Europe
Europe
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte writes on X that Europe is ready and willing to step up regarding leading in providing security guarantees for Ukraine as well as willing to invest a lot more in security, adds that details will need to be decided but the commitment is clear
Germany prepares to open deportation centre in Eisenhüttenstadt on the German-Polish border, will have space for up to 250 people and will be used to speed up the deportation of asylum seekers who have submitted claims in other EU member states but relocated to Germany under the Dublin Regulation
292 people in Britain charged with "speech crimes" under the 2023 Online Safety Act, 23 charged with "illegal false communications" of which several for spreading claims that the Southport mass stabber Axel Rudakubana with Rwandan parents was a Muslim migrant, the Online Safety Act also empowers broadcasting regulator Ofcom to fine platforms up to 10% of the global revenue and ban them altogether if they fail to police content according to the wishes of the British state
German authorities say the 24-year-old Afghan Farhad Noori who injured at least 36 in Munich by ramming them with a car had Islamist motive but no link to terrorist organizations, the Afghan who yelled Allahu akbar to police has admitted to intentionally driving the car into the crowd and has posted on social media wishing to eradicate all those who are bad to Islam
At least 28 injured after car driven into a crowd in Munich at 10:30 during Thursday, 24-year-old Afghan asylum seeker arrested
UK to refuse citizenship to refugees who have "made a dangerous journey" by for instance small boats or hidden in vehicles, will potentially bar 71,000 people who have successfully applied for asylum, the Home Office comments that the guidance further makes it clear that illegal immigrants will have their British citizenship application refused
German Daniel Kindl from Lower Saxony fined EUR 1,887 for X post telling Green Party MP Janosch Dahmen to cry quietly regarding worries about the political climate as this is just the beginning, Kindl defends the remark stating that it was meant to express the frustrations of rural citizens over government policies impacting farmers, follows growing trend in Germany where for instance a pensioner was fined EUR 800 for using the Foreign Office’s online contact form to write that Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock had hit her head against the ceiling jumping on a trampoline too many times
Elon Musk participates in Alternative for Germany rally via video link ahead of the Februari 23 snap election, asks Germans to move on from past guilt and protect German culture and people, repeats his statement that the party is the country's best hope
Germany's leading chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz vows to impose immediate permanent border controls if elected, says they are faced with the ruins of a ten-year-long misguided immigration policy and calls for a departure from the EU's Schengen principle of free movement as well as turning away all illegal immigrants including those seeking protection, the statements follow a knife attack in Aschaffenburg where a 28-year-old Afghan asylum seeker with a history of violent behavior killed a man and a 2-year-old boy and injured three other people
British prime minister Keir Starner vows tougher checks on online knife sales after Axel Rudakubana, who admitted to murdering three young girls in Southport, bought his knife from Amazon when he was just 17 despite existing laws prohibiting the sale of most knives to under-18s, online retailers will be forced to ask knife buyers to submit an ID and record a live video to prove their age, Starmer calls the option to buy knives online a two-click killer and writes that the lessons of this case could not be clearer
Two dead including a 2-year-old and two severly injured after stabbing attack in a park in southern German town of Aschaffenburg on Wednesday, 28-year-old Afghan man arrested, motive under investigation but police says it was not terrorism
The European Court of Human Rights rejects Romanian presidential candidate Călin Georgescu's bid to reinstate the presidential election result where he won but was accused of benefitting from a booster campaign involving TikTok, the court rules the case is not within its scope, new election to take place on May 4, right-wing Georgescu currently leading in the polls
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wins the Charlemagne Prize for contributions to European unity, is praised for her services to the unity of EU member states, leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic, decisive stance against Russia and commitment to EU's Green Deal, says she is deeply touched and that the prize is a reliable anchor in turbulent times
Blood and Honour becomes the first right-wing group to have its assets frozen by the UK government, the group which was formed in 1987 by Skrewdriver singer Ian Stuart due to him finding National Front to mainstream is accused of being involved in terrorist activities, affiliate groups like security faction Combat 18 and online radio station 28 Radio also affected by the asset freeze
Czech police ask parliament to remove Freedom and Direct Democracy leader Tomio Okamura's immunity to prosecute him for eurocritic poster where an African man holds a blood-stained knife alongside the caption "Deficiencies in healthcare will not be solved by imported 'surgeons'", Okamura says he reacted to the government's policy and to the EU migration pact and that his movement is acting very leniently compared to attacks by migrants across Europe
Austria's Freedom Party (FPÖ) receives a mandate to try to form a new government after attempts to form a governing alliance without them failed but the conservative Austrian People's Party then signaled that it might be open to working with FPÖ, the anti-immigration and eurosceptic party which opposes sanctions against Russia was the largest party last election with 28.8% but was shut out as all parties refused to work with them, President Alexander Van der Bellen says he did not take this step lightly
British Health Secretary Wes Streeting calls Elon Musk's criticism regarding the government's response to child rape gangs that for decades abused mainly white girls in dozens of towns misinformed but adds that they are willing to work with him if he rolls his sleeves up, Musk accuses Prime Minister Keir Starmer of failing to bring the gangs to justice when he led the Crown Prosecution Service and calls for prison time for MP Jess Phillips who rejected requests for a national inquiry
All industries except food production forced to close in Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region after Ukraine shut down Russian gas supplies, First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Obolonik says that the problem is so extensive that they risk having irreversible changes where enterprises will lose their ability to start up
Germany has outstanding arrest warrants against 189 members of far-right groups Reichsbürger or Selbstverwalter that do not recognize the modern German state, 20 of the warrants are for violent political crime while the majority is for "the area of general criminality without political motivation"
Bulgaria and Romania celebrate their new full membership in the Schengen Area, means their populations can travel through almost all of EU without identity documents or controls but random checks will be carried out focusing on larger vehicles during the first six months to deter criminal activities, hopes being raised that the free travel will ease the historically rocky relationship between Hungary and Romania
Hungary loses EUR 1.04 billion from EU funds under the conditionality mechanism due to not meeting 2022 EU Council requirements regarding transparency in spending EU funds and mechanisms to prevent corruption, risks losing another EUR 1.1 billion by the end of 2025 in the same manner, has also lost access to EUR 10 billion in the EU National Recovery Plan
85-year-old German woman loses ownership to property sold under duress by Jews in 1939, the property that is valued at USD 1.6 million will be seized by the state and transferred to the Conference of Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the woman says that she has lived her whole life in the house and that she does not know where she and her son will go, Claims Conference President Gideon Taylor says they are willing to work out an arrangement where the woman stays as a tenant
Slovakia threatens to halt electricity supplies if Ukraine ends Russian gas transit after January 1, says alternative arrangements could cost the country an additional EUR 220 million in transit fees
Elon Musk writes that Germany is on the brink of economic and cultural collapse and that Alternative for Germany is the last spark of hope in an opinion piece in Die Welt, adds that the party represents a political realism that resonates with many Germans who feel their concerns are ignored by the establishment, the newspaper's opinion editor Eva Marie Kogel submits her resignation due to the piece being posted
France rescues 107 people trying to cross to UK in 12 rescue operations on Christmas Day, 451 people on 11 boats managed to make it across during the day according to the UK Home Office
Grand Duke Henri of Luxembourg announces abdication in Christmas Speech, says he looks back with gratitude and humility on quarter century where the country made much progress and he was a part of the journey along with Grand Duchess Maria Teresa, steps down officially on October 3 2025 where his 43-year-old son Guillaume accesses the throne
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán says US and Europe has spent EUR 300 billion on the Ukraine war which would have been enough to lifted all the Balkans to the level of European development or build an absolutely new European defense system but that these funds were burned, describes the Ukraine situation as apocalyptic and says the war will end in 2025 either through peace negotiations or the destruction of one side
Tense situation in Greece as the number of migrant child arrivals more than doubles year on year in 2024, migrant activist Sofia Kouvelaki says large numbers arrived along a new trafficking route from Libya to Crete and that recent arrivals included exceptionally young children from Syria and Egypt, Greece's Migration Minister Nikos Panagiotopoulos says the border pressure is likely to continue in 2025
Italy's former Interior Minister Matteo Salvini acquitted in a Sicily court of kidnapping where he risked six years in prison for preventing a migrant rescue ship with 160 migrants from docking in 2019, comments that he was being attacked by communist judges pushing a left-wing agenda and that he is proud of having defended his country, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni comments that Salvini has the solidarity of the entire government and Elon Musk posted on X during Thursday that it is crazy that Salvini is being tried for defending Italy
French authorities arrest 95 people in connection to an international child pornography ring, 36 of the arrested already known to the police for previous pedophilia crimes, all suspects are men between the ages of 18 and 74 except for one 16-year-old
At least 5 killed and 60 wounded after a 50-year-old Saudi doctor rammed his car into a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany during Friday evening, viewed as a deliberate attack
Germany changes its Basic Law to protect the Federal Constitutional Court from the growing right-wing Alternative for Germany, fixes the number of judges as well as terms and maximum age and gives the Upper House the power to appoint judges if the Lower House can't reach 2/3 majority, Social Democrat Interior Minister Nancy Faeser says that the law ensures that democracy enemies don't have a gateway to the judicial system
Thousands of people feared dead after cyclone Chido with winds above 220 kilometers per hour hit France's territory of Mayotte outside Madagascar, locals compare the damage to nuclear war, 100,000 illegal immigrants live in the territory which is the poorest place in the EU
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz loses no-confidence vote with 207 votes where 367 were needed, President Frank-Walter Steinmeier now to decide whether to dissolve parliament where a snap election must be held within 60 days, polls indicating right-wing shift as Christian Democratic Union which have promised a fundamental change in migration policy tops the polls with 33% ahead of right-wing Alternative for Germany with 17%
At least five people killed in shootings in and around a French migrant camp outside Dunkirk, 22-year-old French national arrested after handing himself to the police, motive under investigation, two of the victims were Kurds who were rescued by French authorities after they along with 83 others tried crossing the English Channel during Saturday
Ukrainian man has Austrian citizenship revoked over refusal to sing the national anthem at the naturalization ceremony, Lower Austria State Vice-President Udo Landbauer says that citizenship is not a gift but an award that requires respect and identification with Austria, 15,824 people obtained Austrian citizenship between January and September 2024 of which one-fifth were born in the country
53-year-old former Manchester City football pro Mikheil Kavelashvili new Georgian President with 224 out of 225 votes in the electoral college, criticized by the opposition for anti-Western rhetoric and laws cracking down on LGBTQ+ rights, outgoing pro-Western President Salome Zourabichvili says she considers the Parliament and thus the inauguration illegitimate and that she vows to stay on after her term ends on Monday
UK government makes the emergency ban on puberty blockers for under-18s with gender dysphoria indefinite, only exception is for use in clinical trials which will commence during 2025, the Commission on Human Medicines (CHM), which has provided expert advice to the government, comments that continued prescription of puberty blockers to children constitutes an unacceptable safety risk
Denmark moves to allow for deporting all immigrants that are sentenced to prison no matter the seriousness of the crime nor the time lived in the country, immigration and integration minister Kaare Dybvad Bek says foreigners are overrepresented especially in serious crimes which can't be accepted and that every deported foreign criminal is a victory for the country and for the rule of law, the law is expected to take effect in July 2025
Pope Francis approves LGBT+ pilgrimage as part of Jubilee 2025 celebrations, the pilgrimage title will be "Church: Home for All, LGBT+ Christians and Other Existential Frontiers" and be led chiefly by Italian gay rights group Tenda di Gionata which has previously depicted Jesus Christ as a transsexual
Planned terror attack on Christmas market in Bavaria foiled by police after tip-off from a foreign intelligence agency, 37-year-old Iraqi asylum-seeker arrested, the man shared Islamic State propaganda on social media and planned on driving a car through the Augsburg market
Muhammad is the most popular boys' baby name in England and Wales for the first time, has been in the top 10 since 2016 but has now overtaken Noah, 4661 Muhammads born in the countries during 2023 with Mohammed in 28th place with 1601 and Mohammad in 68th with 835
France's government collapses as Prime Minister Michel Barnier loses no-confidence vote, Barnier whose term spanned 90 days on will become the shortest-lived prime minister in the history of the modern French republic said ahead of the vote that he cannot accept the idea that institutional destabilization could be the objective that brings together a majority of lawmakers at a moment when our country faces a deep moral, economic, financial and civic crisis, the no-confidence vote followed Barnier's decision to force through an austere budget without parliamentary support
Polish PM Donald Tusk condemns climate activist road blockades and pledges crackdown, Interior minister Tomasz Siemoniak also condemns the activists' "completely irresponsible and scandalous behaviour" and says new regulations could be introduced and that the road blocks will be fought ruthlessly
Denmark reinstates 1915 ban on flying foreign flags without special permission, Minister of Justice Peter Hummelgaard says the Dannebrog is the most important national symbol and should enjoy a very special status, exceptions made for the Nordic countries, Germany, Greenland and the Faroe Islands as well as allowances for specific contexts like sporting events and demonstrations
Over 100 000 soldiers have deserted the Ukrainian army, widespread exhaustion and demoralization among the soldiers where interviewed deserters say it is 50 Russian shells fired for each Ukrainian one and that the war seems unwinnable
EU will provide Ukraine an additional EUR 4.2 billion in December to support the country's budget and will start transferring EUR 1.5 billion monthly from frozen Russian assets starting in January 2025, the new President of the European Council António Costa says the money can be used for military purposes and adds that the EU is working on a 15th package of sanctions against Russia
The EU simplifies the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive and the EU Taxonomy, the decision is reported as a decisive pivot away from the last years' Green Deal program and to reflect rising skepticism about Europe's environmental regulations, the decision follows days after the re-election of Donald Trump who has promised to again withdraw from the Paris climate agreement and slash regulation
Romanian ultranationalist Călin Georgescu wins first-round in the presidential elections with 23% of the vote, first time in the country's 35-year post-communist history that the Social Democratic Party PSD does not have a candidate in the second round, Georgescu who campaigned on reducing reliance on imports, supporting farmers and increasing the domestic production of food and energy has also argued against the EU and NATO and claims the Ukraine wars is manipulated by American military companies faces liberal Elena Lasconi in the runoff
Violent clashes in Amsterdam after soccer match between Israeli and Dutch teams, several people taken to hospital and dozens arrested by police, country's prime minister condemns what he calls anti-Semitic attacks while others point out that Israeli hooligans provoked and initiated violence
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy tells reporters that a Russian end to attacks on energy infrastructure and cargo ships could be a path to peace, until now he has maintained that he will not negotiate with Russia as long as Vladimir Putin is in power
Yes to amending the constitution so that Moldova can join the EU gets 50.46 percent of the votes and incumbent President Maia Sandu gets 41 percent in the first round of the presidential election on Sunday, Sandu who is pro-EU denounces the narrow results as a product of foreign interference
The 16 foreigners who were the first to be sent to Albania from Italy under a new detention scheme have now been sent back to Italy after judges ruled that their home countries of Bangladesh and Egypt were not safe enough, citing rulings by the European Court of Justice that found that non-EU countries could not be classified as safe unless their entire territory is considered safe
The Advocate General at the European Court of Justice, Michael Collins, argues that Malta's sale of citizenship does not contravene the EU constitution, as the European Commission has claimed, and recommends the European Court of Justice to drop the case
Poland is setting up, 49 integration centers, funded by EU, where immigrants can take language courses, get legal help and psychological support, the country's current Prime Minister Donald Tusk was the former president of the European Council
42-year-old Nigerian Lucky Francis, who was brought back to Denmark to face trial after attacking a Danish helicopter in the Gulf of Guinea in 2021 and as a result of being fired upon had one of his legs amputated, escapes sentence due to the injury, receives asylum in the country and, according to reports, has cost taxpayers over EUR 550,000
Around 200 German police officers raid neo-Nazi martial arts event in Hachenburg in Rhineland-Palatinate for several hours, confiscate items that indicate right-wing extremist sentiments and are now investigating whether possession of these could be punishable, no one arrested and several minors said to have participated, Interior Minister Michael Ebling says the operation sends a clear signal and that their zero-tolerance policy towards the enemies of the constitution is not negotiable
Ukraine will not extend its agreement with Russia on the transit of natural gas via Ukraine to Europe which expires in 2024, is announced by Prime Minister Denys Sjmyhal during press conference with gas importer Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico
The European Commission is suing Hungary over legislation intended to defend the country against undue political influence by foreign entities that came into force in December 2023, saying the law violates several EU rules and principles
Every chicken in the UK must be registered with the state from October 1st, citing improved preparedness for avian flu and other infectious diseases
French presidential candidate Marine Le Pen in court together with 26 other party members accused of misuse of EU funds by fabricating employees of the EU Parliament with whose salaries they financed domestic political activities, threatened with up to ten years in prison, five-year ban on political assignments but says nothing will stop her from standing in the upcoming presidential election
The anti-immigration Freedom Party, FPÖ, with party leader Herbert Kickl, becomes the largest party in Austria with 28.8 percent of the vote after Sunday's parliamentary elections, unclear how the government will be formed
Iceland's Justice Minister Gudrún Hafsteinsdóttir says gang criminals are sent from Sweden to commit crimes in the country, citing arson attack on police car in August 2023, announces stricter border controls
Alternative for Germany comes in second place with 29.2 percent of the vote after the Social Democrats' 30.9 percent in the federal election on Sunday in Brandenburg, Sahra Wagenknecht's party gets 13.5 percent and the Christian Democrats 12.1
Polar bear is for the first time since 2016 spotted in Iceland after specimen makes its way from Greenland on ice floes and rummage through garbage outside remote cabin where old lady is, being shot
One dead and one injured in knife attack carried out by perpetrator shouting “Allahu Akbar” in underground car park and on bridge in Rotterdam in the Netherlands on Thursday
Italy's Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini on trial over his August 2019 decision to deny the Spanish organization Proactiva Open Arms the disembarkation of 147 foreigners at the port of the Italian island of Lampedusa, prosecutors are seeking six years in prison, prompting Salvini to say that defending Italy is not a crime and that he will never give up