Free Republic

On January 20, 2025, the first day of his second presidential term, Donald Trump signed an executive order: “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship.” The bad old days of the “censorship-industrial complex,” allegedly responsible for suppressing online speech under President Joe Biden, were over.Except they weren’t. The driving force behind online censorship had never been the U.S. government, which meant that freedom of speech could not be restored by the stroke of a president’s pen. Rather, the European Union has wielded its Digital Services Act (DSA) to restrict the speech not just of Europeans but especially of Americans...

MAGA firebrand Steve Bannon called on President Donald Trump to condemn Ukraine’s weekend drone attack on Russian airbases and “pull all support” after reports that the White House was not informed in advance of the offensive. More than 40 warplanes, including Russia’s Tu-95 and Tu-22 strategic bombers, were reportedly damaged or destroyed across four airbases in Murmansk and Irkutsk, thousands of miles from Ukraine’s border. The operation, which Ukraine revealed it had been in planning for 18-months, came just one day before Monday’s peace talks were set to begin in Istanbul. Axios reported on Sunday that sources within the administration...

Parties opposed to the Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) continue to block it from exercising its rights—all in the name of stopping “fascism.”Germany’s self-proclaimed democracy defenders are at it again: blocking a law-abiding party from exercising its rights—all in the name of protecting democracy. The Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), a pro-free market, anti-EU, anti-mass migration party, placed second in Germany’s recent parliamentary elections, earning nearly 21 percent of the vote to the top vote-getter’s, the Christian Democratic Union’s, 28 percent. The AfD placed well ahead of the once-dominant Social Democratic Party (16 percent) and the Greens (11 percent).By longstanding tradition, the...

In the swish hotel conference rooms and cafés of the Brussels EU quarter, the indignation was palpable: Why had poor Henrik been singled out? Henrik Hololei, a gregarious Estonian who had reached the heights of director-general in the EU’s civil service, had been caught accepting freebies from the government of Qatar while his department was negotiating a lucrative aviation deal ― with, ever so coincidentally, Qatar. It was fine, the European Commission said when the matter came to light in 2023: All his free flights had been signed off by a senior person in the department. Trouble was, the senior...

You can find many unusual things in gardens, but stumbling upon a treasure worth millions of Dollars isn’t exactly common. Michel Dupont, a 52-year-old farmer from Auvergne, accidentally discovered a gold deposit on his land valued at 4 billion Dollars. This discovery stands as one of the most significant finds in French history. However, Dupont’s joy was short-lived, as the government soon informed him that everything found beneath his garden legally belongs to the state. The discovery occurred while Dupont was walking along a stream on his farm and noticed a strange shimmer in the water. He dug into the...

For about 30 hours, the illusion of transatlantic unity over Ukraine was maintained. Europe and Ukraine had demanded a deal on the 30-day unconditional ceasefire the Trump administration proposed two months earlier. European leaders said US President Donald Trump had personally backed their plan – and threat of sanctions if Russia declined to sign up by Monday – in a Saturday phone call, a picture of which they posted online from Kyiv. Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, even joined a chorus of US allies demanding Russia adhere to the ceasefire demand. But then Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke,...

Facial recognition technology is creeping into Ireland fast – and not everyone’s grinning about it. Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan has announced that controversial facial recognition legislation will be introduced before the summer, after years of political wrangling, privacy fears and digital drama. The tech – already rolled out across parts of the UK – is being hailed as the Gardaí’s new secret weapon in crime-fighting. But critics say it’s a step too far into Big Brother territory. Are we gradually sliding into that dystopian future? All we can say is, it edges a little closer every day. Back from the...

Friedrich Merz is spending his first day as leader of Germany visiting France and Poland, promising a “fresh start” to EU relationships and signalling defiance to President Trump in saying they will never accept an “imposed” peace on the Ukraine War. The French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed newly appointed Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Paris on Wednesday, the leaders of the two largest and richest countries in Europe publishing a joint statement vowing greater cooperation on defence, economics, and the Ukraine War. Merz will later today travel to Poland for more meetings, which in both cases he said were to launch...

Speaking in parliament, he stressed that no one can tell Budapest what decision it is to make on Ukraine’s accession to the European UnionBUDAPEST, May 5. /TASS/. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has said that he was forced into an open conflict with Vladimir Zelensky because he heard a blatant threat in his words. Speaking in parliament, he stressed that no one can tell Budapest what decision it is to make on Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. The Hungarian prime minister noted that until recently he has been trying to avoid spats with Zelensky and ignore his provocative remarks...

French President Emmanuel Macron and EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen are hosting a Paris conference to attract US researchers ready to relocate because of President Donald Trump's policies. EU commissioners, scientists and ministers for research from member countries will discuss, among other things, financial incentives at the gathering to lure disgruntled American scientists across the Atlantic. Paris's Sorbonne university is hosting the conference, called "Choose Europe for Science". Under Trump, universities and research facilities in the United States have come under increasing political and financial pressure, including from threats of massive federal funding cuts. Research programmes face closure,...

When U.S. President Donald Trump decided to seek a second term in the White House, Doris Davis and Susie Bartlett - an interracial lesbian couple living in New York City - made a life-changing decision. If he won, they would move abroad. The couple said they had been willing to give Trump a go during his first term, but they'd watched in alarm as he returned to office and ended a range of policies aimed at promoting racial equity and rights for LGBTQ+ people. "We love this country, but we don't love what it has become," Davis, a 69-year-old educational...

Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution has designated AfD as a right-wing extremist organisation, citing xenophobic stances as the reason. Germany’s Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution on Friday designated the far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a right-wing extremist organisation that poses a threat to democracy and the constitutional order. The office, also known as BvF, cited the AfD’s xenophobic stances on ethnicity as the reason for the decision, stating the party was being discriminatory towards non-ethnic Germans. According to the statement released on Friday, the office's experts have examined whether the AfD's...

Ryanair (NASDAQ:RYAAY) just fired a warning shot and it landed squarely on Boeing's (NYSE:BA) front porch. CEO Michael O'Leary says the airline could cancel its jaw-dropping $33 billion order for 330 Boeing jets if U.S. tariffs start driving up prices. His message? If the aircraft get more expensive because of politics, Ryanair will walk. O'Leary made it clear in a letter to Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi: Ryanair isn't in the business of paying for Washington's trade wars. And if Boeing loses its price edge? He's open to alternatives, even China's Comac.

Spain and Portugal achieved net zero on Monday, but not the way anyone would want to achieve net zero: By going back to the cavepeople times with no electricity. According to the New York Times:A major power outage hit Spain and Portugal on Monday afternoon, abruptly shutting down daily activities, halting trains and subways, cutting off traffic lights, closing stores and canceling or delaying some flights.Hours after the power shut off around 12:30 p.m. Central European time, stranding tens of millions of people across the Iberian Peninsula, officials remained at a loss as to the cause, though several denied any...

Inter-gang rivalries have led to an alarming rise in migrant violence, as GB News can exclusively reveal eight small boat migrants arrived in the UK with stab injuries in the past 12 months. The boiling tensions come as thousands of migrants converge on northern France ahead of an expected huge summer surge in small boat crossings. Just this week, one migrant was stabbed to death and two others seriously injured in separate incidents around Calais. One senior maritime security source told GB News the increase in violence was "extremely concerning". He added: "We're seeing gang rivalries, disputes between different factions,...

Thousands of people took part in an anti-immigration rally in Dublin city centre on Saturday, alongside a smaller counter-demonstration. Both passed off without any major incidents with gardaí acting as a cordon between both groups on O’Connell Street. The anti-immigration protest, described by organisers as an Easter Rising commemoration to pay respect to “those who fought and gave their lives to preserve the Irish nation and create the Irish Republic” began at 2pm at the Garden of Remembrance on Parnell Square. United Against Racism, supported by a number of organisations and members of Opposition parties including Sinn Féin, Labour, People...

US Vice President JD Vance warned Wednesday that Moscow and Kyiv must strike a deal or Washington will end its efforts to reach a ceasefire. 'We've issued a very explicit proposal to both the Russians and the Ukrainians, and it's time for them to either say yes, or for the United States to walk away from this process,' Vance told reporters in India, where he is on a four-day visit. -snip- 'It's now time, I think, to take, if not the final step, one of the final steps, which is, at a broad level, the party saying we're going to...

Well, the end of the war in Ukraine could be very near—and for the first time since this whole expensive nightmare started, there’s an actual adult in the room. And that’s because President Trump is back in the White House. The truth is, Ukraine has always been one of the most corrupt countries in the world—and their leader is leading the pack. OCCRP: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and his partners in comedy production owned a network of offshore companies related to their business based in the British Virgin Islands, Cyprus, and Belize. Zelensky’s current chief aide, Serhiy Shefir, as well...

Tariffs of up to 45 per cent on Chinese-made electric cars imported into the European Union may be replaced with a new ‘minimum pricing’ system after previously stalled discussions between the two trading partners were re-started. A ‘minimum pricing’ arrangement – also referred to as ‘price floors’ or ‘price undertakings’ – between the European Union (EU) and China would see tariffs abolished and set minimum prices agreed upon. According to Reuters, European trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic has said any new policy would have to be as effective as tariffs, given the approach has previously only been applied on ‘homogenous commodities’....

The European Central Bank has cut interest rates for the seventh time in a year, looking to prop up an already struggling economy that will take a large hit from US tariffs. The bank announced a cut of one-quarter of a percentage point, which brings its benchmark deposit rate down from 2.5% to 2.25%. The move will immediately benefit tracker mortgage customers and put downward pressure on other rates. The ECB has been lowering borrowing costs as post-pandemic price pressures retreat and recent trade-related turmoil on global markets is adding to the case for further policy easing. […] While US...