International News
Poland Resumes Border Checks With Germany In Anti-Migrant Clampdown
Border guards and military police could be seen looking into passing cars and occasionally stopping vehicles for document checks on the bridge connecting the Polish town of Slubice with Frankfurt an der Oder in Germany.
The new checks are a response to growing anti-migrant sentiment on both sides of the border.
Poland says hundreds of migrants, mostly from the Middle East, cross into the Baltic states from Belarus every month, then travel through Poland into Germany.
The issue has become a particularly sensitive one in Polish domestic politics and has led to tensions with Germany.
Warsaw has accused Berlin of sending the irregular migrants it manages to intercept back into Poland.
“The checks being implemented aim to combat illegal migration,” Interior Minister Tomasz Siemoniak was quoted as saying by his ministry on X.
Shortly after the new checks came into force on Monday, Polish border guards detained a man for assisting irregular migration.
The Estonian national is accused of transporting four irregular migrants, believed to be from Afghanistan.
Siemoniak said the detention was “proof that these checks are necessary”.
‘Ping-Pong Game’
Germany, which introduced checks on the border with Poland in 2023, has welcomed the Polish initiative and called for collaboration against a common problem.
Speaking to the daily Rheinische Post, the head of German police union GdP, Andreas Rosskopf, said the two countries needed a “workable procedure”.
He warned against Polish and German border guards engaging in a “ping-pong game” with asylum seekers by sending them back and forth.
Representatives of German business associations have also voiced concern.
“We are receiving worrying feedback from the business community,” Helena Melnikov, chief executive of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce (DIHK), told the Handelsblatt newspaper.
“If commuters can no longer get to work reliably and on time at the German-Polish border, there is an increased risk that they will look for work elsewhere on a permanent basis—with consequences for the shortage of skilled workers in border regions,” she said.
Marek Klodnicki, an administrative employee who lives in Slubice but works in Germany, said the reintroduction of border controls was “very sad”.
“We have waited so long for open borders,” he said, adding that the checks would result in “a disruption in social and economic life.”
Business owners, particularly hairdressers and tobacco shops, which get a lot of custom from Germans crossing the border, also voiced concern the checks could disrupt business.
“Ninety percent of our customers are Germans. We may have less traffic, less revenue,” Kinga Dziuba, a 29-year-old cigarette vendor, told AFP.
But Dziuba said the checks were “very much needed” to control migration, adding, “Security is more important to me than trade.”
The issue of migration was central to June’s presidential election in Poland, where nationalist Karol Nawrocki—who ran on a slogan of “Poland first, Poles “first”—narrowly defeated the candidate backed by pro-European Union Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
The Tusk government is now seeking to outflank its rivals by taking a tougher approach to immigration.
Checks ‘Unnecessary’
In total, 52 checkpoints have been set up on the border with Germany and 13 with Lithuania, Siemoniak said.
The controls will last from July 7 to August 5 but could be extended.
They will mostly consist of spot inspections, particularly of vehicles carrying several people, officials said.
Nationalist and far-right politicians accuse Tusk’s government of having “abdicated” to Germany on migration and of allowing Berlin to overwhelm Poland with migrants.
In June, members of a far-right movement gathered at several points along the border to set up “citizens’ patrols,” which the government insists are illegal.
In Slubice, Edyta Taryma, a 54-year-old hair salon owner, said her revenues had already dropped by 20 percent after Germany re-imposed border controls.
“A great many people did not come, or came less often, because they were afraid of traffic jams,” she said.
She called the checks “unnecessary.”
A 13-year-old teenager in India tragically lost his life after his family kept him immersed in the Ganges River for 12 hours following a snake bite instead of seeking medical help, the country’s media reported.
The death of the young boy recently caused outrage throughout India and reignited the heated debate regarding the potentially deadly consequences of superstition and the denial of proper medical care.
Acting on the instructions of a ‘witch doctor,’ a rural family kept their 13-year-old son immersed in the holy Ganges River for 12 hours, instead of taking him to a hospital after he got bitten by the poisonous snake.
The boy, whose name was given simply as Amit, a Class 4 student from Pitampur village in Uttar Pradesh, was bitten by the snake last week Thursday.
He immediately told his family what happened, but instead of rushing him to a hospital, they decided to consult a witch doctor.
The man reportedly told the family to tie Amit to bamboo poles and keep his body immersed in the Ganges River, so that the holy water of the river could cure him.
Indian media reported after 12 hours, the family noticed that Amit had become unconscious, and then they finally decided to take him to a medical doctor, but by that time, there was nothing to be done.
Even after learning of Amit’s death, the family allegedly tried to throw his body into the Ganges, hoping for a miracle.
Dr. Shashank Chaudhary of the health centre in the village told reporters that he and his colleagues routinely conduct awareness-raising campaigns, urging people to come to the hospital immediately after getting bitten by snakes, as every minute counts.
Amit’s preventable death sparked outrage on social media, with many asking that his parents should face consequences for their negligence.
US President Donald Trump says he is “not a big fan” of Pope Leo XIV, after the global leader of Catholics made a plea for peace amid the war in the Middle East.
The 70-year-old American pope publicly implored leaders on Saturday to end the violence, telling worshippers at St Peter’s Basilica: “Enough of the idolatry of self and money! Enough of the display of power! Enough of war!”
“I’m not a big fan of Pope Leo. He’s a very liberal person, and he’s a man that doesn’t believe in stopping crime,” Trump told reporters at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland.
He accused the pontiff of “toying with a country that wants a nuclear weapon.”
Trump later doubled down on his comments to reporters with a post on Truth Social, saying: “I don’t want a Pope who thinks it’s OK for Iran to have a Nuclear Weapon.”
“Pope Leo is WEAK on Crime, and terrible for Foreign Policy,” he said.
The president added that Leo had only been elected “because he was an American, and they thought that would be the best way to deal with President Donald J. Trump.”
“If I wasn’t in the White House, Leo wouldn’t be in the Vatican.”
Trump later posted an AI-generated image seemingly depicting himself as Jesus Christ.
In the image, the president appears dressed in red and white robes as he cures a man with his healing hand. The American flag is shown over his shoulder.
Trump and the White House have previously shared AI-generated images, including one that showed the president dressed as the pope.
On Friday, a Vatican official denied reports that a top Pentagon official gave the church’s envoy to the United States a “bitter lecture” over Pope Leo’s criticisms of the Trump administration.
The story in the Free Press — which the Pentagon had already dismissed as “distorted” — reported that Cardinal Christophe Pierre was summoned in January to the Pentagon, where he was given a dressing-down by US Under Secretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby.
The military official reportedly told the cardinal that the United States “has the military power to do whatever it wants — and that the Church had better take its side.”
Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said in a statement “the account presented by certain media outlets regarding this meeting does not correspond to the truth in any way.”
While both parties insist the meeting was cordial, the Holy See and the White House have openly been at odds over the Trump administration’s hardline mass deportation campaign — which the pope called “inhuman” — and the use of military force in the Middle East and Venezuela.
When Trump made genocidal threats against Iran Tuesday — saying “A whole civilization will die tonight, never to be brought back again” — the pontiff slammed the “truly unacceptable” statement and urged parties to “come back to the table” for negotiations.
Earlier this month, Pope Leo hailed the news of a ceasefire between the United States and Iran as a “sign of real hope.”
But peace talks between the United States and Iran, held in the Pakistani capital Islamabad, ended abruptly and without a resolution on Saturday, with US Vice President JD Vance telling reporters after a marathon-session of talks that Washington has delivered its “final and best offer.”
Pep Guardiola has explained the reason for Manchester City’s resurgence as they push for the Premier League title.
The win lifts City to 64 points from 31 games, cutting the deficit to leaders Arsenal—who have 70 points from 32 matches—to just six points, ramping up the title race in the closing stages of the campaign.
Asked why Manchester City have been in such fine form in the final stages of the season, Pep Guardiola joked: “The sun! If it had been shining in November, we’d have been league champions by January… No, I’m joking, of course. In Manchester, the sun doesn’t shine very often.”
Looking ahead to next Sunday’s 32nd-round clash with Arsenal in the Premier League, he added: “That game will feel like a final for both teams, but there is a tactical detail we need to review, so we may make some adjustments.
“Everyone is talking about the Arsenal game, but matches against Brentford, Bournemouth and the other sides are just as important. The season is still long.”
Guardiola added “We’re in better shape, and in training everyone knows exactly what they have to do. We’ve faced three strong opponents, three Champions League teams. We didn’t put in a complete performance for the full 90 minutes, but we were organised enough, didn’t concede many chances, and our attacking threat was always there.”
Pep Guardiola
He added:One of our secrets as a club and a system is that, after one success after another, we have remained humble and have always asked ourselves: what must we do to stay at the top? Winning once or twice is normal, but to remain at the top for nine years—with the exception of last season—reflects the strength of the entire system.”
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