France and Germany’s $116 billion attempt to build their own fighter jet to replace their current models has officially been scrapped.
The fighter plane segment of the Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project created in 2017 dedicated $116 billion to build sixth-generation jets to use in battle by 2040. 
French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz declared that the project was no longer feasible after months of stalemate between Dassault Aviation and Airbus, France&#8217;s and Germany’s industry partners respectively.
“The German authorities considered that it was not possible to put further pressure on the companies concerned,” Macron’s office, the Élysée Palace, explained in a statement.
The proposed fighter planes were supposed to combine advanced sensors, artificial intelligence, enhanced stealth technology, and other upgrades to use them for future air combat.
Signs of the potential flaming out were seen earlier this year. European Union Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius admitted that the plan was a “failure” and that Europe has struggled in &#8220;multinational defense projects.&#8221;
The FCAS project failure raises multiple questions about the integrity of Europe’s national defense. Leaders in Europe believed the plan was a test if they could develop advanced technology as they promised without the help of the United States. France and Germany have recently struggled with a next-generation tank project with the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) as well.
It also underlined potential disagreements between the two governments, which have both already expressed their alternative options after the project fell through.
Merz has publicly inquired if the sixth-generation planes will even be necessary, and that their requirements for the planes were not similar to those of France’s. France, on the other hand, is actively pursuing similar blueprints.
“The French authorities will continue to encourage our companies and armed forces to explore ways and means of pursuing ambitious European projects that are consistent with our national security interests,” the Élysée Palace added in its official statement.
While Berlin is looking into possible substitutes following the collapse, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius explained that if FCAS were to be thought of today, it simply wouldn’t happen.
“With what we know today, we would no longer launch this project in the way it was originally set up,” Pistorius told officials.
European countries are continuing to struggle to enhance their arms without the help of America in a time when everyone else is quickly advancing.

Fa-52 Fighter Jets

Europe’s $116 Billion Fighter Jet Project Crashes And Burns

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WASHINGTON — The State Department has uncovered several birth tourism networks around the world, The Daily Wire can first report.
Under guidance from the State Department to be on high alert about fraudulent documentation, U.S. embassies in West Africa, Europe, and North Africa found evidence of multiple plans to produce fraudulent documents and facilitate individuals traveling to the United States to give birth within American borders, The Daily Wire has learned.
In West Africa, a U.S. embassy uncovered a &#8220;sophisticated birth tourism network&#8221; wherein more than 100 foreign nationals were using fraudulent documents to obtain visas and secure U.S. citizenship for their children. The State Department shut down this birth tourism network and revoked the foreign nationals&#8217; visas. State is also coordinating with local authorities to &#8220;systematically identify and cut off any similar operations.&#8221;
&#8220;Under President Trump, the State Department is defending the integrity of U.S. citizenship by ending illegal birth tourism schemes,&#8221; said State Department messaging viewed by The Daily Wire. &#8220;No foreigner is permitted to obtain a visitor visa for the primary purpose of acquiring U.S. citizenship for a child by giving birth in the U.S.&#8221;
A U.S. embassy in Europe found that more than 400 suspected birth tourism cases had occurred since 2024. In this case, investigators traced the birth tourism to at least six companies that were coaching applicants on what to say in their visa interviews, arranging housing, and setting up delivery plans. State again shut down the process, revoked the visas, and permanently banned &#8220;several fraudsters from traveling to the United States ever again.&#8221;
An embassy in North Africa revoked more than 100 visas for &#8220;birth tourist&#8221; parents who came to the United States specifically to give birth to children who would get U.S. citizenship. State Department consular officers worked with law enforcement and used data analytics to identify the networks abusing the visa system in this case.
&#8220;A U.S. visa is a privilege, not a right,&#8221; the State Department messaging said. &#8220;The State Department is taking action around the world to stop this abuse, dismantle birth tourism networks, and hold accountable those who try to scam our system.&#8221;
The Daily Wire <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/exclusive-are-chinese-birth-centers-hiding-in-your-backyard-we-went-to-find-out">previously investigated</a> eyebrow-raising cases of birth tourism in Texas, where the state sued De’Ai Postpartum Care Center in Houston for “exploiting birthright citizenship by unlawfully facilitating the invasion of Chinese nationals … for the sole purpose of giving birth.” That center is accused of facilitating the births of more than 1,000 American-born babies, as reported by to The Daily Wire&#8217;s Jennie Taer.
President Donald Trump promptly signed an executive order ending birthright citizenship after taking office in January 2025, but the order has been repeatedly paused due to legal challenges. The Supreme Court will hand down a decision on the order sometime in late June or early July.
&#8220;We are the only Country in the World STUPID enough to allow &#8216;Birthright&#8217; Citizenship!&#8221; protested the president, the day that the Supreme Court heard oral arguments in the case. He attended those oral arguments in person, the first president in United States history to do so.

US-KUWAIT-POLITICS-DIPLOMACY

EXCLUSIVE: State Department Uncovers ‘Birth Tourism Networks’ Across The World

Africa

birthright citizenship

State Department

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This article is part of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/upstream">Upstream</a>, The Daily Wire’s new home for culture and lifestyle. Real human insight and human stories — from our featured writers to you.
***
There are few annoyances worse than when a nice young man flips around a tiny virtual tablet that reads &#8220;add tip&#8221; after he did all the work of rotating his body 75 degrees to grab you an $18 beer from a fridge.
It&#8217;s true: Tipping culture has gotten out of hand in the United States. I try to tip generously because I used to work as a delivery driver. I know the struggle of trying to scrape together some cash at the mercy of strangers who are tasked with making up the difference between the cost of living and your poverty base wage.
That only applies to actual services, though: waiting, bartending, delivery, etc. There are plenty of cases (such as the stadium beer kiosk) where the expectation of tipping is wrongly bleeding Americans dry.
And don&#8217;t get me started on communal tipping. I can&#8217;t think of anything more demoralizing than getting a fat tip due to your excellent service, only to be forced to pool it with the rest of your coworkers who didn&#8217;t do a thing to earn it.
My disdain for this excess of American culture changed, though, when I recently took a trip to Ireland.
In Ireland, like much of Europe, they don&#8217;t do tipping the way we do. You can tack on 5 to 10% for your waiter or bartender if the service is particularly good, but it&#8217;s not expected. And a service charge is often already included. You don&#8217;t get sideways looks for just paying the tab and leaving like you would stateside.
My initial reaction to this was relief. Finally, some simplicity in this life. The meals may be a bit more expensive because the labor cost is factored into price, but simply being able to pay and go without doing extra math and giving a performance review at the end of the meal would be nice.
Things began to change with each passing day. When we had our first sit-down dinner of the trip, I couldn&#8217;t help but notice how inattentive the waitstaff was. No refills of water. Twenty minutes passing by between being seated and having our order taken. Want to get some extra condiments on the side after the food arrives? Good luck.
I thought it may be an anomaly, but then the same experience kept repeating itself every single time we had dinner during the trip. I will say this didn&#8217;t extend to bartending service — I&#8217;m talking strictly about sit-down meals here — but without a single exception, the service was just dreadful, inattentive, and slow.
It was the type of experience that makes one pause and reflect on the bigger picture. I&#8217;m not saying that Europe&#8217;s poor table service is a direct consequence of a culture that stifles innovation and snuffs out the ambition of the individual for the good of the collective, but it is striking that we don&#8217;t have this issue in hyper-capitalist America.
Now, you may be thinking this was my fault somehow. Maybe my Americanness was an affront to the waitstaff&#8217;s European sensibilities. I don&#8217;t think so. I wasn&#8217;t acting visibly foreign, and the staff were very polite and personable in every interaction. I gathered no sense of disdain whatsoever — only indifference.
My only conclusion can be that these workers did not put an American-level effort in because they didn&#8217;t have to. There was no incentive to give me good service, so they didn&#8217;t. The system failed.
The experience has certainly changed my perspective on tipping culture. Yes, it remains excessive in certain American contexts. But there&#8217;s a wisdom to <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G._K._Chesterton#Chesterton's_fence">Chesterton&#8217;s fence</a>: If something has been around a while, it just might serve a purpose you&#8217;ll miss when it&#8217;s gone.

(Photo by Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

I Left America Mocking Tipping Culture. Europe Changed My Mind Fast.

Food

Ireland

Upstream

China is warning of retaliation as the European Union moves forward with an aggressive plan to reindustrialize the continent and wall off key sectors from foreign competitors — particularly Beijing.
At the center of the brewing dispute is the Industrial Accelerator Act, also known as the &#8220;Made In Europe Act,&#8221; a sweeping proposal from the European Commission that would require a significant share of products in strategic industries to be made in Europe when public money is involved.
European officials argue the move is long overdue, as businesses across the bloc have complained they are competing against heavily subsidized Chinese firms — particularly in sectors like electric vehicles, batteries, and industrial materials. <a href="https://www.euronews.com/business/2026/04/27/china-slams-made-in-europe-push-mulls-retaliation">According</a> to EU Industry Commissioner Stéphane Séjourné, the act “will create jobs by directing taxpayers’ money to European production, decreasing our dependencies and enhancing our economic security and sovereignty.”
The proposal would impose strict domestic content requirements across strategic industries. Electric vehicles purchased with public funds, for example, would need to be assembled in Europe, with up to 70% of components sourced within the bloc. Similar thresholds would apply to materials like aluminum, cement, and key clean energy technologies.
It also directly targets foreign firms — primarily ubiquitous Chinese manufacturers — by requiring them to partner with European companies, limit ownership stakes, and in some cases transfer valuable technology in order to access EU markets or subsidies.
That has drawn a sharp response from Beijing: “If the EU &#8230; presses ahead with the legislation, and thereby harms the interests of Chinese companies, China will have no choice but to take countermeasures to firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of its enterprises,” China’s Ministry of Commerce of the People&#8217;s Republic of China <a href="https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20260427-china-warns-eu-made-in-europe-plan-countermeasures">warned</a> in a statement.
Chinese officials have accused the EU of erecting discriminatory barriers and violating principles of the World Trade Organization, arguing that the “European preference” system unfairly shuts foreign competitors out of public funding and investment opportunities.
The legislation is part of a broader “European preference” strategy aimed at reversing years of industrial decline. European officials say more than 200,000 jobs have already been lost in energy-intensive industries and the automotive sector since 2024, with hundreds of thousands more projected this decade.
At the same time, China has expanded its export footprint across European markets while building factories that EU officials say generate limited local economic benefit. “They come, build on European land, and run operations with minimal local value,” one EU official <a href="https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/what-is-eus-draft-made-europe-law-2026-02-17/#:~:text=Makers%20of%20electric%20vehicles%20bought,will%20negotiate%20the%20final%20law.">said</a>. “Europe is not a supermarket — it has to be a factory.”
Beyond procurement rules, the proposal would impose strict conditions on foreign investment in strategic sectors, particularly targeting countries like China that dominate global manufacturing capacity. Investments exceeding €100 million could face caps on foreign ownership, mandatory technology transfers, and requirements that a substantial share of production and employment remain within Europe.
Chinese officials say they are open to negotiations but have made clear that retaliation remains on the table if talks fail, underscoring a growing economic rift between Brussels and Beijing as Europe joins the United States in reassessing its reliance on Chinese manufacturing.
The plan is not without critics within the Union, Sweden and the Czech Republic have warned the measures could deter investment and raise costs, while Germany has urged a more flexible approach that allows cooperation with allied trade partners. The proposal must still pass through the European Parliament and member states before becoming law, setting up a contentious political fight within the bloc.
Regardless of the final outcome, the direction is clear: Europe is moving to reclaim its industrial base, even at the risk of escalating tensions with China. Beijing, for its part, seems to be prepared to respond in kind.

AP23268223768333

Europe And China Enter A High-Stakes Game Of Economic Chess

Communist China

Global Politics

We have been importing the people who hate our country and wish to destroy it. They believe in Third Worldism, the philosophy that all the problems of the Third World can be laid at the feet of us here in the West. 
But there&#8217;s more. The people in the Democratic Party elite apparently believe that the West owes it to the Third World to destroy itself, or who view the Third Worlders as fellow travelers, helping them to accomplish that goal.
It&#8217;s time to talk about the seemingly irreversible slide of the Democratic Party toward deep radicalism that will destroy our country. But to understand that, we have to understand the existential crisis facing our civilization. 
There’s a rap song by a Syrian-born artist that’s becoming incredibly popular online.
The lyrics read: 
<blockquote>Separate our loved ones and slaughter our children. 
Take our blood for granted and demonize our revolutionaries, 
Steal our knowledge, keep our people oblivious 
And torture our spirits and denounce us our rights 
Colonize our countries and appoint our rulers 
Appropriate our goods and burn down our trees 
But who would you be without us 
Bomb our roofs, make us out as liars 
And watch our pains and belittle our agony 
Ignore our tears and close our eyes 
Mutilate our faces and deny our feelings 
Destroy our dreams, objectify our bodies and darken our skies and kill our peace 
We will keep standing still 
And our love stands in us. But who would you be without us? 
You would not be without us. You will not be without us. </blockquote>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone wp-image-981859 size-full" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif" alt="" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner.avif 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-300x50.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/10/ben-banner-768x128.jpg 768w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></div>
The video shows a very angry young woman marching. Behind her are a bunch of other people from what appear to be third-world countries, many of them Muslim countries.
Why is this important? 
Because this is, in its essence, what we have imported.
We in the West have imported people who hate our guts. And then there is a group of people in the United States who hate the systems, who have allied with those people to create a mass movement. That is what is happening with people such as Hasan Piker, Rashida Tlaib, Ilhan Omar, and Zohran Mamdani.
The basic idea among these people is that the reason other countries suffer is because the West did something wrong to them. Now, the West owes them something.
Therefore, if you are living in the West and you realize that it’s pretty great and pretty prosperous, but you feel alienated because your parents are from somewhere else. As a result, you blame your parents’ problems on the West that took them in, and you blame colonialism and colonization. 
The reality is that this female rapper is apparently from Syria and lives in Germany. 
Germany never colonized Syria. Ever. 
In fact, if you&#8217;re going to talk about the colonization history of Syria, you can talk about the Islamic colonization of Syria. Syria, of course, used to be a Christian country long before it was a Muslim country. But then it was colonized by Muslims, and then the Ottoman Empire controlled it for 400 years. The only Western country to control Syria in the last millennium was France for 26 years. The Assad regime controlled Syria for twice as long as France did. 
You may have noticed that in that entire description of Syrian history, Germany never came up. Germany just took in millions of Syrian immigrants and migrants during the Syrian civil war. 
Syrian refugees entered Germany when Angela Merkel decided to import a bunch of Third World refugees out of some sort of misplaced sense of guilt.
The narrative that is told by the Third Worldists is far too simplistic. The reality is that colonization has been a routine part of human history. It is not merely done by the West. Islamic colonization took over the entire Middle East, moved into Europe, and still controls large swaths of Africa.
There are all sorts of colonization efforts. It is worthwhile to note that the institutions set up by British colonizers made those areas more prosperous. In fact, the countries that retained British institutions, in particular, are the most prosperous countries in Africa, and the ones that reject those British institutions, those Western institutions, completely fail.
European colonization is responsible for the end of slavery in the areas where there is no slavery. It&#8217;s also responsible for the institution of systems and ideas such as private property.
The idea from the Leftists is that all the problems all over the world are the responsibility of the West. And then we decided that we should import all those people. 
There are about 4.5 million Muslims in the United States, up from 1.1 million in the year 2000, a 400% increase. That includes over 10% of the population of New York. Many of those people are undoubtedly decent citizens, but how many of them sympathize with the decolonial ideology of somebody like the Syrian rapper?
According to the polls, the answer is a lot. A recent poll asked how many British Muslims believe al-Qaeda planned 9/11. The answer: 4%.
Does that sound like a deradicalized population that loves the West? Another poll at the time of the Charlie Hebdo massacre a decade ago showed that two-thirds of French Muslims wanted Charlie Hebdo prosecuted for cartoons of Muhammad.
Does that sound like a philosophy that is in keeping with French standards of speech?
Today, some 57% of American Muslims believe that October 7 was at least somewhat justified. 
We can pretend away these ideological conflicts. It doesn&#8217;t make them disappear. We imported a lot of people who do not like Western civilization. 
That doesn&#8217;t mean all Muslims in the West don&#8217;t like Western civilization. I know Muslims who do, but the notion that importing millions of Muslims from third-world countries, or people from other cultures that don&#8217;t appreciate Western civilization, would be a good idea, is idiocy. 
That raises the question of why the West imported all of this in the first place. The answer is that there are a bunch of homegrown people in the West who believe our civilization is inherently guilty and ought to be torn down. They tend toward the Marxist Left. The Marxist Left believes that America was founded in sin, that America&#8217;s foreign policy and the West’s foreign policy more broadly have been about exploitation and evil.
The French existentialist and Marxist Jean-Paul Sartre wrote the foreword to one of the most important anti-colonial books of the 20th century, a book called “The Wretched of the Earth,” by Frantz Fanon. Sartre wrote: “We are all complicit in a thousand-year-old oppression. You know well enough that we are exploiters. Our precious sets of values begin to molt; on closer scrutiny you won&#8217;t see one that isn&#8217;t stained with blood.” 
He argued that we actually needed to import people from the Third World to destroy us.
The Marxists on the Left love this stuff. They are into this stuff. Suicide is the answer. Western values are evil, and they have to be destroyed.
In the United States, this is the coalition that&#8217;s taking over the Democratic Party. 
Why is the Democratic Party doing this? 
Some are doing this because they&#8217;re actual Marxists, and they&#8217;re happy to travel as fellows with Third Worldism as a front for their destructive goals. There&#8217;s a long history of that. Marxists in Africa worked alongside the Third World to fight the West.
And then there are Democrats who just hate the Right so much that they will find any ally, side with those people, and will treat any Democrat who works with Republicans, or at least any Democrat who doesn&#8217;t want to burn every single thing down, as a traitor.

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The Radical Third World Leftism Of The Democratic Party

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The European Union will urge members to cut their dependence on Middle Eastern jet fuel and look into increasing imports from the U.S., in new guidelines expected next week, an official source told Reuters, as the Iran war disrupts global supply.
The plans, previously unreported and still being finalized, will put a greater focus on self-sufficiency and resilience via Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) or synthetic fuels.
European airlines have warned of potential jet fuel shortages within weeks ‌as a result of the Iran war, which could disrupt the summer travel season. Europe is particularly vulnerable as it imports some 30% to 40% of its jet fuel, at least half of that from the Middle East.
The EU&#8217;s non-binding recommendations will emphasize the bloc&#8217;s limitations in increasing jet fuel output domestically and provide guidance on how to handle potential shortages, the source said.
The person asked not to be named because the discussions are ongoing and the draft is not yet finalized. A European Commission spokesperson confirmed plans to present a response to the energy crisis next week, including measures on jet fuels.
Availability of supply &#8220;remains the primary concern,&#8221; the Commission spokesperson said, adding that if supply remained snarled through the Strait of Hormuz, the EU could launch a possible coordinated release of jet fuel stocks.
Iran opened the Strait of Hormuz on Friday, a key gateway for energy flows from the Gulf, after a ceasefire accord in Lebanon, though U.S. President Donald Trump said a naval blockade remains in place until a deal is sealed with Tehran.
The EU spokesperson said he hoped a resumption of safe passage through the Strait would last, but reflecting the ongoing uncertainty, added: &#8220;Let&#8217;s see.&#8221;
FLIGHT CANCELLATION THREAT GROWS
Flights in Europe could start to be cancelled from the end of May due to a lack of jet fuel, the International Air Transport Association&#8217;s director general Willie Walsh said on Friday. Airlines are cutting flights and grounding some planes.
The source familiar with the EU&#8217;s plans said the document would lay out guidance for airline handling issues in the case of fuel shortages such as losing airport slots due to cancellations and the EU&#8217;s anti-tankering rule, designed to prevent planes from loading extra fuel in cheap locations.
It will clarify whether a fuel shortage can be considered exceptional enough for airlines to avoid paying compensation for cancellations. The source added that the EU has decided airlines&#8217; calls for changes to or the suspension of the Emissions Trading System (ETS) and SAF allowances were not justified.
The European Commission also plans to introduce EU-wide mapping of refining capacity for oil products and introduce measures &#8220;to ensure that existing refining capacity is fully utilized and ​maintained,&#8221; a draft proposal earlier seen by Reuters showed.
EUROPEAN IMPORTS OF U.S., NIGERIAN JET FUEL RISE
They will also look at the distribution logistics of increasing the use of U.S. Jet A fuel, traditionally seldom used in Europe because it has a higher freezing point than the European standard. Europe&#8217;s Jet A-1 is better suited to long‑haul, high‑altitude and cold‑temperature operations and is preferred by the military. Jet fuel imports from the U.S. and Nigeria rose sharply in April.
Some of Europe&#8217;s key hubs in Belgium, the Netherlands, Switzerland and Germany rely on the NATO-operated CEPS pipeline, which supplies European grade jet fuel. A spokesperson for NATO did not immediately reply to questions about the pipeline&#8217;s logistics.
Airlines are preparing for a potential supply crunch, with the International Energy Agency forecasting jet fuel shortages by June if the region can only replace half of the supplies it normally gets from the ​Middle East.
Some airports have warned of shortages within three weeks if the Strait of ‌Hormuz remains ⁠closed to fuel shipments. The European Commission is expected to warn jet fuel supply could remain limited even if the Strait of Hormuz is unblocked.
(Reporting by Julia Payne and Joanna Plucinska; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Elaine Hardcastle)

Airplane Fuel

Jet Fuel Crunch Looms: Europe Faces Flight Cuts As Iran War Drags On

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President Donald Trump raged Thursday morning that America&#8217;s allies fail to understand &#8220;anything unless they have pressure placed upon them,&#8221; once again taking aim at NATO after his meeting with the alliance&#8217;s secretary-general.
Trump targeted NATO in two social media posts shortly after his Wednesday meeting at the White House with NATO chief Mark Rutte, who traveled to Washington, D.C., following Trump&#8217;s renewed threats to pull the United States from the alliance.
&#8220;NATO WASN’T THERE WHEN WE NEEDED THEM, AND THEY WON’T BE THERE IF WE NEED THEM AGAIN,&#8221; Trump wrote in a social media <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116371693008302124">post</a> on Wednesday evening. &#8220;REMEMBER GREENLAND, THAT BIG, POORLY RUN, PIECE OF ICE!!!&#8221;
Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/116374792489555954">ripped</a> NATO again Thursday morning, posting, &#8220;None of these people, including our own, very disappointing, NATO, understood anything unless they have pressure placed upon them!!!&#8221;
Trump&#8217;s frustration with NATO has been building for months, particularly after several alliance members pushed back on his idea to acquire Greenland. Tensions have intensified more recently as some allies have rejected the president&#8217;s calls to back U.S. efforts to reopen the Strait of Hormuz.
Rutte met with Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday to discuss the alliance and Europe&#8217;s stance on the Iran war.
“He is clearly disappointed with many NATO allies, and I can see his point,” Rutte told CNN after the meeting.
Some NATO members — including the United Kingdom, France, and Spain — initially blocked U.S. aircraft from using their military bases for offensive strikes during &#8220;Operation Epic Fury.&#8221; The U.K. and France later allowed the United States limited use of bases for defensive purposes only, while Spain has remained a vocal opponent of the U.S. military operation.
&#8220;The large majority, including France, of European nations, has been doing what they committed they would do in a case like this,&#8221; Rutte said. &#8220;So Europe as a platform of power projection for the United States was in full play over the last six weeks. And yes, it is true that not all European nations lived up to those commitments, and I totally understand that [Trump] is disappointed about it.&#8221;
Rutte has been one of Trump&#8217;s biggest cheerleaders on the world stage in recent months and has repeatedly praised the U.S. president for forcing European nations to increase defense spending. The NATO secretary-general told CNN, &#8220;This was a meeting between friends because we like each other. I really admire his leadership &#8230; and NATO allies are with him when it comes to taking out, degrading the ballistic missile capacity of the Iranians.&#8221;
&#8220;The whole world is safer by this president degrading those capabilities,&#8221; Rutte added.
The United States is, by far, the largest financial supporter of NATO, covering more than 60% of the alliance&#8217;s defense spending, <a href="https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/commentary/trackers-and-data-visualizations/nato-defense-spending-tracker/#:~:text=United%20States%20$980%2C000%2C000%2C000%20NATO%20Europe,Kingdom%20France%20Italy%20Poland%20Spain">according</a> to the Atlantic Council. Last year, the United States spent roughly $980 billion on NATO&#8217;s defense.
Amid Trump&#8217;s pressure and repeated threats to withdraw from NATO, member states have ramped up their defense spending commitments. At last year&#8217;s NATO summit, allies agreed to increase their military spending to 5% of GDP by 2035.

Donald Trump/Mark Rutte

Trump Signals A Continued Pressure Campaign On Allies After Meeting With NATO Chief

Donald Trump

NATO

Sometimes a news event comes along that is so chillingly horrific that it confirms the presence of the devil in our midst. Thursday’s murder of a young woman by the state through euthanasia certainly qualifies.
This particular case also contains a warning: it is happening in Europe as a result of societal trends that are also gathering speed in America. These include family breakdown, secularization, the growth of the state, and the resulting embrace of a culture of death by the bureaucracy, the media, and the Left.
And this was not a one-off. Noelia Castillo Ramos, in Spain, is the second young woman in less than three years to be euthanized by a European state.
In fact, the two cases are alarmingly similar. Noelia and Milou Verhoof, who was euthanized in the Netherlands in 2023, were both raped as mere girls, understandably fell into depression, and eventually asked the state to help kill themselves. And the state was only too happy to oblige.
The case of Noelia — killed at a hospital near Barcelona — has drawn worldwide attention online, which is itself proof that the desire to cling to life is a basic human instinct.
Noelia suffered a lot in her life. The Spanish government took custody from her parents 12 years ago when she was just 13, after they divorced, fell into hard times, and lost their house. Her father, Gerónimo, drank at the time, according to news reports.
The Catalan regional government, of which Barcelona is the capital, then placed her in a state-supervised youth center. It was there that Noelia was gang-raped by three young men who were reportedly illegal aliens.
Nothing happened to her aggressors, but Noelia was never the same. She plunged into a severe depression, and suffered as well from borderline personality disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder.
In 2022, Noelia tried to end her life by throwing herself from a fifth-floor window. She survived, but ended up a paraplegic, stuck in a wheelchair and suffering great pain.
She then demanded euthanasia, which Spain’s current government of Socialists and communists legalized in 2021. Noelia’s father opposed it, arguing that her many disorders prevented her from making an informed decision, and pursued the case till the end in the courts.
On Thursday, a Barcelona judge denied a last-minute request to halt the proceedings. Around 6:00 pm, doctors at Hospital Residència Sant Camil in Sant Pere de Ribes, near the Catalan capital, gave her a lethal injection that stopped her breathing and her heart.
Noelia, in other words, was asphyxiated by the same state that took her away from those who loved her — and then either could not or would not protect her.
For the Left, this was a victory. The newspaper El País wrote caustically about the Abogados Cristianos, the Spanish Foundation of Christian Lawyers, which worked with Noelia’s father to stop the euthanasia. In typical lapidary style, the paper wrote:
<blockquote>For a year and a half this organization [Abogados Cristianos] has been behind the father’s legal battle to prevent the assisted death of Noelia, who suffers from paraplegia. … Advised by the ultra-Catholic group Abogados Cristianos, the man has entangled his daughter in a legal maze that has kept her alive, against her will, for 601 days.</blockquote>
For Spain’s main leftist newspaper, this was about “dying with dignity.” The court battle “prolonged the suffering of a young woman who has never wavered in her decision and who has received scientific endorsement from the independent professionals who make up the Catalan Guarantee and Evaluation Commission (CGAC).”
And this has indeed been a battle between those who believe that the state, led by technocrats, has the right to impose its choices on the family, even to make life-and-death decisions, and those who believe in a higher order. Good and evil, some might say.
Bestselling Spanish author Irene Gonzalez, a friend and insightful observer of Spanish life, called it a “state execution.&#8221; She wrote on X:
<blockquote>The State separated her from her parents — who loved her — yet failed to protect, shelter, or provide her with psychological or emotional support. She was a vulnerable young woman whom the State left in a state of absolute defenselessness; its solution is simply to get her out of the way. Euthanasia appears to be the execution — the final step in a case involving abduction and torture — carried out with the haste of a system eager to erase the traces of what the “State” is truly doing in the name of a dignified death.</blockquote>
America, look at Europe — and beware.
* * *
Mike Gonzales is the Angeles T. Arredondo E Pluribus Unum Senior Fellow at The Heritage Foundation.

A Barcelona Judge Refuses For The Third Time To Suspend Euthanasia For Noelia Castillo

The State Took Her From Her Family. Then It Decided She Should Die.

Child rape

Euthanasia

Heritage Foundation

Immigrants

Rape

Spain

Women

In current foreign-policy debates on the Right, some have pushed for dividing the world into “spheres of influence.” The United States would get the Americas, the People’s Republic of China would be granted sway over Asia, and Vladimir Putin would have carte blanche to intervene in European affairs. Far from being steely-eyed “realism,” splitting up the world in that way might actually not take the national interest seriously enough.
The “spheres of influence” gambit has a superficial logic. By some measures, the United States is a smaller portion of the global economy than it was fifty years ago. It faces growing fiscal burdens. Its industrial infrastructure has withered. Some of its longstanding allies have hit economic and demographic slumps. The growth of other regional powers means that the geopolitical landscape has become more multipolar. Yet withdrawing from much of the globe would hamper the ability of the United States to respond to those changed circumstances and would also undermine the policy aims of American populists. International networks will be critical for renewing American industry and reinforcing national sovereignty.
While some European partners need urgent reforms (from cutting red tape to hiking defense budgets), the continent remains a major global economic hub. The White House’s recent <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/2025-National-Security-Strategy.pdf">National Security Strategy</a> observed that Europe “is home to cutting-edge scientific research and world-leading cultural institutions” and that it retains robust manufacturing and technology sectors. A full-scale American withdrawal from Europe could close down a crucial market for American industry (including defense sales) and could also threaten regional stability. Ending NATO and shuttering American military bases would create a power vacuum in that continent and also hurt the ability of the United States to project power abroad.
Nor can the United States afford to ignore Asia. Responsible for about half of <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/media-center/cusp-of-new-era-in-asia">global manufacturing output</a>, Asia has become the workshop for the world. The People’s Republic of China is already a manufacturing powerhouse, and it could consolidate industrial dominance if the United States severs its commitments to allies in the Pacific. That is especially the case for the advanced technologies that are the building blocks of the digital economy. A link in countless international supply chains, Taiwan produces about <a href="https://www.trade.gov/country-commercial-guides/taiwan-semiconductors-including-chip-design-ai">90%</a> of the world’s most advanced semiconductors. If the People’s Republic of China conquered that island, it would have a chokehold on the American and global economies. It could cut off the chips that are needed for cars, computers, missiles, and phones. Beijing is already trying to use its control of key market sectors to influence policymaking in the United States. Responding to American tariffs and industrial policy, China has floated restrictions on some critical minerals, including those that are essential for <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/chinas-new-rare-earth-and-magnet-restrictions-threaten-us-defense-supply-chains">defense technologies</a>.
Populists have rallied around the claims of national sovereignty, but allowing the Chinese Communist Party to cut off the American economy at a whim is the antithesis of national independence. While building out American domestic semiconductor production is a national-security imperative, that’s also a very long process. The United States cannot afford to surrender economic self-governance for the indefinite future while it waits for some eschaton of economic autarky.
Conversely, coordinating with allies in Europe and Asia can bolster economic agency. For example, the PRC is responsible for over <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/periodicals/mcs2025/mcs2025-tungsten.pdf">80%</a> of the global annual production of tungsten, which is used for drills, computer chips, aerospace, x-rays, and more. The United States has not even mined tungsten commercially in over a decade. In addition to bringing back domestic tungsten production, American allies could help de-risk the tungsten market. Australia has massive tungsten reserves, and South Korea’s <a href="https://www.mining.com/sangdong-tungsten-mine-in-south-korea-returns-to-production-after-30-years/">Sangdong Mine</a> has returned to production for the first time in decades. Accessing those resources will require keeping Pacific alliances strong — and not surrendering that region to Beijing.
Likewise, allies in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East will continue to be important for American national-security aims. Even as it has stressed the need to reform certain geopolitical arrangements, the Trump administration’s foreign-policy strategy is premised on the United States being a global great-power. Losing the hard power that backs the dollar’s reserve-currency status would cause an immediate economic crisis at home, but a global defense infrastructure also helps target American foes abroad. The Jacksonian tradition of foreign policy — which prioritizes the targeted use of military force to defend the national interest — has achieved a renewed prominence in the Trump presidencies. Jacksonianism could be a way of rebalancing global commitments by keeping America’s rivals off-balance without tying down the United States. International alliances can help optimize such Jacksonian exertions of force.
From its very founding, the United States has prioritized having access to global markets. When the Barbary pirates threatened American ships, Thomas Jefferson sent frigates to Tripoli. To open up Japan, Commodore Matthew Perry brought the United States Navy to Edo Bay. The network of alliances in the aftermath of World War II could be seen as an extension of a long-term strategic imperative: that the Stars and Stripes should be able to move freely throughout the world and that those who live under that banner should be safe from both foreign and domestic threats.
We now face a very different political landscape from 1946 or 1999. Implementing “liberal democracy” in a country is a lot harder than getting an Amazon package there. If policymakers had sought to integrate the world into some post-historical bazaar, their dreams have been sorely disappointed. Great-power competition is back, and populist movements have roiled political establishments on both sides of the Atlantic. Those changes indicate the need to rethink international alliances without abandoning them entirely.
Yes, the United States needs to recognize the limits of power and to try to defer existential conflict with its competitors. It also needs to understand the interests of those competitors. At the same time, the United States needs to understand its own interests. Cutting itself off from allies in Europe, Asia, and elsewhere would squander a major geopolitical advantage and undercut efforts to build a stronger nation at home.
* * *
Fred Bauer is a writer from New England. Find his work at National Review, City Journal, The Atlantic, UnHerd, and The Washington Post. @fredbauerblog

Strategic world map with shipping infographics, flags and dice

The Plan To Split The World Into Spheres And What It Means For America

The Plan To Split The World Into Spheres And What It Could Means For America

China

Economics

National Security

Opinion

Russia

U.S. Military

U.S. Navy

When the European Union adopted the Digital Services Act (DSA), officials insisted that the sweeping regulation was necessary to tackle “illegal content,” “disinformation,” and other harmful online activity. The message was that responsible regulation would make the internet a safer place. The reality, however, is that the DSA grants the EU enormous <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-europe-plans-to-strangle-american-free-speech?author=Lorcan+Price&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=undefined&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=How+Europe+Plans+To+Strangle+American+Free+Speech">censorship powers</a> that endanger free speech in the digital public square, in Europe and across the world.
Now, for anyone wondering what kind of speech these powers might ultimately be used to suppress, the answer is becoming clearer. On March 5, the European Commission adopted its new <a href="https://commission.europa.eu/strategy-and-policy/policies/justice-and-fundamental-rights/gender-equality/gender-equality-strategy_en">Gender Equality Strategy</a>. The document leaves no doubt about the EU’s highly ideological direction, which has positioned it to become the world’s online censor through the DSA.
In the strategy, the European Commission states plainly that the DSA “recognises gender-based violence as a systemic risk, which providers of very large online platforms… have to assess and mitigate”. But what exactly is “gender-based violence”? 
According to the Commission, “online violence” includes acts that cause “psychological” harm or “suffering to women”. What this means is that if the ideological NGOs tasked with patrolling online content under the DSA object to a social media post on the grounds that it is “likely” to cause “harm” to women, major online platforms like X and Meta would be pressured to remove it as “violence”.
The nebulous definition of “online violence” put forward by the new Gender Equality Strategy makes it little more than a vehicle for digital censorship. The strategy presents itself as a roadmap for advancing equality across Europe. Yet what it reveals is a metastatic, habitual tendency on the part of EU institutions to embed contested ideological positions into policy and then frame any dissent as a threat. 
One notable passage in the strategy frames opposition to gender ideology as dangerous, warning that “anti-gender narratives … threaten the EU’s democratic space”. The strategy explicitly identifies “<a href="https://commission.europa.eu/document/download/1f5fa936-9fba-4435-93f5-32fa220bac82_en?filename=gender-equality-strategy-2026-2030.pdf">LBTIQ+</a> women” as a protected group and links gender equality efforts with other EU initiatives focused on sexual orientation. It also adopts an “intersectional approach,” asserting that sex and gender intersect with multiple forms of discrimination and should therefore be addressed through overlapping identity-based policies.
The strategy explicitly supports so-called “sexual and reproductive health and rights,” referencing a recent pro-abortion European Citizens Initiative. This signals continued normalization and support for abortion access on the part of the EU, which it has no authority to promote.
In the strategy, the European Commission refers to the Neil Datta report <a href="https://www.epfweb.org/node/1144">&#8220;The Next Wave&#8221;</a> as a trustworthy study identifying “well-resourced global movements, and increasingly exploited through foreign information manipulation and interference”. But what this “report” does is identify <a href="https://www.epfweb.org/node/1152">pro-life NGOs</a> and research centers promoting biological reality as radical, anti-gender, conservative, and religious extremists.
It does not take much imagination to see how this framework could be deployed in the world of online censorship.
In place since February 2024, the DSA gives the European Commission unprecedented power over the world’s largest online platforms, requiring them to remove certain content and manage “systemic risks” on their services. When authorities view legitimate criticism of gender ideology as part of “anti-gender narratives” threatening democracy, the next evident step is censorship in the name of “content moderation”.
Consider the prosecution of Finnish Member of Parliament <a href="https://adfinternational.org/campaign/free-speech-on-trial">Päivi Räsänen</a> under Finland’s national “hate speech” law. With the legal support of ADF International, Räsänen, a medical doctor, grandmother, and parliamentarian since 1995, has spent more than six years defending herself against criminal charges for posting a Bible verse on Twitter in 2019. She posted the verse to support her Christian beliefs about marriage and sexuality. Despite being acquitted twice by Finnish courts, the state prosecution has relentlessly pursued the case, which now awaits a decision from Finland’s Supreme Court. Under the DSA, we should expect to see more aggressive censorship for the simple expression of traditional Christian views like Räsänen&#8217;s.
Of course, the EU can, and should, advance authentic policies to promote equality between the sexes. But this is not that. There is no doubt that the Gender Equality Strategy strengthens the censorship regime created by the DSA. Democratic societies depend on open debate to promote true equality, not the suppression of views that challenge elite orthodoxy.
Platforms that fail to comply with DSA censorship directives face enormous fines, as evidenced by the €120 million fine levied against X, an American platform, last December. Although the penalty was formally tied to procedural violations, the platform was targeted for its pro-free speech stance, which it is now <a href="https://adfinternational.org/news/x-challenges-e120m-fine-under-eu-censorship-law">appealing</a> before the Court of Justice of the EU.
Both in Europe and across the world, including in the United States, the DSA creates powerful incentives for platforms to remove lawful content subjectively deemed problematic or suffer the consequences, which can range from crippling fines to suspension of services.
Europe has long presented itself as a defender of fundamental rights and democratic values. Yet the trajectory of its speech policies increasingly points in the opposite direction. Make no mistake about it: the EU is coming for your free speech, regardless of where you live, and it’s taking no pains to hide the kind of speech it’s after.
* * *
Dr. Adina Portaru is senior counsel, Europe, for legal advocacy organization ADF International, which is supporting X’s legal challenge before the General Court of the EU.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Symbol of transgender and female and male gender symbols

The EU’s Censorship Regime Has A New Gender Strategy And It Threatens Free Speech Everywhere

The EU's Censorship Regime Has A New Gender Strategy And It Threatens Free Speech Everywhere

Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF)

European Union

Gender

gender ideology

The White House turns green today as Ireland’s prime minister (Taoiseach) Micheál Martin arrives for his annual St. Patrick’s Day meeting with the president. Every March, Americans put aside political differences and raise a pint of Guinness to the ballads, jigs and reels, and the rolling hills of their common ancestral homeland. In Chicago, the river turns green. In New York, the city shuts down for the largest St. Patrick’s Day parade in the world. And in Boston – well, Boston is Irish all year round.
The last time the American media reported on Irishmen in Washington was only last month. Free speech expert Lorcán Price and comedian Graham Linehan <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/how-europe-plans-to-strangle-american-free-speech?author=Lorcan+Price&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=0&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=How+Europe+Plans+To+Strangle+American+Free+Speech">testified</a> before the House Judiciary Committee on the mass censorship regime sweeping Europe through its big tech hub in Dublin, Ireland. The American nostalgia of St. Patrick’s Day remembers a wholesome, Christian, culturally rich country that is now close to extinction. Ireland today is a left-wing, globalist hub and it offers a warning about the direction left-wing policies will lead the United States if the American Left regains control in Washington. Ireland’s fall from grace demonstrates how unelected bureaucracies and mass-immigration can reshape a nation.
<div id="attachment_1060857" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1060857" class="size-large wp-image-1060857" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2245192920-864x576.jpg" alt="DUBLIN, IRELAND - OCTOBER 31: The sun shines on a pint of Guninness that is being poured as people enjoy a drink in a bar in the city centre on October 31, 2025 in Dublin, Ireland. The city of Dublin, the capital of the Republic of Ireland, is located on Ireland’s east coast at the mouth of the River Liffey and is a popular destination for domestic tourists and with international visitors. (Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2245192920-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2245192920-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2245192920-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-2245192920.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" />Matt Cardy/Getty Images</div>
While Elon Musk’s DOGE made some headway last year in exposing and trimming some of the worst excesses of America’s deep state, Ireland’s deep state is firmly embedded. There are <a href="https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/letters/2024/10/19/why-so-many-charities-and-ngos/">32,000 NGOs</a> in Ireland — that’s one for every 155 people in the country. Despite the label “non-governmental,” this sector receives $7 billion (€6 billion) every year, not including additional funds from the European Union, USAID, and other governmental bodies around the world.
These organizations, for the most part, implement policies created by the European Union — another unelected bureaucracy — that are passed with little-to-no real scrutiny by the Irish parliament. In fact, according to an Irish member of European Parliament, <a href="https://gript.ie/fine-gael-mep-70-of-legislation-comes-from-europe/#:~:text=Many%20people%20in%20Ireland%20today,what's%20decided%2C%E2%80%9D%20he%20said.">70% of Ireland’s legislation</a> is created in this way.
The American Left would love to see that level of unaccountable NGO rule in the United States. The House DOGE Subcommittee <a href="https://oversight.house.gov/release/doge-subcommittee-chairwoman-greene-opens-hearing-on-ngos-use-of-federal-funds-to-advance-radical-agenda">found last year</a> that the Biden-Harris EPA had directed $20 billion to the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. This provided taxpayer funds to NGOs to implement the Green New Deal. If Republicans lose in 2026, we can expect Democrats to push even larger sums of taxpayer dollars through similar programs with little oversight.
In Ireland, the government openly advertises that it reserves special benefits for <a href="https://www.citizensinformation.ie/en/moving-country/asylum-seekers-and-refugees/services-for-asylum-seekers-in-ireland/direct-provision/#:~:text=Direct%20provision%20is%20the%20name,protection%20and%20are%20waiting%20for:">illegal immigrants who come to its shores</a>. After Russia invaded Ukraine, Ireland announced it would take in every Ukrainian refugee that arrived at Dublin Airport, with no upper limit. The government still provides housing and a weekly stipend many times larger than any other European country, but refuses to run any background checks on these alleged refugees. Dr. Eoin Lenihan explains in his book, Vandalising Ireland, that between 2022 and 2023, 8,975 individuals arrived in Ireland to seek asylum with no valid identification. Only one was prosecuted.
In 2022, a 23-year-old Irish schoolteacher, Ashling Murphy, was brutally stabbed 11 times in the neck while out for a run. Her murderer, Jozef Puska, was unemployed and receiving funds from a social welfare program. As an EU citizen (Puska moved from Slovakia in 2013), he had an automatic right to live in Ireland, despite being unemployed. Puska was eventually sentenced to life imprisonment, but he remains in the country without a deportation order. Ashling’s boyfriend, Ryan Casey, was accused of “incitement to hatred” by the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c5yg0ee65eqo">BBC</a> for raising concern about the unmitigated immigration regime that led to her murder. To date, the system has not been reformed to prevent similar tragedies.
<div id="attachment_1060839" style="width: 875px" class="wp-caption aligncenter"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-1060839" class="size-large wp-image-1060839" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-1237802580-865x576.jpg" alt="TULLAMORE, IRELAND - JANUARY 18: Pupils from Ashling Murphy's class hold photographs of her and red roses ahead of her funeral at St. Brigid’s Church, County Offaly on January 18, 2022 in Tullamore, Ireland. The murder of the beloved 23 year old school teacher has caused widespread anger and shock in Ireland, with tens of thousands of people attending vigils in recent days. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)" width="865" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-1237802580-865x576.jpg 865w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-1237802580-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-1237802580-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2026/03/GettyImages-1237802580.jpg 1024w" sizes=" (max-width: 865px) 100vw, 865px" />Charles McQuillan/Getty Images</div>
The United States has seen similar tragedies as a result of the disastrous Biden-era immigration regime. Young girls like Laken Riley, Jocelyn Nungaray, and Kayla Hamilton bore the brunt of this policy. A new Democratic administration will certainly re-open the border and cause more pain and suffering, precisely because open borders — not the safety of young women — has become a defining policy priority of the Left.
Ireland’s Christian heritage has been politicized and defeated in a woke crusade. The last decade brought with it a wave of referendums that ripped Ireland’s conservative safeguards out of the constitution. Ireland voted in large numbers to create constitutional rights for same-sex “marriage” and abortion (with no restrictions). In 2024, the ruling parties put forward a vote to remove the word “woman” from the constitution and define “family” as any “durable relationship.” Only in a last-minute polling turnaround that indicated the Irish people are finally waking up to the destruction of their culture, did the government lose the vote. The star of that 2024 campaign, Maria Steen, was unceremoniously <a href="https://lawliberty.org/ireland-at-rock-bottom/">blocked from running for President</a> last year.
A nation’s politics necessarily impact its culture. The Irish culture Americans celebrate every March is deteriorating rapidly. The Gaelic language is confined to rural villages, and less than <a href="https://www.cso.ie/en/csolatestnews/pressreleases/2023pressreleases/pressstatementcensus2022resultsprofile8-theirishlanguageandeducation">2% of the population</a> speak it on a weekly basis. This year, the government perverted the celebration of the Irish Catholic St. Brigid by <a href="https://europeanconservative.com/articles/commentary/ireland-is-playing-with-holy-fire/">casting her as a pagan goddess</a>. In the aftermath of the George Floyd debacle in Minnesota, Ireland eagerly joined the cancellation spree. Trinity College Dublin “denamed” (renamed) its Berkeley Library, previously named after a significant Irish-born philosopher, due to alleged ties to slavery.
While the United States has never passed a popular vote to create constitutional rights out of thin air, it repeatedly elects politicians who seek to protect made-up rights, misuse the law, and sell out their Christian faith. The last administration attempted to codify Roe v. Wade. It succeeded in codifying parts of Obergefell v. Hodges with bipartisan support in the “Respect for Marriage Act.” Thirty-four felony convictions nearly blocked Donald Trump from the ballot in 2024. In the United States, Christian faith is becoming increasingly politicized. Daily Wire’s Megan Basham has catalogued this bastardization of Christianity in the United States in her book, &#8220;Shepherds for Sale.&#8221; Renaming libraries and toppling statues has also become common under Democrat governance.
Ireland’s transformation did not happen overnight. It happened through bureaucrats, state-funded NGOs, and cultural elites who slowly replaced national identity with global ideology. Americans celebrating St. Patrick’s Day should remember: the country they toast tonight is not the one that exists today. Ireland shows what happens when elites, bureaucracies, and ideology override national identity. As Americans celebrate 250 years of independence, they should reflect on their own national identity as they head to the ballot box this year. After all, Ireland is the future the American Left wants.
* * *
Roger Berkeley works with mission-driven organizations to develop their political and communications strategies. Now based in Washington, DC, Berkeley has been politically active in his native Ireland since 2016, driving change on free speech and life issues.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

Aerial view of St. Anne’s Church of Ireland in Ballyshannon, County Donegal, surrounded by cemetery and lush countryside, Traditional rural church architecture and Irish cultural landscape for editorial and travel use

Ireland Is The Future The American Left Wants

Censorship

Globalization

illegal immigrants

Leftists

St. Patrick's Day

The West is in trouble.
One of the reasons is that the West has fundamentally failed to distinguish between tolerance of one another&#8217;s traditions and lifestyles on the one hand, and the bizarre bend-over-backward celebration that accompanies the undermining of traditions unique to the West.
A perfect example is what&#8217;s happening in Germany now. It seems like a small story, but it is indicative of a broader mindset that has been setting in throughout the West for generations.
In Germany, McDonald&#8217;s decided on an ad campaign. The German population is roughly 6.5% Muslim at this point. Muslims celebrate Ramadan around this time of year, which means they are fasting from sunup to sundown.
Fine. That is the Muslim tradition. There are a lot of Muslims who live in the West who are perfectly fine Western citizens.
McDonald’s is not halal, meaning food that religious Muslims can eat. If you are a Muslim who is celebrating Ramadan or commemorating Ramadan, chances are that you are eating halal in your non-Ramadan hours and in your non-fasting hours, because if you&#8217;re religious enough to actually not eat all day, you probably don&#8217;t go at sunset and find a rasher of bacon and eat it.
But McDonald&#8217;s decided to put up an ad campaign in Germany. The ad campaign removes the food from the billboards during Ramadan hours out of respect for Islam. The food appears on the billboard after sunset, but it disappears during the day, presumably so as not to tempt Muslims to feel hunger pangs.
<a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2376-wth-mc-donald-s-celebrates-ramadan"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="size-large wp-image-974957" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp" alt="DailyWire+" width="1024" height="171" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1024x171.webp 1024w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-300x50.webp 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-768x128.webp 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-1536x256.webp 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/09/511983dad25841c8b1ec058d75769bbe-2048x341.webp 2048w" sizes=" (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px" /></a>
That is Bizarro World. It’s weird and self-defeating, and it bespeaks of something that lies at the heart of the cowardice of a lot of both corporations and people in the West.
It&#8217;s Bizarro World because McDonald&#8217;s is not halal. The people who are presumably going to be very moved by these billboards are not going to head over to McDonald&#8217;s after dusk and start chomping down on their cheeseburgers.
So what is McDonald&#8217;s doing? According to <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/mcdonalds-new-ad-campaign-empty-boxes-no-food-ramadan-germany-11578866?utm_source=chatgpt.com">Newsweek</a>: 
<blockquote>The campaign was created by the German agency Scholz &amp; Friends, whose concept centers on removing McDonald’s most recognizable visual element—its food—as a gesture of respect for those observing Ramadan.</blockquote>
This is strange. The reality is McDonald’s is a food company that sells food, and the vast majority of the food that you sell is not to the people to whom they’re trying to appeal.
Who exactly is McDonald&#8217;s appealing to? Who&#8217;s the target audience?
The answer is: The dullards in the West who believe that it is a mark of virtue to subsume your own values beneath the values of other cultures.
That is the problematic part. It is a strange form of cultural reparation that somehow the West owes it to other cultures to participate in their religious activities while subsuming its own interests.
I don&#8217;t think McDonald&#8217;s cares all that much in Germany about whether or not Muslims like McDonald&#8217;s. I think what German McDonald&#8217;s cares about is that there are a lot of people in Germany who see this as a form of left-wing social virtue signaling, in the same way that in the United States, you have major corporations that every year decide they&#8217;re going to signal for Black History Month or Gay Pride month.
But the basic idea is not that you are going to earn vast oodles of cash from doing that. The idea is you&#8217;re appealing to left-wing people in the United States who will give you more money because they believe that you share their values.
The reason that you see all these companies doing DEI in the United States is absolutely not because they think it&#8217;s going to be good for their balance sheet. Hiring on the basis of non-merit is always bad for the balance sheet.
The reason these companies do it is because they believe they can appeal to an entire group of consumers who have warm feelings toward them if they take their own corporate business interests, throw those aside, and start signaling their politics.
This is a major problem. It&#8217;s not unique to Germany and is a widespread symptom of a disease that is spread across the West, where you are supposed to be overtly apologetic about not celebrating Ramadan.
This is not a sign of cultural respect.
It&#8217;s a sign of cultural disintegration.
It would be the same thing as if companies in the UK decided that they were suddenly going to take female models and suddenly cover up their faces out of respect for radical Islam.
It&#8217;s saying something, but it&#8217;s not the thing they think they&#8217;re saying.
There is an assumption that in the Trump era, DEI is basically dead, that we&#8217;re never going back to a time when corporations were virtue signaling like this, when policy did not reflect this idea that the dominant American culture ought to be put under the foot of splinter cultures.
But the reality is that it can very easily come back.
It doesn&#8217;t take a lot for it to come back. All it takes is a group of people who see it as a mark of virtue to yell at their own culture and pretend that it is somehow inferior and owes it to other cultures to demonstrate its own inferiority.
There&#8217;s a piece from Time magazine titled “<a href="https://time.com/7377439/donald-trump-cant-kill-dei/">Why Donald Trump Can&#8217;t Kill DEI</a>.” The point the piece makes is that the anti-DEI era, which is a backlash to the Barack Obama/Joe Biden era, will be followed by a backlash to the backlash, and that all this stuff will come back with a vengeance.
The piece states:
<blockquote>Ideas of inclusion and diversity also permeate everyday institutions, including schools, universities, foundations, nonprofits, and corporations. &#8230; Many companies have retreated from DEI under legal and political pressure. What makes fewer headlines is that most companies that have sidled away from the acronym continue to affirm the values of DEI under a different name. &#8230; 
Boeing stated that it maintains “procedures aimed at encouraging an equality of opportunity.” Lowe’s has proclaimed that it remained “committed to fostering an environment where individuals are treated fairly, valued, respected, safe, and inspired to serve customers and the communities where we live and work.” These statements sure sound like diversity, equity, and inclusion to us. &#8230; The education sector is equally if not more committed: a 2025 review of 262 colleges and universities found that 245 of them still maintained DEI offices and programs.</blockquote>
This is only going to continue. What does it mean?
It means this will come back if Republicans lose the forward momentum.
I know that we&#8217;re also riding high on the horse right now because Donald Trump won and because Republicans are in charge of the legislative branches of the government.
But if you think this stuff can&#8217;t come back, you’re wrong.

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