Free Republic

[Catholic Caucus] Women’s group approved by German bishops demands abortions in Catholic hospitalsThe Catholic Women’s Association of Germany demanded access to abortion in Catholic institutions as a matter of ‘physical and mental health of those with unwanted pregnancies.’The Catholic Women’s Association of Germany (kfd) has demanded that abortion be carried out in Catholic hospitals.The kfd adopted a position paper, titled “Between the Protection of Life and Self-Determination: Positions and Perspectives of the kfd on Section 218 of the German Criminal Code,” at its assembly in Mainz last weekend.The document states: “The kfd demands that abortions must also be available in...

Archaeologists in Germany have confirmed the discovery of a 1,750-year-old amulet containing a silver scroll, now recognised as the oldest physical evidence of Christianity north of the Alps. The extraordinary artefact was first uncovered in 2018 during excavations of a Roman-era grave in Frankfurt and was formally announced in a press release from the City of Frankfurt am Main on 11 December. The grave, dated to between 230 and 270 AD, contained the amulet, inside which archaeologists noticed a small silver scroll. However, its fragility posed significant challenges for researchers attempting to read its contents. Initial efforts to unroll the...

After resisting the military invasions of the Caliphate for centuries, Europe, led by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, decided to open its borders wide to migrants with entrenched supremacist beliefs. On May 19, 2026, the European Parliament inducted Angela Merkel into the inaugural European Order of Merit as a “Distinguished Member.” In this capacity, she holds a status comparable to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and former Polish President Lech Wałęsa. The award purportedly recognizes contributions to European integration and the defense of shared values. In a ceremony marked by protests from the Patriots for Europe alliance, who decried the event as...

BERLIN (AFP) — Germany on Monday deported to Iran an alleged Iranian secret agent who was jailed for life in 1997 for murdering four Kurdish dissidents in Berlin, officials in the German capital said. Kazem Darabi's Lebanese accomplice, Abbas Rhayel, has also been freed after serving 15 years in jail and was deported last week, prosecuting authorities told AFP. A lawyer close to the case had earlier said that both men were to be deported on Monday night. Darabi, 48, and Rhayel, a suspected member of the Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah militia movement, were jailed for life for the 1992 murder...

Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, the two Israeli soldiers taken hostage by Hizbullah last summer, have been transferred to Iran, London-based Arab language newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat reported Sunday. According to the report, the captives were transferred to Iran shortly after the kidnapping in a special operation overseen by a senior Revolutionary Guard commander. A source at the headquarters of Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told the newspaper that the planned release of an Iranian prisoner held In Germany could be related to a possible deal regarding the captives. He claimed that as part of this German-Iranian deal, Germany would...

A Swiss judge has issued an arrest warrant for the former head of Iran's secret police for his role in the killing of a leading Iranian dissident 16 years ago. Ali Fallahian is charged with masterminding the assassination of Kazem Rajavi, a renowned human rights advocate, near Geneva in April 1990. According to a report in Lausanne-based newspaper Le Matin Dimanche, the international arrest warrant was issued by Swiss investigating magistrate Jacques Antenen on March 20. It called on law enforcement agencies to arrest Fallahian – who for years headed Iran's Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) and is currently...

In an unprecedented move, 22 countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Canada, and Australia, issued a joint statement condemning the Islamic Republic of Iran for what they called “hostile actions and extraterritorial operations against individuals on the soil of other countries,” and demanded the immediate cessation of such actions. In the statement, published on Thursday, June 11, the Islamic Republic’s security services were accused of using local and international criminal networks to carry out assassination plots, kidnappings, intimidation, and harassment against dissidents, journalists, and citizens in Europe, North America, and Oceania. The signatories emphasized that attempts...

Nearly 5,000 criminal cases were launched last year against everyday citizens for criticizing politicians online. Germans have had enough. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz - ODD ANDERSEN / AFP.The German Criminal Code’s controversial Section 188, which prohibits social media users from insulting or even criticizing politicians online, has become a hot topic in Germany again after a Facebook user was fined for over €2,000 for calling Chancellor Merz a “liar.” Pollster INSA conducted a country-wide survey to discover what Germans actually think about the law, and found widespread opposition. According to the poll, a plurality (43%) of Germans want the complete...

France and Germany have agreed to abandon plans to jointly develop a next-generation fighter aircraft, effectively ending the central element of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program, according to Reuters.The decision was reportedly reached during discussions between German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron on the sidelines of a summit in Montenegro last week.Reuters cited German officials as saying the two leaders concluded there was no realistic path to resolving longstanding disagreements between the industrial partners involved in the project.Launched in 2017 by France and Germany, and later joined by Spain, FCAS was intended to become Europe's...

The leaders of Ukraine and its close European allies - the UK, France and Germany - have set out out five conditions for reaching a "just and lasting" deal to end the war with Russia. In a joint statement after talks in London, Volodymyr Zelensky, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said they would "stand firmly with Ukraine". The five conditions include a stop to the fighting, starting negotiations from the current position in the field as well as "robust" security guarantees for Ukraine. The leaders reiterated the need for the...

In April 2011, excavators working on a natural gas pipeline in northern Germany unearthed one of the largest gold hoards from prehistoric Europe. Dated to about 1300 B.C., the Gessel gold hoard consists of 117 artifacts that together weigh over 3.7 pounds (1.7 kilograms).The hoard was discovered in the village of Gessel near the town of Syke and is now the centerpiece of the Forum Gesseler Goldhort museum. Around 3,300 years ago, someone placed the gold objects in a linen bag, secured the bag with six bronze pins, and buried it in the dirt...The Gessel gold hoard includes 82 spiral...

A Boeing 787 plane bound for Los Angeles nosedived onto the runway while parked at Frankfurt airport after the landing gear unexpectedly collapsed. Footage shared on social media shows the moment the nose gear of the plane, which is operated by Lufthansa, gave way. 'Passengers had not yet boarded,' a Lufthansa spokesperson said in an emailed statement, but crew members and ground staff were on board the aircraft at the time of the incident. 'Several staff members were injured and are currently receiving medical treatment,' the company added. Their condition is not yet known. Images showed multiple emergency vehicles parked...

Ten sealed gold bars turned up in a Saxon meadow with no owner, no explanation, and a six-month countdown that ended with a surprising decision. A municipal worker in Bannewitz, a small Saxon town south of Dresden, was mowing grass near a rainwater retention basin last October when he noticed something glinting in the freshly cut swath. He initially gathered eight small, sealed packages. Town officials who came to investigate found two more. Laid out together, they amounted to ten gold bars, each weighing about 28 grams, scattered in what the municipality later described as a fan-like pattern. The total...

As he sat in his restaurant in the Lithuanian capital, Liutauras Ceprackas, a chef, said he was one of the many Lithuanians who worry about a Russian invasion. He is not sure, he said, that his country’s 15,000-soldier army is big enough to stop one. Increasingly, he is not certain an American-led NATO would, either. That is why, three generations after Nazi Germany brutally occupied his country in World War II, Mr. Ceprackas, 51, is glad that Berlin has permanently stationed thousands of German soldiers in Lithuania. “This brigade is so strong and so well equipped that it’s like we...

La Brújula Verde reports that a German archaeological team under the supervision of the Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe (LWL) recovered an exceptionally well-preserved notebook from a medieval toilet in the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia. The discovery was made during construction of a new administrative headquarters in the city of Paderborn. The four- by three-inch book contains 10 wooden tablet pages coated in wax, onto which the object's owner etched writing using a metal or bone stylus. The volume was also carefully protected by a leather cover that was stamped with motifs of lilies. Although experts have not yet translated any of...

Iran said on Saturday (Oct 18) that it was no longer bound by restrictions on its nuclear programme as a landmark 10-year deal between it and world powers expired, though Tehran reiterated its "commitment to diplomacy". The 2015 deal - signed in Vienna by Iran, China, Britain, France, Germany, Russia and the United States - saw the lifting of international sanctions against the Islamic republic in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear programme. But the pact had already been in tatters after Washington unilaterally withdrew during President Donald Trump's first term, with Iran later pulling back from its commitment. The...

Two senior Polish defense ministry officials are on their way to Washington to get more information on why the U.S. suddenly canceled the deployment of 4,000 soldiers on a planned rotation to the country. Paweł Zalewski and Cezary Tomczyk — both deputy defense ministers — will try to get details on what Zalewski called "the incident." "No one in Poland knew that the rotation of the American brigade would be suspended," Zalewski told TOK FM radio on Monday morning. Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth blindsided Warsaw by halting the long-planned deployment of soldiers with the 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team, 1st...

Books like Susan Neiman’s Learning from the Germans: Race and the Memory of Evil ...have praised German society as a model for confronting historical evil. Neiman’s thesis was straightforward: unlike America (especially the South), Germany had achieved an honest reckoning with its racist past, creating a more just, diverse present. Recent years have shattered this rosy view. As Germany becomes a country where Jews increasingly cannot live openly and safely, the failure of its remembrance culture has become undeniable... The failure... manifests most starkly in rising historical ignorance among young Germans. A Jewish Claims Conference survey earlier this year revealed...

Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen suffered an election setback as her left-leaning bloc appeared to have fallen short of winning enough votes to form a government. It sets the stage for tough coalition talks over the coming weeks. Frederiksen had called the snap vote months earlier than expected, seeking to capitalize on popular support after standing up to Trump’s push to annex Greenland.

The United States of America is in active talks with Greenland and Denmark to expand its military presence in Greenland. US officials are seeking to open three new bases in the south of the territory, a semi-autonomous part of Denmark, as they work to resolve a diplomatic crisis sparked by President Donald Trump when he threatened to seize Greenland by force. Greenland’s prime minister, Jens-Frederik Nielsen, mentioned on Tuesday that increasing the U.S. military presence in the Arctic territory was ‌part of ongoing negotiations with Washington, as the United States’ desire to own or control the territory remains alive The...