Free Republic

Russia - Masque Of The Red Death Vladimir Putin has been hailed perhaps as the pivotal post cold war Russian leader. He has executed a skillful dog and pony show, convincing both the Bush and Blair administrations that the former Soviet Union was not only no longer a military threat to the West but was indeed now becoming a close ally. Obviously Russia's cooperation with the French and German UN delegation's intransigence in dealing with Iraq has done much to throw cold water on this heretofore-budding union. It's important to note that such a relationship offered hope, though ultimately unfounded,...

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...

One common Israeli tactic to get information about Israel's adversaries is to leak news out to elicit a denial of the leaked story... This week Israel's "Ynet News" claimed that France had backed away from plans to recognize a Palestinian state. But the Elysee Palace denied the content of the story... This week three Serbian nationals charged with paint vandalism of five Jewish sites in Paris last Friday. The judge in the case alleging the Serbs acted on behalf of a foreign power... And a story getting a lot of attention in the French media in the last 24 hours....

Whales, as the largest mammals on Earth, have long been an important resource for human societies, whether it be for food, oil, or other materials. According to a report by Popular Science, hunter-gatherers in present-day Spain and France have been crafting essential tools from whale bones for much longer than previously thought. A new study analyzed 83 bone tools found at sites along the Bay of Biscay and 90 additional bones from the Santa Catalina cave in Spain. The investigation relied on mass spectrometry and radiocarbon dating to determine that humans living in the region have been making whale-bone tools,...

ransomnote: At the link, there's a chart showing the proxy war in the Ukraine.Sir Keir Starmer’s flagship plan to transform the armed forces has been undermined in less than 24 hours after Nato demanded the Government spend 3.5 per cent of GDP on defence.On Monday, the Prime Minister unveiled his long-awaited Strategic Defence Review (SDR), setting out the future of the British forces and how they would adapt to future battlefields, with a focus on AI, drones and cyber technology, while remaining a “Nato first” military.However, Sir Keir declined to commit to a firm timeline on when he would hit...

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...

Derek VanBuskirk, a reporter from the Daily Caller, was racially profiled by a black apparent South African while on his way to the country to investigate claims of genocide in the country. “After 30 hours of travel, I got here about an hour and a half ago. I actually have already been racially profiled,” VanBuskirk said in a video shared on X. “It actually happened in Paris as I was getting onto the plane.” VanBuskirk told his colleagues a black man with a what appeared to be a South African accent stopped him at the airport gate as he was...

France is no longer France.

Two people have been killed and 500 have been arrested in France during PSG victory celebrations, authorities said on Sunday. Paris Saint-Germain beat Inter Milan 5-0 to win the Champions League for the first time in the team's history. CNN reported that as of Sunday morning, nearly 560 people had been arrested, including 491 in Paris. There were 320 people placed in police custody and 254 of them were in Paris alone. Police chief Laurent Nuñezs said a 17-year-old died from stab wounds and a man in his 20s died in a collision with a vehicle.

The Associated Press recorded an incident that led to widespread discussion and speculation as President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Vietnam... The incident seized on by critics of Mr. Macron including online influencer Candace Owens... (The tensions with Israel again boiling over on Friday as President Emmanuel Macron warned of a toughening French stance on Israel likely to include sanctions on 'right-wing' cabinet ministers and Jewish settlement in Judea and Samaria (The West Bank)... France's enemy of the future foretold on Friday in Singapore as President Emmanuel Macron spoke of France establishing security and other ties with Asian nations... In the...

“Make sure the door remains closed,” the US president has quipped over a video showing France’s First Lady shoving her husband on a plane US President Donald Trump has said Emmanuel Macron is “fine” following an incident in which his wife Brigitte appeared to slap her husband aboard their plane.The footage, which quickly went viral, was filmed as the French first couple arrived in Hanoi, Vietnam, on May 25 to begin a Southeast Asia tour. As the aircraft door opened, Macron was seen speaking to someone off-camera. Two arms in red sleeves then reached out and pushed his face,...

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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...

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,...