Free Republic

It was a small gesture with big historical, moral, and political impact. During his visit to France, Pope Leo XIV stopped and prayed in front of a staircase at the Garden of the Carmelites on the campus of the Catholic University of Paris. Those stairs—just four small steps—are etched with the words, Hic Cicidereunt (“Here they fell,” as in, were killed, in Latin). Pretty flowers garlanded the gray stone as the Pope paused, and the cameras clicked and whirred. …

The harsh reality for France and French consumers is that three wars have squeezed France's energy supplies and surged its energy prices. First the Ukraine War cutting off oil and natural gas from Russia due to sanctions. Then the Iran War shutting down Persian Gulf oil and natural gas shipped through the Strait of Hormuz. And finally the Yemen War with Houthi forces in Yemen able to disrupt a major oil pipeline for almost two weeks vital to supplying France and Europe... This week a Frenchman accused of espionage was freed from prison in Azerbaijan. The release of Martin Ryan...

Over the past two generations, something remarkable has happened across the developed world: People have stopped having children. In the United States today, the average woman is expected to give birth to about 1.6 children over her lifetime—far below the level needed for a population to replace itself, and the lowest figure ever recorded. Sixty years ago, at the end of the baby boom, that number was more than twice as high. The details differ from country to country, but the direction is the same almost everywhere. French fertility has fallen from nearly three children per woman to fewer than...

In view of the brutal and hellish record of its failed communist messiahs, past and present, it is only right that the ideology and actions of the current government of Cuba be confronted and resisted by the U.S. istorian Paul Johnson, author of Modern Times, described the 1930s as “the age of the heroic lie.” “Saintly mendacity” became its most prized virtue. Stalin’s Soviet Union was built on sanctified fabrications that characterized communist ideology and practice. The creation of Stalin as a communist messianic figure was part of the “saintly mendacity.” Johnson wrote that views of Stalin written in the...

France will send troops and defense systems to Saudi Arabia to help protect the Red Sea port city of Yanbu, which is key for energy transport, French President Emmanuel Macron has said in a TV interview. He also denied a report by Spanish newspaper El Mundo that the US Central Intelligence Agency had warned European governments of possible Russian drone attacks from the Mediterranean.

Many decades ago (or so it seems, it was actually January 2023, but things move fast in AI-world) I wrote a Spectator piece claiming that The End of Writing was coming, thanks to AI. In return for this favour, I got large amounts of angry and derisory scorn, mainly from writerly types, who banged on about the uniqueness of human creation, but also from techy people, who pointed out that as a mere hack I could not possibly know anything about AI, and anyway AI was just a glorified next-word-predictor. Now, I’m not the sort of cheap, mean-minded person who...

NATO endorsed an agreement between the US and Denmark to expand Washington's military presence in Greenland, potentially forestalling President Donald Trump's demands to take over the Arctic territory. The agreement provides a potential US veto power over Russian and Chinese investments on Greenland, makes permanent Washington's military presence, and allows for more US bases. The deal notably falls short of American ownership — an earlier demand by Trump that had strained NATO to its breaking point. The deal should "begin the process of healing," Atlantic Council experts said, though the specter of US aggression against treaty allies kicked off a...

The Great Greenland Crisis has ended, and Donald Trump has declared victory. Last Friday, the president announced that he had reached a deal with the Danes that would give “the United States permanent control over security, and all other needs, in Greenland, completely addressing ALL of our many U.S. concerns.” The barren, icy prize is finally ours. Or is it? Despite the usual bluster, bravado, and social media posts showing Greenland colored in with the Stars and Stripes, Trump’s avowed aim of annexation was not accomplished. The Dannebrog will still flutter in the Arctic breeze. According to a statement put...

This week Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu calling for extensions of fuel subsidies for construction, farmers and fishermen until the end of the year. With fishermen staging blockades in protest this week Lecornu calling for their subsidy of 25 cents per litre to be upped to 35 cents. The 15 cents a litre for farmers and 20 cents a litre for construction... This week Marine Le Pen interviewed by French news channel "LCI" taking on the issues including the Ukraine War, the Iran War and domestic matters. Le Pen said she is ready to become President of France following the 2027...

Two wars have cut France off from supplies of natural gas. First the Ukraine War shutting off the flow of Russian gas in 2022 now Middle East gas supplies disrupted by the Iran War. On October 1st the price of natural gas in France will rise on average 6.3 percent. This follows a 5.6 percent rise on September 1st... France joined the UK and Canada along with nine other countries in imposing sanctions on Israeli nationalist settlements this week. Israel bristled at the decision with immediate retaliation against the UK... France has also weighed in on the tensions between Israel...

Two paintings by the impressionist artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir have been stolen from a museum in the south of France. Two thieves broke into the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer early on Tuesday, seizing four paintings but dropping two of the works in the museum gardens as they escaped, local Mayor Bryan Masson said. The paintings, worth €9m (£7.7m; $10.4m), are the latest high-profile pieces to have been stolen in a string of recent heists in Europe which have thrust the security of art in galleries and museums into the spotlight. One of the most high-profile was in October last year, when...

British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband on Tuesday announced import ban on goods from illegal settlements in the the West Bank, as well as sanctions against specific individuals and businesses that provide services such as construction, instruction, financing or real estate for settlement expansion. The announcement was carried out in coordination with France and Canada.On August 19, UK Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband said he would introduce a comprehensive set of measures in “the coming weeks.” Nevertheless, the timing has been criticized, coming just days before the Jewish High Holy Days begin - which has already been flagged as a dangerous period...

The Presidential Election year budget in France to be considered in the coming months with opinion polling this week pushing the notion of public support for cutting spending. The opinion poll conducted by the government itself with 40 percent respondents speaking of France's current financial situation as "very worrying'. That is up five percent from January... South Korea's President Lee Jae Myung on a four-day visit to France starting tomorrow. President Lee and French President Emmnuel Macron discussing security and economic connections between France and South Korea... France's increasingly confrontational stance towards China reflected in the new rules imposing fees...

Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama was quick to blame the bankruptcy of Wall Street giant Lehman Brothers on Republicans’ “failed philosophy”. Obama’s September 15 comments were repeated throughout the media--yet reporters have not noted Obama’s glaring conflict of interest—the Lehman debt owed to a bank owned by the financier who loaned millions of dollars to Tony Rezko.

Russia has said its forces helped to repel Saturday's attempted coup in Niger. Explosions and gunfire rang out across capital, Niamey, early in the morning, including at a key military airbase and the presidential palace. Hours later, Niger's authorities said the rebellion had been contained. Nigerien forces had repelled the attack "with the assistance of servicemen of the African Corps of the Russian Ministry of Defence", the foreign ministry in Moscow said on Sunday. The ministry also said it would continue to support Niger in its fight against "extremists", but that the situation was now under the control of the...

New polling last weekend put Marine Le Pen in a very favorable position to win the Presidential Election next spring. The National Rally (RN) candidate well ahead in a first round of voting at 35-38 percent of the vote. Her closet rival leftist Jean-Luc Melenchon of La France Insoumise (LFI) at 16-17 percent. If the two moved into a second-round Marine Le Pen would easily defeat Mr. Melenchon 64-36 percent... New polling out this weekend done for BFM-TV confirming the strength of Marine Le Pen. She beats all potential second round opponents including the best-positioned centrist Edouard Philippe... Seven presidential...

Socialism’s sectarian logic, pseudoscientific hubris, and the inescapable path from guillotine to Gulag C. The sectarian, antidemocratic, and antirational character of egalitarianism has been exposed with grim consistency across two centuries of revolutionary experiment. From the Jacobin committees of public safety to the Politburos of Moscow, Beijing, and their satellite regimes in Africa and Asia, the pattern recurs: utopian doctrine, once armed with state power, converts political disagreement into existential crime and answers it with systematic slaughter. A political monster from birth, socialism—along with its Siamese twin, communism, the progeny of egalitarianism and collectivism—does not merely fail to deliver abundance;...

Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe paid an unannounced visit to Moscow yesterday, spending eight hours in the Russian capital before returning to the US. Though he visited the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov denied that they had met – though Ratcliffe certainly spoke to his counterpart Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s SVR external intelligence service, and other top Russian security officials. The list of topics urgent enough to prompt the first personal visit of a US cabinet-level official to the Kremlin in six months is short. Ratcliffe could have been responding to reports of a planned Russian escalation...

🚨BREAKING: Marine Le Pen now has largest poll lead EVER France will be saved 🇫🇷 Le Pen (RN-PfE): 38% (+2) Mélenchon (LFI-LEFT): 17% (+1) Attal (RE-RE): 14% (-2) Retailleau (LR-EPP): 9% (+1) Hollande (PS-S&D): 8% Zemmour (REC-ESN): 4% (-1) Tondelier (LÉ-Greens/EFA): 4% (-1) Roussel (PCF-LEFT): 3% Dupont-Aignan (DLF→ECR): 2%

In less than six months the first round of France's Presidential Election will be held on April 18th with the second-round set for May 2nd if no candidate gains a majority. The leading candidate in polling right now is Marine Le Pen of the National Rally (RN). Her likely opponent in the second round would be a centrist candidate in the mold of current President Emmanuel Macron either Edouard Philippe or Gabriel Attal former Prime Ministers for Mr. Macron. Leftist candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon likely to fall short in a first round if recent polling is accurate. Marine LePen envisions a...