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  • Singer Patrick Bruel denies wave of sexual assault allegations in France

    Singer Patrick Bruel denies wave of sexual assault allegations in France

    One of France’s most enduring entertainment figures, 67-year-old singer and actor Patrick Bruel, is at the center of a growing national sexual assault scandal that has roiled the country’s ongoing post-#MeToo reckoning, with more than 30 women coming forward to accuse him of sexual misconduct spanning his five-decade career.

    The allegations, which first gained widespread media traction in recent weeks, have triggered official judicial reviews across multiple French jurisdictions and a public campaign to cancel Bruel’s upcoming cross-continental tour. Among the highest-profile accusers is prominent French television and radio presenter Flavie Flament, who claims Bruel drugged and raped her at his Paris residence in 1991, when she was 16 years old and he was 32.

    In a public statement shared to his Instagram, Bruel has forcefully pushed back against all claims. “I have never forced myself on a woman in my life,” he wrote. “Nor have I ever drugged, manipulated or tried to subjugate anyone… nor used my fame to abuse or obtain non-consensual relations.” Bruel, who remains active in professional productions and is currently performing at a Paris theater, has not shied away from the public eye amid the accusations, which have dominated front-page headlines across France.

    Born Patrick Benguigui in Algeria in 1959, Bruel rose to stardom in the early 1980s with hit tracks including *Marre de cette nana-là*, earning a massive, fanatical following that media dubbed “Bruelmania” for the public obsession surrounding his distinct baritone and brooding on-stage presence. He has maintained his status as a household name in French entertainment for more than 40 years, and is scheduled to launch a multi-country concert tour in June spanning France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Canada. A French feminist group has already launched an online petition calling for tour organizers to scrap all scheduled dates.

    According to independent French investigative outlet Mediapart, which first broke the full scope of the allegations, Flament is one of more than 30 women to have lodged formal complaints against Bruel. Around 10 of these cases are currently under review by prosecutors in Nanterre, a suburb of Paris. One of these cases was initially dismissed in 2020 due to insufficient evidence, but has since been reopened for further examination. Two additional separate allegations are also being assessed by authorities in the Brittany town of Saint-Mâlo and in Belgium.

    The latest back-and-forth between legal teams and accusers centers on Flament’s claim. On Tuesday, Bruel’s defense attorney Christophe Ingrain told French broadcaster BFMTV that Flament’s account is entirely fabricated, arguing that any interaction between his client and the presenter was consensual. “Patrick Bruel is very clear: he never forced himself on or drugged Flavie Flament. There was no rape,” Ingrain said. “They were two people who liked each other and might from time to time have sex when they met.”

    Flament issued an immediate, categorical denial of the lawyer’s claim, telling reporters: “I never had any relationship of any kind with Patrick Bruel.” Flament has long been a leading voice in French movements to address sexual violence against minors: in 2016, she first publicized an allegation that she had been raped at age 13 by prominent British nude photographer David Hamilton on the French Riviera. After her claim was corroborated by multiple other accusers, Hamilton died by suicide. Flament’s activism directly contributed to a landmark change in French law, extending the statute of limitations for sexual crimes against minors from 20 to 30 years after the alleged offense.

    French government spokeswoman Maud Bregeon weighed in on the unfolding scandal this Tuesday, reaffirming the state’s position that survivors of sexual violence should be supported to speak out, regardless of how much time has passed since the alleged abuse. “Even decades later, [victims] should be encouraged to speak out,” she said, adding that “it is up then to the justice system to establish the truth of the facts.”

    For anyone affected by the issues of sexual violence raised in this reporting, support and confidential guidance is available via the BBC Action Line.

  • Estonia says Nato jet shot down drone over its territory

    Estonia says Nato jet shot down drone over its territory

    A NATO-patrolled Baltic airspace incident has underscored rising regional tensions after a Romanian F-16, operating as part of the alliance’s Baltic air policing mission, shot down an off-course drone over central Estonia this Tuesday. According to Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur, the drone’s debris landed in a marshy, forested area between Lake Võrtsjärv and the town of Põltsamaa, roughly 30 meters from the closest residential building. No structural damage or injuries were reported following the crash.

    Estonian defense officials confirmed they had received early advance warning from Latvia about the wayward drone, and tracked the object continuously before authorizing the shootdown. Local public broadcaster ERR released witness accounts from area residents, who described hearing a loud explosion before watching the craft plunge from the sky. Photographs of purported drone fragments recovered from the crash site have since been circulated by local media.

    Establishing the drone’s origin and route has quickly become a point of geopolitical dispute. Estonian authorities suspect the drone was originally a Ukrainian projectile launched at legitimate military targets inside Russia, but was knocked off its intended flight path by Russian electronic jamming operations. Ukraine has echoed this account, with Foreign Ministry spokesman Heorhii Tykhyi accusing Moscow of deliberately diverting the drone to trigger incidents in NATO territory as part of a deliberate propaganda campaign.

    “We apologize to Estonia and all of our Baltic friends for such unintended incidents,” Tykhyi stated in an official release, adding that Ukrainian forces only use Russian airspace to reach their planned targets. Pevkur also confirmed that he received a direct apology from his Ukrainian counterpart during an immediate discussion of the incident shortly after the shootdown, and reaffirmed that Estonia has never granted permission for any non-allied actor to use its airspace – a permission Ukraine never requested.

    This latest incident is only the most recent in a string of drone incursions across the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, all eastern flank NATO members that have repeatedly denied Russian accusations that they allow Ukraine to use their territory and air corridors for strikes inside Russia. Just weeks earlier, two stray Ukrainian drones hit an unoccupied oil storage facility in Latvia, an incident Ukraine also blamed on Russian electronic interference. That event triggered a political crisis that ultimately forced Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina to resign from office last week. A similar cross-border incursion was recorded by both Estonia and Latvia back in March.

    Hours after Tuesday’s shootdown, Russia’s foreign intelligence service SVR released a claim that Ukraine was preparing to launch drone strikes against Russian targets from bases in the Baltic states, falsely asserting that Ukrainian drone operators had already been deployed to Latvian military facilities. Both Riga and Kyiv have immediately dismissed the allegation as disinformation. “There is no truth in Moscow’s latest set of falsehoods accusing Ukraine of preparing attacks against Russia from the territory of Latvia,” Tykhyi said.

    Regional security analysts warn that the growing frequency of these incursions reflects deliberate Russian efforts to test the cohesion and resolve of the NATO alliance along its eastern border. Following a spate of more than a dozen drone incursions into NATO member Poland last year, the alliance responded by moving additional troops and fighter aircraft to its eastern flank to bolster deterrence. Russia has yet to issue an official comment on the latest Estonian incident. The full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, which triggered this ongoing regional security crisis, entered its third year in 2024 after launching in February 2022.

  • Rubio heads to a NATO FMs meeting as European angst over Trump reliability, US troops, Iran grows

    Rubio heads to a NATO FMs meeting as European angst over Trump reliability, US troops, Iran grows

    Amid growing transatlantic unease over shifting U.S. security commitments and unpredictable leadership from the Trump administration, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to depart this week for a critical NATO foreign ministers gathering in Helsingborg, Sweden. The high-stakes meeting comes as the alliance navigates cascading global crises: ongoing fallout from the Iran war, skyrocketing global energy prices, and deepening uncertainty over Washington’s long-term commitment to collective European defense. This gathering also marks one of the final senior-level diplomatic gatherings ahead of NATO’s full leadership summit scheduled for July in Ankara, Turkey.

    Following the Sweden talks, Rubio will embark on a multi-stop tour of India, where he will visit Kolkata, Agra, Jaipur, and New Delhi. In the Indian capital, he is slated to hold bilateral talks with senior Indian government officials and join a gathering of foreign ministers from the Quad, the four-nation Indo-Pacific democratic grouping that also includes Australia, India, and Japan.

    In a formal statement released this week, the State Department outlined that Rubio will reiterate longstanding U.S. demands at the NATO meeting: pushing alliance members to boost their national defense spending and take on a larger share of the collective security burden for the bloc. He will also prioritize discussions of Arctic strategy, holding targeted talks with NATO’s Arctic member states to align on shared economic and security interests in the region and reinforce the alliance’s enhanced military posture in the High North.

    While the State Department’s statement did not explicitly reference Greenland, the strategically positioned autonomous Danish territory has emerged as a new source of transatlantic friction, after Donald Trump repeatedly drawn international backlash for his open discussion of seeking to acquire the territory for the United States. This week, Trump’s special Greenland envoy, Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry, traveled to the island for talks with local leadership. Greenlandic Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen told Danish broadcaster TV 2 after the meeting that while the discussion was respectful and constructive, he made clear that Greenland’s people are committed to full self-determination. “The Greenlandic people are not for sale. Greenlandic self-determination is not something that can be negotiated,” Nielsen said.

    For European allies who have grown increasingly uneasy with Trump’s confrontational approach to the alliance, Rubio’s presence at the gathering is widely seen as a reassuring constant. The secretary of state, known for a less antagonistic style and measured demeanor compared to the president, has been tapped for multiple high-profile transatlantic diplomatic missions this year alone. These included a trip to February’s Munich Security Conference, and a recent visit to Italy where he met with Italian leaders and Pope Francis, shortly after Trump publicly criticized the pontiff over his positions on the Iran war and transnational crime.

    In comments ahead of the ministers’ meeting, NATO’s top serving military officer offered partial reassure to anxious allies on Tuesday. U.S. Lieutenant General Alex Grynkewich stated he does not anticipate additional American troop drawdowns in Europe in the near term, beyond the 5,000 troops that Trump previously announced would withdraw from the continent. Grynkewich’s remarks followed Trump’s surprise announcement of the drawdown earlier this month, which caught alliance leadership off guard despite longstanding U.S. pledges to coordinate all major military moves with NATO allies to avoid creating gaps in regional security.

    The Pentagon later clarified that the drawdown will be implemented by canceling planned rotating deployments to Poland and Germany, rather than withdrawing thousands of active-duty troops already stationed on the continent. Tensions have run particularly high between Trump and German leadership recently, after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz stated that the United States was being “humiliated” by Iranian leadership and publicly criticized what he called the Trump administration’s “lack of a coherent strategy” for the ongoing Iran war.

    Lorne Cook contributed reporting to this article from Brussels, Belgium.

  • Austria beats Latvia for 3rd straight win at ice hockey worlds, Norway shuts out Italy

    Austria beats Latvia for 3rd straight win at ice hockey worlds, Norway shuts out Italy

    The 2025 IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship continued its group stage action on Tuesday, delivering two compelling matchups split between host venues in Zurich and Fribourg. In the day’s opening contest in Zurich, Austria notched its third consecutive win, a 3-1 defeat of Latvia that pulls it even on points with co-leaders Switzerland and Finland at the top of the tightly contested Group A standings.

    The game remained scoreless through the first period, before Tim Harnisch broke the deadlock in the second frame to put Austria ahead 1-0 heading into the final stanza. Latvia responded quickly after the break, when captain and tournament breakout star Rudolfs Balcers netted his fourth goal of the competition — a mark that still leads all players at the championship — to draw the sides level.
    The deadlock held only briefly, as Austria capitalized on a power play opportunity minutes later. Benjamin Nissner buried the go-ahead goal to restore his side’s lead, and with Latvia pulling their goaltender in the final minutes to search for an equalizer, Vinzenz Rohrer sealed the three points with an empty-net goal to lock in the 3-1 final score.

    Across the tournament in Group B, hosted in Fribourg, Norway earned a dominant 4-0 shutout victory over Italy, marking the second win and second clean sheet for the Nordic side. All four of Norway’s goals came from different scorers: Eskild Bakke Olsen, Noah Steen, Christian Kaasastul and Tinus Luc Koblar each found the back of the net once. Norwegian goaltender Henrik Haukeland turned away all 30 shots on goal he faced to preserve the shutout. For Italy, a promoted side making its first appearance in the top division of the world championship in recent years, the result leaves the team still searching for its first point of the tournament.

    Two more group stage games are scheduled to take place later the same day: Britain will face off against Hungary in Zurich, while Slovakia clashes with Slovenia in Fribourg to round out Tuesday’s match schedule.

  • NATO’s top officer doesn’t expect more American drawdowns beyond the 5,000 troops Trump announced

    NATO’s top officer doesn’t expect more American drawdowns beyond the 5,000 troops Trump announced

    BRUSSELS — Amid lingering uncertainty over U.S. military posture in Europe following a surprise troop cut announcement from former President Donald Trump, America’s senior military official at NATO has moved to calm allied anxiety, confirming Tuesday that no further withdrawals are planned in the near term beyond the 5,000 troops already scheduled to leave the continent.

    U.S. Lieutenant General Alex Grynkewich’s public clarification comes two weeks after Trump’s uncoordinated announcement of the drawdown caught NATO alliance leaders off guard, breaking long-standing agreements between Washington and its partners to coordinate all major military adjustments in Europe to prevent dangerous security gaps. The announcement followed a heated public dispute between Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, who publicly criticized U.S. strategy amid the ongoing Iran conflict, saying Washington had been “humiliated” by Iranian leadership and lacked a clear plan for the war. The criticism triggered sharp anger from Trump, leading to widespread speculation that the troop cuts were intended as a punitive measure against Berlin.

    In the weeks after Trump’s announcement, the Pentagon clarified that the 5,000 troop reduction would not involve recalling service members already permanently stationed in Europe. Instead, the drawdown will be implemented by canceling planned rotational deployments: roughly 4,000 soldiers from the U.S. Army’s 2nd Armored Brigade Combat Team will no longer deploy to Poland as scheduled, and a planned deployment of 1,000 long-range missile and rocket specialists to Germany will be scrapped. Specific logistics for the adjusted deployment schedule are still being finalized by military planners.

    Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a gathering of senior military leaders from NATO’s 32 member states at the alliance’s Brussels headquarters, Grynkewich stated clearly, “It will be 5,000 troops coming out of Europe. It’s all that I’m expecting in the near term.”

    Before his press briefing, Grynkewich said he held discussions with frontline military commanders from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland — NATO member states that share direct borders with Russia and Ukraine, and have been the most vocal about maintaining strong allied deterrence on the alliance’s eastern flank. The talks covered revised force posture options and adjustments to military capabilities in the region.

    The general emphasized that the 5,000-person drawdown would not weaken European security or NATO’s deterrence posture against Russian aggression. However, he also warned allies that additional redeployments of U.S. troops should be expected in the coming years, framing the shift as a natural progression as European allies build up their own independent defense capacity. “Over the long term, we absolutely should expect additional redeployments as Europe continues to build capability and capacity and step up to provide more of the conventional defense of Europe,” Grynkewich explained. He added that the adjustment will be a gradual, multi-year process, and that “We’re going to stay well-synchronized with our allies moving forward.”

    Compared to the roughly 80,000 U.S. military personnel currently stationed across Europe, the 5,000-person cut is relatively small, and the scale of the reduction has not sparked major alarm among NATO allies. What has caused concern among partners, however, is the lack of prior coordination for the announcement, as well as the widespread perception that the cuts are a punitive measure targeting Germany over its public criticism of Trump’s Iran policy.

  • Irish president continues first official visit to GB

    Irish president continues first official visit to GB

    Irish President Catherine Connolly is in the middle of a three-day official visit to the United Kingdom, marking her first trip to Great Britain since her inauguration last November. This visit, only her third official overseas engagement since taking office, has taken on added international attention after Israeli military forces intercepted a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in international waters that included Connolly’s own sister, Dr. Margaret Connolly.

    The visit got underway on Monday, when Connolly kicked off her schedule with a stop at the Irish Cultural Centre in Hammersmith, London. During her time there, she addressed a pressing domestic challenge facing Ireland, noting that a growing number of Irish citizens are leaving the country due to widespread housing shortages that have made affordable accommodation inaccessible for many. She also connected with local Irish communities, meeting students enrolled in an Irish language course and enjoying traditional cultural performances of Irish music and dance. Later that same day, Connolly held a historic audience with King Charles III, where she extended a formal invitation for the King to undertake a state visit to the Republic of Ireland, an invitation the monarch graciously accepted.

    On Tuesday, the second day of her official tour, Connolly first attended the world-famous Chelsea Flower Show, one of London’s most high-profile annual horticultural events. In the afternoon, she traveled to the London Irish Centre in Camden to meet with Irish expatriates and community leaders based in the capital.

    The context for Connolly’s UK visit comes shortly after King Charles III and Queen Camilla completed their first visit to Northern Ireland of 2026, marking a continued period of incremental diplomatic engagement between Ireland, the UK, and the British royal household. The trip will draw to a close on Wednesday, when Connolly travels to Leeds to visit the University of Leeds and the Leeds Irish Centre. While in Leeds, she will receive an official briefing on the operations of the Irish Health Centre, a critical community resource for Irish residents in the region, and will hold meetings with leadership from Irish community centers across the broader Yorkshire area.

    Parallel to Connolly’s diplomatic trip, a major international incident unfolded on Monday when Israeli armed commandos intercepted the Global Sumud Flotilla, a 60-vessel humanitarian convoy carrying aid to the blockaded Gaza Strip. In a live stream broadcast from the flotilla, commandos can be seen boarding one of the convoy’s vessels in international waters. Flotilla organizers confirmed that Israeli forces intercepted 10 of the 60 boats participating in the mission. Dr. Margaret Connolly, the Irish president’s sister, was among the passengers on the flotilla and was detained during the raid. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defended the operation, framing it as a necessary action to neutralize what he described as a deliberate attempt to breach the Israeli blockade imposed on Hamas-controlled Gaza.

  • UK police investigate allegations of historic child sex abuse following Epstein file release

    UK police investigate allegations of historic child sex abuse following Epstein file release

    LONDON — Months after publicly available Jeffrey Epstein court documents were unsealed earlier this year, United Kingdom law enforcement has opened two formal probes into long-unresolved allegations of child sexual abuse tied to the disgraced financier’s network. Surrey Police, the force responsible for the county bordering southwest London, confirmed the new investigations in an official statement issued to reporters Tuesday, outlining the separate geographic and timelines for each claim. The first allegation centers on incidents that are alleged to have occurred across locations in both Surrey and the neighboring county of Berkshire between the middle of the 1990s and the turn of the millennium. The second claim dates back even further, referencing reported abuse that took place in the western part of Surrey during the mid-to-late 1980s. As of the latest update from law enforcement, no suspects have been taken into custody, and no charges have been filed in connection with either investigation. In its public statement, Surrey Police emphasized its commitment to thorough, impartial work on all cases of sexual violence. “We take all reports of sexual offending seriously and will work to identify any reasonable lines of enquiry to verify information or establish corroborating evidence,” the statement read. These new probes follow a public appeal for witnesses that UK police issued in late 2023, shortly after the U.S. Department of Justice released a heavily redacted court document detailing widespread claims of human trafficking and sexual assault. Among the allegations laid out in that unsealed record were claims that abuse occurred between 1994 and 1996 in Virginia Water, a wealthy commuter community located within Surrey. The unsealing of the Epstein files, which contained hundreds of pages of court testimony and witness statements from the late 2010s civil case against the financier, reignited global calls for law enforcement to revisit unresolved claims tied to Epstein’s international connections, more than five years after the disgraced financier died by suicide in a New York jail while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges.

  • Kyiv holds a funeral for 2 young sisters killed by a Russian missile strike

    Kyiv holds a funeral for 2 young sisters killed by a Russian missile strike

    In the shadow of St. Michael’s Golden-Domed Monastery, a sacred space long used by Kyiv residents to honor fallen soldiers and prominent lives lost to Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion, an unusual and devastating scene unfolded Tuesday. Where coffins of grown military personnel usually lie, two small white caskets stood side by side, holding the bodies of 12-year-old Liubava Yakovlieva and 17-year-old Vira Yakovlieva. The sisters were among 24 civilians killed when a Russian missile slammed into their Kyiv apartment building on May 14, trapping them under collapsed concrete. Their mother Tetiana is now the only surviving member of her family: her husband Yevhen, a Ukrainian soldier, died in combat on the front line three years prior.

    Dozens of children, the two girls’ classmates from local schools, filed through the monastery dressed in all black, leaning on one another for support as they said their final goodbyes. Buckets placed at the foot of the coffins quickly overflowed with bouquets, with more floral tributes spread across the stone floor. Photos propped on the caskets showed the blond sisters, Liubava full of childlike energy and Vira wearing her signature glasses. Grown mourners and children alike wept openly through the service; standing among the crowd were several of Yevhen’s former brothers-in-arms, who came to pay their respects to the entire fallen family.

    Before Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022, Yevhen was known across his community as a gifted home cook, an enthusiastic fisherman, and a handyman who could fix almost anything for neighbors and friends. When Russian forces crossed Ukraine’s border, he immediately enlisted in the Ukrainian military, and was killed in action near the village of Dibrova in the Luhansk region in April 2023. Now, the war that took his life has reached the rest of his family, leaving his wife with no surviving kin.

    Footage captured by Current Time, a project operated by Radio Liberty, shows Tetiana speaking to rescuers in the immediate aftermath of the May 14 strike, as workers sifted through the rubble of her home searching for any sign of her daughters. “I already lost their father, my husband, a defender of Ukraine,” she told reporters at the scene. “I don’t know if they are alive or if they have already gone to be with their father. To say this is very painful tells you nothing. You cannot understand the weight unless you have felt it yourself.”

    Dmytro Koval, who taught Vira painting and drawing at a Kyiv art college, remembered the teen as an exceptional student: strong-willed, unafraid to share her unique perspective, and deeply kind to her peers. When news of her death reached the campus, the entire community was left reeling from shock. “When death comes for people you saw and talked to just yesterday, it is always very hard, unspeakably hard,” Koval said at the funeral. “We must not live on illusions, on empty dreams, on hopes for some negotiations that will fix everything, because our neighbors are not oriented toward peace.”

    Family friend Tetiana Osipova, who served alongside Yevhen in the military and accompanied his body home after his death, said 12-year-old Liubava defied expectations: she appeared small and delicate on the outside, but carried an inner strength that matched her older sister’s. Osipova added that the two girls struggled for years to process the loss of their father, and that on the day of the strike, she stood by Tetiana’s side as rescuers searched the rubble.

    Today, Osipova said, Tetiana carries a grief no parent should ever know: she is no longer a wife, and no longer a mother. But despite the unthinkable loss, her friend remains determined to find the strength to honor the memories of her husband and daughters, and to carry on their legacy. “This is an unnatural order of things, when parents bury their children,” Efrem Khomiak, the priest leading the funeral service, told the gathered crowd of mourners. “This funeral, this grief, this tragedy, it is not only your family’s. It belongs to all of Ukraine. Because we are all bound together in this war.”

  • Police say dozens of people and organizations could be charged over deadly 2017 London fire

    Police say dozens of people and organizations could be charged over deadly 2017 London fire

    LONDON – Nearly 10 years after the deadliest residential fire in modern British history claimed 72 lives at London’s Grenfell Tower, Metropolitan Police announced Tuesday that investigators will submit cases against 57 individuals and 20 organizations to public prosecutors, to review potential criminal charges over the disaster.

    According to police, all compiled evidence files will be delivered to the Crown Prosecution Service by the end of September this year, with a final charging decision scheduled for June 14, 2027 – exactly 10 years after the 2017 blaze that ripped through the 24-storey west London public housing block. For bereaved families and survivors who have waited years for accountability, any additional delay to justice would be impossible to accept.

    The 2017 disaster began when a small fourth-floor apartment kitchen fire broke out in the early hours of June 14. Instead of being contained, the fire spread rapidly up the building’s exterior, fueled by highly combustible cladding panels that had been installed during a recent renovation. The blaze tore through the entire tower in just minutes, trapping residents inside and killing 72 people – among them 18 children and multiple elderly retirees. It remains the worst fire disaster the United Kingdom has experienced since World War II.

    A damning multi-year public inquiry released its final findings in 2024, concluding that all 72 deaths were entirely preventable. The report laid out a devastating chain of failure: private manufacturing and construction companies cut corners to use cheap, non-fire-resistant cladding materials and engaged in widespread, systematic dishonesty to hide safety risks. These corporate failures were compounded by incompetent industry regulators and systemic government negligence that failed to enforce basic building safety rules, allowing the lethal cladding to be wrapped around the 25-story building full of working-class residents.

    Grenfell United, the advocacy group representing many bereaved families and survivors, said frustration has mounted after years of waiting. “We have waited almost a decade for accountability,” the group said. “No family should have to wait over 10 years for justice for their loved ones, if it comes at all.”

    Investigators confirmed that potential criminal charges under consideration include corporate gross negligence manslaughter, fraud, and breaches of UK health and safety legislation. The probe into the disaster stands as the largest and most complex criminal investigation in the Metropolitan Police’s history: officers have collected more than 165 million electronic documents, and reviewed the potential roles of 15,000 individuals and 700 different organizations connected to the tower’s design, construction and renovation.

  • Slovenia set for a right-wing government and a comeback for former Prime Minister Jansa

    Slovenia set for a right-wing government and a comeback for former Prime Minister Jansa

    Nearly two months after Slovenia held its closely contested parliamentary election, a path to a new government has finally emerged, with veteran right-wing politician Janez Jansa on track to retake the post of prime minister following his official nomination to the national parliament on Tuesday.

    A 67-year-old political figure who has already held the prime minister’s office three times previously, Jansa received his formal nomination from legislators of his own Slovenian Democratic Party (SDS). If confirmed by parliament, he will helm a new right-leaning coalition government that brings together multiple conservative-aligned groups, with extra backing provided by a first-term anti-establishment party that entered the legislature in the latest vote.

    As of Tuesday, parliamentary authorities had not yet announced a firm date for the final confirmation vote on Jansa’s premiership and his proposed cabinet. Slovenia’s public broadcaster RTV Slovenia has confirmed that Jansa already commands the support of 48 of the 90 total lawmakers in the country’s national assembly, putting him within reach of the backing needed to form a government.

    A successful confirmation would shift the small European Union member state sharply to the right politically, ending four years of liberal governance under outgoing Prime Minister Robert Golob. Jansa, a known admirer of former U.S. President Donald Trump and a long-time close ally of populist Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, most recently held the prime ministership from 2020 to 2022. It was in that year’s election that Golob’s liberal Freedom Movement party unseated Jansa’s government.

    Jansa has emerged as one of the most vocal critics of Golob’s outgoing administration, taking particular aim at the liberal government’s 2024 decision to formally recognize Palestinian statehood.

    The April 22 parliamentary election left Slovenia’s two major political blocs deadlocked: Jansa’s SDS and Golob’s Freedom Movement finished with nearly identical seat shares in the assembly. After weeks of negotiations, Golob ultimately failed to cobble together a viable liberal-led coalition, clearing the way for Jansa to step in and build his own right-wing government.

    The latest electoral process has been mired in controversy from the start, with widespread allegations of foreign interference and corrupt campaign practices. The Alpine nation, which has a total voting population of just 1.7 million, remains deeply politically split between liberal and conservative factions, a divide that is expected to shape the new government’s term in office.