Kremlin Presidential Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that the Hungarian authorities’ decision to expel 10 Russian diplomats from the country would have a negative impact on bilateral relations as a whole and would be met with an appropriate response.
“Budapest’s decision will undoubtedly have a negative impact. This will certainly have negative consequences for the entire spectrum of our bilateral relations… As for this particular decision, it will be met with an appropriate response. These actions will not go unanswered,” Peskov told reporters on Wednesday.
The Kremlin spokesman also stressed that Russia remains open to further development of relations with Hungary.
“We are interested in this and do not intend to harm in any way the valuable heritage and experience of our bilateral relations with our Hungarian partners,” he added.
Hungary expels 10 Russian diplomats
Hungarian Foreign Minister Anita Orbán announced on Tuesday that the Hungarian Foreign Ministry had ordered 10 Russian diplomats who “engaged in activities in Hungary that are unacceptable for diplomats under the Vienna Convention” to leave the country.
The head of Hungarian diplomacy did not specify when the diplomats would leave Hungary, nor did she specify the nature of their actions.
According to Anita Orbán, this does not mean a break in diplomatic relations with Russia.
“Hungary intends to continue the necessary dialogue based on mutual respect and adherence to the rules,” she added.
Hungarian media say an expulsion on this scale is unprecedented, as never before have so many Russian diplomats been sent home from the country.
Zakharova announced a “harsh and painful” response
Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, also reacted to Hungary’s move.
“The response to Hungary’s decision to expel 10 Russian diplomats will be harsh and painful,” she said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman described Hungary’s actions as the work of a “Russophobic lobby in Budapest.”
Three days after the Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) landslide in Saxony-Anhalt, the Bundestag’s general budget debate turned into a verbal battle between AfD co-chair Alice Weidel and Chancellor Friedrich Merz, with the two battling it out over mass immigration, democracy, crime, Ukraine, and the future of Germany.
Heckling filled the chamber. Bundestag President Julia Klöckner repeatedly intervened. The exchange was the first direct parliamentary clash between the two leaders since Sunday’s vote, in which the AfD took 43.8 percent and the CDU collapsed to 17.2 percent.
Weidel opened the debate and treated the election results as a verdict on the ruling federal government coalition led by Merz.
“The voters in Saxony-Anhalt have made it abundantly clear to you, in the language of the democratic sovereign: the Black-Red coalition is over,” she said. Citizens wanted “a change of policy,” she added, “and they do not want more of the same.”
JUST IN: After AfD's landslide victory, Weidel tells Merz that "the voters in Saxony-Anhalt have communicated to you in the language of the democratic sovereign with all clarity: Black-Red (CDU-SPD ruling coalition) is over."
Addressing Merz directly, she said he had failed to hear that message.
“That is not especially relevant, because your time has run out anyway. Citizens want a change of policy, and they will get it,” she said.
She turned next to the draft federal budget. Weidel called it a “declaration of surrender” and accused Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil of “unserious budget management.”
““Despite record tax revenues, you are incapable of managing the public’s money wisely. Why? Because you are unwilling to free yourselves from the shackles of green ideology, left-wing mass migration, and socialist redistribution.”
She said the CDU-SPD government planned more than €1 trillion in new borrowing over its term, a figure she described as unprecedented in the Federal Republic. The result, she argued, would destroy future room for maneuver and leave “scorched earth.”
“You are driving Germany into national bankruptcy in record time,” she said.
Weidel also continued to slam Merz on mass migration, a sore spot for the ruling government.
“You declare the migration crisis to be over. Yet, every year, a six-figure number of migrants enters the country through the back door of asylum, plus another major city through family reunification—most of them from Muslim tribal cultures,” she stated, adding: “More than a million refugees live whose asylum application has been rejected more than once. What are these people actually still doing in this country? They should be deported!”
Weidel accused the coalition of declaring the crisis over while still admitting large numbers of people through asylum procedures and family reunification. She claimed more than a million people whose asylum claims had already been rejected remained in the country and should be deported. Ordinary workers, she said, were paying the price.
“Because [Germans] have to deal daily with the consequences of mass migration, with the hatred of foreign groups toward their own, with hatred of Christians, with hatred of Germans, with hatred of Germany, and you are even providing financial support to these people. This must finally come to an end!”
After AfD's victory in Saxony-Anhalt, Alice Weidel takes Chancellor Merz to task during a raucous debate.
"Because [Germans] have to deal daily with the consequences of mass migration, with the hatred of foreign groups toward their own, with hatred of Christians, with… pic.twitter.com/lBjLNPt9hM
Energy policy drew the sharpest interjections from the government benches. Weidel called the energy transition “the greatest millstone dragging our economy into the abyss” and “lost, burned money.” Germany, she said, was facing a possible winter gas shortage after the destruction of Nord Stream 2 while still sending billions to Ukraine.
She demanded renewed Russian gas deliveries, a return to nuclear power, and peace talks.
“While the United States is making another attempt to end the murderous Ukraine war, you are stepping up the war propaganda and the confrontation with Russia,” she told the chancellor. When SPD deputies laughed, she snapped: “Do you find that funny? Voters out there can see that the SPD finds deindustrialization funny. So stop laughing.”
Merz responds
Merz came out swinging against Weidel, conceding the Saxony-Anhalt result was “remarkable,” but said the AfD had missed its actual goal: an absolute majority of seats.
“Fifty-six percent of voters in Saxony-Anhalt did not vote for you,” he said. “And you will not achieve that anywhere in Germany with this policy.” He accused Weidel of having pushed lead candidate Ulrich Siegmund, within hours of the polls closing, to seek a governing majority after having promised before the election to govern only with an absolute majority.
“You are, and you will remain, Ms. Weidel, a destructive force,” he accused.
The sharpest attack from Merz concerned remigration. He said the concept is “nothing other than a synonym for ethnic cleansing based on origin and skin color.”
Germany
The anti-immigration AfD party is pursuing a plan of "ethnic cleansing based on skin color and origin," said Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a Bundestag debate.
If that program were carried out, he claimed, skilled trades, nursing homes, hospitals, and restaurants would cease to function, because one in six workers in the crafts already holds a foreign passport and millions of people with a migration background keep essential services running. The coalition, he said, agreed on deporting people without a right to stay, but distinguished between those who work and contribute and those who must leave. AfD deputies erupted. Several shouted that the claim was false.
On Ukraine, Merz accused the AfD of reversing perpetrator and victim. Neither NATO, the European Union nor Germany had threatened Russia, he said.
“The only thing that truly threatens Russia and Putin is the radiance of democracy.”
The AfD, he added, still stood with Moscow.
“Right there runs the deep rift between you and us, in foreign policy, in European policy, in social policy and in peace policy,” he said.
He also charged that Weidel had said nothing about a failed drone incident at Leipzig Airport, a hacking attack on Berlin infrastructure, or this year’s fires and weather extremes.
“Not a word from you, Ms. Weidel, about what has been going on in this country this year, he accused her.
At one point in Merz’s speech, Klöckner told the AfD that heckling is part of parliamentary life, “but it is not part of constantly interrupting a speaker. You also have to accept that there are other opinions.”
When the noise continued, she warned one deputy: “We are not on the football pitch here right now. Save this for the weekend.” Later she threatened MPs with expulsion.
Merz thanked her and said the interruptions themselves showed the AfD’s “contempt for the German Bundestag,” adding that “listening is not your strong suit.”
With the battle brewing over who controls Saxony-Anhalt still to be decided, and with Merz’s CDU crashing below 20 percent in the latest poll, political tensions are set to rise in the coming month
A 33-year-old Cameroonian illegal migrant has been sentenced to 13 years in prison for raping a 75-year-old woman in her home in Ozoir-la-Ferrière, Seine-et-Marne, France.
The Seine-et-Marne criminal court handed down the sentence on Monday, along with a permanent ban from French territory and registration in a list of sexual and violent offenders (FIJAIS).
The attack occurred in the early hours of Jan. 1, 2024, which Remix News covered at the time. Shortly before 6:30 a.m., the intoxicated man, who had a whiskey bottle in his pocket, broke into the home of an elderly couple on a quiet residential street. He first entered the room of the victim’s husband, who is bedridden and severely disabled after a stroke. The husband cried out but could not intervene.
A French journalist says there is a shocking pattern of foreigners raping elderly women in France.
Just this week, a Moroccan migrant was arrested for raping and torturing a 74-year-old woman in Romainville with a telescopic baton.
The intruder then went to the 75-year-old woman’s bedroom and forced the woman to have unprotected sexual intercourse. He then demanded money and took a €50 note before leaving. He remained in the house for about 45 minutes.
Investigators identified him through video surveillance. On New Year’s Day, he traveled from Paris’s Saint-Lazare station to Ozoir-la-Ferrière after a night of heavy drinking during which he and two companions consumed five bottles of alcohol. Once in the town, he is believed to have gone first to the home of a prostitute he knew who lived on the same street; that woman then led him toward the victims’ house.
The defendant, who is married and has four children in Cameroon, entered France in 2022 after traveling through Libya and Italy. On arrival, he was housed free of charge in a maid’s room in Paris’s 16th arrondissement by the association “Surviving Insecurity – Diogenes,” for which he also worked. His asylum applications were rejected twice, and he was in an irregular situation at the time of the crime.
During the trial, the attorney general noted that ten years of detention would cost French taxpayers approximately €1 million.
The victim, now 78, has not left her home since the attack. She has said she believed she was going to die. Her son, who is in his fifties, has moved back in with his parents to care for them.
The victim’s lawyer, Christophe Gérard, told Le Figaro: “There are two types of rape: incestuous family rapes and those committed in the street, in parking lots, or even worse at home, the place where one is supposed to be safest. The events took place in the middle of the night, on New Year’s, on the 1st. The son left his parents’ house around 10:30 p.m., closed everything, before discovering in the early morning that his mother had been raped. It is a horrible and terrible crime.”
Just months ago, Remix News published in an in-depth news article covering at least 14 cases involving migrants raping elderly French women in recent years.
Go on a job interview in Germany and become a rape victim? That is what happened to one young woman, according to prosecutors.
Authorities say a 45-year-old German citizen, who originally from Kosovo, raped a 24-year-old woman during a job interview for a secretary position in an empty warehouse in the city of Kerpen. While the woman’s lawyer said she has been traumatized by the rape, the suspect said it was the “best sex” of his life.
Go on a job interview in Germany and get raped?
According to prosecutors, a 45-year-old “German” originally from Kosovo raped a 24-year-old woman during a job interview for a secretary position in an empty warehouse in the city of Kerpen.
During the “job interview,” he asked her a series of inappropriate questions, including whether she was still a virgin, say prosecutors.
When she tried to leave, he reportedly grabbed her handbag, blocked her way, and told her “she could not leave.” The German-Kosovar man then proceeded to press her against a wall, strip her, and rape her. The defendant repeatedly forced her to perform oral sex and sexual intercourse while asking her if “she enjoyed it.” Prosecutors say the woman only endured the rape because she was afraid the man would hurt her.
After the crime, he allegedly gave her €100, reports the German newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger.
During the trial, he denied that he raped her and said, “She wanted it… she participated.”
The defendant, who owns his own company, reportedly has a wife and three children.
This is not the only case in Germany in which a migrant has been accused of rape in connection with a job interview. In Braunschweig in December 2022, a 37-year-old Syrian conducted an unauthorized “job interview” with a 19-year-old in the morning at a restaurant. That evening he went to her apartment under the pretext of discussing the position further and raped her there. He was later convicted and sentenced to two years and ten months.
Austria’s new nationwide ban on “traditional Muslim” head coverings, including hijabs and burqas, for girls under 14 in both public and private schools, has now taken effect as of Sept. 7, 2026. in Vienna, Lower Austria, and Burgenland. The start date coincided with the start of the new school year. Austria’s remaining states will follow with a ban next week as well.
The measure, framed by the government as a child-protection and gender-equality policy, immediately faced visible resistance from Muslims and the first formal legal challenge.
At an Islamic primary school in Vienna, reporters from Austrian news outlet Heute observed young girls arriving to school still wearing headscarves accompanied by their mothers. One child wore a pink hijab coordinated with her dress; two slightly older students entered in simple hijabs without parents. School officials did not immediately clarify how they would apply the ban on private Islamic institutions.
The law requires schools to start with conversations involving the student and her legal guardians. Repeated violations trigger involvement of child-protection services, with fines of €150 to €800 possible for parents as a last resort. Teachers, already under strain, must initiate these talks. There are now fears of real conflict arising in the coming months.
Integration Minister Claudia Bauer of the conservative ÖVP described the headscarf as “a sign of oppression and a means of controlling girls from the earliest childhood.” Chancellor Christian Stocker has separately called for a constitutional ban on political Islam, saying he does not “want to live in an Islamic state.”
The right-wing Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), the most popular party in the country is known for its even harsher stance toward migrants and Islam in the country. FPÖ politician Ricarda Berger stated there is “no place for political Islam in Austria, and certainly not in our schools.”
The party wants a general ban on all headscarves and face coverings in schools for both students and teachers alike, which would cover all ages.
Education Minister Christoph Wiederkehr of the liberal NEOS acknowledged uncertainty about the law’s fate at the Constitutional Court, stating: “You can never be completely certain.”
He added that the government and education ministry “carried out very intensive consultations” to draft a constitutionally compliant text.
Only the Greens opposed the bill in parliament. Green politician Sigi Maurer accused Wiederkehr of “creating new conflicts and offloading them onto the teachers,” saying the minister wanted to “foist the role of police officers onto them.”
Teachers’ union chairman Paul Kimberger noted that some communities had already announced they would resist and that certain conversations with parents “will probably have limited success.”
The Islamic Religious Community in Austria (IGGÖ), the largest Islamic organization in the country, condemned the ban as discriminatory. Spokesperson Carla Amina Baghajati said, “We believe it unjustifiably restricts the fundamental right to freedom of religion and disproportionately affects Muslim girls. Rather than protecting children, it singles out a specific religious practice and risks excluding the very children it claims to support.”
The IGGÖ has pledged to support families challenging the law at the Constitutional Court. A request for annulment was filed on the first day of school.
A 2020 Constitutional Court ruling had struck down an earlier ban limited to children under 10, finding it violated Austria’s duty of religious neutrality. The court dismissed premature challenges to the new law in July because it had not yet entered force, but that procedural barrier is now gone. Left-wing student groups have called for protests. An 11-year-old girl demonstrated against the ban in February carrying a banner that, translated into English, read, “My headscarf, my decision.”
The Constitutional Court is likely to have the final word on the issue.
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