TOKYO — The bond vigilantes are back — and now they’re patrolling every major debt market at once. As deficits balloon, spending runs unchecked and oil prices spike, investors are reasserting control over markets that once seemed shielded from shocks and sending yields skyrocketing. The revolt spans the US, Japan, Europe and beyond as a […]
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Transgender German federal police officer “Maja S.” has confessed yesterday to the rape of a minor and other serious charges before the Traunstein Regional Court as a part of a plea.
The former officer, who had 35 years of service, admitted to raping a friend’s 14-year-old daughter in the bathroom of a fast-food restaurant in August 2025.
“The injured party was unable to react to this, but stared at the accused in shock,” the court indictment states about the rape. “The accused left the toilet stall and the injured woman locked herself in the toilet, trembling all over her body while suffering from heart palpitations.”
Maja S. confessed to the charges as part of a plea agreement that is expected to result in a sentence of 3 to 3.5 years, according to media reports. Some commentators on social media are already decrying the potential sentence as far too lenient given the gravity of the crimes involved.
Maja S. also confessed to possessing around 2,000 pornographic files depicting brutal assaults and the sexual violence against children, some as young as three.
The transgender former officer also confessed to assault and the sexual abuse of juveniles.
The former officer admitted to producing pornographic videos involving animals, including with other sexual partners and a dog.
According to Bild, the former officer was previously assigned to a special unit of the Federal Police (GSG 9) and was deployed in Afghanistan, among other places. Maja S. continues to receive hormone therapy.
Maja S., who is biologically male, was previously housed in a women’s prison section but is now in the men’s wing of a prison in Munich. Maja’s lawyer has complained that Maja is facing harassment there, including being whistled at by other prisoners.
In addition to the potential prison time, Maja S. must also pay the 14-year-old victim €5,000 and give her a motorcycle. This is the first time Remix News has observed reports of a victim, especially a young victim who cannot even legally ride a motorcycle yet, receiving such a vehicle as part of a plea deal.
Notably, this does not appear to be the first time that Maja S. has offended. Welt newspaper reported that Maja S. must also pay a fine “resulting from a previous, apparently relevant, judgment of the Rosenheim District Court.”
The Welt report notes that the fact that Maja S. reoffended so quickly after this previous verdict from July 2025 was a detrimental factor in this more recent case.
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The most recent winner of the National Magazine Award for feature writing describes his turn to payday lending apps when AI gobbled up his livelihood (aka penning promotional web content for business clients). Sharp and darkly funny, the essay chronicles yet another nail in the coffin of the American dream:
Albert founder Yinon Ravid has said that he chose his app’s name for its suggestion of the kind of “smart, unassuming friend” you might come to for financial advice, but today, when I hear the name Albert, I am far more likely to picture an overwhelming force bent on my total destruction, a figure you might spot while being burned alive in a dream—black-robed, pale, teeth bared. When I first joined the app, about eighteen months ago, Albert offered me $25.00. To acquire this loan, I was required to pay an additional fee: A $6.99 instant deposit charge plus the cost of a $19.99-per-month subscription to Albert’s Standard plan, due in one week’s time alongside the full loan repayment. (If I really wanted to make the most of my $25.00, I also had the option of Albert’s $39.99-per-month Genius plan, which, among a very small handful of other talents, can “find restaurants based on your location, or in a specific area.”) On its own, this might’ve been manageable, but, true to the CRL’s findings, Albert’s offerings alone couldn’t keep me afloat, and so I soon signed up for the rest of the payday apps, each one toting its share of instant deposit and subscription fees. (Gallingly, Dave—the only publicly traded company of the bunch, valued at $4.72 billion as of this writing—has the nerve to ask for a tip after each transaction, a move that I suspect even the flintiest strip mall grift artists would dismiss as gauche.)
A trans person on trial in the German state of Bavaria on charges that include the alleged rape of a teenage girl and the possession of a large collection of child sexual abuse material while serving as a German police officer.
The trial of the 55-year-old defendant — who is a male-to-female trans person and who has been removed from duty — began today, Tuesday morning, at the Traunstein Regional Court, according to German news outlet Rosenheim24.
Prosecutors accuse the trans ex-officer of raping a 14-year-old girl in the toilet stall of a fast food restaurant and of possessing hundreds of files depicting the sexual abuse of children. Investigators say the material includes violent acts against children, with the youngest victims described as about three years old.
Photos of the trans ex-officer in the courtroom show a tall individual with long bleach-blonde hair, a large arm tattoo, and tall platform shoes.
The defendant also faces an accusation of producing animal pornography. The trans ex-officer is alleged to have made videos where the defendant had sex with a dog, along with several sexual partners. It remains unclear if any of these other individuals have been identified.
The most serious charge concerns an incident in August 2025. Prosecutors say that during an outing with a friend, the defendant raped the friend’s 14-year-old daughter in the restroom of a fast-food restaurant.
The defendant is also accused of sending a pornographic WhatsApp message to the girl, who was roughly 40 years younger than the defendant.
The court has scheduled four days of hearings. A verdict could be delivered on Oct. 8.
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A French police officer who leads an association for LGBT+ staff in France’s Interior and Justice ministries was beaten outside a bar in the Marais in the early hours of Aug. 29 and left with serious head and facial injuries, prosecutors said. The suspect is reportedly Taha W., a 20-year-old from the multicultural department Seine-Saint-Denis, according to French journalist Amaury Brelet.
Pierre Picavet, president of the FLAG! association, was leaving a bar in the Marais, which has long been a center of Paris’s gay nightlife, at around 4 a.m. when a man confronted him, according to his later account and the Paris prosecutor’s office. The attacker shouted homophobic slurs and threatened to kill him. Picavet said he produced his police identity card more than once and told the man to stop. The assault continued.
“At first I thought it was a joke, then he said, ‘I’m going to kill you, you dirty faggot,’” Picavet told RMC.
“That startled me. I stepped back. He repeated ‘I’m going to kill you’ with a very thick whiskey bottle in his hand,” he added.
Picavet said he tried to dodge blows and punched the man in the mouth. The attacker then struck him in the head with the bottle.
“It bled tremendously. I staggered. I didn’t lose consciousness right away. He went past me, I grabbed him, but he pinned me. The only way I could get free was to bite him. I bit him on the cheek. He threw me to the ground, I hit my head and I passed out,” said the police officer.
Firefighters were already treating him when police arrived. Prosecutors said he suffered internal bleeding, a skull injury described as an open wound, multiple facial fractures and a black eye. He was later given 40 days of total work incapacity.
A witness identified the attacker, who was arrested. The Paris prosecutor’s office opened an investigation for violence causing more than eight days of incapacity, committed because of the victim’s sexual orientation. An investigating judge was later appointed. The case also includes a theft count.
Prosecutors said the suspect, a man born in 2006 with no prior criminal record, was visibly drunk. They cited three aggravating circumstances: the homophobic motive, use of a weapon, and intoxication. He was charged with aggravated violence and released under judicial supervision.
In his complaint, Picavet said the man called him a “dirty faggot” several times. Showing his police card “did not deter the suspect from attacking him,” the prosecutor’s office said.
The empty bottle used in the attack was recovered and placed under seal.
While speaking with the media afterwards, Picavet said: “You have to know that in the neighborhood, there are more and more people coming to mug LGBT people, or beat them, or offer them narcotics… I really hope that it’s isolated and that people will manage to open their minds and not be like that anymore.”
He said that he has been frequenting the neighborhood for 30 years, but stated “yesterday, I went back with fear in my stomach. I went back with fear in my stomach, but I went back.”
Picavet also noted that since Europe’s migration crisis truly took off in 2016, the threat to LGBT people has soared.
“The number of homophobic crimes and offenses has tripled since 2016. Tripled! 4,900 homophobic assaults last year!” he stated.
The association Stop Homophobie called the attack a homophobic assault and published photographs of Picavet’s injuries that he sent from hospital. Paris Mayor Emmanuel Grégoire condemned what he described as an “odious homophobic attack” in the heart of the capital and offered support to the FLAG! president.
Speaking on France Inter after the assault, Picavet said he was “particularly shocked,” but added that the episode showed “there is still work to do.” He said: “When I get better, when I have healed my wounds, I will continue the fight.”
FLAG! represents LGBT+ personnel in the Interior and Justice ministries and campaigns against anti-LGBT discrimination and violence.
The post ‘I’m going to kill you, you dirty faggot’ – French-Arab suspect severely beats president of LGBT law enforcement association outside Paris bar: report appeared first on Remix News.
KARACHI: Fitch Ratings has assigned a ‘B-‘ rating to Pakistan’s proposed U.S. dollar-denominated bond, with a Recovery Rating of ‘RR4,’ the ratings agency announced. Pakistan plans to use proceeds from the bond for general budgetary and sovereign financing purposes, according to Fitch. The bond rating is aligned with Pakistan’s Long-Term Foreign-Currency Issuer Default Rating, while ... Read more
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KARACHI: State-run Pakistan LNG Limited (PLL) has issued a fresh tender to procure one spot cargo of liquefied natural gas for delivery between September 4 and 8, as global supply disruptions stemming from the Middle East war continue to strain the country’s gas-fired power generation. PLL invited bids from international suppliers for a single cargo ... Read more
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German influencer Naomi Seibt, who is affiliated with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, is preparing to launch a media network called the “Freedom Alliance of the West (FAW)” using money from the U.S. government, according to a report in the Düsseldorf newspaper Handelsblatt.
The 25-year-old, who applied for asylum in the United States last year and lives there most of the time, aims to finance the project through a $4.9 million fund. The Trump administration created the fund to support European organizations that campaign “against censorship” and address the “consequences of mass migration.”
Seibt’s plans include creating a social media channel and broadcaster called “Freedom TV.” She has said she wants to collaborate on the project “with alternative media and polling institutes” as well as “with European lawyers representing freedom of expression cases.”
Seibt has garnered a large audience on X and has remained critical of mass immigration. As she rose to prominence, she said she became a target of surveillance by German authorities, including the powerful domestic spy agency the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV).
In a post on X where she discussed being a surveillance target, she said she also feared “state media defamation, and Antifa threats.”
I AM SEEKING ASYLUM IN THE U.S.
— Naomi Seibt (@NaomiSeibt) October 29, 2025
My name is Naomi Seibt,
I am the 1st German applying for asylum under President Trump due to political persecution.
As a free speech advocate and supporter of the AfD party, I am the target of
• intelligence surveillance
• state media… pic.twitter.com/rdsj4Qg4BB
X and Tesla owner Elon Musk has openly supported Seibt on his platform, including retweeting her videos and commenting on her posts.
Remarkably, Handelsblatt is outraged that Seibt is receiving any money at all, despite left-wing causes receiving hundreds of millions through German and European Union government sources, not to mention wealthy donors like George Soros.
The German government also appears to be taking issue.
“As Handelsblatt learned, the Foreign Office in Berlin is dealing with the design and motivation of the fund. In July, Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) criticized the fact that financial interventions from abroad constituted an impermissible interference in the democratic process,” wrote the financial newspaper.
The post AfD-linked influencer Naomi Seibt prepares new media network with US government funding appeared first on Remix News.
The Ministry of Finance in Paris (Bercy). Jean-François Gornet / Flickr, CC BY-SA
France has crossed a critical threshold as its public debt exceeded €3.5 trillion in the first quarter of 2026, reaching 117.5% of GDP. The French Court of Auditors has sounded the alarm over what it describes as an “alarming” fiscal situation, as public deficits hit record levels and debt-interest costs continue to soar.
During the first quarter of 2026, France’s public debt passed the symbolic milestone of €3.5 trillion, reaching €3.5361 trillion at the end of March. The figure underscores the scale of the country’s budgetary challenges.
To put this amount into perspective, France would theoretically have to sell its entire gold reserve, all publicly traded and privately held state assets—including companies such as EDF, Engie, and Airbus—as well as all government-owned buildings and land in an attempt to repay the debt in a single payment. Even such a drastic measure would likely fall short.
In just one quarter, France’s Maastricht-defined public debt increased by €75.6 billion, a sharp rise in a very short period. This growing debt burden reflects a longstanding reality: for more than fifty years, the French government, local authorities, and social security system have collectively spent more each year than they have collected in revenue, particularly through taxation. To cover this structural gap, France has continued borrowing from financial markets.
Beyond the headline figure, analysts and financial institutions are particularly concerned about debt relative to economic output. According to France’s National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSEE), public debt now equals 117.5% of gross domestic product.
The increase has been dramatic. In 1980, public debt represented only 20% of GDP. By 2000, it had risen to approximately 60%. Over four decades, the debt-to-GDP ratio has nearly increased sixfold.
The current level of 117.5% is approaching the all-time record of 117.8% recorded in the first quarter of 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. At that time, President Emmanuel Macron launched an unprecedented economic rescue effort, pledging to spend “whatever it takes” to prevent economic collapse.
Although the health crisis has long since passed, France’s debt trajectory has not slowed significantly. Within the European Union, only Greece and Italy have higher debt ratios, making France the third most indebted country in Europe.
In response to what it views as a critical situation, France’s independent Court of Auditors, responsible for overseeing public finances, issued a warning report describing the state of the nation’s finances as “alarming.”
The report, revealed by France Inter and released ten months before the 2027 elections, calls for “strong, credible, and swift measures” to restore fiscal stability.
The court highlights several aggravating factors. First, France remains the only country in the eurozone whose debt level is higher today than it was at the end of the COVID-19 crisis. Second, public deficits continue to break records. France posted a budget deficit equal to 5.1% of GDP in 2025, the second-highest in the eurozone after Italy.
The government’s goal of keeping the deficit at 5% is viewed as unrealistic by the Court of Auditors, which fears a further deterioration of public finances.
A particularly troubling development is the rapid increase in debt-servicing costs. As debt accumulates and interest rates rise in financial markets, the amount spent on interest payments has grown dramatically.
In the current state budget, debt-servicing expenses have become the government’s single largest expenditure category, surpassing spending on the national education system (excluding pension obligations).
Paradoxically, this situation coincides with a significant increase in taxation. Taxes rose by €38 billion across 2025 and 2026 as part of efforts to limit further deficit growth. Yet France already has the highest overall tax burden in Europe when taxes and social contributions are combined.
This creates both political and economic tensions: higher taxes have not been sufficient to slow the growth of public debt, raising questions about the effectiveness of current fiscal measures.
France’s current trajectory highlights a troubling economic reality: structural public spending is growing faster than tax revenues, creating a persistent deficit that is difficult to eliminate.
Programs such as social welfare, pensions, healthcare, and public investment involve long-term commitments, while tax revenues tend to fluctuate with economic conditions.
This divergence between economic growth and debt growth raises a fundamental question for France’s public finances. If GDP expands by only 1% to 2% annually while debt continues to grow by 3% to 4% per year, the debt-to-GDP ratio will inevitably continue rising unless major policy changes are implemented.
French voters heading to the polls in 2027 will likely face a difficult choice between maintaining current levels of public services and restoring fiscal sustainability.
To reverse the trend, experts and institutions such as the Court of Auditors recommend a combination of measures: controlling the growth of public spending, improving the efficiency of existing expenditures, broadening the tax base without increasing marginal tax rates, and accelerating economic growth to boost revenues.
As the eurozone’s second-largest economy after Germany, France possesses significant economic resources. However, meaningful structural reforms will require political consensus and a willingness to accept difficult compromises.
In the short term, the government must demonstrate that its deficit-reduction commitments are credible. In the medium term, comprehensive reforms of public spending—particularly in pensions and healthcare—appear unavoidable. Over the long term, only sustained economic growth combined with spending discipline will be capable of reversing the debt dynamics that have characterized France for decades.
L’article France: Public Debt Surges Past €3.5 Trillion, Raising Serious Concerns est apparu en premier sur FrenchDailyNews.
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