Alexander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for three decades, has some wise insight on what it takes to be a president: Be a man. “God forbid that a woman is elected in Belarus,” the president, who has been called Europe’s last dictator, told journalists on Thursday, arguing that the job of president in Belarus is much harder than in the United States. “It’s the hardest work, you shouldn’t burden a woman like that.” Lukashenko, who has been in power since 1994, said Belarus may eventually come to a style of politics like that of the U.S. “But for now it…
Author: Csongor Körömi
Joshua Kimmich, captain of Germany’s men’s national football team, has said he and his teammates shouldn’t have expressed themselves in such a “political way” during the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar. “I think we as a team and we as Germany did not present a very good image overall,” the footballer said at a national team press conference on Wednesday. Kimmich, who took over as captain of the national team in September, was asked how the German team would respond to current and upcoming political issues surrounding football, with Donald Trump set to host the next World Cup as…
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny showed signs of poisoning before his death in prison earlier this year, Russian news portal The Insider reported on Monday, citing unpublished official documents leaked to the independent investigative outlet. Navalny, long seen as the main political opponent of Russian President Vladimir Putin, died in an Arctic prison in February, with natural causes cited for his sudden death. But the Russian authorities have been unconvincing in giving their version of how Navalny died while in prison. His supporters have accused the Kremlin of killing him, even as the Russian authorities have provided selective accounts of…
Russian state-owned airline Aeroflot hopes to bring Wi-Fi access to its planes — but it’s still years away. Russian Minister of Digital Development Maksut Shadayev told Russian state-owned news agency TASS that Wi-Fi on board Russian planes will be ubiquitous by 2028. “We have signed a corresponding agreement, and I think the passengers want it. It’s a demanded service. I would also like it to be free for passengers, as it’s now being implemented around the world,” Aeroflot CEO Sergei Alexandrovsky said Monday at the Digital Transport Forum in Moscow, adding that it will depend on operators whether the service…
Israel carried out a “targeted strike” on the Lebanese capital Beirut on Friday. The airstrike, confirmed by the Israel Defense Forces, came shortly after the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah launched 140 rockets at northern Israel the same day. Israeli media reports that the target of the attack was Ibrahim Aqil, a senior member of Hezbollah’s top military body, the Jihad Council, and commander of the militant group’s special operations unit. It is not clear whether Aqil has been killed. The IDF did not provide further details about Friday’s airstrike, and there is no confirmation of what was hit in the attack. …
Ryszard Czarnecki, a former Polish EU lawmaker and vice president of the European Parliament, was detained at Warsaw airport on Wednesday in connection with a private university scandal. Czarnecki, who represented the right-wing Law and Justice party (PiS), lost his MEP seat in June’s EU election. His arrest came shortly after a Polish prosecutor saddled him with fraud charges for racking up six-figure travel expenses during his time as an MEP. Czarnecki has dismissed the case as “lies and complete nonsense.” According to the Polish interior ministry, however, Czarnecki’s Wednesday arrest was related to a different case concerning Collegium Humanum,…
Belgian Foreign Minister and incoming EU Commissioner Hadja Lahbib has slammed Hungary’s plan to send buses of asylum seekers to Brussels. The announcement was made by Budapest several weeks ago but only caught the attention of the minister on Monday. Lahbib called it a “provocation that contradicts European obligations.” “Migration policy is a common challenge that must be tackled in an orderly fashion and with solidarity by all Member States,” Lahbib wrote on X. Belgium has nominated Lahbib as its pick for Ursula von der Leyen’s new European Commission. She is known for her tough stance on Budapest: During Belgium’s…
A consortium partly owned by the Hungarian government officially threatened the Spanish government with legal action on Friday over its decision to block a takeover bid for a Spanish train-maker. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s leftist government blocked the deal on “national security” grounds, notably potential Hungarian links to Russia, according to earlier Spanish media reports. The unprecedented veto is the latest symbol of how relations between Hungary and other European Union countries have deteriorated over charges that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government is pro-Russian. That has now drawn a furious response from the Hungarian consortium, Ganz-Mávag Europe, which confirmed Friday…
Intelligence on a possible threat of Russian sabotage action against Geilenkirchen NATO air base caused it to temporarily raise its security level last week, German press agency dpa reported Monday, citing German security sources. A foreign intelligence service gave “serious indication” of preparatory actions for a likely Russian act of sabotage against the NATO base, possibly involving the use of drones, the German newspaper Tagesspiegel reported. For most of Friday, the air base of the Western defense alliance in North Rhine-Westphalia instated the second-highest security level. Upon receiving the information, all non-essential personnel were sent home to minimize the potential…