Free Republic

Italy’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior Matteo Salvini has rejected an EU offer to pay out €6,000 for every new migrant they take. Salvini has seen his popularity surge with the adoption of tough new policies to protect the Mediterranean country’s maritime borders and block the NGOs which have been ferrying thousands of illegal migrants to Europe from smuggler boats off the coast of Libya. the EU has so far attempted to use the carrot rather than the stick against the Italians, attempting to induce them to accept more migrants through financial incentives rather than financial penalties...

The U.K. is hoping for a special Christmas present from President Donald Trump: a formal signal that he plans to begin talks on a free trade agreement with them in early spring 2019. The U.K. and the United States will soon have the opportunity to negotiate “a trailblazing modern free trade agreement,” said Liam Fox, Britain’s secretary of state for international trade, in remarks at The Heritage Foundation. However, two steps must occur before that can happen: the U.K. must complete its exit from the 28-nation European Union, which is currently scheduled for March 29, 2019, and the Trump administration...

President Trump tweeted tonight that all tariffs, barriers and subsidies should be dropped by both the European Union and the United States saying "That would finally be called Free Market and Fair Trade!".... CBS News reports that a law enforcement source tells them that Toronto mass shooter Faisal Hussain visited ISIS websites and may have expressed support for the terrorist group. They are investigating whether Hussain lived in Afghanistan or Pakistan.... ..a spokesman for Toronto's mayor John Tory says the city council is considering a motion urging Canada's federal government to ban the sale of handguns and ammunition in the...

The Ankara chief's words were in response to Israel's new "nation-state" law, with Erdogan branding Israel the "most Zionist, racist and fascist country". He argued the new law legitimises "unlawful actions and oppression". The "nation-state" law has been criticised for effectively ruling out a two-state solution to the long-running Israel-Palestine conflict. Palestinians have threatened to go to the International Criminal Court and the UN to protest against the new legislation. Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu has hit back, saying Turkey has become a "dark dictatorship" under Erdogan. In a war of words, he accused the Turkish president of "massacring...

FULL TITLE: Don't mess with the Queen's guard! The moment a guardsman violently shoves a female tourist out of his way after she stepped over a rope into his path outside Windsor Castle This is the moment a shocked tourist was pushed out of the way by a member of the Queen's Guard at Windsor Castle. The women, who had crossed a rope barrier, screamed in shock as she was shoved from behind by the soldier, who was wearing his ceremonial bearskin hat. The tourist was not injured and managed to remain on her feet despite the incident which took...

Europol signed a strategic agreement with the Israel Police on Tuesday, marking the first-ever working agreement signed between the European Union criminal intelligence agency and a non-EU country. The agreement was signed in The Hague by Israel Police Commissioner Roni Alsheich and Catherine De Bolle, Executive Director of Europol. The signing of the “Police to Police” agreement followed intensive discussions and a vote at the Europol headquarters which was unanimously approved by 28 representatives of member countries. Europol said in a press release that the agreement will be important for tackling priority crime areas affecting both the European Union and...

British Prime Minister Theresa May has endured swift condemnation from conservatives for agreeing to a "soft Brexit" deal that keeps the UK too closely aligned with the European Union. A few members of her own cabinet, like popular conservative Boris Johnson, resigned. Brexit hardliners are particularly peeved by May's agreeing to a "common rule book" with the EU, which would still tie Britain to some of the EU's regulations. It was the cause for Brexit Secretary David Davis's resignation... the measures would prevent Britain from collecting tariffs on behalf of EU nations unless the EU does the same for them....

The Wall Street Journal/NBC poll shows President Trump's approval rating at 45 percent, up one percent from last month. The President enjoys 88 percent support among Republican in the poll. Its his highest approval rating in polling done by the Wall Street Journal/NBC. A headline in Monday's London "Times" says "No deal on Brexit risks civil unrest, says Amazon". THe pro-Theresa May Conservative Party newspaper quoted the head of Amazon UK in the story speaking to a government minister at a business summit. In a tweet late tonight, Breitbart UK's Raheem Kassam responded that "NO BREXIT" would lead to civil...

A rightwing American thinktank that spent a five-figure sum on Tommy Robinson’s legal defence has said it is aware of up to four other similar organisations bankrolling a high-profile campaign to release him. The Middle East Forum has also paid for foreign speakers to attend “Free Tommy” rallies in the UK in addition to funding the far-right activist’s court defence. Robinson, the founder of the English Defence League whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, has hired a prominent criminal barrister who has previously defended high-profile celebrities to appeal against a 13-month prison sentence for contempt of court. Outrage around the...

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said they were acting on a request from the US, the UK and other European nations. The White Helmets had become trapped in an area of south-western Syria near the border with the Golan Heights after an offensive by the Syrian military. ... The evacuees were driven to the border with the Golan Heights and taken on from there by Israeli troops to Jordan. The plan had been to evacuate 800 White Helmets and their families, but only 422 made it.

Leo Varadkar was branded an “airhead” today as Downing Street dismissed his extraordinary threat to “ban” British aircraft from Irish airspace in the event of a no-deal Brexit. The Irish PM was slapped down by Theresa May’s spokeswoman over the saber-rattling — which is being seen as tit-for-tat for the UK reclaiming control over its territorial waters. As the row raged, Mrs. May urged the EU to take a more “practical” approach to the negotiations — insisting her Chequers plan offered a “comprehensive” solution to the need to avoid a hard Irish border. And No. 10 gave short shrift to...

Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI predicted the collapse of the European Union. I do not mean that he declared it grandly (or even authoritatively). Rather, through his books, articles, and quite a few sermons, he delivered a general syllogism: I. Any unity rooted in mere economic interest is a precarious one. II. The EU is a fundamentally monetary union (without the roots required to sustain genuine human community). III. The EU is precarious. Europe, and, by extension, the Western world, has only ever come close to unity by virtue of a common creed. In Europe: Today and Tomorrow, Benedict roots the...

LONDON (Reuters) - Sam Brownback, the U.S. Ambassador for International Religious Freedom, complained to the British ambassador in Washington D.C. about the treatment of an English right-wing activist who is in jail for disrupting a trial, according to three sources familiar with the discussion. Brownback raised the jailing of Robinson during a meeting with Darroch that covered a range of “religious freedom issues”, the British official confirmed earlier this week.

In a late night vote, Israel's Parliament passed the 'nation-state' bill also called the Nationality Law by a 62-55 vote. The bill allows the state of Israel to encourage the establishment of Jewish only communities. It was hailed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu who said after the passage: "This is a defining moment, long live the stat of Israel!". The former British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson spoke from the back benches of the House of Commons in what was dubbed his farewell speech today. Johnson said Prime Minister Theresa May was "dithering" about Brexit, but it is "not too late...

Hannity

It remains interesting that much of the ridicule aimed at Trump involves things that liberals do as well. Case in point from the Huffington Post: The royal family adheres to a strict code of etiquette and behavior. So when the ever-boisterous President Donald Trump met with Queen Elizabeth II for tea at Windsor Castle on Friday, many expected him to serve up some awkward interactions. Of course, Trump did not disappoint. My goodness – Trump was rude to the queen?  Our leaders should respect the customs and protocols of other nations just as we expect them to respect ours.  What on earth...

The archive of Iranian nuclear documents seized by the Israeli Mossad from a Tehran warehouse in January shows that Iran’s program to build nuclear weapons “was almost certainly larger, more sophisticated and better organized” than was suspected, unnamed nuclear experts were quoted as saying in the New York Times on Sunday, after being shown selected documents from the haul by US reporters. One of the Iranian documents specifies plans to build a first “batch of five weapons” and discusses sites for possible underground nuclear tests, the Times reported, after one of its reporters was given limited access to the haul...

​Exploring the impact of World War One on British, German and French art Marking the 100 years since the end of World War One, Aftermath: Art in the Wake of World War One looks at how artists responded to the physical and psychological scars left on Europe. Art was used in many ways in the tumultuous period after the end of the war, from documenting its destructive impact, to the building of public memorials and as a social critique. This fascinating and moving exhibition shows how artists reacted to memories of war in many ways. George Grosz and Otto Dix...

Syrian government media says that Israel attacked an airbase southwest of Aleppo tonight. The foreign government funded Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says warehouses near the base used by Iranian militias and the Syrian army were hit. The group reports that five were killed in the attack involving multiple aircraft. The attack comes on the eve of a summit meeting between the President of Syria's close ally Russia, Vladimir Putin, and President Donald Trump. Topics like Syria, Iran, Ukraine and other matters.... Meanwhile, there's talk in Washington of an impeachment document being filed this week in the House involving Rosenstein....

Theresa May’s hopes of winning support for her Brexit compromise have been dealt a huge blow as Justine Greening has become the first senior Conservative to support calls for a second referendum. The prime minister’s effort to keep Britain in parts of the single market is the “worst of both worlds” and will satisfy no one, the former education secretary says in an article for The Times.