标签： Europe

LONDON – A foiled arson attack on a northwest London synagogue has thrown a harsh spotlight on growing threats targeting British Jewish communities, with the country’s most senior Jewish leader warning that Jews are now facing an escalating, coordinated campaign of violence and intimidation.

The attempted arson at Kenton United Synagogue, which occurred late Saturday, left only minor damage to the building, and no injuries were reported in the incident. It marks the latest in a string of suspicious fires targeting Jewish-associated sites and an Iranian opposition media outlet across the capital over the past month, all of which are now under the direction of counterterrorism investigators.

In a public statement posted to the social platform X on Sunday, Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis sounded the alarm over the accelerating danger of the current wave of threats. “A sustained campaign of violence and intimidation against the Jewish community of the UK is gathering momentum,” Mirvis wrote. “Thank God, no lives have been lost, but we cannot, and must not, wait for that to change before we understand just how dangerous this moment is for all of our society.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer responded quickly to the incidents, saying he was appalled by the targeted attacks and issuing a firm pledge that all perpetrators would be held accountable. “Those responsible will be found and brought to justice,” Starmer said.

London’s Metropolitan Police has responded by deploying additional uniformed and plainclothes officers to the city’s northwest, the area where most of the recent attacks have been concentrated. The series of incidents began unfolding weeks ago, with targets including multiple synagogues, ambulances operated by a Jewish charity, and the offices of a Persian-language media outlet that is openly critical of the Iranian government. The arson attempt at the Kenton synagogue came just 24 hours after another incident Friday night, when suspects tried to ignite containers of flammable fluid outside the former offices of a London-based Jewish charity.

To date, no one has been hurt in any of the linked incidents. Law enforcement officials have already arrested and charged several suspects, whose ages range from teenagers to people in their 40s. While investigators have not formally connected all of the cases to a single network, Counter Terrorism Policing London took over lead investigative duties due to striking similarities in the attacks and public online claims of responsibility from a little-known group calling itself Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia, or the Islamic Movement of the Companions of the Right.

Israeli officials have characterized the group as a newly formed organization with suspected ties to an Iranian proxy network. The group has also claimed responsibility for similar synagogue attacks in Belgium and the Netherlands in recent weeks. It also released an online video threatening to carry out a drone attack carrying hazardous materials at Israel’s embassy in London. While no attack was ultimately carried out at the embassy, police closed London’s popular Kensington Gardens park Friday to investigate discarded items that included two jars holding unidentified powder. Tests later confirmed the substances found were not harmful.

British authorities have long accused Iran of orchestrating attacks on European soil through criminal proxy networks, targeting both Iranian opposition outlets and Jewish communities across the continent. MI5, the U.K.’s domestic intelligence agency, reported that it disrupted more than 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots in the 12 months leading up to October this year.

Still, some independent security analysts have urged caution over the group’s claims, noting that Harakat Ashab al-Yamin al-Islamia is more likely a “flag of convenience” – a name used by disparate actors to claim responsibility for attacks – rather than a structured, centralized terrorist organization.

LONDON – As Prime Minister Keir Starmer braces for a make-or-break showdown with restive British lawmakers on Monday, his grip on the highest office in the United Kingdom hangs by a thread, triggered by a explosive botched appointment of a disgraced political ally to the nation’s most critical diplomatic post.

The crisis centers on Starmer’s January 2025 decision to name Peter Mandelson, a veteran politician with longstanding ties to late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, as Britain’s ambassador to the United States. It has now been revealed that Mandelson failed the mandatory intensive security vetting process required for the role – and Starmer claims he was never notified of the damning vetting recommendation that barred Mandelson from receiving clearance. The Prime Minister says he is “furious” over the withheld information, insisting he would never have moved forward with the appointment had he been informed of the outcome. The Foreign Office, which holds final authority over diplomatic nominations, ultimately approved Mandelson’s appointment despite the vetting panel’s opposition.

Senior figures within Starmer’s own Cabinet have rushed to shore up his position this weekend. Deputy Prime Minister David Lammy defended the Prime Minister, stating, “if Starmer had known, he would never, ever have appointed him ambassador.” Technology Secretary Liz Kendall echoed the defense during a Sunday interview with Sky News, arguing Starmer “is a man of integrity and there is no way he would have proceeded” with the nomination had he been aware of the failed security check.

The fallout has already claimed one high-profile casualty: Olly Robbins, the top civil servant at the Foreign Office, was forced to step down on Thursday. Supporters of Robbins, however, insist he is being made a scapegoat for the political failure, claiming he only followed established protocol in handling the sensitive vetting process. Robbins is set to deliver his own account of the chain of events to the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday. Simon McDonald, who served as Foreign Office permanent secretary until 2020, backed that narrative, telling the BBC that Robbins had been “thrown under the bus.” McDonald added that highly classified vetting information “would never be shared” with the prime minister or his political staff, per longstanding security rules.

All major opposition parties have already united in calling for Starmer’s immediate resignation. Kemi Badenoch, leader of the right-of-center Conservative Party, called the prime minister’s position “untenable.” Liberal Democrats leader Ed Davey doubled down on that demand Sunday, saying, “the government is in perpetual crisis, and I don’t think they can get out of that unless Keir Starmer moves aside.”

While Starmer’s Labour Party holds a substantial parliamentary majority, any push to remove him from office will have to come from his own party lawmakers – many of whom are already deeply frustrated by the party’s plummeting approval ratings. Starmer temporarily defused tensions over the appointment back in February, when a small group of Labour MPs first called for his resignation. But political analysts widely expect a formal leadership challenge to launch after local and regional elections conclude on May 7, where polling projects major losses for Labour.

Internal divisions within Labour run deeper than just the Mandelson scandal. Some MPs argue that changing leadership mid-term would be deeply damaging amid ongoing global instability, including the active wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, with a national election not required for another three years. But other party members have grown despairing over Starmer’s string of missteps since he led Labour to a landslide general election victory in July 2024. The Prime Minister has struggled to deliver on campaign pledges to boost economic growth, repair strained public services, and ease the country’s ongoing cost-of-living crisis, and has already been forced to reverse course on multiple key policy positions.

Critics argue the Mandelson appointment lays bare a fundamental failure of judgment on Starmer’s part. Government documents released in March 2025, after Parliament forced transparency, show Starmer’s own own staff warned him that Mandelson’s close friendship with Epstein – who died in prison in 2019 while serving a sentence for sex offenses – created significant “reputational risk” for the government. Despite those warnings, Downing Street moved forward with the nomination, pointing to Mandelson’s experience as a former European Union trade chief and his extensive network of contacts among global political and business elites, which officials framed as a major asset for engaging with U.S. President Donald Trump’s second administration.

Mandelson’s tenure in Washington lasted less than nine months. Starmer fired him in September 2025, after new evidence emerged that Mandelson had lied about the full extent of his connections to Epstein. The release of millions of pages of court documents related to Epstein by the U.S. Department of Justice earlier this year brought fresh damaging revelations, showing Mandelson maintained his relationship with the financier even after Epstein’s 2008 conviction for sexual offenses involving a minor. Emails included in the document dump also suggested Mandelson shared sensitive, potentially market-moving British government information with Epstein in 2009, following the global financial crisis.

British law enforcement launched a criminal investigation into the allegations, and arrested Mandelson on February 23 on suspicion of misconduct in public office. He has since been released from custody without bail conditions as the investigation proceeds. Mandelson has repeatedly denied all wrongdoing, has not been formally charged with any crime, and does not face any allegations of sexual misconduct connected to the Epstein case.

SOFIA, Bulgaria — Balkan EU and NATO member Bulgaria is heading into its eighth national parliamentary election in just five years on Sunday, a vote that comes after years of crippling political gridlock that has left the country starved of stable, effective governance. This snap election was triggered last December, when a conservative-led administration stepped down in the wake of mass nationwide demonstrations that drew hundreds of thousands of protesters, overwhelmingly young Bulgarians, to capital and city streets across the country. Demonstrators’ core demand was the creation of a truly independent judiciary capable of rooting out the deep, systemic corruption that has defined the nation’s political landscape for decades.

Since 2021, the country of 6.5 million people has been trapped in a cycle of fragmented legislative bodies that have only produced fragile, short-lived governments. No administration formed in that window has managed to hold power for more than 12 months, with every government falling either to mass public protests or unaccountable backroom power deals within parliament. This constant rotation of ruling coalitions has eroded public faith in democratic institutions, spurred widespread voter apathy, and driven a steady decline in election turnout across successive votes.

Sunday’s ballot carries outsized geopolitical weight, coming just days after Hungarian voters rejected the long-ruling authoritarian administration of Viktor Orbán, a prominent far-right leader who has maintained close personal and policy ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin. The clear front-runner in this election is Rumen Radev, a left-leaning, pro-Russian former president who resigned from his largely ceremonial post in January — months before the end of his second five-year term — to launch a campaign for the position of prime minister. The 62-year-old Radev, a former fighter pilot and ex-air force commander, is leading the newly organized center-left Progressive Bulgaria coalition, and stands as Bulgaria’s most popular active politician.

Radev has campaigned on a promise of a national fresh start, positioning himself as a vocal opponent of the country’s deeply entrenched oligarchic networks and their links to top political figures. At campaign stops across the country, he has vowed to “remove the corrupt, oligarchic model of governance from political power.” His support base is split between two broad groups: voters drawn to his anti-corruption platform, and backers who align with his open Eurosceptic and pro-Russia policy stances. While Radev has issued formal public condemnation of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he has repeatedly opposed sending military aid to Kyiv and has advocated for reopening diplomatic negotiations with Moscow to end the ongoing conflict.

Bulgaria’s geopolitical standing has shifted notably in recent months: the country joined the EU’s eurozone on January 1 of this year, shortly after gaining full membership in the EU’s border-free Schengen Area, even as its domestic political system remains mired in chaos. The current race was triggered by the 2021 resignation of three-time conservative prime minister Boyko Borissov, who stepped down after mass protests driven by public anger over corruption and systemic injustice. The closest rival to Radev’s coalition is Borissov’s center-right GERB party.

Opinion polling indicates Radev’s coalition is on track to capture more than 30% of the national vote, putting it roughly 10 percentage points ahead of GERB. Most published polls carry a margin of error between 3% and 3.5%. Polling stations opened across the country at 7 a.m. local time and are scheduled to close at 8 p.m., with initial exit polls set to be released immediately after voting ends. Preliminary full election results are expected to be published on Monday.