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Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk called off his visit to Germany, planned for later this week, as relations between the two countries worsen. Tusk was due to travel to Potsdam to receive the M100 Media Award, which is given to “personalities who are committed to strengthening democracy, freedom of expression and freedom of the press as well as to European understanding,” according to the German M100 Sanssouci Colloquium organisation. But Tusk cancelled his trip at the last moment, citing domestic commitments, and Justice Minister Adam Bodnar will now travel in his place. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, due to deliver a laudation...

Germany is set to impose stricter border controls with several neighbouring countries starting next week, following deadly migrant attacks that fueled far-right gains in recent state elections. Germany has announced that it will implement stricter controls along its land borders with France, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and Luxembourg starting next week, with the measures set to remain in place for at least six months. These measures are being introduced as a "last resort" following a series of deadly knife attacks by migrants, which sparked public fury and has largely been seen as the catalyst to a far-right party securing the...

Austrian suspect reportedly enters Germany recently at the entrance to the Nazi crimes Memorial; Hertzog spoke with his German counterpart.

Although the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party secured a first-place finish in the Saxony elections on Sunday, the party is still launching an investigation into an alleged computer error that cost them a seat in parliament and is also calling for an end to mail-in votes, citing security concerns and shady practices.The first issue is the alleged software glitch that resulted in the AfD and the Christian Democrats (CDU) both losing a seat, while the Greens and Social Democrats (SPD) both gained one seat. The party says that it is launching an investigation into this.“We want to know exactly what...

1:53 Germany’s army rushed an Iris-T air-defence system into service on its own soil for the first time Wednesday having delivered several of the sophisticated systems to war-torn Ukraine to take down Russian rockets, drones and missiles mid-flight. AFP reports Chancellor Olaf Scholz said the surface-to-air system was part of a long term build-up of German and European defences initiated in the wake of Russian President Vladimir Putin launching the Ukraine invasion in 2022. “Russia has been massively rearming for many years, especially in the field of rockets and cruise missiles,” Scholz said at the inauguration ceremony at a base...

On Monday, Reuters reported on my discovery that Russia appears to be building the first launch facility for its experimental Burevestnik nuclear-powered cruise missile, which the United States calls the SSC-X-9 Skyfall. The facility is nearly complete, suggesting that the new missile could soon enter service with Russia’s Strategic Missile Forces. There is a lot of hype surrounding the Burevestnik: US authorities have denounced Russia’s development of “radiation-emitting, nuclear-powered cruise missiles” and called the system a “flying Chernobyl.” Unlike conventional cruise missiles, which are powered by jet engines, the Burevestnik is powered by an unprotected nuclear reactor. This means it...

September 2nd, is a historic day. It is the first time ever that an Islamic cleric will have to stand trial for issuing an assassination fatwa... 20 years since policemen wearing bulletproof vests and carrying machine guns arrived at my home. They gave me ten minutes to pack, pushed me into an armoured car and drove me off to an unknown destination. The evening of November 4, 2004, was the last time that my wife and I were in our house. Since that moment, we have been forced to live in various safe houses. We have lost our freedom and...

Could Finland´s next President be a foreigner? Finland´s current President Alexander Stubb speaking to the public. Finland´s President Alexander Stubb Credit: Alexander Stubb, Facebook Finland´s future President may be a foreigner, said current President Alexander Stubb during a recent presidential Q&A session on the local Yle Radio Suomi. The Finnish President emphasised that 10 per cent of residents in Finland have foreign backgrounds and argued that the future could see a foreign national leading the country. “Racism should not be politicised. Every nation has to go through this discussion,” emphasised Stubb. “In Finland, 10 per cent of people were not...

The incident took place in the western town of Moers. Germany is on high alert after three people were killed in Friday's knife attack in nearby Solingen. German police on Tuesday said they had shot dead a man suspected of attacking passers-by with knives in the western town of Moers, days after a deadly knife attack in nearby Solingen. Emergency services were called at around 2:45 pm (1245 GMT) on Tuesday and told that a man had "assaulted and threatened several passers-by" in the town, police in nearby Duisburg said in a statement.

The regime of Russian leader Vladimir Putin has been able to expand its position as an energy supplier to Europe. The EU now imports more from Russia than from the United States, reports Die Welt. According to the newspaper, for the first time in almost two years, EU countries imported more gas from Russia than from the United States in one quarter. This is evidenced by the data of the Brussels-based consulting company Bruegel. According to these data, for the quarter from April to June, the EU purchased 12.7 billion cubic meters of gas from Russia, and 12.3 billion from...

The September 1 regional elections German Chancellor Olaf Scholz didn't want to see coming hit him and his ruling coalition like a ton of bricks anyway."Crushed" was a commonly used adjective from Bloomberg to other major news organs routinely covering Europe.When it comes to Germany, I don’t think it’s “uncharted territory” pic.twitter.com/OONsFMYjse— nazir afzal (@nazirafzal) September 2, 2024The gloom about the populist party's rise is tangible through all the reports. The margin of the gains has to be an especially bitter pill with all the concerted demonization, vitriol, and hyperbole - not to mention flat-out politically based persecution - thrown...

Right-wingers and populists have devastated legacy left-wing parties in two state elections in Germany, even if a “software error” in one state was blamed for changing the initial official results, taking two seats away from the right. The right-populist anti-mass migration Alternative for Germany (AfD) has won a state election for the first time, taking 32.8 per cent of the vote in east Germany’s Thuringia. Counts in the AfD’s favour continued to roll in from the evening, building its lead from earlier declarations. The result gives the party 32 seats in the Free State’s 88-seat parliament, the Landtag, far short...

The far-right Alternative for Germany won a state election for the first time Sunday in the country's east, and was set to finish at least a very close second to mainstream conservatives in a second vote, projections showed. A new party founded by a prominent leftist also made an immediate impact, while the parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz's unpopular national government obtained extremely weak results. Projections for ARD and ZDF public television based on exit polls and partial counting showed Alternative for Germany winning 32-33% of the vote in Thuringia — well ahead of the center-right Christian Democratic Union, the...

Germany’s fractious coalition government has announced a hard-fought compromise on changes to weapons laws and asylum rules designed to prevent Islamist attacks such as last Friday’s mass stabbing that left three people dead. Three days before key state elections in which each of the ruling parties risk heavy losses to the far right, government ministers said the knife rampage allegedly by a Syrian asylum seeker at a street festival in the western city of Solingen had exposed critical weaknesses in the country’s immigration and security policy. “The Solingen attack shook us to our core and we said that we as...

Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz has called the return of 28 Afghan nationals to Afghanistan a "clear sign" that foreign-born criminals won't be spared deportation. A government spokesperson said on Friday that the Afghan citizens were all "convicted criminals" but did not respond to a request for comment to clarify their offences. "We prepared this carefully without talking much about it because such a project only succeeds if you make an effort, if you do it carefully and very discreetly," Scholz said. "I would therefore like to thank everyone who has helped to make this happen. And it is a clear...

Five people have been injured, three of them critically, in a stabbing on a bus in the western German city of Siegen, police say. A 32-year-old female suspect has been arrested, police said. Another person suffered serious injuries, it said. At least 40 people were on the bus travelling to a city festival in Siegen, located 75km east of Cologne, when the attack occurred at about 7.40pm on Friday (local time), according to the statement.

Resolving historical issues is primarily in Ukraine's interest, as it will not become a member of the European Union without Poland's consent, according to the Prime Minister of Poland Donald Tusk. As reported, on Wednesday, August 28, during a meeting between Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski and his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba, Kuleba was asked about the historical issues that "divide our countries." In response, Kuleba stated that if we start digging into history, Ukrainians and Poles could blame each other for various negative events. Therefore, it would be better for both countries to build the future together and leave...

German liberal and Green parties are pretty dang slick, even when their backs are up against an election wall. There's no quit in them, even when the pooled water that hosed blood from the murdered bodies of their fellow Germans off the sidewalk and cobblestones is barely dry on the pavement. ... the overwhelming problems inherent with the unrestricted immigration policies that began during the Angela Merkel years and have increased the misery index exponentially. In June, I wrote a post about the plague of "knife crimes" in Germany - they average sixty A DAY - and how those constant...

SOLINGEN, Germany, Aug 24 (Reuters) - The Islamic State group claimed responsibility on Saturday for a knife attack in the German city of Solingen that killed three people and wounded eight others. Some 24 hours after the attack, police said they made a second arrest on Saturday evening as part of a police operation at a home for refugees in Solingen. Police said they could not provide more details on the individual or its connection to the incident. Police earlier on Saturday detained a teenager who they said may be connected with the attack but said the perpetrator was still...

The Syrian asylum seeker suspected of killing three and injuring several others at a “festival of diversity” in Germany on Friday reportedly had a deportation order last year, but authorities failed to remove him from the country. According to information obtained by German paper of record Die Welt, 26-year-old Issa Al H., the Syrian asylum seeker who surrendered himself to police on Saturday after the mass stabbing in Solingen, was supposed to be deported in 2023.