Germany hits back at Marco Rubio after he panned labeling of AfD as ‘extremist’

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Far-right German party was labeled a ‘confirmed rightwing extremist group’ by country’s domestic intelligence service

Germany’s foreign ministry has hit back at the US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, following his criticism of Germany’s decision to label the far-right Alternative für Deutschland party as a “confirmed rightwing extremist group”.

On Thursday, Rubio took to X and wrote: “Germany just gave its spy agency new powers to surveil the opposition. That’s not democracy – it’s tyranny in disguise. What is truly extremist is not the popular AfD – which took second in the recent election – but rather the establishment’s deadly open border immigration policies that the AfD opposes.”

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Woman dies when bomb she was carrying explodes in Greek city of Thessaloniki, police say – PBS

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  1. Woman dies when bomb she was carrying explodes in Greek city of Thessaloniki, police say  PBS
  2. Woman killed in Greece after bomb explodes in her hands  CNN
  3. 38-Year-Old Woman Killed in Popular Tourist Destination After Bomb She Was Carrying Detonated in Her Hands  People.com
  4. Blast kills a woman in Greek city of Thessaloniki  Reuters
  5. Woman carrying bomb killed after it explodes before she could place it outside bank, police say  CBS News
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MP calls for trials of lifting drinking ban in English football stands

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Labour’s Luke Charters says allowing alcohol in the top five tiers of the men’s game would be the ‘modern approach’

A Labour MP has called for trials to assess the impact of lifting a decades-long ban on drinking alcohol in football stands.

York Outer MP Luke Charters said football needs to take a “modern approach” to the issue in a debate on the football governance bill earlier this week.

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Buckingham Palace Responds to Prince Harry’s BBC Interview Amid His Court Loss – instyle.com

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  1. Buckingham Palace Responds to Prince Harry's BBC Interview Amid His Court Loss  instyle.com
  2. Prince Harry tells BBC he wants 'reconciliation' with Royal Family  BBC
  3. Prince Harry says he wants ‘reconciliation,’ but Charles won’t talk to him  The Washington Post
  4. Prince Harry Says King Charles ‘Won’t Speak to Me’ in BBC Interview  New York Magazine
  5. ‘It’s not that the King won’t talk to Prince Harry — he can’t’  The Times
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‘What is left of our democracy?’: freed Palestinian human rights advocate warns of US authoritarian rule

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Mohsen Mahdawi, student detained by Ice last month, pens blistering attack on Trump’s deportation policies

Mohsen Mahdawi, the Palestinian green-card holder and Columbia University student freed on Wednesday after more than two weeks in immigration detention, has issued a stark warning about the US’s descent into authoritarianism.

“Once the repression of dissent, in the name of security, becomes a key objective of a government, authoritarian rule and even martial law are not far off. When they look at my case, all Americans should ask themselves: what is left of our democracy, and who will be targeted next?” said Mahddawi in an op-ed for the New York Times.

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Now Farage not Starmer is feeding public’s appetite for change

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The Reform UK leader has somehow dodged responsibility for the economic damage of Brexit and is winning over disaffected Labour voters

There was a time when any election campaign featuring the name Nigel Farage would have featured the word “Brexit” just as prominently.

And yet, almost a decade after Farage orchestrated Britain’s great EU schism, and with the Reform leader emerging as a bigger political threat than ever, at this week’s local elections Brexit was not a word on the lips of voters.

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Mother of autistic boy left with £10,000 debt after breaching DWP rules by £1.92 a week

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Over five-year period Oksana Shahar – who cares for her son – was paid a small amount more than carer’s allowance earnings limits allow

It was three weeks after Christmas when the bombshell letter arrived. Guy Shahar and his wife, Oksana, looked at each other in stunned disbelief.

They had followed the Guardian’s investigation into the carer’s allowance scandal that has left thousands of families with crippling debts and criminal records. Not once did they think they would join them.

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Hamas releases new video of hostage Maxim Herkin after 575 days in captivity – Ynetnews

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  1. Hamas releases new video of hostage Maxim Herkin after 575 days in captivity  Ynetnews
  2. Hamas publishes 2nd propaganda video of hostage Maxim Herkin  The Times of Israel
  3. Hamas armed wing releases video of apparently injured Israeli hostage  Yahoo
  4. Hamas Releases Second Video of Hostage Maxim Herkin From Gaza Captivity  Haaretz
  5. In New Video, Injured Israeli Captive Pleads for Rescue, Condemns Netanyahu  Palestine Chronicle
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Labour targets international students claiming asylum after losses to Reform in local elections

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Exclusive: Ministers understood to be drafting white paper this month in move to reduce legal migration

Ministers will crack down on international students applying for asylum in the UK in a move designed to tackle migration figures, after a series of bruising losses to Reform in the local elections.

An immigration white paper setting out the proposed reforms in mid-May will include measures to bring down the numbers of UK student visa holders who make asylum claims, the Guardian understands.

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Hikers Stumble Upon a Pile of Gold Coins, Igniting a Historical Hunt – The New York Times

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  1. Hikers Stumble Upon a Pile of Gold Coins, Igniting a Historical Hunt  The New York Times
  2. Hikers Make Stunning Discovery of $340,000 Gold Hoard in Czech Mountains  Artnet News
  3. Hikers Find Treasure Worth Rs 2.87 Crore, Possibly Buried By Nazis  NDTV
  4. Gold Coins Worth $341,000 Found Hidden in an Overgrown Field During a Rural Hike  People.com
  5. Hikers Stumble Upon Gold Coins and Treasures That Could Be Worth $340,000  Smithsonian Magazine
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Australian election: Anthony Albanese claims a piece of history as scale of Labor victory stuns raucous crowd | Josh Butler

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The Australian prime minister is the first to be re-elected since John Howard – and becomes one of Labor’s biggest heroes

It might have been the surprise packet of the night, but Labor picked up as early as January that it had a sniff in Dickson.

Early in the evening – hours before Anthony Albanese raised workers’ rights, housing, gender equality, childcare, the NDIS and Indigenous reconciliation as the priorities of his second-term Labor government – the hundreds-strong crowd at his election night party grew round-eyed as results from Dickson started pouring in on the television screens.

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Treasury threatens Defra with £4bn bill if Thames Water nationalised

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Exclusive: Treasury threat an example of ‘scare tactics’ to help force through private sector deal, sources suggest

Whitehall officials have been at loggerheads over the fate of Thames Water since the Treasury told the environment department that it would have to meet the cost of a multibillion pound temporary nationalisation.

Britain’s biggest water company recently came within days of running out of money. Thames is in a desperate race to find a buyer willing to inject cash, with the US private equity firm KKR in pole position.

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Scientific societies to do climate assessment after Trump administration dismissed authors

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Two groups join forces for peer-reviewed research after key contributors on Congress-mandated report dismissed

Two major US scientific societies have announced they will join forces to produce peer-reviewed research on the climate crisis’s impact days after Donald Trump’s administration dismissed contributors to a key Congress-mandated report on climate crisis preparedness.

On Friday, the American Meteorological Society (AMS) and the American Geophysical Union (AGU) said that they will work together to produce over 29 peer-reviewed journals that will cover all aspects of climate change including observations, projections, impacts, risks and solutions.

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