The anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party is known for its strength in the east of the country, but its popularity in Western Germany is also only growing, including in the country’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia.
This latest Forsa poll points to incredible growth of the AfD in a very short time in the voter-rich Western German state. It is now the most popular party in the entire state when measuring a national vote and would earn 24 percent of the vote.
Meanwhile, the Christian Democrats (CDU) fell four points to 22 percent, the lowest value Forsa has ever recorded for the party in the state. The previous low was 23 percent in December 2021.
However, in order to avoid confusion, it must be noted that the Forsa poll asked two very distinct questions. One question asked voters in North Rhine-Westphalia how they would vote at the federal level and also how they would vote at the state level.
At the state level, voters in North Rhine-Westphalia would still back the CDU over the AfD; however, the CDU’s advantage over the AfD has narrowed to just seven percentage points ahead of the April state election.
The latest figures show that if a state election were held this Sunday, the CDU under Wüst would receive 29 percent, down from 32 percent in Forsa’s April survey. The AfD has risen two points to 22 percent. The gap between the two parties has therefore fallen from 12 to seven points in just a few months.
About a year ago, however, the lead was far larger, at 22 percentage points. In July 2025, 38 percent of respondents favored the CDU while the AfD stood at a mere 16 percent.
While this may be of some consolation to Wüst that he is still more popular than the CDU federal branch, the fact that the AfD is now leading in the state at the federal level represents a massive sea change in German politics.
North Rhine-Westphalia is one of the most diverse of all of Germany — outside of the city-states like Berlin — featuring 35 to 38 percent of the population with a migration background. It is also a state with numerous industries hit hard by Germany’s ongoing economic downturn.
The three recent state elections in eastern Germany have become a “turning point” for the CDU after a sharp setback in Saxony-Anhalt, the party’s failure to enter the state parliament in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern two weeks later, and disappointing results in Berlin. Chancellor Friedrich Merz said he was “deeply shocked” about the vote in Saxony-Anhalt and spoke of consequences. He also noted that he took responsibility for the election outcomes but would not resign the chancellorship or his role as chairman of the CDU party.
The question now is whether widespread dissatisfaction with Merz will continue to weaken the CDU’s prospects across Germany.
A 47-year-old Turkish man was shot in the face at close range Tuesday night while dining on a restaurant terrace in one of Malaga’s busiest tourist areas, police reported. The victim survived and was hospitalized with severe injuries, while the gunmen fled and remained on the run Wednesday morning.
The shooting occurred about 10:35 p.m. at Lounge Bar La Plaza on Muelle Uno, the waterfront dining and shopping promenade at the city’s port. The man was seated at an outdoor table with another man and two women when one or two attackers approached, according to witness accounts given to local media. One suspect placed a handgun against the victim’s head and fired at point-blank range, shooting the victim twice.
A video and photos of the aftermath of the shooting have been published on social media networks.
The anti-immigration Vox party also wrote about the incident on X: “Málaga is being taken over by violence. Last night, a new shooting at Muelle Uno caused panic among the citizens. Not even the death of an innocent young man a few days ago in Barcenillas is enough for urgent measures to be taken. How much longer will the people of Málaga have to live with these situations?”
Emergency crews treated him at the scene before rushing him to the regional university hospital. Sources described his facial injuries as severe and called his survival “a miracle.” Health officials said Wednesday that his condition was stable after surgery.
While there have been numerous social media reports that the shooter was South American, this has not been confirmed by police or media reports. Accounts also varied as to whether one or two shooters opened fire.
Diners initially mistook the gunshots for fireworks. Panic followed as customers fled the packed terrace. Police from the National Police and Local Police quickly sealed the area, collected evidence and launched a helicopter search.
Some local reports said the wounded man has a criminal record and that the attack appeared targeted. Spanish police are treating the case as a possible contract killing or settling of scores, according to Spanish media citing unnamed sources.
The restaurant sits in a popular tourist area in Centro Pompidou. Families and tourists were among those present.
The shooting was the second in Malaga city in five days. On Friday, a 20-year-old local construction worker known as Nacho was shot dead in broad daylight in the Barcenillas neighborhood. Police arrested three Swedish nationals, who they believe mistook the young man for a rival gang’s hitman. Those suspects were ordered held without bail. Authorities have also linked a recent cluster of firearms attacks on the Costa del Sol to organized crime.
This is an article about China’s booming automobile industry and Germany’s declining automobile industry, but in reality, it is really a story about how anti-immigration China increasingly dominates the open borders, multicultural West.
That is not the typical way to open an article in our modern Western press, but this framing is entirely accurate, fair, and a reflection of reality.
For one, we need to stop trying to understand China entirely through the lens of “communism” or “authoritarianism.” Whether it is Bloomberg, Spiegel, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, or the Guardian, all of these media megaphones endlessly gloss over a core reality: China is an ethnostate that exists to advance the interest of the Han Chinese people.
Not only is China incredibly successful in this regard, but there is nothing inherently wrong in pursuing this goal. In fact, it not only accounts for China’s increasing strength, but also accounts for the economic success of a range of Asian countries, including Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, all of which feature stringent anti-immigration policies that ensure ethnic and cultural homogeneity.
The latest data from Germany’s automobile industry only adds to the growing body of evidence that despite years of diversity and mass immigration, Germany is failing. The data shows that China has now become Germany’s largest supplier of new passenger cars after imports from China more than doubled in the first seven months of 2026, official figures show.
The surge in Chinese vehicles is the main driver behind a sharp rise in overall car imports. Notably, at the same time, German exports declined.
This is far from the only data point. Remix News has been running an ongoing series comparing Western countries like Germany that have tied their economic fortunes to mass immigration to anti-immigration Asian countries (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5, and part 6). Once again, the latest figures prove that despite claims that immigration has made the German economy stronger, the reality is that Asian countries are proving this baseless claim wrong many times over.
Between January and July, 175,000 new passenger cars arrived from China in Germany, 13.8 percent of all imports and 120.9 percent more than in the same period a year earlier. That leap pushed China ahead of other importers, including the Czech Republic which sent 173,000 cars and Spain with 157,000 cars. A year earlier, China had ranked only fourth among supplier countries.
At the same time, German exports of new passenger cars fell. Around 2 million vehicles left the country, 4 percent fewer than a year earlier. Their value dropped 8.9 percent to €73.5 billion.
Many German leftists and even those in the Christian Democrats (CDU) claim the German economy would fall apart without immigrants. However, China and other Asian countries provide a sharp contrast to this ideological and factually unsound narrative. Instead, these Asian countries sharply rejected mass immigration and turned to innovation, automation, and investment in research and development. At the same time, Asian countries are known for their stringent and in-depth education systems designed for the benefit of their own native populations.
The result is that these Asian nations have now soared ahead of languishing European economies that chose open borders and foreign workforces, which often fueled illusory GDP growth resembling a pyramid scheme based entirely on rising populations rather than true innovation and productivity growth.
In key industries, including automobile production, machine tools, chemical production, and renewable energy, China and other anti-immigration Asian countries are leapfrogging ahead. This is all on top of China’s chokehold on rare earth metals, which theoretically could allow China to shut down production of Western weapons, automobiles, and renewable energy, just to name a few sectors.
Europe relies on protectionism to block superior and cost-effective Chinese technology
In terms of automobile exports to Europe, China’s growth has to be put in context. The reality is that China would be on the verge of bankrupting or overtaking nearly every European automobile company if it was not for extreme protectionism.
China’s growth in Europe is mostly coming from hybrid vehicles, as EU tariffs on battery electric vehicles (BEVs) can go as high as 45 percent. On the other hand, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs) only face the standard 10 percent duty.
Without these tariffs on BEVs, the European EV automobile market would collapse due to Chinese competition. Despite these barriers, more and more Chinese vehicles are making their way into the European market. China is simply far too innovative in nearly every aspect of EV production. China is also building battery production plants within Europe because the Europeans can no longer do it themselves. Even top automobile executives, whether in the United States or Europe, admit they are years behind China.
European automakers are so far behind that they rely on batteries, which are by far the most expensive and vital components of any electric vehicle, almost exclusively from China. China accounts for over 80 percent of global battery cell production and supplies a major share of the cells and lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry used in European-branded electric vehicles. There are other players, however, these also include immigration-restrictionist nations like South Korea and Japan.
Europe is now racing to place tariffs on PHEVs as well, as European automaker CEOs beg for relief. However, these same European automakers would have no electric vehicle market at all if they were cut off from Chinese batteries.
For those who do not want to read long treatises on the dominance of Chinese automakers, there are also plenty of video formats available that explore this topic. This video from “Modern MBA” is just one that illustrates just how far ahead Chinese auto manufacturers are in terms of innovation and development. This dominance is not down to cheap labor either or even government subsidies. At its heart, this dominance is about the engineering talent and technological leapfrogging Chinese automakers have managed to achieve in an extremely short time.
Diversity has not benefited the West
It seems as Europe becomes more “diverse,” it also falls farther and farther behind in terms of industrial strength, with the automobile industry perhaps one of the most glaring examples. However, this basic claim undersells just how far European industry has fallen in comparison to China.
China, with its anti-immigration policies, has ascended into the modern age and pulled ahead in key modern industries on a scale that is unprecedented in world history. Just like many other modern Asian nations that pursue similar anti-immigration policies, instead of relying on waves of cheap foreign labor, China continues to automate and innovate around its falling population through robotics, engineering and artificial intelligence.
If White European countries pursued similar policies as their Asian counterparts, these same Western news outlets that dominate the West would endlessly berate them as racists, Nazis, and xenophobes. There is some occasional sniping at the immigration policies of these Asian countries, yet this central and core policy of maintaining ethnic homogeneity is more or less ignored.
For one, these countries are not White, so mostly White journalists do not know how to approach this topic.
However, there is another reason and it is perhaps more important.
If these same journalists continuously attacked the Asian tigers on a daily basis for being racist and xenophobic — while still complaining that they are continuously more successful in terms of education, innovation, and economics — then their Western liberal audiences might begin to second-guess their own open-borders policies.
It could also be possible that Western liberal audiences are not actually as smart as they think they are, and they will forever fail to make this connection.
Nevertheless, on a fundamental level, these Asian countries represent a core threat to the open-borders vision that has been relentlessly promoted among Western countries.
The reality is the Western world is confronted daily with the failures of diversity and multiculturalism.
The other reality is that we are ruled by elites, business executives, and an ideologically captured populace that not only refuses to acknowledge this despite facts, figures, data, and real-world experience. In fact, those who point all of this out are facing persecution, censorship, and even imprisonment.
A 20-year-old Italian citizen of Egyptian origin has been arrested in the Italian city of Turin on suspicion of repeatedly raping a 12-year-old boy in Parco dell’Arrivore. In response, major right-wing parties are calling for remigration, more security, and even chemical castration.
Officers from the Barriera Nizza precinct detained the suspect overnight on Monday, three days after the attack on Friday, Sept. 18. In police custody, the man confessed to all the crimes in the case, according to authorities. The man is charged with aggravated sexual violence and is being held in Turin prison pending a validation hearing.
BREAKING: An Egyptian-Italian man has been arrested for raping a 12-year-old Italian boy multiple times in Arrivore Park in Turin.
Police say the suspect lured the boy with a free scooter ride home before committing rape with intercourse against the boy's will.
Investigators say the boy was playing in the courtyard of the public-housing block where he lives in the Barriera Milano district when the older male approached him on an electric scooter and offered him a ride. The two traveled approximately a kilometer to Arrivore Park, a green strip along the Stura River that residents have long described as poorly patrolled by police after dark. There, in an isolated spot, the boy was raped with penetration.
Italian news outlet La Stampa reported that the suspect admitted luring the child with the new scooter, taking him to the park, and forcing him into sex against his will. He later told police he had been under the influence of drugs.
After the assault, surveillance cameras recorded the pair at a mini-market on Strada Settimo, where the suspect bought the boy bags of chips and Monster energy drinks. La Stampa said that footage, together with cameras along Via Botticelli, showed the child in a red T-shirt and shorts and the suspect in a black hooded sweatshirt. Shop staff also confirmed that the two had been in the store.
The boy told friends and then his mother, which led the mother to immediately call the police.
“My son did not know that person,” she said. “The fact that he had not yet been caught gave me no peace.”
The suspect is a second-generation Italian, unemployed and without a fixed address. He had prior convictions for property crimes and was under a reporting obligation, which he observed until the day of the attack. From Friday onward, he stopped signing in. Officers later found him riding the same scooter in the neighborhood.
Brothers of Italy politicians held a protest in the vicinity of the park where the rape occurred. There, a number of politicians from the party called for more funding for police and increased patrols in the area.
Enrico Forzese, of the right-wing Futuro Nazionale party, called for “sweeps, remigration and more checks” in areas he described as high-crime.
The League party separately renewed its demand for chemical castration of rapists and pedophiles.
Essen-based chemical group Evonik plans to cut 3,200 jobs worldwide, including 2,150 in Germany, and is looking to put new money into Asia and the United States instead.
Interim chief Claus Rettig said management, the supervisory board and employee representatives were aligned on the diagnosis. “The board of directors, supervisory board and employee representatives share a conviction: We are in a structural and economic crisis of our industry,” Rettig announced.
Two-thirds of the planned cuts fall in Germany. Evonik employed more than 31,000 people worldwide at the end of 2025, according to German news outlet Tagesschau. Existing savings and efficiency programs are already expected to remove about 2,800 jobs by the end of this year. The additional wave is scheduled through the end of 2029 and is to be carried out “in a socially responsible manner” through early retirements, severance payments and leaving vacant posts unfilled. The company says there will be no compulsory redundancies.
Growth, Rettig said, looks better outside Europe. Further investment projects are being examined in Asia and America.
Evonik also wants to sell subsidiaries Oxeno and Syneqt, which together employ more than 4,300 people.
“We speak with investors at Oxeno, but that’s not yet the case with Syneqt,” Rettig said. He added that both units are to be put up for sale.
The group is one of Germany’s largest chemical firms. Revenue in 2025 came to €14.1 billion, down 7 percent from the year before. Its portfolio covers more than 4,000 products used in pharmaceuticals, food and mechanical engineering.
The cuts sit inside a wider slump. Germany’s chemical-pharmaceutical industry remains the country’s third-largest industrial sector, with more than 476,000 employees. In May, the Munich-based ifo Institute warned that the sector’s business climate had deteriorated sharply. High energy prices, bureaucracy and the Iran war were cited as causes.
“The consequences of the hostilities in the Middle East are hitting the already struggling chemical industry with full force,” said Anna Wolf, head of the ifo Centre for Innovation Economics.
Evonik’s answer is a familiar story in German industry this year: fewer jobs at home, asset sales, and a search for cheaper growth abroad.
Several key German industry groups and energy analysts are warning that Germany could face severe gas supply issues, and potentially entirely deplete its storage, if an exceptionally cold winter occurs. Of course, predictions of this sort have been made off and on in recent years. Germany has never actually run out of gas before. The question is now how alarmist these warnings are and how realistic an actual gas and energy shortage is this time around.
Currently, the government argues there will be no gas shortage. However, storage operators, energy executives and some economists argue that a mild winter should be manageable and a brutally cold one could get tight enough to force industry to cut production and send prices soaring.
One of the most dire warnings comes from Markus Krebber, chief executive of RWE, Germany’s largest power producer.
“If we get a mild winter, everything will be fine,” he told Focus in an interview. “If the winter is hard, there can be significantly higher prices. And it can get tight.”
Krebber said Germany is entering the season “with the lowest gas storage levels of the past 20 years” – lower even than in 2022, when Russian pipeline flows collapsed. “That works if we have a normal winter. If we get a particularly cold winter, it can get scarce.”
He has also warned that if Germany does not add more power supply, “there will be distribution battles for electricity” among industry, data centers and the electrification of heat and transport.
The data supports Krebber’s concerns. The German gas storage association (INES) warns that Germany entered September at its lowest storage levels in 15 years, at around 53 to 56 percent. INES models show that if refills remain sluggish and if Germany experiences an extremely cold winter, similar to the weather of 2010, storage reserves could be exhausted as early as January or February, potentially leaving daily supply shortfalls of up to 25 percent.
German underground gas caverns are roughly 20 percentage points below last year’s level and far under the seasonal norm. While Berlin’s own rules call for most gas storage sites to reach 80 percent by Nov. 1, almost no one now expects that to happen.
“By now all the experts agree: these 80 percent are already technically almost impossible to achieve and also not realistic,” Klaus Müller, president of the Federal Network Agency, said in a Phoenix television interview. He added that storage is not the whole story. “We have created our own capacities with four liquefied natural gas terminals. We can obtain gas from Norway, Belgium, Holland, France.”
Energy market consultants and industry group analyses point out that weak summer gas refills – driven by unfavorable price spreads between summer and winter gas and price volatility from global conflicts – have left Germany reliant on steady ongoing imports. They point out that cold weather is not the only factor, as disruptions could be exacerbated by pipeline outages, reduced LNG flows, escalating conflict in Ukraine or the Middle East, and various other scenarios. All of this comes at a time when Germany’s buffer is much thinner than in previous years.
Not everyone is panicking, though. The Federal Network Agency, Germany’s energy regulator, has also acknowledged the low storage levels but stated they do not currently indicate an imminent crisis or inevitable shortage.
Claudia Kemfert, an energy economist at the German Institute for Economic Research, says that a distinction must be made between shortages and higher prices. She has said an acute shortage is not her base case, but that low stocks leave the system more exposed if cold weather, high LNG prices and supply interruptions hit at once. Relying on last-minute cargoes, she has argued, is “risky and expensive.”
Historical weather data supports less extreme gas shortage scenarios. On average, the past ten winters have been extremely mild in Germany, with the exception of last year’s winter, which was exceptionally cold. If there is a repeat this year or the winter is even colder, it could indeed tip Germany into an energy crisis, but the odds appear to be against such a scenario.
In the meantime, industrial companies in Germany are already taking precautionary measures, as a severe cold snap would likely force curtailments on industrial consumers first to stretch remaining gas through February and March to protect vital natural gas deliveries to households.
Another piece of good news it that the European Union as a whole is near 70 percent in terms of gas storage, far better than Germany. This means that the crisis is unlikely to grip all of Europe. Still, Germany is Europe’s largest economy and a key hub of industry. Any gas or energy crisis in the country would have broad repercussions across Europe.
A 30-year-old Tunisian man charged with raping a jogger in a public park outside Turin has failed to appear at his latest court hearing and can no longer be located more than two years after the attack, Italian court officials reported.
The defendant, who has not been publicly named, missed a Sept. 17 hearing at a Turin court, where he is accused of sexual violence in the June 29, 2024, assault and rape in Luserna San Giovanni.
Italian media outlet Turino Today indicates that the man may have already left Piedmont and returned to Tunisia but his current whereabouts are unknown.
According to the prosecution’s account presented in court, the 40-year-old woman was running in a municipal park in late afternoon when a man grabbed her from behind. The struggle quickly turned violent. Prosecutors say he sexually assaulted her and fell onto her during the fight, fracturing her legs. She bit his arm through a red T-shirt. He then fled.
A carabinieri officer who responded testified that the woman could not stand.
“I was among the first to intervene,” the officer told the court. “I remember that the woman could not stay on her feet because of the fractures to her legs. I supported her while we waited for the ambulance.”
Police found the suspect after patrol officers noticed a man walking with his partner with a wound resembling a bite mark, leading the officers to suspect that the man may have been the rape suspect. Officers said he appeared nervous. At his home, he broke down in tears, showed the bite marks and handed over the clothing he said he had worn during the attack, including the red shirt the victim had described. Taken to the station, he confessed to the crimes in the case.
In court, the victim’s husband said that the rape and assault dramatically changed life for his wife, him, and their children.
“For at least a year, she could only walk on crutches. She suffered so much,” he said.
The woman’s sister told the court: “I was informed by phone of what had happened. My sister is a rock, but nothing is the same for her anymore. The same goes for us: these are things that mark you, there is no going back.”
The first judge did not impose pretrial detention on the suspect. Reporting on the ruling, the judge cited the man’s cooperation, the fact that he was not arrested in the act, the absence of a prior criminal record, and a finding that there was no concrete flight risk.
An Algerian migrant has been sentenced to ten years in prison for raping a child and sexual assaults on 3 other children
A 36-year-old Algerian migrant, who worked as a security guard, has been sentenced to ten years in prison after a Savoie criminal court found him guilty of aggravated rape of a child and sexual assaults on minors.
The court found him guilty of sexually assaulting his then-7-year-old stepdaughter in 2020, forcing an adolescent to perform fellatio, of sexual assault on another minor, and of sending a photograph of his genitals and a video to a friend of one of the victims. The most serious acts occurred at the home he shared with his then-wife during an evening in November 2020 in Saint-Pierre-d’Albigny.
Four minor girls were identified as victims. None were named in the reporting, according to French news outlet Le Dauphine.
The three-day trial before the Savoie court ended with a conviction on all counts: aggravated rape of a minor, sexual assaults on minors, and corruption of a minor. The public prosecutor, Christophe Dubois, had asked for 12 years. The court also imposed a permanent ban from French territory and registration on the national sex-offenders file.
The defendant, an Algerian national who had been living in France illegally since his divorce from the mother of one of the victims, maintained his innocence throughout. On the first day, he told the court, “I am innocent. All of this is just lies!”
The next day, he told a civil party: “I am not the kind of person who touches minors.”
Court-appointed psychologists and psychiatrists described him as psychologically normal, with no mental disorder.
In his closing argument on Sept. 16, prosecutor Christophe Dubois opened with a blunt assessment: “This trial leaves a bitter taste with an accused who never stopped contesting the facts.”
Dubois said the gravity of the potential sentence made it tempting for the defendant “to flee reality given how heavy the sentence he faced was.”
On election night in Berlin-Neukölln, clan boss Issa Remmo walked into the Left Party’s (Die Linke) victory party and declared he finally felt supported by the party. Now, the far-left party is in damage control after trying to distance itself from Remmo, whose son has already leaked chats alleging his family’s ties go deeper with the Left Party than anyone thought possible.
Issa Remmo, widely described by police and prosecutors as the head of Berlin’s Remmo family, appeared at the Neukölln district association’s public election-night gathering yesterday evening, Sept. 20, 2026. The Left Party had just finished first in the local election with a provisional 25.7 percent, ahead of the CDU at 18.8 percent. Remmo posed for photos, including with a victory sign, and spoke to the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper.
“The Berlin Left is not hostile towards Jews,” he said, addressing a charge that had dogged the party throughout the campaign. “In Germany I feel supported by a party for the first time.” He added that he would not vote for an anti-Jewish politician.
Julius Betschka of Stern Magazine posted the scene the same evening, calling it “incredible” and noting that Remmo had been in the sights of the justice system for decades.
Wahnsinn. Der Chef des berüchtigten Remmo-Clans, Issa Remmo (seit Jahrzehnten im Visier der Justiz), feiert laut @morgenpost mit der Linkspartei in Neukölln den Wahlsieg. Er fühle sich von der Partei unterstützt, soll Remmo gesagt haben. pic.twitter.com/1JrXashpZl
The Left Party’s immediate response was one of denial. Jorinde Schulz of the Neukölln district board told dpa the event was public, Remmo was not on any guest list, and there were “neither political nor personal relations” with him. Lead candidate Elif Eralp said on ZDF shef “was not invited and was sent out again…We have nothing to do with organized crime. We fight it.”
Berlin state manager Bjoern Tielebein was blunter: “Types like him are definitely not our allies… Everything one hears and knows about this person is repulsive.”
Journalist Yossi Bartal, who said he was present, wrote that he recognized Remmo, informed organizers, and that Remmo was then “very clearly” asked to leave a loud, crowded hall that anyone could enter. Remmo was also reported at the larger Kreuzberg party later and turned away at the door.
However, the various accounts that attempted to distance the Left Party from Remmo appear to have fallen apart 24 hours later due to leaked messages from Firas Remmo, Issa’s son. Firas posted Instagram screenshots of messages he said came from MP Ferat Koçak. In one, the Left Party MP sent “greetings with respect back to your father” and proposed a morning visit. In another, dated Feb. 17, Koçak wrote “Brother help me spread this,” attaching a video of his own Bundestag speech criticizing the term “clan crime,” and asked that “all your people” share it. Firas replied “Gladly brother.” Koçak reacted with a heart emoji.
Firas captioned the posts: “We are part of something big. We stand together… We are a team.” Koçak had not publicly confirmed or denied the chats as of Monday afternoon.
If the chats are accurate, they do not prove Remmo was formally invited to the party. They do make the “complete stranger walked in off the street” version harder to sell.
Photos were also circulated showing Remmo posing with Ibrahim Ibrahim, described by the NGO Democ as a leading German supporter of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), an EU-listed terrorist organization. Other images placed Ibrahim with Bundestag member Ferat Koçak and candidate Vanessa Emde. The Neukölln board later confirmed Ibrahim’s presence among “hundreds of guests,” including many from the Palestinian community.
@der_neukoellner MdB Ferat Koçak feiert bei Wahlparty seiner @LinkeNeukoelln mit Ibrahim Ibrahim (r.), Vertreter des extremistischen „Vereinigten Palästinensischen Nationalkomitees“ (VPNK), Dach für PFLP und Hamas in Berlin. Ibrahim gratuliert: VPNK war „Teil dieses Erfolgs“. pic.twitter.com/xy6LdPN420
In 2018, prosecutors seized 77 properties attributed to the family on the theory they were bought with criminal proceeds; courts later ordered the confiscation of dozens of them. Issa Remmo himself has not been convicted. However, to police, prosecutors, and a large part of the Berlin public, the Remmo name is synonymous with organized clan crime.
Governing Mayor Kai Wegner (CDU) condemned the photos and Remmo’s presence at the Left Party’s event.
“That Issa Remmo appears at the election party of the Berlin Left is a disturbing signal,” he wrote. A party that wants to take responsibility for the city, he said, must make unmistakably clear that there is “no proximity whatsoever to structures that belong to organized crime.”
Dass Issa Remmo auf der Wahlparty der Berliner Linken auftaucht, ist ein verstörendes Signal. Gerade eine Partei, die Verantwortung für unsere Stadt übernehmen will, muss unmissverständlich deutlich machen, dass es keinerlei Nähe zu Strukturen geben darf, die zur organisierten…
He said Berlin had spent years pushing police, courts, and administration against clans and those efforts “deserve political backing, not pictures that raise doubts about the necessary distance.” Anyone who wants to govern Berlin, Wegner added, must stand “without ifs and buts” on the side of the rule of law.
Even the left is taking a harsh stance.
Green Party state chair Nina Stahr said the Left would have to explain the incident before any coalition talks.
Morgenpost commentary called the scene “a slap in the face for our police officers.”
As for Issa Remmo, he see a Left Party that he can benefit from. His family has spent years fighting asset forfeiture, and the Left Party wants to abolish weapons-ban zones, restrict certain police analytics, and treat large-scale property seizures with suspicion.
A planned father-son fishing weekend ended in disaster when Leon, 14, was attacked at the Freiburg train station in Germany by a 41-year-old Ethiopian migrant who tried to gouge the young boy’s eyes out. The father describes his son suffering serious psychological harm from the incident, including waking up every night screaming.
Leon had just stepped off a train from Heilbronn on Sept. 9 and was waiting on a staircase for his father, 54-year-old Roland H., when an Ethiopian man punched him in the face without warning. The blow knocked Leon’s head against a stone step and left him dazed.
The attacker then bent over him, reached for his eye and shouted, “I’ll kill you!”
Cafe owner, 46-year-old Pino R., said he saw the assault and intervened.
“I saw the boy sitting by the stairs. At that moment, I saw and heard the perpetrator running towards the boy shouting: ‘I’ll kill you,”‘ Pino R. told Bild newspaper.
He added, “Then, the man reached for the boy’s eye and threatened to tear out his eyeball. Then, I jumped on the attacker and pulled him down.”
Only then, Pino R. said, did he see that the man was holding a carpet knife. He called staff for help and alerted police.
Roland H. arrived shortly afterward and found his injured son on the stairs. Leon was taken to a hospital with injuries to his face and eye. Doctors diagnosed the victim with a jaw contusion and injuries to his eyes. According to the father, the boy additionally suffered from nausea and dizziness from the attack.
The father of Leon said that the injury on Leon’s cheek looks remarkably like a swastika, raising questions of whether the Ethiopian migrant tried to carve the symbol in the boy’s face.
“Thank God he missed the eye when he tried to grab it,” Roland H. said.
He credited the cafe owner with preventing a worse outcome.
“I am so grateful to Pino. He saved my son’s life,” said Roland.
The Federal Police Inspectorate Weil am Rhein confirmed an investigation is underway against a 41-year-old man from Ethiopia on suspicion of assault. Officers found pepper spray and a utility knife in the man’s pants pocket. The suspect allegedly told police he had mistaken the boy for someone else.
A migrant was awarded with German citizenship after stabbing this German comedian 5 times inside the Bremen central train station.
Nikita Miller expressed disbelief that the migrant who nearly killed him received German citizenship. Not only that, but he was released on the… pic.twitter.com/NcxMabWeIO
Specifically, the data shows there were 27,800 violent crimes in German train stations and on trains in 2025, a slight increase from the already very high 27,160 cases in 2024. The data also shows that 44 percent of all of these cases involved a foreigner in 2025, a slight decrease from the 46 percent recorded in 2024.
When the data was first released, AfD leader Weidel took to X to decry the rise in violence on German public transport.
“In 2025, the Federal Police recorded 27,819 violent crimes at train stations, with foreign suspects being significantly overrepresented, particularly in cases of sexual offenses and knife crimes. Under CDU leadership, the situation in Germany is worsening day by day. Only the AfD can provide a remedy,” she wrote.
Five men wearing reflective vests marked “POLICIA” dragged a bloodied, partially undressed man from a car on a busy highway outside Barcelona on Saturday evening and forced him into another vehicle, Catalan police said, as they investigate what they believe may be a score-settling between criminal groups.
The incident unfolded around 7:30 p.m. on the AP-7 motorway between Montornès del Vallès and Vilanova del Vallès. Witnesses said two vehicles boxed in a third car after what appeared to be a minor collision. Five men in black clothing and balaclavas then approached, pulled the man from the back seat and shoved him into one of their cars before driving away, according to Spanish news outlet Moncloa.
JUST IN: Armed men posing as police officers kidnapped a victim in the middle of the AP-7 highway outside Barcelona.
Five men in black clothing wearing “POLICIA” reflective vests dragged a bloodied, partially undressed man out of a car near Montornès del Vallès.
Video recorded by other drivers shows the men, some wearing high-visibility vests that resembled those used by Spain’s National Police, struggling with the victim on the roadway as traffic backed up around them. One motorist who filmed the scene and called emergency services can be heard saying, “There’s a kidnapping on the AP-7,” and telling operators the men were carrying pistols.
Mossos d’Esquadra officers later located the man in another part of Catalonia. Police sources told the newspaper Ara he was “safe and sound.” Authorities said his facial injuries were not serious and that there was no indication a ransom had been paid. The vehicle used to take him away was found abandoned a short time later.
The Mossos’ Criminal Investigation Division has opened a case for alleged illegal detention and is examining whether the suspects committed impersonation of police officers. No arrests have been announced.
Police have not officially confirmed a motive, but investigators and sources familiar with the case have pointed to a dispute between criminal groups, possibly tied to drug-related debts or drug heist. Spanish media reported that the victim had recently been released from prison but this detail has not been independently confirmed by police.
Such a brazen abduction in daylight on one of Catalonia’s main highways is unusual, though robberies targeting motorists have occurred on the AP-7 in the past.
In a historic first since the founding of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Christian Democrats (CDU) have failed to enter a state parliament after falling below 5 percent in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. In Sunday’s election, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) finished first with 38.2 percent.
“The result is a disaster,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz said shortly after polls closed in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Berlin. He made the remark before public broadcasters ARD and ZDF projected that the CDU would drop below 5 percent in the northeastern state. That threshold is decisive in German politics: parties that fall short do not enter parliament.
The preliminary result is now in. The CDU finished at 4.9 percent, down 8.4 points from 2021. It is the party’s worst state-election result in postwar German history. The outcome is likely to revive calls for Merz to resign. He has given no sign that he will, and he also refuses to give up the CDU chairmanship.
Instead, Merz spoke of reforms that require “backbone, steadfastness and patience,” adding: “I will bring this up, as party chairman of the CDU and above all as chancellor of our country.”
No further pivotal state elections are imminent, and Merz is betting that debt-financed spending will start to show in the economy. He hopes that by 2027 he can point to two years of growth.
The problem is that fuel prices keep rising, health-insurance costs remain high, and large parts of German industry are under pressure from tariffs, input inflation, and competition from China.
The AfD is increasing that pressure. It finished well short in Berlin, below 17 percent, but took first place in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern with 38.2 percent — more than double its 2021 result of 16.7 percent. That follows its victory in Saxony-Anhalt, where it won 43.8 percent. The AfD will not govern in Schwerin, the capitol of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, however. The Social Democrats (SPD) came second with 35.5 percent. Together with the Left (6.5 percent) and the Greens (5.7 percent), the SPD has enough seats for a coalition and is expected to stay in power.
AfD co-leader Alice Weidel called her party the new “people’s party” and said the CDU had been displaced in that role.
“We are the strongest force and have arrived in the middle of the population,” she said on ZDF.
Voters had wanted “a change of policy,” she added, declaring the firewall of other parties against working “a failure.” Her long-term goal, she said, is coalition talks with the CDU.
Co-leader Tino Chrupalla claimed a “clear government mandate” and said the AfD would offer talks to all parties. The other parties in the new Mecklenburg-Vorpommern parliament have already ruled that out.
Mohammad Hamed Alshaer, who was born in Libya, has been charged with aggravated rape of a woman in her fifties while she was jogging along Ribersborgsstigen in Malmö on July 15.
According to the indictment submitted to Malmö District Court, the 37-year-old Alshaer struck the woman from behind, knocked her over, and dragged her into the bushes. There, he grabbed her neck and mouth, pulled her by the hair, and raped her vaginally and anally. The prosecutor wants the crime classified as rape with particular cruelty, citing exceptional violence, ruthlessness, and brutality.
Witnesses heard screams and thuds and alerted police. Officers arriving at the scene found a man lying half-undressed on top of a woman who was screaming for help.
The woman later told investigators she tried to wriggle free.
“I thought: I don’t accept this. I don’t give up,” she said, according to Swedish public broadcaster SVT. However, SVT and other Swedish outlets did not publish the suspect’s Libyan background and other key details, such as his name. Samnytt has reported on this information.
Alshaer has described the incident in terms similar to the woman’s account, with one major difference: he says the woman “inspired him” to have sex with her. He told police he had not had sex in several years and decided to “give her love.” After his arrest, he reportedly told officers he realized what he had done was wrong, yet he still denied the rape in court.
Alshaer, a Swedish citizen originally from Libya, has a prior conviction that includes sexual assault in a nightclub. However, since he holds Swedish citizenship, he cannot be deported. Despite obtaining citizenship, he requires an Arabic interpreter in court.
He is also charged with violent resistance and minor drug offenses. He denies the rape and the resistance charge but admits to the drug offense.
Diesel prices have climbed to record or multiyear highs in several European countries this week, squeezing truckers, farmers and households already strained by months of elevated energy costs tied to the Middle East conflict, the war in Ukraine, and tight global fuel supplies.
Germany posted a new all-time high of €2.471 per liter on Wednesday, according to the ADAC motoring club, as reported by German news outlet t-online. This price has left motorists paying about €0.71 more per liter than before the war began. Gasoline prices also set a nationwide record.
Alternative for Germany (AfD) politicians are going on the offensive.
“Fuel price: Merz government is done for! Incredible €2.55 per liter for diesel and €2.34 for super here at the gas station. In Germany, the highest taxes on fuel are paid. Two days ago, I filled up for €176.00 and my car wasn’t even full,” wrote German MP Dr. Ingo Hahn.
Spritpreis: Merz-Regierung hat fertig!
Unglaubliche 2,55 € für den Liter #Diesel und 2,34 € für SUPER hier an der #Tankstelle. In Deutschland werden die höchsten Steuern auf den #Sprit bezahlt. Vor zwei Tagen hatte ich für 176,00 € getankt und mein Auto war nicht voll. pic.twitter.com/fgHfK1CMy0
Finland led the European Union at €2.505 per liter in the latest official weekly data, followed closely by Denmark at €2.502 and the Netherlands at €2.494. The EU-wide average stood at €2.075 per liter as of mid-September.
Some individual stations in Germany, France and Italy have even approached or exceeded €2.90 per liter. The weighted average across eight major markets reached €2.172 per liter on Thursday.
One AfD politician, Martin Hess, even highlighted one gas station where prices reached €3.00 per liter for the first time.
Erstmals kostete Diesel gestern an einer Tankstelle im Kreis Göppingen (Baden-Württemberg) über 3 Euro pro Liter, Super 2,859 Euro.
Und was macht Merz? Kurz vor den Wahlen in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern und Berlin kündigt er Entlastungen an, statt endlich zu handeln. Die Bürger… pic.twitter.com/fSgtbHB2qk
Physical wholesale diesel prices in northwest Europe and the Mediterranean hit record or near-record levels earlier this week before easing slightly.
The surge in energy costs stems from disruptions to shipping through the Strait of Hormuz, along with advances by Houthi forces in Yemen, Russia’s extended ban on diesel exports, depleted inventories, high refining margins, and seasonal demand. With winter heating season fast approaching, experts warn the energy crisis could worsen.
“Supply disruptions, depleted inventories and strong refining margins highlight an increasingly severe shortage of middle distillates,” Ole Hansen, head of commodity strategy at Saxo, wrote in a note Sept. 16.
Crude prices have remained elevated above $100 a barrel, but the price of refined diesel has risen at a much faster rate compared to crude barrels, which is also the case across the Atlantic in the United States.
Electricity wholesale prices vary widely across Europe. Italy has seen day-ahead prices well above €200 per megawatt-hour in some zones, while Nordic markets have managed to remain much lower.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament on Wednesday that the Hormuz crisis has added €90 billion to the EU’s fossil-fuel import bill since the conflict started “without a single molecule of energy added.”
She urged faster investment in grids, storage and clean power, saying Europe cannot remain an industrial powerhouse with structurally high energy prices.
“Let’s make Europe’s future electric,” she said, calling for electricity’s share of energy consumption to double by 2040.
The Commission’s AccelerateEU package, launched in April, emphasizes closer coordination on gas storage filling and possible oil stock releases, a new Fuel Observatory to track supplies, and a temporary state-aid framework (METSAF) running through Dec. 31 for agriculture, fisheries, transport and energy-intensive industries.
Member states are encouraged to use targeted, time-limited tools such as income support, energy vouchers, social tariffs and lower electricity taxes for vulnerable households rather than broad fossil-fuel subsidies.
Meanwhile, EU governments are scrambling to contain the crisis.
German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche proposed a temporary cut in fuel VAT from 19 percent to 7 percent, saying it “could address the burden where it is felt directly: at the gas pump and it would take effect immediately.”
Chancellor Friedrich Merz has pledged action against “price gouging” but has not announced specific actions. German Finance Minister Lars Klingbeil and other officials pressed on Friday for discussion of windfall taxes on energy companies, arguing these companies are “exploiting the situation.”
EU Economic Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said Brussels has no current plan for an EU-wide levy and that taxation remains a national competence.
Industry groups warn that high diesel costs are raising freight rates and threatening competitiveness, particularly for road transport, which remains heavily dependent on the fuel.
EU and national officials say winter gas storage is on track and there is no immediate supply emergency, but they acknowledge prices will stay elevated until geopolitical risks ease and more homegrown clean energy comes online.
Pierre-Alain Cottineau, the former candidate of the far-left France Unbowed (LFI), has been treated after a suicide attempt at Brest prison. He is being held in the prison during a child sex and torture investigation that investigators said “pushed all the limits of horror.”
Authorities say his life is not in danger.
The incident took place on Tuesday, Sept. 15, 2026, in the exercise yard of the Brest prison, also known as L’Hermitage. According to the Ouest-France news outlet, the attempt came days after other prisoners physically attacked him. The paper added that he had already threatened to kill himself when he first arrived at the Breton prison in 2024. In the spring of 2025, he attempted a medication-related suicide as well.
Cottineau, an advocate for LGBT rights before his arrest, has been in pretrial detention since his arrest on Sept. 23, 2024 at Nantes-Atlantique airport, after returning from Tunisia. Investigators from France’s Office for Minors (OFMIN) identified him from images circulating online. He was immediately placed under formal investigation for rape of minors with acts of torture or barbarity and for human trafficking by an organized group.
Subsequent digital forensics on his phone led police to additional footage posted in a Telegram group allegedly administered by Cottineau. One video reportedly showed the abuse of a five-month-old baby boy, identified as the first foster child placed in his care. Other footage featured multiple men participating in the abuse of a toddler, with one scene showing the child crawling on all fours, wearing a collar and leash.
Remix News originally reported on his alleged role in the pedophile ring when the story first broke, which also involved rape and abuse of children with disabilities.
The case, described by investigators as pushing “all the limits of horror,” first came to light in September 2024 when Dutch police discovered an appalling video depicting serious child sexual abuse of a very young child on the darknet. The child, who was believed to be around three years old, appeared to be disabled and reliant on a gastric feeding tube.
According to Le Parisien, one of the accused claimed that Cottineau sedated the children using Xanax, sleeping pills, and poppers hidden in yogurt before the abuse took place.
The Nantes investigation remains open. In early September 2026, Ouest-France reported that prosecutors had added a charge of corruption of a minor.
Four other men, aged between 32 and 53, have also been placed under investigation in the same case. Identified victims include children between five months and four years old, among them a disabled girl placed with Cottineau by child-welfare services after he obtained family-assistant approval in December 2023.
The latest suicide attempt has been independently confirmed by the Brest prosecutor’s office. The 33-year-old Cottineau, from Oudon near Ancenis-Saint-Géréon in Loire-Atlantique, is being treated after the attempt, which was not life-threatening.
The investigation into Cottineau, who was an LFI candidate in 2021, is still open. He remains innocent until proven guilty.
Career as LGBT rights activist
During police interviews he admitted some of the alleged acts and said he had pedophilic urges for years, according to reporting by Le Parisien and Libération. A court-appointed psychiatrist found no mental illness but a sexual-preference disorder with “major potential dangerousness.” The expert said his judgment was not impaired at the time of the alleged acts.
Before his arrest, Cottineau was a familiar figure in the Ancenis area. A former nursing assistant, he obtained departmental approval to foster children and presented himself as an advocate for child protection and LGBT rights.
He co-founded a local LGBT association and helped organize pride events. In 2021, during departmental elections, he ran with Annie Lecat for the LFI party in Ancenis-Saint-Géréon, taking 9.81 percent of the first-round vote. Their platform included environmental issues, local democracy and support for women facing domestic violence.
LFI has since excluded him.
Investigative pieces in a wide variety of French news outlets, such as Le Point and Libération, later examined how earlier reports about him did not lead to an arrest before September 2024, including a July 2024 statement by a former partner at a police station in Morbihan detailing child abuse allegations.
Prison overcrowding and pedophiles targeted
Brest prison has been under strain. In August 2026, Ouest-France reported occupancy near 200 percent and said the facility had, for a time, refused new arrivals. Inmates accused of sexual crimes against children are often targets of violence from other prisoners, a pattern prison staff and unions have described for years.
Ouest-France linked last week’s assault on Cottineau to the current prison conditions, without naming the attackers or detailing injuries suffered by Cottineau.
Notably, these crowded prison conditions are exactly the type of situation exacerbated by mass immigration, while Cottineau’s LFI party is well known for its support of continued immigration. While nearly 25 percent of prisoners are foreigners, while many of the remaining 75 percent are French citizens with a foreign background.
A leaked video of a French military chaplain addressing paratroopers in a cathedral has circulated widely on social media. In the clip, the chaplain makes disparaging remarks about leftists, tells soldiers to keep fighting for their national heritage, and warns of the risk that French values and culture could be displaced.
The clip, recorded during a Saint-Michel Mass on Oct. 7, 2025, shows Father Romain Ghandour speaking to soldiers of the 3rd Marine Infantry Parachute Regiment (3e RPIMa) at Carcassonne’s Saint-Michel Cathedral. Soldiers can be heard laughing and applauding as he delivers his pointed remarks. The clip was leaked and published by Le Canard Enchaîne news outlet.
JUST IN: A video has been leaked of a French military chaplain roasting leftists and warning of the Great Replacement in front of French paratroopers in the city of Carcassonne.
"Calm down, lefties! Quiet! Breathe through your nose!"
The video was released in mid-September 2026, nearly a year after the Mass.
Saint-Michel is the patron saint of paratroopers and airborne troops in the French army, which explains why the regiment was gathered in the cathedral. Christophe Barthès, then a municipal election candidate and later elected mayor of Carcassonne for the right-wing National Rally, was among those present.
Ghandour begins by invoking the names and dates of men and women who died so that France would remain “a beautiful country,” one in which architects could continue building “basilicas, cathedrals, housing, and fortified castles.” He contrasts that heritage with the present: instead of knights, he says, “we put incompetent people. We put people who eat seeds, people who lecture everyone, ideologues.”
The phrase “people who eat seeds” is widely understood as a jab at what he presents as weak or overly ideological leftists.
The line that has drawn the most attention comes next: “Calm down, lefties! Quiet! Breathe through your nose!” The assembled soldiers respond with laughter and applause.
He then warns that if they lose courage and conviction, “we will be ridiculed” and “this beautiful country that is France will be mocked, and others will take our place.”
He continues: “In fact, after a while, when you’re thirsty, when you’re hungry, it’s the law of the strongest that reigns. And others will take the place of our values, of this freedom of speech, of action, of this equality between men, and of this fraternity, of this culture, of this society. Nature abhors a vacuum.”
While he never directly mentions the “Great Replacement,” many commentators have taken this remark to be a direct reference to the phenomenon, which is not only a reference to mass immigration, but also relates to the constant replacement of technology, culture, society, and peoples through all spheres of modern life at an ever accelerating pace.
Ghandour closes by telling the soldiers to “keep fighting” and “continue to have the courage of your convictions, as I am trying to do at this Mass.”
As of the video’s release, there has been no detailed public statement from the army’s Catholic chaplaincy or the Ministry of the Armed Forces on whether the remarks violate rules on political neutrality for military clergy. French military chaplains of all recognized faiths operate under a framework that is supposed to respect both freedom of conscience and the state’s neutrality. The 3e RPIMa, based in Carcassonne since 1962 and part of the 11th Parachute Brigade, is an elite unit within the French military.
The left has often been skeptical, and even hostile to, the French military, which has been seen as a bastion of support for the right in the country.
The Alternative for Germany (AfD) in the eastern German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern is campaigning on a dedicated “deportation police” unit.
Two days before the Sept. 20 state election, the party’s platform calls for a “border and deportation” police to be created explicitly to return foreigners. The new unit would be created inside the state police.
The unit’s stated tasks would include fighting illegal migration, human smuggling and other cross-border crime. The AfD says it would draw on existing structures and experience from the state police, the federal police and customs officers.
The party also pledges a detention center for people slated for deportation and a facility for foreigners required to leave Germany. The AfD candidate for minister-president in the state, Leif-Erik Holm, has publicly confirmed that he wants more deportations and special police forces to carry them out.
Instead of an initial reception center, “we need an exit center and we will establish one,” Holm told around 400 attendees in the city of Grimmen.
AfD federal chairman Tino Chrupalla was also present during the speech.
Most polls have AfD leading the election with between 37 and 38 percent of the vote, but a poll released yesterday by ZDF indicates that the AfD is now one point behind the Social Democrats (SPD), which is at 37 percent.
Top officials within the police have already shot back at the AfD despite the German police’s abysmal deportation record.
The Union of Criminal Police Officers (BDK) issued a statement titled “Nobody needs deportation police.”
The BDK argues that responsibilities are already assigned: state police help carry out deportations, while the main duty sits with the relevant foreigners’ offices. Coordination problems between agencies, the union says, can be fixed without creating another unit.
Eike Bone-Winkel, BDK chairman in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, accused the AfD of “deportation fanaticism” and called the proposal politically and legally hard to implement. The union also noted that the U.S. agency ICE has become a reference point in the debate around the AfD plan.
One thing is certain. The German government and German law enforcement have failed at every single level in their efforts not only to deport foreigners who have been issued a deportation order, but also to protect citizens from repeat criminal offenders within this category. The result has been tens of thousands of victims of assaults, robberies, murders, rapes, and other serious offenses. Currently, there are at least 258,000 migrants with open deportation orders who have been ordered to leave the country but have not yet left.
Much is riding on the Sept. 20 election in Mecklenburg-Vorpommen. Political observers are not only anxious to see if the AfD comes in first or second, but the result of the Christian Democrats (CDU) is also extremely important. In the ZDF poll, the CDU is at 6 percent, just slightly above the pivotal 5 percent threshold to enter parliament. If the CDU falls below 5 percent, it would reignite calls for Chancellor Friedrich Merz to resign, including from his own party.
Foreign-born suspects account for nearly three-quarters of sexual-crime arrests in Basque Country, official figures show
Official statistics released by the Basque regional police, the Ertzaintza, indicate that people born outside Spain made up 58.7 percent of all arrests in the first half of 2026 even though they represent 10.2 percent of the population. The disparity is sharper in several high-profile offense categories.
Of the 107 people detained for crimes against sexual freedom, 79 were born abroad, making up 74 percent of arrests in this category, according to data obtained by The Objective.
Foreign-born suspects also accounted for 73.3 percent of homicide arrests and 61.3 percent of those for causing injury.
The highest shares appeared in other offences: 94.7 percent of drunk-driving arrests (36 of 38), 79.6 percent of theft arrests (222 of 279), and 77.6 percent of robberies involving violence or intimidation (253 of 326).
The figures come from data the Basque Department of Security, which began publishing this data systematically at the end of 2025. Until then, the Ertzaintza routinely omitted the birthplace of detainees.
Security councillor Bingen Zupiria of the PNV said the change followed “tremendous pressure” from the Popular Party (PP) and Vox in the Basque parliament. Police unions supported the move as a contribution to “crime prevention.”
After that pressure, Zupiria stated, the department was forced to “change its criteria.” Arrests are now broken down first by continent and then by region, including North Africa, the rest of Africa, Latin America, or Europe.
The publication of these breakdowns ended a long-standing practice of withholding origin information that the Basque government said had created more confusion than clarity. Citizens, officials argued, have a right to see the actual composition of recorded crime.
Within the foreign-born group, those originating from North Africa are notable for their high offense rates.
They form roughly 1.8 percent of the Basque population yet accounted for 37 percent of homicide arrests, 24 percent of sexual-assault arrests, 64 percent of theft arrests, 48 percent of robberies with force, and 66 percent of violent robberies in the first six months of the year.
Suspects from the rest of Africa and from Latin America also appear over-represented in several categories of crimes against persons and property.
Overall arrests have been rising. The Ertzaintza recorded 6,903 in 2021 and 9,222 in 2025. The first half of 2026 already produced 5,050. If the pace continues, the year would end with a record of about 10,100.
Only the Basque and Catalan regional forces currently publish the origin of suspects to the general public. However, an internal document obtained earlier this year showed that, across Spain as a whole, foreigners accounted for 51 percent of daily arrests (527 of 1,033). The share was higher in Madrid (64 percent), Catalonia (71.8 percent) and Murcia (60 percent), close to the Basque figure of 59 percent.
A 30-year-old woman reported being raped Sunday night in the restrooms of a restaurant in Paris’s affluent 16th arrondissement. French police quickly arrested a 40-year-old Syrian-born suspect with Brazilian nationality after he fled the scene, according to French news reports citing sources close to the investigation.
The alleged assault occurred around 10:45 p.m, Sept. 13, at a restaurant on Avenue Kléber. Investigators said a man approached the woman inside the establishment, forcibly pulled her into the toilet stall and raped her. He then fled in a black Skoda with two other men, heading toward the Arc de Triomphe.
Officers from an anti-crime unit responded to the restaurant to gather descriptions of the suspect and the vehicle. The victim was taken to a hospital for medical examinations.
A patrol later spotted the car on Avenue des Champs-Élysées near the George V metro station and stopped it around 11:10 p.m. The main suspect was taken into custody.
The two other men in the car, both also born in Syria and aged 41 and 42, were brought to a police station for questioning.
The suspect is a 40-year-old man born in Syria who holds Brazilian nationality, Le Figaro reported, citing a source close to the case. The investigation was assigned to the 1st District of the Judicial Police.
French media described the account as a reported rape under investigation. No charges had been publicly detailed in the days immediately after the arrest, and the restaurant was not named in published reports.
The case drew rapid attention on social media after activist Claire Geronimi posted about it Monday, noting the suspect’s Syrian birthplace and framing the assault as part of a pattern of attacks on women.
“Another woman assaulted. Once again, the same questions that some stubbornly refuse to ask. Full support for this victim. We must be able to live, go out, and return home without fear,” she wrote on X.
Une femme de 30 ans violée dans les toilettes d’un restaurant à Paris.
Le suspect, âgé de 40 ans et né en Syrie, a été interpellé après avoir pris la fuite.
Encore une femme agressée. Encore une fois, les mêmes questions que certains refusent obstinément de poser.
A publicly owned hospital in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia has fired a pediatric surgeon without notice after she ran unsuccessfully for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) in a neighboring state’s local elections.
Dr. Svetlana Spirina, a senior physician in pediatric surgery at Klinikum Lippe in Detmold, appeared on the AfD ticket for Osnabrück’s city council in Lower Saxony’s Sept. 13 vote. While she did not win a seat, the hospital, owned solely by the Lippe district, then dismissed her immediately, the clinic confirmed.
In many cases, native Europeans are being aggressively turned away from the medical profession and educational opportunities in favor of foreign workers.
German politicians are spreading misleading information about Syrian doctors working in Germany.
5,000 Syrian doctors may sound like a lot, but there are 420,000 doctors in Germany. The number of Syrian doctors is approximately just enough to cover the 1 million Syrian… pic.twitter.com/fHJh9945y9
According to accounts of the dispute, Spirina denied AfD membership and her candidacy in a staff meeting after a pediatrician from the Münsterland region publicized the campaign in an open letter. Campaign material then disappeared from the AfD district association’s website and social media accounts.
District chairman Florian Meyer said he deleted the posts to shield the doctor from professional consequences, while expressing dismay at her public distancing.
In a biographical text she wrote about herself, Spirina said she had been an AfD member since 2023. She left the party shortly before the election, apparently under pressure from her employer.
Spirina received 408 votes, or 6.7 percent. That was not enough for a council seat. The AfD won 8.5 percent in Osnabrück and four seats.
Across Germany, AfD members and politicians have been targeted with professional consequences, including open threats. Many experts believe this harassment campaign is designed not only to strike fear but also to limit the pool of quality candidates the AfD can recruit as politicians.
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BREAKING: An Egyptian-Italian man has been arrested for raping a 12-year-old Italian boy multiple times in Arrivore Park in Turin.
