An Egyptian asylum seeker has been placed in pre-trial detention in Italy following his arrest on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 14-year-old boy in broad daylight as he walked home from school.
The attack occurred at around 2 p.m. near Via Settembrini, Reggio Emilia, in the north of the country.
As reported by Gazzetta di Reggio, the minor had gotten off a bus and was walking home from school when he was approached by the migrant. Investigators said the suspect had already clocked the teen while on the bus and began following him after he got off at his stop.
The suspect allegedly attempted to strike up a conversation with the boy, who tried to walk away.
According to police, the suspect then grabbed the boy from behind, stripped him naked, and sexually assaulted him. The victim managed to escape and ran to a nearby ice cream parlor for help. Staff then alerted the authorities.
CCTV footage from both inside the bus and the surrounding areas assisted officers with a reconstruction of the moments before and after the assault. Witness statements and a video recorded by the victim himself in the moments preceding the attack were also crucial in building a case against the suspect.
At a preliminary investigations hearing, the judge approved the request of the public prosecutor’s office for pre-trial detention. The 25-year-old suspect was charged with sexual assault against a minor and transferred to prison to be held on remand.
Few details surrounding how and when the Egyptian national arrived in Europe have been released; however, he already has a criminal record in Italy for minor offenses.
A Rotterdam court has ruled that the man who carried out a fatal stabbing attack with terrorist intent near the Erasmus Bridge last year will not be sent to prison, concluding that his actions cannot be attributed to him because he was suffering from a severe psychotic disorder.
The Hague District Court on Friday ordered compulsory psychiatric treatment for Ayoub M., 23, after finding him guilty of murder and attempted murder with terrorist intent, but fully criminally incompetent. Prosecutors had sought a 20-year prison sentence in addition to compulsory treatment.
The attack took place on Sept. 19, 2024, after the killer travelled from his home in Amersfoort to Rotterdam and bought two chef’s knives. Early that evening, he stabbed 32-year-old German national Philipp, who was skating near the foot of the Erasmus Bridge. He then chased other people, making stabbing motions and screaming “Allahu Akbar,” before injuring a second man, 33-year-old Stefan from Switzerland, at Remastered, a digital art museum nearby. He was eventually overpowered by a group of bystanders whose heroic intervention prevented further casualties.
The court found that Ayoub M. had acted with terrorist intent, with judges pointing to his consumption of jihadist material, including books on armed jihad, hours of audio recordings, and videos from Islamic State showing beheadings.
Despite this, the court ruled that he could not be held criminally responsible. “The horrific acts cannot be blamed on him; he was completely psychotic,” the judges said in their verdict, as cited by NOS. They found that his behavior was dictated by a mental disorder and that no punishment should be imposed as retribution for the suffering he caused.
The court heard how Ayoub M. had been diagnosed with schizophrenia since the age of 18 and has suffered recurring psychoses. During these episodes, he experienced hallucinations, heard voices, and became intensely preoccupied with religion, according to Rechtspraak. In 2022, during a previous psychotic episode, he attempted to slit his mother’s throat while shouting “Allahu Akbar.” A court in Gelderland also found him fully insane in that case, and he was placed under supervision with conditions.
Experts at the Pieter Baan Center examined the suspect for 10 weeks and concluded that he had never been completely free of psychosis and that even maximum medication had been insufficient. Because he claimed that he could not remember the attack, and it could not be scientifically established to what extent his disorder influenced his actions, the experts advised holding him partially responsible. The court rejected that recommendation, ruling that he bore no criminal responsibility at all.
During police questioning, the man said that non-believers should be killed. Jihadist material was found on his laptop and phone, including videos about suicide attacks and life in the Islamic State caliphate.
Relatives of the German victim addressed the court during the trial. Philipp’s mother said her family had “experienced the worst thing imaginable” and argued that M. should never be allowed to return to society. “If we have to suffer for life, the suspect should also pay for his actions, without pardon,” she said.
Attorney Sébas Diekstra, representing the injured Swiss victim and the German family, called the verdict disappointing. “They believe the court falls short in addressing the extent to which the defendant can be held personally responsible for the situation he has found himself in,” he said.
In addition to the compulsory psychiatric treatment, the terrorist was also ordered to pay €17,500 to each of the German victim’s father, mother, and partner. The injured victim was also awarded €18,500 in damages. It is unclear how these damages will be paid.
In February, the four men who intervened during the attack were honoured for their actions. Rotterdam’s mayor awarded medals to Melvin van Es, Yurie Jansen, Reniël Litecia, and Sebastiaan Herrera van der Nood for distracting, subduing, and attempting to save the victims, actions that the court acknowledged helped prevent further bloodshed.
“They showed courage and solidarity in times of danger and chaos. I would love to express my deep gratitude to all those people here today. Yet your dedication stands out; you played a decisive role in the events of that evening,” Rotterdam Mayor Carola Schouten at the time.
A 25-year-old man, described by police as a Black “African type,” is on the run from Swiss police after he allegedly dragged a 5-year-old child inside a playground bathroom in Basel, Switzerland, and sexually assaulted her.
Directly before the sexual assault, which took place at noon, he had beaten her 69-year-old female caregiver, according to the Basel public prosecutor’s office. The 69-year-old woman was injured during the assault.
The initial investigation indicates that the child was dragged into the toilet at Oecolampadmatte, and he performed sexual acts on the toddler inside. The man fled when the door to the bathroom facility was opened on Colmarerstrasse towards Türkheimerstrasse, according to MSN Deutschland.
Police and medical services arrived on the playground and treated the two injured victims. Police launched a manhunt for the suspect but were unable to find him.
The Basel-Stadt public prosecutor’s office has described the man as 25 years old, 1.80 centimeters tall, with short curly hair and a full, round face. He was wearing all black, including his hat, pants, jacket, and shirt.
The public prosecutor indicates it is providing a minimum of information to protect the two victims in the case.
The Public Prosecutor’s Office asks for witnesses or for those who can provide information about the crime to contact the Criminal Investigation Department of the Public Prosecutor’s Office on 061 267 71 11 or the nearest police station.
Officials from the National Revenue Administration (KAS) successfully blocked an attempt to smuggle nearly 1,500 tons of illegal waste from Ukraine into Poland. The interception took place at the border crossing in Dorohusk and was later detailed in an official government statement. The case highlights yet another instance where Ukraine is testing the patience of Polish government authorities.
During an inspection of 35 wagons on a freight train arriving from Ukraine, officers from the Lublin Customs and Tax Office discovered that the cargo did not match its documentation. While the clearance papers described the load as “steel scrap – bulk waste” weighing nearly 1,500 tons, a physical search revealed a much more complex and illegal mixture.
According to the National Revenue Administration, “it was not just scrap steel, but a mixture of various wastes, “which contained a variety of unsorted materials, including used automotive parts, assembly foams and cables, and textile materials and plastic waste.
The Provincial Inspectorate for Environmental Protection determined that the cargo was a heterogeneous mixture “for which it is not possible to clearly establish the customs tariff code.” Furthermore, authorities discovered that the intended recipient in Poland lacked the necessary waste processing permits to handle such materials.
Following the discovery, the Chief Inspectorate of Environmental Protection (GIOŚ) in Warsaw officially categorized the shipment as illegal. This led the Head of the Lublin Customs and Tax Office to notify the prosecutor’s office regarding the “suspicion of committing a crime.”
Now, by order of the Polish prosecutor’s office, the entire 35-wagon transport was sent back to Ukraine. KAS reiterated its commitment to environmental safety, noting that the administration “monitors cross-border shipments of waste and combats attempts to import illegal waste into Poland,” with the primary goal of protecting the public and the environment from harmful pollutants.
The German government is signaling times of austerity are ahead for Germans, with German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil (SPD) even saying there could be years of belt-tightening.
Klingbeil, a member of the far left SPD, is preparing the German public for a period of financial hardship, even as the country spends at least €50 billion a year on migrants, including for their housing, education, security, and integration. In addition, tens of billions have already headed to Ukraine, with another €19 billion directly from Germany planned.
Speaking on the ZDF program “Das Jahr 2025,” the SPD chairman warned of “very challenging years” ahead, stating that citizens would “also have to be asked to do something.”
„Jeder wird spüren, dass wir sparen“ – Klingbeil kündigt harte Einschnitte für die Deutschen an.
“Everyone will feel that we are saving,” Klingbeil explained, emphasizing the necessity of cuts. However, he pushed back against the narrative that the nation is facing fiscal ruin. “We are not broke. The country is not on the brink of collapse,” the finance minister stated, rejecting the impression of impending financial failure.
According to Klingbeil, while the nation’s problems are solvable, they will come with consequences. He highlighted a funding gap of €60 billion for 2028 alone, which cannot be closed without making serious cuts that people will notice.
Klingbeil’s announcement comes at a time when German municipalities across the country are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Many officials are also complaining that the historic debt package the government passed, which totals €1 trillion, will not fill the holes in the budget.
Last month, Essen’s Mayor Thomas Kufen (CDU), who is also a member of the CDU federal executive board, sounded the alarm, saying: “Almost every German city is now on the verge of bankruptcy.”
In North Rhine-Westphalia alone, only 10 out of 396 cities and municipalities can present a balanced budget, and these alarming figures from Germany’s largest federal state can be applied to the “entire country,” he said.
Mayor Kufen stressed that the crisis is universal, affecting municipalities regardless of their location: “What’s new is that all cities have their backs against the wall,” he told Bild newspaper.
He warned that “budget freezes would now have to be imposed everywhere,” including in many cities previously considered wealthy.
Although Klingbeil did not provide specific details on the planned measures, he announced that a complete package would be presented at a later date by the party leaders of the CDU, CSU, and SPD. He stressed that these measures must be designed fairly: “The goal is that everyone contributes their part and not just one group.”
Not just the federal government, but also at the ground level in cities, budget cuts are being made, and they are expected to get worse, all while cities like Berlin are spending record amounts on migrant accommodations. A new report shows Berlin spent nearly €1 billion last year, all while making deep budget cuts in areas such as culture, education and transport.
However, Klingbeil is also calling on his own party to embrace change. He argued that the SPD must be prepared to overcome the status quo, noting that the perception of weakness had recently harmed the party.
“Social democracy is successful when it leads change and not just accompanies it,” he stated.
The announced austerity measures and the government’s fiscal management have drawn sharp rebuke from the opposition, particularly the Alternative for Germany (AfD).
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel strongly condemned the government’s course, characterizing the coalition’s fiscal policy as a “Black-Red debt orgy at the expense of Germany’s future.”
The AfD parliamentary group has further described Klingbeil’s budgetary drafts as “catastrophic for Germany,” arguing that the government’s approach places undue burdens on citizens while failing to address structural issues. Critics from the party have repeatedly emphasized that “the money is not reaching the people” and have warned against what they view as the mismanagement of public funds.
In a breakthrough after late-night negotiations in Brussels, EU leaders have finalized a massive financial support package for Ukraine. While the direct use of frozen Russian assets has been sidelined for now, leaders confirmed that the door remains open for that strategy in the future.
“Today, we approved a decision to provide €90 billion ($106 billion) to Ukraine for the next two years. As a matter of urgency, we will provide the loan backed by the European Union budget,” said European Council President António Costa. “We kept our promise.”
The funding structure involves 24 out of 27 EU member states — with the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Slovakia opting out. These nations will take on common debt through the European Commission, backed by the EU budget. This capital will be extended to Ukraine as a loan over the next two years.
The repayment terms are unique: Ukraine is expected to repay the loan only if Russia pays reparations. If that does not occur, the option of still accessing the frozen Russian assets comes into play again. However, a notable concern raised by diplomats is the accumulation of loan interest for the EU, as it is currently unclear who will pay.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz hailed the agreement as “good news for Ukraine,” though the final deal only incorporated portions of his initial proposal. In a written statement, Merz noted: “The financial package for Ukraine is in place. As I requested, Ukraine will receive an interest-free loan of €90 billion. These funds are sufficient to cover military and budget needs for the next two years. This signal is crucial to ending the war, because Putin will only give in when he realizes that his war is not worth it.”
Merz emphasized that “Ukraine only has to repay the EU loan once it has received compensation from Russia.” He further stated: “We expressly reserve the right: If Russia does not pay compensation, we will – in full accordance with international law – use Russian assets for the repayment.”
Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron stated: “After long discussions, we decided on a loan to Ukraine in the amount of €90 billion for the next two years, based on a European Union footprint that will be guaranteed by the European budget. These eurobonds for Ukraine are a major advance that gives visibility to our Ukrainian friends and coherence to our support. This solution has appeared to be the most realistic and practical to ensure that Ukraine has the resources it needs to finance its war effort by 2026.”
The direct use of Russian assets was avoided for now because it “proved to be too complicated” during the six-hour summit. Merz confirmed the funds should be available by mid-January and reassured the public that taking on EU-level debt “does not put a strain on Germany’s budget.”
Regarding the United States, Merz expressed hope that the Trump administration would maintain diplomatic heat on Moscow. His final takeaway from the Brussels negotiations was: “Good news for Ukraine, pretty bad news for Russia.”
Meanwhile, criticism poured in from many corners over the tens of billions in loans for Ukraine.
“The EU is taking on €90 billion in debt to support Ukraine. Chancellor Merz is transferring his irresponsible debt policy to the EU. In the end, the German taxpayer will have to foot the bill again,” said AfD’s Alice Weidel on X.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán also criticized the package but celebrated the fact that frozen Russian assets would not be used to finance Ukraine, which he said would have amounted to a declaration of war.
“We managed to avert the immediate risk of war. We did not allow Europe to issue a declaration of war on Russia by using Russian assets. This plan would have dragged Europe into war and imposed a financial burden of 1000 billion HUF on Hungary,” Orbán wrote.
We have endured a long and challenging night.
We managed to avert the immediate risk of war. We did not allow Europe to issue a declaration of war on Russia by using Russian assets.
This plan would have dragged Europe into war and imposed a financial burden of 1000 billion HUF… pic.twitter.com/Jbs1KI6XvA
“We succeeded in protecting Hungarian families from this. At the same time, 24 member states decided to grant a war loan to Ukraine for the next two years. If Ukraine is unable to repay the loan, those European countries will have to cover the repayment. Thankfully, the V3 cooperation is active once again: Hungary, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic have decided not to get on that train,” he continued.
As the EU moves to crush protesting farmers demonstrating in Brussels, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán offered full backing to the farmers and their efforts to stop the EU’s Mercosur free trade deal, which threatens to destroy food security in Europe.
“Farmers are 100 percent right,” said Orbán, who is currently in Brussels attending the EU Summit.
He added that the farmers have obvious issues with the Mercosur package, a free trade agreement with Latin American countries, because it “kills the farmers.”
🇧🇪JUST IN: Police fire tear gas at protesting farmers in Brussels.
10,000 farmers are in Brussels to protest the South American Mercosur free trade agreement, which will destroy food security in Europe and lead to harmful pesticides in EU supermarkets. pic.twitter.com/WA1MVDfQOt
“Hungary is one of the countries that does not support the Mercosur agreement. There were serious professional debates about this in Hungary, and the Hungarian position was that we do not support this,” said the prime minister.
Viktor Orbán reminded that the agreement would require a qualified majority, and according to his expectations, there is not enough support.
“Mercosur opponents make it impossible for this agreement to be signed. The plan is that the President of the European Commission wants to sign this later this week. I think this needs to be stopped here now, and we can prevent it,” he said.
He also said that another problem for farmers is the Green Deal, which leads to expensive overregulation in agricultural work in such a way that it represents a serious cost and competitive disadvantage for European food producers.
“So I have to say that with the Mercosur agreement, they are shooting European farmers in the foot, but before that, they tie their legs together so that they have no chance in the global competition,” he stated.
“That is why the farmers are absolutely right, the Hungarian government is 100 percent with the farmers,” said the Hungarian leader.
Farmers met with force
The use of force against farmers in Brussels is drawing criticism from Hungarian journalists, including Dániel Deák, the senior analyst of the Század Institute. He published a video report showing the European Commission building, or Ursula von der Leyen’s workplace, surrounded by barbed wire.
According to him, with these measures, they are trying to prevent farmer protesters from getting close to the president of the European Commission.
In the report, he also drew attention to the fact that if they tried to limit a demonstration in Hungary in a similar way, by placing barbed wire, it would provoke significant protests from the left, and the European Union would also talk about the use of “dictatorial means.”
In his opinion, all this once again points to the hypocrisy that is often used against Hungary. He also emphasized that demonstrations in Hungary can be held and that no attempt is made to make them impossible with barbed wire.
Approximately 10,000 farmers and demonstrators from across Europe have flocked to Brussels to protest against the European Union’s agreement with the South American Mercosur countries.
At the same time, a summit of EU leaders is taking place in the Belgian capital, where one of the main topics will be the free trade agreement, which, as many politicians, experts, and even farmers themselves emphasize, will lead to disaster for European agriculture.
Police have already deployed water cannons and tear gas as small-scale battles broke out with riot police.
🇧🇪JUST IN: Police fire tear gas at protesting farmers in Brussels.
10,000 farmers are in Brussels to protest the South American Mercosur free trade agreement, which will destroy food security in Europe and lead to harmful pesticides in EU supermarkets. pic.twitter.com/WA1MVDfQOt
Water cannons were also deployed against the protesters despite the cold weather.
Utilisation de canon à eau contre les #agriculteurs à #Bruxelles devant la Commission Européenne.
Des milliers d'agriculteurs de toute l'Europe convergent à Bruxelles pour protester contre le Mercosur, la taxe carbone sur les engrais, et la baisse de la PAC.#Brussel#Brusselspic.twitter.com/ensF2buU4W
Farmers from Poland, Sweden, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Germany, and France, along with many other countries, are also participating in the protest.
The protest in Brussels is organized by Copa-Cogeca, Europe’s largest organization of farmers’ unions and cooperatives. The organization’s social media accounts report that 10,000 farmers from 27 countries have converged on the Belgian capital, including many traveling over 1,000 kilometers from countries like Sweden to attend.
🇸🇪 Swedish farmers have arrived after 1400km, crossing Sweden, Germany, all the way through Brussels !
Farmers began gathering in front of the European Parliament yesterday evening. Dozens of tractors appeared on the streets of Brussels. The farmers began blocking one of the main streets leading to the EU institutions, surprising local authorities and leading to police intervention.
This week, the European Parliament voted on a safeguard clause to the EU’s trade agreement with Mercosur countries, but that is not considered enough to avert disaster for Europe’s food security, food safety, and agricultural future.
“The changes voted on in the European Parliament do not eliminate the fundamental threat to the food security of EU citizens, and the safeguard clause will not prevent the destabilization of the agricultural market. A sham solution was passed, intended to create the impression of agricultural protection and facilitate political acceptance of the entire agreement,” Jadwiga Wiśniewska, a PiS MEP, commented on the EP’s vote on safeguard clauses for the agreement with Mercosur countries in an interview with wPolityce.
“The safeguards approved do not eliminate the threats to small and medium-sized farms, which constitute the backbone of Polish agriculture. For them, these mechanisms will be completely insufficient,” she adds.
Another trial involving a foreigner committing a rape of an underage girl is ongoing in Vienna, Austria. This time, a 27-year-old Syrian man has been convicted of raping a 14-year-old girl in the Donaustadt district, with the girl’s pregnant mother fainting after learning her daughter had been raped.
The girl, who was missing from her family, was raped on April 10, 2024. According to the prosecutor, the girl went home with three Syrian men, who offered that she should stay at their place during the night. She admitted to taking drugs at the time.
During the incident, one of the Syrians is pulled down her pants and underwear, restrained her arms, and forcibly penetrated the victim. She told him to stop repeatedly, but he refused.
The Syrian man said he “suddenly” ejaculated that morning, which “caused him to panic.”
“I suddenly saw semen dripping down my body. Then, I panicked,” he said, while denying that he had sexual intercourse with the victim, according to Austrian outlet Kronen Zeitung.
The DNA evidence confirms the man had sexual intercourse with the minor.
The mother told the court as witness, “I was pregnant at the time and fainted.”
A friend of the family picked the victim up at the apartment. During the trial, the girl testified, “I tried to stay awake. He attacked me all over. He wouldn’t leave.”
The girl was interviewed by officers, who then submitted her for psychiatric treatment. She only filed a police report due to her mother’s urging.
“She said it was so it wouldn’t happen to other girls,” said the girl.
While the defense attorney argued for acquittal, the judge found the man guilty. He has been sentenced to four and half years in prison for rape, but the verdict is not yet legally binding.
Fights with bouncers are not totally uncommon, but most people who are rejected from a club simply head home disappointed. However, one Syrian migrant in the German city of Leipzig appeared to have an entirely different reaction, pulling out a Kalashnikov rifle before being tackled to the ground by security.
This disturbing scene played out on Sunday at 2:00 a.m. in front of a trendy club in Leipzig, known as “N 39” on Königshauspassage. The 27-year-old migrant, Bashar A., was rejected from the club, which was at its full capacity with 600 people. However, he did not accept this, and returned to the scene minutes later to insist he be let in.
🇩🇪🔴 A Syrian migrant pulls a AK47 in rage after being rejected from a nightclub in the German city of Leipzig.
27-year-old Bashar A. is tackled to the ground almost immediately.
Incredibly, he has already been released by police.
Once again, he was denied by bouncers. As seen on surveillance, he then moves away from the entrance, where he pulls an AK-47 rifle out of a bag before security tackles him to the ground.
The bouncers moved quickly though, knocking the man to the ground while he was allegedly trying to place a magazine inside the rifle. The security guards then disarmed the man and held him down.
“We are very grateful for how quickly our security company responded and that the police were there to assist within two minutes,” Langner told German news outlet TAG24.
When police inspected the weapon, they found that the firing pin was not inside, which meant the weapon could not be fired. Whether the suspect was aware the firing pin was missing is another question.
The Syrian man, who has many offenses on his criminal record, was arrested and taken to the police precinct.
Notably, clubs have become more aggressive places in recent years, according to arguably Germany’s most famous currently serving mayor, Tübingen’s Boris Palmer. He attributed the success of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party among young voters to the consequences of mass migration, which have transformed schools, clubs, and other locations where young people gather.
“They experience what irregular migration means on a daily basis,” Palmer wrote in a Facebook post last year.
“Above all, the young men who have arrived alone are changing the living environment of young people. In the park, in the club, on the street, on the bus, at the train station, in the schoolyard,” he added.
The numbers in a new YouGov poll should serve as the final nail in the coffin of Germany’s so-called “Welcome Culture,” promoted during the 2015 migration crisis, which was promoted by Angela Merkel, her CDU, and the left. A decade later, Germans feature the prevailing view that the negative consequences of both legal and illegal migration vastly outweigh the positive. The new from YouGov shows a majority of Germans want an immigration moratorium and mass deportations.
Illegal migration
The polling results, which were obtained exclusively by Welt, show that Germans are — despite all the claims of “we have space” that were promoted by the left — immensely fed up with illegal immigration. The poll shows that 81 percent of Germans state that illegal immigration was “far too high” or “rather too high” over the last 10 years. Only 5 percent view the levels as appropriate.
Another 75 percent say illegal migration has been bad for Germany.
Majority also rejects legal migration
However, despite a relentless media campaign, a clear majority of Germans also appear to reject legal migration.
A majority of Germans, 57 percent, believe that too many people have entered the country legally, with only a quarter of respondents considering the numbers appropriate.
In addition, 53 percent of Germans favor a total moratorium on all new immigration, as well as the return of a large number of migrants to their homelands, otherwise known by many on the right as “remigration” or mass deportation.
Clearly, Germany’s “welcome culture” appears to be on its final death throes, as Germans become sick of soaring crime, a growing housing crisis, tens of billions spent a year on foreigners, terror threats, dangerous swimming pool conditions, and a crumbling education — all in large part due to mass immigration.
As Welt notes, exact migration figures are difficult to determine, but the Federal Statistical Office reports 6.5 million immigrants have arrived in Germany since 2015 without differentiating legal status, and the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees records 2.8 million initial asylum applications.
A majority of Germans are not happy with this development.
In fact, among the countries surveyed in the European Political Monthly (including France, Italy, Spain, and Poland), Germany displays the most pronounced opposition to migration. It is fair to note, however, that other countries, like France, have in many other polls shown far greater opposition to migrants than Germans.
Illegal immigration perception
Remarkably, 75 percent believe illegal migration has been “largely bad” for the country.
While 38 percent believe legal immigration has been bad for Germany, 31 percent say it has been mixed, while only 24 percent say it has been positive.
Integration
A whopping 80 percent of Germans believe illegal migrants have not been successfully integrated—the highest rate of dissatisfaction among the nations surveyed. Even regarding legal immigrants, a majority of 54 percent believe integration has failed.
Seventy-nine percent of Germans say that illegal immigrants do not share the German population’s values. However, a majority also say this about legal migrants, with 53 percent of Germans holding this opinion.
‘We are seeing a great deal of weariness surrounding the issue of immigration’
Frieder Schmid, a pollster for YouGov, contextualizes these findings: “We are seeing a great deal of weariness surrounding the issue of immigration,” he explains. “There is currently little acceptance, especially for irregular migration.”
Schmid notes that tangible strain on infrastructure plays a role. “As a result, some people view immigration as a whole as problematic,” said Schmid, pointing to issues in schools and housing shortages in major cities.
The result? Despite media reports that claim the Alternative for Germany (AfD) is a racist party that should be banned, there are nearly no Germans left who actually support a liberal migration policy.
In fact, only 10 percent of Germans support a “liberal immigration policy.” On the contrary, as noted above, 53 percent of Germans want a complete moratorium on immigration and mass deportations.
Support for a liberal immigration policy has collapsed to just 10 percent. Instead, a narrow majority (53 percent) now favors a scenario involving a halt to new arrivals and the return of a large number of migrants.
The poll shows overwhelming support for deporting migrants in certain scenarios, with 88 percent supporting efforts to deport individuals who immigrated primarily to receive social benefits.
Another 85 percent support asylum seekers who entered the country illegally, which is nearly all asylum seekers.
However, support for deportation drops sharply in certain areas. Seventy-four percent reject deporting doctors, 73 percent are against deporting skilled workers, tradespeople (71 percent), and foreign students (66 percent).
However, the YouGov pollster also states that when immigration questions are framed a certain way, respondents change their answers. Namely, when respondents are asked if they would accept less immigration and a weaker economy, only 27 percent accept this.
The poll shows that 46 percent would opt for improving the economic situation through immigration, compared to 27 percent who would accept a weaker economy to reduce immigration.
The problem with the question becomes apparent, implying that restricting immigration would necessarily make the economy worse. Although an imperfect comparison, it is worth noting that China has one of the most immigration restrictionst economies in the world. Now, it has Europe begging for help, as China pulls ahead in manufacturing, energy production, and innovation in a wide range of fields.
Instead of embracing mass immigration, China is rapidly replacing its workforce with robotics at an incredible pace.
Meanwhile, the pro-immigration EU is floundering. Macron was just in China calling for technology transfers, support and investment. pic.twitter.com/gmT26Udcx4
China, like other Asian countries such as Japan, has opted for automation, robotics, and “black-out” factories that require no humans to manage its population decline. Remix News covered this reality in a piece published in October.
Hungary is entering the space race with a new, historic preliminary agreement between Hungarian companies 4iG Space and Defense Zrt. (4iG S&D) and its subsidiary, REMRED Zrt. (REMRED) and the American leading satellite platform manufacturer Apex Technology, Inc. The goal? To develop a European satellite mass production model similar to standardized and cost-effective automobile manufacturing.
This tripartite agreement comes at a time when Europe is playing catch-up in the space race against the United States and China.
“One of the most important goals of the cooperation is to ensure that the Ford-T-like serial production logic already proven in the American space industry – led by Apex – appears on the European satellite market as well. This approach could fundamentally change the rate of development and production of satellites, as well as their cost structure, just as it revolutionized the automotive industry 100 years ago,” said istván Sárhegyi, CEO of the Hungarian 4iG Space and Defense Technologies.
“Building on the experience of Apex Space, we are investigating the development of an industry model that can bring a paradigm shift to Europe’s space industry with the active involvement of Hungarian expertise,” he continued.
The partnership will create a series production satellite manufacturing system, specially designed for cooperative multi-satellite systems. This approach significantly reduces development costs and production time, while ensuring consistent, high-quality, satellites.
The collaboration is based on the American Apex’s experience in large-scale satellite manufacturing, as well as the engineering knowledge and system integration capabilities of 4iG S&D and REMRED, which will lay the foundations for a competitive European satellite industry.
Essentially, a standardized and scalable mass production system, such as that seen in the automotive industry, will be applied to satellite production. Europe, which is lacking satellites in orbit, needs to quickly scale up production, including implementing a 12-18 month delivery cycle, to compete at the global level.
Apex provides U.S.-proven satellite platforms optimized for series production, as well as industry-efficient integration and manufacturing processes that currently enable the production of more than a hundred satellite platforms annually.
REMRED Ltd will strengthen the development and production back-up with engineering knowledge in line with European space industry standards and an integration and testing infrastructure based on the REMTECH center in Martonvásár. At the same time, “4iG S&D supports collaboration with vertical integration covering the entire satellite value chain, professional program management and extensive international market access,” according to a press release.
As part of the cooperation, the parties are also investigating the possibility of a joint satellite mission, which, based on Apex’s proven technologies, can help to gain joint technological experience and lay the foundation for the launch of subsequent multi-satellite programs.
An elderly French woman was simply trying to close the window to her apartment when an unidentified individual slipped into her home to rape and rob her in the “sensitive” Mureaux district in Yvelines, outside Paris. The neighborhood is known for its extremely high number of North African residents.
The incident, which happened on Dec. 15, involved an unidentified suspect who, according to police, “hit her and then dragged her to her room before tying her up. He pinned her to the ground, took off her clothes and penetrated her vaginally. The attacker then stole several objects from the victim’s home before leaving the scene.”
After the rape, the woman was able to call the police. Medical workers arrived on scene and found the woman, who was “traumatized” by the rape, according to Info JDD.
Police arrived on scene, and the woman was transported to the hospital, where DNA from the suspect was identified. The woman was hospitalized for several bruises across her back and shoulders, as well as several wounds she suffered on her wrists.
Police have not released a full description of the attacker, but say that his face was hidden by a surgical mask during the incident. Police continue to hunt for the suspect.
The elderly have additionally been targeted by foreigners extensively in robbery attacks. In October, an Algerian man was arrested for attacking an 81-year-old grandmother in a wheelchair, who violently resisted the man snatching her necklace. Although his accomplice managed to flee the scene, the woman’s resistance stopped the Algerian, who was tackled by witnesses. The suspect has a long criminal record and outstanding deportation orders. He was immediately sentenced to one year in prison and given yet another deportation order.
The site of last year’s Christmas market massacre involving a Saudi Arabian doctor working in Germany is once again in the news, this time as the alleged target of a 21-year-old male from Central Asia. Police say he planned a significant terror attack against “large crowds” in the city which is still reeling from last year’s disaster.
Although the attack has been foiled, it will serve as yet another PR disaster not only for the German government but also the pro-migration wing of German politics, which argues we should welcome even more foreigners to Germany.
The German Interior Ministry announced the arrest was made “to prevent the execution of the attack plans he expressed against large crowds.”
A deportation order has now been launched as well: “A deportation order may be issued by the Ministry against a foreigner based on a factual prognosis to avert a particular threat to the security of the Federal Republic of Germany or a terrorist threat.“
The man entered Germany in the summer of 2024 and finished nursing training in Saxony-Anhalt. According to a security source, the man has military experience.
Notably, the latest target of an alleged attack is the same city from last year’s deadly Magdeburg Christmas market attack, which saw Saudi Arabian Taleb al-Abdulmohsen plow his vehicle into a Christmas market, killing six and wounding hundreds. His trial is ongoing, and the details of the trial, including his behavior, are truly remarkable.
Notably, Magdeburg nearly did not have its Christmas market this year due to security costs exploding, a trend seen across Germany. The city eventually stepped in to cover part of the costs after negotiations with the organizer.
The fact that the market is once again the alleged target of a terror attack will do little to assuage fears in Germany that Christmas markets, a long-cherished tradition for Germans of all ages, have now become targets for Islamists.
AfD politician Ulrich Siegmund responded to the threat that Magdeburg Christmas market may be closed earlier in December, saying: “Go to the Czech Republic, go to Poland, go to other countries that have not opened their borders, that have not sold their own security off.
🇩🇪🎄The German Christmas market in Magdeburg has been suspended over security concerns, sparking a nationwide debate.
The question: Why are Christmas markets in Germany being canceled while countries like 🇵🇱Poland and the 🇨🇿Czech Republic have no serious terror threats at their… pic.twitter.com/MUW5fofh5w
Polish President Karol Nawrocki does not intend to celebrate Hanukkah, fulfilling a campaign declaration he made before he became president.
At the time, while running for office, Nawrocki said that if he won the presidency, he would not celebrate Hanukkah.
“I take my commitment to Christian values seriously, so I celebrate holidays that are close to my heart,” he told RMF FM.
Although not a long-standing tradition, menorah candles are lit in the Polish Parliament. President Lech Kaczyński initiated the tradition of lighting Hanukkah candles at the Presidential Palace by the head of state. Andrzej Duda continued the tradition. Nawrocki, however, has no intention of continuing this practice.
On Monday, the Hanukkah menorah lighting ceremony took place in the Sejm (lower house of parliament). The ceremony was attended by Sejm Speaker Włodzimierz Czarzasty, Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich, Chabad-Lubavitch President Shalom Ber Stambler, Israel’s Ambassador to Poland Yaakov Finkelstein, Deputy Foreign Minister Władysław Teofil Bartoszewski, Justice Minister Waldemar Żurek, and U.S. Ambassador to Poland Thomas Rose.
Zbigniew Bogucki, head of the Chancellery of the President of the Republic of Poland, commented on Karol Nawrocki’s decision in a program on Wirtualna Polska.
“Every president has his own customs, his own approach to certain issues. I would like to make it very clear that this is not an anti-Jewish or hostile gesture,” he said.
The presidential minister estimated that over 90 percent of Poles do not know what days Hanukkah is celebrated on, and “the Jewish diaspora is small today.”
“Other presidents considered this to be appropriate. President Nawrocki decided there was no need for it. It’s no big deal,” said Bogucki.
Hanukkah is an eight-day holiday based on historical events described in the Books of Maccabees. In 2025, Hanukkah began on the evening of Dec.14 and ends on the evening of Dec. 22.
Nawrocki has had fierce disputes with Jewish and Israeli organizations in the past over their interpretation of Poland’s role in the Holocaust.
Many Israeli publications were furious once he won. For example, The Times of Israel opened its article covering Nawrocki’s inauguration, writing: “Conservative Karol Nawrocki, who made Holocaust revisionism part of his campaign, was inaugurated Wednesday as Poland’s new president, which could set the country on a more nationalist course and cast doubt on the viability of the centrist government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.”
The portal not only took issue with the support Nawrocki received from PiS, which they say “promoted historical narratives about Polish victimhood and resistance to the Nazis, while delegitimizing research on Polish antisemitism or Poles who killed Jews.”
They also wrote that he “sought favor from Grzegorz Braun,” whom they call “a far-right candidate who came in third and made antisemitism a feature of his campaign.”
A new study highlights the outsized role of foreigners in serious crimes in Spain, which has seen worrying growth in rapes, attempted murders, and other serious crimes in just the last five to six years. The CEU-CEFAS Demographic Observatory report, titled “Demography of Crime in Spain,” examines the evolution of crime across various demographic groups and geographical areas in the country, and the researchers are warning about “imported crime” due to mass immigration.
While confirming Spain’s status as one of the safest countries globally regarding severe crimes against persons, the study highlights several trends concerning the involvement of foreigners in criminal activities.
Murder and rape
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.
🇪🇸🚨 Rapists in Spain's Catalonia are almost entirely foreigners
🔺91% of convicted rapists in Spain’s Catalonia region are migrants
🔺They make up only 17% of the region's population
🔺Spain has seen crime rise each year in tandem with growing migration numbers pic.twitter.com/Omv9vJQHXf
While the murder numbers are stable in Spain at 300 per year, there has been explosive growth in attempted murders. Between 2019 and 2023, a matter of four years, attempted murder cases nearly doubled, going from 836 to 1,507.
In just five years, penetrative rape cases also soared 143 percent, going from 2,2143 in 2019 to 5,206 in 2024.
As Remix News has reported on in the past, in many Spanish states, the crime statistics show massive overrepresentation of foreigners in serious crimes like sexual assault, including in the Basque region.
Spain is also dealing with a serious crisis involving illegal property occupation, with 170,000 cases recorded between 2010 and 2024. Of those arrested, 51.8 percent were foreigners, which is 610 percent more than Spaniards.
🇪🇸‼️ In Barcelona, North African migrants were caught on camera trying to bundle an 11-year-old girl into a car while she was on the way to the shop opposite her home.
Her mother speaks out, "She burst into the house in tears, trembling. That night, she couldn't sleep or eat. It… pic.twitter.com/9LL7lxHQUL
In cases of robbery with violence, foreigners are 440 percent more likely to commit such a crime. Many such cases have made headlines in the Spanish media.
Crime should be decreasing
The study heads indicate that Spain’s aging population should have led to a decrease in crime rates, but the influx of migrants, amounting to 3.8 million per decade, has led to an “imported crime” problem.
The report confirms a consistent pattern that violent crime is predominantly committed by young men. Specifically concerning nationality, the study indicates that foreigners have much higher crime rates than Spaniards, particularly for the most serious offenses against persons, such as homicide, rape, and robbery. This overrepresentation is noted to be especially pronounced among individuals of African and Latin American origin.
A North African migrant robs an 80-year-old woman of her gold chain as she returns home with shopping in L'Hospitalet de Llobregat.
This is happening multiple times a day in crime-ridden Catalonia — mainland Spain's migrant hub. Only this time, it was caught on camera. pic.twitter.com/wpCiTphE9q
Data on the prison population supports this finding: in 2024, 31 percent of the prison population was foreign-born (excluding naturalized or second-generation immigrants). This proportion is more than double their share of the general population in the 20-69 age group, with North Africans and Latin Americans showing significant overrepresentation.
‘Imported Crime’ and Migration
The report introduces the concept of “imported crime,” which includes violent offenses, property crimes, jihadism, Latin gangs, and drug trafficking networks. The study specifically analyzes two types of crimes.
Jihadist terrorism has been linked with Muslim immigration, predominantly Moroccan.
At the same time, Latin Gangs are a growing menace. These are associated with first- and second-generation young Hispanic immigrants, with a strong presence observed in Madrid.
The study points out that the increase in the immigrant population—a net gain of 3.8 million people in the last decade—has influenced the rise in many serious crime categories.
The report concludes by calling for the regulation of migration flows in Spain and Europe, citing public safety as a compelling reason. It also advocates for increased police and judicial resources and harsher penalties for rising crimes to preserve Spain’s overall low crime rates.
After a bizarre speech that mimicked much of the rhetorical style of Adolf Hitler at the founding congress of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) youth group, Alexander Eichwald has confessed that he joined the party as a form of provocation.
In an interview with Junge Frieheit, Jean-Pascal Hohm, who serves as the chairman of the youth group, said that: “He deliberately infiltrated the AfD and its youth organization to harm it. The incident shows once again that the political opponent does not shy away from any method, no matter how perfidious.”
🇩🇪🔴Many on the right are accusing this man of being an undercover agent.
After Alexander Eichwald went viral for his "Hitler-like" speech at the Alternative for Germany (AfD) Youth Congress, speculation is growing about who he actually is.
Eichwald’s speech, in which he used the term “party comrades” and referred to dog breeds when selecting who is allowed into Germany, drew comparisons to Hitler and his propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.
While speaking with the Austrian newspaper Der Standard, he cited statements from Alice Weidel as the motivating factor, including Weidel’s statement in January 2025 that Joseph Stalin and Adolf Hitler were “brothers in spirit.”
“For me, as a German from Russia, this is a disgusting and blatant relativization of the war of annihilation against the Slavs, a deliberate disregard for the ‘Lebensraum’ in the East policy of the Nazis and the entire Eastern campaign against the Soviet Union and its peoples,” he said.
Eichwald said that Weidel should never become chancellor.
Stalin was also widely seen as being responsible for the deaths of millions through mass executions, forced labor, and engineered famines, including the forced displacement of various ethnic groups across the Soviet Union. Many historians and countries label his actions as genocide.
Eichwald himself appears to be an ethnic German who left Russia when he was 9 years old, as many Russians of German descent did after the fall of communism.
During the interview, he also said that he agrees with many of the AfD’s policy points.
“The AfD addresses the issues of border protection and domestic security more conscientiously than any other party,” he told Der Standard.
Eichwald also said that his speech did not differ in content from what the AfD promotes. He also said he does not understand why he is being expelled from the party.
“I did not differ in content from my previous or subsequent speaker,” he said.
He said another speaker, Kevin Dorow, used a slogan in the youth group, which he said was used by the Hitler Youth, which is: “Youth must be led by youth.”
Eichwald said regarding his speech’s style, that he wanted to attract attention to what the AfD believes.
He said that many of his statements are what “many say behind closed doors, at the regulars’ table and in the AfD.“
Eichwald’s original speech sparked frenzied speculation about whether he was a plant from Germany’s Office of the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).
Pascal Hohm also did not know who Eichwald was after his speech, telling dpa news agency: “No matter whether you’re a left-wing provocateur, an undercover agent or simply crazy – anyone who acts like that has no place in the AfD and its youth organization.”
“Alexander Eichwald’s appearance once again showed how important it is to look closely at admission interviews to see who you accept into the party and who you don’t,” he added.
The party announced Eichwald would be expelled, and he was withdrawn from the Herford city council.
Following Australia’s worst terrorist attack to date, in which two gunmen killed 15 people on Sydney’s Bondi Beach, a new report details that some of the victims were Jews of Hungarian origin.
The targeted terror attack, which was allegedly perpetrated by supporters of the Islamic State, was labeled an anti-Semitic incident by Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
A Neokohn report indicates that 82-year-old Marika Pogány, who had Hungarian Jewish roots, also lost her life in the attack. The Holocaust survivor has volunteered with Meals on Wheels for decades and even won an award for his service to his community after delivering more than 12,000 kosher meals.
According to Australian 9news, an old lady was sitting in the front row of the Hanukkah event when she was fatally shot.
The newspaper added that the other victim of Hungarian origin was 78-year-old Tibor Weitzen. The news portal reported that the elderly man went to the event with his wife and grandchildren on Sunday to celebrate the first day of Hanukkah, and he died protecting a family member who also lost his life.
His grandson told 9News that his family was “broken by his death.”
“Simply devastating. Honestly, I have no words,” said the grandson.
“We had coffee with him at Bondi Junction yesterday. I didn’t know it would be the last day with him,” he was quoted in the Australian paper.
In a sign of just how fast the demographic situation is developing in Austria, Vienna has hit a major new milestone, marking the first time that more than half the first-grade population do not understand German.
The news highlights just how dramatic the demographic crisis facing Europe is, which has seen falling educational standards across the continent, in large part due to mass immigration.
“For the first time, more than half of the first-graders in Vienna’s public elementary schools do not understand German,” the Vienna People’s Party reported on Friday.
The data shows that 50.9 percent of first-graders, or 10,931 students, must be classified as special needs students in the current school year.
This already comes after reports from last year that over 75 percent of students in Vienna’s middle school system do not speak German at home, choosing another foreign language instead.
🇦🇹 Great Replacement in Austria's school system
More than 3 quarters of students in Vienna’s middle schools do not speak German at home, according to new statistics.
According to Statistics Austria's STATcube, only 8,479 of Vienna’s 26,816 middle school students use German as… pic.twitter.com/4Vf20aaLLt
However, it was already clear that it would pass the 50 percent mark last year, when it was listed at the 49.7 percent mark.
Education spokesperson and parliamentary group leader Harald Zierfuß blames the ruling left-liberal government, saying, “Because the SPÖ and NEOS are failing in Vienna, more children than ever before are unable to speak German.”
“Time is running out for our city. The children without German language skills are the welfare recipients of tomorrow in this city,” said Zierfuß, according to Austrian newspaper Heute.
Islam is now the dominant religion for school children in Vienna.
Of those enrolled at elementary, middle, and special schools for the 2024/25 academic year, 41.2% of the 112,600 students were of the Islamic faith, according to new figures from the Austrian Integration Fund… pic.twitter.com/CgpwcIgi4O
However, his ÖVP party does not propose emigration or any immigration restriction policies. Instead, they propose more language proficiency courses, mandatory kindergarten for all 3-year-olds, and hiring more staff for kindergartens.
“This means they grow up in families and closed parallel societies that simply refuse integration. Integration into our social system and our cultural fabric depends primarily on language acquisition,” he writes.
Furthermore, he points out the obvious outcome of this development for the future.
“And all those children with a migration background who only learn German with difficulty and often only at a rudimentary level in school are at risk of entering life without a qualification and with limited career prospects,” writes Mölzer.
Beyond the struggles of these students, they make up such an incredibly large share of students in Vienna that they are sure to drag down the rest of the students in their classes. The obvious outcome is that more and more White Austrians are sending their children to private schools and even protesting against schools with a high proportion of foreigners — all while continuing to vote left.
Many of these native-born ethnic Austrians either already live in wealthier neighborhoods, vote left, and live in districts where the migration percentage of children in the local schools is extremely low, or they send their children to private schools — while creating ample excuses as to why they are taking that route.
Meanwhile, poorer ethnic Austrians are stuck with the problems in the increasingly foreign neighborhoods that make up Vienna. For the wealthier, left-wing Austrians, these people not only do not overly matter, but if they complain, they are smeared as racist and bigoted.
Mölzer is open about this trend.
“Moreover, (students who cannot comprehend German) logically hinder the learning process and instruction for native-born children. No wonder, then, that in Vienna, if you can afford it, you only send your children to private schools,” he wrote.
The education situation in Austria, overall, is extremely poor. In 2025, there are 46,385 students nationwide who are unable to follow lessons, which was a slight reduction from the previous school year, when 48,450 students could not follow lessons because they lacked sufficient German. However, the overall trend line has been disastrous over the last 10 years, dating back to when Austria truly opened itself up to mass immigration.
It is not just language issues. As Remix News has long documented, teachers are dropping out of the Austrian school system in droves due to violence, disrespect, and even serious cases of rape. In one case this year, seven foreign students were found guilty of gang raping, blackmailing, and setting their teacher’s apartment on fire.
A German reporter for the Nius news outlet has shared a post on X describing how an Arab man grabbed his 12-year-old sister near a Berlin gas station and tried to grab her away. However, after a quick arrest, prosecutors have already released the perpetrator due to his “pathological mental disorder.”
Writing on X, Marc Sierzputowski shared the details of the incident.
“My little sister (12) is grabbed by the arm by an Arab at a dark gas station, and he tries to drag her away. She gets scared, bursts into tears, and runs back to the car. She had only moved a few meters away from our car and had stayed within sight. Police called, report filed,” he writes.
Absoluter BRD-Moment: Meine kleine Schwester (12) wird an einer dunklen Tankstelle von einem Araber am Arm gepackt und versucht wegzuschleifen. Sie erschrickt, bricht in Tränen aus und rennt zurück ans Auto. Sie hatte sich nur wenige Meter von unserem Auto entfernt und war in… pic.twitter.com/4OTf8jOTZJ
Then, Sierzputowski adds the incredible fact that the case has already been closed because the perpetrator has a “pathological mental disorder,” including documentation supporting his story.
“Now, the bitter pill: Investigation dropped because the perpetrator, Hodr El-M., has a ‘pathological mental disorder.’ This state does not protect its children, on the contrary. No one knows where this man is lurking now and waiting for more little children.
What might have happened if he had gotten his hands on my sister? Such incidents radicalize me so enormously, I don’t even dare to write any further. Good night.”
Regarding the contents of the letter, it reads: “Pursuant to § 20 of the Criminal Code (StGB), a perpetrator acts without guilt if, at the time of committing the offense, due to a pathological mental disorder, a profound other mental defect, or a severe other mental disorder, he is incapable of perceiving the wrongfulness of the offense or of acting in accordance with such perception. The available documents indicate that the accused was incapable of guilt at the time of the offense, such that a punishment is not legally possible.”
Whether the man will be hospitalized or not remains unclear; however, Sierzputowski is undoubtedly concerned about what the man who grabbed his sister is currently up to, and whether there will be more victims.
The case caught the attention of Dutch political activist and commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek, who said she is friends with the NIUS reporter. She stated that it was the type of case that explains why “so many rapes and murders in Europe are committed by migrants who were already known to the police—and should have been in jail but weren’t.”
If you've ever wondered how it's possible that so many rapes and murders in Europe are committed by migrants who were already known to the police—and should have been in jail but weren't—this story is a prime example of why:
After describing the details of the case and the arrest of the suspect, Vlaardingerbroek asks: “What happened next? The investigation got dropped because the perpetrator, Hodr El-M., apparently has a ‘mental disorder’ and therefore cannot be held accountable for what he did. So now he’s back out there, on the loose, until he finds his next victim—and God forbid, actually succeeds to do what he wanted to do to Marc’s sister. A disaster waiting to happen, facilitated by the German legal system that willingly subjects its own people to genocidal violence.”
Tragedies involving young girls kidnapped, raped, assaulted, and even murdered by migrants who should never have been in Europe have become commonplace in recent years.
Last year, Remix News reported that a Syrian migrant who stabbed a 4-year-old girl in Germany had already been deported from Saudi Arabia.
Mohamed S. (34), a Syrian-born man with Dutch citizenship, stood trial in Ravensburg, Germany, for the unprovoked attack on a minor on April 4, 2024, in a small town in Bavaria’s Allgäu region.
While standing in a supermarket with her mother, little Manuela (name changed) was set upon by Mohamed S., who stabbed her four times with a 20-centimeter kitchen knife.
The child’s stomach and intestines were severely injured, requiring emergency surgery to save her life.
Remix News also detailed in a thread the threat various children have faced in a small sampling of attacks across Europe.
The murder of 3 young British victims (9, 7, and 6) is not an isolated incident.
Immigration is leading to brutal and random attacks targeting children in many cases across Europe.
Here are some of the most recent incidents, and they represent only a small share of many of… pic.twitter.com/U24er5UxI6
A 44-year-old Syrian man living in the Austrian city of Klagenfurt is standing trial for abusing, beating, imprisoning, and threatening his 35-year-old wife and their eight children, aged 5 through 18, for years. The abuse also had religious Islamic motives, according to prosecutors.
In early November, at 1 p.m., police officers were called to the apartment in Klagenfurt due to a noise complaint regarding a family dispute. The 44-year-old husband had allegedly repeatedly punched his wife in the face several times, resulting in injury.
An investigation revealed that the man not only beat his wife that day but had been beating her for years. He had also systematically locked up his children and beat them. For example, he forced his 16-year-old daughter, under threat of assault, not to leave the apartment outside of school hours.
The man is accused of ruling his household through an Islamic code of complete control, which was based on the man upholding his honor.
Prosecutors said in Klagenfurt Regional Court that due to his Islamic interpretation, the suspect believed that as “the man, he has the right to decide about his wife.”
However, this translated into severe abuse.
It is far from the first time Remix News has reported on abusive relationships through an Islamic interpretation. In fact, it is the type of case increasingly seen throughout Europe.
Such cases have involved polygamy, murder, abused children, and vengeful husbands, some of whom are willing to murder their wives or ex-wives right in front of their children.
Last month, a Chechen man slaughtered his wife on the streets of Nice, France, while she was holding their two-year-old daughter. Despite multiple court trials for domestic violence, in which he walked free three times, he was able to come back and murder his wife, in what is being described as a complete security failure.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has said he will block any European Union solution that finances Ukraine’s military expenditures, accusing Western Europe of treating Russian and Ukrainian lives as being “worth shit” and of prolonging what he described as senseless bloodshed.
In a post on X, Fico said he had held an almost hour-long phone conversation with European Council President António Costa focused on EU funding for Ukraine. “While he spoke about money for the war in Ukraine, I kept repeating the senseless daily killing of hundreds to thousands of Russians and Ukrainians,” Fico wrote. “If for Western Europe the life of a Russian or a Ukrainian is worth shit, I do not want to be part of such a Western Europe.”
Fico said he told Costa that Slovakia would not support any measure leading to EU financing of Ukraine’s military costs, regardless of how long negotiations might last. “I told A. Costa that I will not support anything, even if we have to sit in Brussels until the New Year, which would lead to support for Ukraine’s military expenditures,” he wrote.
The post accompanied the publication of a formal letter sent by Fico to Costa and to all EU prime ministers ahead of the next European Council meeting, where the European Commission’s proposals to secure Ukraine’s financial needs for 2026 and 2027, including the possible use of frozen Russian assets, are expected to be discussed.
Today I held an almost hour-long phone conversation with the President of the European Council, A. Costa. I fully respect him, but while he spoke about money for the war in Ukraine, I kept repeating the senseless daily killing of hundreds to thousands of Russians and Ukrainians.… pic.twitter.com/0f9JiitWjG
In the letter, Fico stated that Slovakia would not back any solution that includes funding Ukraine’s military expenses. “At the upcoming European Council, I am not in the position to support any solution to Ukraine’s financial needs that would include covering Ukraine’s military expenses for the coming years,” he wrote.
Fico argued that there was no military solution to the conflict and that continued arms financing was extending the war. “The policy of peace that I consistently advocate prevents me from voting in favor of prolonging military conflict, because providing tens of billions of euros for military spending is prolonging the war,” he said.
He also warned against using frozen Russian assets for military purposes, arguing this could undermine peace efforts, including those led by the United States, which he said envisaged using such assets for Ukraine’s postwar reconstruction. He recalled raising these concerns at an informal EU meeting in Angola and pointed to corruption risks in Ukraine.
While rejecting EU-funded military support, Fico said Slovakia would continue to assist Ukraine in non-military areas. He cited humanitarian aid, electricity supplies, gas delivered through reverse flow, infrastructure projects, and support for nearly 200,000 Ukrainian refugees living in Slovakia. He reiterated Slovakia’s support for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, while noting that some member states were increasingly voicing reservations about early membership.
Fico said his position was final and would not change under pressure or prolonged negotiations. “I cannot, and will not under any pressure, endorse any solution to support Ukraine’s military expenditures in which the Slovak Republic would participate,” he wrote, while adding that he respected the right of other EU member states to pursue different approaches on a voluntary basis.
The European Council has not publicly responded to Fico’s remarks.
Police in Germany have arrested a suspect following a life-threatening stabbing of a 16-year-old near the Christmas market in Herford, in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.
The suspect is a 15-year-old migrant from northern Iraq, whose citizenship status has not yet been determined, according to Bild. He is alleged to have stabbed the teenager in the back during an altercation close to the market area.
The attack occurred at around 7:30 p.m. on Thursday near Frühherrenstraße, on the outskirts of the Christmas market. According to police, the injured teenager managed to stagger into a nearby side street, where he asked several passersby near St. John’s Church for help before collapsing. Witnesses immediately called the emergency services.
The victim, a 16-year-old from Bad Salzuflen, was initially in critical condition. Radio Herford reported, “He was found yesterday evening with a knife in his back. He was initially in critical condition, but after emergency surgery, his condition is now stable,” citing a joint statement released on Friday by the authorities and public prosecutor’s office.
Investigators believe the two teenagers knew each other prior to the incident. Police said an argument broke out between them shortly before the stabbing, after which the suspect allegedly produced a sharp, piercing object and stabbed the victim in the back.
The motive for the attack remains unclear. The case is being investigated as attempted manslaughter.
Bielefeld police spokesman Michael Kötter told German media, “Measures have been taken to further clarify the crime. If there is sufficient suspicion of a crime, the suspect can be brought before a judge today or tomorrow.”
Police deployed a large number of officers to the city center on Thursday evening and cordoned off the crime scene. Because the suspect initially fled, sniffer dogs were also used in the search.
The Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy was published last week, setting out the U.S.’s broad foreign policy direction for the remainder of his term. It focused on ending what it calls a “perpetually expanding NATO,” establishing “conditions of stability within Europe,” and encouraging European allies to “stand on [their] own feet” in security matters.
The document also warned that Europe faces “civilizational erasure,” citing migration, censorship of speech, declining birthrates, and what it described as a loss of national identity and self-confidence.
Days after the official release, however, the Defense One website reported that a longer, unreleased version of the NSS had circulated in Washington. According to the site, the unpublished version contained far more explicit political goals for reshaping Europe’s future and reducing the influence of the European Union. Defense One wrote that the extended draft urged the United States to “Make Europe Great Again,” proposing that Washington realign its attention toward a select group of governments ideologically closer to the Trump administration.
The unpublished version, Defense One reported, stated that Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Poland were countries the United States should “work more with… with the goal of pulling them away from the [European Union].” It also said the United States should support “parties, movements, and intellectual and cultural figures who seek sovereignty and preservation/restoration of traditional European ways of life… while remaining pro-American.”
There is a longer, unpublished version of the NSS in which the Trump administration sees Austria, Hungary, Italy, and Poland as core partners for the future, but the US will also attempt to pull them away from the EU.https://t.co/3jl9ZhjImwpic.twitter.com/42WLqqSngm
None of this language appears in the officially released NSS, which focuses instead on broader themes of strategic stability with Russia, the need for Europe to regain its self-confidence, and continued American support for democracy and free expression. The official document argues that Europe’s loss of confidence is particularly visible in its approach to Russia. It states, “Managing European relations with Russia will require significant U.S. diplomatic engagement, both to reestablish conditions of strategic stability across the Eurasian landmass, and to mitigate the risk of conflict between Russia and European states.” It adds that stabilizing the continent will require “an expeditious cessation of hostilities in Ukraine” to prevent escalation, restore stability, and support Ukraine’s survival as a viable state.
The text also warns that the war has increased Europe’s exposure to external dependencies, particularly Germany’s, and criticizes what it describes as unrealistic expectations held by some European officials. It concludes that despite Europe’s internal crises, the continent remains strategically and culturally vital to the United States. America, it says, “encourages its political allies in Europe to promote this revival of spirit,” asserting that the growing influence of patriotic European parties “gives cause for great optimism.”
After the Defense One report appeared, the White House moved quickly to deny the existence of any longer or alternative NSS. Spokeswoman Anna Kelly said, “No alternative, private, or classified version exists. President Trump is transparent and put his signature on one NSS that clearly instructs the U.S. government to execute on his defined principles and priorities.” She added that “any other so-called ‘versions’ are leaked by people distant from the President who, like this ‘reporter,’ have no idea what they are talking about.” Her reference to leaks suggests that other versions of the report may have been discussed, albeit not endorsed or included in the final publication.
Speaking to the American Conservative website about the strategy report, Krzysztof Bosak, a Polish MP, leader of the right-wing Confederation, and deputy speaker of the Sejm — Poland’s lower parliamentary chamber — said, “I can’t say that I disagree with anything there. It’s a continuation of Vice President J.D. Vance’s Munich [Security Conference] speech, which I agreed with completely.
“Maybe Europe needs a shock from our good old friend America to start a true debate, because there was no debate in the European mainstream. In America, you have both sides of the political spectrum. In Western Europe, there’s only one side. If you have politically incorrect views, you can find yourself in prison, because you said too much, for example, in England or sometimes in Germany,” he added.
Italian newspaper La Repubblica also reported on the Defense One findings, highlighting the claim that the United States planned to use Italy, Austria, Hungary, and Poland “as tools to dismantle the European Union” by drawing them into a broader, ideologically aligned group. It noted Defense One’s summary that the unpublished draft viewed Europe’s immigration policies as driving an “erasure of its civilization,” and that Washington should engage with European actors seeking “sovereignty” and the restoration of traditional ways of life.
La Repubblica separately noted that Matt Schlapp, chairman of the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), recently expressed interest in holding a major CPAC event in Italy to promote a sovereignist agenda. While government sources suggested a lack of enthusiasm, Schlapp told the newspaper, “We will get it done.”
CPAC has grown in stature among European conservatives in recent years, most notably in Hungary, where its annual event in Budapest now attracts major players, both from Europe and across the Atlantic.
A 20-year-old Moroccan man, Mohamed Amine Elouardaoui, has been placed under a mental incompetence order after investigators concluded he was responsible for a string of violent assaults on women in Prato over a period of just over two months.
Ten women were attacked, several suffering fractures and disfigurement, but the suspect was repeatedly neither expelled nor formally arrested because he had previously been declared mentally unfit.
According to reporting by Corriere della Sera, the migrant told his psychiatrist that he was rejected by an Italian woman, which led him to wage an attack against total strangers just because they were female and Italian. The first assault occurred in late September, when a young woman shopping in a supermarket was punched in the face without warning. She sustained fractures to her jaw, cheekbone, and eye socket. The assailant fled and resurfaced weeks later at another supermarket, where he allegedly struck a woman in the back of the head. In November, he was accused of tripping a woman in the street and threatening a post office employee. Days later, he is said to have punched another woman in the ribs and crushed her hands against a checkout counter.
The violence escalated in early December. On Dec. 4, a 64-year-old woman suffered a fractured arm. The following day, a 30-year-old woman was slashed with a broken bottle in Piazza delle Carceri. A female police inspector intervened and arrested the suspect, to which the man reportedly said, “You can’t do that, you’re a woman,” in response.
🇮🇹🚨 A 30-year-old Italian woman was slashed in the face with a broken bottle on Saturday evening in Piazza delle Carceri in Prato, the latest in what authorities say is a pattern of unprovoked attacks carried out by the same 20-year-old Moroccan suspect.
Psychiatric assessments ordered by the investigating judge concluded that Elouardaoui suffers from schizophrenia and psychotic disorders. A psychiatrist told authorities the man had developed a fixation after being rejected by an Italian woman, and this had evolved into what experts described as an “ethnic hatred” toward Italian women. On that basis, the aggravating circumstance of ethnic hatred was applied.
Despite the severity of the assaults, the court ruled that the suspect was incapable of understanding his actions at the time of the offenses and unfit to stand trial. Instead of pre-trial detention, he was ordered into compulsory psychiatric care. He was initially placed in a hospital ward, from which he escaped, but was later transferred to a mental health facility in Volterra. He is reported to hold a valid residence permit.
The Prato case comes amid a similar incident reported this week in France. In Paris, a man described by police as homeless and later provided with an Afghan interpreter was arrested near Gare du Nord after two women were punched in the face in separate attacks 10 minutes apart on Tuesday morning. CCTV footage from rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin showed the first victim being struck violently and knocked to the ground before seeking refuge in a nearby café.
Moments later, the same suspect allegedly attacked a second woman on Rue de Dunkerque. Both victims were left shaken, and one required hospital treatment for facial bruising. The suspect was arrested within minutes and taken into custody.
Over the weekend, federal police arrested a 37-year-old Lebanese migrant with an incredible 28 different aliases at Aachen Central Station in Germany.
His asylum application had already been rejected, in the past and an entry and residence ban had already been imposed, as reported by the “Aachener Zeitung,” citing the Aachen police.
The man was traveling on a regional train from Belgium at around 10:30 p.m. on Dec. 6. He presented German officials with a Lebanese passport and an Italian residence permit, however, this document was not valid in the Schengen area, a hint that it may have been a forgery.
According to the Aachen police, he was registered in the police search system under 28 different aliases.
The Lebanese man was already well known to German police for his history of narcotics offenses. His asylum application in Germany was definitively rejected in April 2025.
The German Federal Police took him into custody to prepare for his renewed deportation. However, the news article does not indicate where he is being deported to. In all likelihood, it is another European state.
The case highlights not only how many migrants who have arrived in Europe over the previous years have multiple false identities, but also how police are often unable to keep them from freely traveling around Europe.
Two women were attacked at random on Tuesday morning near Gare du Nord in Paris, struck in the face without warning by a man described by a police source as “clearly homeless” and reported by Le Parisien as needing an Afghan interpreter for questioning.
The incidents, which occurred ten minutes apart in the 10th arrondissement, left one woman injured and both deeply shaken.
According to the French newspaper, the first assault took place around 8:35 a.m. on rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin. CCTV footage showed a woman walking down the street before being hit violently in the face, knocking her to the ground. She managed to take refuge in a nearby café, where the manager intervened and alerted the authorities. The victim sustained two bruises near her right eye and was transported to Lariboisière Hospital.
Moments later, the same man allegedly continued toward Gare du Nord and attacked a second woman on Rue de Dunkerque. The Paris prosecutor’s office said the first victim, while being assisted, witnessed “the same person strike another victim on the head.” The suspect was arrested minutes later.
He was taken into custody and was provided with an Afghan interpreter during questioning.
The incident comes amid similar cases in Italy, where authorities have confronted a wave of unprovoked assaults targeting women.
🇮🇹🚨 A 30-year-old Italian woman was slashed in the face with a broken bottle on Saturday evening in Piazza delle Carceri in Prato, the latest in what authorities say is a pattern of unprovoked attacks carried out by the same 20-year-old Moroccan suspect.
In Prato, near Florence, a 30-year-old woman was slashed in the face with a broken bottle on Saturday night in Piazza delle Carceri. Prosecutors say the attack fits a pattern linked to a 20-year-old Moroccan national, Mohamed Amine Elouardaoui, who is suspected of violently assaulting 10 women in recent weeks. Some victims suffered fractures, others disfigurement.
In the most recent attack, police stopped the suspect, but because he had earlier been declared mentally unfit, an arrest was not possible. A mental incompetence order has since been confirmed, meaning he will not face trial and will instead receive hospital treatment for his mental health.
Elouardaoui is believed to hold a valid residence permit and is considered responsible for six to ten similar assaults against Italian women in the past month, Il Giornale reported.
A previous episode in Paris also sparked concern about random street violence. On Sept. 28 at Gare du Nord, Zalatgul B., a 31-year-old Afghan refugee, was arrested after threatening passers-by with scissors and shouting insults such as “Fuck the French!” and “Fuck France!”
Security personnel subdued him and recovered the weapon. He is a repeat offender with convictions for similar behaviour.
An inquiry described him as homeless, addicted to opioids, and “a social hazard,” raising questions about his continued risk to the public.
A 26-year-old Algerian man accused of molesting a 14-year-old girl in Porto Torres was beaten by a group of people on Tuesday evening in what authorities describe as a “punitive mission.”
L’Unione Sarda reported how police intervened in the city center to prevent the crowd from inflicting more serious injuries or killing the man.
According to investigators, the alleged assault occurred on Sunday around 1 p.m. CCTV footage showed the man approaching the girl, initially in a jovial way, before making more insistent advances. The girl and her parents told officers that the encounter escalated into harassment and that she was grabbed by the hair before managing to break free and run home.
The family filed a complaint with the authorities, prompting an immediate search.
The suspect was identified through images captured by local surveillance cameras.
Authorities say the same man had been stopped days earlier in the port area of the city while attempting to board a vessel using fake identity documents.
He was reported to the Sassari Prosecutor’s Office for an immigration offense, and a judge ordered him to sign in regularly and barred him from leaving the municipality without authorization.
As Remix News reported last month, foreign nationals in Italy are disproportionately represented in violent and sexual offenses. Data from Italy’s Interior Ministry for 2024 shows that foreigners commit nearly half of all rapes across the country, while only representing 9 percent of the country’s resident population. Specifically, they are arrested in 43 percent of cases.
For public street robberies, foreigners make up 60.1 percent of suspects, and for robberies in total, it is 52.3 percent. Foreigners are responsible for 61 percent of burglaries and 69 percent of pickpocketing cases, according to data analyzed by Italian newspaper Il Sole 24.
Similarly, in October, a Gambian minor was arrested in Bologna after allegedly attempting to kidnap a newborn baby from a stroller on Via Carracci, near the city’s high-speed train station. The 17-year-old suspect, who was living in a community center for unaccompanied minors, suddenly reached into the stroller and tried to take the baby, failing to do so only due to the intervention of the child’s parents and several witnesses.
Italian police rescued a young woman who was allegedly being tortured by an African migrant for hours, perhaps for an entire day, inside the suspect’s apartment. The man even allegedly recorded the various acts of torture and sent the video to the woman’s mother.
The 32-year-old man, who is from Ghana, was arrested Dec. 4 at 11:30 a.m. in Vicolo Bertolinis in the Italian city of Sassari, where police recovered video evidence of the torture.
Prosecutors are investigating the charges of kidnapping for extortion, torture, and assault.
🇮🇹🚨“I had an impulse."
A 35-year-old African man has made a full confession for beating and sexually assaulting a 53-year-old Italian woman at dawn in the city of Gallarate.
The African suspect:
🔺has lived in Italy for 11 years 🔺works as a mechanic 🔺has 3 children
Police arrived inside the apartment, but there are conflicting reports about how they first became aware of the case. The first report indicated that neighbors reported screams inside the building, while another report indicated the man filmed the torture of the woman, sent the video to the mother demanding money, and then the mother contacted the police.
The woman, who was described as “petite” and “unable to defend herself,” was in critical condition. She had a black eye and a swollen face, among other serious injuries. The African suspect also allegedly whipped the woman over and over with a belt on video.
The man was only arrested with the use of a taser.
Italian news outlet L’unione Sarda reported the torture occurred for at least several hours, but could have been carried out for an entire day.
The motive behind the kidnapping and torture of the victim still remains unclear, but the African migrant has a “significant criminal record.” It is believed the torture was carried out as punishment for the woman’s unpaid debt, which seems to be confirmed in the video the man recorded. The African also reportedly told police that the woman stole €600 and two cellphones from him.
Swedish former prime minister Carl Bildt has been criticized for remarks in a recent Göteborgs-Posten interview in which he argued that Sweden has handled mass immigration “relatively well” and described gang crime as a “marginal phenomenon.”
In the interview, Bildt maintained his long-standing view that Sweden and Europe require continued inflows of workers to offset demographic decline. He also argued that people become frightened by rapid social change but would ultimately adapt to the country’s transformation following decades of high immigration.
Referring to the immigration surge and consequent unprecedented violent gang crime, Bildt, 76, said, “I still think that we have handled it relatively well in Sweden. Something that we didn’t really foresee is this marginal phenomenon that is gang crime. A dominant marginal phenomenon, though. Shootings and such. We didn’t have that before. It has appeared on the margins of all this. We didn’t foresee that. At least, I didn’t.” He added that Sweden would “sooner or later” overcome the problem and bizarrely compared conditions in Sweden to “paradise-like conditions” relative to parts of South Chicago.
The comments prompted sharp reactions from political figures and journalists. Martin Kinnunen, an MP for the right-wing Sweden Democrats, wrote that “in an ideal world, Carl Bildt would have been a marginal phenomenon in Swedish politics,” while Göteborgs-Posten columnist Naomi Abramowicz argued that Bildt’s characterization of shootings as a fringe issue ignored those directly affected. “Tell that to everyone who lacks a voice in the debate and has themselves been affected by this ‘fringe phenomenon,’” she wrote on X.
Enligt Carl Bildt är ”gängkriminalitet” ett randfenomen. ”Skjutningar och sånt”. Säg det till alla som saknar en röst i debatten och själva har drabbats av det här ”randfenomenet”. https://t.co/dDSCaqUcin
Göteborgs-Posten political editor Adam Cwejman published an op-ed titled “Carl Bildt seems to live in a different reality,” challenging Bildt’s suggestion that gang crime is peripheral. Cwejman contrasted Bildt’s remarks with a series of high-profile explosions, shootings, and assassinations across the country, writing that organized crime has become “one of the most defining societal problems” in Sweden this decade. He noted that numerous bombings, including attacks on residential buildings and public institutions, have caused casualties and widespread fear.
Cwejman argued that immigration on the scale Sweden has experienced in recent decades inevitably brings major social change, including new challenges. He emphasized that the core of organized crime consists largely of people with foreign backgrounds, often born in Sweden, and that the issue cannot be dismissed as marginal or self-resolving. He wrote that Bildt’s comparisons to South Chicago illustrated a disconnect between elite commentary and the realities of families living near ongoing violence.
“A special form of selective viewing is required to downplay the problem of gang crime,” he added.
Recent cases across Sweden highlight the severity of the issue. Authorities recorded more than one explosion per day in January alone, with migrants in some cases returning to their home countries, citing gang violence. In an interview with Dagens Nyheter last October, Iraqi-born Amin, who arrived in Sweden back in 2003, shared his experience of running a business in Sweden for years before gang activity in his neighborhood forced him to leave. “I forgot about those times! Now I live like a king! I am developing, I feel good. It is much safer in Iraq than in Sweden,” he said, reflecting on his new life back home.
Investigations have revealed that thousands of individuals linked to criminal networks have received welfare payments for years, creating what officials call a legal-looking revenue stream for gangs.
Greek farmers set up roadblocks across Greece on Wednesday as anger deepened over stalled EU aid, high production costs, and a corruption scandal affecting subsidy disbursements.
Farmers from Thessaly drove their tractors into the major commercial port of Volos, forming one of the most visible demonstrations in the nationwide protest movement. Large crowds filled the area as farmers demanded that the government address long-standing grievances over delayed European subsidies and rising production costs.
Heavy police forces were deployed around the port, including several riot police units. Authorities kept the gates closed and maintained a perimeter to prevent tractors from reaching the terminals.
Some farmers directed their frustration personally at Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. As cited by the Ta Nea newspaper, one speaker told the crowd, “He should come here to see what is happening, to gather us and solve the problems, just as he used to gather the farmers in bales of straw and sit and tell them about the executive state.” Another farmer added, “We are the ones who voted for him,” expressing discontent at the delays in resolving key financial and regulatory issues.
Farmers from multiple blockades across Thessaly — including Nikaia, Platykambos, Karditsa, and Trikala — coordinated their march toward Volos early in the morning. Fishermen announced that they were preparing a parallel sea blockade.
Farmers, breeders, and fishermen unite in Volos, blocking the port with tractors and boats as they intensify their call for urgent agricultural reforms in Greece https://t.co/gYyp4Ntvd4
The organizers requested that riot police cages be removed from the site, saying they intended to protest peacefully. Trade unionist Christos Pantzios told local media, “We have a lot of people with us” and insisted farmers had “no intention of creating problems.”
Police officials said similar in a de-escalation of the events. General Police Regional Director of Thessaly told participants, “We have no intention of creating problems. However, there are specific instructions that we follow, and we must protect the basic infrastructure.”
The protests came after the Supreme Court intervened to remind authorities that offenses disrupting transportation safety could be prosecuted ex officio, that is, without the need for a formal criminal complaint.
Key highways across Greece remain blockaded, while other roads have been subject to daily one-hour shutdowns. Blockades also continued at four major customs offices on the North Macedonian border. Participants said they intended to escalate further despite warnings from the Supreme Court prosecutor.
Support for the movement expanded as residents, students, shopkeepers, lawyers, and doctors joined farmers at several sites.
According to Reporter.gr, farmers argue that unresolved subsidy delays, a major corruption investigation into falsified land titles, and the spread of sheep and goat pox — which has destroyed large herds — have created severe financial pressures.
“It’s a matter of survival,” Yannis Koukoutsis, a farmer from the central rural area of Larissa, told public broadcaster ERT. “We are looking for goodwill gestures from the government, including the cessation of tax debts.”
The government has acknowledged the delays and said additional payments would be released soon, but protesters insist their mobilization will continue until solutions are delivered.
The European Union must expand legal migration channels and intensify pressure on the criminal networks behind illegal border crossings, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday at a global migration conference in Brussels.
Von der Leyen argued that creating structured, regulated routes into the EU is essential if the bloc wants to reduce reliance on smuggling networks. “We must open more safe pathways, legal pathways to Europe,” she said, urging closer cooperation between Europe and partner countries, including the G7. “We must make sure that people can find a job where their talent is needed … bring skills across our borders.”
The Commission president highlighted the EU’s new “talent partnerships” — arrangements that allow non-EU citizens to work legally in Europe — saying five countries have already joined and that Brussels hopes more will follow. She said a newly established “talent pool” would match European employers with qualified workers from outside the bloc, with a pilot “gateway office” in India launching to help jobseekers access legal routes. If successful, she said, it could become “a blueprint for partnership with other countries.”
NEW – Ursula von der Leyen says that to prevent illegal border crossings, "we must open more safe and legal pathways to Europe," and announces, as part of the new "talent partnerships," an office opening in India to connect European employers with non-European jobseekers. pic.twitter.com/UMnxqKIKSc
She portrayed these initiatives as beneficial to both Europe and partner states through developing skills, creating opportunities, and keeping young people engaged. “By working in partnerships, we have found safe alternatives to the lethal criminal smuggling networks,” she added.
Alongside legal pathways, von der Leyen announced a significant escalation in the EU’s enforcement strategy. Brussels is preparing a new sanctions regime aimed directly at migrant smugglers and the financial channels that sustain them. “We need stronger legal tools to dismantle this criminal business,” she said. “This is why Europe is developing a stringent new sanctions regime against smugglers … Our goal is simple. We want to bankrupt their businesses through all means available.”
The Commission chief said the measures could include travel bans and asset seizures, developed in coordination with G7 partners. She argued that migrants who enter the EU illegally often fall prey to “networks of modern slavery,” and said that expanding legal migration routes was essential to cutting these groups out.
The president also called for a major expansion of the EU’s border agency, Frontex, which she said should be tripled to 30,000 staff as part of wider efforts to reinforce border management and combat illegal immigration. According to von der Leyen, irregular entries have fallen by 37 percent this year, with a 26 percent decline on the most frequently used routes.
Her remarks came amid continued controversy over the EU’s recently adopted Asylum and Migration Pact, which includes faster procedures for returning people without authorization to stay and a mandatory solidarity mechanism. Under the system, member states must accept relocated migrants or make a “solidarity payment” of €20,000 per person if they refuse. Hungary, Slovakia, and Czechia have all declared their opposition, while countries such as Poland will receive temporary adjustments to their quotas due to the high number of Ukrainian refugees already hosted.
Von der Leyen acknowledged the political challenges but said the EU’s overarching principle must remain clear: “Europeans decide who crosses the borders and under what conditions, not the smugglers.”
“We all have one common goal,” she told delegates. “The common goal is to drive the smugglers out of business. To save the lives of thousands of people who dream of a better life.”
At no point in her speech did she mention the effect that illegal immigration has on European citizens. She did not refer to the disproportionate percentage of crimes committed by migrants across the bloc, nor the plummeting levels of security felt among citizens.
Instead, she told attendees, “We must create more bridges between our continents. We must make sure that people can find a job where their talent is needed, match the skills, and bring skills across our borders.”
For nearly two decades, the Denmark-based European Sperm Bank (ESB) used sperm from a donor who was later diagnosed with the deadly TP53 mutation, which is known to present an extremely high risk of cancer. At least 197 children were conceived from the single donor.
The case came to light following an international journalistic investigation reported by the German press. As the report indicates, these nearly 200 children were conceived using the sperm from the ill-fated donor in 14 countries around the world. These children may be at extremely high risk of cancer.
As the investigation describes, the first signs of the problem appeared already in 2020, when a suspicious mutation was detected in one of the children. Subsequent tests were inconclusive because the mutation was “present only in some sperm cells.”
However, instead of halting the use of his sperm, donations from this donor continued, with more families using his sperm to conceive. It was not until 2023, when cancer cases began to appear in different countries, that a common source was identified.
“Then the donation was blocked,” the report states.
Although the sperm bank is required to notify clinics of detected genetic defects, “in this case the system completely failed.”
Families in many countries, including France, Germany, and Belgium, have not received any official communications. “Many parents learned about the mutation from the media or from other families, while institutions remained silent. Some children have already fallen ill, and deaths have also been reported.”
The donor profile, cataloged as 7069, was entered into the ESB catalog in 2007. He was described as a tall economics student with light brown hair. His sperm was sold not only throughout Europe but also in places as far away as Afghanistan and Bolivia.
At the same time, the European Sperm Bank was recording record financial results. “In 2023, the company achieved over €8 million in profit.”
The case also revealed that limits on the number of families per donor were effectively ignored. “In Belgium alone, 53 children were born from donor sperm 7069, even though local regulations allow a maximum of six families.”
The European Sperm Bank attempted to explain the situation by citing “reporting errors, computer system problems and the phenomenon of reproductive tourism.”
The result, however, was a situation in which one man’s genetic material found its way to dozens of families in different countries, without real control and without ensuring basic health security.
“This case reveals the scale of chaos in European sperm donation procedures, the lack of transparency and the lack of uniform control standards.”
Families are today demanding the creation of an international donor registry and the introduction of global limits that will prevent the re-spread of single-donor DNA on such a massive scale.
A 23-year-old student was raped shortly after leaving the Jonio metro station in northern Rome in the early hours of Sunday morning, with authorities reportedly searching for three Gambian nationals in connection with the attack.
According to investigators, the woman was walking toward a night bus stop when three men approached her, restrained her, and dragged her to a secluded area near Via di Valle Melaina.
She reported being raped by one of the attackers while the other two held her down, according to La Repubblica. The three men immediately fled the scene.
The victim managed to reach a parked vehicle and asked the driver for help. She was taken to Sandro Pertini Hospital, where doctors confirmed the assault and alerted the authorities. Investigators are reconstructing the woman’s movements and examining cameras along her route.
According to Il Giornale, authorities are searching for three Gambian men, though investigators have not confirmed their identities.
The attack occurred roughly 350 meters from the Jonio station exit. Police are assessing whether the assailants followed the woman from the metro or encountered her on the street. Surveillance footage from the surrounding area is being collected.
The attack follows the arrest of three Moroccan men in the Italian capital last month, accused of dragging an 18-year-old girl out of her boyfriend’s car and gang raping her while restraining her partner and forcing him to watch.
That attack occurred on the evening of Oct. 25 after a migrant gang surrounded the couple’s parked car in Tor Tre Teste park.
The latest incident has sparked further concerns about public safety in Rome, leading opposition politicians in the city council to call for a greater police presence.
“We reiterate our request to the government for increased resources for nighttime patrols,” said Valeria Baglio, leader of the Democratic Party group in the capital. Luisa Regimenti, secretary of Forza Italia Rome, said more technology is needed to support law enforcement and argued that “Rome is not a safe city at night, especially for women.”
The attacks come at a time when the Rome city council is launching a new initiative focused on finding families willing to host single adult migrants in their homes for up to three years.
The council opened a tender until late September in search of an operator to manage the program on behalf of the municipality. It said the main objectives were to foster integration and provide “a welcoming environment geared toward inclusion and autonomy.”
A 25-year-old Romanian man severely beat two young women on a tram in a Bremen station suburb on Friday evening, with police stating the attack was due to the women’s sexual orientation. It follows a wave of attacks from foreigners against LGBT people in Germany over the last years, including cases of murder.
The two women, aged 18 and 19, entered tram line 8 at the Haferkamp station and headed towards the city’s main station. When the two kissed, a 25-year-old Romanian man approached them and insulted them based on their sexuality.
An argument ensued between the man and the women, with the Romanian suddenly punching both women in the face, according to the police report.
🇩🇪‼️ "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
When the 18-year-old fell unconscious to the ground due to the blow, the Romanian man then kicked her in the stomach.
Officers patrolling the area noticed the incident and arrested the suspect, who was taken to the police station for processing.
The foreigner is now being investigated for grievous bodily harm. The State Security Service, which is responsible for hate crime cases, has taken over further investigations.
Both victims were transported to the hospital for outpatient treatment.
LGBT people have been the victims of attacks from migrants in Germany on many occasions. In one case, two lesbians in Berlin were seriously beaten by teenagers. In July of 2023, four men in the multicultural neighborhood of Kreuzberg beat two lesbians, used homophobic slurs, and fled the scene. In August 2023, in perhaps one of the most immigrant-heavy neighborhoods in Germany, Neukölln, a lesbian organization had its building burned down in an arson attack. In 2020, a Syrian migrant stabbed a gay man to death in Dresden in a targeted homophobic attack.
In 2022, a number of foreign men attacked a gay pride parade and set an LGBT flag on fire in Karlsruhe. Also in 2022, a rejected Chechen asylum seeker beat a transgender woman to death during an LGBT parade in Münster.
Middle Eastern and North African countries are known for their extreme anti-LGBT laws and incredible repression of the LGBT community. Cultural differences between Muslims and other non-European foreign national groups sometimes lead to social tensions and outright violence in multicultural European nations that take a more liberal approach to sexuality.
In 2023, a refugee center for 650 migrants opened opposite the world-famous Eastside Gallery gay bar.
The owner of the establishment has expressed major concerns about the safety of LGBT people and people partying in the area.
“The asylum home is located directly on a party mile where, in addition to young women, transgender people and many other people from the queer scene are out and about,” owner Carla Pahlau told Die Welt.
“Refugees with a Syrian, Afghan, or Turkish background come from an area where being gay is not accepted at all,” she added.
A young French couple’s weekend trip to Paris turned into a nightmare after a gang of youths first cornered the man at a kebab shop, forced him to strip, and later looted the couple’s rented apartment.
Alexandre and Léa, both in their early twenties and originally from Narbonne, had planned a quiet stay together while Léa was in Essonne for an internship. Alexandre, familiar with the area through family ties, had joined her for the weekend.
The couple rented a small Airbnb apartment near Parc des Coquibus in the southern Parisian suburbs.
On Friday evening, Alexandre went to eat with an old friend at a nearby kebab shop. He told Le Parisien that nothing seemed unusual until a gang of eight or nine youths gathered inside. “As soon as I got up to leave, they came up to me and said, ‘Who are you? Where are you from?’” he said. He explained that he was not from the neighborhood, but was told to follow them into a nearby building. “I tell myself there are many of them, there’s no point in trying to be a man,” he recalled.
Inside, the gang stripped him naked, searched his belongings, and took his documents and phone. They forced him to withdraw €100 — the maximum he could take out at that hour — and attempted to negotiate the sale of his iPhone online while he watched. They demanded that he unlock the device’s iCloud account to disable tracking.
When the young man was released and returned to the Airbnb, he found the apartment had been ransacked. The television, microwave, and other goods were gone. Léa, who had been inside at the time, said she unexpectedly came face-to-face with the intruders as she stepped out of the bathroom.
“They told me everything was fine, everything was calm. They were there, completely calm. One was smoking hashish, another was humming while the others took what they could,” she said.
The gang reportedly told her they would not take her belongings, “because they wouldn’t steal from girls.”
Le Parisien cited a source close to the investigation who said the neighborhood was a known hotbed for drug dealing, and tourists were regularly preyed upon.
The owner of the apartment, who has rented it out for about a year, declined to comment “for fear of reprisals” but has filed a complaint.
No arrests have yet been made; however, DNA traces are believed to have been found at the scene belonging to the perpetrators.
After a German citizen with a Turkish background was accused of murdering his wife in a brutal femicide in Ingolstadt, there is debate about the fact that police reported on the foreign background of the perpetrator. In fact, the city’s “integration officer” has even condemned the publication of the suspect’s background, saying it would prove divisive.
The murder made national headlines due to its brutality, which saw the man seriously injure his ex-partner with a kitchen knife in the street. The victim, a 45-year-old woman, was hospitalized and then died shortly after arriving.
Even more disturbing is the fact that the two sons tried to fight their father off and save their mother, but he kept stabbing the woman without being seriously hindered. The man had already been sentenced to prison in October, less than two months ago, for violating a restraining order.
In response to the murder, Upper Bavaria North Police headquarters sent a message on Saturday morning, mentioning the case involved a “49-year-old Turk,” which was reported by the local news outlet, the Donaukurier. Numerous media outlets repeated the information.
The publication of the man’s foreign background caught the attention of the city’s integration officer, Ingrid Gumplinger, who contacted the newspaper’s editorial team. She complained that calling the suspect a “Turk” is causing problems for the city’s Turkish community and making them feel stigmatized. She published a statement against the publication of this information, along with the city’s Equal Opportunities Commissioner Barbara Deimel, condemning the publication “on behalf of the city,” according to Welt newspaper.
In the statement, they noted that violence is a problem for all of society, regardless of the origin of any suspect.
“The origin of an offender must not lead to stigmatizing entire groups or fueling mistrust between communities,” reads the statement. They call for more efforts to prevent femicide.
There are also conflicting laws about the issue. In the Press Code, directive 12.1 warns that nationalities should only be mentioned if there is a “reasoned public interest” and there is no discriminatory motive behind it. However, as Welt notes, “In the case of serious crimes, a suspect’s biography may be relevant.”
However, at the same time, the Bavarian Ministry of the Interior also now requires police communications to mention the nationality of suspects as of Oct. 1, which is generally stated in all police reports.
The policy just recently changed in Bavaria, and follows the path of other German states, including recently North Rhine-Westphalia and Schleswig-Holstein, along with Saxony and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, which have been publishing this information for a longer period of time.
Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann (CSU) explained, saying there is often “discussion about the nationality of suspects on social media,“ and accusations that the nationality is “concealed.“ However, in his view, mentioning nationality is part of “honest information for the public.”
The Foreigners’ Advisory Council warned that it would encourage racism.
🇩🇪🔴The "Knappi Gang" of foreigners has been ruthlessly beating victims, including on video them film themselves, in the German city of Dortmund,
1 Syrian and 1 Eritrean were arrested by specialized SEK raid police. 3 Germans have also been arrested. However, the report from… pic.twitter.com/HqZVvKUaRf
Notably, this information will now be reported even if the individual has German citizenship but a foreign background.
The German Police Union supported the move.
“Extensive and even open information prevents speculation,” state chairman Jürgen Köhnlein told BR. Nationality is a fact, “and facts belong in every serious police report.” He said that reporting comprehensive information helps gain public trust, which occurs by being transparent.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš will enter next Thursday’s European Council summit in Brussels prepared for a confrontation over EU finances, saying the Union must first fix “huge evasions” in VAT and customs before asking member states to commit more money.
With his government formally appointed on Tuesday, Babiš will represent the Czech Republic at the next meeting of member state heads on Dec. 18.
As reported by Echo24, EU leaders pledged in October to secure Ukraine’s “urgent financial needs” for 2026 and 2027, and must decide this month how to honor that commitment. European Council President António Costa emphasized the urgency in his invitation letter, calling the issue the summit’s core priority.
Babiš, however, signalled he will push the debate beyond Ukraine and address wider financial concerns within the bloc. “The EU mainly deals with expenditures and does little with revenues, where there are huge evasions,” he said, arguing that Brussels should first address leakages and identify new resources rather than expand spending.
He added that he had already been in contact with EU leaders and intended to propose further issues for the Union to tackle, including energy, customs, and VAT fraud.
His stance places him at odds with the European Commission’s proposals for bolstering the bloc’s coffers as part of the next multiannual financial framework (MFF), which officials in Babiš’s ANO movement have criticized as shifting burdens onto national budgets.
ANO MEP Klára Dostálová said the party’s priorities include maintaining cohesion funding, protecting regional partnerships, securing transport infrastructure funds, and ensuring support for coal-transition regions. She added that several parliamentary factions shared concerns about new EU revenue mechanisms.
Despite a possible clash of ideas, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Costa both congratulated Babiš on his appointment on Tuesday and said they looked forward to working with him at the summit.
The new governing coalition — ANO, the Freedom and Direct Democracy movement (SPD), and the Motorists party — is expected to oppose several flagship EU policies, including Ukraine financing, the migration pact, and the Green Deal. Coalition leaders have vowed to reject the migration pact at the cabinet’s first meeting, insisting that the EU cannot impose obligations on Czechia.
ANO deputy chairman Karel Havlíček said, “The European Union will not govern us. We will respect certain rules that apply there, but we are accountable to our voters.”
SPD leader Tomio Okamura confirmed that the parties had agreed to tighten residency-permit rules, reject ETS2 emission permits, and oppose any measures they argue increase Czech household costs, which could extend to greater financing of Ukraine and further Russian sanctions.
Adoption of the EU migration pact is a red line for all coalition parties. The plan mandates that member states either accept relocated migrants, pay €20,000 per migrant not taken, or provide operational assistance; ANO and its allies have long called it a violation of sovereignty.
The Commission has indicated that several countries — including Czechia — may receive temporary relief from full implementation due to earlier solidarity with Ukrainian refugees, an arrangement not offered to Slovakia and Hungary.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has been among the most legally aggressive politicians in modern German history when confronted with personal criticism, having filed hundreds of criminal complaints for defamation and insult, according to files obtained by Welt am Sonntag.
Some of these complaints – including online comments calling him a “little Nazi” or a “filthy drunk” – even resulted in police house searches for German citizens investigated under the draconian defamation law, for which the offense of insulting politicians was added back in 2021.
The documents include criminal complaints, investigation files, and correspondence from the law firm Brockmeier, Faulhaber, Rudolph, which represented Merz in the cases. Merz’s parliamentary office confirmed the broad outlines of these activities, noting that he pursued criminal proceedings during the previous legislative period and donated all damages and fines “to social causes in the Hochsauerland district.”
The scale of the effort surprised many within the CDU/CSU. “After the house search at the home of the guy who called Habeck a ‘moron,’ we found it unacceptable that Merz would do something like that,” one party figure told the German newspaper, referencing a case in which a pensioner was hounded by the authorities for an online post criticizing then-Economics Minister and Greens leader Robert Habeck. Another warned the tactic “will surely backfire on us.”
Central to Merz’s legal strategy was the agency So Done, which scoured the internet for insults on behalf of clients, filed complaints, and pursued civil claims – financing itself by taking half of any damages awarded. It reportedly promoted itself as a project against online hate, but in reality ran a productive campaign on behalf of powerful, wealthy politicians targeting ordinary citizens who dared to criticize them.
So Done counted prominent figures as supporters, including NRW Minister-President Hendrik Wüst, former Economics Minister Robert Habeck, and Bundestag President Julia Klöckner. Merz is said to have since discontinued the relationship with the agency.
The investigative files reviewed by Welt show how the system escalated. In one case, police conducted a house search after an online user called Merz a “filthy drunk.” A court later ruled the search unlawful. Another case involved an elderly, disabled woman who used a wheelchair and lived on state benefits. She had posted “little Nazi” on social media. Although she confessed immediately when police arrived, officers confiscated her mobile phone – her only means of communication with carers, doctors, and pharmacies – a measure described by her lawyer as unnecessary and potentially dangerous.
The cases raise concerns among defense lawyers about the broader role of law enforcement. Konstantin Grubwinkler, representing the man in the “filthy drunk” case, said the underlying issue was not Merz’s decision to file complaints but the state’s response. “The problem is the complete overreaction of the justice system,” he said. If police searches are deemed proportionate in such cases, he warned, “the principle of proportionality effectively ceases to exist, and there is unlawful arbitrariness.”
A similar dynamic appeared in a case involving a tweet from September 2023 stating: “Assholes are people whose verbal output is indistinguishable from their anal output. #Merz #Merzbohren.” Although Merz himself did not file a complaint, the case was picked up by “Hessen gegen Hetze,” a project under the authority of the Hessian interior ministry, and referred to the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA). Investigators classified the matter as politically motivated extremism.
Welt reported that one police note in the file described the need to “prioritize” the over-one-year-old tweet “in time for the federal elections.” Lawyers defending accused citizens reported dozens of such investigations.
Attorney Jannik Rienhoff said he has represented around 10 people in roughly 30 cases, with only one resulting in a penalty order; many have already been dropped. However, the hounding of citizens for comments posted online raises serious questions about the freedom of speech and the ability of the electorate to lament politicians, who should expect larger exposure to criticism for the role they play in public life. “It shouldn’t be the job of the BKA to scour the internet for potential insults that politicians aren’t even aware of,” he said.
Although a spokesperson for the federal government said Merz did not file a complaint “in any” of the more than 170 contacts police and prosecutors made with him over alleged insults, a February 2025 document shows that he personally signed at least one complaint ahead of the federal election.
The Merz files form part of a broader trend: the rapid expansion of criminal proceedings for political insults under Section 188 of the Criminal Code, revised in 2021 to allow prosecution even without a complaint from the offended politician. Former Economics Minister Robert Habeck is said to have filed at least 800 complaints. In June this year, police staged a nationwide operation targeting individuals suspected of insulting politicians or spreading “hate and incitement” online, conducting morning raids and seizing electronic devices from 170 people. NRW Interior Minister Herbert Reul praised the action, saying: “Digital arsonists must not be able to hide behind their cell phones or computers.”
In one of the most striking incidents, a civil engineer in Lower Saxony served 30 days in prison after failing to properly formalize an appeal against a €3,000 fine for insulting Mecklenburg-Vorpommern Minister-President Manuela Schwesig. His angry 2022 email called her a “storyteller,” accused her of talking “stupid stuff,” and suggested she should “start working in construction instead of politics.”
Schwesig filed the complaint herself; after the man’s misfiled appeal and later failure to report for the custodial sanction, police arrested him at his workplace. He lost his job upon release.
International scrutiny intensified in February when CBS’s 60 Minutes aired footage of German police raids targeting alleged hate-speech offenders. Elon Musk reacted: “Thank the Lord that America has freedom of speech.” U.S. Vice President JD Vance called Europe’s approach “Orwellian” and warned that criminalizing speech risks straining transatlantic relations.
The mother of a 5-year-old boy, who died in April after ingesting cocaine that belonged to her Egyptian boyfriend, was sentenced this Thursday, Dec. 4. Just the day before, the 23-year-old woman was arrested for smuggling drugs into Saint-Brieuc prison to her Egyptian partner, the same man who was held found responsible for killing her child months before.
The court determined that she passed cocaine to her 20-year-old partner in the visiting room of the prison, where he was imprisoned after her 5-year-old son ingested cocaine he had brought into the house. The boy died on April 2, and her Egyptian partner was found guilty of manslaughter in the case.
The woman was arrested on Dec. 3 and sentenced the next day to 10 months of prison for smuggling in 30 grams of cocaine. She is also prohibited from contacting her partner, according to French news outlet Ouest France.
Regarding this case, the Egyptian man claimed that he asked his partner for baking yeast, and that he did not ask her to bring cocaine to the prison. Essentially, he tried to throw her under bus in this latest case.
Autopsy confirmed her son died from ingesting cocaine
During the first trial for manslaughter on May 19, 2025, the Egyptian man said that the drugs had not belonged to him and that he had found them on the street. He placed the cocaine inside his cupboard, which was within reach of the young boy.
The boy ingested the cocaine and was transported to the intensive care unit of the Rennes University Hospital, where the boy spent several days. However, doctors were unable to save his life. An autopsy confirmed the boy died due to cocaine ingestion overdose.
The convicted Egyptian had denied that he ever used drugs. However, investigators examined the man’s hair after the boy died, and found that he was a regular cocaine user.
He was found guilty and is serving a four-year prison sentence.
Czech President Petr Pavel appointed ANO leader Andrej Babiš as prime minister on Tuesday at Prague Castle, returning the billionaire-turned-politician to the helm of government less than four years after he left office.
It is his third time leading a Czech administration. Pavel is expected to appoint the remaining ministers early next week, drawn from ANO, the Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) movement, and the Motorists party, after the trio agreed to a coalition government following October’s elections.
Shortly after receiving the mandate, Babiš took to social media to express his gratitude. “I have been appointed prime minister. I value this greatly, as well as the trust of the citizens, which they gave us in the elections,” he wrote. “I promise to do everything to ensure we do not betray that trust and fulfill the programmatic declaration of our government. I promise to be a prime minister who defends the interests of all our citizens at home and in the world, and a prime minister who will work to make the Czech Republic the best place to live on the entire planet.”
Byl jsem jmenován premiérem. Velmi si toho vážím, stejně jako důvěry občanů, kterou nám ve volbách dali. Slibuji, že udělám vše pro to, abychom tu důvěru nezklamali a plnili programové prohlášení naší vlády. Slibuji, že budu premiérem, který hájí zájmy všech našich občanů doma i… pic.twitter.com/303u0rasLp
President Pavel, in turn, warned of a difficult term ahead. He said the Czech Republic faces “a security and economic context that is not easy,” with problems that “will not be pleasant to the public.” He added that the country would need “vision” and “courage,” while stressing that Prague must not question its commitments to the European Union and NATO.
Pavel also welcomed Babiš’s public declaration of how he plans to resolve his longstanding conflict-of-interest issue linked to ownership structures around Agrofert, the huge Czech conglomerate involved in agriculture, chemicals, food production, and media. Czech and EU conflict-of-interest rules say a prime minister cannot control companies that receive state or EU subsidies because they would be in a position to influence decisions that financially benefit their own business. Pavel said he expects the matter to be settled within 30 days.
Among the notable figures present at Tuesday’s ceremony was Tünde Bartha, a former close associate of Babiš who previously headed the Government Office and assisted in his presidential campaign. According to Echo24, Bartha is expected to return to her former senior role.
Babiš also submitted to the Czech president the proposed list of cabinet ministers. The only missing name was Motorists MP Filip Turk, whom Babiš said was currently unable to serve due to health reasons. Officials working for the president will confirm the final date of the cabinet’s formal appointment, with Babiš noting that the timeline is being expedited ahead of an important EU summit at the end of next week.
“In December, Brussels will be very active, and we would like to take part in it,” he said.
Babiš’s return is widely expected to unsettle relations with EU institutions. He has repeatedly vowed that his government will resist the EU Migration Pact, challenge the Green Deal’s climate and energy measures, and oppose continued large-scale financial support for Ukraine. His new coalition partners from SPD and Motorists share similar positions, setting up renewed clashes with Brussels just as the EU prepares major decisions on budget, energy, and migration policy for 2026 and beyond.
He is likely to find allies in fellow Visegrád nations, with both Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his Slovak counterpart, Robert Fico, having long been at loggerheads with the European Commission on the aforementioned issues.
A Moroccan illegal migrant has been sentenced for sexually assaulting four children at the Chambly swimming pool in France. He was sentenced to 14 months in prison, of which, five months were suspended.
On Dec. 8, the court found that the 30-year-old Rafik A. sexually assaulted the different children, aged 10 to 14, on two separate occasions over the summer.
The case came to light on Aug. 8 when three children, two young girls and one boy, alerted the pool’s receptionist that the suspect was sexually assaulting them.
“A man groped us in the pool,” complained the three children, who all described the Moroccan touching their private areas and slapping them. The young boy had tried to protect the two girls, at which time Rafik A. began slapping the boy because he wanted to be alone with the girls.
The employee told authorities that the three children seemed terrified when the suspect walked past them at reception and appeared to be waiting for them by the pool.
French police arrived on scene and arrested Rafik A., who they determined was in the country illegally.
🇫🇷 A Moroccan illegal migrant has been found guilty of sexually assaulting 4 children at the Chambly swimming pool in France.
His sentence? Only 14 months, 5 suspended, and he could be out in the next 5 months.
Eventually, it also came to light during the police investigation that a similar incident occurred the day before, on Aug. 7. In that case, Rafik A. kept trying to approach different groups of children in the pool and asked them if they wanted to play with a ball he had. The game escalated quickly, with Rafik A. violently throwing balls at the children with extreme force.
Then, he jumped in the water and began touching and partaking in extreme physical contact with the children. One of the victims was identified by police.
Residents say they will now be more “vigilant” after the incident, highlighting how such incidents can radically change the sense of safety and security of locals.
“Knowing what happened, we’re even more careful with our grandchildren,” said a retiree to Le Parisien who frequents the pool.
“It’s the first time we’ve heard of anything like this,” said Marylène, another local resident.
In court, Rafik A. spoke through an interpreter, stating: “I didn’t do anything… It was they who asked me to play with them.”
The defendant’s lawyer stated: “I understand the children’s feelings, but he genuinely thought he was just playing, nothing more.” The Senlis court convicted the man, but since he has already been incarcerated since August, he could be free within the next five months.
Rafik A. is only banned from the actual swimming pool for a period of three years and he is also banned from French territory for 10 years.
Due to the fact that Rafik A. was already in prison since August, he has already served a large portion of his sentence, and could be eligible for release in just five months.
Elon Musk escalated his confrontation with Brussels on Monday, declaring on X that “the EU commissars are responsible for the murder of Europe” after the European Commission insisted it would “make sure” the social media platform pays the €120 million fine imposed last week for alleged violations of the Digital Services Act (DSA).
The Commission announced on Friday that X had breached transparency rules and used deceptive design practices under the bloc’s online-platform regulation, with specific criticism of its blue-tick verification system. The EU regulator said the system exposes people to scams, impersonation, and manipulation by malicious actors.
The move prompted a swift backlash in Washington as senior U.S. officials accused the EU of censorship, regulatory harassment, and unfair targeting of American technology firms. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “The European Commission’s $140 million fine isn’t just an attack on X, it’s an attack on all American tech platforms and the American people by foreign governments. The days of censoring Americans online are over.”
Brendan Carr, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, likewise criticized the EU action, saying, “Once again, Europe is fining a successful U.S. tech company for being a successful U.S. tech company. Europe is taxing Americans to subsidize a continent held back by Europe’s own suffocating regulations.”
Today’s excessive €120M fine is the result of EU regulatory overreach targeting American innovation. The Trump Administration has been clear: we oppose censorship and will challenge burdensome regulations that target US companies abroad. We expect the EU to engage in fair, open,… https://t.co/EAld2QJaen
Howard Lutnick, the U.S. Secretary of Commerce, added that “the Digital Services Act is designed to stifle free speech and American tech companies,” while U.S. Ambassador to the EU Andrew Puzder described the penalty as “excessive” and a result of “EU regulatory overreach.”
Musk has frequently clashed with liberal Western governments, accusing them of suppressing free expression. In recent months, he has publicly backed figures on Europe’s political right, including Alice Weidel of Germany’s Alternative for Germany (AfD) and several anti-mass immigration MPs in the United Kingdom, such as Rupert Lowe.
“Remigration is the normal position,” Musk wrote on Monday, remarking on a poll indicating that seven in ten Danes support deporting foreign nationals convicted of crimes.
Over the weekend, he intensified his criticism of Brussels by calling for the “abolition” of the European Union, claiming it prioritizes bureaucracy over democracy. “Dissolve the EU and return power to the people,” he wrote while commenting on a European Court of Justice ruling last year that upheld a financial penalty against Hungary for refusing to accept migrant quotas under the EU Migration Pact. That scheme requires member states either to accept allocated asylum seekers or pay roughly €20,000 per person as a solidarity contribution.
Musk has also claimed the controversy has boosted X’s popularity. He said the platform was seeing “record-breaking downloads in many countries in Europe” following the announcement of the fine, calling X the number one news app “in every EU country.”
At the Commission’s daily briefing on Monday, spokesperson Thomas Regnier said the penalty would be enforced. “X will have to pay that fine. The €120 million will have to be paid. We will make sure that we get this money,” he told reporters.
Regnier said the Commission would continue to use X to communicate with the public despite the platform’s decision to suspend the Commission’s account for paid advertising in response to the penalty. He said the EU executive uses all its social media accounts, including those on X, “to get in touch with citizens, stakeholders, to do some outreach work, to precisely speak about what we are doing in the EU.”
X can still challenge the decision, and Regnier confirmed the company “has 90 days to get back” to the Commission on how it intends to proceed.
Daily news headlines showing young foreigners committing violence in Germany is not just “isolated reporting,” but represents a real and growing trend. According to a new study, youth violence has not only doubled overall, but violent crimes committed by seventh graders have soared 383 percent in just a little over a decade.
The study, from the State Criminal Police Office of North Rhine-Westphalia and the University of Cologne, shows that in North Rhine-Westphalia, violent incidents among those under 14 have doubled since 2013, according to Bild.
In particular, there were 408 violent crimes by 7th graders who were born in a foreign country in 2013, which has risen 383 percent to 1,972. Meanwhile, the number of foreigners only rose 135 percent, from 40,000 to 94,000.
🇩🇪🔴The "Knappi Gang" of foreigners has been ruthlessly beating victims, including on video them film themselves, in the German city of Dortmund,
1 Syrian and 1 Eritrean were arrested by specialized SEK raid police. 3 Germans have also been arrested. However, the report from… pic.twitter.com/HqZVvKUaRf
Meanwhile, the number of German offenders rose 23 percent, from 2,902 to 3,579. However, many of these German offenders also have a foreign background, with some figures stating that 35 percent of students have a migration background in North Rhine-Westphalia.
The German state has a larger share of foreign nationals and those with an immigration background in its student body than other German states, which has led to growing stories of chaos, disrespect, and violence.
“There is an increasing loss of control in schools. Teachers are insulted, threatened and pushed. Only a third of young people believe that teachers intervene in fights,” wrote Bild about the new study.
In one school with a 98 percent migration background, one teacher reported being “spit on” and “insulted,” including by the parents of students she teaches
An Algerian woman under an order to leave French territory is standing trial in Nanterre for allegedly poisoning the food of a Jewish family who had employed her as a live-in nanny.
The case, described by investigators as without precedent in France, involves a couple and their three young children aged two, five, and seven.
As reported by Le Parisien, Leïla Y., 42, appeared before the Nanterre Criminal Court on Tuesday, accused of “administering a harmful substance resulting in incapacity exceeding eight days, committed on the grounds of race, ethnicity, nationality or religion.” Prosecutors say she used falsified documents, including a fake Belgian identity card, to obtain the job two months before the alleged events.
The investigation began after the mother of the family reported a series of alarming incidents in late January 2024. Dishes and drinks had unusual smells or tasted of cleaning products, and makeup remover had burned her eyes.
Suspecting foul play, the family reported the Algerian national to the police. Further allegations were made when the family’s 5-year-old told the authorities she had witnessed the nanny pouring a substance into a bottle of alcohol labelled “Jerusalem.”
Toxicology tests confirmed their suspicions, revealing significant traces of polyethylene glycol and other chemical agents in multiple food and drink items. The substances used were “harmful, even corrosive, and can cause serious injuries to the digestive tract,” according to the committal order.
In February, the nanny admitted in a police interview to adding a “soap-based lotion” to the family’s food and drink, describing it as a “punishment” following disputes over her pay. “I was angry; they were disrespecting me,” she added.
However, she also made remarks that suggested an anti-Semitic motive, saying she acted “because they have money and power, I should never have worked for a Jewish woman; she only brought me trouble.”
Her defense lawyer, Solange Marle, disputes the anti-Semitic motivation and says her client has since retracted parts of her confession. “The statements remain focused on a class issue and financial resentment,” she argued, noting that expert analysis did not establish an intent or attempt to kill, leading prosecutors to reduce the charge from attempted poisoning.
The defense also insists that toxic substances were found only in the parents’ drinks, not those of the children. A psychiatric assessment found the accused had no condition affecting legal responsibility and should therefore stand trial.
A security guard at the Jewish school attended by the children told investigators that the nanny frequently complained that the parents refused to pay her more. “Then she said the famous line to me: ‘But they have money, they can give it to me,”‘ he reported.
Analysis of her phone showed Google searches on the victims’ identities as well as terms such as “Berber Jewish women” and “religious practices of Judaism.” Her Facebook activity included several posts related to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The children also told investigators the nanny often asked them questions about their religion. One child said she had seen the nanny repeatedly tamper with the family’s mezuzah, a small tube with a prayer inside and affixed to a home’s doorframe to signal it is a Jewish household.
Prosecutors initially pursued a charge of attempted poisoning, but later reclassified the offense after expert reports concluded the substances used were not capable of causing death, a requirement for that charge under French law.
Four minors from Syria and Ukraine were arrested on Friday following a brutal hammer attack on a 13-year-old boy at the central bus station in Lindau on the German shore of Lake Constance.
According to a statement from Bavaria Police, officers responded to the incident shortly after 10 p.m. following reports that several youths had assaulted a boy using emergency hammers stolen from a city bus.
When police arrived minutes later, the victim was found injured on the ground while the assailants had already fled.
“Each of the perpetrators kicked the victim while he was lying on the ground,” the authorities said.
“After several patrols from the Federal Police, the Border Police, and the Lindau Police participated in the search, four children were eventually identified as the perpetrators. During their escape, they hid behind the Lindau Criminal Investigation Department building and were subsequently taken to the Lindau Police Station.
“It was determined that the youngest perpetrator was only 11 years old, the oldest 13. They are a pair of brothers from Syria and two Ukrainians,” they added.
All of the suspects reside in Vorarlberg, across the border in Austria. They were ultimately handed over to parents, guardians, and a family crisis unit.
The victim, an Austrian boy of the same age, was taken to a hospital in Bregenz. Police said he is expected to make a full recovery.
Investigators believe the attack followed a verbal dispute involving one of the alleged perpetrators.
Europe will inevitably need a new security arrangement with Russia after the Ukraine war — but only once Moscow accepts peace on terms that respect sovereignty, Czech President Petr Pavel has said in a recent interview with The Sunday Times.
“If we are to think about any future relations with Russia, they can only start after there is a peace agreement and during a process that would lead to a new security arrangement in Europe,” Pavel said. “I believe we cannot avoid it. There will be a moment where we will have to negotiate with Russia a new arrangement.”
Pavel said the recent U.S.-Russia peace talks proposing territorial concessions in Ukraine reminded him of the Munich Agreement that helped dismantle pre-war Czechoslovakia, drawing parallels with the appeasement strategy adopted at the time by the West. “If we allow Russia to come out of this conflict as a victor, we have all lost,” he warned, adding that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s justification for the invasion echoed the Nazi use of the Sudeten German minority as a pretext in 1938.
“For Czechoslovakia, the German minority was used as a pretext. The same narrative is being used by Vladimir Putin.”
He rejected the idea that the West was betraying Ukraine outright, but accused it of faltering in its commitment to its own principles. “What we are doing now, I wouldn’t call it a betrayal of Ukraine,” he said. “I would call it reluctance — reluctance to protect the principles we all claim to protect.”
His position appears to have changed somewhat since August, when the Czech president told the CTK news agency that Ukraine would probably have to give up territory.
“The surrender of territory would reflect the situation on the battlefield and represent the lesser evil, as opposed to continuing the war, which would result in numerous new casualties and material losses,” Pavel said at the time.
A former chair of NATO’s military committee, Pavel told The Sunday Times that Russian aircraft and drones repeatedly violating allied airspace were part of a deliberate campaign to assess NATO’s willingness to act. He argued that the alliance may soon need to respond more forcefully.
“I believe there will be a moment, if these violations continue, where we will have to use stronger measures, including potentially shooting down a Russian airplane or drones,” he said. “Russia wouldn’t allow repeated violations of its airspace. And we have to do the same.”
“These violations are deliberate, well-planned, and focused on several objectives,” he added. “One of them is to show that Russia can do it. Another is to test our air-defense system. But it is also testing our resolve to act in self-defense.”
Concerned about President Trump’s shifts in U.S. policy, Pavel said Europe must be ready to defend itself if Washington redirects resources elsewhere. “We shouldn’t dissolve in any way the power of NATO and its deterrent effect,” he said. “But if there is a situation where the United States would be busy elsewhere, Asia-Pacific, for example, and they wouldn’t have enough will or resources to support European allies … we in Europe should be able to do it on our own.”
Rather than duplicating U.S. capabilities, he proposed strengthening the “European pillar” within NATO, including shared command structures that could transfer leadership to European officers if needed. Larger states such as Germany, he said, should form the backbone of these forces, with smaller countries contributing specialized units “to create European capabilities that can replace those of the United States in Europe, which would make us finally an equal partner to the United States.”
“Democratic countries are based on the same values,” Pavel said, arguing that backing Ukraine was not transactional but essential to European security. “Not closing our eyes and ears to what is going on in Ukraine.”
He warned that allowing Russia to prevail would embolden its use of hybrid attacks, including sabotage and arson, which he said Europe is already facing. “We simply cannot let Ukraine lose this conflict,” he said. “The threat of violence, airspace violations, arson, or other hybrid attacks would only increase.”
Pavel said any post-war settlement should resemble an updated version of the 1975 Helsinki Accords, requiring Russia to recognize territorial sovereignty and abide by enforceable limits on its behavior. “Such a negotiation will have to be led with two equal sides,” he said. “Not Russia imposing on us, but rather coming to an agreement that will recreate, somehow, the situation which we had in the late 70s.”
A shocking new report detailing crime data from Germany, known as the Bundeskriminalamt’s (BKA) “situation report,” reveals once again the massive over-representation of foreigners in the violent and serious crime statistics, in particular groups like Syrians and Afghans.
The data, which was shared by Bild, reports on “crime in the context of immigration” for 2024. It shows that Syrians and Afghans are far more likely to commit violent offenses than Germans.
163 out of 100,000 German residents were recorded for a violent crime.
For Syrians, this is over 1,000 percent higher, reaching 1,740 per 100,000.
🇩🇪🔴The "Knappi Gang" of foreigners has been ruthlessly beating victims, including on video them film themselves, in the German city of Dortmund,
1 Syrian and 1 Eritrean were arrested by specialized SEK raid police. 3 Germans have also been arrested. However, the report from… pic.twitter.com/HqZVvKUaRf
Notably, both groups were welcomed to Germany under the pretext that they were fleeing war, only for a tremendous number of them to inflict violence, rape, and other serious offenses against the German populace.
A similar crime distribution is seen in sexual and drug offenses, underlining the significant crime threat from these foreign populations.
The data shows that non-German suspects now account for over 40 percent of serious crimes, despite only making up 16 percent of the population.
German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) stated that the German government will enact tougher measures to combat these trends. He said that anyone who integrates, works, and follows the laws in Germany will not have issues. However, those who are criminals or classified as a danger will lose their right to stay. As a result, the interior ministry is seeking to increase deportations, including for those from Syria and Afghanistan, to reduce the rate of perpetrators.
What is even more amazing is that many of these “German” offenders are actually foreigners. There are millions of dual passport holders in Germany, and if any of them commit crimes, they are listed as “German” in the data.
Remix News has written extensively on this distorted data (here,here and here), outlining how many of the crimes listed as having been committed by a German are indeed being committed by Germans with a migration background, or in many cases, dual passport holders.
Following the Islamist terror knife attack at the “Festival of Diversity” in Solingen last year, German police union (DPoIG) deputy chairman Manuel Ostermann slammed the status quo, called the immigration problems a crime problem, and said Islam was the greatest threat to the country in terms of security.
“Yes, our country has changed. Nothing about it is positive. Germany is no longer a safe country. We have a massive problem with knife crime. The migration crisis is first and foremost a crime crisis. And the greatest danger to life and limb of people living in Germany is clearly posed by Islamists. This reality can no longer be ignored or tabooed. Now is the time to recognize reality and implement clear measures in the constitutional fight against precisely this security policy madness,” Ostermann said in a video statement.
Slovak Interior Minister Matúš Šutaj Eštok will travel to Brussels on Monday for a meeting of EU interior ministers, declaring that he is going with a clear and firm mandate to reject the European Union’s Migration and Asylum Pact.
“We reject illegal migration, we reject mandatory relocations, we promote border protection, and we insist on the sovereign right to decide who will live on our territory,” Šutaj Eštok said in a video posted on social media, arguing that Slovakia supports a “safe and functioning Europe” but will not accept decisions imposed from Brussels.
“I reject accepting people we know nothing about, who do not recognize our traditions or values, and who may pose a security risk to Slovakia,” he added, as cited by the TASR news agency.
The minister insisted that Slovakia has already shown substantial solidarity, pointing to the arrival of hundreds of thousands of people from Ukraine since 2022. He noted that Slovakia continues to register dozens of new applications for temporary refuge each day. “This is real solidarity,” he said, contrasting it with what he described as “artificially created mandatory mechanisms that Brussels wants to impose on us.”
In the Facebook video, Šutaj Eštok repeated his position in even sharper terms: “Slovakia will not let itself be dictated to. After my inauguration, we stopped illegal immigration at the border. We have shown that the state knows how to protect its citizens. I am going to Brussels to defend Slovakia’s sovereignty, and I reject the meaningless Migration and Asylum Pact.”
The stance comes as the European Commission set out last month how the new pact will operate in practice. In its first Annual Migration Management Cycle report, the Commission said several EU states — including Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Croatia, Austria, and Poland — could apply for partial or full reductions in their required solidarity contributions in 2026 due to sustained migratory pressure. Those contributions will form part of the pact’s Solidarity Pool, which obliges member states either to relocate asylum seekers from countries under strain or pay a financial sum per migrant they refuse.
Greece, Cyprus, Spain, and Italy were formally identified as being under “migratory pressure,” while Belgium, Germany, France, Ireland, the Netherlands, and others were deemed “at risk” and will receive priority access to the EU’s migration support tools. These include funding for new border-security technologies such as drones and anti-drone systems.
Neither Slovakia nor Hungary appeared among the countries listed for possible deductions or additional support. Budapest has sharply criticized the Commission for failing to acknowledge its role in securing the EU’s external border with Serbia. The Hungarian government says it has intercepted 11,400 illegal crossings this year, up from 9,300 last year. Chief Security Advisor György Bakondi told broadcaster M1 in October that “there are no illegal migrants in Hungary because the government made the right decision in 2015 to close the border,” adding that Hungary’s measures protect not only its own citizens but the wider EU.
Czechia is also fundamentally against the pact. Andrej Babiš, widely expected to become the next prime minister, campaigned on rejecting it entirely. He described it as “the greatest betrayal of Czechia in modern history,” warning that it would undermine national control over migration.
A 21-year-old African migrant, hailing from the country of the Gambia, has been arrested for raping a 31-year-old woman who was out jogging in the city of Lille, only to be caught during a rape attempt days later.
The woman was targeted on Nov. 23 around noon at the Jardin des Plantes in northern Lille. He approached her under some pretext and tried to talk with her. When she continued her jog, he suddenly reappeared when she was in a more isolated area of the garden.
He tackled her to the ground, pinned her, and began raping her. The woman began screaming, but nobody was nearby. After the rape, he ran away, while the woman, who was in shock, returned to her home. Her boyfriend then called the police, according to French news outlet Actu17.
Police officers launched an investigation and technicians took DNA samples from the victim to test it against their database, the National Automated Fingerprint File genetics (FNAEG). However, there was no match.
This is the moment Jordanian rapist Faid A. snuck into the ER room of his 34-year-old French victim and brutally raped her in Cochin Hospital in Paris.
"Now, I am afraid when I sleep. I am afraid of what will happen to me when I wake up," the victim testified in court.
A break in the case came just days later, on Dec. 1, when in the Lille-sud district, near rue de Courtois, another victim was targeted as she left the subway. The young woman was approached in a quiet area by the Gambian man, who allegedly tried to grab her and drag her away. The woman fought the man and managed to break away.
A police unit from the anti-crime unit (BAC) immediately arrived on scene and aided the woman. Police units launched a manhunt for the suspect, and after a few minutes, a young man was spotted matching the description provided by the woman. Police officers arrested the suspect.
DNA testing has confirmed he was the individual who raped the first woman just a week before, according to prosecutors. He has been indicted for rape and placed in pre-trial detention.
A young man was stabbed on Sunday evening at the entrance to the subway at Essen’s main train station, not far from the city’s Christmas market.
According to eyewitnesses cited by Bild, he was attacked from behind and suffered multiple wounds. Police confirmed that the victim is undergoing emergency surgery.
The incident occurred shortly after a large Syrian demonstration in the city center marking the anniversary of the fall of former dictator Bashar al-Assad. Organizers of the event, registered with the authorities, had been expecting around 2,500 participants, but police later estimated attendance at more than 10,000.
Fireworks were set off, banned flags were on display, and convoys of cars moved through the city, causing considerable disruption and requiring the substantial deployment of emergency personnel, including hundreds of police officers, fire services, and ambulance crews.
“Over 10,000 Syrians were mobilized in Essen in a very short time, transforming the city center into a largely lawless zone,” claimed Jochen K. Roos, an AfD state lawmaker in neighboring Hesse.
In similar celebrations last year, hundreds of Syrian men chanted “Allahu Akbar” through the German city’s streets, and gunshots were fired.
Schüsse und Allahu Akbar Rufe – so feiern Syrer in Essen. Wahnsinn.
Similar scenes were also witnessed in Berlin as thousands of Syrians gathered in Alexanderplatz on the second Sunday of Advent.
Auch in Berlin: Syrer oktroyieren den Weihnachtsmarkt am Alexanderplatz, und nutzen unsere Traditionen als Kulisse für ihre Machtspiele. Was ist bloß aus diesem Land geworden? Und keiner kann sich rausreden. Keiner. Berlin ist überall. Aufwachen! pic.twitter.com/C5LUEBT95r
As the demonstration in Essen dispersed, the situation around the central station deteriorated. Firecrackers were thrown, scuffles broke out, and officers put on protective helmets while cordoning off surrounding streets. Amid the crowd, witnesses reported sudden screams before discovering the wounded man lying on the ground.
It remains unclear whether either the victim or any potential suspect had taken part in the demonstration. Police sealed off a wide area around the crime scene and launched a homicide investigation. Detectives began interviewing witnesses at the station, while officers checked several individuals near the scene and searched nearby bins for a weapon.
The city of Rome has awarded a new tender worth €400,000 to the “Refugees Welcome Italy” NGO for the “reception of migrants in the city.” The tender has generated “huge controversy” after it was revealed that under the proposal, families and individuals would accept migrants voluntarily into their homes, but receive no financial compensation.
Under the proposal, families will have to “bear the cost for food and accommodation,” according to Roma Today.
The funding will help the Refugees Welcome Italy NGO identify “families, mentors and social guardians” who are willing to take in the migrants for free and then assign them.
The program is expected to begin on Jan. 1 and will run until Dec. 31, 2028. The money will also be used to “promote paths of social inclusion and work autonomy.”
Remix News reported on the initial call for an operator earlier this month. Notably, the NGO was the only organization that applied for the tender.
As Remix News wrote, the city’s Department of Social Policies clarified that “social inclusion expenditures refer exclusively to interventions and measures aimed at service beneficiaries,” meaning migrants themselves.
“It follows that reimbursements to families cannot be attributed to this item or to any other type of expenditure and are therefore not eligible,” the department stated.
A number of conservative and right-wing parties have been attacking the proposal, calling it a “waste of resources.” The Italian Democratic Party defended the proposal, saying that “welcoming migrants into the family is an experience of great human, social, and cultural value.”
The German Air Force has relocated fighter jets, the Eurofighter, to Poland to provide increased protection for NATO’s eastern flank due to the threat of Russia.
It announced that several Eurofighters took off from Nörvenich Air Base, which were set to land at the Polish military airfield in Malbork.
This stationing is a direct response to recent airspace violations by Russian fighter jets in the Baltic Sea region and the entry of kamikaze drones into NATO territory, according to German newspaper Berliner Morgenpost.
German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius (SPD) had already announced the step in mid-October.
The Inspector of the Air Force, Lieutenant General Holger Neumann, explained the basis for the mission.
“With this mission, our soldiers are making another valuable contribution to protecting the eastern alliance area, in addition to our alarm squad that has been stationed in Romania since August. We are hereby sending another strong signal of support to our neighboring country Poland and NATO as a whole,” he said.
The German Air Force was previously present at the Polish military airfield in Malbork in August and September with fighter aircraft.
Malbork is located around 60 kilometers southeast of Gdańsk and 80 kilometers from the Russian Baltic Sea exclave of Kaliningrad.
The Bundeswehr is deploying a force of about 150 men and women alongside the aircraft. This group includes pilots, as well as technicians, logisticians, and military police.
The stationing is initially planned to last until March.
A 29-year-old Afghan migrant has been sentenced to six years in prison for stabbing a 27-year-old teacher at random on the street, in the middle of the day, in the German city of Kirchheim unter Teck.
However, despite stabbing his victim four times in the back and twice in the thigh, the fact that the Afghan stopped stabbing her once she screamed was enough to convince the court in Stuttgart to drop the attempted murder charge.
On March 14 of this year, the teacher was seriously injured while walking home from work. The 29-year-old, who did not know his victim, walked up to her from behind in a residential area and grabbed her neck. With his other hand, he began stabbing her in the back with a 9.5-centimeter knife four times. He then stabbed her twice in her thigh.
The woman began screaming, at which time, her attacker let her go and ran away.
Based on the fact that he stopped stabbing her and ran away, the court claimed this was a “withdrawal from attempted murder,” according to reporting from Yvonne Kussman for Aktuelle Informiert. Therefore, since the man could have kept stabbing her but stopped, he was only convicted of the lesser crime of previous bodily harm.
A similar legal ruling was recently applied to another controversial case in Germany involving SPD Mayor Iris Stalze, who was tortured and stabbed by her adopted daughter from Africa, to the point that she almost died. In that case as well, the ruling of a “withdrawal” was also issued, and no arrest was even made, with legal experts calling the ruling into question.
Regarding the details of this case involving the Afghan stabbing, it is worth noting that this “withdrawal” clause in the German legal system can only be invoked when there is a “genuine” withdrawal.
As Remix News cited: “If the perpetrator believes they have done everything necessary for the victim to die, they must then perform a voluntary and genuine counter-act that causes the prevention of the victim’s death.”
In other words, while the Afghan stopped, the question is what motivated his “withdrawal.” Did he truly not want to kill her? A “genuine” withdrawal, in German legal tradition, would have likely meant he stopped stabbing the woman and then began treating her wounds and called the police. Instead, he just stabbed her and ran away, raising questions about whether this should constitute a “genuine” withdrawal of attempted murder. Nevertheless, that is how the court ruled.
The 27-year-old teacher suffered serious injuries, but they were not life-threatening and she was able to leave the hospital after three days. She also did not suffer from any permanent damage.
However, she is reportedly left with serious psychological damage from the attack.
“I can no longer leave the house alone, I have no stamina, and my mobility is limited,” she said after the attack, adding, “My life has been turned upside down.”
The defendant denied that he stabbed the woman; however, DNA traces of his were found on the teacher’s clothing. He was also found with the knife used in the crime.
The Afghan man has no certificate proving he even graduated from high school nor vocational training. He left Afghanistan in 2018 and entered several European countries. He was in Germany briefly in 2023, left, and then came back again to apply for asylum.
Despite receiving social benefits, he broke into a bank branch in Kirchheim unter Teck after hours and stole a small amount of cash. While in custody, his DNA was linked to the stabbing of the teacher.
He has been sentenced to six years in prison for the stabbing attack and an additional year and a half in prison for the bank robberies.
With the November figures now available, 2025 is confirmed as the 13th consecutive year in which Germany has registered over 100,000 asylum seekers. Despite a low success rate for asylum claims, the majority remain in the country, numbering approximately 1 million.
In addition, a new ruling from Karlsruhe, the Federal Constitutional Court, is not making deportations any easier for the ruling government, which ran on a promise to reverse course on immigration.
The data presented by the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (BAMF) on Wednesday shows that, primarily due to stricter border protection and the fall of the Assad regime in Syria, only half as many asylum seekers arrived in Germany up to the end of November this year compared to the same period last year. In that regard, the government has made progress.
Nevertheless, 106,298 initial asylum applications have already been filed in 2025. There were 8,311 in November, and monthly applications have remained at approximately this level since spring.
As a result, the goals set by Friedrich Merz (CDU) during the federal election campaign remain out of reach.
In January, the current chancellor had announced that, should he win the election, “all attempts at illegal entry, without exception” would be prevented at the borders.
Alongside this “de facto entry ban into the Federal Republic of Germany for all” persons without valid entry documents, Merz promised at the time that “the number of daily deportations” would be “significantly higher than the number of illegal daily arrivals.”
This vow has not materialized.
Only around 20,000 people had been deported by the end of October 2025, which is slightly more than in previous years. The majority of asylum seekers travel illegally from Germany’s safe neighboring countries, including Austria or Poland, but also travel through many others, such as Italy, Turkey, Greece, or Spain.
Now, these migrants are usually turned away if caught crossing the border by federal police. This central tightening of border protection has been implemented by the CDU/CSU and SPD ruling coalition since May.
While the current level of just over 100,000 applications is perceived by many observers in Germany as relatively low against the backdrop of the extreme phase since the middle of the last decade, such figures are causing alarm in other countries. For the sake of comparison, the low point of applications was in 2007, when only 19,100 applied.
Meanwhile, the British Labour government is currently pushing for a sharp asylum reform because, last year, more than 100,000 asylum seekers arrived in the U.K. for the first time in British history, over 110,000 have been registered in 2025, and Nigel Farage’s right-wing Reform party is now leading the polls by a large margin with around 30 percent.
However, the U.K. has a much smaller population, and in many ways, the standard of living is already lower than in Germany, which means 100,000 is a tremendous influx for the island nation. However, Germany’s education, healthcare, housing market, welfare, and security are all on the ropes as more and more foreigners arrive in the country.
According to BAMF, the main countries of origin for asylum seekers in Germany in the current year, in order, are: Syria, Afghanistan, Turkey, Somalia, and Iraq. Only 27 percent of asylum decisions are approved.
This rate has fallen significantly primarily because, in previous years, Syrians were almost always recognized, but since the fall of the Assad regime, they rarely receive a protection status. Despite all efforts, however, no Syrian has been deported yet, and successful deportations to other African and Asian states only occur in a few cases.
Under the EU asylum system, Germany is permitted to return many of the asylum migrants arriving back to the first European state where they were registered in the EU. Known as the Dublin Regulation, it is often not enforced.
Although the more than 100,000 asylum applicants in 2025 predominantly traveled onward illegally from safe EU states to Germany, BAMF reported only 5,112 such “Dublin transfers” by the end of November. Germany had requested the take-back of significantly more migrants, specifically 33,845, and the relevant state only agreed 22,245 times.
A drop in decorations also has to do with various court decisions related to human rights, which prohibit deportations, for example, to Greece or Bulgaria. Many affected individuals also utilize “church asylum” until the transfer deadline expires, or go into hiding on the day of the planned deportation.
Now, Germany’s top court has made it even harder. In a decision published two weeks ago, the court ruled that police officers attempting to collect a deportee who has locked himself in his room must always first apply for a court search warrant, even if they believe they have heard the person inside.
The Constitutional Court ruling referred to a Guinean who was set to be deported to Italy in 2019. When officers arrived at his asylum home in Berlin, he locked his door. The officers believed they heard him and entered without a search warrant, where they found him. The African man filed a lawsuit, and after a number of appeals, Germany’s top court now ruled in his favor.
The Polish Supreme Court issued a groundbreaking ruling today that no court or public authority can challenge a ruling from the Supreme Court, including the European Union. The ruling marks a significant moment in the battle for legal sovereignty in Poland.
“No court or other public authority is authorized to declare a Supreme Court ruling null and void and disregard its effects. Even if this were to be done by invoking European Union law,” reads the new decision from the Supreme Court.
The ruling came during a joint chamber of Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs and of Labor and Social Security.
The ruling is a direct response to the September resolution by seven judges of the Labor and Social Security Chamber, which questioned the legality of the entire Chamber of Extraordinary Control and Public Affairs.
These judges, citing rulings of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), found that other Supreme Court judges — dubbed “neo-judges” — have no authority to adjudicate, and that state authorities should consider their judgments null and void. This, one of the most controversial decisions, created chaos in the Polish judicial system and was abolished today as inconsistent with Polish law.
As expected, the second point of the Supreme Court resolution recalls that Poland has not transferred to the European Union or any other organization the right to establish norms regulating the activities of the Polish judiciary.
“The Republic of Poland has not transferred to the European Union or any other international organization the authority to establish norms regulating the organization and functioning of the national justice system, nor to define the scope in which they may be applied. These powers belong exclusively to the constitutional organs of the Republic of Poland and are not subject to transfer under Article 90, paragraph 1 of the Constitution,” reads the resolution of the Supreme Court, presented by the president of the Supreme Court’s Chamber of Control, Judge Krzysztof Wiak, who chaired the session of both chambers.
Legal circles expected the Supreme Court to make such a ruling. For the “Lawyers for Poland” Association, it is the obvious outcome, as it reflects applicable law.
“Today’s decision of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Poland is one of those that save Poland’s independence and sovereignty,” the association wrote.
A public prosecutor in Sweden has filed charges against 26-year-old Morteza Mirzayi, an Afghan national accused of murdering his colleague, Sharif Haidari, desecrating his remains, and committing dozens of aggravated frauds.
The case, one of the most extensive to reach Kalmar District Court in recent years, is scheduled for trial later this month.
According to the indictment cited by Petterssonsblogg, Haidari was killed on or around Jan. 2 in Oskarshamn, a coastal city to the country’s east. The prosecution alleges that Mirzayi murdered him before dismembering the body over an extended period. Investigators say parts of Haidari’s skeletal remains were damaged, internal organs removed, sections of skin cut away, and parts of the body stored in plastic bags in the suspect’s freezer. Other remains have never been found.
Prosecutors argue that the handling of the remains was “particularly reckless” and complicated efforts to determine the precise cause of death. The charge is classified as a gross violation of the peace of the grave.
The alleged motive centers on a series of financial crimes. As reported by Samnytt, while Haidari was already dead, Mirzayi is accused of using the victim’s BankID to take out a 100,000-krona loan and to carry out 47 counts of aggravated fraud and one count of aggravated fraud through document forgery. More than 200,000 kronor (€18,250) was moved to the defendant’s accounts or spent via gambling platforms. Prosecutors argue that the murder was intended to conceal these transactions.
“In my opinion, there is a clear financial motive behind this murder,” said prosecutor Emma Olsson, as cited by the Barometern news outlet.
Mirzayi denies all charges. In multiple interrogations conducted with a Persian interpreter, he has claimed that an unknown man, whom he calls “Mohammad,” was responsible for killing and dismembering Haidari. He told police that he was frightened and controlled by the unidentified individual, saying, “I went numb, couldn’t say anything,” and later, “I saw that he started with the leg, and cut.” Investigators say they have found no forensic or digital evidence of a third person.
Technical material recovered from Mirzayi’s devices includes online searches such as “What does it look like inside the body?” Confronted with this search, he denied remembering it and rejected any link to the killing. Police say the tools believed to have been used in the dismemberment carry only DNA from the defendant and the victim.
Mirzayi was arrested on April 18 at Arlanda Airport after returning from Iran via Istanbul. A brief forensic psychiatric assessment concluded that he did not suffer from a serious mental disorder at the time of the alleged offenses.
Both the victim and the defendant worked for Oskarshamn Municipality and arrived in Sweden as unaccompanied minors from Afghanistan roughly a decade ago. Authorities confirmed Haidari’s identity only after efforts to reach relatives abroad, which delayed public disclosure.
Colleagues have described both men as quiet and polite. “You were shocked when you read what happened… these are people you’ve visited,” one co-worker told investigators.
The charges include murder, aggravated violation of the peace of the grave, aggravated fraud on 47 occasions, and aggravated fraud through forgery.
Prosecutors are also seeking Mirzayi’s deportation from Sweden with a permanent re-entry ban.
Bishop Christian Stäblein, the refugee representative for the Evangelical Church in Germany (EKD), a grouping of some 20 different Protestant churches, has committed €100,00 to support Afghans seeking to secure their residency in Germany.
In a statement, the bishop announced: “We are giving €100,000 from collections to the ‘Kabul Airlift’ to support the legal proceedings of those affected and to secure their humanitarian care.”
The NGO receiving the funds, “Kabul Airlift,” was backed by then-Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock (Greens) to identify and facilitate the transport of tens of thousands of Afghans to Germany. Set up to evacuate those Afghans who had helped the German and NATO military during operations there, the system has since been abused extensively, with many using fake background to secure passage.
So far, 36,500 Afghan migrants have already entered Germany using this service. Those flows still continue to this day. During Baerbock’s tenure as Germany’s top diplomat, Afghans began arriving in Germany under this scheme despite protests from the German embassy in Islamabad. They indicated that many of the Afghans — including Pakistani spies — received visas for Germany even with fake passports, an action reportedly pushed by the Foreign Office.
Just yesterday, Tuesday evening, another 193 Afghans landed in Erfurt, Germany.
However, another almost 2,000 people are insisting on access to Germany and plan to sue for entry into Germany with the help of “Kabul Airlift.” These Afghans are mainly staying in Pakistan.
The Bundeswehr’s mission in Afghanistan concluded four and a half years ago.
While the initial focus was on flying in local staff who worked for German soldiers, the number of arrivals broadened to include more people seen by the NGO as “particularly at risk” but who never worked for the Bundeswehr. This has ballooned to tens of thousands of people.
Protestant churches in Germany, along with the Catholic Church, are notorious for their pro-migration stances, including funding pro-migrant boats. In addition, the churches have often served as “sanctuaries” where migrants issued with deportation orders are allowed to stay in what has become a major “asylum scheme.”
Berlin Bishop Stäblein defended the use of church funds for these lawsuits, stating: “They risked their lives for our values and interests, not least for freedom and the equal dignity of everyone, as well as that of their families. The Federal Republic of Germany has therefore guaranteed them protection and given them a binding commitment to accept them.”
The EKD’s support directly counteracts the current federal government’s policy to offer financial compensation to Afghans who are supposed to be admitted. This measure is designed to encourage Afghans to voluntarily give up their plans for admission into Germany with five-figure euro amounts and benefits in kind. According to the Federal Ministry of the Interior, 62 individuals have accepted this severance offer so far.
However, the EKD is resisting this policy, Stäblein calling the offer “unworthy.”
The bishop argued: “Anyone who takes human dignity seriously cannot seriously demand that people at risk exchange their safety, even their lives, for money.” He concluded that such offers are “intolerable for those affected, and they damage our own dignity.”
The Council of the European Union and the European Parliament have agreed on a binding timetable to phase out Russian natural gas, marking one of the bloc’s most significant steps yet to cut energy ties with Moscow.
The measure, which still requires formal approval by both institutions, will introduce a gradual ban on imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and pipeline gas, with the final cut-off scheduled for 2027.
According to the Council, the regulation is intended to eliminate Europe’s remaining dependence on Russian gas and strengthen the EU’s energy security following Moscow’s use of energy as political leverage. The agreement includes a permanent legal framework rather than the renewable sanctions packages used since 2022.
Under the deal, imports of Russian LNG will be banned from the start of 2027 for long-term contracts and earlier for short-term deals. Pipeline gas imports must end between September and November 2027, depending on whether member states meet EU gas storage targets. Amendments to existing contracts will be permitted only for operational reasons and cannot increase gas volumes.
In its announcement on Wednesday, Brussels cited a “safety fuse” mechanism that allows for temporary, strictly limited exemptions if a member state declares a gas supply emergency. In such cases, the European Commission could authorize short-term Russian gas imports to address immediate shortages. The clause can be activated only under narrow conditions and for a limited period.
The regulation also introduces an authorization system for all gas imports to prevent circumvention of the Russian ban. Countries that exported more than 5 billion cubic metres of gas to the EU in 2024 and restrict Russian imports, as well as states without import infrastructure, will be exempt from this procedure.
Each member state will be required to submit a national diversification plan setting out how it will eliminate Russian gas from its supply mix and, where relevant, how it will phase out Russian oil imports as well. The European Commission intends to propose legislation to end imports of Russian oil by the end of 2027.
Slovakia and Hungary, the two EU states most dependent on Russian energy, opposed the regulation but cannot block its adoption. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico called the decision “harmful for Slovakia and the entire EU” and said his government would study whether grounds exist for a legal challenge. He also criticized Brussels for failing to deliver on commitments made to Bratislava during previous negotiations.
The agreement was announced as leaders of the Visegrád Group gathered in Esztergom, Hungary. Poland’s President Karol Nawrocki, whose visit was shortened to a single day, joined the presidents of Hungary, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia for discussions focused on economic cooperation, EU policy, and regional energy security.
Marcin Przydacz, head of the Polish president’s international policy office, said the V4 meeting would include talks on resisting further centralization within the EU, addressing the migration pact, and strengthening energy links between Central European states.
The summit took place in Esztergom, a city central to Hungarian history and close to Visegrád, the location that gave the regional alliance its name. The meeting followed renewed scrutiny of Hungary’s energy ties after Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s recent trip to Moscow.
A Muslim lawyer in Germany, who considers the headscarf a religious obligation, has lost her case to join the judiciary in Hesse after a court ruled that the state may bar judges and public prosecutors from wearing religious garments while interacting with parties in legal proceedings.
Welt reported on Tuesday that the Darmstadt Administrative Court had dismissed the woman’s challenge to the Justice Ministry’s decision to reject her application for judicial or prosecutorial service.
Under Hesse’s rules, judges and prosecutors may not wear religiously connoted clothing in hearings or other interactions with participants in a case, a restriction the ministry argued was necessary to uphold ideological and religious neutrality.
According to court documents published on Monday, the applicant had made clear during the recruitment process that she would not remove her headscarf when appearing in court. The ministry, therefore, concluded that hiring her would conflict with both the neutrality requirement and the proper functioning of the justice system. Officials also argued that the presence of a religious symbol in court could infringe upon the negative freedom of religion of those appearing before the bench.
“From the perspective of an objective observer, the wearing of an Islamic headscarf by a judge or public prosecutor during a trial could be considered an infringement of the state’s ideological and religious neutrality,” the ruling read.
The decision effectively bars the lawyer from judicial or prosecutorial service in Hesse. The panel acknowledged the severity of that consequence but emphasized that she had applied “voluntarily and with full knowledge of the existing regulations.”
The ruling still remains subject to any potential appeal.
It follows a ruling in the German state of Saxony in October, where a lay judge was removed from office because she insisted on wearing a hijab in court. The Braunschweig Higher Regional Court also ruled on that occasion that the judge was violating the state’s requirement of neutrality.
A man with dual citizenship from Germany and Tunisia is accused of sexually assaulting a woman inside a club in Bad Kötzting in Bavaria. He later allegedly attacked a security guard and then “rioted” inside the police station.
Over the weekend, the 30-year-old suspect is said to have inappropriately touched a woman several times on Saturday night inside a club. After the incident was reported to security, they dragged the man outside and expelled him from the club. The man violently resisted the security guards, and at one point, he broke a bottle and attacked one of the employees with it.
The security guards were able to overpower the man and restrain him until police arrived, according to the Mittlebayerische newspaper.
However, his behavior did not end there. Once inside the Bad Kötzting police station, the 30-year-old Tunisian suspect began to kick and damage furniture inside the station. Officers restrained him and put him inside a holding cell.
A public prosecutor in Regensburg ordered a blood sample taken to test for alcohol and narcotics.
The suspect was released on Sunday morning. He has been charged with sexual harassment, resisting arrest, assault, and property damage.
Notably, since the man is a dual citizen, German federal rules require that all his crimes be charged as a “German.” In response to soaring foreign crime, one German state, North Rhine-Westphalia, has begun reporting on dual citizens and their crimes. The change in reporting is notable, since millions of foreigners now have dual citizenship in Germany.
However, Bavaria has yet to take this step. Notably, North Rhine-Westphalia may be reporting this crime data for dual citizens at the state level, but it must still submit all crimes committed by dual citizens to the federal government as having been committed by a “German.”
Notably, clubs have become more aggressive places in recent years, according to arguably Germany’s most famous currently serving mayor, Tübingen’s Boris Palmer. He attributed the success of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party among young voters to the consequences of mass migration, which have transformed schools, clubs, and other locations where young people gather.
“They experience what irregular migration means on a daily basis,” Palmer wrote in a Facebook post last year.
“Above all, the young men who have arrived alone are changing the living environment of young people. In the park, in the club, on the street, on the bus, at the train station, in the schoolyard,” he added.
Notably, Palmer was once a Green party mayor, but as he became known more and more for his outspokenness against mass immigration and other political taboos, the party worked to eject him. Nevertheless, he remained so popular with the people of his city that they elected him as an unaffiliated mayor, which means he is running in Tübingen independent of any political party.
More than 1,000 teachers in the German state of Hesse have called for comprehensive changes in an incendiary letter, which has been delivered to the state’s Ministry of Culture. In the letter, they state that many elementary school children are not able to complete simple tasks such as tying their shoes or use toilet paper.
“Keeping order, recognizing and adhering to rules, using the toilet independently,“ are all listed as tasks students cannot do in the new resolution, which includes using toilet paper themselves.
Students can also no longer “cut, glue, sit (upright), or tie their shoes,“ the report reads, which was reported widely in the German media, including Welt.
Citing the letter, Junge Freiheit also reports that “independent personal hygiene is not always a given – colleagues even reported students who did not know how to use toilet paper.”
The letter also states that the children feature serious attention deficits, with the teachers writing: “Many children are no longer able to listen or follow instructions for long periods of time.”
The damning letter comes at a time when Hesse is experiencing unprecedented mass immigration, including into its school system. Already in 2022, the Ministry of Social Affairs and Integration reported that an estimated 50 percent of all children under the age of 6 were foreigners or had a foreign background. In the last three years since the report, many of these children have entered the elementary school system.
Teachers also report in the letter that they need to spend an enormous amount of time teaching children simple skills, many that were once taken for granted.
🇩🇪🔴 A young German girl spoke of the nightmare she experiences from her Muslim classmates.
"Sometimes they say to me that I’m German. And yeah, then they laugh at me, curse at me and tease me. Others are always Muslim, and they ask me why I am not a Muslim. I said I am a… pic.twitter.com/gggVOm9IPs
Furthermore, the letter states that “cutting, gluing or asking questions in class are untrained activities for many students.”
As Remix News has already outlined in dozens of pieces on the German and broader European education system, there is a rapid breakdown occurring in educational outcomes and growing chaos in the school environment. In addition, ethnic German children are increasingly the target of bullying, while many German parents retreat with their children into private schools or into wealthier neighborhoods.
These same problems are reflected in the latest letter from teachers in Hesse, although teachers do not directly address the rising tide of foreign students. They write that fundamental social challenges for many children include: “recognizing rules, maintaining order, resolving conflicts fairly or reconciling.”
As Remix News has reported in the past, teachers are “spit on” and “insulted” in schools with a high percentage of immigrants. Constant classroom chaos, different languages, clashing cultures, and violent students, are degrading Germany’s education system at an alarming rate, all while countries like China, which rejected mass immigration, continue to pull ahead in terms of innovation and educational outcomes.
Now, news that students cannot even tie their shoes or use toilet paper is further underlining the collapse in the German school system.
🇩🇪🚨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."
“Many teachers had long been working at their limits,” according to the woman who initiated the letter, Deputy Chairwoman of the GEW Heike Ackermann, who added that “students were abandoned by politicians and so were we teachers.“
She stated that the scope of work is constantly expanding, with tasks like “democracy education, digitalization, integration and inclusion” becoming almost unmanageable without a new framework.
She called for smaller classes with a maximum of 20 children, more qualified teachers and additional psychologists. However, it remains unclear who will pay for these measures or how any such policies will actually be implemented.
She also notes that the situation may only grow worse, as an additional challenge is looming with the legal right to all-day care for all families, set to arrive in the 2026/2027 school year.
The state Ministry of Culture announced that it would “examine the resolution carefully.”
A court in Ascoli Piceno has acquitted a 25-year-old Gambian national who bit off a female police officer’s finger during a frenzied attack at the San Benedetto del Tronto police station last February, ruling that he was not criminally responsible due to mental incompetence.
The decision, which sends the man to a REMS psychiatric facility rather than to trial, has triggered strong criticism from the SIULP, the Italian Union of Police Workers.
As reported by La Nuova Riviera, the man had been stopped for travelling on a train without a ticket and brought to the police station, where he lunged unexpectedly at three officers. One officer suffered a permanent injury requiring surgery after the man bit off part of her finger, while others suffered minor injuries and bruising.
Despite the seriousness of the assault, the court found him incapable of understanding or controlling his actions at the time.
In a statement following Tuesday’s judgment, SIULP Secretary General Felice Romano challenged both the ruling and the evaluation that led to it. “The Ascoli Piceno court has acquitted the 25-year-old Gambian man who bit off a female police officer’s finger last February. He was acquitted due to mental incompetence,” he said.
Romano noted that previous proceedings involving the same individual had shown no indication of mental illness. “A sort of mental incompetence that seems to arise on command and always to the detriment of those who represent the State,” he added.
Romano also linked the ruling to what he described as a wider judicial trend that undermines law enforcement. He cited a recent judgment classifying the biting of a security guard as a minor offense. “These are laws completely divorced from reality,” he said. “Let’s decide what context we want to operate in. Because this ruling that exonerates a man who bit off a woman’s finger comes just days after another damaging ruling.”
The union also raised concerns over the expert assessment that formed the basis of the acquittal. Romano questioned whether the evaluation was conducted properly, noting that the defendant had admitted to drug and alcohol addictions but had not previously been found to suffer from any mental disorder.
“The credibility of the State and, consequently, of those who represent it is slowly crumbling,” Romano warned. “What we want is real protection with clear rules that must be passed by parliament to protect those who risk their lives every day to defend the security and democracy of our country.”
The son of the deputy mayor of Kharkiv was brutally killed in Vienna last week in what investigators believe was a financially motivated attack.
The 21-year-old, who had been living in the Austrian capital, was found dead in a burning Mercedes in the city’s Donaustadt district. Two Ukrainian nationals, aged 19 and 45, have since been arrested in Ukraine on the basis of international warrants issued by Austria.
They are not expected to be extradited to Austria and will instead face prosecution in their homeland, Colonel Gerhard Winkler, the head of the Vienna State Criminal Police Office, told a press conference on Tuesday.
The victim, identified as Danil Kuzmin, was reported missing by his family on Wednesday night. According to Vienna police cited by Kronen Zeitung, he was ambushed in the underground parking garage of the luxury Sofitel hotel, overpowered by several men, beaten, and then placed on the back seat of a car and set on fire. Surveillance footage captured parts of the attack.
His father, Kharkiv deputy mayor Serhii Kuzmin, evacuated him and his family from Ukraine at the start of the Russian invasion.
Ukrainian journalist Yurii Nikolov, reporting on the incident, wrote, “21-year-old Danil Kuzmin, the son of the deputy mayor of Kharkiv, was found dead and burned in his Mercedes in Vienna. Someone cleaned out his crypto wallets. Whether it was debts or someone shaking down a rich kid — I don’t know.”
Col. Winkler revealed that a political motive had been ruled out. “It is presumably about a large sum of money,” he said. Investigators reported that a substantial amount of money had been withdrawn from the victim’s cryptocurrency wallet after the assault, and one suspect was found carrying a large quantity of U.S. dollars when detained.
Winkler said the victim sustained extensive injuries before the fire. “His body was 80 percent burned,” he noted. Evidence indicates that an accelerant was used; a melted gasoline canister was recovered from the back seat. This, along with video footage from a Vienna gas station, helped lead investigators to the suspects, who had fled to Ukraine shortly after the killing.
Investigations remain ongoing.
A spokesperson for Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov refused to comment, saying the case is “a personal matter” for Kuzmin. “This concerns him personally. I will not answer these questions at all. It is a human tragedy.”
Almost eight months after the fatal fall of a 15-year-old victim from a high-rise building in Hamburg, a trial against 10 young Syrian men has begun in Hamburg. Adding to the intense emotion of the trial is the father, Ali Ibrahim, who arrived at the trial holding a photo of his son. On top of the allegations, there are questions about how old the suspects truly are.
The birthdate Jan. 1 was assigned to all migrants who entered the country without documentation. In many cases, migrants are suspected of claiming they were under 18 and from Syria in order to hide their true age and origin, all for personal benefit and asylum protection.
In this case, five of the ten suspects with Jan. 1 birthdates may actually be older than they say. If this is true, their current “juvenile” status would be false, and they could be charged as adults. As it stands, nine out of ten of them are being tried only as minors.
In an opening statement, lawyer Patrick Purbacher says: “April 14, 2025, was the worst day of my client’s life.”
The victim is said to have tried to escape from the apartment in the Wilstorf district on the night of April 14. During his attempt to escape his attackers, he fell to his death from the balcony on the eighth floor. Before that, eight young men are said to have broken into the apartment and attacked the four people present.
The 10 Syrians are standing trial at the Grand Criminal Chamber. The public prosecutor’s office accuses seven of them of particularly serious robbery resulting in death, along with charges of grievous bodily harm. Three other adolescents are charged with “aiding and abetting.”
The trial is being conducted mostly as a juvenile court trial, as nine of the ten defendants were young people or adolescents during the crime.
The trial was closed to the public after the indictment was read out.
“Each of the defendants made a contribution to the crime, incurred great guilt and would have to bear the consequences,” said Purbacher on behalf of his client, Ali Ibrahim, and the rest of the family.
He added that the suspects would be given “the opportunity for forgiveness,” but this would only apply for those who told what really happened during the crime. Anyone who does not confess can only hope for forgiveness from God, but not from the victim’s family.
After the defense attorneys requested that the public be excluded, Purbacher followed up with a statement asking what the defendants are afraid of. He told them they should imagine what fear his client’s son had shortly before his death.
Purbacher is strictly against the exclusion of the public from the trial, and he wants the case to be open to all of Germany.
Furthermore, he said that five of the ten defendants have their birthdays on Jan. 1, which is not credible for the co-plaintiff. He argues that their ages must be checked by medical authorities. As has been shown in many other cases in Europe, bone checks on “minor” migrants have revealed that they are actually adults in the majority of cases.
The court has scheduled 32 more trial days until March 25.
Eighty percent of Milan’s predatory crimes are committed by foreigners, Police Commissioner Bruno Megale told a parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday, outlining what he described as the city’s most pressing public-order challenge.
Speaking before the commission on suburban issues, Megale said 830 arrests for predatory crimes, such as robbery, were made in the first nine months of 2025, with one in five involving minors. He described residents having “a widespread sense of insecurity,” but suggested that overall crime was down and arrests had increased so far this year.
Megale was speaking ahead of Milan’s hosting of the Winter Olympics, which begins in February.
“We’re heading towards the Olympics, an event that will draw international attention. All eyes will be on Milan, especially in the days leading up to the inaugurations, and so we’re paying very close attention, with careful monitoring and planning,” he told the inquiry, as cited by Milano Today.
The police commissioner announced that the northern Italian city will receive more than 2,000 additional law enforcement officers to reinforce security, particularly around key venues and public spaces.
Megale noted a concerning rise in youths committing offenses, including the “maranza” phenomenon, which involves youth gangs who embark on anti-social behavior that may not meet the threshold of criminality but still affects day-to-day lives.
“We’re somewhat concerned about the glorification of their activities through social media,” he added.
The remarks come as Milan once again ranked last in Italy for safety and justice, according to Il Sole 24 Ore’s latest national quality-of-life report. The city records nearly 7,000 crimes per 100,000 inhabitants — the highest rate in the country — and ranks 104th out of 107 for perceived insecurity, with over a third of families feeling unsafe in their own neighbourhoods. It is also second-to-worst for property damage.
Liberal mayor Beppe Sala has previously explained Milan’s poor performance in such surveys by suggesting that “citizens report crime more” often in the city compared to elsewhere, and therefore the statistics make the city look worse than it is.
Last November, Italian Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi announced the deployment of 600 additional police officers to Milan, citing concerns over integration challenges and rising crime rates, particularly in areas with significant immigrant populations.
NEW: 🇮🇹‼️ A huge 65% of all crimes in Milan are committed by foreign nationals, despite representing 20% of the population, damning new stats from Italy's Interior Minister @PiantedosiM have revealed.
He noted that 65 percent of all crimes in the city are committed by foreign nationals, despite representing 20 percent of all residents, and suggested that “integration challenges must be addressed to reduce marginalization and its consequences.”
Sala, himself, said at the time, “I won’t claim Milan is a safe city, but it is making an effort to address challenges faced by all international cities.”
The city confirmed last week that it would not be holding its traditional New Year’s Eve celebration in Piazza Duomo this year, citing Olympics preparation and a lack of space as the reasons. Critics, however, suggested that the city could not afford any bad press in the lead-up to the Games, following several years of high-profile sexual assaults during New Year’s celebrations.
A French court has declared that a perpetrator is “criminally irresponsible” after torturing and killing a father and his daughter in the French village of Villeneuve-lès-Maguelone.
The ruling, handed down on Nov. 27, 2025, means the Spanish national who killed an 80-year-old French retiree and his 56-year-old stepdaughter in December 2022 cannot be tried before a jury.
The investigating chamber of the Montpellier Court of Appeal in Hérault issued the decision, according to the Ouest France media outlet.
The news outlet indicates that a psychological examination concluded that the suspect “lacked the capacity to understand the nature of his actions” at the time of the events. He has since been transferred to a specialized psychiatric unit in Albi.
The suspect, a man of Spanish origin who regularly traveled without a ticket, was stopped and forced off a train by authorities. Suffering from a severe psychiatric crisis characterized by “hallucinations and delusions of a religious and megalomaniacal nature, according to medical evaluations,” he broke into a house. Inside, the two victims were attacked at random. The details of the case illustrate the extreme violence they suffered, with the suspect tying them up, torturing them, and slitting their throats. He also raped the woman several times before she was killed.
When arrested two days after the killings, the man, who was still at the location, said he had “obeyed voices and angels ordering him to commit the murders.”
He also told authorities he had taken marijuana and cocaine.
The court used expert reports to conclude that the suspect had a “total abolition of his discernment”—the capacity to understand his actions—at the time of the murders.
The court ordered the man be placed in a psychiatric hospital facility.
His lawyer, Majib Diab, said: “This decision is fair given his condition, and it is clear that he cannot be released for a long time.”
The victims’ family stated they had been expecting the decision and are “relieved that he cannot be released.”
He is currently hospitalized in a specialized unit in Albi.
Bargain hunters at a shopping center in Casamassima last weekend fled in panic after three boys allegedly connected a smartphone to a Bluetooth speaker and played audio consisting of gunfire and men shouting in Arabic.
The incident occurred on Saturday afternoon inside a MediaWorld electronics store in the southern Italian town, sparking chaos among shoppers.
Store staff alerted both the Carabinieri and the Guardia di Finanza, and officers from both forces attended the scene and quickly identified the perpetrators.
According to La Gazzetta del Mezzogiorno, all three were minors, two of whom were 13 years of age, and one aged 12.
They are understood to have connected their smartphone to a Bluetooth speaker on show in one of the display cabinets inside the store and opted to play sounds simulating a terror attack. Several customers had mistaken what the boys insisted was a “prank” as real gunfire and had run from the store in fear.
The minors were reported for public disorder and handed over to their parents due to their age. Authorities say further evaluation will consider the responsibility of guardians and whether store security measures were sufficient.
Juvenile authorities have also been notified and have opened inquiries.
Approximately 20,000 rounds of Bundeswehr ammunition were stolen from a civilian transport truck after the driver parked overnight in an unsecured industrial-area lot near Burg, outside Magdeburg, the German defense ministry confirmed on Monday.
The incident, first reported by the platform Meetingpoint Jerichower Land and developed by Der Spiegel, has prompted a joint investigation by the Bundeswehr and local police amid concerns the theft was not random but carried out by perpetrators who may have been monitoring the vehicle.
According to the ministry, the driver — employed by a civilian company contracted to move ammunition for the armed forces — opted to stop for the night and reportedly checked into a hotel, leaving the cargo unattended. When he arrived at a nearby barracks the following morning, soldiers immediately noticed signs of tampering and reviewed the manifests.
An initial assessment found that approximately 10,000 live 9mm pistol rounds, 9,900 blank rifle cartridges, and several smoke grenades were missing in what officials described as a serious security breach.
“A particular danger comes from 9mm cartridges: This is the most widely used caliber worldwide for pistols and submachine guns. It is live, lethal ammunition,” Meetingpoint wrote.
“We are taking the incident very seriously and are thoroughly investigating the matter. We are supporting the investigating authorities in all further steps,” a spokesperson for the Bundeswehr’s support division told the site.
According to Der Spiegel, early findings suggest the transport company violated Bundeswehr safety protocols. Contracts require that ammunition transports be staffed with two drivers, ensuring one is continuously observing the vehicle during any stop. In this case, investigators say the unplanned overnight stop was not authorized and security rules were not followed.
Bundeswehr sources believe the theft was unlikely to be opportunistic. Instead, they fear the cargo may have been targeted, with the offenders waiting for the moment the vehicle was left unattended. The police investigation is ongoing, and the ministry has not yet commented on whether organized crime or extremist groups are suspected.
The driver has not been publicly identified, and neither Germany’s federal defense ministry nor investigators have disclosed whether disciplinary or contractual measures will follow against the transport company.
A nun was stabbed in Zagreb on Friday afternoon in what early, unofficial reports describe as a possible religiously motivated attack, with the assailant allegedly a migrant who shouted “Allahu Akbar” as he struck.
The victim, Sister Marija Tatjana Zrno, 34, originally from Šujica in Bosnia and Herzegovina and a member of the Congregation of the Sisters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul, sustained a stab wound to the abdomen but managed to return to her convent before being taken to the Sestre Milosrdnice Hospital, where doctors confirmed she is not in a life-threatening condition.
The attack occurred in Zagreb’s Malešnica district. The hospital notified the Zagreb Police Department upon admitting the victim. Police confirmed that an investigation is underway to determine all circumstances and have not released further official details about the perpetrator. Officers are also assessing the possibility of religious or ideological motivation, which the Catholic Information Agency (IKA) notes remains under investigation.
The news was first reported by journalist Marin Vlahović on social media, who wrote, “I just learned from a source I trust that a nun was admitted to a hospital in Zagreb with a stab wound, allegedly attacked by a migrant who was shouting religious slogans. I would not have published the information if it had not come from an unofficial source that has never deceived me. When I know more, I will publish that too.”
Bosnian media outlet Jabuka further reported that the attacker may have attempted to stab the nun multiple times.
“The nun was admitted to the hospital at around 3 p.m. with a sharp object injury to the abdominal wall. The patient is not in a life-threatening condition and is undergoing further medical treatment and care,” the University Hospital Center Zagreb confirmed.
Sister Marija is known publicly for her work with young people and for her enthusiasm for football — a passion that led her to occasional television appearances on Laudato TV, where she won broad popularity.
The incident has prompted a strong reaction across Croatian society. Public figures, clergy, journalists, and political representatives issued messages of support and alarm over the attack, as well as criticism directed at parts of the Croatian media for what some see as restraint or omission regarding the alleged background of the attacker.
As cited by Croatian outlet Narod, Member of the European Parliament Marijana Petir denounced the stabbing as “an attack on the values of Croatian society and Europe” and called for a rapid investigation and accountability. She wished the nun a swift recovery.
Priest Stjepan Ivan Horvat urged the public not to respond with hatred or calls for revenge, citing Christian teaching on love for others even in the face of violence. He wished the attacker a just punishment coupled with repentance and conversion.
Journalist Marin Vlahović, who first reported the stabbing, criticized what he described as double standards in Croatian media, arguing that in cases involving migrants, outlets often avoid referencing details that would otherwise be emphasized in similar incidents.
“This is not about respecting certain professional standards, but about a selective approach and false political correctness, where migrants and asylum seekers are approached with particular sensitivity, as a vulnerable group, which must be protected from all possible prejudices and possible discrimination, even though we have already had attacks and murders committed by them, and with a knife,” he wrote.
Other commentators echoed that sentiment. Ivan Pokupec stated that early reports in mainstream outlets omitted mention of the alleged “Allahu Akbar” shout, calling this “disgusting” and politically selective.
Stjepo Bartulica, Croatian MEP, warned that Croatia is following a broader European trend where “security is compromised,” and asked where human rights advocates were in the wake of such an attack.
Cleric Don Vinko Puljić characterized the stabbing as an attack on Croatia’s cultural and religious identity, arguing that the nun was targeted because she visibly represented the Catholic faith. “Marija Tatjana is guilty because she is a nun and wears a cross around her neck. In the times to come, we need a strong Church more than ever,” he wrote.
Police spokespersons have confirmed only the basic facts: a woman with a sharp-object injury was admitted to the hospital, her life is not at risk, and investigations are continuing. They have not commented on claims regarding the suspect’s nationality, religious slogans, or motive.
A Syrian kiosk owner faced life-altering injuries after two youths, a 13-year-old Syrian and a 13-year-old German-Bulgarian, robbed his kiosk on Saturday.
The two teens, who were armed with machetes, stormed into the 37-year-old’s shop and sprayed the victim with pepper spray without warning.
They then sliced the Syrian man’s head with machetes. When the man raised his hands up to protect his head, the two youths hacked off the man’s thumb and sliced off a number of the man’s fingers on his right hand, according to Focus Magazine.
The two youths then continued to hack at the man’s chest and leg, then grabbed money and other loot, and fled on foot.
The police were alerted and were able to arrest the two youths a short time later near the bloody scene.
Police found the two teens had the stolen loot, pepper spray, machetes, and a pistol on their persons.
Emergency services transported the Syrian victim to the hospital, where he faced life-threatening injuries. He underwent emergency surgery for several hours, where doctors were able to successfully reattach the man’s severed fingers. However, the man reportedly lost his thumb.
One of the 13-year-olds is known to youth services and is listed as “dangerous.” However, due to the age of the suspects, they have been handed over to their parents or grandparents. They cannot be held criminally responsible.
The German business location is currently in its “historically deepest crisis” since the founding of the Federal Republic and is in “free fall,” according to Peter Leibinger, president of the Federation of German Industries (BDI).
Leibinger issued his drastic prognosis as a new industrial report forecasts a decline in production for the fourth year in a row.
The BDI anticipates a “dramatic low point” for German industry at the end of 2025. Leibinger stated: “The business location is in its historically deepest crisis since the Federal Republic was founded, but the federal government is not reacting decisively enough.”
Leibinger’s warning comes at a time when there appears to be non-stop bad news for the German economy, fueling anger at the coalition government, especially against the Christian Democrats (CDU). The party is known for portraying itself as business friendly but is now failing to deliver on their promise of an economic turnaround. The failures have led to Chancellor Friedrich Merz experiencing rock bottom approval ratings, hovering at around 23 percent.
The BDI’s forecast expects production to fall by 2 percent this year, marking the fourth consecutive year of decline. Leibinger emphasized the severity of the situation, according to Spiegel. “This is not an economic downturn, but a structural decline.”
He warns that German industry is “continually losing substance.”
Several key sectors are struggling, in large part due to soaring energy costs and a difficult regulatory environment. However, other factors include falling demand from Asia, an aging workforce, and Germany’s high costs as a business location.
The chemical industry is in a difficult situation, with plant utilization recently at only 70 percent.
Mechanical engineering and the steel industry are also reported to be under pressure, with Remix News recently reporting how China is increasingly dominating this core industry. The automotive industry expects an increase in production and capacity utilization, but employment in the sector has come under pressure, which is a burden on the entire German economy.
Specifically, the BDI president demands that the federal government give priority to investments over consumer spending.
It should also use the government’s historic debt and spending package “transparently for additional investments.”
This recommendation comes amidst criticism that the government is shifting projects from the core budget to the special fund to free up money for financing controversial policies such as the expansion of mothers’ pensions.
He is also calling for a significant reduction in bureaucracy. While the federal government has taken initial steps, companies require far-reaching relief “that they really feel in everyday life.”
A group of officers was viciously attacked in Berlin’s neighborhood of Spandau during a check for weapons at a shisha bar, resulting in all four officers suffering injuries and two arrests. One of the perpetrators is accused of smashing a bottle over the head of one of the officers, resulting in a serious head injury.
Police consider the bar a major meeting spot for organized crime. Media reports indicated that the operation was a part of a measure to combat gun crime.
At around 10:45 p.m., officers entered “King’s Lounge,” and found approximately 24 guests there, according to news outlet BZ.
Officers indicated they were there to check for weapons. At that point, the 45-year-old owner of the business began protesting the operation. He grew so angry that he took a bottle and allegedly smashed it over an officer’s head. Then, a 28-year-old guest inside attacked the other officers.
Three officers suffered cuts from broken glass, and both suspects were injured and arrested.
All four officers were listed as unfit for duty due to their injuries.
Despite the violence, officers managed to check the 24 people in the bar. None of them had any weapons on their person or other dangerous objects.
After a flamboyant speaker went viral at the Alternative for Germany (AfD) Youth Congress, there are questions about Alexander Eichwald. Speculation is growing about whether he is an undercover agent, a left-wing satirist, or actually just a genuine AfD supporter. Regardless of the truth, the AfD is already preparing to expel him from the party.
Social media has been asking questions about Eichwald, who sported a blue dinner jacket, after his speech at the AfD Youth Congress in Giessen over the weekend.
Even within the party, there is no clear answer about who he is.
🇩🇪🔴Many on the right are accusing this man of being an undercover agent.
After Alexander Eichwald went viral for his "Hitler-like" speech at the Alternative for Germany (AfD) Youth Congress, speculation is growing about who he actually is.
The newly elected head of the AfD’s young group “Generation Germany,” Jean-Pascal Hohm, also had no answer to questions about Eichwald.
“No matter whether you’re a left-wing provocateur, an undercover agent or simply crazy – anyone who acts like that has no place in the AfD and its youth organization,” he told the dpa news agency.
“Alexander Eichwald’s appearance once again showed how important it is to look closely at admission interviews to see who you accept into the party and who you don’t,” he added.
Eichwald’s speech, in which he used to term “party comrades” and referred to dog breeds when selecting who is allowed into Germany, drew comparisons to Hitler and his propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels.
With his speech, Eichwald applied for a position on the board of the newly founded “Generation Germany.” Eichwald clearly lost to Alexander Claus, receiving only 12 percent of votes.
When asked by the dpa whether his appearance was serious, he only responded “yes” and then left the conference hall.
Already, there is speculation about whether the speaker was an undercover agent of the powerful spy agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV). The BfV is known to place informants inside the parties it targets, with the AfD one of its main concerns. However, others speculated the man is a satirist, potentially from the left. Still, there is no confirmation as of yet who the man actually is.
AfD co-leader Tino Chrupalla announced an audit of the data and membership rights of Eichwald, who has only been part of the NRW-AfD in Herford since October.
As a result, Eichwald was removed from the AfD council by circular resolution on Sunday. “Accordingly, the measure was also taken to aim yesterday by circular resolution to exclude Mr. Eichwald from the party through a party expulsion procedure.“
Additionally, measures are being pursued to have him removed from the party entirely.
AfD parliamentary group leader in Herford, Michael Schneidermann spoke to Welt about Eichwad.
“He touted himself here as a political scientist and student and said he would like to take part in local politics. He did, too.“
The Herford AfD parliamentary group leader, commenting on Eichwald’s speech, said the 30-year-old man had “absolutely unmasked“ himself with his appearance.
“At the weekend in Giessen, that was behavior that I was absolutely not aware of,” said Schneidermann.
Schneidermann also speculated that Eichwald may be an undercover agent “sent from a satirical background.” Schneidermann also said that Eichwald “damaged the party and also reputation of the youth wing of the AfD, which had just been founded.”
A 29-year-old Moroccan man who pulled a knife and threatened people at the Weimar Christmas market on Saturday evening has already been released from custody as police chiefs considered his charges to be insufficient to justify pre-trial detention.
The incident took place at the ice rink in front of the German National Theater, where families and children were skating during the first festive weekend. According to police, the man was harassing visitors when a witness confronted him. Officers say he immediately became aggressive and threatened the witness with a knife.
Bystanders stepped in, pushing him away from the rink towards a snack bar on Heinrich-Heine-Straße as the situation escalated. Police later wrote, “The 29-year-old pulled a knife in the course of [the altercation at the ice rink], creating a threatening situation. Bystanders noticed the action and pushed the man away from the Christmas market area. When the police arrived, the situation was initially confusing.”
Pepper spray was used to overpower the suspect after what officers called continued resistance. He was restrained, taken into custody, and three others were slightly injured by pepper spray during the intervention. “The 29-year-old was overwhelmed and taken to police custody,” the police statement added, as cited by Zeit.
But despite the confrontation, the knife, and the arrest, he is no longer being held. Police chief Christian Hackbart confirmed that the charges — threats, attempted assault, and violation of the event’s knife ban — were considered insufficient to justify detention.
Hackbart also said the man, who is already known to police for violence, was heavily intoxicated and has yet to be questioned.
🇩🇪🎅 Deck the halls — and move the bollards.
How Germany now prepares for Christmas, with one market in Augsburg requiring several full-time staff to repeatedly move anti-vehicle bollards back and forth to make way for trams. 🤯 pic.twitter.com/GW4wLEk447
In Bavaria, a second Christmas market faced disruption on the same weekend — this time through arson. Hours before opening day in Schorndorf, several club-run wooden huts were soaked with accelerant and set alight. As cited by Bild, Mayor Max Schmaderer said kerosene is believed to have been used. Surveillance footage reportedly recorded the perpetrators, and police are reviewing the material while appealing for witnesses.
A driver spotted the flames around 4 a.m. on Sunday and alerted emergency services. Firefighters prevented widespread destruction, though the municipality’s own booth also caught fire. Schmaderer wrote publicly: “We are all still deeply shocked,” calling the incident “a cowardly attack against volunteers and clubs, which must be condemned in the strongest terms.”
Christmas markets across Germany have had to deal with the soaring costs of terror-proofing venues after several high-profile attacks in recent years. Some towns are resorting to installing anti-tank barriers at entrances to the markets, while others have planted heavy-duty bollards to protect areas of heavy footfall from vehicle attacks.
The demonstration weekend in Giessen surrounding the founding of the new Alternative for Germany (AfD) youth organization, Generation Germany (GD), saw a number of violent scenes that have led to condemnation from Hesse Interior Minister Roman Poseck (CDU) and other officials.
According to police, demonstrations by various organizers against the AfD were “mostly peaceful.” However, in some places, there were violent clashes, and “Water cannons were used to break up road blockades.”
However, Poseck said that “without the police, the most serious acts of violence and civil war-like conditions would have occurred in Giessen.” He added that the police’s use of coercive means was “necessary and permissible,” for example, to prevent violent demonstrators from “breaking through to the AfD venue or blocking access roads and emergency routes for long periods of time.”
Poseck stated: “We must not allow individual groups in our country to enter a parallel legal world.”
He stressed that “The end does not justify the means.”
The demonstration and the founding of the AfD youth movement came right at a time when the AfD saw its best poll result so far, reaching 27 percent, making it the most popular party in the country by two points.
Managerial Class Libs: "The rise of Right-wing populism is one of the greatest mysteries of the present age."
Germans: "It's the migration."
Managerial Class Libs: "Why is AfD surging?? What dark magic is at work??"
Notably, Hessian Prime Minister Boris Rhein (CDU) referred to the events as a “left-wing low point” and criticized the “forced marches in Giessen.” He wished for the moderate left to “distance themselves from this weekend of violence in Giessen.”
Alice Weidel, the leader of the AfD, also took to X to highlight some of the violence against police she saw, writing: “Yesterday’s day has shown: This cannot go on. Media and political competitors are equally called upon to return to freedom of opinion and democracy!”
Der gestrige Tag hat gezeigt: So kann es nicht weitergehen. Medien und politische Mitbewerber sind gleichermaßen dazu aufgefordert, zurückzukehren zu Meinungsfreiheit und Demokratie! pic.twitter.com/1aZnKsOf8U
The AfD event, held in the Hessenhallen on Saturday, saw approximately 25,000 people attend, according to police. The turnout was much lower than expected, but the “Resist” alliance claimed over 50,000 people attended. The associated police operation was one of the largest in Hesse, involving up to 5,000 officers from 15 federal states acted as a barrier to the AfD event.
Police Chief Krückemeier, while noting the worst scenarios did not occur, reported that between “10 and 20 police officers were slightly injured.” Three people were arrested, but “all have left the detention center shortly afterwards.”
While data on injured demonstrators was not available, the Giessen-Marburg University Hospital treated around 15 demonstrators on Saturday afternoon.
Good Morning from Germany, where three-quarters of citizens are now dissatisfied w/Chancellor Friedrich Merz's policies. No chancellor in recent history has seen approval ratings this low, less than a year into their term. pic.twitter.com/YN5ii99gYr
The German Federation of Trade Unions (DGB) Hesse-Thuringia, which organized the largest protest claiming over 20,000 participants, emphasized that their event was “very determined and peaceful” and that cooperation with the police was good. However, chairman Michael Rudolph noted, referring to injured police officers and demonstrators, that “these incidents need to be resolved on both sides.”
Laura Wolf, spokeswoman for the “Resist” alliance, accused police officers of having “paved the way for fascists.”
Police Chief Krückemeier defended the actions of law enforcement, saying “that the rights of arrested people had been taken into account at all times,” and that there is “currently no evidence of unlawful use of coercion.”
A retirement home in Zurich-Leimbach may soon become a temporary asylum shelter for up to 300 migrants, a proposal that has sparked outrage among local residents.
As reported by NZZ, the Swiss city is facing a shortage of accommodation for asylum seekers, and says the currently vacant building, which had been earmarked to be transformed into affordable accommodation for locals, presents one of the few viable large-scale options.
Residents say the plan could overwhelm an already vulnerable district and believe having 300 male asylum seekers move into the area, which is near a local kindergarten and playground, will be a security risk.
The retirement home, owned by the city and closed in August, is scheduled for major renovation with the intention of creating new housing for seniors and families by 2030. Until work begins, officials are exploring interim uses, with the accommodation of refugees now considered the leading option.
The site contains 90 former units and stands near Leimbach’s community center, school, indoor pool, and main play park.
Locals say the scale of the proposed asylum housing is central to their objections. Neighborhood association president Christian Traber argues that Leimbach is already under social and infrastructural strain. He told the NZZ that, with around 300 asylum seekers already distributed across the district, adding another 300 would raise the proportion from four to nearly 10 percent of the population. “That’s simply too many,” he said.
A petition backed by the Leimbach neighborhood association is now being prepared, urging the city to abandon the shelter plan. The petition warns that the proposal “would lead to a significant increase in the number of asylum seekers housed in the neighborhood” and says older residents were removed from the property without “a concrete construction project or a reliable timetable for the renovation.” Its supporters argue the building should instead be refurbished promptly for seniors or used as low-cost housing for students.
Residents who spoke on the record echoed those concerns. Neighborhood association member Anja Graf, 39, says the term “interim use” is misleading, arguing that such Asylum Organization placements tend to last “5 to 10 years.” She told Blick, “Our senior citizens were evicted. The elderly had to leave, were uprooted,” adding, “Renovate the building so that our elderly can move back in.” Graf said she worries about the impact of “300 young male migrants” on public spaces and transport, and claims many locals no longer feel as safe at night as they once did.
“We’re not xenophobic,” she said. “We’re simply not stupid or naive. Because we know what would be coming our way.”
Trix Romer, 66, spent three decades working in the retirement home and says residents were “shocked and afraid” to learn they had to leave. She believes the building would be suitable for student accommodation instead. “The elderly people who created Switzerland as it is today do not deserve to be treated this way,” she said. Former resident Elisabeth Eicher, 92, recalled panic among tenants when the closure was announced. She remained until the final weeks but eventually moved out on her family’s advice.
Official figures show Leimbach has a 9 percent welfare rate, roughly double the city average, with low household incomes, a high share of foreign-language households, and an ageing housing stock. One local school reportedly saw six teachers resign last year, citing overwhelming social pressures.
The city continues to argue that supervision, training programs, and structured routines help large asylum accommodations integrate into their surroundings. A spokesperson for the social services department told the NZZ that collective shelters such as the former SRF building in Zurich-Oerlikon operate under 24-hour supervision and that residents attend work integration or education programs. The city says concerns are being taken seriously, but notes that space for refugee housing remains scarce. “Unfortunately, the city’s options are limited,” spokesperson Stefan Rüegger said.
The decision on whether the Leimbach property will become an asylum center is expected in the coming weeks, and if approved, the building would be occupied from next summer.
The brutal attack in Vienna on July 7, 2024, which left seven young men from Afghanistan seriously injured, was a case of fatal mistaken identity, according to the subsequent investigation. The incident, which saw victims stabbed—one “near his heart”—and another suffer a “minor brain hemorrhage,” was the culmination of escalating street battles and gang rivalry in the city over the summer.
The attackers, a group of dozens of youths who “partially masked their faces” and armed themselves with “knives, hammers, telescopic batons, and brass knuckles,” set off for the vicinity of Meidling train station.
There, they chased down and brutally assaulted the young, unsuspecting Afghan men. However, it turns out the Afghans were not the intended targets of the attack. Instead, the Chechens who allegedly gathered, were out to exact revenge on a group of Syrians.
Over the summer, street battles between Chechens and Syrians in Vienna had escalated, with young Syrians, as Chechens making headlines across the country for their large-scale battles and reprisals in the city.
At the time, the violence was so bad that Dominik Nepp, chairman of the Austrian Freedom Party in Vienna, called on the military to be deployed.
“The only solution left to restore order is the deployment of the military,” he said.
The small park near Meidling train station was known as a meeting place for young Syrians, which is why the armed group, including several Chechens, showed up there.
After months of investigations under Operation “Peacebringer,” a total of 24 young men, aged between 16 and 25, will face trial. The 94-page indictment, obtained by Der Standard, includes charges of intentional grievous bodily harm and aggravated assault.
The prosecution focuses on 25-year-old Chechen Abubakar D., who has multiple previous convictions. Der Standard reports he is suspected of being the alleged mastermind behind the mass stabbing and assault.
According to the indictment, Abubakar D. had developed a hostile attitude toward Syrians and publicly invited people to a so-called “conference” on Instagram just days before the attack. Prosecutors say that he plotted on the “elimination” of the Syrian group and scheduled a day for the attack to take place.
At this conference, Abubakar D. allegedly delivered a detailed plan, which was then spread through Telegram and other channels.
At the agreed meeting point, “at least 30 attackers allegedly gathered,” according to the prosecution, and Abubakar D. gave “the signal to attack.”
Abubakar D. admits the conference took place in police interrogations but claims “no calls for violence were made there,” a claim the public prosecutor’s office considers a “pure fabrication.”
Chats reportedly contradict his account. In one conversation, a defendant referred to Abubakar D. as the leader, while stating: “Our leader, I’ll say, he’s got a whistle. We’ll punch and stab until he whistles again, and then we run away.”
Abubakar D. has multiple prior convictions for similar offenses, including membership in a criminal organization and a terrorist association. He recently received a non-legally binding 10-year sentence for bank robbery and money laundering, and now faces up to 15 years in prison in this new case.
The second main perpetrator is an 18-year-old Chechen, who can be seen in a recorded video “repeatedly punching and kicking one of the victims.” He has a prior conviction for robbery but will be treated as a juvenile, halving his potential maximum sentence to five years.
The remaining 22 defendants are considered accomplices, with 18 having “no prior convictions.” A court date has not yet been set.
The gang conflict has resulted in other significant convictions: a trial related to the so-called Viennese “gang wars” ended this May. The 30-year-old first defendant, who allegedly shot a Syrian man in a Brigittenau park two days before the Meidling attacks, was sentenced to 14 years in prison for attempted murder.
A homicide investigation is underway in Guérande, Loire-Atlantique, after beloved 78-year-old municipal councilor Catherine Bailhache was found stabbed to death in her home on Wednesday afternoon.
Officers entered the property in the Achelais Park area shortly before 5 p.m. after being alerted by third parties. Bailhache was discovered on the ground floor with stab wounds. Emergency services attended but were unable to save her.
During the search of the house, a 34-year-old man emerged from a bathroom closet, armed with a knife, and attempted to attack the first responding officer. A member of the Saint-Nazaire Surveillance and Intervention Platoon (PSIG) opened fire, hitting him in the shoulder. He was taken to hospital and remains under police guard. He will be placed in custody once his condition improves.
The suspect had been living in the property for around 10 days as part of a non-profit scheme offering accommodation to young workers, according to the prosecutor’s office.
He has no previous record with the police or the courts. His role in the killing, and a possible motive, are still to be established. An autopsy will be carried out in Nantes to clarify the circumstances of Bailhache’s death.
Bailhache was a retired teacher and former school principal, serving as an opposition councilor in Guérande. She was involved in local cultural groups and known in artistic circles for her work and exhibitions.
News of her death spread quickly through the town, prompting tributes from residents and colleagues. Speaking to Ouest-France, one described the announcement as “an earthquake,” noting her presence in the Guérande Artistic Research Group and her visibility in art exhibitions. Multiple tributes were posted on Facebook following the announcement, praising the victim’s commitment to her local community.
Yannick Favennec, French MP for Mayenne, wrote on social media, “She was my teacher in secondary school. I had great admiration and respect for this woman of commitment and culture.”
Sandrine Josso, MP for Loire-Atlantique, recounted meeting Catherine at the beginning of her political career: “I had just been elected municipal councilor in Herbignac, and Catherine was already an elected official in Guérande. She took me under her wing and greatly encouraged me to get involved. She was an inspiring woman.”
The local council posted a tribute on Thursday, which read, “The City of Guérande learned with deep emotion and profound sadness of the death of Catherine Bailhache, a municipal councilor. This news has come as a shock. Our thoughts are with his family, loved ones, and all those affected by this loss.
“Committed to Guérande, particularly on heritage-related issues, Catherine Bailhache has left her mark on municipal life through her dedication. A notebook is available in the lobby of the Town Hall for those who wish to leave a message in tribute to Catherine Bailhache.”
According to Le Parisien, the Saint-Nazaire research brigade has taken charge of the case. Investigators are working to reconstruct the timeline of events inside the house and determine whether the suspect acted alone or had a prior dispute with the victim.
No further details surrounding the attack or the suspect have been released.
Taleb al-Abdulmohsen ranted at witnesses on Thursday, causing great consternation amongst victims at his historic trial after days of confusing and outrageous outbursts.
Yesterday, victims and witnesses began speaking about their ordeal at the bloody Christmas market in Magdeburg. Al-Abdulmohsen, the Saudi national who worked as a doctor in Germany for years, is accused of driving his vehicle in a zig-zag pattern through the market to kill as many people as possible.
However, he is currently trying to claim that one of his victims could have died from coronavirus instead of his car ramming attack.
Forensic physician Dr. Gerald Brenecke, Halle University Hospital, started his testimony. One day after the attack, on Dec. 21, 2024, he conducted autopsies of five victims. The first victim he autopsied was 45-year-old Nadine L.
He said the corpse “had massive injuries in the upper body area and head.”
However, the doctor noted the woman’s heart was previously damaged and that “the woman died of highly acute heart failure,” while she was trying to escape the car.
The suspect, al-Abdulmohsen, jumped on this claim to indicate the victim may have died in connection with the coronavirus, saying that people have become more susceptible to cardiac arrest since the coronavirus pandemic.
One of the lawyers of the victims reacted with rage in the courtroom.
“I complain that the victims no longer need to listen to this nonsense. Today is the first time it’s about the victims, and they have to listen to the defendant’s crap,” said the lawyer.
🇩🇪‼️ "He was a known terrorist. Nobody did anything about it."
The parents of the youngest victim killed in the Magdeburg Christmas market terror attack, 7-year-old André, have released a video condemning the government and pleading for help.
The judge angrily reacted, cutting al-Abdulmohsen off and saying that the defendant should only ask specific questions.
However, despite a motion against al-Abdulmohsen being allowed to continue his line of questioning, this has been rejected by the judges in the case.
The presiding judge said, “Even if this seems or is unbearable for the co-plaintiffs, the chamber cannot shorten the defendant’s right to ask questions. That could provide grounds for an appeal.”
He further stated: “I want to avoid at all costs that we have to repeat these proceedings. We know that these proceedings place a high burden on co-plaintiffs and their relatives.”
People not only lost their lives on that fateful day, but many victims and witnesses were left to face painful trauma from the massacre.
Co-plaintiff Anne Kathrin H. was the first person physically injured by the Saudi who testified in the trial. In court, while fighting back tears, she said: “I wanted to go to the Christmas market with my partner and was a little impatient. We left shortly after 6 p.m.”
Right after the couple ate, Anne Kathrin H. said, “Then the car hit us. Everything was black. When I woke up again, I realized that I had fallen over. The bystanders took me to the rescue workers. There, I found my husband Matthias. He cried and said happily, ‘You’re alive. You’re alive…’”
Her husband was also injured.
🇩🇪He should have "killed even more," said Saudi national Ahmad about the Christmas market terror attack in Magdeburg last year.
Ahmad said the attack was "completely ok."
Now, Ahmad is in hiding after his interview with German media outlet MDR, who reported his comments. pic.twitter.com/aoR4h2B2rs
Both victims were treated at a university hospital. Katrin H. was on sick leave until mid-February while her husband “still limps to this day.”
She said the attacker took away her family’s sense of security and happiness.
“I’m still receiving psychological treatment and also in a self-help group,” said Kathrin H.
Another witness, Mario T., along with his wife and acquaintances, provided first aid in the aftermath of the Christmas market slaughter:
“There was a small child opposite us who had to be resuscitated. We helped an injured man.” The images of the destroyed market “left their mark on the family,” according to Bild.
“My wife is still struggling with the psychological consequences today,” said Mario T.
He said his wife no longer goes into town and rarely leaves the house.
“She only goes to work and back home,” the man said.
The day also saw forensic specialists describing autopsies of the other victims in the case.
Eyewitness Eyad I. is a former Syrian doctor from Magdeburg, who worked at the Christmas market in 2024. He spoke with the help of a German interpreter.
“I had a booth at the entrance to the Christmas market. I was in my booth when I suddenly heard a noise. I didn’t know what it was.”
Then, Eyad saw a seriously injured boy: “The wound was open, I could see the boy’s bone. He grabbed me.”
He noted that “blood came out of his wounds. He screamed and didn’t let go of me.”
Eyad treated the wound, and paramedics took over from there.
🇩🇪🔥 Saudi doctor Taleb al-Abdulmohsen is now on trial for allegedly killing 6 people during a deadly car-ramming terror attack on a German Christmas market last year.
The 51-year-old suspect faces 6 counts of murder and hundreds of counts of attempted murder and bodily harm for… pic.twitter.com/HRsaqF9kE6
Throughout the trial, the defendant has screamed, rioted, and raged.
According to his own statement, al-Abdulmohsen also claimed to have been on hunger strike since the start of the trial. However, Bild journalists note that “he appears to be in great shape and speaks animatedly with his defense lawyers as the chamber enters the court and opens the day of the trial seven minutes late.”
The day before, he was brought to the ground inside his glass case after physical rioting inside. Judicial officers brought him to the ground.
He has had his microphone constantly switched off as well, including for questioning the psychological health of witnesses. The former doctor was given his medical license despite clear evidence of fraud regarding his medical experience, along with a long history of threatening to kill Germans, which was all documented on social media. In fact, in what was a complete failure of German authorities, they were even warned by a Saudi intelligence agency of the threat the man posed.
The German taxpayer is on the hook for the massive trial, but that is a drop in the pond for what Germans are paying for mass migration every year, totaling at least €50 billion for integration, housing, and social benefits. That cost does not cover increased security and police costs due to criminality from Germany’s growing foreign population, either.
Even the price of Christmas market security is soaring across the country, another burden shouldered by taxpayers and small business owners.
Investigators from Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAP/SAPO) conducted searches of Andriy Yermak’s home on Friday morning, according to statements from both agencies and reports in Ukrainian media.
Yermak, chief of staff to President Volodymyr Zelensky and considered one of the most influential figures in government, confirmed that law enforcement officials had been granted access to his residence.
Yermak wrote on Telegram, as cited by Meduza, that the authorities were “conducting procedural actions” and added, “The investigators are not facing any obstacles. They have been given full access to the apartment, and my lawyers are on site, cooperating with law enforcement. I am providing full cooperation.” President Zelensky has not commented publicly.
The search forms part of a widening corruption probe centered on the energy sector. Earlier this month, NABU announced it had uncovered large-scale embezzlement at Energoatom, the operator of Ukraine’s nuclear power stations, involving kickback schemes worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Authorities have named Tymur Mindich, a close associate of Zelensky, as the alleged architect and one of the primary beneficiaries. His property was searched on Nov. 10, though he reportedly left for Israel shortly before the raid, in a sign he was clearly tipped off in advance.
The investigation has prompted upheaval at senior levels of government. Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk was dismissed, while Justice Minister Herman Halushchenko, who previously headed the Energy Ministry until July 2025, was suspended pending further probes. Several suspects were taken into custody, and Zelensky imposed sanctions on Mindich and businessman Alexander Tsukerman, with Tsukerman also currently located in Israel. They are now both wanted in connection with the case.
Former Deputy Prime Minister Oleksiy Chernyshov, described as close to the president, was also arrested.
Rustem Umyerov, Secretary of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council and a central figure in talks with the United States and Russia, has testified to investigators as a witness. Ukrainian media have reported that Mindich sought to exert influence on Umyerov during his tenure as defense minister, claims Umyerov has denied.
Bild reported that Yermak’s office was also examined as part of related proceedings. The chief of staff was recently appointed to lead Kyiv’s negotiating team with Washington regarding an eventual settlement to the war, a decision that surprised observers as the corruption investigation gathered pace.
Ukrainian press have reported internal discussions over whether Yermak should be dismissed, though at a closed meeting on Nov. 20, Zelensky signaled that he did not intend to remove him.
Notably, Zelensky attempted to take control of NABU before the massive raids on his inner circle. He only backtracked when Europe and the United States sharply criticized the move. Critics have speculated that the power grab on his part may have been a result of him becoming aware investigators were closing in on his associates.
A Swedish government review has found that thousands of people linked to gangs in Sweden have been drawing income from the country’s benefits system for years, creating what authorities describe as a reliable, legal-looking revenue stream for criminal networks.
According to findings prepared under the state’s organized crime framework, about 4,000 individuals known to police for gang affiliation have been receiving sickness benefits, sick pay, or job-seeker support. Combined payments across the group are estimated at 3.6 billion kronor (€327.5 million) over time, enough to provide what officials call a “white” income even when illicit earnings fluctuate.
It effectively means that law-abiding Swedish taxpayers are inadvertently subsidizing criminal gangs through the benefit system, providing them with a safety net income that enables them to continue operating.
Nils Öberg, head of the Social Insurance Agency, said the material reinforces the pattern authorities have been tracking. Speaking to TV4, he said the welfare system has become part of the business model: an official income on paper, and criminal income off it.
Samnytt notes that the report shows a marked overrepresentation of people with a migration background in the cohort examined. This applies to both those born abroad and those born in Sweden to two foreign-born parents.
Investigators highlight the contradiction between benefits requiring reduced work ability and the documented activity of some recipients. Case studies in the report refer to individuals formally certified as unfit for work while running gangs, traveling abroad, or coordinating violent offenses. One man listed on medical grounds after an accident was recorded visiting gyms and participating in gang operations. Another, diagnosed with limited work ability, is reported to have led a large criminal network while accumulating more than 30 convictions.
Maintenance support is also cited as a hidden revenue channel. Since many gang figures report little or no legal income, the state covers child maintenance on their behalf. In 2024, more than 3,600 such individuals were classified as unable to pay, resulting in payouts of around 118 million kronor (€10.7 million).
The review also tracked corporate links. One in three businesses that filed sickness claims on behalf of gang-connected employees are run or previously run by people with criminal links. More than four in five show clear connections to gang networks. The personal assistance sector in particular was flagged as an area with heavy infiltration, both among staff and among owners.
Social Insurance Minister Anna Tenje, as cited by Sydsvenskan, said that the situation was “astonishing” and insisted that public funds are meant for people who genuinely need them. She argued that weakening the financial lifeline to criminal networks is essential if the government wants to reduce gang influence.
Speaking to TV4, Labor Minister Johan Britz described those involved as “welfare pirates,” adding that taxpayers were effectively financing criminal lifestyles under the guise of social support.
Police estimate that around 67,500 people in Sweden have some form of gang association, of whom roughly 17,500 are considered actively involved. National Police Commissioner Petra Lundh said there is no clear indication of improvement or deterioration and warned that recruitment remains steady.
The authors of the review state that existing law was designed for honest applicants rather than organized exploitation and suggest that stronger information-sharing powers and more robust verification are required. The government says new data-access legislation will come into effect in December, with further reforms planned later in the parliamentary term.
Officials say the next step is to reassess benefit cases flagged in the review and halt payments where fraud is suspected. The agency involved says it will broaden investigations, but ministers have offered no timeline on when changes will take full effect.
After a forced conscript was beaten in his groin area to the point that he lost an “organ” following emergency surgery, Ukrainian authorities have moved to arrest the recruitment center head.
The staff of the Ukrainian State Bureau of Investigation (DBR) arrested the head of one of the district recruitment and military service preparation centers (TCK) in the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast.
The recruiter is accused of brutally beating a conscripted man for refusing to perform a fluorographic examination during the medical aptitude test (VLK), reported by the General Prosecutor’s Office of Ukraine and the DBR, based on the announcements of Ukrainian news outlet Pravda.ua.
The DBR investigated complaints from citizens and parliamentarians that beatings, torture, and demands for money had taken place in a TCK operation in Transcarpathia. Notably, neighboring Hungary has alleged that recruits from the Transcarpathia region are targeted for recruitment at an especially high rate due to them being ethnic Hungarians.
“Investigators uncovered numerous abuses of power committed by a senior officer at the center,” the DBR communication was quoted by the source.
Based on the investigation, it was revealed that the man was sent to the hospital for a VLK examination together with other citizens. When he refused the examination, the lieutenant colonel deliberately inflicted at least five blows against the victim, targeting the groin area.
As a result, the victim suffered serious physical injuries that required the “surgical removal of an organ.”
The officer was charged with abuse of power during martial law, with serious consequences. On the motion of the prosecutors, the court ordered an arrest without the possibility of bail. Based on the source, it was also revealed that the possible involvement of other persons, including police officers, in the case is currently being investigated.
This beating is likely just the tip of the iceberg, though. As already reported by Remix News, a Hungarian citizen and entrepreneur, József Sebestyén, died in July in the Beregsász hospital after Ukrainian recruiters severely beat him with iron bars in a forest, with the incident also caught on film.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has forcefully condemned forced conscription in Ukraine after the beating death. Speaking on Kossuth Radio, Orbán linked the tragic incident directly to the ongoing war, asserting that a country where such events occur due to forced conscription is unfit for European Union membership.
“A country where this could happen cannot be a member of the EU,” said Orbán.
“We are talking about a Hungarian-Ukrainian dual citizen. This entitles us to avoid using cautious language. They beat a Hungarian citizen to death, that’s the situation. And this is a case that we need to investigate, as this cannot happen,” Orbán stated, emphasizing the gravity of the situation. He highlighted that while the front lines might seem distant to many Hungarians, “the war is taking place in our neighboring country. The threat is directly here.”
A video post on this topic from Remix News was immediately flagged by X and censored, meaning that EU censors may be jumping on this report due to its sensitive nature.
For years, videos of Ukrainian recruits being dragged off the streets and beaten have been circulating, making the arrest of one of these recruiters quite out of the ordinary.
A French elderly woman was dragged through the court system for 18 months, all because she expressed outrage in a social media post over the murder of Thomas Perotto in Crépol, which has been reported as an anti-White hate crime. The 70-year-old Sylvie has finally been acquitted on Nov. 20 of “hate speech” in the Paris Court of Appeal, which overturned her conviction in a lower court.
“I still find it hard to believe it, this story changed my life so much. But you shouldn’t be afraid to say what you think,” the relieved retiree told the press after her conviction was overturned.
“At no time did I call for harm. It was simply a reaction of the heart, spontaneous. I have grandchildren the age of this young man who was stabbed,” said the former nurse, whose public comments about the murder were posted on her personal profile.
The case is not only being seen as a victory for free speech, but also an example of how far zealous authorities will go to terrify Europeans complaining online about foreigner crime or mass immigration.
Sylvie was living in Cuers when she suddenly had her house raided and was arrested for alleged “hate speech” for a Facebook post she made shortly after the death of Thomas in Crépol in 2023. The youth was stabbed to death by a group of youths with a migration background, and their trials are still ongoing.
So far, nobody has been convicted of the crime, but numerous witnesses at the event reported hearing the youths scream they “wanted to kill White people” before Thomas was killed with numerous stab wounds. Another two French youths were seriously injured during the attacks.
In response to Thomas’ death, Sylvie posted “the names of the alleged perpetrators involved in Thomas’ death” and mentioned “the soldiers of Islam” in her post, according to French news outlet France Bleu.
The French authorities later targeted the woman, launching a police action on May 28, 2024. She says she was shocked to find police officers standing at her door at 6 a.m.
She was convicted in the Paris Criminal Court, where she was forced to pay a fine for €1,000 for a post “inciting hatred.” However, her conviction has now been overturned on the basis that her comment was covered under freedom of expression.
Sylvie said she is still processing the court decision, according to ICI. She expressed great emotion and a profound sense of injustice after her hellish 18-month legal ordeal.
She also spoke about the emotional toll of having the police show up at her door in an early morning raid and being treated like a criminal.
“At my age, 70 years old and sick, I must have been a danger for them to come get me and take me into custody. My life has been disrupted. I was photographed as a delinquent and they took my fingerprints. I was told I was a first-time offender. It’s been a year and a half of trauma, and I feel a deep sense of injustice. I wasn’t talking about expressing hatred at all. But freedom of expression must be protected. Because the day we lose our freedom of expression, we simply lose our freedom. And it’s very dangerous,” Sylvie stated.
The Paris Criminal Court had initially convicted the retiree for “provocation to hatred,” imposing a fine and compensation for the alleged perpetrators whose names she had shared. However, her lawyer, Maître Maxime Barnier, advised her to appeal, arguing that her freedom of expression had been infringed upon.
“My client was being prosecuted for provoking hatred and violence, an offense with an extremely vague legal outline. The Court of Appeal took up the position of the Court of Cassation, considering that the provocation should be taken as an exhortation, not a simple invitation, but an injunction to do so. Now, in this case, there was no exhortation to hate people because of their real or supposed belonging to a clearly defined community, nor was calling on citizens to protect or defend themselves an exhortation to commit violence. The Court of Appeal considered that this was part of a debate of public interest,” said the retiree’s lawyer.
More than 6,000 people turned out for a march through the French town of Romans-sur-Isère on Wednesday in memory of Thomas, a 16-year-old boy stabbed to death on Sunday by a group of youths who gatecrashed the winter ball in nearby Crépol and shouted how they "wanted to kill… pic.twitter.com/JhaIGBXHuy
“The right to express oneself is also the right to be caricatured and outrageous. I am not defending this opinion. I defend the right to be able to express this opinion within the limits provided by law. We do not beg for freedom or the right to express ourselves. We impose it, we claim it and we protect it. And as an exception, it is sanctioned if the limits set by law are crossed,” Barnier explained to ICI Provence.
The Paris Court of Appeal therefore ruled that “Sylvie had not exceeded the limits” fixed by law in this instance.
Notably, the murder of Thomas is still hotly debated and discussed in France, including earlier this month when French politician Éric Zemmour mentioned what he said were the anti-White racist motives behind the murder.
🇫🇷🔴French politician @ZemmourEric: "It’s not Russian soldiers who are killing our children. It wasn’t a Russian soldier who killed Philippe. It wasn’t a Russian soldier who killed Thomas. Those who are dying today are young French people, killed by Islamic s**m."
Two Algerian men accused of abducting and raping a woman in Toulouse in September 2022, before leaving her naked on the roadside, appeared before the Assize Court on Monday to answer for their alleged crimes.
Both men are charged with kidnapping, extortion with a weapon, and arbitrary detention with release under seven days.
As reported by Actu Toulouse, the victim, referred to as Mélanie, was returning home to the Pech-David district of the city after a date on the evening of Sept. 24, 2022, when she was approached by two strangers as she got out of her vehicle. They pointed what appeared to be a firearm at her, ordered her back into the car, and drove away with her.
The defendants, Abdelkader G. and Mohamed M., were aged 18 and 20 at the time. The weapon was later identified as a replica. Lawyers for Abdelkader G. state that the initial intent was to steal the vehicle, but that the pair continued with the abduction out of fear she would alert authorities.
The car stopped later that night on Chemin des Étroits near the Garonne River. According to investigators, Mélanie, believed to be in her 30s, was ordered to undress under threat of the gun and was forced to perform oral sex on Abdelkader G. before being abandoned by the roadside.
A passing motorcyclist found her and alerted the authorities. She was taken to hospital and prescribed ten days of medical leave.
DNA collected from a medical examination of the victim linked investigators to Abdelkader G. He was arrested days later while driving the victim’s car in Toulouse’s Saint-Michel district, and his alleged accomplice was detained shortly after.
The men face the same charges, but Abdelkader G additionally faces charges of rape at gunpoint.
The primary defendant, now 21, is known to authorities for drug trafficking offenses. He arrived in France from Algeria in 2016 at the age of 12 as an unaccompanied minor. He experienced lengthy periods in foster care and juvenile detention. His parents are in prison in Algeria.
According to French media, his lawyer confirms that he admits to the acts and acknowledges that the combination of offenses could result in a life sentence.
The German town of Külsheim is dealing with the soaring costs of terror-proofing German Christmas markets with a very festive solution: anti-tank barriers.
The German public media reporting this news does not even blink about how absurd the situation has become, but instead actually praises the “creative solution” of the anti-tank barriers. For skeptics, the anti-tank barriers may serve as a comical or tragic illustration of German Christmas markets moving beyond a mere police state and right into something resembling a militarized zone.
The Christmas market in Külsheim, which has a population of approximately 5,000 and is located in the southern state of Baden-Württemberg, has announced it is saving money by recycling anti-tank barriers for its Christmas market.
Located in the Main-Tauber district, Tageschau notes that “four disused concrete anti-tank barriers with a diameter of 1.4 meters were converted for the Christmas market.”
The barriers were painted with white and red paint, and were produced at the cost of €1,000 per anti-tank barrier when paint and working time are considered.
The city notes it saved €30,000 by repurposing the anti-tank barriers for its Christmas market.
Notably, across Germany, cities are spending millions on bollards, moveable barriers, and other security measures for Christmas markets, which is why the cost of Christmas markets is becoming more and more expensive.
According to Simone Hickl-Seitz, head of the city of Külsheim, protective bollards used to cost only €800, but he says that manufacturers now charge ten times as much.
“They know exactly that all cities need this. But the coffers are empty,” said Hickl-Seitz. The four anti-tank barriers were acquired from former Bundeswehr barracks, and each weigh several tons. Their previous purpose was to prevent the movement of tanks, presumably from invading territory in Germany.
🇩🇪🎄 German police are now confiscating pocket knives from elderly women at Christmas markets.
Exploding knife crime in Germany, which the police openly says is tied to mass immigration, has led to a security state at German Christmas markets. pic.twitter.com/nRTQRIOr2d
German public media outlet SWR also included the Külsheim measure as a “cost-effective” and “creative” solution.
Just last year, Saudi national Taleb al-Abdulmohsen allegedly drove a vehicle at high speeds into the Magdeburg Christmas market, killing six people and injuring hundreds. The former doctor, who became a doctor despite years of fraud, abuse, and threats to kill Germans, is standing trial for his crimes. However, his actions, and other Christmas market attacks, have led to a crisis, with spiraling security concerns spread across the country.
🇩🇪🔥 Saudi doctor Taleb al-Abdulmohsen is now on trial for allegedly killing 6 people during a deadly car-ramming terror attack on a German Christmas market last year.
The 51-year-old suspect faces 6 counts of murder and hundreds of counts of attempted murder and bodily harm for… pic.twitter.com/HRsaqF9kE6
In Magdeburg, there were fears that the entire market would be canceled due to the stringent and costly security measures being required of organizers.
In response, Alternative for Germany (AfD) politician Ulrich Siegmund, chairman of the AfD’s parliamentary group in Saxony-Anhalt, visited the market and lamented that countries like Poland and the Czech Republic, that have so far managed to avoid mass immigration, do not have these issues.
“There was a terrible attack here a year ago. That was right here, where I’m standing right now. Of course, you have to learn from these experiences and do better. But the question must be, not how do you protect Christmas markets? But why do we need to protect Christmas markets?” he asked. “Go to the Czech Republic, go to Poland, go to other countries that have not opened their borders, that have not sold their own security for anything here. No, the CDU’s policies at state and federal level have brought us exactly to this point. We are losing our freedom bit by bit. We are giving up our way of life. And for what? That is the question.”
While the left will mock Germans for saying they want their “old” country back, the reality of a police state at swimming pools in the summer and a police state at Christmas markets in the winter, or even anti-tank barriers, is leaving many Germans longing for a previous era.
Pointing to an old picture of the market, Siegmund says, “Have a look at this, I just discovered it here. It used to be a perfect world, that’s exactly how I knew it. That’s exactly how I want it back… I want our old country back. I want every one of you here to be able to walk peacefully through a Christmas market like this and enjoy your lives. We don’t deserve this, our country doesn’t deserve this. Our children do not deserve this.”
🇩🇪🎄The German Christmas market in Magdeburg has been suspended over security concerns, sparking a nationwide debate.
The question: Why are Christmas markets in Germany being canceled while countries like 🇵🇱Poland and the 🇨🇿Czech Republic have no serious terror threats at their… pic.twitter.com/MUW5fofh5w
Although the Magdeburg Christmas market has since announced it will open, the costs for security remain sky-high and worries remain about another deadly terror attack.
Last week, Gerold Leppa, chairman of the German Federal Association for City and City Marketing (BCSD), said that the costs for organizers are exploding, rising a whopping 44 percent in the last three years. Of course, it is not just security but also personnel and even music licensing, but as Remix News noted yesterday, cities are spending millions more to ensure proper security.
While it is true that only a small handful of Christmas markets have been canceled due to security costs, such as in Overath, there is no denying that German cities — already facing major debt crises in large part due to mass immigration — are having to shoulder extremely expensive security solutions at their own Christmas markets.
Milan will not hold its traditional New Year’s Eve celebration in Piazza Duomo this year, with the city confirming that no concert or public countdown will be staged.
Mayor Giuseppe Sala attributes the decision to the upcoming 2026 Winter Olympics, noting that a significant portion of the square is already taken up with preparations for the Games due to commence on Feb. 6.
“The square is 30 percent full for the Olympics, plus there’s the Christmas tree and the Olympic timer in Piazzetta Reale, so it can’t happen this year,” Sala said, adding that the administration intends to restore the event next year.
The cancellation comes after several high-profile sexual assaults in Piazza Duomo during celebrations in recent years, which have brought the city into disrepute. There is no formal suggestion that the cancellation is due to these attacks, but it is clear that the city cannot afford any bad press in the lead-up to the Games.
New Year’s festivities in and around Piazza Duomo were overshadowed last year by sexual assaults involving groups of young migrants targeting women in the crowd, including tourists. Six Belgian students reported being sexually assaulted by up to 30 to 40 men in the city’s main square.
“We were harassed there. They touched us over our clothes, but also underneath,” one of the victims, Laura, told Belgian news site 7s7 days after the attack. “Three of us, including myself, were sexually assaulted. They put their hands in my underwear. It went way too far.”
She described the event as a “night of terror,” noting how she and her friends were surrounded by adult males waving flags of countries such as Iraq, Pakistan, and the United Arab Emirates, and how her group of friends felt “powerless in the face of so much violence.”
Another widely reported case in 2023 saw nine women attacked, with police later identifying 18 suspects, including foreigners from North Africa between the ages of 15 and 21, three of whom were minors, but also North Africans with Italian citizenship.
“We tried to fend them off, my friend hit and slapped them, but they laughed and continued to harass us, I had 15 hands on me,” one of the victims, from Mannheim, Germany, told the ANSA news agency, adding: “At some point, I fell to the ground, and they kept putting their hands on us.”
“We were surrounded by a group of people. They all spoke Arabic. We cried and screamed for help, but no one helped us. There were 30 people around us, touching us everywhere, nobody spoke Italian and unfortunately also no English when we managed to get out of there,” she added.
Although the mayor has framed this year’s cancellation as a matter of space and logistics, the absence of large-scale festivities removes the potential for any negative press only weeks before global attention turns to Milan.
Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini criticized the decision, arguing that an Olympic year deserved a public celebration. He suggested that Milan should have hosted a cultural performance — such as a Filarmonica della Scala concert — rather than leaving the square unused.
“The world will look at Milan on Feb. 6 and wonder what events will be held in Piazza Duomo: whether there will be any quality events, not a concert by rapper Maranza. I don’t see any,” he said.
French lawmakers on Thursday adopted a non-binding resolution urging the government to oppose the EU-Mercosur free trade agreement in its current form.
The text, tabled by the left-wing La France Insoumise (LFI), passed by 244 votes to 1 in a near-unanimous rebuke of the deal, calling on President Macron to oppose the pact at the European Council.
Under the proposed trade agreement, finalized at the end of 2024 after decades of negotiation, the EU would benefit from expanded access for exports such as cars, machinery, wine, and other goods to Argentina, Brazil, Uruguay, and Paraguay. In return, meat, sugar, honey, poultry, and other agricultural products would enter Europe with reduced tariffs.
French farming unions have long opposed the deal, warning that cheaper imports produced under looser standards, to which European farmers are bound by, would undercut domestic producers. There have long been protests from the agricultural sector against the draft agreement, and demonstrations continued on Wednesday evening when dozens of farmers blockaded the Tancarville Bridge toll station in Normandy, according to Le Figaro.
Agriculture Minister Annie Genevard said in early November that France would not “sign an agreement” that would “condemn” its farmers, a stance she repeated while noting that several member states — including Poland, Austria, the Netherlands, Ireland, and Hungary — share Paris’s concerns. But lawmakers across party lines warned that President Emmanuel Macron, who once called the accord “unacceptable,” appears more open to it ahead of an expected European-level vote on Dec. 19.
Thursday’s debate was initiated by La France Insoumise during a day in which the opposition group took control of the parliamentary agenda. LFI rapporteur Matthias Tavel accused the French president of backtracking on his remarks.
“Less than a year ago, Emmanuel Macron called this agreement unacceptable, a bad text. And now, here he is declaring that it’s all a step in the right direction. Yet, not a single line of the agreement has been changed,” he said. Tavel went on to denounce what he called an “agricultural and health tipping point.”
Socialist MP Mélanie Thomin warned that if the deal proceeds, the government will be responsible “for the massive reintroduction of unauthorized products into food: growth hormones, antibiotics, and pesticides banned within the European Union.” National Rally deputy Julien Limongi branded the proposal “institutionalized dumping, a weapon of mass destruction against our agriculture,” calling it “a stab in the back, a betrayal.”
Julien Dive, of the center-right Les Républicains, urged Macron not to “sign the death warrant for French agriculture.” Only the governing party led by Prime Minister Gabriel Attal abstained.
Responding for the government, Minister for Europe Benjamin Haddad rejected claims of inconsistency, saying, “France’s position has always been consistent” and that “the agreement reached is not acceptable as it stands.”
He added that amendments to the agreement are being discussed in Brussels, but that improvements are still insufficient. “It’s not enough,” he said, calling for “a detailed plan” from the European Commission to address legitimate concerns.
A convicted rapist from Tegel prison in Berlin has failed to return to the facility after an unaccompanied release, with police saying the man attacked his wife with a knife, resulting in serious injuries.
The fugitive, identified as the 37-year-old Mike L., was remarkably due to be released from prison next month. The former market manager had participated in several unaccompanied releases over the past few months as part of his preparation for life after incarceration.
However, during the latest release, police believe he used it as an opportunity to stab his ex-wife.
BZ reported that there had been “no problems with these releases so far.” However, he allegedly ambushed his ex-wife in Lankwitz with a knife on Saturday. While no further details have been announced, the woman was hospitalized with serious injuries, though she has since been able to leave the clinic.
In what BZ described as a perplexing development, the authorities did not publicly disclose information about either the crime or the man being on the run from authorities.
The spokeswoman for the Berlin judicial administration “did not want to comment on this on Wednesday afternoon.”
The police reportedly recorded the knife attack as “domestic violence.” This is presumably why the public was not informed.
Police spokesman Florian Nath stated, “The colleagues are investigating dangerous bodily harm. Everything else is the subject of the investigation. The man is being searched for.”
Mike L. was convicted in 2021 and sentenced to four years and nine months in prison for aggravated rape, deprivation of liberty, coercion, possession of weapons, and bodily harm. He also received an additional two years for an arson attack.
The events leading to his imprisonment involved Helena D. (then 23, whose name has been changed), an employee at the firm where L. was a marketing manager. In 2019, he began a relationship with the colleague, who was ten years his junior. The relationship was characterized by “jealousy and violence,” leading the woman to move out and obtain an emergency restraining order against him.
On April 9, 2020, L. encountered Helena D. on the street. He forced her into his car at knifepoint and drove to the island of Usedom, which is in the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania. That night, he raped her in the car.
A new poll shows that for the first time, a majority of Germans do not completely rule out voting for the Alternative for Germany (AfD), marking a major milestone for the party.
While the media and the establishment have waged a non-stop campaign against the right-wing group, this campaign appears to have failed, at least so far. The Insa polling firm found that 49 percent of Germans rule out ever voting for the AfD, while the rest could, in theory, see themselves lending it their vote.
This, however, also needs to be put into context. The AfD party is still the worst party in terms of the pool of people willing to vote for it. In other words, even though the Green Party, for instance, polls much lower than the AfD, there are still more Germans who say they could imagine voting for that party than there are Germans who say they could imagine voting for the AfD.
“Only just under one in two people fundamentally rule out voting for the AfD. This is still the worst value of all parties in the ‘negative Sunday question,‘ but the best value ever measured in this category for the AfD,” Insa chief Hermann Binkert told Bild, as reported by Tagesspiegel.
Still, the result shows major progress for the AfD, and could further complicate efforts to ban the party.
The latest poll from Insa also found that the AfD remains the number one party in the country, if by a slim margin. The AfD is polling at 26 percent, with the CDU and CSU right behind at 25.5 percent. The SPD is at 15 percent.
The fact that the AfD is not only the number one party, but also increasingly making inroads with Germans, continues to be portrayed as a catastrophe for the establishment, which is desperate to stymie the party.
Notably, the AfD has reached its first-place polling position despite ban threats and mass surveillance on its party members. At the same time, a taxpayer-funded media empire fueled by billions of euros in mandatory payments from German households has relentlessly published propaganda aimed at the party.
That means that despite billions in propaganda, Germans are inwardly becoming more receptive to the AfD’s core economic, security, and anti-immigration messages. The media and the German government can only do so much censoring and damage control.
Serbia has been plunged into an unprecedented energy crisis in recent days, as the impact of American sanctions has paralyzed the country’s oil supply almost overnight, writes Hungarian analyst Dániel Deák in a recent post. Now, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is offering support to his Serbian ally, President Aleksandar Vučić.
“In the chaos of war, we can count on each other,” said Orbán before heading to the Serbian city of Subotica, which has a large Hungarian community, in order to commemorate Stephen Shepherd. According to Orbán, the joint commemoration goes beyond an emotional gesture. He said he believes that a true strategic alliance now exists between Hungary and Serbia.
Shipments via the Croatian pipeline were immediately halted after NIS, Serbia’s strategic oil company, became a target of U.S. sanctions. Banks responded by freezing the company’s finances, and the Pančevo refinery, the backbone of Serbia’s fuel supply, became virtually inoperable, according to Hungarian news outlet Mandiner.
To make matters worse, more than 300 NIS-owned gas stations are not accepting credit card payments because American card companies have blocked transactions with the company. Operators say there is no supply disruption yet, but no one can guarantee that the system will not collapse in the coming days.
The Hungarian prime minister emphasized that Serbia has found itself in a difficult situation due to its sanctions policy, and there is a risk that the country’s largest oil refinery will have to be shut down. This could cause serious supply problems, even fuel shortages.
According to Viktor Orbán, Central European cooperation today is not only about political diplomacy, but also about concrete economic and energy security steps. He said that Serbia is one of Hungary’s most important partners.
Analyst Dániel Deák emphasizes that everything that Serbia is experiencing now did not happen in the case of Hungary. This is a direct result of Orbán’s meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington on Nov. 7, with Orbán walking away with an exemption from American energy sanctions.
Unlike Serbia, there are no energy supply problems in Hungary; there are no disruptions in the payment system, and the fuel market has remained stable.
The Hungarian prime minister is personally visiting Serbia today to – as Deák puts it – try to help Hungary’s strategic ally. However, it remains unclear what concrete steps Orbán’s government will take to halt the crisis in Serbia.
Poland’s government and leading opposition figures have publicly pushed back against suggestions that the European Union can compel Warsaw to recognize same-sex marriages, despite a landmark ruling from the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) requiring Poland to acknowledge a marriage legally concluded in another member state.
Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński insisted on Wednesday that this week’s judgment does not equate to Brussels overruling Polish sovereignty.
“Since yesterday, many untruths have accumulated in this matter. Interpretations are already emerging that say: the EU is imposing its legislation on us. So no – it cannot impose its legislation on us,” he said, adding that the judgment alone “cannot force a change in Polish law in this regard.”
He stated that the government will outline how the ruling will be handled only “after thorough analyses by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of Justice.”
The ruling — issued on Tuesday by the EU’s top court — found that Poland acted incompatibly with EU law when it refused to recognize the marriage of two Polish men who married in Berlin in 2018 and sought legal recognition upon returning home.
The CJEU held that while marriage legislation remains a national competency, a member state cannot obstruct EU citizens’ freedom to move and maintain family life across borders. The judges concluded that denying recognition “may cause serious inconvenience at administrative, professional, and private levels” and would breach both free movement rights and the right to family life, enshrined in the European treaties and human rights legislation.
The judgment stopped short of requiring Poland to legalize same-sex marriage domestically, but it does obligate Warsaw to treat foreign same-sex marriages the same way it treats opposite-sex marriages for the purpose of recognition.
Under current law, transcription of foreign marriage certificates is the sole method for acknowledgment — a system the court said must now apply equally to same-sex couples. The move opens the door to same-sex couples in Poland, knowing they can return and insist upon the same rights as heterosexual couples.
Political fallout was immediate. President Karol Nawrocki, who has repeatedly taken a hard line against perceived EU overreach and is framed as a Eurosceptic within the Polish political landscape, was publicly defended by Przemysław Czarnek, deputy chairman of the opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, who said Poland should not be expected to accept every directive from the EU.
“When they ask us to reduce CO₂ emissions by 90 percent, we really have to say: Down with it,” Czarnek said. He argued the same stance should apply to “rulings of the Court of Justice of the EU on same-sex marriage,” adding: “We are not condemned to be in the European Union, the Union is not our homeland, Brussels is not our capital.”
Czarnek, a former education minister, said the EU was originally a peace project but has drifted toward unification that “goes beyond the original plans.” Membership still offers value, he said, but “if it destroys our Christian worldview, then we have to say NO. We have to weigh the costs and benefits.” He stressed that EU membership should last only so long as Poland can safeguard its interests.
New figures from the Federal Employment Agency indicate a pronounced change in the composition of families receiving Bürgergeld (citizen’s benefit). As of June 2025, around 1.7 million people under 18 years old were supported through the system. Just over 875,000 were German citizens, while approximately 822,000 held foreign passports — placing the share of foreign minors at 48.4 percent.
This distribution varies strongly by region. In Bavaria, Saarland, and Baden-Württemberg, more than half of all minors receiving Bürgergeld are foreign nationals, with Bavaria reporting the highest proportion at 57.1 percent. In Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the share is lower, at around 39 percent and 38.3 percent, respectively.
When compared with population size, the contrast is even clearer. Citizen’s benefit was paid to an estimated 7.3 percent of German children, but to around 35 percent of foreign children nationwide — meaning that statistically, one in 14 German minors and slightly more than one in three foreign minors received support from job centers in mid-2025.
Reporting on the figures, NIUS outlined the steady shift over the past 15 years. In 2010, roughly four out of every five under-18 recipients were German. Today, the ratio of foreign minors is close to one-to-one.
In 2010, payments to foreign minors amounted to roughly €669 million. Last year, this figure was €3.6 billion. Payments for German beneficiaries have remained comparatively stable, fluctuating around the €2.5-€2.7 billion mark.
AfD social policy spokesman René Springer argues that the new data reflects structural strain on the welfare system and has called for tighter migration controls. In a written statement, he said that benefits for foreign children “have risen far faster than the system can sustain” and urged a change in policy direction, including stricter border management and enforcement of deportation orders.
Springer’s assessment is not too dissimilar to remarks made earlier this year by Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who warned that the German welfare model may no longer be sustainable in its current form due to economic headwinds, rising subsidy needs, and demographic pressure. “The welfare state as we have it today is no longer financially viable with what we are achieving economically,” he said in August.
His remarks prompted a reaction from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who pointed to Hungary’s earlier shift toward a labour-priority economic model and claimed that Western welfare structures are reaching their limits.
“The Western welfare state is bankrupt, so it was right for us to switch to a labor-based economy in 2010,” Orbán said, contrasting Hungary’s “nation-building” approach with Germany’s belated “crisis management.”
Around 15 percent of Germany’s under-18s have a foreign passport, while an estimated 40 percent have some form of migration background. The Federal Employment Agency has previously reported that among working-age Bürgergeld recipients, roughly two-thirds are either immigrants or have immigrant parents.
Despite these discussions, the Bürgergeld program was still being presented as late as August by the Federal Employment Agency as available to young migrants who cannot meet basic living costs. Information sections aimed at newcomers, including English-language guidance for recent arrivals, remained publicly accessible online on the agency’s website.
Germany will not attempt to return Ukrainian refugees en masse after the end of the war, the head of Berlin’s immigration authority has said, insisting there will be no rapid or compulsory repatriation when hostilities cease.
Engelhard Mazanke, director of the Berlin Immigration Office, noted that the EU’s temporary protection regime has already been extended until March 2027. With around 1.3 million Ukrainians living in Germany, he said it is “definitely not” realistic or feasible that the country could contemplate returning everyone in a short timeframe.
Speaking to Ukrinform, Mazanke argued that, even if any political pressure emerged to do so, such a move would be impossible to implement.
The immigration chief noted that Germany had never experienced an influx of such a scale from a culturally similar country, contrasting the wave of Ukrainian refugees to those who arrived en masse from Syria and elsewhere in 2015. While the migration crisis a decade ago was dominated by men, most Ukrainian arrivals have been working-age women with children.
Looking to historical precedent, particularly the refugee movements from the Balkans, Mazanke suggested the long-term outcome may split roughly half between those who return and those who remain — but stressed that family formation, not employment or language, is the key factor in long-term settlement.
Public sentiment, however, is increasingly strained. An INSA poll commissioned by Bild last month found strong opposition among German citizens to continued financial support for Ukrainian refugees: only 17 percent of respondents supported Bürgergeld payments, while 66 percent opposed them. Data from the Federal Labor Agency indicated that by March 2025, 701,000 Ukrainians were receiving public assistance, including 502,000 of working age. The same survey found 62 percent of Germans believe Ukrainian men of conscription age should return home to Ukraine.
Across Europe, research points to limited return intentions unless Ukraine regains its territory and receives firm security guarantees — of which the former at least looks increasingly unlikely under the latest 28-point plan being discussed among the United States and the warring parties. A major study by the Ifo Institute surveyed 2,543 Ukrainian refugees in 30 European countries and concluded that only 2.7 percent would return in a pessimistic post-war scenario — one where Russia retains occupied zones, the economy deteriorates, and no peace deal or security assurances are in place.
In the most favourable scenario — restored 1991 borders, NATO membership, reduced corruption and increased income — the share rises to 46.5 percent. So, even the best case makes Mazanke’s suggestion that half could return look optimistic.
Women reported a stronger willingness to return than men and were more responsive to institutional and economic improvements. Younger refugees valued employment and EU prospects more, yet even among those aged 18 to 34, the average return probability was only 26.3 percent.
The findings suggest the long-term reconstruction of Ukraine may be hampered if return rates remain low.
A mother suffered serious stab wounds in an attack by an African migrant on Nov. 20 in the Mireuil district of La Rochelle, at rue Ernest-Meissonnier.
At 4:30 p.m., an altercation broke out between neighbors. The migrant, who comes from the Ivory Coast, reportedly has a history of psychiatric disorders.
The 43-year-old suspect attacked the 33-year-old victim with a bladed weapon, according to police, stabbing her multiple times in the chest and face.
After being transported to Poitiers Hospital, she was listed in critical condition and her life was in “serious jeopardy” according to French news outlet Inf-Info.
Police arrested the suspect at 9:00 p.m., and a case for attempted murder was opened. He has no criminal record on his file.
Women’s safety in France has been a major topic, with the French right saying that violence from foreigners represents a major threat.
Earlier this month, French MEP Marion Maréchal wrote: “83% of victims of sexual violence in Île-de-France transport are French, while 61% of those accused of these acts are foreign. The problem is not men, the problem is mass immigration.”
In addition, Astrid Mae, a spokeswoman for the French feminist group Collectif Némésis, said the left’s suggestion that women-only train cars should be implemented is nothing more than a “band-aid” for a social wound.
“There is a problem of massive, uncontrolled immigration. We know that today, 62 percent of sexual assaults on public transport in the Ile-de-France region are committed by foreigners,” she said.
A 35-year-old African man has reportedly made a full confession for beating and sexually assaulting a 53-year-old Italian woman at dawn on Nov. 21 in the city of Gallarate, according to media reports. Remarkably, this rape occurred shortly after the Remigration Summit in the city featuring speakers such as Austrian activist Martin Sellner.
Now, the mayor of the city, Andrea Cassani, said the rape is another example of why remigration must happen.
Cassani had refused to back down under pressure from the left to cancel the entire Remigration Summit. Now, he is noting that the African migrant accused of rape did not “flee war” but instead committed a vile act against a defenseless woman in his city. The mayor further pointed to statistics that show Italy’s rape crisis has been brought on by mass immigration.
The African suspect, who is originally from the Gambia, was caught on surveillance camera before and after the crime. He has lived in Italy for 11 years, is married to an Italian woman, works as a mechanic, and has three children.
🇮🇹🚨“I had an impulse."
A 35-year-old African man has made a full confession for beating and sexually assaulting a 53-year-old Italian woman at dawn in the city of Gallarate.
The African suspect:
🔺has lived in Italy for 11 years 🔺works as a mechanic 🔺has 3 children
According to Italian news network Sky Tg24, the African man reportedly targeted the older woman while she was on her way to work in the Cajello district.
Prosecutors say the man admitted to dragging the victim behind a flower bed near a car park and sexually assaulting her in the city of 55,000 people.
Italian police arrived at the suspect’s home and found the African still wearing the clothes seen on the surveillance camera. They also found the victim’s phone next to his apartment.
The suspect confessed to all the main details and crimes in the case to prosecutor Roberto Bonfanti during questioning after he was taken into custody.
Explaining the rape, he reportedly said during his confession: “I had an impulse.”
Mayor speaks out on migrant violence
The mayor of Gallarate, Andrea Cassani, addressed the attack, saying, “Yesterday, it was not yet known who the culprit was, but everyone had already understood what happened. Now, the rape against one of our fellow citizens was perpetrated by a Gambian — who evidently did not come to Gallarate to pay our pensions or because he was fleeing from some war — but to be supported by us and to rape a woman who could be our mother, our wife.”
The city recently made the news for hosting the Remigration Summit, which Andrea Cassani allowed to go through in her city despite pressure from the left.
🚨 Real warning from our founder and organizer Afonso Gonçalves:
Cassaini is noting that this type of rape is exactly what speakers at the Remigration Summit were talking about. In fact, it is the new reality facing Italy and much of Europe due to mass immigration.
“It all happened a few steps from the Condominium Theater, where a few months ago, young people from all over Europe — worried about the consequences of uncontrolled immigration and the high propensity to crime of these individuals — spoke of remigration,” he said. “It is not racism but statistics: More than 50% of violent crimes are committed by foreigners who are less than 10% of the population in Italy.”
Just yesterday, Remix News covered the topic of sexual crimes and migration in Italy, showing that foreigners, while only making up 9 percent of the population, commit nearly half of all sexual violence crimes. However, these statistics also do not take into account Italian citizens with a migration background, who may also count towards a significant percentage of “Italians” committing crimes in the data.
The mayor said: “It’s time for all citizens to open their eyes to the consequences of immigration and for politics to also put a stop to this invasion and send these criminals back to their countries.”
The female victim was treated at Sant’Antonio Abate Hospital in Gallarate, and reportedly was ordered to take 20 days to recover from the rape and assault.
The African man has been charged with assault and a range of sexual crimes.
A Swedish court has handed down prison terms to seven defendants belonging to a Somali drug gang known as the Death Patrol (Dödspatrullen) over the abduction of a 22-year-old woman and her two-year-old daughter, held for nearly four days in a rented cabin as leverage over an unpaid gang-linked drug debt.
As reported by Samnytt, the woman was abducted on the morning of April 17 in Strängnäs, on Sweden’s west coast, as she was strapping her daughter into a car seat. A car pulled up behind her, several men got out, and she was coerced into the vehicle. The kidnappers then drove her and the toddler more than 400 kilometers across the country to Gothenburg.
There, the woman was given 500 kronor (€45) to buy necessities inside a grocery store while the kidnappers held her daughter. Surveillance images later showed one of the men carrying the child around inside the shop. The victims were subsequently taken to a rented cabin in Kyrkeby outside Kungälv, where they were kept for nearly four days. During that time, the woman learned that her ex-boyfriend owed several million kronor to the migrant gang in relation to a lost drug shipment to Norway. She and her daughter were being used as leverage to force repayment.
Court reporting from Ekuriren back in October noted that at the time of the abduction, the ex-boyfriend had already travelled to Finland to begin serving a prison sentence. A photograph of the woman with tape over her mouth and someone holding her head was reportedly sent to him and other relatives, together with demands for payment. The gang members also discussed recording the woman being raped to increase pressure on the family to pay up on her ex-boyfriend’s behalf.
The child’s grandmother, back in Strängnäs, had already noticed her car parked outside her home with a door open and alerted the authorities. Investigators soon linked the disappearance to the ex-boyfriend and tracked the perpetrators to the Airbnb cabin near Kungälv.
Police located the cabin during Easter weekend. Surveillance began on the Sunday evening, and during the night into Monday, a tactical team entered the building and took several people into custody. The woman and her daughter were medically assessed after the operation and were described as physically unharmed, though in a state of shock.
The mother told investigators she cried through much of the second day, convinced she might not survive. One of the defendants, by contrast, later described the ordeal as a “road trip” — insisting that everyone “made tacos, walked outside and played cards,” and even suggesting that the victim agreed to have her mouth taped for a photograph. He denied kidnapping and maintained he was merely trying to reclaim money.
Professional footballer Exauce Bokunyungu, 22, was identified as the main perpetrator and received the longest sentence: six years and 11 months. Ali Ise, 23, and Benjamin Patay, 22, were each sentenced to five years and five months, while Diu Ngong, 20, who booked the cabin, received two years and eight months for aiding and abetting.
Three additional men — Aghyad Saad, Ahmad Sarjin, and Abrham Woldeghebriel, aged 21 to 25 — were also convicted for another kidnapping linked to the same investigation. They were given sentences ranging from three years and 11 months to four years and five months.
Fewer Dutch people are embracing veganism and vegetarianism, according to new research, which could bode poorly for those pushing such diets on Europeans.
Although more people are open to eating slightly less meat, the small population group that completely abstains from meat or animal products has actually declined between 2023 and 2025. These remarkable results, which go against the overall trend of sustainability, come from the Sustainable Living Monitor survey. This is a biennial survey of over 4,000 people, conducted by the Milieu Central knowledge center in collaboration with the research agency Motivaction.
The data shows that completely abandoning meat is on the decline among the Dutch. In 2021, 2 percent of the population claimed to be vegetarian, which meant consuming no meat or fish, but dairy and eggs. That segment grew to 5 percent in 2023, but has now dropped back to 3 percent. That is nearly a 50 percent drop in those practicing such a diet in just two years.
For vegans, who consume no animal products at all, the percentage of Dutch practicing this diet went from 0.6 percent of the population in 2021 to 2 percent in 2023, and has now fallen all the way to 0.5 percent in 2025.
In just two years, the popularity of veganism has fallen 75 percent in the Netherlands.
Several popular vegan food companies have gone bankrupt in Europe in recent years, including in the Netherlands, due to softening demand.
The news comes at a time when skepticism is growing about these types of diets, especially veganism. Many people partaking in such dieting trends are lacking vital nutrients, and for children, the risks are especially great.
As noted by a study at Cambridge University: “A vegan diet can pose dangers to children, mainly due to potential deficiencies in crucial nutrients like vitamin B12, vitamin D, iron, calcium, iodine, and DHA, which are vital for growth, bone density, and cognitive development. Risks include poor growth, lower bone mineral density, anemia, and in severe cases, developmental delays. Major health organizations advise that a vegan diet for children should not be undertaken without careful planning and medical supervision.”
However, many on the left have marketed these diets, including to children, as a way to fight climate change. However, the data shows that more and more people are abandoning this ideology and eating meat and animal-based products.
That is not to argue that meat eaters are necessarily healthy by default. The Western diet has seen consumption explode higher for processed foods, processed meats, and copious amounts of sugar, simple carbs. Coupled with a lack of physical exercise, it has resulted in a health disaster.
Dutch also unwilling to give up their cars
Just like meat, many Dutch people are attached to their cars, especially those with combustion engines. Only 8 percent say they would go through life without a car. Less than 19 percent are open to giving up car ownership. However, 12 percent are willing to rent out their cars via a digital platform.
There’s something strange going on with electric driving. On the one hand, the percentage of people actually driving a plug-in car has grown from 3 percent in 2023 to 6 percent in 2025. But the group of people open to switching to electric driving has decreased in the past two years, from 51 percent to 44 percent. This is despite the fact that more affordable models are appearing on the market.
Judith Roumen, strategic behavioral researcher at Milieu Centraal, suggests that the “Musk effect” could be a possible explanation. She’s referring to the apparent aversion to Tesla cars as a result of Musk’s temporary political collaboration with President Donald Trump. She also believes that the focus on environmental issues surrounding batteries may play a role in the declining support for electric driving.
Sustainable must be made easy and cheap for mass adoption
The survey results are not all bad for those promoting a sustainable lifestyle. Dutch people appear to be willing to buy fewer new clothes, take the train instead of a plane, and improve insulation in their homes for energy efficiency.
While people often say they are willing, this does not always translate into action. There remains only a small group of people who actually make sustainable choices.
“There’s a great willingness to embrace sustainability. But we need to translate that support into action,” concludes Ika van de Pas, director of the Milieu Centraal knowledge center.
“A new government doesn’t have to be cautious about implementing new sustainability measures. There’s a great willingness to participate. We just have to ensure that the most sustainable choice is also the easiest and cheapest,” he said.
An Iraqi national has been sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany for murdering his estranged wife by chasing her across a sidewalk at 71 kilometers per hour and ramming her with his car in a suspected honor-related homicide.
The 37-year-old mother of seven died instantly in the May 12 attack in Varel, in the Friesland district of northern Germany. The verdict, delivered by the Oldenburg Regional Court, is not yet legally binding due to the possibility of appeal.
According to the court’s findings as reported by Bild, the woman had been walking along the sidewalk with headphones on when her 38-year-old husband accelerated directly toward her, striking her with such force that she was thrown several meters into the air.
Emergency responders rushed to the scene, but she died before they could provide aid.
At the start of the trial, the defendant insisted the collision had been an accident, claiming that his mobile phone had fallen and, while trying to retrieve it, he inadvertently jerked the steering wheel and pressed the accelerator, just happening to strike his estranged wife. Judges rejected this account, stating that the evidence overwhelmingly contradicted any notion of an accident.
The court ruled that he acted out of jealousy and contempt, concluding that he felt his honor had been violated because his wife wanted a divorce.
RTL reported at the time of the incident that the couple had been living separately, and a restraining order had already been issued against the defendant, prohibiting him from contacting his wife.
The couple’s seven minor children are now under the care of the local youth welfare office.
In the aftermath of the killing, a GoFundMe page was set up to provide financial security for the children.
“Seven children are left behind, not only having lost their mother but also being left without parental care,” its creator, Sarah Weeken, wrote. “The family has been torn apart in an instant. The children, aged between 5 and 16, are now struggling with immeasurable pain, loss, and uncertainty about their future,” she added.
At the time of writing, it had raised €7,700 of its €20,000 target.
The migrant defendant suspected of killing 17-year-old Lisa from Abcoude and raping a 30-year-old woman days earlier spoke only four words during his first appearance in an Amsterdam court on Tuesday.
The suspect, known as “Chris Jude,” spoke only to confirm his personal details, and answered “no” when asked if he wished to comment on the charges, according to court reporting by De Telegraaf newspaper.
Lisa was murdered in the early hours of Aug. 20 as she returned home from central Amsterdam on her bike.
According to prosecutors, the investigative trail led them to the nearby asylum center, where the suspect had been staying for only a few weeks. CCTV footage shows a man on a distinctive bicycle — black with a white front fork — following Lisa on her route home. Cameras captured him riding behind her from Spaklerweg and remaining near the scene along Holterbergweg where she was pushed off her bike into the grass.
🇳🇱🇩🇪 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."
At 4:07 a.m., the teenager called the emergency services. During the call, she cried out, “No, help me,” before the line went silent. Police arrived minutes later but found her dead. Nearby, officers located her phone, ID cards, and a gray hoodie, later found to contain both Lisa’s DNA and the suspect’s. Wet footprints and a fresh bicycle track suggested the attacker had fled quickly.
When detectives reviewed surveillance near the asylum center, the same man was seen arriving shortly after the attack and washing his face, hands, legs, and shoes at an outdoor tap. His bicycle was parked at the center, and staff identified it as his. He was arrested the next day.
A knife carrying Lisa’s DNA was found in his locker along with a bucket containing wet clothes.
Five days before the killing, a woman staying at a hotel in the Dutch capital had been violently raped along Weesperzijde. Surveillance again linked the same distinctive bicycle and showed the suspect first following the woman and then returning to the asylum center around 2 a.m. The woman suffered multiple injuries, including a broken jaw. DNA taken from the rape scene matched the suspect.
The man says he is 22 and from Nigeria, but his identity remains unconfirmed as he possessed no documents upon arriving in the Netherlands. According to prosecutors, he speaks a dialect associated with a specific region of Nigeria. Requests for assistance have been sent to Nigerian authorities. His lawyer told the court that the suspect had lived in several orphanages in Nigeria and Tunisia and that the names “Chris” and “Jude” were given to him during those years.
According to Het Parool, the suspect said he was smuggled by boat to Europe and picked up by authorities near the Italian island of Lampedusa. He traveled on to the Netherlands via several European countries and was registered at the registration center in Ter Apel on June 21, just two months before Lisa’s murder.
The defense also said the suspect reports hearing “voices” since childhood and sometimes cannot recall events. He claimed to have left the asylum center on the nights in question because “the voices got too loud,” and returned to find wounds on his hands and a knife in his possession, but did not know how it got there.
His lawyer insisted that he has not confessed or denied the allegations and will answer questions “when he is able to.” Such a defense opens up the possibility of a mental health diagnosis, which could see him rendered incapable of criminal intent.
The prosecution argued that the suspect should remain detained, describing him as a flight risk who had only been stopped because he was arrested quickly. The court agreed, ordering that he stay behind bars until the next preliminary hearing on Feb. 11.
A full psychiatric evaluation will take place at the Pieter Baan Center early next year.
