The EU is woefully unprepared for an influx of Afghans

"We cannot save everyone suffering in other countries. Every extra refugee has an impact on EU citizens on our overcrowded teritory, for example, hospital waiting times, housing, cultural friction.
We must look to support refugees on foreign soil and not just look to take them in and disadvantage our own citizens."

Charles Robert “Charlie” Watts, the Rolling Stones’ drummer and the band’s irreplaceable heartbeat, has died at age 80. No cause of death was given.

Watts’ publicist confirmed his death in a statement. “It is with immense sadness that we announce the death of our beloved Charlie Watts,” it read. “He passed away peacefully in a London hospital earlier [Tuesday] surrounded by his family.” The statement referred to Watts as “one of the greatest drummers of his generation” and closed by requesting that “the privacy of his family, band members, and close friends is respected at this difficult time.”

​"We would go into villages and enrol people into this biometric data system," US Marine Special Operations Command veteran Peter Kiernan recalls.

Πώς το Facebook, το Twitter και το YouTube αντιμετωπίζουν τους Ταλιμπάν;
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​A woman accessed her ex-boyfriend's smart speaker from her home 100 miles away to tell his new girlfriend to leave, a court has heard.

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Russia is more modernised and westernised today than it has ever been in the past 100 years.

In August 1991, an attempt by communist hardliners to stage a military coup in Moscow led to a democratic revolution which triggered the collapse of the Soviet system. 

Why is it that a sexual harassment scandal toppled Cuomo, but not revelations about preventable elderly deaths?

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has fallen from grace.
Ironically, Cuomo had been hailed as an American hero until quite recently. While his three-term tenure was marked by many impressive accomplishments, from raising the minimum wage to the passage of marriage equality, it was only following the pandemic’s outbreak that he rose to national prominence.

Italian police have arrested a reputed top Naples crime boss as she was about to board a flight to Spain

ROME -- A reputed top Naples crime syndicate boss was arrested Saturday as she was about to board a flight to Spain. Italian authorities said.

Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese praised the arrest of Maria Licciardi, 70, by Carabinieri officers on orders of Naples prosecutors.

Police from the paramilitary Carabinieri's special operations unit who carried out the arrest weren't immediately available for details. But the Carabinieri press office posted a dispatch by the Italian news agency ANSA saying Licciardi was nabbed at Rome’s Ciampino Airport as she checked in luggage for a flight to Spain.

Investigators have alleged that Licciardi ran extortion rackets as head of the Licciardi Camorra crime syndicate clan.

“She didn't bat an eyelash when the officers blocked her and served the warrant signed by the Naples prosecutors' office,” ANSA said.

When first arrested in 2001 after she was stopped as she drove a car near Naples, Licciardi had figured among Italy’s top-30 wanted fugitives. She was released from prison in 2009 after serving time for convictions of Mafia-connected crimes.

Nicknamed “'a piccirella,” ("a little one") by mobsters for her petite build, Licciardi was one of the victors in a long-running blood feud between alliances of clans that left Naples littered nearly daily with bodies earlier this century, prosecutors say.

Naples prosecutors, in a 2009 interview with The AP, described Licciardi as a true “madrina,'' or ”godmother," in the Camorra syndicate. Her brother was a clan boss and she made decisions for the crime family along with other clan bosses, prosecutors said.
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The extortion of local business owners, drug trafficking and the infiltration of public works contracts are traditional sources of illicit revenue for the Naples'-based Camorra, one of Italy's major crime syndicates.


(The Associated Press) 

The Met Police will review its decision not to investigate whether Jeffrey Epstein committed crimes in London, Commissioner Cressida Dick has said.

The Met previously ruled out opening an investigation into Epstein, who killed himself in prison after he was charged with sex trafficking.

Dame Cressida said the force would review the decision after one of his accusers brought a civil court case against the Duke of York.

Prince Andrew denies all allegations.

Dame Cressida told LBC: "It's been reviewed twice before, we've worked closely with the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service). We are of course open to working with authorities overseas; we will give them every assistance if they ask us for anything within the law, obviously.
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"As a result of what's going on, I've asked my team to have another look at the material.
"No-one is above the law."

In August 2019, US financier Epstein was found dead in his cell in New York's highly secure Metropolitan Correctional Center, prompting some to question whether he killed himself.
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The month before, the 66-year-old had pleaded not guilty to sex trafficking and conspiracy charges.
Previously, Epstein was accused of paying girls under the age of 18 to perform sex acts at his Manhattan and Florida mansions.

In a secret plea deal in 2008, he admitted soliciting prostitution from a minor and received an 18-month jail sentence. During this time, he was able to go on "work release" to his office for 12 hours a day, six days a week.

​Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein's many accusers, alleges she was forced to have sex with Prince Andrew three times between 2001 and 2002, when she was 17 years old.
Ms Giuffre says the abuse happened in London, New York and on Epstein's private island in the Caribbean.

On Monday, Ms Giuffre began legal proceedings against 61-year-old Prince Andrew. She alleges that he engaged in sexual acts without her consent, knowing how old she was and that she was a sex-trafficking victim.

In a Newsnight interview in November 2019, the prince said he had "no recollection" of meeting Ms Giuffre. He denies all allegations, maintaining there are "a number of things that are wrong" about her account.

Speaking to LBC, Dame Cressida said the force had made the "right decision" in November 2019 by choosing not to open an investigation into Ms Giuffre's allegations.
At the time, the force concluded it was "not the appropriate authority" to investigate the matter.

(BBC)  

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German authorities say the man is suspected of passing documents to Russian intelligence in exchange for cash.

German police have arrested a British national who worked at the United Kingdom’s embassy in Berlin on suspicion of passing documents to the Russian intelligence service in exchange for cash, according to prosecutors.

German prosecutors said in a statement that the man’s apartment and workplace had been searched and he would be brought before an investigating judge later on Wednesday to determine whether he should be remanded in custody.

The statement added that the suspect, identified only as David S, “on at least one occasion passed on documents he acquired as part of his professional activities to a representative of Russian intelligence”.
“The accused received a cash payment in an unspecified amount in return,” it said. The suspect was believed to have been spying since November 2020 “at the latest”.

Germany’s Foreign Ministry said it was taking the case very seriously, adding that spying on allied states on German soil is unacceptable.
A spokesman for the ministry said that it would closely monitor German public prosecutors’ investigations into the case.

‘Intelligence Agent activity’The man was arrested on Tuesday in Potsdam, just outside Berlin.
He was employed as a local staff member at the UK embassy until his arrest, which was the result of a joint investigation by German and British authorities, the prosecutors said.

British police confirmed in a statement that the 57-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of committing offences relating to being engaged in “Intelligence Agent activity” under German law and that the German authorities would retain primacy over the probe.

In May, the UK set out plans to crack down on hostile activity by foreign states, introducing a proposed law to give security services and law enforcement new powers to tackle growing threats.
UK spy chiefs say China and Russia have sought to steal commercially sensitive data and intellectual property as well as interfere in politics.

 2018, Russian agents were accused of carrying out an attack on former Russian spy Sergei Skripal on British soil.

Beijing and Moscow say the West is gripped with a paranoia about plots. Both Russia and China deny they meddle abroad, seek to steal technology, carry out cyberattacks or sow discord.

Russian espionageGermany has arrested a number of people in recent years accused of spying for Russia, but the capture of a citizen of a closely allied country is highly unusual.

In June, German police arrested a Russian scientist working at a German university accused of working for Russian secret service since early October 2020 at the latest.

He is also suspected of accepting cash in exchange for his services.

And German prosecutors in February filed espionage charges against a German man suspected of having passed the floor plans of parliament to Russian secret services in 2017.

Moscow is at loggerheads with a number of Western capitals after a Russian troop build-up on Ukraine’s borders and a series of espionage scandals that have resulted in diplomatic expulsions.
In June, Italy said it had created a national cybersecurity agency following warnings by Prime Minister Mario Draghi that Europe needs to protect itself from Russian “interference”.
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The move came after an Italian navy captain was caught red-handed by police selling confidential military documents from his computer to a Russian embassy official.

(NEWS AGENCIES)