

September 2nd, is a historic day. It is the first time ever that an Islamic cleric will have to stand trial for issuing an assassination fatwa... 20 years since policemen wearing bulletproof vests and carrying machine guns arrived at my home. They gave me ten minutes to pack, pushed me into an armoured car and drove me off to an unknown destination. The evening of November 4, 2004, was the last time that my wife and I were in our house. Since that moment, we have been forced to live in various safe houses. We have lost our freedom and...

Could Finland´s next President be a foreigner? Finland´s current President Alexander Stubb speaking to the public. Finland´s President Alexander Stubb Credit: Alexander Stubb, Facebook Finland´s future President may be a foreigner, said current President Alexander Stubb during a recent presidential Q&A session on the local Yle Radio Suomi. The Finnish President emphasised that 10 per cent of residents in Finland have foreign backgrounds and argued that the future could see a foreign national leading the country. “Racism should not be politicised. Every nation has to go through this discussion,” emphasised Stubb. “In Finland, 10 per cent of people were not...

French prosecutors on Wednesday freed Telegram CEO Pavel Durov from police custody after four days of questioning over allegations that the messaging app is being used for illegal activities. Durov was detained on Saturday at Le Bourget airport outside Paris as part of a judicial inquiry opened last month involving 12 alleged criminal violations. “An investigating judge has ended Pavel Durov’s police custody and will have him brought to court for a first appearance and a possible indictment,” a statement from the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

German liberal and Green parties are pretty dang slick, even when their backs are up against an election wall. There's no quit in them, even when the pooled water that hosed blood from the murdered bodies of their fellow Germans off the sidewalk and cobblestones is barely dry on the pavement. ... the overwhelming problems inherent with the unrestricted immigration policies that began during the Angela Merkel years and have increased the misery index exponentially. In June, I wrote a post about the plague of "knife crimes" in Germany - they average sixty A DAY - and how those constant...

French President Emmanuel Macron acknowledged Monday that authorities had arrested the founder and CEO of the widely used messaging app Telegram, saying it was "not a political decision at all" and that Pavel Durov's fate was in the hands of France's independent judicial authorities. French media said Durov was detained Saturday over Telegram's alleged failure to moderate criminal activity on the platform, which has also been used by pro-democracy activists worldwide. Macron said France remained committed to the tenets of "freedom of expression and communication, to innovation and entrepreneurship," but added that "freedoms are exercised within a framework established by...

George Washington University (GWU) law professor Jonathan Turley slammed “global censors” Monday morning on “Fox and Friends” following the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov. French authorities arrested Durov, the billionaire creator and messaging app CEO ... concerns many in the European Union have for potential chilling of free speech. ... People need to realize what’s really going on here. We haven’t seen anything akin to a charging sheet, but it appears that he’s being arrested under these European laws that are designed to force social media companies to engage in censorship,” Turley said. ... the “most infamous” European law...

Telegram chief executive Pavel Durov has been arrested by French police at an airport north of Paris. Mr Durov was detained after his private jet had landed at Le Bourget Airport, French media reported. According to officials the 39-year-old had been arrested under a warrant for offences related to the popular messaging app. Russia's embassy in France is taking "immediate steps" to clarify the situation, according to Russia's TASS state news agency.

PARIS/MOSCOW, Aug 25 (Reuters) - Pavel Durov, the Russian-born billionaire founder and owner of the Telegram messaging app, was arrested at Le Bourget airport outside Paris shortly after landing on a private jet late on Saturday and placed in custody, three sources told Reuters. The arrest of the 39-year-old technology billionaire prompted on Sunday a warning from Moscow to Paris that he should be accorded his rights and criticism from X owner Elon Musk who said that free speech in Europe was under attack. There was no official confirmation from France of the arrest, but two French police sources and...

Germany is set to start enforcing a law that demands social media sites move quickly to remove hate speech, fake news and illegal material. Sites that do not remove “obviously illegal” posts could face fines of up to €50 million (£44.3 million; $60 million). The law gives the networks 24 hours to act after they have been told about lawbreaking material. Social networks and media sites with more than two million members will fall under the law’s provisions. Facebook, Twitter and YouTube will be the law’s main focus, but it is also likely to be applied to Reddit, Tumblr and...

The CEO and founder of the encrypted social media app, Telegram, Pavel Durov, was arrested on August 24 at Le Bourget airport near Paris as he was departing his private jet.Durov's arrest has triggered a heated debate with most influencers seeing it as an onslaught on free speech. A hashtag #FreeDurov popped up on X. Former US presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. tweeted: "France just arrested Pavel Durov, founder and CEO of the encrypted and uncensored Telegram platform. The need to protect free speech has never been more urgent."Naomi Seibt, a German conservative political activist, dubbed anti-Greta by the...

Rumble CEO Chris Pavolvski announced on Sunday that he has escaped France and departed communist Europe. Pavlovski, who runs one of the largest social media companies in the world in Rumble, has always vowed to make his platform an oasis for free speech unlike the far-left tyrants at Google-YouTube who allow leftists to spew unlimited amount of lies but will not allow conservative voices a voice on the platform without restrictions. Pavlovski wrote on X: Chris Pavlovski: I’m a little late to this, but for good reason — I’ve just safely departed from Europe. France has threatened Rumble, and now...