Free Republic

On January 20, 2025, the first day of his second presidential term, Donald Trump signed an executive order: “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” The bad old days of the “censorship-industrial complex,” allegedly responsible for suppressing online speech under President Joe Biden, were over.Except they weren’t. The driving force behind online censorship had never been the U.S. government, which meant that freedom of speech could not be restored by the stroke of a president’s pen. Rather, the European Union has wielded its Digital Services Act (DSA) to restrict the speech not just of Europeans but especially of Americans...

To combat climate change, German towns and cities are busily implementing “heat plans”. Germany has ambitious climate neutrality goals, aiming to be climate-neutral by 2045. The lives of millions of people are at risk! The so-called Heat Planning Act went into force in January 2024 and legally obliges municipalities to develop these plans. Larger cities (over 100,000 inhabitants) have until mid-2026 to do so, and smaller towns until mid-2028. One key aspect is adapting to summer heatwaves and protecting public health. This includes measures such as public awareness campaigns about staying safe during heatwaves, establishing cooling centers and long-term urban...

Veterans gathered in Normandy on Friday to commemorate the 81st anniversary of the D-Day landings — a turning point in World War II that ultimately precipitated the downfall of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s regime. Roughly two dozen veterans who served in World War II traveled to the beaches of Normandy to honor the thousands that died on D-Day, as well as the tens of millions that died in the second World War. D-Day marked a significant turn in World War II as it set the stage for the defeat of Nazi Germany by effectively establishing a Western front. It essentially...

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...

...Trump made his comments while he and Merz spoke to reporters during Merz's White House visit on Thursday. Merz pointed out that the anniversary of D-Day is on Friday, saying it was when "the Americans ... ended the war in Europe." "That was not a pleasant day for you," Trump responded "No, that was not a pleasant—well—" Merz began before Trump interjected. "This was not a great day," Trump said. Merz cut in: "In the long run, Mr. President, this was the liberation of my country from Nazi dictatorship." "That's true," Trump said Merz went on to say that "we...

In May, an American investor tried to sell top German economic officials on an audacious plan to buy a Russian undersea pipeline. Despite years of international friction over the pipeline, he proposed to eventually activate it and deliver natural gas to Germany. The investor, Stephen P. Lynch, had already made the pitch to the Trump administration, which he was betting would want U.S. control over a pivotal piece of energy infrastructure. Now the Germans wanted to hear for themselves about Mr. Lynch’s proposal to lead a takeover of the much-criticized pipeline on the floor of the Baltic Sea, called Nord...

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...

Germany's new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, will travel to Washington to meet U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday, German and U.S. officials said on Saturday. This will be Merz's first visit to the United States since taking office on May 6, and comes amid high tensions between the trans-Atlantic partners over trade and the Russian war in Ukraine. The visit was confirmed by a German government spokesman and a White House official.

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...

“The Caliphate looms; it is inevitable, and the road to its gates is paved with the skulls of English children.” —Peachy Keenan Do you hear those alarm bells ringing? Looks like June is bustin’ out all over, as the old Broadway ditty goes. Bedlam is in the air, and in more varieties than Heinz has pickles. Take your pick: civil war blooming in France and the UK, maybe even Germany — if it can shake off its psychotic stupor. World War III flutters over the continent like an answered prayer coming in for a landing. And here in the USA,...

The German government handed out a record number of citizenships to immigrants last year, rising to nearly a quarter of a million passports, with Syrian and Turkish nationals representing the largest cohorts. According to data collected by 13 of 16 federal states in Germany and provided to the Welt Am Sonntag newspaper, 249,901 foreigners were granted citizenship in 2024, the highest number since records began in 2000. This number surpassed the previous record set in 2023, when 200,095 people were awarded citizenship. Last year’s record naturalisation number is likely much higher, given that the states of Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and...

The democratic will of the Hungarian people to clamp down on the proliferation of LGBTQ+ ideology should be punished by the European Commission, a group of 16 EU countries demanded on Wednesday. In response to recent legislation passed by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s conservative government to ban Pride parades in Hungary, over half of fellow European Union member states signed an open letter demanding that Budapest reverse course or face punishment from Brussels. The “declaration” was signed by the countries of Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, and Sweden. […]...

Germany, the economic heart of Europe — the supposed gold standard of order, stability, and industrial might — is unravelling in full view. This isn’t hyperbole. It’s not nationalist hysteria. It’s a fact, carved into the skin of innocent commuters, children, and schoolteachers. What once stood as the engine of Europe is now a cautionary tale in slow-motion collapse. A nation once known for precision, discipline, and security now radiates something closer to fatigue and fear. The cracks aren’t subtle anymore, they’re gaping, and they run through every level of German society. Hamburg, one of the most vital arteries in...

Israel News Pulse @israelnewspulse Hamas Kill 5 Gazan Civilians Who Stormed Aid Warehouse in Gaza. Earlier today, hundreds of Gaza residents broke into a large warehouse in central Gaza, used by Hamas to stockpile vast amounts of food, including sacks of flour. The warehouse had been storing supplies that had not been distributed to civilians for months. In response, Hamas opened fire on the civilians, killing five of them on the spot. IDF Arabic Spokesperson Lt. Col. Avichay Adraee released footage of the incident and harshly condemned Hamas: “For months, Hamas tried to spread the lie of famine, only to...

Parties opposed to the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) continue to block it from exercising its rights—all in the name of stopping “fascism.”Germany’s self-proclaimed democracy defenders are at it again: blocking a law-abiding party from exercising its rights—all in the name of protecting democracy. The Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), a pro-free market, anti-EU, anti-mass migration party, placed second in Germany’s recent parliamentary elections, earning nearly 21 percent of the vote to the top vote-getter’s, the Christian Democratic Union’s, 28 percent. The AfD placed well ahead of the once-dominant Social Democratic Party (16 percent) and the Greens (11 percent).By longstanding tradition, the...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will leave Berlin with a new €5 billion ($5.7bn) arms package as he seeks to build his country’s arsenal, and its ability to produce weapons at home. The standout agreement in the package announced in the German capital on Wednesday centers around Germany financing the joint production of long-range missiles inside Ukraine that would enable Kyiv to strike targets deep into Russia. One significant aspect was missing. There had been big expectations prior to the news conference that Merz would announce the transfer or approval of Ukraine’s use of Germany’s highly sophisticated long-range Taurus missiles. Merz...

New statistics out of Germany reveal that foreign-born women, but specifically foreign-born Muslim women, are far more violent than native German men. The Remix News staff, which reported on the story, quipped that the revelation “blows up a common myth that has been perpetuated by the left for years”—that men are so violent, a bear is preferable company. (Again, never mind the fact that men, to their own detriment, have been protecting their women for essentially all of human history.) Here are the numbers for 2024: Out of 100,000 people, German men were suspects in violent offenses in 272 cases....

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) seems to be vulnerable in his home state of South Carolina’s Republican primary, a Lynch for Senate poll commissioned with Pulse Opinion Research found. The top lines of the survey spell bad news for Graham, as 57 percent of Republican primary voters in his state “would not vote for Lindsey Graham if the election were held today,” according to the press release. The poll found that likely voters in South Carolina are “dissatisfied with Lindsey Graham and are just as likely to vote for a more conservative, America First candidate.”