Free Republic

A social media ban for children under the age of 15 is coming into force in France. It's an idea President Emmanuel Macron has wholeheartedly endorsed... This week a four-year prison sentence given to a former Moderate Senator aligned with President Emmanuel Macron over the drugging of fellow Moderate National Assembly member. Joel Guerriau found to have drugged Sandrine Josso using MDMA (Ecstasy) with the intent of sexually assaulting her or raping her... This week France falling into line with the United States and Israel. France calling for Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps to be designated as a terrorist organization...

BANGKOK - Prime Minister Jean Chrétien has dismissed reports that his government recklessly misspent millions of taxpayers dollars. According to Auditor General Sheila Fraser's report, the Chrétien government misspent $100 million on Bombardier jets, spent money on advertising firms with Liberal connections and misused money for partisan polling. Some of the findings of Fraser's next report, which isn't due until late next month, were leaked to The Globe and Mail on the weekend. Meeting with reporters at the APEC summit in Bangkok, Chrétien said he doesn't comment on leaks but defended the purchase of the jets. "We wanted to have...

Bounties as high as $100,000 are being offered to contract killers for the murder of dozens of Israeli researchers, including some in the US, on the website of a hateful anti-Zionist group. “The Punishment for Justice Movement” website offers between $50,000 for murdering one of the Jewish academics listed — and twice that amount for the killing of “special targets” — claiming the high-achieving researchers are complicit in child murder. Home addresses, phone numbers, email addresses and social media accounts were listed for at least 40 academics, according to The Jerusalem Post. The website offered a $2,000 USD as reward...

Ireland has joined 10 other European countries calling for Israel to halt demolitions of the headquarters belonging to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in east Jerusalem by Israeli authorities. Earlier this month, Israeli bulldozers began demolishing the compound, having effectively banned the organization from operating in the country in January 2026. The joint letter was signed by Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee and the foreign ministers of Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Japan, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the UK. It described the demolition as an unprecedented act which marked the “latest unacceptable move” to undermine a UN...

The wife of a prominent lawyer was one of six killed in a horror private jet crash on a snowy airport runway. Tara Arnold, 46, wife of personal injury attorney Kurt Arnold, died along with several of her friends on a girls' trip to Paris. The Bombardier Challenger 650 business jet went down during takeoff from Bangor International Airport in Maine about 7.45pm on Sunday. Dramatic footage showed the burning wreckage of the plane upside-down on the runway. Flight data showed it veered right during takeoff and flipped at 175mph. The FAA earlier on Monday incorrectly said there were eight...

This week French President Emmanuel Macron distanced himself from US President Donald Trump's Board of Peace and seized an oil tanker of Russia's 'shadow fleet' demonstrating notions of French independence and power. The decision on not joining the "Board of Peace" by Mr. Macron explained in terms of respecting 'international law' over 'arbitrary action'. There was concern not fully expressed that the "Board of Peace" was really a mechanism to go around the United Nations in Gaza and other places like Ukraine... At one point US President Donald Trump published texts Mr. Macron sent him in an apparent effort to...

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Jan. 21 that the issue of Greenland remaining part of Denmark did not come up during his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.Rutte, in an interview with Fox News, was asked about Greenland’s sovereignty under a proposed framework Trump mentioned earlier in the day at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.“That issue did not come up anymore in my conversations,” Rutte said. “[Trump] is very much focused on what do we need to do to make sure that that huge Arctic region—where change is taking place at the moment, where the Chinese and...

PARIS (AP) — France’s navy, working with intelligence provided by the United Kingdom, on Thursday intercepted an oil tanker in the Mediterranean Sea that traveled from Russia, in a mission targeting the sanctioned Russian shadow fleet, officials said. French maritime authorities for the Mediterranean said the ship, the Grinch, is suspected of operating with a false flag. The French navy is escorting the ship to anchorage for more checks, the statement said. The tanker departed from the city of Murmansk in northwestern Russia, it said.

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....

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

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...

The treasury secretary's comments come a day after President Donald Trump unveiled new tariffs against eight European nations who oppose Washington’s efforts to acquire Greenland.The Trump administration is intensifying its push to acquire Greenland, citing national security concerns as China and Russia expand their presence in the Arctic.Speaking Sunday on NBC News' "Meet the Press," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued that the U.S. must move to acquire Greenland — which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark — because Europe is too weak to protect it from potential threats.IN CASE YOU MISSED IT | 'Fundamental disagreement': Danish official cites ongoing...

This week the appeal trial of Marine Le Pen and her co-defendants accused of misusing European Parliament funds. Last year Le Pen convicted and sentenced to four years in prison with a five-year ban on running for public office. That effectively prevents her from running for President next year... On Wednesday there were attempts to censure the government of President Emmanuel Macron following the EU approval of the free trade deal with MERCOSEUR that angered French farmers. The proposals of La France Insoumise on the Left and the National Rally on the Right fell short...

According to the French president, Paris will join the military exercises in Greenland based on its commitment to the sovereignty of states in Europe and the United NationsPARIS, January 17. /TASS/. French President Emmanuel Macron has promised a coordinated response from the European countries to the US decision to impose duties on February 1 over Washington’s wish to annex Greenland, he said on X. "Threats of tariffs are unacceptable and have no place in this context. The Europeans will respond to them unanimously and in a coordinated manner, if they are approved. We will defend European sovereignty," Macron wrote. "No...

The first members of what would later become Iran’s fearsome revolutionary guards were trained in a quiet village outside Paris. Those close to the Islamic Republic’s founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who was in exile in Neauphle-le-Château, secretly began recruiting Iranian revolutionaries in the West to establish a “people’s army”. One of the group’s founders, Mohsen Sazegara, has told The Telegraph that the aim in 1978 was to gather loyalists prepared to confront the Shah’s regime head-on in Iran. The recruits first studied the theory of guerrilla warfare before being dispatched to Beirut and Damascus for military training. There, they learnt...

The Louvre museum in the French capital, Paris, is hiking its ticket prices for most non-European visitors by 45 per cent. The famous institution was the scene last year of a daring heist which saw robbers get away with jewels worth over a $100 million dollars, blamed in part on its deteriorating state. "I want visitors from outside the EU to pay more … and for that surcharge to go towards funding the renovation of our national heritage," Culture Minister Rachida Dati said announcing the hikes in 2024. But France’s decision to increase entry costs to the help fund much-needed...

A Paris court found Monday 10 people guilty of cyberbullying France's first lady, Brigitte Macron, by spreading false online claims about her gender and sexuality, including allegations she was born a man. One defendant was sentenced to six months in prison, while eight were handed suspended sentences between two and eight months. All 10 were mandated to attend cyberbullying awareness training. The court pointed to "particularly degrading, insulting, and malicious" comments referring to false claims regarding alleged trans identity and alleged pedo criminality targeting Brigitte Macron. "Repeated publications have had cumulative harmful effects," the court said. The defendants, eight men...

“Britain and France on Saturday conducted an airstrike on an underground facility in the mountains north of Palmyra, Syria, which ISIS terrorists "likely" used to store weapons and explosives, the British Defense Ministry confirmed in a statement. Western aircraft have been conducting patrols to stop a resurgence of the terror group, the ministry noted. Our aircraft used Paveway IV guided bombs to target a number of access tunnels down to the facility," the ministry added, noting that initial indications are that the target was successfully engaged, and that no civilians were put at risk by the strikes.“

"We must make America great again. We will start in November" Actor George Clooney reacted to US President Donald Trump's jibes a Clooney's acting ability as well as his political views... last Saturday's official journal proclaimed his French citizenship... A protest opposing US aggression in Venezuela materialized in Paris this evening. A banner displayed the colors of Venezuela's flag with the words... Meanwhile Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot saying the US action attacking Venezuela and capturing President Nicolas Maduro.... President Emmanuel Macron noting the end of a dictatorship in Venezuela endorsing a 'peaceful democratic' transition. He also spoke... Late tonight the...

French startup Ÿnsect shot into the spotlight when “Iron Man” star Robert Downey Jr. touted its merits on the “Late Show” during Super Bowl weekend 2021. Now, nearly four years later, the insect farming company has been placed into judicial liquidation — essentially bankruptcy — for insolvency. The company’s demise is hardly a surprise, as Ÿnsect had been embattled for months. Still, there is plenty to unpack about how a startup can go bankrupt despite raising over $600 million, including from Downey Jr.’s FootPrint Coalition, taxpayers, and many others. Ultimately, Ÿnsect failed to fulfill its ambition to “revolutionize the food...