Trump Is Losing Even Europe's Right - Meloni Draws the Line
Donald Trump once celebrated Giorgia Meloni as his closest ally in Europe. She was the only European Union head of government invited to his inauguration. Today, little remains of that relationship. Ironically, it is the Italian prime minister - whose party shares many ideological positions with Trump's movement - who is now openly challenging him. When Trump claimed Greenland should belong to the United States, Meloni called it a mistake. During the war with Iran, Italy refused to allow the United States to use jointly controlled military facilities to carry out airstrikes. After Trump's attacks on Pope Leo XIV, she declared his insults against the head of the Catholic Church unacceptable. Trump himself triggered the final break. After claiming that Meloni had begged him for a photo at the G7 summit, she responded publicly. "Italy and I do not beg," she declared before canceling her foreign minister's planned visit to Washington.
The dispute reaches far beyond two politicians. It shows that Trump is now losing support even where his policies once found sympathy. Meloni is one of the best-known figures on Europe's political right. Yet over recent months she has repeatedly aligned herself with the European Union and openly opposed Washington. Other European leaders have also become far more willing to push back against Trump's attacks. Emmanuel Macron, Friedrich Merz, Pedro Sánchez, and Keir Starmer now publicly challenge him where many once remained silent. The tone coming from Washington has turned close partners into political adversaries. Public opinion across Europe reflects the same shift. A survey by the European Council on Foreign Relations found that only 11 percent of people across fifteen European countries still view the United States under Donald Trump as a reliable ally. The picture is scarcely better beyond Europe. According to an international survey by the Pew Research Center, only 23 percent of respondents across thirty-six countries still express confidence in Trump's global leadership. In Sweden, trust in the United States has fallen from 83 percent to 31 percent in just a few years. In Italy, it dropped from 73 percent to 34 percent. Even in the United Kingdom, Washington's closest ally since World War II, confidence declined from 82 percent to 49 percent.
The reasons are remarkably similar everywhere. Tariffs against allies, attacks on the European Union, doubts about NATO, and a steady stream of personal insults directed at partners have transformed how the United States is viewed. For decades, trust was built through shared security interests and dependable cooperation. That foundation is now being damaged piece by piece. Even many conservative governments in Europe that initially welcomed Trump have begun putting visible distance between themselves and Washington.
The conflict with Giorgia Meloni therefore represents far more than a personal dispute. It demonstrates that Trump can no longer count on keeping Europe's political right firmly behind him. A leader who publicly humiliates long-standing allies ultimately loses the very partners a global power depends upon. Trust rarely disappears because of one single event. It erodes piece by piece. Eventually, all that remains of an alliance is the memory of how close it once was.
Marine Le Pen Returns - France's Presidential Election Is Wide Open Again
Marine Le Pen is back in the race for the Élysée Palace. France's Court of Appeal significantly reduced her five-year ban from seeking office, crediting the fifteen months she has already served against the sentence. That clears the way for the leader of the National Rally to run in next year's presidential election. At the same time, however, the court upheld her conviction for misusing European Parliament funds. Le Pen was sentenced to three years in prison, with two years suspended. The remaining year could be served under electronic monitoring with an ankle bracelet. She plans to appeal to France's Court of Cassation, which temporarily suspends enforcement of the sentence.
That same evening, Le Pen officially declared her candidacy. "It is not the courts but the French people who will ultimately judge me," she said during a television interview. Politically, the ruling completely reshapes the race. Many observers had already assumed that her thirty-year-old protégé, Jordan Bardella, would replace her as the party's candidate. Now Le Pen herself is expected to enter the campaign as the front-runner. President Emmanuel Macron is constitutionally barred from seeking another term, and no equally strong challenger has yet emerged. Polls have placed Le Pen at the top of the field for months.
Legally, however, the case is far from over. Should the Court of Cassation uphold the appellate ruling, Le Pen would have to serve her sentence under judicial supervision. An electronic ankle bracelet could significantly restrict her freedom of movement during the decisive months of the campaign. Another uncertainty also remains. Legal scholars do not rule out the possibility that France's Constitutional Council could later review her eligibility once she formally submits her candidacy. France has never before faced a case quite like this. At the heart of the proceedings is the accusation that, over many years, Le Pen used European Parliament funds intended for parliamentary assistants to pay employees working for her political party instead. The court concluded that public money had been misused for more than eleven years. Le Pen continues to reject the allegations, insisting she never knowingly violated the law. France is now heading into a presidential campaign that will be fought not only at the ballot box but simultaneously in the country's courtrooms.
Khamenei's Funeral - Millions Fill the Streets, Rare Visas for Foreign Reporters, and a Regime Stages a Show of Strength
In recent days, Iran has sought to present the world with an image that leaves no room for doubt. Weeks after the attacks by the United States and Israel, the regime remains firmly in power. For the funeral of Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who was killed during the war, hundreds of thousands - according to the authorities, even millions - gathered first in Tehran and later in the holy city of Qom. One unusual decision stood out. For the first time since the war began, Western news organizations were once again granted rare entry visas. Foreign reporters were allowed into Iran under strict conditions to cover the funeral ceremonies. The regime itself determined what the world would be allowed to see. The message was unmistakable: a state that remains united behind its leadership despite war, sanctions, and international pressure.
Red flags, portraits of Khamenei, and the slogan "We Must Rise" dominated every scene. Senior military commanders who had disappeared from public view since the outbreak of the war reappeared. The funeral became far more than a ceremony of mourning. It turned into the largest political display of strength since the conflict began. Hundreds of Iranian journalists covered every stage of the events, while buses, accommodations, food, and medical care for mourners were organized by the state. The images of enormous crowds were intended to communicate one message above all else: the regime survives, the regime controls the streets, and the regime remains capable of mobilizing its loyal supporters.
At the same time, the rhetoric grew noticeably more aggressive. Calls for revenge against the United States and Israel echoed repeatedly through the crowds. Banners and posters openly demanded the deaths of Donald Trump and Benjamin Netanyahu. Mourners tore down images of Trump, threw stones at them, and ripped them apart. Senior security officials openly declared that the massive crowds were a message to Iran's enemies. Khamenei's death, they said, had transformed him into a martyr. Red flags bearing the words "Oh Hussein," referring to one of Shiite Islam's most revered martyrs, dominated the funeral processions. Religion and vengeance visibly merged into a single political message.
Behind this carefully orchestrated display, however, Iran's internal contradictions remain. Ultra-hardline factions are increasingly turning against officials who support negotiations with Washington. Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi and Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf have come under growing pressure. At the same time, many Iranians continue to blame the country's leadership for the economic crisis, political repression, and two wars within a single year. The anger that followed the brutally crushed protests has by no means disappeared. That is precisely why these funeral ceremonies mattered so much. They were directed less at Iran's own population than at the outside world. Their purpose was not to prove that all Iranians stand behind the regime. It was to demonstrate that its hardline power base remains intact despite war, international isolation, and military attacks - and that it is fully prepared to continue on its current course without compromise.
Drugs Delivered to Your Doorstep - Berlin Police Warn of Cocaine Samples in Mailboxes
Berlin police are warning about a new method of drug trafficking that is bringing narcotics directly into people's everyday lives. Dealers are now dropping colorful advertising flyers straight into residential mailboxes. Along with the flyers come small samples of cocaine, hashish, ecstasy, marijuana, or other drugs, as well as contact information for the dealers. What looks like advertising is, in reality, an attempt to recruit new customers. Police are particularly concerned that the brightly colored packets could attract children. Parents are therefore being urged to check their mailboxes carefully and immediately report any such discoveries to law enforcement. This development did not emerge out of nowhere. The use of hard drugs in Germany has increased significantly in recent years. According to a study by the Federal Institute for Public Health, 4.1 percent of young adults between the ages of 18 and 25 had used cocaine at least once in 2025. Ten years earlier, that figure stood at just 1.2 percent. Overall, nearly 19 percent of young adults reported having experimented with illegal drugs.
Other data paint the same picture. Wastewater analyses conducted in several German cities have indicated a steady increase in cocaine consumption for years. This new method demonstrates just how aggressively drug dealers are now operating. They no longer wait for customers to find them. Instead, they bring their products directly to people's front doors. Drug trafficking has entered a new phase. What was once street-level dealing is becoming targeted marketing inside private living spaces. That is precisely why Berlin police are sounding the alarm. Where children may be the first to open the mailbox, what appears to be an ordinary envelope can become a life-threatening discovery within seconds.
Scientists Discover a Hidden Water Cycle Deep Inside the Early Earth
For decades, plate tectonics has been regarded as the great engine that carries water from Earth's surface deep into the planet's interior. New research now pushes the beginning of that process back by hundreds of millions of years. An international team of scientists has examined volcanic rocks approximately 3.1 billion years old from northwestern Australia. Their chemical signatures reveal that water was already reaching deep into Earth's mantle even though modern plate tectonics did not yet exist. The rocks come from the Pilbara region and are among the oldest nearly unchanged formations on Earth. There, researchers identified three distinct types of magma that today are primarily found in regions where water penetrates deep into the mantle. Particularly striking was the discovery of boninites - rare volcanic rocks that can only form when water infiltrates intensely heated mantle rock and triggers melting. Their calculations show that unusually large amounts of water were already present in the mantle, comparable to what is found today beneath active volcanic arcs.
But how did that water reach such depths if tectonic plates had not yet begun moving? According to the researchers, the young Earth was far hotter than today, and its crust was too soft for modern-style plate tectonics. Instead of entire tectonic plates sinking beneath one another, water-rich sections of crust slowly descended into the mantle like thick, viscous droplets. Scientists refer to this process as "dripduction." Chemically, it left almost the same signatures as modern subduction, but it occurred on a much smaller and more localized scale. The discovery significantly reshapes our understanding of the early Earth. Water appears to have circulated between the oceans, the atmosphere, and the planet's interior billions of years earlier than previously believed. The process may also explain why so little of Earth's oldest crust has survived. Vast portions were already being pulled into the planet's interior and later destroyed. The few remaining rocks, such as those preserved in the Pilbara region, now serve as geological time capsules. They tell the story of a planet that had already begun drawing its own water deep beneath the surface long before the continents themselves came into existence.
A Selfie With Peskov - How One Photograph Brought Down a Bookstore
A Russian-language bookstore in Buenos Aires has temporarily closed. Not because of declining sales, not because of rising rent, but because of a single photograph. Owner Olga Kaloyeva posted a selfie she had taken with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov after attending a theater performance in Moscow. Within hours, she faced a wave of outrage from parts of the Russian exile community. The bookstore's online ratings collapsed, boycott campaigns spread across social media, and personal insults followed. Soon afterward, the bookstore "Tolstoevsky" shut its doors. Kaloyeva herself says the closure was the result of relentless harassment and explains that she wanted to protect her employees. Until then, the bookstore had been regarded as an important cultural meeting place for the Russian-speaking community. It hosted readings, discussions, and appearances by well-known writers and journalists. Works by Russian government critics were also available on its shelves. According to a close friend, Kaloyeva met Peskov by chance at a Moscow theater, took a spontaneous selfie, and completely underestimated the consequences. She remains opposed to Russia's war against Ukraine and now regrets her decision. The photograph, her friend says, was meant simply as a surprising personal moment, but many interpreted it as a public expression of support for the Kremlin.
Additional questions have arisen because, according to visitors, employees of the Russian Embassy regularly visited the bookstore. Kaloyeva reportedly acknowledged that she knew who they were but explained that she tried to avoid conflicts with anyone. Her husband also continues to operate a business in Russia, and the family travels there regularly. All of this fueled suspicion and speculation within parts of the Russian exile community. The case illustrates how deeply the war has divided Russian communities abroad. A single photograph was enough to transform a bookstore into a political battleground. Between mistrust, fear, and moral expectations, no room remained for nuance. Even a place devoted to literature became another front in a conflict that began thousands of miles away but has long since reached the everyday lives of the diaspora.
