分类： politics

As NATO prepares to convene its critical summit this week in Ankara, Turkey, the alliance’s top leader faces one of its most daunting existential tests: holding onto the commitment of the United States, the bloc’s military and political backbone, amid shifting demands from U.S. President Donald Trump that threaten to unravel decades of collective security.

TIRANA, Albania — For the 35th straight night, thousands of demonstrators gathered in Albania’s capital city on Saturday to escalate their demands for sweeping political change, calling for Prime Minister Edi Rama to step down immediately, his government to be replaced on an interim basis, constitutional amendments to be drafted, and systemic corruption to be rooted out from national institutions.

Unconfirmed media footage captured tens of thousands of protesters marching along Tirana’s central boulevard, making their way toward the city’s iconic Skanderbeg Square to rally. No independent observers have released an official count of the crowd size, as of press time.

What began as a localized movement opposing a luxury coastal resort development on protected natural land—linked through business connections to Jared Kushner, former U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor—has over five weeks grown into a broad, sustained anti-government and anti-corruption uprising that has captured national attention. Throughout Saturday’s march, demonstrators chanted slogans including “New Albania” and “Edi Rama, resign.”

The demonstration was layered with deliberate political symbolism tied to Albania’s modern history. Protesters erected a large bust of Prime Minister Rama before pulling it to the ground with a thick rope, an act deliberately echoing the 1991 toppling of Enver Hoxha’s statue that marked the end of decades of communist rule in the country, an event Albanians commemorate every February 20. The protest fell on Rama’s 62nd birthday, prompting demonstrators to carry mock cement birthday cakes, a biting reference to the large-scale construction projects that have defined Rama’s tenure and sparked widespread criticism of environmental destruction and corrupt land dealings. The crowd also sang an ironic rendition of “Happy Birthday” directed at the prime minister.

Many marchers carried bright pink flamingo balloons, a nod to the local flamingo population that conservationists warn faces displacement and extinction due to the approved coastal resort construction. The ongoing movement has since been widely nicknamed the “Pink Flamingo Revolution” by participants and observers alike.

After two hours of peaceful rallying in the square, a large contingent of protesters marched to a nearby local police station, demanding the immediate release of activists arrested during a previous demonstration held near the Albanian parliament on Thursday. Tensions escalated at the station when protesters smashed glass windows on the building, prompting police to deploy a water cannon to clear and disperse the gathered crowd.

France is holding its collective breath this week, as a Paris appeal court prepares to deliver a ruling that could reshape the trajectory of the country’s 2027 presidential election and redefine the future of its largest nationalist political force, the National Rally (RN).

The case stems from a 2025 guilty verdict handed down to RN leader Marine Le Pen, who was found guilty of orchestrating a scheme to misuse European Parliament funds. At the original trial, courts confirmed that Le Pen knowingly oversaw a system where Paris-based RN staffers posed as parliamentary assistants working in Brussels and Strasbourg, drawing salaries from the EU budget at a time when the party faced chronic cash shortages. Alongside a two-year home imprisonment sentence with electronic monitoring, the original ruling imposed an immediate, five-year ban from holding public office— a provision that went into effect immediately, even before the appeal process, putting Le Pen’s presidential ambitions directly at risk.

Ten additional convicted RN officials have also joined Le Pen in her appeal, and after four months of closed-door deliberations, the court will announce its decision on Tuesday. The outcome will not only decide Le Pen’s political future but also trigger a cascade of consequences for France’s upcoming election.

Current polling places the 57-year-old nationalist leader in a strong position to win the presidency, which would mark the RN’s first capture of the Élysée Palace in the party’s history. If the appeal court upholds the original five-year ineligibility sentence, Le Pen will be barred from running, and her decades-long push for the presidency will end in defeat. A full acquittal would clear her path to the ballot immediately, an outcome legal observers consider highly unlikely. The most hotly debated possibility is a modified middle-ground sentence, such as a reduced two-year ban from office. In that scenario, the ban would expire on March 31, 2027, just two weeks before the first round of the election, theoretically allowing Le Pen to stand. However, if the court also maintains a one-year electronic monitoring order, Le Pen has already stated the restriction on her movement would make campaigning impossible.

If Le Pen is ruled ineligible, the RN’s candidacy will automatically pass to 30-year-old Jordan Bardella, the party’s current president. Polls currently show Bardella is also a frontrunner in the race, but political analysts note his relative youth and limited executive experience could become liabilities once formal campaigning begins.

Uncertainty around the ruling extends beyond the initial appeal verdict. Even if Le Pen is cleared to run, either side can take the case to France’s highest court, the Cour de Cassation, whose ruling would not come until January 2027. This creates a scenario where Le Pen could launch her campaign, only to be barred months later, throwing the entire election into chaos.

These overlapping contingencies have sparked widespread speculation over Le Pen’s private expectations. In a recent pre-verdict television interview, Le Pen struck a measured tone, saying, “Whatever happens, I’ll still be alive. Whatever happens, I will continue the fight for my ideas,” leading some to suggest she has already prepared to hand over the campaign to Bardella. But another prevailing theory, particularly common in government circles, argues that judges will be reluctant to deny French voters the chance to cast ballots for such a popular candidate, and will adjust the sentence to allow her to run.

No matter the outcome, the verdict will transform the 2027 election. Le Pen and Bardella represent distinct strands of French nationalism: Le Pen positions herself as a cross-spectrum candidate with strong appeal to working-class voters, while Bardella leans toward traditional right-wing economic liberalism, a shift that has won him quiet support from top French business leaders. While both figures insist on their mutual loyalty and frame their differences as complementary strengths that could help the RN finally break through to win the presidency, a handover from the veteran leader to the untested younger candidate would push the RN into uncharted political territory. For now, all eyes are on the Paris court, as France waits for a decision with unprecedentedly high political stakes.

In an escalation of long-range strikes targeting Russian war-related infrastructure, Ukrainian forces launched a major overnight drone attack that hit one of Russia’s largest oil terminals in St Petersburg, President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed Saturday. The attack also targeted a key Russian Baltic Fleet naval base in the nearby Kronstadt area, marking one of the deepest strikes into Russian territory from Ukraine in the ongoing conflict.

Located roughly 850 kilometers (528 miles) from Ukraine’s border, the St Petersburg oil terminal identified by Ukraine’s military as a critical revenue source for Moscow’s full-scale invasion, which launched in February 2022. Ukrainian military officials describe the facility as one of Russia’s largest oil infrastructure hubs, with an annual output capacity of 12.5 million metric tons of refined petroleum products. Zelensky emphasized the terminal is core infrastructure that directly funds Russia’s military campaign, framing it as a legitimate military target under Ukraine’s rules of engagement.

St Petersburg Governor Aleksandr Beglov acknowledged the oil terminal strike in an official statement, confirming the attack came as part of what he called a “massive” drone assault on the city and surrounding Leningrad region. Beglov claimed Russian air defenses shot down 72 inbound Ukrainian drones during the attack, and reported no fatalities or injuries from the terminal strike. He urged the city’s more than 5 million residents to remain indoors until all drone threats were neutralized, and issued a warning that temporary mobile internet disruptions could occur across affected areas. The BBC has independently verified that the St Petersburg oil terminal was indeed hit, and video published by Zelensky shows a drone approaching the target followed by a large plume of black smoke rising from the site. The full extent of damage to the facility remains unclear as of Saturday afternoon, and Russia has not yet issued any official comment on the reported strike on the Kronstadt naval base.

This attack is part of a recent intensification of Ukrainian long-range drone operations targeting Russia’s critical energy infrastructure. Kyiv estimates that these strikes have disabled nearly 43 percent of Russia’s total oil refining capacity, a claim that has not been independently verified by third-party observers. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly stated that Russian fossil fuel facilities are valid military targets, as export revenue from oil and gas remains the largest source of funding for Moscow’s war effort.

In a separate development Saturday, Ukraine’s military directly refuted Russian claims that the strategically important eastern town of Kostyantynivka in Donetsk Oblast has fallen under full Russian control. Andriy Kovalyov, a major and spokesperson for Ukraine’s military, told the BBC that Kostyantynivka remains firmly under the control of Ukrainian defense forces. Kovalyov acknowledged that small Russian infantry groups have carried out infiltration attempts into frontline Ukrainian combat formations, but added that these incursion teams are being rapidly identified and eliminated.

Kovalyov’s statement came one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin claimed Russian forces established full control over Kostyantynivka back in June, a claim Putin made without providing any supporting evidence. Responding to Putin’s claim on his official Telegram channel Saturday, Zelensky issued a sharp rhetorical challenge. “If Kostyantynivka is now under Russian control, then Putin will probably have no problem meeting me there and finding diplomatic solutions to finally end the war,” Zelensky wrote. “But still, he will not cross the front line: the truth is very different from Putin’s words.”

Kostyantynivka is a key fortified node in Ukraine’s so-called “fortress belt” of defensive positions in the Donetsk region, most of which is currently under Russian occupation.

ERFURT, Germany – Thousands of demonstrators gathered in this eastern German city on Saturday to mobilize against the national convention of Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), with scattered confrontations breaking out between some protesters and riot-equipped police officers outside the venue.

The biennial party gathering, called to formally reelect the AfD’s national leadership, is a critical moment for the party: current co-leaders Alice Weidel and Tino Chrupalla, who have steered the party collectively for four years, are seeking extended terms, and party organizers are pushing to present a unified front to voters and observers across the country.

As Germany’s largest national opposition party, the AfD has remained one of the most polarizing political forces in modern German politics, a divide laid bare by the large-scale demonstrations that converged on Erfurt this weekend. Adding fuel to existing controversy, the convention’s date falls exactly 100 years after a foundational Nazi Party gathering held just miles away, an event that cemented Adolf Hitler’s total control over Germany’s fascist movement. Political opponents and leading historians argue that the overlapping timing carries ominous symbolic weight, a claim the AfD has flatly rejected.

Mainstream German political parties have maintained a longstanding “firewall” policy that rules out any formal or informal cooperation with the far-right party. But that has not slowed the AfD’s growing political momentum. The party has successfully leveraged widespread public dissatisfaction with the current national government, which has faced repeated criticism over its slow progress on reforms to revitalize Germany’s sluggish economy. Beyond its signature anti-migration platform that drove its initial rise to prominence in the mid-2010s, the AfD has refined its strategy to tap into voter frustration on a wide range of policy issues, expanding its appeal across segments of the German electorate.

The party is now setting its sights on a historic breakthrough in upcoming regional elections. For the September 6 state vote in eastern Germany’s Saxony-Anhalt, AfD leadership has set a goal of winning 40 percent or more of the popular vote. If the party hits that target, it could either secure an absolute legislative majority on its own or court defectors from other mainstream parties to form a governing coalition – a result that would put the AfD in position to claim its first-ever state governorship in German history. Weidel has framed coming electoral contests as transformative for the party, recently stating that “2026 is a year of destiny for AfD.”