EU Commissioner for Democracy: serious concerns about rule of law situation in Hungary
Referring to a Hungarian draft law that would ban the Pride march by LGBTQ+ communities, McGrath said: "We believe it is a breach of EU law... And we have asked the Hungarian government to withdraw that draft law. And in the absence of that happening, and should they proceed to legislate and enact this legislation, we stand ready to use the tools at our disposal."
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Daily Mail
25 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
France to PAUSE all evacuations of Palestinian asylum seekers from Gaza pending outcome of anti-semitism investigation
France has paused its programme to receive Palestinians fleeing conflict-torn Gaza. The suspension is pending the outcome of an investigation into how a student accused of sharing antisemitic posts was allowed into the country, the French foreign minister said on Friday. The move comes after officials said the female student from Gaza will have to leave France after the Sciences Po university in the northern city of Lille revoked her accreditation over the online posts. 'No evacuation of any kind will take place until we have drawn conclusions from this investigation,' Jean-Noel Barrot told French radio. All Gazans who have entered France through the scheme will undergo a second screening, he added. France has helped more than 500 people leave Gaza since the latest war, which was triggered by the October 7, 2023 attacks. Sciences Po Lille said that after consultations with the education ministry and regional authorities, it 'has decided to cancel this student's planned registration at our establishment'. Following the recommendation by French diplomats, the woman initially lived at the home of the university's director while she waited for permanent lodgings, Sciences Po said. A French diplomatic source said the student arrived in France on July 11 on a scholarship based on 'academic excellence' and after 'security checks'. Lille's general prosecutor said on Thursday that a judicial probe has been opened against the student for allegedly trying to "justify terrorism" and "justify a crime against humanity". Screenshots of posts the student allegedly shared in September - published by pro-Israel accounts on X - include an image of Adolf Hitler and words appearing to call for the death of Jews. The account attributed to the student has been taken offline after French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau demanded it be closed down, describing the post as 'unacceptable and concerning'. 'Hamas propagandists have no place in our country,' he wrote on X. Mr Barrot confirmed that Palestinians already in France through this scheme will be 'subject to a new check' after 'failures that brought this young woman here'. 'A Gazan student making antisemitic remarks has no place in France,' said Mr Barrot, who added that he had ordered an internal inquiry. 'The screening carried out by the relevant departments of the ministries concerned clearly did not work,' he added in a post on X. The woman had been offered a place at the Sciences Po Lille university as part of the programme run by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, the director of the university told French newspaper Libération.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Far-right extremists using games platforms to radicalise teenagers, report warns
Far-right extremists are using livestream gaming platforms to target and radicalise teenage players, a report has warned. The new research, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, reveals how a range of extremist groups and individuals use platforms that allow users to chat and livestream while playing video games to recruit and radicalise vulnerable users, mainly young males. UK crime and counter-terror agencies have urged parents to be especially alert to online offenders targeting youngsters during the summer holidays. In an unprecedented move, last week Counter Terrorism Policing, MI5 and the National Crime Agency issued a joint warning to parents and carers that online offenders 'will exploit the school holidays to engage in criminal acts with young people when they know less support is readily available'. Dr William Allchorn, a senior research fellow at Anglia Ruskin University's international policing and public protection research institute, who carried out the study with his colleague Dr Elisa Orofino, said 'gaming-adjacent' platforms were being used as 'digital playgrounds' for extremist activity. Allchorn found teenage players were being deliberately 'funnelled' by extremists from mainstream social media platforms to these sites, where 'the nature and quantity of the content makes these platforms very hard to police'. The most common ideology being pushed by extremist users was far right, with content celebrating extreme violence and school shootings also shared. On Tuesday, Felix Winter, who threatened to carry out a mass shooting at his Edinburgh school, was jailed for six years after the court heard the 18-year-old had been 'radicalised' online, spending more than 1,000 hours in contact with a pro-Nazi Discord group. Allchorn said: 'There has definitely been a more coordinated effort by far-right groups like Patriotic Alternative to recruit young people through gaming events that first emerged during lockdown. But since then a lot of extremist groups have been deplatformed by mainstream spaces, so individuals will now lurk on public groups or channels on Facebook or Discord, for example, and use this as a way of identifying someone who might be sympathetic to reach out to.' He added that, while some younger users turn to extreme content for its shock value among their peers, this can make them vulnerable to being targeted. Extremists have been forced to become more sophisticated as the majority of platforms have banned them, Allchorn said. 'Speaking to local community safety teams, they told us that approaches are now about trying to create a rapport rather than making a direct ideological sell.' The study also spoke to moderators, who described their frustration at inconsistent enforcement policies on their platforms and the burden of deciding whether content or users should be reported to law enforcement agencies. While in-game chat is unmoderated, moderators said they were still overwhelmed by the volume and complexity of harmful content, including the use of hidden symbols to circumvent banned words that would be picked up by automated moderation tools, for example, a string of symbols stitched together to represent a swastika. Allchorn highlighted the need for critical digital literacy for parents as well as law enforcement so they could better understand how these platforms and subcultures operate. Last October Ken McCallum, the head of MI5, revealed that '13% of all those being investigated by MI5 for involvement in UK terrorism are under 18', a threefold increase in three years. AI tools are being used to assist with moderation, but they struggle to interpret memes or when language is ambiguous or sarcastic.
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Deal or no deal? World leaders walk tightrope in tariff negotiations with Trump
It was grip-and-grin time for Ursula von der Leyen as she sat across from Donald Trump in Scotland last week, with the two announcing a deal for 15% tariffs on European imports that would avert a transatlantic trade war – but came at a stiff price for the 27-country bloc. After committing to a unilateral US raise on tariffs that came on the heels of a Nato commitment to increase defense spending to 5% of national GDPs, von der Leyen then thanked Trump 'for his personal commitment and his leadership to achieve this breakthrough'. 'He is a tough negotiator, but he is also a dealmaker,' she said, as the US president beamed. The EU was one of just a number of parties to strike a deal with Trump before his temporary pause on new tariffs came to an end this week. And like many others, the guiding principle for the EU appeared to be: it can always get worse. 'This is clearly the best deal we could get under very difficult circumstances,' Maroš Šefčovič, the EU trade chief, said. Others had a far bleaker interpretation of the dynamics, as Trump has wielded the threat of sky-high tariffs to cudgel his trading partners into submission. 'It is a dark day when an alliance of free peoples, brought together to affirm their common values and to defend their common interests, resigns itself to submission,' wrote the French prime minister, François Bayrou. Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán put it another way: 'It was Donald Trump eating Ursula von der Leyen for breakfast,' he said on his podcast. Later, he called her a 'featherweight'. World leaders have been forced to adopt a position of appeasement and pragmatism as they've approached the Trump administration, which has swung between imposing staggering tariffs on imports and then announcing last minute pauses and exclusions that suggest there is little rhyme or reason to the White House's tariff strategy. But the key factor for Trump appears to be taking whatever he can get. Countries across Asia exporting to the US were quickest to begin negotiating new trade deals with the White House. Vietnam was desperate to cut a 46% tariff imposed on the country, and Trump early last month announced that he had negotiated a 20% rate with Vietnamese negotiators. Except, it turned out, they believed that they had negotiated an 11% rate, Politico reported. And treasury secretary Scott Bessent this week admitted that he had never seen the deal, which the Vietnamese authorities have never confirmed. Trump reportedly used the trade threats along with other incentives in order to broker a recent peace between Thailand and Cambodia after fighting broke out along the border between the two countries. He soon announced a 19% rate – a significant cut from 49% for Cambodia and 36% for Thailand – which appeared more motivated by international politics than trade considerations. But while many countries in the region will breathe a sigh of relief as they avert sky-high tariffs, some see a new danger in the arbitrary redrawing of the US's trade relationship with the world. 'What we felt during this negotiation is that the US trade environment is fundamentally changing,' South Korean trade minister Yeo Han-koo said shortly after a deal was made to tariff imports at 15%, down from a threatened 25%. The two sides had made a verbally agreement but had not made a formal draft, he said, because the deal had to be struck so quickly. 'I think we are entering a new normal era,' he said. 'So, although we have overcome this crisis, we cannot be relieved, because we do not know when we will face pressure from tariffs or non-tariff measures again.' Leaders who have stood up to Trump are having the hardest time. Among others, Trump has focused his ire on Canada, which he has blamed for the fentanyl crisis in the US, a charge that Canada's prime minister Mark Carney has rejected. Trump on Friday announced that he would raise tariffs on Canada, a top trading partner, to 35%, as tough negotiations between the two sides continued. Carney, who had coined the elections slogan 'Elbows up, Canada' as a signal of defiance against Trump's tariff and annexation threats, said he was 'disappointed'. 'While we will continue to negotiate with the United States on our trading relationship, the Canadian government is laser focused on what we can control: building Canada strong,' Carney said.
