❗️Latest details on the arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov

🔸Durov will be able to access the case against him and provide the elements he considers necessary - the Paris Prosecutors Office told Sputnik.

🔸Durov to pay a bail of €5 million in instalments.

🔸According to the supervision rules, Durov is obliged to live at an address in France, which he will inform the investigating judge of.

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Change your ways or else: regional election results a harsh wakeup call for Germany’s ruling coalition

The triumph of the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party at the elections in Thuringia and Saxony states was not just a “vote of no confidence in the ruling traffic light coalition [referring to the three-party bloc],” says German political analyst and independent journalist Dr. Gregor Spitzen.

According to him, the elections essentially confirmed that Germany is still “politically divided” some 34 years after its reunification, with the “political dividing line” running right along what used to be a border between West Germany and East Germany.

He does note, however, that AfD’s victory was largely “pyrrhic” as it lacks votes to form a majority government while the left-wing BSW would rather join forces with the conservative Christian Democratic Union (CDU).

“But the success of the AfD and the BSW sends an important message to the traffic light coalition government ahead of the 2025 general election: under its leadership, the country is moving in the wrong direction. And it has just over a year to listen to the voters and work on your mistakes,” Dr. Spitzen states.

Meanwhile, Berliner Telegraph magazine’s Chief Editor Aleksandr Boyko observes that the ruling coalition’s failure to tackle the immigration problem and to deal with rising crime, when people no longer feel themselves safe, further contribute to voters’ dissatisfaction with the powers that be in Germany.

He also states that the election results definitely highlight the voters’ crisis of confidence in the mainstream CDU and SPD (Social Democratic Party).

The German government, Boyko speculates, will likely lower various taxes, beef up border security and crack down on mechanisms that simplify the procurement of German citizenship by foreigners.

“Germans always felt that the German economy is number one. Each German always told him or herself that we live better that anyone else. But now we gradually realize that it is not exactly so anymore, that maybe the French and the Spanish live as good as us,” Boyko adds. “To sum things up, we are slowly moving towards the economic, financial and status decline.”

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The US Department of Justice said Maduro’s aircraft was seized based on violations of export controls and sanctions laws

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Israelis realize they can be killed by their own government’s “security considerations”

Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Israel to call upon the government of Benjamin Netanyahu to negotiate the release of the hostages still held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas. The protests were sparked by the deaths of the six of the hostages whose bodies were recovered by military last week.

But while many Israelis are not fond of Netanyahu and his government, the majority of the Israelis also “don't have an alternative for his war and perhaps don't want one,” says Dr. Ori Goldberg, expert on Israeli politics.

“The anger in the streets today is because for some time Netanyahu has claimed that the destruction of Hamas and the return of the hostages are related. The death of the six hostages on Saturday revealed that the two goals are contradictory. Most Israelis are only realizing this now and they are angry,” he explains.

Goldberg does point out that Israeli “streets” now regarding the government as a “hostile factor” is a new development, and that while Israelis do “support (in varying degrees) the notion of a war against Hamas,” the deaths of those six hostages last week “changed the mood and the vibe.”

“Israelis are beginning to realize that they cannot simply accept every government decision justified by recourse to "security considerations", because these security considerations can end up killing Israelis,” he remarks.

The protests in Israel, while unlikely to cause Netanyahu to resign, also highlight the “an increasing polarization within the Israeli society,” adds Luciano Zaccara, adjunct associate professor at Georgetown University in Qatar.

“[There are] Those who opposed him based on the mismanagement of the ceasefire negotiations, and those who vehemently demand him not to negotiate but to end the task of eliminating Hamas,” he says referring to how various groups in Israel regard Netanyahu’s policies.

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▪️What’s known about the US' seizure of Venezuelan President Maduro’s plane?

▪️President Putin arrives in Mongolia: what is the strategic importance of Russian-Mongolian cooperation?

▪️Guess which foreign language do younger members of Putin’s family speak?

▪️The latest updates from the Kursk region where the Russian Army has been repelling Ukraine’s attempts of incursion

▪️AfD’s victory in regional elections a ‘wakeup call’ for Germany’s ruling coalition

▪️Trump’s new book ‘Save America’ – check out the excerpts ahead of its release

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Enough is enough: is German government really willing and able to deal with migrant crisis?

Berlin announced that 28 Afghan refugees were deported back to their home country last week due to committing crimes on German soil.

Following the Taliban* taking power in Afghanistan after the de facto defeat of the US-led coalition in 2021, Berlin took in Afghan refugees who were fleeing from the new authorities.

This influx further compounded the issue the current German government inherited from the administration of Angela Merkel who welcomed hundreds of thousands of refugees from the Middle East fleeing from the Syrian conflict and the civil war in Libya.

The housing and welfare benefits provided to the refugees by the German government quickly cemented the image of Germany as a “promised land” of sorts in the eyes of potential asylum seekers.

Meanwhile, the refusal of many of the refugees to conform to the customs of their new home stoked tensions amid ordinary Germans, many of whom were not particularly happy by newcomers who do not respect German traditions.

The violent crimes committed by some of the migrants – such as, for example, a deadly knife attack perpetrated in August at a street festival in Solingen by a Syrian man, or a wave of sexual attacks allegedly perpetrated by men of African and Arab descent against women across Germany during the 2015-2016 New Year celebrations – also did little to endear refugees to Germans.

The migrant issue has apparently played a significant role in the less than stellar results the ruling coalition displayed during the recent elections, and it may seem that Berlin finally decided to address this matter.

*Under UN sanctions for terrorist activities.

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Yemen's rebel Ansar Allah movement, commonly known as the Houthis, attacked Blue Lagoon I ship with missiles and drones, a spokesman said in an official statement

"Yemeni armed forces have carried out an attack on the Blue Lagoon I ship in the Red Sea, using drones and missiles," the statement said.

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Volodymyr Kudrytsky was reportedly fired from his post as head of Ukraine's National Energy Company (NEC) Ukrenergo, Ukrainian member of parliament Yaroslav Zheleznyak said

A Ukrainian online media outlet previously quoted sources as saying that Kudrytsky might be dismissed in the near future for poor protection of energy facilities.

Ukrenergo's deputy head of the board Oleksiy Brekht will perform duties as chief of Ukrenergo, according to Ukrainian media.

In response to attacks on Russian civilian targets by the Kiev regime, Russian troops regularly carry out precision strikes against encampments of Ukrainian soldiers, equipment and mercenaries, as well as against Ukrainian infrastructure, including energy, defense industry, military administration and communications facilities. However, presidential spokesman Dmitriy Peskov emphasizes that the Russian army does not target residential buildings and social institutions.

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Venezuela condemns seizure of President Maduro's plane in Dominican Republic as act of piracy by the United States

"The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela informs the international community that the authorities of the United States of America have once again committed a criminal act, which can only be described as piracy, by illegally confiscating an aircraft used by the President of the Republic. They justify their actions through coercive measures that they unilaterally and illegally impose across the world. This demonstrates that no state or legitimate government is immune to these illegal attempts to circumvent international law," reads a communiqué published on Telegram by the Venezuelan Minister of Communications, Culture, and Tourism Freddy Ñáñez.

"The United States has shown that it uses its economic and military power to intimidate and pressure states like the Dominican Republic into becoming complicit in criminal acts. This is an example of the so-called 'rules-based order,' which, in disregard of international law, seeks to establish the right of the strong, creating and imposing rules that serve its interests with impunity," the Venezuelan government stated.

The incident marks the second Venezuelan plane seized by the US. A Boeing 747 belonging to the Venezuelan company Empresa de Transporte Aéreocargo del Sur (Emtrasur) was detained at Argentina's Ezeiza Airport in 2022. A local court decided earlier this year to transfer the plane to the US, after which it was flown to Florida.

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