Cases of the sexually transmitted disease have grown by 460% since 2001, the latest report by the Robert Koch Institute shows
The number of syphilis infections has hit a new record high in Germany, reaching 9,519 cases in 2024 compared with just 1,697 at the turn of the century, according to the latest report from the Robert Koch Institute (RKI).
The prevalence of the sexually transmitted disease, caused by the bacterium Treponema pallidum, has steadily increased over the past two decades. After hitting 3,364 cases in 2004, numbers have continued to rise, particularly among homosexual men.
The latest Epidemiologisches Bulletin, released on Thursday, recorded another 3.9% year-on-year increase compared with 2023. Members of the LGBTQ community accounted for the overwhelming majority of infections, while women represented only 7.6% of cases. The share of heterosexual transmission also rose slightly from the previous year.
The average age of patients was around 41, with reinfections remaining a persistent risk. The RKI highlighted that the highest infection rates were recorded in major urban centers, including Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Frankfurt and Munich.
Outbreaks among gay men have driven much of the overall rise since the late 1990s. The first significant increase was documented in Hamburg in 1997. By 2003, the incidence among men was ten times higher than among women.
Today, around three-quarters of reported cases are linked to the LGBTQ community, with data suggesting that up to half of these patients are also HIV-positive, often with co-infections of Hepatitis C.
The spread of sexually transmitted infections has been associated with the use of social media and geospatial dating apps, leading to higher numbers of sexual partners – including new and anonymous contacts.
Russia’s foreign minister has warned there are “clear signs of re-nazification” in Berlin’s ongoing militarization
German leaders are pursuing policies reminiscent of Adolf Hitler’s objectives of dominating Europe and inflicting a strategic defeat on Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has warned.
Germany’s military buildup and ambitions go beyond defense, Lavrov told a press conference following his address to the 80th session of the UN General Assembly on Saturday.
“It’s not just militarization, there are clear signs of re-nazification,” he told reporters. “And why is this being done? Well, probably with the same goal that Hitler had – to dominate all of Europe. And to try to inflict a strategic defeat on the Soviet Union, in the case of Hitler, and in the case of modern Germany and the chorus of main soloists from the European Union and NATO – on the Russian Federation.”
The foreign minister accused Chancellor Friedrich Merz of seeking to transform Germany back into “the main military machine of Europe,” citing his increasingly militaristic rhetoric.
Merz vowed to turn the Bundeswehr into the “strongest conventional army in Europe” in a speech delivered less than a week after the world marked the 80th anniversary of the fall of the Third Reich in May.
“When a person in a country that committed the crimes of Nazism, fascism, the Holocaust, genocide says that Germany must again become a great military power, then of course he has an atrophy of historical memory, and this is very, very dangerous,” Lavrov said.
This week, Merz stated that “we are not at war, but we are also no longer living in peace,” and called for the confiscation of Russia’s frozen assets to bolster Kiev. In Brussels, this “reparation loans”scheme is being pushed by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, who was Germany’s defense minister from 2013 until 2019.
Berlin plans to nearly double its military budget by 2029, the year German officials have repeatedly cited as the deadline for the country to be “ready for war.”
German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said earlier this year that the Bundeswehr must be prepared to kill Russian soldiers if “deterrence” fails. German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has called for reinstating universal conscription if not enough people volunteer.
Since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022, Germany has become its second-largest supplier of weapons after the US. It sent the Leopard tanks Kiev used and lost in its incursion into Russia’s Kursk Region – the site of the largest tank battle of WWII.
Lavrov previously argued that Berlin’s policies prove its “direct involvement” in the proxy war against Russia, and warned that the wider European Union was sliding into what he described as a “Fourth Reich.”
Donald Trump has pledged a probe into “dirty cops and crooked politicians” in the wake of the report
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) had some 274 “plainclothes agents” present during the January 6 Capitol Hill riot, conservative outlet Blaze News reported on Thursday, citing an unnamed senior congressional source.
The new claim contradicts the bureau’s longstanding denial of its alleged heavy presence during the 2021 unrest. Late last year, the US Department of Justice Office of Inspector General said the bureau had no “undercover employees” in the crowds, but acknowledged that 26 FBI confidential informants were present.
At the time, the DOJ inspector general said that four of the informants had entered the Capitol alongside the crowds. Only three of the informants were summoned to Washington to report on “domestic terrorism subjects who were possibly attending the event” in the aftermath.
Blaze News noted that the new information it had learned from the congressional source does not necessarily contradict the official account, given that “undercover employees” and “plainclothes agents” could be treated differently by the bureau.
The report nonetheless drew the ire of US President Donald Trump, who pledged to investigate the claims and bring “dirty cops and crooked politicians” to justice. The FBI undercover personnel could have been acting as “agitators and insurrectionists” during the January 6 events, Trump alleged.
“I want to know who each and every one of these so-called ‘Agents’ are, and what they were up to on that now ‘Historic’ Day. Many Great American Patriots were made to pay a very big price only for the love of their Country. I owe this investigation of ‘Dirty Cops and Crooked Politicians’ to them! Christopher Wray, the then Director of the FBI, has some major explaining to do,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform.
The January 6 events prompted a massive FBI investigation, as well as a far-reaching probe into the alleged conspiracy to overturn the 2020 election. The probe resulted in more than 1,500 people being charged with federal crimes, including Trump himself. Trump granted clemency to everyone who faced charges stemming from the riot, with most receiving full pardons.
Brussels is counting on PM Viktor Orban, who opposes Kiev’s bid to join the bloc, losing next year’s elections, DW has said, citing unnamed sources
The EU leadership has yet to devise a way to overcome Hungary’s veto, which has blocked the start of accession talks with Ukraine, DW has reported, citing anonymous sources.
Unlike most other EU member states, Hungary has consistently refused to provide weapons to Ukraine and repeatedly criticized the bloc’s sanctions against Russia. Budapest has also staunchly opposed the prospect of Kiev joining the EU.
In a piece on Friday, DW quoted an unnamed source as acknowledging that “currently, there are no ways to overcome Hungary’s veto.” Another source concurred that the “situation is complicated,” with Brussels’ attempts to “explore legal ways to bypass Hungary’s veto” having proved fruitless.
According to the publication, Brussels is counting on Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party losing power in the parliamentary election scheduled for April 2026.
For the time being, the EU leadership intends to complete all technical work “in advance, so that when Orban leaves we are ready to move quickly forward” on Ukraine accession talks, DW quoted its source as saying.
Delivering her annual State of the Union address to the European Parliament earlier this month, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said that it was time to “break free from the shackles of unanimity” and move towards qualified majority voting in some areas of foreign policy.
Last month, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto claimed that Brussels was conspiring to overthrow the “patriot Slovak, Hungarian, and Serbian governments” and replace them with puppet regimes.
Around the same time, Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) made similar allegations.
Also in August, Szijjarto warned that Ukraine’s potential accession to the bloc “would be the coup de grace to the European Union,” as it would have to redirect “practically all” of its financial resources towards supporting Kiev. Moreover, “much lower-quality agricultural products would destroy European agriculture,” the Hungarian diplomat stated, echoing concerns previously aired by Orban.
In June, Hungary vetoed a joint EU statement on Ukraine, effectively blocking Kiev’s accession talks, since unanimous approval was required.
The veteran politician has been briefly held at Gatwick airport under the Terrorism Act
George Galloway was temporarily detained at Gatwick Airport under the Terrorism Act upon his return from Russia on Saturday, according to his Workers Party of Britain.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command stopped the 71-year-old former MP, along with his wife. The police have acknowledged an incident, but have not confirmed that Galloway was the man detained.
“We can confirm that on Saturday, 27 September counter-terrorism officers at Gatwick Airport stopped a man in his 70s and a woman in her 40s under Schedule 3 of the Counter Terrorism and Border Security Act 2019. Neither of them were arrested and they were allowed on their way,” a Met spokesperson stated.
The Workers Party of Britain confirmed in a post on X that their leader and his wife were detained, branding the incident a “politically motivated intimidation” attempt. The party said it received no immediate “information on charges or alleged offences.”
Schedule 3, cited by the police, allows border officers to stop, question and detain individuals arriving in the country for the purpose of determining whether they have been engaged in “hostile activity” of any sort.
Following Galloway’s release, his party doubled down on its allegations, condemning the incident as an “attempt to intimidate those who seek amity rather than enmity with the rest of the world” for Britain.
“We were obstructed from providing legal support and the conduct of the affair has been designed to intimidate political opponents of the drive towards war with Russia and China,” the party said in a statement, promising to provide the “full account” of events tomorrow.
A veteran British politician and former RT show host, Galloway was an MP for nearly 30 years. He launched the Workers Party in 2019, and with a social-conservative platform, he won the 2024 Rochdale by-election. Just five months later he lost his seat to Labour in the general election, which he had been a member of for decades before the early 2000s.
The state benefits will be reserved for refugees who have obtained employment from now on
Polish President Karol Nawrocki has signed a bill tightening the rules for Ukrainian refugees receiving state benefits.
While the legislation offers Ukrainians the ability to stay in Poland until at least March 2026, it links their access to benefits, including the monthly “800 plus” zloty child support allowance ($220 or more), to proof of employment for at least one parent and school enrollment for their dependents.
Other benefits now reserved only for Ukrainians working in Poland include health programs, prescription drug coverage, and medical and dental services.
The Ukrainian refugees will now also have to show they earn at least 50% of the minimum wage, with their compliance checked monthly. The new legislation envisions a few exemptions, namely for people with disabilities.
The adopted measure spells the end for “tourism from Ukraine at the expense of Polish taxpayers,” the head of the president’s office, Zbigniew Bogucki, has said.
The Polish president is set to introduce two additional bills concerning the refugees shortly, namely on tightening rules to get the country’s citizenship and on criminalization of the promotion of hardline Ukrainian nationalist movements, he added.
“Through his previous vetoes, the president forced the government, led by Prime Minister Donald Tusk, to work and propose solutions that are not perfect but certainly better,” Bogucki told reporters.
Back in August, Nawrocki vetoed the earlier version of the bill, which would have simply extended the then-existing benefits system without any changes. The president has repeatedly argued that only those refugees who contribute to Poland’s economy should be eligible for state benefits.
Poland has been one of the top destinations for Ukrainian refugees since the escalation of the conflict between Kiev and Moscow in February 2022. The country is believed to have welcomed over a million refugees from the country since then.
He took Gaddafi’s money, used it to make himself president, then killed the guy. All that for the low, low cost of five years in jail
How best to explain why exactly Parisian judges have hit former French President Nicolas Sarkozy with a five-year prison sentence. Let’s just say that he was found guilty of supervising a bunch of movers. And those movers were hauling around suitcases. Loaded with cash. Around $50 million, to be precise.
Sarkozy will learn his prison check-in date on October 13. And appeal or no appeal, he’s expected to show up for his staycation behind bars. All this, even though the actual corruption charges mostly slid right past Sarkozy and smacked one of his top lieutenants instead.
Sarkozy had been staring down heavyweight corruption charges over allegations he siphoned millions in Libyan cash to bankroll his 2007 presidential campaign. But he walked on that. The only charge that actually stuck was criminal conspiracy – because the court found that proof of a conspiracy to extract cash from a foreign country for his presidential campaign existed, but not that Sarkozy’s fingerprints were on the envelopes.
Instead, the judges said that Sarkozy “allowed his close collaborators and political supporters – over whom he had authority and acted on his behalf” to solicit the Libyan authorities “in order to obtain or attempt to obtain financial support in Libya with a view to obtaining campaign financing,” as Le Figaro reported. Basically, the gang got caught, and the boss got dinged for pretending to look the other way.
His campaign manager, Claude Guéant, got nailed for actual corruption, resulting in a six-year prison sentence – which he won’t be expected to serve because at 80 years old, he’s considered to be too elderly for prison, where he’d have to sit around chilling all day – just like he does at home, probably.
Sarko’s longtime political confidant, Brice Hortefeux, was also convicted of conspiring as part of the same crew, but will also be able to just hang out at home and serve his own two-year sentence there.
The irony here? Both of these men once served as Sarkozy’s interior minister – literally the “top cop” of France. Meaning that the two guys who were officially running French law enforcement under Sarkozy are now convicted of running an extracurricular crime ring. If they had argued that their white-collar escapades were just “professional development exercises” for the job, it might almost have sounded believable.
The judges also stressed that the trial didn’t “demonstrate that the money sent from Libya” was “ultimately” used to finance Sarkozy’s campaign. Which leaves a strange picture: the cash clearly left Libya, Sarkozy’s associates played bagmen, Sarkozy himself was clearly stage managing all this for campaign financing purposes, and yet – there’s no direct line proving that the money ever actually juiced his 2007 election coffers.
Remember, this all unfolded while Sarkozy’s political relationship with the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi was riding the mother of all rollercoasters.
In 2007, fresh off winning the presidency, Sarkozy invited Gaddafi to pitch a Bedouin tent on the Élysée lawn like it was a teenage slumber party. They were all smiles over their joint counterterrorism cooperation.
Four years later, in 2011, Sarkozy was suddenly leading the charge to blow Gaddafi out of power entirely. Right on cue, a neatly branded “Libyan opposition” popped up to serve as France’s proxies in toppling him.
By March 2011, Gaddafi could see the betrayal in neon lights and let ‘er rip on French state TV, calling Sarko “mentally deficient” and an ingrate. “It’s thanks to me that he became president,” he told France 3. “We gave him the funds that allowed him to win.”
Meanwhile, then–US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was quietly visiting Paris while not so quietly cheerleading the invasion of Libya. At around the same time, Sarkozy himself was meeting with Libya’s future government-in-waiting inside the Élysée. However, one of Gaddafi’s sons fired a not-so-subtle warning shot at the French president. One that ultimately morphed into a final coffin nail.
“Sarkozy must first give back the money he took from Libya to finance his electoral campaign. We funded it and we have all the details and are ready to reveal everything,”Saif Gaddafi said. “The first thing we want this clown to do is to give the money back to the Libyan people. He was given assistance so that he could help them. But he’s disappointed us: give us back our money.”
Within a week, NATO was in, Libya was in flames, and the EU was bracing for the migrant wave that has submerged it ever since.
By 2012, the suspicion machine was in overdrive. Libyan intelligence officials accused French agents of helping capture and kill Gaddafi in October 2011, suggesting a cover-up designed to bury inconvenient details about Sarkozy’s 2007 campaign. Anonymous European officials started humming the same tune to Western reporters. But in court, the through-line just didn’t stick. Officially: the funds didn’t touch Sarkozy’s campaign, Sarkozy himself didn’t personally go hat-in-hand to Libya, and yet he’s still eating a five-year sentence. Which, incidentally, is only two years shy of the prosecution’s original demand of seven – with the consolation prize of some of it likely being served in home confinement.
This verdict took so long that Sarkozy’s 13-year-old daughter, Giulia – whose mom, supermodel Carla Bruni, still faces witness tampering charges in this case herself – wasn’t even born when it all went down. Exasperated by TikTokers treating her like a correspondent for dad-related drama, she finally sighed during a livestream about Gaddafi: “Please stop bothering me with this guy,” as if he were just some random dude from the ‘hood. “All due respect, I don’t know if it’s said like this, but rest in peace, Gaddafi. Really.”
Sarkozy can’t hit mute on a prison sentence like it’s a TikTok comment, but at least the courts will have us know that he didn’t manage to corrupt the French election system with foreign cash from a leader whose assassination he ultimately oversaw, wrecking his target’s entire country with his NATO buddies in the process. What an epic victory for democracy.
Moldova voted on Sunday, but opposition parties were erased, leaders detained, and international monitors shut out
Moldova went to the polls on Sunday in what officials in Chisinau and Brussels have called a “milestone on the European path.” Yet with opposition parties banned, observers blocked, and voters in key regions sidelined, the election is being described less as a democratic contest and more like an attempt at forced pro-EU outcome.
The international body has rejected a Russian and Chinese-backed draft resolution to extend relief for Tehran
The UN Security Council has voted down a Moscow and Beijing-sponsored resolution calling for a six-month extension of sanctions relief for Iran, opening the way for the reinstatement of restrictions over its nuclear program.
During the vote on Friday, the draft received four votes in favor from China, Russia, Pakistan and Algeria, nine against and two abstentions. This means that sanctions on Iran, which had been lifted under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) it agreed with major world powers in 2015, will resume starting from midnight GMT on Saturday.
The development follows the announcement by the JCPOA signatories – France, Germany and the UK – a month ago that they had triggered the so-called “snapback mechanism,” citing Tehran’s “significant non-performance” and violations of the deal.
Russian deputy ambassador to the UN, Dmitry Polyansky, said during the UNSC meeting that Moscow “categorically rejects” statements by Paris, Berlin, and London that they had a right to launch the snapback mechanism.
By speaking out against prolonging sanctions relief, the Western countries “definitively demonstrated that all of their assurances about their focus on arriving at a diplomatic resolution to the Iranian nuclear program issue for all of these years, were mere noise,” he stressed.
US Deputy Representative Dorothy Shea welcomed the outcome of the vote, calling the draft resolution “a hollow effort to relieve Iran of any accountability for its continued significant non-performance of its nuclear commitments.”
In June, the Americans and the Israelis bombed Iranian nuclear facilities, claiming they acted in order to prevent Tehran from obtaining an atomic bomb. Iran maintains that its nuclear program is purely peaceful.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi warned on Friday that the reinstatement of sanctions on his country would set a “dangerous precedent,” which could put the UNSC at risk of losing its credibility.
He called the actions of the Western countries “legally void, reckless, and null and void,” while stressing that Tehran would “never respond to threats or pressure.”
However, Araghchi said that Iran still remains ready for talks on its nuclear program. “Diplomacy never dies, but it has become more difficult,” he said.
The attacks could happen “in a matter of weeks,” the broadcaster cited sources as saying
The US is “preparing options” for strikes on alleged drug traffickers inside Venezuela, NBC has reported, citing unnamed American officials.
In recent weeks, Washington has sunk at least three boats it alleges were carrying narcotics off the coast of the Latin American country, killing at least 17 people. Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro has denied any links to drug trafficking and insists that the attacks were part of a US attempt to overthrow him.
The bombing of Venezuela could happen “in a matter of weeks,” the broadcaster reported on Saturday. However, according to its sources, the measure has not yet been approved by US President Donald Trump.
According to the officials, the moves being discussed in Washington mainly include drone strikes on drug laboratories as well as members and leaders of trafficking groups.
The US is considering further escalations because some in the Trump administration are disappointed that the deployment of US warships and aircraft to the Caribbean and attacks on boats did “not appear to have weakened Maduro’s grip on power or prompted any significant response,” one of the sources said.
Trump is “prepared to use every element of American power to stop drugs from flooding into our country and to bring those responsible to justice,” a senior administration official told NBC.
At the same time, the US and Venezuela have been talking to each other through unspecified Middle Eastern intermediaries, with Maduro allegedly offering some concessions to Trump in order to defuse tensions, a source told the broadcaster.
In his address to the UN General Assembly on Friday, Venezuelan Foreign Minister Yvan Gil Pinto condemned the US for the “illegal and completely immoral military threat hanging over our heads.”
The minister insisted that Caracas will resist what he called “imperialist aggression” and asked for the support of the international community.
“Venezuela will not yield to pressure or threats. We remain firm in defending our sovereignty and our right to live in peace, free from foreign interference,” he said.
