Free Republic

A majority of Germans say they would consider scaling down their Christmas lights to protect the climate, a survey released on Sunday said. A total of 57% of those surveyed said they would reduce Christmas lighting or even do without it in the future, according to the survey conducted by YouGov on behalf of the German news agency DPA. Of the respondents, 11% said they would make do without any lights this year due to climate concerns, while 10% said they would do so in the future. But 35% said turning off the lights was not an option for them....

Ran across this on the Interwebs today. Migrants in Tyrol tried to pull the masks of festival-goers. Instead, they were chased down and beaten.Austria fights back! Krampus vs migrants (YouTube)Good to see those who fight for cherished traditions that are all too often cancelled for "security reasons" (i.e. fear of offending Muslims).It was only a few years ago the Austrian region of Tyrol wanted to cancel this festival altogether worried the grotesque Krampus masks would frighten immigrants.Austrian town reassures asylum-seekers over unusual Christmas tradition

The Conservatives hold a 15-point lead over Labour just days before polling day, according to the last Opinium poll for the Observer before the election. The Tories appear to have maxed out the number of pro-Leave voters who will support them. However, the poll suggests that Labour is not winning Remain voters over at the speed required to close the gap. Boris Johnson’s party is on 46% of the vote, while Labour remains on 31%. The Lib Dems remain on 13%. The poll suggests that Labour is slowly reclaiming some of the Remain voters who drifted to the Lib Dems....

Former President of the European Council Donald Tusk has shared a picture of himself making a gun gesture behind U.S. President Donald Trump’s back, and slammed Brexit in his first post-presidency interview. The 62-year-old, who abandoned his post as Prime Minister of Poland in 2014 just weeks before his party was turfed out of office in national elections in order to take up his much better paid former role at the European Union, tweeted that “Despite seasonal turbulence our transatlantic friendship must last”, apparently in reference to the NATO summit in London. However, he paired this seemingly innocuous platitude with...

Boris Johnson has revealed plans to bring back pounds and ounces once Brexit is done as he attacks Jeremy Corbyn as “the most extreme Left-wing candidate produced by the Labour Party in a century” entering Number 10. In a wide-ranging interview with the Daily Mail, the Prime Minister laid out his post-election blueprint to lift the EU ban on imperial measurements and hark back to the old system. He said: “We will bring back that ancient liberty. I see no reason why people should be prosecuted.” The Conservative leader added: “I think the reality is a lot of people are...

I recently received a fundraising email from former Vice President Joe Biden that captured the profound difference in the approach to foreign policy between Democrats and President Trump. Biden wrote: “Did you see the video of our friends and allies in London this week? World leaders were LAUGHING at the President of the United States, after he once again embarrassed himself and tarnished the reputation of the United States at a summit.” The Democrats’ desperate desire to be loved by foreigners runs through the entire email. In effect, Biden is promising to have policies that would lead President Emmanuel Macron...

Turkey's AKP government has over the past year shipped drones, armored vehicles, "laser weapons," and other arms and ammunition to Libya's Tripoli-based pro-Islamist Government of National Accord (GNA), which is led by Prime Minister Fayez Al-Sarraj and which the UN recognizes as Libya's legitimate government.[1] The AKP government has also trained GNA military and police personnel. While this military support has been reported since as early as 2015, it appears to have expanded in 2019. The policy represents Turkey's role in the ongoing Second Libyan Civil War, which began in 2014 and is now characterized largely by fighting between the...

President Trump is an able politician, but he is seldom praised for his subtlety. At the NATO summit in London, however, he carried the day by precisely those means: he used rhetorical legerdemain to outmaneuver his critics. Much as the media might like to pretend that the recently concluded NATO summit was about NATO when it wasn't. NATO is a sideshow. It is a moribund, rudderless organization — “brain dead� or “obsolete,� depending on whether you want to take your cue from the president of France or the USA.NATO was formed to contain the aggression of a certain nameless communist...

France rejects a U.S. proposal this week that would let companies opt out of a proposed international tax reform, Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Friday, urging Washington to negotiate in good faith. U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin raised serious questions about OECD international tax reform proposals in a letter made public on Wednesday, jarring international officials by floating the idea of a "safe harbor regime". Le Maire said that would mean U.S. companies could opt in or out as they pleased, which he said would be unacceptable to France and other OECD countries. He urged Washington therefore to...

Just over a decade ago, the prototype of an unmanned aircraft that would become the Bayraktar TB2 took off for its maiden flight at Sinop Airport on the Black Sea. There were few signs then that the mid-sized, twin-boom aircraft would become Turkey’s first indigenously produced armed drone and the backbone of its unmanned air force. At the time, domestic drone manufacturers struggled against technical difficulties and foreign competition. Ten years on, however, the situation is radically different: Ankara’s drone program has morphed into a successful industry that’s already exporting products. It’s also a potent military force that’s further straining...

Prince Charles flipping Trump the Royal Bird, NATO 70 Summit

MADRID (AP) — The European Union said Wednesday that it will likely miss its target for reducing greenhouse gases by 2030, dealing a blow to the bloc’s efforts to be a leader in the fight against climate change. **SNIP** The report was released as officials from almost 200 countries meet in Madrid for U.N. climate talks. The EU’s new executive Commission is expected to present its long-term plan for tackling global warming - dubbed the European Green Deal - next week. **SNIP** “Current EU leaders are the last generation that can prevent the climate breakdown,” said Wendel Trio, director of...

The EU alleges that the "Interpretive Notice" has nothing to do with a boycott of Israel, and the U.S. has officially concurred in that assessment. The EU says the Interpretive Notice merely responds to "a demand for clarity from consumers, economic operators and national authorities." But this is disingenuous. There is a long list of separatist movements in the EU, some demanding independence, others demanding greater autonomy. It is easy to imagine that some Jews in Israel have corresponding sympathies with such movements and "demands for clarity" about the products of the respective European states. Surely some Israeli Jews would...

After a royal reception for NATO members at Buckingham Palace on Tuesday evening, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation News & Politics posted a video online in which it appears that Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is making fun of President Donald Trump to President Emmanuel Macron of France, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and Princess Anne. In the brief clip, Johnson asks, “Is that while you were late?” with a smile on face, to which Trudeau responds, “He was late because he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top,” followed by the statement, “You just watch his team’s jaws drop...

The Grove Hertfordshire, United Kingdom 3:38 P.M. GMT PRESIDENT TRUMP: Thank you very much. We just met with the Prime Minister of Denmark. Had a great meeting and discussed a lot of things, including trade. And now we’re meeting with a friend of mine — a good friend of mine, the Prime Minister of Italy. And we have many things to discuss, including trade and military and all sorts of different things that we’re working on together. And he’s done a terrific job, become very popular in Italy. A very popular man, as — I’m not surprised to say that....

The Grove Hertfordshire, United Kingdom 2:20 P.M. GMT PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. These are eight countries, plus us — plus the United States — that are fully paid. They met the goal of 2 percent. We call them the “2 percenters.” Someday, we’ll raise it to 3 percent and 4 percent, maybe. But, right now, we have it. But these are countries that have not been delinquent. They’ve been, in some cases, even more than 2 percent, because they feel so strongly about what we’re doing. And that’s really a sign of respect for the United States....

The Grove Hertfordshire, United Kingdom 1:13 P.M. GMT PRESIDENT TRUMP: Well, thank you very much. We had a very successful NATO meeting. I think it was one of the most successful. We’re just discussing that the best, certainly, that I’ve been — I’ve been to three of them now, and this was really something very special. There’s great spirit. A lot of people are putting up a lot of money. We have $130 billion more. And within three years, we’ll have $400 billion more put up by other countries. So that’s really something. And it was a great meeting. We’re...

Brussels is concerned by the constraints on freedom of expression and demonstration rights under Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. This is despite the German carmaker arguing the country is a candidate for EU membership. German Green Party politician Reinhard Bütikofer, revealed the decision “caused dismay” within the European Parliament. He said: “In view of the increasingly deteriorating situation of the rule of law, media freedom and democracy under President Erdogan, the decision of the VW Group head is causing dismay.” The location decision is also said be a breach of EU competition rules. While Turkey has committed to complying with...

Germany begins importing Somali Muslim migrants on charter flights OCT 23, 2019 3:00 PM BY ROBERT SPENCER What could possibly go wrong, you racist, bigoted “Islamophobe”? Let’s see. Somali Muslim migrant Mohammad Barry in February 2016 stabbed multiple patrons at a restaurant owned by an Israeli Arab Christian; Dahir Adan, another Somali Muslim migrant, in October 2016 stabbed mall shoppers in St. Cloud while screaming “Allahu akbar”; and Abdul Razak Artan, yet another Somali Muslim migrant, in November 2016 injured nine people with car and knife attacks at Ohio State University. It isn’t Somalis, either. All of the jihadis who...

Even the biting chill of Berlin’s already wintry fall weather wasn’t enough to hold protesters back on Friday as they took to the streets in their thousands to demand more action against climate change. One group of students even plunged into the icy waters of the Spree River, holding up a white box in a symbolic attempt to rescue the government’s climate-change package. The latest global climate strike comes just three days ahead of the COP25 Climate Change Conference in Madrid. People were set to march in 2,400 cities across 157 countries. […] Across town on Friday, the Bundesrat —...