Month: July 2026

America’s hosting of the World Cup was clearly good for FIFA and the cause of promoting football (soccer) to Americans. The fact that hundreds of thousands of European fans also come home with a wider personal view of America may also prove to be good over the long term for conservative populists, too.

Europeans who travelled to watch their home countries’ squads had to go to parts of America few often visit. Games in Dallas, Houston, Atlanta and Kansas City brought fans to some of America’s largest and growing metropolitan areas, places with no traditional downtowns and utterly dependent upon automobiles. Even stadia in places like Boston, Philadelphia and New York are either in suburban locations like the cities mentioned above or are surrounded by massive parking lots to accommodate tens of thousands of cars.

Fans often were awed by the sheer size of these places. Every one of the 11 stadia which hosted matches could seat 64,000 or more fans. Only 24 stadia in all of Europe could accommodate that many, and many of those are not often used for club football. The American stadiums were also on average newer and had many more food and souvenir concession stands than their European cousins.

In short, simply attending the games themselves gave Europeans a glimpse of the massive wealth average Americans possess.

That impression would be cemented by any degree of travel outside of the areas around the venues. American houses are larger, with much more land surrounding them, than even nicer suburban areas. Cars are massive in the United States, with most people driving large trucks or sport utility vehicles that would be well beyond the capacity of middle-class Europeans to buy and operate. Shopping malls have a mixture of selection and consumer choice that few places in Europe can match.

The German traveller known by his X handle, @FreddyLA7, became an American sensation as he travelled throughout the country. He marvelled at the size of a Buc-ee’s gas station (they often have as many as 100 gas pumps along with a store that serves as a supermarket) along with the fact one could easily purchase rifles in many large stores. While he never mentioned it, he and other drivers surely noticed that petrol prices in the United States are between 50 and 66 per cent cheaper than in most of the European Union, too.

Tourists also noted how friendly many Americans were. Europeans who experience Americans abroad find them when many are uncertain and insecure, often not knowing their host country’s language or history. In their home milieu, though, Americans were open and accommodating to their guests. Those who expected snobbishness or impolite behaviour were surprised to find exactly the opposite.

These folks will now go home with a much clearer sense of what life in America is really like than any quick trip to a major tourist area or large American city can ever provide. They will know that Americans are nice, rich and free.

Conservative populist parties rarely say they want Europe to be more like America. But their platforms often call for lower taxes, freer economies and a devolution of power away from the stodgy bureaucracies that too often strangle European life in a maze of rules and papers. If these people liked what they saw in America, and the general reaction is that most did, they will have to ask themselves why they can’t have that life themselves.

Try as they might, the European establishment parties cannot satisfy that desire. Whether they are nominally left, centre or right, none embrace the emphasis on the consumer and the freedom of the average person that can ever approximate what the average American has. If the football tourists want what they experienced, they, and any of their friends and family they speak with, will have to look elsewhere when they vote.

That desire may not emerge overnight. But the more they compare the open, comfortable life they saw with the closed, stagnant lives too many have in Europe, they will likely want to see their homes look more like the US rather than humbly submit to the Eurocrats’ decrees.

A popular song in the US after the First World War asked, “How can you keep them down on the farm after they’ve seen Par-ee?” In a few years, wise Europeans will realise that they cannot keep their fellow countrymen down in the dumps after they’ve seen Buc-ee’s.

brusselssignal

An 18-year-old Moroccan national has been arrested over the killing of a 75-year-old woman who was allegedly beaten and slashed to death while walking her dog near a small town in Catalonia.

The suspect was detained on Monday in Soses, in the province of Lleida, the Mossos d’Esquadra confirmed. Police have publicly disclosed only his age, but Spanish crime outlet El Caso reported that he is a foreign national originally from Morocco.

The victim, identified as Dolors Agustí, left her home at around 7:45 p.m. Saturday to walk her dog on the outskirts of the town.

When the animal returned alone several hours later, her relatives and neighbors became alarmed and launched a search.

Her body was discovered late that night in a cornfield approximately 200 meters from the center of Soses, according to La Vanguardia. She had suffered extensive bruising and cuts apparently caused by a blunt or sharp object.

El País reported that investigators believe the attacker used a glass bottle, inflicting severe cuts and other injuries.

A broken bottle was recovered from the scene, and Agustí suffered several wounds, including a fatal cut to the neck. Her body appeared to have been moved and concealed in the cornfield.

A homicide investigation was launched, and the Moroccan teenager was arrested two days later.

The suspect had reportedly previously worked for a prominent fruit company in Soses but had been dismissed several days before the killing. Police have not confirmed that detail or disclosed whether he has a criminal record.

The town council declared three days of official mourning and held a minute of silence attended by residents from Soses and surrounding communities.

rmx

Bishop Stefan Oster sharply criticized a homosexual German politician who professes to be Catholic after acquiring a child via surrogacy.

Jens Spahn of the German Christian Democrats (CDU) announced last week that he and his homosexual “husband” Daniel Funke “became fathers” by acquiring a child from a surrogate mother in the United States. Spahn is a former Minister of Health, and from 2025 until this month he served as the leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group in the German Bundestag.

The news caused a massive backlash online against Spahn, especially because surrogacy is banned in Germany and Spahn himself has officially opposed legalizing the practice in the past. The CDU still officially holds this position. Spahn and Funke circumvented German law by traveling to the U.S. to buy a child from a surrogate.

In a video message that garnered significant attention online, Bishop Oster of the Diocese of Passau broke down why surrogacy is morally wrong and damaging to the child.

Oster explained that “there are good reasons why surrogacy is prohibited in our country.”

“In my view, the most fundamental reason is that it violates human dignity,” he stated. “As a general rule, parents regard the birth of a child they have together as a gift – a gift that is not for sale and therefore cannot and must not be purchased. As Christians, we believe that children are a gift from God and that their dignity as persons comes from God.”

“But people also see it as a gift because children generally arise from the loving relationship between their parents, and because the experience of love itself is a gift that I cannot buy. It is undeserved when someone loves me, but I have a responsibility insofar as I open myself to that love.”

”So-called ‘love for sale’ is therefore the exact opposite of love – namely, a business transaction,” he continued. “Every person is unique and develops through unique relationships. A child’s development begins in the womb. The unique relationship between mother and child has a profound impact on the child and also lays the foundation for the life ahead.”

“While still in the womb, the child senses the mother’s emotions. It hears her voice, experiences her loving care even before birth, and develops a bond with the world through its mother, who at first is the child’s entire world.”

”Our tradition teaches that the union of a man and a woman – the young parents – is a uterus spiritualis, a kind of spiritual womb, in which and through which the child naturally comes to know Mom and Dad,” Oster said in defense of the traditional family. “It is the unique child of this very mother and this very father. By nature, it has a unique, irreplaceable, and irretrievable role in the new family structure.”

“This child of Jens Spahn and Daniel Funke is named Georg, and he is already a public figure – and, as such, is essentially a commodity,” Oster stated. “What a burden this will one day be for him to bear, even though he has no idea of it yet. I am completely convinced, my dear friends, that above all other rights, every child has a right to its natural parents – and this right far outweighs any right potential parents might have to acquire a child, have one created, or even buy one.”

The bishop acknowledged that “a child’s natural circumstances can be so terrible that any other solution for their upbringing might be better than the ones they were originally given” but argued that “few educators or psychologists would dispute that, under normal circumstances, the circumstances originally provided by nature are, by their very nature, the best possible.”

“So when a prominent CDU politician, to fulfill his own desires, uses surrogacy, deliberately violates the laws of his own country and the fundamental principles of his own party on this issue – which is so crucial to our view of humanity – and, on top of that, actively advocates for surrogacy, I consider that a genuine scandal,” Oster concluded.

“This is especially true given that this politician has publicly professed his affiliation with the Catholic Church,” he added. “In my view, he has thereby taken a step that we, as a faith community, will never be able to follow, even in the future.”

Spahn has since resigned from his position as the leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group after the scandal elicited calls for his resignation, including from his own party. However, he remains a member of the German Bundestag and of the CDU.

Spahn was not the only homosexual CDU politician to announce he had acquired a child via surrogacy this year.

In April, it became known that another politician from the Christian Democrats, Hendrik Streeck, also had a child via surrogacy together with his “husband.” However, government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius said that Streeck would not face consequences because he has not spoken out against surrogacy in the past and therefore “there is no evidence of a double standard on Streeck’s part.”

lifesitenews

A protest backed by Bologna’s left-wing mayor descended into hours of violence as rioters hurled explosives at police and erected barricades across the city center.

Left-wing activists attacked police, built barricades, and set fire to a municipal vehicle in the Italian city of Bologna on Monday during a protest over the death of a Moroccan man during his arrest.

Hundreds joined the demonstration following the death of 42-year-old Abderrahim Fakir, who died on Sunday while officers were attempting to restrain him in the city’s Pilastro district.

The protest began peacefully in Piazza del Nettuno before moving towards the prefecture, where demonstrators confronted officers in riot gear and chanted “murderers” and “everyone hates the police.”

Violence broke out after masked activists pushed against police lines and began throwing bottles, chairs, firecrackers, and pieces of concrete at officers. Police responded with batons, tear gas, and water cannon.

Rioters constructed makeshift barricades from metal fencing, damaged police vehicles, and tore up parts of the pavement to use as missiles. Later in the evening, they smashed a vehicle belonging to the city council, pushed it into the road, and set it alight.

The fire spread close to surrounding buildings before firefighters could reach the scene through streets littered with debris and damaged vehicles.

Eleven people were reportedly injured, including six police officers and five demonstrators. One officer and one protester were taken to hospital.

The demonstration had received support from Bologna’s left-wing mayor, Matteo Lepore, who had called for “truth and justice” over Fakir’s death before investigators had established how he died.

Domenico Pianese, head of the Coisp police union, accused Lepore of helping to create a climate of hostility towards officers.

“What is happening in Bologna is the direct and predictable consequence of the political irresponsibility of those who fuel suspicion against the police,” he said.

Pianese argued that the mayor had “paved the way for the hatred of the antagonistic movement” by suggesting that justice was being denied before prosecutors had completed their work.

Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini also condemned the “thugs” responsible for the disorder.

“An irresponsible and anti-Italian Left is fuelling hatred towards those who wear a uniform and defend us,” the Lega leader said, adding that he would visit Bologna to express his support for the police.

Fakir’s death remains under investigation. Officers had been called to the Pilastro neighborhood after residents reported a man behaving aggressively. Fakir had allegedly confronted a driver attempting to enter a garage and damaged his vehicle.

Police reportedly informed emergency services that Fakir appeared to be experiencing a psychiatric crisis. Two officers and a local resident helped restrain him, while police used pepper spray before placing him in handcuffs.

A short video circulated online shows officers holding Fakir on the ground, with one appearing to press down on his back. Prosecutors cautioned that the incident lasted considerably longer than the footage published on social media suggests.

Investigators have obtained a 39-minute recording from an officer’s body camera, along with calls made to the emergency services. An independent expert will examine the recording, while an autopsy will seek to determine the cause of death and whether the pepper spray, an underlying health condition, or another factor played a role.

Two police officers and four medical workers present during the operation have been recorded as participants in the case under a new procedure intended to prevent officers from being automatically treated as criminal suspects when their actions may have been legally justified.

The Italian interior ministry has said the officers followed established procedures and promised full cooperation with investigators. Interior Minister Matteo Piantedosi urged the public to allow prosecutors to establish the facts.

The Fakir family’s lawyer, Fabio Anselmo, also condemned the rioting, describing it as a “crude and violent exploitation” of the death and an attack on the family’s search for the truth.

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An Eritrean illegal migrant with a beard and Adam’s apple has been ruled to be a child by a court, with the British taxpayer now footing his costly legal bill.

The male, who has not been named, broke into Britain on the back of a HGV in February 2024 after being blocked from entering the country multiple times.

The Eritrean has given five separate dates of birth to border officials when questioned.

Immigration officials did not accept the migrant’s claim that he was child based on his “appearance and demeanour”.

Authorities noted the man’s “protruding Adam’s apple, wrinkles under his eyes, and five o’clock shadow” in their assessment.

The decision meant the man – who is now said to be 19 – was not handed “any of the statutory benefits” of being a child migrant in Britain.

But now, an asylum judge in London has ruled that the Eritrean was 16 when he arrived, following an immigration hearing.

The Home Office was then ordered to hand over £10,000 in taxpayer cash to the migrant to cover his legal costs.

The Eritrean claimed he was forced to leave his homeland following the death of his mother, and was taken to Libya to be trafficked.

He then travelled across Europe until he reached northern France, from where he made his first bid to break into Britain on the back of a lorry in February 2024.

He was caught in a UK Border Force-controlled area of the port of Dunkirk, where officials denied him access into the country.

The man gave officials a different name when questioned, and said he was born in Eritrea in February 2005.

After being caught in the back of the lorry just three days later, he gave another name and claimed his date of birth was in February 2006.

The Eritrean national was finally successful in his bid to enter Britain one month later, and told officers upon his arrival he was born in April 2007 – which he maintained throughout the hearing.

Immigration officials subsequently “age assessed” the illegal migrant as being born in April 1996.

Assessors also pointed to the man’s “visible red spots and dark marks consistent with recent shaving, a noticeable Adam’s apple, and a fine moustache” when coming to the conclusion.

At the hearing, the man showed his Snapchat and TikTok “avatars” – which both were noted as having “proper beards”.

Upper Tribunal Judge Gaenor Bruce accepted the migrant’s claim, describing his demeanor as “sincere” and adding that he had been “cooperative”.

She said: “I have given careful consideration to the evidence about the applicant’s appearance.

“I do not agree that he has a receding hairline, or deep lines in his face.

“I could not say whether the Adam’s apple of someone born in 2007 is likely to be significantly less pronounced than someone born in 2005.

“I do accept that the applicant has a small neat beard, and one that he sports quite proudly.

“He has used it as his Snapchat avatar, and came to court with it clearly groomed.”

Judge Bruce said she was previously unaware of the “rate of growth of facial hair in Eritrean males” and said she had since received expert advice about.

She continued: “I am simply unable to do that, because I know from my own experience – of my own children and their friends, of the many law students that I work with – that children mature at wildly different rates and it is entirely possible for boys as young as 15 to have fully established facial hair.

“Given the very small margin of the dispute between the parties I was in the end unable to derive very much assistance from the applicant’s appearance.”

The asylum judge ruled that the Eritrean man was a child when he entered Britain and should have been treated by authorities as such.

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78-year-old former Tory minister and Brexit Party MEP Ann Widdecombe was found dead at her home in Haytor on Dartmoor on July 9th. According to authorities at the time the popular conservative suffered ‘serious injuries’ causing her brutal death. She was murdered on July 8th.

She had been due to appear via Zoom on a Channel 5 program that afternoon, but last made contact with the production team at 12:19 pm and failed to join the call.

The assassin from Rotherham drove his car to her home and rang the bell. When the elderly woman answered, the wicked leftist pushed his way into her home and bludgeoned her to death.

At first, local Devon and Cornwall Police alleged the murder was not politically motivated, but that call was obviously wrong.

Reform UK party, on their part, insisted that the attack may have been motivated by Widdecombe’s politics – a claim that was later vindicated.

Neighbors and sources have portrayed him as withdrawn and unremarkable in public life

Officials later announced that the death was being treated as terrorism.

Police found newspaper clippings about Nigel Farage and Reform UK (a right-wing populist party) in his home. This discovery contributed to counter-terrorism police becoming involved in the inquiry.

The UK’s Counter-terrorism police took control of the investigation into her death after ‘new information and evidence’ came to light.

On Monday, authorities arrested Joshua Kerry. The 28-year-old alleged assassin will appear at Westminster Magistrates’ Court Tuesday morning.

thegatewaypundit

Britain’s migrant crisis risks being pushed back to ‘elephant in the room’ status by the government once again as new left-wing Prime Minister Andy Burnham declined to mention the policy area once in his first speech.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham made a broad, if vague, speech on his governing priorities as he arrived at Downing Street to form his new government and commence governing on Monday afternoon, but some of the most important policy areas in the country went unspoken.

Andy Burnham cannot be allowed to make the ‘biggest changes in politics for 40 years’ without a mandate.

We need a general election now.

— Nigel Farage (@Nigel_Farage) July 20, 2026

The state seizing control of industries, homelessness, mental health support for young people, and welfare spending all got a namecheck on Monday but migration — persistently one of the top-performing policy areas in polling year after year — went without a single mention.

Pollster YouGov, which asks members of the public what areas of government policy matters most to them at least monthly, shows immigration has been the most important, or second most important, policy area over the past year, and consistently in the top three for the past 15 years. Border control is unfailingly a major factor at election time and features reliably in local, national, and referendum votes.

Although Burnham has vowed in the past that he won’t try to “out-Reform” Nigel Farage’s Reform UK Party in a bid to claw back working class votes, it is undeniable that the Labour movement has drifted in Farage’s direction in some policy areas, notably the nationalisation of strategic industries, and the reindustrialisation of Britain. The clear exception to this is on migration policy, where the divide may be widening.

Observing this total failure to mention the importance of dealing with Britain’s border crisis whatsoever, and the apparent return to the old legacy political approach of simply pretending mass migration isn’t happening, Reform UK spokesman Zia Yusuf said the omission shows Burnham is still pitching himself to his own “insane open borders backbench” Parliamentarians, not the wider country. He said: “Immigration is listed by many pollsters as the most important issue British voters are concerned about. Yet Andy Burnham did not mention it once in his first speech as PM.”

It isn’t as if Britain’s boat migrant crisis is no longer worth talking about. While the English Channel crossings started under the Conservatives, more illegals arrived on England’s southern border by boat under the leadership of now ex-Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer than under any other Prime Minister.

Beyond public perception, migration of all types, legal and illegal, are a major force remaking British society. As reported in 2025, racing mass migration drives 98 per cent of population growth: more people die than are born in the United Kingdom and there are fewer White British people in the United Kingdom now in the 1980s despite the overall population having leapt by millions.

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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz acknowledged on Sunday that Germany is suffering from “a crisis of confidence in democracy.”

His admission comes as 68% of Germans disapprove of the government and 70% are unhappy with his performance. Alternative for Germany (AfD) has meanwhile emerged as the country’s most popular party, consistently polling at around 27%.

Merz, however, presented the problem largely as one of political tone and shared responsibility. In his summer interview with public broadcaster ZDF, he said he had left the latest session of the German parliament concerned by the aggression shown by AfD, The Left and even the Greens. The session, he said, had not been “good advertising for democracy”.

In effect, this turns a crisis caused by political failure into one of parliamentary manners, while shifting much of the responsibility onto other parties.

Merz did not mention that 71% of Germans believe cooperation between his centre-right CDU/CSU alliance and the centre-left Social Democrats is poor. Nor did he mention that 81% believe the costs of the government’s reforms are being distributed unfairly, while 79% doubt its healthcare measures will solve the system’s financial problems.

Trust is not lost because MPs raise their voices about the problems facing their country. It is lost when governments promise one policy and deliver another, when reforms increase costs without improving public services, and when elections appear unable to change the country’s direction.

Merz himself provides a clear example. Before the 2025 election, he promised not to weaken Germany’s constitutional limit on government borrowing, known as the debt brake. Just weeks later, he pushed through a €500 billion fund and exempted much military spending from the borrowing rules. The chancellor has since admitted that the reversal seriously damaged his credibility.

Less than 24 hours after winning the election, Merz also acknowledged that he would not introduce the immigration measures he had promised during the campaign in an attempt to win back voters from AfD.

Then there is the refusal of Germany’s other parties to cooperate with AfD. Although the party now leads the polls, its rivals continue to form alliances primarily designed to keep it out of power. Millions of Germans can therefore vote for the country’s most popular party but rarely see it gain any meaningful influence over government.

Germany’s crisis did not begin with bad-tempered parliamentary debates. It is the accumulated result of economic stagnation, high energy prices, mass immigration, deteriorating public services and a political class that has spent years describing opposition to its policies as a threat to democracy.

Merz has identified the symptom. What he still refuses to acknowledge is that democracy will not regain its credibility through appeals for better manners. It will recover only when voters believe that their decisions can produce genuine political change.

Germany is far from the only European country facing that problem.

europeanconservative

A Sudanese migrant has been arrested in Toulouse after allegedly carrying out a series of sexual assaults against young women and minors on one of the city’s major bus lines over nearly three years.

The 54-year-old, who was already known to police, was detained on Thursday following an investigation into attacks reported between December 2023 and June 2026. He admitted the alleged offenses while in custody, according to La Dépêche.

Investigators say the suspect repeatedly targeted young women traveling alone between the Arènes metro station and Colomiers International High School.

French media reported how his method had stayed consistent as he sought to isolate the women before the assaults. He would sit beside a victim, press his body against her to restrict her movement, and then touch her thighs while concealing his actions from other passengers.

At least three women filed formal complaints, although warnings about the man had reportedly circulated among female students on social media for some time. Actu reported that one alleged victim was just 14 when she was assaulted, while the others were also young women.

Police identified the suspect by comparing the victims’ descriptions, reviewing public transportation surveillance footage, and conducting interviews. His repeated use of the same bus route and method ultimately helped investigators locate him.

During questioning, the man reportedly confessed to the assaults attributed to him.

Prosecutors have ordered a psychiatric examination to assess his mental condition. Should he be found to be suffering from mental illness, a court could rule that he is not criminally responsible for his actions. This regularly results in suspects avoiding prison in exchange for psychiatric confinement.

Depending on the expert’s findings, the suspect could face an expedited court hearing or be released from custody.

rmx

A historic pub has been branded misogynistic as American influencers complain of its “sickening” 200-year-old name.

The Henry VIII pub sits opposite Hever Castle, the childhood home of Anne Boleyn, and has stood proudly in the heart of the Kent village for five centuries.

After going viral on social media, Londoners looking to have their fill of English history now run rampant through the manicured castle grounds, seeking out the perfect Instagram spot outside the Big Smoke.

Tourists’ gaze will often fall upon the country pub opposite the attraction, whose name some visitors blame on the “patriarchy”.

Deirdre Rae, an American self-acclaimed life coach who moved to London, was one of the first to rage over the pub’s name.

“Imagine being Anne Boleyn and finding out people thought it was a good idea to open a pub dedicated to the man who beheaded you right in front of your childhood home,” she said.

“I’m just finding out about this and I’m sickened by the disrespect,” one said, while others cried out for a petition to change the “disrespectful as f**k” name. Some proposed the “Anne Bole Inn”.

“It’s how they’ve always treated women, nothing changes if nothing changes,” another added.

“It’s ridiculous to say our pub’s misogynistic,” one local told Britain’s News Channel.

“It’s history. That’s what it is. If influencers out here think they know better than us, they have another thing coming.”

But Ms Rae’s claim was met with some mocking responses as others lamented the “deeply-ingrained misogyny” pervading through British history.

“When you get the chance to ask her, let me know,” one ridiculed, while another mused that the beheaded Queen was unlikely to find out.

Others condemned her “simplistic analysis”, while insisting the story was far more complicated than at first glance.

“I don’t think the pub’s name is intended as misogynistic or offensive to Anne, who was executed in 1536,” royal historian Gareth Russell told the People’s Channel.

“I’m not sure renaming it as ‘The Anne Bole Inn’ has quite the sense of gravitas you might want for honouring a Queen of England…

“But that being said, I’ve always thought it was an odd choice to name the pub opposite her childhood home after the husband who signed her death warrant,” he added.

The Henry VIII was named as such as far back as 1848, although the site has long-served as a boozer for the locals and dates all the way back to the 1500s.

The second Queen Consort to Henry VIII was executed for treason in 1536 following a three-year reign alongside the King.

She spent her early youth in Hever Castle after her father inherited the estate in 1505. The King’s fourth wife, Anne of Cleves, eventually took over ownership of the property as part of the couple’s annulment settlement.

The pub at that time was renamed to the “Bull and Butcher”, a pun on “Boleyn Butcher”, following her beheading, when the inn was still a part of the castle’s estate.

However, with the site serving as a popular tourist attraction, Hever Castle has embraced the Tudor times, with an extensive annual programme including jousting tournaments and archery displays.

With three floors of the property on show, Anne Boleyn’s prayer books, along with an extensive collection of Tudor paintings, are available to view – as well as the instruments used to torture her in her final moments.

Mr Russell proposed a name change to The Boleyn Arms or the Ormond Arms, which is connected to the family’s old earldom.

“I don’t think it’s intended as an insult to anyone’s memory, but I have personally always thought it was a strange choice to name it after Henry, given where it’s situated,” the academic said.

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