LiberlandPress

This made my day😎 Fidel Castro's daughter was asked about the conspiracy theory that claims Justin Trudeau is actually her half-brother. "Uh… the only thing I can say is that his mother visited the country very often..." Stay tuned! TGP

According to the survey, Germans clearly reject pension at seventy! A clear majority of Germans reject an increase in the retirement age to seventy years and at the same time advocates an expansion of the circle of contributors. This is shown by an Insa survey for the Bild newspaper. The survey takes place before the planned presentation of the results of the Pension Commission of the Federal Government at the end of June. According to the survey data, 73 percent of respondents are against an extension of working life. Only about one in five supports a so-called pension at seventy. According to the survey, the rejection is drawn by supporters of all parties as well as by all age groups. It is particularly pronounced among 50- to 70-year-olds, of whom more than 80 percent are against a later retirement. Many respondents are also critical of the proposal to stabilize the pension level through slower pension increases in the future. 57 percent reject such a measure, while 27 percent support it. A majority for the proposal can only be found in the age group of 18- to 29-year-olds. There are 42 percent approval 39 percent rejection. To the 1. As of July, pensions in Germany rose by 4.24 percent. Last year, the increase was 3.74 percent. Majority of Germans for retirement at 70, if Merz (70) leads by example😎

Spain's Socialist Sanchez running out of road as corruption probes stack up+++ MADRID,(Reuters) - Eight years after ousting a corruption-mired, centre-right government on the promise of cleaning up politics, Spain's Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez is running out of road ​as graft accusations stack up against his party and family. Sanchez himself has not been named in any of the cases to date and has said they are a part of a campaign to oust him. There is a long tradition in Spain of the two political parties that have alternated in power taking advantage of the levers of patronage that they control when in office, said ​Miriam Gonzalez, a Spanish lawyer and founder of España Mejor, a platform for engaging civil society in politics. Alberto Feijoo, leader of the conservative People's Party that was kicked out in the ​2018 no confidence vote, quipped that there were so many cases hovering over Sanchez that when police on Wednesday searched his Socialist Party's (PSOE) headquarters, Spaniards had ⁠no idea to which case it was related. Sanchez said his party was cooperating fully with the investigation. KEY CONFIDANTS INVESTIGATED Key confidants, including Sanchez's number three in the PSOE and his former transport minister, are being ​investigated in several cases involving kickbacks for public works, or oil and gas contracts, and the procurement of masks during the pandemic. They have denied wrongdoing. Last week, Spain's High Court said it was investigating former Prime ​Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero for allegedly leading a network that profited from lobbying public authorities on behalf of third parties, such as airline Plus Ultra. He denies the claims. That case is particularly damaging for Sanchez because of Zapatero's role as a mentor, said Lorenzo Bernaldo de Quiros, an economist and president of Freemarket Corporate Intelligence. Zapatero is Sanchez's ideological father," he said. "They are two sides of the same coin." Some cases, such as the trial of Sanchez's brother David and of ​his wife Begona Gomez for alleged influence peddling were pursued following complaints filed by anti-graft campaign group Manos Limpias - Clean Hands - whose leader has links to the far-right.

Von der Leyen releases more than 16 billion for Hungary+++ About three weeks after the swearing-in of the new Hungarian government, the EU announced the release of more than 16 billion euros of frozen financial resources for the country. The money will be released due to the "great progress" made in important reforms in a short time, said EU Commission President von der Leyen in Brussels.

Classification as a terrorist organization - Brazil's President Lula upset with US+++ Brazilian President Lula da Silva has been angry that the US has classified the two largest criminal gangs in Brazil as terrorist organizations. Lula said at an event in the state of Sergipe that Washington should not play with the sovereignty of Brazil and democracy. – US Secretary of State Rubio had justified the move by saying that the influence of the gangs Comando Vermelho and Primeiro Comando da Capital extends far beyond Brazil's borders. They were among the most violent criminal organizations in Brazil. About two weeks ago, Lula presented an action plan to combat organized crime. However, his government rejects the US classification - possibly also out of fear of a US military intervention.

The Decline of the NZZ: 🇨🇭🇨🇭🇨🇭 From the "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" to the "New Berlin Propaganda Pipe"+++ According to critics, the once-proud "Neue Zürcher Zeitung" is losing its Swiss identity: an excessive number of German editors, daily Russia-bashing, Trump-baiting, and woke narratives are displacing independent journalism. Readers are canceling their subscriptions in droves, and the stock price has fallen to a record low. The "NZZ" has lost its touch with reality regarding Switzerland. With predominantly German editors and imported narratives, it now resembles a Berlin newspaper in Zurich packaging. Constant Trump-bashing, Russia-baiting, and woke topics dominate, while real Swiss issues fade into the background. Once upon a time, there was a newspaper that people spoke of with respect. The NZZ – independent, sharp-witted, sometimes uncomfortable, but always on an equal footing with Switzerland. Today, it is different. NZZ claims: Zelensky is not corrupt! His offshore companies? Just risk reduction! NZZ claims: Zelensky is not corrupt! His offshore companies? Just risk reduction! A newspaper that is losing its readers, whose stock price has fallen to an all-time low, and which has converged with German narratives to such an extent that it could confidently be called the "Neue Berliner Zeitung". The name "Zürcher" is now just a label. The content is imported goods. The numbers speak a clear language. The NZZ stock price has reached a new low in recent weeks. Small shareholders are dumping their shares en masse. The company is fighting back with support purchases and has multiplied its own holdings nearly tenfold in five years. The market capitalization stands at a ridiculous 180 million francs. The former flagship of Swiss media ranks economically far behind Ringier, TX Group, and CH Media. CEO Felix Graf is now trying to stabilize the sinking ship by increasing the stake in the billboard company APG to 45 percent – a 165-million-franc deal funded by debt, which has already racked up a 30 million loss. Liquid assets have shrunk by nearly 70 percent in ten years. This is not a temporary setback. According to Inside Paradeplatz, it is a structural decline. The Germanization of the Editorial Team The decisive reason does not primarily lie in competition from 20 Minuten or the Tages-Anzeiger. It lies within. In recent years, the NZZ has massively imported German journalists – people who are often neither Swiss citizens nor have ever lived in Switzerland for an extended period. They bring with them their Berlin or Hamburg perspective: a mixture of transatlantic mainstream, woke-cultural superstructure, and a deep aversion to everything that does not fit into the progressive narrative. The result is a newspaper that increasingly reads like a branch of so-called German quality journalism – only more expensive. Articles on German domestic politics, German debates, and German scandals dominate. Switzerland features as a sideshow. One reads about the glorification of Zelensky and daily Russia-bashing, as if reading the Tagesspiegel or Die Zeit. One reads Trump-bashing that barely differs from the German mainstream media front. One reads how the 10-Million-Initiative is being targeted from all sides – not with Swiss arguments, but with imported indignation. The readers feel this. It becomes clear in the comment sections, which the NZZ itself barely moderates anymore: many subscribers feel betrayed. They pay 335 francs a year for a "leftist tax," as one cynically writes, and get the same headlines as in every other establishment media outlet. "Go woke, go broke" is no longer a right-wing slogan, but a simple observation. The NZZ has ridden itself into the woke swamp – and the bill is now coming due. In the past, the NZZ was the voice of Switzerland, unafraid to speak unpopular truths. Today, it no longer dares to. It moves safely within the permitted corridor: Read the full story here: whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb…

IAEA: Kazakhstan ready to take over uranium from Iran +++ According to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), Kazakhstan has agreed to take over Iranian stocks of highly enriched uranium. If an agreement is reached in the negotiations between the USA and Iran, Kazakhstan has offered to store the uranium, which is enriched almost to a weapons-capable level, IAEA chief Rafael Grossi told the Financial Times on Friday. Grossi had met with President Kassym-Shomart Tokayev in Kazakhstan this week.

UN rejects age restrictions on social media+++ The United Nations rejects blanket age restrictions for social media. High Commissioner Türk emphasized that states had to demand that technology companies integrate this security into their platforms from the outset, instead of shifting the burden on parents and children. Blanket bans on social media are not a panacea for a complex problem. Mere limited access to platforms that are still unsafe cannot be the sole goal of effective child protection. UN: Combating "addiction-inducing elements" such as endless scrolling and constant notifications in social media The fight against "addiction-generating design elements" such as endless scrolling or constant notifications as well as an effective age review by the platforms are called for. Following Australia's example, several states are working on an age limit for the use of social media - there are also corresponding considerations in Germany. A commission of experts wants to present recommendations by the end of June. The EU Commission had announced that it would decide by the summer whether to launch a social media ban.

Netherlands: In Loosdrecht and other Dutch towns, there are serious protests against new asylum centers. Residents are blocking roads, setting off fireworks, and engaging in skirmishes with the police. The government calls it “terrorism,” but many citizens see it differently and want to protect their country. The distribution law and open borders are driving the country into chaos.

WELTWOCHE EDITORIAL How desperate is Putin? Not particularly when you look around at the first international security conference in Moscow. Moscow Night flight from Belgrade to Moscow. The absurd restrictions on travel still prevail. There are no regular scheduled flights from the Western European capitals to the Russian metropolis of millions. If you want to find out not only through the media what it looks like in the alleged realm of evil, you have to torture yourself through several intermediate stations. For me it went via Munich to Serbia, from there then to Russia. The people who decided this want to prevent us from talking to the Russians, to get a picture of the people and the country with which Europe is supposedly at war. I read Gerhard Schweizer's standard work "Iran verstehen", a volume of over 700 pages, the entire history of Persian civilization from the first empire of antiquity to the present day. The cultural scientist respectfully paints the picture of an ancient high culture, of which we have no idea. His book is a plea for understanding and dialogue, especially with today's government, which he judges critically, but always with a perspective on the reformist, liberal forces that have been struggling with the conservatives, the fundamentalists, for power since revolutionary leader Ayatollah Khomeini established his "Islamic Republic" in Tehran. Longbow against knightly armies My goal is the first international security conference in Moscow. It will take place until the end of the week. Hundreds of participants from dozens of countries have signed up. When I organize a car in the hotel lobby in the morning, I meet a few Afghans who accompany their defense minister, but there are also delegations from the Far East, South America and Africa. I haven't met any Western Europeans yet. The organizer is the National Security Council of Russia. The chairman is Sergei Shoigu, the cold commander-in-chief of the armed forces, who led the unsuccessful blitzkrieg against Ukraine before he was transferred to his new post. How desperate is Putin? That is the question I ask the conference participants. The war is not going as the Russian ruler imagined. You are in the fifth year of the invasion, and it falters. The Ukrainians succeed in counter-attakes, presumably not decisive militarily, although painful in terms of energy, especially effective in the PR war for the sovereignty of opinions. Putin's critics soon see the president on the ground, beaten, shrunken, at a loss. The sheet, Trump's former security adviser H. R. McMaster in the world week, begin to turn against him. He can't find a recipe against Zelensky's drones. Is it like in Azincourt, when a small English force with its long bows, the drones of the Middle Ages, destroyed the much better equipped army of knights of the French? It was, 610 years ago, a revolution, the triumph of David's cheap weapons against Goliath's expensive war machine. Perhaps the drones are actually heralding the end of large-scale industrial warfare, as the English Langbows once did the age of the Knights. As before the fall of the Tsar So far, however, I have not met a conference participant who is betting on Putin's defeat. "That's out of the question," says a Russian engineer who worked in Geneva once years ago at lunch. A diplomat from Ethiopia agrees with him. He has been living in the city for three years. The Russians have become accustomed to the war, everything is quiet, and it is clear to them: "Putin must win, because he must not lose under any circumstances. So he won't lose.” The West, the engineer adds, is confusing Russia's patience with nervousness. A group of university lecturers, two Russians, a Brazilian, a specialist in international relations, also seems deeply relaxed. One jokes: "Do you see a nervous Russian anywhere here?" Read the full story here: whatsapp.com/channel/0029Vb…

Ukraine support: Nine countries withdraw from Czech ammunition initiative+++ Nine countries have withdrawn from the Czech-led ammunition initiative for Ukraine. Czech President Petr Pavel told the Financial Times. Accordingly, only nine from eighteen countries participate financially in the project – half as many as last year. The initiative has been supplying large-caliber artillery ammunition to the Ukrainian armed forces since 2024. According to information from Prague, more than four million shells have been procured so far. Pavel explained that the project had temporarily supplied up to 50 percent of the large-caliber ammunition that Kiev needed in the defensive battle against Russia. "This initiative cannot simply be replaced," said the former NATO general. The background of the withdrawal is apparently the political change of course in Prague. Prime Minister Andrej Babis returned to power in December with a promise to no longer use Czech taxpayers' money for arms deliveries to Ukraine. Babis told the Financial Times that his country must first relieve its own citizens in view of rising energy prices and tight public funds. "We have no money," he explained. Other countries could continue to pay, the Czech Republic only takes over the supply of the ammunition. The presidential office did not want to name which countries have stopped their support. However, a Western military representative said that Germany and several Nordic states continue to be involved. Other governments are increasingly struggling to finance a project that is only half-heartedly supported by the political leadership of the host country itself.

Putin once again brings Schröder into play as an EU negotiator +++ Russian President Vladimir Putin has defended his proposal to appoint former Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as an EU negotiator in the Ukraine war. "When I mentioned the name of Mr. Schröder, I had a person in mind who can be trusted," he says in the Kazak capital Astana. The fact that he is friends with Schröder is not a minus point. "What's wrong with that?" he asks. After all, it's about trust. After all, the former German chancellor nevertheless represents national interests.

For the first time since 2022: The Russian national anthem was played again at the European Championships in Varna; the Ukrainian athlete covered her ears😂

Polish president threatens to strip Ukraine’s Zelenskyy of top state honour+++ [Al Jazeera] Ukrainian leader’s move to rename army unit after fighters who killed Poles in WWII causes ‘outrage’ in Poland. Poland’s president wants a state body to discuss stripping Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Poland’s top honour, following Ukraine renaming an army unit ⁠after nationalist fighters who killed Poles in World War II. Poland has been a staunch supporter of Kijev during Russia’s war in Ukraine, and former President Andrzej Duda awarded Zelenskyy the Order of the White ⁠Eagle in 2023. But the Ukrainian leader caused indignation in Poland by signing a decree earlier this week naming a military special forces unit “Heroes of the UPA”, after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA). To some Ukrainian nationalists, the UPA are regarded as heroes for their resistance against the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany. But UPA fighters were also involved in the Volhynia massacres in what is now western Ukraine from 1943 to 1945 when Poland says around 100,000 Poles were killed. Responding to Zelenskyy’s decree, Polish President Karol Nawrocki said that he was “outraged”, and had proposed “the withdrawal of the Order of the White Eagle from President Zelenskyy”. According to Nawrocki, the Chapter of the Order of the White Eagle, an advisory council that oversees the state decoration, will meet on June 8 Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said the Ukrainian leader’s move “wounds our historical sensitivity” and is “worrying from the point of view of our relations”. Polish Nobel Peace Prize-winner Lech Walesa, who was crucial in the fall of communism in Poland in 1989, said he had decided to stop wearing a Ukrainian flag pin as a result. “By honouring the bandits of the UPA, the president of Ukraine has insulted me and all our massacred compatriots,” Walesa said on Facebook. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Poland has been a major ally to Kyiv and served as a link for Western military aid. But as the war drags on, with no clear end in sight and peace talks stalled, Zelenskyy has been trying to unify the country against Russia by invoking historical figures. Earlier this week, Kijev repatriated the remains of a leader of the Nazi Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN), the umbrella group that established the UPA unit.

Romanian President: The Russian Drone was hit by Ukrainian air defense before impact +++ Romanian President Nicusor Dan explains that the Russian drone that hit a building in the city of Galati was previously hit by the Ukrainian air defense. As a result, their trajectory had been changed. When they flew [the drones] over Ukrainian territory, some of them were shot down, and one of them, probably hit over the city of Reni, changed its trajectory and flew towards Galati," Dan says. The mother and her child, who were injured in the incident, recovered well, he adds. The drone had 30 kg of explosives loaded, Dan continued.

According to Zelensky, Russia is preparing for new major attack +++ According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Russia is preparing a new large-scale attack on Ukraine. Zelensky refers to intelligence findings in a post on Telegram. He also calls for further sanctions against Russia. The implementation of agreements with partners on the supply of air defense systems should not be delayed. Russia announced "systematic attacks" on targets in Kiev on Monday. In addition, the government in Moscow called on foreigners and diplomats to leave the Ukrainian capital.

Dell and Iran hopes drive Wall Street to record high -, ji Excitement on the stock market.+++ Donald Trump has announced a final decision on the Iran agreement. That's what drives Wall Street. AI and technology stocks also benefit from a euphoric mood in the market. Driven by strong quarterly figures from computer manufacturer Dell and the ongoing euphoria over artificial intelligence, Wall Street closed to record highs on Friday. At the same time, investors were eagerly awaiting details on a possible agreement between the US and Iran. The standard index Dow Jones gained 0.7 percent to 51,032 points. The technology-heavy Nasdaq advanced 0.2 percent to 26,973 points and the broad-based S&P 500 also increased 0.2 percent to 7580 positions. For the S&P 500, it was the ninth week of winnings in a row, the longest series since December 2023. US President Donald Trump had declared that he would make a final decision on the Iran agreement on Friday. The government in Tehran had previously said that it expected actions rather than words in the event of an agreement. Despite concerns about the impact of the war in Iran on inflation and the global economy, investors continued to access technology stocks. "There is definitely a euphoric mood in the market around the topic of AI," said Ohsung Kwon, chief equity strategist at Wells Fargo. The price rally was largely driven by the company's profits. Melissa Brown, head of investment research at SimCorp, also referred to the increased trading volume in recent weeks, which indicated an influx of new investors. Dell shares rose more than 30 percent after the Group raised its earnings and revenue forecasts for the full year. In the stame of this, papers from Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Super Micro Computer and Microsoft also saw. On the other hand, the shares of Google's parent Alphabet gave way. Go Consumer goods suppliers such as Costco and Walmart also recorded price losses. Gap's papers collapsed after the clothing retailer lowered its revenue forecast. American Eagle Outfitters also gave way, as the company only maintained its forecast for area-adjusted annual sales. Car manufacturers also came under pressure. According to a media report, the US government wants 82 percent of vehicles built in North America to come from regional production in order to receive preferential treatment under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Shares of General Motors and the US-listed securities of Stellantis fell.

Iran Observer ⚡️BREAKING: Iran has begun transporting LNG and oil to China by railway, Per Fars News Pakistan is also beginning to import LNG via Iran using the Silk Road railway Iran’s extensive railway network provides a way to circumvent the U.S. naval blockade

🚨JUST IN: Bitcoin erases losses and reclaims $74,000 after President Trump announces navel blockade in the Strait of Hormuz has ended.

Tehran starts preparations for postponed state funeral for Khamenei +++ Three months after the killing of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the first day of the war, Iranian authorities have begun preparations for the initially postponed state funeral. It should be a "grandiose" event in the presence of a "large audience", the head of the Islamic Coordination Council responsible for the organization, Mohsen Mahmoudi, announces on state television. However, a date for the state funeral has not yet been set. After more than 36 years at the head of the Islamic Republic, Khamenei was on 28. February, the first day of the Iran war. Iran's supreme leader died in US-Israeli attacks.