Free Republic

Emergency services remain at the scene as they work to successfully extinguish the blaze, the Mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol said: "Start of fire in progress on the spire of the cathedral of @Rouen." "The origin of the fire is unknown at this stage. All public resources are mobilised. Thank you for facilitating their intervention." The cathedral spire was undergoing work which involved large scaffolding structures in place. "The construction site is complex because of this height with very large scaffolding structures," Richard Duplat, chief architect from Historic Monuments told Tendance Ouest. The local prefect - a state official -...

China accused NATO on Thursday of seeking security at the expense of others and told the alliance not to bring the same “chaos” to Asia, a reflection of its determination to oppose strengthening ties between NATO members and Asian nations such as Japan, South Korea and the Philippines. The statement by a Foreign Ministry spokesperson came a day after NATO labeled China a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war against Ukraine. “NATO hyping up China’s responsibility on the Ukraine issue is unreasonable and has sinister motives,” spokesperson Lin Jian said at a daily briefing. He maintained that China has a fair...

China lashed out at NATO on Thursday, accusing it of smearing the country after the Western alliance called it a “decisive enabler” of Russia’s war in Ukraine — the first time it has accused Beijing of involvement in the conflict. China “cannot enable the largest war in Europe in recent history without this negatively impacting its interests and reputation,” NATO said in a communique Wednesday at its summit marking its 75th anniversary in Washington, D.C., hinting at unspecified consequences if Beijing continued its course. China’s response was swift and blunt. NATO’s statement was “filled with Cold War mentality and belligerent...

Long-range US missiles are to be deployed periodically in Germany from 2026 for the first time since the Cold War, in a decision announced at Nato's 75th anniversary summit. The Tomahawk cruise, SM-6 and hypersonic missiles have a significantly longer range than existing missiles, the US and Germany said in a joint statement. Such missiles would have been banned under a 1988 treaty between the US and former Soviet Union, but the pact fell apart five years ago. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said Moscow would react with a "military reponse to the new threat".

(JTA) — SYDNEY — The shaming of hundreds of Australian Jewish creatives played out very much in public, with names and photos and threats, at least one targeting a child. Now, months later, it lingers in silences — friends unfollowed, musicians quieted, colleagues ducked.In February, a number of prominent Jews who had expressed anguish over Hamas’ Oct. 7 massacre had their personal information outed by pro-Palestinian activists in a doxxing incident that stunned the country. The “Zio600” list was meant to isolate “Zionists,” ostensibly in retribution for threats to the careers of Israel’s critics.The subsequent harassment and isolation of those...

Ukraine is on an “irreversible” path to NATO membership, the 32 members of the alliance affirmed in a joint communique released Wednesday on the second day of the summit being held in Washington. Allies had negotiated for months over what language would be published in the joint communique, but discussions on specific words — including “irreversible” — had continued in D.C. throughout the first days of the summit.

The 32-members of NATO on Wednesday formally declared Ukraine on an “irreversible” path to membership in the Western military alliance, offering a bare but more binding assurance of protection once its war with Russia ends. NATO member countries individually and in Wednesday’s joint statement from their summit in Washington announced a series of steps aimed at bolstering Ukraine’s defenses. That includes the U.S., the Netherlands and Denmark announcing that the first NATO-provided F-16s would be in the hands of Ukrainian military pilots by this summer. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tweeted his appreciation of the effort to strengthen his air force,...

What did the founders do? They committed an act of treason by signing the Declaration of Independence. They recognized at some point you have to take on the established regime when it is not only unjust, but when there is no lawful way to get it back on track. These matters frame our own nation. Texas had just filed its original action in the Supreme Court against Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin, and Michigan -- four swing states whose election officers had clearly violated election law in those states and with an impact that put Biden over the top in all four....

After decades of viewing China as a distant threat, NATO on Wednesday accused Beijing of becoming “a decisive enabler of Russia’s war against Ukraine,” and demanded that it halt shipments of “weapons components” and other technology critical to the rebuilding of the Russian military. The statement is contained in a declaration approved by the 32 leaders of the alliance, shortly before they headed to a dinner at the White House on Wednesday night. ... But the declaration contains an implicit threat that China’s growing support for Russia will come at a cost. China “cannot enable the largest war in Europe...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Tuesday that decisive action must be taken before the U.S. presidential election in November to repel Russia's offensive against his country, using an address on the sidelines of the NATO summit to press for greater support during a pivotal but tumultuous stretch in America's political calendar. "It’s time to step out of the shadows to make strong decisions to act and not wait for November or any other months to descend. We must be strong and uncompromising all together," Zelenskyy said. Speaking in Washington four months before an election beset by new uncertainty following President...

The outgoing head of the British Army General Sir Patrick Sanders has warned that NATO may only have five years to prepare for war. General Sir Patrick warned that the world was facing one of its most dangerous moments since 1945 when the world was last at war and that the alliance may have until the end of this decade to be ready. Sir Patrick also highlighted that despite performing well in some areas, the UK’s armed forces were also underfunded and overstretched. His warnings come at a time of rising global tensions over Russia’s war in Ukraine, China’s warnings...

Nearly 1.8 million chickens will be killed after bird flu was detected at an egg-laying operation in Weld County, a major resurgence on a commercial farm of the disease that has already seen more than 6 million birds culled. Gov. Jared Polis verbally declared a disaster declaration for the facility over the long holiday weekend. The move activates the state’s emergency operations plan and makes additional resources available to respond to the outbreak. A spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Agriculture declined to name the facility.

The president of Poland on Tuesday sharply rejected any cease-fire deal for the Ukraine war that would require Kyiv to cede territory to Moscow — drawing a clear line in the sand at a moment when China, fellow NATO ally Hungary and some leading American politicians are growing louder in their calls for a rapid negotiated end to the conflict. Polish President Andrzej Duda, whose nation is the most powerful NATO member state bordering Ukraine, stood firm on the issue in a wide-ranging exclusive interview with The Washington Times, just as a key summit of NATO leaders got underway in...

Mollie Hemingway ... his Stephanopoulos interview looks more like a Democrat operative --and he is one-- trying to implore a fellow political ally to get out of the race for the good of the Democrat Party.. We're supposed to believe that they were somehow duped, that the rest of the country could see something that they couldn't see. I don't buy it. I don't think any Americans buy it. The level of media corruption that we're seeing is complete at this point." "They didn't cover the story because they thought it would be bad for Democrats to talk about the...

The Hamas terrorist organization responded to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's announcement outlining Israel's red lines in the negotiations with Hamas for the release of the hostages. "At a time when we are showing flexibility and a positive approach to facilitate reaching an agreement to end the aggression, Netanyahu is placing additional obstacles before the negotiations, escalating his aggression and his crimes against our people and continuing his attempts forcibly displace them in order to thwart all efforts to reach an agreement," the Hamas statement said. The terrorist organization continued, "We demand that the mediators intervene to put an end to...

Delivery drivers in the South Bay say they're increasingly worried about becoming robbery targets. It's happening enough that at least one company, Core Mart, is now hiring armed guards to escort its drivers. ... Flavio Lopez works for another delivery company and said he wishes he had a guard or at least a second person to help him keep an eye on the merchandise. Lopez hasn’t been robbed, but he has had run-ins downtown. "Stuff you gotta deal with downtown," he said. "It is what it is." Darrell Cortez, a retired San Jose police officer who now works in corporate...

We knew it was going to happen this way, that’s why CTH didn’t join in the initial celebration when French President Emmanuel Macron announced the snap election. France is ground zero in the EU for U.S. interference via the U.S State Dept/CIA operations. Macron is a tool of the far left, who are controlled by the intelligence apparatchik. When the first round was over, CTH said, “Macron will instruct his centrist seats, who lost, to organize their votes for the far-left socialists, thereby blocking the National Rally party from gaining a working majority. Just like the radical leftists in the...

French Jews fear they may have “no future” in the country after the far-left’s victories in the parliamentary elections over the weekend.As Breitbart News reported, French President Emmanuel Macron’s alliance with the New Popular Front delivered a victory over the Marine Le Penn’s populist right, which has sparked concerns about rising antisemitism.Moshe Sebbag, a rabbi for the Synagogue de la Victoire, told the Times of Israel that “it seems France has no future for Jews” while advising young Jews in the country to leave for Israel.“But people my age, who are 50, 60, we’ve made our life here and we...

Russia attacks in Toretsk, opening new front in Donbass. Surprise attack using a tunnel. Ukrainian conscripts abandon strategic fortified positions. Ukraine sends urgent reinforcements to halt and counterattack enemy gains. As of now, Russian forces have advanced 4 KMs and heavy fighting is taking place in the towns of Pivnichne and Niu-York.

The Iranian Students' News Agency, citing "Defense Press" reports that the Iranian Navy's Sahand frigate was involved in an accident t in the area of ​​Bandar Abbas, a port city in the south of the country. Several reports say the warship capsized...