elijah

Trump really is the most transformative president USA ever had. For 3 months he managed to turn USA from democracy into a 3rd world dictatorships where rule of law means nada.

False equivalency. No matter how ill or unwell Biden was, he had the logical, beneficial to Americans policy. Him winning would have been MILES better than what we are witnessing now. Even if it was Kamala behind the wheel, who cares. The car was driving in the right direction.

Tnx God those 3 elections had the results favoring the EU: Romania’s pro-EU candidate unexpectedly beats hard-right rival to win presidential election Romania’s pro-European Union, centrist presidential candidate Nicușor Dan won the country’s election Sunday, defeating his ultranationalist rival in a shocking upset. With 100% of the votes counted, the centrist candidate won nearly 54% of the ballots cast, a clear win over hard-right candidate George Simion, who is a fan of US President Donald Trump. Simion, who opposes providing military aid to Ukraine and is critical of the EU, looked on track to win the election after he swept the first round on May 4. But Dan gained ground after trouncing Simion in a televised debate. While addressing a crowd of his jubilant supporters on Sunday, Dan said that the vote proved the “incredible power of the Romanian society,” according to Reuters. “Elections are about community. In today’s elections, a community of Romanians who want a profound change in Romania won,” the 55-year-old mayor said. He also encouraged his supporters to “have patience,” saying a “difficult period lies ahead, but necessary in order to balance the economy of this country, to build the foundations of a healthy society.” Dan, who is currently the mayor of the capital Bucharest, is a strong supporter of Romania’s NATO membership and has pledged to continue providing aid to Ukraine, which he sees as key to Romania’s own security against the threat from Russia. He also campaigned on a promise to crack down on corruption. Ad Feedback “I feel relieved. I am happy. I feel hopeful,” voter Alina Enache, 42, told Reuters. “I’m happy that we’re not heading towards the extremist way.” Simion conceded defeat in a video posted to X on Sunday night, despite calling himself the “new president” earlier in the day. But he also vowed to continue to fight alongside the “sovereigntist patriots and conservatives around the world.” He still captured the support of Romania’s diaspora, one of the largest of any country in the world. About 60% of the diaspora voted for Simion in the first round. Since then, he spent a lot of time outside Romania, traveling to Austria, Italy, Poland, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom, in an effort to win over voters abroad. “It was an honor for me to represent our movement in this battle. We lost this battle, but we didn’t and will never lose our war,” Simion said. The election comes five months after the result of the original vote, which saw former far-right outsider Calin Georgescu surge in popularity, was annulled over allegations of Russian interference. Georgescu was later banned from this month’s rerun after being charged with various crimes, including founding a fascist group. Related articleGerman spy agency labels far-right AfD ‘extremist’ More than 10 million Romanians cast their vote in Sunday’s election, which was widely seen as a choice between East and West and a litmus test for the rise of Trump-style nationalism in Europe. An array of European leaders congratulated Dan on his victory, including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Poland’s Donald Tusk and Moldova’s Maia Sandu. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also applauded Dan’s “historic victory” and Romania’s role as a “reliable partner” to Ukraine. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen expressed her eagerness to work with Dan as he becomes the country’s new leader. “The Romanian people have turned out massively to the polls. They have chosen the promise of an open, prosperous Romania in a strong Europe. Together let’s deliver on that promise,” von der Leyen said on X. On Sunday, Romanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Andrei Tarnea said that the “hallmarks of Russian interference” were seen in the election. “A viral campaign of fake news on Telegram and other social media platforms is aimed to influence the electoral process. This was expected and authorities debunked the fake news,” Tarnea said. Russia’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova responded by questioning the integrity of the election. “It’s impossible to interfere in something like that — only to get smeared in it. So don’t smear anyone else with your electoral mess,” she asserted. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov added on Monday that “the elections were strange, to say the least” and criticized the earlier removal of far-right candidate Georgescu. CNN’s Lauren Kent contributed to this report. Romanian election results: Pro-EU Nicușor Dan beats ultranationalist rival George Simion | CNN Warsaw's liberal mayor narrowly wins Polish presidential vote Warsaw's liberal mayor Rafal Trzaskowski won a narrow victory in Poland's presidential election, but a second-round run-off with conservative historian Karol Nawrocki will be required to decide the country's next president. The state electoral commission (PKW) said Trzaskowski, a deputy leader of prime minister Donald Tusk's centrist Civic Platform (PO) party, won 31.3% of the vote. Nawrocki came second with 29.5% of the vote. Final official results are not expected until later on Monday. Turnout was over 67%. Trzaskowski and Nawrocki are now set to compete in a second-round on 1 June as none of the 13 candidates won more than 50% of the vote. ADVERTISEMENT LIVE: Follow the latest from elections in Romania, Portugal and Poland Trzaskowski told his supporters at a rally in Sandomierz, southern Poland: "We're going to win." But he said a lot of work and "great determination" would be needed. "I'm convinced that all Poland will win," he said. He pledged to cooperate with prime minister Tusk's coalition to liberalise the country's strict abortion law and accelerate reform of the Polish judiciary, which was widely seen to have been politicised by the previous PiS-led government. Trzaskowski performed worse than opinion polls predicted before the vote, which had him between 4%-6% ahead of Nawrocki. Poland's president has largely ceremonial powers but he or she is able to veto government legislation. Tusk's coalition does not have a big enough parliamentary majority to overturn a presidential veto. Tusk has failed to deliver many of his campaign promises, partly because the incumbent conservative president Andrzej Duda has vetoed his government's legislation, but also due to divisions within the coalition over issues like abortion and civil partnerships. A victory for Trzaskowski would remove the president's veto, but Nawrocki would likely be an even tougher obstacle than Duda. Nawrocki told his supporters in Gdansk that Tusk must be stopped from winning total power in Poland. He called on supporters of two far-right candidates, Slawomir Mentzen, who came third and won 14.8%, and of Grzegorz Braun, who came fourth and won 6.3%, to "save Poland" from Tusk. Getty Images Karol Nawocki, a conservative historian, came in second with 29.5% of the vote, according to the exit poll A lot will depend on which candidate can mobilise their electorate in the second round. Nawrocki was unknown on a national scale before Law and Justice (PiS) chose him as its candidate. But he has improved on the job, and PiS is traditionally good at getting their vote out. Trzaskowski will need to win the votes of supporters of his centrist party, but also those supporting the candidates of the junior coalition partners, the Left (Magdalena Biejat) and conservative Third Way (Szymon Holownia). Another worry for Trzaskowski is the better than expected result of far-right candidates because many of their supporters will not vote for him. Mentzen's result was a strong showing and continued the improvement of his far-right Confederation party since it entered parliament in 2019. Who will his, mainly young voters, back in the run-off? Many would support Nawrocki for his Catholic, family-oriented views, but they dislike PiS's left-wing economic policy of generous state benefits. Mentzen is an anti-establishment candidate, and some of his supporters may not want to vote for either Nawrocki or Trzaskowski, who represent the two parties that have dominated Polish politics for two decades. Far-right MEP Grzegorz Braun's result was a nasty surprise for Poland's liberal voters. Braun made headlines in 2023 when he put out the candles on a Jewish menorah in the Polish parliament with a fire extinguisher following a ceremony for the festival of Hanukkah. Braun called the festival "satanic". During a presidential debate last month he said: "Jews have far too much say in Polish affairs." Poland election: Rafal Trzaskowski, Warsaw's liberal mayor,, narrowly wins Polish presidential vote Portugal PM's party wins snap election but falls short of majority Portugal's governing right-of-centre Democratic Alliance has won snap parliamentary elections - the third in as many years - again falling short of a majority. Its leader Luís Montenegro promised supporters to "stimulate investment" and to "guarantee prosperity and social justice". Socialist leader Pedro Nuno Santos announced his resignation after his party finished in second, and lost so many seats it ended up neck-and-neck with far-right Chega - a relatively newcomer. The Socialists could even slip behind Chega if results from voters abroad, which take a few days to come in, mirror those in last year's election, when two out of the four seats went to Chega, and one to the Socialists. Chega leader André Ventura said the "historic" result marked the end of two-party dominance in Portugal. His campaign had focussed on the issues of immigration and corruption, and Chega was probably helped by the fact that this election and the previous one were both triggered by scandals involving the prime minister of the day. Montenegro, in his remarks to supporters, thanked both his family and the "political family" that defended him from attacks relating to deals done by a company he set up before he became party leader, and which is now owned by his sons. This was the controversy that triggered the election, after the government lost a vote of confidence. Meanwhile, Santos, in his own parting comments, reiterated his view that Montenegro was not fit to be prime minister, suggesting that the Socialist Party should not let the matter drop. Portugal PM's party wins snap election but falls short of majority

At this point I will not be surprised at all if a Neo Nazi like Farage headlines UK. As for the immigration: why wasn't it stopped or at least decreased when the right (ultra at this point) Torries were in power? They were ruling from 2020 till just recently. Not only Labor should be blamed. Actually Labor should probably be blamed the least.

Its good to see some humanity in Trump. So bad for Biden. A great, decent man.

Tnx god I don't follow the news. What a boredom! And that when the world is going down.

I don't think I was even "unaware" of the fact that all the people of the Americas are Americans, its more that if someone says he or she "is American", one would immediately think that he or she is from USA. I was more interested if the people in the Americas identify in some way with the continent like we do in Europe.

What about Canadians and Mexicans? When you say "norteamericanos" don't you include those too? For a Bulgarian if you say "North American" you include the Canadians and Mexicans...

Yes, British are the exception: the rarely say they are European, but all the rest of the EU (and not only) definitely do. There is European consciousness which has emerged and this is a nice summery about it: https://journals.ucc.ie/index.php/chimera/article/view/4230/chimera-4-3 I d say pretty much the EU brought about the European consciousness in today sense. I wonder if this phenomenon is seen in the Americas or Africa or Asia. Is there American consciousness on continental level, on supranational level? Is there South American? I know there are similar organisations to EU in America or Africa, but I think they aren't as unified and politically charged as EU. Maybe EU is different because Europe is small (compared to other continents) and between big players (USA, China) and Russia...

It's weird because the term American is 1) a nationality for USA 2) consciousness (belonging to the American continent/s) for USA and the rest of the American nations. It's the first time I thought about it. In Europe we don't have such a phenomenon. Maybe the same is true for the Central African Republic nation or the South African nation?

I always saw it as two continents: South and North. Then under "American" most Bulgarians understand "person from USA" as opposed to Latin American or Southern American. As for Northern American most see them as Canadians, Americans (from USA) and Mexicans.

Soooo goood!!!!

In Bulgaria today for couple of hours there was no service, provided by biggest mobile operator A1. Its for the first time in 20 years since I m a client. Coincidence? Feels strange. Could this be a cyber attack? I m still waiting for a logical explanation to what happened in Spain, Portugal, part of France or even Bulgaria...

I luv Canada!

RIP. The only sane pope in my lifetime. And with all the mad ones, we needed a sane one