Latest news with #Romanian-speaking
Belfast Telegraph
a day ago
- Belfast Telegraph
NI race riots: Total number of arrests now stands at 36 as man (26) latest to be charged
As of Sunday, the total number of people arrested in relation to recent rioting in Northern Ireland is now 36. Officers from the PSNI's Public Order Enquiry Team investigating the disorder have also charged a 26-year-old man to court. He has been charged with riot and is due to appear before Coleraine Magistrates' Court on Monday (June 23). As is usual procedure, all charges will be reviewed by the Public Prosecution Service. Two men, also arrested on Friday, have further been charged; a 42-year-old man arrested for intentionally encouraging or assisting riot and a 54-year-old man charged with riot. Both appeared before Ballymena Magistrates' Court on Saturday (June 21). PSNI chief warns rioters 'we will arrest you' The unrest began on Monday, June 9, in Ballymena. That night, what started as a vigil for a teenage girl quickly escalated into riots targeting immigrant communities, triggered by the court appearance of two 14-year-old Romanian-speaking boys charged with attempted rape. Violent scenes unfolded over four consecutive nights across multiple towns: Ballymena, Portadown, Larne, Newtownabbey, Carrickfergus, Coleraine, Derry, and east Belfast. Rioters targeted immigrant homes and businesses, setting fires and launching petrol bombs, bricks, fireworks, and missiles. Over 64 officers were injured across Northern Ireland, including 41 in Ballymena and 23 in Portadown. This unrest forms part of a broader rise in racially motivated hate crimes, which have surged to their highest levels in Northern Ireland since 2004 – 1,188 incidents were recorded from April 2024 to March 2025
Spectator
11-06-2025
- Business
- Spectator
Portrait of the week: Spending review, LA protests and Greta Thunberg deported
Home Yvette Cooper, the Home Secretary, was the last minister to agree funding in the government spending review. Once the NHS and defence were settled there wasn't enough to go round. The police wanted more. Everyone over the state pension age in England and Wales with an income of £35,000 or less will receive the winter fuel payment after all, at a cost of £1.25 billion, Rachel Reeves, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced. Capital spending included £39 billion on social housing over the next ten years. The government also committed £14.2 billion for the new Sizewell C nuclear power station, but did not say where the money was coming from. Rolls-Royce was selected as the preferred bidder to build the country's first small modular reactors. Unemployment rose to 4.6 per cent, its highest level since 2021, up from 4.5 per cent. Any child in England whose parents receive Universal Credit will be eligible for free school meals from September 2026, adding 500,000 to the scheme. Teachers in England can use artificial intelligence to mark homework, under government guidance. The NHS said that a blood shortage required an increase of donors from 800,000 to a million. David Lammy, the Foreign Secretary, announced sanctions against two Israeli ministers over comments which 'incited extremist violence', banning them from entering Britain. Zia Yusuf resigned as the chairman of Reform UK. He had criticised Sarah Pochin, the party's new MP, for urging Sir Keir Starmer to back a burqa ban, saying: 'I do think it's dumb for a party to ask the PM if they would do something the party itself wouldn't do.' Two days later he returned to the party in a role with the so-called Doge UK team, seeking savings in council spending. Labour won the Hamilton, Larkhall and Stonehouse by-election for the Scottish parliament with 8,559 votes, ahead of the SNP's 7,957 and Reform's 7,088. There was rioting in Ballymena after an alleged sexual assault by two teenage Romanian-speaking boys. An audit commissioned by the secretary general of Unite found that there had been a 'pervasive fraud environment' in the union, which spent £112 million on building a hotel in Birmingham, losing £53.8 million. Last week Unite members voted to continue the dustmen's strike in Birmingham, which began on 11 March. Chris Philp, the shadow home secretary, agreed with US warnings against a new Chinese embassy at the former Royal Mint site on Tower Hill, fearing espionage. Marks and Spencer began taking online orders for home delivery again, six weeks after a cyber attack. Peter Easterby, the only racehorse trainer to have sent out more than 1,000 winners both over jumps and on the flat, died aged 95. Novelist Frederick Forsyth died aged 86. Abroad About 2,000 National Guard troops were deployed in Los Angeles by the federal government, against the wishes of Governor Gavin Newsom of California, to confront violent protests against the migrant deportation policy of President Donald Trump. A curfew was imposed and 700 Marines and 2,000 more National Guard were sent in. Mr Trump said he was 'disappointed' that Elon Musk had called his 'big, beautiful' budget bill a 'disgusting abomination'; Mr Musk complained of the President's 'ingratitude', declaring: 'Without me, Trump would have lost the election.' He then tweeted: 'Time to drop the really big bomb: Donald Trump is in the Epstein files.' He later deleted it. Mr Trump signed a proclamation banning entry for people from 12 countries: Afghanistan, Myanmar, Chad, Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen; a partial ban extended to Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan and Venezuela. Russia launched an attack with cruise missiles and hundreds of drones on Kyiv and other places in Ukraine; the next night Karkhiv was the target; on another night Kyiv and Odessa. Russia and Ukraine exchanged sick and badly wounded prisoners of war, those aged under 25, and bodies of 12,000 soldiers. Russia's mercenary group Wagner announced it was withdrawing from Mali after four years. A 75ft statue of Lenin in Osh, Kyrgyzstan, was quietly taken down. Eleven were killed in a shooting at a secondary school in the city of Graz in Austria, including the suspect. A yacht carrying Greta Thunberg and 11 others trying to bring aid to Gaza was towed to the port of Ashdod, after being seized by Israel, and she was put on a plane to Paris. CSH
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Romanian court throws out challenge to result of presidential election
May 22 (UPI) -- Far-right Romanian presidential candidate George Simion lost a legal bid Thursday to annul last weekend's run-off election after a surprise loss to centrist rival, former Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan. Romania's Constitutional Court threw out the challenge to the election result by Simion, who accused foreign states, including France, of vote-buying and alleging ballot fraud involving some of Nicusor's votes. In a unanimous decision, the judges ruled Simion's request to annul the election was "unfounded" because the presidential poll complied with all "procedures within the scope of its authority," the court said. Simion, leader of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party, attacked the decision, calling it a "coup" and urged his supporters to fight on. Dan, who is an independent, condemned Simion's legal challenge as trumped up, saying "it was clear from the beginning to everyone that it was completely artificial." The strategically key European Union country and NATO ally has been in unprecedented territory since the court annulled a presidential election in December, two days before a run-off between centrist Elena Lasconi and previously unknown far-right candidate Calin Georgescu, citing Russian interference. Simion polled 40.96% of the vote in the rerun of the election earlier this month -- short of the 50% needed for an outright win -- but was expected to prevail over Dan in Sunday's run-off because the mayor received half as many votes. Simion has previously argued against military assistance for Ukraine in its struggle to repel invading Russian forces and in favor of a return to the Greater Romania of the interwar years by reunifying Romania with neighboring Romanian-speaking Moldova. Simion received a three-year entry ban from Ukraine in 2024 for "systematic anti-Ukrainian" activities and is also banned from neighboring Moldova on national security grounds. The constitutional court's decision to annul "the entire electoral process" came after declassified Romanian intelligence files detailed a security services warning that Russia had attacked the election system with an "aggressive hybrid action" in order to promote Georgescu. The intelligence assessment was that Georgescu's victory was "not a natural outcome," and that a "state actor" had enabled him to leap ahead of Lasconi and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu with an artificially coordinated social media campaign run from 25,000 TikTok accounts activated just two weeks before the first-round vote. Condemning the alleged Russian interference, then-U.S. President Joe Biden said it was critical that Romanians had confidence their elections reflected the democratic will of the people "free of foreign malign influence aimed at undermining the fairness of their elections."
UPI
22-05-2025
- Politics
- UPI
Romanian court throws out challenge to result of presidential election
Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party presidential candidate George Simion had his legal bid to overturn a run-off election at the weekend in which he was defeated thrown out by the country's constitutional court on Thursday. File photo by Robert Ghement/EPA-EFE May 22 (UPI) -- Far-right Romanian presidential candidate George Simion lost a legal bid Thursday to annul last weekend's run-off election after a surprise loss to centrist rival, former Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan. Romania's Constitutional Court threw out the challenge to the election result by Simion, who accused foreign states, including France, of vote-buying and alleging ballot fraud involving some of Nicusor's votes. In a unanimous decision, the judges ruled Simion's request to annul the election was "unfounded" because the presidential poll complied with all "procedures within the scope of its authority," the court said. Simion, leader of the Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party, attacked the decision, calling it a "coup" and urged his supporters to fight on. Dan, who is an independent, condemned Simion's legal challenge as trumped up, saying "it was clear from the beginning to everyone that it was completely artificial." The strategically key European Union country and NATO ally has been in unprecedented territory since the court annulled a presidential election in December, two days before a run-off between centrist Elena Lasconi and previously unknown far-right candidate Calin Georgescu, citing Russian interference. Simion polled 40.96% of the vote in the rerun of the election earlier this month -- short of the 50% needed for an outright win -- but was expected to prevail over Dan in Sunday's run-off because the mayor received half as many votes. Simion has previously argued against military assistance for Ukraine in its struggle to repel invading Russian forces and in favor of a return to the Greater Romania of the interwar years by reunifying Romania with neighboring Romanian-speaking Moldova. Simion received a three-year entry ban from Ukraine in 2024 for "systematic anti-Ukrainian" activities and is also banned from neighboring Moldova on national security grounds. The constitutional court's decision to annul "the entire electoral process" came after declassified Romanian intelligence files detailed a security services warning that Russia had attacked the election system with an "aggressive hybrid action" in order to promote Georgescu. The intelligence assessment was that Georgescu's victory was "not a natural outcome," and that a "state actor" had enabled him to leap ahead of Lasconi and Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu with an artificially coordinated social media campaign run from 25,000 TikTok accounts activated just two weeks before the first-round vote. Condemning the alleged Russian interference, then-U.S. President Joe Biden said it was critical that Romanians had confidence their elections reflected the democratic will of the people "free of foreign malign influence aimed at undermining the fairness of their elections."
The Sun
28-04-2025
- Politics
- The Sun
Romania far-right rides TikTok wave in election re-run
BUCHAREST: With 1.3 million followers, a Donald Trump-supporting far-right candidate is riding a wave of popularity on TikTok ahead of the re-run of Romania's presidential election in which he is expected to win Sunday's first round. Authorities are keen to avoid a repeat of the uproar that followed the constitutional court's annulment of last year's vote results, after claims of Russian interference. Authorities also reported a mass social media campaign in favour of far-right candidate Calin Georgescu, who won the first round. Georgescu was barred from the re-run and now his ally George Simion, leader of the far-right AUR party, has taken the lead in the re-run, according to several opinion polls. 'We're going to show them that we can beat them,' the holder of one active TikTok account under the name of promoting Simion, told AFP. 'If Simion doesn't win, it's clear the elections have been rigged.' The Chinese-owned video-sharing app has nine million user accounts in Romania, which has a population of 19 million. TikTok election measures Under investigation by the European Commission, TikTok said in March that it removed a network of more than 27,000 fake accounts that promoted Georgescu and Simion's AUR party 'in an attempt to manipulate Romanian election discourse'. The platform says it has also hired more Romanian-speaking content moderators to assess potentially misleading content ahead of the election. Brussels welcomed TikTok's 'cooperation' in the probe and the changes, including 'better detection and labelling of political accounts'. The platform also added 120 experts to a Romanian election task force focusing on 'covert influence campaigns and advertising integrity' and carried out a stress test to counter any potential threats. TikTok, whose representatives were invited to Bucharest ahead of the election, also said it was in close contact with Romanian authorities and local institutions 'via dedicated channels'. The centre-left government has implemented stricter rules to clearly designate political lobbying and confirm the legality of funding. Content can now be removed from platforms at the telecommunications regulator's request. 'I am convinced that we are better prepared,' interim president Ilie Bolojan said, while warning of new hybrid attacks aiming 'to divide the population'. Despite the changes, TikTok's algorithms still boost emotive and polarising messages, with Georgescu and Simion benefitting 'from a disproportionate visibility,' according to Madalina Botan, a senior lecturer at the National University of Political Science and Administration in Bucharest. 'In such an ecosystem, players who understand the logic of the platform and manage to create visually and emotionally appealing content have a considerable advantage, regardless of the veracity of the message being delivered,' she said. Romanian users 'radicalised' Simion has been particularly effective at engaging with his TikTok audience, balancing behind-the-scenes content with personal family images, according to Raluca Radu, director of the journalism department at the University of Bucharest. 'He's been using the platform for a long time, he understands it, he knows what types of content to upload, he knows how to perform,' Radu said, adding that Simion frequently expresses support for Georgescu to 'legitimise himself'. Radu said she had not observed unusual algorithm movements this time. Georgescu still looms large on TikTok -- he was propelled into the top 10 global trends on the platform in November, according to declassified intelligence documents. In videos viewed thousands of times, his supporters long for his return, while suggesting the election re-run is a 'farce' and 'gross manipulation', AFP's digital investigation team found. By contrast, more moderate candidates such as Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan are often the target of criticism on TikTok, with their words ridiculed or set to humorous soundtracks or songs. One recent video includes a mocking movie-style soundtrack and cricket sounds that pokes fun at Dan's hesitant delivery during a press conference, where he said: 'Romania has some problems, and in my opinion, this presidential campaign can bring some solutions.' Dan said he was a victim of 'an avalanche of new suspicious followers'. Old accounts that had previously carried pro-Georgescu propaganda -- some with millions of likes -- have turned pro-Russian and spread communist nostalgia and anti-establishment messages ahead of the May polls, according to an investigation by local media HotNews. The probe found thousands of posts featuring fake messages from Russian President Vladimir Putin addressing Romanians, suggesting he could become the next Romanian president and 'liberate' the country. Radu said 'a large part' of the electorate was 'radicalised'. 'As long as politicians refer to conspiracy theories, coups, the 'system' and the 'parallel state' in the public space, as long as they exchange toxic messages among themselves, the level of radicalisation will not decrease,' Radu said.
