A statue of Donald Trump, naked from head to toe and covered in 23-karat gold leaf, has appeared in one of the busiest corridors of the European Parliament building in Strasbourg. The work, created by a Danish artist, does not pull any punches. It depicts the American president naked, with a sizable belly, sitting on the neck of a much smaller, tormented figure.
As left-wing members of Parliament call it “brilliant” satire, the right decries it as tasteless political provocation.
Anyone recently walking the corridors of the European Parliament in Strasbourg stands a good chance of stumbling upon one of the strangest artistic creations of recent years. The bizarre work of art stands at the busy junction connecting members’ offices and the plenary chamber: a 2.5-meter-tall (8 feet tall), glittering golden statue depicting President Donald Trump completely naked.
— Camille Moscow
The work is titled “The Orange Plague,” and its creator is Danish artist Jens Galschiot, known for his provocative public sculptures. The statue, a reference to Trump’s alleged adoration of luxury and the style of his properties, was fully coated with real 23-karat gold leaf.
“Trump loves gold. In some ways, I think he would even like this statue,” the creator told the press.
The composition of the statue carries sharp political criticism. The full-bodied figure of the naked president sprawls over the shoulders of a tiny, bone-thin and visibly suffering man. Trump holds a scale in one hand — a symbol mocking justice — and clutches a golf club like a scepter in the other, while a golf ball patterned after a globe lies at his feet.
According to the Danish sculptor, Trump’s policies and his sabotage of the green transition against climate change put all of humanity at risk.
To complete the statute, the statue’s pedestal bears a cynical inscription addressed to the “King of Injustice”:
“I’m sitting on a person’s back. It collapses under my load. I would do anything to help him. Except get off his back.”
Many immediately wondered how the strict Brussels bureaucracy could allow such a crude and provocative naked political statue through the gates of the institution. The answer lies in the European Parliament’s rules: Each elected member has the right to sponsor two cultural or artistic events per parliamentary term in designated areas of the building, subject to formal approval by the College of Quaestors, which handles administrative matters.
The naked president was brought into the building by Danish left-wing member Per Clausen, who said Europe should finally launch an open debate on how to protect itself from Trump and build a policy independent of him. Clausen also lashed out at outraged deputies:
“If one has skin so thin that one cannot stand the sight of such a statue in the European Parliament, one has no place on the stage of world politics!”
The statue immediately drew sharp criticism from the parliamentary right. According to Patriots for Europe and other right-wing factions, it is outrageous, tasteless and unworthy of the European Parliament to mock the democratically elected president of an allied superpower in this form in the official corridors.
The gilded exhibition in the corridors of the Parliament will not last long; it will be removed on Thursday. The naked Trump statue is then expected to travel to Turkey, where it will appear at the next U.N. climate summit (COP31). Donald Trump — from whom a quick and angry online reaction is seldom far away — has not yet commented on the Strasbourg surprise.
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Grzegorz Braun, leader of the Confederation of the Polish Crown, spoke in favor of restarting the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines during a meeting Wednesday with politicians from the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Lubmin. He said Poland should be a shareholder in the German-Russian project.
“Nord Stream 1, and probably Nord Stream 2 as well, will be relaunched. Russian gas will flow to the West,” Braun said. He said Europe needs Russian raw materials and that their absence could have serious consequences for the economy.
Braun argued that Poland should not be excluded from future energy projects concerning Russian gas supplies. “Poland should participate, not boycott. Poland should be the initiator,” he said. He also proposed that Warsaw become a shareholder in Nord Stream.
Podczas roboczej wizyty w #Lubmin w Niemczech poseł do Parlamentu Europejskiego @GrzegorzBraun_, poseł na Sejm RP @Roman_Korona i dr @Slawomir_Ozdyk (Konfederacja @KoronyPolskiej) spotkali się z posłem do Bundestagu @SteffenKotre (AfD) oraz posłami do Landtagu Meklemburgii-Pomorza Przedniego z ramienia @AfD – Stephanem Reukenem i @Kevin_Kurtze.
— Konfederacja Korony Polskiej (@KoronyPolskiej) October 7, 2026
He also said that if Russian gas returns to Europe, Poland could lose economically if the supplies bypass its territory. In his view, Warsaw should seek participation in such energy projects rather than remain outside them.
Braun also spoke of the need to “normalize” and “de-escalate” relations and economic cooperation among Poland, Germany and Russia. He advocated a return to wider use of coal and the ability to buy oil and gas from suppliers offering favorable terms.
The speech took place in Lubmin, the site of the German terminal and infrastructure linked to the Nord Stream pipelines.
Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 were damaged in September 2022 by explosions on the Baltic Sea floor. Nord Stream 1 had been the main route for Russian gas to Germany. Nord Stream 2, though completed, was never launched because of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly urged the German government to start supplies through the sole Nord Stream 2 line that survived the blasts. He has said that if the line operates, 27.5 billion cubic meters of gas “will immediately reach Europe.”
“Why don’t they do it? I just can’t understand it. They can receive gas through Ukrainian territory, through TurkStream, but they cannot through the pipeline running along the bottom of the Baltic Sea,” Putin said.
“In my opinion, it’s crazy, just nonsense. Why? But if they don’t want to, fine,” Putin said in 2024 at the Vladivostok Economic Forum.
According to U.S. media reports, a group of Ukrainian officers conceived the operation to blow up Nord Stream in May 2022. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky initially approved the plan before he allegedly unsuccessfully tried to cancel it at the CIA’s request. Polish connections also appear in press accounts of the Baltic Sea sabotage.
U.S. President Donald Trump said last May that “many people know” who blew up Nord Stream. He added that he was the first to thwart the project.
Trump imposed sanctions on Nord Stream 2 in his first term, significantly slowing construction. President Joe Biden repealed them in 2021 and reimposed them after Russia invaded Ukraine. Germany withheld permission to start the pipeline because of the war.
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It has been revealed that police in the northern German city of Bremen have for more than a decade advised participants in workplace safety seminars that deliberately inducing vomiting can be one way to interrupt an attempted sexual assault or rape.
Franka Haedke, a spokeswoman for the Bremen police, said the guidance is part of broader self-defense instruction offered by the department’s Central Police Prevention unit.
“In an emergency, such as attempted rape, defend yourself with all available means,” Haedke told the Kreiszeitung newspaper. “Vomiting can also be an effective way to ward off a sexual offense.”
Seminar instructors tell participants they can trigger a gag reflex by placing a finger down the throat. The resulting disgust, police say, is intended to disrupt an attacker’s actions. Haedke described the suggestion as one option among others rather than a prescribed response.
The sessions, which have run for more than 10 years, are held at companies, government offices and medical facilities. Employees of public transit agencies, the fire department, job centers, and social-service organizations are also eligible to attend. Topics include recognizing and avoiding danger, de-escalation, bystander intervention, and specific conduct during a sexual assault. Participants are invited to describe their own experiences so that advice can be tailored to situations they have encountered.
Haedke said the courses help people “recognize dangers early, manage conflicts, and act thoughtfully.” She added that the seminars “contribute to the prevention of crime and should be actively promoted and conducted on a recurring basis from the police’s point of view.”
Notably, the police appear powerless to address one of the key issues driving the increase in rapes and sexual assaults in Germany, and that is the incredible increase in foreigners. Since 2018, there has been a 72 percent increase in rapes in the country. In Bremen itself, where the police are advising women to vomit to stave off a rape, the city has been labeled the “most dangerous city in Germany.” It also happens to have the highest share of migrants of any German city. It is also a place where 49 percent of all rapes were committed by foreigners, even though the official foreign population is 23 percent.
The Bremen guidance is not the first unconventional self-protection tip from German police to draw public scrutiny. Remix News previously reported that in Berlin, officers previously listed singing as a way to irritate an attacker, advice that remained visible on the police force’s website even after internal materials had been revised. A screenshot of the recommendation went viral on social media in 2024 and was widely mocked.
Berlin police later said the tip had been drawn from professional associations for psychiatry and did not match operational experience.
“A screenshot of our homepage has been circulating for a few days, according to which we recommend that in the event of an attack, you irritate the perpetrator through unexpected behavior, such as singing,” the Berlin police stated. “This is recommended by the professional associations for psychiatry, among others. However, this advice does not correspond to our police experience and has therefore no longer been part of our recommendations since 2023. The flyer was already updated, now our website is too.”
The police stated that the suggestion was not meant for terrorist attacks, rampages or armed assaults, including those involving knives, where protecting life is the priority.
After the mass sexual assaults in Cologne on New Year’s Eve 2015–16, Mayor Henriette Reker — although not a police official — also gave advice that was widely condemned. Reker said women should keep “a certain distance of more than an arm’s length” from unknown men and avoid behavior that could be “misunderstood.” After thousands of German women were sexually assaulted and even some raped by North African migrants, the remarks were widely criticized, including by Germany’s justice minister.
Swedish police have also previously advised women to stop going out alone. Before mass immigration, Sweden was once one of the safest countries in the world for women. However, right around the same time as the mass sexual assaults in Colgone, Swedish police issued similar advice. In Östersund in 2016, after a series of assaults and an attempted rape, police chief Stephen Jerand advised women who wanted to move around at night to arrange a ride or walk in groups. He called the warning factual rather than a ban on going out alone.
German police have given similar pairing advice after attacks on joggers. Leipzig officers in 2017, after a woman was raped in Rosental park, said it would be better to run in pairs or make sure someone else was nearby, and to look back when passing people. The city’s mayor criticized the police for restricting women’s freedom.
After an attack in the English Garden in Munich in 2016, police in the city told runners to choose busy, lit routes after dark, jog at least in pairs at dusk, skip headphones, and carry a whistle or personal alarm. Although it was less controversial advice that what other authorities provided, critics note that women are increasingly unsafe in Europe while out exercising or enjoying public spaces.
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After yesterday’s vote in the Saxony-Anhalt Landtag, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) now holds the office of state parliament president for the first time in any German state. After winning the role, which is similar to a speaker position, 35-year-old Tobias Rausch sent shockwaves through the German political establishment when he confirmed he won with the support of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) votes. The backing of four CDU lawmakers could be one of the most concrete signs that the political firewall against the AfD is crumbling.
The newly elected president of Saxony-Anhalt’s state parliament said Wednesday that members of the conservative CDU voted for him. Perhaps even more importantly, he said that four CDU lawmakers have agreed to back the AfD’s candidate for state premier in December, which means Ulrich Siegmund could soon be the first AfD politician leading a state government.
Rausch gave a direct “yes” when Nius editor-in-chief Julian Reichelt asked on “Nius Live” whether CDU deputies had helped elect him. Asked whether Tuesday’s result signaled that AfD candidate Ulrich Siegmund would safely take office as minister-president in December, Rausch replied, “That is to be assumed.”
BREAKING NIUS: Bei NIUS Live bestätigt AfD-Landtagspräsident Tobias Rausch, dass er von CDU-Abgeordneten ins Amt gewählt wurde. Es habe dazu klare Absprachen zwischen AfD und CDU gegeben, und die vier CDU-Abgeordneten werden im Dezember auch für Ulrich Siegmund als Ministerpräsident stimmen und ihm damit die notwendige Mehrheit sichern.
— Julian Reichelt (@jreichelt) October 7, 2026
He told the German press agency dpa that there were agreements with four CDU members of parliament for Siegmund’s election.
He added that more might become clear at a CDU state party conference on Dec. 5, but declined to elaborate. Acting state premier and CDU floor leader Sven Schulze did not comment on the claims when asked by dpa.
Rausch was elected Tuesday in the constitutive session of the 83-seat Landtag in Magdeburg with 48 votes, 29 against and five abstentions. It was the first time the AfD, parts of which are classified as extremist by German domestic intelligence, has held the presidency of a state parliament since the party was founded in 2013.
The AfD holds 39 seats after winning 43.8% of the vote in the Sept. 6 state election, three short of a majority. The five lawmakers of the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance had said in advance they would support Rausch, accounting for 44 votes. The additional four came in a secret ballot. SPD, Green and Left lawmakers had said they would vote no. The CDU leadership had recommended that its members abstain; 14 of the party’s 15 deputies were present, but only five abstentions were recorded in the chamber.
The speaker chairs sessions, oversees the parliamentary administration and represents the Landtag externally, including at ceremonial events.
However, the far more consequential vote is expected in December, when lawmakers choose a minister-president. Siegmund needs at least 42 votes, and so far, the BSW has not committed to supporting him for that post.
Meanwhile, Schulze of the CDU remains acting premier until a successor is chosen.
Later Tuesday, AfD lawmaker Hans-Thomas Tillschneider was elected a vice president with 44 votes to 38, even though the BSW said its members would not support him because of statements he had made on armaments policy.
CDU lawmaker Carsten Borchert was chosen as another deputy president with 64 votes in favor and 17 against. SPD candidate Armin Willingmann received 33 votes and failed.
AfD national co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla congratulated the party and described the result as an end to the “firewall” that mainstream parties have maintained against cooperation with the AfD.
However, the national CDU is not happy about the outcome in Saxony-Anhalt. CDU/CSU parliamentary group chairman Thorsten Frei said, “The fact that this is the case is, in my view, extremely concerning and worrying.”
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Three foreigners were placed under arrest for killing a goat in the Polish city of Wałbrzych. However, Polish prosecutors now want to drop the case.
The incident occurred in late 2025 outside a restaurant in Wałbrzych that was closed for renovation and not operating, authorities said. A witness called police, who arrived and detained the men, two citizens of Bangladesh and one of India, at the scene.
Chief Inspector Marcin Świeży of the District Police Headquarters in Wałbrzych said the men told officers that such behavior is normal in their countries and they did not know it is prohibited in Poland.
The goat was intended as a meal for two of the men, according to Do Rzeczy. The Indian citizen said he is a vegetarian and pleaded not guilty.
In Poland, goats and other livestock may be killed for food only under rules that implement EU animal-welfare law, chiefly Council Regulation No. 1099/2009 on the protection of animals at the time of killing. The core requirement is that the animal be spared avoidable pain, distress, or suffering.
Unlike in many Third World countries where animals are slaughtered on the streets, often in extreme pain and fear, in the EU, the animal must remain unconscious until death. Bleeding must then be performed promptly and effectively. Slaughter outside a registered slaughterhouse is tightly restricted, and home or backyard killing for personal consumption is generally not permitted except in narrow, authorized circumstances, for example, certain emergency or remote situations under veterinary supervision.
Despite the clear violation of law, the District Prosecutor’s Office in Wałbrzych filed a motion seeking conditional discontinuance of the proceedings against all three foreigners. Prosecutor Mariusz Pindera said the outcome depends in part on the court’s assessment of the degree of “social harmfulness” of the act.
“If the court finds that it was not significant, it may grant the prosecutor’s request,” he said.
The court confirmed it received the application but has not yet considered it, in part because of a judge’s illness. No hearing date has been set, and no substantive decision has been issued regarding the men.
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A one-year-old baby was hospitalized with tinnitus on Tuesday morning after a firework mortar exploded at stroller height next to the baby’s ear during a high-school blockade in Saint-Cyr-l’École, west of Paris.
The heinous attack unfolded around 9 a.m. near the Lycée Mansart. According to RMC which cited police sources, the infant suffered acoustic damage after the mortar blast and was taken to hospital with a non-life-threatening prognosis.
According to Le Figaro, a couple was leaving home with their infant in a stroller when a mortar was fired low to the ground toward them. The father shouted at the youths facing him, “You’re crazy, there’s a one-year-old baby!”
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 2, 2026
Police sources told the paper the group numbered about ten, all masked, and included two girls – one wearing a white scarf and another in a green top. The girl in green is believed to have lit the device; she fled in the opposite direction while the mortar was still active on the ground. The infant suffered tinnitus from the blast noise and, on initial assessment, no other injuries. Firefighters took the child to hospital; the life-threatening prognosis was not engaged.
Witnesses described a chaotic scene. One resident, having breakfast on her balcony, heard loud bangs, went down, and saw the mother caught between the fireworks with the baby crying heavily.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 5, 2026
The suspect was identified from video filmed by another youth at the scene, pursued into a crowd, and arrested, according to reports. French media puts her age at 16 and says she is in custody for “violence with use or threat of a weapon resulting in incapacity not exceeding eight days.” Versailles prosecutor’s office has opened an investigation into the incident.
Officers found a balaclava and physiological saline among the suspect’s belongings.
Sonia Brau, the UDI mayor of Saint-Cyr-l’École, told Le Parisien the trajectory of the firework made the danger unmistakable: “This mortar was aimed right at ground level. So at stroller height! Can you imagine? Someone could also have taken it in the ankles.”
She added that the city faces what she called repeated riots and that officers regularly seize mortars and other explosive devices around schools.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 1, 2026
The incident occurred in the context of massive riots, largely driven by multicultural Arab and Black youths along with far-left agitators, that started in late September over staffing, class sizes, and building conditions and has repeatedly turned violent.
Official tallies cited in the same coverage put arrests since the movement intensified above 6,000, with more than 700 police officers and gendarmes injured and roughly 215 adolescents hurt. Illegal firework mortars have become a recurring weapon during the student riots, including a principal who was struck directly in the face on video, which Remix News reported.
— Remix News & Views (@RMXnews) October 1, 2026
Schools have also been targeted with widespread arson while teaching staff has been assaulted and threatened with murder.
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An Indian man who described himself as “masculinist,” “neo-Nazi” and “excited by blood and violence,” went on trial Monday behind closed doors at the Paris Assize Court, accused of leading a Discord group that blackmailed dozens of teenage girls into filming their own sexual abuse and self-mutilation, including carving swastikas into their skin.
Rohan Rane, 29, originally from Pune, arrived in France in 2017 on a residence permit to study at SKEMA Business School in Antibes. Investigators say he later cut off ordinary social ties and described himself as “a psychopath devoid of all emotion,” the newspaper reported.
Rane faces life imprisonment if convicted of sexual extortion, torture and acts of barbarity, corruption of minors and related offenses committed as part of an organized group. The trial is scheduled to run through Friday. Prosecutors say the acts occurred between 2019 and 2021.
Investigators identified 13 victims in the United States, England and the Netherlands, aged 12 to 18 at the time, according to news outlet franceinfo. Le Monde reported that the case against Rane alone involved about 20 victims, mostly American or British. Some were 12, 14 or 15.
Videos recovered by investigators show girls scarring themselves live on camera under orders from Rane and other men in an online community on Discord, the messaging platform. From his room in Antibes, he pressed them to engrave his first name and swastikas on their skin with razor blades. Some went further and penetrated themselves with knives.
Rane administered a Discord server called CVLT, “cult” in English, whose members, drawn from several countries, promoted neo-Nazi and nihilist ideas and referred to victims as “slaves,” Le Monde reported that U.S. authorities have said the network treated neo-Nazism, nihilism and child sexual abuse as core principles. The investigation began after the FBI was alerted to images of a 12-year-old girl whose torso bore the name “Rohan.”
“My goal is to create an inexhaustible reserve of slaves to satisfy my sadism,” he wrote in an August 2020 post. He has also said he has been fascinated since adolescence by “the Aryan brotherhood and fascism,” that he is “excited by blood and violence,” and that “Western feminists all have a rape fantasy.”
Prosecutors allege he forced girls under his influence to cut themselves, insert blunt objects into their genitals, eat their own feces, and attempt suicide, and that he used threats to enforce the orders.
Hippolyte Marquetty, a lawyer for six American victims and for the child-protection group Ecpat, which has joined the case as a civil party, said: “For some, it starts with a meeting, then they talk, and little by little they may be led to take photos of themselves, sometimes naked, to give information about their family, where they live.”
She further stated: “With this data, the relationship transformed, and he threatened to broadcast images of them to their entire community. There is such psychological pressure that they cannot get out of this system. If the FBI had not heard of this affair, some might have been pushed to commit suicide.”
At a hearing in March 2025, Rane said he was “guilty” and declared, “I take responsibility for everything.”
He has also acknowledged his masculinist and fascist ideology. Investigators found a written guide explaining how to manipulate young girls into slaves. He initially described some of the exchanges as consensual role-play before expressing regret, RFI reported. His lawyer, Irina Kratz, has contested the addition of a charge that exposes him to a life sentence.
The victims, now in their twenties, have experienced different levels of recovery.
Marquetty said. “We still have to imagine that some people don’t even know the face of their attacker, they have never seen him.”
Several are expected to testify by videoconference. One plans to appear in person because she needs “to come and express the suffering she suffered, and to “look straight in the eye and say, ‘this is what you did to me, I want you to realize it,’” the lawyer told franceinfo.
The women also hope their testimony will warn others about online violence of this nature.
Lawyers for several victims had asked that the hearing be public. The Paris Assize Court ordered a closed session Monday after a request from American authorities. Beyond the planned broadcast of scenes of torture and humiliation that often involved girls under 15, the court said in its ruling that “the criminal group” of which Rane is suspected of having been the leader “has previously sought to intimidate victims and witnesses” and threatened American prosecutors.
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German federal police arrested former foreign intelligence chief August Hanning on Tuesday on suspicion of treasonous espionage, obtaining state secrets, attempted treason, and acting as an agent for a foreign service, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced.
Officers of the Federal Criminal Police Office took the 80-year-old Hanning and a former aide identified as Manfred D. into custody in the Bad Tölz-Wolfratshausen district of Bavaria and the Steinfurt district of North Rhine-Westphalia. Searches were also underway at premises in Berlin, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. A judge at the Federal Court of Justice was to review the arrest warrants and decide on pretrial detention.
“The accused Hanning is under strong suspicion of espionage constituting treason,” prosecutors said. They allege that in the spring of 2010, about five years after Hanning left the Federal Intelligence Service, or BND, he and Manfred D. agreed that D. would keep supplying him with valuable intelligence “in exchange for remuneration” for use in Hanning’s private consulting work.
Notably, Hanning was not in the pro-Ukraine political establishment within Germany. In 2024, Remix News reported that Hanning accused Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky of being behind the Nord Stream 2 sabotage attack. Ukrainian suspects have since been arrested and extradited for the attack on critical energy infrastructure.
Manfred D. had been Hanning’s bureau chief and later served as chief of staff to several BND presidents from March 2012 until March 2026, giving him access to sensitive material, the office said. Investigators say that through June 2022 he passed Hanning about 2,000 documents, many classified and intended only for internal BND use, including briefings for the regular intelligence meeting of senior security officials at the Chancellery.
“On one occasion, Hanning used classified intelligence… to draft an analysis for an officer of a foreign intelligence service,” prosecutors said. They added that it was not clear whether “the material reached the intended recipient.”
Hanning is also accused of years of close contact with a representative of a second foreign intelligence service, to whom he passed political information partly drawn from the documents. Prosecutors have not named either service.
Manfred D. is suspected of aiding and abetting attempted treason and treasonous espionage. A government spokesman said the government would not comment because the investigation is ongoing, according to Welt newspaper.
The case grew out of a separate Hamburg investigation. In September 2025, state police searched Hanning’s home and offices for evidence tied to businesswoman Christina Block, who is accused of ordering the kidnapping of her two youngest children in a custody dispute in late 2023. Investigators have alleged Hanning was involved in an earlier kidnapping attempt; he has denied wrongdoing in that case. While reviewing seized material, officers found an electronic storage device holding secret BND documents and referred the find to federal prosecutors in May 2026.
Hanning led the BND from December 1998 to November 2005, then served as a state secretary in the Interior Ministry until 2009. He later worked as an entrepreneur and security consultant. The documents now at issue date from long after he left the service. German media, including WDR, reported that the foreign services involved are not believed to be Russian; prosecutors have not confirmed that account.
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A Spanish court has sentenced a 61-year-old Sudanese man to 14 years in prison for raping a woman with whom he shared a home, after he threatened her with a machete and struck her with an electrical cable.
The third section of the Provincial Court of Valencia ruled that the May 29, 2024, attack was a sexual assault involving penetration, aggravated by the degrading and humiliating nature of the violence used. The court also ordered fines totaling €1,200 for two minor offenses of injury and threats, and it applied a simple mitigating factor of alcohol intoxication because the man’s volitional capacity was slightly impaired.
The assault occurred about 5 p.m. in a Valencia residence while the other two occupants were out, according to the ruling as reported by Las Provincias. The man ordered the woman into his room and forced her to drink several beers while brandishing a machete with a 57-centimeter blade.
“Come drink with me; if you don’t come, look what’s waiting for you,” he told her, the newspaper reported, citing the established facts.
When she tried to leave, he seized her by the hair and placed the blade against her neck, saying, “Now, the jokes are over.”
He tore off her shirt, lowered her pants, failed in an attempt at anal penetration, then raped her vaginally and ejaculated. He then whipped her back and legs with an electrical cable, covered her mouth and nose so her cries would not be heard, and told her he would keep going until he was “in prison or in the grave.”
She fled when he stood to retrieve tobacco, ran down the hallway and called for help. Neighbors who could not understand her language but recognized she was in distress then dialed for police. When National Police officers arrived, they found her half-naked and frantic. She immediately sought their protection.
In the man’s bedroom they recovered the machete, the cable and the woman’s passport, which he had burned.
The court rejected his trial claim that his own calls had brought police to the scene.
The judges found the woman’s account coherent from her first statement and supported by neighbors, officers and medical reports that documented injuries and an acute stress disorder. A forensic doctor testified that the absence of genital wounds did not exclude the reported assault.
Analysis of vaginal samples detected the defendant’s semen, and experts dismissed as implausible his assertion of consensual sex 16 days earlier. The panel also noted irregularities in the collection of the defendant’s DNA after he refused to provide samples following his arrest.
“The complainant’s statement meets the criteria to be considered sufficient incriminating evidence to overcome the presumption of innocence of the accused,” the court said. The judges added that “no relevant contradictions or inconsistencies were noted in her statement that could affect its reliability.”
The woman had been in Spain only a short time, did not speak the language, had little money, and had no family or support network. The court rejected the defense argument that she had reported the crime to obtain a residence permit, citing the objective evidence.
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Japan has raised the fee for permanent residency applications twentyfold and imposed stricter income, pension and language requirements on foreigners seeking to settle long-term, as Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s government moves to curb growth in the foreign resident population.
The move is being presented as a tool to protect public finances and social cohesion.
The fee for permanent residency rose from 10,000 yen to 200,000 yen (about $1,270) on Oct. 1, the Immigration Services Agency reported. Charges to change or extend other residence statuses, long fixed at 6,000 yen, now scale with the length of stay and reach 75,000 yen for permits of five years or more. Reduced rates remain available for applicants facing severe hardship who also qualify for humanitarian consideration.
The adjustments arrive after the foreign resident population reached a record 4.12 million at the end of 2025, up 9.5% in a single year. Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has framed the tighter rules as a way to keep acceptance orderly.
“The government acknowledges that some citizens feel anxious or a sense of unfairness due to the rising number of foreign residents,” Takaichi wrote on X. The changes, she said, are meant to “ensure order” and allow “both citizens and foreign nationals to live safely and securely.”
政府では、在留外国人数の増加に伴って不安や不公平感を感じる国民の皆様がいらっしゃることに向き合い、「外国人政策」を「秩序」あるものとし、国民の皆様と外国人の双方が安全・安心に生活していけるようにするため、本年１月、『外国人の受入れ・秩序ある共生のための総合的対応策』を取りまとめ、幅広い施策に取り組んでいます。…
— 高市早苗 (@takaichi_sanae) September 27, 2026
Under the revised guidelines, permanent-residency applicants must show continuous household income at or above the average for Japanese households of similar size — 5.75 million yen (about $36,500) in 2024 official data.
They must also demonstrate projected pension benefits comparable to 30 years of contributions to the employees’ pension system, a shortfall that can be covered by assets. From April 2027, applicants will need Japanese proficiency at the level of an independent user and a working grasp of local social rules.
The standard residence period remains 10 years; marriage-based pathways were lengthened as well.
The approach is straightforward. Settlement becomes available to people who can support themselves, contribute to the pension system, and function in Japanese society, rather than to anyone who simply accumulates years of temporary status.
Extra fee revenue is earmarked in part for language education and for removing people who overstay or break the rules. A related fivefold rise in visa fees took effect in July, the first adjustment since 1978, which Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi described as a correction “to reflect inflation and exchange rate fluctuations.”
Meanwhile, European states face larger and faster inflows of migrants, strained housing and welfare systems, and repeated public backlash over irregular migration and failed integration. Japan’s harder line comes at a time when the country already has far fewer foreigners to deal with, especially from troubled Third World countries.
The radically different approaches to immigration are made clear through sheer numbers. In Germany, the former government cut the standard residency wait from eight years to five on June 27, 2024. The largest practical change is dual citizenship: applicants no longer have to renounce their existing nationality. Since the changes, Germany granted about 292,000 citizenships in 2024 and about 333,000 in 2025.
In Japan, authorities generally approve citizenship after ten years in most cases. On top of more rigorous standards, Japan does not recognize dual nationality for people who naturalize. Approvals are modest — about 11,500 in 2025, and roughly 7,000 to 10,000 a year before that — against a foreign resident population of 4.12 million. Formal applications that are filed are approved more than 90 percent of the time, but many people are screened out before they apply.
European countries that already struggle to enforce returns or to require newcomers to reach median earnings could adopt similar thresholds to dramatically reduce immigration.
The post To limit immigration, Japan raises residency application fee 20-fold, requires incomes higher than average Japanese household appeared first on Remix News.
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