The Bundeswehr Army Band in Berlin has expanded its repertoire to include Turkish sounds. Alongside traditional military music, the band now also performs oriental pieces featuring the baglama string instrument and the cajón box drum.
The instruments are intended to bring a different soundscape to Bundeswehr music. However, according to the musicians, the pieces are not suitable for marches, but rather for performances outside the traditional military context.
The two soldiers behind these new sounds are Staff Sergeant Ali Eba Balli and Senior Lance Corporal Jan-Ole Meyerdierks. Balli plays the baglama. Meyerdierks accompanies him on the cajón. The duo has already performed at venues including Berlin Cathedral. Turkish music often deals with love, nature, pain and joy, Balli explains to the newspaper Tagesspiegel. According to Balli, he was asked a few years ago by the head of the Army Band, Lieutenant Colonel Reinhard Kiauka, to play the baglama. The instrument had not previously been a regular feature of the band. Meyerdierks, meanwhile, spoke of a marked difference from classical military music. With these pieces, he said, something happens “in the here and now” that isn’t on the sheet music. This is “a completely different contrast to how military music is usually presented”.
In Madrid, a church has set up TV screens for visitors to come watch Spain’s World Cup before the tabernacle, which is shrouded with a red curtain. In Innsbruck Cathedral in Austria, people gather to eat pasta and socialize at a long table in front of another tabernacle, this one left exposed.
Meanwhile, a group of pilgrims traveling with a Priestly Fraternity of St. Peter (FSSP) priest were denied permission to offer the Latin Mass three times in three different cities in Italy. At San Giovanni Rotondo, they were forced to assist at Mass in a hotel basement. At Assisi, they learned that an Orthodox Divine Liturgy was taking place even as they were refused the ability to offer the TLM.
Catholic commentator Chris Jackson recently highlighted how these recent scenes are emblematic of what the postconciliar Church has become, revealing a larger pattern of exploiting instead of honoring the sacred. The full import of these events, however, is best understood through the eyes of Christ.
The first question we must ask is, what does all this mean for God? This is exactly the question that is being ignored in these abuses. The profane use of a consecrated Church, such as by using it as a banquet hall, is a grave sin: a sacrilege.
In fact, Catholic moral theology takes aim at the above-mentioned uses of churches as clear examples of sacrilege. Canon 1210 says only those things that serve worship, piety, or religion are permitted in a sacred place, and “anything not consonant with the holiness of the place is forbidden.” New Advent cites specific examples: “turning the church into a stable or a market,” or “using it as a banquet hall,” exactly what was done in Austria.
Such sacrileges betray either a lack of belief in the Real Presence of Christ there, a total lack of comprehension of His holiness, or a refusal to treat God as God, to honor His Presence with reverence and love. They further refuse to recognize His ownership over His Church.
The scene that helps us to understand how deeply offensive sacrilege of a church is to God is the cleansing of the Temple, when Christ overturned the tables of money changers and drove them out with a whip in His righteous anger. Their sin, first and foremost, was that they violated the sacredness of God’s temple. As in the case of other profane uses of a church, the sin is basically the rough equivalent of turning one’s back on God.
How much more offensive is the sacrilege of a Catholic church, where Christ is truly present in the Blessed Sacrament! I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that Christ would be smashing televisions in the Church of San Antón in Madrid.
As these sacrileges take place — in many more Catholic churches than the two mentioned above — Catholics are denied the right to offer the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass in its traditional form on a local level, with the sanction of the highest (apparent) authority in the Church. This is the flipside of the sacrilege. As priests turn their backs on God by relegating their churches for profane use, they forbid the Mass that honors God with profound reverence and loving care, far more than the Novus Ordo.
At least just as much as sacrilege, such attempts to banish, snuff out, and exclude the traditional Latin Mass call upon the wrath of God. This was explicitly and authoritatively declared in St. Pius V’s bull Quo Primum, which declared that the Tridentine Mass is to be “freely and lawfully” used without “fear of incurring any penalty, judgement, or censure,” and that no priest is “obliged” to celebrate any other Mass. It stated that anyone who presumes to alter Quo Primum, of which forbidding the Latin Mass is the equivalent, “will incur the wrath of Almighty God.”
Taken altogether, the profane uses of churches and bans on the Latin Mass show an aversion to the sacred, to honoring God with serious reverence. How could clergy act so contrary to the mission of the Church and God Himself?
Clergy act with such aversion either because they have sinister intentions and are wolves in sheep’s clothing; or because having drifted from God, their consciences are burdened, and they are therefore uncomfortable with deep expressions of reverence, because such gestures reflect God’s greatness like a shadow. They cannot bear this because it stings their conscience.
By contrast, the Novus Ordo Mass obscures the holiness of God and allows people to treat God as a vague figment of their imagination to their own liking.
Besides offending God, forbidding the Latin Mass in any circumstance does a huge disservice to Catholics. It deprives them of a sense of who God is by failing to do justice to His greatness and His perfect purity. This even takes away from the meaning of His love and mercy. If we don’t have a sense of God’s great holiness and our own lowliness, how can we truly appreciate His mercy? And, therefore, the greatness of His love?
As Jackson suggests, indeed, a casual approach to God and discomfort with proper manifestations of the sacred are characteristic of the post-Vatican II, conciliar Church. The banishment of the traditional Mass to the “catacombs” is the logical conclusion of this attitude.
Who and what drives an aversion to the sacred? I don’t need to spell it out for you.
A 29-year-old Afghan man is now under arrest for murdering his mother-in-law, a 60-year-old Afghan woman in the German city of Elsenfeld.
On Sunday evening, a major emergency operation was triggered near the Elsenfeld train station in the Miltenberg district after bystanders discovered an unconscious woman who suffered multiple stab wounds between the station and Bahnhofstrasse around 6:00 p.m.
The witnesses immediately notified emergency services and law enforcement. Medical personnel transported the 60-year-old victim to a nearby hospital, but she succumbed to her injuries shortly after arrival.
On June 15, it was announced that a 27-year-old Afghan man walked into the Obernburg police station and surrendered to police. He was taken into custody without any resistance and spent the night in prison. Police determined he entered the country in 2016 and his mother-in-law arrived in 2015, according to German news outlet InFranken.de.
Following an inquiry, the Aschaffenburg public prosecutor’s office confirmed that the murder weapon, a knife, has been recovered. The suspect is scheduled to appear before a prison judge for a screening on Monday at 2 p.m.
The Aschaffenburg criminal police and the public prosecutor’s office have assumed control of the local investigation, which has so far involved gathering forensic evidence and questioning initial witnesses. So far, a motive behind the murder remains unclear.
In response to the tragedy, Tobias Bozem, the press spokesman for the Lower Franconia police, addressed local anxieties regarding public safety. He noted, “The recent events in Elsenfeld and the district of Miltenberg can of course affect the citizens’ sense of security. We take this very seriously.”
When questioned about an apparent rise in violent incidents across the Miltenberg district, such as a recent machete assault on a young man in Mömlingen and another knife attack near the Elsenfeld station, Bozem emphasized that current evidence shows no link between the crimes. He explained, “In most cases, there were also indications of existing identification or a relationship between the people involved. The background of the individual acts is the subject of the ongoing investigations and will be examined separately in each case.”
Council leaders are considering plans that could see thousands of small boat migrants housed alongside social housing tenants.
Around 10,000 asylum seekers are expected to move into residential properties across London, the South East and Wales under the proposals, with some developments set to be shared between migrants and local authority tenants.
The plans emerged during a Home Affairs Select Committee hearing, where Clearspring Ready Homes, one of the Government’s largest asylum accommodation providers, confirmed it is in talks with two councils over mixed-use housing schemes.
The company said the sites had originally been earmarked for social housing but were considered too large to be used solely for that purpose.
Under the proposals, the developments would be split between asylum seekers and so-called “move-on” accommodation for migrants who have been granted permission to remain in the UK.
Chris Lakey, chief executive of Clearspring Ready Homes, told MPs the firm’s priority was moving asylum seekers out of hotels and into dispersal accommodation.
“Our main thrust has always been to come away from hotels and to try to get back to our core business, which, as you quite rightly identified, is dispersal accommodation,” he said.
Mr Lakey revealed the company had submitted proposals for 10,000 additional bed spaces to the Home Office, with around half already prepared for use.
“They are proposed, ready to go, and waiting to be turned live,” he said.
Discussing the mixed-use developments, he added: “We are working with two local authorities at the moment that have sites that they are hoping to use for social housing, but they are too big for that.”
Around 2,500 asylum seekers are expected to move into new properties in the coming weeks.
More than 68,700 asylum seekers are already living in dispersal accommodation across Britain, including houses, flats, bedsits and houses in multiple occupation.
The committee also heard concerns over the cost of the accommodation.
At the Crowborough site, housing around 350 asylum seekers costs £160 per person per night – £16 more than the average hotel room.
Home Office minister Alex Norris said those costs were expected to fall to around £135 per night by the end of the year, making the site cheaper than hotel accommodation.
“The commitment we have made and our belief is that these types of sites should tread as lightly as possible on the local community’s lives,” Mr Norris told MPs.
He added that the expansion of dispersal accommodation would help reduce reliance on hotels.
Labour leadership hopeful Andy Burnham criticised what he described as “HMO Britain”, arguing the Home Office needed to rethink how it procured asylum accommodation.
“I heard on so many doorsteps people’s concerns about the unfairness of the immigration system, that cut price approach to procurement that means areas like this can end up like HMO Britain,” he said.
Labour MP Chris Murray also questioned why billions of pounds were being paid to private contractors rather than councils and housing associations.
“Why would we give that £15 billion to a private company and not a council or a housing association if they were able to provide that?” he asked.
Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has pledged to end the use of migrant hotels before the next election.
A spokesman for the Home Office said: “We do not recognise these figures. We are closing every asylum hotel and moving asylum seekers into basic accommodation including ex-military sites.
“This is an important step in ending the perception you can arrive in the UK illegally and be put up in a hotel.
“We have already seen results. The population of asylum seekers in hotels has fallen by 35 per cent in the last year and by 63 per cent from the peak under the previous Government.
“Overall asylum costs have already fallen by nearly £1billion since this Government was elected.”
The Netherlands is spending millions of euros each year on a rapidly expanding network of Islamic schools, even as concerns grow over integration, foreign influence, and the emergence of a new religious pillar within Dutch society.
More than 20,000 pupils were attending Islamic primary schools in the Netherlands at the beginning of 2025, with the number continuing to rise, according to NieuwRechts.
Between 2009 and 2019, enrolment in Islamic primary schools increased by 60%. In the following five years, it rose by a further 23%. Nine new Islamic primary schools are expected to open in 2026, bringing the total to more than 100 nationwide. Islamic secondary schools are also expanding rapidly.
The growth has been helped by reforms that lowered the threshold for establishing new schools. Introduced in the name of educational diversity, the changes have made it easier for faith-based institutions to secure public funding.
As a result, Dutch taxpayers now spend vast sums on Islamic education. NieuwRechts cites figures showing that, with roughly 20,700 pupils enrolled and average funding exceeding €7,000 per child, public support for Islamic primary schools alone amounts to nearly €145 million a year.
Alongside the formal school system, there has also been a significant increase in evening and weekend schools that operate largely outside the supervision of education inspectors. Their stated aim is often to strengthen Islamic identity among young people, with religious instruction at the centre of the curriculum.
Concerns about these institutions have grown in recent years. Dutch intelligence and security services have warned that foreign governments, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, have sought influence through funding for mosques, Islamic schools, and informal educational programmes. Those concerns helped prompt legislation aimed at restricting foreign influence in religious institutions, although the Dutch Senate ultimately rejected the proposal.
Critics also point to the role of the Muslim Brotherhood, which has long advocated the gradual Islamisation of society and the establishment of states governed by Sharia law. They argue that publicly funded Islamic institutions can, even unintentionally, provide an environment in which such ideas gain influence.
Supporters of Islamic schools argue that parents should be free to choose an education that reflects their beliefs. Yet that raises a difficult question for a secular state: should taxpayers be required to fund schools whose primary purpose is to strengthen a separate religious identity?
As the number of Islamic schools continues to grow, that question is likely to become increasingly difficult for Dutch politicians to avoid.
When the cameras aren’t rolling German police officers, on the front line of the migrant crisis, give their unvarnished account of the state of the nation, finding “the Germany we know is disappearing”.
A German investigative journalist has urged her fellow countrymen to “listen to police officers” and their experiences and “act accordingly”. German broadsheet newspaper Die Weltreports the words of Liv von Boetticher who said she had spoken to police officers across Germany, “from all departments, of all ages, and from all federal states”.
The journalist said she was prompted to come forwards with what she’d learnt after noticing speaking to her officers told a very different and unvarnished account of Germany after official interviews had finished and the cameras stopped rolling. Having given the official line their jobs may depend on to be taped, afterward they related what she called “stories of fear and anger, violence, loss of control, and failed migration policies, and the feeling among law enforcement officers of often being abandoned by politics and society.”
Sometimes being able to spin the truth of how Germany is now is a struggle for even specialist police officers, she said, adding: “I have repeatedly witnessed press officers struggling to find the right words to make absurd situations acceptable and bearable in front of the camera.”
Von Boetticher reflected to Welt that the “pretty much unanimous opinion was: It’s getting worse and worse” and had been told by one police officer that “the Germany we know is disappearing”. Others said that “in Germany it is open season for robbery and rape” and she was told “Even the most serious crimes often have surprisingly few consequences. Far too often, perpetrators more or less get away with it.”
Of her experience of talking to Berlin cops, Von Boetticher noted that city was a “hotspot”, in a level of trouble beyond the rest of the country. She said: “Some police officers have even told me, quite literally, “We’ve already lost this country” or “This country is finished.” At the same time, I want to emphasize that this is a process taking place, and there’s still a theoretical chance of turning things around. But that would have to happen quickly.”
The despairing attitude of German police officers comes despite a decade-long effort to purge Germany’s police forces of mass migration-critical officers and supporters of populist-right border control party the Alternative for Germany (AFD). That push to get conservatives out of the police continues today, with the country’s senior policeman saying in 2025 that supporting AFD is “incompatible” with being a police officer and German states seeking to ban AfD party members from taking government jobs at all.
Judge José Luis Calama took a step this Thursday that many had been expecting, albeit not so quickly. Just one day after José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero left the National Court without precautionary measures—though without managing to dispel the evidence against him—the judge in the Plus Ultra case expanded the investigation.
Alba and Laura Rodríguez Espinosa, daughters of the former president, and Gertrudis Alcázar, his secretary for decades, now become suspects.
The decision didn’t come out of nowhere. The Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office had requested on Tuesday that the judge take statements from the three women. In his ruling, Calama refers to the evidence gathered on May 18, when he authorized the search of Whathefav, the communications company of which Alba and Laura are listed as joint administrators.
According to the magistrate, that company would have played an instrumental role within the investigated network, which places its legal representatives in the circle indicated by the case.
The judge himself clarifies that there is still no solid evidence against the Rodríguez sisters. But he emphasizes that there is sufficient reasonable suspicion of criminal activity to warrant not summoning them as mere witnesses—a status that would compel them to testify under penalty of perjury. Summoning them as suspects, he explains, protects their right not to testify against themselves.
The focus on Gertrudis Alcázar is different. The secretary worked from Zapatero’s office at number 35 Ferraz Street, a few meters from the PSOE headquarters. The judge attributes to her an operational role in the scheme’s document management, coordinating paperwork that, according to the investigation, served to give a formal appearance to payments whose true origin is now of interest to the National Court.
The Plus Ultra case began in 2021, when the PP, Vox and the Manos Limpias union denounced the 53 million euro bailout that the Pedro Sánchez government granted, through SEPI, to a virtually unknown airline, justified at the time by its routes to Latin America.
The case was shelved in 2023 due to a lack of evidence. It was revived in 2024 when France and Switzerland requested judicial cooperation regarding alleged money laundering of Venezuelan funds linked to the rescue operation.
Since then, the case has accumulated increasingly troubling details. A search of Zapatero’s office uncovered a safe containing jewelry that his associates initially valued at between 30,000 and 50,000 euros, until a court-ordered appraisal placed its value at 1.3 million euros. Businessman Julio Martínez Martínez, a personal friend of the former president, appears as the beneficiary of a commission equivalent to one percent of the ransom—approximately 530,000 euros—channeled through a company based in Dubai.
Never before has a former Spanish Prime Minister been formally investigated for corruption and influence peddling. While the PSOE closes ranks around its historical figure, the PP and Vox insist that the case confirms the allegations they filed in 2021. Even Gabriel Rufián, spokesperson for ERC, admitted that he may have been wrong to defend Zapatero out of affection, before knowing the contents of the court order.
What happened this week confirms something that the conservative Hispanic American voter has been pointing out for years: when power is exercised without controls or transparency, it ends up dragging down the family, the collaborators and the entire institutions.
The progressive movement that managed that multi-million euro bailout without convincing explanations is now seeing the daughters and secretary of the man who governed Spain summoned to testify by the courts. The left, which sold the public aid as social generosity, now faces the most uncomfortable question: who really benefited from that money?
Defending the law, the family, and individual responsibility against institutional cronyism is not an ideological choice: it is the only guarantee that taxpayers’ money will not end up funding opaque networks disguised as pandemic solidarity.
A mother has described her anguish after her 5-year-old daughter was raped by a 62-year-old Chechen immigrant in the parking lot of a social housing hotel in Limay, west of Paris. The man was found naked with an erect penis when the mother approached. Reports indicate that the young girl was the victim of penetrative sex.
“I’m doing very badly; I’m suffering from what happened,” said Fatoumata, the 28-year-old mother of the young victim. “My heart aches so much, you have no idea. All I want is to leave here. I don’t want to talk about this anymore. I don’t want to walk past that parking lot; I don’t want to hear about any of this anymore.”
The child has barely left the family’s hotel room since the alleged attack on Monday, relatives said, with the room now serving as a refuge from the outside world.
According to the family’s account, Fatoumata found her daughter sitting on the suspect’s lap inside a parked car. She said she struck the man to make him release the child after discovering him with an erection.
The suspect was known to families living at the hotel and had not previously raised concerns among residents.
“He was well-liked because he often accompanied families and children. He had never behaved strangely or inappropriately, with no prior record,” one witness who had known him for years told Le Parisien. “When we learned what happened on Sunday, we were horrified.”
The family had returned from a barbecue in Mantes-la-Jolie when the girl went downstairs while her mother was preparing dinner.
“While her mother was in the kitchen, Léa went downstairs to join this man who was offering pieces of watermelon. She wasn’t suspicious at all because she knew him,” said Fanta, the child’s aunt.
Fatoumata said the alleged rape has transformed her daughter’s personality.
“Since what happened, my daughter no longer smiles; she’s no longer joyful. Before, she laughed all the time; she’s lost her zest for life,” she said.
She added that the ordeal had revived memories of her own trauma.
“I myself am not doing well. My birthday is this Thursday; I won’t celebrate it. All of this reminds me of the rape I suffered in Libya, when I was trying to reach France.”
Despite the family’s horror, Fanta said they felt the French authorities had treated them seriously.
“It’s very difficult to go through all this. But still, we feel so much safer in France,” she said. “The police believed us; the officers took us seriously. They chased the rapist like they would have for anyone else.”
Remix News reported on the attack on Tuesday, noting the suspect was a Russian national of Chechen origin, and had been arrested after fleeing the scene. His vehicle was intercepted on the A13 motorway in the early hours of Monday.
The child was able to identify the suspect from a photograph, helping authorities to track his vehicle and detain him as he fled back toward Paris.
An investigation into the alleged rape of a minor remains ongoing.
The AfD politician Michael Meister’s bandaged left arm and blood-stained T-shirt: he was brutally attacked outside his home. Photos: private.
Alternative für Deutschland’s (AfD) Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state parliament member Michael Meister was brutally attacked outside his private residence in Rostock on Wednesday night, in what is being investigated as a politically motivated assault by suspected left-wing extremists.
Meister said he first felt “pressure in his back” and believes one of the attackers attempted to stab him from behind. The blow was reportedly stopped by a laptop inside his backpack. The AfD politician nevertheless sustained several injuries during the attack, including a “cut to his left arm,” a kick to his leg, and “at least one punch to the face.”
Following the incident, Meister was taken to an outpatient clinic. A spokeswoman for the Rostock police confirmed that he was able to leave the facility the same day.
The incident comes amid growing concerns about political violence in Germany, particularly violence directed against members of the AfD. According to German government data from May, violent attacks against politicians increased by 28% in 2025. Of the 183 recorded violent crimes targeting politicians, 121 were directed at AfD representatives, making the party by far the most frequent target.
For AfD members, the hostility extends beyond physical attacks. Critics point to growing efforts to marginalize people associated with the party in public life.
One recent example involved veteran bookseller and publisher Michael Genniges, who received the Silver Medal of Honour from the Upper Franconia local government but calls later emerged to revoke the honour after the far-left organisation Alliance Against Right-Wing Extremism launched a campaign against him–because of his AfD membership.
For Meister, Wednesday night’s assault was not an isolated incident. In December 2021, the 51-year-old politician was attacked from behind by two individuals who allegedly shouted insults including “You AfD Nazi pig.” A year later, in November 2022, unknown perpetrators slashed the tires of the state parliament member’s vehicle. It was reportedly the third such attack on his car within a 13-month period.
The attack also comes as authorities report a significant increase in left-wing extremist violence in Germany’s capital. According to preliminary figures from the Berlin Senate, left-wing violent crimes in Berlin rose from 123 incidents in 2024 to 220 in 2025, representing a dramatic increase within a single year.
One of the most notorious incidents occurred when the left-wing extremist ‘Volcano Group’ claimed responsibility for an attack on electrical infrastructure in south-west Berlin. A fire set near a local power plant damaged high-voltage cables and cut power to approximately 45,000 households and 2,200 businesses during freezing winter weather conditions. The blackout affected large parts of the city and raised concerns about the increasingly radical tactics being employed by extremist groups.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has been confronted by several European Union leaders over his Government’s mass regularisation of undocumented immigrants, after he used a closed-door summit to attack the bloc’s newly approved deportation centres.
Between three and four heads of state and government took the floor to challenge him during the first session of the European Council in Brussels on June 18. The exchange came a day after the European Parliament had backed the EU’s toughest immigration overhaul in decades.
Among the critics were Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever, both right-wing, as well as Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen, a Social Democrat, the sources said. Their complaint was that Madrid had pressed ahead with a regularisation of that scale without consulting other member states.
One leader reportedly warned Sánchez that granting papers to at least 500,000 people in Spain meant the same number of additional immigrants free to move around Europe. He said he would have expected to be informed before such a step was taken.
The clash followed an address to leaders by European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, whose institution had on June 17 approved the Return Regulation by 418 votes to 218. The law allows member states to set up so-called return hubs, or deportation centres, in countries outside the bloc.
Sánchez has openly opposed that approach, which runs counter to the migration policy of his left-wing Government. Madrid defends an open Europe in which migration drives economic growth, and insists it applies the EU’s Pact on Migration and Asylum in full.
In late January the Spanish Government approved a decree to regularise around 500,000 undocumented immigrants, a measure sharply at odds with the harder line taken across much of the continent.
The Commission has warned for months that newly legalised immigrants could move on to other countries through the Schengen area. EU Migration Commissioner Magnus Brunner told the European Parliament in February that a residence permit “is not a blank cheque” for free movement across the Union.
Sánchez argued that many of those covered by the scheme are of Latin American origin with linguistic ties to Spain, so few would be likely to settle elsewhere in Europe.
