Free Republic

On Friday France's Constitutional Council upheld the new assisted death law and ruled against the social media ban law for those under the age of 15... The Russian interference narrative synonymous with some recent US elections is front and center in France's presidential election now six months away. At a Monday campaign stop one of the leading centrist presidential candidates and one of Emmanuel Macron's prime minister Gabriel Attal driving home that message. He said the government reporting linking online criticism of himself and other candidates to Russia is proof that Russia has a favorites in the 2027 Presidential Election...

US oil giant Unocal must stand trial in California for alleged complicity in human rights abuses by Burma's military junta, including forced labour, rape and torture, a judge has ruled. "Prior to its involvement in the pipeline project, Unocal had specific knowledge that the use of forced labour was likely, and nevertheless chose to proceed," Los Angeles Superior Court judge Victoria Chaney said. In the decision, Judge Chaney rejected arguments by the California-based energy firm, which built a gas pipeline in Burma, that the case should be tried at least in part under Burma or Bermuda law. Unocal had made...

There are many disturbing, deviant and remarkable aspects to the recent Netflix series Jeffrey Epstein – Filthy Rich but one of the most troubling ones – is how little effort journalists and the various strands of law enforcement are making to find Ghislaine Maxwell. Even a cursory scratching at the surface of her persona and life leads to further questions. The end of any story-line or indeed investigation should come not when all the questions have been answered necessarily but when all the questions have been thoroughly asked. A quick example. Ghislaine Maxwell has made three US political donations in...

Japan for the first time has deployed ground troops to the Balikatan exercise, a series of multidomain drills staged across the Philippine archipelago. Participation by about 1,000 Japan Ground Self-Defense Force (JGSDF) Soldiers augments the annual training that began decades ago as a Philippines-United States exercise and now involves about 20 nations. Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) personnel previously attended Balikatan as observers and in noncombat roles focused on humanitarian assistance and disaster response (HADR). They participated in a maritime drill in 2025. A reciprocal access agreement between Manila and Tokyo, which took effect in September 2025, allows JSDF and Armed...

Mainstream media in France given access to a report on the 2022 death of Jeffrey Epstein's key French associate Jean-Luc Brunel. Brunel found hanging in his prison cell early on the morning of February 19th, 2022... "strategic autonomy" The operative words this week as French Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu announced that France's Directorate for Intelligence and Security (DGSI) would break its relationship with the US tech company "Palantir"... Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot saying France 'will hot tolerate any attempt at foreign interference' in next year's Presidential Election. Mainstream media reporting says that Russian interference campaigns are underway based on recent...

The French government has revealed that an estimated ninety per cent of so-called wildfires are the result of human activity, undermining the persistent media narrative that climate change is driving spontaneous fires ravaging the countryside. On Tuesday, French Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said that 184 people have been arrested in connection with wildfires since the beginning of the summer. Those arrested are a combination of arsonists, criminals, and careless individuals, he said. According to the French Forest Observatory, around one in three (30 per cent) of wildfires are believed to have been set maliciously, Le Figaro reported. In total, the...

France and Italy bolstered border controls on Saturday after about 60,000 people crossed into Spain's enclave in North Africa, sparking one of the largest migrant crises for the European Union in recent years. The migrants entered Ceuta from Morocco, the enclave's regional president Juan Jesus Vivas told reporters, but by Friday evening officials said more than 48,000 had returned. To cross into Ceuta, many swam around a small border barrier that juts out into the Mediterranean. At least 34 people died in the attempt. The sudden influx sparked an international crisis. France tightened checks on its border with Spain and...

Italy said on Friday it was suspending the ​EU's border-free Schengen arrangements with Spain for one month in response to a mass influx of ‌migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from neighbouring Morocco. Italy does not share a land border with Spain but the measure - which looks certain to anger Madrid - will impact people travelling by plane or boat between ​the two countries, meaning they will need to show a passport to gain access. Italy's interior ​ministry said in a statement it had also agreed with Paris ⁠to strengthen controls along the Franco-Italian land border to try...

George and Amal Clooney have been forced to evacuate their home in south-eastern France as a wildfire burned nearby, his agent confirmed to Associated Press on Thursday. The Clooneys bought their hilltop estate, Domaine du Canadel, in Brignoles in the Var in 2021 and it has since become their primary residence. Last December, the French government awarded the whole family – including the couple’s nine-year-old twins – French citizenship. In a letter to Didier Bremond, the mayor of Brignoles, the actor wrote that while “at this point we have no idea whether our beautiful home makes it through this terrible...

The U.S. delegation briefly walked out of a United Nations Security Council meeting during France's address in protest on Monday after the European ally criticized America’s human rights record. Dan Negrea, an alternate U.S. representative to the U.N., accused France of feigning “moral outrage” while pretending to lecture the world about the Ukraine conflict and human rights in general. “That is why we walked out during France's intervention,” he said during a meeting on Russia's war in Ukraine. “This disingenuous grandstanding is tiresome, but we have tolerated it out of a sense of camaraderie and mutual respect as P5 members.”...

215,474 views Jul 28, 2026 Europe says confronting political Islam is impossible, but Germany has quietly been dismantling extremist networks. Using a unique "Militant Democracy" doctrine, Germany can ban and erase entire organizations overnight. Even as it takes a hard line on structures, it refuses to touch faith. This approach challenges Europe to rethink its strategy against online radicalization and foreign influence. Is Germany's narrow path the only way to win?

Germany, proud parent of the 'Destroy Your Economy and National Standard of Living Through the Climate Cult Fever Dreaming School,' has been wallowing in its own pond scum colored green glory lately.There is not a single week without a German company announcing mass layoffs or closures.Germany is in the deepest structural crisis since WWII. Government spending masks the real magnitudeIt can’t continue forever, governments need taxes from the real economy to keep spending. pic.twitter.com/DuBjY173ys— Michael A. Arouet (@MichaelAArouet) July 26, 2026Now the poster child for the horrors of life under deindustrialization (not that Britain isn't giving them a run for...

PARIS — Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz are trying to jump-start the Franco-German engine one final time. After joint ministerial meetings in Germany last week, the leaders of the European Union’s two biggest economies have tasked their governments with striking a grand bargain that they say would strengthen Europe’s industrial defenses and revive the bloc’s automotive industry — key priorities for the two countries. The pact would fuse France’s push to reserve more public procurement contracts and subsidies for European industry with Germany’s drive to rescue its ailing carmakers, whose crisis has reached an acute stage after Volkswagen warned recently...

French police were accused of "doing nothing whatsoever" to prevent dangerous Channel migrant crossings following more farcical scenes. Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp accused French gendarmes of a “shameful dereliction of duty” after they allowed a suspected smuggler who fired up the dinghy's engine to walk away free as the vessel departed. He said officers could easily have prevented the departure because the water was only “knee deep”. And he revealed how male asylum seekers were so desperate to reach the UK that they pushed women and children off in another day of carnage in the Channel. It comes as...

...the problem is not the young lady bleeding to death on the sidewalk, but those seeking to "politicise" the event. If that does not seem terribly logical, you forget that, for most of the ruling elite, it is too late to "save" old France or old Germany, even if they wanted to; therefore, the best that can be done is to use the daily human sacrifices to accelerate the transition to whatever's next. Once you discern that that's all the plan there is, the statements of Merz and Macron calling on us to resist those who would "divide" us make...

The US delegation walked out of a UN Security Council meeting on Monday, in protest at comments made by France that compared Washington's voting on human rights to that of authoritarian states. The diplomatic row was initially sparked last week, when the US joined North Korea and Russia in voting against extending Volker Turk's term as UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. After the vote on Friday, France's UN mission criticised the US and compared it to North Korea and Russia. "The US used to be a beacon of human rights. Not anymore," it posted on X. In response, US...

Lawmakers in the National Assembly and Senate imposing a social media ban for children under the age of 15. On September 1st, children under the age of 15 will not be able to establish new social media accounts... On Wednesday it was revealed that modeling scout Daniel Siad was found dead in his home in Colombes outside Paris on Monday. Siad linked to Jeffrey Epstein his name appearing almost 2,000 times in the controversial Jeffrey Epstein Files released by the US Justice Department. French authorities were already on the trail of Siad with accusations of rape and sexual violence against...

Thousands of tourists have been forced to flee a top French holiday hotspot, with many evacuated by boat to escape a raging wildfire. The area of Lege-Cap Ferret in southwestern France - an upmarket tourist destination known as the French Hamptons - is in the middle of a total evacuation with thousands of hectares of forest burning and villas going up in smoke. French President Emmanuel Macron has already requested help from the European Union as the country's growing battle against wildfires intensifies. Images showed scores of residents boarding boats this morning as they evacuated the area while a French...

A French modelling scout with close ties to the late US financier Jeffrey Epstein has been found dead at his home outside Paris, prosecutors said on Wednesday. Under investigation in France, Daniel Siad, 69, was one of several French men accused of aiding Epstein to traffic and abuse women. Siad had not yet been questioned by investigators, but had denied the allegations, saying he wanted to be heard and give his version of events. 'An investigation to determine the cause of death was opened on Monday evening following the discovery,' the Nanterre prosecutor's office said. An autopsy will be carried...

Boris Johnson appeared to take aim at the US vice president today, branding his comments that immigrants are erasing British civilisation as ‘b******s’. The former prime minister said: ‘The population of New York that was born abroad is virtually identical [to London]. ‘I think in America, about 30 per cent of people are either first or second generation immigrants. The statistic I used to cite was that 40 per cent of our population was born abroad. ‘So all these raving about civilisational erasure, “Britain's going down the tubes” - I think it’s b******s.' According to the 2021 census, around 41...