Month: April 2026

On Easter Monday, the Tagesschau broadcast a questionable report from Iran during its main news programme at 8 pm. This report is suspected of being Iranian propaganda, based on numerous indications.
The broadcaster ARD admits that it allowed the Iranian regime to foist a fabricated video report on it. The report purports to show a teacher named Sepideh, who is said to be 45 years old. According to the report, she lives in a small basement flat. What is striking, however, is that the ‘small basement flat’, which is rather spartanly furnished, is fitted with a heavy, modern high-security door (manufacturer: Alem ECO, cost: approx. 300 euros, equivalent to three months’ salary in Iran). The door has several modern locks and bolts.

The door could be an indication that the flat is not the ‘small basement flat’ of a simple teacher, but rather a ‘safe house’ for the Iranian secret service.

Lawyer Emrah Erken, for example, points out that the report was written by activist Tereza Bora, who is based in Istanbul, far removed from the action. Originally, however, the report had been attributed to correspondent Katharina Willinger – who, by her own account, lives in Istanbul – who reports on Turkey and Iran for ARD. Erken bluntly called the report “fake news”.

Jonas Schmidt-Chanasit publicly asked Tagesschau on X where the story originated.
Another clue suggesting that this might be Iranian propaganda is the fact that 45-year-old Sepideh is calmly walking her dog – without a headscarf. For women, it is life-threatening to step outside without a headscarf in the Iranian capital, Tehran. It becomes even more dangerous, of course, if you are accompanied by a camera crew, which attracts even more attention.

In line with these doubts, the Iranian woman speaks critically of the attacks by the US and Israel: “I can see the doubts growing. Many now believe that, in the end, nothing good will come of this for us people in Iran,” she says in English.
Another oddity: on Tuesday morning’s Morgenmagazin (moma), the report is broadcast again, though without the dog-walking scene in the park, focusing instead on Donald Trump’s threat to attack Iran’s infrastructure. Furthermore, the report is not credited here to Katharina Willinger, but to Tereza Bora, who is more than 2,000 kilometres away from Tehran as the crow flies. She is clearly not on the ground, which raises the question of who produced the video and passed the footage on to her. Has the ARD fallen for a targeted propaganda campaign by the Iranian regime?

The fact is that this statement fits with the broadcaster’s highly critical, even hostile, view of the war in Iran. ARD correspondent Katharina Willinger has just told broadcaster SWR that the situation is taking its toll on people in Iran; many are unable to flee the country, yet cannot get to their places of work either. She added that people are opposed to the regime, but also to the bombings: “I sense a growing concern and fear about what might be in store for them in the coming days and weeks.”

The teacher, Sepideh, is also given ample opportunity to complain about US President Donald Trump, who is making threats against all Iranians and doing so in a “very condescending manner”.

It is also puzzling that the Iranian woman introduced to us as Sepideh, the teacher, is seen in the video scrolling through Trump’s tweets and posts on Truth Social on her smartphone, even though the internet in Iran has been down for weeks.

The fact is that this statement fits with the broadcaster’s highly critical, even hostile, view of the war in Iran. ARD correspondent Katharina Willinger has just told broadcaster SWR that the situation is taking its toll on people in Iran; many are unable to flee the country, yet cannot get to their places of work either. She added that people are opposed to the regime, but also to the bombings: “I sense a growing concern and fear about what might be in store for them in the coming days and weeks.”

The teacher, Sepideh, is also given ample opportunity to complain about US President Donald Trump, who is making threats against all Iranians and doing so in a “very condescending manner”.

It is also puzzling that the Iranian woman introduced to us as Sepideh, the teacher, is seen in the video scrolling through Trump’s tweets and posts on Truth Social on her smartphone, even though the internet in Iran has been down for weeks.

The broadcaster has not yet responded to enquiries from our partner portal NIUS. As soon as a reply is received, it will be published here.

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by Janet Levy 

Explaining the decline of the Roman Empire in The Story of Civilization, Will Durant wrote: “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within.” The same could become true of the European Union (EU) in the 21st century. Postmodern illusions of a benign and righteous multiculturalism are allowing Islamist ideology—which has no reservations about its supremacist ambitions—to spread its roots with unprecedented virulence.

Consider how a guilt-shame complex fostered by leftist academia in institutions, the media, and the public is eroding the Judeo-Christian ethos. Christmas is no longer Christmas but some silly secular celebration like ‘Winter Journey’ or ‘Destination Beautiful Winter,’ while ‘Merry Christmas’ is being replaced by ‘Happy Winter.’ In the U.S., France, Spain, Germany, and beyond, governments, schools, and media outlets have diminished, canceled, or sanitized Judeo-Christian festivals and done away with Christian symbols, lights, and even traditional songs.

At the same time, Islam is permitted a loud and visible presence. Ramadan celebrations are happening more often at iconic locations and major government buildings. Iftar prayers are increasingly being held in public spaces rather than in mosques. Belgium, for example, organized the longest iftar dinner—2 km long, crossing multiple communities, and serving over 8,000 guests. The adhan, which proclaims there is no god but Allah and that Muhammad is His messenger, echoes from loudspeakers, asserting Islamic dominance and rejecting all other religions, to which such accommodations are outright denied.

In the U.K., iftars were even held within cathedrals in Manchester, Bristol, Southwark, Bradford, St. Paul’s, and Coventry. Declaring Allah as the only true God in a place dedicated to practicing Christianity is a direct violation of canon law, but the influence of public opinion and mood has increasingly led churches to permit it- perhaps as a gesture of virtue signaling or out of fear of criticism. No one questions whether the practices of other religions would ever be allowed in a mosque.

Public prayer is not permitted for other religions—even Christianity—in a predominantly Christian continent. Only Islam receives that privilege: in many cities in the U.S. and Europe, traffic is delayed when Muslims perform namaz on the streets. However, Christians are often arrested for proselytizing, preaching, or even praying. Constitutional rights—such as the freedom of belief and opinion—are selectively disregarded: Isabel Vaughan-Spruce was charged twice for quietly standing and praying outside an abortion clinic.

The broad cultural shift across Europe has been toward a questionable and rigid rational-scientific-secular outlook when it comes to all religions other than Islam. The U.K. and other European countries have been going out of their way to accommodate Muslim beliefs. Laws and school guidelines warn against depictions of Mohammed and even of human figures—since Muslims might find them blasphemous. A 32-page booklet issued by the city of Leeds warns educators about Muslim “sensitivities” to art, dance, music, and physical education.

The UK’s new definition of “anti-Muslim hostility” includes a blasphemy law that closely resembles Islamic doctrine. Under this law, legitimate concerns and criticisms about Muslims and their practices could be easily suppressed. Even more concerning, it might also hinder police, public services, and NGOs from addressing issues like grooming gangs, female genital mutilation, and terrorism. Despite these broad protections, the Muslim Council of Britain described the changes as a “diminished version” that did not seek input from its leadership during discussions. This contrasts with the dhimmitude imposed on non-Muslims in Islamic countries.

Coordinated Islamization through peaceful and violent means continues rapidly in Europe because countries are welcoming a community that refuses to integrate. Large-scale migration is followed by the construction of more mosques and madrasas, a rise in sharia courts, and Muslims choosing to follow Islamic law over national laws. Landscapes are noticeably changing, and Muslim neighborhoods, where Islamic dress and dietary codes are enforced, are becoming more common in European cities.

Many Muslim neighborhoods have become no-go zones for law enforcement, despite being hotspots for crime, violence against women, Islamist indoctrination, and terrorism. A 2020 Swedish study found a strong connection between crime and immigration. From 2002 to 2017, immigrants (mostly Muslim) were suspects in 74% of murders, attempted murders, and manslaughter cases, and in 70% of robberies. Since 2018, Sweden, France, Germany, and the U.K. have experienced a rise in bombings, gang shootings, stabbings, beheadings, and assaults on police. Sweden, in particular, has become the rape capital of Europe, while the U.K. refuses to acknowledge the existence of grooming and rape gangs targeting underage girls.

These crimes are rarely prosecuted because Muslims have become a protected class in much of Europe, a status they have gained through large-scale immigration and deliberate pressure. As the Muslim population grows, so do accusations of racism and Islamophobia. Europe, in its obsession with multiculturalism and the idea of a secular state free from any cultural influence, goes above and beyond to accommodate Islamic beliefs and protect Muslims.

A Pew Research Center study estimated the Muslim population in Europe at 4.9%, projected to grow to between 7.4% and 14% by 2025, depending on migration trends and fertility rates, which are generally higher among Muslim immigrants than in native populations. Germany and Sweden could see Muslim populations reach 20–30%, while France, Italy, and Belgium could face similar pressure. Once large Muslim communities are established, they can advocate for laws that support Islamic dominance. Additionally, there is always an unspoken threat that any perceived wrong may lead to retaliatory terrorist attacks.

The stabbing of Theo van Gogh in Amsterdam (2004), the Glasgow airport ramming attack (2007), the stabbing of a British soldier (2014), the shootings at Charlie Hebdo and the Bataclan theater massacre in Paris (both in 2015), the deliberate ramming of a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin (2016), and the beheading of a French teacher (2020)—the list could go on, and such attacks are unlikely to stop, given the rate at which Europe admits Muslims. In February this year, Dutch officials arrested 15 people for spreading ISIS propaganda via TikTok.

That Islamic culture is completely hostile to ideas like women’s freedom, which are taken for granted in Europe, has been shown many times by mass sexual assaults and groping sprees by young Muslim men. After one of the worst such attacks, during New Year’s Eve in Cologne (2015), police and media were accused of covering it up to reduce anti-immigrant sentiment. Ayaan Hirsi Ali’s book Prey links the sharp increase in sexual assaults to Muslim immigration into Europe.

Encouraging Muslim immigration through welfare, free housing, and unemployment benefits makes it unlikely to stop. Those who arrive often do not learn the local language or gain the skills and education needed for integration; instead, they tend to thrive in isolated communities that separate themselves from the local population. The French Institute for Public Opinions found that 46% of foreign-born Muslims and 18% of Muslims born in France support sharia.

As Muslims gain political representation, European culture is likely to decline, largely because governments try to appease Muslims. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni was absolutely right when she stated in 2024 that “Islamic culture and European civilizational values have a compatibility problem.”

A culture shaped by the Enlightenment cannot be overrun by a medieval culture that refuses to change. Using Durant’s words, Europe must prevent its cultural self-destruction caused by Islam taking root. This may be Europe’s last chance to save itself.

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“If we do not wake up, Islam will impose its law and culture on us,” Cardinal Robert Sarah said on Le Figaro TV, appearing to be the last prelate in the Vatican still willing to speak uncomfortable truths.

But I fear Sarah is wrong. Judging by what happened last week, it’s not that we won’t wake up-it’s that the loudest part of us has already chosen to sleep deeply.

The death toll of Christians massacred on Palm Sunday in Nigeria rises to 53: just background noise in the global media chaos.

But a mass prevented for Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem due to possible missile fire? A global scandal, bipartisan outrage, calls from heads of state, furious editorials.

The contrast is grotesque and obscene in its obviousness-something only Western hypocrisy-muddy, hypocritical, selective-could produce without blushing.

They shoot into a crowd gathered for a celebration-families, children. The toll: 53 dead, including women and minors, dozens injured, homes burned. Not an isolated episode: yet another chapter in a systematic persecution and a creeping genocide, a daily calvary that has lasted decades, under the eyes of a West that pretends not to see because the executioner wears the turban of radical Islam, not the Star of David.

Slaughtered pastors, looted villages, girls kidnapped and forced to convert, bells silenced under threat of death. A slow, methodical calvary. But statistically irrelevant slaughter for a West that has replaced its Judeo-Christian roots with the cult of the migrant, the “other,” and the abstract “weak.”

On the same day as the massacre, in Jerusalem, Israeli police stop Cardinal Pizzaballa and the Custos of the Holy Land, Francesco Ielpo, as they head to the Holy Sepulchre to celebrate mass. Reason: security concerns linked to the war context and Iranian missiles that fell on the Old City, which lacks shelters.

All Jewish, Christian, and Islamic holy sites in the Old City of Jerusalem are closed.

Prime Minister Netanyahu-the bogeyman who drives the West mad-authorizes Pizzaballa’s access for the rest of Holy Week. End of crisis. A contained incident.

Now compare the two scenes.

On one side, a sea of blood: 53 bodies, families torn apart, churches unable to ring bells without risking death.

On the other, a mass postponed by a few hours, resolved with a diplomatic reversal and a photo of Pizzaballa with Israeli police.

Israeli police protecting the cardinal and Islamic terrorists killing Christians. Whose side does the West take?

The Nigerian massacre? Silence from the same outlets. A few short notes on niche Catholic sites or Baptist Press. No front pages, no studio debates, no collective outrage. No calls to Lagos asking the Nigerian government to protect Christians.

Why?

Because the dead of Jos are useless. They don’t fit the script. They don’t feed the narrative of the “evil Israel” that poisons Western public discourse.

The media mainstream-this industrial-cultural complex that proclaims itself “guardian of truth”-is hypnotized by a single conflict: the Israeli-Arab one. Everything else is just background noise.

Christians massacred in Nigeria (50,000 dead and 18,000 churches destroyed), in Pakistan, Syria, Iraq? Abstract statistics for Open Doors reports that end up in drawers. The 380 million persecuted Christians worldwide-according to the latest data-are a folkloric detail, something for conservative bishops or right-wing American think tanks.

But a cardinal stopped in Jerusalem? Pure gold.

Because it allows Israel to be painted as the eternal oppressor, occupation, biblical colonialism. It’s the same perverse logic that turned Gaza into a global obsession while ignoring Chinese camps for Uyghurs, church burnings in India, or beheadings in Somalia.

This hypocrisy has deep, cultured, poisonous roots.

It goes back to post-1968 liberation theology and a left-wing intelligentsia that overturned the Gospel: no longer “blessed are the persecuted,” but “blessed are the Palestinian Arabs because they are the new Jews.” It is rooted in antisemitism disguised as anti-colonialism. It thrives in cultural relativism that refuses to name jihadism: not “extremism,” but radical Islam that sees Christians as enemies to eradicate.

Better to remain silent and point the finger at Tel Aviv.

One thinks of George Orwell: “All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others.” Persecuted Christians are second-rate animals. Their flesh has no value. It does not spark viral hashtags, does not fill squares with activists wearing keffiyehs, does not sell copies.

The blocked cardinal, on the other hand, is perfect: European, Vatican, media-friendly.

It allows people to shout “freedom of worship!” without ever asking why in Saudi Arabia or Iran a public mass is unthinkable.

And the secular West? The one that uprooted Christianity to replace it with the cult of the “other” and the “weak”? It is the same one that cries tears for Gaza and remains silent about Jos.

It preaches universal human rights but applies a selective filter: if the persecutor is the West or Israel, it is genocide; if it is Islam, it is a “post-colonial complexity.”

Truth dies bleeding on the margins of the Western media empire, slaughtered by fanatics and betrayed by its supposed cultural allies.

The media are not neutral: they are weapons. They have chosen their enemy. Israel is the perfect scapegoat because it is small, Jewish, successful. Nigerian Christians are too many, too poor, too far from the circuits of woke talk shows.

The massacre in Nigeria is dismissed as “ethnic violence” or “agricultural conflict.” A lie. It is creeping jihad.

But admitting this would mean admitting that political Islam is incompatible with coexistence in certain regions (and now also in ours). And that is haram for political correctness.

There are ontological culprits and eternal victims. And Christians slaughtered in the name of Islam are not victims.

Try finding a word about Christians in the accounts of Volker Türk, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. He speaks only about the death penalty for terrorists in Israel.

The UN seems to have a moral compass that points obsessively toward Jerusalem, while showing selective blindness toward Tehran and Jos.

To my eyes, everything is very clear. While in Jerusalem a postponed mass was resolved with a tweet from Netanyahu, in Nigeria mass graves were being dug.

And the West? Celebrating its ridiculous secular Easter: viral tweets against Jews, obsessive silence about murdered Christians.

The rest is just background noise.

israelnationalnews

Wales, that gave us Dylan Thomas, David Jones, Richard Burton, and the Mabinogion, has now given us something much less appealing, by spending more than 1.2 million pounds ($1.6 million) on teaching students about that will-o’-the-wisp, “white privilege.” Although all over the Western world, and especially in academic centers, affirmative action rules the roost, and white candidates have learned, to their dismay, that they are now the victims of affirmative action, there are people who still believe that it is not affirmative action, but “white privilege” that needs to be ended if we are to have an “anti-racist” society.

More on this subject being taught in Welsh schools can be found in this February article that unfortunately remains relevant: “Teenagers taught about ‘white privilege’ in ‘anti-racist’ virtual reality metaverse,” by Marcus Donaldson, GB News, February 8, 2026:

The Welsh Government has invested more than £1.2million in a virtual reality educational platform designed to lecture students about “white privilege”.

Described as the “world’s first anti-racist virtual world,” the immersive 3D environment has been deployed in colleges across Wales for pupils aged 16 and above since 2024.

Students navigate through a digital space featuring a central atrium decorated with portraits of civil rights figures, including Malcolm X, Nelson Mandela and Betty Campbell.

The platform contains interactive lessons covering “black feminism” and “decolonising politics,” with one section examining “sociology through an anti-racist lens.”

It also explores how “whiteness” manifests in language, policies and research, and how privilege affects social, educational and workplace settings.

Among the key terms students are encouraged to learn are “patriarchy” and “imperialism,” alongside the concept of “white privilege”, which the platform defines as “inherent advantages possessed by a white person, which means that during their day-to-day life, they do not have to consider their race.”…

But of course white people, constantly bombarded with the need to fight “white privilege,” and facing discrimination through affirmative action, do have to “ consider their race” at every turn.

“During the famine of 1770 the agricultural tax was increased from 10 per cent under the Mughals to 50 per cent under the British East India Company, leading to the loss of 10 million lives in Bengal, equivalent to the Black Death in Europe or the Holocaust,” the platform preaches.

It was the British who replaced the Muslim Mughals as the rulers of India. And it was during the Mughal rule that Muslims murdered 70-80 million Hindus. But apparently this is not to be mentioned; only the white Europeans are to be held accountable for mass deaths in India.

The metaverse also presents various strands of feminist thought, including psychoanalytical feminism, a 1970s theory which draws on the work of Sigmund Freud.

The Viennese witch-doctor is still molding dimwits from beyond the grave.

The platform describes this as a “theory of oppression that asserts that men have an inherent psychological need to subjugate women.”

It adds: “This branch of feminism seeks to gain insight into how our psychic lives develop in order to better understand and change women’s oppression.”…

There is oppression of women, but it’s not to be found any longer among the non-Muslims in Europe and North America. In those places, feminism has swept the board. But women continue to be oppressed in Muslim lands. It is the Qur’an that instructs husbands to “beat their wives” if they so much as suspect them of “disobedience.” It is Muslims who consider a female witness’ testimony to be worth half that of a man. It is Muslims who believe that a daughter should inherit only half that of a son. It is Muslim men who can divorce their wives merely by uttering — or even faxing — the triple-talaq, while a Muslim wife must go through a lengthy and expensive process to obtain a divorce. But don’t expect those Welsh people hoping to raise “awareness” of feminism to mention any of that. It would only encourage “Islamophobia,” and of course we can’t have that.

You can hardly open a history or literature textbook these days, from junior high through college, that doesn’t mention “feminism” and the need to pull down the soi-disant “patriarchy” that is supposedly destroying girls’ sense of self-worth. That may have once been true, but it is true no longer, and hasn’t been since the 1960s, when Betty Friedan, Bella Abzug, Gloria Steinem, and Ms. magazine first entered the feminist lists, and demanded equal rights, equal pay, equal everything — and what’s more, they got it.

Not enough “feminism” is being taught in schools? Oh dear, we can’t let that happen. Ladle out more of that feminism, please, lest society backslides on this most important of subjects.

Here’s glory for you: Wales aims to be “the world’s first anti-racist country by 2030.” And of course, the only kind of racism that the Welsh need to suppress is that of their indigenous citizens, still enjoying their “white privilege.” But how better to end “white privilege” than to practice “anti-white privilege,” which we know by another name — “affirmative action”?

Is it possible that “racism” does not explain differences in outcomes? Which ethnic groups place an emphasis on academic achievement? Is “white racism” to be blamed for the superior performance of Chinese students, as compared to the performances of black Africans? Is white racism what explains the poor performance of Muslims as compared to non-Muslims, or isn’t it, rather, the fact that Islam itself discourages free and skeptical inquiry, and instead encourages slavish acceptance of what is in the Qur’an and hadith?

“This pioneering project has delivered overwhelmingly positive outcomes and reflects our commitments to an anti-racist Wales, as well as reflecting similar offers within English institutions.”

What were those “overwhelmingly positive outcomes”? Have white people in Wales now learned to despise themselves for the “white privilege” they have enjoyed, and are now determined to make up for that condition by instead promoting “black and brown privilege”? And how long would that compensating privilege have to last before “racism” in Wales has been extirpated? Who will decide?

And what if the Welsh government were to decide to stop talking about “racism” and “anti-racism” and “white privilege” altogether, and instead have the schools in Wales teach English, and mathematics, and history, as they once did, in the days some now deem benighted, but we should now call enlightened.

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On the afternoon of Saturday April 4, Aymen B., a man born in Tunisia, was arrested after entering the Church of Saint-Clément in Arpajon, in the Essonne department, and shouting “Allah Akbar” several times, as Valeurs actuelles has learnt from police sources.
He knelt down before lying on the floor to pray, then stood up again and knocked over several objects. The suspect, born in 1982 and unarmed, even pushed over a female worshipper inside the church. At the time of the incident, there were four people, including the priest, inside the building.

Incidentally, it was the priest who immediately alerted the police. Following his arrest, Aymen B. underwent a psychiatric assessment, which concluded that he was of sound mind. His flat was also searched. Although the search proved fruitless, the man had consumed a large quantity of cannabis. Incidentally, the man admitted that he had been overcome by a momentary fit of madness and acknowledged that he had smoked a joint shortly before the incident. Aymen B. subsequently claimed that he had not been aware of his actions.

During a search of his mobile phone, the officers discovered that he had carried out some interesting search queries. In particular, the man had searched for ‘Al Jazeera’ and ‘Bin Laden’ online. He was taken into custody before this was subsequently lifted.

Valeurs actuelles

Ninos Afram, a Syriac Christian man, was shot dead on April 2, 2026, after gunfire targeted his vehicle in the Grusåsen area of Södertälje, Sweden.

He was transported to hospital in critical condition and died at 1:00 p.m. Afram was the son of Syriac activist Dr. Abrohom Afram. No suspects have been arrested, and police are reviewing surveillance footage. Current reporting suggests the motive was crime-related rather than religious.

Södertälje is one of Sweden’s most troubled cities. One-third of its population is of Syriac descent, and more than half has a foreign background.

Swedish police named Södertälje a focus of concern in their 2025 organized crime report, noting that young people from immigrant backgrounds have become part of the gang violence problem.

As many people were shot dead in Södertälje in one year as in all of London. Criminal networks have been advancing into local politics there as far back as 2011.

Sweden’s vice National Police Commissioner stated that approximately 40 crime clans came to Sweden solely to pursue organized crime, settling primarily in Stockholm, Södertälje, Gothenburg, Malmö, Landskrona, and Jönköping, with extended families raising children to continue criminal operations and no ambition to integrate.

Amid the general pattern of non-Swedes committing violent crimes in Sweden, a broader trend is developing in which Iran uses Muslim street gangs as proxies.

The central organization in this network is the Foxtrot gang, founded in 2010 and based in Sweden, involved in drug trafficking, arms trafficking, shootings, and contract killings across Northern Europe.

In March 2025, the U.S. Treasury sanctioned both the Foxtrot network and its leader Rawa Majid, a Swedish national of Kurdish Iranian origin and son of Kurdish Iranian refugees, accusing them of carrying out operations on behalf of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence and Security.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent stated that Iran had “increasingly used criminal networks as proxies” with “no regard for the cost to communities across Europe,” and pledged to hold accountable those furthering Iran’s agenda.

Majid has operated from Sulaymaniyah in Iraqi Kurdistan since April 2019, directing operations via encrypted messaging under the alias “Foxkurdish.” Sweden has been unable to extradite him, and Iran has provided him sanctuary.

Fredrik Hallström, head of operations at SÄPO, Sweden’s security service, told CNN that Iran is using Swedish criminal gangs and the teenagers they recruit to carry out attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Europe, describing it as “murder-for-hire,” and stated: “Organized crime in Sweden right now is a huge vulnerability that is being used by state actors.”

John Forsberg, superintendent of the Swedish National Police, called the situation “a national disaster,” adding that children are crossing borders to commit crimes, making it a Europe-wide problem. In June 2025, the U.S. Embassy in Sweden issued a warning to American citizens that Iran could be targeting U.S. interests in Sweden using the Foxtrot network.

American officials and Mossad say the Iranian regime ordered Foxtrot to attack the Israeli Embassy in Stockholm in January 2024.

Criminal networks recruit minors because they are easier to manipulate, cannot be interrogated or convicted as adults under Scandinavian law, and face lighter legal consequences. Networks use social media and encrypted messaging to assign tasks and shield higher-level organizers.

In May 2024, a 14-year-old fired shots at the Israeli embassy in Stockholm at 2 a.m. and was not prosecuted because he was below the age of criminal responsibility.

A 15-year-old arrested in the same operation was directed by text message to retrieve a firearm and travel to the embassy; he was convicted of a weapons offense and sentenced to 11 months in a juvenile care home. In October 2024, two Foxtrot-recruited Swedish teenagers threw hand grenades at the Israeli embassy compound in Copenhagen.

A Danish court sentenced them in February to 12-year prison terms for terrorism. The Norwegian branch of Foxtrot used minors in three separate hand grenade attacks across Oslo in October and November, believed to be part of inter-gang competition for drug territory. Many of the grenades used in these attacks were salvaged from the Yugoslav wars and smuggled into Scandinavia.

Sweden recorded 30 gang-related explosions in January 2025 alone, the highest monthly figure ever recorded. In 2024, 30 percent of suspects in firearm-related murders were under 18, up from around 20 percent in prior years.

In the 15-to-20 age group, suspects for murder, manslaughter, and assault with a fatal outcome numbered 34 in 2014 and rose to 167 by 2023, a 391 percent increase. In 2024, minors accounted for 25 percent of all shooting suspects and 33 percent of those involved in fatal shootings.

Swedish police have identified 700 criminal suspects holding Swedish citizenship who are living abroad to escape justice. Iraq and the United Arab Emirates are among the main countries sheltering these fugitives, with Sweden planning police missions to Turkey and Morocco as well.

Deputy Police Chief Hector described the suspects as wanted for violent crimes, drug trafficking, forgery, and large-scale financial fraud, posing “a serious threat to public safety, both in Sweden and globally.”

The 2025 Swedish Police report found 17,500 individuals actively involved in criminal gangs, with 50,000 more indirectly linked, concentrated in areas of high migrant population density.

The 2021 Brå report found that people with a foreign background, either foreign-born or born to two foreign-born parents, made up 51 percent of all crime suspects while representing approximately 20 percent of the population.

For murder, manslaughter, and attempted murder, that figure was 73 percent; for robbery, 70 percent. In 2020, people with foreign backgrounds made up 70 percent of the most active one percent of offenders.

According to Brå’s register study, the risk of being recorded as a crime suspect is 2.5 times higher for foreign-born individuals and 3.2 times higher for Swedish-born individuals with two foreign-born parents, compared to native-born Swedes with native-born parents.

Even after controlling for age, sex, income, education, and municipality, excess risk remains at 1.8 and 1.7 times respectively. A peer-reviewed study published in Society found that in 2017, migrants representing 33 percent of the population accounted for 58 percent of those suspected of crime and 73 percent of those suspected of murder, manslaughter, and attempted murder.

According to Dagens Nyheter, at least 90 percent of gun-related murders and attempted murders were committed by immigrants or those with at least one immigrant parent.

Expressen reported that 94.5 percent of career criminal gang members in Stockholm were immigrants or had at least one immigrant parent. The overrepresentation is concentrated among those originating from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq, Somalia, and North Africa, though Sweden publishes no official breakdown by religion.

A Lund University study published in January 2025 found that nearly two-thirds of convicted rapists in Sweden since 2000 were first- or second-generation immigrants.

Swedish Television’s analysis of 843 district court cases reported that 58 percent of those convicted of rape or attempted rape had a foreign background. In cases of stranger rape, 75 percent of perpetrators were born outside Europe, and 40 percent had been in Sweden for a year or less.

Foreign-born individuals were also disproportionately represented among suspects between 2013 and 2017, with a relative risk of lethal violence nearly four times higher than that of Swedish-born individuals with Swedish-born parents.

Individuals with an immigrant background account for 80 percent of shooting victims and 64 percent of perpetrators, according to 2025 research from the University of Gothenburg. Sweden now has the highest rate of gangland killings in Europe and the lowest average age of serious offenders on the continent.

Swedish central bank governor Erik Thedeen told the Financial Times that shootings and bombings are severe enough to risk damaging long-term economic growth. The Swedish government has called on the military to assist police, a step without modern precedent in the country.

Out of Sweden’s population of 10.61 million in 2022, 2.14 million were registered as foreign-born, more than double the number in 2000. Using a broader definition that includes Swedish-born children of two foreign-born parents, the figure rises to 26 percent of the population.

Those with at least one foreign-born parent comprise over 30 percent of the population. Among residents aged 25 to 34, one-third has a foreign background; among those aged 35 to 44, the figure is 38 percent.

Sweden’s Christian share of the population has fallen from nearly 100 percent to below 60 percent. An Islamist party called Nyans has approached the parliamentary threshold, and Islamist circles have lobbied for a parallel legal system applying sharia law to Muslim citizens.

thegatewaypundit

A militant transgender activist group called Bash Back has released a guide instructing members to arm themselves and carry out repeated illegal attacks against “transphobic” groups, MPs and various organisations.

Activists are told to establish “independent local cells”, “identify a target” and “ensure your target can be hit repeatedly until they desist” from what the group considers “transphobic” activities.

Potential targets listed include MPs, organisations and political party conferences.

The group says its tactics would be “rarely legal” and warns participants they risk facing charges such as criminal damage, possession of an offensive weapon and aggravated trespass.

Bash Back describes itself as a “nonviolent direct action group” despite the guide.

The pamphlet, unveiled by The Times, provides practical advice on executing attacks and evading detection afterwards.

It also includes an equipment list which contains items like hammers, with instructions to clean tools using alcohol or discard them in “unsurveilled residential bins” after use.

The document recommends stealing equipment to prevent tracing.

Members are advised to communicate via encrypted platforms like Signal with disappearing messages switched on.

Pink paint should be used to mark actions as the work of Bash Back, the guidebook says.

A promotional image accompanying the document displays the slogan “smash transphobia” with a masked figure wielding a hammer and the words “choose your weapon”.

Bash Back has already claimed responsibility for attacks on several high-profile targets, including the constituency office of Wes Streeting, prison contractor Sodexo and the Free Speech Union, with the group stating these actions showed solidarity with “Prisoners for Palestine”.

The Equality and Human Rights Commission’s offices were also targeted last year.

The group formed following the Supreme Court ruling which confirmed a woman was a biological female under the Equality Act.

Women’s rights campaigners welcomed the decision, though trans activist groups like Stonewall and TransActual called it “devastating” for transgender people.

In a manifesto within the document, Bash Back said trans people “made the victim” by politics, healthcare and society, adding: “We are so tired, and so angry – and while we take to the streets time and time again with our flags and our banners and our speeches, nothing seems to work.”

JK Rowling, the author and women’s rights campaigner, warned last year that politicians urgently needed to take threats of violence from activists seriously.

Referencing Bash Back’s plans to target MPs’ offices, Ms Rowling talked about “threats and harassment” and accused groups of “doxxing” opponents.

Bash Back previously said: “We take action to stand up for ourselves in a country that is increasingly hostile to trans people, because the traditional modes of protest are not working due to the sheer amount of money from billionaires like Rowling funnelled into opposition to our rights and freedoms.

“We never go out of our way to cause harm to any human being and discourage and condemn actions that do so.”

A Government spokesman, meanwhile, said: “The rhetoric from this group is dangerous and only seeks to distract from our work to improve the lives of trans people.”

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Joining the European Union is not a declaration of good faith, but rather an entry into a legal and economic system. Membership means that a given country is able to adopt and implement the entirety of EU law—from judicial guarantees to public procurement to food chain supervision—while strengthening, rather than weakening, the common market, the common budget, and the relationship of trust between member states. The issues of supporting Ukraine and Ukraine’s EU membership cannot therefore be conflated: the former may be a decision interpreted as a geopolitical and humanitarian obligation, while the latter is subject to technical conditions, and if these are overridden, it will make the EU itself less able to function.

Ukraine submitted its application for accession in 2022 and was granted candidate status that same year. The European Council decided to open accession negotiations in December 2023, and the first intergovernmental conference was held on June 25, 2024, formally launching the negotiation process. In recent months, however, the focus of the debate has not been on the ‘pace of progress’ but on the political target date: Kyiv—and several actors in Brussels—are increasingly talking about Ukraine enjoying full membership around 2027 and accession being treated as a ‘security anchor’ of the peace framework. This logic is also reinforced by the political communication of Ursula von der Leyen and Marta Kos, the commissioner in charge of enlargement, which emphasises the acceleration of integration as a strategic goal. By contrast, some member states fear that acceleration would come at the expense of necessary reforms. This is precisely why the EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, recently acknowledged that member states are not ready to give Ukraine a specific date for accession.

In any case, the pressure is palpable, and previously unthinkable ideas are already emerging in the discussions in Brussels, such as ‘partial’ or ‘reverse’ enlargement—​​meaning ‘minimal’ accession, with limited rights—which in itself indicates that acceleration is not in line with the traditional accession logic. Manfred Weber and the EPP have long been one of the strongest political drivers of enlargement, but even for them, accession should be a question of criteria and merits, not a mark in the calendar fixed in campaigns and geopolitical bargains.

The Copenhagen criteria exist precisely because the EU is not an ‘alliance of good intentions’ but an institutional order. The conditions for accession are for a candidate state to have a stable democratic institutional system, guarantees of the rule of law, protection of fundamental rights and minorities, a functioning market economy, and the fulfilment of the obligations of EU membership—the acquis communautaire. The problem in Ukraine’s case is that in a war environment and with partly deficient institutional capacities, full compliance is difficult to demonstrate within the foreseeable future. The Commission’s 2025 country report also states that Ukraine does have “some level of preparedness” in the areas of justice, and in the fight against corruption progress has been made, but further substantive work is needed. This sentence, in the language of the accession process, is not praise but a warning to be cautious: for the common budget and the trust of the common market, a partially functioning rule of law is not enough.

The fact that Ukraine is at war is a serious obstacle to membership in itself. Full membership presupposes the uniform application of borders, customs and regulatory systems, market surveillance, and state services, whereas the burden on the security environment, the infrastructure, and the state administration in Ukraine is constantly extraordinary. In such circumstances, a date-bound accession would either result in permanent exclusion or membership on paper, without real implementation—both of which would undermine the internal functioning of the EU. It is not by chance, therefore, that several member states are expressly opposed to considering accession as part of a peace deal, fearing that it would undermine the incentive to reform the Union.

The most tangible risk, however, is economic: Ukraine’s entry into the common market and the common agricultural policy (CAP) would mean both competitive pressure and budgetary realignment. The EU was already forced to build in market protection safeguards during the wartime ‘autonomous trade measures’ to ensure that member state producers did not suffer disproportionate damage from the rapid increase in Ukrainian exports; both the Council and the Commission spoke of separate safeguard clauses and automatic brake mechanisms. This in itself refutes the naive assumption that membership is just an administrative issue: if protective barriers are needed even with temporary trade facilitation, then in the case of full membership, market and social tensions would be incomparably greater. Policy analyses also indicate that by 2024, Ukraine had become one of the EU’s largest sources of agri-food imports, with a significant share in some product groups; this can directly influence internal market shares and prices. 

For countries like Hungary, this is not an ideological debate but a question of survival: the domestic agriculture and rural economy depend on the CAP, on the stability of the market, and on not being subjected to supply shocks from one year to the next that a more capital-rich Western European producer can easily cope with, but Central European farmers cannot.

Energy security is closely linked to the economic dimension. The Druzhba pipeline dispute, which has been ongoing since the beginning of 2026, shows how vulnerable Central Europe is if a transit country—whether intentionally or because of some external constraint—treats supply routes as part of a political conflict. Hungary and Slovakia claim that Kyiv is delaying the restoration of the flow of crude oil for political reasons; Ukraine, on the other hand, says that a Russian attack caused the damage and that restoration will take time. Whatever the reason behind the stoppage, the fact remains that the pipeline has not been delivering oil for weeks. As a result, the controversy has been directly integrated into EU decision-making, because Budapest has blocked or attached conditions to several EU decisions due to the dispute. 

If a country can weaponise energy supply to extort financial support before becoming a member state, one can imagine what its potential for pressure as an EU member would be. And here we come to the most serious point: blackmailing and threatening member states is incompatible with EU membership. In recent weeks, the Hungarian-Ukrainian dispute escalated when Zelensky publicly hinted that if Budapest continues to block the €90 billion EU loan package, “Ukrainian soldiers” could “talk” directly to the Hungarian prime minister. One could dismiss this as just rhetoric, but the way to resolve disputes in the EU is not to send messages loaded with military imagery to each other’s leaders. EU membership presupposes a minimum of mutual respect: everyone has the right to disagree, but pressure must remain within institutional and legal boundaries. Anyone who oversteps this line will be confronted not only with a member state but with the very logic of the community’s functioning. 

The conclusion is thus simple and requires no further explanation. Ukraine can be a strategic partner of the EU, and gradual integration—linked to programmes, investments, and trade mechanisms—can be a realistic, defensible path. But full membership cannot be given away as a political gesture, lest the Union risk falling apart. 

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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has suggested that Ukraine may be behind an attempted bombing of one of the country’s major gas pipelines just days before voters head to the polls for the most contested election in decades.

According to the Hungarian daily Magyar Nemzet, security services in Serbia discovered a large explosive device at the Turkish Stream gas pipeline near the Hungarian border. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić is reported to have informed Budapest that if the bomb had been successfully triggered, gas supply to Hungary would have been interrupted.

Bálint Pásztor, the leader of the local Vojvodina Hungarian Association (VMSZ), which represents the large Hungarian population on the Serbian side of the border near the pipeline, said that he believed it was an attempted terrorist attack aimed at toppling Prime Minister Orbán ahead of this month’s elections.

In a post on social media on Sunday, Orbán said the pipeline is “vital” to Hungary’s energy supply, accounting for around 60 per cent of national gas consumption. He said that there will be increased military monitoring of the Hungarian section of the pipeline, while the Serbs have also committed to stepping up protection on their end.

The Hungarian leader warned that Europe is facing an “unprecedented energy crisis” amid the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, and that energy supplies from Russia will therefore become increasingly crucial for energy imports.

However, seemingly linking Kyiv to the alleged attack on Turkish Stream, Orbán claimed that Ukraine has been “working for years to cut off Europe from Russian energy.”

“They blew up Nord Stream, shut down the gas pipeline supplying Hungary, and placed Hungary under an oil blockade, while the Russian section of Turkstream is under continuous military attack. Ukraine’s efforts pose a direct threat to Hungary. Hungary’s energy security is not a game; we will protect our energy system, the secure supply of families, and our national interest.

Orbán, who is seeking a fourth term in office, has made the issue of Ukraine a central pillar of his campaign strategy against his former party member-turned-rival Péter Magyar, whom he alleges will seek to allow Ukraine into the European Union.

Orbán has warned that this would negatively impact the Hungarian economy by allowing the importation of cheap Ukrainian goods and would open the door to mass migration from the neighbouring country. He has also said that this position would drag Hungary into war with Russia, and has staged large-scale anti-war campaign rallies over the past year in Budapest.

Magyar has denied that he would agree to the Brussels plan of fast-tracking membership for Ukraine, despite positioning himself as the “pro-Europe” alternative to Orbán, who has incurred sanctions from Eurocrats over his conservative government’s refusal to allow illegal immigrants claiming asylum into the country or to prevent LGBT content from being shown in children’s media.

In turn, Magyar, whose Tisza (Respect and Freedom) Party has shot to the top of the national polls, has attempted to cast Orbán as a Russian puppet, following similar accusations from globalists in Brussels.

The issue shot to the top of the headlines last month after the Washington Post alleged that Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó had passed confidential EU information to his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov. Magyar has said that if confirmed, it would represent “treason”.

The hotly contested campaign, which will conclude on Sunday, has been widely portrayed as Magyar’s race to lose. However, some have raised doubts about whether his party’s lead in the national polls will translate into the individual constituency races on which the election will actually be decided.

Indeed, a recent seat-by-seat analysis by the Nézőpont Institute has projected that, out of the 106 constituencies, Orbán’s party is ahead in 66, compared to 40 for Magyar.

Orbán will also attempt to use his strong connections to the Trump administration as he lays out his final pitch to voters, with U.S. Vice President JD Vance arriving for a visit on Monday as the White House seeks to maintain its key ally in power in the region.

breitbart