Free Republic

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Demand for transporting goods from Asia to Europe by rail via Russia has increased by an average of 30% since the start of the Red Sea crisis, the Financial Times newspaper reported, citing logistics companies and rail operators. German shipping company DHL said that requests to transport goods on Russian railways have increased by 40% since container ships began traveling along alternative routes following the Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, the report said on Sunday. At the same time, Netherlands-based Rail Bridge Cargo said that rail freight traffic via Russia was 31% higher this year compared...

For months, Germany has feared having to ration energy amid Russia’s increasing willingness to turn off the tap. Now those fears are becoming a reality as Germany prepares for a return to 1970s-style energy rationing, when the OPEC oil embargo forced governments to mandate measures like dimmer lights and car-free Sundays. Only, the energy crisis of 2022 isn’t limited to oil. Last year, Germany relied on Russia for 55% of its natural gas imports. Germany has since been able to reduce that number to 35%, but with Russia seemingly prepared to further cut gas shipments to Europe, German officials are...

After a marathon sitting lasting the whole week, the German parliament (Bundestag) agreed upon a law on Friday that will relax restrictions on video surveillance in shops, stadiums and stations. The law, drafted in response to a series of violent crimes in 2016, several attached to terror group ISIS, will make it easier for private companies to install CCTV. Specifically mentioned in the law as places where CCTV will become more prevalent are shopping centers, the area in front of football stadiums, and parking lots. […] The package of laws passed by the Bundestag also allows for police to use...

Former Bundesbank president Hans Tietmeyer, a key architect of the euro who oversaw its introduction in Germany, has died at the age of 85, the central bank announced Wednesday. Tietmeyer ran the mighty Bundesbank from 1993 to 1999, a period that straddled the aftermath of German reunification as well as the launch of the single European currency and the creation of the European Central Bank. […] A fierce defender of the independence of central banks, Tietmeyer was credited with ensuring that the same principle was enshrined in the statutes of the ECB, which was modeled in large part on the...

The best way to fight terror is with “openness”, European Union (EU) head Jean-Claude Juncker has said, stressing that Europe must continue to receive migrants in the wake of the deadly truck attack in Berlin. Speaking to Funke Mediengruppe on Saturday, the president of the European Commission warned that the “rhetoric of exclusion” strengthens terrorists, and called for more EU involvement in nations’ internal security. Standing firm on the idea that liberalism is the best response to repeated attacks on Europeans, the EU chief said: “Our values, our way of living together in freedom, coexistence, and openness are the best...

Sixty percent of Germans want more video surveillance in public spaces, according to a new YouGov poll published on Sunday. The public call comes in the wake of the Berlin Christmas market attack. Appearing to support government plans to change the law to allow increased video surveillance, 73 percent of Germans polled supported the idea of having larger police forces. The YouGov survey for the German news agency dpa was carried out days after Tunisian national Anis Amri plowed a truck into a Christmas market, killing 12 people and wounding nearly 50 others. Amri, who was the prime suspect, was...

..... What is reality in France today? Violence. It is spreading. Not just terrorist attacks; pure gang violence. It instills a growing feeling of insecurity in hospitals, at schools, in the streets -- even in the police. The media does not dare to say that this violence is coming mainly from Muslim gangs -- "youths," as they call the in the French media, to avoid naming who they are. A climate of civil war, however, is spreading visibly in the police, schools, hospitals and politics. The Police The most jolting evidence of this malaise was to see more than 500...

Germany is preparing to train troops to be deployed within its borders for the first time since World War II amid fears of terrorist attacks. The country’s armed forces will hold joint drills with police early next year, officials confirmed. […] Plans to involve soldiers in counterterrorism operations — and the suggestion troops could also be used to beef up security in public places — have proved controversial in a country only seven decades removed from totalitarian rule that’s still grappling with guilt from the Nazi era. A 2012 constitutional court ruling paved the way for the deployment of the...

The coalition government has come to agreement on a law which will make it easier to deport foreigners who break German law. Foreigners who commit crimes such as sexual assault will in the future be more easily deported from the country, that is if a law agreed upon by the interior minister and the justice minister in Berlin on Tuesday is passed. According to the draft law, refugees will lose their right to asylum if they commit a crime that comes with a jail term of longer than a year, reports broadcaster N-tv. ...

Shocked by the bloody Paris attacks, European Union leaders on Friday vowed an "uncompromising fight against terrorism" and called for wide-ranging countermeasures ranging from beefed-up immigration controls to a crackdown on illicit weapons-trafficking. Leaders of the 28 EU member countries also pledged quick action to better restrict violent extremists' ability to finance their actions, including via the imposition of asset freezes. The Brussels summit was the first time the EU leaders had assembled since the Nov. 13 attacks, claimed by the Islamic State organization, that killed 130 and wounded hundreds more in Paris. ...

The fight against ISIS will not be won with military action but by bringing an end to the civil war in Syria around the negotiating table, Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier said on Monday. "We stand before the dilemma that the battle against ISIS must be continued, but everyone also knows that in the end the battle against terrorism can't be won militarily," Steinmeier told journalists as he arrived at an EU foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels. "I personally remain convinced that... we will only move forward in the Middle East if, above all, we work energetically on those questions which...

Marine Le Pen, the leader of Front Nationale Party in France, is doing very well in the polls ahead of the country’s 2017 presidential election, and she’s looking into something that will make the citizens of her country much more safe… From Zero Hedge via GP: If there is one ‘winner’ from last night’s terrible events in Paris, it is France’s anti-EU, anti-immigration far-right wing Front Nationale party leader Marine Le Pen. Having already ascended to the lead in yet another poll ahead of France’s 2017 elections, Le Pen came out swinging this morning call for France to “re-arm itself,”...

Christian migrants in German asylum centres are living under threat,fearing for their lives as the hardline Sunni majority within migrant population enforce Sharia law. The situation is so bad Christians claim they live like “prisoners” in Germany, and some have even returned to Middle East. [excerpt] “In Iran, the Revolutionary Guards have arrested my brother in a house church. I fled the Iranian intelligence, because I thought in Germany I can finally live freely,” says Said, a Christian who fled persecution. “But I can not openly admit that I am a Christian. I will be threatened. “We must rid ourselves...

The European Union has no border patrol. It’s one of the many ways in which the bloc lacks power, with its member countries jealously guarding their sovereign prerogative to enact their own laws about defense, police and coast guard. This vacuum of authority, and the failure of EU policy-makers to anticipate how events in faraway Libya or Syria might trigger the flood of refugees now swamping Europe, are some of the reasons the group of 28 European nations originally founded as a common market has failed to deal more firmly and effectively with what has mushroomed into a major humanitarian...

BRUSSELS (AP) — The greatest influx of people into Europe in decades is not just a humanitarian emergency, but also a potential stroke of luck for many countries facing the economic threat of an aging population. A plunge in birth rates means there will be a dearth of European workers in coming years to support the growing number of retirees. So the arrival of thousands of young — and often well-educated — potential workers stands to boost the long-term economic prospects of the region. ................ However, refugees, if well integrated, ultimately have a positive impact on the economy, Dumont said....

The Greek island of Lesbos has been turned into a war zone by rioting migrants, leaving the island’s 85,000 residents in despair. Around 25,000 migrants are currently camped out on the island with hundreds more arriving daily, leading to frequent violent clashes and rioting despite their claim to be fleeing violence. Located just 6 miles from the Turkish shore, the migrants come over in inflatable boats which they cut up on arrival to prevent being turned back, expecting to be able to quickly travel on by ferry to mainland Europe, German station RTL has reported. Instead, they are being held...

Law of Unintended Consequences: New EU Tax Laws Force Thousands of Businesses to Close in Just Six Months { Full title ]. New European Union tax rules introduced in January have already driven thousands of small companies out of business, with thousands more set to follow as awareness of the change in the VAT law grows. Research has shown that incompetence on the part of collecting agencies has further added misery to the situation. After an eight-year consultation which excluded the voices of micro-businesses, the EU introduced new rules on VAT returns at the beginning of this year, which required...

Reuters August 22, 2015 BERLIN (Reuters) - At least 31 German police officers were hurt in scuffles with about 600 protesters, many hurling bottles and stones, angry about the arrival of asylum seekers in an eastern German town in the early hours of Saturday, police said. In one of the country's biggest demonstrations against the influx of refugees, police in Heidenau, near Dresden, used pepper spray on right-wing demonstrators who were trying to stop busloads of asylum seekers reach their accommodation. The outbreak of violence by right-wing radicals followed a peaceful demonstration of some 1,000 people against the roughly 250...

Why would a country at war with islamic terrorists, indiscriminately import thousands of potential problems? Why would that SAME country also allow a porous, if not inviting, border for 'potentially hostile refugees' on the southern border while keeping the northern border hypersecure from people of a historical alliance? You can't solve a problem till there IS a problem, and it's way easier to solve if you created the problem. Remember Rahm, “never let a serious crises go to waste” Fast & furious and the porous southern border/importation of muslim refugees. It seems to be the same strategy of creating a...

Greece’s finance minister Yanis Varoufakis has spelled out the negotiating strategy of the Syriza government with crystal clarity. “Exit from the euro does not even enter into our plans, quite simply because the euro is fragile. It is like a house of cards. If you pull away the Greek card, they all come down,” he said. “Do we really want Europe to break apart? Anybody who is tempted to think it possible to amputate Greece strategically from Europe should be careful. It is very dangerous. Who would be hit after us? Portugal? What would happen to Italy when it discovers...