Free Republic

An Islamic terrorism plot to launch a deadly attack with the toxin ricin was reportedly thwarted in Germany, prosecutors revealed Thursday. Authorities said a 29-year-old Tunisian, identified only as Sief Allah H., was taken into custody Wednesday after an investigation uncovered he had procured the materials needed to create ricin in mid-May and even succeeded in creating the toxin earlier this month.

A glaring rift has emerged between Angela Merkel's conservative CDU and its Bavarian CSU sister party over how to deal with asylum-seekers. The days of Germany's coalition government could be numbered.

Germany has responded to US President Donald Trump’s egotistic policy of ’America First’ by calling on the European Union to “bundle its strength” and show more courage — continuing the more bellicose German rhetoric that followed the US decision last week to withdraw from a G7 statement. “Under President Trump, the Atlantic has got wider,” German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said on Wednesday, standing at a podium emblazoned with the hashtag #EuropeUnited. “Where the US administration overtly calls our values and interests into question, we certainly need to take a more robust stance.” During the speech, delivered to a room...

For the umpteenth time, the United Nations General Assembly has voted to condemn Israel for defending itself. By a tally of 120 to 8, the members declared that Israel was guilty of “excessive use of force” against Palestinians who were protesting the opening of the U.S. embassy in Jerusalem. The resolution also requested recommendations to protect Palestinians. For 10 weeks now, the two sides have clashed at the border, resulting in 120 Palestinian deaths. Israeli Defense Forces warned protesters not to approach the Israeli-Gaza border on May 14, the day of the embassy opening. They did anyway - some armed...

Germany is set to miss its 2020 greenhouse gas emissions target by 8 percent, according to German weekly magazine Der Spiegel. The German government set itself the goal of reducing national greenhouse gas emissions until 2020 by 40 percent compared to 1990 levels, but a draft government report estimates that the country will only be able to reduce emissions by 32 percent. Officials had previously estimated a shortfall of 5 percent to 8 percent. The document blames “unexpected economic developments and unexpected population growth” for the failure to meet the target. Increased economic activity and strong population growth generally cause...

German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer has invited Italian populist leader Matteo Salvini to Berlin in order to discuss Europe’s border crisis. The pair has already spoken on the phone and are in “full harmony” on migration and security policies, according to a statement from the Italian Interior Ministry. Mr Seehofer is the leader of the Christian Social Union (CSU) party of Bavaria, which has pushed for a cap on asylum seeker numbers and disagrees with ruling coalition partner Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Christian Democratic Union (CDU) on the issue. Mr Salvini serves as Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister...

The U.S. President Donald Trump objected to the Nord Stream II natural gas pipeline to carry Russian gas to Germany through the Baltic Sea prior to a working lunch with the heads of the Baltic States. In April, Trump met with the presidents of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in the White House to discuss energy and security issues. "Germany hooks up a pipeline into Russia, where Germany is going to be paying billions of dollars for energy into Russia," said Trump and added, "And I’m saying, “What’s going on with that? How come Germany is paying vast amounts of money...

An Italian coastguard ship carrying more than 900 migrants was allowed to dock in Sicily Wednesday, after Italy controversially turned away a separate foreign vessel with rescued migrants on board. ... The migrants aboard the Aquarius, run by French NGO SOS Mediterranee, were stuck on the overloaded ship as Italy and Malta bickered over who should take them.

Berlin — A brutal murder case has gripped Germany: On June 6 the body of a 14-year-old girl, Susanna Maria Feldmann, was found in Wiesbaden. She had been raped and strangled. Two days later her alleged assailant, Ali Bashar, a 20-year-old asylum seeker from Iraq, was apprehended in Iraqi Kurdistan, where he had fled. He reportedly confessed to the murder. The case is just the latest in a string of murders and assaults by asylum seekers against women in Germany. In October 2016, Maria Ladenburger, a 19-year-old university student, was raped and killed by an Afghan asylum seeker. In December...

When every last Trudeau eyebrow has been scraped off the floor of the Manoir Richelieu, it's worth remembering that the divisions in the G7 are not quite as straightforward as the media would have us believe. For one thing, it's not G6 vs Trump; there's another disrupter in town: Just met the new Prime Minister of Italy, @GiuseppeConteIT, a really great guy. He will be honored in Washington, at the @WhiteHouse, shortly. Signor Conte heads what would once have been regarded as a pantomime-horse coalition of two rear ends: the left-wing Five Star Movement (M5S) and the right-wing Northern League...

German police have arrested a Tunisian man after discovering "toxic substances" at his flat in Cologne, officials said Wednesday, with prosecutors not ruling out a possible terror motive. The man and his wife, whose nationality was not released, were detained late Tuesday night after officers raided their flat and came across "unknown substances" that are now being analysed by specialists, Cologne police said in a statement.

The president’s top economic adviser on Wednesday implied that the U.S. may not abide by any rulings from the World Trade Organization (WTO), a tough signal ahead of a Group of Seven summit this weekend where Trump is expected to face a backlash from allied leaders over his protectionist trade agenda. “International, multilateral organizations are not going to determine American policy,” White House National Economic Council Director Larry Kudlow told reporters at a press briefing organized to preview President Trump’s trip to Canada for the G-7. The comments paint an unyielding stance on trade as the president prepares to meet...

“Keep calm and carry on.” In the wake of a disastrous G7 summit where US president Donald Trump all but broke off the Western alliance, the EU should stay cool and prepare to take over global leadership. That is the message on Monday (11 June) by a former member of the EU leaders club, Helle Thorning-Schmidt. “The US is leaving a vacuum. And who should step in? For me, it is completely obvious, it is Europe’s time to step in,” the former Danish prime minister said at an event in Brussels. “That’s where our new next opportunity is,” she said,...

Step into the City Hostel Berlin and you'd be forgiven for not noticing anything strange at all. The budget backpacker hotel near the Brandenburg Gate in former East Berlin has a spacious lobby, a big-screen TV, a pool table and room for hundreds of guests in its no-frills shared bunkbed rooms. Multilingual receptionists hand out rental towels and bartenders take orders for 12 kinds of beer at the hostel's busy bar. But a few steps away from the building, a North Korean flag flies discreetly between the hostel and the Socialist dictatorship's bleak embassy building next door. North Korea owns...

Like most NATO member states, Germany does not keep its alliance pledge to put 2 percent of its Gross Domestic Product (GDP) toward defense spending, and Berlin does not intend to change that any time soon. At $521 per capita, Germany is remarkable mainly for its comparative wealth and import: Germany failing to meet the 2 percent target will have a greater impact than, say, Iceland or Bulgaria. A few states do hit 2 percent, though with the exception of the United Kingdom, they are generally small or poorer countries such as Estonia and Greece that can offer little real...

The White House is on the verge of introducing penalties against companies engaged in the construction of the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which will deliver Russian natural gas to the EU across the Baltic Sea. Apart from Russian state-owned energy giant Gazprom, the project is being undertaken by German energy firms Wintershall and Uniper, French multinational Engie, British-Dutch oil and gas giant Royal Dutch Shell, and Austrian energy company OMV. Initially, Gazprom's European partners were planning to become stakeholders in the Nord Stream 2 AG, which is registered in Switzerland. However, the Office of Competition and Consumer Protection, Poland’s...

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday warned Syrian President Bashar Assad was “no longer immune” from retaliation, while declaring the Iran nuclear deal is over after Washington ditched the accord. “He is no longer immune, his regime is no longer immune. If he fires at us, as we’ve just demonstrated, we will destroy his forces." “Syria has to understand that Israel will not tolerate the Iranian military entrenchment in Syria against Israel,” Netanyahu added. “The consequences are not merely to the Iranian forces there but to the Assad regime as well,” he said, adding: “I think it’s something that he...

BERLIN (Reuters) - Iraq has extradited a 20-year-old Iraqi suspected of raping and killing a 14-year-old girl in Germany last month, German Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said on Saturday.“I’m glad that the alleged perpetrator wanted by German authorities is back in Germany,” Seehofer said in a statement, adding that the investigation of the case could now be accelerated. “For the girl’s family, that is only a small consolation, and my thoughts are with them during these difficult hours,” Seehofer said. “But for the state and our society, it is important that crimes are cleared up and suspects are brought to...

This afternoon, Donald Trump made an announcement regarding the future of the Iran nuclear deal. Ahead of a self-imposed May 12th deadline, the President announced that he will not be waiving the sanctions. This decision places the United States in violation of the deal. But while it may not kill the JCPOA completely – European states and Iran could decide whether to keep some version of the deal going without the United States – it will start a period of profound uncertainty about the future of U.S-Iranian relations. In some ways, this uncertainty is the most concerning thing about the...

President Trump’s top envoy in Germany has found himself in the middle of a diplomatic firestorm less than a month after being sworn in. In an interview from his office in Berlin with the right-leaning Breitbart News, Richard Grenell made an acknowledgement unusual for a diplomat: he wanted to “empower other conservatives throughout Europe.”“I absolutely want to empower other conservatives throughout Europe, other leaders. I think there is a groundswell of conservative policies that are taking hold because of the failed policies of the left,” Grenell said, adding that it was “an exciting time” to be serving as ambassador. The...