Free Republic

The United States and Hungary were the first countries to reject the UN’s migration pact. However, many countries have since followed in their footsteps. The pact is primarily criticized because it doesn’t differentiate between legal and illegal migration. Hungarian officials claim it harms sovereignty and legitimizes illegal migration. Austria is the first country to follow Hungary’s example. Concerning the UN package, Vice-Chancellor Heinz-Christian Strache said that Austria disagreed with 17 out of the 23 points. Austria would vote against the package to prevent “bad development,” he said, adding that the line between legal and illegal migration must not be removed....

The Occupied Territories Bill is fully compliant with EU trade rules, according to new expert legal opinion given to Senator Frances Black. The Bill, which is due to be voted on by the Seanad next Wednesday, aims to prohibit Ireland from trading in goods and services from Israeli-occupied territories by prohibiting “the import and sales of goods, services and natural resources originating in illegal settlements in occupied territories”. Despite government opposition, the Bill has cross-party support from Labour, Sinn Féin, Fianna Fáil as well as independent senators. Members within government such as Transport Shane Ross, Minister of State for Disabilities...

Europe must get a handle on immigration to combat a growing threat from rightwing populists, Hillary Clinton has said, calling on the continent’s leaders to send out a stronger signal showing they are “not going to be able to continue provide refuge and support”. In an interview with the Guardian, the former Democratic presidential candidate praised the generosity shown by the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, but suggested immigration was inflaming voters and contributed to the election of Donald Trump and Britain’s vote to leave the EU. “I think Europe needs to get a handle on migration because that is what...

Judges at the International Criminal Court have ordered the court’s chief prosecutor to reopen for the third time her probe into the May 2010 flotilla incident, during which Israeli commandos killed 10 Turkish citizens aboard a naval vessel that was aiming to break the Gaza blockade. Israel has reacted scornfully to the pre-trial chambers’s decision last week to require Fatou Bensouda to reconsider a case that she had repeatedly sought to close due to lack of gravity. One official in Jerusalem said that the court was wasting its limited resources on a frivolous suit in a manner that reflected poorly...

Alice Weidel, the parliamentary group leader of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, is being formally investigated for violating campaign finance laws, the public prosecutor’s office in the southern city of Konstanz announced Tuesday. The AfD branch in Lake Constance is accused of receiving large sums of money from a Swiss company in the leadup to Germany’s 2017 general election. The vote saw the AfD become the largest opposition party in the Bundestag. The donations from abroad, paid in 18 tranches, reportedly amounted to more than €132,000 ($150,000). The prosecutor said the probe would target Weidel and three other...

“I’m not so much afraid of German power; it’s German inactivity I’m starting to fear,” said Radoslaw Sikorski, then Poland’s foreign minister, while speaking in Berlin in 2011. You would never have heard a sentence like that before 1990, says German historian Andreas Rödder — certainly not coming from Poland. The national-conservative PiS party is now in power in Poland, and the words coming out of Warsaw are very different these days. But the ambivalent relationship between Germany and its eastern European neighbor, expressed by Sikorski back then, still exists. “There’s a new expectation that Germany will take the lead...

German conservative Manfred Weber, who is running to take over the European Union’s top job next year, said on Monday that turning the European bailout fund (ESM) into a European Monetary Fund (EMF) should be a priority. […] “The political picture behind that is that in the last eurozone crisis, we asked for the IMF’s (International Monetary Fund) help. Barack Obama was the president then, so partnership was possible. In future crises, which we can’t exclude happening, I as a European don’t want to be dependent on the White House.” …

Thousands of protesters demonstrated in Norwegian cities on Saturday against restricting women’s access to abortion, the subject of talks between the ruling minority coalition and a small party seeking to join the government. In Norway’s capital Oslo, the demonstrators, some pushing children in strollers, marched through the city center carrying banners with slogans such as “My body my right” and “Defend abortion”. “The new law that’s proposed is limiting women’s rights,” said Ine Lund, a 22-year-old criminology student. “I feel it should be up to the woman to choose.” When the Christian Democrats opened talks on teaming up with the...

Persecution of LGBTQ+ people by a Tanzanian governor appears to have resulted in Denmark withdrawing millions of kroner in aid to the developing country. Minister for International Development Ulla Tørnæs said in parliament this week that the government will withhold 65 million kroner which was scheduled to be paid to the east African country this year. “I am very concerned over the negative developments in Tanzania, most recently with the completely unacceptable homophobic statements from a commissioner,” Tørnæs, who did not name the official in question, said. “Respect for human rights is one of the most important priorities in Denmark’s...

French Economy Minister Bruno Le Maire said Friday that Brexit advocates must choose between accepting the deal negotiated by London and Brussels for leaving the EU or risk “economic disaster” and blasted “a number of lying politicians in Britain”. “The choice now faced by British political leaders who have advocated Brexit is to renounce their absurd political promise or face economic disaster, with the British people the main victims,” Le Maire said at a Paris forum on reforming the World Trade Organization. “What does Brexit demonstrate? It shows that leaving the common European market has an exorbitant economic cost,” he...

Efforts by courts to impose diesel driving bans are “self-destructive” and put German prosperity at risk, the transport minister warned Friday, as tempers flared in the battle against urban air pollution. Speaking a day after a court in Essen became the first to order that sections of a major western highway be closed to older diesel vehicles, Andreas Scheuer lashed out at the “disproportionate” ruling. “Judgments like these endanger the mobility of hundreds of thousands of citizens. Nobody understands this self-destructive debate,” Scheuer told Bild daily, adding that such bans “were unheard of in the rest of the world”. The...

NASA has accepted delivery of a key European part needed to power the world’s next-generation moonship. U.S. and European leaders gathered at Kennedy Space Center on Friday to mark the occasion. The newly arrived powerhouse, or service module, will propel NASA’s Orion capsule to the moon during a test flight without passengers planned for 2020. A mega rocket under development by NASA, known as SLS for Space Launch System, will launch the combo. […] Orion and the attached service module are meant to fly near the moon, but not land. Future missions will carry astronauts, with the goal of building...

OCT. 17, 2012 Pope Benedict XVI granted a rare interview to the creators of a documentary in which he said that he is “convinced” that “there will also be a new springtime for Christianity” in Europe. The movie, entitled Bells of Europe: A Journey Into the Faith in Europe, considers Christianity, European culture and the future of the continent. In addition to the Pope, it features interviews with leaders of the other main Christian denominations in Europe, as well as leaders in politics and culture. “Young people have seen much — the proposals of the various ideologies and of consumerism...

With the European parliamentary elections just six months away, polls by Ifop and Odoxa show Le Pen’s National Rally in a dead heat with Macron’s centrist Republic on the Move party, each with around 20 percent of the intended vote. "There is growing discontent over high taxes, rising fuel prices and controversial reforms. Macron’s popularity has reached record lows,” Nona Mayer, research director of the French National Centre for Scientific Research, told FRANCE 24. Since taking office in May 2017, Macron’s approval ratings have steadily plummeted to between 20 and 25 percent. His image has been hurt by a number...

Brexiteers within the Conservative party met Tuesday as the news emerged of a “technical level” agreement emerged — apparently leaked to Irish journalists sympathetic to the European Union but not to figures within the United Kingdom — and spoke of launching a “coup” against the Prime Minister, Britain’s The Times reported in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Forget all the noise and focus on the big picture. PM is going to recommend daylight robbery: paying £39bn for nothing in return; effectively handcuffing us to the Single Market and chaining us to the Customs Union forever. It is the worst...

Angela Merkel called for the creation of a 'real, true' European army during a speech to EU ministers on Tuesday in a rebuke to President Trump. The German Chancellor also called for a European Security Council that would be responsible for coordinating defence policy on the continent. Merkel spoke out after French President Emmanuel Macron floated the same idea last week, drawing the ire of President Donald Trump.

France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire has called for Europe to become an “empire” to compete with the United States after the country’s President Emmanuel Macron called for an EU army to defend against the NATO ally.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s thinly-veiled shots at President Trump over the weekend won at least one hearty American “oui” — from Ohio Gov. John Kasich. Mr. Kasich, a frequent critic of Mr. Trump, took to Twitter to second Mr. Macron’s attack on “nationalism” at a speech Sunday marking the 100th anniversary of the end of World War I. “@EmmanuelMacron is right,” Mr. Kasich tweeted, going on to quote what the French leader said in front of Mr. Trump, who has taken much criticism as racist for calling himself a “nationalist.”

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...

The Irish Aviation Authority (IAA) is investigating the appearance of an unidentified flying object (UFO) after a number of sightings off the coast of Ireland last Friday morning. A British Airways flight — call sign Speedbird 94 — contacted Shannon Air Traffic Control to find out if military operations were taking place within the craft’s airspace, saying that an object “moving so fast” had been sighted by the pilot. […] Two more aircraft can then be heard reporting the sighting to Shannon Air Traffic Control. A Virgin Airlines plane — call sign Virgin 76 — suggests that the sighting could...