{"id":46980,"date":"2026-10-07T04:54:50","date_gmt":"2026-10-07T02:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kaizen-blog.org\/?p=46980"},"modified":"2026-10-07T07:38:45","modified_gmt":"2026-10-07T05:38:45","slug":"07-oktober-2026-kurznachrichten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kaizen-blog.org\/en\/07-oktober-2026-kurznachrichten\/","title":{"rendered":"October 7, 2026 \u2013 Short News"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Today in our brief news: <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sie kamen, um zu tanzen … \u2022 Frankreichs Sch\u00fcler revoltieren gegen kaputte Schulen, w\u00e4hrend die Polizei mit Tr\u00e4nengas antwortet und nach gut 2 Wochen bereits mehr als 6.500 Menschen festgenommen wurden. \u00b7 ICE k\u00fcrzte die Ausbildung \u00f6rtlicher Polizisten von 4 Wochen auf 40 Stunden und strich ausgerechnet Unterricht dar\u00fcber, wann eine Festnahme \u00fcberhaupt rechtm\u00e4\u00dfig ist. \u00b7 Fast 12 Millionen Dollar Steuergeld sind bereits in Werbung geflossen, die Donald Trump feiert, auf die Frage nach einer R\u00fcckzahlung antwortet er nur: \u201eWir entscheiden.\u201c \u00b7 Zum ersten Mal seit mehr als 20 Jahren l\u00e4dt Washington keine internationalen Wahlbeobachter zu einer US-Bundeswahl ein, w\u00e4hrend das eigene Justizministerium Beobachter in Wahllokale schicken will. \u00b7 Ex-BND-Chef August Hanning steht unter Spionageverdacht, rund 2.000 geheime Dokumente sollen geflossen sein, und eine Spur f\u00fchrt nach Aserbaidschan.<\/strong> \u2022 While Trump Fights for Congress, His Advisers Are Making Hundreds of Thousands Working for Putin\u2019s Friends in the Balkans<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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They came to dance ...<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Here they danced toward the morning, and the morning came without them. What remains is the light we now kindle in place of their footsteps.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Broken Schools, Tear Gas, 6,500 Arrests: France\u2019s Youth Have Had Enough<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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What began in mid-September at a school in the greater Paris area is now out on the streets in dozens of cities. On Tuesday, 266,000 people demonstrated according to the Interior Ministry, including 56,000 in Paris alone. Students blockaded high schools, teachers and labor unions joined them, and large demonstrations moved through Marseille and Strasbourg. In Rennes, police used water cannons, in Paris, tear gas. Nearly 500 people were arrested on that one day. Since the school boycotts and blockades began just over 2 weeks ago, more than 6,500 people have been arrested, most of them minors. On Monday, a 15-year-old lost a hand during an incident involving a stun grenade. Interior Minister Laurent Nu\u00f1ez nevertheless defends the police response as proportionate in \u201calmost all cases\u201d and points to 715 injured police officers. At the same time, parents and teachers are watching young people protest over missing teachers, broken-down schools and miserable conditions, only to be met with batons, rubber bullets and tear gas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The complaints are concrete. Students describe classrooms without enough desks and chairs, rooms that become unbearably hot in summer, rat infestations and staff shortages. French high school students already spend an unusually high number of mandatory hours in class. At the same time, employees are missing, buildings are deteriorating and the strain is growing. On Tuesday, classes were fully or partially suspended at 891 schools. Outside Paris\u2019 Lyc\u00e9e H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Boucher, students built barricades from trash cans and bicycles while parents positioned themselves between the young people and police. \u201cThese are our children,\u201d said Emilia Sichili Suriam of a parents\u2019 association. The government has now set up an online portal where students can anonymously describe what is going wrong at their schools. Prime Minister S\u00e9bastien Lecornu is calling on schools and the government to listen while at the same time speaking of \u201cextreme violence\u201d around schools. He called accusations that police are acting in a racist manner a lie. Possible \u201caccidents\u201d during police operations, he said, should be investigated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The protests are hitting a country that has long been tense far beyond its schools. Fuel prices have risen because of the Iran war, poverty and wealth inequality are weighing on many French people, while public spending is under pressure. Emmanuel Macron cannot run for a third consecutive term after nearly 10 years in the \u00c9lys\u00e9e Palace, and the unrest is landing right in the middle of the opening presidential campaign. Students demanding more teachers, functioning buildings and decent conditions have set off a debate that can no longer be confined to class schedules and schoolrooms. \u201cYou say young people are the future, so listen to them,\u201d read a handwritten sign outside a Paris school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New protests are already planned for Thursday. Belgium now has student demonstrations of its own. In Li\u00e8ge, more than 30 people were arrested on Tuesday and several police officers were injured, while smaller protests also took place in Brussels. The government now has an online form. The students still have broken schools. After more than 6,500 arrests, a 15-year-old without a hand and hundreds of closed schools, that would be a pretty meager answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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40 Hours of Training for Arrests: ICE Cut the Very Instruction on Who Police Are Even Allowed to Detain<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Four weeks of in-person training used to be required before local police officers were allowed to arrest people for ICE over immigration violations. Under Donald Trump, that became 40 hours in front of a screen. Internal emails now show what was cut: instruction on immigration status, possible grounds for deportation and the question of whether officers even have a lawful basis to act against someone was reduced. Practical exercises involving situations police might actually encounter in the field were eliminated entirely. At first, the course was supposed to shrink from 4 weeks to 2, then to 1 week. Five hours after the email was sent, David Venturella, an adviser at the time and now head of ICE, replied with a single word: \u201cThanks.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The watchdog group American Oversight obtained the documents through a Freedom of Information Act request. Its executive director, Chioma Chukwu, is particularly critical of the fact that precisely the material meant to help officers determine whether they even have a legal basis for an arrest was cut back. Who is a U.S. citizen, what immigration status does someone have, when can deportation proceedings be initiated? These are not theoretical questions. A mistake means a person can be detained during a traffic stop and possibly handed over to ICE. Ten topics remain in the shortened program, including rules on the use of force, liability, civil rights and immigrant detention. There is one test per training day. Exercises based on real situations were cut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, cooperation between ICE and local police expanded massively. Under Joe Biden, there were 135 so-called 287(g) agreements in 16 states. More than 2,600 agencies have now signed on. Many receive money to deploy their officers for ICE work, including during routine traffic stops. From 135 agencies to more than 2,600. From 4 weeks of training to 40 hours. The Department of Homeland Security initially did not comment on the new documents, but had previously described cooperation with local police agencies as a major success.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Training for new ICE officers was also shortened under Trump. The 72-day course at the training center in Glynco became 42 days. After criticism from Democrats and former federal law enforcement officials, the administration later returned to the longer program. ICE certainly is not short of money. The agency received tens of billions of dollars in additional funding and hired thousands of new officers. Arrests are at record levels, even though government data show that the majority of people detained by ICE have no criminal record. More personnel, more arrests, more local police agencies. Only when it came to the question of whom officers may lawfully arrest did the training suddenly have to move faster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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$12 Million in Taxpayer Money for Trump Ads - Asked About Paying It Back, He Says Only: \u201cWe\u2019ll Decide\u201d<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Nearly $12 million in federal funds has already been spent on television ads glorifying Donald Trump. In total, the Department of Homeland Security set aside $20 million for the advertising campaign. The spots have been airing since late September, right in the middle of the run-up to the midterm elections. One shows Trump talking about the threat of communism, another is essentially a replay of an ad from his last presidential campaign. A fifth spot began airing Tuesday, this time focusing on the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro. One day earlier, Trump had announced that the ads would be paid for in the future by MAGA Inc., his political fund that most recently had more than $400 million. What happens to the taxpayer millions already spent remains unanswered. Asked directly on Tuesday whether he would repay the money, Trump replied: \u201cWe\u2019ll decide.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Read also our article: \u201cDo You Love Me?\u201d: Trump and Vance Beg for Votes, Afraid of Defeat<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The money came, of all places, from the Department of Homeland Security. Two Democratic senators had already pointed out that funds from Trump\u2019s massive spending law were being used even though they were supposed to go to U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Criticism is now coming from within his own party as well. Republican Senate Majority Leader John Thune said such advertising should not be paid for with taxpayer dollars. Katie Britt, who chairs the Senate panel overseeing Homeland Security funding, said public money had to be spent judiciously and in accordance with the law. Legal experts also see possible violations of federal law, including the ban on using congressionally appropriated money for \u201cpublicity or propaganda,\u201d as well as restrictions on partisan political activity by government employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump pushes back. The ads are \u201creally good,\u201d he said, promotion for the country of the kind previous presidents had also done. The White House calls them public service announcements. Chuck Schumer, on the other hand, is demanding full repayment and an investigation into possible waste and misuse of taxpayer money. He also accuses Trump of potentially engaging in illegal coordination with an independent political action committee by announcing that MAGA Inc. will pay for the ads going forward. That is where the whole thing gets even stranger: First the government pays for advertising that looks conspicuously like campaign material. Then, after criticism grows, Trump says his political war chest will take over from now on. The first nearly $12 million is still being left with the taxpayer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For the First Time in More Than 20 Years: Trump Is Keeping International Election Observers Out<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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They have been present at every U.S. federal election since 2002. This November, observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe will be left out. The Trump administration has declined to invite them to the midterm elections. That puts the United States alongside Russia and Belarus in making this decision. The observers neither interfere in elections nor have any enforcement powers. They visit polling places where individual states allow it, watch how the election is conducted and publish a report afterward. Even during Trump\u2019s first term, they were invited to observe the 2018 midterms. They also monitored the 2024 presidential election and afterward described it as well run. Candidates, they said, had been able to campaign freely across the country. Now that oversight is set to disappear for the first time in more than 2 decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The State Department says the organization should use its limited resources where they can have the greatest impact. The organization itself calls Washington\u2019s decision \u201cregrettable\u201d and points out that the United States, together with other participating states, committed to inviting international observers to its elections. Human Rights Watch warns that excluding them heightens concerns about possible human rights problems surrounding the election. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, sees public confidence in the American election system at risk. A country that demands transparency from other democracies, she said, must apply the same standard to itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What makes the situation especially troubling is what the Justice Department is preparing at the same time. While the international observers are absent, the department plans to deploy its own election monitors. Democrats, journalists and election security experts are therefore demanding answers about their duties and powers. It had already emerged that senior Justice Department officials allegedly warned prosecutors they could be fired if they failed to pursue claimed cases of voter fraud. Dan Baer, a former U.S. ambassador to the organization, considers the exclusion of international observers highly unusual. Countries usually refuse that kind of scrutiny when they fear their elections could be judged corrupt or unfair, he said. For the United States, which for decades saw itself as a standard-setter for free elections, the move is difficult to explain. America votes in November. The international eyes that had been a matter of course since 2002 will not be there this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Former BND Chief Hanning Arrested: Around 2,000 Secret Documents, Payments and a Trail Leading to Azerbaijan<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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August Hanning led Germany\u2019s Federal Intelligence Service from 1998 to 2005. The 80-year-old is now under investigation on suspicion of treasonous espionage, spying out state secrets, attempted treason and intelligence activity. His former chief of staff, Manfred D., was arrested at the same time. According to the current state of the investigation, the two are suspected of having agreed as early as 2010 that D. would pass secret information to Hanning in exchange for payment. Around 2,000 documents are believed to have changed hands this way, including especially sensitive intelligence assessments and classified material from the BND as well as foreign partner services. Documents on Iran\u2019s nuclear program and the Russian military are also said to have been among them. The most recent papers reportedly date from spring 2022.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Manfred D. spent years close to the top of the service. He worked as Hanning\u2019s chief of staff and later, until 2026, for several of Hanning\u2019s successors as well. Hanning is alleged to have used and further exploited the information for his private consulting work. New reporting indicates that one of the most important trails leads to Azerbaijan. Hanning is alleged to have used classified documents to prepare a written analysis for an employee of Azerbaijan\u2019s security apparatus. Whether the analysis actually reached the suspected recipient is still under investigation. Hanning had documented ties to Azerbaijan and was still serving on the board of the German-Azerbaijani Forum in 2025. In another case, following an extensive exchange, he is also alleged to have passed information to an employee of a foreign intelligence service. Exactly which services were involved has not yet been fully disclosed publicly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Investigators did not uncover the trail through a counterespionage operation, but through evidence discovered in the Christina Block case. During a search of Hanning\u2019s premises in September 2025, Hamburg state criminal investigators found highly classified BND documents on an electronic storage device that he should no longer have possessed. Security sources later described the discovery as extraordinarily significant. In May 2026, the federal prosecutor took over the case and continued the investigation covertly. Hanning was already being investigated over his possible role surrounding the abduction of Christina Block\u2019s children. He denies involvement in that case.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Green Party lawmaker Konstantin von Notz is calling for a swift and complete investigation and stricter rules for former senior officials with the highest security clearances who take on private consulting work after leaving office. Hanning and Manfred D. are presumed innocent. If the allegations are confirmed, however, the case would be extremely serious: A former head of Germany\u2019s foreign intelligence service is alleged to have obtained secret documents from his own former agency for years, paid for them and used material from them in dealings with a foreign security apparatus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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While Trump Fights for Congress, His Advisers Are Making Hundreds of Thousands Working for Putin\u2019s Friends in the Balkans<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Former Republika Srpska President Milorad Dodik, head of the SNSD and still the most powerful politician in Republika Srpska, wearing a Trump MAGA cap in Banja Luka<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Donald Trump is traveling across the United States trying to save Republican control of Congress in the midterm elections. Meanwhile, two men from his closest political team were in the Balkans. James Blair and Chris LaCivita, who are running a multimillion-dollar congressional advertising campaign for Trump\u2019s political operation, advised the government of Republika Srpska in Bosnia and Herzegovina ahead of Sunday\u2019s election. Both are said to have been paid hundreds of thousands of dollars each, through a Washington law firm. Officially, they worked for the government, not Milorad Dodik\u2019s nationalist party. In practice, that distinction is hard to draw there: Dodik\u2019s party has controlled the government for years and has brought Republika Srpska closely into Moscow\u2019s orbit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After his party\u2019s decisive election victory on Sunday, Dodik thanked Vladimir Putin for his support and said at the same time that Trump\u2019s 2024 victory had created a more favorable political environment for him. His people have long campaigned on Christian conservative politics, oppose joining the European Union and maintain ties to Trump\u2019s circle. Before the election, they also warned about new voting machines, similar to the devices that Trump and his allies continue to falsely blame for his 2020 defeat. There were delays and technical problems on Sunday, but Dodik\u2019s party still won decisively. Blair and LaCivita returned to the United States on Monday. MAGA Inc. said they had continued working on Trump\u2019s midterm campaign during the trip. Blair runs the political action committee, which had more than $415 million on hand at the end of August, and LaCivita is a senior adviser there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two are part of a much bigger business. Since the beginning of 2025, the government of Republika Srpska has paid more than $4 million to lobbyists and political advisers with ties to Trump and the Republican Party. Late last year, the Trump administration lifted sanctions on Dodik, his family and his aides. Those sanctions had originally been imposed because Dodik undermined the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the war in Bosnia in 1995. A Bosnian court later convicted him of defying the international authority overseeing that agreement, he lost the presidency and is barred from holding public office. Politically, however, he remained the dominant man in his party.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Trump\u2019s family and others in his circle had already been there as well. Donald Trump Jr. visited Republika Srpska in April as a guest of Dodik\u2019s son. \u017deljka Cvijanovi\u0107, a member of Dodik\u2019s party, met Trump\u2019s chief of staff Susie Wiles at the White House in September. Lobbyist Alex Garcia, once part of Trump\u2019s campaign team, receives $35,000 a month to represent Republika Srpska. Former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, whose firm has received $1.325 million from Banja Luka since March, describes the political value of that relationship pretty openly: People in Serbia and Republika Srpska love Trump. Anyone who shows up there as a Trump friend has a huge advantage. And Trump\u2019s people figured out long ago that there is good money to be made from it too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n