Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] German archdiocese issues sex ed guidelines encouraging homosexuality, transgenderism in childrenThe Archdiocese of Hamburg in Germany has published new guidelines for sexual education promoting homosexuality and transgenderism.“With a new conceptual framework for sex education in Catholic schools, the Archdiocese of Hamburg is sending a clear signal in favor of contemporary, value-oriented, and scientifically sound sex education,” the archdiocese wrote in its press release.The guidelines, entitled “Male, female, diverse: Concept framework for sex education at Catholic schools in the archdiocese of Hamburg,” will be binding for all Catholic schools in the diocese.However, the document blatantly contradicts Catholic teaching on...

Substantial evidence has emerged to suggest that the UK Met Office is promoting the political cause of Net Zero by using recently introduced sensitive thermometers to collect 60-second unnatural heat spikes. These pulses are used to promote constant clickbait ‘records’ and claim exaggerated atmospheric warming. Furthermore, it appears that these short-term ‘spikes’ are larger in junk sites with massive internationally recognised ‘uncertainties”. Almost eight in 10 of the Met Office’s nationwide temperature measuring stations are in junk CIMO Classes 4 and 5 with possible errors up to 2°C and 5°C respectively. On May 1st, the Met Office claimed a station...

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,...

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...

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz gifted President Trump a gilded framed copy of his grandfather’s birth certificate during their first face-to-face meeting at the White House Thursday. The gold-encased present, a reflection of the president’s signature Oval Office décor, paid tribute to Friedrich Trump, who was born in Kallstadt, Germany, in 1869 and later immigrated to the United States. “That’s serious German,” Trump said in response to the gesture. “I want to thank you for that. That’s beautiful. Thank you very much. Fantastic. We’ll put it up in a place of honor.” Trump was previously gifted a “golden pager” from Israeli...

BERLIN (Reuters) -Europe is capable of sustaining Ukraine's resistance against Russia, even if the United States were to decide to completely halt its military support to Kyiv, the senior military official in charge of coordinating Germany's arms supplies told Reuters.Major General Christian Freuding said NATO's European members plus Canada had already exceeded the estimated $20 billion worth of U.S. military aid provided last year to Kyiv.They accounted for around 60% of the total costs borne by the Western allies, he said."The war against Ukraine is raging on our continent, it is also being waged against the European security order. If...

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...

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.

In the United States, if Americans know anything about the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, it’s that the AfD are a bunch of Nazi-adjacent hooligans who threaten to return Germany to Hitlerism. They know this because that’s what the American media tell them. Very few will bother to go online to find the English-language version of AfD’s party platform. If they did, they would find a wealth of common sense, and proposals that sound like ordinary GOP positions, even before the Trumpening of the Republican Party. It’s the same thing in Europe, of course. In her speech last week at...

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...

German police will undertake a new search in Portugal this week as part of ongoing investigations into the disappearance of Madeleine McCann. The search will reportedly take place in Praia da Luz, the town in the Algarve where she went missing nearly two decades ago. Madeleine was three years old when she vanished from a holiday apartment complex on 3 May 2007. Her disappearance sparked a Europe-wide police investigation, and has become one of the highest-profile unsolved missing person cases in the world. The Metropolitan Police said it was not involved in the new search, but was aware of the...

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...

An ambitious underwater road and rail tunnel is currently under construction in Europe that will link Germany and Denmark. Named the Fehmarnbelt tunnel, it will cross an 18-km (roughly 11.2-mile) stretch of the Baltic Sea. The Fehmarnbelt tunnel (aka Fehmarn Belt fixed link) is being created by Femern A/S, Rambøll, Arup and TEC, and is described by the team as the world's longest immersed tunnel (i.e. a tunnel built elsewhere and then sunk into place) and the world's deepest immersed tunnel with road and rail traffic. The immersed part is important as there are longer undersea tunnels, such as the...

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...

SNIP Just ahead of the holidays, archeologists have “digitally unrolled” a 1,800-year-old silver amulet to decipher an inscription that’s being hailed as the oldest known evidence of Christianity in Europe. Authentic evidence of pure Christianity north of the Alps has never existed before now. And the findings have the potential to change holy history forever. “It will force us to turn back the history of Christianity in Frankfurt and far beyond by around 50 to 100 years,” said Mike Josef, mayor of Frankfurt, Germany, where the artifact was exhumed. “The first Christian find north of the Alps comes from our...