Paris has more pressing issues on the home front with chaotic celebrations of the PSG’s Champions League victory, Waleed Gadban has implied A senior Israeli diplomat has mocked Paris after it summoned an extraordinary UN Security Council meeting over West Jerusalem’s actions in Lebanon, pointing at France’s domestic troubles. Over the past few days, Israel has intensified its bombing campaign in the country and advanced deeper into Lebanese territory despite the purported ceasefire announced more than six weeks ago. The Israeli troops seized the Beaufort Castle, a 900-year-old Crusader fortress, while Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had instructed the military “to expand its ground maneuver in Lebanon.” On Sunday, Paris requested an emergency meeting of the UN Security Council over the latest developments in Lebanon. Announcing the decision, French Foreign Minister Jean-No...
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Türkiye’s long-awaited constitutional overhaul may ultimately determine far more than the president’s political future Earlier this month, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan used a ceremony marking the 158th anniversary of the Council of State and Administrative Justice Day to renew his call for a new constitution. At the heart of Erdogan’s speech was a simple but powerful claim: Türkiye’s last two constitutions – the 1961 and 1982 charters – were not the product of free popular will. Instead, they were imposed by military regimes that came to power through coups. As a result, Erdogan argued, neither constitution truly reflected the will of the people or rested on a genuinely democratic foundation. The president went so far as to describe this legacy as a “democratic disgrace,” insisting that correcting this historical injustice is not merely a political prefer...
The bloc is weakening itself through its economic and military policies, Andrej Babis told the Financial Times Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis has compared the EU to the Roman Empire in its twilight years, arguing that Brussels is weakening the bloc through its economic, climate, and security policies. Babis returned to office in December after his ANO movement won 34.5% of the vote and 80 seats in the 200-member lower house of parliament. Since then, he has positioned himself as a leading advocate of national sovereignty, a reassessment of EU policies, and a more pragmatic approach to Europe’s economic and security challenges. In an interview published on Sunday, Babis accused Brussels of steering the bloc’s economy toward decline through what he called its aggressive decarbonization agenda. “The EU is now probably on the same road as the end of the Roman empire,” he told the FT...
Sahra Wagenknecht has accused the chancellor of applying double standards to Moscow while damaging the economy with sanctions Germany’s policy on Russia is riddled with contradictions, veteran German politician Sahra Wagenknecht has argued, accusing Berlin of punishing Moscow over alleged violations of international law while excusing similar accusations leveled against the US and damaging its own economy in the process. Speaking at a public appearance in Berlin this week, Wagenknecht took aim at Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s support for the Western sanctions on Russia and his stance on international law. “Russia’s oil and gas are selling like hotcakes all over the world, and we act as if we could end this war simply by stopping our purchases,” she said. “People say that because Russia has violated international law, we must impose sanctions. But when the US violates inte...
The country is facing sanctions due to a budget deficit, with PM Rumen Radev accusing his pro-EU predecessors of massaging economic numbers to secure entry Bulgaria is facing EU sanctions due to an excessive budget deficit, just months after joining the eurozone, Prime Minister Rumen Radev has said. He claimed that the crisis was caused by the previous pro-EU government, which massaged economic numbers to narrowly pass the threshold to join the eurozone in the first place. Speaking at a cabinet meeting in Sofia on Friday, Radev, who is widely regarded as an EU skeptic, said that the European Commission would publish its formal report on the country’s fiscal situation on June 3, thus launching the so-called excessive deficit procedure. Under the procedure, Sofia must bring spending from last year’s 3.5% back below the 3% ceiling by putting a binding cap on the budget deficit. If Bulgaria fails, ...
A senior CDU lawmaker says homeowners should use housing wealth before receiving state-funded nursing-home support A senior lawmaker from Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s CDU has proposed requiring Germans to use their homes to pay for elderly care, triggering a political row over social welfare amid the country’s mounting fiscal pressures. The proposal by Albert Stegemann, deputy chairman of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the Bundestag, would tighten eligibility rules for public assistance with nursing-home costs, potentially requiring homeowners to draw on property wealth before receiving state support. “Those who own assets must first use their own assets, including their home, before the community pays,” Stegemann told Bild on Thursday. Germany’s long-term care system works in three stages. Mandatory insurance covers part of nursing-home costs, with patients expected to p...