The Romanian fraud case against Calin Georgescu was first revealed just before his 2024 victory was annulled in an unprecedented move Romanian right-wing politician Calin Georgescu, who won the first round of the country’s 2024 presidential election before the result was controversially annulled, has been detained in connection with an alleged €1 million fraud scheme. Georgescu’s surprise win on an anti-NATO platform was met with accusations from Brussels and Bucharest of fake online campaigning. He was disqualified from running when a new vote was held, despite revelations that the suspected digital campaign in question was run by a party opposing him. Romania’s Directorate for the Investigation of Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT) said on Monday that it had detained a suspect and searched five properties linked to the case, with local media identifying Georgescu as the person ...
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Tehran says the embassy-linked institution operated without authorization and engaged in activities which threatened national security Iran has shut down a French-language center in Tehran, accusing the embassy-affiliated institution of operating illegally and engaging in activities which threaten the country’s national security. Relations between Paris and Tehran have deteriorated despite France staying out of the war which the US and Israel launched against Iran in late February and denouncing the initial strikes as a breach of international law. In July, two French diplomats were detained by Iranian security services, which accused them of interfering in the country’s internal affairs. They were subsequently expelled from the country. France retaliated in August by expelling two of Iran’s diplomats. “Based on the Tehran prosecutor’s office’s order, the illegal center af...
Islamabad says 28 suspected insurgents were killed but the Taliban government says three civilians died The Pakistani air force struck alleged militant hideouts in eastern Afghanistan early Monday, killing at least three people and sharply escalating cross-border tensions. The pre-dawn strikes in Nurgal district of Kunar province and Barmal district of Paktika province were in retaliation for a suicide bombing at a mosque in a police facility in northwestern Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on Friday which killed at least 16 people and injured scores of others. Pakistani officials claimed 28 suspected militants were killed when its fighter jets and drones struck their targets in Patang area of Nurgal district as well as the Torkandi and Rukha areas of Barmal district, reports said. However, Afghanistan’s Taliban government said the strikes killed three civilians – one woman and two...
Kiev made a “huge mistake” by rejecting a potential deal with Moscow in 2022, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has said Ukraine made a “huge mistake” by caving in to its Western backers and walking away from a potential peace deal with Russia in 2022, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has said. He also argued that years of Western military backing have failed to defeat Russia and are now raising the risk of a direct clash between Russia and NATO. In a video address posted on X on Saturday, Fico argued that both sides have sustained “terrible” losses over the years, and that Western military support has failed to contain Russia’s advances. “There is no supranational force to compel Russia to withdraw from the militarily controlled Ukrainian territory,” he said. “Ukraine made a huge mistake in April 2022, a few months after the start of the conflict, by lis...
The US president has announced an ‘AI Force’, as leading tech executives warn that increasingly powerful systems pose serious risks US President Donald Trump has vowed not to slow the development of AI despite warnings from leading technology executives about the potential risks posed by increasingly powerful systems. Trump also announced the creation of an ‘AI Force’ and said he would appoint an AI czar, while pledging to maintain America’s lead over China in the rapidly developing technology. “We will not in any way hinder or stifle the Growth of this incredible Industry,” he wrote on Truth Social on Saturday. “Rather, we will cherish it, help it, and watch over it, as it grows!” Trump accused his political opponents of seeking the “decimation, or destruction” of AI, describing the push as the latest in a series of hoaxes generated by “Radica...
Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland have joined together to challenged Westminster. Here’s why the Cardiff Pact matters “The era of Westminster is coming to an end!” the nationalist leaders of Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland declared this week. John Swinney, Rhun ap Iorwerth, and Michelle O’Neill gathered in Cardiff to sign an agreement asserting their nations’ right to self-determination, as they called on London not to obstruct referendums and outlined their preferred futures beyond the UK, including EU membership for an independent Scotland and Wales, and Irish reunification for Northern Ireland. In Russia, the meeting has already been dubbed Britain’s version of the Belovezha Accords, and the comparison is tempting because, as in 1991, political leaders from three of a state’s constituent parts gathered around a table to discuss a civilized divorce. But the...