The mayor of Sepsiszentgyörg, a Romanian city in Transylvania, said that ethnic Hungarians in Romania rallied against George Simion over the weekend, and helped secure his defeat. However, hard times are also likely still ahead with Nicușor Dan, the election winner, now serving as president.
Árpád Antal, the mayor of Sepsiszentgyörgy, told Romanian outlet Maszol that the Hungarian community in Romania’s Transylvania has a strong survival instinct, and together with the silent Romanian majority, they managed to keep Simion out of power.
“It is no exaggeration to say that we have just had an election of historic significance. The Hungarians of Transylvania felt the responsibility, as they voted for Nicușor Dan in an incredibly high number – more than 600,000 people,” said Antal.
Simion, who backed Donald Trump and supported cutting weapon supplies to Ukraine, is known for his history of anti-Hungarian statements. The country’s large ethnic minority of Hungarians, in turn, raced to vote against him in large numbers in the second round. Simion lost by eight points despite clearly winning the first round, mostly due to Romanian voters who turned out in historically large numbers.
The newspaper reached Árpád Antal on election night, who spoke about how people in Transylvania were terrified in recent weeks by the incredible anti-Hungarianism that had been erupting from every corner of society.
🇷🇴🇭🇺 This Romanian man really, really hates Hungarians.
"Let George Simion take you, send you to Budapest, f**k you in your mouth, f**k you!"
Romania's Hungarian minority could be under threat from Simion, who is known for his extreme anti-Hungarian rhetoric. pic.twitter.com/tRmVveIKa8
The mayor of Sepsiszentgyörgy also said that it is important to work together with the Romanians to ensure that the renewed anti-Hungarianism does not erupt again with such great force.
“The Transylvanian Hungarian community has the strong survival instinct and strength that we show in such cases,” he said.
“The past centuries have taught us to have sophisticated sensors and to always sense danger, and when it comes, to close in and show strength. That’s what happened now,” he added.
The mayor also said that life will not be easy with Dan either. “Life in Romania will not be easy, it will just be difficult in a different way. Romania is in trouble, the country is facing serious budgetary and economic problems, these will have to be addressed in the coming months and years,” the mayor stated.
The new government coalition could also pose a serious challenge.
“But the most important thing now is that we Transylvanian Hungarians have saved the life of our community, and in the coming months and years we may save Romania as well,” the Transylvanian politician stated.
Poland held the first round of its presidential election last night, with liberal Rafał Trzaskowski and conservative Karol Nawrocki now headed to the second round on June 1. Trzaskowski, backed by PM Tusk’s party, Civic Platform (KO), came in first with 31.2 percent, while Nawrocki, backed by Law and Justice (PiS), got 29.7 percent of the vote.
The stakes are high, especially when it comes to attitudes toward Brussels, LGBT, and support for Ukraine, not to mention Poland’s friendship with Germany. The Do Rzeczy news portal highlighted some key comments out of the German press.
Bild called the presidential elections in Poland “a choice of direction that will determine whether the country will turn away from the critical course towards Germany and the EU, personified so far by PiS President Andrzej Duda.” The portal said “a lot of power is at stake,” noting Warsaw mayor, Rafał Trzaskowski’s announcement that he would “continue democratization.”
While the position of president does not hold much power in Germany, Bild wrote that in Poland, the president “not only represents the country externally (but) also has influence on foreign policy, appoints the head of government and the cabinet and is the supreme commander of the Polish armed forces in the event of war.”
Der Spiegel said this election is “a choice of course for Poland – a member of the EU and NATO,” noting that President Duda had done much to block left-wing policies, including a new hate speech law.
“The pro-European head of government Donald Tusk needs the victory of his candidate Trzaskowski to push through its reform projects. The previous president Duda, who came from the ranks of PiS, blocked many projects with his veto,” they wrote.
Tagesschau added to this assessment, stating: “A victory of the pro-European mayor of Warsaw Trzaskowski in the run-off would open the way for reforms of Tusk’s government. In the case of Nawrocki, on the other hand, we can expect a continuation of the policy of the outgoing head of state Andrzej Duda from PiS.”
A man, believed to be a Kosovar national, has been arrested in Germany after three people were injured during a knife attack in a residential area of Halle on Sunday evening.
One adult victim suffered serious injuries, while another and a 12-year-old girl were also hurt in the attack.
All three victims were taken to the hospital.
The attack occurred shortly before 6:30 p.m. near an apartment building on An der Magistrale in the Halle-Neustadt district. A police spokesman confirmed to Bild that a dispute had taken place before the stabbing, reportedly concerning the volume of children playing outside the building.
An eyewitness told the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung that he saw the man attacking several children with a large knife as they sat at the entrance of the building.
Authorities have not released information about the ages of the other children or whether the victims were specifically targeted.
The suspect was arrested shortly after the attack and taken away from the building by officers. According to Bild, he is a man of Kosovar origin, though it remains unclear whether he or the victims lived in the building.
The knife used in the assault was recovered at the scene.
Police cordoned off the area and deployed a large number of officers to secure the site and gather evidence. The criminal investigation department began questioning witnesses on Sunday evening.
Authorities said there is no ongoing threat to the public.
Rafał Trzaskowski and Karol Nawrocki will face each other in the second round of Poland’s presidential election after securing the top two spots in Sunday’s first round, according to an exit poll by Ipsos.
Neither candidate achieved the absolute majority required to win outright, prompting a runoff vote scheduled for June 1.
Trzaskowski, the Civic Platform candidate and current mayor of Warsaw, finished first with 31.2 percent of the vote. Nawrocki, backed by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, trailed closely with 29.7 percent.
The rest of the field trailed far behind. Right-wing Confederation candidate Sławomir Mentzen received 14.5 percent, followed by fellow nationalist Grzegorz Braun with 6.3 percent.
Left-wing candidate Adrian Zandberg took 4.8 percent of the vote, while Szymon Hołownia, a centrist and current Speaker of the Polish parliament, secured 4.9 percent. Other candidates, including Magdalena Biejat, Krzysztof Stanowski, Joanna Senyszyn, Marek Jakubiak, Artur Bartoszewicz, Maciej Maciak, and Marek Woch, each achieved nominal support.
Speaking on election night, Nawrocki framed the runoff as a national struggle against the influence of Donald Tusk and the Civic Platform. “We must stop Donald Tusk’s march to autocracy,” he declared. Calling for a “great march for Poland” in Warsaw on May 25, he invited “all those for whom Poland is important, regardless of your political views.”
Emphasizing his platform of change, Nawrocki added, “Only the candidate of change is needed by the Republic of Poland. A candidate to change what is happening in Poland today… Poland first, Poles first. Long live Poland! To victory!”
Trzaskowski also addressed supporters on Sunday evening, stressing the importance of determination heading into the final vote. “This result shows how strong we must be, how determined we must be to win the presidential election,” he said.
“I told you eight months ago that it was going to be very, very close. And it’s very close. I am very happy that I won the first round, but there is a lot of work ahead of us.”
“We are going for victory,” Trzaskowski continued. “Full determination is needed. Your votes are needed. We need to convince everyone.”
The second-round vote will decide who replaces incumbent President Andrzej Duda, whose term is coming to an end.
Sweden’s Ministry for Foreign Affairs is reeling after the sudden death of a senior diplomat who had recently been arrested on suspicion of espionage.
The man, in his 50s, had spent most of his professional life in the Foreign Service and was back in Stockholm from a rotation assignment abroad when he was arrested last Sunday. He was released two days later, but never returned home. On Friday morning, employees were informed that he had been found dead.
“Unfortunately, we can confirm that an employee of the Foreign Service has died. Out of consideration for the relatives, we will not go into any further details,” the Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Several ministry employees spoke to Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet on the condition of anonymity to express their sorrow, disbelief, and mounting frustration at the news.
“I just talked to someone who was crying and said ‘they killed him,’” one source said. Another added, “The cards have to be put on the table. The investigation must be completed. Imagine if he were innocent and was subjected to this.”
The diplomat, whose identity has not been officially disclosed, was reportedly being investigated for espionage. His lawyer, Anton Strand, strongly criticized the arrest and confirmed that his client had denied all allegations. In addition to the espionage suspicion, the man had also been reported to the police for assault and misconduct.
Sources within the Foreign Ministry describe a workplace under intense pressure, with some calling it the ministry’s “worst crisis in decades.” The situation has been further compounded by the recent unrelated arrest and release of another ministry employee, contributing to what staff describe as a climate of fear and uncertainty.
Criticism has also been directed at Sweden’s political leadership. A source within the government offices told Aftonbladet, “This is the Foreign Ministry’s worst crisis in decades, and we have a prime minister and a foreign minister who are completely absent and unable to lead in a crisis. This is a really serious situation. It’s sadness, frustration, and disappointment. People are so sad.”
Neither Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson nor Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard have directly addressed the substance of the situation, with the foreign minister issuing just a brief statement: “I have received the sad news that an employee at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has died. My thoughts are with the employee’s family, friends, and colleagues. With regard to the deceased, I will not go into further details.”
In a separate but possibly connected development, reports have emerged suggesting the diplomat’s arrest may be linked to the abrupt resignation of newly appointed national security adviser Tobias Thyberg. Thyberg, who is openly gay, stepped down less than a day after his appointment following revelations that he had sent intimate photos via the LGBTQ dating app Grindr, according to the Samnytt news site.
Half an hour after Prime Minister Kristersson announced Thyberg’s appointment, the prime minister’s state secretary received an anonymous email from a ProtonMail account claiming to be from “Jan Knutsson,” Sweden’s NATO ambassador. The email contained details of Thyberg’s online activities. According to information obtained by Samnytt, the now-deceased diplomat may have been the source of the email. He was also gay.
Employees within the Foreign Ministry are now calling for transparency and accountability. “It’s a tragedy if a person who served this country for decades was wrongly accused and died under that cloud,” one official said. “We need answers.”
The net financial result of Polish banks amounted to PLN 11.77 billion (€2.76 billion) in the period January-March 2025, which means an increase of 16 percent year-over-year, reported the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF). In March alone, the net result amounted to PLN 3.6 billion (€845 million).
“The net financial result at the end of March 2025 amounted to PLN 11.8 billion. This result was higher by PLN 1.6 billion (+16% y/y) than the result achieved at the end of March 2024. The net financial result on a monthly basis amounted to PLN 3.6 billion in March and was lower by PLN 0.6 billion (-13.3% m/m) than the result achieved in the previous month,” the report reads.
How much money did interest and fees bring in?
In the period January-March 2025, net interest income amounted to PLN 27.8 billion (+7.2% y/y), while net commission income reached PLN 4.94 billion (+0.2% y/y). Operating costs amounted to PLN 14.88 billion (+12.5% y/y).
Write-offs (impairment or reversal of impairment) amounted to PLN 1.49 billion (-7.2% y/y).
The ROE of the banking sector at the end of March this year amounted to 15.68% (compared to 15.57% a month earlier and 12.31% a year earlier), while ROA reached 1.29% (compared to 1.28% and 0.99%, respectively), it was also reported in the presentation.
The net interest margin (NIM) stood at 3.77% at the end of March, compared to 3.79% a month earlier and 3.75% a year earlier.
At the end of December 2024, the sector’s capital adequacy ratios were 21.2 percent (TCR) and 20 percent (T1).
At the end of March 2025, the following banks were operating: 29 commercial banks, 489 cooperative banks, 33 branches of credit institutions and foreign banks.
Banks will ease credit granting criteria
Banks intend to continue easing the criteria for granting loans to households and SMEs in the second quarter of this year. They also expect an increase in demand for all types of loans, especially consumer loans, according to a survey by the National Bank of Poland (NBP).
“Changes in credit policy in the first quarter of 2025 were relatively small in scale. Banks eased the criteria for granting consumer loans and loans for the SME sector, which they justified mainly by the increase in competitive pressure. In the case of housing loans and for large enterprises, the criteria were not significantly changed. Banks experienced an increase in demand for consumer loans and loans for enterprises and a decrease in demand for housing loans,” reports the study entitled “Situation on the credit market. Results of a survey to the chairmen of credit committees Q2 2025.”
“In the second quarter of 2025, banks intend to continue easing the criteria for granting loans to households and SMEs, and in the case of large enterprises, tightening them for short-term loans. They expect an increase in demand for all types of loans, especially consumer loans,” the study further writes.
For the first quarter, French exports to Algeria fell more than 20 percent from €1.25 billion to €992 million. This is no surprise given the ongoing row between the two countries, but some believe it could have been worse. For context, total exports last year for France were some €550 billion.
“I’m a little surprised by this relatively small decline,” Michel Bisac, president of the Algerian-French Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIAF), told Le Figaro, calling the latest data more of a warning. Nevertheless, the group is also concerned about “the investment and development of renowned French companies in Algeria.”
From companies no longer being able to easily import components and spare parts from France to France being excluded from grain and milk powder tenders, the writing is on the wall. “It’s true that foreign companies as a whole are complaining about blockages. But let’s not lie to ourselves, everything has suddenly become much more difficult for the French,” notes the director of a French multinational based in Algeria.
Meanwhile, Algeria has announced it will have a self-sufficient auto industry by the end of the year. This has impacted both the Renault plant (cars) and the Volvo Group-Renault Trucks plant (trucks). Renault had already invested some €120 million in its plant on the ground in Algeria.
Le Figaro quoted one French industrial company manager who conducts 100 percent of his business in Algeria: “I sell equipment to clients who are investing in very expensive industrial projects, sometimes spanning three years. These clients are therefore worried that the political context will impact their orders, and some prefer to turn to a Spanish or Italian supplier.”
In response to the trend of French companies circumventing the blockade by shipping their goods from other European ports, one company head noted: “Let’s not kid ourselves, such an approach has a cost, which is passed on to the consumer.” There are also legitimate concerns the Algerian government will eventually demand to know where such products were originally produced.
Bisac says large international companies will be fine, but SMEs, “if the situation worsens, will not be able to adapt.” Algeria represents, according to the paper, the second-largest export market for French exports to Africa for 6,000 French SMEs.
Many also bemoan the drop in French companies present at Batimatec, the major building, construction materials, and public works trade fair held in Algiers in May. However, as noted by Le Figaro, those who did show up remain positive, with one saying that “Algerian customers are even very loyal. If things go well with you, they will not go to the Turks or the Chinese on the pretext that they are 10% cheaper.”
An Afghan asylum seeker reportedly stabbed a jogger, a French software developer living in Germany, to death in a totally random attack. Now, while sitting in court for his crimes, he has successfully had his court interpreter removed because he does not feel comfortable sitting next to a woman.
The Afghan man, Ramin F., is now standing trial in Stuttgart Regional Court, with the public prosecutor trying him for the murder of 56-year-old French citizen Fabrice D., who was out jogging and was totally unknown to the Afghan. Ramin F. stabbed him at random in the chest four times with a 17-centimeter-long knife, with one stab wound piercing the victim’s heart. Fabrice D. then proceeded to bleed to death on the sidewalk.
The Afghan fled the scene and ran into the woods, but the police arrested him an hour later at his asylum accommodation in Wernau, according to Bild newspaper.
Ramin F. entered Germany in 2022 and was placed in an asylum accommodation in Hochdorf, but he was reportedly constantly fighting with other residents of the center. He was transferred to Wernau right before the stabbing attack.
On the same day as the crime, he returned to Hochdorf, where he fought with a caretaker, saying: “I’ll kill you.”
The prosecutor indicates that the Afghan man targeted Fabrice D. “out of general frustration.” The murder was intended to release “pent-up aggression.”
The defendant has not yet testified, but according to observers in the court, he had his defense attorney remove a female interpreter because he refused to sit next to a woman.
Afghan society is one of the most patriarchical societies in the world, and this has often led to discrimination against women in Germany or, in some cases, outright murder.
According to the DPA news agency, the Afghan first approached the 58-year-old gardener in a park in Berlin’s Wilmersdorf district and then suddenly stabbed her in the neck several times. The woman was critically injured and close to death.
A local council in mainland Spain has voted to suspend the Arabic Language and Moroccan Culture Program currently offered in several schools across the region.
The motion, presented by the VOX Municipal Group of the El Casar council, was approved during the most recent plenary session with support from both VOX and the Partido Popular (PP).
As reported by La Crónic, the measure passed with seven votes in favor — comprising VOX and PP councillors — against five votes from the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and Unidas por El Casar. One PSOE councillor also abstained.
VOX’s spokeswoman in El Casar, Olga González, defended the motion by invoking a need to protect Spain’s cultural identity. “The initiative responds to the defense of Spanish cultural identity and the need for the public education system to remain free of foreign interference and ideologies alien to our roots,” she said.
The program in question, formally known as the Arabic Language and Moroccan Culture Program (PLACM), is coordinated by Spain’s Ministry of Education in collaboration with the Moroccan government. It is primarily aimed at students of Moroccan descent and is already being implemented in several schools across the Castilla-La Mancha region. Though the program is officially described as extracurricular and voluntary, VOX has raised concerns over its content and oversight.
“It involves the institutionalization of a culture alien to our roots within the public education system, taught by teachers sent directly by the Moroccan State and with content whose transparency and supervision are far from guaranteed,” VOX argued.
Councilor González further elaborated on her party’s position, stating, “Spain is a welcoming country, but it cannot and should not renounce its identity to please globalist agendas or foreign diplomatic interests. Our priority is and must be cultural unity, real integration, and respect for our historical and constitutional values.”
VOX has sought to reform the education system across regions in which the party has influence. In January this year, Remix News reported on a parliamentary inquiry instigated by the party that found around 200 schools across the Spanish autonomous community of Andalusia now teach Islam as part of their curriculum.
VOX linked the findings to demographic data from the Infancy and Adolescence Observatory in Andalusia, published in November 2024, which highlighted that Moroccans make up the largest group of non-Spanish nationals under the age of 19 in the region, accounting for nearly 30 percent of foreign nationals in this age group.
“It is revealed that the Andalusian region has succumbed to the effects of the permanent arrivals of immigrants from the Maghreb, mostly Muslim areas and with a high number of practitioners,” the local VOX party stated in a press release at the time.
“Indeed, the development and presence of this matter in the Andalusian classrooms clearly represents the priorities of the current Andalusian popular government,” it added.
Violent crime is surging across the Canary Islands, with intentional homicides, attempted murders, and sexual assaults all rising significantly in the first quarter of 2025, even as overall crime has fallen.
According to the latest crime statistics published by Spain’s Ministry of the Interior and cited by La Rázon, the islands recorded a 3.8 percent decrease in total offenses compared to the same period last year — but this masks troubling increases in the most serious categories.
Homicides on the Spanish archipelago rose by a staggering 400 percent, jumping from two cases in early 2024 to ten so far this year. Attempted homicides also nearly doubled, rising by 87.5 percent to 15 registered offenses. Sexual assaults involving penetration increased by 11.1 percent, reaching 60 cases in the first three months of 2025.
🇪🇸🚨Newly-arrived migrants are sending Spain's Canary Islands into crisis.
"Spain’s establishment parties have abandoned the Canary Islands to mass immigration," said Canary Islands President Fernando Clavijo.
Drug trafficking also showed a steep rise, up 21.4 percent with 210 cases reported. These trends suggest a deteriorating security situation in specific areas, even as conventional crimes such as vehicle theft (down 14.6 percent) and robberies with force in homes and businesses (down 11.1 percent) continue to decline. Cybercrime likewise decreased by 10.9 percent, with 4,047 digital offenses recorded.
Nationally, Spain experienced a 2.8 percent drop in overall crime in the first quarter of the year. Homicides declined by 11.6 percent, though attempted murders rose by nearly 20 percent — mirroring the increase seen in the Canary Islands.
Crimes against property fell by 5.3 percent and remain the most common type of conventional offense, accounting for two out of every five crimes in the country.
🇪🇸🚨 Terrifying moment a Spanish woman is attacked by two men, with one overpowering her and the other raiding the house for goods to steal.
According to Spanish media, the two suspects are Moroccans.
However, the trend of increasing sexual violence is evident across Spain. Crimes against sexual freedom rose by 3.8 percent nationwide, with rapes up 7.6 percent compared to the first quarter of 2024. The interior ministry suggested that increased public awareness and reduced social stigma around reporting may be contributing factors.
It failed, however, to address the issue of mass immigration and the fact that foreign nationals are disproportionately represented in serious crime data across Western Europe, a pattern evident in recent crime stats published in Catalonia.
Although immigrants make up 17 percent of the population there, they account for 91 percent of rape convictions. More broadly, over half (50.48 percent) of the prison population in Catalonia comprises foreign nationals.
In February, Remix News reported how the number of homicides committed by immigrants has grown sharply across Spain. Ministry of the Interior data obtained by La Gaceta showed that foreign nationals were arrested or investigated for 137 homicides in 2023, up from 81 in 2013 — a 69 percent increase. In comparison, the total number of homicide cases nationwide rose from 311 to 399 in the same period, a 28 percent increase.
Despite these developments, the Spanish interior ministry insists the country reports one of the lowest conventional crime rates in the world, with 40.6 offenses per thousand inhabitants.
NEW: 🇪🇸 500 illegal migrants land in Madrid after being flown to the mainland from the Canary Islands.
Journalist @rubnpulido tells us: “All thanks to the Spanish govt. Most of them will continue on through Europe and Brussels remains silent about this.”pic.twitter.com/VG7cSN0yL5
Belgium has officially ended its two-decade-long commitment to phase out nuclear energy. On Thursday, the Chamber of Deputies voted to repeal the 2003 law mandating a full nuclear exit by 2025, ushering in what Energy Minister Mathieu Bihet called “a realistic and resilient energy model.”
The bill received broad support in the plenary session, with only Ecolo-Groen voting against it. The Socialist Party (PS) and the far-left Workers’ Party (PTB) abstained. The legislation eliminates all reference to a mandatory nuclear shutdown and allows for a ten-year extension of existing reactors. It also creates the legal framework to build new plants, including small modular reactors (SMRs), pending an impact study.
The vote represents the culmination of a long political push by the liberal Reform Movement (MR), which has consistently advocated for nuclear energy. Christophe Bombled, who reintroduced the bill initially tabled by Bihet, described the moment as “historic” and “the result of a long-term and constant fight by the Reform Movement.” He added, “We are reopening the field of possibilities.”
As reported by La Libre, Belgium had already extended the operation of its two youngest reactors, Doel 4 and Tihange 3, through 2037 in a previous deal with energy company Engie. That agreement, however, did not alter the phase-out deadline for the country’s other nuclear production units. The new bill now leaves all timelines open to be extended indefinitely by the government.
Opposing the measure, former energy minister Tinne Van der Straeten (Ecolo-Groen) in the De Croo government, accused the governing coalition of staging a mere “communication operation” rather than presenting a coherent energy plan. “There is nothing on the table!” she told the chamber. Party co-leader Rajae Maouane added, “It’s a PR stunt, just hot air.”
Marie Meunier of the Socialist Party criticized the legislation as lacking substance, calling it a “symbol” that leaves “total vagueness” about Belgium’s long-term energy strategy. PTB MP Roberto D’Amico similarly dismissed the bill as a law being passed simply for the government to “boast in the press.”
Their respective parties, however, did not go as far as to vote against the measure.
Minister Bihet, however, called the repeal a transformative decision.
“The federal parliament has just turned the page on two decades of blockages and hesitations,” he said in a statement. “It is no longer a question of opposing energy sources in a binary and sterile way, but of using them with pragmatism and complementarity.”
“Belgium will be able to rely on its expertise to relaunch an innovative sector that creates skilled jobs in the service of the energy transition,” Bihet said. “This is not only an energy reform, it is a structuring decision for the economic, environmental, and strategic future of our country.”
C’est un jour historique : la Belgique acte le retour du #nucléaire dans son mix énergétique.
🇧🇪 Notre pays fait le choix d’une approche pragmatique qui compose plutôt qu’elle n’oppose.
Une décision qui s’inscrit pleinement dans la politique énergétique définie par l’accord… pic.twitter.com/XLpmBHCQvS
Writing on X, Bihet added, “It is a historic day: Belgium is confirming the return of nuclear to its energy mix. Our country has chosen a pragmatic approach that combines rather than opposes. A decision that is fully in line with the energy policy defined by the government agreement: a sustainable, sovereign energy future that drives socio-economic well-being.”
The move follows several other European countries seeking to boost their nuclear power output, including France, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia. Germany, on the other hand, closed its nuclear power stations under the previous left-wing coalition government, although new Chancellor Friedrich Merz has vowed to revive nuclear energy production in the country.
German activists leaving the airport for the Remigration Summit taking place in Milan on Saturday were stopped and detained at the airport, interrogated for hours, and issued with an exit ban from leaving the country.
The summit will be attended by well-known activists from across Europe, such as the Austrian author Martin Sellner, Dutch commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek, and Belgian activist Dries Van Langenhove.
The latter currently faces a potential prison sentence for memes that were posted in a group chat seven years ago. However, not only are German police now cracking down on activists, even leaving the country for the event, but Italian police are also showing up at the hotels of activists attending the event.
Sellner has been putting out a video and posting updates on X on the various actions taken against activists involved in the summit.
“I know them, they are great guys, Generation Identity activists, who have been detained for hours by the German police. They were arrested at the airport in Munich. Two of them were arrested on the plane, where they tried to enter a plane to Milan, Italy, to attend a conference about remigration. And the German state now bans them from exiting Germany for several days until the conference is over. Bans them from exiting. They banned me from entering, and then they threw me out of several cities and basically crushed my readings, and now they’re banning their own citizens, EU citizens from exiting.”
Sellner says that the German government’s reasoning is “crazy,” arguing that allowing the activists to leave “would be detrimental to the German state, the reputation of the German state, if they would go outside and take part in those events, because this would look like the German state endorses those events.”
Sellner argues that the German state is headed into dark territory, mimicking the GDR, communist East Germany, with this exit ban.
“No, you are our property, and it’s our property, our citizens. If you go there, it’s bad for our reputation. That’s why we lock you in like nasty little children. The German state is going full GDR. That’s exactly what the GDR did with the Berlin Wall. They didn’t let their own citizens leave the country, and that’s the case right now. It would be now punishable by law if they try to exit to Italy, Austria, and Switzerland. They’re banned from going to Switzerland, Austria, and Italy for a certain amount of days. The German state can extend this at will.
Of course, they will take immediate legal measures. They have very good lawyers. You need good lawyers in Germany. If you’re an activist, if you’re posting memes on X, you need an excellent lawyer by now. But it’s really crazy. These laws exist, but they might be lying dormant for a while and now the German state is shutting down, switching off the democracy simulation, and moving up and activating the totalitarian mode, the GDR mode.
As for the German activists, six men and two women who were stopped at the airport, Sellner stated they were released after hours of interrogation. They must now report to the police station twice a day.
“Eight young Germans are now banned from LEAVING Germany. If they try it, they commit a crime. They have to check in daily at their local police station. If not, they have to pay an extra fine. The democracy simulation is shutting down,” wrote Sellner.
8 young Germans are now banned from LEAVING Germany. If they try it, they commit a crime. They have to check in daily at their local police station. If not, they have to pay an extra fine. The democracy simulation is shutting down. pic.twitter.com/G9h1rJwnhW
The explanation they were given for the exit ban was also delivered to them in written form. It reads:
“In the event of an exit from German right-wing extremists, there is a considerable risk of damage to the reputation of the Federal Republic of Germany due to the stays of German right-wing extremists who promote the transnational networking of the right-wing extremist scene, actively promote the inhuman ideology and give it more scope, thus harbors the risk of radicalization of other people and their trips for the development of financial resources and the like.”
Freilich also writes that “it is also due to the history of Germany that the arrival of the activist concerned gives the international impression that the Federal Republic of Germany supports the right-wing extremist ideas openly spread at the event or at least does not adequately address them.”
Essentially, the German state is attempting to make the argument that allowing the activists to attend the summit would be the equivalent of endorsing their beliefs and harming the reputation of Germany. If that is the standard, then apparently it could be argued that any activists Germany does not detain in the future for any conference is a sign that the German state officially endorses the contents of that conference? Such reasoning reaches into the realms of the absurd.
The exit ban on the activists not only applies to Italy, but also to countries like Switzerland and Austria, and will be in effect until May 17, just a minute before midnight.
The activists also shared photos of the last moments they had before they were detained at the airport.
This were the last images @AnnieBayern and @BayernMoritz sent at 18:54. Since them we have not heard from them and they are not available. The police arrested them and/or took their phones away when they wanted to enter their plane to @resum25 pic.twitter.com/KkNJBfFvyr
Although Sellner says the Italian police are not involved in this travel ban, and it is the German police at fault, he recently also posted an update on X, noting that an activist staying in Milan was also visited by police and questioned at his hotel.
Last night at 1:50 Italian Police showed up at the hotel of a German visitor to @resum25 to interrogate him. pic.twitter.com/zKC5OXRYvZ
Sellner says that booking the Remigration Summit has been fraught with difficulties, as vendors and hotels have been continuously canceling on organizers, likely due to pressure from activists. Antifa groups are also active and may try to disrupt the conference, or even more importantly, physically attack those involved.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjártó said in a recording posted on social media that Sikorski is a “pro-war politician” who is a “Hungarophobe,” reports Do Rzeczy.
At the meeting of NATO foreign ministers, which took place in Turkey on Thursday, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski drew attention to the need for further support for Ukraine in the war with Russia.
Szijjártó responded on X: “At today’s NATO meeting, Radosław Sikorski— one of the most pro-war politicians — parroted the talking points of Ukraine’s smear campaign against us. I firmly reject his accusations. This is a coordinated attempt to discredit and silence us on Ukraine’s EU membership.”
At today’s NATO meeting, @sikorskiradek — one of the most pro-war politicians — parroted the talking points of Ukraine’s smear campaign against us. I firmly reject his accusations. This is a coordinated attempt to discredit and silence us on Ukraine’s EU membership.
Elsewhere on social media, he also called his counterpart a “Sorosist,” Hungary-hating, Hungarian-phobic politician while also noting the “anti-Hungarian propaganda” in Ukraine, which – in his opinion – is “constantly intensifying.”
“Brussels and Warsaw also want to intensify this smear campaign against Hungary. It is clear that all this is happening now to prevent Hungarians from expressing their opinion on Ukraine in Europe,” he said, adding, “I made it clear that we are dealing with a smear campaign against Hungary.”
“Let us not allow decisions about Ukraine’s membership in the European Union to be made in Brussels, Warsaw or Kyiv over and above the heads of the Hungarians,” he stressed.
Radosław Sikorski responded to the comments made by Szijjártó on the X portal: “I confirm that at the NATO ministerial in Turkey I asked whether it’s true, as Ukraine claims, that Hungarian military intelligence carried out reconnaissance in sub-Carpathian Ruthenia. Both sides should present evidence on this grievous matter. I struggle to understand Hungary’s hostility to invaded Ukraine.”
I confirm that at the NATO ministerial in Turkey I asked whether it’s true, as Ukraine claims, that Hungarian military intelligence carried out reconnaisance in sub-Carpathian Ruthenia. Both sides should present evidence on this grevious matter. I struggle to understand Hungary’s… https://t.co/Kb8PO3QEFA
— Radosław Sikorski 🇵🇱🇪🇺 (@sikorskiradek) May 15, 2025
The Hungarian government is taking a victory lap after scoring a deal with Chinese EV giant BYD, which is increasingly eating into the global share of automobile sales.
After Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Stella Li, executive vice president of Chinese EV maker BYD, Wang Weizhong, the governor of Guangzhou Province, said that this is a very important step for the development of BYD, Hungary and Guangzhou Province.
“The establishment of BYD’s European headquarters is a tangible result of Hungarian-Chinese cooperation under the One Belt, One Road Initiative. BYD is fortunate to be able to participate in Hungary’s economic development,” he said, as quoted by the Mandiner news portal.
“The world can witness the boundless possibilities of Chinese-Hungarian cooperation,” he added.
🇨🇳🇭🇺China's Xi: Hungary should have a "greater role" in the EU.
Xi is sticking it to Brussels and backing Hungary. China is now investing billions into Budapest, even as the EU attempts to overthrow the Orbán government.
The center, which will include a new development center and will coordinate its activities with BYD’s factories, will create about 2,000 new jobs and perform development and design tasks, among other things.
China and Hungary have always been good partners, and the one province of Guangzhou accounts for about 10 percent of trade between the two countries.
Hungarian PM Orbán meanwhile received the chairman and CEO of BYD, Wang Chuanfu, in his office on Thursday. He told press afterward that he visited China two years ago, and that Hungarian-Chinese relations have continued to strengthen ever since. Now, he said, with BYD, the cars of the future will be built in Hungary.
Just last week, BYD announced it would also be producing plug-in hybrid electric cars in its European plants, including in Szeged, where it is building a $4.5 billion plant that will produce around 200,000 vehicles per year from the end of 2025.
The current agreement means that the cars of the future will be manufactured in Hungary, the prime minister noted. “In the 1990s, we successfully joined the world’s car industry, but now we need to talk about the future, as we are in the midst of a change of era.”
“New technologies and new manufacturers have emerged, and Hungary does not want to be left out. Hungarian industry must join electromobility,” Orbán said, adding, “This is the future, although success is unthinkable on our own – we need partners. We can only be successful if there is Hungarian-Chinese cooperation, as China is the world leader in this technology.”
As a member of the Belt and Road Initiative, Hungary has a strategic partnership with China, which they are using to modernize and make the Hungarian economy more resilient. Hungary has been seeking to engage with all potential partners in this goal.
The prime minister reminded those present that China is the largest investor in Hungary, along with the United States and Germany, and noted that Chinese investment is the engine of Hungary’s economic growth.
“We are also working together on infrastructure projects, such as the Budapest-Belgrade railway line, the V0 freight railway line, and other developments between Hungary and Serbia,” Orbán said.
As to the tariffs proposed by both the U.S. Trump administration and Brussels, he said: “We have always opposed tariffs on China, and we must return to cooperation based on mutual respect. The goal is to also bring development capacities to the country: first production, then development, and finally research. And our grand plan is working.”
This most recent announcement from BYD is “opening a new era,” Orbán said. “This investment by BYD represents a qualitative leap, as the majority of the 2,000 new jobs will be created for highly qualified professionals.”
Denmark and Italy are spearheading a growing coalition of European countries calling into question the role of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) in migration policy, according to reporting by French newspaper Le Figaro.
The two nations are said to be finalizing a joint declaration that denounces the Court’s recent rulings as overreach, particularly in cases where national efforts to restrict illegal immigration have been struck down.
The move is timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the European Convention on Human Rights, signed on Nov. 4, 1950. But rather than celebrating the institution that enforces it, the initiative reportedly seeks to “launch a debate” over whether the ECHR’s current interpretation of the Convention is still fit for purpose amid mounting challenges posed by mass illegal immigration.
“What was right yesterday may not be right today,” the draft letter reportedly states. Its aim is to gather support from like-minded countries within the 46-member Council of Europe. Besides Denmark and Italy, Czechia, Finland, Poland, and the Netherlands are expected to support the declaration.
Once finalized, the document is expected to form the foundation of an informal alliance pressuring for reform of how the Convention is applied, particularly regarding national sovereignty over immigration control.
The pushback follows a series of rulings by the ECHR that have infuriated national governments. In 2024, Italy was found to have violated the rights of three Tunisian migrants detained in an overcrowded facility on the island of Lampedusa. The Court described their treatment as “inhuman and degrading,” noting that the detainees had only two toilets for 40 people and that some were forced to sleep outside on mattresses.
Italy was further frustrated by recent domestic court rulings in Rome, citing the ECHR, which prevented the transfer of illegal migrants to reception centers in Tirana, following a bilateral agreement with the Albanian government.
Italian premier Giorgia Meloni has long been critical of the political overreach by the judiciary afforded to them by the European Convention on Human Rights. Speaking to the Italian press in 2023 following a ruling on migrant detention in Lampedusa, she said, “We are seeing a distortion in the application of the European Convention that no longer respects the rights of nations to defend their borders.”
Denmark, for its part, was the subject of a precedent-setting ruling in November 2024. In the case Sharafane v. Denmark, the ECHR questioned the legality of the applicant’s expulsion based in part on whether he could realistically expect to return to Denmark in the future. The European Centre for Law and Justice described the ruling as a de facto creation of a “right of return” for expelled foreigners, a move seen as directly undermining Denmark’s efforts to maintain a strict migration policy.
Following the ruling, Social Democrat government minister Rasmus Stoklund said, “The European Court of Human Rights has gradually shifted from defending basic rights to dictating policy decisions that should be left to democratically elected governments.”
Several other European conservatives have voiced their criticism of what they suggest is now outdated legislation no longer fit for purpose.
In October 2023, former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told the Sejm, “Poland cannot accept a situation where unelected judges in Strasbourg decide who can or cannot be expelled from our territory.”
Similarly, in February this year, the U.K.’s leader of the opposition, Kemi Badenoch, warned that Britain will “at some point probably have to leave” the convention if it “continues to stop us doing what is right for the people of this country.”
In recent months, a ban of the Alternative for Germany (AfD) appeared to be inching closer and closer, but now a key voice has clearly spoken out against such a move.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has now said that voting on an AfD ban in the Bundestag is not the right path, saying it “smacks too much of the elimination of political rivals.” He said he does not believe the current evidence is sufficient.
He has even gone a step farther, stating that former Interior Minister Nancy Faeser, an SPD politician with far-left sympathies who wrote for Antifa Magazine, was wrong to classify the AfD as “confirmed” right-wing extremist in the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) report. Critics indicate that she rushed the report out at the last minute of her tenure, despite the BfV having no president and despite a lack of any expert review, which she had previously promised would happen.
Speaking to Die Zeit, Merz said; “Working ‘aggressively and militantly’ against the free democratic basic order must be proven. And the burden of proof lies solely with the state. That is a classic task of the executive branch. And I have always internally resisted initiating ban proceedings from within the Bundestag. That smacks too much of political competition elimination to me.”
When the BfV first labeled the AfD “certainly right-wing extremist,” calls came from the left, including the Greens, Left Party, and SPD, to immediately begin proceedings to ban the party in the Bundestag. Even a large portion of the CDU backed the move.
He told Zeit he was “not happy with the way this process is being conducted.”
“The old government presented a report without any factual review, and it was also classified as confidential,” he added. As Remix News reported, the 1,100 page report contained only public statements from the AfD, and it has already been leaked and published by the German press. Remix News, in a report published earlier today, notes that the BfV is likely sitting on huge amounts of private surveillance data related to AfD members, but due to the unsavory mass surveillance methods used to obtain this data, it is likely withholding this from any official report.
“I don’t know the content of this report, and frankly, I don’t want to know it until the Federal Ministry of the Interior has made an assessment of it,” said Merz. He said that it would take several weeks and even months for the interior ministry to make such an assessment.
A 67-year-old Belgian woman was allegedly raped by an illegal migrant who requires a Berber language translator, typically spoken by Moroccans, in the Belgian city of Morstel outside a Moroccan café.
In harrowing detail, the woman’s lawyer, Manon Cop, describes how the man “pushed his tongue into the woman’s mouth, groped her everywhere, and held her down.” The victim was only saved when a neighbor alerted police due to the woman’s screams.
“He is the type of perpetrator that every parent warns their child about,” said the victim’s lawyer. “My client is now back in psychiatry.” She says the illegal migrant has shown little sign of any guilt about the incident.
The case began on Oct. 18 of last year, when the victim went to dinner with friends at a cafe and began drinking alcohol. Her friends left, but she decided to stay and enjoy the evening a bit longer.
Manon Cop said that it was at that moment that the “gentleman saw his chance. He was also sitting on the terrace and saw an older woman who was quite drunk. He approached her, sat down at her table, and started to harass her. After that, the lady experienced the longest half hour of her life. He groped her, grabbed her head, and kissed her, even pushing his tongue into her mouth. Then he ran his hand along her breasts and intimate parts. What he did also hurt, and he kept her pinned down.”
The elderly woman violently resisted, scratching his face, and even biting his tongue, while shouting for him to stop. However, the man refused to stop.
“It is incomprehensible that someone can continue to act out their fantasies for so long in such a public place. My client was terrified,” said Cop.
During the incident, the woman was screaming very loudly: “Help, I’m being raped! Why doesn’t anyone do anything?”
The police arrived and caught the man in the act of sexually assaulting his elderly victim. His belt was undone and his pants were completely open.
HLN newspaper obtained a personal letter from the victim, only known by the initial M., which was read in the courtroom. It states: “You have partly destroyed my life. This will haunt me for a long time. I hope you regret your actions, but I cannot forgive you for what you did to me.”
Cop is not convinced the perpetrator regrets his actions at all.
“His apology was very believable,” she said sarcastically. She mockingly said that he claimed to have been drinking and using cocaine.
“‘So I don’t remember anything.’ It is easy to avoid responsibility like that. The least you can do after something like that is to apologize. My client feels very bad that she never got an ‘apology.’ She suffers from nightmares, is often afraid, and constantly feels unsafe. She has relapsed into excessive alcohol consumption and was also a particularly vulnerable woman. Her only son died in 2009. She is in psychiatric care again, and now she is also becoming isolated because she does not dare to go outside anymore,” said Cop.
Cop describes how her client had injuries on her thigh, lip and nose. She was very drunk during the incident but viciously fought back against the perpetrator and yelled she was being raped.
The defendant has no criminal record in Belgium, but he showed up an hour late for his trial, where he needed a Berber translator, which delayed the hearing further.
The defendant, J.H., said: “I can still remember that I had a drink and went to that café, Normally I go to a Moroccan café nearby, but it was closed. That woman was sitting there with her friends. At one point the café closed, and she was left alone. She started talking to me and took my hand, after which I stayed with her. I talked back, but we did not understand each other. I started touching her buttocks and kissed her. At a certain moment, she did start crying and a little later the police arrived.”
When asked why his belt was off, he said “It was possible that I forgot it after I had been to the toilet.”
He told police he did not remember anything. He then said: “I don’t know the woman, but I didn’t try to go in her underwear. I did kiss her.”
The prosecutor demanded a four-year prison sentence. The trial is ongoing.
With just days to go before the first round of Poland’s presidential election, the campaign has been marred by allegations from conservative Law and Justice (PiS) lawmakers that foreign-funded operations are interfering in the vote.
At a press conference this week, PiS MPs, including Anna Gembicka and Rafał Bochenek, accused two online entities of spending record sums on political ads aimed at discrediting right-wing candidates Karol Nawrocki and Sławomir Mentzen.
According to Gembicka, Meta’s Ad Library shows that between April 29 and May 6, 2025, the Facebook pages “You know how it is not” (Wieszjakniejest) and “Adults’ Table” (Stół Dorosłych) spent a combined total of over PLN 250,000 (€58,900) on targeted political advertisements — more than any single official candidate’s page.
“These were the highest advertising expenditures in this category,” Gembicka said, as cited by wpolityce.pl. “Expenses that even surpassed the expenses of the committees of individual candidates.”
The accusations have ignited a fierce political row. PiS MPs claim the domains were registered to dubious addresses — one to a vacant building in Gdańsk and another to what appears to be a construction site. Both domains reportedly share the same phone number and are connected to a network of entities with alleged links to foreign influence operations.
“The companies in which these domains are registered are connected through German intermediaries that have previously been used to push Russian disinformation,” Gembicka alleged.
She also tied the controversy to Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform (PO) candidate Rafał Trzaskowski, claiming that he should answer for the activities of groups with links to billionaire financier George Soros. “We know very well that Rafał Trzaskowski was a Soros scholar,” she said, suggesting that Soros-backed organizations may be covertly supporting Trzaskowski’s campaign.
Former Digitization Minister Janusz Cieszyński revealed that he reported the “You know how it is not” account to Meta on April 22. “The ad account was registered with an address in Gdańsk — a building that doesn’t exist. Facebook said they wouldn’t do anything about it,” he posted on social media.
Gembicka and other PiS politicians also criticized the silence of Justice Minister Adam Bodnar, accusing him of ignoring the issue because the attacks benefit Trzaskowski. “What has Minister Bodnar done in this matter?” she asked. “Is it perhaps the case that if advertisements hit Mr. Trzaskowski’s opponents, Mr. Bodnar simply turns a blind eye?”
They also demanded action from the National Electoral Commission, warning that such campaigns “divide Poles” and serve the interests of hostile foreign powers. “Given the huge threat from the east, this kind of division only plays into Russia’s hands,” Gembicka said.
The row comes at a critical moment in the race. For much of the campaign, Trzaskowski, the Civic Platform mayor of Warsaw, led comfortably in the polls and still does in some surveys.
However, a new survey from AtlasIntel, conducted between May 8 and 11, shows Nawrocki of Law and Justice narrowly leading the first round with 29.3 percent, just ahead of Trzaskowski at 29.2 percent. Support for Sławomir Mentzen of the right-wing Confederation has dropped considerably in recent weeks and now lies at 12 percent, while candidates from the left and liberal center, such as Adrian Zandberg (Razem) and Magdalena Biejat (Lewica), are polling between 6 percent and 7 percent.
The closely fought election is scheduled for May 18. With no candidate projected to win an outright majority in the first round, a runoff appears likely.
Rasmus Paludan, the hard-right Danish-Swedish politician known for anti-Islam activism, has been blocked from entering Italy and issued a five-year ban, according to statements he gave to the Swedish outlet Samnytt.
Paludan, who arrived at Milan Malpensa Airport on Thursday for what he said was a holiday, was stopped by authorities and informed of the decision made by the prefect of Varese.
“I can’t leave the airport,” Paludan said in a phone call from Milan. “The prefect of Varese has decided that since other people will get angry if I’m in Italy, it’s best if I’m not allowed into the country for five years.”
Paludan said he has retained a lawyer and is awaiting a judge’s ruling on whether the ban will be upheld or overturned.
While he characterized the trip as a vacation, Paludan acknowledged that he had also planned to attend a gathering in Milan known as the Remigration Summit, scheduled for Saturday.
The conference’s speakers are set to include Afonso Gonçalves from Portugal, Austria’s Martin Sellner, former French MEP Jean-Yves Le Gallou, Eva Vlaardingerbroek from the Netherlands, and Belgian political activist Dries Van Langenhove.
“Different activists and politicians would gather on Saturday, give speeches, and you could talk to each other,” Paludan said, clarifying that he was not scheduled to speak. “No, the idea was just to be involved.”
Paludan expressed skepticism that the judge would overturn the decision.
This is not the first time Paludan has faced restrictions on his international movements. In 2023, he was banned from entering the United Kingdom after publicly vowing to burn the Quran in Wakefield, a city with a significant Muslim population, during the beginning of Ramadan.
Then-state security minister Tom Tugendhat said at the time that Paludan’s presence “would not be conducive to the public good.”
In November last year, the Malmö District Court in Sweden sentenced Paludan to four months in prison for inciting hatred against an ethnic group. The charges stemmed from protests in 2022 during which he burned copies of the Quran and made derogatory statements about Muslims.
The court determined that his remarks had gone beyond protected political expression and were designed “to defame and offend,” rather than contribute to public debate.
A blanket ban on gambling solves nothing, as black casinos in Czechia are multiplying. Smart regulation is the only way forward, claims the Hospodářské noviny news portal.
Revenues from gambling taxes are growing every year in the Czech Republic, exceeding 20 billion crowns (€800 million) for the first time last year. However, many traditional brands, such as Rebuy Stars and others, have closed in the Czech Republic or are experiencing problems.
“The Czech gambling market is undergoing significant reform. Ten years ago, it could be said that the Czech Republic was the casino of Europe. We had almost 100,000 licensed slot machines, almost 9,000 gaming halls and casinos, and per capita we were the second country in the world in terms of the number of gambling games,” Jan Řehola, director of the Institute for the Regulation of Gambling, told Hospodářské noviny.
“However, the situation has changed. The number of gambling halls and casinos has dropped by 95 percent to the current 700, the number of legal slot machines has dropped by more than 80 percent to 20,000. In terms of per capita, we are already far below the European average, behind Germany and other countries,” added Řehola.
Gambling is still growing, just not in brick-and-mortar establishments, as it has been moving to the online environment.
Last year’s government consolidation package increased gambling taxes, making them one of the highest in Europe. The way in which the tax is distributed between the state and municipalities has also changed. Municipalities that have gambling halls and casinos on their territory have seen their income fall.
Municipalities can decide for themselves whether to allow gambling halls and slot machines on their territory or not. They often ban them in an attempt to reduce crime. “According to our research among cities and municipalities, this has not happened, although mayors claim otherwise in the media,” said Jakub Žofčák, an analyst at the Center for Economic and Market Analysis. According to him, gambling and its negative impacts have simply moved online and behind closed doors to illegal gambling halls.
According to Tomáš Pintér, the mayor of Planá, which takes a liberal stance towards gambling and has two casinos operating on its territory, an absolute ban leads to the emergence of illegal gambling dens.
“We allowed casinos because we want to keep gambling under control. The second motive is the financial resources, which are important for the operation of the municipality and its ability to develop. We have set rules of cooperation with the operators of gambling dens, i.e., who will take care of what, including, for example, security. It works and we are satisfied. We have not had a single complaint from citizens,” Pintér explained.
However, after the change in the rules for distributing gambling tax revenues, the municipality lost 80 percent of its budget. “It was challenging, we had investment projects underway, but we have to deal with it somehow,” Pintér stated.
Currently, the four largest Czech cities – Prague, Brno, Ostrava and Pilsen – have introduced a complete ban on gambling. “But if we look at how smart regulation is done, so that the well-being of citizens is as high as possible and the social costs as low as possible, then the best is appropriate regulation. That is, not complete liberalization, when slot machines are on every corner and no rules apply to them, but not complete prohibition either. The ideal situation is when there are strict rules for gambling that are followed. However, such rules cannot be set on the illegal market,” Řehola pointed out.
After big cities banned casinos, they began to be built around them, a typical example being Vestec u Prahy. “I don’t see any reason why there couldn’t be four or five casinos in Prague. Out of 28 European capitals, we only find casinos in five,” Řehola pointed out. According to him, the goal is for a player who wants to gamble to have a legal place to go.
“Today, all players are registered, they have to set self-restrictive measures, the origin of their finances is being investigated, those on benefits cannot play, and so on. There are a number of tools that the state has introduced. But if they ban the whole thing, these measures will not work,” stated Řehola.
Jakub Žofčák’s research team conducted extensive research on the social costs of gambling in 2022. “Government spending is associated with enforcement, putting players in prison if they commit a crime, and the like. It amounts to about 5 to 12 billion crowns per year,” Žofčák said. However, private costs are higher, around 100 billion crowns.
“This includes lost money, which accounts for half of this amount. Then there is also interest on gambling-related debts or lower wages because the player does not go to work. Other factors include light and sound pollution from gambling halls, violent crimes and impacts on the children of players, which amount to 2.5 to 5 billion crowns,” Žofčák added.
Mayor Pintér noted that online gaming is growing rapidly in terms of total deposits. “The total deposits per quarter have increased from 30 billion to 120 billion in the last four years. There has been an enormous shift. So the problem in the future will not be in casinos, but in online gaming,” Pintér is convinced.
A big topic in gambling is also the black market for games, whether online or in brick-and-mortar casinos. The Institute for the Regulation of Gambling has attempted to map the black market through research. “We have come to the conclusion that the black market in the Czech Republic is around 20 to 30 percent of the legal market. For example, the customs administration has discovered more than 1,400 black gambling dens in the country since 2017. I would just like to remind you that we have 700 legal ones,” Řehola underlined.
This is proof that the black market for gambling is also gaining large proportions in the real world. And the social costs resulting from it are even higher than the costs of legally operated games, he says.
With many questioning the improper handling of Romania’s first round of voting in its presidential election last December, wPolsce24 asks if the same is not now happening in Poland, ahead of its election, saying that left-liberal elites “have proven” they will derail democratic processes to stay in power.
The portal draws attention to announcements that sound ominously similar to those that became the basis for the cancellation and invalidation of the first round of elections in Romania. For example, ads on Facebook attacking Karol Nawrocki (supported by PiS) and Sławomir Mentzen (Confederation candidate), while shining a positive light on the candidate of PM Tusk’s Civic Platform KO, Rafał Trzaskowski.
Poland’s National Research Institute (NASK) even took to X to draw attention to the issue, stating: “Possible Attempt to Interfere in Election Campaign! NASK Disinformation Analysis Center has identified political ads on the Facebook platform that may be financed from abroad. The materials were displayed in Poland. Campaign ad accounts spent more on political materials in the last 7 days than any campaign committee. The actions were ostensibly intended to support one of the candidates and discredit others. The campaigns carried out by the advertising accounts concerned in particular Rafał Trzaskowski, Karol Nawrocki and Sławomir Mentzen.”
⚠️ Możliwa próba ingerencji w kampanię wyborczą! Ośrodek Analizy Dezinformacji NASK zidentyfikował reklamy polityczne na platformie Facebook, które mogą być finansowane z zagranicy. Materiały wyświetlane były na obszarze Polski.
The issue, according to Janusz Cieszyński, the former head of the Ministry of Digital Affairs under PiS, is that the ads, he claims, in no way harm Trzaskowski but actually help him, calling into question whether NASK is properly doing its job. As he commented on the surprising announcement on X: “NASK, instead of fighting disinformation, saves R. Trzaskowski’s campaign.”
“For many weeks now, the profiles of Wiesz Jak Nie Jest and Stół Dorosłych have been active on Facebook. Over the past 30 days, they have spent half a million zlotys on ads attacking Karol Nawrocki and Sławomir Mentzen. That’s more than any legal election committee! I reported this matter to @Meta myself on April 22. I forwarded the link to the account and the information that the address provided for registering the account is… a vacant building in Gdańsk. I was told that Facebook would do nothing about it. It was only three weeks later that NASK, which runs a team for monitoring election disinformation using money from a multi-million subsidy, took a stance on the matter. Unfortunately, in its statement, the institute seeks to blur the line of responsibility and suggests that the wronged parties are… three candidates, including Rafał Trzaskowski. This is not true – Trzaskowski is the direct beneficiary of this illegally financed campaign, which has been running on the internet with impunity for almost two months. It is enough to look at the materials available in the Facebook Ad Library, the message of which is a 1:1 narrative of the Civic Platform,” commented Cieszyński.
🇷🇴 Romanians were robbed of their democracy.
Regardless of the outcome of Romanian elections, there's no doubt the European elite killed democracy by banning the top candidate, Călin Georgescu.
Rural voters are now so hopeless that they're longing for a return to communism. pic.twitter.com/QTBl7xDApj
The politician also added that “after the 2023 parliamentary elections, NASK published a report on external interference in the elections and the millions spent by Soros-linked companies from Estonia that supported Donald Tusk’s party.”
“To my knowledge, law enforcement agencies did not use this information, and the case was not taken further. Today, the NASK Disinformation Analysis Center is headed by Magdalena Wilczyńska, a former collaborator of Adam Bodnar. We can therefore expect that the Institute, headed by Radosław Nielek, accused of ties to the Chinese Huawei, will sweep the matter under the carpet so as not to harm its principals from the Civic Platform. Everything we are seeing today reduces the trust of Poles in the integrity of the electoral process. The Prime Minister and the coordinator for services should urgently speak out on this matter, and explain who is financing these ads and why. And also whether this illegal campaign is financed from Poland or abroad,” he concluded his post.
🇵🇱🇪🇺 ECR co-chair @PatrykJaki: "First, they annul the election in Romania because the 'wrong' candidate won. Now, they've banned Marine Le Pen.
A 33-year-old Iraqi man is under arrest for a spate of sexual assaults and rapes of elderly women in the Swedish city of Umeå.
The man is currently in detention and prosecutors are expected to file charges on May 21, according to public prosecutor Petra Hedberg, who spoke to Swedish news outlet Samnytt.
Police reported on April 8 that the Iraqi man was detained for crimes that were conducted in March of this year. However, once taken into custody, it emerged that he was involved in other crimes, including a serious rape committed on Feb. 23.
In total, the man is believed to have sexually assaulted and raped three elderly women.
“There are different plaintiffs that he is remanded in custody for crimes against. One is a serious sexual assault and I will probably press charges for that. Then there is a serious rape of another person, and I will also press charges for that,” she said.
“Then there are other plaintiffs who have come forward, and for whom he is not in custody. I will probably press charges for sexual harassment against a third plaintiff. So that’s how it looks now,” she said. “As it stands now, the plan is to prosecute next week,” she added.
The man, who comes from Iraq, has to conduct his detention hearings with the help of an Arabic-speaking interpreter.
The Swedish Migration Agency indicates that he applied for a residence permit in Sweden for the first time in October 2015. He has been given several temporary residence permits but was rejected from receiving a permanent residence permit. He has no previous convictions.
Documents also show that he has refused to work in the past in order to stay on social benefits.
Shockingly, the Umeå Municipality was provided a report on Feb. 27, 2025, that he had sexually harassed an older woman in a care home, but despite this, he was allowed to keep working there. This enabled him to eventually sexually assault other women.
“I cannot speak calmly right now. I cannot stand up right now,” she said when contacted by Samnytt.
When asked why they kept employing the man despite his sexual harassment allegations and worked there despite needing a translator to communicate, she said: “I have no comments on that part, so I need to end the conversation right now. I want to end the conversation.”
As the various stories linked above in this article attest to, instances of migrant men raping elderly women, including in senior care homes, are far from unusual in Europe. Many cases have likely gone unreported, as these women are in a vulnerable position, often cut off from their families and sometimes with limited cognitive abilities due to advanced age. Furthermore, these linked articles are just a small sample of the Remix News archive involving such cases, which are already only a fraction of the overall cases. Remix News lacks the resources to comprehensively cover each such case that is reported in Europe.
The German domestic spy service, the Office of the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), has released a 1,100-page report on the Alternative for Germany (AfD), which it used to label the party a “confirmed” right-wing extremist party. The report is huge and reads like it was written by Antifa, but that was to be expected. However, one interesting point is that it contains only public statements, including quotes made by AfD politicians and a lot of memes.
Why is that?
We already know that the BfV is secretly surveilling AfD members in certain German states, mostly in the east, where the party is “confirmed right-wing extremist” already. This designation allows for the BfV in those states to partake in extraordinary surveillance powers over AfD members, including reading their chats and emails. Presumably, they can also track their browsing history, and perhaps they are even listening in on their conversations at home.
What this means is that the BfV has plenty of statements, memes and content to use based on private statements, but it is purposefully choosing not to use them. After all, a certain number of those AfD members, in private moments, probably also express opinions, post memes, or share thoughts that the BfV would love to include in a secret report on the party, which many hope will eventually justify an outright ban.
Again, why is the BfV not using these private statements?
There are multiple reasons. For one, a big part of the apparatus of spy agencies is to obtain information, but not release it to the public. The public may not be able to stomach such personal and private information and the means that were used to obtain it. Since the Edward Snowden revelations, and even before then, we have become acutely aware that we have accepted devices into our lives and homes that can be used to spy on us on a scale never seen before in history. However, even now — even after all this information has been revealed — I believe nearly all of us still cannot quite grasp what this means — nor do we want to.
Yes, we know that AfD members are being spied on across Germany. Their emails are read, their phone calls are recorded. AI is being used to sort out keywords of interest to the security services. However, nobody really knows how this information is being processed and what it is being used for, or even who is reading it. The spies who control this information have extraordinary power. As a significant portion of them are now far left, at least in Germany, they believe they are acting as a bulwark against the rise of Nazism, and the ends justify the means when it comes to the AfD. There are other psychological motives at work, of course, as spy agencies are on the whole very good at keeping their secrets, not even necessarily because of internal controls, but because the spies are dedicated to their mission. There is, also, the sense of power that comes with being the watcher, and for many spies, this is a powerful intoxicant. They know, while you are in the dark.
In practice, these spies know which AfD members are having affairs, their personal struggles, their health issues, their financial situation, and even their personal browsing history. In other words, they know their targets better in many cases than even their close friends and family. The spies of the world, not just in Germany, are now in many ways gods and mind readers, seeing through the walls people build up around themselves and accessing their darkest fears and secrets — all due to rapid advances in technology and the rise of smartphones.
Earlier this month, commentator Eva Vlaardingerbroek, the famed Dutch activist reported that she was alerted that her phone was being breached with Pegasus-like spyware, mainly produced in Israel, which can unlock essentially every aspect of her personal life, including chats, location data, photos, contacts, and so on. With this software, they can even record her in real time, including personal conversations in her home, as well as turn on her camera to record her in her most personal moments.
After having been alerted that the deep state is spying on me through mercenary spyware, I've been feeling like there is someone standing in the room with me at all times.
Now, I'm not naive: exposing the wicked ways of the establishment is quite literally at the core of my… pic.twitter.com/16dXkeJMAq
This software, and software like it, has been used on thousands of people, including journalists, politicians, and activists, sometimes with deadly results. It is not just the right, but far-left activists have also been targeted, including human rights activists. It is also unclear how long Vlaardingerbroek may have been targeted in such a manner. Previous versions of Apple iOS may have not been able to detect this software on her phone. In short, much of her personal life may already be in a database somewhere waiting to be used by intelligence.
Vlaardingerbroek is not in the AfD or even German, but she has backed the party, and she and people like her are most certainly the target of intelligence operatives in countries across Europe.
The point is that this software and the means for surveilling people are very unsettling. In a privacy-minded country like Germany, revealing the scale of surveillance being used against the AfD may be a scandal within itself, and could taint the entire report, which at the end of the day, should be used to justify a ban of the AfD.
There may have been voices in the BfV who were calling to use secretly recorded data in the report as well, but the agency also knew this report would eventually be leaked and made public. The agency does not appear to want to divulge who they are surveilling, what information they have about them, and how they obtained this information.
Another important consideration is also to be taken into account. The BfV decided it did not need to include this secret information in the report because it is likely confident that it can get what it wants using public statements alone. It can still keep the scale of its surveillance secret and get the ban it desires — at least that is the gamble the agency is making.
Surveillance is everywhere, it is being practiced by the left, the right, and many foreign governments are also active in the West, collecting data on targets. So, this is not a uniquely German issue by any means. However, if the establishment in Germany becomes truly desperate, there is probably a secret report waiting that includes far more information and personal details than many Germans want to believe is possible.
Emma Teresa Meneghetti, an 82-year-old woman described by neighbors as a beloved fixture of her Milan community, was found murdered in her home on Wednesday, May 14. The alleged perpetrator is a 15-year-old boy of Dominican descent who used to live in the same apartment building and had long known the victim.
The attack occurred in the early afternoon, inside Meneghetti’s apartment on the third floor of a building at 46 Via Bernardino Verro, in the Morivione district. Authorities believe the incident began with a “futile” argument between the elderly woman and the boy.
The motive for the murder remains unclear.
According to initial findings reported by Milano Today, the teen struck Meneghetti in the head with a lamp during the quarrel, knocking her unconscious. He then allegedly strangled her. The alarm was raised around 4 p.m., when the boy returned home and confessed the killing to his mother, a 44-year-old Dominican woman.
Il Giorno reported how the boy’s clothes and shoes were stained with blood as he told his mother, “I wanted to run away from home, but she didn’t help me.” The mother immediately called emergency services.
Milanese police and forensic teams responded to the scene and cordoned off the apartment. Emergency medical responders from the Regional Emergency Urgency Agency (AREU) attempted resuscitation, but Meneghetti had already passed away.
The boy was taken into custody after being questioned for several hours by police and prosecutors from the juvenile court. He is now being held on suspicion of murder.
Authorities said the two families had lived in the same building until about a year ago, when the teen’s family moved to a different part of Milan. Despite the relocation, the boy apparently continued visiting Meneghetti’s home, which he had frequented since childhood.
Local media reported on a neighborhood in shock. One of Meneghetti’s current neighbors described her as “the point of reference for the neighborhood, not just for the building, because she was a very kind woman.”
The neighbor added, “She was 82 years old but looked 70, for her energy and strength.” She recalled seeing Meneghetti that very morning, as the elderly woman left early for her usual shopping trip. “It’s a quiet neighborhood. Even the apartment building is absolutely quiet.”
Tariffs, faltering global institutions, sluggish economic growth, and deepening political divisions have left the European Union increasingly vulnerable to outside shocks, according to former European Central Bank governor Mario Draghi.
Speaking at the closing session of the Cotec symposium in Portugal on Wednesday, Draghi, who also served as Italy’s prime minister until 2022, painted a grim picture of the EU’s future unless it undertakes serious reforms to reduce its dependence on external demand and address longstanding structural issues.
“Changes have been underway for several years, and the situation was deteriorating even before the recent increase in tariffs,” Draghi said, referencing the ongoing trade war between U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and the European Commission. “Therefore, internal political fragmentation and weak growth have made an effective European response more difficult.”
In particular, he pointed to a decisive breakdown in the global trading relationships as a turning point. “The massive use of unilateral actions to resolve trade disputes and the definitive disempowerment of the WTO have undermined the multilateral order in a way that is difficult to reverse,” he warned.
As reported by Il Giornale, Draghi emphasized that the EU’s openness to international trade increases its vulnerability. “This greatly increases the exposure of our growth and employment to the policy measures of our trading partners and to political cycles that originate outside Europe,” he said. He noted the importance of the United States as both a direct and indirect economic partner, describing it as Europe’s “main export market, with more than 20 percent of our exports of goods destined for overseas. And we are also exposed indirectly, as the United States is the main source of demand for our trading partners.”
He said that research from the European Central Bank indicates that indirect economic shocks from the U.S. can have a greater impact on the eurozone than direct ones. “The recent actions of the U.S. administration will certainly have an impact on the European economy, and even if trade tensions ease, it is likely that the uncertainty remains and acts as a headwind for investment in the EU manufacturing sector.”
Despite these risks, Draghi was skeptical that Europe could quickly pivot away from the U.S. economically. “We should ask ourselves why we have stopped being in the hands of U.S. consumers to drive our growth. And we should ask ourselves how we can grow and generate wealth on our own,” he said. “But realistically, it will not be possible to diversify from the U.S. in the short term.” He added that anyone hoping to find alternative markets would “probably be disappointed.”
Draghi also criticized the EU’s overemphasis on external competitiveness instead of boosting internal productivity. “Since 2000, annual labor productivity growth in the EU has been just half that of the United States, causing a cumulative productivity gap of 27 percentage points over the entire period,” he said. “But instead of trying to reverse the productivity trend, we have adapted our labor policies to it. Especially after crises, we have made a deliberate effort to suppress wage growth and increase external competitiveness. Our real wages have failed to keep pace even with our slow productivity, while U.S. real wages have risen by 9 percentage points more than those in the eurozone over this period.”
On energy, Draghi said Europe paid a “high price” for its dependence on Russian gas, losing over a year’s worth of growth. While efforts are underway to accelerate the shift to renewable energy, he warned of systemic obstacles. “This requires a fundamental transformation of our energy system that we have not been able to achieve,” he said. “High energy prices and grid shortages are, first and foremost, a threat to the survival of our industry, a major obstacle to our competitiveness, and an unsustainable burden on our households.”
He tied these issues to geopolitical challenges, such as the war in Ukraine. Despite Europe’s significant military support, Draghi suggested the EU had been relegated to the sidelines in diplomatic efforts. “We will probably be passive spectators in a peace negotiation that concerns our future and our values,” he said.
Finally, Draghi turned to the digital economy, lamenting Europe’s failure to keep pace with the U.S. in critical areas like artificial intelligence. “We have continued to create an environment that hinders radical innovation,” he said. “The fragmentation of our single market has prevented tech start-ups from reaching the scale needed to succeed in this area.” He added that “over 270 regulators active in digital networks” across member states have made it nearly impossible for small firms to thrive, unlike their American competitors.
Due to the constantly rising costs of living, more and more Poles refuse to participate in weddings and other family events. This news comes as Poles increasingly back out of getting married altogether.
Santander Consumer Bank commissioned a study to verify the approach of Poles to participating in family celebrations that involve spending money. The IBRiS study, conducted between April 2 and April 10, involved 1,000 adult respondents.
It turns out that as many as 40 percent of respondents do not plan to attend weddings due to financial constraints. In the case of participation in communions, the figure is 32 percent, and christenings, 29 percent.
However, there are simply fewer weddings overall to attend. Poles are increasingly not getting married, often postponing marriage for financial reasons, which holds back fertility decisions and may partly account for the record-breaking drop in births.
The data shows that the marriage rate per 1,000 people dropped to a near record-low in 2022, at 3.9 per 1,000 people, which nearly hit the previous record set in 2020 of 3.8. However, that previous low was in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Now, there is no pandemic excuse, just a country increasingly abandoning marriage.
As research shows, “children in Poland are mainly in married couples – they account for 41.8 percent of all families. Unmarried couples with children make up just 2.8 percent of families.”
As Poles increasingly turn away from marriage, often due to financial reasons, the fertility rate is crashing.
Beyond the cost of actually planning a wedding, Poles simply attending a wedding are balking at the costs. Those looking to go to a couple’s nuptials gave IBRiS different figures for what they would spend on gifts. The most frequently chosen amount is from PLN 401 (€94) to PLN 750 (€177), which was indicated by 28 percent of respondents. Other popular ranges are PLN 201-400 (24 percent) and PLN 751-1,000 (13 percent). For gifts for communion and a child’s christening, most respondents want to spend between PLN 401 and PLN 500, says PAP.
The youngest respondents aged 18-29 and people over 60 most often declare spending on gifts in the range of PLN 401-750. In turn, people aged 40-49 and residents of large cities more often choose higher amounts, from PLN 751 to PLN 1,000. The study shows that Poles’ financial decisions are strongly dependent on their life situation and location.
A more modest Easter
As with family events, this past Easter was also a time of belt-tightening. Reducing spending on Easter food – year-over-year – was announced by 41.9% of respondents this year, compared to 47.5% a year earlier, while 36.2% of consumers do not foresee such cuts (31% a year ago). This is the conclusion of the BLIX Group study.
The survey showed that 24.9% of those determined to reduce costs indicated a level of 10%-15% (versus 23.5% last year), 24% of consumers indicated the range of 15%-20% (versus 23.7% last year), and 15.5% of respondents indicated the range from 20%-30% (16.7% last year).
Hungary’s margin cap, which caps the amount of profit supermarkets can earn selling food, will be extended to drugstores as of May 19, with the allowed margin on toiletries set at 15 percent. Plans call for this to remain in effect until Aug. 31, after which it may be extended, reports Mandiner.
Minister of National Economy Márton Nagy has stated that the government policy of capping margins for certain products would result in an average price reduction of around 16-18 percent across the affected product categories.
🇭🇺 Can Hungary's new method for capping food prices be used in other Western countries?
The new law caps profit on food at a maximum of 10% for hundreds of products, including milk, eggs, and meats.
However, Lidl has now said it will continue its price reduction campaign for groceries in addition to weekly promotions and will also now reduce the prices of drugstore products.
Starting May 15th, Hungarians will be able to buy dozens of items, including detergents, shampoos, shower gels and various cleaning products at least 20 percent cheaper.
Judit Tőzsér, the head of corporate communications at Lidl Hungary, also spoke about the big sale. As she said, “Since the beginning of the year, the prices of many food products have decreased, and now we are continuing the trend with more beauty products and chemical products so that shoppers in Lidl stores can save not only money but also time and energy,” she was quoted as saying by Világgazdaság.
Czech Television has hit a rough patch. Following controversial exchanges between CEO Jan Souček and the Television Council, as well as his dismissal, it now appears the public has lost its trust in the public media outlet, reports Echo24.
According to analysts’ findings, approximately a third of Czechs do not trust public television at all, although there are significant differences in evaluations based on party affiliation.
“At the end of April, approximately one-third of the population expressed complete distrust of Czech Television,” said STEM analyst Doris Borovcová. According to the data, even 46 percent of supporters of non-parliamentary parties hold a negative attitude, which is a significant increase compared to last October, when it was 33 percent.
In contrast, trust among supporters of the government parties SPOLU, STAN, and Pirates has not changed much, at around 43 percent.
Earlier this month, the Czech Television Council dismissed director Jan Souček, who had been in charge since October 2023. He had repeatedly violated the Act on Czech Television and was damaging public television through his communications, according to the council, with 15 out of 17 council members voting in favor of his dismissal.
“The public Czech Television, although not primarily a political institution, provokes a relatively strong degree of political polarization in society. It is important to emphasize that this data was collected in April and therefore does not capture the situation surrounding the dismissal of Director General Jan Souček in May,” he adds.
Meanwhile, Souček disagrees with the criticisms and emphasized that the television is in excellent shape and, thanks to the increase in fees, has secured funding for many years to come.
“Directors of large companies resign at a time of poor results or embezzlement, which is not my case,” he said after the dismissal.
Borovcová pointed out that further research will show whether trust will stabilize or deteriorate with the new leadership.
The new head of CT will be elected on June 18. Michal Fila, the current head of corporate services, is now the interim director.
After Souček’s dismissal, Prime Minister Petr Fiala said that the Czech Republic needs stable public media. Politicians expect the council to elect a new director quickly and professionally, but according to media expert Jan Potůček, the election may be more complicated than the dismissal itself. “It may happen that the council does not elect a director within the statutory three-month period,” he warned.
The STEM research also shows that the most trusted institutions in the Czech Republic still include the Czech National Bank (73 percent), the Czech Police (73 percent), and the Czech Army (68 percent). In contrast, the government, the Chamber of Deputies, and the Senate have long remained below the 35 percent trust threshold.
The survey was conducted on a representative sample of 1,031 respondents between April 8 and 17, 2025.
The Dutch government could face more than €100 million in legal penalties after a recent landmark ruling by the European Court of Justice (ECJ) sharply limited the grounds on which EU member states can delay asylum decisions.
The court’s judgment in the case of Zimir on May 8 makes clear that the Netherlands cannot justify its lengthy processing delays by pointing to gradual increases in asylum applications or staffing shortages — a direct challenge to how the Dutch asylum system has been managed for years.
At present, some 18,000 asylum seekers in the Netherlands have been waiting between six and 15 months for a decision, far exceeding the six-month legal deadline set by the EU’s Asylum Procedures Directive. Each may now be entitled to compensation — up to €7,500 per person — for the state’s failure to meet that timeline. If large numbers seek redress, the total cost could easily surpass €100 million, on top of €36.8 million already paid out in such penalties last year.
“The government really needs to intervene to prevent such sky-high penalties from being paid,” warned NSC MP Diederik Boomsma, calling the situation a “legal quagmire,” as cited by De Telegraaf. He pointed to increasingly complex court rulings and heightened legal scrutiny that demand faster decisions even as procedural burdens grow.
In Zimir, the ECJ held that member states may extend the normal six-month asylum decision period only when there is a “significant increase in applications within a short period” — for example, a sudden influx of refugees due to conflict. Crucially, the court said that “a gradual increase in applications over an extended period” does not justify extending the deadline. Nor do structural issues like staff shortages or existing backlogs.
The ruling responded to questions from the Netherlands’ Council of State and directly rebukes the Dutch government’s long-standing use of emergency measures to justify decision delays. “Member states must build and maintain treatment capacity that reflects the normal and foreseeable number of asylum applications,” the ECJ said. If unforeseen surges occur, countries are allowed a short period to scale up capacity, but that time must be used to urgently recruit and train staff, not to indefinitely defer legal decisions.
Under previous Minister Eric van der Burg, the government extended the asylum decision period to 15 months, citing a high influx of applications and staffing gaps at the Dutch Immigration and Naturalisation Service (IND). Such a delay must now be tackled swiftly by the center-right government to avoid hefty fines.
Current Asylum Minister Marjolein Faber (PVV) admitted to MPs last week that no short-term solution exists. “It is a matter of years,” she said, to clear the backlog and return to legally compliant timelines. In the meantime, the IND continues to take an average of 72 weeks — nearly three times the allowed period — before conducting a second interview, which precedes any formal asylum decision.
Critics say the state has only itself to blame. “The IND still handles cases in a matter of days — the problem is they only start months later,” said asylum lawyer Michael Yap to Dutch media, urging the government to finally take the backlog seriously. He noted that in previous years, asylum applications were regularly processed within a week.
Attempts to scrap the financial penalty system for delays have also been floated, but legal experts warn that such a move would violate EU law. “You cannot remove a remedy that is there to enforce a right,” one EU law scholar told De Telegraaf.
While asylum claims from Syria, Iraq, and Yemen have dropped sharply in recent months due to political shifts abroad, the pressure on the Dutch asylum system remains intense. Family reunification, especially among Syrians already granted protection, continues to drive the numbers. Thousands of asylum seekers are still housed in costly temporary accommodation, including hotels charging more than €300 per night, adding to the taxpayer burden.
In response to these pressures, Minister Faber has proposed sweeping reforms, including capping family reunification rights and tightening asylum pathways. But the ECJ’s judgment now places a legal ceiling on how much flexibility member states have when it comes to ignoring asylum timelines.
In many ways, Germany’s wind power revolution has been a success, with wind power serving as the country’s largest source of electricity. However, the current wind lull over the last three months has led to an extreme dip in energy production, which is costing firms millions in losses.
The wind speed average has dropped below less than 5.5 meters per second in the first quarter of 2025, according to German Meteorological Service (DWD). The last time the country saw such low speeds was in 1972 and 1973, and before that, in 1963.
Wind energy producers have been hit hard. For example, PNE, a wind farm operator in Coxhaven, showed revenue dropped to €27.9 million from €31.4 million the previous year, but perhaps more importantly, it went from an operating profit of €1.1 million in the first quarter to a loss of €7.1 million, according to Welt.
The company indicated that there was 31 percent less electricity generated nationwide in the first quarter of the year than in the same period last year, according to data from the German Energy and Water Industry Association (BDEW).
However, it should be noted that April 2024 and 2022 saw much higher wind speeds than previous years, so comparing 2024 to 2025 makes this drop look even more extreme. Experts say there is no evidence of climate change being at work, noting that previous decades have had similar lulls in wind speed.
Germany experienced so-called “dark lulls” over the winter, featuring little sunlight and low wind speed, which led to extremely high prices. Germany imported energy from neighboring countries and turned to conventional power plants in response.
Former Economic Minister Robert Habeck of the Greens had already planned to provide incentives to build 40 large gas-fired plants by 2030 to deal with fluctuations in wind and solar energy. These gas plants had a number of climate protections allegedly built in, such as being able to be switched to hydrogen at some point in the future.
The grid is also at risk due to renewable energy in some instances, especially during holidays when there is less power demand. Solar power cannot be regulated by grid operators, which means that when there is too much electricity and not enough sources that need it, the grid is pushed to its limit. The previous German government, at the urging of grid operators, implemented the PV Peak Act to deal with surplus solar power production.
The average share of solar power energy in 2023 was 31.5 percent, with coal-fired plants in second, at 22.5 percent.
Renewables make up an increasingly large share of Germany’s energy profile, which supporters say reduces reliance on foreign countries such as Russia while also reducing carbon emissions. Critics, on the other hand, say wind power has harmed energy security and also presents a number of environmental risks to wildlife and even forests.
However, it is not just countries like Germany turning to renewables. Conservative governments, including Hungary’s, are also increasingly shifting to wind and especially solar, where it is one of Europe’s leaders.
The Svea Court of Appeal in Sweden has upheld a lower court ruling acquitting three Afghan-born individuals of the murder of Ako Abbas, a 37-year-old man whose dismembered body was discovered in a suitcase in a wooded area on Värmdö in March 2024.
The verdict leaves no one convicted of the killing itself, despite significant circumstantial evidence and allegations of an honor-related motive. All three defendants, however, were convicted of lesser charges related to the killing.
The case drew national attention when Abbas’s body was found on March 10, 2024. As reported by the Samnytt news site, the investigation led to charges against three people: 24-year-old Wajiha Korashi, her brother Sayed Rija Korashi, and her husband’s brother Saeed Waziri.
A fourth individual, Wajiha’s husband, Farid Vaziri, is still at large and remains the main murder suspect. His DNA was found at the crime scene, and he is wanted internationally.
Prosecutors argued that the crime was driven by honor-based motives, pointing to Abbas’s relationship with Wajiha Korashi, who was married at the time. Concerns were raised that Abbas possessed compromising photos and videos of her.
However, both courts found the evidence for an explicit honor motive inconclusive. While cultural and familial pressure may have formed part of the background, the courts concluded that honor was not sufficiently proven as the primary motive.
The court also found, despite the nature of the killing and the suspects’ alleged involvement in events before and after the attack, that the evidence was not sufficient to prove who committed the actual murder. Both courts determined that while the defendants played roles in related criminal acts, the threshold for a murder conviction had not been met.
Wajiha Korashi was sentenced instead to two years and three months in prison for aiding and abetting aggravated assault and aggravated violation of grave peace. The Court of Appeal concluded she had lured Abbas to the scene, helped pack his body, and organized her escape with assistance from others.
Saeed Waziri was given one year and eight months for aggravated grave peace violation, and Sayed Rija Korashi received one year and six months for protection of a criminal and attempted aggravated fraud, after helping his sister flee and assisting in securing false documents.
Efforts to deport Wajiha Korashi after her prison term were also rejected. Although she is not a Swedish citizen, the court found that returning her to Afghanistan would pose a serious risk of gender-based persecution and discrimination. The two men involved also could not be deported, as they now hold Swedish citizenship.
The suspected killer, Farid Vaziri, remains on the run. Authorities believe he played a central role in the killing, helped dispose of the body, and fled the country alongside Wajiha.
An international arrest warrant is in effect, but his whereabouts are unknown.
The presidential candidate of the far-right AUR party is campaigning in the Transylvanian Cluj County ahead of the second round of the Romanian presidential election with a leaflet
George Simion is promoting himself in Transylvania with leaflets in which he appears alongside Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán with the message: “Romanians can count on Hungarians in their fight for Christianity and sovereignty,” reports G4 Media.
This is his message to voters in Transylvanian Cluj County, home to a large population of ethnic Hungarians, ahead of the second round of the presidential election. Simion took close to 41 percent in the re-run of Romania’s first round of voting in its presidential election after Călin Georgescu was disqualified and his win annulled in December.
According to G4Media sources, AUR has no agreement from the Hungarian side to distribute leaflets in which Simion appears alongside Prime Minister Viktor Orbán. However, the quote on the leaflet was not uttered in this form by Viktor Orbán, who said something similar in Tihany when he said that he “fully agrees” with George Simion, who said that “now is the time for the Europe of nations, a Christian Europe, in which we will fight for our right to be European citizens.”
Orbán said in his speech on May 9 that “[a]ll Hungarians and Romanians are full members of the European Union and will remain so. We must count on each other in the fight for Christianity and sovereignty.” Simion enthusiastically uses Viktor Orbán’s praise in his campaign and has already used the Hungarian prime minister’s speech in Tihany in a paid political advertisement.
This has all been rather ironic, given Simion’s extremely anti-Hungarian statements he has made previously.
Remix News reported on the response to the emergence of such strange bedfellows, with Hunor Kelemen, head of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), saying plainly: “Our experience is that the AUR brings an extremely anti-Hungarian, Ceausescu-style historical perspective of national communism, in which Hungarians have no place or can only be present as a tolerated category.” An ultimate win by Simion, Kelemen said, would “would throw the Hungarian community in Transylvania back into the past, make it insecure, and create fear.”
Meanwhile, László Kövér, speaker of the National Assembly, seemed to be green-lighting Orbán’s rapprochement with Simion: “The goal is for the existing conflicts to become less and less important over time, similar to how relations with Serbia and Slovakia have improved in recent years.”
“(Whether) we want it or not, we are living in the same land. We are sharing the same country and neighboring countries. So we must forge a future together,” Simion told BBC in a recent interview.
His opponent in the second round on May 18 will be Nicușor Dan, the liberal mayor of Bucharest, who received 20.9 percent of the vote in the first round.
RMDSZ is clearly calling on its supporters to support Dan in the second round to avoid an “anti-Hungarian government.” Dan will also need the support of the Hungarians in Transylvania, because Simion can rely on the supporters of the social democratic presidential candidate Crin Antonescu, who came in third place with 20.07 percent, just under Dan’s 20.99 percent.
Meanwhile, former social democratic prime minister, Victor Ponta, who received just 13 percent in the first round also called on his supporters to vote for Simion.
Members of the United States House of Representatives have sent a letter to the European Commission warning that Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s government is violating the rights of opposition parties and its political opponents in general.
Signed by Republican congressmen Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, as well as fellow Republicans Darrel Issa, Chris Smith, Warren Davidson, and Andy Harris, the letter was sent to Michael McGrath, EU Commissioner for Justice and the Rule of Law.
The letter claims that the current authorities in Warsaw are using the justice system for political purposes, which in their opinion may threaten freedom of speech not only in Poland, but also in the United States.
“This apparent double standard raises concerns about the EU’s impartiality and its commitment to protecting fundamental rights across all member states. The EU’s silence may embolden the Tusk government’s censorship efforts, leading the Polish government to seek global removal of speech it disagrees with, which could ultimately result in the censorship of American speech,” it reads.
It further states that Tusk’s actions against the conservative Law & Justice party (PiS), its supporters, and members of the Catholic Church “appear designed to silence and damage its political opposition ahead of Poland’s 2025 presidential election.”
The letter touches upon how investigators under Tusk have “severely mistreated” those associated with PiS, including Barbara Skrzypek, the former director of PiS Chairman Jarosław Kaczyński’s office who died a few days after many hours of interrogation, as well as Father Olszewski who was “inhumanely treated” after his arrest, which was deemed by most as politically motivated.
It also questions Tusk’s actions against conservative media at odds with his government’s agenda, saying these “raise concerns about whether the Tusk government is upholding the EU’s democratic values and whether it will further attempt to silence its political rivals by using anti-democratic laws like the EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) to censor speech that criticizes the Tusk government.”
The congressmen do not shy away from calling out the double standards seemingly in effect in Brussels, as while criticism of Poland under PiS was rife and the EP was happy to strip conservative MEPs of their immunity, no such bias nor criticisms seem to exist for Tusk and his team.
The congressmen called on Commissioner McGrath to organize a briefing on these matters “as soon as possible,” asking specifically “how the EU plans to implement a new European Democracy Shield, which will address so-called ‘misinformation’ in a manner that will not chill Americans’ free speech rights.”
This is not the first time that congressmen have publicly expressed concern about the situation in Poland, notes Salon24. Previously, back in 2021, Democratic representatives called for changes to the Code of Administrative Law in the field of restitution of property of Holocaust victims. In turn, the lex TVN project prompted both senators and representatives of the U.S. House of Representatives to write an appeal. The law was finally vetoed by President Andrzej Duda.
A number of anti-White slogans were used in an art installation at the University of Grenoble in France for “Equality Month,” with widespread outrage leading the president of the university to demand they be taken down. The inscriptions repeatedly attack “White males” and claim that only White people are guilty of racism, with the entire scandal going viral and garnering tens of thousands of comments and millions of views on French social media.
There were approximately 40 such artistic inscriptions, with four of them deemed especially offensive towards White people, which read:
1. The world is in pain. That’s normal, it is ruled by white men. 2. Earth is monochrome like a rainbow, racism is only white. 3. It’s the work of the Arabs that built Versailles. 4. In chess, as in life, whites have a head start.
🇫🇷🚨 Incredible anti-White racism from France's University of Grenoble.
Four glass plaques installations read:
1. The world is in pain. That's normal, it is ruled by white men. 2. Earth is monochrome like a rainbow, racism is only white. 3. It's the work of the Arabs that… pic.twitter.com/tmjbfrLSlE
Other slogans were slightly less controversial, but still deemed problematic, such as: “I would like to overthrow the French government.”
The slogans are affixed to the glass walls of the affixed amphitheater gallery in the Pierre Mendès France building at the university’s campus, and were commissioned from the artist Petite Poissone. It is unclear how much he was paid to produce the racist slogans.
The conservative student union, UNI Grenoble, denounced the messages, saying they represent “anti-white propaganda.”
“These unacceptable messages encourage racism against white people and spread the woke idea that we are in a systematically racist society,” said UNI national delegate Yvenn Le Coz, who requested the university immediately take down the artworks.
After the UNI alerted President Yassine Lakhnech, who claimed he only became aware of the inscriptions despite them already being up for two months. The inscriptions have become a part of a national news story, with some of the biggest outlets in the country now questioning how such racist inscriptions were installed. Le Figaro questioned the president, Lakhnech, who said the messages “do not reflect the university’s positions or values.” He claimed they would now be removed, but only the ones that caused a problem.
A press release has gone out and noted that the artwork was given “sufficient oversight.” However, university students are claiming that 10 inscriptions out of 50 were already reviewed and deemed inappropriate, which, if true, means university staff saw all the messages beforehand and allowed them to go up.
The artist, a 42-year-old Grenoble resident, has numerous anti-White and anti-male comments and artworks on her Instagram account.·
Anti-white racism at French and Western universities has been commonplace in the last decades, as Remix News has reported.
In 2021, Remix News wrote that the elite Paris Institute of Political Studies, also known as Sciences Po Paris, is experiencing a growing rise in racist, de-colonial, and anti-White ideologies. Many conferences, research papers, and courses are under the influence and supervision of small but aggressive ideological militant groups.
The General Court of the European Union on Wednesday annulled the European Commission’s refusal to grant a New York Times journalist access to text messages exchanged between Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla.
According to a communication published on Wednesday, the judgment concluded that the Commission failed to provide a credible explanation for its claim that it no longer holds the requested messages, which were allegedly sent during Covid-19 vaccine procurement negotiations.
The ruling comes in response to a 2022 request by Matina Stevi, a Brussels-based journalist with The New York Times, who sought access to all text messages exchanged between von der Leyen and Bourla between Jan. 1, 2021, and May 11, 2022. The Commission denied the request, stating that it possessed no such documents. Stevi and The New York Times challenged that decision before the EU’s General Court.
On May 11, 2022, Stevi submitted a formal request to the European Commission seeking access to the text messages. The request was registered by the Commission the following day, on May 12. When the Commission failed to respond within the time frame set by EU transparency rules, Stevi’s legal representative filed an initial confirmatory application on June 28, 2022, reiterating the request for access.
On July 20, 2022, the Commission responded to the initial application, stating that it did not possess any documents corresponding to the request. In response, Stevi’s representative submitted a second confirmatory application on Aug. 9, 2022, which was formally registered the same day. Later that month, on Aug. 31, the Commission notified Stevi that the deadline for its response would be extended by 15 working days, setting a new target date of Sept. 21.
On Sept. 21, the Commission informed Stevi that the assessment of her application had been completed but that the draft decision still required approval from its Legal Service. Nearly two months later, on Nov. 16, 2022, the Commission issued its final decision, reiterating that it did not hold any of the requested text messages and therefore could not grant access.
The Court found that the Commission’s justification was insufficient and that Stevi and The New York Times had provided “relevant and consistent evidence” showing that such messages had existed. The Commission, it said, failed to meet its obligations under the Access to Documents Regulation and the principle of good administration as enshrined in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
The judgment scrutinized the Commission’s procedural conduct, noting that it relied on assumptions and imprecise information throughout the request process. It also emphasized that public institutions must document and retain information related to their activities in a “non-arbitrary and predictable manner.”
In its decision, the Court stated that “despite those imprecisions, [the Commission] maintains that it does not possess the requested documents, with the result that it is for the applicants to produce relevant and consistent evidence capable of rebutting the presumption of non-possession of those documents.”
That presumption was indeed rebutted, the Court held, by a New York Times article and transcripts of interviews conducted by Stevi with both von der Leyen and Bourla in April 2021. The article reported that for a month during vaccine talks, von der Leyen and Bourla “had been exchanging texts and telephone calls.” In the interview transcript, Bourla said that “[the Commission President and I] exchanged text messages, if there was something that we needed to discuss,” and that von der Leyen had “sent me her phone [number].” These statements provided sufficient grounds for the Court to determine that the text messages likely existed at some point.
The Commission, by contrast, was found to have offered no credible detail about the searches it had conducted for the messages or about their fate. “It remains impossible to know with certainty,” the Court wrote, “whether the requested text messages still exist or whether they have been deleted and, if so, whether such a deletion took place deliberately or automatically.” The Commission also failed to clarify whether von der Leyen’s mobile phone had been replaced, and if so, what happened to the previous device and its data.
“The Commission did not provide in the contested decision any plausible explanation as to why it had not been able to find the requested documents,” the Court held.
Furthermore, the Court rejected the Commission’s argument that the messages did not constitute official documents because they were allegedly short-lived or lacked policy significance. Even if the messages were not registered in its document system, the Commission was still obligated to retain and account for them under EU transparency rules. “Institutions cannot deprive of all substance the right of access to documents which they hold by failing to register the documentation relating to their activities,” the Court held.
The Commission’s handling of the request, the Court concluded, “breached the principle of good administration laid down in Article 41 of the Charter.”
As a result, it annulled the Commission’s decision and ordered the institution to pay the applicants’ legal costs.
The judgment has led to calls for greater transparency within EU institutions and among the bloc’s leaders.
Rob Roos, a former Dutch MEP who was vice-president of the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament during the now-dubbed “Pfizergate scandal,” wrote how his legal challenge against the Commission was dismissed at the time.
🚨 BREAKING: The ECJ ruled Von der Leyen was wrong to hide her texts with Pfizer’s CEO—€35B in taxpayer money at stake.
Yet my case as an MEP was ruled inadmissible, while a foreign newspaper was accepted. Transparency isn’t optional. Democracy demands it. Back to court.
“My case as an MEP was ruled inadmissible, while a foreign newspaper was accepted. Transparency isn’t optional. Democracy demands it. Back to court,” he wrote on X.
Hungarian MEP András László slammed the corruption scandals at the highest level in Brussels, which he claimed keep piling up. “Europeans want change in Brussels. We deserve better leadership! Qatargate, Pfizergate, Hololei, Reynders and money laundering, Green Deal and Timmermans, fake NGOs… The interests of Europeans are being sold out. Enough is enough!”
Several other European lawmakers demanded that the text messages now finally be released to see what agreements were reached over Covid-19 vaccines between von der Leyen and Bourla.
“She should have made her text messages in the Pfizergate affair public,” said Dutch MEP Marieke Ehlers. “This proves the need for the parliamentary commission of inquiry into transparency proposed by the Patriots for Europe [parliamentary group].”
Anna Bryłka, Polish MEP for the right-wing Confederation, and Spanish MEP Hermann Tertsch of Vox, went further, calling on von der Leyen to resign following the judgment.
The European Commission is yet to formally respond to the judgment.
A Palestinian-Syrian migrant who previously carried out a violent knife rampage in The Hague has once again come under criminal investigation — this time for stabbing a Jewish man in the neck in what authorities are treating as attempted murder with a terrorist motive.
The suspect, Malek F., attacked the man on April 6 in the recreation area of the Mesdag TBS clinic in Groningen, where he was being held under compulsory psychiatric treatment. According to sources familiar with the investigation and the clinic, F. approached his victim from behind and inflicted a deep wound to the neck, mirroring his violent actions in 2018.
The Public Prosecution Service confirmed to De Telegraaf on Tuesday that F. was arrested that afternoon following a police investigation. “We suspect him of attempted murder with a terrorist intent. The reason we have only arrested him now is because of the investigation and the condition of the suspect,” a spokesperson said.
The stabbing has reignited concerns over F.’s presence in the Netherlands and the handling of high-risk offenders. In 2018, F. stabbed three random passers-by in The Hague — cutting one victim’s neck nearly in half and seriously injuring the others. He shouted “Allahu Akbar” during the attack and later referred to the act as jihad in recorded conversations from prison. He described “slaughtering infidels in the street” and had made the Tawhid gesture (pointing to the sky) when shot by police.
Despite a prosecution demand of 15 years in prison and mandatory psychiatric detention (TBS), the court ultimately found him unaccountable due to psychosis and sentenced him only to TBS. The court found that a terrorist motive was not proven beyond a reasonable doubt, a decision by the Court of Appeal. Experts, however, repeatedly warned of a high likelihood of psychotic relapse triggered by stress.
Since his sentencing, F. had been allowed multiple periods of unaccompanied leave and was expected to live independently later this year. Following the April 6 attack, his leave process was immediately halted. The Dutch immigration service (IND) has now confirmed it may revoke his legal residence permit.
F.’s most recent victim, a Jewish man, survived the attack and is receiving medical treatment. According to De Telegraaf, the case has drawn renewed criticism from victims of F.’s earlier violence, who were kept informed of his rehabilitation process and say they are horrified he was allowed such freedoms.
PVV leader Geert Wilders responded to news of the attack by posting on X, “Islam does not belong in the Netherlands. Neither do radical Muslims.”
He linked to another report by Omroep West on Tuesday, where authorities in The Hague released footage of an unrelated criminal case involving the rape of a young woman on the porch of an apartment building.
A still of the footage showing the suspect is provided below.
The assault took place around 1 a.m. on Jan. 30. A man she met while walking home from a café carried her bag and accompanied her to her door before committing non-consensual sexual acts. The suspect fled when another resident appeared with a dog.
The woman was taken to a hospital and is currently receiving support. Police are urging anyone who recognizes the suspect in the surveillance footage to come forward.
An elderly Dutch couple, Ronny van Unen (72) and Saskia Scheltes (66), were refused Swiss nationality by the municipality of Unteriberg, near Zurich, underlining Switzerland’s tough naturalization laws.
Regarding the rejection, the president of Unteriberg, Philipp Trütsch-Trinkler, said only: “We had the impression that the couple did not really identify with Switzerland. They did not convince us.”
The population of Unteriberg, some 47 square kilometers in the Schwyz District of the Schwyz canton, is only 2,395, and according to 2007 statistics, only 5.4 percent were foreign nationals.
The naturalization commission, reports Blick, believed the Dutch duo “had too few friends and acquaintances in Unteriberg, did not participate enough in social life, and were not sufficiently informed about current political issues in the municipality.”
However, the couple reportedly answered only two of their 12 interview questions incorrectly. They have lived in Unteriberg for 20 years, speak perfect German, and have no criminal record.
Deciding to take their case in front of the commission in late April, they tried to emphasize their involvement in several local associations. In a letter, they also outlined their numerous activities, including Ronny’s membership in the Swiss Alpine Club (SAC) and as a pilot in a Swiss flying club. The couple also restores Swiss watches, which they exhibit at various markets.
Their application was nevertheless rejected again, at which point the Dutch couple said they would appeal to the cantonal administrative court.
The Blick portal says such a rejection is typical, highlighting a case in 2016 when a Kosovar man’s application was rejected because local residents felt that his habit of walking around in tracksuits was not in line with local norms. And in 2024, a French man was rejected because he was rarely seen and worked, and reportedly mowed his lawn, on public holidays.
Earlier this year, Switzerland’s Federal Council came out against a popular initiative to make it easier to gain Swiss citizenship. The team behind the initiative wanted foreign residents to be able to gain Swiss citizenship after 5 years of residence, regardless of the type or permit held.
Currently, those desiring Swiss citizenship need 10 years of residence with 3 years on a C-permit before a request can even be submitted. The country is known to have some of the toughest citizenship rules in Europe. However, there is wide variability between cantons and municipalities, with each one having different rules onto of the standard necessary requirements set at the federal level.
After Algeria expelled another 15 French officials, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said that France would respond “immediately, firmly and proportionately” to this “incomprehensible and brutal decision,” reports France24.
Thus, tensions continue to escalate between France and its former colony of Algeria, which gained its independence after 130 years of French rule back in 1962.
FM Barrot noted that“the departure of agents on temporary missions is unjustified and unjustifiable,” adding that it has damaged French interest and thus must be answered in kind.
The saga between the two countries has been ongoing. Last summer, Macron announced French support for Morocco’s plan for the disputed territory of its southern regions, or Western Sahara, while Algeria supports the Polisario Front’s plan for independence of the area. Just this week, the French Development Agency (AFD) announced it will even invest €150 million in the territory in a rapprochement with Morocco.
Other issues have been boiling over as well, including the imprisonment of French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal and the arrest and attempted expulsion of Algerian influencers for inciting violence against those opposed to the Algerian regime and, in general, hateful comments against France.
The French authorities have been vocal in their disapproval and annoyance over Algiers’ refusal to take back its nationals under an obligation to leave French territory (OQTF). Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau had even suggested France may cut the number of short-term Schengen visas issued to Algerian nationals until the government of Algeria stops preventing deportations.
As Remix News reported, French FM Jean-Noël Barrot has said that relations between France and Algeria are now “totally frozen.”
Algiers has already expelled 12 French officials from the Ministry of the Interior in mid-April, all of whom had to leave within 48 hours, followed by France doing the exact same, and now another 15 officials have been asked to leave Algeria. The message was communicated to the standing affairs officer of the French Embassy in Algeria, who had been summoned to receive the order in person by the Algerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
“This is a decision that I deplore because it is neither in the interest of Algeria nor in the interest of France,” Jean-Noël Barrot also commented.
There is, as of yet, no formal demand from the government that has been released to the press. Only the Algerian Press Agency (APS) has released the news that Algeria demands the “immediate repatriation” of all French employees appointed under “irregular conditions” due to an apparent failure “to comply with the procedures devoted to the assignment of agents to the French diplomatic and consular representations in Algeria.”
Algiers is also upset over the blocking of the approval process of two Algerian consuls general appointed in Paris and Marseille, as well as seven other consuls, who have been waiting for approval for more than five months.
Barrot admitted just this week that he had refused entry to Algerian officials, adding: “I am not ruling myself out of taking [new] measures. I won’t necessarily say when I will take them, or when I won’t. That’s how diplomacy works.”
The French ambassador to Algeria, Stéphane Romatet, was previously recalled to Paris for consultations and remains there. Paris had in fact sought to normalize relations with Algiers just recently, but tensions have escalated once again, with relations, as FM Barrot stated, “frozen.”
In response to growing electoral pressure from Reform UK and off the back of less-than-impressive local election results, U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer has vowed to finally radically reform Britain’s immigration system — but was accused of parroting right-wing rhetoric in a desperate attempt to stave off the populists.
At a press conference on Monday, the Labour leader outlined the details of a white paper designed to reduce net migration by the end of this parliamentary term in 2029.
It is worth noting that practically every British government in power this century has made such a pledge, yet net migration continues to run at astronomical levels compared to those witnessed prior to Tony Blair’s arrival in Downing Street back in 1997.
Starmer slammed the previous Conservative administration for further opening Britain’s borders despite vowing to do the opposite.
“In 2023, [net migration] reached nearly 1 million, which is about the population of Birmingham, our second largest city. That’s not control – it’s chaos,” he said.
This is my promise to British people:
Every area of our immigration system will be tightened up, so we have more control.
Of course, net migration running at 1 million actually means the number of people coming to Britain every year is even higher — actual immigration into Britain exceeded 1.2 million in 2023, as cited by the House of Commons Library.
“Nations depend on rules – fair rules,” Starmer continued. “Sometimes they’re written down, often they’re not, but either way, they give shape to our values. They guide us towards our rights, of course, but also our responsibilities, the obligations we owe to one another. Now, in a diverse nation like ours, and I celebrate that, these rules become even more important. Without them, we risk becoming an island of strangers, not a nation that walks forward together.”
The “island of strangers” line was picked up among both the right and left-wing press, striking a resemblance to a line once used by one Enoch Powell, a British nationalist and former Conservative government minister who was revered by many on the right (and berated by many on the left) for warning about the dire consequences mass immigration would bring to Britain.
Speaking about mass immigration in his famous ‘Rivers of Blood’ speech in 1968, Powell said,
For reasons which they could not comprehend, and in pursuance of a decision by default, on which they were never consulted, they found themselves made strangers in their own country.
Naturally, left-wing commentators in Britain — many of whom joined the Labour party under far-left leader Jeremy Corbyn but who have now grown tired of what they call Starmer’s “Red Tory” policies — noted the similarities between Powell and Starmer’s language.
Corbyn’s former right-hand man, John McDonnell, led the charge in attacking the Labour prime minister for “reflecting the language” of Powell, while Labour backbench MP Olivia Blake claimed the use of such a phrase could “risk legitimizing the same far-right violence we saw in last year’s summer riots.”
Those “riots,” of course, were instigated by the brutal murder of several young girls who were stabbed to death by the son of Rwandan immigrants, Axel Rudakubana, while they attended a Taylor Swift-themed dance class in Southport, north-west England.
On Tuesday, Starmer’s official spokesperson “completely rejected” the comparison drawn in the speeches, insisting the prime minister “absolutely stands behind the argument he was making that migrants make a massive contribution to our country, but migration needs to be controlled.”
So, how exactly does Starmer plan to reform Britain’s immigration policy? Well, the white paper proposes raising skill and English language requirements, extending the timeline for settled status from five to ten years, and introducing stricter enforcement.
The goal, it says, is to prioritize migrants who contribute economically, reduce pressure on housing and public services, and ensure immigration serves the national interest. The system will link visa access to investment in British workers, making settlement a privilege earned through contribution.
The U.K. Home Office estimated the policies could lead to a 100,000 drop in net migration per year by 2029 — which frankly, is a drop in the ocean to what the British people expect when they talk about lowering immigration.
For reference, the former Conservative administration under David Cameron talked about decreasing net migration to the “tens of thousands” for over a decade, while the party’s time in government actually saw it rise to nearly 1 million.
The reality is that, even if Starmer was serious about measures to mildly reduce net migration, the figure would still be running at unsustainable levels and be wholly unacceptable to the vast majority of Brits who want genuine reform on the issue.
YouGov’s tracker poll on whether immigration into the U.K. has been good or bad for the country over the past decade — last updated in April — shows 47 percent believe it has been bad compared to 19 percent who think it has been good. That 47 percent is the highest ‘bad’ has been since the tracker started in 2019.
And this sentiment is what Reform UK is looking to exploit. The party’s populist leader, Nigel Farage, immediately dismissed Starmer’s speech as a token gesture that he not only cannot deliver, but deep down has no desire to deliver.
Taking to X, Farage posted a video of Starmer from his time in opposition, where he called upon Labour to make the case for the “benefits of migration and the benefits of free movement,” also known as open borders.
Starmer is a hypocrite who believes in open borders.
Here he is making the case for freedom of movement just a few years ago.
The Reform UK leader called Starmer a “hypocrite,” and insisted his government would not do what it takes to control Britain’s borders.
“Only Reform UK will leave the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) and deport illegal migrants,” Farage added.
In the minds of the British public, Farage’s party is best placed to tackle mass immigration, with 27 percent of respondents to a YouGov poll published yesterday backing Reform UK to handle the issue effectively — nearly three times more than the 10 percent that trusts Labour.
However, after years of mistruths and Brits witnessing the direct opposite of what they were promised by elected politicians on the matter, huge skepticism exists among the people — nearly half of all respondents believe that either no party can handle the issue well, or do not know who can do so.
An African migrant is now on trial for biting off a large piece of a German police’s woman ear in the city of Cologne, leaving her with a serious injury that has left her permanently unfit for duty.
The 40-year-old African had multiple offenses on his criminal record is now on trial for dangerous bodily harm, along with various other charges. The incident, which dates back to 2024, is only being tried now, starting yesterday, Monday, in Cologne’s regional court.
The incident started as many do in Germany, with the African man assaulting random people on the street. Witnesses reported the incident after he began attacking people with a key.
When emergency services arrived, the man violently resisted, pushing a female office to the ground and punching other officers. He then bit off a part of the ear of a 26-year-old female police officer.
At the hospital, the medical staff tried to sew on pieces of the ear, but her body rejected the chunks of ear, leaving her permanently unfit for duty, according to Bild.
The defendant’s attorney admitted to the charges at the beginning of the trial, but he claims due to “heavy cocaine use,” his client did not remember the exact sequence of events. A verdict is expected this month.
The Nigerian migrant was involved in three different attacks, targeting various officers in the span of 18 hours. Despite the serious crimes, the man was released numerous times by the courts, only to attack again.
The French Development Agency (AFD) will invest €150 million in Morocco’s southern provinces in Western Sahara.
The announcement came during AFD Director General Remy Rioux’s visit to the area, which has been the center of a dispute between Morocco and Algeria, with the latter long supporting the Polisario Front’s push for Western Sahara’s independence. The United Nations has had the former Spanish colony listed as “a non-self-governing territory” since 1963.
“The AFD Group will now invest in the southern regions by bringing in investments and financing,” Rioux said at a press conference, adding that these investments bode well for youth employment in the region, Morocco World News reported.
Last summer, Paris announced its support for Rabat’s own autonomy plan for the disputed territory of Western Sahara. In the early 2000s, Morocco first presented this plan to give the indigenous Sahrawi people self-governance in the form of its own elected legislature, courts, and day-to-day governance. The territory would, however, remain under Moroccan rule in terms of foreign affairs and military defense.
Then in October, as noted by Le Figaro, President Emmanuel Macron announced that France would “support the development of these territories through investments and sustainable and supportive initiatives for the benefit of local populations.” At the time, Engie, MGH Energy, and other French companies were on the ground to sign agreements to produce green energy and e-fuels from this disputed territory.
Meanwhile, Le Monde reports that French FM Jean-Noël Barrot has said that relations between France and Algeria remain “totally frozen” since both countries expelled each other’s diplomats. Barrot placed the blame squarely on Algiers, saying that it was the Algerian authorities who first “abruptly decided to expel twelve of our agents.”
Barrot was on the ground to commemorate the May 8, 1945, Sétif and Guelma massacre by French police when Algeria was still a colony of France. Many say this event sparked the war that would eventually lead to Algeria’s independence in 1962.
Regarding further sanctions against Algeria, after having already restricted entry to France back in February for certain Algerian officials, the French foreign minister said: “I am not ruling myself out of taking [new] measures. I won’t necessarily say when I will take them, or when I won’t. That’s how diplomacy works.”
The Prague Stock Exchange reached a new all-time high on Monday, buoyed by investor optimism following an interim trade agreement between the United States and China. The PX index rose 1.04 percent to close at 2,168.26 points, according to official data from the exchange website.
“Today’s positive mood of investors, brought about by the agreement between the USA and China on the reduction of tariffs, also benefited the Prague Stock Exchange,” said Vladimír Vávra, a broker at Wood & Company, as cited by Echo24.
Trading volume was robust, totaling approximately CZK 885 million (€35.4 million) — well above average for the local market. More than two-thirds of that activity was concentrated in banking sector stocks, which led the gains.
Erste Bank posted the strongest performance of the day, rising 3.06 percent to CZK 1,799.50. Komerční banka followed with a 1.91 percent gain to CZK 1,065. Moneta Money Bank also advanced by 1.54 percent to CZK 145.20.
In contrast, shares in energy giant ČEZ declined 0.92 percent to CZK 1,180. The drop came amid news that the European Commission has asked that Czechia delay signing a contract for two new nuclear reactors at the Dukovany power plant. The Commission is currently reviewing whether the selected bidder, South Korea’s KHNP, received foreign subsidies that could distort the EU’s internal market.
Some Czech officials, however, believe the move is motivated by the fact that the competing French company lost the bid.
Elsewhere in the financial landscape, the Czech koruna weakened against both the euro and the U.S. dollar. By late afternoon, it stood at CZK 24.99/EUR, down two hellers from Friday, and at CZK 22.49/USD, its weakest level in roughly a month, having lost 34 hellers. This data was reported by Patria Online around 17:00.
The rally in Prague mirrored a broader global market upswing. On Wall Street, U.S. indices posted strong gains as investor sentiment improved following the tariff truce between Washington and Beijing. The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 2.81 percent to 42,410.10 points. The S&P 500 climbed 3.26 percent to 5,844.19, while the Nasdaq Composite jumped 4.35 percent to close at 18,708.34.
As part of the 90-day interim agreement, the United States agreed to reduce newly imposed tariffs on Chinese imports from 145 percent to 30 percent. In return, China will lower its tariffs on American imports from 125 percent to 10 percent.
The deal aims to provide a temporary reprieve from the ongoing trade tensions, with both countries committing to further negotiations during the three-month window.
After a Muslim was stabbed to death in a mosque in the French city of Alès, the media quickly pointed to an anti-Muslim motive. Images of neo-Nazis stabbing Muslims in their places of worship were conjured, and thousands were mobilized onto the streets to protest against violence directed at Muslims. However, this narrative may be more complicated.
In fact, the suspect in the case comes from an immigrant family himself, a Bosnian Roma, who has now turned himself into the police in Italy after going on the run for three days.
A police source has told Le Parisien that so far, a picture is forming of the youth, Olivier Hadzovic, as “a rather socially isolated, unemployed (man) addicted to video games, to which he devoted most of his time, he had until now been living on welfare.” Hadzovic had 11 siblings.
In addition, he allegedly produced disturbing messages on social media, “mentioning his desire to rape or desecrate corpses.” However, police have so far found no evidence of racist or hateful posts, including any against Muslims.
In addition, Hadzovic’s lawyer said after he was questioned by police that he appeared to have been driven by a morbid impulse “to kill the first person he found.” In other words, the evidence, at least so far, points more to a sadistic killer who targeted his victim.
The murder was especially graphic, as Hadzovic stabbed the Muslim man multiple times while filming the entire incident, which was posted to social media. The victim, Aboubakar Cissé, was sitting prostate and praying when he was stabbed several dozen times. Hadzovic insulted the victim’s religion after the stabbing, shouting insults at Allah, but whether this was a premeditated attack against a Muslim, or simply a nihilistic insult directed at the victim in his final moments, still remains to be seen.
There is also no evidence that Hadzovic belonged to any nationalist or anti-Muslim organization. As mentioned, he was not even an ethnic Frenchman, but instead a man from a Roma immigrant family who appeared to have some very disturbing sexual interests and was unemployed — typically the type of person most French nationalists want to see deported from France.
However, France’s left seized on the stabbing death of Aboubakar Cissé in the Grand-Combe mosque to decry racism in the country, holding large demonstrations.
“Aboubakar Cisse’s only crime was being in a mosque. Aboubakar Cisse’s only crime was being Muslim. So this was an assassination, a terrorist attack that the High Council of Malians in France strongly condemns, and asks for this kind of crime never to happen again,” said Addramane Macalou, representative of the High Council of Malians in France.
Three days after the killing, Hadzovic turned himself in at an Italian police station in Pistoia, Italy.
Abdelkrim Grini, the Alès prosecutor who led the investigation, opened an investigation into premeditated murder based on race or religion. The case has been referred to an investigating judge from the Nîmes criminal division, and not to the national anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office. The family is requesting that the case be treated as an act of terrorism.
Germany’s Jan Böhmermann, well known for his far-left comedy late night show, is more or less the Stephen Colbert of Germany, except he is perhaps even more aggressively and nakedly a political activist. During his taxpayer-funded show Neo Magazin Royal on ZDF, he doxxed the right-wing YouTuber “Clownwelt” last week, who had attempted to remain anonymous.
There are a lot of reasons to believe this doxxing was not the work of research performed by Bohnermann’s staff and Zeit, as Bohnermann claims, but outright intelligence agency information fed to his team, or at least someone on his team.
The method Böhmermann claimed for unmasking the identity of “Clownwelt” is a stretch to say the least. First, he claims they obtained a photo from the Telegram channel of Clownwelt, which showcased him wearing a metal band T-shirt and a guitar pick necklace. From there, he claims the following:
“If you now search all available photos of all German metal bands in Germany for a guitarist, you will end up with this hit. A metal guitarist from NRW. There it is, the golden guitar pick on the chain around his neck. But that’s not enough, of course. So we scrutinized his former band, spoke to his friends and relatives, visited his university, checked everything with other sources, double and triple crossed. We even had his voice scientifically analyzed, and then we were very, very sure.
In real life, one of the most important right-wing extremist internet propagandists and AfD stirrup holders is a 29-year-old metal guitarist from a small town in North Rhine-Westphalia called Marc Philipp. He did his A-levels and then, because he simply has a penchant for telling people things, studied to become a teacher at a university in a small town in Lower Saxony.
He dropped out of university at some point, he never handed in his bachelor’s thesis, and from summer 2021 he really took off as a right-wing extremist on YouTube. And his private environment didn’t know anything about it. They may have been surprised. They were completely surprised when we spoke to them.”
Based on this one photo, Bohnermann claims to have “searched all the metal bands” in Germany. This sounds, to put it light, highly questionable. Clownwelt was not in a popular band, in fact, most metal bands are not particularly popular, even the more well-known ones. It was more or less a local band, of which there are tens of thousands in Germany. Even if we narrow this down to only metal bands, we are still looking at thousands of people — many of whom were “underground,” including from defunct bands. There are also plenty of metal fans, some whom would sport a guitar pick necklace, who are not in any active metal bands.
If we factor in that each band has dozens, sometimes hundreds, if not thousands of photos, going through all of these photos across Germany sounds ludicrous. Furthermore, if we consider that many band photos are private or contained in social media canals that are not searchable or difficult to search, it begins to sound like Bohnermann’s team would be dedicating an incredible amount of time for what seems like such a pointless task that would fail to turn up anything.
For argument’s sake, let’s just assume this is exactly what happened. Well, even then, if they found these two matching photos with a person wearing the same guitar pick necklace, it still would not prove anything, as Bohnermann says himself.
Let’s then think about what Bohnermann claims they did next. He said they call all this guy’s family and friends. First, it is unclear how he obtained this information, including the names of all these families and friends, but even more questionable is how he obtained all of their contact numbers. It is not so easy to just obtain private phone numbers in Europe, especially in Germany, known for its strict privacy laws. Many people no longer have home phone numbers, and private cell phone numbers are not listed in the telephone book.
Bohnermann then claims that he called all of these people one by one, and all of them claim they have no idea that the person they know is involved with any right-wing activities on social media.
So, what is Bohnermann’s actual confirmation here? There is none. None of this adds up. None of these people confirm that they know Clownwelt because Bohnermann himself says that Clownwelt kept his life secret.
Instead, Bohnermann calls them and tells them who Clownwelt is, because the truth is that Bohnermann already knew who he was.
The idiot-proof explanation of all of this is that Bohnermann was fed intelligence info through someone at an intelligence agency through the backdoor. There is also the possibility that Bohnermann himself did not know anything himself, but someone on his team did.
Either way, armed with this information, they have to work backwards to concoct a believable story about the doxxing, however, these stories are never all that believable. Charles Cornish-Dale, known as Raw Egg Nationalist, who was doxxed last year, wrote about how intelligence agencies are colluding with third parties to doxx those on the right. It’s known as “parallel construction,” as he also discusses here:
And so this piece basically is about the fact that I think Hope Not Hate doxxed me with the help of the government in some way. It’s about this thing called parallel construction, which is a journalistic technique. It’s a technique used by the intelligence services, by law enforcement as well, when they get information in a dirty way, basically. You know, when they get information from sources, when they break in and steal something, when they hack a computer, they invent a credible story to explain how they got the information legally.
And that’s basically what Hope Not Hate did. So they said in this expose, oh yes, we found some old posts, we found an old text message that Raw Egg Nationalist posted, and we managed to decipher his name from it. And they said some other stuff as well. They said that I posted some pictures of my garden and somehow that contributed to their… I mean, I posted a picture of my squat rack on my patio with no sky, nothing, no identifiable features, just a squat rack on a patio. And they’re saying that that was how they found me.
So, the piece really is just about the fact that actually Western governments, intelligence services are trying to disrupt the right, they’re trying to disrupt the popular right. And I think what they’re probably doing is colluding with activist organizations like Hope Not Hate to doxx people.
In the case of Germany, the tip-off went to Bohnermann instead of an organization like Hope Not Hate, as Bohnermann has a national audience and a public doxxing on his show would, at least in their view, deliver maximum damage.
In this case, the intelligence agency or agencies, very possibly someone in the Office of the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), first discovered who Clownwelt was. This could have been organized within a group or someone simply one person going rogue in the office, but no matter which intelligence entity leaked this, the leak never “officially” happened. This information was then fed to someone they trust on Bohnermann’s team, knowing what Bohnermann is capable of doing with it.
Either Bohnermann or the intelligence leakers had to create a “parallel construction” technique based on the two photos with a guitar pick, which may have been all they had to work with, so they may have had to go with that. They know their audience does not particularly care how they got this information, but they have to maintain their distance from Germany’s increasingly authoritarian spy system, which, of course, would look quite bad if it were leaking private information to a state-funded millionaire Antifa comedian.
This is all theory, but it sounds a lot more plausible than Bohnermann’s so-called guitar pick story. In fact, this is a good case of Occam’s Razor in practice.
It is safe to say that Bohnermann’s leak has been met with outrage. Here is an excerpt from Welt editor Ulf Poschardt:
Time and again, Jan Böhmermann uses his show to intimidate and denounce dissidents as a disciplinarian of the ruling class – using an ideological sledgehammer to do so. No one provides better material for criticizing public broadcasters than he does.
The bourgeoisie, as the left-wing theorist Antonio Gramsci knew, rules not only through the police and capital, “but through cultural hegemony – that is, by possessing the sovereignty of interpretation over values, language, education, religion, and the media.”
Böhmermann uses his show to intimidate and denounce those who think differently, as a kind of disciplinarian and whip of the ruling society. He is malicious, thin-skinned, and sadistic. He did this again on Friday, when he publicly unmasked – or “doxxed” – the right-wing YouTuber Clownswelt by name, revealing his identity and place of residence.
Interestingly, the backlash on social media began immediately and was enormous. The result was that the “state artist’s” place of residence and his children’s daycare center were made public. An unfortunate development, but in the self-image of the circles attacked by Böhmermann, a form of self-defense. Another milestone in the decline of morals on all sides.
Poschardt describes how he himself has been the target of Böhmermann, such as when Böhmermann placed his face on a “wanted” poster and gave him a Hitler mustache. Böhmermann, who is lavishly funded by taxpayers, has become a focal point for those calling for reform to the state broadcasters, which take in hundreds of millions of euros per year.
“The public broadcaster must be smaller, more focused, and completely restructured. Böhmermann makes mistakes in his research; his tone of hate and incitement is celebrated by precisely those who want to defend ‘our democracy’ against ‘hate and incitement,”‘ writes Poschardt.
How Bohnermann actually obtained this information will likely never be revealed, but expect that German and other European agencies, with their enormous surveillance powers, will use them in any manner they can to ensure the increasingly discredited establishment maintains its grip on power, especially as parties like the Alternative for Germany (AfD) slide into first place in the polls.
As for Clownwelt, he has remained defiant, and his follower count on YouTube has nearly doubled, now approaching 400,000. His latest video has earned him nearly a million views in just two days.
A Turkish national is in custody in Germany after allegedly stabbing to death a close friend who had treated him like family for over 20 years.
The victim, Frank S., a respected real estate agent known for his love of historic homes, was murdered in front of his house on Saturday afternoon in the city of Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia.
Bild reported how the accused, 33-year-old Ali S., had been like a son to Frank S. for much of his life. Friends and neighbors say the two shared a close bond for years, with Frank offering support, guidance, and protection to Ali as he grew up.
The relationship soured in recent years, however, as Ali reportedly struggled with drug and alcohol abuse and began exhibiting aggressive behavior in the neighborhood.
Police say that around 1:10 p.m. on Saturday, Ali S. appeared at Frank S.’s home. The victim is understood to have clearly recognized the threat immediately and sought to flee from his attacker, but the suspect caught up with him and fatally stabbed him in the street, also injuring himself in the process.
Frank S. was a familiar and respected figure in the area, and those close to him say he had looked after Ali S. for 20 years and was like a father figure to him.
However, amid recent disturbances in the area caused by Ali S., Frank S. had recently sent photos of the Turk to neighbors, asking them to alert him if he returned to the neighborhood.
“We were supposed to let him know when he shows up here,” a couple from the neighborhood told Bild.
One neighbor, currently caring for Frank S.’s mother, confirmed the growing fear the victim had toward his former friend. “He felt threatened by him,” she said. “The man has been rioting here for a long time, including demolishing the door of Frank’s mother, who also lives in the neighborhood.”
What ultimately motivated the killing remains unclear.
On Sunday afternoon, an investigating judge issued an arrest warrant against Ali S. on suspicion of murder out of malice and ordered him into custody.
The police have set up a homicide squad to lead the investigation.
The incident was the second high-profile murder by a migrant in a week in Krefeld. Remix News reported on Thursday how an Afghan had been arrested after stabbing his 41-year-old female boss during the evening cash count at the ‘New Yorker’ clothing store in the North Rhine-Westphalia city.
“The woman was seriously injured with a knife, so that she succumbed to her injuries at the scene,” the Krefeld police stated.
Shortly after the stabbing, the suspect allegedly fled the scene with the day’s takings. However, his escape was short-lived. As he exited the store on Hochstraße, he ran directly into a group of officers and was immediately arrested.
Heating bills for Hungarian households could rise by as much as three and a half times if the European Union moves forward with a full ban on Russian natural gas imports, according to a new report by the Századvég Institute, as cited by Magyar Hírlap.
The economic research group estimates such a move would impose nearly HUF 1,100 billion (approximately €2.8 billion) in additional annual costs on Hungary, putting severe pressure on both the country’s energy system and its citizens.
According to Századvég, their calculations — based on publicly available domestic and international energy data — show that a total ban on Russian energy imports would result in a doubling of gas prices and heightened volatility on European energy markets. This would not only harm the EU’s competitiveness but also destabilize Hungary’s long-standing utility bill reduction program, which currently ensures some of the lowest heating costs in Europe for Hungarian families.
Earlier this month, the European Commission published a roadmap outlining its intention to wean European nations off Russian gas before a wholesale ban came into effect by the end of 2027.
🇸🇰 Fico: "I refuse to commit suicide. This is simply economic suicide."
Slovak PM Robert Fico blasts an EU plan to halt imports of Russian natural gas by the end of 2027.
“No more will we permit Russia to weaponize energy against us… No more will we indirectly help fill up the [Kremlin’s] war chests,” European Commissioner for Energy Dan Jorgensen told reporters.
The move, however, faces stiff opposition from several nations still heavily reliant on Russia for their imports and unsure of where alternative energy sources will be found for an acceptable price.
In addition to Hungary, Slovakia is also holding firm against the plans. Prime Minister Robert Fico said earlier this week he would veto the move in the European Council if need be.
“A halt of gas supplies will cause instability. Our petrochemical plants were set up to use Russian oil for oil refining, and the shutdown may cause technological problems. I hope that our EU partners will learn about this when legal acts are adopted,” Fico said.
“If it is necessary for all 27 countries to agree, we will use our veto power,” he added.
Currently, Hungary imports around 4.5 billion cubic meters of Russian gas annually through a long-term supply contract, which covered more than half of the country’s total gas consumption last year.
Replacing this volume on international markets, the institute notes, would cost Hungary an estimated HUF 660 billion more. When including Russian gas delivered to Hungary by alternative routes, the shortfall reaches 7.5 billion cubic meters, raising the potential total impact to HUF 1,100 billion annually.
The institute highlighted that Hungarian households today pay an average of HUF 176,900 (around €435) per year for heating, thanks to state price regulations. Without these protections and based on current exchange rates, that figure would nearly double to HUF 355,310. If Russian gas were banned outright, average heating costs could skyrocket to HUF 625,000 (€1,540) — more than three and a half times the current average.
Századvég recalled that the EU’s reliance on Russian gas fell from 40 percent before the war in Ukraine to below 20 percent in 2023. This dramatic shift led to a doubling of gas prices on the Dutch energy exchange. Under the European Commission’s new strategy, prices could rise from €35 to €70 per megawatt hour, according to the think tank’s projections. They warned, however, that actual increases could be even steeper due to market instability triggered by supply shocks.
The report also emphasized the cumulative effect of EU sanctions on Hungarian households. Since 2022, Századvég estimates that higher energy prices, loss of export markets, and increased borrowing costs have drained HUF 2.2 million (€5,430) from the average Hungarian household. The direct financial cost of Ukraine’s accelerated EU accession process would add HUF 458,000 annually, while a ban on Russian gas could tack on another HUF 448,000.
“Brussels’ three highest priority objectives — arming Ukraine, accelerating EU accession, and banning Russian energy — would impose unbearable burdens on Hungarian families,” the Századvég Institute concluded on its website.
In a clear signal that a previously taboo topic is gaining social acceptance, more than 60 percent of Poles are ready to reveal their income. However, companies are still reluctant.
According to the latest “Polish Labor Market Barometer” Personnel Service, reported on by Salon24, 61 percent of employees in Poland say they are ready to disclose their salary as part of the internal policy of pay transparency.
Full support for the disclosure of earnings is declared by 42 percent of respondents, and another 28 percent support the publication of salary forks for individual positions. At the same time, 21 percent of employees believe that the salary is a private matter and should not be the subject of open conversations in the workplace.
Advocates of pay transparency see concrete benefits in it. For 37 percent of employees, transparency would mean more trust and clarity of the company’s rules. Some 45 percent believe it would also help reduce the pay gap between women and men, a view more shared by women (52 percent) than men (38 percent).
However, as many as 41 percent of respondents believe that pay transparency can lead to conflicts, especially when there is a sense of injustice associated with wage differences.
Meanwhile, many companies still fear potentially losing control over payroll policy.
The data shows that 43 percent of employers use official salary ranges, and the same number declare general support for the transparency of wages, although often with the proviso that that this data is not provided in full. Every fifth company (21 percent) supports only the publication of forks, while 24 percent is against any form of salary disclosure. As many as 23 percent have not yet formed an opinion on this issue.
Employers are somewhat divided, with 44 percent believing that transparency can improve the climate and level of trust in the organization. On the other hand, 33 percent are afraid of tensions and conflicts in teams.
With the EU Directive on pay transparency, payroll openness is no longer an internal decision but a legal obligation. It introduces new requirements, such as the mandatory publication of forks already in recruitment advertisements and the reporting of gender pay differences.
“The topic of pay transparency is not only an expression of employee expectations and the need for transparency, but also the effect of the upcoming legislative changes,” says Krzysztof Inglot, labor market expert and founder of Personnel Service. He says companies must prepare to improve trust and communication.
Máté Kocsis, the Fidesz faction leader in Hungary’s National Assembly, says Ukraine being a member of the European Union would seal the fate of Hungarians for 100 to 150 years. He also says Brussels is urging Ukraine’s accession to the EU without examining the consequences.
The MP told the press that, unlike other countries, the Hungarian government is asking people about the accession of a country at war in the form of a mail-in vote sent to all Hungarians, reports Magyar Nemzet
“A government or a local government can be elected every four or five years, but a decision about Ukrainian accession can only be made once in a lifetime, in our lifetime,” Kocsis pointed out, adding that, this is a decision that will determine the fate of Hungarians for 100 to 150 years.
26 February 2024, Hungary, Budapest: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (M) and members of the Fidesz party are seen during a break before the newly elected Hungarian President Sulyok takes his oath in the parliament building in Budapest. Photo: Marton Monus/dpa (Photo by Marton Monus/picture alliance via Getty Images)
An accelerated Ukrainian accession, he said, will bring “political, financial, public security, economic and social problems.” This is why Hungarians must express their opinion on the matter via the mail-in vote, as this will be properly represented by Prime Minister Orbán at the EU level during negotiations.
Meanwhile, Ursula von der Leyen, president of the European Commission, persists with the argument that Ukraine should be admitted as a member of the European Union as soon as possible, despite Brussels also pushing hard for more war, highlighted Máté Kocsis.
Kocsis noted that Ukraine’s accelerated membership is not fair to those states that have already fulfilled the conditions for accession and that Hungary would practically lose its EU cohesion funds by admitting the country. The costs to rebuild Ukraine range all the way from hundreds of billions of euros to up 1 trillion euros. The MP additionally pointed to numerous security and public safety concerns that would also arise due to the activities of the Ukrainian mafia.
Saying that the current leadership in Ukraine is illegitimate, he also questioned with whom negotiations would take place.
“The minimum condition for starting accession negotiations would be the holding of a democratic election in Ukraine, which, however, requires peace first, so the EU leadership should primarily work on creating conditions for peace,” Kocsis stressed.
Another clear issue for Fidesz is the threat Ukraine membership would pose for “the European community of Patriots,” as Ukraine could potentially send some 70 to 80 representatives to Brussels, all of whom, Kocsis assumes, would be loyal to the Brussels liberal elite.
“This will be an irreversible decision,” he said, urging all Hungarians to send in their vote and make a responsible decision on the issue.
During the TVP presidential debate last night, the last one before Poles vote on May 18, candidates got testy on the topic of migration.
In the first round, there was a heated exchange of views between the two favorites, reports Do Rzeczy, when Karol Nawrocki, an unaffiliated candidate supported by right-wing Law & Justice (PiS), asked the liberal PM Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO), Rafał Trzaskowski, about the tenement house at Marszałkowska 66 in Warsaw.
In the second round, Nawrocki brought up the topic of immigration. He quoted Trzaskowski from 2015, speaking about submitting a pilot proposal to Brussels to accept 2,000 “refugees” to Poland.
“So we can see that you supported migration, created pilot projects, has that changed today? Nawrocki asked.
Trzaskowsk, the current mayor of Warsaw, replied: “You were the ones who prepared the centers for immigrants during your rule and you know that very well, while in 2015 I fought to secure the borders. We fought to solve the problems of migrants in third countries and I won a provision that clearly states that we will not accept any migrants if we help Ukraine and that is exactly what happened.”
Trzaskowski claimed that thanks to these provisions Poland did its job – it helped Ukraine and “no migration pact will come into force.” He added that PiS did not succeed in securing the border, then asking the PiS candidate, “Why did you vote against the act on tightening our visa policy?”
“So you didn’t create a pilot program for 2,000 refugees from Syria?” Nawrocki shot back.
“Answer my question, please,” the KO candidate interjected.
“You answer mine,” replied Nawrocki.
“There’s a word, perseveration. You can’t say anything without returning to PiS and saying: you, you,” said Nawrocki.
“Well, I’m talking to you. You’re from PiS, so I’m talking to you,” replied Trzaskowski.
Nawrocki finished by claiming that Trzaskowski “will flood Poland with illegal migrants.”
Poles will be replacing current PiS president, Andrzej Duda, who beat Rafał Trzaskowski in the second round of elections back in 2020. Trzaskowski is currently leading in the polls, but will need more than 50 percent of the first-round vote to avoid a second-round runoff.
A 30-year-old Afghan national residing in Merksem is facing a possible one-year suspended prison sentence after admitting to inappropriate contact with a 14-year-old girl at a swimming pool in Lier, Belgium.
The incident occurred on Aug. 13, 2023, at the Lago De Waterperels swimming complex in the province of Antwerp.
According to reports from Belgian outlet 7Sur7, the man, identified by his initials Z.A., first collided with the girl while using a water slide. He then allegedly touched her underwater. He has not denied the allegations.
The public prosecutor’s office described the offense as serious and has requested a one-year prison sentence, to be fully suspended. The court has yet to issue its final ruling, which is expected on June 5.
During the hearing, Z.A.’s lawyer, Naweed Ahmadzadah, asked the court to consider a lenient approach, citing his client’s personal history and the possible consequences of a conviction. “A conviction could ruin his future,” Ahmadzadah said. “My client fled the Taliban because he was part of a minority. He has experienced many hardships during his journey, but also in Afghanistan, where he was targeted. That is why he was recognized as a refugee here.”
The lawyer also emphasized cultural factors, arguing that Z.A. had limited interaction with women in his home country and had never been to a mixed-gender swimming facility before. “There, he never lived with women, let alone frequented mixed swimming pools. He had very little contact with other women, except his own,” he said.
Ahmadzadah further warned that a conviction could endanger Z.A.’s refugee status and family life in Belgium. “Not only is his wife unaware of this and would leave him if she found out, but a conviction would also call into question his status in Belgium. He could not be sent back to Afghanistan, but would risk having to wander in Europe,” he added.
The defense has asked the court to grant a probationary suspension of the sentence, meaning no criminal record would be imposed if Z.A. complies with court-imposed conditions.
The case is the latest example of criminal behavior at public swimming facilities in Europe involving asylum seekers and migrants. Several high-profile incidents over the past two years have raised concerns about safety, integration, and cultural clashes.
In one case in the Netherlands in February 2023, a Syrian asylum seeker was found guilty of sexually assaulting four 11-year-old girls at a Center Parcs holiday resort swimming pool in Zandvoort. Despite a total of 10 complaints from young girls and women, the man received just 60 hours of community service. His defense argued that the behavior was not sexually motivated and claimed he was homosexual — a strategy that has reportedly become more common among asylum seekers seeking legal protections.
Dutch politician Geert Wilders, leader of the right-wing Party for Freedom (PVV), reacted to the Zandvoort case on social media by calling for the deportation of asylum seekers involved in such crimes. “If that is not a reason to immediately throw an asylum seeker out of the country, then our country is lost. Get rid of these kinds of people,” he wrote.
A government-commissioned inquiry has proposed that Swedish municipalities should have the power to require property owners to contribute financially to local climate change measures, including costly flood protection.
The recommendations, presented by climate adaptation investigator Johan Hjalmarsson to Climate and Environment Minister Romina Pourmokhtari of the Liberals, would allow municipalities to build protective infrastructure such as sea walls or dams and charge property owners who benefit directly from the protection.
However, the measures would only be allowed if there is a “significant risk” of property damage from a natural event, and if the intervention meaningfully reduces said risk.
As reported by Aftonbladet, local governments would be permitted to recover up to half of the total project costs from property owners, but no individual would be charged more than 10 percent of their property’s market value. This could still result in substantial fees for some homeowners. In one example from Arvika, where the municipality built three dams for SEK 140 million (€12.8 million) to guard against flooding, the model suggests that SEK 70 million could have been charged to local property owners. For some individuals, this could amount to a personal bill of around SEK 800,000 (€73,400).
“These are amounts that many households do not have available,” the investigator wrote. He added that the proposal assumes municipalities would allow installment payments and that banks might be willing to offer loans using the now less vulnerable property as collateral.
The inquiry also calls for the introduction of a new law on state coastal protection. Under this law, the Swedish government would be able to designate specific coastal areas as nationally significant and take over responsibility for safeguarding them against flooding. This would include the construction of large-scale physical barriers, with costs covered by the state rather than individual municipalities.
Another part of the proposal focuses on indoor temperatures in the context of what he says are increasingly frequent heatwaves. The inquiry recommends setting legal limits on indoor temperatures in elderly care homes, as well as housing for people with disabilities or chronic illnesses.
Current guidelines from the Public Health Agency of Sweden are deemed insufficient in light of the intensifying effects of climate change, with heatwaves of over 30 degrees Celsius expected to become more common.
To comply with future indoor temperature standards, municipalities and care providers may need to invest in air conditioning systems and other cooling measures, the report notes.
The European Commission has formally asked Czechia to postpone finalizing a contract with South Korea’s KHNP for the construction of two nuclear reactors at the Dukovany power plant, citing concerns over foreign subsidies that could violate EU internal market rules.
Some Czech officials, however, believe the move is motivated by the fact that the competing French company lost the bid.
In a letter sent to Czech Minister of Industry and Trade Lukáš Vlček, Commission Vice-President for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy Stéphane Séjourné said that the EU executive is preparing to launch an in-depth investigation into whether KHNP received financial support that could give it an unfair advantage.
“On the basis of the information provided, as well as other information revealed by the Commission services in the context of the preliminary review, there remain significant indications that a party (KHNP) has been granted foreign subsidies that may distort the internal market,” the letter, dated May 2, stated.
As reported by Echo24, the letter follows a preliminary review launched by the Commission under the 2022 Foreign Subsidies Regulation. As part of that process, the Commission had requested data from ČEZ Group, the Dukovany power plant, and KHNP, but reported that the responses had been insufficient. Despite stressing that no final conclusions have been made, the Commission is urging Czech authorities not to move forward with the contract until its investigation is concluded.
“The duty of sincere cooperation requires that the Czech Republic avoid any situation that would irreversibly contradict the concerns set out in this letter and that could have irreversible effects hindering the effective application of the FSR,” Séjourné wrote.
The project, valued in the billions of euros, was awarded to KHNP after a competitive tender in which France’s EDF was unsuccessful. However, the French company initiated legal proceedings that led to the Regional Court in Brno blocking the contract’s signing with a preliminary measure. The timing and authorship of the European Commission’s letter, sent late on a Friday night by a French commissioner, have sparked suspicions in Prague.
Environment Minister Petr Hladík publicly questioned the circumstances surrounding the letter but stopped short of making direct allegations. Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský told CNN Prima that diplomats were evaluating the document and must first become fully acquainted with its contents.
Daniel Beneš, CEO of Czech energy giant ČEZ, was more direct in his criticism. “The French will do everything to prevent such a power plant from being built,” he told reporters. “They are not interested in winning, but in preventing the power plant from being built here, and that is dramatic news for the Czech Republic.” He added that it was “hard to believe that there is an investigation going on when no one asks you anything” and called the process dubious. Beneš also said he believed Prague should reject the contents of the letter from the Commission.
A foreign ministry spokesperson told the Czech News Agency that the case initiated by EDF is being discussed between Czech and French officials, but declined to comment on the content of those talks, citing the need to preserve good relations.
Commission Vice-President Séjourné insisted that Brussels’ objective is not to obstruct the project. “On the contrary, our intention is to ensure legal certainty and ensure that the rules of our internal market are respected,” he wrote.
Many German cities and towns now feature foreigners who terrorize the local populace, with some having dozens or even over 100 police encounters. The German city of Güstrow, in the eastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, can now add itself to this list. There, a 21-year-old Afghan is becoming a regular with police.
The climax to his numerous police encounters occurred on Monday and Tuesday of last week, when the police were called to deal with the man three times in less than 24 hours. However, the man is well-known to the police for various incidents even before last week.
The first incident occurred at 8:30 p.m. on Monday in an apartment building in Verbindungschaussee. The 21-year-old began damaging his own apartment building over a power and internet outage, which allegedly sent him into a rage. The man, who lives with his 23-year-old sister, had his own sister call the police on him.
The officers managed to restrain the man and file a complaint for property damage. The man was then temporarily banned from the apartment building.
The next day, at around 11:30 a.m., the Afghan became enraged over lawn care work being performed in the area. He then entered the property of the lawn care company and threatened two gardeners due to their work with brush cutters. The two workers fled from the area and police arrived to subdue the Afghan man.
The officers determined the Afghan was intoxicated and ordered him to leave the area. The lawn care workers did not file a complaint, which is why the police allowed the man to leave the property.
However, just four hours later, the 21-year-old punched a fellow Afghan, aged 41, for no apparent reason, on a street right next to his building. The 41-year-old had a restraining order on the 21-year-old, and the young Afghan was apparently unhappy that his victim was chatting with a neighbor.
Police arrested him once again and tested him for intoxication, with his blood alcohol level showing he was at 2.07 per mille, according to Nord Kurier.
This time, the man was taken to a police station in Rostock, where the Afghan spent the night before being released again. The man is currently under investigation for assault.
A group of young men stormed the Montfavet church in Avignon on Saturday evening, shouting, “Allahu Akbar” and threatening to burn the church down — an act of intimidation that forced police to guard the building during Sunday’s morning Mass.
The incident occurred shortly after 7:30 p.m., just as the evening Mass had ended. According to Fr. Laurent Milan, the parish priest, the confrontation began when a teenage boy arrived at the church claiming he wanted to convert. Soon after, around 10 others followed, some stating they were Muslims and asking to come inside.
According to reports by La Provence, the group quickly turned aggressive. “One of them began running around. They gathered around the priest and started hurling insults. It was chaos. We struggled to get them out,” one parishioner told the French news outlet.
According to Fr. Milan, the young men hurled explicit insults targeting Christianity and made repeated threats. “They didn’t insult me directly, but they shouted things like, ‘Jesus, we’re f***ing you,’” he said. “They were shouting ‘Allahu Akbar,’ and told us several times, ‘We’re going to come back and burn your church.’”
The priest filed a police complaint that same night, and five witnesses are understood to have already spoken to law enforcement. A police source confirmed an investigation is underway for “non-public insults because of religion” and “threats of dangerous destruction to persons.”
As of Sunday, no arrests had been made, while worshippers arriving for the day’s morning service were met with patrol cars and visible security.
According to Fr. Milan, the church has seen a spike in anti-social and threatening behavior in recent weeks. Just days earlier, on May 7, another group of youths disrupted a parish meeting by shouting and banging on the windows.
“We’ve had a computer stolen, candles taken,” he said. “Some even throw their ball against the church walls during Mass, deliberately trying to disrupt us.”
“This isn’t just disrespect,” Fr. Milan added. “This is a threat, and it’s not the first.”
Avignon city officials say they are taking the threats seriously. “Nothing justifies insults or threats against religious representatives or places of worship,” said Deputy Mayor Claude Nahoum. “We are following the matter closely.”
A video of French President Emmanuel Macron hiding a white object while traveling on a train with British and German leaders for talks in Ukraine has gone viral. The footage has sparked much speculation, with some suggesting the object was cocaine, while others contend the object is just a crumpled tissue.
Several media outlets have reported on the incident
The viral video has spread across shows Macron traveling on a train with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. During the meeting, Macron sweeps the white object off the table with his right hand and then picks it up with his left hand under the table.
NEW: French media is shutting down social media rumors that French President Emmanuel Macron was caught with a bag of cocaine during a trip to Ukraine.
The moment was caught during a train ride from Poland to Ukraine when reporters entered the room.
The situation apparently became extremely awkward when journalists suddenly entered the booth of the leaders of the “coalition of the willing.” Nervousness was visible among the European leaders when the media staff unexpectedly entered the room. The recordings clearly show that Macron immediately hid a small white object and Merz grabbed a small spoon and tucked it away. Social media users speculated it was a “snuff spoon,” typically used to grab a bump of cocaine and snort it.
However, others have pointed out that the video proves nothing, and that the small white object is nothing more than a tissue.
There are a lot of airheads out there who claim that this is Macron’s “cocaine bag” and not just a crumpled tissue.
Marija Zakharova, the spokesperson for the Russian Foreign Ministry, reacted to the recordings. As she put it: “The fate of Europe is decided by cocaine addicts.”
The scandal over the video has erupted to the point that the French leader Paris reacted to the events, writing: “When European unity becomes uncomfortable, disinformation goes so far as to present a simple fabric as a drug. This disinformation is spread by France’s enemies, both abroad and at home. We must remain vigilant against manipulation.”
Gustav Hemming, a former regional councillor and long-serving member of Sweden’s Centre Party, has been charged with sexual molestation of a child after allegedly exposing and touching his genitals in front of a 13-year-old boy on the Roslagsbanan commuter train in August 2024.
The incident was captured on CCTV footage and led to Hemming’s resignation from political life in December.
In police interview transcripts accessed by Swedish news outlet SVT, Hemming acknowledged that he is the man seen in the video but denied criminal intent. He described the act as a “misjudged” moment of what he perceived to be mutual attraction.
“I do not believe that I deliberately targeted a minor,” Hemming told police. “I looked around a bit and perceived some type of contact there… I perceived a reciprocity that can be sexually arousing in an anonymous environment.”
The 13-year-old victim, however, told police that he had been looking at his phone during the train ride and looked up to discover a man masturbating nearby. “It was really strange,” the boy said. “I thought, ‘What the hell is he doing?’”
Alarmed by the encounter, the boy called his parents upon getting off the train, fearing he might be followed. In later testimony, he expressed concern about seeing the man again, saying the experience had left a lasting sense of anxiety.
Hemming told investigators he believed the boy was older, citing what he described as the teenager’s “conscious style of dress” and “a certain self-confidence.” He also claimed that because the incident occurred in the afternoon on public transport, he assumed most passengers would be of high school age or older.
He did admit, however, to a serious error in judgment. “I think that this person has reported me, which means that I have made a very big misjudgment of this person’s attitude.”
Regarding the public reaction, Hemming said the case has had a devastating effect on his personal and professional life. “Of course, I’m very ashamed. This is also something that has become big news that has reached everyone I know and a larger public. It’s not something you ever want to be a part of.”
The Centre Party refused to comment publicly on the incident following Hemming’s resignation.
Germany’s domestic spy agency has suspended authoritarian surveillance methods of the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, and U.S. pressure may have played a role.
The German Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), the country’s powerful domestic spy agency, had labeled the AfD a “confirmed far-right organization” before suspending this designation last week. The main reason presented was that the AfD is appealing the designation in court and the agency would wait until this appeal is concluded to decide whether to keep the designation.
However, Germany’s ally, the United States, immediately criticized the designation in some of the harshest language possible, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio calling it “tyranny in disguise.” That was not all, though. U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, chairman of the powerful U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, then asked Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard (DNI) to suspend intelligence cooperation between the United States and Germany.
According to Cotton, the German authorities’ politically motivated surveillance activities resemble methods used by dictatorships that are unbecoming of a democratic ally.
“Rather than trying to undermine the AfD using the tools of authoritarian states, Germany’s incoming government might be better advised to consider why the AfD continues to gain electoral ground,” he wrote.
I asked @DNIGabbard to ensure that no American intelligence agencies cooperate with German authorities involved in surveiling domestic political opponents.
These police state tactics are more suited for Russia or Communist China, not Western Europe’s largest country.…
This would have represented a drastic break between the two allies and even a threat to Germany’s national security, which raised the stakes in Germany’s authoritarian move to stifle the political opposition. Currently, the AfD is the largest opposition party in the country and for the first time ever, polled in first place last month.
The developments have also caused a major stir in Germany. Alice Weidel, co-chair of the AfD, said American pressure was behind the BfV’s withdrawal of its designation label on the AfD. In addition, Joachim Steinhöfel, a lawyer defending freedom of speech, told NIUS that the move by the BfV is “a complete surrender by the German domestic intelligence service.” He also noted that U.S. influence was vital.
“We also have to thank the Americans for exerting massive pressure,” he added.
Germany often relies on external partners to spy on its own citizens, as Germany features very strict privacy laws. The NSA is thought to be especially active watching Germans. As a result, any U.S. withdrawal from intelligence sharing could have been disastrous for Germany.
The temporary removal of the designation was warmly welcomed by the AfD, as it gives the party breathing room. For one, a vote on the ban of the party has little chance of moving forward without the designation. Second, the designation offered the BfV the legal means to surveil the entire party and its membership without a warrant, including reading emails and chats, as well as flood the party with informants.
"I think it's really too late for a ban. The AfD is already too strong."
Despite ongoing fears of an AfD ban, @Dieter_Stein, the EIC of the influential @Junge_Freiheit, says it would be "ludicrous."
In fact, he predicts an end to the firewall against the AfD within 1-2 years. pic.twitter.com/We7hIQZrjS
Now, German intelligence is being forced to rethink its surveillance policy as political divisions grow. However, if the appeal court agrees with the BfV that the AfD can be labeled right-wing extremist, the same issue may rear its head again. It is unclear how long this appeals process will take, whether months or even years; however, there is a growing chorus from Germany’s left, as well as the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), to ban the entire AfD party.
If that happens, tensions between the U.S. and Germany could soar to new heights.
Marine Le Pen used a visit to Rome on Saturday to denounce what she called a growing “democratic scandal” within the European Union, following her recent conviction that has barred her from running in France’s next presidential election.
Speaking alongside Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini, the French nationalist leader warned that her case was part of a wider pattern of political suppression aimed at silencing sovereignist movements across Europe.
“I have an African friend who told me that there are countries where there are no elections, and countries where candidates are prevented from running,” Le Pen said in an interview with Corriere Della Sera during the visit. “I believe that my conviction is really a democratic scandal: I was prevented from running for election, despite having appealed and am therefore still presumed innocent.”
Le Pen drew a direct comparison between her own legal troubles and what she described as systematic efforts by the European establishment to neutralize opposition voices. “I can’t help but think of what happened to Salvini, what happened in Romania with Călin Georgescu, and what the European Union wants to do with Orbán,” she said. “The EU does not like defeats, but it is ready to go against the people to crush those who bother it.”
Her remarks came during a joint appearance with Salvini at the League’s School of Political Formation following a religious observance in honor of Pope Leo XIV. The two leaders, longtime allies in the European nationalist movement, presented a united front against what they view as Brussels’ overreach and ideological rigidity. “His political ideas are practically the same as mine,” Le Pen said of Salvini. “And I want to add that he is a brave, faithful man with great willpower. He really is a friend.”
Le Pen also used her Rome trip to criticize ongoing EU defense integration efforts, particularly the Readiness 2030 initiative, which she claimed is another vehicle for centralizing power in Brussels. “Whenever there is a crisis, the EU takes advantage to push integrated policies that override national sovereignty,” she said. “Today, it does so with Ukraine and tries to build a European army. It does so in an absolutely cynical way, to impose its ideological agenda on the European people.”
With French President Emmanuel Macron and other EU leaders visiting Kyiv for meetings with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, and the so-called “Coalition of the Willing,” Le Pen questioned the coalition’s true aim. “Does it want to reach an agreement for peace, or will it end up fomenting war?” she asked. “Macron has put himself in the shoes of the warrior. France should do the opposite: devote all its efforts to acting as a mediator in the direction of peace.”
Though Patriots for Europe, the nationalist parliamentary group Le Pen co-founded, is now the third-largest bloc in the European Parliament, she acknowledged that uniting with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) could elevate their influence further. “I do not lose hope that the sovereigntists can evolve into a single formation,” she said. “After all, we already vote together on many amendments. Certainly, there is more that unites us than separates us.”
On Meloni herself, Le Pen insisted she has “an important diplomatic role, and that’s no surprise. We have differences — especially her support for the election of Ursula von der Leyen — but she’s achieved results, both externally and for Italy’s economy.”
Despite tensions between the French and Italian governments, Le Pen advocated for a revival of the bilateral relationship. “France and Italy are the two most similar countries in Europe,” she said. “I support a true Renaissance in relations between them.”
In contrast, she dismissed the longstanding Franco-German axis. “That axis is a choice of the current French government,” she said. “Germany has always pursued its own policies. I believe Europe needs rules that apply equally to all.”
Legia Warsaw fans hung a massive banner addressed to Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski during their latest game against Lech Poznań.
This is not the first time that Legia Warsaw fans have presented a political banner targeting the candidate in this month’s presidential elections, writes wPolityce.
The “Legionnaires” also called out Rafał Trzaskowski’s order related to crosses in public places: “Rafał ordered to remove crosses, now he pretends to be Catholic. Do you know a more false politician?” they wrote on a banner at the match against Lechia Gdańsk.
And then there was the banner during the Polish Cup final match against Pogoń Szczecin. “Let’s not allow the hypocritical, rainbow Rafał to rule Poland with Sławek the drug addict,” it read.
Legia ponownie z transparentem:
„Trzaskowski zniszczy Polskę tak, jak nikszczy Warszawę. Transparent ten zlecił Sławek, którego zniszczyły narkotyki”
During this most recent match against Lech Poznań, Legja fans warned of Trzaskowski’s destruction of Poland and Warsaw.
“Trzaskowski will destroy Poland just as he is destroying Warsaw!” the banner read. It also displayed the person who had “ordered” the banner: “This banner was commissioned by Sławek, who was destroyed by drugs.”
Rafał Trzaskowski was not at the match, reports Gol24, but at an election rally in Płock, the Civic Platform politician told those present: “This presidential election will be primarily about values. What kind of politics is this without honesty, without truth, without decency. Then it is pure cynicism.”
A 29-year-old man from Mali was taken into custody in France on Thursday, accused of slaughtering and cutting up dead goats in an underground car park in what authorities described as a “savage butchery.”
As reported by Le Figaro, the incident unfolded late on Thursday morning in Nantes when a local resident alerted police to a foul smell coming from the car park on boulevard Gaston Serpette. Upon arrival, officers found pools of blood spreading beyond a plastic tarpaulin, pieces of flesh strewn across the floor, and the mutilated bodies of six goats.
“It was a savage butchery, there was blood everywhere,” said a source from the Nantes police, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of the investigation.
The suspect, who was found at the scene with knives and hatchets in his possession, was immediately arrested and placed in police custody.
During questioning, the man told police that a friend had given him the goats — which he claimed were already dead — to cut up for food. He insisted that he was unaware such a practice is illegal in France, particularly in non-regulated environments.
Authorities said the underground car park where the slaughter took place is jointly rented by the Ministry of the Sea and the postal service, La Poste. The origin of the animals remains unknown.
No formal complaints have been filed, but both the Society for the Protection of Animals (SPA) and the animal welfare organization Urgence Maltraitance Animale have been notified.
The man, who was previously unknown to police and had no criminal record, may face charges related to the illegal slaughter of animals and potential breaches of public health or safety regulations.
Police are continuing their investigation to determine the source of the goats and whether others were involved.
In addition to battery-powered vehicles, Chinese automotive giant Build Your Dreams (BYD) will also produce plug-in hybrid electric cars in its European plants, including in Szeged, reports Világgazdaság based on Autonews.
BYD has been profiting nicely off its exports of plug-in hybrids to the European Union and the United Kingdom, becoming the world’s largest electric vehicle manufacturer, and now has plants and offices in more than 75 countries on six continents.
The BYD factory in Szeged will cost around $4.5 billion and will produce around 200,000 vehicles per year from the end of 2025, with total production planned for 350,000 units. The Chinese plant will be built on a 300-hectare site on the outskirts of the city, with the first vehicle expected to roll off the production line in the second half of this year.
Világgazdaság notes that BYD is facing high tariffs in the U.S. market and a 17 percent import tariff in Europe. For this reason, it is investing in local factories, such as the one in Hungary, but will also begin building a facility in Turkey, and the company’s executives have even raised the prospect of building a third European factory.
Forbes ranks Li as China’s most influential woman and one of 60 Chinese nationals who have earned recognition in North America for their outstanding work, while Time magazine also named her one of the 100 business leaders they believe can do the most to combat climate change.
Under her leadership, BYD became the largest supplier of electric commercial vehicles and energy storage in the USA, but she also reformed the public transport fleets of Chile and Colombia, and helped the corporate giant conquer the Brazilian market.
BYD announced in 2023 that it had chosen Hungary as its main European production location. The Szeged plant, which will start production this year, is planned to serve the European market with 200,000 (later up to 300,000) cars per year. The first two BYD models to be produced in Szeged will be the Dolphin and the Atto 3.
It took several years of preparatory work and 224 rounds of negotiations on the part of the Hungarian government for the world’s largest and now most technologically advanced electric car manufacturer to choose the country as its preferred European base.
The €4 billion investment is unparalleled in Hungarian economic history, and analysts believe that together with the BMW factory in Debrecen, it could boost the domestic GDP by several tenths of a percentage point, while creating ten thousand jobs. According to initial reports, BYD is offering its employees an average salary of €1,800-€2,000 (HUF 726,000-HUF 807,000 forints at the current exchange rate).
Aside from imposing punitive tariffs on imported electric cars directly from China, the European Commission recently launched an anti-subsidy investigation into BYD’s investment in Hungary, investigating whether the Chinese giant received unfair support from the Hungarian government, violating fair competition.
Mandiner points out that in 2020, 2023, and then 2024, Chinese companies brought the most investment to Hungary. With the support of the government, 54 modern Chinese large-scale investments have been made in Hungary in the last 10 years, with a total value of HUF 7 trillion, directly creating more than 30,000 new jobs.
For the first three months of 2025, both oil and gas MOL and banking giant OTP recorded significant results, reports Mandiner.
MOL increased its first-quarter operating profit from HUF 151 billion ($420 million) last year to HUF 185.8 billion ($483 million) this year, according to a report published on the Budapest Stock Exchange (BSE) website on Friday.
The group’s net sales also increased in the first three months of this year, from HUF 2.05 trillion to HUF 2.17 trillion on a year-over-year basis. EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) increased from HUF 257.7 billion ($718 million) to HUF 318.8 billion ($833 million), and the net profit increased from HUF 95.9 billion ($265 million) to HUF 152.3 billion ($393 million).
Given the improvement in industry conditions, the results were in line with analyst expectations, reports the portal.
OTP Bank exceeded average expectations in the first quarter and achieved a consolidated adjusted after-tax profit of HUF 188.58 billion, 21 percent lower than the same period of the previous year. According to the consensus of results compiled by OTP, analysts expected an average profit of HUF 183.6 billion for January-March 2025.
Most of the bank’s geographical segments generated profits in January-March, with foreign operations contributing 110 percent to profit. Operating profit increased by 22 percent year-over-year to HUF 408.070 billion in the first quarter.
In other news, the government’s measures to combat inflation are finally paying off, with certain food prices seeing declines in April, the Central Statistical Office reported.
For the month, consumer prices were 4.2 percent higher on average than a year earlier, while month-over-month, prices increased by 0.2 percent on average.
On an annual basis, food prices increased by 5.4 percent, including eggs by 26.9, flour by 23.7, cooking oil by 23.4, chocolate and cocoa by 20.0, coffee by 19.8, fruit and vegetable juices by 14.5, snack foods by 9.8, non-alcoholic soft drinks by 8.2, milk by 7.5, and bread by 6.8 percent.
There were, however, a few bright spots within the product group. The price of margarine decreased by 29.2 percent, dairy products by 7.5 percent, and sausages by 6.4 percent.
The data was better when compared to March. Here, overall food prices decreased by 1.3 percent. Within this, margarine cost 23.6 percent less, dairy products 13.4 percent, flour 12.5 percent, butter and buttercream 8.7 percent, milk 8.6 percent, cooking oil 6.1 percent, sausages 5.9 percent, cheese 5.4 percent, poultry 5.0 percent, sugar 4.3 percent, and pork 4.1 percent less.
However, chocolate and cocoa increased in price by 3.3 percent. Household energy increased in price by the highest degree, by 3.8 percent. Clothing items increased in price by an average of 2.1 percent, spirits and tobacco by 1.3 percent in one month, within the latter, tobacco by 2.4 percent.
Meanwhile, inflation continued to creep higher in services, up 7 percent year-over-year, including postal services by 11.3 percent, rent by 11.0 percent, vehicle repair and maintenance by 10.5 percent, personal care services by 10.1 percent, home repair and maintenance by 9.8 percent, and holiday services by 8.4 percent.
The price of alcoholic beverages and tobacco products increased by 6.3 percent, and household energy costs increased by 3.5 percent on average.
Durable consumer goods increased by 2.0 percent, and pharmaceuticals and medical supplies increased by 4.9 percent. In another positive trend, the price of vehicle fuels decreased by 7.1 percent.
Compared to March, services increased in price by 0.8 percent, including domestic holidays by 4.7 percent, foreign holidays by 1.4 percent, and vehicle repair and maintenance by 1.0 percent. The price of vehicle fuels decreased by 1.4 percent, and the price of medicines and medical supplies increased by 3.1 percent, the Central Statistical Office reported.
The government is extending the mark-up freeze to drugstores, meaning that the prices of more than 1,000 new products could drop significantly from the second half of May. The measure will be implemented from May 19 to August 31 for drugstores that sell more than 40 percent of household goods, covering a total of 30 product categories and applying to products where a significant margin of more than 30 percent can be identified.
Hungary hopes to keep inflation in a range of 3 to 4 percent and to reduce food inflation to a level below 5 percent.
Hungary has expelled two Ukrainian diplomats accused of engaging in espionage under diplomatic cover, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó announced on Friday.
The move marks a significant escalation in already strained relations between Budapest and Kyiv, with Hungary asserting its right to protect national sovereignty and reject what it describes as politically motivated smear campaigns.
“Today, we expelled two spies working under diplomatic cover at the Ukrainian embassy in Hungary,” Minister Szijjártó stated in a video published on Facebook. “These individuals were not conducting diplomatic activity — they were spying, under the cover of diplomacy.”
According to Szijjártó, the expulsion is a direct response to what he described as a persistent anti-Hungarian campaign orchestrated by Ukraine since the outbreak of the war. He emphasized that Hungary’s commitment to peace and its refusal to be drawn into the conflict have made it a target of Ukraine’s political hostility.
“We are being attacked because we are not on the side of war, but on the side of peace,” the foreign minister said. “We have not supplied weapons to Ukraine, and we will not allow ourselves to be dragged into this war. These are the reasons behind the lies and smear campaigns directed at Hungary.”
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs confirmed that the official note regarding the expulsions was handed to the Ukrainian ambassador in Budapest on Friday. Szijjártó reiterated that Hungary would not tolerate continuous provocation or baseless accusations from its eastern neighbor.
The decision appears to be a tit-for-tat response to an announcement by Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU), which also on Friday claimed it had dismantled a supposed Hungarian military intelligence network operating in western Ukraine.
As reported by Telex, the SBU alleged that the network was gathering information about defense vulnerabilities in Transcarpathia — a historically Hungarian-influenced region — and monitoring public opinion on hypothetical Hungarian military intervention.
The past three years have shown that the war in Ukraine is being fought not only on the battlefield, but also in the information space. Anti-Hungarian propaganda is often used without any factual basis. https://t.co/l5x0OscNo4
Budapest views the latest allegations as part of a broader campaign of disinformation aimed at undermining Hungary’s credibility ahead of important decisions, including Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union. While Hungary has consistently expressed skepticism over Ukraine’s EU and NATO integration, it has insisted that the decision should ultimately rest with its citizens.
This week, prominent Eurocrats, including European People’s Party (EPP) President Manfred Weber, ramped up the pressure on Hungary to drop its opposition to Ukrainian EU membership, suggesting Ukraine should have the same opportunities afforded to Hungary and several Eastern European member states at the turn of the century.
Orbán, however, hit back, insisting, “Hungary was admitted to the European Union because it was a good deal for everyone, including Germany. The accession of Ukraine is not a good deal. It is a liability. It is a huge mistake to send European funds to Ukraine instead of using them to strengthen the struggling European economy.”
Budapest has long remained opposed to Europe dragging itself into the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, refusing to sanction arms deliveries and further economic packages to Kyiv — a viewpoint now shared in the Oval Office.
Orbán has, however, delegated his country’s response to Ukraine’s future in Europe to the Hungarian people in the form of a referendum announced earlier this year.
“The Hungarian people will not be told by Kyiv or Brussels how to exercise their rights,” the prime minister has said in response to pressure to conform to the Western European-majority view on Ukrainian integration.
A Syrian man is accused of dousing his wife in flammable liquid and setting her on fire in the city of Goslar. The 40-year-old was found critically wounded after falling out of her window in what appears to be a femicide on the eastern side of the side.
Investigators say the woman was sleeping peacefully in her bed when Mohamad R. doused her in flammable liquid. The woman woke up on fire, and in a panic, began running. Investigators believe he then pushed her flaming body out of the window.
The woman was found Monday lying outside, under the 2nd-floor window of her apartment building with severe burns across her body. She was critically injured and rushed to the hospital but succumbed to her injuries there.
The family’s 5-year-old son and 21-year-old daughter are being cared for now by the German youth welfare office.
The 50-year-old Syrian man has been arrested and charged with murder, according to the Braunschweig public prosecutor’s office.
The couple was married for 21 years, had lived in the Harz Mountains in Lower Saxony since 2021 and moved to Am Müllerkamp Straße in the Oker district just a month and a half ago.
Police are exploring jealousy as a potential reason behind the crime. Mohamad R. was known to keep his wife from the public.
“In the entire time, I only saw her three times,” a landlady told Bild newspaper. The man was said to be delusional about his wife having a potential affair; however, police are still investigating a motive.
“We assume it was a crime of passion, but we don’t yet know the exact motive,” a source told Bild.
According to Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, Turkey or China could also mediate between Ukraine and Russia if the United States really withdraws from the negotiations, the Kyiv Independent reports.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski says Turkey or China could be suitable mediators if the United States withdrew from talks. Following a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Warsaw, Sikorski said he hoped the United States would be successful in its mediation efforts.
“But if this path turns out to be unsuccessful, there are other candidates,” Sikorski added. “There is Turkey, which maintains channels of communication. And then, above all, there is the People’s Republic of China, which, more than anyone else, has the means to make (Russian President Vladimir) Putin come to the negotiating table and soften his demands,” the Polish foreign minister has said, according to European Pravda.
Just a week ago, U.S. President Trump insisted he believed Russian President Putin wants peace, despite also saying Putin may be “tapping him along a bit.” Trump also admitted his displeasure at Putin shooting missiles into Ukraine.
Yesterday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that the U.S. was prepared to “walk away” from the negotiating table if it did not see Russia making progress in talks aimed at ending the war.
Turkey enjoys diplomatic and economic relations with both Russia and Ukraine and is a strategic player in the Black Sea region. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has been vocal in wanting to help push diplomatic efforts to bring a ceasefire and ultimate end to the war. As to China, it has made no secret of being a close ally of Russia, despite also vying for the role of mediator.
Back in April, after two Chinese citizens were captured by Ukrainian forces, Zelensky claimed many more were on the ground.
China has consistently denied sending weapons or combat troops to Russia’s aid. Beijing is nevertheless seen as Moscow’s strategic partner, despite it communicating intentions to play the role of a neutral mediator.
At the time, Zelensky wrote: “Russia’s involvement of China, along with other countries, whether directly or indirectly, in this war in Europe is a clear signal that Putin intends to do anything but end the war.”
In terms of any chance the U.S. will walk away from negotiations, Vice President JD Vance told Fox News that this would happen if they felt the Russians were not engaging in talks in good faith. During that same interview, Vance also noted that Russia, as expected, had asked for “too much” and, in answer to whether or not the U.S. would ramp up military aid, he replied, “We do not want Ukraine to collapse,” adding that the U.S. wants it “to remain a sovereign country.”
On Truth Social, Trump posted, “As president, I will stay committed to securing peace between Russia and Ukraine, together with the Europeans, and a lasting peace it will be!”
A Tunisian migrant living in France illegally for several years was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Wednesday by the Var criminal court for the rape and robbery of a young man in Toulon during the early hours of June 26, 2021.
The long-lasting psychological effects of the attack took their toll on the victim, known by his chosen name “Babou,” who took his own life in 2024 after suffering with the aftermath for three years.
As reported by French news outlet Nice-Matin, Babou was a self-taught pianist, described by those close to him as a “sunny” and “free-spirited” young man. Suffering from multiple sclerosis since his teenage years, the 25-year-old had struggled to adapt to life in Toulon after relocating with his parents from Paris.
On the night of the attack, he had left Sainte-Musse Hospital against medical advice in an emotionally distressed state and under the influence of alcohol.
As Babou attempted to walk home, he encountered 19-year-old Oussama Chledi, a Tunisian national living illegally in France since 2018. The court found that Chledi took advantage of Babou’s disoriented state, stealing his phone and gold chain before demanding oral sex in exchange for their return.
Believing Chledi to be armed and fearing for his life, Babou complied. Chledi then violently raped him on the street.
Chledi was identified through DNA evidence and arrested five months later. Initially, he denied having ever met the victim. It was only when confronted with forensic results during the investigation that he acknowledged a sexual act took place, which he insisted was consensual — a claim he maintained until his trial.
On Wednesday in court, he said for the first time, “Yes, I admit, but I wasn’t in my normal state.” He claimed that a mix of alcohol and medication led him to commit the crime.
The court rejected this explanation. Prosecutor Céline Hortal emphasized that Chledi had shown a pattern of deception during the investigation.
At the trial, a video of Babou playing French pianist Erik Satie’s Gnossienne No. 1 was shown as a tribute to his life.
Defense lawyer Nicolas Tabert attempted to claim the sexual attack was not premeditated, an argument the court dismissed as it sentenced him to an immediate custodial sentence.
In addition, Chledi was permanently banned from French territory following his release.
Hungarian business news portal Portfolio reports on an EV analysis by Transport & Environment (T&E), a European organization promoting clean energy and sustainable transport. The group looked at vehicle taxation systems in 31 countries across the continent and found that company cars account for around 60 percent of new car sales in the EU, meaning this segment is the most important channel for increasing demand for electric vehicles.
The financial incentive for buying electric company cars in Germany, the continent’s largest car market, is one of the lowest in all of Europe. This is a problem because company car sales in Germany account for more than two-thirds of the local new car market and nearly a third of company car sales in the EU.
German corporate car buyers can save an average of only €8,718 in taxes over four years by choosing an electric model (compact SUV) instead of a petrol/diesel one, while in France — the EU’s second-largest market — they can save almost three times that amount, €24,395.
The German value also lags behind Hungarian data, where there is a tax difference of €11,825 in favor of purchasing electricity,
In other words, according to the analysis (calculated at the current exchange rate of 404 forints to the euro at the time of writing this article), over four years, nearly HUF 4.8 million less tax is paid for a company electric compact SUV compared to a gasoline one. This places Hungary towards the end of the EU middle ground in this respect, and among the former Eastern Bloc countries, only Slovenia (€27,001) and the Czech Republic (€13,952) are ahead of it.
Although progressive tax systems exist in Europe that support e-mobility and could lead to higher electrification rates, governments in the largest markets are essentially doing the opposite, instead of promoting electric vehicles through smart taxation and increasing deductions for polluting SUVs.
The analysis highlights Germany as the “European tax haven” for conventionally powered heavy-duty SUVs, as German companies purchasing such vehicles can receive more benefits over four years than they have to pay in taxes on the SUV.
In Germany, which ranks last on the list at number 31, the financial benefits associated with purchasing a company car can total €7,072 over four years, according to the analysis, but in Estonia (€3,033) and Hungary (€118), the net balance of taxes payable is negative from the buyer’s perspective in the large (E) conventionally-powered SUV category.
Denmark tops the list, where the four-year net tax burden can total €208,690, but the deduction in Ireland (€182,450), France (€142,912) and Norway (€129,450) is also high enough to deter corporate customers from buying large petrol SUVs.
In the smaller, compact size category, deductions are generally lower in individual countries than in the case of heavy SUVs, but remarkably, there are countries where the situation is exactly the opposite. For example, in Germany, the balance is positive in this category as well, meaning that companies purchasing compact internal combustion engine-powered SUVs can receive a net tax benefit of €2,753 over four years, while in Hungary there is a payment obligation of €57.
Financial incentives in these countries are driving companies planning to buy conventionally powered SUVs towards larger, more polluting, more resource-intensive models.
The T&E analysis also examined the tax obligations for private car buyers, based on a typical ownership period of 10 years, which is longer than the four-year period specified for company cars.
When comparing taxes on privately owned vehicles, a similar trend can be detected. The list is also led by the Northern European countries, which are at the forefront of many other environmental awareness indicators. For example, in the absolute first place, Denmark, citizens who own a compact SUV equipped with an internal combustion engine must pay an average of €45,213 in taxes over a 10-year period. In the large countries, the deductions are much smaller, for example in Germany it is only €1,535, which is not much higher than the Hungarian value of €1,208, which puts our country at the top of the last third of the field, which is typically made up of Eastern European states.
By choosing the electric model, retail buyers can also exempt themselves from significant tax obligations, although there is significant variation between European countries in this respect.
In most countries, the differences between the deductions for electric and conventionally powered compact city SUVs reach the order of millions of forints over 10 years, converted from euros, with the top countries Denmark and Norway well above HUF 10 million (€44,086 and €27,276, respectively). The large countries are typically in the middle ground, but the 23rd and 27th positions of Germany (€1,535) and the United Kingdom (€622) can be classified as the last ones, along with Hungary’s 24th position (€1,208).
The European trend of large urban SUVs is driven by corporate car purchases: Based on sales figures for 2024, 71 percent of the nearly three-quarters of a million large SUVs registered in the EU were in corporate fleets. The trend is even more pronounced for heavier SUVs (EG segments), which have a share of the company car market that is three times higher than that of private car purchases.
The main reason for this is the tax policy, the effects of which are also reflected in the sales figures: While Germany and Poland account for 30 percent and 6 percent of new company cars registered in the EU, respectively, the two countries have a much larger share of 40 percent and 16 percent of EU sales of petrol/diesel heavy (EG segment) urban SUVs. In contrast, in France, which has a tax system that supports e-mobility, although 15 percent of new company cars are registered in the EU, only 0.3 percent of large petrol/diesel SUVs are sold on the French company car market.
“Reforming the car tax system could increase demand for electric vehicles, generate additional revenues, and make the green transition more socially just,” T&E points out
By restructuring tax systems at the member state level, the purchase of electric vehicles manufactured in the EU could also be supported, and at the EU level, the European Commission should set binding targets for electric vehicles for large companies, the organization’s policy recommendations state.
The spread of large urban SUVs is a worrying trend in several respects, as these vehicles have larger engines and mass compared to conventional passenger cars, and therefore have a larger environmental footprint and emit more carbon dioxide and other pollutants that contribute to climate change than average cars. Due to their size, they are also more often involved in fatal traffic accidents.
A 21-year-old Nigerian national attacked a man in Katowice this past Wednesday during his workout at a gym back in February 2025, but now the man is being released without prison time. The assailant reportedly used a metal exercise hammer belonging to the gym, although the motive for the attack is unknown.
Police immediately arrived on scene and arrested a “very agitated and aggressive” 21-year-old, named Princewill Dominic, the Provincial Police Headquarters in Katowice reported, as cited by the Dziennik Zachodni news portal.
It reportedly took six police officers to arrest the Nigerian man. Meanwhile, the victim was transported to the hospital to be treated for his injuries. The Nigerian struck the 23-year-old victim with a 20-kilogram exercise hammer, which could have killed him.
🇵🇱 This Nigerian man beat a 23-year-old Polish man with 20-kilogram exercise hammer, but now the Nigerian will be released with no prison sentence.
The incident happened in February 2025, when police reports indicate that the Nigerian attacked the Polish man for no apparent… pic.twitter.com/NvOQnUMwbh
According to sources, the Katowice Południe District Prosecutor’s Office “decided to discontinue the investigation” into Dominic for attempted murder. The man attacked was able to dodge the blow of the hammer used by Dominic, resulting in an injury to his upper back and “disruption of his health for less than seven days.”
The Nigerian man was detained for three months but has since been released.
The prosecutor’s report states that no crime was committed since “he committed the alleged act when he was incapable of recognizing the meaning of the act and directing his actions (…) due to the complete abolition of his sanity at the time of the act.”
The court stated that the fact that the man was on drugs rendered him legally insane, which means he cannot be tried for his actions.
Social media users are also claiming to have found the man’s Instagram and Facebook and they claim that he has already flown to the United Kingdom since being released, but this remains unconfirmed.
Ahead of a commemorative concert marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, Czech President Petr Pavel warned that modern-day Russia is displaying behavior reminiscent of Nazi Germany and called on citizens to vote for parties committed to national and democratic security.
“Unfortunately, today’s Russia behaves in some respects as Nazi Germany once did,” Pavel said on Thursday.
“It does not respect international law, it respects the right of the strongest, it has invaded a sovereign country and has been waging an aggressive war for more than three years,” referencing Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Pavel also paid tribute to those who fought against fascism and imperial aggression during the Second World War, including Soviet soldiers, but emphasized that honoring their sacrifice does not extend to defending the present-day Russian regime. “It does not mean respect for today’s Russia at all,” he said.
In a message posted to social media earlier in the day, Pavel reflected on the historical significance of Victory in Europe Day, noting that “World War II marked the lives of millions of people and showed how far hatred and division in society can lead.” He warned of the tendency to forget history’s lessons, urging Czechs to remember those who “fought against oppression and injustice, and who often paid the ultimate price for our freedom.”
Pavel praised Czechia’s unwavering condemnation of Russian aggression since the invasion of Ukraine began, framing it as a moral and strategic obligation rooted in the lessons of the 20th century. “Authoritarians and aggressors must not be appeased,” he said. “We must look at today through this lens.”
As reported by Echo24, the president also warned about domestic threats to democracy, citing rising authoritarian tendencies within Czechia. He criticized efforts to rewrite or distort history, noting that even on Thursday in Prague, rallies were held where “history was distorted.” He was referring to demonstrations by the right-wing SPD and its allies in the Czech capital’s Old Town Square in protest at increased defense spending.
Tomio Okamura’s party, which is more aligned with the official Hungarian and Slovak position on the war in Ukraine, called for immediate peace through a deal between Russia and the United States.
At a separate event, anti-government activist Ladislav Vrabel accused Czechia’s establishment politicians and media outlets of inciting anti-Russian sentiment and preparing the country for war.
Pavel concluded his address with a call for civic vigilance. “If we go to the polls this autumn, we need to vote wisely, to vote for politicians and parties that will be serious about security in our country,” he said.
A 40-year-old man was arrested in Amiens on Tuesday morning after a series of violent assaults against women, during which he reportedly said to one of his victims, “I’ve wanted to fuck a white woman for a long time.”
The suspect, who has a history of rape and sexual assault convictions, is now under investigation for attempted rape with a weapon, attempted murder, aggravated sexual assault, and aggravated violence.
As reported by France Bleu, the attacks took place between 7:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. on Tuesday in the Saint-Honoré district of the French city. According to Amiens deputy prosecutor Véronique Parent, the man first confronted a woman around 8:30 a.m., pressing a kitchen knife into her back and threatening her by saying, “Follow me or I’ll kill you.” He then led her to a more secluded area where he made the sexually charged comment about White women. The assault was interrupted when a witness intervened, prompting the man to flee.
Minutes later, he targeted another woman, stabbing her between four and six times, according to investigators, before escaping again. That victim sustained non-life-threatening injuries and remains hospitalized.
Police arrested the suspect shortly after the second assault, finding him heavily intoxicated and fleeing on a scooter.
During the investigation, authorities identified two additional victims attacked earlier that morning. In one case, the man threatened a woman with a knife and ordered her to follow him, but she managed to escape. In another, he groped a woman as she was placing her child into a car seat.
Prosecutors revealed that the suspect has an extensive criminal record, including prior convictions for drug trafficking in 2005 and 2007, followed by three separate convictions for rape and sexual assault in Fort-de-France, Caen, and Evry.
After his most recent conviction in 2020, he had been under court supervision in Amiens, living in a treatment facility for alcoholism while reportedly seeking employment.
As of Wednesday evening, the man remained in custody, with the Amiens prosecutor’s office confirming that an initial court appearance is scheduled for Friday.
Spanish National Police have arrested a man wanted in Germany for an ATM theft involving a thermal lance and explosive materials, in which €264,000 in cash was stolen from a Deutsche Bank machine in Berlin.
The arrest occurred on May 2 at the Port of Almería, as the suspect attempted to board a ferry bound for Nador, Morocco.
As reported by La Vanguardia, the man, accompanied by his brother and driving a van, was intercepted by officers from the Border Unit of the Provincial Police Station in Almería. The arrest was the result of a coordinated surveillance effort launched after the Sirene-Spain Office issued an alert indicating the suspect might attempt to flee the Schengen Area through Spain.
According to Spanish authorities, the officers located the suspect at the vehicle departure line at the border post and confirmed the validity of the European Arrest Warrant issued by German authorities. He was then taken into custody without incident.
Police say the suspect was involved in a violent ATM robbery on the night of April 17, 2024, in Berlin. During the incident, he and an accomplice, who died that same night, used a thermal lance — a tool that heats and melts steel in the presence of pressurized oxygen to create an explosion — to breach the cash dispenser. In addition to the substantial cash theft, the operation caused an estimated €30,000 in property damage.
At the time of his arrest, the man was found to be in possession of just over €6,000 in cash. He was transferred to the police station, where specialized officers from the Unit Against Illegal Immigration Networks and Document Forgeries handled the formal processing of his detention.
The suspect now faces extradition to Germany, where he could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if convicted.
Spanish authorities have confirmed that he has already been brought before the appropriate judicial body for proceedings related to his extradition.
ATM thefts are a prominent modus operandi for migrant gangs operating within Germany and neighboring countries.
Banks operate nearly 100,000 ATMs located throughout Germany, with the machines routinely containing between €50,000 and €100,000. Criminal gangs are taking advantage of this, and they are willing to use extreme methods to gain access to this money.
“This extensive network has, in part, drawn organized criminal groups from abroad, seeing the density of ATMs and Germany’s demand for cash access as factors in their favor,” noted a spokesperson for the German Banking Industry Committee last year.
In 2022, government statistics indicated that organized crime gangs blew up 496 such machines, a record high.
“We see ATM blasts all over the world, but the intensity that we experience in Germany is really in a league of its own,” Stefan Lessmann, head of security at ATM-maker Diebold Nixdorf, said previously when asked about the problem.
Ferenc Gyurcsány of Hungary’s opposition party Democratic Coalition (DK) is resigning as chairman and from all other positions, his wife, DK MEP Klára Dobrev, announced on her Facebook page. Gyurcsány has made the decision to retire from public life, and the two will also be separating after 30 years of marriage.
“Ferenc Gyurcsány will always enjoy the friendship, love, and respect of the entire DK community,” she added.
According to Dobrev, the decision was made because Gyurcsány “wants to put a permanent end to the Hungarian right-wing trying to escape all its sins by lying about Gyurcsány.” DK will hold a new presidential election soon, with executive vice president Csaba Molnár holding the position for now.
In the post, she writes that their mutual respect and friendship for each other are eternal, but now they are grieving. “This is the first thing in a long time that we have to deal with separately, not together,” Dobrev wrote.
Ferenc Gyurcsány was the prime minister of Hungary between 2004 and 2009. He fell from power after his infamous speech in 2006 in Ószöd, when masses of opposition parties and protesters demanded his resignation. An entire Wikipedia page is now dedicated to excerpts from the profanity-laden speech he gave at the Hungarian Socialist Party (MSZP) convention that spring, but the more notable ones include: “And meanwhile, by the way, we’ve done nothing for four years. Nothing.” and “I almost perished because I had to pretend for 18 months that we were governing. Instead, we lied morning, night, and evening.”
He was eventually replaced as prime minister by Gordon Bajnai in the spring of 2009. He has held the position of chairman of the Democratic Coalition he founded since 2011.
Meanwhile, just a few days ago, one of the founders of the liberal Momentum party, Anna Orosz, resigned from her parliamentary mandate and will not be running in the 2026 elections. Posting on Facebook, she said: “The Orbán regime’s response to my standing up for our democratic rights and for people attacked by the authorities is to twist my arms and subject me to action.”
“Although Fidesz did everything it could to empty the institution of parliament, my political circle and I obviously share responsibility for the way things turned out. I did not do many things well, I was often unable to forge a majority behind good causes, and I was often not tactical or efficient enough.”
Five Momentum MPs (Orosz was not among them) and Ákos Hadházy were banned from parliament for weeks last week and had their salaries revoked for four and six months, respectively, for protesting with smoke candles in the chamber against the amendment to the assembly law (which would allow for the banning of Pride). The faction announced that the other party MPs will not participate in parliamentary work during the ban.
In 2022, Orosz won the seat as the joint candidate of the opposition from KDNP faction leader István Simicskó in Budapest’s 2nd constituency.
In her post, she says she is certain that “the intention to make a change, to improve our common affairs, has been in me throughout this time. For me, the work of a representative is a service, not an average job. It is a huge honor, but also a responsibility. Since 2019, I have considered it my duty to work to the best of my ability in the interests of the people of Újbuda and Hungarians. I feel that I no longer have the opportunity to do this as a member of parliament. The system twists my arms, both literally and figuratively, if I try to do something in the interests of the voters.”
Orosz is convinced she will earn the voters’ trust by realizing that she is only getting in the way of meaningful change if she remains in this situation.
“I see child protection as our most important common cause. Nothing is more indicative of the state of our society than how we treat the most vulnerable children. I am trying to find a way to continue the work I have started, in which many child protection actors have helped me, for which I am very grateful,” she wrote.
Although Orosz’s party colleague Miklós Hajnal did not resign, he announced at the end of March that he would not run again in Hegyvidék in 2026, where Péter Magyar plans to run.
Just yesterday, the original face and leader of Momentum, as well as former prime ministerial candidate, András Fekete-Győr, told Klubrádió that Momentum cannot stand in the way of a change of government, which is why he has initiated a delegate meeting where they will vote on whether the party should run in the 2026 parliamentary elections. He also said that there are many within the party who support this initiative, but the membership is divided on the issue. He also does not rule out a party split if they cannot reach a common denominator.
Fekete-Győr sees that Momentum voters want regime change at all costs, and he understands this. According to him, Momentum currently has 2-3 percent, and as much as 4 percent support in some places, so there is a stake in what Momentum does. Specifically, the politician said it can be a shaper of regime change.
“The question is whether we want to be part of the solution or the problem. If we run and take away those 2-3 percent from the rural voters, or even 4-5-6 in Budapest, that would be fatal. That would be four more years of corruption, four more years of hatred, four more years of poverty. If we want to look in the mirror after 2026, we must now take one step back so that Hungary can take two steps forward, this is the only correct answer,” said András Fekete-Győr.
Fekete-Győr also spoke about the other’s proposal to create a 500 million forint regime change fund from their parliamentary support, which should be used for three purposes. One is to support anti-regime demonstrations, demonstrations, and movements, the other is to support the local press critical of the government, and the third is to help those politically persecuted by the Orbán regime.
Fekete-Győr, who was the party’s president between 2016 and 2021, said that Momentum and similar, honest, fair movements and parties will be needed after 2026, adding that parliamentary seats and positions are not prerequisites for politics. When Momentum was not a parliamentary party, the party still had 5-7-800 thousand voters, Klubrádió explained, saying “it was an unavoidable, decisive force.”
“This can be done outside of parliament, but now we are living in an extraordinary situation, an extraordinary situation, it requires extraordinary solutions,” Fekete-Győr told them.
Dávid Bedő, the leader of the Momentum faction, has said that he expects Momentum to be out of parliament after 2026 and that he will not be an MP either.
An Afghan has been arrested in Germany after fatally stabbing his 41-year-old female boss during the evening cash count at the ‘New Yorker’ clothing store in Krefeld, North Rhine-Westphalia.
According to local police and reporting by Bild, the attack occurred around 7:20 p.m. on Wednesday evening in the store’s recreation room, where the victim and the 25-year-old suspect were counting the day’s earnings.
“The woman was seriously injured with a knife, so that she succumbed to her injuries at the scene,” the Krefeld police stated.
Shortly after the stabbing, the suspect allegedly fled the scene with the day’s takings. However, his escape was short-lived. As he exited the store on Hochstraße, he ran directly into a group of officers and was immediately arrested.
The Krefeld Public Prosecutor’s Office has confirmed the homicide investigation is underway and that the suspect was taken into custody on Wednesday evening. “The perpetrator was arrested in the evening. He will be brought before a magistrate today,” a spokesperson told German media.
Police have since established a homicide squad to lead the investigation. While the motive behind the attack remains unclear, the suspect is expected to be formally charged with manslaughter and held in pre-trial detention. It is unclear why he will not be charged with murder.
Outside the store, colleagues left white flowers and a farewell card in memory of the victim which read, “The fact that you have left us has shaken us deeply. We want you to know that you were a wonderful person. You don’t often find someone like that. Now you’re in a better place.”
Authorities are expected to release more details following a scheduled press briefing at noon on Thursday.
Newly elected German Chancellor Friedrich Merz met with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw, and the issue of reparations arose during the press conference.
“The diplomatic decision on reparations was made during the communist era. We really had no say in the matter, we did not decide about it. Did Germany ever compensate for the losses, the tragedy of World War II in Poland? No, of course not,” Tusk told reporters, as reported by Do Rzezcy.
“I am a historian, I am from Gdańsk. I could talk for hours about what this bill looks like. It was never compensated, but we will not ask for it. This is an issue for all parties to consider. I want to focus on Poland and Germany concentrating on building a secure future,” he added.
As for Merz, he remarked only: “As far as the legal issues in the context of possible reparations are concerned, they are concluded.”
Just last September, the 85th anniversary of Nazi Germany invading Poland, President Duda had been sure to raise the issue of the still unpaid reparations for the crimes Germany committed against Poland during the occupation. Earlier in the summer, after the Polish-German intergovernmental consultations in July, Prime Minister Donald Tusk himself had also noted that “there is no amount of money that would compensate for everything that happened during World War II.”
There had been plenty of talk that Tusk would brush aside the issue of reparations in order to smooth over relations with Germany, that is, for the sake of a reset, and it appears that time has finally come. Tusk took the opportunity on Wednesday to announce in front of reporters “a new beginning” in Polish-German relations, emphasizing how important having good relations with Berlin is for Warsaw.
“Today, with full responsibility, I announce a new beginning, perhaps the most important in the history of the last dozen or so years, in Polish-German relations. Thank you for being here with us,” Tusk said.
Turning to Merz, the Polish prime minister added: “We have a real chance to strengthen Polish-German relations in such a way that they serve Poland, Germany, and Europe in the best possible way. I am convinced, I know your views very well, your attitude to our relations, to Poland, to Europe, and I know enough to be optimistic today about the future of our relations.”
The prime minister also noted that Merz had made his first trip as chancellor to France and Poland, saying it proved “how important Polish-German relations are for the future of Europe, and in a sense, for the future of the world.”
Tusk additionally stated that a Weimar Triangle summit should take place in the near future.
Sweden’s Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer announced on Wednesday a series of far-reaching proposals to toughen the country’s penal system, including a new indefinite prison sentence aimed at individuals deemed to pose a continuing danger to society.
At a press conference alongside representatives from the Tidö coalition parties, Strömmer said the purpose of the reforms is to “sharpen society’s view of serious crime,” emphasizing the growing need to confront high-risk offenders with tougher penalties.
As reported by the Samnytt news outlet, those sentenced under what has been called the “security sentence” provision could be kept incarcerated indefinitely, subject to regular reviews, similar to a system already in use in Denmark. Sweden had a comparable measure in the past, but it was abolished.
According to calculations by legal investigator Stefan Reimer, approximately 50 individuals each year could receive such sentences if the proposal is adopted.
The government also proposed that serial rapists be automatically sentenced to life imprisonment, arguing that the gravity and repeat nature of such crimes warrant the harshest possible penalties.
The move strikes a significantly different tone from that offered by Integration Minister Mats Persson back in January, who in an interview with the Expressen newspaper, called for mandatory social integration courses to help reduce the number of rapes committed by foreigners.
His remarks followed the publication of a major study from Lund University which found that 63 percent of those convicted of rape between 2000 and 2020 in Sweden were either born outside of the country or had parents born abroad.
In addition to the security sentence, the Tidö parties put forward a package of reforms that would significantly tighten the rules surrounding conditional release. Under current law, prisoners in Sweden can be released after serving two-thirds of their sentence. The government now proposes to raise that threshold to three-quarters, meaning inmates would serve more of their sentences before becoming eligible for parole.
Henrik Vinge, chairman of the Justice Committee and a member of the Sweden Democrats, emphasized the reasoning behind the change, stating that “the need to protect society from dangerous people has increased. We therefore agree that you should serve a larger part of your sentence before release is considered.”
Further measures were also announced to restrict early release for individuals serving at least four years for violent crimes or two years for crimes linked to organized criminal activity. In such cases, early release could be postponed if authorities assess a concrete risk of the convict returning to a life of crime.
This provision is an attempt to target the rapid rise in gang warfare enveloping Sweden, a nation that has seen violent crime soar to record levels in recent years, with fatal shootings and explosions in major cities spiraling out of control.
Just last week, three people were shot dead in broad daylight in downtown Uppsala, while in Tumba, south of Stockholm, a mother and her young daughter were seriously injured after a grenade exploded inside their bedroom in what authorities believe was a gang-related attack on the wrong home.
The proposals also include increasing the shortest possible prison sentence from the current minimum of 14 days to one month, which would bring even the shortest custodial sentences under the conditional release system.
The government intends to phase in the changes starting on Jan. 1, 2026. Longer prison sentences would be prioritized first, while sentences under six years would initially not be covered by the new provisions.
Other proposed changes include extending the post-release probation period from one year to two years, making supervision during that period the default requirement, and revoking parole entirely if the released individual reoffends.
According to EU commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Ukraine should be given more money and its accession to the EU should be accelerated. In response, Orbán called her policies a “scandal.”
“Ukraine gets money and weapons, and European taxpayers foot the bill,” said Orbán, who responded to von der Leyen’s speech on X.
President @vonderleyen wants to pour further billions into Ukraine, pull Europe further into a losing war, and rush a bankrupt state into the EU. She’s not serving the member states – she’s serving an agenda. Hungary won’t go along with this. pic.twitter.com/Yukf3NZrVz
EU support for Ukraine was discussed at the plenary session of the European Parliament on Wednesday.
In her speech, von der Leyen highlighted three critical points, saying Ukraine needs more weapons, that energy dependence on Russia needs to be ended, and that Ukraine’s ascension process into the EU should be accelerated.
Orbán is making a full-court press against von der Leyen’s speech, highlighting the threat Ukraine also poses to EU agriculture. He notes that Ukraine controls 40 percent of the arable land in Europe, which would result in the EU market being flooded with cheap crops.
Europe has already flooded Ukraine with tens of billions in taxpayer money, yet the EU wants to continue sending billions to the country, even as inflation has eaten into citizens’ pocketbooks.
🌾 Ukraine controls 40% of the EU’s arable land. Flooding the market with cheap crops would cripple EU agriculture and drain our resources. Development funds? Gone to Ukraine. Yet Brussels still wants to send them billions. We refuse to pay for their bankruptcy. 🚫 pic.twitter.com/59K15HqFKS
Hungarian MEP András László wrote in a response that the most obvious reason for keeping Ukraine out of the EU is that a war is still raging between the country and Russia. However, rebuilding Ukraine will cost tens of billions, with some estimates going as high as hundreds of billions. With many EU nations already facing massive debt burdens, allowing Ukraine to enter the EU would perhaps be the greatest financial folly the bloc has ever partaken in.
There are hardly any rational arguments for Ukraine's quick EU-accession: – still at war with Russia, – low standards of living and reconstruction costs would massively burden the EU and national budgets, – massive agricultural sector would upset EU food market.
According to the president of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (RMDSZ), Hunor Kelemen, the far-right, nationalist Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) “brings a historical perspective of Ceausescu’s national communism, in which Hungarians have no place or can only be present as a tolerated category.”
AUR’s George Simion won the first round of the Romanian presidential election, which Kelemen says was in part due to the governance of the past year, as well as the invalidated first round of the election, both of which “increased frustration and anger among people” Mandiner writes, based on the RMDSZ politician’s interview on the Hír TV program “Napi Aktuális.”
“The fact that the government coalition was unable to get its candidate into the second round led to the government coalition breaking up and the prime minister returning his mandate,” he said, adding, “It is clear that voters expressed their dissatisfaction with an anti-mainstream vote.”
Regarding the strengthening of anti-Hungarianism, Kelemen said: “We are actually worried about (…) the results achieved, with which we have nevertheless moved our community forward and built it over 35 years.”
The president of the RMDSZ reminded that the AUR grew out of Úzvölgy, at the height of 2017-2018. “They were the ones who dug up the Úzvölgy military cemetery from the First World War and have been returning there ever since,” he said.
Kelemen also pointed out: “The AUR spokesperson has filed dozens of lawsuits against our local governments, objecting to the use of the mother tongue. He is turning to the judiciary and bombarding the community with new lawsuits week after week.”
“The AUR is the one who says that there is no need for Hungarian schools, that there can only be mixed schools, that is the maximum, and that the mother tongue should be pushed back into the family community, that is where it has its place, nowhere else,” the politician revealed.
He added: “Our experience is that the AUR brings an extremely anti-Hungarian, Ceausescu-style historical perspective of national communism, in which Hungarians have no place or can only be present as a tolerated category. A presidential victory like Simion’s would certainly nullify what we have achieved together in a short time. I think it would throw the Hungarian community in Transylvania back into the past, make it insecure, and create fear.”
Kelemen did suggest a solution to avoid the formation of an anti-Hungarian government. “One way to prevent Simion from winning and the anti-Hungarian president from installing an anti-Hungarian government is to support Nicușor Dan, the independent mayor of Bucharest. If he is elected, at least we will avoid the danger that there will be no anti-Hungarian president and no anti-Hungarian government,” the RMDSZ president said.
Reports of AUR’s anti-Hungarianism have been going on for years, leading Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán refusing to join the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) group in the European Parliament last June after they welcomed AUR as a member.
At the time, Fidesz group leader Máté Kocsis posted on social media page: “The extremist anti-Hungarian Romanian AUR has been accepted into the ECR group. There is no way Fidesz should sit in the same group as such a party in the European Parliament! No way!”
AUR had been sending anti-Hungarian messages for years and was one of the main organizers of the chauvinist, anti-Hungarian campaign that desecrated graves of Hungarian (as well as Soviet and German) soldiers in the military cemetery in Uz Valley, eastern Transylvania.
Slovakia will extend by one month the temporary border controls initially introduced in April at its borders with Hungary and Austria, the country’s public service news agency TASR reported on Wednesday.
The decision was announced following a government meeting in Bratislava and comes in response to ongoing concerns about the spread of foot-and-mouth disease, which affects livestock.
The original measure, enacted on April 7, was set to expire at midnight on May 8. With Wednesday’s extension, the controls will now remain in effect through June 7. Agriculture Minister Richard Takáč confirmed the continuation of the policy, which includes the closure of 17 border crossings — 16 with Hungary and one with Austria.
The Slovak interior ministry, which proposed the extension, justified the move by emphasizing the continued risk posed by the disease. “The risk of the spread of foot-and-mouth disease still exists, so the extension of the measure is also justified,” the ministry stated in its explanation to the cabinet.
Under the extended controls, the Ministry of the Interior retains the authority to determine which official border crossings may remain open to motorized traffic. The ministry aims to concentrate such traffic through checkpoints that are equipped with facilities for disinfection, thereby helping to prevent the potential transmission of the virus.
However, these restrictions do not apply to so-called “green borders” — routes used by tourists traveling on foot or by bicycle outside of official crossings. These paths will remain open, and recreational cross-border movement is not expected to be affected.
The highly contagious viral illness affects farm animals such as cattle, pigs, sheep, and goats. Although it poses no direct threat to humans, outbreaks can cause significant economic damage in the agricultural sector due to trade restrictions, culling, and loss of livestock productivity.
The Slovak government has yet to indicate whether further extensions will be considered beyond the new June deadline.
A man has been arrested following a gruesome murder at the University of Warsaw campus on Wednesday evening after entering the campus wielding an axe and attacking two university staff members.
The assault resulted in the death of a 60-year-old porter and left a 39-year-old university guard in critical condition. The suspect is believed to be a 22-year-old law student at the university and holds Polish citizenship.
The attack occurred around 6:40 p.m. at the Auditorium Maximum building, located on Krakowskie Przedmieście in central Warsaw. According to police and prosecutors, the student first targeted the porter, inflicting multiple fatal wounds. The woman, described as having “numerous cut wounds to her upper and lower limbs, head, and abdomen,” died at the scene.
When a member of the UW Guard intervened, he too was violently attacked. The guard sustained serious head injuries and deep lacerations to both hands. He was taken to the hospital in critical condition.
“It was a very brutal murder,” said Piotr Antoni Skiba, spokesman for the Regional Prosecutor’s Office in Warsaw. Investigators have confirmed the use of an axe in the assault, and images of the weapon used have since been circulated on social media.
The motive for the attack remains unknown. Prosecutors and police officers continue to investigate the scene and gather evidence. Crisis teams have been mobilized, and psychological support is being offered to students and staff shaken by the attack.
Polsat News and TVN24 reported that the scene was gruesome, with unconfirmed initial accounts mentioning a severed head — details which authorities have not officially corroborated.
President Andrzej Duda issued a statement expressing sorrow: “I am deeply moved by the tragedy that occurred today at the University of Warsaw. As a result of this brutal attack, a university employee was killed. I join in pain and prayer with the victim’s loved ones and the entire academic community.”
The university has declared Thursday a day of mourning. Black flags have been raised, and all university-organized events have been canceled. “It is supposed to be a day of reflection for all members of the university community,” said UW spokeswoman Dr. Anna Modzelewska, who confirmed that a crisis response team is in place to support those affected.
— Uniwersytet Warszawski (@UniWarszawski) May 7, 2025
Minister of Justice Adam Bodnar, who was on campus at the time of the attack for an academic lecture, revealed that he was swiftly evacuated by security officers. “I would like to thank the SOP officer who ran to the scene and successfully supported the university guard in their intervention,” he wrote in a statement.
Other political and religious leaders joined in expressing condolences. Archbishop Adrian Galbas prayed for the soul of the deceased and healing for the injured. Parliamentary Speaker Szymon Hołownia wrote, “Struck by the nightmare of the crime at the University of Warsaw, I offer my sincerest condolences.”
Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz emphasized the importance of unity in the face of tragedy. “My thoughts and heart are with the families of those attacked, the entire academic community, students and lecturers,” he said. “We must not remain indifferent to evil.”
The European Commission announced on Wednesday that it is referring five member states to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU) for failing to properly implement the Digital Services Act (DSA), Brussels’ flagship legislation aimed at regulating online platforms.
The countries facing legal action are Czechia, Spain, Cyprus, Poland, and Portugal. According to the Commission, these member states either failed to appoint a national Digital Services Coordinator (DSC) or failed to empower those bodies with the authority required to enforce the DSA.
Additionally, none of the five countries has established penalties for violations of the regulation, as mandated by Brussels.
“The DSA required member states to designate one or more competent authorities for the supervision and enforcement of the DSA, and to designate one of them as their national DSC by Feb. 17, 2024,” the Commission said in its press release. “Member states are also required to empower their DSCs to enable them to carry out their tasks under the DSA.”
Poland is singled out for not appointing or authorizing a national coordinator at all, while Czechia, Spain, Cyprus, and Portugal appointed such bodies but did not grant them the legal powers necessary to fulfill their responsibilities.
The European Commission insists the DSA, which came into force in 2022, is designed to create a safer and more transparent online environment by requiring large platforms and search engines to combat illegal content, protect user privacy, and address public safety risks.
Critics, however, argue that it risks overreach by incentivizing platforms to over-remove content, potentially stifling free speech; imposes disproportionate burdens on smaller platforms, reinforcing the dominance of Big Tech; and compromises user privacy through mandated data access for regulators.
Disapproval of the regulation has been met by both libertarian politicians in Europe and by Republicans in Washington, DC.
In February, United States House Judiciary Chair Jim Jordan sent a letter to the European Commissioner for Technology Henna Virkkunen expressing his “serious concerns with how the DSA’s censorship provisions affect free speech in the United States.”
He argued that overregulation from Brussels would effectively create a “de facto global censorship standard” as social media platforms generally use one set of content moderation policies for consistent implementation worldwide.
X owner Elon Musk has also weighed in on the bureaucratic nature of the DSA and its overzealous approach to content moderation, while U.S. President Donald Trump himself also called fines imposed on U.S. tech companies by Brussels for failing to adhere to the DSA a “form of taxation.”
In Europe, Alternative for Germany (AfD) MP Maximilian Krah has argued that the DSA is designed to suppress dissenting viewpoints, claiming the legislation “is intended to prevent unorthodox and creative ideas from being shared on the internet,” while Sweden Democrats MEP Jessica Stegrud claimed an overfocus on combating disinformation and “harmful content” could undermine freedom of speech.
The Commission first launched infringement proceedings against the five countries in 2024. Letters of formal notice were sent to Czechia, Cyprus, Poland, and Portugal in April, and to Spain in July. After the member states failed to comply, the Commission escalated the matter to the EU’s highest court.
If the Court of Justice rules against them, the countries could face financial penalties and be required to act swiftly to meet their legal obligations.
Barcelona police are searching for a repeat migrant offender whose attempted robbery of a Chinese tourist went viral last week, after the suspect was released by the authorities, only to allegedly be involved in a violent knife attack at a nightclub in the city.
The suspect, a 27-year-old man of North African origin with at least nine prior convictions, was first arrested on April 30 after attempting to steal a professional camera from a Chinese tourist near Barcelona Cathedral.
His plan was foiled when the tourist quickly apprehended the assailant, keeping him in a headlock until the authorities arrived.
Two police officers eventually visited the scene, dragging the thief away and sitting him up by a tree as he got his breath back before taking him into custody.
The Chinese tourist was applauded by several eyewitnesses for his vigilantism.
The incident was captured on video and widely shared on social media, garnering millions of views.
🇪🇸 A Chinese photographer had his camera stolen in Spain.
He caught the thief and put him in a headlock until the police arrived.
Despite his already considerable rap sheet, the North African suspect was released the day after the arrest. But now, less than a week later, he is wanted again — this time for his alleged role in a brutal gang assault at the Mr. French nightclub in Barcelona’s Eixample district.
According to the Spanish news outlet El Caso, a 54-year-old man filed a complaint with the Mossos d’Esquadra, the Catalan police, stating he was attacked by a gang of six men on Saturday night. He suffered a severe wound to the face from a sharp object, possibly a knife or a broken bottle.
The victim, who is also a foreign national, recognized one of his attackers as the same man featured in the viral video. “He is the man in the Asian’s video,” the victim reportedly told officers.
Police sources believe that a personal conflict may have triggered the altercation, suggesting that the victim and the assailants had prior connections in Barcelona’s criminal underworld.
The Mossos d’Esquadra’s Investigation Unit is leading the inquiry, but no arrests have yet been made.
The left-wing Labour government in Britain has been accused of concluding a free trade agreement with India that will effectively give tax breaks to companies that prioritize importing foreign workers over Brits.
Announced on Tuesday, the bilateral U.K.-India agreement extends an exemption on National Insurance contributions (NICs) from one to three years for Indian migrants, meaning foreign workers could be more attractive to employ for companies already feeling the effects of a recent hike to employer NICs.
Shadow Secretary for Business and Trade Andrew Griffiths slammed the move as a blatant undercutting of working Brits.
“Keir Starmer has just signed a deal which exempts Indian workers transferred to the U.K. from paying National Insurance… after increasing it for British workers. Every time Labour negotiates, Britain loses,” he wrote on X.
BREAKING: Labour's Trade Minister just refused to say in Parliament how much their tax cut for Indian workers will cost the British taxpayer.
Labour are putting foreign workers ahead of British workers, and they're refusing to tell you how much it will cost.
Leader of the Opposition Kemi Badenoch also chimed in, accusing the Labour prime minister of sanctioning “two-tier taxes from two-tier Keir.”
Christian Calgie, senior political correspondent at the Daily Express, reported that Badenoch had held up negotiations with India while serving as trade secretary in former Conservative prime minister Rishi Sunak’s administration “as she refused to cave in on visas and national insurance.”
NEW: It's understood that Kemi Badenoch, while serving as Trade Secretary, held up India negotiations as she refused to cave in on visas and national insurance.
Labour is now being accused of giving tax breaks to companies who import foreign workers
Former Tory leadership hopeful Suella Braverman accused Labour of “caving and opening our labor market to more Indian workers who will be cheaper to hire than Brits.”
This narrative appears to be aligned with the assessment of the Indian government, which wrote in a press release following the deal’s conclusion, “In an unprecedented achievement, India has secured an exemption for Indian workers who are temporarily in the U.K. and their employers from paying social security contributions in the U.K. for a period of three years under the Double Contribution Convention. This will make Indian service providers significantly more competitive in the U.K.”
Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform UK party, which is currently leading in the national polls, also slammed the deal and accused the Labour government of providing a limitless opportunity for mass immigration of Indian workers at a cut-price deal without any impact assessment on what such an influx would mean for social and health services.
“If we look at the detail, it’s truly extraordinary. Indian companies can now transfer workers from India to the U.K., and those workers will not pay any national insurance in Britain for at least three years,” he said in a video posted on social media. “So, at the very same time that they are getting a very big tax exemption, taxes on British workers have been put up since the Labour government came to power.
“It means overall, it’s about 20 percent cheaper after this deal to employ an Indian than a British worker. There are no limits to this deal at all. Bear in mind, that half a million people have come into the UK from India in the last two years alone. It’s impossible to predict how many hundreds of thousands more will come on this deal.”
Even the left-wing Liberal Democrats were critical, with deputy leader Daisy Cooper warning the move risked “undercutting British workers at a time when they’re already being hammered by Trump’s trade war and Labour’s misguided jobs tax.”
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds hit back at the accusations, calling the trade deal a “huge economic win for the U.K.” and rejecting claims that it would result in an influx of Indian migration.
Seven people have been charged in connection with the suspected honor killing of a woman in Eskilstuna, Sweden, last September, after she attempted to divorce her husband.
The victim, 27, was found dead in her home in the Nyfors district of Eskilstuna on Sept. 17, 2024, after she failed to report to work. According to prosecutors, she had been trying to end her marriage for several years.
In the days leading up to her death, her husband, who had been living abroad, returned to Sweden and was allegedly involved in closely monitoring her movements along with other family members, Aftonbladet reported on Wednesday.
“The investigation shows that the plaintiff has been trying to divorce her spouse for several years,” said prosecutor Tobias Lindblom. “During the weekend in question, the husband traveled from abroad, where he has lived for the past few years, to Eskilstuna and supervised the plaintiff together with several family members.”
Authorities believe the woman was murdered on Sept. 15 by her husband, who is suspected of strangling or suffocating her. Prosecutors claim that the murder was premeditated and that his mother played a central role in orchestrating the crime.
“All in all, I believe that at least part of the motive for the act has been to restore the family’s honor,” Lindblom stated.
The husband, his mother, and his brother have been charged with murder. The mother is also accused of conspiracy to commit murder, having allegedly attempted to recruit someone else to kill the woman in the fortnight leading up to the attack.
“There is also a recorded conversation between the deceased’s mother-in-law and the person she tried to instigate to murder the plaintiff, a few days before the murder was completed,” Lindblom added.
According to the indictment, the husband’s brother participated in the planning and reconnaissance, and helped to remove evidence after the crime. The husband’s sister and brother-in-law are also charged with aiding and abetting the murder.
Two additional women are charged with aggravated protection of a criminal, accused of helping the husband flee Sweden and tampering with evidence.
Three weeks after the murder, the husband and his mother were arrested in Athens, Greece, in coordination with Greek police. At the same time, the brother, sister, and brother-in-law were arrested in Södermanland County.
Despite the extensive evidence, including witness interrogations, tracked movements of the suspects, and digital communications, all of the accused deny the charges.
Israel’s plan to displace Gazans is already causing concern among Europeans, who are worried they will have another refugee crisis to face. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz was not even chancellor for 24 hours when he said that “Israel is our greatest concern” and stated that Israel must fulfill its obligations under international law.
“And humanitarian aid in the Gaza Strip must be provided,” said Merz during an interview with ARD television network.
“We are also following the developments of recent days with great concern,” the 69-year-old Christian Democrat noted. Merz did not deny that Israel “has the right to defend itself” after the brutal attack by Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7, 2023.
“But Israel must remain a country that fulfills its humanitarian obligations – precisely where this terrible war is now raging in the Gaza Strip,” he also added.
Merz’s sharp criticism of Israel after just winning his chancellorship could just be the early stages of a confrontation between Europe and Israel that has been brewing for some time.
Currently, Israel has completely stopped the flow of humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, where 2 million Palestinians are living, which has led many international aid organizations to criticize the Israeli actions.
Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul is planning a trip to Israel this weekend to address the issue as well as other topics.
Merz’s statements come on the tail of Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich, who stated that the Gaza Strip will be completely destroyed and the population relocated.
“Within a few months, we will be able to declare victory. Gaza will be completely destroyed,” Smotrich declared, adding that in another six months, Hamas will cease to exist as a “functioning entity.”
According to Czech news outlet Echo24, Smotrich said the entire population of the Gaza Strip will be concentrated south of the Morag Corridor, and the rest of the Gaza Strip will be empty. The Morag Corridor completely separates the areas of the cities of Khan Yunis and Rafah. The Israeli army has declared a buffer zone, about 5 kilometers wide, between the corridor and the Egyptian border.
“The residents of Gaza will be concentrated in the south. They will be completely desperate and will understand that there is no hope, no prospects for them in Gaza. They will seek resettlement to start a new life somewhere else,” Minister Smotrich said, as The Times of Israel reported.
The population transfers as part of the new Israeli offensive were also announced by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Monday.
🇮🇹🇮🇱 Meloni comes out against Israel
"We've blocked everything," she said in parliament.
She added that her country has the "strictest" rules against weapons for Israel of any EU country. pic.twitter.com/zcEhznQzoA
Where these Palestinians will go remains unclear, but Israeli officials have already suggested European countries such as Ireland, Greece and Sweden as possible destinations a number of times.
The Israeli security cabinet unanimously approved a plan on Monday night to expand military operations in the Gaza Strip. The plan includes, among other things, “the conquest of the Gaza Strip and the holding of territory and the transfer of the population of the Gaza Strip to the south for its protection.”
The conflict between Israel and Hamas began when the Hamas terrorist movement launched an attack on southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and abducting 251 others. In response, the Israeli army invaded Gaza, and during the subsequent battles and air campaigns, over 52,000 Palestinians have been killed. The vast majority of Gaza’s population has been displaced and now lives in tents.
Polish Law and Justice (PiS) politicians are trying to bring U.S. Vice President JD Vance to Poland to save Karol Nawrocki’s campaign, claims Polish newspaper Gazeta Wyborcza.
The daily newspaper writes that PiS politicians want to invite American and European supporters of Donald Trump to the G2 Arena in Rzeszów for the CPAC conservative congress.
The date is May 26-27, a few days before the planned second round of presidential elections (June 1). President Andrzej Duda and the head of the Institute of National Remembrance, the presidential candidate supported by PiS, Karol Nawrocki, are to speak at the event.
“Our sources in PiS tell us that the most important guest at the congress will be a senior politician from the Trump administration. Who? Our sources claim that the organizers want JD Vance, the American vice president, to be present. He shocked the European establishment in Munich in February, accusing them of allegedly violating civil liberties and persecuting conservatives,” reports “Wyborcza.”
According to the newspaper, “If Vance attacked Tusk’s government in Poland and supported PiS and its presidential candidate, Nawrocki’s campaign could regain momentum. Especially after the revelation of the compromising case of his second apartment. He bought it from a pensioner in exchange for care he did not provide.”
Behind the scenes of Nawrocki’s meeting with Trump
According to GW, the attempt to bring Vance to Poland is to multiply the effect of Nawrocki’s meeting with Trump, which took place last week in the Oval Office during the IPN chief’s visit to Washington. The photos of the U.S. president with the candidate for president of the Republic of Poland were published by the White House.
“The meeting was the result of the work of several people: PiS MEPs Adam Bielan and Dominik Tarczyński, who maintain contacts with MAGA people working in the White House, and Jerzy Kwaśniewski, the head of Ordo Iuris,” we read in the article.
“Nobody believes that Russia would live up to any ceasefire,” Lt. Gen. Ben Hodges (Ret.), told TVP World. Hodges further stated that Putin only put forth the idea of a three-day ceasefire because he doesn’t want drone or rocket strikes on Red Square during Russia’s Victory Day Parade on May 9 in Moscow.
“Nobody believes Russia would live up to any ceasefire,” said Ben Hodges (@general_ben), former commander of the U.S. Army, during an interview with TVP World discussing how Russia wants a ceasefire only to stop Ukrainian strikes on Red Square during the upcoming Victory Day… pic.twitter.com/boW3qXPEvM
In another interview with Telewizja wPolsce24, the former commander of the U.S. Army in Europe said that “Poland is a great country, a host for the American military. Today, about 10,000 of our soldiers are stationed here. Of course, I can’t guarantee that this number will not change, but today it is a significant number and our soldiers really like being here because of the great infrastructure.”
Hodges was referring to rumors that U.S. President Trump may move soldiers out of Poland.
“You have excellent training grounds,” the retired lieutenant general continued, adding that “the level of professionalism of your soldiers is also very high.”
Poland’s Chief of General Staff Gen. Wiesław Kukuła, in turn, emphasized that maintaining defense financing at 4 percent of GDP “will bring the effects we expect.”
As a guest at this year’s Defence24 conference, Hodges revealed what the main expectations are for the upcoming NATO summit in The Hague. Retired in 2018, he also served as the Pershing Chair in Strategic Studies at the Centre for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), specializing in NATO, the Transatlantic relationship, and international security, and is presently NATO Senior Mentor for Logistics and is a Distinguished Fellow with GLOBSEC.
Most recently, Chess Grandmaster Gary Kasparov posted an article regarding Ukraine on his site by Hodges, in which the general states: “Europe has a crucial role to build a sustainable and just peace.” He then proceeds to outline the steps Europe must take to “not only (shape) the outcome of the war in Ukraine but also in contributing more broadly towards burden-sharing within the Alliance.”
At the end of his piece, Hodges was clear that “Europe must step up” in the face of “a Trump administration that seems disturbingly aligned with Moscow.” Saying that a Putin win would lead to “severe, lasting, and deeply destabilizing” costs, the general then asked: “Will Europe rise to meet them—or shrink in the shadow of its own hesitation?”
After the Trump administration condemned Germany’s slide into tyranny and anti-democratic actions against the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the new German government under Friedrich Merz is now openly criticizing the U.S. for pointing out these tyrannical methods. Realizing that there is serious potential for conflict between Washington and Berlin, Merz says he will speak to the U.S. government.
Merz criticized the voices from parts of the U.S. government that supported the AfD during the federal election campaign and recently criticized the party’s classification as right-wing extremist by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution.
The current main point of contention is the powerful domestic spy agency, the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV) and its decision to classify the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a “confirmed right-wing extremist” party. Merz said the U.S.’s comments were “absurd observations of the Federal Republic of Germany,” and that “I’ve actually always had the feeling that America is able to distinguish very clearly between extremist parties and parties of the political center.”
The BfV operates with modern Stasi-like powers but wields a far greater technological arsenal. Under the new designation, the BfV can now legally surveil all AfD members without a warrant, including reading their emails and chats. It can also flood the AfD party with informants and take action against civil servants who are members of the party.
The fact that the AfD is the largest opposition party in the country and that there are now efforts underway to ban the party is causing serious alarm in the United States, which is calling the German government’s path forward authoritarian and undemocratic. Most notably, Secretary of State Marco Rubio called it “tyranny in disguise.”
Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy—it’s tyranny in disguise.
What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD—which took second in the recent election—but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies…
Perhaps the best analogy would be if the U.S. government suddenly declared the Democratic Party a “confirmed extremist” party because it promotes open borders, and under Biden, effectively brought millions of more illegal migrants into the country. Then, a Republican-appointed spy chief surveilled all members of the Democratic Party without a warrant, was able to send informants into the party, and could fire teachers, judges, and police officers who were members of the party.
If such a scenario occurred, the liberal EU and mainstream press would be the first ones to scream about “tyranny” and a new “authoritarian” reality in the United States, with Germany at the top of the list.
Merz, on the other hand, seems dismissive of the U.S. critiques. He said he will speak with Donald Trump and establish contacts with the White House, but Merz may be in store for a chilly reception.
In regard to Trump, Merz said: “We don’t know each other personally yet.” However, he said at the end of June, he will meet with Trump at the NATO summit in The Hague and “perhaps even sooner.” He said they “talk openly with each other.”
“As Europeans, we have something to offer; together we are even bigger than the United States of America,” said Merz. “We can do something, we are united, largely anyway. That will be my message to the American government.”
“I did not interfere in the American election campaign and did not take sides unilaterally for one party or the other,” said Merz.
However, democratic backsliding in Germany is a grave concern for the entire world, and there are fears that a ban of the AfD could come sooner than later. In such a scenario, millions of voters would be denied their democratic rights.
Not everyone in the CDU, or its sister party, the Christian Socialist (CSU), is on the same page though. CSU leader Markus Söder is warning against an AfD ban, saying it should only serve as a “wake-up call” to change government policies. He said he is not sure the BfV report is sufficient for a ban.
In an interview with the BBC’s Nick Thorpe after winning the first (repeated) round of Romania’s presidential election, George Simion said: “I am young and restless. I am a Romanian patriot [who] all his life… dreamt of being part of the free world, and now we discovered that the free world is not that free anymore.”
The BBC piece noted that Romania has served as a key ally of Ukraine, sending them weapons as well as allowing for the transit of Ukrainian grain through Romanian waters in the Black Sea. Romania is also home to air bases from which NATO flies air police missions and has even trained Ukrainian pilots on F-16s.
“Forget about any more help to Ukraine if Simion becomes president,” George Scutaru, a security expert at the New Strategy Center in Bucharest told the portal.
Not included in the official BBC piece was a question Thorpe asked Simion regarding Hungarian PM Viktor Orbán, which does appear on his own personal blog: “What is your message to the Hungarians of Romania and to Viktor Orban in Budapest?” he asked.
In response, Simion said many of Orbán’s talking points are “not relevant,” but that the countries “should unite forces and fight illegal migration, tackle with demographic problems, tackle with wokeness and other Neo-Marxist ideologies that will do much harm to Romanians and Hungarians.”
Commenting that despite their differences, Hungary and Romania are neighbors, so they must work together, he said: “(Whether) we want it or not, we are living in the same land. We are sharing the same country and neighbouring countries. So we must forge a future together.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky attacked Hungary again based on a consultation conducted by opposition leader Péter Magyar and his party, Tisza. Zelensky is now claiming that a majority of Hungarians support Ukraine’s EU accession, despite the Orbán-led government’s clear opposition.
“The Manfred Weber-Volodymyr Zelensky-Péter Magyar trio has formed,” writes Origo, referring to the high stakes ahead of the 2026 elections in Hungary and Magyar allying with Brussels to oust Fidesz from power.
Meanwhile, at the plenary session of the European Parliament, where MEPs voted on the discharge for the implementation of the 2023 EU budget, Tisza MEP Kinga Kollár spoke on the topic of data protection, claiming that Hungarian citizens’ data is not safe. She said this was tied to the new assembly law passed by the Hungarian legislature that implements various facial recognition systems.
She emphasized that although the Hungarian Ombudsman launched an investigation into this matter, according to Kollár, nothing came of it because they are not independent of the government.
The MEP described this as unacceptable, saying at one point that “everyone is in danger,” according to Mandiner.
Péter Magyar did not take a position on the amendment of the assembly law, but Kinga Kollár’s speech indicated that if Tisza is elected they will restore the right to assemble for Pride.
Kollár is best known for her previous speech in which she congratulated the EU’s withholding of funds from Hungary and stated how that had helped her party since Hungarians’ quality of life had deteriorated as a result.
Kristóf Gergely Gulyás, Fidesz-KDNP’s representative in Budapest, has initiated a conflict of interest procedure against Kollár. According to Gulyás, “This is no longer a matter of opinion. This is a legal proceeding.”
“The law clearly states that a local government representative may not engage in any activity that could undermine the public trust necessary for the performance of his or her duties. In the event of such activity, the conflict of interest procedure must be conducted immediately. This is what is happening now. And we will be there to ensure that Kollár’s words are not misrepresented and that there are consequences,” Mandiner reports the politician as saying.
Péter Magyar is also facing a third request for the stripping of his immunity as an MEP by not the Hungarian prosecutor’s office, but the Pest Central District Court based on a complaint from the political party Mi Hazánk regarding a “private prosecution case, Index reports. It is unclear if this is related to alleged insider trading, a phone theft from a clash he had at a club last year, or other case.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz is set to fly to Warsaw tomorrow, where the country has been dealing with an ongoing issue with illegal migration for years due to “hybrid warfare” from neighboring Belarus. Polish President Andrzej Duda, who sat down in an exclusive interview with Bild newspaper, said that he has very clear hopes and demands for Merz’s visit, including for the migration crisis.
“Most people want to go to Germany. That is their goal. First, they harbor the myth that Germany wants to take them in. They believe that Germany is rich and that the money is on the street… That’s why they want to see their families in Germany,” said Duda.
This pull factor is creating a crisis for Poland, with a significant number passing through Polish territory to reach Germany. Now, Germany is showing signs that it wants many of these migrants to even be sent back to Poland, which could number in the tens of thousands.
Germany could send up to 70,000 migrants to Poland per year, according to a Polish MP.@DariuszMatecki filmed the new massive migrant center near the Polish border.
Duda pinned much of the blame on former Chancellor Angela Merkel, who belonged to Merz’s party.
“It was Chancellor Angela Merkel who opened the borders in the past and said that she would accept all refugees – or even migrants. Back then it was about migrants, not refugees,” said Duda.
When asked by Bild whether Germany should help Poland with its border controls, Duda appeared to be receptive to the idea.
“Why not? If German police officers, German officials could come to Poland and thus support the border… then I would have no objection,” he said.
However, there are fears within Poland that border controls could be implemented by the new Merz government. Duda described these border checks as mostly “symbolic.”
“Maybe more cars will be checked at the border, or maybe you will find out that this can be problematic, but that is not a big problem. This is more of a symbol,” he said.
Duda is suspicious about Germany’s attempts to maintain a dominate position within Europe, saying, “I do not believe that Europe needs a leadership power, that any state must have a leading role in Europe… Nobody should force their voices on the other because this state has a leading role.”
Poland may find common ground with the new Merz government when it comes to Ukraine, saying he backs German efforts to send Taurus missiles to Ukraine.
“Yes, the Taurus are important, as are other modern equipment, and Germany has this modern equipment at its disposal,” said Duda.
Tensions between Brussels and Budapest flared again on Tuesday following renewed calls from European People’s Party (EPP) President Manfred Weber to accelerate Ukraine’s path to European Union membership.
Speaking in the European Parliament, Weber reiterated the EPP’s support for Kyiv, arguing that Ukrainians should enjoy the same opportunities as Hungarians have since joining the bloc two decades ago.
“Just as Hungarians have benefited from the single market, political stability, and free movement, so too should the Ukrainian people,” Weber stated, echoing sentiments affirmed at last week’s EPP party congress in Valencia.
The remarks were met with swift criticism from Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has long expressed skepticism toward fast-tracking Ukraine’s accession. Taking to social media, Orbán accused Weber of ignoring the realities of the situation, asserting that Ukraine represents not an asset, but a risk to the EU.
“Hungary was admitted to the European Union because it was a good deal for everyone, including Germany,” Orbán wrote. “The accession of Ukraine is not a good deal. It is a liability. It is a huge mistake to send European funds to Ukraine instead of using them to strengthen the struggling European economy.
“It’s time for European leaders to start representing the European people, Herr Weber!” he added.
While Weber framed Hungary’s membership as a moral argument for Ukraine’s inclusion, Orbán pushed back on both practical and democratic grounds. He argued that Ukraine’s corruption, ongoing war, and fragile institutions make its inclusion untenable at present, and emphasized the importance of national sovereignty in the face of what he characterized as increasing pressure from Brussels.
“The Hungarian people will not be told by Kyiv or Brussels how to exercise their rights,” the prime minister declared.
Orbán further warned that admitting Ukraine could have dire economic consequences for Hungary, even going so far as to claim it would risk national bankruptcy. He urged Hungarian citizens to express their views in the Voks 2025 referendum on the matter.
MEP Grzegorz Braun, of the Confederation of the Polish Crown, is making headlines again, this time for burning an EU flag. His action came after the European Union took away his immunity, paving the way for prosecutors to charge him with hate speech, specifically insulting people on religious grounds back in December 2023 when he used a fire extinguisher to put out Hanukkah candles in the Sejm.
The nationalist Catholic, known for his traditionalist and monarchist views, as well as vocal anti-Semitism, entered the building of the Ministry of Industry in Katowice as part of an intervention in the matter of “liquidation of Polish mining,” reports Salon24. He then tore down the EU flag and started leaving the building, before throwing it on the ground and wiping his feet on it.
When an employee admonished him for his behavior, Braun replied: “Have pity on yourself and if you are not ashamed, people – fear God.”
“This is Poland, not Brussels. We will not display symbols of organizations hostile to us, which, thank God, do not have state status, which is why such emblems are not surrounded by any legal protection,” Braun continued.
Taking the EU flag outside, he threw it on the ground again and set it on fire.
Braun also posted the whole flag going up in smoke on his own X account with the caption: “Down with Eurocommunism! This is Poland.”
The MEP has been on a roll ever since he was ousted from the Confederation Liberty and Independence coalition for presenting himself as a candidate in the upcoming presidential election, being looked over in favor of Sławomir Mentzen (New Hope).
After his most recent debacle during a presidential debate, charges were filed against him for hate speech, including decrying the “Judaization” of Poland. Prior to that, he took a female doctor hostage in her office for nearly an hour after she performed what he says was an illegal abortion.
While many conservatives are celebrating the victory of George Simion in the first round of presidential elections in Romania, Hungary is far from happy, namely due to Simenon’s views on the Hungarian minority in the country.
Zsolt Pászkán, a Romania expert at the Hungarian Institute of Foreign Affairs, gave his opinion to Hirado.hu on the candidates’ chances and the future of Hungarian minorities.
He noted that two politicians critical of the system have made it to the second round of the repeated Romanian presidential election. On May 18, “the extremist George Simion, known for his anti-Hungarianism and the chairman of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), and Nicusor Dan, the independent mayor of Bucharest, will decide who will become the new president of Romania.”
Simion, the president of the AUR, won the first round of the Romanian presidential election, which was repeated on Sunday. Hirado refers to him as an “extremist politician known for his anti-Hungarian views,” and worries that he won 40.96 percent of the valid votes.
He received more than half a million votes from Romanians living in the diaspora, who supported him by 61 percent. Simion’s opponent will be Nicusor Dan, the independent mayor of Bucharest, who came in second with 20.99 percent of the votes. The second round of the presidential election will be held on May 18, meaning that within two weeks we will know who the next president of Romania will be.
Kelemen Hunor, president of the Hungarian Democratic Alliance of Romania (RMDSZ), has also drawn attention to the stakes of the election, as he fears that the rights of Transylvanian Hungarians would be significantly violated if Simion were elected.
He said “difficult times will await Transylvanian Hungarians under an AUR president whose party constantly says: there is no need for Hungarian schools and the use of the Hungarian language in public administration.”
Romania expert Zsolt Pászkán agrees that Simion truly poses the greatest threat to Hungarian communities. He recalled that the AUR president has had several anti-Hungarian actions, some of which he has only retracted in the last year and a half.
“He tried to restrain himself because of his international ambitions, as he is the vice-president of the ECR, where, for example, Meloni’s party is also present. It would not have gone well for Simion if he had continued the confrontational and Hungarian-slanderous behavior he has shown since 2019,” Pászkán said.
The expert added that Simion had not previously dealt with Hungarian issues, so it is also possible that he started to thematize them only for political gain. Although he says Simion is avoiding any extreme statements for the time being, the signs are not in favor of the Hungarians in Transylvania.
When asked how minority rights could be affected if Simion wins, Zsolt Pászkán said that presidential powers alone do not allow, for example, the closure of Hungarian schools or the liquidation of Hungarian-language public administration. According to the expert, for such measures, the AUR president would need a parliamentary majority, which he currently does not have.
“The question is whether the balance of power in parliament will change. If the government coalition weakens and they switch en masse to Simion, the way could be opened to the formation of a majority that would pose a real threat.”
The expert believes that if Simion were the new Romanian president and the current coalition remained, the anti-Hungarian measures would certainly not pass in the first round. At the same time, the president has the right to refuse to promulgate a law, which he can do only once.
“This means that Simion cannot take direct action without a parliamentary majority, but he could significantly slow down progress on minority rights.”
Hunor Kelemen was more blunt about his concerns in a video message posted on Facebook: “I ask everyone who trusts me, who does not want Simion to be the next president of Romania and the AUR to govern, to put aside all arguments, counter-arguments, let’s put aside all reservations, and support Nicusor Dan in the second round.”
The EU is silent when it comes to the Hungarian minority
Romania has been a member of the EU since 2007, so it should basically respect the agreements related to it. “If Romania were to commit a violation of minority rights, the European Union would not intervene, especially not in the case of the Hungarian community,” added Zsolt Pászkán. He recalled that the EU did not intervene when those who had dual Hungarian citizenship were massively stripped of their Slovak citizenship in Felvidék.
According to the expert, the European Union would only intervene if Simion were to engage in open confrontation on issues important to Brussels, such as supporting Ukraine.
He said that in the event of an EU conflict, Romania might even need the support of the Hungarian government in the future. And possible cooperation could even mitigate anti-Hungarian views, as in the case of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Simion would have more room for maneuver in foreign policy, so he could even generate real conflicts in this area. “A situation like that between Duda and Tusk in Poland could develop – only here the two sides would pull in opposite directions on the issue of Ukraine.”
The president of the AUR openly sympathizes with the policies of U.S. President Donald Trump, and according to press reports, he would even stop arms shipments to Ukraine. Zsolt Pászkán believes that this in itself would not significantly affect the war in Ukraine, since “a significant part of the supplies arrive via Poland.”
However, Romania’s role is still crucial, as it could actually make it more difficult for Ukrainian agricultural products to reach the world market. At the same time, he emphasized that without a parliamentary majority, the future Romanian president will not be able to make independent decisions on minority rights and foreign policy issues.
Georgescu’s exclusion favored Simion
Based on the political balance of power, Simion will start the second round from an advantageous position. Zsolt Pászkán noted that the exclusion of Călin Georgescu significantly contributed to the success of the AUR president.
🇷🇴 Romanians were robbed of their democracy.
Regardless of the outcome of Romanian elections, there's no doubt the European elite killed democracy by banning the top candidate, Călin Georgescu.
Rural voters are now so hopeless that they're longing for a return to communism. pic.twitter.com/QTBl7xDApj
“Simion received almost 3.9 million votes alone in the first repeated round, while previously he received 3.4 million together with Georgescu. This is a serious increase,” he added.
He said that based on the numbers, the AUR president could win the second round with up to 800,000 votes. “The opponent would have to overcome this disadvantage, which would require at least 2-3 million new voters. And that doesn’t seem likely.”
According to Zsolt Pászkán, the second round may be determined by how successful the mobilization against Simion is.
“Nicusor Dan has not been a charismatic politician so far, so the question is how much power they can mobilize against him. Simion is now in an advantageous position. He has to make a mistake to lose the election. If the same people go to vote who went last weekend, then Simion will most likely win the presidential election,” Pászkán concluded.
A young Italian man was murdered in a brutal knife attack after a fight broke out between two groups of young people outside a club. The battle, between Italian-Romanians versus North Africans, took place in the quiet town of Castelfranc Veneto, a province of Treviso.
The young victim, 20-year-old Lorenzo Cristea, who was born in Romania, lost his life after arriving in the hospital despite attempts by medical staff to revive him. He came to the hospital on his own but the stab wounds were too deep to save his life.
Two young Tunisian suspects are currently under arrest and seven others were detained following the death of Cristea.
The entire town and region is in disbelief after the brutal murder, with the parents, Vasile and Joana, speaking with La Tribuna about the murder.
🇮🇹 Shocking video from Italy shows a 28-year-old Moroccan stabbing pedestrians, injuring two people in Bologna.
The Moroccan was confronted by one hero, who came after the shirtless suspect with a half-broken crutch.
“They told me it was an ambush,” said Vasile, who had just returned from the morgue of the Castelfranco hospital when he spoke with La Tribuna. “The attackers used a 20cm long blade. It was the one that killed my son.”
“You didn’t have to do it. You can’t go out with a knife in your pocket. We are immersed in pain. Our son will never return,” said the mother.
The whole group of teens ambushed
In addition, another person was injured, a 22-year-old, a friend of Cristea, also arrived at the emergency room with severe wounds to his chest and abdomen. He is currently struggling between life and death after losing a severe amount of blood.
Two other young people, aged 18 and 19, also from Castelfranco, suffered minor injuries. All the victims have Italian nationality with families of Romanian origin, and all have families that have been residing in the Veneto region for decades, according to Il Giornale.
NEW: 🇮🇹‼️ A 26-year-old Moroccan living in Italy has been sentenced to 11 years for an acid attack against his ex-girlfriend — but faces another trial for a knife attack that left her wheelchair-bound while he was under house arrest for the first offense.
investigators are still trying to determine what sparked the fight, but according to the first reports, the fight began between two of the Italian-Romanian friends and two North Africans inside the Baita al Lago club. When security intervened and forced them all outside, the two North Africans allegedly provoked the group. At some point, the Italians were reportedly “ambushed” by the Tunisians, who were armed with knives.
An ambulance was called by the club manager, but the young victims tried to reach the hospital by themselves.
The two Tunisians are in police custody and have been charged with attempted murder, murder, assault, and possession of illegal weapons. The police also allegedly have access to security footage in the area.
🇮🇹 An African migrant has been fired from his Italian football team after threatening Giorgia Melon's 7-year-old daughter.
"Meloni, I heard that you have a beautiful daughter… I'm black, handsome and hot… We eat for free, we sleep for free, we don't pay rent and then we… pic.twitter.com/0RZIV5SzdR
CDU leader Friedrich Merz failed to secure an absolute majority in the Bundestag during his first attempt to become Chancellor, triggering immediate demands for new elections from opposition leaders.
Alice Weidel, co-leader of the Alternative for Germany (AfD), seized on Merz’s defeat to call for his resignation and early elections, emphasizing the unstable foundation upon which the proposed CDU/CSU-SPD coalition now stands.
Merz received only 310 votes in favor, narrowly missing the required majority of 316 from the 630 members of parliament. A total of 307 MPs opposed him, and three abstained.
The outcome marks the first time in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany that a candidate failed to win the chancellorship in the first round following successful coalition negotiations, reflecting deep internal divisions within the coalition between Merz’s CDU/CSU bloc and the Social Democrats (SPD).
BREAKING: 🇩🇪 Friedrich Merz becomes the first German chancellor candidate to lose a confidence vote in the first round of voting after failing to attain an absolute majority.
Just 310 MPs supported his bid, with him needing 316. As it’s a secret vote, members of his own party… pic.twitter.com/mo5ZCODJxK
Bild reported how the result sent shockwaves through the Bundestag, with CDU parliamentarians visibly stunned and uncertain about their next steps. Some CDU members quickly called for an immediate second round of voting, while others feared that Merz might again fall short, further undermining his candidacy.
Meanwhile, AfD members remained jubilant in the chamber following the vote, openly celebrating Merz’s setback. Alice Weidel capitalized on the political crisis, stating on social media: “Merz is the first chancellor candidate of the Federal Republic of Germany to fail in the first round of voting. This clearly demonstrates the weak foundation of the small Union-SPD coalition, already voted out by the citizens.”
"Als AfD sind wir angetreten, dieses Land vom Kopf auf die Füße zu stellen. Wir sind bereit für die Regierungsverantwortung. Und fordern dazu auf, Vernunft walten zu lassen. Herr #Merz sollte sofort abtreten. Es sollte der Weg geöffnet werden für Neuwahlen in unserem Land!" pic.twitter.com/gzZochF5p5
Weidel continued, “As the AfD, we have set out to turn this country upside down. We are ready for government responsibility. Reason must now prevail. Mr. Merz should resign immediately, clearing the path for new elections in our country!”
The CDU parliamentary group has scheduled an urgent meeting to determine its next steps, facing immense pressure to restore unity ahead of a potential second round of voting within the next 14 days.
If Merz or another candidate fails to secure an absolute majority within this two-week period, a third and final round of voting would ensue, wherein a simple relative majority would suffice. Such a result, however, would hardly be a ringing endorsement for the CDU leader, whose party has already suffered a drop in the national polls to second, being overtaken by Weidel’s AfD.
Early in April, new data emerged ranking countries around the world in terms of their real GDP per capita for the years 2014-2024, and now one Hungarian analyst is celebrating Hungary’s standing in fifth place in Europe and second place among Visegrad Four nations.
Géza Sebestyén, head of the Economic Policy Workshop at Budapest’s Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), celebrated the data showing just how strong Hungary’s economy has been over the past 10 years.
“What a decade! Between 2014 and 2024, real GDP per capita, i.e., the actual economic performance, increased by a third in Hungary. This means that the efficiency of domestic production has jumped to a new level,” he wrote on his Facebook account.
He then highlighted just “how great this performance is” by comparing it to other European countries. “In contrast to the Hungarian 33 percent expansion, the Austrian and German values increased by only 4 percent, the Finnish 5 percent, the British 6 percent, the Estonian 14 percent, the Czech 19 percent, and the Slovak 24 percent.”
“Of the V4 countries, only Poland was able to overtake us with its value of 44 percent,” said Sebestyén, who also added the graph created by Visual Capitalist, with values sourced from OECD.
In first place is Ireland (70 percent), followed by Poland (44 percent), Turkey (42 percent), Lithuania (38 percent), and then Hungary (33 percent). A comment by Ireland’s massive 70 percent gain notes that “GDP is distorted by profit shifting, which is when multinational companies relocate profits for tax benefits.”
In a rather poor showing, Canada’s GDP per capita grew only 1.1 percent over the 10 years, with Visual Capitalist adding that this was impacted by population growth of 16 percent, heavily influenced by higher immigration.
Statista notes that “in 2017, the Canadian government announced its aim to significantly increase the number of permanent residents to Canada in order to combat an aging workforce and the decline of working-age adults,” although those productivity gains have clearly not yet been realized. The site also says that a 2024 poll showed that “over half of surveyed Canadians believed that there were too many immigrants in the country.”
As to Hungary, Géza Sebestyén hopes growth in GDP will spill over to everyday Hungarians. “Higher GDP growth is good news because it is what creates the foundations for income growth,” he said.
Spain has seen an alarming rise in sexual violence over recent years, culminating in a record-high number of rapes, which reached 5,206 incidents in 2024, according to new official statistics from the Ministry of the Interior.
With an average of 14 rapes per day across the country, the figure nearly triples the 1,878 cases reported in 2019 when five daily incidents were reported. The upward trend has remained consistent year-over-year since 2018, aside from a brief dip during 2020 due to Covid-19 restrictions.
Regional breakdowns show that communities like Catalonia, Madrid, and Andalusia report the highest numbers, although increases have been noted throughout all regions of Spain. Cases involving minors, nightlife-related assaults, and attacks perpetrated by groups of offenders are also on the rise. The grim reality presented by these numbers translates to a woman being raped every hour and 45 minutes in Spain.
Remix News reported in November last year on a La Rázon report that revealed 91 percent of those convicted of rape in Catalonia are foreigners, with immigrants comprising just 17 percent of the region’s total population.
When it comes to sexual assault and rape combined, 64.2 percent of inmates are foreign nationals.
As reported by El Español, the rapid increase in sexual violence has overwhelmed specialized police units such as the Family and Women’s Care Units (UFAM) of the National Police and the Women-Minor Teams (EMUME) of the Civil Guard, both reporting understaffing and resource constraints. Officers within these units indicate that they are working beyond capacity, often handling a significantly higher workload than a decade ago without adequate support, training, or compensation.
Government officials have partly attributed this increase to more women coming forward and make no reference to the dramatic rise in mass immigration into Spain over the past decade. However, the continuous surge raises difficult questions about the effectiveness of initiatives such as the “Only Yes Means Yes” law, designed specifically to curb sexual violence.
Elena Ramallo, a Spanish campaigner battling violence against women, took to social media to criticize the El Español report for failing to address an obvious factor.
“Not a single reference in the entire article to the identity of the aggressors,” she wrote.
Ni una sola referencia en todo el artículo a la identidad de los agresores.https://t.co/RX3tkFZ4Uc
Police unions, however, have cited multiple factors contributing to this trend, including what they describe as “influence from cultures that undervalue women,” deteriorating societal values, and growing youth gang violence. The unions called for preventive measures, such as education on consent and bolstering police resources to cope with the epidemic.
Amid mounting public and political pressure, calls are intensifying for the Spanish government to strengthen institutional responses, not just through symbolic campaigns but by significantly investing in personnel, specialized training, and improved victim support initiatives.
In 2024, Berlin saw more than 24,000 bicycles stolen worth around €33 million, with mostly foreign gangs being blamed for the massive thefts. Now, there are growing calls to introduce targeted checks on Germany’s border with Poland, not to counter illegal migration but to stop organized crime groups from taking stolen bikes across the border.
“The number of unreported cases is probably much higher. Even before the peak of bicycle thefts in the summer months, 4,740 bicycles had already been reported stolen this year — worth €6 million,” German newspaper Tagesspiegel reports, claiming Eastern European criminal groups are to blame.
Bicycles including electric ones, often costing several thousand euros, are taken by van to Poland and then sold in Eastern Europe. The paper even claimed that one Romanian gang, dismantled earlier this year by police, lived legally in Berlin, received social benefits and earned money by stealing bicycles.
Given the ease with which thieves can remove, switch off, and bypass bike locks, location chips and other security measures, Tagesspiegel is asking the government to take the situation of growing bike theft more seriously and recognizing the foreign organized criminal element involved. Namely, they want targeted checks at the border, specifically, transport vans traveling from Berlin.
New data shows that foreigners are responsible for 43.9% of all crimes in Berlin in 2024.
Murders and manslaughter also jumped over 50% compared to 2023!
"What should not be ignored is that 30% of foreign suspects are not registered in Berlin," said a police union rep. pic.twitter.com/5r3nwUEzMz
“The fight against bicycle theft does not seem to be the focus of the police or authorities,” the daily says, stating that bikes are more than a recreational vehicle, as they serve as the primary method of transport for many.
The fact that Berlin is one of the most pro-open borders cities in the world, and those open borders are now being used to attack the city’s cherished bicycle culture offers quite the contradiction. In short, green options like riding a bicycle or taking a train are increasingly dangerous or simply not possible to pro-migration policies.
🇩🇪🚨Germany's Green Party is calling for "women-only" train cars in Berlin due to soaring sexual assaults.
In February, Iranian migrant Moshen K. raped a 63-year-old woman on the U3 train line, sparking outrage.
However, it is not just bicycles these thieves are targeting. Cars are actually the main target, and such thefts are soaring. In 2024, 7,574 cars were stolen, the second highest number in the last ten years. Only 14 percent of these cases are solved, and usually only if the owners notice the stolen car quickly and police are able to stop the thieves in Brandenburg. Usually, the thieves get away.
In 2024, the theft of cars hit Berliners’ pocketbooks far worse than bicycles, totaling €146 million worth of losses.
To fix these problems, Tagesspiegel touches the “third rail” and calls for stricter border controls.
“Border controls aren’t everyone’s cup of tea and are controversial due to the debate about migration policy. But why always think in one direction? Why aren’t the transporters coming from the direction of Berlin specifically checked at the border with Poland? The conservative-red coalition can exert pressure at the federal level; the Federal Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for the federal police, will soon be in the hands of the CDU/CSU. Solutions to a problem that affects people on a massive scale would be possible. And tangible,” wrirtes the author.
Left-wing activist Ayesha Khan received German citizenship at a ceremony at St. Paul’s Church in Frankfurt, alongside nearly 800 others.
Known for her controversial statements about Germans, Khan has some 15,400 followers on X (@migrantifa) and hosts the podcast “[un]deutsch” together with Dîlan Karacadag. Their project claims to addresses social and political issues from a migration perspective, openly distancing itself from traditional German identity, writes Polish portal Tysol.pl.
Khan has reportedly published explicitly anti-German content online on numerous occasions. According to Nius.de, her posts on the X platform include: “Do you know these words: ‘If God exists, why is there war?’ I ask, if God exists, why is there Germany?”
Despite such antagonistic statements, she appears eager to live in Germany and obtain citizenship.
Other of her posts include “Luckily Frankfurt will soon be completely de-Germanized,” “Germany is trash,” and “It’s embarrassing who is NOT anti-German.” In another, she promised, “If I have a German passport, I will finish you all off.”
In one brazenly aggressive statement against Whites, she posted, “Being white IS a flaw,” adding “YES.”
In short, her statements veer into open anti-White and anti-German hatred.
Khan’s anti-German stance and hatred for Whites should not surprise. Her handle “migrantifa” combines the terms “migrant” and “antifa,” suggesting a left-wing, anti-fascist identity in opposition to the German majority.
Khan has never apologized for her statements, despite many asking for an explanation.
Despite her harsh and very public criticism of Germany, Khan was an active member of the Frankfurt party ÖkoLinX, the short form for “Die Ökologische Linke“ or Ecological Left, founded by Jutta Ditfurth and Manfred Zieran, both former Green Party members.
In 2021, Khan tried to become a city councilor but was unsuccessful because she did not have German citizenship at the time. She had initially said she held British citizenship, but it later emerged that she also held a Pakistani passport, which complicated her naturalization process.
Now, Khan is officially a German citizen with a German passport. Jutta Ditfurth congratulated her on X, noting she has waited 10 years.
Endlich. Heute in der #Paulskirche#Frankfurt – Festakt zur Einbürgerung mit 780 Menschen, Eingebürgerten, Angehötigen und Freund*innen, insgesamt 780 München. Hier Ayesha Khan @migrantifa – etwa 10 Jahre nach ihrem ersten Antrag, Wir freuen uns sehr für sie! pic.twitter.com/71rSeg0s1i
Her statements echo many others made by prominent foreigners and German citizens with a migration background.
As Remix News noted in 2023, German-Iranian author and commentator Behzad Karim Khani criticized the debates about the young men of foreign origin and riots during New Year’s Eve at the time, which he said were fueled by historical racism. He asserted that regardless of what Germans think about the riots, migrants are not only going to stay in the country but will eventually “inherit Germany” from ethnic Germans, who are “dying off.”
Khani, who was accepted to Germany as a political refugee from Iran, along with his family, when he was 10 years old, writes that migrants will inherent Germany. He adds that time is on the side of migrants, as ethnic Germans are “dying out.”
After children from a private Catholic kindergarten in the Italian city of Treviso were brought to a mosque to kneel and pray to Mecca, the conservative League Party is protesting the action.
The photos of the trip to the mosque were published on the kindergarten’s Facebook page, and in one, children are seen kneeling towards Mecca, with their foreheads to the ground.
In another photo, the children are kneeling in front of an imam who leads them in prayer. The incident took place in Ponte della Priula, a small municipality of 5,000 in the Treviso region, according to Libero 25.
Italian journalist Francesca Totol wrote: “Submission begins as early as kindergarten.”
The children in the photo are reportedly between the ages of three and five years old, and their photos were published publically by the kindergarten’s Facebook page. The children also had their parents’ approval for the trip to the mosque.
The kindergarten posted: “This morning we were welcomed by the Imam in the Susegana mosque… It was a truly emotional experience. We took off our shoes, the teachers put on a veil and we entered a large room where there was a huge red carpet on the floor with some white stripes where you stand to pray. The imam explained to us that the Muslim religion is based on five pillars and told us that they pray 5 times a day (we even tried).”
The post also makes it clear the school has had previous interactions with the Muslim community.
“Already on the occasion of the celebration for the end of Ramadan, Shevala, Bilal’s mother, read a book that explains to the children what Ramadan is and what is done during it. Heartfelt thanks to the Imam who opened the doors of the mosque to us and welcomed us with respect, friendship and enthusiasm.”
“I want to hope that the parents who gave their consent were not aware of what would happen,” said Alberto Villanova, leader of the League in the Veneto Region, in an interview with Libero.
“Those images make your blood run cold. We are all for peace in the world, but I would be really curious to know if the imam explained to the children, the true unaware victims of this story, what happens in many Muslim countries where women are not even free to study. So is it in Islamic cultural centers that we should take lessons in civilization?” Villanova asked, adding that “we certainly won’t remain silent in the face of these episodes. Here we are talking about a real cultural submission.”
Paolo Borchia, head of the Northern League delegation to the European Parliament, also lashed out against the initiative: “First Ramadan in churches, now kindergarten children taken to mosques to pray facing Mecca. In silence, European identity is being dismantled. And there are still those who talk about dialogue when the only message that gets through is that of cultural submission. This is not the future we want for our children. Defending our culture means saying a clear no. No to the erasure of our roots, no to education that confuses integration with surrender. Wake up, Europe!”
The provincial president of the Italian Federation of Catholic Nursery Schools, Simonetta Rubinato, told La Tribuna that “we believe that the spiritual and religious dimension is an integral part of the educational project of Christian-inspired nursery schools.”
The president, however, said that the “individual schools manage educational and didactic choices independently.” She also quoted Pope Francis, who underlined “the human dimension of brotherhood, which binds all men as children of the same Father.”
After the Italian media reported on the intercultural exchange, questions were asked why the Muslim community, including children from the mosque, has never been brought to the Catholic Church in the area and photographed praying to Jesus. In other words, many of these cultural exchanges represent a one-way street, with Christians continuously persecuted in Middle Eastern countries. In addition, it remains questionable if Muslim parents would welcome their children attending ceremonies that imply the worship of Jesus Christ. A search of the web failed to find any examples, although Muslims have attended “Muslim-related” events that were hosted at Christian places of worship in Europe.
