Free Republic

WARSAW (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 10th January, 2023) Poland is asking for the US Congress' help in making Germany agree to paying reparations for the damage inflicted on Warsaw during the Second World War, the Polish government's envoy for reparations, Arkadiusz Mularczyk, said on Tuesday. Poland has already made the same request to UNESCO, the Council of Europe, and the United Nations, as well as 50 countries, including EU and NATO member states. "We are counting on the support of our partners from the United States, US legislators, in the issue of Poland receiving compensation for the consequences of...

The term "climate terrorists" has been named Germany's "non-word" for 2022, according to a jury of linguists in Marburg in Hessen who said the term discredited people who campaigned for climate protection measures and compliance with the Paris Climate Agreement. The jury criticized the phrase "climate terrorists" for defaming and criminalizing activists. The climate crisis, Russia's war on Ukraine and the migration discourse dominated the search for the "non-word" of 2022. According to the jury, non-violent protest and democratic resistance is placed in the context of being anti-state by equating climate activists with terrorism. The focus of the debate shifts...

Jan. 9 (UPI) -- The Swiss National Bank said Monday it was anticipating a $143 billion loss for 2022, the steepest loss in the bank's 116-year history. The bank said this is only a provisional calculation for 2022 performance. Though it took a hit last year, the bank said it was expecting a $4.5 billion profit from its gold holdings. Its positions in gold could be supportive during the new year, according to a research note from Denmark's Saxo Bank. Analysts there said precious metals in general are in vogue. "Gold's newfound resilience and momentum from December has been carried...

British intelligence may have been leaked to Russia by an alleged German double-agent, an expert on Berlin’s spy services said. British spy chiefs are reportedly furious about the affair, which saw a senior figure inside Germany’s Federal Intelligence Service (BND) arrested shortly before Christmas. In one of the most spectacular double-agent scandals in decades, Carsten L, head of a division inside the BND’s signal intelligence wing, was arrested on charges of high treason in December. Germany believes that he was responsible for passing on highly sensitive battlefield information from the Ukraine war to the Russians. The case will likely have...

Counter-terrorism police have raided a home in western Germany after a man was suspected of preparing a terrorist attack with cyanide and ricin, officials say. The man was taken into custody. The operation took place on late Saturday night, just before midnight, when a heavily-armed team with protective clothing raided an apartment in Castrop-Rauxel, a small city in North Rhine-Westphalia. “The residence of a 32-year-old suspect, who is an Iranian citizen, was searched by order of a judge,” police said in a statement. “The accused is suspected of having prepared a serious act of violence endangering the state by procuring...

Anti-terrorist investigators arrested an Iranian national in the Ruhr area who is said to have prepared an Islamist attack. The investigators searched the 32-year-old 's apartment in Castrop-Rauxel on Sunday night. The man is suspected of having obtained the toxins cyanide and ricin for the crime, said the Düsseldorf public prosecutor , the Recklinghausen police and the Münster police early on Sunday morning. The 32-year-old was reportedly taken into custody along with another man. It was initially unclear how far the attack plans had progressed and whether there was already a concrete target. The investigation was still ongoing in the...

Father, into your hands I commend my spirit” (Lk 23:46). These were the final words spoken by the Lord on the cross; his last breath, as it were, which summed up what had been his entire life: a ceaseless self-entrustment into the hands of his Father. His were hands of forgiveness and compassion, healing and mercy, anointing and blessing, which led him also to entrust himself into the hands of his brothers and sisters. The Lord, open to the individuals and their stories that he encountered along the way, allowed himself to be shaped by the Father’s will. He shouldered...

Vladimir Putin suffered yet another devastating blow over the weekend after 700 Russian soldiers were killed in a Ukrainian missile strike, RadarOnline.com has learned. In a stunning development to come as Russia’s war against Ukraine quickly approaches the one-year mark, the deadliest strike yet reportedly took place on Saturday as Putin was giving his annual New Year’s address from Moscow. According to Ukrainian intelligence, 700 Russian soldiers were killed when Ukrainian forces launched a missile barrage on a barracks building in Makiivka, Donetsk. The building also reportedly held numerous armored cars, boxes of ammunition, and missiles that were ultimately destroyed...

Paula Bonhoeffer saw the risks of educating her small, impressionable children in the state’s schools. ... Dietrich Bonhoeffer (1906-1945), the German theologian who was hanged in April 1945 by the Nazis for spying on and opposing Hitler’s regime. .... Eric Metaxas’ biography of the Christian martyr—Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Prophet, Spy—... time to learn more about the man who defied Hitler and paid with his life. ... Metaxas’ work offers a penetrating look into Bonhoeffer’s life, mind, faith, and family. Bonhoeffer was not the only remarkable person in his family. Karl and Paula Bonhoeffer—Bonhoeffer’s parents—brought eight children into the world in the...

German youth in migrant-heavy neighborhoods once again turned Berlin and other German cities into war zones on New Year’s Day, but this year, news reports indicate that attacks were especially brutal and targeted rescue services, including ambulance workers.In Berlin, police and firefighters responded to 3,943 incidents, with 15 firefighters and 18 police officers injured. According to Bild newspaper, there were “particularly bad attacks in the hotspot neighborhoods of Kreuzberg and Neukölln with a high proportion of migrants.”“There were dozens of attacks,” says Interior Senator Iris Spranger, of the Social Democrats (SPD).In Kreuzberg, for example, after young men set fire to...

Famous German virologist Christian Drosten believes the coronavirus pandemic has ended and COVID-19 is now an endemic disease. And Justice Minister Marco Buschmann called for the last restrictive measures to be lifted. The COVID-19 pandemic can be considered over because it is now an endemic disease, the German virologist Dr. Christian Drosten told the Tagesspiegel newspaper. "We are experiencing the first endemic wave with Sars-CoV-2 this winter; in my estimation the pandemic is over," the head of virology at Berlin's Charité University Hospital said, referring to the coronavirus behind the global pandemic. After this winter, the immunity in the population...

Germany’s foreign office is reportedly paying a freelance stylist nearly $8,000 a month to keep its minister looking presentable. Claude Frommen, a renowned freelance make-up artist who has reportedly worked with major clients such as Porsche and TUI, is reportedly being paid just under $8,000 a month by the government to keep its Minister of Foreign Affairs looking windswept and interesting. The expenditure comes at a time when many Germans are struggling under massive inflation which has seen the price of fuel, food and other amenities rise substantially this year. Nevertheless, according to a report by Bild, Germany’s Foreign Affairs...

In January 2023, Kazakhstan will try to transport oil to Germany through the “Dostyk” pipeline as a test. This was stated in the press release of “Kazmunaigaz” company dated December 21. “The raw materials of KMG’s oil producing organizations are sent to domestic oil refineries to fulfill the obligations to deliver oil products to the domestic market of Kazakhstan. And the volume of KMG’s oil for export is delivered to a single system trader – KMG Trading, which first meets the needs of oil refineries of “KazMunayGas” in Romania. The rest of the oil for export will be sold under...

It's a great time to be a candlemaker in Germany. "Candle demand is very strong right now," says Stefan Thomann, Technical Director of the European Candle Manufacturers Association. The candle boom began during the pandemic, after the government imposed lockdowns and Germans began spending a lot more time at home. The industry expected the boom to end once the nation opened back up, Thomann says. "But then the war (in Ukraine) started." Prior to Russia's invasion, Germany was getting more than half of its natural gas from Russia. It was Russia's biggest natural gas customer in the European Union, and...

The legal heirs of a German Jewish banker who was forced to sell his art collection to avoid persecution by the Nazis are suing a Japanese holding company to reclaim ownership of a painting by Vincent van Gogh. Three heirs of Paul von Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, based in New York and Germany, filed a lawsuit on December 13 in an Illinois district court against Sompo Holdings, an insurance company based in Japan, to dispute its legal title to the painting Sunflowers (1888). The claim states that Mendelssohn-Bartholdy was a “casualty” of Nazi-era policies and economic sanctions that forced him to sell his...

Germany Has Provided The Means To Quantify The Human Cost Of The Experimental Vaccination Program ... Most sane people believe that the burden of proving safety should lie on the party conducting a questionable action, rather than their victim. For example, if a criminal shot someone, the prosecution would not be required to prove that the victim’s sudden death after the gunshot wound was not just a spontaneous coincidence, a result of extreme stress from the situation, or due to a pre-existing medical condition. Unfortunately, the pharmaceutical industry has been able to establish a special type of privilege within the...

What comes in your mind when your hear the word ‘Holocaust’? Most of us will think immediately of the Jewish holocaust committed by Nazi Germany under the leadership of Adolf Hitler. Many of us are aware of such holocaust of the Native American peoples, millions of African lives lost during Slave trading, the genocide of the Armenian peoples in the Ottoman Empire. However, we are sure that very few knows that World’s biggest holocaust did happen in India. You must be shocked or surprised, but this is indeed true. Our Liberal and Secular cabal go gaga over Mughal rule and...

Companies with 50 or more employees and authorities should set up internal reporting offices. The Federal Ministry of Justice and other federal authorities are also to act as external reporting offices. The draft law on whistleblower protection, which has now been passed by the Bundestag, is intended to protect against reprisals. "Whistleblowers" are intended to protect against disadvantages such as e.g. B. be protected against dismissal. The burden of proof does not lie with the aggrieved whistleblower. Reports on anti-constitutional statements by officials should also fall under whistleblower protection. Because officials must show loyalty to the constitution. Oral statements or...

The largest free standing aquarium in the world, containing close to 1,500 exotic fish, exploded early Friday morning in Berlin, injuries at least two people. The explosion of the AquaDom aquarium caused a torrent of water, fish and debris to flood the street outside the building, Berlin emergency officials said, according to CNN. The AquaDom was housed in the main floor of the Radisson Collection hotel in Berlin’s DomAquarée business complex. "In addition to the unbelievable maritime damage... two people were injured by glass splinters," the city’s police tweeted. Over 100 firefighters were sent to the scene of the accident....

The orders were simple: Run out onto the road, glue yourself to the tarmac and stop drivers from getting through. But for two climate activists in Germany, that plan didn't work out quite as they'd hoped because sub-zero temperatures stopped the glue from working properly in an embarrassing lack of foresight. The 'Last Generation' activists, who were protesting against global warming, desperately poured a bucket of glue over each other before sitting stone-faced in the middle of the road in Munich this morning. But the freezing temperature scuppered their plans and instead of being stuck to the road, the pair...