Europe

German Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt on Tuesday said a recent intelligence assessment classifying the Alternative for Germany (AfD) as a confirmed "right-wing extremist" organization is not enough to justify banning the party.

"The Israeli Government's denial of essential humanitarian assistance to the civilian population is unacceptable and risks breaching International Humanitarian Law," a joint statement said.

"We oppose any attempt to expand settlements in the West Bank ... We will not hesitate to take further action, including targeted sanctions."

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.sdf.org/post/34958452

The U.K. suspended free trade talks with Israel on Tuesday and hit West Bank settlers with sanctions, less than a day after vowing “concrete actions” if Israel didn’t stop its new military offensive in Gaza.

Le Scouarnec admitted in March to sexually abusing all 299 victims, many while they were under anaesthesia or waking up after operations between 1989 and 2014.

The former doctor is already in prison after being sentenced in December 2020 to 15 years for raping and sexually assaulting four children, including two of his nieces.

https://archive.is/myOFu

Education secretary says top-up support for subjects including media must be scaled back because of ‘extremely challenging’ fiscal environment

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson told the sector regulator on Monday that capital spending would be almost halved in 2025-26 to £84mn from a multiyear settlement equivalent to an annual allocation of £150mn.

cross-posted from: https://lemm.ee/post/64433914

The French president called on the European Union to abolish a directive on corporate sustainability that requires large companies to show supply chains upholding human rights and environmental standards.

He joined Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz in calling on the European Union to abolish a directive on corporate sustainability that requires large companies to show supply chains upholding human rights and environmental standards

"The material posted is dangerous disinformation, without any real basis or concrete evidence. It is a clear example of manipulation by spreading conspiracy theories that instil distrust in state institutions, international partners and the democratic process," the defence ministry added.

The three ministries claimed that they had found a direct link between the video and Moscow but gave no further details at this time.

Revelations of an unfolding corruption investigation involving staff and ex-staff at the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA) have continued to emerge, with a total of five detentions — two in Belgium and three in the Netherlands — made public so far.

The Belgian authorities said in a statement that NSPA employees or former employees in Luxembourg may have passed information to defense contractors. "There are indications that money obtained from these illegal practices would have been laundered, partly by setting up consultancy companies."

The founder of the Telegram messaging app said on Sunday he had refused a request by a Western government, which he did not name but appeared to imply was France, to silence conservative voices in Romania ahead of a presidential election run-off there.

Eduard Lintner, a former member of the German parliament, or Bundestag, from Bavaria's Christian Social Union (CSU), confessed on Monday to passing on the payments, but told the court he "thought it was the kind of lobbying that is still practically omnipresent today."

More than 100,000 people gathered Sunday in The Hague to protest the Dutch government’s stance on Israel and the ongoing war in the Gaza Strip, in what organizers called the Netherlands’ largest demonstration in the past 20 years