Free Republic

As we mark the 81st anniversary of the end of the second world war in Europe this Friday, 8 May, it’s clear that Germany will again be the leading European military power. Already next year its defense spending will be as much as that of France and Britain combined — and it is projected to be significantly larger by 2030. The German government’s declared goal is to have the strongest conventional army in Europe. True, France and Britain have nuclear weapons, but that means less money to spend on the rest of defense. So, the question is not “will this...

Europe will not submit to a more “brutal world”, and can instead be the base from which a new international order can be rebuilt, Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, has said. Carney was speaking as the first non-European leader to attend a meeting of the European Political Community, which opened on Monday amid high tensions in the strait of Hormuz and renewed doubts about the US commitment to Nato. “We don’t think that we’re destined to submit to a more transactional, insular and brutal world, and gatherings such as these point to a better way forward,” he said. In...

Britain ​is set to enter talks to join the European Union's 78 billion ‌pound loan ($106 billion) to Ukraine, the government said on Sunday, in a further sign of deepening European defence ties under rising U.S. pressure. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected on Monday to tell ​a summit in Armenia's capital Yerevan of the European Political Community - a discussion ​forum set up after Russia's invasion in 2022 - that Britain wants ⁠to work with the EU to support Ukraine in getting vital military equipment, his ​office said.

Nato is “disintegrating”, Poland’s prime minister has said after the United States announced it was withdrawing 5,000 troops from Germany. Donald Tusk made the dire assessment of the Western alliance on Saturday amid an escalating war of words between Donald Trump and Germany over Berlin’s criticism of the war on Iran. In a post on X on Saturday, Mr Tusk wrote: “The greatest threat to the transatlantic community are not its external enemies, but the ongoing disintegration of our alliance. We must all do what it takes to reverse this disastrous trend.” On Friday evening, the US department of defence...

The chairmen of the House and Senate Armed Service committees on Saturday expressed they are “very concerned” about the withdrawal of 5,000 U.S. troops from Germany amid President Trump’s feud with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. Trump on Wednesday had announced that he was reviewing a possible reduction of U.S. troops in Germany. “We are very concerned by the decision to withdraw a U.S. brigade from Germany,” the chairs, Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), said in a joint statement. “Germany has stepped up in response to President Trump’s call for greater burden sharing, significantly increasing defense spending...

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested on Monday that Ukraine may have to accept that parts of its territory could remain outside Kyiv's control in ​a future peace deal with Russia, linking such concessions to ‌the country's prospects for joining the European Union. "At some point, Ukraine will sign a ceasefire agreement; at some point, hopefully, a peace treaty with Russia. Then it may ​be that part of Ukraine's territory is no longer Ukrainian," Merz ​told students at the Carolus-Magnus-Gymnasium in Marsberg, a town in ⁠North Rhine-Westphalia, on Monday. "If President (Volodymyr) Zelenskiy wants to communicate this to his ​own population...

I asked my friend in Ireland what was going on as the media is downplaying stuff as usual. Here's her response: People are raging and worse it is getting. It’s been a slowly building … Our cost of living has gone unbearable for many. Gas is around 13 or 14 dollars a gallon if you were to put it in dollars 65 % of that is government tax then there is home heating oil - that has doubled. Then there is a housing crisis for Irish but immigrants get immediately given government housing while our homeless and violent crime skyrocket...

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez on Sunday urged the EU to end its association agreement with Israel. In an escalation of his criticism against Israel, he said during a rally in Andalusia that “a government that violates international law or the principles of the EU cannot be its partner.” Spain will formally propose the termination of the agreement at a meeting of EU foreign ministers on Tuesday in Luxembourg. Sánchez has emerged as one of Israel’s most vocal critics in the EU. He accused Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of committing genocide in Gaza and denounced the joint U.S.-Israel strikes...

A fallback plan to ensure Europe can defend itself using NATO’s existing military structures if the U.S. departs is gaining traction after getting buy-in from Germany, a long-term opponent of a go-it-alone approach. The officials working on the plans, which some officials are referring to as “European NATO,” are seeking to get more Europeans into the alliance’s command-and-control roles and supplement U.S. military assets with their own. The plans—advancing informally through side discussions and over dinner meetings in and around the North Atlantic Treaty Organization—aren’t intended to rival the current alliance, participants said. European officials are aiming to preserve deterrence...

Poll in Spain: Trump and Netanyahu are seen as two of the three most dangerous leaders in the world. Trump was ranked as the biggest threat to world peace, followed by Russian President Putin. Spaniards perceive Netanyahu as more dangerous to peace than Iran's new leader. 81% of survey respondents said Trump is endangering global peace - more than any other leader. The Spanish government is considered the most hawkish in Europe against Israel and President Trump's policies. Why it matters: The survey reflects the worsening criticism in Spain towards Israel and the US, also among citizens and not just...

SNIP Just as globalists in the United States, Canada, Australia, the United Kingdom, and across Old (and increasingly Islamic) Europe turned the “Reign of COVID Terror” into an opportunity to bilk taxpayers, enrich elites, and grow the totalitarian national security State, the same globalist scum quickly turned the Ukraine conflict into another “emergency” requiring more taxes, censorship, and public sacrifice. All of a sudden, anything criticizing the official public policies of Western governments was labeled “Russian disinformation.” If you disagreed with whatever the West’s vaunted “experts” said, you were dismissed as “Putin’s puppet.” Pro tip for information warfare enthusiasts: When...

The French president said that the objective is not to be the vassals of two hegemonic powersPARIS, April 3. /TASS/. During his visit to South Korea, French President Emmanuel Macron called for the formation of a "coalition of independence" to counter the unpredictability of the US and the alleged hegemony of China. "I think our objective is not to be the vassals of two hegemonic powers. None of these hegemonic powers, I would say. And we don’t want to depend on the dominance of, let’s say, China, nor do we want to be too much exposed to the unpredictability of...

Every civilization has had its oracles. In ancient Greece, kings traveled to Delphi to consult the Oracle of Apollo. In Babylon, rulers relied on astrologers and diviners to interpret signs in the heavens. Pharaoh's court included magicians and wise men who claimed insight into mysteries beyond human understanding. Humanity has always longed for a voice that could answer life's most difficult questions: What should we do? Where is the world headed? Who can guide us through uncertainty? Today, that voice may be emerging from an unexpected place--not from temples or altars, but from servers, algorithms, and neural networks. Artificial intelligence....

FRANCE COMPLETES REPATRIATION OF 129 METRIC TONS OF GOLD RESERVES BY SELLING GOLD HELD AT THE NY FED, BUYING NEW BARS IN PARIS⚠️ France just “repatriated” their gold reserves held at the NY Fed by selling them & using the proceeds to buy new “modern” gold bars in Paris according to an article from Reuters: “A 2024 internal audit recommended completing the ​process for the small share of French gold still held ⁠in New York. The residual stock of 129 metric tons, or about ​5% of France’s total gold reserves, was upgraded by selling the gold ​and buying compliant bars...

Germany’s “social-ecological market economy” is a textbook illustration of this dynamic. The state declares hydrogen and other favored technologies to be the “future,” pours billions into subsidies, and attempts to construct markets by decree. Yet even an official body like the Federal Audit Office now describes this as a “planned economy approach” and doubts that the government will reach its own goals. In all likelihood, Germany is about to confirm once again what Mises showed in theory a century ago: planned economies do not deliver their promised outcomes. Instead, they generate rising costs, failing projects, and increasing chaos—while making society...

With St. Patrick's Day taking place on Monday, Ireland had a rather curious day of celebrating the saint who spent years of captivity there. As video footage shows over X, the Ha’Penny Bridge bridge in Dublin has not only featured Irish flags, but Palestinian flags over the weekend as well. Despite how anti-Israel the Irish government has been, other social media posts, especially when it comes to pro-Palestinian accounts over Instagram, claim that the flags were flown by protesters because their government isn't Palestinian enough. Irish celebrate St Patrick’s Day in Ireland by waving PALESTINIAN flags next to Irish flags....

Hungary’s centre-right opposition Tisza party has widened its lead over Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz in February, a highly regarded poll showed on Wednesday, ahead of an April 12 election in which ​the veteran nationalist is seeking reelection. Orban, seeking to retain his 16-year grip on ‌power, is facing a strong challenger for the first time in a parliamentary vote, with the outcome having major implications not only for Hungary but for Europe and its far-right political forces. The poll showed Fidesz losing ground, while Tisza is gaining supporters, despite numerous voter-pleasing measures announced by the government ‌after ​three years...

The US ambassador in Paris has once again drawn the ire of the French government. The French Foreign Minister summoned him to appear this evening, but Ambassador Charles Kushner failed to show up without explanation. According to Foreign Minister Barrot, Kushner doesn't understand what the role of ambassador entails. He therefore denies Kushner the right to directly contact members of the French government. Death of right-wing extremist Charles Kushner is the father of Jared Kushner, a son-in-law of the US president. On February 20, he wrote on X about the violent death of French right-wing extremist Quentin Deranque in Lyon:...

The resolution, adopted last week, made a host of recommendations for the EU to pursue at the 70th annual UN Commission on the Status of Women, which is set to take place next month. Among the recommendations was a proclamation emphasising the “importance of the full recognition of trans women as women, noting that their inclusion is essential for the effectiveness of any gender-equality and anti-violence policies”. Other proclamations referencing LGBTQ+ people included the need for a “comprehensive tool to monitor and counter democratic backsliding and backsliding in women’s rights”, as well as the acknowledgement of a rise in attacks...

Marco Rubio considers it an "overused term" while Friedrich Merz thinks it "no longer exists". But while the US Secretary of State and German chancellor may not believe in the relevance of the rules-based international order, the concept — and its potential collapse — has been at the forefront of global geopolitics of late. The phrase caught the global attention in January after a rare speech, from Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, in which a world leader tackled the often unspoken concept head on. "We knew the story of the rules-based international order was partially false, that the strongest would...