Free Republic

The U.N.’s nuclear watchdog said Monday that Iran is abiding by the deal reached in 2015 with major powers that aimed at preventing Tehran from building atomic weapons in exchange for economic incentives. In a confidential quarterly report distributed to member states and reviewed by The Associated Press, the International Atomic Energy Agency said Iran has been abiding with key limitations set in the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA. The issue has grown more complicated since the U.S. withdrew unilaterally in May from the deal and then re-imposed sanctions. Iran’s economy has been struggling ever since and...

“Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism: Nationalism is treason,” Macron said, according to a Euronews translator. Macron defended organizations like the European Union and the United Nations, hailing their ideals despite their “setbacks” over the years. He called for a new era of science-built progress.

Artists and intellectuals across Europe are calling for the founding of a continentwide republic to replace its many nation states. […] The event is being organized by a group calling itself the European Balcony Project. […] A manifesto on the group’s website declares that “the sovereignty of states is hereby replaced by the sovereignty of citizens.” …

Today’s Europe is struggling with many challenges. New visions and alliances emerge redrawing the map of European interests. One of the most interesting developments is the cooperation of northern Europe. Currently, many expect a Hansa 2.0 with the agreement signed by the finance ministers of eight northern member states. In addition to the Netherlands, this included the three Baltic states, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Ireland. All of the countries have open economies and little or no problems with corruption. Hansa, or the League of Hanseatic Cities, was a confederation grouping many cities and communes in the north, formed to take...

Controversial Irish singer Sinead O'Connor faced a huge backlash on social media after publically declaring that she sees white people as "disgusting."

European Council President Donald Tusk urged his fellow Poles on Monday to “come to their senses” over Poland’s place within the EU, saying it could otherwise end up following Britain’s example and tumble out of the bloc. Tusk, a centrist who served as Polish prime minister from 2007 to 2014, is a strong critic of the ruling euroskeptic Law and Justice party (PiS) in Warsaw, which has often clashed with Brussels over immigration, the rule of law and other issues. Tusk, who chairs EU summits, said that in 2016 Britain’s then-prime minister David Cameron had not intended to take his...

The French President has warned Europe of a return to the 1930s because of the spread of a nationalist “leprosy” across the continent, in an interview published Thursday. He also warned that Europe risked losing its sovereignty if it is “pushed around by foreign powers.” “I am struck by similarities between the times we live in and those of between the two world wars,” he told the newspaper Ouest-France, urging people to be aware of the threats. “In a Europe divided by fears, the return of nationalism, the consequences of economic crisis, one sees almost systematically everything that marked Europe...

Faced with the upsurge in xenophobia in Europe, MEPs want to take firm action against neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groups, which currently benefit from a certain level of discretion in several countries. EurActiv France reports.Xenophobia is fueled by neo-fascist and neo-Nazi groups in Europe, which should be banned as a matter of urgency, the European Parliament demanded on Thursday (25 October). MEPs have adopted a resolution condemning the surge in the number of incidents related to hatred and intolerance in Europe. The resolution also calls for action to be taken against small far-right groups which fuel the rise in xenophobia. According...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has announced she will give up leadership of her center-right Christian Democrat Union (CDU) party after 18 years in the post, German media has reported. Merkel announced during a meeting with officials that she will not seek to run for re-election at the party's convention in December. But she made clear that she wanted to remain as chancellor, a position she has held since 2005, CNN affiliate RTL reported, citing party sources. Angela Merkel's Bavarian allies lose majority in crushing vote The announcement is a sign of Merkel's weakened power within her own party, and waning...

Italy’s far-right League party intervened on Sunday to block efforts by a Muslim association to turn a former hospital chapel into a mosque. The Muslim group last week made the highest offer for the chapel in the northern city of Bergamo at an auction organized by a local hospital, outbidding the Romanian Orthodox Church which had been using the building for its religious services. But the project proved short-lived, with League leaders in the wealthy Lombardy region, which includes Bergamo, announcing they would halt the sale by using a 2004 law that enables them to intervene and safeguard cultural sites....

Ireland has likely voted to remove a reference to blasphemy as a punishable offense from the country’s constitution, paving the way for repeal of a law that criminalizes public utterances judged offensive to religious sensibilities. The decision in a referendum on Friday is the latest signal reflecting the country’s weakening adherence to the Catholic Church, which had itself described the constitutional reference as “obsolete.” According to an exit poll conducted on behalf of state-owned broadcaster RTE, 71.1% of voters backed the removal of the blasphemy reference, a larger proportion than backed a May proposal to remove a ban on abortion...

(CNSNews.com) – Europe’s top human rights court has ruled that comments about Mohammed having pedophilic tendencies are not covered by the right to freedom of expression, agreeing with the assessment of courts in Austria that the remarks constituted “an abusive attack on the Prophet of Islam which could stir up prejudice and threaten religious peace.” A seven-judge European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) panel in Strasbourg concluded that the Austrian courts had “carefully balanced the applicant’s right to freedom of expression with the rights of others to have their religious feelings protected, and to have religious peace preserved in Austrian...

Dozens of migrants clashed with Bosnian police Wednesday while trying to cross from Bosnia into Croatia and enter the European Union. Shouting “pen borders!” the migrants surged through one Bosnian police cordon before being stopped by another outside a border crossing in northwestern Bosnia. Several people appeared to have been hurt amid the skirmishes as the migrants refused to leave and blocked traffic. “We are refugees,” one man from Iran said. “We want to leave this country.” Croatian police said they put up a fence on their side of the border to block the migrants from entering. They said two...

Sir Michael Caine, the iconic British actor who has a net worth of $78 million, said he strongly supports Brexit -- the plan for England to leave the European Union (EU) next year -- and stressed that he doesn't listen to the liberal pundits who claim that Brexit will make people poorer and added that it is better to be "a poor master of my fate" than to rely on a stranger to supposedly make "me rich by running it." "I don't listen to all these pundits," said Caine on the Oct. 18 broadcast of BBC Radio 4 Today. "I'm...

Large-scale repatriations by US multinationals following tax reforms under President Donald Trump meant total foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Republic fell sharply in the first six months of 2018. New figures show that FDI in Ireland went into reverse in the first half of the year as many US companies moved to repatriate accumulated foreign earnings from their affiliates abroad. According to statistics from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), total FDI inflows to the State declined by $81 billion (€71 billion). With $2 billion of that accounted for by new investments, the figure for capital...

The humanitarian superpower Sweden has once again shown that it has no problem giving one vulnerable person preference over another when deciding whom to expel and who should be allowed to stay for humanitarian purposes. When Denis was only 5 years old, his mother was found dead in an apartment in Södertälje. As his Ukrainian father has renounced custody, he is now an orphan. Now the Swedish Migration Agency has decided that he will be expelled to Ukraine all by himself. There, he will probably end up in an orphanage since he has no family there who can take care...

A 39-year-old man from Aalborg must pay fines totaling 4,000 kroner for posting hate speech on his Facebook page in October 2017. The man was found to have written “macabre and threatening words against Muslims”, local media Nordjyske reports. […] He said that the words were intended as part of a poem and should be considered a cultural input. But Aalborg District Court found that the 39-year-old made threats of violence against Muslims, judging him guilty of breaching article 266b in Denmark’s criminal law code, also known as the “racism clause”. …

Today’s budget has outlined that the initial roll out cost of abortion services in Ireland will be €12 million. Last week, Health Minister Simon Harris said the cost of the termination of pregnancy services would be “significant”. At the time, he said the final figure “won’t be crystallized for another few months”. The €12 million figure set out in today’s Budget document is only for the actual service. The ancillary recommendations such as contraception measures will be dealt with as part of the HSE service plan. Harris has outlined that contractual obligations must also be sorted out with GPs and...

The German economy is booming. Unemployment is at a near-record low. In Europe and around the world, the country is seen as a beacon of wealth and efficiency. So why are these prosperous young Germans so doggedly pessimistic about their future? Peter Matuschek, chief political analyst at the German polling institute Forsa, says that while Germans tend to be content with their own lives, they feel less at ease with the direction the country is taking. And while the assumption may be that this is a phenomenon among older Germans, it’s also very much affecting the younger generation. Mirroring the...

Former US president Barack Obama on Friday warned against rising nationalism as he painted a grim picture of American and global politics on a visit to Denmark. “I’m concerned enough about the international and American trends that I thought it was important to offer my views,” he told entrepreneurs and students in the Danish central city of Kolding. “When you start seeing our politics driven completely free of facts, when you start seeing a debate that is driven solely on racial or nationalistic impulses, when you start seeing a rejection of science and expertise and logic in politics... we are...