This is the sixth part in the Remix News series, “The big immigration lie,” which explores Asia’s innovation leap over Western countries, despite Asian nations like China, South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan promoting closed-border economies that rejects mass immigration (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, and part 5).
The most modern chemical factory in the world, according to Germany’s prestigious FAZ newspaper, is being built by Germany’s BASF for €9 billion. However, this factory is not being built in Germany. Instead, the modern BASF composite site is located in China’s Zhanjiang on the island of Donghai, and is so large that it is referred to as a “spaceship” which covers four square kilometers, or the equivalent of “five to six hundred football fields and many more rice fields.”
While one major factor in Germany’s chemical production woes is high energy costs, chemical production is far from the only field in which Germany is falling behind. In areas such as renewable energy, automobile production, humanoid robotics, microchips, AI, machine tools, and ship building, Asian countries are leaping into the future, while countries like Germany are mired in growing debt, dysfunctional school systems, and growing insecurity.
This has not been lost on political leaders in Germany either, with Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Alice Weidel writing on X: “BASF is investing billions in China and opening the world’s most modern chemical plant, while jobs are being cut here at home. That’s a warning sign: The high energy costs from the disastrous energy transition are driving deindustrialization forward!”
BASF investiert Milliarden in China und eröffnet das modernste Chemiewerk der Welt, während bei uns Stellen abgebaut werden. Das ist ein Warnsignal: Die hohen Energiekosten durch die verhängnisvolle Energiewende treiben die Deindustrialisierung voran! https://t.co/8vxqfWLmod
FAZ notes the incredible contrast the new BASF plant has with the surrounding countryside, where farmers still wear “large comical bamboo hats” and work in rice fields. Many of them are elderly farmers working in a manner that gives “a glimpse into ancient China.” The new BASF plant illustrates the massive leaps China continues to make as it not only drives towards modernization but now increasingly out-innovates Western nations.
The site, which is centered around a “steam cracker, which splits the hydrocarbons” into products ranging from toothpaste, shampoos, detergents, or even materials for cars, may have cost €9 billion to construct, but in Europe, it would cost 20 to 40 percent more than to build in China and probably cost €25 billion in the United States.
The factory was quickly completed by 35,000 workers and was of an unmatched scale.
Merkel was behind the BASF plant
The project’s origin dates back to 2018, when “Angela Merkel and Chinese Prime Minister Li Keqiang watched over” the signing of the agreement. However, “political support from the German side has crumbled” since then.
At the recent opening, German politicians were absent, and Economics Minister Katherina Reiche provided only a “5-minute video message” while “struggling with the Zhanjiang debate.”
In contrast, the Chinese side showed strong local support, with the governor of Guangdong calling for “further investments from BASF.” Addressing domestic concerns regarding “deindustrialization and an increase in dependencies,” BASF CEO Markus Kamieth was firm. He told journalists that “the word of dependencies is ‘misguided’” and argued that “opportunities are being seized in China.”
He further asserted that “a BASF” that failed in the Chinese market “would be a weaker BASF,” noting that “China is not Iran or Russia” and the company does not “come into conflict with your own values.”
The article also notes that Zhanjiang may be small by Chinese standards, with a population of 440,000, but it is fully backing BASF.
Kamieth expressed gratitude for the “support of the Chinese government” and praised the “cooperation with local authorities,” noting that “entire classes from vocational schools have been hired.”
The rapid development of the region has been a point of amazement for the BASF CEO. Recalling the early stages of the project, he remarked, “In 2020 it was all still vision.” He referred specifically to the “infrastructure that was promised to him at the time,” such as a new airport and port expansions. Looking at the completed site today, he concluded, “But it all happened exactly like that.”
As Remix News has noted, China is known for its incredibly strict immigration policy to ensure cultural and societal harmony, while emphasizing utilizing its own human capital and people to power its economy. In fact, as noted frequently in this series, China has fewer foreigners in the entire nation of 1.4 billion than Germany has in just one city, Berlin. Yet, Europe is the one headed to China on bended knee to beg for economic help.
To add to the dilemma, the education systems of most Western nations are in shambles, in large part due to mass immigration. This means that while Asia is investing in its future, even if that future includes a shrinking population, countries like Germany are piling billions into a failed ideology of mass immigration that is only exacerbating economic decline.
In the end, the West can import millions from Africa and the Middle East, but these regions of the world feature incredibly low patent activity, low innovation, and very few examples of successful high-end manufacturing. BASF shows that Germany’s largest companies are investing in Asia despite the left’s claims that mass immigration would fuel an economic boom and pay for the country’s pensioners.
The debate over violence in German society and schools has reached a boiling point in the Bundestag, pitting Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his supporters against critics who accuse him of racism, including a Left Party politician who published a photo of herself on Instagram giving him the middle finger.
The controversy intensified following a session where Merz addressed the issue of digital and analog violence, particularly against women.
“We have exploding violence in our society, both in the analog and digital space, and we must do something about it together,” said Merz. However, he said that one must then also talk about where this violence comes from, he said to applause from members of the CDU/CSU and the AfD.
“And then we must also address the fact that a considerable proportion of this violence comes to the Federal Republic of Germany from immigrant groups,” he added.
🇩🇪🔴German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is under fire from the left for tying exploding violence with mass immigration.
"We have an explosion of violence in our society…Then we also need to talk about where this violence comes from. And then we must also address the fact that a… pic.twitter.com/ZPDuI4eHnv
These remarks drew sharp condemnation from the Social Democrats (SPD) and the Left Party. SPD parliamentary group leader Matthias Miersch argued that violence against women should be viewed broadly rather than being reduced to a single population group. Miersch stated, “I don’t think that was an adequate response from the chancellor.”
He added that “violence against women has no origin or religion, it is a problem of society and must be addressed clearly. It is about protecting victims, regardless of who the perpetrator is.”
Data on violence against women and foreigners
However, statistics tell another story from what Miersch asserted. Foreigners commit 65 percent of all sexual crimes on German trains and in train stations despite making up approximately 15 percent of the population. It must be noted that German citizens with a migration background are not included in this 65 percent figure.
Data presented by the German government last year shows that 63,977 women were victims of sexual violence in 2024 alone, and the perpetrators were disproportionately foreigners, making up 35 percent of all perpetrators, according to government data released as a result of an inquiry from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in the Bundestag.
The data, obtained by Freilich magazine, also shows large numbers of victims of crimes committed by suspects from other countries of origin, including 82,960 linked to Afghanistan, 69,946 to Iraq, 39,918 to Morocco, and 32,383 to Algeria. Altogether, more than 460,000 crimes were recorded in a 10-year period involving suspects from the 10 main countries of origin: Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Morocco, Algeria, Nigeria, Pakistan, Somalia, and Eritrea.
The Left says migrants should not be blamed
In the educational sector, Saskia Esken, chairwoman of the parliament’s Education and Family Committee, also raised concerns about school-related crimes. While acknowledging that the number of violent crimes recorded by the police in schools has increased significantly in all federal states, she firmly rejected the migration narrative, despite clear statistical evidence showing there is a serious problem with violence from Germany’s foreign population.
“Migration is not the problem in our schools,” Esken asserted, arguing that violence arises where children neither at home nor at school learn other ways to regulate their feelings and resolve conflicts. She described school as a motley, quasi-forced community where social workers and psychologists are desperately needed to address underlying issues like poverty and lack of prospects.
Again, the data contradicts her, showing that 40 percent of all violent crime suspects in German schools are foreigners. This data shows that there were 4,254 foreign suspects and 7,309 suspects with German citizenship, the German government announced in response to a parliamentary inquiry from Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP Martin Hess.
Of the 11,558 suspects in total, 1,236 had Syrian passports, representing one in ten violent incidents, according to the data, which was provided to Welt newspaper.
It must also be noted that a likely significant number of these suspects are German citizens with a migration background who are only counted as German in the statistics. Researchers, police, and society do not have a clear picture regarding the integration of previous generations of migrants and their role in crime due to this data reporting failure.
The Left Party member of the Bundestag, Cansin Köktürk, took a more provocative approach by posting a photo of her middle finger directed at Merz on Instagram.
She accused the chancellor of a “hysterical, constant whining” about migrants and suggested that he was serving a racist agenda.
“Hey Merz, I almost think you’d like to be part of us yourself. You’re so obsessed with talking about us,” she wrote.
Köktürk claimed that Merz instrumentalizes specific cases while ignoring the perspectives of those affected, describing his rhetoric as aggressive and hurtful.
In a truly incredible story, a German mother of four from Bavaria thought she had found the love of her life on the dating platform Lovescout24. She fell so deeply in love that she sent her love interest €1.5 million from her husband’s firm, only for it to turn out the money was going to an African gang focused on love scams.
She placed her trust in a man presenting himself as soldier “Ruiz Calvo,” who claimed to be in financial difficulty, and over the course of more than a year transferred the money into Swiss accounts on his behalf. Eventually, however, the married woman grew suspicious and alerted the police.
Despite only speaking to her fictitious lover on the phone twice, she sent him a fortune of her husband’s money.
However, it took her 39 money transfers before she realized she was dealing with a fraudster. In September 2024, the woman, who is from the Donau-Ries district north of Augsburg, finally confessed to her husband and they jointly filed a police complaint.
How did the woman have access to so much of her husband’s money? She worked as the accountant for his firm, where she siphoned off the money. Now, she is under investigation for fraud.
One of the fraudsters on trial
One of the alleged fraudsters has been arrested. After filing the police complaint, the woman received a message from “[email protected]” where she was told she could reclaim all her money in exchange for a payment of €13,700 as a “procedure opening fee,” with the individual posing as an Interpol agent.
Police advised the woman to play along, but to insist on a German bank account number, on the grounds that she no longer trusted foreign banks. The ruse worked, and the man behind the email account sent an IBAN belonging to a man from Verden in Lower Saxony, who had made his account available at his brother-in-law’s request. That brother-in-law was arrested in Paris in July 2025 and subsequently extradited to Germany.
Now, 29-year-old Daouda T. is being tried in Augsburg’s regional court, wearing an ankle bracelet. According to the indictment, the asylum seeker operated as a logistics coordinator for a romance fraud gang originating from the Ivory Coast, using 86 bank accounts and seducing German men under the alias “Jennifer.”
Whether he also posed as the fictitious soldier Calvo remains unclear.
In total, 17 victims were targeted across Germany by the same network. The gang extracted huge amounts of money from the victims, yet those behind the operation have largely been unidentified.
The investigating officer in the case told the court: “The soldier claimed to be on a foreign mission and had no access to his account containing €1.3 million. She was supposed to help him buy the account back from the French state.”
The money was split between the gang, with Daouda T. receiving a share. However, the court has learned that he gambled away his share of the money on sports betting.
“He committed the crime out of financial hardship,” his defense attorney, Florian Engert, claimed in court.
Judge Stefan Lindig convicted him of attempted commercial and gang fraud and sentenced him to 18 months in prison. The victim was not present at the hearing.
German women are especially prone to love scams
Recent studies have highlighted Germany as particularly affected, with reported financial losses in 2025 reaching approximately €380 million, which accounted for roughly 86 percent of all recorded losses from these scams within the EU.
According to German public news outlet SWR, “more and more people, mainly older women or middle-aged women, are falling for so-called love scamming. This refers to fraud by feigning a partnership or even intent to marry when people meet on the Internet.”
The advent of AI-generated video, which can make someone take on an entirely new identity, has greatly enhanced the power of these love scam networks. Scammers target people who are often single and lonely, exploiting their emotions and gaining trust over time
Women are certainly not the only victims, but so far, they statistically fall victim to these crimes more often than men.
In January of this year, a major Nigerian love scam gang was tried in Germany. The high-profile trial at the Dresden Regional Court concluded with the sentencing of a Nigerian fraud network that specialized in laundering money stolen from lonely women.
Throughout the proceedings, the defendants — Hamsik E. (24), Sylvester E. (27), Ayomide N. (25), and Precious O. (25) — maintained a defiant display of wealth. Even while arriving from prison, they wore luxury labels such as Louis Vuitton. On paper, three were employed in vague professions, such as “designer,” while one was officially unemployed and collecting social benefits. Precious, the woman, was allegedly a “part-time waitress.”
The Presiding Judge Karl-Dietmar Elser did not seem to be impressed with their luxury clothing or accessories and handed down sentences of nearly four years each for aiding and abetting commercial and gang-related fraud. The judge noted that Precious O., specifically, earned the nickname “Gangster-Doll“ for her “behavior,” which included laughing at her victims in chats and conversations.
Remarkably, during the trial, Bild newspaper highlighted that the scam had many layers of sophistication, and in fact, one of the women appeared to still have trouble believing it was a scam. During the trial, Bild stated that she was still in contact with the fake doctor and continued to value his “attention and kind words.” During the scam, various problems were presented with the alleged doctor’s efforts to reach Germany, which left the woman paying to help him, which led to her financial losses.
Several members of the scam group, operating from Nigeria, have never been brought to justice.
The Frankfurt am Main District Court in Germany has recently upheld a German bank’s decision to maintain the suspension of accounts belonging to Berlin-based journalist Hüseyin Doğru, who is known for his pro-Palestinian news coverage. The ruling rejected an urgent application by the journalist, who is currently facing the threat of homelessness due to EU sanctions. The court’s decision means Dogru remains without the necessary funds for rent or basic daily needs.
The legal battle surrounding Hüseyin Doğru has sparked intense political debate in Germany, with critics describing the case as a “socio-economic death sentence” and a dangerous precedent for press freedom. Certainly, these EU sanctions, which can freeze bank accounts, can be used to effectively target dissident journalists across the EU in the coming years.
According to the German court order, there was no right that would entitle Doğru, who has a Turkish background but also has German citizenship, to continue using his bank account while under sanctions. Berliner Zeitung reported that the judge determined that the situation lacked the “prerequisite for intervention in the urgent procedure” because “Doğru has no enforceable right to have the bank release the transfers it has requested.”
The impact of this ruling on Doğru’s personal life is severe. Expressing his concern for his family’s future, Doğru stated, “The risk of ending up on the streets with three children is a concrete threat.”
The paper notes that his “authorized €506 per month makes it impossible to support a family of five. Moreover, he cannot freely dispose of even that amount. The situation could become existential.”
While German law technically allows for a monthly subsistence allowance — cited in late 2025 as €506 — Doğru’s lawyers have had to repeatedly sue banks just to gain access to this minimum amount. His attorney, Alexander Gorski, described these tactics as a “war of attrition” designed to make social and economic participation “factually impossible.”
He also noted the extreme difficulty of maintaining a normal life under these conditions, remarking that “paying bills is practically impossible for me.”
Doğru has been on an EU sanctions list since May 2025, with Brussels arguing that his pro-Palestinian journalistic work incites “ethnic, political, and religious discord” and therefore, he allegedly supports “destabilizing activities by Russia.” Notably, he filmed a number of the occupations of Berlin universities by pro-Palestinian activists.
Doğru has denied these allegations, pointing out that he ended his previous employment with a Russian-funded outlet following the invasion of Ukraine and has publicly criticized the conflict.
At the time, Doğru, a left-wing journalist, said: “Not only I, but also my wife and my three children are effectively being sanctioned.”
“The sanctions themselves stipulate that I am entitled to access to essential funds. The fact that my bank is nevertheless blocking these funds violates applicable law in my view,” he continued.
The basis for the sanctions was his alleged connections to Russia, but the Berliner Zeitung indicated that so far, no proof has been presented to confirm this accusation, and more importantly, there was no trial or evidence provided to support this accusation.
“Brussels justifies the measures by saying that he is using his pro-Palestinian journalistic work to stir up ‘ethnic, political and religious discord’ and thus allegedly ‘destabilizing activities that support Russia.’ The EU has not yet publicly provided any concrete evidence of a connection to Moscow,” wrote the paper at the time.
There are now fears that the extraordinary case may be a sign of where the future is headed, where an authoritarian EU can censor and financially ruin dissidents and journalists with no oversight or judicial review. Notably, similar sanctions could also be deployed against others, such as Roger Köppel, the Swiss editor-in-chief of the weeklyDie Weltwoche.
In a formal inquiry from the newspaper Junge Welt, the German Ministry of Economic Affairs clarified the severity of the “provision ban.” They stated that a sanctioned individual may receive “no economic benefit whatsoever,” including wages. This interpretation effectively bars any German company from hiring Doğru, as paying him would constitute a criminal offense.
An MP of the left-wing Social Democrats (SPD) Macit Karaahmetoğlu, defended the government’s position in the case and the sanctions, noting it was established to target those undermining “the security, stability, independence and integrity” of the EU. He emphasized that the German government “actively worked to establish and strengthen” this specific regime to counter hybrid threats.
Legal experts and journalists, however, have compared Doğru’s situation to “internal exile.” Since he is a German citizen, he cannot be deported, but the sanctions have stripped him of his identity card and barred him from all forms of employment.
Even friends and family who would like to donate money to Doğru could be targeted with criminal charges.
As Remix News previously reported, the sanctions had a devastating effect on Doğru and illustrate how they could be used to silence nearly any journalist, whether on the left or the right.
“I’m not allowed to pay my lawyer. I’m not allowed to buy water. I’m not allowed to provide my child with food. I’m not allowed to work. I’m not allowed to buy medicine. Every single monetary transaction with me is forbidden. Technically, you’re not even allowed to give me a basket of food because I could turn that technically into money. And this is forbidden.
And if I violate or you do, I don’t know about you, but if I were to violate one of these things, I could face like five years of prison time by avoiding sanctions technically, but they went further. I’m sanctioned, I’m on that list, but they also technically sanctioned my wife and our unborn twins because they froze older accounts. She is not allowed to receive her salary right now.
So in this moment, we technically have no money that we can access to go and buy something. There is also the problem because a lot of activists, journalists, colleagues, politicians and family members even said, ‘Should we send you money?’ We said, ‘Don’t do that. Don’t do that because you would be maybe categorized as avoiding sanctions.’ And this is the problem here. Sanction, as the European Union describes on their website, is a tool that is aligned with humanitarian law, which is not deemed to punish, but rather to change your behavior.”
For more information about the case, including the history of the sanctions, how they are being deployed, and the threat they represent, read more here.
South Korea’s shipyards are racing past American shipyards — all without mass immigration. This is the fifth installment in the series known as the “big immigration lie,” which explores the soaring innovation and economic success of Asian countries that have closed the door on mass immigration (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4).
In a new 60 Minutes news clip, the hosts marvel at the achievements seen in South Korea’s ship building industry. The program shows how South Korea is utilizing automation and robotics to fuel its manufacturing sector with virtually zero immigration.
🇰🇷🇺🇸South Korea's shipyards are racing past American shipyards — all without mass immigration.
In the 60 Minutes video below, the program shows how South Korea is utilizing automation and robotics to fuel its manufacturing sector with nearly zero immigration.
“He showed us how far ahead they are technologically. Rows and rows of robots,” exclaims the host, with the video panning to masses of robots welding and assembling ships.
Despite a rapidly dwindling population, South Korea has chosen to employ its own ethnic workforce and supplement it with high-tech robotics and automation. This automation and success has actually led to an employment boom in shipbuilding.
South Korea’s shipbuilding industry is experiencing significant siuccess as of early 2026, characterized by high-tech advancements and soaring profits. Major shipbuilders like HD Hyundai and Hanwha Ocean have secured large orders, including LNG carriers, and reported substantial 2025 sales growth, holding roughly 20-22 percent of the global market share.
More broadly speaking, South Korea frequently leads the world in innovation, often ranking higher than the U.S. and Germany in R&D intensity, patent activity, and manufacturing value-added.
Although economists in the West have harped on the economic benefits of diversity and mass immigration, South Korea maintains a highly restrictive immigration system, balancing labor shortages with a policy preference for temporary, non-permanent migration. It focuses on utilizing the Employment Permit System (EPS) for less-skilled roles, restricting employee movement, while offering limited paths to long-term residency or citizenship.
This is virtually the same story seen across Asia. China, also known for its incredibly strict immigration policy to ensure cultural and societal harmony, accounts for two-thirds of all civilian ship production in the world. Asia, in other words, now dominates the global shipbuilding industry from top to bottom — and has done so without opening its borders.
In fact, as noted frequently in this series, China has fewer foreigners in the entire nation of 1.4 billion than Germany has in just one city, Berlin. Yet, Europe is the one headed to China on bended knee to beg for economic help.
China almost completely rejected mass immigration and has about as many foreigners in the country as just one German city, Berlin.
🇨🇳All of China: 845,000 foreign nationals 🇩🇪Berlin: 860,000-870,000 foreign nationals
It is not only the United States that is struggling to even build a submarine, which is vital to its military defense. Other nations like Germany and Britain are also seeing pain in their shipbuilding industries, just as they have seen pain across virtually all manufacturing sectors over the last decades.
In Germany, the partially nationalized Meyer Werft shipyard in Papenburg — once a crown jewel of European shipbuilding — has become a cautionary tale of industrial mismanagement and government dependency. Secret audit documents revealed losses of €260 million in 2023, €575 million in 2024, and a projected further loss of €271 million in 2025 — totaling approximately €1.1 billion in losses over just three years.
The previous German government under Chancellor Olaf Scholz injected €400 million in emergency equity in 2024, provided by the federal government and the state of Lower Saxony, only for those funds to be rapidly exhausted. A staggering €2.6 billion in state guarantees remains on the line.
Auditors raised the alarm as early as September 2025, warning of “significant doubts” about the shipyard’s viability and explicitly flagging a “risk endangering the existence” of the company. Taxpayers are left holding the bill while the yard fights for survival.
Meanwhile, Britain’s story is one of longer, slower decline.
Once the undisputed shipbuilding capital of the world, Britain has largely ceded commercial shipbuilding to Asia over the past half century. Today, the UK industry survives almost entirely on government defense contracts — frigates and naval vessels built by BAE Systems and Babcock International — with virtually no meaningful presence in the commercial cargo or passenger vessel market, where Asian yards have taken complete dominance.
The famous Harland & Wolff yard in Belfast, where the Titanic was built, recently had to be rescued by Spain’s state-owned Navantia after teetering on the edge of collapse. Britain’s own National Shipbuilding Strategy, launched with great fanfare in 2017 and refreshed in 2022, promised that key contracts would go to domestic firms — but an independent review found that those contracts ultimately went abroad anyway.
The left’s ideology meets reality
Without any regard to reason to introspection, the left would have the West believe that open borders immigration is necessary for economic success, despite Asia proving their theory wrong every step of the way.
South Korea and China have built the most formidable shipbuilding industries in human history with homogeneous workforces, ruthless investment in automation, and zero appetite for mass migration.
Meanwhile, Western nations that have pursued the opposite model find themselves dependent on government bailouts, watching historic yards collapse, and importing ships they once built themselves.
To add to the dilemma, the education systems of most Western nations are in shambles, in large part due to mass immigration. This means that while Asia is investing in its future, even if that future includes a shrinking population, countries like Germany are piling billions into a failed ideology of mass immigration that is only exacerbating economic decline.
In the end, the West can import millions from Africa and the Middle East, but these regions of the world feature incredibly low patent activity, low innovation, and very few examples of successful high-end manufacturing. The shipbuilding industry offers a clear and uncomfortable lesson: Demographic transformation is not an economic strategy.
An 18-year-old woman was seriously wounded in a knife attack aboard a regional train near the Saarland town of Sulzbach on Monday afternoon. She was transported to the hospital and, while her injuries are serious, a police spokesman confirmed she is not in a critical condition.
The alleged attacker, a 21-year-old man, was arrested at the scene. Both suspect and victim are listed as German nationals, according to Welt newspaper.
According to police, the two knew each other prior to the incident. The attack occurred at approximately 3:45 p.m. Federal Police had initially only reported “a physical altercation on a regional express train” before the full details emerged.
The spokesman said. “The investigation into a possible motive and the exact course of events is still ongoing,” he added.
The incident is the latest in a series of violent attacks on trains in the region. Just last February, a train conductor was fatally assaulted on the route between Landstuhl and Homburg, also in Saarland, by a Greek national. The attacker struck his victim repeatedly in the head with such force that the conductor died several days later — a case that triggered nationwide shock and prompted calls for greater security on regional rail services.
The number of violent crimes at Berlin Central Station in 2024 has tripled compared to 2019, which was the last year before the coronavirus crisis. In Cologne, violent crime has grown 70 percent in the same timeframe, according to Welt newspaper.
Those are just two cities, but the same trend is seen everywhere.
“Look at a main train station, in Duisburg, in Hamburg, in Frankfurt. Neglect, drug dealers, young men, mostly with a migrant background, mostly from Eastern Europe or Arab-Muslim cultural areas. This also has to do with irregular migration, as it looks in our inner cities, in the marketplaces,” said Jens Spahn, the CDU parliamentary group leader, in a BILD interview. Remarkably, his own party is massively responsible for Germany’s incredible demographic transformation and crime crisis.
The Russian Federal Security Service (FSB), in coordination with the Interior Ministry and the Federal National Guard Service, has reported that it successfully disrupted a number of terror plots, one of which involved intercepting a shipment of 504 improvised explosive devices disguised as heated shoe insoles.
These items, which reportedly arrived from Poland via Belarus, were intended for the special military operation zone under the guise of humanitarian aid, claims Russian services.
A foreign national born in 1994 was detained in connection with the smuggling operation. The FSB stated that “a Ukrainian handler ordered the man to receive a shipment of 504 improvised explosive devices disguised as heated shoe insoles through a logistics company in Moscow.”
The insoles reportedly had 1.5 grams of TNT embedded inside.
Bomb experts determined that each insole contained approximately 1.5 grams of TNT.
The FSB stated that “when connected to a power source, the shoe insoles would have detonated, maiming soldiers.”
The FSB issued a public warning regarding the tactics used by foreign intelligence, noting that “the Ukrainian special services camouflage explosives as household items.” Previous interceptions have found explosives hidden in objects ranging from electric stoves and beauty products to religious icons and car parts. In light of these threats, the authorities urged citizens to remain vigilant and “contact authorities if they find out their personal data has been leaked, or if email accounts, social media accounts, messaging apps, and other internet services are hacked.”
The Ukraine war has been marked by its widespread use of tiny camouflaged mines, also known as petal mines. Both sides are spreading them across the battlefield, which are virtually undetectable to the naked eye, and look like small balls of grass or foliage. The bombs are designed to maim infantry soldiers by blowing off their feet.
Russian authorities are also claiming other terror plots were broken up that were targeting Moscow and the surrounding region.
Russian agencies were put on high alert following intelligence that “Ukrainian special services are preparing to carry out sabotage and terrorist acts in Moscow and the Moscow Region against critical facilities, government officials, Russian Defense Ministry servicemen, and law enforcement personnel.”
The FSB reportedly also blocked an attempt by Ukrainian intelligence to acquire specialized fiber-optic drones from a Moscow-based company. These UAVs, which can carry up to 20 kilograms, are typically used by Russian forces to destroy enemy equipment. The FSB emphasized that “had the Ukrainian special services succeeded, they would have equipped the drones with explosives, turning them into a powerful terrorist weapon to be used against designated Moscow facilities.”
Yesterday, Russia reportedly launched its largest drone strike of the entire war, which included over 1,000 projectiles. Ukraine claims most of the drones and missiles were intercepted, but cities as far away as Lviv were struck.
French prosecutors have requested a sentence of 18 years in prison against Swiss Islamologist Tariq Ramadan, who was already convicted in Switzerland for a brutal rape, during his rape trial in France. The preacher, who has failed to appear for the proceedings, faces accusations of raping three women. Consequently, the criminal court has issued an arrest warrant against him.
This Tuesday, a judicial source indicated that the 18-year sentence was sought by the Paris departmental criminal court, which is trying the case in absentia and behind closed doors.
In addition to the prison term, the public prosecutor’s office requested an arrest warrant for the accused, who has not presented himself to the French justice system since the trial began, along with a definitive ban from French territory following the completion of his sentence.
Commenting to Le Figaro, Me David-Olivier Kaminski, lawyer for Henda Ayari, stated: “The attorney general, for more than three hours, demonstrated the immense guilt of Tariq Ramadan. Whether he was present at the hearing or not, I think the requisitions would have been the same: relentless.”
Three victims and previous conviction
There are three different accusers in the trial. A former Salafist turned feminist activist, Ayari was the first to go public with her story in 2017. She testified that the assault occurred in 2012 at a Paris hotel during an Islamic conference. According to her account, the meeting was intended to be a religious discussion, but she says Ramadan became suddenly violent when she resisted his advances. She stated, “He choked me so hard that I thought I was going to die,” and described a night of repetitive insults and physical force.
Another alleged victim, Christelle, is a pseudonym for a woman who was left disabled after a car accident. She alleged that Ramadan raped her in a Lyon hotel room in 2009. Her testimony describes an exceptionally brutal encounter involving blows to the face and body, forced sexual acts, and being dragged by her hair. Her lawyers have noted that she was particularly vulnerable due to her physical disability at the time.
The third accuser joined the case later. She alleged that she was raped by Ramadan in 2016. Her testimony follows a similar pattern to the others, involving an initial meeting under the guise of an intellectual or religious exchange that allegedly turned into a violent sexual assault in a hotel room.
The current trial in Paris follows a 2024 ruling by a Swiss appeals court, which found Ramadan guilty of raping a woman identified as “Brigitte” in a Geneva hotel in 2008. In that case, the court sentenced him to three years in prison, of which one year was to be served. The Swiss judges cited “torture and barbarism” in their description of the assault, mirroring the language used by the accusers in the French case.
Ramadan initially denied having any sexual contact with these women, labeling them “compulsive liars.” However, his defense shifted significantly in 2018 after investigators recovered hundreds of text messages from a mobile phone belonging to “Christelle,” which supported her version of events
Fit to stand trial
The trial of Tariq Ramadan commenced on March 2 without his presence, according to Le Figaro. His legal team explained his absence by stating he had been hospitalized in Geneva, Switzerland, two days prior due to what they described as a “flare-up” of multiple sclerosis.
In response, the president of the criminal court, Corinne Goetzmann, ordered a medical assessment from two neurologists to determine if the trial should be postponed.
In the report read by the magistrate on March 6, experts concluded there was a “stability of multiple sclerosis” with “no sign of a recent outbreak,” determining that he was fit to appear before the criminal court. The court also indicated that an arrest warrant, “for immediate execution and dissemination,” was issued against him. Following these developments, his four lawyers chose to leave the courtroom, asserting they could not defend their client in what they termed a “parody of justice.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has declared a suspension of gas supplies to Ukraine, stating the flow will only resume once Kyiv restores the transport of Russian crude oil through the Druzhba pipeline.
This transition will occur gradually, with Hungary opting to store its remaining gas supplies within its own borders. Orbán explained this decision on Facebook on Wednesday, March 25, writing, “We need to create reserves, so we will be filling Hungarian gas storage facilities, not Ukrainian ones.”
The prime minister further clarified that gas deliveries are strictly contingent on the resumption of oil transit, asserting that if Ukraine continues to stop the oil, it will not receive Hungarian gas, according to Hirado news outlet.
Orbán added, “We will protect Hungary’s energy security by maintaining stable fuel prices and a reduced gas price.
“We have been successfully defending against Ukrainian blackmail so far, thanks to the protected prices, Hungarians are paying the lowest prices at gas stations in all of Europe.”
At the heart of the conflict between Hungary and Ukraine is Russian oil, which has become a major bone of contention. While Ukrainian officials maintain that the Druzhba pipeline was damaged during a Russian attack and is currently undergoing repairs, the Hungarian government contends that Ukraine has not only refused outside inspectors, including EU inspectors, but there is no satellite evidence the pipeline is destroyed.
Budapest suspects that Kyiv is intentionally delaying the restoration of the pipeline in order to derail Orbán’s election bid. Since the blocking of the pipeline, Orbán has blocked a €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine, which was intended to be funded by joint debt.
This financial commitment has been rejected by the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia.
The true condition of the Druzhba pipeline remains a point of debate, prompting an investigation by EU experts who arrived in Ukraine on March 19. Brussels has shown a strong interest in the pipeline’s restoration, offering both technical and financial help, an offer that Kyiv has accepted.
The resolution of this dispute is especially critical for Hungary and Slovakia, the only EU nations still receiving Russian crude via Ukraine. For the Orbán administration, the stakes are heightened by the upcoming parliamentary elections on April 12. With current polling suggesting that Fidesz is at risk of losing power, the government is under immense pressure to secure its energy interests.
Gunfire has become a near-nightly fixture on Berlin’s streets, fueled by crime from migrants and those with a foreign background. For weeks, gang-related shootings have rattled the capital, and those police tasked with responding to them are increasingly frustrated — not just with the criminals, but with the politicians who are supposed to back them up.
The latest incident came Monday night in Schöneberg, where a 38-year-old man was gunned down. The suspects fled and remain at large. It was not an isolated case. Officers have been responding to shooting after shooting, and within the German Police Union — known by its German abbreviation GdP — patience is gone.
Spokesman Benjamin Jendro took to X to voice what many in the force are thinking: “It would be nice if politicians finally did something.”
Last year, Berlin saw a record number of shootings. The figures are striking. According to Berlin’s 2025 police crime statistics, firearms-related offenses — cases where a gun was either threatened or actually fired — surged to 1,119 cases, a jump of 68 percent compared to the previous year. Of those, guns were actually fired in 515 cases, up from 363 in 2024. Berlin is also the state that sees the most gun violence in all of Germany.
Interior Senator Iris Spranger of the SPD insists the city is taking action, according to German publication BZ.
“I do not tolerate armed conflicts in our city,” she said, invoking “zero tolerance for illegal possession of weapons.”
Jendro’s response to such assurances? “Too little is happening,” he said.
FDP state chairman Christoph Meyer, 50, offered perhaps the bluntest summary: “When shots are fired in Berlin almost every night, the state has a massive enforcement problem — that is not a feeling, that is reality.”
The GdP is pushing for expanded CCTV coverage and AI-assisted surveillance tools as the most effective way to get ahead of gang activity. But according to Jendro, the money simply isn’t there.
“Corresponding expenditures are not even included in the state budget,” he points out. Investigations are piling up faster than officers can process them. “We can’t keep up,” he said.
A recently overhauled law offered some hope, but without the money to implement it, Jendro dismisses it as “an empty shell.” His overall verdict on the political response is withering: “There is no uniform political strategy — often, it remains phrases.”
Berlin’s growing clan violence
To understand what is happening on Berlin’s streets, it helps to look back. Berlin’s crime gangs of Arab origin have long earned infamy with violence and brazen robberies. Often referred to as clans, their founders mostly arrived as refugees from war-torn Lebanon in the 1980s and other Middle Eastern states. They control the illegal drug trade, gambling, street prostitution, and protection rackets.
Now, that established criminal ecosystem has acquired a dangerous new dimension. Police say a new criminal network known as the “Daltons” — a group with roots in Turkey — has begun establishing itself in Berlin, with prosecutors currently pursuing around 200 investigations linked to the group and similar criminal enterprises. Authorities say the gang primarily targets Kurdish asylum seekers for recruitment, allegedly drawing them in through promises of money and status, with some recruits first approached in asylum centers.
The timing is significant. Authorities believe the Berlin underworld has become even more volatile following the death in January of Mehmet K., a prominent organized crime figure nicknamed “Kurdish Mehmet,” whose funeral required around 500 police officers to maintain order. “All hell is breaking loose in Berlin now,” one associate told German broadcaster RBB. “Everyone wants to make a name for themselves. I think things will get worse from now on, because Mehmet Abi is gone, and he was the one who made sure everything here went smoothly.
Other politicians weigh in
The CDU’s Burkard Dregger disputes that characterisation. He argues the criticism directed at the Senate is “completely unjustified” and cites the special unit Ferrum — up and running since November — as tangible proof of progress. The unit has opened 260 investigations, secured 13 arrest warrants, and taken 18 firearms off the streets. The coalition, he adds, has also “provided funds to acquire the necessary technology.”
Other parties have been more candid about the scale of the problem. SPD politician Martin Matz wants illegal weapons possession upgraded from a misdemeanor to a full criminal offense, though he acknowledges the decision lies beyond Berlin’s reach:
“This is only possible at the federal level in criminal law.” Green politician Vasili Franco, 33, did not shy away from the obvious: “It is a sad fact that the successes in combating organized crime are manageable.”
Transnational gang structures fuel crisis
What makes the situation particularly difficult is the nature of the criminal structures involved. Berlin’s clan crime report recorded 246 cases of bodily harm, three murders, 48 cases of serious bodily harm, 81 cases against personal freedom, 21 weapons and explosives violations, and 21 robbery cases in a single year — with the scene operating through legitimate businesses, including shisha bars, jewelry shops, and car rental companies used to launder money.
Berlin police warn that the Daltons’ international connections mean the problem cannot be solved locally, with the gang’s alleged leader believed to be operating outside Germany entirely. It is a reminder that what plays out on Berlin’s streets is not merely a local policing challenge — it is part of a transnational criminal infrastructure that has been building in the city for decades, and which successive administrations have struggled, and largely failed, to dismantle.
Gordon Schnieder, the CDU’s lead candidate in Rhineland-Palatinate, made headlines earlier this month with a blunt statement on knife crime during a televised debate with incumbent SPD Minister-President Alexander Schweitzer. During the debate, he stated that knife crime is not German crime but immigration crime. Just days later, he went on to win the state election on March 22, ending 35 years of Social Democrat (SPD) rule in the state.
“This is not German criminality, this is immigrant criminality,” Schnieder had declared during the SWR debate, placing migration squarely at the center of the security debate in the campaign’s final stretch.
Although not the only reason Schnieder came out on top, the debate showed that he was more than willing to make a statement that would have led an Alternative for Germany (AfD) candidate to be accused of racism.
In the end, the CDU took 31 percent of the vote to the SPD’s 25.9 percent, and Schnieder is now set to become Minister-President — the first CDU leader to hold the position since 1991.
Knife crime debate
Schneider’s remark was made specifically in the context of knife violence, which has surged across Germany in recent years. In Rhineland-Palatinate alone, authorities registered 561 knife offenses in 2025 — roughly 1.5 cases per day. Nationally, the figure is far more alarming: Approximately 80 knife attacks or knife-related crimes occur every single day, totaling nearly 30,000 incidents per year.
Schnieder subsequently stood by his statement, offering a telling piece of context: Knife crime was only added as a separate category in German police crime statistics in 2020. His explanation was pointed, saying it was “because it simply wasn’t typical German crime in the years before either.”
The implication is that the phenomenon is directly linked to the migration wave that began in 2015, and that the statistical infrastructure was only created once the problem became impossible to ignore.
The deputy federal chairman of the German Police Union, Manuel Ostermann, has been similarly direct in 2024 about the issue.
“The migration crisis is also a crime crisis,” he said, adding that men from the main countries of origin for asylum seekers are disproportionately represented in relevant crime statistics.
🇩🇪‼️ "Germany is no longer a safe country… The migration crisis is first and foremost a crime crisis."
German police union (DPoIG) chairman Manuel Ostermann makes a major statement following the Solingen terror attack by a Syrian Islamist. pic.twitter.com/ZolmrLnMHa
Ostermann called for consistent deportations with re-entry bans for serious offenders.
Misleading voters?
The win in Rhineland-Palatinate marks a significant moment for Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU, coming just two weeks after the party narrowly lost to the Greens in Baden-Württemberg. CDU General Secretary Carsten Linnemann was quick to celebrate: “A really strong campaign, a strong result, and after 35 years, the CDU is now entering government.”
His daughter was murdered by an illegal Palestinian migrant, stabbed 38 times, along with her boyfriend.
17-year-old Ann-Marie is gone, but her father won't let her memory die. He delivered a message to Olaf Scholz's face:
However, Schnieder’s willingness to adopt what critics have called “AfD-style rhetoric” on immigration and crime reflects a well-established pattern within the CDU. With the AfD continuing to grow in the polls — now running neck-and-neck with the CDU nationally at around 25 percent — the mainstream conservative party faces constant pressure to address voter concerns on migration and security in explicit terms.
Yet Schnieder, like CDU leaders before him, drew a firm line before the election: He would not form a coalition with the AfD under any circumstances.
“It would spell the downfall of this country if we were to bring the AfD on board here,” he said. The CDU and SPD are now expected to form a grand coalition at the state level, mirroring the arrangement in Berlin at the federal level.
This dynamic — speaking bluntly about migration-linked crime during campaigns, then governing in coalition with the SPD rather than acting on the hardest-line positions — has become a recurring source of frustration for voters who want more than rhetoric. Critics argue the CDU’s firewall against the AfD structurally prevents the party from implementing the toughest measures its own electorate demands, and that Schnieder’s “immigrant criminality” framing, however striking, may follow the same trajectory once coalition negotiations begin.
As a result, Schnieder’s campaign language will likely not translate into concrete policy during his coming tenure as minister-president. Regardless, elderly German voters will likely continue supporting the CDU at any cost, as they have convinced themselves that the AfD simply cannot be voted for. The divide between elderly and young voters is growing sharper and sharper, with the youth choosing AfD and the Left Party, while the elderly voters are overwhelmingly sticking with the establishment parties of the CDU and SPD.
🇩🇪 Germany's young voters are flocking to the AfD.
Rhineland-Palatinate couldn't be further away from the party's typical stomping ground in eastern German states, yet in this weekend's election, it doubled its vote share to record its best-ever result in the state.… pic.twitter.com/yxRseSY5Rd
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has officially called for a high-level investigation into allegations of espionage targeting Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó with the help of a Hungarian journalist.
“It’s a serious matter,” said Orbán. “The fact that the foreign minister of a sovereign country is being intercepted with the intervention of the authorities and secret services of another country, using Hungarian journalists, or at least one for sure, is very serious.”
Orbán went on to say that he believes it is clear the rival opposition party, the Tisza Party, was well aware of the wiretap.
“But the most serious thing is that it seems clear that all this was done with the knowledge of the Tisza Party, and I see that it was done for its benefit,” said Orbán.
Following a report by Mandiner, it was revealed that journalist Szabolcs Panyi, associated with anti-Orbán news outlets Direkt36 and VSquare, had reportedly worked with a foreign EU intelligence service to conduct wiretaps on Szijjártó.
Hungarian commentators have also pointed out that such an espionage case comes with potentially serious penalties for Panyi if he is tried and convicted. Máté Tóth, a lawyer, writes that “the historical facts are quite clear, so I will state the verdict here. (…) Panyi, as a Hungarian citizen, contacted or maintains contact with a foreign government or foreign organization for the purpose of violating Hungary’s independence, territorial integrity or constitutional order, which is punishable by 5 to 15 years in prison for a crime.”
He continued, writing: “The penalty is imprisonment from 10 to 20 years or life imprisonment if the treason is committed for a serious benefit, as there was a good chance here. The classified case includes the fact that Panyi is engaged in intelligence activities against Hungary for a foreign power or foreign organization, which is also punishable by two to eight years in prison in the basic case of a crime.”
He wrote that if all the charges were added up, Panyi faces life imprisonment for espionage coupled with treason.
Currently, it is not clear whether Panyi will be charged, but the allegations remain serious.
🇭🇺🔴Leaked audio reveals Hungarian journalist reportedly helped wiretap Hungarian foreign minister Péter Szijjártó's telephone.
The bombshell information has shaken Hungarian politics right before elections. The recording has journalist Szabolcs Panyi telling a female that he… pic.twitter.com/5DCpPVtLd8
Orbán announced via social media that he has “instructed the Minister of Justice to immediately investigate the information related to the wiretapping of Péter Szijjártó.” The scandal centers on claims that foreign intelligence services monitored the Foreign Minister’s communications.
According to a whistleblower identified as the “Fourth Power Branch,” an audio recording and email sent to Mandiner suggest a coordinated operation involving foreign entities and domestic political figures.
Panyi is accused of acting as a conduit for a foreign intelligence agency within the EU by providing the service with Szijjártó’s private phone number. On the leaked recording, Panyi reportedly describes the monitoring process, noting that “the way this works is they’re watching a number and they have who that number was talking to and they see who’s calling that number or who that number is calling.”
When asked by a female interlocutor which specific country was receiving this data, Panyi allegedly stated, “I can’t say that,” before requesting the woman keep the matter strictly confidential.
It remains unclear how the “Fourth Power Branch” obtained these recordings.
The Mandiner report further suggests a web of connections linking the journalism sector to the opposition.
The investigation reportedly points toward Anita Orbán and the Tisza Party. Mandiner claims that Panyi and Anita Orbán are collaborators, alleging that should Péter Magyar’s party take power, Panyi would gain access to sensitive Ministry of Foreign Affairs documents and influence staffing decisions under a potential Anita Orbán leadership.
In a follow-up video on Facebook, Viktor Orbán emphasized the gravity of the situation, indicating that he “considers further consultation necessary” to address the national security breach.
An 18-year-old Afghan intern is under criminal investigation after allegedly exposing himself and touching his erect penis in front of two second-grade girls during his placement at a primary school in Düsseldorf. Police have searched his apartment and seized his mobile phone. The incident has infuriated the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, which has called for his deportation in a video produced about the incident.
The alleged flashing at Brehm School took place on March 9 during afternoon care and only came to light only after a father called the school.
A spokeswoman for the Düsseldorf district government told Bild it had been an unobserved moment at a sink — though a teacher was in fact present in the room at the time.
🇩🇪🔴An Afghan intern allegedly exposed his erect penis to 2nd grade students at German elementary school. Now, the AfD is calling for his deportation.
He also confessed to police that he groped the class teacher’s buttocks.
The teacher had been showing the class a film and was unaware of what was happening nearby. After the child witnessed the Afghan touching his penis and reported it to her parents, the school subsequently banned the intern from the premises, according to Bild newspaper.
The case did not stop there. The same teacher recalled a separate incident from three days earlier, on March 6, in which the intern had grabbed her buttocks.
She had initially written it off as accidental contact, but the second incident changed her assessment entirely. Notably, neither the school nor its sponsoring organization reported either incident to the authorities — it was the teacher herself who went to the police.
An investigator familiar with the case told Bild: “Unfortunately, we often see this with regard to crimes in schools, where schools prefer to keep a low profile.”
The teacher was due to give a further statement to the police this week but fell ill unexpectedly.
When questioned by police, the young Afghan admitted to groping the teacher. Since he holds asylum seeker status, officers notified the immigration authorities following his interrogation. His internship at the school had been scheduled to last three weeks. The examination of his confiscated phone is still underway.
The Düsseldorf public prosecutor’s office confirmed to Bild that an investigation is open but declined to provide further details, citing the age of those involved.
The AfD produced a video about the incident, describing the Afghan as someone who has “never known mixed-gender schools before. In Afghanistan, girls are excluded from the school system. During Tarek’s internship, something happened that left everyone stunned. The Afghan dropped his trousers and exposed himself to two little girls in the classroom, and this despite the fact that even the teacher was in the room, who claims not to have noticed anything.”
The report further notes that the incident only came to light when the girls in the school spoke to their parents.
“The parents of the traumatized girls had to arrange this on their own. Tarek was banned from the school grounds and is not allowed to continue his internship. No further consequences,” the video reads.
The party further states that the Afghan “does not belong in the classroom, he belongs on an airplane. Back to Afghanistan.”
A 49-year-old man with a migration background has been arrested after allegedly beating his 38-year-old partner to death with a hammer and seriously injuring their 13-year-old daughter in the early hours of Monday morning in Barsinghausen, a town of around 34,000 residents in the Hanover region of Lower Saxony.
Police received an emergency call at 2:10 a.m. Officers rushed to the scene, a single-family home on Rehbrinkstrasse where the family of seven was living.
“A 15-year-old boy said his father attacked his 38-year-old mother,” said police spokesman Michael Bertram.
The suspect was standing at the door when officers arrived. According to Welt, the 15-year-old son had managed to persuade his father to leave the house before calling police.
Bertram confirmed: “The 49-year-old allowed himself to be arrested without resistance.”
Inside, officers found the mother lifeless on the floor. Emergency responders attempted resuscitation but were unable to save her. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
“The suspect’s critically injured daughter was also discovered in the house. She, too, was apparently attacked by her father,” Bertram said. Investigators learned the weapon used was a hammer.
The daughter was rushed to the hospital in a critical condition. The couple’s son and three other children, including two infants, were taken to safety. Investigators are now working to establish the full circumstances surrounding the killing.
The family only moved into the house around a year ago and had been well received in the neighborhood. An 88-year-old local resident said: “I saw the children swinging outside yesterday while the father was working in the garden. Everything seemed harmonious.”
According to a neighbor, Dieter Becker, “It’s hard to understand, because for me it was a family that didn’t stand out either. His wife was hanging out the washing a few days ago. The man tidied up the garden and actually kept it tidy.”
Another local construction worker, Alexej Nigodenko, said: “I’ve been here on the building site since last August and have seen the police inside the house four or five times. I don’t know what’s going on, of course, because I saw the man himself, talked to him and everything. Actually, he was always nice, but you never really know with anybody.”
The couple’s other children were unharmed; two of them are still toddlers. They are now being looked after by the youth welfare office. The police are looking for clues and, above all, the motive for this crime.
The murder comes after a long spate of “honor killings” and revenge killings involving mostly Middle Eastern men and their wives in Germany. Many of the attacks have also occurred in the presence of children, often in large families.
A mother in Lower Saxony who found a disturbing video on her daughter’s phone that revealed that she was gang raped inside a church-run youth center by three teens, including a Syrian, Iranian, and Dutch national, in Gnarrenburg. However, once the story came out, it only grew darker, as it was revealed that staff, church officials and local authorities subsequently did everything possible to bury the story.
This gang rape comes after national news reports revealed that a gang rape sexual assault occurred in another youth center in Berlin, but which was covered up because the assailants were Muslims and the youth center workers did not want to increase stigmatization.
In this latest case, the woman, 43, says she first suspected something was wrong when she found a disturbing video on her daughter’s phone. It showed a girl being pinned down by a boy, filmed from behind. Confronted with the footage, her daughter was defensive, saying she had “no idea” where the footage came from and claimed, “It’s not me!”
However, within days, the truth emerged in a WhatsApp message the girl sent to her mother: “Then they all did it to me and locked the door and turned on music so you wouldn’t hear anything.”
The assault is alleged to have taken place in an upper room of the youth center in Gnarrenburg. The facility is jointly run by the local Protestant church and the Gnarrenburg community.
Three suspects have been identified — a 16-year-old Dutch national who attends the vocational school across the street and is said to have lured the girl there via Snapchat, an 18-year-old Iranian with a substantial file at the youth welfare office, and a 15-year-old Syrian who, according to the mother, later claimed he was coerced into participating.
The supervisor on duty, a part-time church deacon, later claimed he heard nothing. When the girl showed him a pregnancy test in the days that followed, he neither contacted her parents nor the police, reportedly telling the family he was bound by a duty of confidentiality. Experts say no such obligation exists in cases of serious criminal conduct.
During the rape, other young people were reportedly cheering outside the locked door during the attack.
The story only became impossible to contain a week later, when recordings of the incident began circulating among local young people. The girl told her mother: “This video is going around everywhere. I was also approached by two girls at the outdoor pool that something had probably happened before.”
She ultimately documented her account across seven handwritten pages for police. The Stade public prosecutor’s office has confirmed to Bild newspaper that the case is a priority, though no outcome is expected for at least two months.
The mother says she has received no support from the church, the youth center, or the local administration. The mayor of Gnarrenburg was reportedly informed that boys had allegedly been arranging such encounters at his municipality’s youth center, yet was unavailable to speak with Bild.
“We’re fighting windmills,” said the mothers. “The congregation, the church, everyone remains dead silent, as if nothing had happened. Everyone carries on as if nothing happened. Only we as a family will never be able to forget it. It will always accompany us.”
Her decision to go public, she says, was driven by her daughter’s isolation.
“The story is all over the whole village and at the school. My daughter doesn’t go anywhere anymore. I want to give her a sign: you are not to blame.”
The mother continued, saying: “We simply want the alleged perpetrators to receive their just punishment, and most importantly, we want our daughter to be able to walk through the community with her head held high, without feeling ashamed or anything like that.”
The doors to the room where the assault allegedly took place have since been removed from their hinges. In a joint statement to Bild, the mayor and the superintendent of the Bremervörde-Zeven church district said the team had acted correctly at all times based on their knowledge at the time.
Since mid-February, a total of six men, three Iraqis and three Syrians between the ages of 24 and 30, are on trial for a terrifying robbery of a jewelry store in the German city of Kassel.
The group is said to have worn horror clown masks while breaking into the home of a Turkish family who owned a jewelry store. Once they tied them up, they threatened and beat them before stealing gold, jewelry, and around €135,000 in cash. Five of the six defendants are facing trial for a series of severe charges, including joint aggravated robbery, extortion, and conspiracy to commit burglary. One defendant is also facing a separate charge for possession of child pornography.
According to the prosecution, the group targeted the home of a 58-year-old jeweler in a highly organized attack. Investigators state that several members of the group broke into the residence, where they bound and gagged the jeweler’s wife and other relatives.
When the jeweler arrived home, he was allegedly held at gunpoint while the perpetrators demanded the keys to his shop. While some members of the group stayed behind to guard the hostages, others drove to Kassel city center, where they looted jewelry, gold, and approximately €135,000 in cash.
Prosecutor Andreas Thöne noted during Monday’s proceedings that the group was meticulously prepared. The defendants reportedly wore masks and carried cable ties to restrain their victims. They also utilized two “deceptively real” Airsoft weapons to threaten the victims.
The victims were gagged and bound for a long period of time and systematically beaten, including facial bruising, skull hematomas, and lacerations.
During the trial, the victim’s lawyer described how the Turkish family had saved money and worked hard for years to open their own store. The wife of the owner took care of mentally disabled relatives.
However, the robbery has shattered their lives, and the Turkish man lost his shop since he had never bought an insurance policy. He still has an outstanding loan of €90,000, which he has to repay. The couple, along with their mentally disabled relatives who were present, all suffer psychological consequences to this day. The family has since sold the house and left town due to the terror they experienced.
One suspect determined to have “diminished responsibility”
Although four defendants regularly consumed alcohol and illegal drugs, the expert witness, a doctor, stated that only one suspect had “diminished responsibility.”
“Everyone had a difficult childhood. But there are major differences in what the consequences of this can be,“ stated Dr. Peter Reinhold-Hildenhagen, a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy, before the 11th Criminal Chamber of the Kassel District Court as he submitted his report.
He was speaking about four defendants whom he had to examine more closely during the trial. The expert reports deal with the question of whether the defendants can be assumed to have diminished responsibility and whether placement in a withdrawal facility is an option.
Four of the defendants involved in this raid had stated that they regularly consumed drugs and alcohol. Therefore, the criminal chamber had appointed the expert shortly after the start of the trial.
In the end, the expert concluded that all four men had been addicted to narcotics in various forms before committing the crimes, according to German newspaper HNA. However, only the 30-year-old Iraqi was determined to have “diminished capacity,” which means the psychiatrist believes he is not as responsible for his actions as the others.
“What distinguishes this defendant from the others?“ asked Prosecutor Janne Wißing.
According to Reinhold-Hildenhagen, the 30-year-old had not only consumed more drugs than the other defendants after a relapse, but he had also been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and post-traumatic embitterment disorder. Reinhold-Hildenhagen claimed this latter disorder is often found among refugees due to “extremely unjust” and “humiliating” experiences.
The expert stated that the men all experienced war and poverty. The 30-year-old Iraqi stated that he was regularly beaten by his father. At 16, he left his parental home for Baghdad. In 2018, he left for Europe, stopping in Istanbul and Athens.
After three asylum applications were rejected in Greece, he obtained false papers to get to Germany, and remained abstinent for two years.
Eventually, his asylum application was also rejected in Germany, but once he started training as a geriatric nurse, his deportation was halted.
It was, however, not long before personal problems and money worries led him to relapse in December 2024, one month before the robbery of the jeweler and his family.
Falk Werhahn, defense attorney for a 30-year-old Iraqi, claimed his client “could have become a model example of integration.” Werhahn said he had learned the language very well and was a favorite of his patients.
At the recent EU summit in Brussels, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stood firm on his decision to block billions of euros in financial aid to Ukraine, citing his legal authority to do so despite fierce backlash from European leaders.
Orbán addressed the friction at the summit while speaking to Hungarian journalists on Thursday night, acknowledging that “there was a little stuttering in the gears.“
Despite Orbán’s legal use of his veto right, the EU once again appears to be disregarding all rule of law and will reportedly find a “back door” means to provide Ukraine with the €90 billion loan.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said early on Friday to reporters that the EU “will deliver one way or the other.”
Orbán remained defiant regarding his use of the veto, asserting that “the legal situation is quite clear, we have the right to do so.“ Although the Hungarian head of government had initially approved the support loan during the December summit, he has since reversed his position. Orbán now alleges that Ukraine arbitrarily “turned off“ the Druzhba oil pipeline — a vital oil and energy artery for Hungary and Slovakia, which remain the only EU nations still receiving direct shipments of Russian oil, as they have been exempted due to issues they face with alternative routes.
Notably, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky threatened Orbán’s life earlier this month, saying that either he delivers the €90 billion, or “otherwise, we will give this person’s address to our armed forces, and then they will call him and speak to him in their own language.”
While Kyiv maintains that the pipeline was severely damaged by a Russian missile attack in late January and requires time for repairs, Orbán has signaled he will not abandon his blockade until the flow of Russian oil into Hungary is restored and guarantees against any similar shutdown in the future are made. So far, Ukraine has blocked EU technicians from inspecting the pipeline, which is a serious suggestion that Ukraine is withholding oil at a pivotal moment before Hungarian elections.
Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico also criticized Ukraine for refusing repeated requests to inspect the site. According to Fico, Slovakia first attempted to send its ambassador to the location but was denied access. Requests from the European Union’s ambassador to Ukraine and proposals for a joint inspection team were also rejected.
“What is President Zelensky afraid of, the truth?” Fico asked.
Orbán’s political director, Balázs Orbán, also weighed in on the dispute in a post on X, citing reporting by the Financial Times and arguing that Hungary’s warnings about the pipeline had been vindicated.
“While the Brussels elite lined up behind Kyiv and dismissed Hungary’s warnings, the facts now emerging, including in the Financial Times, confirm it: the Druzhba shutdown is political blackmail, not technical damage,” he wrote.
Balázs Orbán said Ukrainian pipeline operators had previously indicated to Hungary’s MOL energy company that there were no operational obstacles to oil flows and noted that shipments had continued briefly earlier this year following a strike and fire near the pipeline.
“Satellite imagery shows the infrastructure is not damaged to the extent claimed and remains capable of operation,” he wrote, echoing Fico’s concerns that inspection requests from Hungary, Slovakia, and EU officials had been refused.
EU is furious
Orbán’s refusal to provide a loan to Kyiv drew a sharp rebuke from German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who characterized Orbán’s behavior at the summit as an “act of gross disloyalty“ that would have consequences.
Orbán appeared unmoved by the Chancellor’s warning or the broader criticism from other EU heads of state. Reflecting on the confrontation, he told journalists, “They threatened a little, then they realized that it didn’t work.”
The atmosphere in Brussels was reportedly one of unprecedented hostility toward the Hungarian leader. EU Council President António Costa described Orbán’s actions as “unacceptable“ and a direct violation of cooperation principles. According to reports from Politico, diplomats noted that a head of government had never before “crossed this red line,“ with one source remarking that “almost everyone in the room attacked Orbán hard.”
A major joint operation between the Warmia-Masuria Police and the Border Guard has successfully dismantled an organized criminal group mediating the illegal employment of foreigners across Poland. This extensive investigation, which began at the turn of 2025 and 2026, has resulted in the detention of six individuals and administrative proceedings against over a hundred foreign workers.
Inspector Mirosław Elszkowski, provincial police commander, emphasized the scale of the bust, stating it is “an unprecedented case in the region.” He detailed the outcome of the raids.
The case originated when officers from the District Police Headquarters in Iława identified potential irregularities in a local company acting as a recruitment intermediary. Preliminary findings suggested the operation was a front for a sophisticated fraud scheme.
The group allegedly provided foreigners – primarily from Colombia – with forged medical certificates and false documents confirming their status as students at universities in Gdańsk and Warsaw. These forged papers allowed employers to bypass strict labor regulations, creating a facade of legal employment, according to police.
As Brigadier General Daniel Wojtaszkiewicz, commander of the Border Guard in the Warmia-Masuria region, noted: “They were mainly Colombians, Cubans, Venezuelans, Guatemalans, Moldovans or Ukrainians. Foreigners holding a false certificate of entry into studies. At the time of their acquisition, they were not on Polish territory. They worked in workplaces in the voivodeship.”
On Wednesday, Nov. 3, 2026, a massive coordinated strike was launched across three voivodeships. The operation involved the Provincial Police Headquarters in Olsztyn, counter-terrorism units, the Central Bureau for Combating Cybercrime, and the Human Trafficking Department.
“We detained six people across three voivodeships. Four were remanded into custody, and two were placed under supervision. The whole procedure consisted of entrepreneurs from the Iława district achieving the goal of employing foreigners in workplaces based on false certificates,” Inspector Mirosław Elszkowski said.
During the searches of dozens of residential and business premises, officers seized laptops, phones, data carriers, and approximately PLN 150,000 in various currencies.
The Border Guard inspected nearly 200 foreigners, including citizens of Colombia, Venezuela, Guatemala, Peru, Zimbabwe, Cuba, Moldova, and Ukraine. The results were stark: 105 foreigners were found to be working without the required permits, and three Colombian citizens were found to be staying in Poland without any legal documentation.
Administrative proceedings have now been initiated to oblige these individuals to return to their countries of origin.
Legal actions
The six detainees, aged 21 to 49, face serious charges including participation in an organized criminal group, document forgery, and facilitating illegal stays. Under Polish law, simply participating in a criminal group carries a penalty of six months to eight years in prison.
At the request of the District Prosecutor in Iława, the court has placed four suspects under temporary arrest for three months, while two others remain under police supervision. Authorities have signaled that the case is still developing and “further arrests are possible.”
A father has been sentenced to eight years in prison by the Landshut Regional Court after attempting to murder his young daughter by feeding her a homemade capsule laced with mouse poison. The father was accused of trying to kill his daughter to avoid paying child support.
The court found it proven that the man had wrapped a lethal dose of rodenticide in plastic film and gave it to the three-year-old girl to swallow before returning her to her mother. Judges determined that the amount of poison contained in the seal corresponded precisely to a fatal dose for a child of that age — a detail that weighed heavily in the verdict.
Inside the apartment, the girl managed to vomit up the capsule; otherwise, she may have lost her life. The most critical piece of evidence was the presence of the defendant’s DNA on the inside of the capsule, according to Bild.
The defense had attempted to shift blame onto the girl’s mother, arguing she had fabricated the entire incident and planted the capsule in the child’s vomit to frame the father. The presiding judge dismissed the theory outright, stating: “If the mother had staged the incident, she would have had to obtain vomit with appropriate contents — chicken with fries — or make the child vomit.”
The girl’s own account further corroborated the court’s findings. In one telling instance, she spontaneously told a kindergarten teacher that her father had put something in her mouth and that she had subsequently ended up in the hospital, a statement the court deemed credible.
The chamber had no doubt that the defendant intended to kill the child. The court noted the girl’s survival was purely a matter of chance. The defendant reportedly used aluminum phosphide, which can be purchased over the counter and is used to control voles and mice. The prosecutors indicated that the man conducted research on poisons for weeks and various insidious methods to kill.
Alongside the attempted murder conviction, the court also found the defendant guilty of grievous bodily harm and mistreatment of a ward. The verdict is not yet final. Prosecutors had sought a nine-year sentence and called for a preventive detention reservation; the defense had argued for full acquittal.
With tensions soaring in the Middle East, the price of Brent crude oil exceeded $118 per barrel on Thursday, while natural gas prices in Europe jumped 35 percent. There are now worries prices will only soar higher as the war escalates.
Brent crude prices jumped over 10 percent after news broke of Iran’s attacks on Qatar’s energy plants and other strikes on Wednesday, but European natural gas prices jumped even higher.
Qatar’s energy plants are vital for Europe’s natural gas supply, especially after sanctions were placed on Russian natural gas. The Dutch TTF natural gas contract, considered the European benchmark, jumped to €74 before falling back to €62, representing a 35 percent increase. This is still well below the prices that were seen when the war first broke out between Russia and Ukraine in 2022, but Bloomberg business reporter Stephen Stapczynski wrote on X that natural gas prices could still go higher.
“European gas prices surge 30% after Qatar said the world’s largest LNG export plant was damaged in an Iranian attack (Still TTF futures are far from the record highs of 2022). But the longer Qatar LNG remains offline, the higher prices will go,” he wrote.
Zooming out — can see scale of the impact of Ukraine invasion and losing Russian gas
Overall, Brent crude futures have jumped 50 percent since the war began on Feb. 28, which are tied to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iranian forces, where approximately 20 percent of the world’s energy supplies transit, along with other key sources vital for fertilizer production, manufacturing, and even chipmaking.
After Israel struck the South Pars natural gas field this week, energy markets reacted swiftly to the news yesterday. Iran has responded by expanding strikes on U.S.-linked oil facilities in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar.
Qatar’s Ras Laffan Industrial City, which features the world’s largest liquefied natural gas plant designed for export, was hit with “extensive damage” after Iran hit the facility. Two oil refineries in Kuwait were also set ablaze by drone attacks. Saudi Arabia suffered minimal damage from a strike on its refinery near the Red Sea.
In a Truth Social post, Donald Trump denied that the U.S. was involved in the South Pars attack, saying Israel conducted this attack without the U.S.’s knowledge. However, he said any additional Iranian strikes on Qatar’s LNG facilities would lead the U.S. to “massively blow up the entirety” of the South Pars field, another move that would likely send global energy prices soaring.
A number of commentators usually aligned with Trump, such as Tim Pool, are now lashing out at the president, signaling growing dissent within the right.
The economic impact of immigration from crisis-affected regions across Nordic countries is estimated to reach hundreds of billions of euros, leading to a public dialogue regarding remigration as a potential strategy for cost reduction.
Recent data emerging from Scandinavia, specifically from the Danish Ministry of Finance and analyzed by the White Papers Policy Institute, suggests that certain migrant groups represent a significant annual net expense for the state. These statistics, adjusted for inflation to a 2025 price level, indicate that individuals from specific conflict zones incur particularly high yearly expenditures.
“The financial consequences of mass immigration. The White Paper Policy Institute also refers to the costs for Somalis in this context and concludes that Sweden will spend approximately 117.3 billion euros on the 102,000 Somalis living in Sweden over the next 50 years,’ the MEP wrote on X.
Die finanziellen Folgen der Massenzuwanderung: "Das White Paper Policy Institute verweist dabei auch auf die Kosten für Somalier und kommt zu dem Schluss, dass etwa Schweden in den nächsten 50 Jahren 117,3 Milliarden Euro für die 102.000 in Schweden lebenden Somalier ausgeben… pic.twitter.com/wxIiTXGTmU
The data identified Somalia as having the highest impact, with annual costs reaching approximately €23,000 per person. This is followed by Syria and Lebanon at €19,000 each, Iraq at €18,000, Afghanistan at €15,000, and Eritrea at €13,000. Negative fiscal figures are also associated with origin countries such as Morocco at €11,000 and Turkey at €8,000. Even groups with comparatively lower financial impacts, such as those from Vietnam and North Macedonia, still result in net annual costs to the government budget.
Nordic welfare states are spending €23,000 a year on each Somali they are hosting.
This means that over the next 50 years Sweden will spend €117.3 billion on the 102,000 Somalis who live there.
Deporting the 46,000 without citizenship would save €53 billion.
— White Papers Policy Institute (@WhitePapersPol) March 8, 2026
The long-term implications for national finances are substantial when these figures are projected over several decades. For instance, the White Papers Policy Institute estimates that Sweden could spend €117.3 billion over the next 50 years to support its population of 102,000 Somalis.
In light of these projections, specific scenarios involving remigration have been proposed as fiscally responsible measures. One such scenario suggests that deporting 46,000 individuals without citizenship could save the state €53 billion. Furthermore, offering a departure incentive of €100,000 to each of the 56,000 individuals holding citizenship is projected to result in an additional saving of €58.7 billion.
In France, migration costs the state approximately €25 billion a year and many migrants remain unemployed even after years, said French author and academic Jean-Paul Gourévitch in 2021.
Employment data shows that it is a myth that immigration to France has economic benefits, Gourévitch said in an interview with Radio Sud.
“I have studied this topic extensively, and today everyone in France, from the left to the right, agrees that immigration costs more than it brings in,” Gourévitch said. “There is a major difference between left and right (oriented) economists regarding the costs: the leftist economists say the deficit is six to ten billion [euros per year], while those on the right say it is 40 to 44 billion. My own scientific research shows that the deficit is 20 to 25 billion [euros].”
The costs in Germany are also enormous, which pokes a major hole in the claims that newcomers will help pay for German pensions and help fill demand from German industry, which is desperately searching for skilled workers. In fact, the data shows that the German state spent €48.2 billion on migrants, including social housing, medical costs, education, integration courses, and other expenses, such as border security.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s Facebook page is reportedly restricted and has seen a drastic drop in engagement, according to X influencer Mario Nawfal. Nawfal says that a former Meta employee now working for the Tisza opposition called for users to mass report Orbán’s content, which may account for the drop in engagement on the highly influential platform.
“As Hungary heads toward a crucial April election, Facebook is reportedly restricting posts from the country’s Prime Minister. The move followed a call by an opposition party (Tisza Party) member, a former Meta employee, urging supporters to mass-report his content,” wrote Nawfal.
Nawfal further stated that Tisza leader Péter Magyar has seen a surge in engagement, even outperforming world leaders from much larger countries. In addition, Magyar has been given a key advantage in the manner in which his profile is structured.
“Meanwhile, Tisza leader Péter Magyar has disproportionately high engagement figures, outperforming global figures, despite operating in a much smaller, language-limited country. Péter also used a personal “professional mode” profile rather than a political page, contrary to Meta’s long-standing guidelines, potentially bypassing limits on political content,” wrote Nawfal.
“Questions are also emerging around how Meta moderates political content in Hungary. A regional Meta official has publicly shared positions aligned with mainstream European narratives, including pro-Ukraine messaging and content seen as anti-government in Hungary,” he continued.
Nawfal is now calling out the platform, which he accuses of putting the finger on the scale of the Hungarian opposition. In what might be a serious piece of supporting evidence to Nawfal’s claims, the European Conservative recently had its Facebook page suspended. The news outlet is funded by a Hungarian government organization.
“SHAMELESS attack against the European Conservative in progress. Meta took our Facebook page down for ‘going against their Community Standards.” Telling the truth against the mainstream media is only met with censorship. We are appealing the decision now, let’s see how it goes!”
SHAMELESS attack against the European Conservative in progress!
Meta took our Facebook page down for "going against their Community Standards"
Telling the truth against the mainstream media is only met with censorship.
French police in Meuse have launched an intensive manhunt for a 25-year-old rape suspect who escaped custody while being transported back to the Bar-le-Duc prison. The individual, who had been attending a meeting with an investigating judge in Nancy, “managed to evade the vigilance” of his escorting officers as they approached the correctional facility on Friday afternoon.
A video of the escape has also been published to social media. Authorities are also investigating why the man was not handcuffed in accordance with regulations.
🇫🇷France
This 25-year-old man, under investigation for rape, escaped French authorities on March 13.
He had just appeared before a judge in Nancy when he successfully slipped away from officers. He remains on the run.pic.twitter.com/mTP087Qrgu
Five days after the escape of the inmate, a European arrest warrant has been issued by the courts to try to find the fugitive, wrote the public prosecutor of Bar-le-Duc, Sofian Saboulard in a press release published this Tuesday.
Saboulard noted that the suspect “managed to get out of the vehicle” and flee. He further clarified that “there was no violence, but he managed to get out of the vehicle and run.”
“The investigations are continuing and will continue with intensity until the escapee is arrested,” he concludes.
Subsequent investigations into the breach revealed a lapse in restraints, according to Le Parisien.
“The review of CCTV footage now confirms that the fugitive was no longer handcuffed on his right hand when he exited the vehicle and fled on foot,” the prosecutor explained via email. Despite the immediate reaction of the security detail, they were unsuccessful in their pursuit. “The PREJ (Judicial Police Precinct) staff immediately attempted to pursue the individual but were unable to apprehend him. No weapons were used and no injuries were reported,” Saboulard added.
A bombshell legal ruling has struck a blow to the investigative outlet Correctiv regarding its coverage of an infamous Potsdam meeting involving the Alternative of Germany (AfD). The Berlin Regional Court has issued a prohibition against the central claim that a “master plan for the expulsion of German citizens” was designed during the gathering, labeling the assertion a “false statement of fact.”
This development marks a significant setback for the NGO, which receives funding from George Soros’ Open Society Foundations, as well as the German government.
According to the Höcker law firm, which cited a dpa reporter, the court rejected the narrative that had originally sparked nationwide political outrage and massive demonstrations across Germany against the AfD shortly before national elections. The controversial report, published over two years ago, suggested that high-level plans for mass expulsions were being drafted, leading hundreds of thousands of citizens and top government representatives from the SPD, Greens, FDP, and CDU/CSU to take to the streets.
BERLIN, GERMANY, Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP Gerrit Huy won a major legal victory over Correctiv. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
The legal challenge was spearheaded by Gerrit Huy, an AfD member of the Bundestag and meeting participant, who sued the outlet. Her attorney, Carsten Brennecke, said that he was informed by a journalist on-site that “Correctiv lost today before the Berlin Regional Court.”
“The following core statements from the Correctiv report ‘Secret Plan Against Germany’ on the so-called Potsdam meeting, which we challenged as false factual assertions on behalf of the meeting participant Gerrit Huy, have been banned by the court according to the dpa: ‘A master plan for the deportation of German citizens remains from the Potsdam meeting, and Martin Sellner expressed an idea for denaturalization in his lecture,’” wrote Brennecke.
+++Breaking News: Correctiv hat vor dem Landgericht Berlin verloren: Deren Kernaussagen im Bericht zum Potsdam-Treffen wurden gerade verboten, berichtet die DPA:
Mir hat die Redakteurin der dpa, die die Urteilsverkündung nach der heutigen mündlichen Verhandlung im Klageverfahren… https://t.co/NSZwgq0Kwl
Furthermore, Brennecke successfully argued that Sellner never made the claims about the mass expulsion of German citizens, as Correctiv claimed.
“We had challenged these statements as false assertions because it is undisputed that no plan for the deportation of German citizens was presented in Potsdam, and Mr. (Martin) Sellner also did not express any idea to denaturalize Germans,” Brennecke added.
The court ruled against the outlet on another count. Huy successfully challenged a more recent report where Correctiv used a “key witness,” Erik Ahrens, to claim Huy had proposed stripping dual citizens of their German nationality. As Huy never made such a statement, the court reportedly banned the claim.
MUNICH, GERMANY, People take part in a protest vigil against the Alternative for Germany (AfD) political party on February 11, 2024. The report by Correctiv, which has now seen some of its core claims banned from being repeated, sparked protests across Germany (Photo by Leonhard Simon/Getty Images)
“In a more recent report, Correctiv had also disseminated the statement by Erik Ahrens, which we challenged as a false assertion, that Ms. Gerrit Huy had proposed in Potsdam to take away German citizenship from Germans with dual citizenship. Ms. Huy did not make such a proposal in Potsdam. This statement has also been banned for Correctiv, according to the dpa,” wrote Brennecke.
In its defense, the media outlet argued that the disputed segments were “permissible expressions of opinion” rather than “statements of fact,” which would place them under the protection of freedom of expression. However, the court disagreed, identifying them as false factual allegations.
The editor of Correctiv, Justus von Daniels, announced he would appeal the decision.
“We are very surprised by the ruling of the Berlin Regional Court, especially in comparison to the clearly won case in Hamburg,” Daniels told the dpa news agency. He asserted that “the undisputed core facts of our research were not attacked, only two journalistic assessments.”
Huy’s lawyer, Carsten Brennecke, however, responded, saying: “We were compelled to believe that core statements are understood as statements of fact.”
Brennecke asserted that “the Correctiv report on the Potsdam meeting collapsed like a house of cards.”
He stated that the media reports that “frightened thousands of Germans” into believing that “the expulsion and expatriation of Germans had been planned in Potsdam and thus drove them to demonstrations in the streets are now off the table, banned, and prohibited by the courts.”
The Scandinavian airline Scandinavian Airlines System (SAS) has become the first carrier in Europe to scrap flights in response to a dramatic spike in fuel costs, with at least 1,000 flights canceled. Serving as the national airline for Denmark, Norway, and Sweden, the company stated that it must scale back operations as jet fuel prices soar due to ongoing instability in the Middle East.
“The price of jet fuel has doubled in ten days,” said CEO Anko van der Werff to Swedish business daily Dagens Industri. “Even if we try to absorb cost increases as much as possible, this is a shock that directly hits the airline industry.”
“We are cancelling a few hundred flights in March, but trying to protect our traffic as much as possible,” said the SAS boss, who stated that more cancellations are possible after Easter.
Although 1,000 flights may seem extraordinary, SAS runs approximately 800 flights every day, which means that cancellations remain limited for now.
Based in Stockholm, the canceled flights are focused primarily on regional Scandinavian routes where travelers have alternative transportation.
A spokesperson for the airline noted that “due to the tensions in the Middle East and the sudden increase in fuel prices, steps are being taken to strengthen the stability of their operations,” and that “part of this is the temporary cancellation of some short-haul flights.”
This move is a landmark decision, as SAS is currently the largest European carrier to take such drastic action during the present fuel crisis. The airline, which services roughly 25 million passengers a year, follows the lead of Air New Zealand, which also previously trimmed its schedule to manage costs. Industry analysts warn that the outlook could darken further if disruptions reach the “Strait of Hormuz, through which about half of European aviation fuel imports come,” particularly affecting supplies from Kuwait and Saudi Arabia.
SAS finds itself in a particularly vulnerable position because it participated in fewer “fuel price hedging transactions” in recent years. These financial arrangements typically allow airlines to lock in fuel at a “pre-fixed price, thus protecting themselves from price fluctuations.”
In contrast, larger groups like International Airlines Group (the parent company of British Airways) and budget carriers like Ryanair remain better insulated for now because a high percentage of their fuel needs were “pre-committed.” Nevertheless, experts caution that even more protected firms may be forced to raise ticket prices once these hedging arrangements expire.
While SAS has already increased its fares to combat rising expenses, other major players like Air France-KLM, Cathay Pacific, and Qantas have implemented similar price hikes without yet resorting to cancellations.
Currently, oil stands at approximately $100 a barrel, but if this rises further, more flight disruptions and even outright flight stoppages could occur due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
A 36-year-old Sub-Saharan female immigrant has been accused of infiltrating a Lanzarote juvenile center in Spain by posing as a minor.
According to police, the individual allegedly facilitated the escape of 13 young people from the state protection system to “integrate them into an international network linked to trafficking.”
The investigation was sparked by a series of disappearances at an Arrecife center. Investigators noticed a specific individual who seemed to hold a “prominent influence on the rest of the girls.” The woman was only 1.52 meters tall (5’0″) but held powerful sway over the other females in the center. Authorities confirmed she was an adult female serving a strategic role within the trafficking ring.
This case is a central component of “Operation Timanfaya,” a Spanish National Police initiative that dismantled a criminal organization with global branches dedicated to smuggling minors from the Canary Islands into mainland Europe, according to Spanish newspaper La Vanguardia.
The suspect reportedly used emotional manipulation to convince the girls to leave their supervised housing for apartments, and then transferred from there, often by “obtaining falsified documentation to leave the country.” Evidence of the scale of the operation was found on the woman’s phone, where she reportedly bragged: “I have already emptied the girls’ center.”
The planned route involved moving the victims through Lanzarote airport using forged identities, and they were provided with wigs. Once they reached Madrid, local collaborators would meet them and direct them toward transport hubs for transit to France or other European destinations. This network relied on “logistical support has been identified in Morocco” for the initial boat crossings and “connections in Ivory Coast” to produce high-quality fake IDs.
The whereabouts of these young women and that of another boy who was not yet 18 years old from a center in San Bartolomé de Tirajana on Gran Canaria are still unknown. A man reportedly took them to the Lanzarote airport, gave them the documents, and some wigs.
Despite the police intervention, the “whereabouts of several of the young women remain unknown.” Authorities fear these victims may have fallen into “labor exploitation, forced marriages or prostitution,” a theory bolstered by sensitive digital evidence found during the arrests. While police intercepted the adult ringleader and two minors at the airport, the two children eventually attempted to flee the protection center again.
One detainee tied to the network was charged with the crime of child pornography after finding a video on his cell phone.
Law enforcement noted that the nature of these facilities — which are “open resources conceived as homes, not as detention centers” — makes preventing such escapes difficult. Furthermore, the system is under extreme pressure, holding nearly 6,000 minors in a space “designed for about 1,500.” This overcrowding often meant that a “disappearance was not detected until the next day,” providing the traffickers with a significant head start.
In the investigation of the fatal assault on a 15-year-old boy in Eckernförde, authorities have taken a “23-year-old German” into custody, per official police statements. Following an inquiry by German newspaper Nius, it was clarified that the individual in question is a dual citizen, holding both German and Turkish nationality.
The joint investigation by the Kiel public prosecutor’s office and local police led to the identification of the man as the primary suspect. He is currently accused of manslaughter following a violent altercation outside a supermarket on March 11, 2026.
The teenage victim suffered severe injuries during the encounter and later passed away.
On Tuesday morning, a formal press release was issued regarding the arrest of the “23-year-old German” suspect. When contacted for further details by Nius, a spokesperson for the Kiel police confirmed via telephone that the suspect maintains dual German and Turkish citizenship.
The incident took place in the immediate vicinity of an Eckernförde supermarket. Following his arrest, the 23-year-old was presented to a judge at the Bremen District Court later that afternoon. An arrest warrant was subsequently issued, and the suspect is currently being held in pretrial detention.
Specifically, he cited Nius news portal, stating their articles, “there is usually nothing right in it,“ and that their work is “completely devoid of facts.“ He called for stricter media quality control.
His comments have drawn accusations of authoritarianism and threats to constitutional freedoms from across the political spectrum.
Gregor Gysi, a highly influential member of the German Left Party and the party’s former leader, is facing fierce criticism from within his own party after suggesting that members with a “specific migration background” have brought problematic views on Israel into the Left Party’s ranks — with some now demanding he attend anti-racist training.
The row stems from an interview the veteran politician gave to Focus magazine’s “Machtmenschen” podcast in March. Asked how significant anti-Israel and antisemitic currents had become within the party, Gysi said: “Well, this has now become more dangerous because many more people with a migration background, even with a specific migration background, have come to our party, which I actually very much welcome. But they bring with them views of Israel that are wrong, and I will always oppose that, and a certain border must not be crossed.”
Gysi has also noted with approval that a party member who had described Hamas as a “liberation organization” had recently been expelled.
The backlash has been extremely sharp.
The Federal Working Group on the Migrant Left — officially recognized as a party body in November 2025 — is preparing a two-page letter to Gysi and the party leadership around co-chairs Ines Schwerdtner and Jan van Aken. The letter, signed by around 180 members including district chairs, state board members and local parliamentary group leaders, was obtained by the newspaper Welt.
“Several passages in your interview are extremely problematic because they reproduce racist narratives and contradict central principles of our party,” the letter reads. “Linking members with a migration history to a supposedly growing problem of antisemitism is unacceptable.”
Gysi’s description of the situation as having become “more dangerous” due to the influx of members with migration backgrounds, the working group argues, reproduces “a racist threat scenario.”
“Such terms reinforce anti-Muslim and anti-Arab resentments and must have no place in an anti-racist party,” the letter continues.
The signatories go further, accusing Gysi of contributing “to the further political and social shift to the right” and claiming that his alleged “equation of Israel and Jews” is “essentially antisemitic.”
The charge against Gysi is already proving problematic. Gysi’s father, Klaus, a former SED politician who was active in the communist resistance against National Socialism, was Jewish.
In the same Focus interview, Gysi stated that he was “very much in favor of a sovereign, secure Israel” and “just as much in favor of a sovereign, secure Palestine.”
Nevertheless, the Left Party working group also accuses Gysi of fuelling “an internal party split,” writing that “the impression is created that some well-known and long-time party officials are authoritatively defining the boundaries of what can be said here.”
The working group has a number of demands.
Gysi is asked to delete the relevant excerpt “immediately” from his Instagram account, to publicly clarify “that migrant members must not be associated with antisemitism in general,” to issue “a public apology to the migrant and young members of our party for the impact and the resulting injury caused by your statements.”
In addition, he is being asked to attend “anti-racist training” along with his team.
Gysi’s spokesperson told Welt that the letter had not yet been formally delivered and that he was therefore unable to comment.
The confrontation is part of a broader and increasingly bitter internal struggle over antisemitism and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. In November 2025, Gysi himself — together with former parliamentary group leader Dietmar Bartsch, Bundestag Vice President Bodo Ramelow and 14 other Left Party MPs — wrote to party leadership warning that “apparently something has slipped in our party” following an anti-Israel resolution passed by the Left Youth. Party management bodies, the letter said, would have to “clearly draw clear boundaries.”
The conflict has already claimed casualties. In February, the Thuringian Left Party’s State Arbitration Commission stripped Left Youth federal spokesperson Martha Chiara Wüthrich of all party offices and suspended her membership rights for two years after she referred to a “fucking Holocaust” in the context of Israel’s war in Gaza. And just this past Sunday, Brandenburg’s antisemitism commissioner Andreas Büttner resigned from the party after the Lower Saxony Left passed a resolution declaring that the state association rejected “Zionism which actually exists today.”
Gysi has long been known for his strong backing of Israel. In November 2014, Gysi tried to cancel meetings with journalists Max Blumenthal and David Sheen — both sharp critics of Israel — on the grounds that they held extremist views on Israeli settlements, from which he wished to dissociate the German Left. The confrontation escalated into the now-infamous “Toiletgate” incident, in which Gysi fled down a Bundestag corridor and locked himself in a bathroom as the journalists pursued him.
Gysi has come under fire in the past for his celebration of more Germans dying than are being born, saying “because the Nazis are not very prolific.”
A German left-wing politician claimed Germany needs more migrants because the "Nazi" Germans are not very good at making babies.
"Every year, more Germans die than are born. Fortunately, this is because the Nazis are not very prolific," said MP Gregor Gysi.
Jan van Aken, the co-leader of the German Left Party, has claimed that the most prominent cases of gang rape involved all White men during his appearance on a German podcast show hosted by Ben Berndt. Remix News is fact-checking his claim.
“So let’s start with gang rape. So the most prominent cases we know of are all white men. Epstein, gang rape, Gisele Pelicot in France, gang rape, all by white men,” said Jan van Aken, the co-leader of the German Left Party.
His claims about Gisele Pelicot being “gang raped” by “all white men” are rated as false.
🇩🇪🔴Fact Check: German far-left leader claims most high-profile gang rape suspects are all White men.
“Let’s start with gang rape. So the most prominent cases we know of are all white men. Epstein, gang rape, Gisele Pelicot in France, gang rape, all by white men,” said Jan van… pic.twitter.com/UFLwW2CS5g
According to the analysis of names in the case, 12 have Middle Eastern/North African names, plus the 3 names associated with sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific Islands. This means 27.5 percent of the 51 suspects are likely non-White. It also cannot be determined with 100 percent accuracy if all the French names on the list are White individuals. No photographs of the convicted men have ever been officially published. Not only is this far from “all” the suspects, but Middle Eastern and North Africans are estimated to be only 10 percent of the French population, which means they were significantly overrepresented in the rape of Pelicot.
Among the names of the North Africans and Middle Easterners are: Nizar Hamida, Karim Sebaoui, Ahmed Tbarik, Husamettin Dogan, Saifeddine Ghabi, Mohamed Rafaa, Abdelali Dallal, Mahdi Daoudi, Omar Douiri, Redouane Azougagh, Hassan Ouamou, and Redouane El Farihi. There were no doubt many White suspects in this case as well, but van Aken’s claim that they were all White men is entirely false.
Regarding Epstein, while the charges in the case are reprehensible, nobody has been specifically convicted of gang rape in the case. There are numerous allegations that Prince Andrew committed gang rape but his case remains under investigation. The case involving Sean Diddy Combs, which while not as prominent as the Epstein affair, also involved numerous allegations of gang rape as well, all involving African American suspects, further invalidating van Aken’s claim that the most high-profile cases only involve White men.
Van Aken further states: “Gang rape exists, it’s a huge problem. But to pretend that this is a migration problem, I would put a big question mark over that.”
The German statistics paint an entirely different story. Germany-wide, approximately 50 percent of all gang rape arrests involve foreign nationals, which predominantly come from North African, Middle Eastern, and sub-Saharan African countries. However, if the data is truly analyzed, the incidence of non-White suspects is much higher. Many of the individuals with a foreign background are German citizens, yet, when they commit a rape, it is included in the “German” category as the country does not keep crime statistics based on race.
To circumvent this crime data reporting issue, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party has often requested the first names of all gang rape suspects, with the data illustrating that the prevalence of non-White suspects is often much higher than the official statistics would suggest.
For example, in North Rhine-Westphalia, an analysis of the names of gang rape suspects revealed that 50 percent of the German suspects had foreign names, indicating that in total, close to 75 percent of all gang rapes were committed by foreigners or those with a migration background. In other words, White suspects are in the minority, despite making up the clear majority in Germany.
🇩🇪🚨 Last year, police in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia arrested 155 suspects in connection with 209 cases of gang r*pe.
A total of 84 suspects were foreign nationals and 71 were German citizens.
Going further, van Aken tries to misdirect away from the issue by citing two high-profile rape cases, Epstein and Pelicot, which had nothing to do with his own country, Germany. However, if only high-profile gang rape cases in Germany are examined, once again, van Aken is revealed to be spreading disinformation.
Here is just a sampling of some of the most high-profile gang rapes in Germany over the last 10 years:
Cologne New Year’s Eve 2015/16
Approximately 2,000 men participated in mass sexual assaults on over 1,200 women across multiple German cities. The perpetrators were predominantly men from North Africa (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia) and the Middle East who had recently arrived as part of the 2015 migrant wave.
Many of the women were forcibly gang raped by large crowds of non-White males. The scale of the attacks and the initial reluctance of police and media to report on them caused a massive political storm and directly led to Germany rewriting its sexual assault laws in 2016
The case intensified the national debate over migration and the deportation of criminal asylum seekers. The defendants comprised one German citizen, eight Syrians, two Algerians, and one Iraqi. The main suspect, a 22-year-old Syrian Kurd, was already the subject of unenforced arrest warrants for other crimes at the time of the attack.
Emma S., 2019
A 15-year-old girl was lured into the bushes on a September night and raped by 11 men, two of whom also filmed the attack in September 2019. Two of the named perpetrators, Arsen K. and Fares L., filmed the attack.
Based on available reporting the group was predominantly of migrant background, consistent with the broader Freiburg-area cases of that period.
Hamburg Stadtpark, 2020
Nine men and boys gang-raped a 15-year-old girl in a Hamburg park over several hours in September 2020. All were under 20 at the time, meaning they were subject to juvenile law. Only one — an Iranian national who was 19 at the time — spent any time in jail. The case later made headlines again when a 20-year-old woman was sentenced to a weekend in jail for calling one of the rapists a “disgraceful rapist pig” on WhatsApp — a harsher punishment than most of the perpetrators received.
All nine convicted men reportedly hailed from Afghanistan, Armenia, Egypt, Iran, Kuwait, Libya and Poland. Four of the defendants were German nationals, while four others held Armenian, Afghan, Kuwaiti and Montenegrin citizenship. Only one, the Iranian national, received a prison sentence.
A second was a 22-year-old man from Guinea-Bissau, said to have had four other identities and a criminal record across nine cases.
Mallorca rape, 2023
In 2023, after the international media loudly trumpeted that five German men were arrested for raping an 18-year-old Spanish girl, it was quickly revealed that all of the men have a “migration background.” Nevertheless, the vast majority of news outlets referred to the men as “Germans,” and most made no mention of the fact that the men had a migration background, with many outlets even referring to them as a “German pack.”
While Spanish news outlet Ultima Hora reported that the 21- to 23-year-old suspects were of Turkish origin, much of the Spanish press was fixated on the “German” aspect of the crime, which the men allegedly filmed on their smartphones. Even the German press was quick to claim the men were Germans with no context, with Welt, one of the most popular conservative papers in the country, running the headline “Five German vacationers on Mallorca have to be remanded in custody.” At no point in the piece does Welt mention the migration background of the suspects. The same story was told throughout the international press, with Associated Press, Deutsche Welle, and the Daily Mail making no mention of the men’s migration background.
Regarding more recent cases, these are a just a small sampling:
Heinsberg, 2025
A 17-year-old girl was lured by her ex-boyfriend to an apartment where five Syrian men between 17 and 26 were waiting. She was raped while threatened with a Taser. A pistol was also found during the subsequent search. The investigation later expanded to three separate rape cases after more victims came forward.
In 2024, a drugged 18-year-old was raped by seven suspects inside a parked vehicle in a fast food restaurant car park. The suspects included two Iraqi nationals — considered the main suspects — one German-Syrian, and four others with German citizenship (migration background unknown). The two Iraqis were remanded in custody. Police investigated the use of knockout drugs administered to the girl inside a nearby dance hall before the attack.
In fact, despite van Aken’s claims, non-White suspects are vastly overrepresented in the most high-profile cases in Germany. Remix News has covered these stories for years, and many of them have been extremely high-profile cases in Germany, even if van Aken conveniently ignored them during his interview.
Just days after van Aken’s podcast interview, a case made national headlines after it was revealed that nine suspects sexually assaulted and even raped a Turkish-Kurdish schoolgirl at the Gropiusstadt youth centre in Neukölln. Nine boys of Arab descent took turns molesting the same girl in a back room while one boy stood guard in the doorway. Instead of going to the authorities, staff gave female visitors a “safeword” to use when threatened and removed the door from the back room. The internal justification, according to sources who spoke with Bild, was to avoid having the young people immediately labelled “typical Muslims.“
Europeans are committing demographic suicide and the tools used to managed migration are failing at every level, said Rodrigo Ballester, the head of the Center for European Studies at the Mathias Corvinus Collegium. He made his remark at a recent Ordo Iuris Institute event in Warsaw, Poland, which saw European politicians, policymakers, and other important players gather to discuss a groundbreaking paper: “Taking Back Control from Brussels. The Renationalization of the EU Migration and Asylum Policies.”
“As Europeans, we are committing demographic suicide. We are a continent of old rich people, facing a continent of young, hungry, and determined people — ambitious people. We’re still trying to manage migration with hopelessly outdated tools, using conventions from a century ago. They have completely lost their meaning today. In practice, I’m talking about the Geneva Convention. This is the ‘sacred cow’ we should get rid of,” Ballester emphasized.
Many of the speakers discussed various aspects of Europe’s ongoing immigration crisis, including the sharply differing trajectories of pro-immigration countries such as Poland versus Germany.
Polish Prof. Zdzisław Krasnodębski, a former MEP, spoke to the large audience who had gathered, where he compared the impact of immigration on the Polish city of Warsaw to the German city of Bremen where he lived and worked for a long time.
“How did it happen that such a process, which is suicidal, was supported by societies for years? I can tell you that I know two such cities well. One was poor and large, and people were moving away from it. It was Warsaw. Warsaw was also White, if I may use that term. The other city (Bremen) was well-off, middle-class, also White. In 2025, one is almost a ruin. It used to be a prosperous, medium-sized town. Meanwhile, this big, great city we’re in right now has become one of the wealthiest cities in Europe,” he pointed out.
Krasnodębski underlined the trajectory of Warsaw, which is economically booming while still maintaining a strong White majority and rejecting the diversity seen in many other Western cities. Meanwhile, Bremen has been labeled the “most dangerous city in Germany,” where an incredible 73 percent of crime suspects are non-German. The situation has deteriorated so greatly in Bremen that even left-wing politicians in the city have admitted that “massive immigration” has sparked a housing and crime crisis.
However, other speakers warned that not all is well in Poland, either.
Jacek Saryusz-Wolski—a former Polish Minister for European Affairs and Member of the European Parliament, currently President Nawrocki’s main advisor for European affairs — took the floor.
“Looking at the statistics, you can see that in most of Western Europe, immigrant communities make up a percentage in the teens, or even over 20 percent, of the population. It’s not like that here (in Poland) yet, but we too face the risk of an open-borders policy starting here. We will then, after a certain delay, share the same fate,” noted Saryusz-Wolski.
Saryusz-Wolski further warned that the EU is taking more and more power away from nation-states in order to dictate an open borders policy.
“Migration policy is not among the European Union’s exclusive or shared competencies. This is only an area, the third category of cooperation, within which the Union institutions may assist, encourage, and advise the member states, but they cannot legislate. And that is the origin of this great usurpation,” the politician emphasized.
Another speaker, Róbert Gönczi, an analyst at the Hungarian Institute for Migration Research and at Mathias Corvinus Collegium, warned that policies in other countries, such as Spain, which is working to legalize hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants.
“Today we are witnessing a huge surge in migration that Europe is grappling with, and let’s not forget that we are all part of the European Union; it affects us all, and we all bear the consequences,” the analyst emphasized.
He also drew attention to the problem of numerous migrants not being registered in European countries’ systems.
“There are millions of people we can’t track down. We don’t know where they are, we don’t know what they’re doing, we don’t know where they came from, and we don’t know what to do about it. This places a very significant burden on the European system, on the European Union, and it is one of the reasons why we find ourselves in a serious economic crisis,” he noted.
Deputy Speaker of the Sejm, Krzysztof Bosak, emphasized that in addition to illegal immigration, mass legal immigration is also a problem.
“The discussion about legal immigration — its scale, rules, and criteria — is no less important, if not more important, because the transformation of Western Europe was largely the result of large-scale legal immigration, and only as a result — or in parallel — did illegal immigration begin to arrive,” he said.
The politician also noted that the European Union treats different countries unequally when it comes to assessing their migration policies. He pointed out that this area has already been partially “renationalized,” but he warned against a possible hardening of the stance toward countries that continue to firmly protect their borders.
“Please note that very few of our Border Guard’s decisions — whether during the Law and Justice government or now under the Civic Platform-led government — have been seriously challenged by any EU bodies. However, I’m not saying that this won’t happen at any moment now. It can happen. It depends solely on where the ‘Eye of Sauron’ from Brussels, from Luxembourg, turns its gaze, and which regulations, which practices it chooses to scrutinize. Such arbitrariness, it seems to me, has been taking place in the European Union for years with regard to the practice of so-called pushbacks — that is, what I call sending illegal migrants back to the proper side of the border,” said Bosak.
“Taking Back Control from Brussels. The Renationalization of the EU Migration and Asylum Policies” report discusses the possibility for European Union member states to regain greater control over migration and asylum policy without the need to adopt new EU treaties. The authors show that the key competencies concerning border protection, security, and deciding on the admission of foreigners still belong to nation-states, and that any limits on them result more from legal interpretation than from actual legal provisions.
The publication critically assesses the EU migration pact, indicating that it may facilitate mass migration and the forced relocation of migrants. The report also proposes specific legal measures that would enable EU countries to strengthen their own migration policy under existing European and international law.
The ongoing war in Ukraine has killed and wounded hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, but that has not stopped one man, a 49-year-old Turkish migrant, from raping a 16-year-old Ukrainian girl after luring her to a hostel.
Ukrainian authorities in Mukachevo have detained the 49-year-old Turkish citizen, according to the Transcarpathian Regional Prosecutor’s Office. The Transcarpathia region is in southwest Ukraine and is home to a large Hungarian ethnic minority, which numbered 150,000 before the war.
The Turkish man is accused of utilizing a deceptive online strategy, interacting with the minor through a dating site for several months using a fraudulent profile to hide his true identity and age.
According to the investigation, the man posed as a much younger individual to establish rapport and convinced the victim of his “sincere feelings.” Once he had gained her trust, he told her that he had traveled to Mukachevo specifically to meet her.
Upon her arrival at a local hostel, the suspect allegedly committed the assault. The victim kept her wits about her during the rape and was able to successfully distract the man long enough to covertly send her geolocation to her mother on her smartphone.
Police arrived at the hostel in time to intercept the foreigner as he attempted to flee the scene.
Following a search, officers recovered a significant quantity of narcotics and contraceptives on the man’s person. At the request of the juvenile prosecutor, the court has ordered the suspect to be held in custody without the possibility of bail, which is considered the most severe preventive measure available.
The co-leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), Tino Chrupalla, is actively voicing his disapproval of the American and Israeli war against Iran. He has gone so far as to warn that the war could lead to a third world war and indicates that Trump has broken his campaign promises by launching the war.
“I am extremely disappointed in Donald Trump when it comes to his campaign promises,” Chrupalla during an appearance on Markus Lanz, generally considered the most influential talk show host in Germany.
“During the election campaign, he also accused Kamala Harris, that she would start World War III. And now we are on the cusp of having probably started the Third World War with Donald Trump. And that’s a breach of his word, which I really resent and which the American people also resent, who incidentally reject this war in Iran at a much higher rate than Germans. So, 70 percent of Americans do not want this war and do not support it.
Chrupalla also stated it was clear the United States was dragged into the war by Israel.
“And I think the Americans, as you can really see now if you look at all the events, were dragged into this war by Israel. There were serious negotiations where Oman, as a peacemaker, came to an agreement with Israel together with the USA, and they basically started bombing Iran on the same day. The Omani Foreign Minister has described this as a huge mistake. The entire Arab world has labeled it a mistake. The Norwegian Foreign Minister has described it as a mistake. It has also been labelled a mistake by Turkey. You can’t ignore all that. These are all countries in this region that are naturally extremely worried that this will escalate into a conflagration. And that’s what we’re seeing now. It’s a huge wildfire.”
The AfD co-leader also warned that thousands have already died in the conflict, but in the worst-case scenario, this could reach even into the millions. He further warned that another refugee crisis could ensue, not just from Iran, but also from Lebanon, where Chrupalla said that 700,000 people have already been displaced.
Chrupalla said the AfD party program remains against regime change in other countries, adding the end result is often worse, pointing to Libya, Syria, and Afghanistan — all of which have also fueled Europe’s migration crisis. He acknowledged there was internal division within his own party on the strike on Iran and on the topic of Israel, but said that the party can tolerate these divisions, as the AfD is a “pluralistic” party. Chrupalla indicated that if voters do not agree with his positions or the positions of others within the AfD, then they can be voted out or in.
Chrupalla noted that at the beginning of his presidency, he was convinced that Trump was ending wars. In fact, the AfD co-leader traveled to the United States specifically for Trump’s inauguration in January 2025 to show his support.
“Now, we are on the cusp of probably starting World War III with Donald Trump. These are broken words that I resent, that the American people also resent,” he said.
Now, he said that Trump has to “explain his line to the voters.”
Regarding the killing of Khamenei, Chrupalla stated: “So I think it’s difficult when you have a head of state, whether you like him or not. And Khamenei is certainly not a head of state who has done good things for his people. I want to make that very clear. Nevertheless, I think it is rare or unique for a head of state to be killed or eliminated in this way. And the question is: what is the purpose of this and what does it achieve?”
He further said that he does not “see any exit strategy in this whole war, which is against international law, no strategy at all as to what they actually want to achieve. Do you want to create a new regime? I just don’t see that. And the Americans and the Israelis themselves can’t say that. And sometimes they contradict each other.”
When asked about the war in Gaza, Chrupalla said, “If you look at the pictures from Gaza, then I don’t think my position was the wrong one either, namely that what happened there is also a war crime. I mean, in Gaza, in principle, if you go back to surgical warfare, I mean, there’s nothing more there. No stone is left standing on another. And once again, I also stand with the Israeli people. There is no discussion at all. But if you are a friend of Israel, and we are, you must also be allowed to criticize a government, the Netanyahu government. Otherwise, it’s not a friendship if you can’t back it.”
Mégane arrived at the hospital with life-threatening internal injuries, including perforations of her colon, small intestine, peritoneum, and diaphragm. She also suffered a collapsed lung and fractured ribs.
Emergency responders who attended the scene were offered psychological care and support, with many emergency responders also breaking down in tears at the condition of the victim, France Bleu reported at the time.
“Investigators are shocked, they have never seen so much barbarity,” one source familiar with the case told France Bleu.
After spending a month in a coma on the brink of death, she finally regained consciousness on Sept. 6, 2023.
Shortly after emerging from her coma, her father said: “(The government) not communicating about this attack gives credit to all these sexual predators and other parasites of society who plague the streets. A wake-up call to the government about the fact that we leave this kind of individual, with a heavy criminal past, in complete freedom, would be welcome. ‘Trust in justice,’ we were told… We only want that.”
Though she survived, her life has been shattered. She has undergone numerous surgeries and has been forced to move back in with her mother. Today, she suffers from recurrent nightmares and severe depression, requiring ongoing medication. She no longer leaves her house alone and has had to give up both her career and her passion for sports.
Ndiaye had long been a known menace in his neighborhood of Octeville, where residents reported he frequently smoked cannabis and terrorized the community. At only 18, he already featured 17 offenses involving physical assault, theft, and the incestuous sexual assault of his younger sister. Disturbingly, he had been investigated in several previous rape cases, all of which were closed without further action. He now faces a sentence of life in prison.
According to Le Figaro, the suspect expressed “neither empathy nor remorse” for the crime when he was in police custody.
The case also has parallels with numerous other rape cases involving foreigners that Remix News has reported on over the years. In what is one of the most harrowing cases, 9-year-old Swedish girl Luna was raped and strangled into a coma by a 15-year-old Ethiopian classmate with a history of sexual assault and viewing strangulation pornography on school computers. In a long-form piece, Remix News reported how Luna’s family lives with what they describe as a “black hole with no bottom” over the fact that the once lively girl can no longer speak and remains confined to a wheelchair.
A newly released study by the German Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), nearly 50 percent of Muslims under the age of 40 in Germany hold “Islamist” views, with these Muslims expressing an attraction to Islamism, a preference for Sharia law over the German Basic Law, and harboring anti-Semitic prejudices.
The findings, described as “explosive in nature,” were featured in the latest edition of the “Motra Monitor.” The study reports that as of 2025, Muslims in Germany under the age of 40 (45.1 percent) hold “latent or manifestly Islamist attitudes.“
Some German politicians have already voiced their views on the study’s release. Wolfgang Kubicki, a prominent politician in the Free Democrats (FDP) and former MP, stated on X: “This study should set off all the alarm bells. It is a societal time bomb. We must not only talk about migration, but also about integration and religion. The policy of naively looking away has favored this development. The naivety must stop.”
He further stated that “anyone who demands a caliphate is an enemy of democracy. Enemies of democracy without German citizenship must leave the country. Neighborhoods where ghettoization provides fertile ground for radicalization must be restructured. Islamic associations without a clear demarcation from extremists must not be interlocutors for politics. Germany must act secular and self-confident.”
He further called for an end to headscarves in schools and other state institutions “not to harass or suspect the wearers, but to make it clear that the only binding source of our values is the Basic Law.”
Bei dieser Studie müssen alle Alarmglocken angehen. Das ist eine gesellschaftliche Zeitbombe. Wir dürfen nicht nur über Migration reden, sondern auch über Integration und Religion. Die Politik des naiven Wegsehens hat diese Entwicklung begünstigt. Die Naivität muss aufhören. Wer… pic.twitter.com/h7rvl4GjbQ
Beyond rising crime rates, terrorism offenses, and demographic change, the soaring numbers of Muslims in Europe also raise fundamental questions about worldview and society.
The “Motra monitor,” a monitoring system tracking radicalization, spans 598 pages. It is published by the BKA and receives funding from several entities, including the Federal Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Family Affairs. While the report addresses various forms of extremism, including right-wing movements, it places a significant focus on Islamist extremism.
Evidence of these tensions surfaced in the summer of 2025 when “young Muslims and radical left-wing Germans occupied the Gutenberg Memorial in Frankfurt to demonstrate against Israel, some of them willing to use violence.“
The study’s researchers highlight a concerning core demographic, noting that “manifest Islamist attitudes are most prevalent among Muslims under 40, at 11.5 percent.“
In this context, “manifesto“ indicates that a person’s radicalization toward Islamism is already clearly evident and pronounced.
Further complicating the social landscape is a much larger group identified by the authors as having “latently Islamism-savvy attitudes.” This segment has seen a massive increase since 2021. The research group writes that “this amounts to 33.6 percent for those under 40 in 2025.“
While “latent” suggests these Islamist attitudes are present, the radicalization has not yet become openly visible. Combined, these two groups account for “45.1 percent“ of all under-40 Muslims in Germany.
Renowned Islamism researcher Prof. Susanne Schröter, who conducted most of her research into Islamism at the Institute of Ethnology at Goethe University Frankfurt and served as the director of the Frankfurt Research Center for Global Islam until 2025, said to Bild: “Islamism-savvy means that Muslims consider Islamist interpretations of Islam to be correct, are attracted to Islamist organizations close to the Muslim Brotherhood or Salafism, prefer Sharia to the Basic Law, and usually also have anti-Semitic prejudices.”
The BKA study suggests that the radicalization of young Muslims accelerated significantly following the Hamas terrorist attacks on Oct. 7, 2023.
Germany is far from the only country seeing the rise of Islamism within the populace. A sobering study from the prestigious polling service Ifop from last year shows that hardline views are growing amongst Muslims in France, including an emphasis on the laws of Islam being placed over those of the state, particularly among young Muslims. At the same time, Christianity is collapsing in France.
Among Muslims in general, 44 percent polled say they “respect the rules of Islam” as being more important “than respect for French laws.” For those aged 15-24, 57 percent believe the rules of Islam are more important than “respect for French laws.”
Some 38 percent of French Muslims approve of all or part of Islamist positions, doubling the figure of 19 percent in 1998, underlines Ifop.
Correspondingly, the share of Muslims who want Islam to modernize has fallen from 48 percent in 1998 to 21 percent today. When Ifop requested respondents to choose between the Civil Code and Sharia law on “an important subject in your family, such as ritual slaughter, marriage or inheritance,” 49 percent of Muslims chose to respect French laws, down from 62 percent in 1995. The consumption of alcohol among Muslim men has also fallen sharply, from 46 percent in 1989 to only 26 percent today.
Today, 33 percent of Muslims residing in France — French citizens or foreign nationals — feel sympathy for one of the Islamist movements, a figure that rises to 42 percent among young people. Within this population, 3 percent have sympathy for the most radical and bloody ideology, jihadism.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was asked by Politico about his thinly veiled death threat against Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, to which he showed no remorse. Instead, he said that he did not believe that “diplomatic silence” would be “very helpful” in response to Orbán.
Zelensky’s threat, made last week, has already been condemned by the European Union. He stated at the time that “we hope that not a single person in the European Union will block the 90 billion [euros], or the first tranche of the 90 billion, and that the Ukrainian soldiers will have weapons.”
He then added a remark that Hungarian officials interpreted as a threat directed at Orbán.
Criticism of Zelensky’s death threats seems to have made little impact on the Ukrainian leader, whose entire administration is facing multiple serious investigations for corruption from the country’s own anti-corruption authority.
In addition, the Ukrainian president essentially admitted that he closed the Friendship pipeline in order to interfere in the Hungarian parliamentary elections in April, as reported by Hungarian outlet Hirado.
“And as for when (the Friendship pipeline) would recover. Frankly, I personally wouldn’t recover it. That’s my point. I told the European leaders and those who called me about it, as well as the leadership of the European Union, because it is Russian oil. There are principles that have no price. They are killing us, and we should give oil to Orbán, because he is poor, without which he cannot win an election? That’s my position,” said Zelensky.
Zelensky sharply criticized Orbán in the Politico interview. According to the Ukrainian president, the Hungarian prime minister is “friends” and “strategic partners” with Russia.
“He’s standing on the side of [the] Russian leader. He’s doing the same, blocking everything for Ukraine. Only one thing he doesn’t do today — he is not attacking by missiles or drones our territory,” Zelensky said about Orbán. Zelensky added that Orbán is not sending soldiers to fight Ukraine but said Orbán vetoes financial support and arms deliveries to Ukraine, and also opposes Ukraine’s accession to the European Union. He also added that, in his opinion, the Hungarian prime minister uses the same narratives as Russia.
In the interview, Zelensky also spoke about the fact that Kyiv would like the European Union to prepare “a plan B” in the event that Viktor Orbán blocks EU subsidies to Ukraine.
Multiple African and Middle Eastern women are using complete strangers with Dutch citizenship to fraudulently obtain residency permit, according to the Dutch Immigration and Naturalization Service (IND).
The IND warns it is essentially powerless to stop this widespread fraud, including egregious cases, such as a man identified as Surinamese-Dutch man who has been linked to 47 applications to claim paternity for foreign children. Another Surinamese-Dutch man has recognized 25 babies born to 17 different women, each of whom subsequently applied for a residency permit on that basis.
In fact, the fraud is extremely widespread, with the top offenders from Morocco, Turkey, Ghana, Nigeria and Suriname. Over recent years, the IND has logged 400 reports of suspected fraud involving child recognition, submitted by municipalities, embassies, or uncovered through its own casework. Requests for residency permits based on having a child with a Dutch national have been rising steadily, now exceeding 3,000 cases per year.
The applicants know the loopholes and they know the courts are on their side. Whenever a Dutch national recognizes a child in a foreign country as his own, they automatically obtain residency rights. The IND has identified a network of so-called “sham parents” who allegedly offer themselves for registration as the legal father or mother of a foreign child — in exchange for payment.
A single EU court ruling opened the floodgates
The practice surged following a 2017 ruling by the Court of Justice of the European Union. At the time, an undocumented Venezuelan mother was ruled to have the right to remain in the Netherlands because she had a child with a Dutch father. The impact of that judgment has been enormous on the Netherlands and its social welfare system.
Since then, foreigners whose child has been recognized by a Dutch national have been effectively guaranteed residency. Crucially, the recognizing party does not even need to be the biological parent. The rules also apply to stepparents, foster parents and guardians.
Since the 2017 ruling, more than 17,500 such applications have been submitted and nearly all have been approved, according to IND figures.
The Dutch Association for Civil Affairs (NVVB) urged registry officials to be on the lookout for such fraud, including warning signs like “a striking age gap between the alleged parents,” according to Dutch news outlet NRC. They instructed officials to refuse the application if questions arose,, but a serious problem arose. The courts were ruling in favor of the suspected fraudsters in every instance.
NRC points to a case from 2020, where a Ghanese man without residency papers sought to recognize a child with a Dutch woman. The man and woman gave contradictory statements about their supposed relationship and refused a DNA test. The Amsterdam registry official suspected a sham arrangement, but the court ordered authorities proceed with the recognition regardless, because it could not be proven that the man’s sole motivation was the residency permit.
Eric Gubbels, chair of the NVVB’s Personal Registration committee, says the pattern repeated itself across virtually every case of this kind to reach the courts.
“The burden of proof, according to the court, lies entirely with the municipality. It must demonstrate that the person recognizing the child is after a residency permit. And in practice, that almost never succeeds,” he said.
As a result of the string of lost legal battles, the NVVB no longer actively works to obstruct questionable child recognitions, Gubbels says. Registry officials are no longer encouraged to block suspected sham recognitions. “Because it quite simply serves little purpose.”
Abuse is rampant
The system is, in effect, wide open to exploitation. Once a recognition has passed through the civil registry, the child automatically becomes Dutch — and on that basis, the other parent can claim residency.
This pattern is not only seen in the Netherlands, either. In Germany, extreme cases, including the infamous case of Mr. Cash Money, have made national headlines. The man claimed to be the father of 24 children in the city of Dortmund, which also suffered from similar frauds committed by other African men as well.
In the Netherlands, a portion of those applications can be traced back to a network of sham fathers, according to a confidential IND report seen by NRC.
A central figure is a Surinamese-Dutch artist from Rotterdam, who the report suggests may be running a trade in child recognitions. Despite his many court appearances over the years, he consistently appears in Rotterdam’s civil registration desk with a succession of different women. Sometimes, less than a month passes before he returns to recognize yet another baby. Although the women are formally listed as the applicants, the handwriting on the forms is identical across all the cases, and authorities believe it is his.
The applications contain the same recurring phrases, showing a lack of concern from the man that he will face any legal consequences. Among the terms being used, he frequently writes: “Without me in her/his/their life, it will become very difficult and unworkable.”
Roughly a year after each recognition, the mother files for a residency permit, which the IND cannot legally reject.
Through his handwriting on forms and his own recognition filings, the man has been connected to 47 Surinamese applicants in total. The IND suspects he carries out the recognitions for “financial gain” and believes he plays “an important role” in a broader network of sham parents, based on his contacts with men in other cities who also have numerous recognitions registered in their name.
Children left stranded
The NVVB warns that children themselves stand to lose out.
“They are saddled with a legal parent who will never play any role in their life,” says Gubbels.
The IND also cites other cases where even homeless men have been directly approached to participate in such schemes. One confidential report describes a 76-year-old man with brain damage who attempted to recognize a one-year-old child. He claimed to have fathered the child in Cameroon, but had never set foot in the country. He had only had online contact with the mother.
Other countries have confronted this crisis.
NDR cites Belgium, which made the recognition of a child for the purpose of obtaining residency papers a criminal offense in 2018. The NVVB hopes the Netherlands will follow with new legislation to combat this crime.
Returning to Russian fossil fuels would leave the European Union more dependent, more exposed and weaker, warned European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen in Strasbourg on Wednesday.
Speaking during a plenary debate at the European Parliament ahead of next week’s EU summit of heads of state and government, and amid ongoing discussion of the situation in the Middle East, von der Leyen stated that Europe had made significant progress in recent years. Thanks to measures taken across the bloc, she said, the continent is now far less reliant on fossil fuel imports and less exposed to price volatility than it once was.
However, the ongoing Iran conflict has offered a sharp reminder of how much vulnerability remains. Gas prices have climbed 50 percent and oil prices 27 percent since the war began. Von der Leyen put a concrete figure on what that means for ordinary Europeans, stating that in just ten days of conflict, the bill run up through fossil fuel imports has reached €3 billion euros for European taxpayers.
“That’s the price of our addiction,” she said.
🇪🇺EU Commission President von der Leyen has signaled she strongly backs the US-Israeli war on Iran and killing of Khomeini.
“There should be no tears shed for the Iranian regime. This regime has inflicted death and imposed repression on its own people."
The underlying problem, she argued, will not disappear through any single policy fix.
“Whatever measures we take, as long as we import a significant part of fossil fuels from unstable regions, we remain vulnerable,” a reality she said must shape Europe’s long-term energy strategy.
Other countries have already revisited their decision to drop Russian energy, with India resuming gas and oil supplies since the war in Iran broke out. Russia has hinted it might cut energy supplies to Europe ahead of a scheduled total ban, but Russian President Vladimir Putin also claims that he would continue supplying European countries if they came to him with a stable contract.
🇷🇺🔴Putin says Russia is a "reliable energy supplier" and claims he would consider selling energy to European buyers again.
“If European companies and European buyers suddenly decide to reorient themselves and provide us with long-term, sustainable cooperation, free from… pic.twitter.com/Bqovbm25ko
While most other European leaders have either firmly rejected Russian energy or reluctantly given it up, Hungarian Viktor Orban has taken a different stance, arguing that cheap Russian energy is vital not only to Hungary but also to the rest of Europe.
His position has put him greatly at odds with Brussels and various other European leaders. Currently, Ukraine is being accused of cutting Russian energy supplies through the Friendship pipeline. While Ukraine claims the pipeline is “damaged,” requests from both Hungary and the European Union to inspect the pipeline have been rejected, raising concerns that the Ukrainians are actively cutting oil supplies to Hungary before national elections next month.
A Turkish-Kurdish schoolgirl is said to have been groped by nine boys of Arab descent in the back room of a Berlin youth center in Gropiusstadt, Neukölln. It then came out that she was raped in November, in the youth center garden. A scandal has erupted after it was reported that the youth center staff did not file a police report, reportedly out of fear that the suspects would be labeled as the “typical Muslims.”
For months, there were already troubling reports from Berlin youth center in the multicultural neighborhood of Neukölln: involving unwanted embraces, girls having their breasts and buttocks touched without consent, and being pulled onto boys’ laps.
All of these incidents were allegedly happening in plain sight of staff.
Then, in January, the incident involving the mass groping of the Turkish-Kurdish victim occured by the nine boys, with each one taking turns molesting her while one boy stood guard in the doorway. They only stopped when a staff member walked in.
Three days later, the girl admitted to staff something worse had happened to her. She had already been raped in November — in the youth center’s garden, in the evening. Afterwards, she crouched in a corner for hours. When she finally tried to leave the area, the entire area was locked. She had to climb over the fence to get out, breaking her ankle in the process.
The assault had also been filmed. The boy, known by the nickname Medi, 17, allegedly used the footage as a weapon.
“I want to see you here every Monday, or I’ll send this to your parents.” Once word of the video spread, other boys in the group began taunting her: “You’re letting yourself be screwed.” They also wanted the girl to introduce them to her 14-year-old sister.
A cover-up because the suspects were Muslim?
Now, the youth center is in the crosshairs for its unbelievable response.
Reportedly, instead of going to the authorities, female visitors were given a “safeword” to use whenever they felt threatened. In addition, the door in the back room was removed from its hinges. The employees refused to go to the police even as colleagues from other facilities applied pressure to do so. The internal justification, according to sources who spoke with Bild newspaper, was a desire to keep things quiet so the young people would not be immediately labeled: “typical Muslims.”
Youth State Secretary Falko Liecke, 53, of the Christian Democrats (CDU), was blunt in his response when approached by Bild.
“It’s outrageous that the Muslim perpetrators are apparently being protected here to avoid stigmatizing them, while the victim is being abandoned. This attitude is completely unacceptable.” He announced he was examining whether child protection laws had been violated.
Parents had to go to the police after authorities failed to act
The girl eventually sought help outside the facility due to their refusal to go to the police.
A supporter of the girl spoke with her parents, who took the news of what happened to their daughter extremely hard. Together with a police prevention officer, they went to the State Criminal Police Office, where the girl gave a video statement so she would not have to recount the events repeatedly.
Officers moved quickly to seize the suspect’s mobile phone. Her father filed a formal complaint against the alleged rapist and also submitted online complaints against those responsible at the facility and the officials who failed to act.
The head of the youth welfare office had been informed as early as Jan. 29. The Neukölln administration’s explanation to Bild as to why no report was filed was that “the youth welfare office did not file a report because they do not know the names of either the victim or the perpetrator.”
Liecke responded to their excuse, saying: “This case was clearly intended to be swept under the rug for political reasons. It wasn’t even put on the agenda at the district office, even though it should have been. Neither the youth welfare office nor the responsible city councilor filed any reports with the police. This is a scandal and must have consequences.”
Neukölln Mayor Martin Hikel, of the far-left Social Democrats (SPD), said he saw no grounds for disciplinary action against the Left Party youth councilor with political responsibility for the case, on the basis that she was only informed by her own welfare office on March 2.
He nonetheless acknowledged the gravity of the situation: “This shocking case shows that the structures and processes within the youth welfare office require a self-critical internal review. In this context, a survey on the topic of sexual assaults in youth recreation facilities would be advisable in order to develop systematic improvements. The district office will discuss this.”
A 34-year-old Iraqi man illegally residing in Italy was arrested on March 9 after attempting to snatch a five-month-old baby from a car outside a supermarket in Latina — the latest in a disturbing series of child kidnapping attempts carried out by foreign nationals across the country.
According to initial reports, the Iraqi man had been acting suspiciously in the car park before approaching a vehicle where the baby was strapped into a car seat with his mother. He opened the door and attempted to grab the child.
The mother screamed for help while physically trying to stop him, drawing the attention of bystanders and the child’s father, who chased the man down and held him until police arrived.
The mayor of Latina, Matilda Celentano, also commented on the case, saying: “The reconstruction by the State Police leaves me deeply shocked, but at the same time proud of the immediate response of our security system. On behalf of the entire administration and the citizens, I want to express our deepest sympathy for the mother and child involved in this terrible situation. My heartfelt thanks go to the citizens present who did not turn a blind eye, and especially to the State Police officers.”
She added that their intervention “averted a heinous crime and immediately brought the perpetrator to justice. “This episode, despite its exceptionality and gravity, demonstrates the importance of territorial control. We will not lower our guard: we will continue to work closely with the Prefecture and law enforcement to strengthen video surveillance and the protection of sensitive areas. Latina must be and will remain a city where families can feel safe. I will closely monitor the legal proceedings, reaffirming my ongoing commitment to upholding the rule of law.”
Officers determined the Iraqi was in the country illegally and in possession of a rubber mallet.
A member of the public had also earlier reported the Iraqi man’s suspicious behavior in the area, according to police. He was arrested on charges of attempted kidnapping and possession of an offensive weapon and taken into custody pending validation of his arrest, according to Italian news outlet Il Tempo.
Wave of similar kidnappings
The Latina case is far from isolated. A pattern of similar incidents has emerged across Italy in recent years, with foreign nationals implicated in a significant share of child abduction attempts. According to figures cited in Italian reporting, in 2024 alone, 38 percent of arrests and reports related to kidnapping involved foreign nationals — a group that represents just 9 percent of Italy’s resident population.
Homeless Roma man tries to kidnap 18-month-old girl
The incidents stretch from north to south. On Feb. 14, outside a supermarket in Bergamo, a homeless Romanian man attempted to tear an 18-month-old girl from her mother’s arms. Her father managed to stop the attacker, who was then restrained by passersby and security staff. The violence left the toddler with a fractured femur.
Remix News also published a video of this horrifying incident.
🇮🇹Italy
In Bergamo, a Romanian migrant tried to kidnap a one-and-a-half-year-old girl at the entrance of a supermarket.
The mother and other witnesses managed to stop the man, but the little girl suffered a fractured femur.
He fought back violently during his arrest, kicking and striking an officer.
Gambian tries to snatch baby
A month earlier, near Bologna’s train station, a young Gambian male residing at a reception center for unaccompanied migrant minors approached an Italian family and attempted to lift a baby girl from her pram. The child had fortunately been secured with a harness. The man fled but was tracked down within minutes following a call to the police operations center.
The school’s pedagogical coordinator requested identifying documentation, at which point the two left without the child.
Romanian tries to kidnap 7-year-old
On July 27, 2025, near Piazzale della Radio in Rome, a Romanian man with no fixed address and a prior criminal record was arrested after attempting to snatch a seven-year-old girl from her mother, then chasing the family while brandishing a bottle. The child’s father and bystanders held the man until the Carabinieri arrived.
Nigerian man tries to kidnap 2-year-old
In October 2024, inside a Bricocenter DIY store in Turin, a 46-year-old Nigerian man with a prior record grabbed a two-year-old boy from behind and ran out of the shop. The father gave chase, wrestled his son free, and the suspect then stripped off his clothing and threatened passersby with a glass bottle.
At the time, Italian politician Matteo Salvini wrote about the case: “Horrible! How can someone commit such acts? No ‘tolerance’ whatsoever for those who bring violence and crime into our homes, but a one-way ticket back to their country. Go!”
Another Nigerian tries to attack pregnant woman and rip her son from her arms
“I resisted with all my might, was thrown to the ground and beaten, screaming desperately, but no one intervened to help us. It was terrible». Mrs. Adriana G. said after filing a formal police complaint.
While telling her story, she broke out into tears when telling the reporter that her grandson screamed, “Grandma, please don’t leave me,” during the incident.
Italy is far from the only country experiencing this traumatic trend. A video from Bordeaux, France, helps encapsulate how quickly a child can be snatched. The video went viral when it was first released and is still routinely posted on social media. In short, this is a European-wide issue.
Bordeaux, France:
A thug tries to kidnap a little girl at the front door of her own house, throwing her grandmother to the floor.
A 45-year-old woman who allegedly botched cosmetic procedures on at least 88 patients at a Vienna beauty clinic will not be appearing before the Vienna Regional Court. Her excuse is that she is currently in Iran and unable to travel due to the ongoing war.
The case against Sanaz M. was already quite remarkable. Together with her sister, the Iranian-born woman is accused of running a fraudulent cosmetic practice called “WeUtyful,” located steps from St. Stephen’s Cathedral in the heart of Vienna. Neither woman, according to prosecutors, ever held a legitimate medical qualification.
Despite this reality, the two women allegedly performed complex surgeries and treatments that left dozens of victims injured, disfigured, and in pain.
Nevertheless, both women confidently presented themselves as trained physicians to patients and staff — with Sanaz M. styling herself as “Mrs. Dr. Med.” at every opportunity, despite, as the judiciary alleges, never attending any medical program.
Now, with trial proceedings underway at the Vienna Regional Court, the defendant has sent word that she cannot attend — requesting a rescheduling of her court date “since the accused cannot leave at present.” The woman says she is currently in Iran and cannot leave due to the war.
The explanation has done little to generate sympathy. As her victims’ lawyer, Dr. Alfred Boran, put it, “If this woman apparently prefers to stay in the war zone out of fear of the trial in Vienna, that says a lot about the defendant.”
The 27-page indictment makes clear why facing court in Austria may hold little appeal. Among the allegations documented within it are descriptions of disfiguring and painful outcomes across dozens of patients. One victim, 50-year-old nurse Snezana T., went to the clinic for what she hoped would be a minor rhinoplasty. The procedure left her with lasting physical and psychological damage that she continues to live with today.
Other patient complaints listed in the indictment include “permanent change of facial expressions, drooping eye, a petrified face, etc.”
Lawyers Dr. Alfred Boran and Dr. Christian Werner, who together represent several of the 88 alleged victims, have studied the indictment closely. They note that the actions committed by the two women reveal that “it was intentional serious injury.”
The Vienna public prosecutor’s office also sees the case as a deliberate violation of dozens of patients. Prosecutors allege that the Iranian defendant knowingly accepted the risk of causing serious harm to her patients, concluding that the treatments administered amounted to clear quackery — procedures that were not performed “lege artis,” meaning they fell outside any accepted standard of legitimate medical practice.
Cases involving foreigners working with forged credentials are commonplace in Western nations, but in many cases, these fraudulent degrees are never even uncovered. Just yesterday, Remix News reported on a former Iranian asylum seeker, Taghi B, who is accused of sexually assaulting multiple children and teens during therapy sessions, including a 9-year-old girl. An investigation revealed that the man, who worked in the German city of Nordhausen, used a fake Russian diploma.
A dormitory dispute at a vocational school in St. Pölten has landed a 17-year-old student from Lower Austria’s Mostviertel region with a week-long suspension — and the decision has drawn sharp criticism from politicians.
The trouble began with a matter of religious observance. Two Muslim girls sharing a four-person room at the St. Pölten State Vocational School’s boarding house were waking before dawn each morning during Ramadan to eat before sunrise, setting their alarm for 3 a.m.
Their two non-Muslim roommates found their sleep routinely broken as a result. One mother said the disruption went beyond just the early alarm.
Upon waking up at 3:00 a.m., the mother said that “they even turn up the music.”
Attempts to resolve the situation through a room reassignment came to nothing after the Muslim students declined to move.
Tensions eventually boiled over when the 17-year-old rang her mother late one night to vent.
“My daughter called me next time in a rage and let her frustration run wild,” her mother told the Kronen Zeitung.
The call took place in the corridor, where the roommates heard parts of it through the door. The Directorate of Education says the confrontation went further still, with the teenager allegedly going on to insult her roommates face to face — an exchange said to have been caught on video. The two girls subsequently reported her to school management.
The school quickly took the side of the two Muslim students, issuing the girl a one-week suspension from the boarding house.
“It was without warning. She was told by the management to reflect on her conduct and her choice of words,” she said.
The fallout has also crept into the classroom, with the mother claiming her daughter is now being made to sit apart from the others.
“Although the girls insulted each other, the teacher only heard or understood my child’s words,” she said. Authorities confirmed the student will be readmitted once the suspension ends, though she will be moved to a different room.
The case has since drawn in politicians. Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ) deputy governor and Lower Austria state party chairman Udo Landbauer came out swinging against the school’s decision.
“When an Austrian vocational school student complains about her roommate breaking her fast at night and loud music and is subsequently suspended, one wonders: Do we actually still live in Austria?” he said in a press release.
He added: “Our children are suspended so that others can behave and break their fast. That’s not possible.”
The Freedom Party framed the episode as a question of integration, arguing that it requires newcomers to adapt to and respect the rules and culture of the country they have settled in.
FPÖ education spokesman Helmut Fiedler called for a thorough inquiry while striking a more balanced note.
“Of course, personal life and religious practice must be respected. At the same time, a boarding school has clear rules and rest periods that are binding for everyone. These must not be softened,” he said.
The clash between cultures may only increase in the coming years. Last year, Vienna reported that for the first time, over half of first graders do not speak sufficient German to learn in school. In addition, the city now features more Muslims than Christians in the elementary school system. This has led to an education system crisis in Austria’s largest city, but if demographic trends hold, this same crisis and the cultural clashes seen in Vienna will likely spread to the rest of the country.
“The Muslim children told my daughter and her friend: We have Ramadan, you must fast now and throw your bread in the bin!” the mother of a schoolgirl said about the incident. When the girls approached a teacher, he said “children should turn away while eating.”
Other parents also reported allegations of bullying from Muslim students. Some students reportedly made “choking and vomiting noises“ when other children ate. A student was insulted as an “ugly German girl.” One mother told Bild newspaper: “Demanding our daughter to turn away from eating and drinking or to hide it is a restriction of her personal freedom.”
A 65-year-old man and former asylum seeker, Taghi B., posed as a therapist for years, even though he had no degree or qualifications. In fact, his one degree from Russia, has now been determined to be a forgery. Now, several minors reported sexual abuse during psychotherapy sessions, including a 9-year-old girl who said she was groped and molested by the man.
The suspect, who has since obtained German citizenship, worked at an adolescent psychiatric practice in Nordhausen, Germany, for months. There, he gained access to minors despite not having any legitimate credentials. Now, he is facing a string of serious allegations, including sexual assault, manipulation and financial fraud. The case has since exposed alarming failures across multiple institutions charged with protecting children.
The investigation by German public news outlet MDR INVESTIGATIV began with an anonymous tip. Parents from Nordhausen reported alleged fraud and sexual abuse involving a man posing as a therapist: Taghi B. The MDR team indicated that research revealed how a man with no verified credentials had been given access to vulnerable young patients.
The most serious allegation involves a 9-year-old girl, who was allegedly sexually abused during therapy sessions.
Her parents permitted the gynecologist who examined the child victim to speak to MDR outside the normal confidentiality clauses. Gynecologist Dr. Patricia Michaelis from Nordhausen recounted to MDR that the child reported Taghi B. had touched her chest and genitals during a session and attempted to penetrate her with his finger. The family filed complaints with the police, the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians, and the Medical Association. Other families did the same.
In June 2025, the Mühlhausen public prosecutor’s office opened multiple investigations against Taghi B. for sexual harassment and serious sexual abuse. Neither Taghi B. nor Franziska S., the person who originally opened the practice, responded to requests for comment.
Notably, different parents had already become suspicious, as Taghi B.’s name appeared nowhere on the practice website or on the door sign. When the mothers contacted the Medical Association and the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians by phone, they were told that he was not registered with either body as a doctor or psychologist.
Two mothers also told MDR that Taghi B. took over treatment of their sons in the practice. Both mothers quickly became unsettled. According to them, he made exaggerated boasts about himself, downplayed their sons’ medical diagnoses, and intimidated the children. One of the boys, an eight-year-old, cried after every session and refused to return.
Other children come forward
Further victims came forward during the course of the investigation. A 15-year-old, referred to here as Lisa, had urgently sought a therapy place following a hospital stay for severe depression after experiencing sexual abuse. She turned to the practice of Franziska S. From the second appointment onwards, she was treated by Taghi B. alone. Since Franziska S. had introduced him as a colleague, Lisa had assumed he was a qualified psychotherapist.
Lisa described how his compliments made her uncomfortable and his physical contact felt inappropriate. Following a relapse involving self-harm, he is alleged to have stroked her arm for several minutes and repeatedly attempted to view intimate parts of her body. He then began sending her personal messages — among them: “Vacation with Lisa (heart emoji) First, we’ll fix you up a bit.”
He is also said to have requested meetings outside the practice. Other young people who spoke to MDR regarding Taghi B. said that he had sent them similar messages and asked to meet them.
Taghi B. did not even apply for a medical license until the end of that month — a requirement for any therapeutic work in a child and adolescent psychiatric practice. When he eventually submitted the necessary certificates months later, the responsible authority found that the alleged Russian qualifications were forged. The Central Office for Foreign Education confirmed this upon request to MDR.
According to MDR, the defendant arrived in Thuringia from Iran in the 1990s as an asylum seeker with his wife and two children. His name means “pious” in Arabic.
Franziska S. herself is now under investigation for billing fraud and violation of the alternative practitioner law. She is alleged to have billed Taghi B.’s treatments under her own name. The Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians has revoked her statutory health insurance license, and the State Office of Administration has suspended her license to practice medicine.
To understand how Franziska S. came to employ an unqualified man with a forged CV, investigators followed the trail back to a martial arts club Taghi B. had quietly dominated for over a decade. He arrived in Thuringia in the 1990s from Iran as an asylum seeker and has since obtained German citizenship. Over the years he built a dojo in Nordhausen — unregistered, unaffiliated — where he taught karate and aikido, predominantly to children. On paper he barely existed within the club; in practice, according to multiple former members, he ran everything.
Those same former members describe a pattern of psychological control: long private conversations, probing personal questions, an absolute intolerance of dissent, and a habit of enlisting followers for his own purposes.
Heidrun Sander, once among his closest associates, says she spent years being slowly manipulated. The group’s ethos encouraged detachment from material wealth — a convenient philosophy, it turned out, when Taghi B. asked her to fund the purchase of a permanent dojo. She handed over €140,000. The repayments came for a while, then stopped entirely. She sued. The Jena Higher Regional Court ruled in February 2026 that he still owes her more than €91,000. Looking back, she said: “I just hope no one is hurt and exempted by him like this anymore.”
This was not, it emerged, the first time he had been investigated. Thuringian prosecutors had looked into allegations of sexual harassment at the martial arts club as far back as 2021. That case was dropped. So were two earlier investigations into suspected child sexual abuse. Nothing was ever proven.
MDR now questions whether there was a systemic failure from authorities. The man has now been charged with sexual harassment and an investigation into serious sexual abuse is ongoing. In addition, the Meiningen public prosecutor’s office is investigating allegations of unauthorized medical activity and fraud.
It is important to note that there is a long-standing pattern of German authorities allowing migrants to obtain important roles in the health establishment despite clear cases of fraud in their background. In one of the most notable examples, the Saudi national Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, who became a high-level psychiatrist in the German health system, despite a history of fraud and death threats. Nicknamed “Dr. Google” due to his lack of medical knowledge, he would go on to ram his car into a Christmas market, killing six and wounding hundreds in a major terror attack. His case has cost millions of euros and remains ongoing.
An Austrian-born economist who has spent decades studying the intersection of artificial intelligence and economic transformation is sounding a stark warning: Within a few years, AI will be capable of performing virtually every intellectual task humans currently do for a living — and the consequences for the labor market could be unlike anything in recorded history.
Anton Korinek, born in 1978 in Reichenau an der Rax and now a professor at the University of Virginia, has been working on the topic of artificial intelligence since the 1990s. In a wide-ranging interview with German newspaper Welt, she wades into a dark realm, including “a risk of mass misery” for humanity.
Asked how many people will lose their jobs to AI in the coming years, Korinek was careful but unsparing.
“There is a tremendous amount of uncertainty about this. There are no models for this because something like this has never happened before,” he said. “But what we can be sure about is that in a few years AI will be able to perform virtually all intellectual activities.”
Korinek is of course far from the only one sounding the alarm, with even the heads of the top AI labs in the world stating that the implications for the global labor market are dire. For example, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei recently warned that AI could “wipe out” jobs across industries, while stating that “unusually painful” job cuts are ahead.
As has been seen almost ad nauseam since the rise of AI, the debate is whether AI will create new jobs or lead to a permanent replacement of human labor and input. Korinek appears to side with the latter view. He pushed back against the commonly held reassurance that new technologies always create new jobs to replace the ones they destroy.
“First of all, new technologies have not ‘always’ created new jobs, but in the past 250 years, i.e., since the industrial revolution, it is not the technologies that have created new jobs,” he said. “Work was always valuable and irreplaceable. At the same time, our economy continued to grow, and the population continued to grow. That’s why there were more and more jobs — not because of any technology.”
And when his interviewer pointed out that technologies have not yet led to mass unemployment, Korinek offered a pointed historical corrective: “The spinners and weavers who became unemployed as a result of the industrial revolution would disagree with you.”
Anthropic CEO Amodei would likely agree with this take, as he recently stated that the technology is not replacing a single job but “acting as a general labor substitute for humans.”
The fundamental question AI poses, he argues, is one that previous waves of automation never truly raised.
“Will the value of work as a whole continue to rise or will it fall if AI and later robots can perform all work?” he asked. “Until now, the answer has always been that automation only destroys a small portion of jobs. In the next few years, however, there is a risk that all the jobs that can be done in front of a laptop will be lost.”
He added that from there, robotics will disrupt nearly every other job.
When asked by the Welt journalist, Korinek said that AI could likely do his job, including the entire interview, to a reasonably satisfactory degree. Even if shortcomings remain, he noted that the models are quickly advancing every three months.
When the journalist asked how he would “buy vegetables for my family?” stating that”food won’t suddenly be free,” Korinek said that the cost of vegetables would even increase, since AI has such high energy demands.
Korinek said that the question about how people get by in such a scenario has dominated his thoughts.
“That’s exactly what I’ve been thinking about for 10 years,” he said. “There is a risk of mass misery.”
Korinek says he maintains a list of 10 to 12 professional areas that will remain after AI has transformed the economy — though he concedes that half of those are only temporary refuges. What survives in the long run, he argues, comes down to one thing: human presence and personality.
“In the long term, all that remains are all performative professions. Athletes, actors, and so on. Because personality matters — no one is impressed when a robot runs faster than an athlete.” Religious personnel — priests, rabbis — also make his list, as do people whose job it is to monitor AI systems. “If — but that’s a big ‘If’! — people keep control,” he added.
On the question of artistic creativity, Korinek offered one of the interview’s most provocative exchanges. Asked whether AI could write something like King Lear, he reframed the question entirely: “Can a neural network of neurons write ‘King Lear’? The answer is obviously yes, because a neural network wrote ‘King Lear’.”
Essentially, Korinek was implying that Shakespeare was himself a biological neural network. The implication, that the distinction between human and machine creativity may be less absolute than we assume, was not pursued further by the interviewer.
Finally, the conversation turned darker when Korinek addressed the risk of AI systems that surpass human intelligence entirely. Drawing on a vivid analogy, he noted that “no one has the slightest clue what happens when we create something significantly smarter than us.”
He compared the challenge of humans controlling superintelligent AI to toddlers in a kindergarten trying to control an adult: “How well will this work?”
When his interviewer pushed back on the metaphor — suggesting the adult should guide the children, not the other way around — Korinek turned the question back on them: “So you’re in favor of AI taking over in a few years?”
The Welt journalist responds: “I’m just trying to think your metaphor through further. The adult should please take the children by the hand, not the other way around. Unless the adult is a psychopath.”
The researcher then responded: “This is precisely what the dispute between utopians and apocalypticists revolves around. Some believe that the adult will be kind to human beings; others think his values may be radically different from ours. The children in kindergarten are not always happy. Sometimes they don’t like what the adult tells them, even though it’s for their own good. We may soon find ourselves in this situation.”
Residents in western Ukraine have physically intervened to stop a recruitment center vehicle from transporting a man earmarked for military service, in an incident that highlights growing resistance to mobilization across the country.
The confrontation took place near the village of Ozera in the Volyn region. According to the regional recruiting and auxiliary command, a convoy of around seven civilian cars pursued a minibus operated by the territorial recruitment center. The pursuing vehicles began blocking the road and created a dangerous situation, forcing the minibus into a roadside ditch — as reported by the Ukrainian news portal Strana.ua. It is important to note that the publication is often considered to have a pro-Russian stance.
According to the news outlet, the locals then broke a window of the service vehicle and pulled the man free before he could be taken to the recruitment center.
The recruitment center confirmed that the freed individual is a resident of the Zaporizhzhia region. An investigation has been launched, and the identities of those involved in the interception are still being established.
The incident is not an isolated one. In the Lviv region, a mobilization minibus was previously fired upon, and in the city of Lviv itself, a woman discharged a weapon at a vehicle carrying police officers and military recruiters.
Taken together, these episodes reflect a broader and intensifying trend: In recent months, resistance to military mobilization across Ukraine has been steadily growing.
A 43-year-old Moroccan man residing in Bottanuco has been arrested following a violent attack on a 26-year-old woman that included assault with a saber and repeated cases of rape over the course of a single night.
The victim, who was reportedly drugged by the suspect, regained consciousness on the Saturday afternoon following the attack. She woke up on the man’s bed without clothing on her lower body, suffering pain throughout her body, a bruise on one temple, a hot wax burn on one hand, lower back pain, scratches and swelling. With no memory of what had happened in the preceding hours, she immediately fled.
She grabbed the first clothes she could find, picked up an old Motorola phone she spotted, went out into the street and called emergency services.
She then told medical workers at the Pope John XXIII Hospital what she could remember. Staff identified traces of sexual violence and kept her hospitalized for several days. The Carabinieri of Osio Sotto, who had arrived alongside the ambulance, also took her account — including her recollection of having seen large quantities of drugs on the premises, according to Italian news outlet Corriere del Sera.
Investigators were able to piece together what happened to the woman on the evening of Feb. 27, when the woman went with an acquaintance to visit the Moroccan man. His full role in arranging the encounter is still being investigated.
The suspect, identified as H.M., initially appeared friendly, but his demeanor changed abruptly when the woman declined his requests — to drink green tea, take drugs, and take a shower with him. He threw a glass object at her, struck her in the side with an iron object, and dragged her to the bathroom, where he attempted to persuade her to shower with him. It is at this point that the woman’s memory went completely blank.
Investigators believe she was given a substance without her knowledge. It was during this period that she was repeatedly raped.
On Saturday evening, officers visited the suspect’s home in Bottanuco and found him there along with 82 grams of cocaine, 10 grams of hashish, packaging materials, and €730 in cash believed to be proceeds from drug dealing. Also recovered were two sabers, each approximately one meter long, one of which is believed to have been used to beat the victim. The woman’s jeans and leather jacket were still on the floor — the trousers bore biological traces consistent with semen. The man was arrested on the spot.
The man has a long criminal history. In fact, he had been arrested just five months earlier in the Milan area on an identical sexual assault charge and features a lengthy criminal record, including drug offenses, threats, receiving stolen goods, and weapons possession.
The suspect denied all charges. He claimed to have no connection to the drugs, suggesting someone had planted them in his home to set him up. On the question of sexual violence, he initially stated he had taken pity on the woman because she had already arrived with injuries. When confronted with the forensic evidence found on her clothing, he conceded that he had given the woman only “a few kisses and hugs.”
Investigating judge Luca Bonifacio found this account entirely unconvincing and ordered pretrial detention. The judge cited “concrete danger of repetition of the crime.” The suspect’s profile was described as “alarming not only for the manner of the violence, but also for the presence of a recent police precedent for similar events.”
The judge noted that detention was the only answer for the defendant’s “irrepressible antisocial impulses.”
The ongoing Iran War and the closure of the Strait of Hormuz are pushing oil prices higher, and a new study warns that Germany could face severe economic consequences if the trend persists.
The German Economic Institute (IW) has sounded the alarm over the potential damage to German economic output.
“If the price of oil were to rise to 150 U.S. dollars per barrel, the costs for the German economy would amount to 0.5 percent of gross domestic product in 2026 and 1.3 percent in 2027,” according to the institute’s economists.
“In absolute terms, this corresponds to a real loss of economic output of over 80 billion euros in two years.”
Oil is currently trading at between $76 and $82 per barrel on global markets. While the U.S. and Israel could gain control of the strait, there are fears that a closure could last for weeks or even months, according to the study.
The study shows that an even more modest but sustained rise to $100 per barrel would carry a significant price tag. At that level, Germany would forfeit 0.3 percent of economic output this year and 0.6 percent in 2027.
“Overall, this would be a loss of economic output of about 40 billion euros over two years,” write the authors.
A prolonged surge in oil prices would also feed through to consumer prices. Should oil reach $100, inflation would run approximately 0.8 percent higher in 2026 and 1.0 percent higher in 2027. At $150 per barrel, Germans could face consumer prices roughly 1.6 percent higher in 2026 and around 1.9 percent higher in 2027.
The institute noted that while the United States remains the world’s largest oil producer, the nations directly or indirectly caught up in the Iran conflict account for “almost a third of global oil production, with Saudi Arabia alone accounting for one-tenth.”
Despite Germany’s shift to renewables, the researchers were unambiguous about Germany’s ongoing reliance on fossil fuels, describing oil and natural gas as “indispensable” for the country. Germany’s industrial producers, including the chemical, machine tools, and automobile industries, have already suffered due to Germany’s high energy costs. Soaring prices for oil and natural gas could lead to unpredictable and disastrous scenarios.
“Despite declining oil intensity over the past decades, Germany still accounts for approximately two percent of global oil consumption.” For private households, spending on fuels and heating oil represents “around four percent of their consumption budget.”
In addition, many products in Germany rely on oil to make, including car tires, fertilizers, and cosmetics.
At this stage, however, it is difficult to predict what oil costing $150 a barrel or more would do to the global economy.
On Friday, Qatari Energy Minister Saad al-Kaabi told the Financial Times that the war could lead to a supply shock, with Gulf energy exporters cutting output to the point that oil reaches beyond $150.
“Everybody who has not called for force majeure we expect will do so in the next few days if this continues. All exporters in the Gulf region will have to call a force majeure,” Kaabi said. “If they don’t, they are at some point going to pay the liability for that legally, and that’s their choice.”
“This will bring down the economies of the world… if this war continues for a few weeks, GDP growth around the world will be impacted. Everybody’s energy price is going to go higher. There will be shortages of some products, and there will be a chain reaction of factories that cannot supply,” he said.
The German police have waited nearly a year to release a composite sketch of a man accused of ripping a 13-year-old girl off her bicycle in Rheine, North Rhine-Westphalia, and sexually assaulting her after her school day was finished.
The girl was riding her bicycle on May 6, when the man attacked her at 1:30 p.m., not far from her school, the Copernicus Gymnasium.
Local police described the incident as follows: “The unknown man stood in a small alley. He pulled the girl off her bike.” Although police have not disclosed exactly what happened to the girl, they describe the man sexually assaulting her in the alleyway.
After the incident, “he then threatened her with death if she told anyone about the crime.”
The student was able to break free from the pedophile and flee. She provided a very detailed description of the man, describing him as 40 years old, 1.90 meters tall, and slim. He has dark eyes and dark brown hair, which has curls down to the ears. He was wearing black pants and a blue t-shirt.
Bild indicated that the police did not disclose why the composite sketch was not created and published the sketch right after the crime instead of waiting nearly a year.
However, even when German police have an actual photo of a suspect, it can sometimes take months for judges to approve the release of such photos.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s thinly veiled threat to send soldiers to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s home address has elicited a reaction from a variety of European politicians, including Alternative for Germany (AfD) co-leader Alice Weidel and Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who both condemned Zelensky’s statement.
Zelensky’s threatening statement prompted outrage from the Hungarian government yesterday, with the Ukrainian leader stating: “We hope that not a single person in the European Union will block the 90 billion, or the first tranche of the 90 billion [euros], and that the Ukrainian soldiers will have weapons,” Zelensky said during the briefing.
He then added a remark that Hungarian officials interpreted as a threat directed at Orbán.
“Otherwise, we will give this person’s address to our armed forces, and then they will call him and speak to him in their own language,” Zelensky said.
In response, Weidel wrote on X: “Zelensky—the premium partner of the German federal government and the EU—openly threatens the head of state of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, with a ‘visit’ from his soldiers to Orbán’s private address. A dam has burst.”
Selensky – der Premiumpartner der deutschen Bundesregierung und der EU – droht dem Staatsoberhaupt Ungarns Viktor Orban offen mit dem „Besuch“ seiner Soldaten an Orbans Privatadresse. Ein Dammbruch. https://t.co/DnmJY2zct2
In turn, Slovak leader Fico also addressed the threat, stating: “About five minutes ago I saw a shocking video of the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. A video in which he directly threatens the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, because the Hungarian government is currently blocking a 90 billion euro military loan for Ukraine.”
He referred to this as “blackmailing behavior” from Zelensky and stated that it was “unacceptable to think we are his servants.” He said that regardless of the war in Ukraine, the threat against Orbán is something “we all must reject.”
He called on the leaders of the European Union, directly referencing Ursula von der Leyen, to “distance themselves from these outrageous blackmailing statements” from Zelensky.
REACTION OF THE PRIME MINISTER OF THE SLOVAK REPUBLIC, ROBERT FICO, TO THE BLACKMAILING BEHAVIOR OF UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT ZELENSKYY
I express full solidarity with the Prime Minister of Hungary, @PM_ViktorOrban. If the Ukrainian president continues like this, it may happen that… pic.twitter.com/NLKfyZPZ1j
Orbán also responded to the threat of violence, stating: “President @ZelenskyyUa’s threats are not about me. He is threatening Hungary. Unfortunately for him, he cannot stop me from protecting Hungarian families.”
President @ZelenskyyUa's threats are not about me. He is threatening Hungary.
Unfortunately for him, he cannot stop me from protecting Hungarian families. 🇭🇺🇭🇺🇭🇺 pic.twitter.com/7bPSeBjexn
Zelensky’s threat has only escalated tensions between the two governments amid a widening dispute over energy supplies and military funding right before national elections in Hungary.
Speaking about the state of Ukraine’s armed forces on Thursday, Zelensky expressed frustration to a Ukrainian parliamentary committee that Hungary has blocked a proposed €90 billion joint European loan intended to finance weapons for Ukraine. Budapest has withheld support for the measure amid an ongoing dispute triggered by the shutdown of the Druzhba, or Friendship, oil pipeline that carries Russian crude oil through Ukraine to Hungary and Slovakia.
Hungarian newspaper Magyar Nemzet argued that the phrase “speak to him in their own language” strongly implies the use of force. The Ukrainian expression Zelensky used — спілкуватися своєю мовою — is widely understood as a colloquial phrase suggesting a harsher response rather than diplomatic dialogue.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó also responded to Zelensky’s comment, saying: “It goes beyond all boundaries that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has practically threatened Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with death.”
“This is a completely new situation in Europe, where the president of a European country is threatening the prime minister of a NATO and EU member state with murder,” he added.
The Eritrean migrant accused of dismembering his partner and the mother of his daughter was once held up as a “model migrant” 10 years ago in a variety of German newspapers. These papers reported that he was an example of how “integration” could work.
Today, 41-year-old Asmerom G. is accused of butchering his own wife. In fact, authorities have still not found her head.
German media were still singing his praises in 2016. The man from Eritrea had landed a job as an electrical assistant at a firm in Rheinbach, in North Rhine-Westphalia, and gave interviews about leaving his homeland three years earlier to escape political persecution.
He wanted German citizenship, he said. His boss at the time was quick to describe Asmerom G. as talented, reliable, and “capable of anything,” according to Bild newspaper.
However, then reality arrived. Within a year, Asmerom G. was in trouble with the law. A brawl led to a conviction for grievous bodily harm at Siegburg District Court, earning him a six-month suspended sentence.
He moved on from Rheinbach and took up work behind the wheel of a freight truck. Somewhere along the way, he made a trip back to his home country — for reasons that remain unclear — and returned to Germany with a woman named Weghata A., who was 31, his wife under Eritrean law. On July 26, 2025, she delivered their daughter.
What happened next garnered headlines across Germany.
On Nov. 17, on Autobahn 45 near Olpe on Nov. 17, a driver said she spotted something on the side of the road. When officers investigated, they found two severed women’s hands. Forensic teams matched the fingerprints to Weghata A., who had already been reported missing from her asylum accommodation in Bonn, where she had been living alone with her infant daughter.
Days later, Weghata A.’s torso was recovered, but her head remains missing.
The baby was found the day before, alive and unharmed, abandoned in a stroller in Hesse outside the Kröffelbach monastery in Waldsolms. A monk found the child and two handwritten notes giving only her name and date of birth.
While investigators quickly identified Asmerom G. as the prime suspect, he had already boarded a flight to Ethiopia. He was arrested there in late November.
In early February, he was extradited back to Germany, where he is now in pre-trial detention.
Serious crime in a number of categories, including murder, has jumped in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the country’s largest state by population. Foreigners make up a worrying share of suspects in these serious crimes as well.
Overall, crime fell modestly in 2025, with police registering around 1.36 million offenses — roughly 3 percent fewer than the 1.4 million recorded the previous year. However, serious crimes remain highly elevated, including knife murders, which actually rose in 2025.
Homicides and intentional homicides rose to 508 cases, representing a 6.1 percent increase, the highest level in 10 years. Incredibly, 49.9 percent of suspects are foreigners for this crime, with a population share of 16 percent. Similar data is seen in other states, such as Berlin. On a nationwide scale, the proportion of foreigners is rising in tandem with growing violence.
Overall, violent crime inched lower, but it is lower from a highly elevated position. In 2024, there was a sharp spike in violent crime, rising 21 percent from 2023.
Other serious crimes, however, saw a jump. Sexual offenses rose to 32,144 cases, a 5.2 percent increase, including rapes jumping 8.5 percent with 3,784 victims. Since 2016, the number of sexual offenses has tripled, with 27.3 percent of suspects listed as foreigners.
North Rhine-Westphalia indicated last year that it would begin publishing nationality data on suspects who have dual passports, as these suspects were previously only counted as Germans. However, those of foreign background and German citizenship are still not counted in the data, making it hard to discern their overall role in the German crime category.
Police counted 7,200 knife-related incidents in 2025, a reduction of 1.5 percent from the year before, according to official police statistics. The toll in human terms, however, barely changed: 49 people were killed in knife attacks compared to 48 in 2024, and 9,099 people were victims overall, of whom 2,928 sustained injuries.
Knife crime has been rising for years
North Rhine-Westphalia Interior Minister Herbert Reul of the CDU has for years stated that he would work to crack down on knife crime and violence, but so far, his record has seen the problem only grow for the most part under his tenure.
New data shows that foreigners are responsible for 43.9% of all crimes in Berlin in 2024.
Murders and manslaughter also jumped over 50% compared to 2023!
"What should not be ignored is that 30% of foreign suspects are not registered in Berlin," said a police union rep. pic.twitter.com/5r3nwUEzMz
It is worth noting that Remix News was already covering the state’s knife crime crisis for years. In 2023, for instance, Reul said while responding to rising knife crime that “a knife is not a status symbol, but a weapon. And weapons don’t belong in your pocket.”
“An unprecedented, incomprehensible trail of blood runs through the country,” Reul said in 2023, speaking of “knife madness” and “rapidly increasing” knife attacks.
However, that year, he was only referring to 4,191 knife attacks per year in the state. Since then, the number of knife attacks has come close to doubling.
At the time, Marc Lürbke, then the spokesman for the domestic policy of the Free Democrats (FDP) parliamentary group, pointed out the knife crime crisis.
“That’s 12 (knife attackers) per day,” he said. “The number is an indictment in itself.” He called no-weapon zones a “helpless attempt” to counter knife crime.
Lürbke called for a “prevention offensive” in schools “and yes, also in shelters for refugees.”
Violence falls slightly but murder and manslaughter rise
Across all categories, police recorded 159,000 violent crimes, a fall of 1.8 percent, including approximately 105,000 cases of simple assault. Murder and manslaughter accounted for 508 cases, 29 more than in 2024.
The picture for juvenile delinquency was mixed. The number of children recorded as suspects held steady at just over 21,000, while the figure for young people fell by nearly eight percent, from 44,000 to around 40,000. Cases involving at least one suspect under 21 also dropped by 7 percent. Typical offences in this category include shoplifting, assault, property damage, and insult.
Despite the improvement, Reul cautioned against complacency. “For the second year in a row, the numbers for child and youth crime are falling. That’s no reason to breathe a sigh of relief. We repeatedly see serious acts of violence by very young people.”
The national picture adds context. Germany-wide statistics for 2024 recorded 5,837,445 crimes, a fall of 1.7 percent, but violent crime rose 1.5 percent to 217,277 cases — the highest level since 2007. Most striking were the figures for younger offenders: violent crime among children increased by 11.3 percent and among young people by 3.8 percent. National figures for 2025 are expected in April.
Sexual offences against children continued to rise in North Rhine-Westphalia. More than 4,500 cases of child sexual abuse were registered in 2025, an increase of 2.7 percent, with a clearance rate of around 83 percent. Cases involving the distribution of child sexual abuse material rose nine percent to more than 9,800. Minister Reul attributed part of that increase to more intensive investigative activity.
A 22-year-old Moroccan asylum seeker, who was staying at a taxpayer-funded Dutch asylum center, has been arrested in connection with a violent assault and attempted rape of a 19-year-old woman in the Rotterdam district of Schiebroek. The man, who was staying at a reception centre in Hendrik-Ido-Ambacht, was apprehended at Dordrecht station on Wednesday after police released his photograph earlier that afternoon.
A Rotterdam police spokeswoman confirmed the suspect’s status as an asylum seeker. According to sources cited by De Telegraaf, he is what is known as a “safe lander” — someone who applies for asylum despite coming from a country considered safe and who has no realistic prospect of being granted leave to remain in the Netherlands.
🇳🇱🇩🇪 Women in the Netherlands and Germany are now trying to defend themselves with "Smurf spray" after an asylum seeker raped and murdered 17-year-old Lisa.
"Since Lisa’s death, many of (self-defense) products have been sold out, including the Smurf spray."
Rotterdam Mayor Carola Schouten, who is known for promoting Rotterdam as a “dynamic and diverse global city,” had this to say about the crime:”I learned with horror of a serious crime that took place in Rotterdam-Schiebroek. It is terrible what the victim has experienced; it is also terrible for her loved ones.”
She also praised the swiftness of the police response, saying it “has led to the early arrest of a suspect.”
The attack took place in the early hours of Saturday morning, shortly before 5 a.m., on Secretariestraat. The young student had travelled from Rotterdam Central Station on the back of a friend’s bicycle before choosing to walk the final stretch home alone from the Gordelweg. Along the way, she passed a man cycling a cargo bike carrying a brown box. Moments later, she noticed the same man on foot behind her, while the cargo bike was nowhere to be seen. He seized her from behind and threatened her with a knife.
She managed to break free and fled into Secretariestraat, but the man caught up with her, assaulted her, and attempted to rape her. The attack only ended when a local resident was roused by the noise and came outside to investigate. Seeing the student being assaulted, he called out, causing the attacker to flee. The young woman was taken to the hospital immediately afterwards.
Police later examined a driveway on the street as part of their investigation. Neighbors said they had been unaware of what was unfolding outside.
“I heard screams, but had no idea why that was,” one resident said.
In January this year, the victim of a Somali suspect stormed out of court when the attempted murder charge against the man was dropped by a Dutch court, despite the victim stating that she was strangled for several minutes by the man. The judge sentenced the man to three and a half years in prison for attempted sexual assault in the case.
Two foreign men have been convicted of manslaughter after mowing down 32-year-old Estelle Roaux while the two were racing each other on a narrow bridge. The two men will not serve any prison time, as they were given a three-year prison sentence, with two years suspended. In addition, they may be back on the road in just two years, or even sooner, given their history of driving without a license.
Due to the judge’s sentence, French outlet Sud Ouest claimed the men would not serve prison time, since the one year in prison is “adjustable.”
On June 15, 2022, the two men, Mamadou D., originally from Mali, and Zidane Junior NM, were treating the stretch of road between Saint-Pierre-d’Oléron and Dolus like a racetrack. Their reckless driving, which saw them speeding at110 km/h in a zone set at 70 km/h, ended on a bridge near the Oléron Island viaduct. The two were swerving from lane to lane on the narrow bridge, trying to overtake each other, according to witnesses, when Estelle Roaux was struck by Mamadou D. on her motorcycle while driving in the opposite lane.
“They took my only child, my princess… They ruined my life,” said Brigitte Roaux, who has been devastated by grief for almost four years since her daughter’s death.
Mamadou D. had his license suspended and will not be able to apply for a new one for two years. Zidane Junior NM did not even have his license when Estelle Roaux was killed. He will also have to wait two years before he can apply for a new one. Despite their repeated traffic violations, including after the death of Estelle Roaux, they will be allowed to be on the road in just two years.
The pair had been friends since the age of 16, and both worked at a fiber optic installation company. They were at a worksite on the day of the accident.
Witnesses described them “driving like crazy” and weaving in and out of traffic, while drivers coming from the opposite direction were forced to swerve to avoid a collision. Video surveillance confirmed what witnesses had described.
In court, the two defendants showed little remorse. Their behavior after the accident only compounded matters — both committed further traffic offenses during their judicial supervision, despite being prohibited from driving. One of them had seven speeding offenses alone since the time of Estelle Roaux’s death.
The prosecution was unsparing. Philippe Courtois, lawyer for the victim’s in-laws, called them “irresponsible” and “imbeciles.”While acknowledging that neither man set out to cause a death, the Public Prosecutor’s Office argued that they had “intentionally adopted extremely dangerous behavior towards other road users.” The fact that the driver without a valid French license was not the one who struck the victim did not absolve him — it takes two to race. This reasoning led prosecutor Lucile Babin to request the same 3-year prison sentence for both men, with a deferred committal warrant.
The defense urged the magistrates “not to judge with the heart.” The court ultimately handed down sentences of three years in prison, including two years suspended with probation for three years, along with obligations to seek treatment and maintain employment.
The light sentence for this type of street racing stands in stark contrast to similar cases in other countries, such as one in Germany, where Faraz A. was given a life sentence for killing 22-year-old Janine W.
In 2019, Berlin prosecutor at the time, Andreas Winkelmann, was interviewed by Welt after a deadly illegal street race and the introduction of a new law to combat the growing wave of such deadly accidents.
“Most of the perpetrators are male, in their early 20s, and have a migration background,” he said.
An opinion piece by Berliner Zeitung author Thomas Fasbender addresses the massive demographic shifts taking place in Germany, while referring to how ethnic Germans will become a minority in the near future. His piece certainly explores some areas that are extremely sensitive among the German mainstream, all while he takes efforts to lambast terms like “Great Replacement,” which he claims only stir up hatred.
Fasbender does not seem like a bad person or writer by any means, but his piece, entitled “Demographics in Germany: Multiculturalism is coming faster than expected,” has some glaring problems. For one, there is nothing really all that novel about it besides the fact that it was published in a mainstream German outlet. The political right has been warning about the demographic transformation for years. Thilo Sarrazin, who originally hailed from the political left SPD, famously wrote an entire book about it. Just last year, Sarrazin basically said that the situation was even worse than he predicted.
The second not-so-novel aspect of Fasbender’s piece is his fatalistic outlook regarding the whole issue, which is more or less commonplace among Western society and its political class. His repeated adage can be summed up as: nothing can change or reverse this trend. It is simply the course of nature. Anyone who stands in the way is a fool and even a loser.
In other words, it has nothing to do with European or German policy. It is a view that seems almost designed to absolve all the policy choices that were already made along the way.
Describing the demographic transformation
First, it is worth exploring Fasbender’s description of the problem, and he does indeed recognize it as a huge problem with no easy solutions. The projections are very stark for a society that has been more or less homogeneous for many centuries.
“Migration does something with society. It brings experiences of loss, both for the immigrants and for the people in the host country. Familiarity is lost there, especially in a society that has been largely ethnically homogeneous for a long time, such as Germany. The shift to heterogeneity causes collective stress.
And this change is happening rapidly. Bio-German homogeneity still exists only at election campaign events of the Greens and the AfD, or at readings by former Chancellor Angela Merkel. Beyond such shelters, society throws bubbles. A fermentation process is underway that promises upheaval.
This can be supported quantitatively. By the middle of the century, between 17 and 20 million Germans without a migration background would die; almost the entire Boomer generation would leave. At the same time, Germans without a migration background (birth rate 1.3) would give birth to only six to seven million children, and even fewer if the birth rate continued to decline. This reduced the proportion of native Germans in the population by at least ten million.
Among the population with a migrant background, the higher proportion of women of childbearing age means that the number of births by 2050 will also be around seven million. Here too, a birth rate of 1.3 is assumed – which contradicts reality, as it averages just over 1.8 for mothers with a migration background. If the effects of the higher birth rate and continued immigration of up to 400,000 people annually are added together, the number of births with a migration background will reach up to nine million by 2050.
Even today, 40 or more percent of newborns in Germany have a migration background; some sources speak of half. A tie in births –with and without a migration background– will be achieved after 2030 at the latest.”
The piece goes on without really saying anything that could be classified as particularly interesting. He does start lobbing shots at the right for its “hatred” and the left for its naivety.
“This description is about changes that are inevitable. The right-wingers who are now calling for ‘remigration’ have no idea what is feasible. Your jump will fail at the start. And for the leftists who color their Bullerbü, it will fall like scales from their eyes when the street burns like in France,” he writes
The author concludes that ideas of “remigration” promoted by the right will never happen. Instead, Germany may just likely fall into civil war.
As a result, the question should be asked as to why Fasbender offers zero solutions. He essentially claims that Germany should not be surprised if it sees French-style riots and car burnings in the future, while warning of looming civil war. He literally ends his piece writing this: “Looking to France, where you might be ten years ahead of the Germans on their way to civil war, should give you pause.”
If Fasbender’s belief is truly that civil war is a realistic scenario for Germany in the coming years, while demonizing the right for efforts to fight back against this scenario, then Fasbender comes off as naive as the leftists he mocks. There is not even an effort to call for an immigration moratorium or even a less chaotic immigration system. Unfortunately, there are really no solutions offered by Fasbender at all, and that appears to be exactly how he wants you to walk away from his piece.
Solutions abound
Despite what Fasbender claims, there are solutions that can at least be considered. That is why it is worth looking at other countries and how their policies and actions specifically have avoided these problems and reversed course on mass immigration.
Notably, remigration happens all the time in our wide, wide world. Pakistan, for instance, deported a staggering 2 million Afghans back to their country between September 2023 and January 2026. There were an estimated 3.8 million Afghans in Pakistan at the time the deportation order was announced, with Pakistani authorities believing the number to be as high as 4.4 million. Afghans accounted for 98 percent of the foreign nationals in Pakistan.
In 2013, almost a million migrants were deported from Saudi Arabia in order to boost the employment of Saudi nationals and protect national security.
The Middle East is notorious for expelling foreigners whenever it deems fit. These countries, which arguably lack the operational efficiency of a country like Germany, still manage to send home millions of people when they decide they want to.
Of course, these countries are not Germany, but it shows that there are different political systems, and these political systems can enact rather large-scale deportations. Notably, Germany cannot legally deport naturalized citizens from foreign countries, but it can, in theory, stop further non-EU immigration. It can also deport many of the individuals who are not legally in the country, for starters.
Not everyone decided on inviting civil war conditions
It is important to note that this was all decided on, and just as it was decided that millions of migrants would come, it can also be decided that efforts must be made to reverse this trend. Countries like Japan, South Korea, China, Taiwan, and even Hungary took a different path.
The existence of nations that have chosen, quite deliberately and with considerable success, to maintain strict control over immigration and preserve their demographic character presents a direct challenge to the fatalist framing that runs through much of Western demographic commentary, including this Berliner Zeitung piece. The inexorable tide of more immigrants and demographic change turns out to be a policy choice.
Japan is the example Fasbender himself concedes, almost dismissively, as an exception — referring to only the “remote islands” of Japan where prevention is possible. But this framing understates both the deliberateness and the sophistication of Japanese policy. Japan is the world’s third-largest economy. It is deeply integrated into global trade, finance, and culture. Even if the country has embraced very limited migration, it has decided as a matter of democratic consensus, that mass immigration was not the answer to its demographic challenges.
Japan’s foreign-born population sits at roughly 3 percent. Net migration runs in the tens of thousands annually for a nation of 125 million. The government has experimented cautiously with guest worker programs to address labor shortages in specific sectors, but these are structured specifically to avoid permanent settlement. Naturalization is possible but demanding, requiring genuine cultural and linguistic integration. The result is a society that remains overwhelmingly Japanese in character, language, custom, and civic identity — by design, not by accident.
Crucially, Japan has not collapsed as a consequence. It faces real economic headwinds from an aging population, but it has addressed these through automation, robotics, productivity gains, and a dramatic increase in female workforce participation. The social fabric remains intact. Crime rates are among the lowest in the developed world. Public trust in institutions is comparatively high. The streets of Tokyo are not burning. Japan is not speaking of civil war. When the boomers die off, there may even be opportunities for the Japanese population to have more children, including with more space available for larger families in dense urban areas like Tokyo.
Other Westerners have noticed the growing difference between Japan and the rest of the West. Japan features a shared ethnicity, language, cultural reference points, and civic norms, which reduces friction in ways that are difficult to quantify but easy to observe. That might be why Western female journalists now like to write articles about Japan’s superior living situation and “respect” seen within the Japanese population.
In Welt, Christina zur Nedden writes that Japan is “the better Germany.” She notes that between Germany and Japan, both countries show that “dealing with the demographic crisis also reveals fundamental differences in thinking. Both countries are aging rapidly, but the reactions to them are contradictory – and seem like a mirror of the respective mentality. Germany relies on immigration, struggles with integration, and discusses upper limits. In Japan, however, society remains largely ethnically homogeneous and seeks the solution in technology, discipline and self-restraint: robots, artificial intelligence, social consensus instead of migration.”
Notably, she points to all the small examples that highlight the differences between the countries. “There is hardly any honking or bumping in Tokyo, for example. The 14 million inhabitants of the metropolitan area alone (38 million people live in the greater Tokyo area) would have good reason to do so. As I walk through the bustling Ginza shopping district and across the famous Shibuya intersection over the weekend, I feel safe despite the crowds – no one bumps me, no one seems to want to steal or grope me. You pay attention to each other. Even when I ride the subway during rush hour, the passengers ‘mindfully squeeze’ – I can’t describe it any other way – to make even more room for boarders.”
China also shows the way
China presents an even starker case. With 1.4 billion people, it is hardly a remote “Japanese island” insulated from global forces by geography. Yet its foreign-born population is negligible — well under one percent. Some studies have indicated that China has fewer foreigners living in it than in just one German city, Berlin.
China has never entertained the notion that mass immigration is a legitimate response to economic or demographic needs. Naturalization is extraordinarily rare, requiring decades of residence and offering no guarantee even then.
This basically comes down to a deliberate civilizational stance. The Chinese state views demographic continuity as inseparable from social stability and national sovereignty. Whether one agrees with that posture politically, its effectiveness is not in serious dispute. China is not experiencing the identity fractures, the parallel societies, or the cultural friction that characterizes contemporary France, Germany, or Sweden.
It is also worth noting, as Remix News has frequently reported, that China is pulling ahead of Europe in educational outcomes to an extreme degree. Furthermore, China is dominating Europe in various economic areas, such as automobile manufacturing, machine tools, green energy, and artificial intelligence.
There are virtually no unassimilated foreigners in China, but if 5 million showed up tomorrow, China would likely have no problem with “remigration.” It would just do whatever needs to be done to maintain social harmony. To top it off, much of the global left probably would treat it with a shrug, much the same way they have had virtually no substantive reaction to mass deportations in Pakistan or Saudi Arabia.
South Korea and Taiwan further dispel the notion that mass migration is inevitable
South Korea and Taiwan, both vibrant democracies deeply embedded in the global economy, tell similar stories. South Korea’s foreign-born population is around 4 percent, dominated by ethnic Koreans from China and short-term workers. Taiwan’s is comparable. Both nations have faced labor shortages and aging populations — the same pressures used in the West to justify mass immigration — and both have chosen managed, limited, and largely temporary migration as their response.
Neither country shows signs of democratic collapse, economic failure, or social breakdown as a consequence of this choice. Both consistently rank among the world’s most innovative, educated, and stable societies.
The flaw in Fasbender’s fatalism
The deeper problem with the framing Fasbender and many Western commentators adopt is that it presents a specific policy choice — the decision to accept large-scale, permanent, culturally diverse immigration — as if it were a natural law rather than a decision made by governments, courts, and international agreements. Europe’s demographic transformation is real, but it did not happen because geography demanded it. It happened because of specific choices made over specific decades regarding asylum law, family reunification policy, labor migration, and border enforcement.
In some cases, reversing course would just be a matter of enforcing laws that are already there. There has been plenty of research done on this issue already. Taking just a few of these steps would go a long way to at least stopping the flow of migration. In fact, without even discussing a so-called “remigration” program, efforts could be made to remove migrants with serious criminal records, and those who fail to properly integrate or earn an income after years in European countries. In addition, an immigration moratorium, except for the few workers who can be argued fulfill a critical function to German security and its economy, would go a long way to reversing course.
Of course, there are many migrants that should be deported, and in turn, many migrants already have citizenship in many of the host nations. Many of them are well-integrated into Western society, and some are even opposed to further mass immigration. However, there is no doubt that there will always be risks in a society in which numerous ethnic and religious groups live together. When times are good, people tend to get along and cooperate. However, as many conflicts and civil wars have shown throughout history, there is always a risk when ethnic and religious groups live alongside one another. When pressure grows — sometimes over resource competition, sometimes over other issues — the situation can explode.
Many Western countries are already seeing extreme Balkanization, parallel societies, and other security issues, and times are still arguably “good.” If, for example, a real crisis hit, the question is how the situation would develop from there. That is an incredible risk, and as the Berliner Zeitung author predicts, Western nations could even be headed to civil war. It is not acceptable to just stand back and let this risk grow. Again, as history has shown, this is not mere jingoistic and xenophobic alarmism, but a legitimate fear grounded in reality and history.
Asian countries are not immune to crises, but those crises will not likely come from ethnic enclaves warring with each other over cultural dominance or economic power. For the Asians, that eliminates one of the potentially major problems that can face any multicultural society.
Furthermore, the Asian examples demonstrate that stable, prosperous, globally connected nations can maintain demographic continuity when their governments treat it as a legitimate policy objective rather than an embarrassing atavism — something racist and hate-filled. The social harmony these countries exhibit is not incidental to their demographic stability. It is, at least in part, a product of it.
Fasbender is correct that the debate in Europe is poorly conducted at times, including from the right, especially when it veers into pure hateful narratives and slurs without context about other ethnic and religious groups. Any policies that restrict immigration and emphasize deportation should not be conducted through hate, but through a policy of preserving social cohesion, order, and harmony.
The Asian experience suggests there is a legitimate position that goes largely unexamined in Western discourse: calm, consistent, democratically mandated immigration control as a tool for preserving social cohesion and cultural similarity. This is not done out of fear or hate, but out of a considered judgment that the pace of change matters enormously for a society’s ability to absorb this change.
The tide, it turns out, can be managed. Some countries simply decided they would. Will Germany and the rest of Europe even consider this option? If the road leads to more societal strife, polarization, insecurity, and even civil war, then we can only hope so.
A 24-year-old man of Pakistani origin has been sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for the attempted rape of a 13-year-old boy in an Italian park in Campogalliano, in the province of Modena
The case dates back to the evening of July 8, 2023, when the teenage victim was in a public park in the town. According to the reconstruction of events, the suspect approached him and, after grabbing him by the wrists, attempted to rape the boy. The minor managed to free himself and flee, according to Gazzetta Dimodena.
🇮🇹Italy
A 24-year-old man of Pakistani origin has been convicted of attempting to rape a 13-year-old boy in a park in Campogalliano, in the province of Modena.
He has been sentenced to nearly 5 years in prison.
The following morning, July 9, an Italian citizen filed a complaint at the Campogalliano Carabinieri station on behalf of the child. Investigators, working under the direction of the Modena Public Prosecutor’s Office, launched an immediate inquiry that gathered sufficient evidence to identify the suspect and attribute the crime to him. By Aug. 11, 2023, a preliminary investigations judge at the Modena court had ordered him placed under house arrest, a measure that remained in force until the conclusion of criminal proceedings, which ended in a final conviction.
On Feb. 28, Italian police from Campogalliano and Soliera stations carried out the prison order issued by the Attorney General’s Office at the Bologna Court of Appeal, sending the man to serve his sentence at Modena prison.
The Carabinieri described the operation as reflecting their ongoing commitment to protecting minors and combating serious crime under the coordination of the Modena Public Prosecutor’s Office.
The wave of police searches and prosecutions in Germany may be facing a new hurdle after Germany’s top court, the Constitutional Court, issued two landmark rulings strengthening freedom of expression. However, Fatina Keilani, editor in Welt’s freedom of expression department, said that these two decisions have gone largely unnoticed by the public, an oversight that she finds remarkable.
Writing in Welt, Keilani reports that the Federal Constitutional Court in Karlsruhe handed down two resolutions in December that push back against what she describes as hasty convictions for insults. The rulings stem from two separate cases in which individuals used sharp, even offensive language against public officials and medical staff — and were criminally sentenced for it.
As Remix News has extensively reported, there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of such cases in recent years. Some of these cases have even attracted international attention and led to questions about freedom of speech and growing repression in Germany.
Now, Germany’s top court is strengthening freedom of expression at a worrying time.
The first case involved a retired police officer whose son attended a high school during the Covid pandemic. Angered by the school’s testing requirements, the father sent the headmaster a series of emails accusing him of serving a “fascist system and its henchmen” and of “fascist cadre obedience.” The Göppingen District Court sentenced him to a fine of 70 daily rates of €80 each for insult. He lost every appeal before taking his case to Karlsruhe — where he finally prevailed.
The Constitutional Court found that his right to freedom of expression had been violated, ruling that the lower courts had not examined the meaning of his statements carefully enough, nor struck an adequate balance between free expression and the protection of personality.
Keilani quotes the court directly: “Part of this freedom is that citizens can attack officials they consider responsible in an accusatory and personalized way for their way of exercising power, without having to fear that the personal elements of such statements are removed from this context and form the basis for drastic judicial sanctions.”
The second case involved a man who had been placed in a psychiatric hospital on multiple occasions and subjected to coercive measures. In a letter to his lawyer in 2023, he described hospital staff as a “psychiatric mob.” When he applied to have the letter formally served, a senior bailiff refused on the grounds that its content was punishable. The Stuttgart Higher Regional Court upheld that refusal — but Karlsruhe disagreed.
The Constitutional Court was pointed in its criticism, noting that the Higher Regional Court’s entire reasoning had been reduced to just two sentences, and that it had made no real weighing of the fundamental right to free expression at all. The case has been sent back for reconsideration.
For Keilani, both rulings carry a significance that extends beyond the individual cases. She situates them within a broader climate of concern, noting that “numerous decisions against freedom of expression have recently raised doubts in Germany about the rule of law and about the stability of the courts with regard to this crucial fundamental right.”
In particular, the wave of politicians weaponizing comments on the internet to launch police raids and drag social media users to court. Against that backdrop, she finds the Karlsruhe decisions reassuring — while also reading them as a firm instruction to lower courts about the standard they must meet when judging speech.
These rulings do not necessarily mean, however, that internet users are now able to freely insult politicians without consequence. For one, prosecutors and politicians still have incentive to pursue such cases, both in order to stifle dissent and to intimidate the populace. Social media users may be able to defend themselves in court, but it will likely take years and cost them substantial amounts of money. Furthermore, outright insults without context are still likely to be prosecutable offenses under current German law. For example, insulting a politician’s physical appearance or simply calling them a slur could land social media users in hot water.
Regardless, the country’s top court has drawn a line in the sand, according to Keilani.
She also cited the “urgent decision of the Cologne Administrative Court regarding the classification of the AfD” as also a welcome sign that rule of law still stands in Germany. In that ruling, the Cologne court found that the designation of the AfD as a “confirmed” case of right-wing extremism was not constitutionally sound.
A 30-year-old French-African man, who was born in the country of Guinea, has been sentenced to eight years in prison by the Dordogne criminal court for the rape of a woman in her fifties. The two had met each other at a wedding celebration in Périgueux in December 2023 before the defendant Ibrahima C. kidnapped her and raped her at her apartment.
After more than two years of denial, he finally broke on the first day of proceedings, acknowledging what he had done. “It happened I admit it and I apologize to the victim,” he told the court.
The two had crossed paths that same evening, where Ibrahima C. was working as a DJ at the wedding. Their initial conversation was not threatening, and simply revolved around discussing a song. However, once guests left the wedding, the intoxicated woman had entered into a friend’s car when the accused — himself drunk — pulled her out and forced her into his own vehicle despite attempts by bystanders to stop him. He then drove her to his residence in the Toulon neighborhood of Périgueux, according to French news outlet Dordogne Libre.
During the trial, the victim described the rape which involved two non-consensual acts. “I asked him to be nice to me, not to hurt me because I was in danger,” she told the court in accented French that revealed her Brazilian roots.
When pressed to recall further details, she broke down. “The memory I have is the painful penetration,” she said.
For Ibrahima C.’s part, he said in court: “Everyone got out of the car on their own. We came home, she sat down, I took off her panties,” he said. While describing what happened after he had sex with her, he said in court: “She told me she was in pain. As I finished, I realized that I had done something wrong that I shouldn’t have.”
The accused had initially painted an entirely different picture, claiming the encounter was consensual and that she had been the one to initiate it.
“The report came from her, I don’t force women and I avoid problems,” he had told an expert during earlier proceedings. A psychologist described this to the five magistrates as “a classic accusatory inversion,” typical of “immature” personalities.
People close to Ibrahima C. struggled to reconcile the charges with the man they knew, describing this Guinean acrobat and single father of two as “responsible” and “respectful,” while stopping short of disputing the victim’s account.
Ibrahima C. had three counts on his criminal history, including driving without a license and theft. The man comes from a family of eight children, including seven boys and one girl.
“My parents educated me well,” Ibrahima C. stated in court.
Following the rape, the woman was found wandering the streets half-naked, where she then flagged down a passing motorist who brought her to the police. Officers found her visibly shaken but lucid. During a later photo lineup, she identified her attacker immediately, leaping to her feet with an expression of unmistakable terror.
She said during the trial that she still lives in fear. She no longer feels safe going out at night, has lost faith in herself, and weeps at the mere thought of one day trusting someone romantically again.
Natural gas markets across Europe experienced a violent price surge on Monday following news that Qatar has suspended operations at the world’s premier liquefied natural gas facility, which accounts for 20 percent of global output. EU leaders are reportedly preparing for a crisis scenario if the war drags on due to already low gas reserves in the biggest member states, particularly Germany and France.
Prices went as high as 50 percent before settling back down to the current level of 45 percent at the time of publication, resulting in the current price of €46 per megawatt-hour. Similar price jumps were seen in the United Kingdom’s NBP benchmark index.
Adding to a potential crisis, EU storage levels have dropped below 30 percent capacity at the end of the winter season, significantly lower than the 40 percent recorded at this time last year. However, some of the biggest countries are facing the lowest levels of gas. Gas Infrastructure Europe shows German storage at 20.5 percent and French reserves at 21 percent. These low inventories leave the bloc increasingly susceptible to price swings and supply shortages if an LNG crunch worsens.
Now, the EU is already considering scenarios where the war could drag on for a long period of time, including up to years. While President Donald Trump has cited the figure of “four weeks” in regard to wrapping up the war, it remains unclear how long the war could go on.
Politico reports that the EU’s efforts to wean itself off of Russian gas and oil have created a “panic moment.”
“For Europe, I think it creates a panic moment,”Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz, lead energy analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, told Politico. “Four years ago [following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine] we had these issues.” But this time, she said, “We are not just now concerned about Russia, but about Qatar, the U.S. … so I think now since we have increased dependencies on other sources, we have also increased our vulnerability.”
JUST IN: The Omani oil tanker, MKD Fium, hit by an Iranian drone 52 miles of the Omani Coast, in the Muscat governorate.
A sign on the boat reads: "No smoking."
Some reports indicate the attack was launched from a drone boat.
Noting Qatar’s role as the second-largest supplier of LNG in the world, she noted that if Qatar cannot deliver natural gas efficiently and on time, “Russia could be the big beneficiary.”
“We could also see Russian energy flowing to other countries. There could be an opportunity for Russia if this Qatar LNG is stopped,” said the analyst.
QatarEnergy has not disclosed extent of damage
The energy crisis intensified after U.S. and Israeli military strikes on Iran escalated regional instability. In response to an attack on its infrastructure, QatarEnergy confirmed it had halted production linked to the North Field gas reservoir. While the company acknowledged the suspension, it gave no further details about the state of the fields and the company’s operations.
The world is currently focusing its attention on the Strait of Hormuz, a vital maritime chokepoint largely under Iranian influence.
Following the recent strikes, Iran has moved to obstruct traffic through the narrow passage, which serves as a primary artery for Qatari LNG and global oil, the vast majority of which is destined for Asian markets. However, energy is a global market, and a bottleneck in one location leads to a surge in prices everywhere.
The price surge may be only temporary, but experts warn that any prolonged closure of the strait could lead to a long-term surge in energy prices. Some have even warned of oil surging to $120 a barrel, while most believe prices within the range of $80 to $90 are a realistic possibility.
The Bonn Regional Court in Germany has sentenced two teenagers who left a paramedic in a coma during an assault at a school graduation ceremony in Troisdorf. While prosecution originally sought convictions for attempted manslaughter, the court determined the defendants did not intend to kill, stating in the sentencing that “they didn’t really want him to die.”
The 18-year-old and 19-year-old defendants were sentenced to youth terms of three and two years, respectively, for dangerous bodily harm. While the older defendant received a suspended sentence due to a clean criminal record, the younger man was ordered to serve his time in prison.
The incident occurred on the evening of July 4, 2025, when the two friends entered a town hall through a back door following a graduation event. When a doorman blocked their entry, the younger defendant reportedly insulted him and threatened him by saying, “I’ll kill you,” before attacking him.
The paramedic, a father of two and volunteer firefighter, intervened by bringing the younger attacker to the ground. In response, the elder defendant took a running start and kicked the paramedic in the face with full force, leaving him motionless. The younger defendant then allegedly continued to assault the unconscious man with further kicks. A witness stated that the teens were kicking the victim in the head with “full force.”
The victim required intensive care for life-threatening injuries, including brain damage and massive memory loss. He also spent several days in the ICU. It also remains unclear whether he can resume his work as a paramedic.
A group of thieves, reportedly of South American origin from a nearby Roma camp, were fleeing from Italian police in Rome when they rammed their vehicle into an Italian family traveling in another vehicle on Via Collatina, claiming the lives of the entire family.
The tragedy, involving the death of a mother, father and son in the Quarticciolo neighborhood, occurred just hours after Pope Leo XIV visited the area to meet with residents and “listened to the mothers of drug addicts” in a neighborhood characterized as a “kingdom of the gangs of pushers” currently “waiting for redevelopment.”
Authorities say the incident began at 10:00 p.m. when three men of South American origin, described as specialists in residential and vehicle thefts, failed to comply with a police stop. The suspects fled at “full throttle” in a Toyota Yaris. During the chase, the vehicle crossed into the oncoming lane and struck a Fiat Punto traveling in the opposite direction.
The occupants of the Fiat Punto — 70-year-old Giovanni Battista Ardovini, 64-year-old Patrizia Capraro, and their 42-year-old son, Alessio — were killed. The crash impact was so strong that it reportedly killed the parents instantly, according to Italian news outlet Il Messaggero. Officials stated “the family was exterminated,” noting the parents died at the scene while their son died shortly after being transported to a hospital.
Two of the suspects were injured and remain under guard in the emergency room, while a third accomplice was “handcuffed and immediately arrested by the police.” All three face charges of conspiracy to commit vehicular homicide, resisting a public official, and possession of burglary tools. Investigators discovered screwdrivers and “jammers to neutralize anti-theft devices” inside the suspects’ car.
The crash took place on the eastern outskirts of Rome, near the site of a 2021 pursuit that killed 14-year-old Sheena Lossetto.
Addressing the conduct of the pursuit, the Police Headquarters specified that while one Carabinieri patrol car “lost contact with the fleeing vehicle,” the primary police car remained in pursuit, “albeit at a distance, so as not to generate risks.”
Investigators from the Flying Squad and forensic teams are continuing their inspection of the site. Preliminary findings suggest that “probably due to excessive speed, the driver of the criminals’ car lost control” before driving the wrong way into the path of the victims.
Update: This article now reflects an update from the German government, which denied initial reports it was considering joining the war against Iran.
The German government has now denied a report it is reportedly “seriously considering” joining the war against Iran, which was launched by the United States and Israel. Among the military actions Germany was considering was joining the bombing campaign against Iran, according to a report from Times of Israel.
According to various German news media reports, however, this report was not accurate. Germany’s foreign ministry has denied that it will join the war, with the German government citing a lack of resources.
According to the Times of Israel, claims that Germany would join in were obtained from German political and military sources from the foreign ministry and the Bundestag’s Foreign Affairs Committee, who spoke with Israel’s Army Radio.
The German sources indicated that planning was already underway to join the conflict if Iran does not stop bombing targets across the region, which include U.S. military and naval bases in various Middle East countries, but also targets like oil refineries in Saudi Arabia.
The Times of Israel stated that the German embassy did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The involvement of Germany in the war would be a major step for Berlin, with potentially unforeseen consequences. There are already heightened terror alerts due to the war, with fears that Islamist cells could activate in response to the war against Iran.
According to the Times of Israel, “France, Germany, and the United Kingdom issued a joint statement condemning Iran’s strikes in the region, warning that they are ready to defend their interests and those of their allies in the Gulf if necessary by taking ‘defensive action’ against Iran.”
A young French teen, Auriane Laisne, was murdered near an abandoned church near La Salle in Italy’s Aosta Valley in 2024. The case spread across the international media over claims that she was “hunting for ghosts” and that all of the blood from her body was drained.
A verdict in the case is expected within the next 40 days. Her partner, Teima Sohaib, a 23-year-old Italian citizen whose family is originally from Morocco, is on trial for the murder. So far, the sensational details of the case, such as all of her blood being drained, have not been confirmed by any of the evidence, but prosecutors say that the two had a turbulent relationship. They accuse Sohaib of murdering the girl at the end of March.
After her body was discovered, an autopsy showed that the girl’s blood had such high levels of benzodiazepines that she was likely in a semi-conscious state at the time of the murder, according to Italian newspaper Il Resto del Carlino. He is accused of stabbing her to death inside the small church and later moving her body.
DNA evidence connecting Sohaib was found on the girls’ pants and her smartphone, which was missing from the crime scene. Instead, it was found in possession of the 23-year-old suspect when he was arrested.
According to investigators, the two traveled together to the Aosta Valley to address their relationship issues. Mobile phone records indicate they were together for three days between March 23 and March 25, 2024, the day they crossed into Italy from France.
Authorities believe Laisne was killed between March 26 and March 27, 2024. A passerby discovered her body in the abandoned church on April 5, and Sohaib was arrested five days later in France, where he had been living for his studies. During the trial, defense lawyers Lucia Lupi and Tommaso Calabrò highlighted evidence that the victim’s body was moved between 12 and 16 hours after her death, a detail they argue is significant to the case.
In court, psychiatrist Francesco Cargioli, a specialist of the Local Health Authority, said the man has a serious personality disorder, including severe narcissism, but this does not reach a level that would absolve him from legal responsibility for the murder.
Cargioli acknowledged that the 23-year-old, who has maintained his innocence, had episodes of aggression while in prison. “A picture of mixed personality disorder emerged, but I did not detect any elements that interfere with his ability to stand trial,” the psychiatrist explained. “There is no loss of reality. Personality disorder affects imputability when there is a loss of contact with reality or a severe psychotic disorder.”
The prosecution’s closing argument and the intervention of the civil party representing the victim’s parents are scheduled for March 18. The defense is expected to deliver its final arguments on March 25. The court is scheduled to announce its verdict on April 8, exactly two years after Laisne’s body was discovered.
A 22-year-old Pakistani national has been handed the maximum life sentence by the Vienna Regional Court after targeting a random victim, beating him to death, and filming the fatal blows. However, the Pakistani will not serve his sentence in a prison. Instead, because the man was diagnosed as a “sadist,” the judge ordered the man to spend his time in a “forensic therapeutic center,” which features better living conditions than a high-security prison, including sports activities, educational opportunities, and better housing accommodations.
The case dates back to May 2024, when the defendant encountered a 27-year-old man from Bangladesh who, according to the prosecutor, “suffered from schizophrenia and was often outside at night to take walks“ in the Vienna-Favoriten district. Without provocation, the defendant pushed the mentally ill victim against a fence and beat him until he lay motionless on the asphalt.
During the trial, attendees reacted with visible distress as mobile phone footage was played showing the defendant kicking the blood-soaked victim in the face. When confronted with the evidence of his actions, the 22-year-old said without emotion: “I can’t say anything about that.“
The victim, who was described as being in the wrong place at the wrong time, passed away in the hospital two days after the assault.
In addition to the fatal attack, the court viewed videos of the defendant assaulting homeless individuals and other people on the street, which were also found on his phone.
Hofmann suggested these recordings served as trophies and indicated a desire for the exercise of power and murder. Regarding the defendant’s emotional state, the psychiatrist stated, “There is zero empathy for the victims.”
Remarkably, the suspect filmed the murder himself, with even his own legal representation finding the evidence difficult to address.
Lawyer Werner Tomanek noted that “this exceeds some limits, even for us as criminal defense attorneys. To sugarcoat or downplay a defense in the sense of anything is completely inappropriate here.“
Throughout the questioning, the defendant remained uncommunicative, repeatedly stating, “I can’t explain any of this to myself.“
Forensic psychiatrist Peter Hofmann provided a professional analysis of the perpetrator, diagnosing a combined narcissistic-sadistic personality disorder and labeling him a serial offender. This psychological profile, which labeled him a “sadist” and a “narcissist,” is what enabled the man to escape a high-security prison.
Due to the extreme level of danger the defendant poses, Hofmann recommended placement in a forensic therapeutic center.
The presiding judge agreed, handing down a sentence of life imprisonment along with the therapeutic placement.
In the justification for the ruling, the judge remarked, “There can be no other punishment for this act,“ further adding that “we have a debt level here that is so high that the mitigating factors are not sufficient to deviate from life imprisonment. This is an act whose level of aggression leaves one stunned and at a loss for words.“
The judgment is not yet final.
Forensic centers feature a number of advantages over high-security prisons in Austria. Inmates often live in residential groups rather than isolated cells. These units frequently have communal kitchens, living areas with sofas, and dining tables to foster a more “normal” social environment.
Due to a much higher staff-to-patient ratio, these patients often enjoy extra support, including from psychologists, social workers, occupational therapists, and psychiatric nurses.
Furthermore, the endless hours spent in cells typically seen in prisons are much reduced. There is a much heavier emphasis on therapy, sports, and educational courses. The goal is to keep the patient constantly engaged in a “structured daily routine” to stabilize their mental state.
Saskia Ludwig, the Christian Democrat (CDU) member of the Bundestag from Brandenburg, is stirring the political pot by questioning the “firewall” aimed at isolating the Alternative for Germany (AfD). Her view breaks with the mainstream of the party, but is also a view increasingly shared in the east of Germany, where the AfD is strongest.
While Ludwig remains firm against a formal coalition, she suggests a CDU-led minority government in Saxony-Anhalt should be pragmatic enough to accept AfD support on a case-by-case basis.
The electoral math may be forcing Ludwig to take this stance. The latest polling has the AfD at 39 percent in Saxony-Anhalt, while the CDU is only at 26 percent. If such a vote comes to pass, the AfD will be the strongest party in the German state by a wide margin, making it nearly impossible for the state to function without the AfD’s votes.
Ludwig argued that a minority government should be able to pass legislation regardless of where the supporting votes come from, provided the policy is sound. Speaking to Spiegel, she emphasized her respect for the electorate, noting: “Personally, I think that a voter’s vote should be taken very seriously.“
When pushed on whether a CDU government should rely on AfD votes, she said she was focused on the quality of the policy: “If you submit good, sensible proposals that are good for the country, then you must also use those who have been given the mandate to vote.”
In other words, Ludwig may be preparing for a reality where a vote can only go through with the AfD’s support.
Ludwig’s core argument is that government policy needs to align with how people actually vote. She believes that if the majority leans right, the policy should follow suit:
“If 50 percent or more than 50 percent vote center-right, then there must also be center-right politics,” she said.
Much to the CDU’s detriment, the party’s inability to form an alliance with the AfD has led it to embrace more and more left-wing politics, including on the issue of migration. However, the CDU’s leftward shift was already in place under former Chancellor Angela Merkel, who famously opened her country to mass illegal immigration.
The CDU leadership, at least up until now, has had a very different view. Chancellor Friedrich Merz vowed no more cooperation with the AfD after his party voted one time on the issue of migration in the Bundestag. There are even some within the CDU party who have proposed banning the AfD entirely.
Other high-profile CDU members have harshly condemned the AfD.
“The AfD only knows opposition and division,” said Kai Wegner, the CDU mayor of Berlin. “The CDU cannot and will not work with a party whose business model is hatred, division and exclusion,” he added.
Despite this openness to cooperation, Ludwig drew a hard line at formalizing any partnership, stating: “I stand by the fact that a coalition with the AfD is not feasible.“
The MP is vocal about her belief that current tactics to sideline the AfD are actually fueling their rise. She views the current political climate as a failure of pluralism: “Democracy means balance and not exclusion, and I believe what we are seeing is the result of an exclusion strategy.“
Furthermore, she argues the very concept of a “firewall” is the problem, not the solution: “I think this firewall discussion is wrong. In my opinion, the firewall is to blame for these percentages growing –and they help the AfD and they help the left.“
Swedish police officer Kristian Youssef has been sentenced to five years in prison by the Södertörn district court for sexually abusing boys through Snapchat, with the court convicting him for 48 different sexual crimes.
Most of the crimes involved him demanding — sometimes through the use of extreme threats — that the boys send him nudes and videos where they performed sexual acts. In turn, he also sent sexual videos and photos of himself to his victims.
”I thought he would kill me otherwise,” one of the children told police about his fear of not sending the man nude photographs.
Youssef has worked as a police officer in the Stockholm region since 2019, but he lost his job after a court determined he sexually abused multiple children. He was also found guilty on 12 cases of child sexual abuse, six cases of child sexual misconduct, 10 cases of child exploitation, and 18 cases of child pornography offenses, according to Expressen.
All 10 victims are boys, and most of them are 12 years old, with Youssef identifying his victims through Snapchat, according to Swedish outlet SVT.
Several of the boys informed investigators that they told Youssef how old they were, making it clear that they were minors.
The convicted man used coercion to get what he wanted from the boys, including threatening them with pictures of weapons he had in his possession. Under this threat, he urged them to send nude photographs while performing acts on themselves that can be classified as rape and sexual assault under Swedish law, according to the court ruling.
Youssef, using up to five Snapchat accounts, including on his police-issued telephone, also led some boys to believe that he would send them money for nude photographs, which he never did. He saved some of the videos and photographs of the boys on the cloud as well.
The case was only discovered when the father of one of the 12-year-old victims sent sexual pictures to an unknown Snapchat user, who had also sent the boy sexual photos of himself. The father documented the chats and sent the evidence to the police.
Swedish police then tracked down Youssef, including his IP address, telephone number, and email address. Police also raided his house, secured his electronic devices, and used the data on them to track down other victims Youssef had targeted.
During his trial, Youssef said he was not guilty and that he blamed the boys for the exchange of nude photos.
Youssef received a six-month reduction on his sentence because he has been in custody for an extended period of time and because he was fired from his job.
”Because of these factors, the sentence must be reduced by a total of six months,” stated a judge in the case.
The educational foundation of Germany’s youth is showing significant cracks as data reveals a sharp rise in students being forced to repeat the first grade. This trend is most pronounced from those with a migration background, where language barriers and a lack of early childhood preparation are prevalent.
At the Nordmarkt elementary school in Dortmund, an alarming 97 percent of first-graders are forced to repeat the first grade, Focus Magazine reports. The primary drivers for this delay include a lack of basic skills and the fact that many children “hardly speak German.”
🇩🇪🔴Germany's school system is a major disaster due to mass immigration.
"More than 41,000 children across Germany had to repeat 1st grade last school year… Many of these children have a migrant background and hardly speak any German when they start school."
While Germany could always absorb a certain number of non-German speakers, the numbers have grown beyond the ability of educators. Now, nationwide, the statistics are stark and breaking records. Over 41,000 first graders across Germany are repeating their first year. Children with a migrant background — particularly those who did not attend daycare — are the most heavily affected.
Regional disparity is also high; in North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW), 22,894 students, equalling 6 percent of all students, repeated the grade last year, while states like Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg see rates as low as 1 to 2 percent. However, as states like Bavaria become more diverse, the future may also present increasing challenges for these states as well. Currently, native German speakers are a minority in 1 in 5 classrooms across Bavaria.
Concerns about classroom safety and language proficiency have been amplified by recent high-profile incidents reported elsewhere in Germany. In Ludwigshafen, teachers at the Karolina-Burger-Realschule Plus wrote a 10-page letter to authorities describing violence, threats, and severe disciplinary problems. “Ms. XY, aren’t you afraid that someone will stab you from behind when you stand with your back to the class?” one passage read, while another student allegedly shouted, “I’ll shoot you all.”
Police recorded 121 incidents at the school between 2022 and 2024, 118 of which resulted in criminal complaints, according to local reporting.
In some schools, religious conflict is now commonplace. In Berlin, a primary school teacher said he endured months of abuse, including “Gay is disgusting,” and reported that some Muslim students told him he was a “disgrace to the family” who would “end up in hell,” with one student declaring, “Islam is in charge here.”
States are attempting to bridge the gap with language issues through various interventions, such as mandatory language tests aimed at 4-year-olds to identify needs early and specialized preschool classes used in Hamburg and Bavaria. North Rhine-Westphalia is also planning “ABC classes” designed to provide support prior to official school enrollment.
Despite these approaches, implementation is frequently hamstrung by the same staff shortages affecting the daycare sector. Educators warn of long-term consequences for education and society if the system continues to allow children to move forward without a solid grasp of basic knowledge.
China pulls ahead while Germany crashes
European countries like Germany continue their education downfall, with students now performing worse and worse in key subject areas, according to a new study. The fact that so many first graders are being left back illustrates that already concerning problems will likely grow in the future.
According to the “IQB Education Trend 2024,” which Humboldt University in Berlin presented and which was leaked to Bild newspaper, “fewer and fewer of the 48,000 students tested are achieving the standard standards and are failing the minimum requirements more often than in 2012 and 2018.”
These tests focus on math, biology, chemistry, and physics, considered key areas that underpin Germany’s technology and industrial edge.
Although there are a number of factors driving this collapse in the German education system, mass migration continues to be a major factor, if not the most definitive factor.
The study from Humboldt notes that the children of foreign nationals and refugees continue to perform worse in all subjects, including math, chemistry and physics, than classmates without a migration background.
Last year, the new education monitor from the German Economic Institute (IW) and the New Social Market Economy Initiative (INSM) documented the increasingly dire state of the education system. The study’s author, Axel Plünnecke, said the already bad situation has “further deteriorated slightly compared to 2024“ and noted the “situation in Germany’s schools remains bad.“
Plünnecke’s study found that there have been massive drops in the quality of the education system since 2013 compared to 2025. His large-scale study found that “integration and educational opportunities” saw a 43.7-point drop, while school quality saw a 28.2-point drop, and educational poverty rose by 26 points.
He points to 2015, the same year that Angela Merkel opened the border to mass immigration, as the turning point, describing it as a “watershed.”
The main reason? “Excessive demands due to high migration,” wrote Plünnecke.
He noted that many more children arrived in schools than the education ministers thought would be coming.
“In 2015, the school system was overwhelmed, and no quick answers were found to the challenges of increased refugee migration,” he wrote.
🇩🇪🚨German classroom nightmare
Teachers mocked, lessons disrupted, and even physical assaults.
"I am no longer in control of the situation. I feel like a failure. The children here are just 12 years old."
The decline in test scores and educational achievement has long been predicted by figures like Thilo Sarrazin, the former Bundesbank board member, who wrote in his 2010 book “Deutschland schafft sich ab” (“Germany Is Abolishing Itself”) that test scores, including in PISA, would continue to fall due to mass immigration.
Recently, Sarrazin stated that his predictions of educational decline have proven accurate, arguing that international benchmarks such as PISA now show a marked drop in student performance across the board, a trend he attributes largely to immigration-related demographic changes. While acknowledging that digital distractions like mobile phones also play a role, he maintained that the growing share of students from lower-performing backgrounds is the primary driver.
“The fact is not only that the decline of primary education has progressed much further than I expected, but also that there remain roughly the same differences in performance between groups of pupils based on their background,” he said.
Meanwhile, other Asian countries like Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan – all known for ultra-restrictionist immigration policies – are dominating the top spots. Notably, China has fewer migrants in the entire country than just one German city, Berlin.
China also happened to score the top spot in all three PISA categories in 2018. Beijing did not provide enough data to be counted in the 2022 survey due to pandemic-related school closures, but the country continues to pull ahead of Germany economically in many sectors, including the machine tools industry, renewable technology, AI, and automobile production.
Following a meeting of the Hungarian Defense Council, Viktor Orbán posted a video to Facebook regarding the recent shutdown of the Friendship oil pipeline, stating that Ukraine is preparing further actions to disrupt Hungary’s energy system. In response, he has ordered the reinforcement of critical energy infrastructure and implemented a drone flight ban in Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County.
The Hungarian prime minister noted that no oil has reached Hungary via the Friendship pipeline since Jan. 27. He asserted that “it is clear from the data that there are political rather than technical reasons for this unprecedented shutdown.”
While Orbán has provided no evidence that Ukraine could work to further disrupt oil supplies to Hungary, Kyiv has also already cut all Russian oil through the Friendship pipeline, including through a series of drone attacks on critical energy facilities within Russia. According to German publication Berliner Zeitung, “a Ukrainian drone attack on the Kaleykino pumping station hits the Druzhba pipeline – with possible consequences for Europe’s energy policy…This was reported by the Kyiv Independent and Reuters, citing an unnamed official from the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU). According to the report, the attack caused a fire at the facility, which is located more than 1,200 kilometers from the Russian-Ukrainian border.”
Zelensky has since claimed that Russia attacked its own pipeline, despite independent Western outlets referring to sources inside the Ukrainian government who openly stated Ukraine launched the massive drone assault itself.
“The pipeline system supplies, among other things, refineries in Hungary and Slovakia. The attack is likely to further escalate tensions between Kyiv and its EU neighbors. Budapest and Bratislava accuse Ukraine of jeopardizing the oil supply to their refineries,” reads the Berliner Zeitung article.
Orbán believes that more disruptions may be on the way.
“Ukraine is preparing for further actions in order to disrupt the operation of the Hungarian energy system. That’s why I ordered the strengthening of the protection of critical energy infrastructure,” the prime minister stated.
Orbán’s measure involves deploying soldiers and necessary defense tools to priority energy facilities. Additionally, police will increase patrols around designated power plants, distribution stations, and control centers, according to Hungarian outlet Hirado.
“And in the county of Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg, I ordered a drone flight ban! Hungary cannot be blackmailed,” Orbán added.
Following Ukraine’s halt of shipments via the Friendship Crude Oil Pipeline, which Orbán alleged was intended to interfere in the 2026 parliamentary elections, Hungary responded by cutting off diesel supplies to Ukraine. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó added that Hungary will withhold support for new European Union decisions regarding Ukraine until oil transit is restored for Hungary and Slovakia.
Szijjártó stressed that the security of energy supplies should not be a matter of political debate. Although European Council President António Costa requested that Hungary unblock a €90 billion loan for Ukraine, Orbán stated: “Ukraine is creating an energy emergency in Hungary, and you’re asking me to pretend nothing happened. That’s not possible.”
Orbán stated he believes Ukraine’s ultimate goal is to create a fuel shortage in Hungary prior to the elections.
Halid S., the 23-year-old who claimed a man’s life with a single punch at Augsburg’s Königsplatz in 2019, has returned to the courtroom just months after spending years in prison. This time, he stands accused alongside four other defendants for a brutal assault allegedly fueled by homophobia.
A German-Turkish man, Halid S. already served a four-and-a-half-year sentence in a youth prison for punching a family man during a heated argument. The blow resulted in a cerebral hemorrhage that killed the victim. Halid S. was only free for a few months before this latest incident occurred.
The prosecution alleges that nearly a year ago, a night of partying on Augsburg’s Maximilianstraße turned violent. Halid S. and his group, all of whom are men with a migration background and none of whom have even completed vocational training, consumed a three-liter bottle of vodka and cocaine before they went out. Once on the streets, they encountered a homosexual couple at an ATM. The indictment suggests the victims were targeted specifically because they were recognizable as a gay couple, according to the Augsburger Allgemeine media outlet.
According to the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office, the confrontation escalated rapidly. After sexual insults were hurled, one victim reportedly grabbed a defendant by the collar. Four of the five friends are then accused of punching and kicking the couple.
Witnesses described the attackers taking run-ups to kick the men in the head and torso while they were already defenseless on the ground.
During the opening of the trial at the Regional Court, Halid S. appeared shackled and expressed regret through his attorney, David Mühlberger. While he admitted to delivering blows, he denied kicking the victims in the head.
“I am truly sorry about the matter and will express this if requested by the injured parties,” he said.
The defense emphasized that the 23-year-old is willing to pay restitution and claims to have turned a corner regarding his substance abuse:
“I am not and will not use alcohol or drugs again,” said Halid S.
🇩🇪‼️ "I will beat you till you die… Look at your pig skin."
A migrant makes sexist, racist, and anti-LGBT remarks against young women in the Berlin train system near the Tempelhof stop. pic.twitter.com/LuJZCcrTsT
This case has reignited a fierce debate in Augsburg regarding the efficacy of the penal system. During his first trial, judges noted Halid S. had an aggression problem requiring intensive treatment. His swift return to violent crime suggests that rehabilitation efforts appear to have failed.
The trial involves five men between the ages of 23 and 25 facing charges of grievous bodily harm, insults, and threats with a hate-crime designation. Eleven trial days have been scheduled to reach a verdict.
A German woman pretended to play dead so her “dark-skinned” rapist would leave her alone and flee the scene at a train station in Pfaffenhofen an der Ilm in Bavaria on Tuesday evening. The rapist remains on the run.
The 42-year-old woman was stalked, beaten, and raped. During the rape, she decided to play dead, and it was only then that the rapist decided to end the attack and flee the scene. Her decision to “play dead” may have saved her life.
The woman was reportedly already harassed and groped on the train ride. Once she got off at the station, he followed her and raped her near a bicycle parking spot, according to Bild newspaper.
After the rape, the woman stopped a passing car, and the driver of the car immediately phoned the police.
The Ingolstadt Criminal Investigation Department said the man is dark-skinned and was wearing a hoodie with a dark print at the chest level.
Police have also released a description of the man. He is described as a dark-skinned male with a white hoodie with a dark print on the chest. He was also wearing black sweatpants, white sneakers, and a gray and orange baseball cap.
A description of the female victim was also provided. She had red, very curly hair. She was wearing an orange top during the attack, along with a dark leather jacket with inner fur. She also had on black jeans and ankle boots.
Due to the fact that the incident occurred on a train, it is remarkable that police have not released any video footage or camera stills of the perpetrator. However, even in cases where a wanted rapist was on the run, German courts have hesitated for months before releasing an image of a suspect.
A 50-year-old Italian woman in Syracuse, who is only described by her initials R.P., has been hunted by a Nigerian man for months. Despite the man attempting to attack her, climbing up the facade of her house with a screwdriver, and his claims that R.P.’s house belongs to him, he has been continuously released from psychiatric care, only to show up back at her house sometimes hours after being detained.
“For a few months, I have been stalked by a Nigerian homeless man who camps out in my neighborhood and is in an evident psychotic state. In the grip of strong delusions, he believes himself to be God, and he convinced himself that my house is his, that his son lives here, who is Jesus, and that he must install a window in the house to allow the child [Jesus] to look out.”
For six months, the neighborhood has reportedly dealt with thefts and vandalism from the Nigerian man. The woman recounts that on Jan. 6, the situation sharply escalated.
“On Jan. 6, the man told me at 9 in the morning he was coming to install this ‘phantom window.’ Having ignored his request, he continued to ring the doorbell and broke a plate on my door,” said R.P. while speaking to Italian newspaper La Sicilia.
Police arrived and transferred the man to a psychiatric hospital, but they also told her that because of the man’s mental state, they “cannot place him in prison.”
The situation worsened on Jan. 15 when the woman heard a “persistent tapping” coming from her bedroom wall.
“Looking out over the balcony, I saw five police patrols under the house and a handful of people screaming at me from the street telling me that there was a Nigerian climber who was trying to break through the facade with a screwdriver,” she said.
Once he was detained for another psychiatric evaluation, the man allegedly returned at 3:30 a.m. that very same night, striking the external wall with such force that the woman fled her apartment.
“The man continued to strike and. Hearing the sound of falling debris, and when help did not arrive, I was terrified. I abandoned my house and ran away into the street,” she told La Sicilia.
She claims that after police initially returned him to his camp, he appeared 30 minutes later with an iron bar.
Police eventually took him into custody and hospitalized him in a psychiatric ward, but only after the woman contacted a friend at the hospital.
R.P. says she lives in a state of anxiety, and the man has posted her home on social media. He also tells medical staff that he intends to return to R.P.’s home.
“The black man has a Facebook profile; he posted photos of my house the day before he embarked on the crazy plan. He told the nurses he had to come back to put on that damn window. Someone is underestimating the situation or not doing their job well,” said R.P.
A 14-year-old Austrian girl, described as goth and “emo-like” by witnesses, is accused of murdering a 64-year-old woman in a Vienna cemetery. The girl, who was described as wearing all black, having “black dyed “jet-black hair,” piercings, and looking “emo,” was reportedly covered in blood after the stabbing attack.
Arthur Altbart, a junior undertaker at the Altbart family funeral home, who witnessed the aftermath, provided a more detailed description of the suspect. He noted that her appearance did not initially suggest someone capable of such a deed:
“I went over immediately after hearing that something had happened,” says Altbart. “She was extremely unremarkable, emo-like, jet-black hair, piercings on her face, all in black. An absolutely unassuming girl. That anyone could think she could do something like that? Never.”
Altbart said, “The young woman had an extreme amount of blood on her hands.”
The murder allegedly took place on a Monday at 4:00 p.m. in Vienna-Penzing. A bystander stumbled upon the body of a 64-year-old woman lying motionless between graves at the Baumgarten cemetery.
The witness immediately ran to the Altbart family funeral home, with the operators of the funeral home immediately calling police.
Despite the rapid arrival of emergency services and immediate attempts at resuscitation, the woman could not be saved.
“It’s really terrible. The woman was apparently in the wrong place at the wrong time,” said Heini Altbart, an owner of the funeral home.
Officers began searching for a suspect at the supervised living facility located near the cemetery. There, they took a 14-year-old girl into custody based on her behavior, her description, and the fact that she was covered in blood.
Witnesses described the young girl as being “completely emotionless” throughout the ordeal.
“She was completely emotionless; she apparently didn’t care,” said Albert Altbart.
While in handcuffs, the girl reportedly made a casual request to the officers: “Can I have a cigarette?”
When the 14-year-old girl was interrogated, she confessed to the killing.
Preliminary investigations suggest that there was no prior relationship with the elderly victim, meaning there is currently no motive for the crime.
The Vienna State Criminal Police Office is continuing its investigation in cooperation with the public prosecutor’s office. An autopsy of the victim is scheduled for Tuesday.
In the digital age, even a wooden fairy tale character can trigger a police investigation, at least in Germany. A pensioner from Heilbronn is currently finding himself in the crosshairs of the law after a social media comment regarding Federal Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Baden-Württemberg Prime Minister Winfried Kretschmann in which he allegedly referred to them as “Pinocchio.” The eyebrow-raising move has already led one constitutional lawyer to describe the investigation as “hysterical madness.”
Last October, Chancellor Merz and Prime Minister Kretschmann visited Heilbronn for the groundbreaking ceremony of the Innovation Park Artificial Intelligence (IPAI). To ensure security, the Heilbronn police posted on Facebook about a temporary local flight ban.
Underneath that post, the local pensioner left a brief remark, writing, “Pinocchio is coming to HN,” followed by a long-nose emoji.
The man who wrote the “Pinocchio” comment said he viewed it as a harmless jab, but the authorities did not see the humor. Three months later, he received a letter from the criminal police informing him that he was under investigation for a suspected insult under Section 188 of the Criminal Code.
The pensioner’s reaction was one of complete disbelief:
“It’s a joke and completely disproportionate. When I told friends and acquaintances about the letter, everyone thought I was trying to make a joke,” he said.
After a request from Nius news outlet, police also revealed that 30 comments were under investigation, with many of them referring to Merz as being untrustworthy.
“The Baron of Lies was traveling with Kretsche” read one comment. Another read: “Nobody needs the liar here.” Another stated: “Is Munchausen coming with the cannonball?“ The last comment refers to the story of Baron von Münchhausen, who is portrayed as the “baron of lies.”
Politicians, with the help of law firms running artificial intelligence searches, are often filing these complaints directly and earning money every time they win a case. However, this investigation was not actually launched by Merz. The Heilbronn police headquarters reportedly has a dedicated social media team that monitors comments for potential criminal content.
Police spokesman Andreas Blind explained the protocol: “If we come across criminal behavior in individual cases as part of the social media monitoring of our channels, this will be reported or submitted to the public prosecutor’s office for review.”
The police then refer the matter to a public prosecutor who can determine whether an investigation is justified.
The suspect has since commented on the allegations in a statement to local paper Heilbronner Stimme:
“The comment ’Pinocchio comes to Heilbronn’ does not constitute a deliberate insult to a specific person.“ He stated that no name was mentioned. He added it was “an ambiguous, symbolic and satirical expression of opinion in a political context“ that is protected by freedom of expression. He requested authorities “to lift the investigation,” in response.
The pensioner is hardly the first person to compare Merz to the famous puppet created by Carlo Collodi in 1883. The chancellor has faced similar criticisms, with other politicians directly referring to the Pinocchio character.
Notably, Franziska Brantner, of the Greens, accused Merz of breaking promises regarding electricity tax reductions, warning him not to become a “Pinocchio Chancellor.”
Meanwhile, Stephan Brandner of the AfD called Merz “Pinocchio Fritze” regarding debt brake debates and even shared a photo montage of Merz with a long nose.
Merz famously said during his campaign for chancellor that the debt brake would not be lifted. However, almost immediately after his victory, he completely backtracked on his promise and took on hundreds of billions of new debt. The move was seen as a major betrayal of his campaign promises.
Legal experts suggest the pensioner likely has little to fear and some are deeply critical of the move.
“This is hysterical madness,” said constitutional lawyer Prof. Volker Boehme-Neßler in an interview with Apollo News.
Dr. Moritz Ott, a lawyer from Berlin, argues that calling a politician “Pinocchio” is a matter of free speech, according to German newspaper Stimme.
“Of course you can call Friedrich Merz, for example, Pinocchio,” Ott told Stimme. “This falls within the area of expression of opinion and is covered by Article 5 of the Basic Law.”
Because “Pinocchio” is a literary figure rather than a traditional swear word, Ott argues it doesn’t constitute a formal insult to honor. Instead, it serves as a critique of political consistency.
“For me, this Pinocchio post is in no way punishable. A Federal Chancellor has to endure something like that,” he stated.
Dr. Michael Rath-Glawatz shares this sentiment, noting that the term functions as a subjective assessment rather than a false claim of fact:
“I consider the term ‘Pinocchio’ to be a value judgment, not an (untrue) statement of fact. People who are in public life have to accept being criticized, even disparagingly. I don’t see any defamation,” he said.
Germany’s worrying assault on free speech
While the investigation may be a headache for the Heilbronn local, legal precedent suggests that in the arena of political debate, even a “long-nosed” comparison is protected by the right to an opinion. Still, the fact that any investigation was launched may illustrate the cooling effect such investigations are meant to have on free speech. In other cases, police have raided people’s homes over what many would consider to be insults that fall into the realm of justified criticism and free speech.
The case has even garnered international attention.
“It isn’t just Holocaust denial that spurs police crackdowns in Germany. This criminal investigation (against a retiree over the term “Pinocchio”) feels like a case of lèse-majesté. Most Germans I’ve talked to don’t want their laws applied this way. But vague, broad prohibitions on speech invariably produce edge-case abuses and chilling effects. When you’re regulating speech at scale, on platforms based in America (whose American users, especially, deserve First Amendment protection), this creates problems worth solving,” wrote U.S. Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers on X.
It isn’t just Holocaust denial that spurs police crackdowns in Germany. This criminal investigation (against a retiree over the term “Pinocchio”) feels like a case of lèse-majesté.
Most Germans I’ve talked to don’t want their laws applied this way. But vague, broad… https://t.co/qq0R1b2AZm
— Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers (@UnderSecPD) February 23, 2026
One of the most famous past cases involved a 64-year-old pensioner, who retweeted a meme of Green Economy Minister Robert Habeck, in which Habeck was described as an “idiot.” Bavarian police raided the man’s house and arrested him. The crime has even been recorded as a “politically motivated right-wing crime.”
🇩🇪🚨German police raided the house of this pensioner, pictured with his daughter Alexandra, for calling Green Economics Minister Robert Habeck an "idiot."
Habeck personally filed the criminal complaint against Stefan Niehoff.
In another remarkable case, a civil engineer was imprisoned for 30 days after he failed to properly appeal a fine he received for insulting a prominent Social Democrat (SPD) politician.
The incident began when a civil engineer living in Lower Saxony sent an angry email to Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state Prime Minister Manuela Schwesig of the far-left Social Democrats (SPD).
In the email, which he sent to the state chancellery, he called her a “storyteller” and accused her of talking “stupid stuff.” He also told her she should start working in construction instead of politics and wrote: “You don’t need to sell people stupid things.” The letter was sent in May 2022 and criticized what he believed to be her pro-Russian stance towards the war in Ukraine that had just broken out.
German law does not allow for free-wheeling free speech. For example, Germans are not allowed to direct insults at individuals, such as calling them a “fat pig.” However, legal experts have expressed alarm over the fact that police are raiding houses over such comments. In some cases, the comments are much milder or do not constitute an “insult” as described by the law in any manner, such as referring to Annalena Baerbock as the “worst foreign minister ever.“
As Remix News reported, freedom of expression in Germany is being increasingly constrained, with 74 percent of citizens believing people are holding back their opinions out of fear of repercussions, according to a survey by Insa.
Serbian authorities report that a suspected attack was foiled against Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his family, as well as members of the Ministry of the Interior.
Two men were arrested in Kraljevo, southern Serbia, on suspicion of planning an assassination attempt against Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and his family, the Serbian Ministry of the Interior announced on Tuesday.
According to the information, police and secret service personnel arrested 51-year-old D.R. and 43-year-old M.R. on Monday evening because they were suspected of endangering the constitutional order and security of Serbia, according to Hungarian outlet Mandiner.
Investigators state that between December 2025 and February 2026, the suspects conspired to procure weapons to attack President Vučić, his wife and children, and Interior Ministry staff. Both suspects are to appear before the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office in Kraljevo.
According to data from the investigation, the two men wanted to use violent means to change Serbia’s constitutional arrangements, as well as overthrow the power of the highest-level state bodies.
It remains unclear what motive the men may have had for carrying out these actions, whether anyone was funding or supporting them, or how advanced their alleged assassination plot was.
Milos Vucic, advisor to the president, stated that this plot was the result of a “relentless monstrous campaign” against Vučić. He warned that dehumanizing rhetoric can inspire attacks.
Polish border police have arrested a Moldovan migrant who they allegedly kept a physically disabled Russian as a slave in order to make him beg for five years.
Officers from the Warmia-Masuria Border Guard Unit discovered the Moldovan who recruited and used the Russian for begging. The 51-year-old Moldovan is alleged to have kept all the money.
Under the supervision of the Gdańsk-Śródmieście District Prosecutor’s Office, on Feb. 9, officers from the Warmia-Masuria Border Guard Unit arrested the Moldovan citizen in Warsaw, according to a police report.
The officers uncovered cash in the amount of over PLN 8,000 (€1,896),, mobile phones, and packaging for SIM cards.
🇵🇱 Poland
A disabled Russian man was kept as a slave for 5 years and forced to beg. Now, a 51-year-old Moldovan man is under arrest.
The Moldovan drove his victim around cities and towns in Poland, made him sit in front of supermarkets like Lidl, and then took all the money he… pic.twitter.com/XVGM1AWls9
These border guards determined that the disabled Russian was under the man’s control for five years. In that time, the Moldovan directed the man to target large stores, such as the supermarket Lidl. When he was not begging however, the Russian was detained by the Moldovan and not allowed any personal freedoms.
The Moldovan operated in the following areas: Ełk, Kętrzyn, Gołdap, Olecko, Reszel, Bartoszyce, Mrągowo, Węgorzewo, and Radom.
Due to the man’s disabilities, the Moldovan was effectively able to control him and generate a steady stream of income from the man’s begging.
The Moldovan has been charged with human trafficking and faces up to 20 years in prison. The man will remain in detention for at least one month before any trial begins.
Four Syrians and one Iraqi have been arrested and charged for the gang rape of a 17-year-old girl in the small German village of Heinsberg-Unterbruch, according to the Aachen public prosecutor’s office. However, during the course of the investigation, more women have come forward, and there are reportedly three rapes being investigated, along with a plethora of other crimes.
The five men, who are between 17 and 27 years of age, are currently being held in pre-trial detention and have been under investigation since the end of October.
They are accused of raping a 17-year-old girl over a long period of time in the village on Oct 19, 2025. She immediately went to the police and filed a complaint after the gang rape.
Since then, the investigation has only grown in complexity as more victms have come forward.
“The subject of the proceedings are three cases of rape,” Chief Public Prosecutor Katja Schlenkermann-Pitts told WDR.
It is notable that the village, which has a population of a little over 2,000, is historically known as a quiet residential area, with no high-profile crimes that could be found dating at least back to the 1980s. Furthermore, given that this incident happened in the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state, it is worth noting that approximately 75 percent of all gang rapes are committed either by foreigners or those with a foreign background in the state.
🇩🇪🚨 Last year, police in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia arrested 155 suspects in connection with 209 cases of gang r*pe.
A total of 84 suspects were foreign nationals and 71 were German citizens.
So far, police investigators are limiting how many details they are willing to share regarding the case in Heinsberg-Unterbruch.
Two out of three victims are minors, which means there are also potential data protection elements at stake regarding the minors.
The news of the rapes comes on top of news that the men are also wanted for other crimes, although the WDR report does not name what specific offenses these may include. However, there was an SEK police operation against their homes, where one individual was found to have a pistol and Taser at his property.
Notably, AfD politician Marie-Thérèse Kaiser was later convicted for publishing gang rape statistics in response to news that Afghan migrants would be moved to her district.
The AfD politician was defiant during the appeal process, writing on X before the most recent verdict: “My appeal hearing for alleged incitement will take place at the beginning of May. Simply naming numbers, dates and facts is to be declared a criminal offense, just because the establishment does not want to face reality. I will not allow myself to be silenced,” she wrote.
A Bosnian national, identified as Huso B., is being labeled one of the worst cases of a foreigner taking advantage of Germany’s generous welfare system. The man, who has numerous criminal offenses on his record, remains in Germany despite being under a mandatory order to leave the country for 23 years.
Remarkably, the German justice system failed to find him and “suspended” criminal proceedings against him, while Bild newspaper then went on to find him with ease.
Despite Huso B. overstaying his welcome by decades, the state provides him €7250.77 every month to support his wife and eight children.
The bureaucratic confusion reached a new peak last December. When the Cologne District Court attempted to try B. on fraud charges, officials claimed he could not be located—despite his address being documented by the City of Cologne and the city’s job center. However, reporters from Bild newspaper were able to find him almost immediately.
On Dec. 8, 2025, Huso B. was scheduled to appear before the Cologne District Court. He faces allegations of defrauding a drugstore chain out of a four-figure sum across three separate instances. However, the trial was derailed because the court’s formal summons was reportedly never served at his asylum seeker accommodation.
According to officials, the postman was unable to deliver the documents to B. personally or leave them in a mailbox. Because the court was “thus unable to load him,“ the trial date was scrapped, and the legal proceedings were suspended.
Bild, however, appears to have embarrassed the city government and the German legal system. The paper sent a reporter directly to the asylum seeker’s home in southern Cologne. There, without much work, they found his mailbox with his name clearly listed.
Not only that, but once the reporters arrived, they found Huso B. in person. He spoke to the reporters, telling them that he does not have any legal troubles and the last time he was investigated was back in 2014.
Bild’s efforts did not go to waste. Once Bild revealed the incompetence of German authorities, they are now responding
“He is currently being searched for. However, there is no arrest warrant against him. That would be disproportionate given the allegations made,“ Cologne’s senior public prosecutor Ulrich Bremer told Bild. “However, we will now use the Bild research as an opportunity to check again whether he can be found at the address.“
Bild further highlighted the absurd situation in the Cologne justice system. While the police and justices said Huso B. could not be found, the social welfare office was continuing to send him money.
He and his family receive €87,000 a year under the Asylum Seekers Benefit Act, which includes “support for living expenses.”
In addition, the family lives rent-free in a state-provided home. When reviewing documents from the Job Center, the press confirmed that the proper address is on file and that the welfare office authorities had this information the entire time.
In a landmark ruling that has gripped the Austrian public, the Innsbruck Regional Court has handed down life sentences to Austrians Kevin and Nathalie M., both 27, for the systematic starvation and torture of their 3-year-old son, Elias.
The verdict, delivered after a harrowing trial, also included a mandate for the mother to be committed to a psychiatric institution. The couple had previously admitted to the horrific abuse that ended their son’s life in May 2024.
Prosecutor Verena Pezzei categorized the depravity of the case as unparalleled in her closing remarks, as documented by Austrian outlet Kronen-Zeitung. She noted, “We have something so cruel here in that this district has never seen – not even across Austria. They tortured their three-year-old son to death and made fun of him.”
Elias, pictured a year before he was starved to death.
The prosecution detailed a five-month period of escalating violence in which the toddler was regularly assaulted and restrained. The child’s life ended in a cramped, 50-centimeter drawer, where he succumbed to the combined effects of hunger and thirst.
During their private communications, the couple dehumanized the boy, and believed that he was possessed by an evil old woman named “Dorothea,” who they called “the old woman.” They attempted to frame the abuse as a spiritual struggle against a “demon” they claimed occupied his body. This narrative was rejected by forensic psychiatrist Adelheid Kastner, who testified there was “no delusion and no illness.“
Kastner suggested the parents used the child as a scapegoat for the pressures of poverty and the demands of caring for their three other daughters.
The core of the judicial evidence consisted of 125,000 chat messages exchanged between the parents. These records demonstrated a collaborative effort to organize and document the child’s suffering. The prosecutor highlighted one particularly dark exchange: “Killing is not enough – he must die in agony.”
The court heard that Elias was confined for long stretches in a lightless room and a windowless bathroom. According to the prosecution, the child’s “mouth was often taped shut, hands and legs tied with cable ties.”
Adding to the trauma was that his older sister, aged six, recalled to authorities that she heard the haunting sound of the toddler desperately pounding on the door in an attempt to escape his confinement.
While Nathalie M. remained largely stoic, Kevin M. offered a public apology during the proceedings.
“There is no explanation for what happened, nothing would even begin to explain it.“
He further stated, “I recognize my mistake; it is inexcusable. I regret every day, I am deeply sorry that my three other children witnessed Elias’s suffering.”
The atmosphere in the courtroom turned somber when a video of the victim was played for the jury. While the audience could only hear the boy’s cries, the footage was so distressing that one observer walked out, muttering: “I don’t understand it.”
The judges ruled that the couple purposefully neglected and tormented Elias, taking advantage of his absolute vulnerability. The case remains one of the most significant and disturbing chapters in Austria’s legal history. While the parents remain in custody, it is not yet clear if they intend to challenge the life sentences.
After far-left militants beat conservative Catholic Quentin Deranque to death in Lyon, one of their members, Jacques-Élie Favrot, has been indicted for intentional murder, serious violence, and criminal association. His role and others in the far-left party La France Insoumise is leading to calls for a political “firewall,” usually reserved for the right, to be applied to the left in France.
Favrot is now in pre-trial detention for the barbaric murder of the 23-year-old victim, who was protecting the feminist activist group Collectif Némésis during a demonstration.
Favrot is a parliamentary assistant to far-left La France Insoumise (LFI) deputy Raphaël Arnault, who was the founder and leader of the extremist leftist militia Young Guard, which was dissolved by the French state.
🇫🇷🔴 After Antifa beat Quentin Deranque to death in Lyon, far-left activist Jacques-Élie Favrot has been indicted for murder through incitement, serious violence, and criminal association.
He is now in pre-trial detention for the barbaric murder of the 23-year-old conservative… pic.twitter.com/FQ9MZZGmNA
Favrot’s lawyer confirmed that his client admitted to being present at the scene and participating in the violence against Deranque and other individuals.
However, Favrot denies delivering the fatal blows that killed Deranque. The Lyon prosecutor stated that Favrot played a “leadership role” in the sequence of violence.
So far, seven people have been charged, including another employee of the far-left LFI, named as Adrien B. Many of these suspects have been indicted with intentional homicide.
Three of the suspects have links to the ultra-left movement and two have criminal records, according to France Info.
“Two of them refused to explain the facts, in particular. The others acknowledged their presence at the scene, and some admitted to having dealt blows to Quentin Deranque or other victims. On the other hand, they all contested homicidal intent,” according to Thierry Dran, public prosecutor of Lyon. “It is in particular thanks to the in-depth study of the numerous videos that investigators were able to put a name to the seven suspects. Identifying those present at the scene was difficult. And to this day, there are still several people to identify.”
Political earthquake and potential firewall
The role of the far-left LFI in the murder is being described as a “political earthquake” in France.
“The far left has killed,” said Jordan Bardella, the leader of the National Rally.
He accused LFI founder Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his movement of serving as an “ideological incubator for violent movements” that “install a climate of tension and disorder on the streets as in the National Assembly.”
The National Rally leader now calls for politicians to end the firewall usually reserved for the right and now apply it to the left.
“I therefore call for the formation of a genuine cordon sanitaire to isolate La France Insoumise and keep it away from the institutions, whether in the National Assembly, where these MPs sit on numerous bodies, or with a view to the next local elections,” said Bardella.
Mélenchon, however, has only reacted with outrage, deflecting blame for the murder and placing it on the peaceful activists of Collectif Némésis.
“The Collectif Némésis group must be banned because it is dangerous, it attacks our meetings, it attacks our leaders, it threatens us with death.” According to Mélenchon, the group is the real “threat,” not Antifa, even though the Collectif Némésis members and its security team have been targeted with literal death on the streets of France.
His claims come as pressure grows to investigate his party for supporting shielding left-wing terrorists, including the members just arrested in connection with the murder of Deranque.
🇫🇷After Antifa brutally beat conservative activist Quentin Deranque to death in Lyon, far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon incredibly calls to ban the feminist group Collectif Némésis – the same group Deranque was providing security for when he lost his life.
Bardella is not the only one calling for a firewall against the LFI. Others on the left appear to be equally revolted by LFI.
Raphaël Glucksmann, MEP for the eco-party Place publique, said that an alliance with LFI is impossible. “It is unthinkable, I tell you, unthinkable, that we on the left continue to have the slightest doubt about a possible electoral alliance with La France Insoumise,” he said.
These political developments come just before local elections and national elections next year.
The case has also sparked international outrage, with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni condemning the murder of Deranque. The United States has also commented on the murder.
“Democracy rests on a basic bargain: you get to bring any viewpoint to the public square, and nobody gets to kill you for it. This is why we treat political violence — terrorism — so harshly. Once you decide to kill people for their opinions instead of persuade them, you’ve opted out of civilization,” wrote Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers.
Democracy rests on a basic bargain: you get to bring any viewpoint to the public square, and nobody gets to kill you for it.
This is why we treat political violence — terrorism — so harshly. Once you decide to kill people for their opinions instead of persuade them, you’ve… https://t.co/Ue6XWFWAFC
— Under Secretary of State Sarah B. Rogers (@UnderSecPD) February 20, 2026
Will there be a split in Law and Justice (PiS), the largest conservative party in Poland? Poles have answered this question in a new poll.
Recent weeks have been a difficult period for PiS. The party has been steadily losing support to the Confederation of the Polish Crown and the Confederation. To make matters worse, the group is also grappling with internal conflict between Mateusz Morawiecki and politicians around Jacek Sasin and Patryk Jaki, among others.
Is the party at risk of a split? Poles were asked about this issue in an SW Research survey. 41.2 percent of respondents believe it will not happen, while 29.7 percent believe a split will occur. Another 29.2 percent of respondents have no opinion on the matter.
Kaczyński has already chosen the prime minister
The PiS leader announced that he has already chosen a candidate to be the next prime minister. The name will be announced in March. Meanwhile, the party is in turmoil.
According to media reports, Mateusz Morawiecki may leave the party and form his own group. Up to 40 members of parliament may leave PiS along with the former prime minister.
According to journalists, Morawiecki wants to be ready to leave PiS by the time the lists for the 2027 parliamentary elections are being created. This is intended to give him a strong negotiating argument. “We’re traveling around the country, gauging sentiment, and building social media, because that’s where we could collect signatures to run independently,” the source told Zero.pl.
What about financing the new project?
“We’re least concerned about finances. Money is important, of course, but if you have leaders as popular as Mateusz Morawiecki and an efficient organization, you can ask our supporters for support,” said the source.
The survey was conducted on Feb. 18, 2026, by SW Research using online interviews (CAWI—Computer-Assisted Web Interview) on the SW Panel website. As part of the study, 800 surveys were conducted with a nationwide sample of adults. Quota sampling was used, assuming the sample was representative in terms of the overall distribution of gender, age, and town-size class.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says he wants to end anonymity on the web, saying users should be required to use their real names, which he says will protect a liberal society.
“I want to see real names on the Internet. I would like to know who is speaking out,” Merz said in the evening at the political Ash Wednesday event in Trier. “In politics, we also face a conflict in our society with our real names and open sights. Then I expect the same from everyone else who is critical of our country and our society.”
He further stated that those advocating anonymity on the Internet are “often enough people who demand the greatest possible transparency from others in the shadow of anonymity.”
A free and anonymous web has been a boon to free speech
The rise of the web and its ability to allow users to question power and social mores over the last two decades has arguably been the greatest gift to free speech in centuries. Citizens can directly speak their mind to Merz and other world leaders in real-time in the comments section on various social media platforms, all without exposing their identity to authorities, which could lead to forms of retribution. To do away with this would be to do away with one of the major democratizing elements that underpin Western society.
History has taught us that there is often a severe cost for speaking against power. Certainly, during the Nazi and Stasi eras, anonymity and a wide-open web would have been a gift to dissidents looking to challenge the status quo.
The reality is that for illegal acts, there is already no anonymity in Germany or other Western countries. If authorities want to find you, they can. In Germany, it is already illegal to call a politician a “fat pig,” or insult them in a demeaning manner. Merz has himself already sued many internet users. In some cases, police have shown up early in the morning to conduct house raids for what many critics say were innocuous comments, such as calling Annalena Baerbock the “worst foreign minister ever” or calling Robert Habeck an “idiot.” As can be seen, even mild criticism and insults can warrant the most aggressive and intrusive form of state reprisal in Germany.
🇩🇪🔴A female German journalist wanted to research the topic of gang rapes by migrants in Bavaria but was labeled "racist" and "right-wing" by her colleagues.
Julia Ruhs, a high-profile television presenter, said it is still a "taboo" to research topics regarding why "certain… pic.twitter.com/JIsCpPJb3e
It is also notable that Merz, who has one of the highest unfavorability ratings of any Western leader, is pushing for ending anonymity at a time when anti-establishment right-wing parties are surging. It appears Western establishment parties like Merz’s Christian Democrats (CDU) no longer have any solution other than to crack down on dissent and target anonymous users.
The social costs of challenging the status quo
Currently, the biggest hotbed issue in Germany and across the West is mass immigration. Critics of this incredible societal transformation are labeled “racist” and can suffer job or social consequences, including physical assault.
It is no wonder Germans and other web users seek a degree of anonymity on the web while voicing their opinion. In fact, polling shows that three-quarters of Germans believe fear of repercussions is silencing free speech. Merz and others want to supercharge an environment where people pay hefty prices for speaking their mind.
Even very moderate voices become major targets, attacked for questioning the mainstream societal orthodoxy on immigration. Julia Ruhs is a great example. A high-profile presenter and journalist, she details how she became labeled a “racist” when she wanted to research the topic of gang rapes by migrants in Bavaria. She said it is still a “taboo” to research topics regarding why “certain population groups are more susceptible to committing sexual offenses.”
“That’s when I realized the whole editorial imbalance when you dedicate yourself to such a topic,” Ruhs said.
She added that it became an environment where she was told: “You’re not allowed to say that and you’re totally racist.”
When her first episode of “Klar” addressed the topic of migration, a massive internal wave of criticism hit. Approximately 250 NDR employees signed an open letter distancing themselves from the show, accusing Ruhs of one-sided and populist reporting. She was then effectively canceled from presenting on NDR.
It is no surprise that many other Germans have no desire to go through the same hell. If a young and intelligent woman is tarred and feathered for even looking to research the topic of migrants and gang rape — which all the evidence shows is a major problem in Bavaria and the rest of Germany — it means that it is often effectively a “social death” to discuss such topics out in the open.
Those who challenge this topic, whether it’s an AfD politician or a more “mainstream” journalist like Ruhs, are courageously voicing their opinions in a society that often produces severe social consequences for anyone who deviates from the norm. However, not everyone has the resources, whether mental or financial, to deal with such a toll.
🚨🇩🇪German police have raided houses and arrested people accused of "insulting" politicians online.
In response to criticism, German Green Party MP Renate Künast says that "anyone who criticizes this is supporting right-wing extremism."
Merz ultimately has an entire team of security professionals protecting him at all hours.
For those comments that he believes cross the line, he can file lawsuits, and he actively does. In fact, politicians in Germany can make a nice living suing users for insults, as they get a cut of the proceeds. For those who threaten his life, the police are a phone call away. Their anonymous username is not going to help them.
Of course, the same standards apply to the left. If someone with a far-left viewpoint wants to post “refugees welcome” in a town with far-right supporters, this person should be able to without fearing for their personal safety.
Will anonymity come to an end?
It is probably only a matter of time before anonymity will be banned on the web, both in Germany and elsewhere. The masses are quickly turning on the establishment across the West as their quality of life deteriorates, due to economic policy decisions, a loss of security, failing school systems, soaring debt, and uncontrolled and unrelenting mass migration.
In turn, the West is heading towards a Chinese-style level of social control. Efforts like “chat control” from the EU, identification required to access social media, and police raids for social media comments are becoming standard across the West.
It is notable that Merz is falling into the same camp as the repressive far-left Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez In his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Sanchez declared countermeasures against social media that sound remarkably similar to Merz.
“First, I propose to put an end to anonymity on social media,” he declares. “My second proposal is to force open the ‘black box’ of social media, the algorithms, once and for all,” said the Spanish prime minister.
In Germany, the Social Democrats (SPD), to their credit, say they are currently opposed to ending anonymity, citing the need to protect critics of power. The party argues that the internet is an important “safe space,” especially for persecuted political activists. Currently, the CDU would need the support of the SPD, their coalition partner, to pass any major law in this regard. The SPD’s stance can be praised, but this stance could also change in the future. Currently, the SPD is pursuing an age check for social media instead, requiring everybody to upload their ID to prove they are not minors.
Furthermore, the SPD is currently pursuing an entire ban against the AfD, which is the most popular political party in the country in nearly every poll. So, they have a mixed record on democracy and free speech.
There is no doubt that the window for free and anonymous discourse on the web is rapidly closing at the same time the establishment becomes more desperate.
As John Paul Stevens of the U.S. Supreme Court Justice said: “Anonymity is a shield from the tyranny of the majority… [It] provides a way for a writer who may be personally unpopular to ensure that readers will not prejudge her message simply because they do not like its proponent.”
In turn, Thomas Paine, the famed enlightenment thinker, wrote: “Anonymity is the only way for a man to speak the truth to power without being silenced by the noise of his own name.”
We should trust the reason of these two men far more than the likes of Merz and Sanchez, but for now, the Merzes and the Sanchezes of the world have all the power.
Two brothers, Mohammed S. and Ilyass S., have been formally charged following a violent home invasion targeting an 87-year-old woman in Triel-sur-Seine outside Paris.
The assault occurred at 3:00 a.m. on Nov. 28, 2025, when the victim’s home suddenly lost power. After her son arrived to restore the electricity and departed, the attackers entered her residence.
At 5:30 a.m., the woman was confronted in her bedroom by two men, while a third accomplice stood watch in the garden. One of the men threatened her with an iron bar and pushed the 87-year-old woman into her basement to open her safe. They stole a Rolex watch, a Breitling watch, a pearl necklace, and her telephone. The suspects then fled.
Investigators took DNA swabs at the scene and identified Mohammed S., while telephone records revealed that the brother, Ilyass, was in the area during the robbery.
The siblings are a known criminal team and live together in Poissy. They have a history of drug offenses, thefts, and threats.
Police raided their home on Feb. 16, and while they did not find the watches, they discovered narcotics, including amphetamines, cocaine, and cannabis.
As Remix News has reported numerous times, foreigners or those with a foreign background are vastly overrepresented in criminal statistics, including robbery.
In another harrowing video, an 89-year-old French woman was robbed and beaten on camera for a mere €10. Remix News has covered many more incidents of elderly French women being raped and robbed by migrants in the country over the years, which are contained in our archives.
Despite a roaring economy, Poland’s rapidly shrinking population is the biggest challenge facing the country today, according to the German daily Welt.
The publication discusses an “unpleasant truth” that may affect the country’s future, despite its impressive economic results.
“Indeed, Poland amazes observers. While countries such as France and Germany are plagued by numerous crises, especially economic stagnation, Poland is forecast to experience an impressive 3.4 percent economic growth for the current year,” writes Welt.
Notably, Poland is a country that has pursued a remarkably strict immigration policy in comparison to other Western European nations. While that began changing under the previous conservative government and has continued to accelerate under Prime Minister Donald Tusk, the country is still remarkably homogenous. And yet, despite claims from the left that diversity is the only way to maintain a successful economy, by many measures, Poland seems ascendant while countries like Germany are struggling with economic crisis.
“In Warsaw, as a symbol of economic strength, one skyscraper after another is growing into the sky, new highways are being built, the first nuclear power plant of the country is being built, and a new central airport is to be built. The Polish administration is well digitized, the city centers are spruced up. Wages are rising, industrial and service jobs are being created,” writes Welt, while describing how the country continues to transform itself.
The article further notes that Poles are increasingly moving back to their country due to the “high quality of life.” Notably, many of the countries known to promote mass immigration simply do not offer the same standards that Poland offers now, even if Poles can earn higher wages elsewhere.
As Remix News reported last year, more Poles moved back to Poland than Poles moving to Germany for the first time last year.
However, author Philipp Fritz emphasizes that the demographic problem in Poland is particularly acute. All large European countries are grappling with population decline, but in Poland, this process is progressing at a faster rate.
“This is an unpleasant truth, one that experts and politicians are aware of, but which is not receiving the attention it deserves,” writes Welt.
Data from the Central Statistical Office shows that at the end of 2025, the Polish population was approximately 37.33 million, approximately 157,000 fewer than in the previous year. In 2025, approximately 238,000 live births were recorded, while the number of deaths was approximately 168,000 higher, representing a negative natural increase of -4.5 per 1,000 inhabitants. Poland has some of the lowest birth rates in Europ,e with no sign of improvement on the horizon.
The fertility rate has fallen to around 1.10, well below the replacement level of 2.1. Forecasts indicate that if current trends continue, Poland could have fewer than 30 million inhabitants in 2060, which would mean a significant reduction in its population potential within the European Union.
Rejecting Islamic immigration
Although Poland may be facing a difficult demographic situation, the country appears to be going the “Japan route.” That means limited migration and migration from culturally similar countries like Ukraine. That is not to say that there is not growing Third World migration, but the majority of it has been from other European countries — at least so far.
“We must ensure that migration meets our needs and that it involves well-qualified people who integrate well. Ukrainians are culturally close to Poland. Problems in Western Europe, in Germany for example, must give us pause. Migration from Islamic countries is therefore not desirable,“ says Michal Kot, a demographic expert.
Both he and his colleague Bartosz Marczuk, who work for the conservative think tank Instytut Sobieskiego, have written a book on the demographic development in Poland entitled “How to prevent the demographic catastrophe.” They advocate pro-family policies, restrictions on social media, and social programs that encourage family formation.
They also believe migration can play a positive role in the country’s future, but only in a limited capacity.
Marczuk emphasizes the word “controlled.” He said there are 1.5 to 2 million Ukrainians in Poland, and they are viewed very favorably, including a high employment rate compared to other migrant groups.
Two tragic cases highlights a disturbing pattern of gender-based violence that has reignited a fierce national conversation in Spain. Both incidents involve foreign nationals — an Algerian man in Xilxes, Valencia, and a Moroccan man in Calella, Barcelona — and occur against the backdrop of a leaked police report suggesting the imminent legalization of roughly 1.3 million undocumented migrants.
In Xilxes, the community is mourning a woman and her 12-year-old child after the Civil Guard arrested her 39-year-old Algerian husband for breaking a restraining order. Police believe he slashed both their throats. According to investigation sources, the victims belonged to a family of deaf people well known in the town, according to Diario de Sevilla.
🇪🇸🚨Spain's immigration crisis highlighted by two new brutal crimes.
An Algerian father has been accused of murdering his 49-year-old Spanish ex-wife and their 12-year-old daughter in Xilxes. Both victims, found with their throats slashed, were deaf and mute.
The woman was already integrated into the Viogen system, a specialized tracking network for gender-based violence, where her situation had been recently assessed as a “medium risk.”
The suspect had been issued a restraining order that was supposed to remain in effect until 2027, following a previous arrest for sexist violence last year. The judicial police are now working to clarify how the suspect was able to bypass legal protections to commit what appears to be a double crime.
Attack in Barcelona
Similarly, in Calella, a 24-year-old Moroccan man was arrested after a brutal attack that left his partner in a state of brain death and her mother in critical condition. The man is alleged to have used a blunt object to smash the daughter’s skull in, leaving her in a state of brain death.
The alleged perpetrator had been a fugitive for weeks until he was finally located in Onil after the Criminal Investigation Division issued a search and arrest warrant for double attempted murder, according to La Gaceta.
The events generated a strong social alarm in the area, where neighbors reported the extreme violence of the attack.
Police eventually managed to identify and proceed to arrest him when they verified that he had a court order in force, highlighting yet another case where a suspect with a known legal history committed an act of extreme violence.
1.3 million illegal migrants could be legalized
These types of cases have become central to a heated national debate in Spain following a leaked police report regarding the legalization of up to 1.3 million migrants. While the government officially estimated that 500,000 people would benefit from a new regularization decree, a confidential risk analysis from the National Centre for Immigration and Borders (CNIF) suggests the number could be more than double that figure.
These incidents have provided political ammunition for those critical of the mass regularization plan described in the leaked police document. Opponents argue that the 1.3 million figure, which includes roughly 250,000 to 350,000 asylum seekers, represents a risk to public order that the state is not prepared to manage.
The leaked report warns of a powerful pull factor and expresses fear of administrative collapse within immigration units. Critics use the cases in Xilxes and Calella to question whether the government can adequately vet such a large number of applicants, especially when current systems like Viogen failed to prevent the tragedy of a woman who was already known to be at risk
Some of the key findings indicate that foreigners, who make up 31 percent of Spain’s prison population, commit per capita 500 percent more rapes and 414 percent more murders than Spanish citizens. The highest rates are seen among Arabs and Latinos, with many of them hailing from countries in South America known for their extremely high crime rates.
On a more regional level, the crime statistics are equally alarming. The Ertzaintza, the autonomous police force of Spain’s Basque Country, published its first report ever on the origin of detainees, with the data showing that 64 percent are foreigners, despite foreigners only making up approximately 14.1 percent of the population.
There were 80,111 crimes between January and September 2024, with 64.21 percent of those arrested being foreign nationals and 35 percent identified as Spanish.
For serious crimes like intentional homicide or murder, foreigners committed 53.8 percent of all such crimes. A total of 13 people were arrested and three were investigated. Six of those arrested were Spanish (either Basque or from other regions of Spain), and seven were foreigners. Two were from Maghreb and five from Latin America.
For sexual assault, foreigners were responsible for 68 percent of all cases.
For robbery with force, foreigners were responsible for 68.6 percent of cases.
For robbery with violence or intimidation, they committed 81.9 percent of all cases.
A Berlin appeals court has legally compelled Elon Musk’s social network X, formerly Twitter, to provide two German-based NGOs with access to public data regarding Hungary’s upcoming parliamentary elections, slated for April 12, 2026.
The judicial order was issued on Feb. 17 and came about due to a lawsuit launched by Democracy Reporting International (DRI) and supported by the Society for Civil Rights (GFF).
The legal action was initiated after X declined to provide the requested data in November 2025. As Remix News noted about this case in early this month: “With campaigning intensifying ahead of Hungary’s April vote, the legal battle over platform data now adds another layer to an already charged political environment, one in which the question of who defines and defends democratic legitimacy remains deeply contested across Europe.”
DRI maintained that this data is essential for identifying “possible risks of disinformation or foreign interference” within the Hungarian electoral landscape.
Following X’s initial refusal, the Berlin high court intervened, ruling that the company must comply under the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA). The DSA grants verified researchers the legal right to extract data from major digital platforms to monitor systemic risks. Opponents of the DSA contend that these researchers aren organizations are adamantly opposed to
Notably, during the presidential elections in Romania, the government moved to invalidate the entire vote, claiming Russia interfered on TikTok in favor of Călin Georgescu, who was the favorite to win the presidency in all major polling.
Files published by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee found that the EU interfered in eight European elections, including Romania’s 2024 presidential election, when the courts annulled Călin Georgescu’s victory in the first round of voting.
Files published by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee confirm that the EU interfered in eight European elections, including Romania's 2024 presidential election, where Călin Georgescu's victory was annulled
The House Judiciary Committe further wrote that “new, nonpublic documents cast doubt on the allegations of Russian interference that led a Romanian court to undo the country’s 2024 presidential election results. TikTok told the European Commission that it found ‘no evidence’ of a coordinated a Russian campaign to boost winning candidate Calin Georgescu—the key allegation made by Romanian authorities—and informed authorities of this finding. Since then, public reporting has shown that the alleged Russian TikTok campaign was actually funded by another Romanian political party.”
And new, nonpublic documents cast doubt on the allegations of Russian interference that led a Romanian court to undo the country’s 2024 presidential election results.
TikTok told the European Commission that it found “no evidence” of a coordinated a Russian campaign to boost… pic.twitter.com/wB8styfmSV
Nevertheless, the annulment of a national election in Romania in complete violation of democratic norms has never been challenged by the EU. Even if it were proven that Russia ran a campaign on TikTok in favor of Georgescu, the question arises if this is grounds to annul an entire democratic election?
Notably, the U.S. government contends that the EU is actively participating in election interference in numerous EU member states.
'The claims made by the US are damning. Brussels has a lot of questions to answer'@weimers discusses accusations the EU has 'interfered' in elections in the Netherlands, France, Slovakia and Romania have been met by media 'silence' in Europe. pic.twitter.com/hy6x6Q12AD
The latest court decision from Berlin has drawn sharp rebukes from conservative European circles. The think tank MCC Brussels has raised alarms, suggesting that allowing EU-funded groups to scrutinize sensitive information regarding a national election creates “serious questions about democratic sovereignty.”
In a formal statement, the organization pointed out that DRI receives significant financial backing from both the European Commission and the German Government — both entities tightly tied to groups strictly opposed to Orbán winning reelection. The MCC Brussels warned that such data demands could be seen as “external pressure rather than as an exercise in transparency.”
This legal battle in Berlin unfolds amid an ongoing battle between EU institutions and the Hungarian government over national policies and rule of law. By applying the DSA in this manner, the German court has effectively broadened the reach of EU regulations, empowering Brussels-linked entities to monitor member states’ internal electoral processes.
“MCC Brussels today announces the launch of the Democracy Interference Observatory (DIO), a new initiative designed to expose, document, and analyse how the European Union and EU-linked actors shape national elections across Europe. MCC Brussels will be cooperating with other organisations dedicated to defence of free speech on the DIO project.”
The MCC Brussels indicates that it already sought documents from the European Commission regarding interference in the Romanian elections. Even as Berlin courts order X to provide information, the EU commission is refusing to provide “crucial documents” related to its use of DSA to interfere in national elections.
Already last year, MCC Brussels has sought access to EU Commission documents containing information on the Digital Services Act (DSA) proceedings related to the Romanian presidential elections. The Commission has denied access to these crucial documents though, with the explanation that the DSA overrides the EU’s own Transparency Regulation – a decision upheld by the EU Ombudsman on 19 December 2025.
Yet recent releases by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, based on internal documents from major digital platforms, reveal extensive coordination between government authorities, technology companies, and external organizations to police and steer political speech online. These disclosures demonstrate that large-scale, institutionalized content governance affecting democratic debate is not speculative, but already operational.
As we see, political developments in Central and Eastern Europe point to the emergence of a recognizable operational pattern.
Following the Romanian elections, allegations of large-scale foreign interference were rapidly invoked to justify extraordinary regulatory measures, intensified platform enforcement, and expanded fact-checking operations. That same playbook is now beginning to appear in Hungary.
Hungarian opposition leader Péter Magyar has publicly adopted the Romanian framing, warning of foreign (specifically Russian) interference and calling for stronger EU-level responses. In parallel, his head of Cabinet, Márton Hajdu, has publicly argued for the application of the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) and AI Act in Hungary to counter online “disinformation.”
There are valid concerns of election interference in nearly every national election in Europe and beyond. However, before Romania, no election was annulled in such a dramatic fashion in the EU due to alleged interference, raising concerns that a future template could be applied to other EU member states that do not vote the desired EU-approved candidate into office.
The economic landscape in Germany grew increasingly bleak in 2025 as the nation’s industrial sector accelerated its workforce reductions. According to a recent analysis by EY Consulting, which synthesized figures from the Federal Statistical Office, approximately 124,000 jobs were eliminated over the 12-month period — a 2.3 percent contraction.
This trend represents a doubling of job losses when compared to the 2024 data, leaving the total industrial workforce at roughly 5.38 million by year-end.
Jan Brorhilker, one of EY Consulting’s managing directors in Germany, highlighted the severity of the situation by labeling it a “deep crisis.”
Despite Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s promise of an industrial and economic turnaround, the reality of the German economy shows that, so far, the country’s economic and employment crisis has only worsened.
The primary driver behind these cuts is a sustained erosion of revenue. Since 2023, industrial sales have contracted by nearly five percent, forcing firms to reconcile their payrolls with a shrinking market.
Despite the high number of layoffs, Brorhilker suggested the reduction has actually been conservative relative to the plummeting sales. He warned that “it would take a real and significant upswing to prevent further employment from melting down.”
Overall industrial sales dipped by 1.1 percent in 2025, marking the tenth consecutive year of declines by the final quarter. While the automotive, paper, and textile sectors recorded heavy losses, the metal and electrical industries managed to report increases.
The impact of the crisis has been unevenly distributed across the industrial landscape. The automotive sector was the primary casualty of 2025, accounting for 50,000 lost positions. Companies like Mercedes, which have seen falling profits while moving operations to other countries, have been special sore spots for the German economy.
Last month, Mercedes confirmed it will relocate production of its A-Class from Rastatt, Germany, to Kecskemét, Hungary. Hungary’s foreign minister, Péter Szijjártó, confirmed the move and attributed it to what he described as a stable, investment-friendly economic policy. “An economic policy based on sound common sense and a stable government that continually attracts new investment projects from global companies in America, Asia, and even Germany,” he said.
The right-wing Alternative for Germany party blamed the move on Germany’s “green climate and energy policies,” and argued for ending the energy transition, lifting the combustion engine ban, abolishing fleet emission limits, and rolling back reporting requirements.
Textiles and paper also faced aggressive declines. Conversely, electronics and metalwork provided a rare bright spot by recording growth. The chemical and pharmaceutical sectors proved resilient as well, with a negligible loss of only 2,000 jobs.
As Remix News reported last month, Andrea Nahles, head of Germany’s Federal Employment Agency, said that the labor market has been “stagnant for months,” with “no momentum” returning. In an interview with Web.de, Nahles said the number of vacancies has fallen for seven consecutive quarters and that the likelihood of unemployed people finding work has dropped to a record low.
“We have an indicator that shows how likely unemployed people are to find a job again. The value is usually around seven, but is now at 5.7 – the lowest it has ever been,” she said.
When evaluating the industrial sector’s health since the last pre-pandemic year in 2019, the long-term damage becomes even more evident. In total, the sector has shed 266,000 jobs, a decline of just under 5 percent in half a decade.
The most alarming statistics over the last year remain tied to the automotive world, which has seen its workforce shrink by 13 percent, or 111,000 jobs, since 2019. Similarly, the textile industry shrank by 16 percent and the metal industry by 13 percent. Only the chemical and pharmaceutical industries, up 3 percent, and the electrical industry, up 2 percent, have expanded their headcount over this period.
The outlook for the current year remains grim. EY anticipates that the combination of stagnant order books, fierce competition from China, and a wave of supplier bankruptcies will trigger further downsizing.
A significant concern is the industrial flight as major automotive players shift their core operations abroad to countries such as Hungary, but also India and elsewhere. Brorhilker cautioned that the relocation of manufacturing and research and development “comes at the expense of jobs in Germany.” While some analysts hope for a marginal recovery this year, the Leibniz Institute for Economic Research Halle suggests that a meaningful reversal is not yet on the horizon.
An Insa poll from two months ago, in December of 2025, found that Germans are deeply pessimistic about the economy.
Overall, the Insa poll showed that a substantial 65 percent of respondents agree with the statement that the German economy is currently experiencing a significant decline. Only 21 percent disagree. This economic anxiety crosses party lines, with even half of Green and SPD voters acknowledging a downturn.
In the same poll, Germans also pointed out that despite economic woes, Germans are even more concerned about migration. The poll showed that 50 percent of respondents agreed that migration is Germany’s biggest problem, while 38 percent reject this position.
The Covid-19 crisis may seem like ages ago, but massive fraud cases related to Covid-19 testing continue to reverberate through the German court system. Three recent cases illustrate how much was stolen from German taxpayers.
In all three cases, they appear to be German citizens with a foreign background, although in the third case, the only evidence to support the claim is that the suspect fleeing to Turkey. No name of the suspect has been released in court records, which makes this finding impossible to ascertain at this time.
Iyhab S.
In the first case, earlier this month, the Hanover District Court sentenced a 27-year-old operator Iyhab S. to three years and five months in prison. Iyhab S., whose first name means “gift” in Arabic, defrauded the public of exactly €1,642,505 through a small testing center located in a backyard in Hanover-Anderten.
Between March and December 2022, he collected these funds for tests that the public prosecutor’s office determined were almost entirely never conducted in the city of Anderten, according to German outlet HAZ.
At the start of his trial, his lawyer, Michael Nagel, stated that all the charges are accurate.
“The allegations are true,” his lawyer, Michael Nagel, said to start the trial at the Hanover District Court.
His lawyer explained that his client had spent the money on luxury travel and cars in Monaco and Dubai, stayed in expensive hotels, and bought high-end goods.
Judge Laurin Osterwold, while delivering his verdict, pointed to the man’s luxury lifestyle, stating: “Gucci, Louis Vuitton, the whole shebang.”
The investigation into Iyhab S. uncovered clumsily manipulated data sets where the same 326 people were recorded as being tested in the exact same order on consecutive days, or individuals were shown as being tested multiple times within a single minute.
A police data expert testified that this was technically impossible.
While the defendant claimed to live off family support and have no knowledge of his business’s insolvency, investigators noted he had withdrawn €500,000 in cash. The court also highlighted a suspiciously low positivity rate of 0.04 percent compared to the regional average of 2.7 percent.
“I am very sorry for how far things have come. I wish I could undo it, the judge suspected the money had been passed to a criminal organization,” said Iyhab S.
Can G.
This case mirrors the fraud committed by 27-year-old Can G.,, whose first name means “soul” in Turkish, who operated testing centers in Groß-Buchholz and Herrenhausen.
Similar to the other cases, a data expert found impossible sequences of names and instances where a person tested negative three times within three minutes. The prosecutor argued that anyone who falsifies the billing should not earn anything, demanding the confiscation of the entire sum.
Can G.’s defense team claimed their client could not repay the money because he and his fiancée had been robbed of up to €600,000 by armed assailants in late 2022.
“I deeply regret everything,” said Can G.
However, Judge Osterwold dismissed the robbery story as a tall tale. This specific robbery was allegedly linked to the operator of other testing centers, further suggesting a network of interconnected fraud.
According to the Association of Statutory Health Insurance Physicians of Lower Saxony, approximately 40 testing center operators have been reported for fraud, with total estimated damages reaching around €18 million.
Suspect fled to Turkey
In a separate instance of crisis-related white-collar crime, a 28-year-old man from Gifhorn was apprehended at Berlin Airport after fleeing to Turkey to escape an investigation into a testing station in Braunschweig’s Bürgerpark, according to HAZ.
He is alleged to have embezzled approximately €475,000 by billing for 90,000 tests when he had only documented 10,000 through his software.
In one instance, he submitted invoices for 861 tests on two days when only 17 were actually conducted.
Even as investigations began, the suspect attempted to bill for another €390,000 in fake tests, though this amount was never paid out. Following an international arrest warrant, the man was arrested in October 2025 upon his return to Germany and is currently in pretrial detention.
Quentin Deranque, a 23-year-old French data and computer science student with no prior criminal record, was killed following a lynching by Antifa thugs on the sidelines of a conference held by far-left LFI MEP Rima Hassan in Lyon. Now, more information is coming out about the young man, described by his close friends as “non-violent” and a pious Catholic, who lost his life defending the women of the feminist activist group Collectif Némésis.
“His image is the only thing we have left of him,” said his parents following his death in an interview with Le Figaro.
For a number of days, Quentin’s parents resisted sharing his photograph, seeking to shield the memory of their son.
🇫🇷✝️After Antifa thugs beat 23-year-old Quentin Deranque to death in Lyon, a friend of Quentin describes the premeditated ambush attack against them.
"There must have been around 40 of them, between 30 and 40. Armed with metal knuckle gloves, some had sticks or even used what… pic.twitter.com/zCtyWhKF1B
Their lives have fallen apart since Friday morning when a friend of Quentin’s arrived at 4 a.m. to deliver the news: Quentin had been rushed to Édouard-Herriot Hospital. The victim’s parents arrived in time to the hospital to see him before he succumbed to a head injury caused by his attackers. As of Monday, his body remained with forensic experts.
In the family’s released portrait, Quentin is shown as a slender, athletic young man of mixed heritage—his mother is of Latin American origin. His roommate Rémy fondly recalls teasing him as a “skinny kid,” which eventually prompted Quentin to take up weight training and boxing to hold his own.
Far-left activists in Paris tear down posters paying tribute to 23-year-old Quentin Deranque, who was beaten to death by masked "antifascists" in Lyon last week. pic.twitter.com/TQ0hNUyKww
Quentin was described as the conscientious one of his friend group. He worked as a dedicated data science student at Lyon 2 University, where he balanced his studies in finance and computer science with a job at the SNCF, often working late into the night.
Friends remember him as “discreet,” “humble,” and deeply connected to his family in Vienne, his sister in Bordeaux, and his relatives in Peru.
However, his true passion lay in his massive library. Known for his vast erudition, Quentin could discuss political philosophy, from the Jacobin universalism of Anacharsis Cloots to fierce debates on Rousseau’s “The Social Contract.” In the realm of theology, he was known for refuting Calvinist predestination and studying the “Summa Theologica” alongside modern papal encyclicals. His intellectual foundation was built upon the triptych of Aristotle, Saint Thomas Aquinas, and Saint Augustine.
“Quentin became Catholic for identity reasons: patriotism and the love of God are linked in him”, summarizes Domitille, Quentin’s friend, who sees in his journey within Catholicism as a sign that Quentin was a person who was “complete, who likes to see things through to the end.”
🇫🇷🔴 JUST IN: Shocking footage of Antifa thugs murdering French nationalist Quentin D. in Lyon has now been released.
Though baptized as a child, Quentin’s turn to the Catholic faith was a later, intellectual discovery. He became a fixture in Lyon’s traditionalist Catholic circles, frequenting Saint-Georges and Saint-Just. He joined the choir, served the homeless, and was deeply moved by the traditional Latin Mass, though he also attended modern services at Sainte-Croix. He also participated in projects to renovate his local church as well.
Friends describe him as a “missionary” at heart.
“He was concerned with passing on the faith, especially to younger people,” notes his friend Domitille. He saw faith and reason as inseparable, often participating in pilgrimages like the one to Chartres to reconnect with his roots.
Faith, identity, and politics
For Quentin, Catholicism was “integral”—it could not be separated from civic life. This led him to a right-wing, nationalist worldview. He served as his father’s confirmation sponsor and was active in parish fundraising and missionary work.
“He was right-wing, nationalist and illiberal, he loved his people and his civilization but at the same time embraced modernity”, said a friend, Vincent.
While not a formal member, he participated in Academia Christiana events. He also protested against euthanasia legislation and had brief associations with groups like Action Française and the Audace collective. He was involved in the founding of a nationalist branch in Bourgoin-Jallieu called Les Allobroges, participating in poster campaigns and the 2025 May 9th Committee march.
Despite the constant backdrop of political tension in Lyon between nationalist and Antifa groups, activists note that Quentin had never personally encountered such violence before the night of Feb. 12. That evening, he was beaten so severely that he was left for dead, ending a life defined by a relentless “quest for truth.”
French police indicate that six suspects have been identified in the brutal beating death, but so far, no arrests have been made. The family has only been left to mourn in the meantime.
The German public broadcaster ZDF has admitted to a significant editorial oversight after its flagship news program, Heute Journal, aired AI-generated images featuring U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arresting an immigrant family.
After uproar on social media over the fake news segment, which included a visible OpenAI’ “Sora” watermark on the screen, the broadcaster expressed regret over the error and has since updated the report to remove the synthetic content.
Critics pointed out that while it is becoming harder to differentiate fake AI content from real events, the appearance of the Sora watermark made it clear that this was AI content.
🇩🇪JUST IN: German public broadcaster ZDF is accused of spreading a fake AI-generated clip of "ICE troops" arresting a migrant family.
Remarkably, the clip features a Sora AI watermark.
All Germans are forced to pay a €20 fee every month to support public networks like ZDF. pic.twitter.com/sZ3wHghoRd
The controversy from the Feb. 15 report featured fake AI scenes of a woman and two children being led away by ICE. During the segment, ICE agents were referred to as “troops.”
When questioned about the incident, ZDF stated that the images should have been clearly marked. The broadcaster explained: “This marking was not transferred when the article was transferred for technical reasons.”
The question now is whether ZDF generated these images in-house. ZDF has declined to comment on whether the editorial staff was aware that the footage was AI-generated at the time of the initial broadcast.
If ZDF created them, the fact that arguably the biggest public broadcaster is creating AI-generated content for public broadcasting is raising concerns about how often AI-generated content has been produced without proper labeling in the past.
In response, ZDF reiterated its commitment to transparency, noting: “ZDF’s AI principles stipulate that AI-generated images are always transparently labeled.”
The incident caused further confusion when the original broadcast was temporarily removed from YouTube and the ZDF media library, leading some media outlets to report that the broadcaster had “deleted its fake video.” ZDF clarified that the removal was only a temporary measure while the editorial team replaced the AI sequences with authentic video and still images.
A revised version of the program is now available in the media library, accompanied by a disclaimer stating: “Video subsequently changed for editorial reasons.”
All German households are required to pay nearly €20 per month to fund ZDF and other public broadcasting outlets like ARD. That translates to billions every year.
The outlets are routinely accused of bias against conservatives, including negative reports targeting the Alternative for Germany (AfD) and a high rate of rejection for AfD guests on the networks .
During their state party conference this past weekend, the Berlin Greens finalized an election manifesto that places radical migration reform at the center of their platform. The party is advocating for the broad admission of individuals displaced by environmental factors like climate change, alongside expanded humanitarian programs for specific conflict zones.
The centerpiece of the Green manifesto is a commitment to provide refuge for those fleeing environmental degradation. Following the vote, the regional association signaled its intent to make Berlin a primary destination for these individuals. Notably, the city has a long-term housing crisis, with the government spending now €1 billion a year on housing for migrants, a cost that has tripled in just four years. In addition, all current asylum accommodations are already full.
WATCH: 🇩🇪🇪🇺 Mass immigration is fueling the West's housing crisis.
Here's how it's happening in Germany.
In a powerful speech in the German Bundestag, @AfD politician Carolin Bachmann slams the ruling government for allowing 2 million migrants into the country while families… pic.twitter.com/DMEqiV316S
“This will be our government policy,” announced Philmon Ghirmai, the Greens’ state chairperson. “We also want to reintroduce the admission of people affected by climate disasters.”
To define the scope of this move, the party points to United Nations data suggesting that 86 million people globally reside in hotspots of the climate crisis. For context, Berlin currently hosts 37,592 registered refugees, a figure that has already stretched the city’s accommodation and financial resources.
However, there is broad latitude to expand this 86 million much higher, especially if the worst predictions about climate change come true. Notably, China, which has far higher CO2 emissions than Germany, still refuses to take virtually any migrants, whether legal, illegal, or refugees. At the same time, China is pulling vastly ahead of European nations in terms of renewable energy technology, meaning China may have not only a more cohesive society in the end, but also produce more of the green technology that could potentially solve issues associated with climate change.
Beyond climate-related migration, the Greens are pushing for localized reception initiatives. The party aims to mirror previous efforts by establishing dedicated pathways for residents of the Gaza Strip and Afghanistan. Notably, Afghans have some of the worst integration rates in Germany.
The decision states: “We advocate the resumption of the country reception program for Afghanistan and want to extend the model to Gaza.”
Approximately 30,000 Palestinians already live in Berlin.
The Greens also want to block deportation, with the manifesto stating that 20,000 individuals currently slated for deportation in Berlin should be allowed to stay in Germany. They continue to reject deportations to Syria, Iran, and Afghanistan.
The party wants to end mass accommodation facilities in Berlin, which account for the majority of where refugees are located. Instead, they intend to implement a “social housing program for refugees” that would see migrants housed in apartments distributed across all city districts.
For the first time last year, the city of Berlin’s Senate has received a detailed breakdown of all asylum costs in the city, revealing the high costs of foreigners for Germany’s capital city.
Last year, the city spent at least €2.1 billion on migrants, which equals 5 percent of the entire budget, reads a report prepared by the Senate Administration for the Main Committee of the House of Representatives.
Berlin’s crime is also disproportionately committed by foreigners. Data from last year showed that foreigners are responsible for 43.9 percent of all crimes in Berlin in 2024. Murders and manslaughter also jumped over 50 percent compared to 2023.
New data shows that foreigners are responsible for 43.9% of all crimes in Berlin in 2024.
Murders and manslaughter also jumped over 50% compared to 2023!
"What should not be ignored is that 30% of foreign suspects are not registered in Berlin," said a police union rep. pic.twitter.com/5r3nwUEzMz
With the election for the Berlin House of Representatives scheduled for Sept. 20, the Greens are currently polling at 16 percent, trailing the CDU, the Left, and the AfD. However, a red-red-green coalition remains a mathematical possibility, which would give these manifesto points a potential path to becoming official policy.
The French city of Lyon is reeling following the death of 23-year-old mathematics student Quentin Deranque, who succumbed to injuries sustained during a violent assault from Antifa thugs on Feb. 12. Investigators have reportedly identified five to six participants in the lynching. Several of these suspects were allegedly previously flagged on “S” files, the French term for serious criminals, for their ties to the now-dissolved Antifa movement, Youth Guard (Jeune Garde).
In the wake of the brutal killing, there are already those claiming the attack foreshadows a civil war in France.
“The circumstances of Quentin’s death, as he came to protect the women of Collectif Némésis, are a foreshadowing of the civil war that is looming. The petty, servile foot-soldiers of ‘antifascism’ are the cannon fodder of Islamism, which seeks to overthrow our liberal and egalitarian social order and lock women away. Young Quentin is a hero,” wrote Florence Bergeaud-Blackle, the president of CERI and a doctor of anthropology.
Les conditions de la mort de Quentin venu protéger les femmes de @Coll_Nemesis sont une préfiguration de la guerre civile qui s’annonce. Les petits serviles de « l’antifascisme » sont la chair à canon de l’islamisme qui veut changer notre ordre social libéral et égalitaire et… pic.twitter.com/JRHLmz4BQZ
The vicious attack against Deranque, a pious Catholic, has shocked France, with even French President Emmanuel Macron commenting on the murder.
“In Lyon, Quentin was the victim of an unprecedented outburst of violence. He lost his life at just 23 years old. To his family and loved ones, I send my thoughts and the support of the Nation. In the Republic, no cause, no ideology will ever justify killing,” wrote Macron. He further called for “calm” and “restraint” following the killing.
The murder took place in Lyon at approximately 6:00 p.m. at the corner of Rue Victor-Lagrange and Rue Camille-Desmoulins. Video footage obtained published on French media sites depicts a harrowing scene where a final assailant, wearing a light-colored cap and khaki jacket, “delivers a final kick to his head” before fleeing.
🇫🇷🔴 JUST IN: Shocking footage of Antifa thugs murdering French nationalist Quentin D. in Lyon has now been released.
In the lead-up to the attack, Deranque was working security on behalf of the feminist activist organization Collectif Némésis, along with approximately a dozen other individuals. Approximately 40 Antifa activists pursued the group of women, resulting in running battles in which Deranque was cornered and kicked multiple times in the head by a large pack of Antifa operatives.
Despite the severity of his injuries, Deranque briefly regained consciousness. Accompanied by his friend Max, who was also injured, the pair attempted to walk 1.5 kilometers to Quentin’s apartment rather than seeking immediate medical aid. According to accounts given by Max’s relatives, their roughly 1.5 kilometers journey was a long and arduous ordeal as Quentin D.’s condition, likely due to a cerebral hemorrhage, steadily worsened.
The pair eventually reached Quai Fulchiron around 7:30 p.m. — 90 minutes after the attack — where a passerby intervened and insisted on calling emergency services. Deranque was declared brain dead the following day.
The tragedy has ignited a firestorm of political accusations. Collectif Némésis has claimed that active members of the anti-fascist group Jeune Garde, including a parliamentary collaborator of MP Raphaël Arnault, were involved.
À la suite du décès de Quentin à Lyon et au regard de témoignages mentionnant M. Jacques-Elie Favrot, assistant parlementaire du député Raphaël Arnault, j'ai décidé, à titre conservatoire et sans préjudice des suites de l’enquête judiciaire, de suspendre ses droits d'accès à… pic.twitter.com/9j61obEvEr
Yaël Braun-Pivet, the president of the National Assembly, has suspended one of the potential suspects, Jacques-Elie Favrot, in response.
“Following the death of Quentin in Lyon and in light of testimonies mentioning Mr. Jacques-Elie Favrot, parliamentary assistant to Deputy Raphaël Arnault, I have decided, as a precautionary measure and without prejudice to the outcomes of the judicial investigation, to suspend his access rights to the premises of the National Assembly, in order to prevent disturbances to public order that his presence might provoke,” she wrote on X.
Raphaël Arnault is known as a far-left politician in the party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, La France Insoumise (LFI).
The lawyer for Arnault’s collaborator stated that her client “formally denies being responsible for this tragedy.” Arnault expressed “horror and disgust” over the death, stating on social media his wish that “all light be shed” on the circumstances. A hearing regarding the legality of the Jeune Garde dissolution was scheduled for last Wednesday but was canceled without explanation.
In addition, the far-left extremist group Young Guard released a statement via their lawyer, Aïnoha Pascual, asserting that they “cannot be held responsible” for the events, as the organization had suspended all activities following its June 2025 dissolution.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s LFI is now under fire from critics. Government spokesperson Maud Brégeon denounced the “moral responsibility” of the political party of Mélenchon, which, according to her, encourages “a climate of violence.”
LFI is known for its deep ties with Antifa and extremist left-wing organizations, with some calling for a terror investigation into the party.
“The day after an attack of extreme gravity against a young man in his 20s, Quentin, left for dead in the streets of Lyon by far-left anti-fascist groups, the government must take its responsibilities and classify the Antifa movement on the list of terrorist organizations,’ the group wrote. “We have been warning for many years about the dangerousness of these groups and about the extreme violence of which they are capable. Recent facts are unfortunately not isolated: They are part of a climate of intimidation, attacks and repeated pressure which aims to silence all ideological opposition through fear and violence.”
Ukrainian political analyst Bogdan Popov, who is sharply opposed to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, has expressed deep skepticism regarding recent opinion polls that show the Tisza Party leading against Hungary’s governing conservative parties. Consequently, he sees little chance for Péter Magyar and his supporters to defeat the Fidesz–KDNP alliance in the parliamentary elections scheduled for April 12.
Popov suggests that instead of relying on an opposition victory, Ukraine could have engaged in systemic efforts to unseat the Hungarian prime minister for victory. However, he said he does not believe this has occurred.
“To be honest, my forecast is not very encouraging. I do not believe that any opposition force can win in Hungary. That is, if there was systematic work on the demolition of Orbán, we could have demolished him with the forces of Ukrainian information and psychological special units. But since, as far as I know, there is no systematic work, most likely we will have to live with this toad in the head of Hungary,” said Popov.
The analyst dismisses polls showing an advantage for Péter Magyar, claiming that surveys from “pro-European pollsters” are unreliable, a belief that many other analysts have noted, citing previous results from these polling agencies that were up to 20 points off when the final national election results were announced. He argues that the core of Orbán’s electoral base remains extremely stable and difficult to disrupt.
“And in fact, my prediction is quite pessimistic. I do not believe in the victory of any opposition forces in Hungary, because we look at the polls of all sorts of pro-European pollsters who get grants from liberals, which claim (the Tisza party) is now demolishing Orbán, and so on. In fact, the base of Orbán’s electorate there is like iron, and it is very difficult to knock it down,” he said.
This video emerged following previous threats from a Ukrainian neo-Nazi major who was decorated by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That individual had earlier envisioned invading Hungary and hunting down Viktor Orbán. This figure, Yevhen Karas, was the former leader of the neo-Nazi organization known as the C14 group.
There have been several instances of Ukrainian public figures threatening Hungary and its prime minister, including when he was added to an infamous ultra-nationalist kill list.
As reported by Hirado.hu and summarized by Index, Bohdan Cservak, the first deputy chairman of the State Committee for Television and Radio Broadcasting of Ukraine and head of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, also shared rather threatening views on Facebook. He wrote that “Times change, but the independent Ukraine, which is fighting a bloody war with Moscow, will never again allow Hungary to humiliate Ukrainians. And for the crimes committed, retaliation will inevitably follow.”
Due to years of uncontrolled mass migration, many Europeans are asking what concrete options there are to reverse course, with many feeling that the situation is hopeless and cannot be significantly reversed. However, a new report titled “Taking Back Control from Brussels: The Renationalization of the EU Migration and Asylum Policies” — produced by the Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), Hungary’s Migration Research Institute, and Poland’s Ordo Iuris Institute — provides comprehensive solutions to the crisis.
The paper’s core thesis offers bold and practical solutions today, noting that the power still rests with member states. The authors write: “European Union member states can reclaim effective authority over migration and asylum policy without changing the EU treaties.”
The report outlines how asylum policy has “completely collapsed” in the EU and reached a point of “total failure.” The authors contend that the current system lacks democratic legitimacy and has turned the Schengen area into a “sieve” that facilitates illegal migration and prevents effective border protection. Given the recent legalization actions of the far-left Spanish government, aimed at regularizing approximately 500,000 migrants who can then move freely across Europe, the paper’s proposals may be more relevant than ever.
The paper calls for a fundamental “paradigm shift” to restore migration sovereignty to individual nation-states, asserting that renationalization is a necessity for Europe to regain control over its borders and territory.
The following 18 proposals from the second part of the paper outline a roadmap for this renationalization. The paper itself provides far more details about each proposal and is recommended reading for any European party looking for a blueprint to regain control of immigration.
I. Opt-out and Derogations to Legal Frameworks
Grant Member States an Opt-in/Opt-out
Allow all Member States to request an individual opt-in or opt-out from the common EU migration and asylum policy, similar to the existing status of Denmark and Ireland.
Insert a “Notwithstanding Clause”
Amend the treaty to allow national parliaments to temporarily suspend EU migration rules when public order, security, or pressing national interests are at stake.
Unilaterally Disapply problematic EU Acquis
If treaty reforms are blocked, Member States should unilaterally stop applying the most problematic elements of the existing EU migration legal framework.
Withdraw from or Suspend the ECHR
Consider partial or total withdrawal from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights or temporarily suspending its application to regain border control flexibility.
Derogate from the 1967 Protocol to the Geneva Convention
Denounce this protocol to restore national flexibility and move away from “untouchable dogmas” regarding universal asylum obligations.
II. A New Migration and Asylum Paradigm
Restore National Competence for Readmission Agreements
Return the power to negotiate and conclude readmission agreements with third countries to individual Member States, as the centralized EU model has failed.
Condition EU Funding on Third-Country Cooperation
Legally mandate that EU funding to third countries be strictly conditional on their effective cooperation in migration, particularly regarding returns and readmissions.
Restore National Competence Over Returns
Grant Member States full control over the detention and expulsion of illegal migrants without interference from the EU or the European Court of Justice.
Outsource Asylum Processing to Safe Third Countries
Enable Member States to establish mechanisms to outsource the processing of asylum requests to safe third countries outside the EU territory.
Amend the Schengen Borders Code
Revise the code to eliminate legal ambiguities that currently hinder border guards and lead to “abusive” claims of refoulement.
Limit Free Movement to European Citizens
Restrict the right of free movement within the Schengen area strictly to EU citizens to prevent illegal secondary movements.
Prohibit Asylum Applications After Illegal Entry
Enact rules that bar individuals from lodging asylum claims if they have entered the Union territory illegally.
Radically Amend the Search and Rescue (SAR) Framework
Change SAR rules to ensure the duty to rescue does not equate to a right of entry and prohibit any collusion with smugglers.
Abolish EU Competence on Family Reunification and Integration
Return full control over family reunification and integration policies to national governments, arguing these areas bring “no added value” at the EU level.
Earmark EU Funding for Physical Border Infrastructure
Specifically designate European funds to finance physical barriers like fences and walls at external borders.
III. Reconsidering Civil Society and Agency Roles
Reform Frontex to Help Member States
Ensure the EU border control agency Frontex serves to assist rather than control member states and remove all NGO presence from its internal structures.
Strict Transparency and Accountability for NGOs
Subject any organization receiving European funds to rigorous rules on transparency, traceability, and accountability.
Prohibit EU Funding for Pro-Migration Organizations
Ban any direct or indirect EU funding for organizations that promote or facilitate illegal migration.
“The time for decisive action is now.”
One of the core points the paper tries to outline is that “contrary to popular belief, the EU does not possess exclusive competence in this field. While the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union provides for a common asylum policy, it does not abolish national sovereignty over border control, internal security, or the determination of who may enter and remain on national territory.”
In other words, there is an extraordinary amount that EU member states can accomplish in the area of migration policy if a determined national government is in place.
One of the authors of the report, Jerzy Kwaśniewski, an attorney and the president of the Ordo Iuris Institute for Legal Culture, said:
“Europe is facing an unprecedented legal crisis that is depriving member states of their ability to protect their own borders and citizens. After years of a common EU migration and asylum policy, the system has completely collapsed. The Schengen area has turned into a sieve through which illegal migrants move freely. Return procedures for illegal migrants are largely illusory. Meanwhile, overlapping international obligations have made effective border protection almost impossible from a legal standpoint.
To make matters worse, European taxpayers are financing NGOs that directly facilitate illegal migration and obstruct effective border control. Given the total failure of the European Union’s common migration and asylum policy, further reforms within the current EU framework are no longer possible. A fundamental paradigm shift is needed — the restoration of migration sovereignty to nation-states, which alone possess the democratic legitimacy to decide who has the right to enter and reside on their territory.
He added that “the renationalization of migration policy is no longer an option; it is a necessity. The alternative is a complete loss of control over Europe’s borders and the definitive end of our ability to manage our own territory. The time for debate is over. The time for decisive action is now.”
German police have arrested a naked man who participated in a series of disturbing sexual attacks and an attempted rape in the Bavarian city of Wenzenbach.
The chaos began at approximately Feb. 7 at 7:45 a.m. at a dog park on Regensburger Straße. Authorities received an emergency call reporting an attempted rape. According to the updated police account, a 24-year-old man from Regensburg, who was entirely naked throughout the duration of the crimes, began sexually harassing several women in the park. He eventually targeted a 47-year-old woman, groping her body while simultaneously exposing and touching his own genitals, according to the police report. For this action, the man was charged with attempted rape.
The assault was only halted when a citizen courageously intervened, forcing the man to release the victim and flee the scene. However, the suspect’s rampage continued a few streets away. He reportedly forced his way into a vehicle and physically compelled the 52-year-old female driver out of the car.
The situation ended at that point when two citizens tackled the suspect and held him on the ground until police arrived to take him into custody.
Authorities noted that the 24-year-old was in the midst of a mental health crisis and was subsequently transported to a specialized psychiatric clinic.
The Upper Palatinate Police Headquarters praised local “citizens who did not look the other way and intervened courageously!”
There is no information about the background of the suspect at this time.
Europe’s current crisis surrounding contaminated infant formula has become one of the largest recalls in the history of the European food industry. and the scandal has exposed a terrifying reality for all Europeans: if Europe cannot even trace and identify lethal toxins in the food supply of its most vulnerable citizens, it is in no position to open its gates to the massive, under-regulated agricultural markets of South America with the new Mercosur free trade deal.
Major brands like Nestlé, Danone, and Lactalis pulling baby formula products across 60 countries, The tragedy centers on the bacterial toxin cereulide, which has already been linked to the suspected deaths of two infants in France. While the trail for this specific contamination leads back to a supplier in China, the structural failures revealed by the investigation provide a grim preview of what awaits Europe under the Mercosur agreement.
While it is true that there is virtually no stopping Mercosur at this point, which was already passed by the European Commission without even a formal vote from the European Parliament, it is still worth noting how incredibly incompetent the European Union is and why it now represents a threat to Europeans’ food safety.
European food law strictly mandates that companies must enable the traceability of their products at every individual production step. Yet, consumer advocates like Foodwatch note that even global giants like Nestlé took weeks to determine the source of the toxin.
This raises a fundamental question of sovereignty and safety: If European authorities struggle to police existing global supply chains, how can they possibly monitor the vast agricultural plains of Brazil and Argentina, along with their various poorly regulated food processors and producers? The Mercosur pact will flood the European market with beef, poultry, and soy from countries where monitoring systems are notoriously opaque.
If the European Union cannot manage a “silent recall” of baby milk produced partly in the Netherlands and Germany, Europe cannot rely on overseas regulators to ensure that South American imports meet the supposedly rigorous “Farm to Fork” standards Europeans expect.
The scandal has also highlighted the danger of relying on corporate self-regulation, especially when dealing with countries outside the EU bloc. Relying on China for baby formula ingredients, given the country’s own questionable history with baby formula saw six deaths and 58,000 infants hospitalized in 2008, should be a wake-up call to Europeans who believe they can obtain cheap food products overseas without any public health costs.
Nestlé detected traces of cereulide as early as November 2025, yet a comprehensive public warning did not follow until January 5, 2026. This “transparency gap” demonstrates that corporations—whether European or South American—prioritize brand protection and the avoidance of damage claims over immediate public safety. It also shows that even the biggest producers inside Europe cannot be trusted. Foreign corporations, which cannot truly be held accountable, can be trusted even less to ensure poorly tested and poorly regulated products are not shipped into European markets.
🇫🇷🇪🇺 26-year-old French organic farmer, Anaïs Foulquier, says that the EU's new Mercosur free trade deal with South America will destroy her farm.
"We are young organic farmers. We rear our own goats, dairy cows and laying hens. We respect everything, the standards, the… pic.twitter.com/UyJjN0cWY8
Under the Mercosur agreement, this lack of transparency would be magnified. Brazil, the largest player in the Mercosur bloc, currently uses more harmful pesticides than almost anywhere else on Earth. Many of these chemicals are banned within the EU due to their carcinogenic and environmental impacts. Opening the market further invites a “race to the bottom” where European farmers, who are bound by strict environmental laws, must compete with South American mega-corporations that utilize chemical shortcuts with little to no oversight from the EU’s overstretched food inspectors.
The German Association of Food Inspectors (BVLK) has already sounded the alarm, noting that they can currently “only manage half of the planned controls” due to staff bottlenecks. In Germany alone, food supervision is fragmented across 430 regional offices.
While immediate acute cases of poisoning and outright death — as seen in the latest EU scandal involving baby formula — might be rare, pesticides are being fingered as a part of the Western world’s fertility crisis, along with rising rates of cancer.
Adding the complexity of the Mercosur agreement to this strained system is a recipe for disaster. If 430 monitoring offices and health departments in Germany, responsible for the actual “boots on the ground” work of food safety, cannot seamlessly coordinate a recall for baby formula manufactured in the Allgäu region, they cannot be expected to verify the pesticide residues or bacterial safety of tons of meat and produce arriving from South America.
The baby formula recall should prove definitively that Europe’s highly globalized food industry is already dangerously vulnerable. The fact that the EU food authority (EFSA) only just established a guideline for cereulide in February 2026 shows that regulators are constantly playing catch-up with industrial risks.
The Mercosur agreement represents an intentional decision to increase this vulnerability. It asks Europeans to trust in the regulatory rigor of distant nations and the “goodwill” of global corporations—two things that the current scandal has proven do not exist. If Europeans cannot protect the infants in our own nurseries from contaminated ingredients sourced abroad, Brussels has no business signing away European food standards for the sake of a trade deal that will financially ruin European farmers.
This crisis reinforces the investment thesis for “sovereign” and “traceable” infrastructure. While traditional food giants suffer massive hits to their image, the shift toward localized or highly scrutinized “closed-loop” production should be accelerating. Instead, Europe has taken a major step backwards.
As Remix News already noted in our extensive coverage of the Mercosur agreement, this criticism comes on top of the fact that Mercosur will be a disaster in terms of carbon emissions and the destruction of the Amazon rainforest. Incredibly, Germany’s Green Party supports this agreement, which will ship food from halfway across the world and almost certainly worsen climate change.
A 44-year-old Chinese national who went on a rape spree for years before he was caught has now been sentenced in an extraordinary case in Frankfurt. The details of the case are especially disturbing, considering the scale of the rapes and the fact that many women were so drugged that they never even knew they were raped until police informed them later.
In the Frankfurt Regional Court, the man, who has not been named, was found guilty on Friday of last week of attempted murder, aggravated rape, dangerous bodily harm, the distribution of violent pornographic content, and illegal trafficking in narcotics and pharmaceuticals.
The suspect was sentenced to 14 years in prison and ordered to be in subsequent preventive detention. The court also ordered him to pay five-figure sums to each of his approximately victims, who were mostly Chinese as well.
According to the court’s findings, between January 2020 and November 2024, the Chinese citizen drugged and raped women aged between 18 and 33 in several German cities, including Frankfurt, Göttingen, Nuremberg, Mannheim, and Dreieich.
According to Tagesschau, there were 20 different crimes tried during the trial, but there was no specific number of victims published.
He filmed and photographed his assaults, later sharing the footage in Telegram groups where he was called the “master” by other users due to his prolific raping abilities.
Presiding judge Jörn Immerschmitt stated the men shared rape fantasies and provided tips and advice to each other in the chat.
Notably, the group also referred to the infamous Gisèle Pelicot case in n France, which saw her husband organize men to come to his house and rape his drugged wife.
“Haha, I want to take part in this action too,” said the Chinese convicted man, referring to Pelicot.
The victims featured a wide array of different women, including the convicted man’s social circle, coworkers, close friends, lodgers, and neighbors.
The man also used Chinese platforms Xiaohongshu and WeChat to find his victims and even posed as a woman in some cases while offering rentals for prospective tenants. Once he met up with the victims, he drugged them with narcotics, raped them, and often filmed the act.
The woman in the case often had no idea they were even raped until the police approached them since they were sedated during the incident, creating a scenario where the trauma also only began long after the actual incident, according to taz newspaper.
Judge Immerschmitt said the victim experienced “very serious life changes, probably forever,” and many suffer from suicidal thoughts. A number of women have left their jobs and moved cities as a result of what they experienced.
The judge described a “narcissistic personality“ with a profound lack of empathy, with his actions becoming more brazen over the years.
In one case, he raped a colleague in the middle of a livestream and in another instance, he raped a lodger next to an 11-month-old baby.
Despite these shocking details, the judge, Immerschmitt, said that the court was deliberately not sharing certain details of the case with the public because they were too disturbing.
The attempted murder charge was also tied to the sedatives the man used, which could have killed the women he targeted due to the high quantities of the drug. In eight cases, he sedated women with prescription sleeping pills and raped them, with the judge ruling that the fact that he sedated them meant he also accepted their potential deaths. In several cases, he left the women unconscious while he left the apartment.
Investigators seized hard drives that contained 176,755 sexual videos and images, including serious sexual abuse of children.
The trial has been ongoing since October of last year, but it has not been widely reported on, nor has there been any fierce public debate in Germany about the rights of women. There has not been a single major news story on German public television about the case. German public news outlet Taggespiegel provided sparse details of the case, but Taz newspaper provided arguably the most in-depth details of the rapes.
Unlike the Pelicot incident, which sparked a national debate on rape, this case has sparked no type of national debate. There have also been no large-scale protests for the women involved, as there were in France following the Pelicot case.
Remarkably, another Chinese national, 27, is currently on trial for drugging, raping and filming his girlfriend for months. During the trial, he confessed to his actions, saying they were “rash, selfish, dangerous, ugly and uncouth.” He told the court he found sleeping women “very beautiful.”
German police data shows that Chinese nationals are consistently among the groups with the lowest rates of violent and sexual crime in Germany.
German courts are currently deliberating whether leading Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician Björn Höcke could be hit with a “speaking ban” during a campaign event in the city of Lindenberg im Allgäu.
The move could signal a worsening of free speech in Germany, with Höcke using the legal proceedings to make the case that his fundamental rights are being violated.
“Democrats of all countries, look to Germany! Right now, German courts are seriously deliberating whether I should be issued a speaking ban for political events! I am entitled to the fundamental right to exercise freedom of speech. I am a member of a constitutional body. I am the opposition leader of a German parliament,” wrote Höcke.
“And then there is also the party privilege: So in the future, a supposedly neutral administration should be allowed to decide with whom a party may conduct election campaigning and with whom not? That is absurd! What we are witnessing here is yet another attack on parliamentary democracy in Germany,” he added.
Demokraten aller Länder schaut auf Deutschland! Zurzeit verhandeln deutsche Gerichte ernsthaft darüber, ob ich ein Redeverbot für politische Veranstaltungen erhalte! Mir steht das Grundrecht auf Ausübung der Meinungsfreiheit zu. Ich bin Mitglied eines Verfassungsorgans. Ich bin… https://t.co/19MBqc8Tjr
The move to ban Höcke from speaking comes after the city of Lindenberg im Allgäu lost its initial effort to ban the campaign event entirely. Now, the city is shifting its strategy to specifically bar Björn Höcke from the stage.
The city originally attempted to cancel the AfD’s rental of the town hall entirely. However, the Augsburg Administrative Court blocked this move during urgent proceedings, declaring the total revocation of the hall inadmissible. Crucially, the judges noted that “as a milder priority measure, a ban on speaking for Mr. Höcke” was a legally viable alternative.
According to a city spokesperson, Lindenberg is now pursuing this option, according to the BR news outlet.
In response, the Westallgäu-Lindau AfD district association has signaled its intent to challenge this speech ban in court. In a court hearing expected to take place in Augsburg today, a final ruling is expected to be issued.
The dispute centers on a rally scheduled for Sunday, Feb. 15, in the municipal Löwensaal, where the AfD intends to introduce its candidates for the upcoming local elections on March 8. The city moved to reclaim the hall once it became clear that Höcke, the Thuringian AfD leader, was on the guest list.
City officials justified the move by stating they expected “criminal statements as well as statements approving of the Nazi dictatorship and anti-Semitic statements” from Höcke, specifically citing his two previous convictions for using a prohibited Nazi slogan.
While the Administrative Court found the city’s concerns to be “understandable,” they ruled that canceling the rental outright violated the principle of equal treatment for political parties. The court maintained that the administration’s arguments were “not sufficient for such a step.”
As the legal battle continues, local tensions are high. Opponents of the AfD have organized rallies and a demonstration, with at least 2,000 participants expected to gather in Lindenberg.
Lindenberg is not the only municipality fighting a “Höcke appearance” this week. A similar battle is unfolding in Seybothenreuth, Upper Franconia, where Höcke is slated to speak on Saturday. The local municipality is also attempting to block his speech, and a decision from the Bayreuth Administrative Court is expected this Thursday.
Germany is increasingly rebelling against multi-billion-euro data centers, reflecting a trend seen in other Western countries. This time, Groß-Gerau, a town outside of the mega internet hub of Frankfurt, is the latest to reject the construction of a major data center over fears of rising power costs, diminished water and environmental resources, ugly aesthetics, and skepticism over job creation.
Major U.S. investors were behind the push to build the 174-megawatt data center, but local residents and politicians have successfully stopped construction of the five-building complex, which represented €2.5 billion in investment.
The city parliament of the southern Hessian district town officially stopped the construction of the project by Vantage Data Centers. According to German media reports, the assembly rejected the proposal in an 18 to 14 vote, according to Welt newspaper.
The opposition was led by a coalition of mostly left-wing and libertarian parties — the SPD, Greens, FDP, Free Voters, and the Left Party. Meanwhile, the business-friendly CDU and the Free Voters’ Association backed the project.
Although the investors had already purchased the 14-hectare site on the outskirts of the city, residents were not convinced they wanted a data center in their own backyard.
Frankfurt already saturated
Frankfurt, also a major financial hub, has already seen some of the densest clusters of data centers in Europe.
In early 2026, NVIDIA and Deutsche Telekom launched a major industrial AI cloud in the region featuring over 10,000 GPUs, specifically designed for high-performance AI training and inference.
The market in Frankfurt has surpassed 1.3 GW (Gigawatts) of live capacity, with projections to reach 2.5 GW by 2031. Frankfurt is currently on track to overtake London as Europe’s largest data center market within the next five years.
Now, residents are revolting against these trends, with concerns over rising power costs, diminished water and environmental resources, and a lack of jobs generated by the centers.
The town resisted for a variety of reasons, including aesthetics, a lack of jobs, and the sheer scale of the project.
Residents also feared the five massive buildings would tower over and damage the cityscape of the town, which has just over 20,000 inhabitants.
Mayor Jörg Rüddenklau (SPD) also did not believe the promised benefits would materialize, doubting the facility would generate significant new jobs or trade tax revenue.
The same resistance has been seen elsewhere in Germany, and in fact, on a global scale. In Bavaria, local groups have successfully argued that these “server barns” provide almost no local jobs — often fewer than 50 for a multi-billion euro site — while occupying vast amounts of valuable industrial land that could be used for manufacturing and other purposes.
In response to these growing concerns, the German government has introduced some of the world’s strictest regulations to appease locals.
By 2028, new data centers must reuse at least 20 percent of their waste heat, and projects that cannot prove this are being rejected. Starting in 2027, all German data centers must also cover their consumption entirely with renewable energy. This is making it harder for investors to find viable sites, as they now need to be located near major wind or solar sites.
Politicians celebrate
Following the vote in Groß-Gerau, Mayor Rüddenklau emphasized that he refused to be pressured, describing the rejection as a vital course of action. His party’s parliamentary group was even more direct, stating that the “city would not be sold to a major investor.”
The local Green Party also wrote on its website: “Bye-bye data center – billion-dollar ‘deal’ happily falls through.”
The Green Party characterized the decision as a victory for the community, noting that “with the rejection of the project, an oversized, highly problematic urban planning and ecological project is off the table.”
The party stated that the site would now be developed in a “socially acceptable and future-proof” manner.
More resistance on the horizon
Meanwhile, massive data center projects are advancing in other areas of Germany. A massive 300 MW “Mega Campus” is moving forward to serve the Brandenburg Wustermark region outside Berlin, but it has faced intense scrutiny over its impact on the local water table.
Beyond Groß-Gerau, towns like Hanau are seeing organized “neighbor resistance.” Residents are citing a 2025 study showing that some data centers consume as much water as small cities during summer heatwaves to keep servers cool.
Germany’s Energy Efficiency Act (EnEfG), which became strictly binding for many operators in 2025, has only exacerbated the problem. Grid connection requests have skyrocketed near many major cities. In Berlin alone, data center requests have reached nearly 3 GW, far exceeding what the city’s current infrastructure can handle.
Data centers are driving up the price of electricity for households and starving other sectors of power.
A similar conflict is also running in the German town of Maintal, where the U.S. firm “Edgeconnex” is pursuing a 170-megawatt data center.
Critics say these projects are necessary for Germany’s “digital future,” but with AI data centers not only generating very few jobs, but also threatening to wipe out jobs for millions in the future, some local residents are having trouble understanding what they are getting out of these deals besides high energy prices, diminished water supplies, and ugly eyesores on the landscape.
Three Syrians reportedly raped a 27-year-old victim on top of the hood of a parked car in the city of Düsseldorf when she became separated from her friends. Two of the Syrians are on trial, with the case also making headlines because the men are unhappy that a female interpreter has been assigned to them.
The two Syrian nationals, 33-year-old Saad A. and 40-year-old Ahmed A. opened on Tuesday before the Düsseldorf Regional Court. The third suspect in the case remains at large.
During the opening proceedings, Saad A. expressed his discomfort through an interpreter, stating he was “ashamed to be interpreted by a woman.” Both individuals require interpreters during the trial.
Despite his protests, the trial will proceed under a female judge, and both men will be sentenced by her as well if they are found guilty.
The prosecution alleges the assault occurred in the early hours of June 29, 2025, in Düsseldorf’s historic district at Stiftsplatz,
At approximately 2:45 a.m., the woman, who was highly intoxicated, was lifted onto the car’s hood. Prosecutors claim that by this time, it was unmistakably clear the woman was incapacitated by alcohol and “showing almost no reactions.”
The indictment describes a systematic assault where the defendants allegedly took turns raping the woman while two others acted as lookouts. Despite their efforts to hide the assault, a witness walking by saw what was happening.
Other people were also nearby and asked what the suspects were doing, with the one witness stating that Ahmed A. reportedly claimed to know the victim, mocked her drunken state, and said, “She needs this.”
Upon confronting Ahmed A. over this reply, the accused reportedly charged at the witnesses gathered, screaming that he “would also commit a crime against them.”
Bild reports that the witnesses demonstrated bravery and forced the perpetrators to flee. They immediately contacted emergency services and escorted the victim to a police vehicle at the nearby Burgplatz.
Armed with witness statements and other evidence, police arrested Ahmed A. and Saad A. that same night. Investigators obtained DNA evidence from the victim’s body, which is the main piece of evidence in the case besides the witness statements.
In Berlin, residents have had the opportunity to obtain potatoes for free in recent weeks. The event was a reaction to the extraordinary harvest, with the whole of Europe reporting an excess of potatoes, sparking a crisis for many farmers selling the crop.
The impetus for the free potatoes distributed in Berlin, known as “potato week,” came just before Christmas, when the head of operations of the search engine Ecosia approached the editor-in-chief of the newspaper Berliner Morgenpost with a proposal that the company would pay for transport and the newspaper would help inform the public. Thousands of tons of surplus crops from nearby farms were distributed. After the announcement, over a thousand places willing to function as dispensaries applied within two days.
The situation in Germany shows how quickly the market can change. The local Ministry of Agriculture recorded a harvest of 13.4 million tons of potatoes, which is roughly 2 million tons more than the long-term average. Many growers expanded their areas for potatoes in anticipation of good purchase prices from previous years. However, favorable weather brought an exceptionally high harvest – the largest in the last 25 years – and the market collapsed. Part of the production thus ended up in biogas stations or as feed.
The giveaway in Berlin has sparked the anger of many farmers in the region, who say the ministry’s efforts have led to their potato crop being even further devalued.
Meanwhile, in Czechia, the president of the Czech Potato Association, Josef Králicek, points out that the potato market not only has to contend with a record harvest, but also a change in the situation on the global market. In previous years, up to 50 percent of European exports of potatoes intended for fries went to Asia. Recently, however, China has significantly reduced its consumption and has itself started supplying Asian markets with potato products.
According to Králicek, this led to the collapse of the European market. In the Czech Republic, after a significant drop in prices, the situation is gradually starting to turn around. However, according to analysts, there is no danger of potatoes being given away for free in Czechia.
“Europe has been strengthening potatoes for processing into fries, with around 50 percent headed outside the European Union. They go to America, they go to the Middle East, and they go to India, China and the like. The demand for these products grew. The factories contracted larger quantities, and the growers also pursued additional areas outside the contracted ones. And it was no exception that they actually received more for those non-contractual potatoes than what was in that contract, so it paid off for them,” said Josef Králicek.
However, after interest waned from Asia, according to him, potatoes in Europe hit the ceiling, which also led to absurd situations, including the current situation where they are being given away for free in Germany.
In the Czech Republic, according to Králicek, prices are strongly linked to developments in Germany. The spokeswoman of the agrarian chamber, Barbora Pánková, then pointed out that the situation in the Czech Republic was made worse by the import of cheap potatoes from France.
The Czech Republic is not self-sufficient in potato production, with approximately 160,000 tons imported annually. It is therefore unlikely that similar events would appear on the Czech market. According to agrarian analyst Petr Havel, it could at most be a local decision of individual farmers who want to be altruistic.
“A significant factor is last year’s harvest, which was favorable not only in Europe, but also in the Czech Republic. According to official statistics, 729,000 tons of potatoes were harvested here, which represents a year-on-year increase of 11.2 percent and at the same time the highest volume since 2011,” said the Czech Agrarian Chamber, which said that due to overproduction, the purchase price of potatoes fell from approximately five crowns per kilogram to 2.5 to three crowns depending on the variety. This has led to financial losses, because production costs are around five crowns per kilogram. In previous years, the Strategic Plan of the Common Agricultural Policy contributed to the expansion of crop areas.
Due to the expected losses, according to both experts, it is likely that the areas under crop will be reduced in the next season. According to Králicek, this should be a decrease in the range of six to ten percent.
In recent months, there has also been a significant drop in consumer prices for potatoes. It was most significant in the fall, when wholesale prices ranged between 15 and 17 crowns per kilogram, and during discount events, around six to seven crowns. According to data from the State Agricultural Fund, in mid-October the average consumer price was 9.91 crowns per kilogram, ranging from 5.40 to 17.90 crowns.
However, with the start of the new year, potatoes become more expensive again. According to the fund’s statistics, the average price rose to 11.58 crowns per kilogram and ranges from 5.30 to 19.90 crowns.
“In order for potatoes to maintain their quality so that they do not rot, they must be stored at an optimal temperature, which increases the energy costs of storage. Therefore, the price increases slightly over the winter. And that’s happening now. That price will rise even slightly. What happened at the end of last year is really not the standard,“ said Petr Havel about the development of potato prices.
At a German train station in the city of Rosenheim, three foreigners are accused of beating a 38-year-old man because he asked them to be quieter on Sunday morning. The beating comes shortly after a foreign national beat a German train controller to death earlier this month.
The three suspects, who are from Yemen, Eritrea, and Sierra Leone, have all been charged with grievous bodily harm, according to the Federal Police Directorate Munich.
After the man asked them to be quieter, an argument ensued, and the three men jumped the victim.
When police arrived, they found two men on the ground in a fight. Witnesses told police that two other suspects had been involved and had just fled. Police tracked them down in the city of Rosenheim, according to Welt newspaper.
The victim suffered several lacerations to his face due to the assault.
Guess which country this is?
French train riders are treated to 50 Cent's "In Da Club" in the Lille metro.
Europeans want to ride home in peace after working all day.
Now, it's loud speaker phone conversations, obnoxious music, and assaults if you say anything about it. pic.twitter.com/GiYXlZYpc9
🇩🇪‼️ German women rejected the advances of a group of 5 men and were spat at and then pepper sprayed.
According to the police report, the girls were waiting for a train in Cologne when the group of five men approached them. The group of girlfriends rejected the advances of the… pic.twitter.com/7Gmzl1DeDl
According to German federal police data, foreigners commit 59 percent of all sexual crimes on German trains and train stations, the latest crime data shows. Sexual violence crimes have doubled between 2019 and 2024.
This all comes at a time when the left is increasingly promoting public transport for the German population as a solution to climate change.
A court trial has commenced at the Freiburg Regional Court in the German state of Baden-Württemberg regarding a kidnapping and sexual assault that occurred at Europa-Park in Rust. The defendant, 31-year-old Adrian V., faces charges of child abduction and sexual abuse following an incident that took place on Aug. 9, 2025.
Surveillance footage captured the moment the defendant lured a 6-year-old girl away from the “Rulantica” water park, which is a section of Europa-Park. Authorities state that the child was taken to a nearby cornfield where the assault occurred, after which she was abandoned in a thicket.
During the court session, the defendant confessed to the charges. Through his legal counsel, he issued a statement: “I very much regret what happened and would like to apologize to the parents and the girl.” While his defense noted that he was under the influence of cocaine and alcohol at the time, they acknowledged that substance use does not justify his actions, according to German newspaper Bild.
Evidence presented during the trial also revealed that the defendant, who worked as a delivery driver, attempted to convince the child to also consume cocaine; however, the girl refused and discarded the substance.
The victim was eventually located five kilometers away in Kappel-Grafenhausen, approximately two hours after her disappearance. Clad only in her swimwear and suffering from abrasions, she had navigated through forests and fields before being spotted by a truck driver.
“One can imagine that after such a horrific act, a child’s soul is certainly not in a good state,” said Offenburg police spokesman Wolfgang Kramer at the time, who confirmed the girl was not seriously injured externally.
Following the crime, Adrian V. fled to his home village of Lugașu de Jos in Romania. A subsequent European-wide search was conducted, with the suspect apprehended and extradited back to Germany to face charges.
The victim’s legal representative emphasized the ongoing trauma the child continues to endure from being kidnapped and sexually abused.
Due to a pre-trial agreement, the defendant is expected to receive a maximum sentence of four years and nine months in prison. The court is scheduled to deliver its final verdict on March 2.
At the time of the incident, Europa-Park CEO Michael Mack said the park’s owners were “deeply saddened” and had contacted the girl’s family directly. A park spokesperson added that all 700 employees at Rulantica have been briefed on the attack and remain on high alert.
