International
The German far-right approves an electoral program with promises of “remigration” and exit from the euro
The far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party approved this Sunday an electoral program that includes promises of border closure and “remigration”, as well as exit from the euro and reintroduction of compulsory military service, at a time when the polls give it its best results in a year and place it as the second force in the elections of February 23.
After long debates, the program was unanimously approved on the second day of the federal congress held this weekend in Riesa (east Germany), where on Saturday the AfD co-leader, Alice Weidel, was officially nominated as a candidate for the chancellor’s office.
“We are getting stronger,” Weidel exclaimed at the end of the congress, before the German national anthem sounded.
Unlike the initial draft, the program approved today includes the controversial term “remigration”, coined by right-wing extremists and neo-Nazis to denote the massive expulsion of migrants and people with foreign roots, after Weidel – who until now had avoided it – used it publicly yesterday.
AfD officially maintains that with “remigration” it alludes only to the expulsion by legal means of migrants in an irregular situation, but in its circles the use of the term in the first sense is frequent, together with racist iconography.
The programme promises, among other things, the closure of borders to migrants and asylum seekers, a large-scale “deportation offensive” of people in an irregular situation, the withdrawal from the European asylum system and the acquisition of German nationality only for children of German parents and extraordinary cases.
In addition, it contains the ban on the construction of minarets in Germany and the use of the Islamic veil in public buildings.
The AfD also maintains its project to abandon the euro, although it does not explicitly demand the exit from the EU, but proposes to transform it or replace it with an “alliance of European nations” with a common market and that in the long term represents an alternative to NATO for the defense of the continent.
The program also promises to lift sanctions on Russia and re-import gas from that country, while delegates rejected a motion to include a condemnation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
A motion to include the reintroduction of compulsory military service was also approved at the last minute, against the wishes of co-leader Tino Chrupalla, who strives to profile the AfD as a “peace party.”
Despite the fact that candidate Weidel has another woman as a partner, with whom she is a mother of two children, the delegates voted in favor of including in the program that the family composed of “father, mother and children” is the basic cell of society.
They also spoke out against the mandatory measles vaccination for school-age children in force in Germany.
Finally, the congress approved the foundation of a new youth organization integrated within the party, after tensions grew with the Alternative Youth (JA), which was classified as extremist by the German authorities in 2023.
Between 21 and 22%
According to the most recent polls, AfD enjoys its highest popularity in a year, with an increase of two points in the last month to 21-22% in voting intention.
The formation, which is receiving the explicit support of tycoon Elon Musk, an ally of US president-elect Donald Trump, would thus be the second force behind the Christian Democratic bloc of Friedrich Merz, which is at 30%.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s social democrats and his green government partners are currently competing for third place with values between 13 and 16%, while the Liberals and the populist left-wing Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW) Alliance could stay below the 5% threshold for parliamentary representation.
International
The Sudanese Army takes a Khartum neighborhood in an offensive to recover the capital
The Sudanese Army announced on Sunday the capture of a residential neighborhood located in northwestern Khartum as part of a large-scale offensive to recover the capital of Sudan, in the hands of the paramilitary group Rapid Support Forces (FAR) since the outbreak of the conflict in April 2023.
“The Sudanese Armed Forces Armored Corps, which operates from the Al Shajara military zone, has successfully taken control of the Al Ruwad residential complex,” the military institution announced in a brief statement published on its official Facebook account.
During the offensive, Army soldiers and fighters of allied armed groups “inflicted great losses” on the FAR, although the Armed Forces indicated that they respected “international law and its rules of intervention to guarantee the security of private and public property.”
The advance of the Army in northern Khartoum comes one day after the military regained control of the strategic city of Wad Madani, the capital of the central state of Al Yazira located south of the capital of Sudan and which had been under the control of the FAR since December 18, 2023.
The recovery of Wad Madani, the second largest city in Sudan in terms of population, was possible after four months of army offensive in the state of Al Yazira and after the withdrawal of the paramilitaries from the city, where hardly any fighting was recorded after the entry of government troops on Saturday.
This is an important development for the Sudan war and for the Army’s plans to “liberate” Khartum, where it is carrying out an offensive from the north and will now be able to advance to the Sudanese capital from the south after the capture of Wad Madani.
The leader of the Sudanese Army, Abdelfatah al Burhan, said on Sunday that his forces will recover “every inch” of Sudan, while the head of the paramilitaries, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo – alias Hemedti – has promised that his fighters can continue fighting for more than two decades if necessary.
The war in Sudan has caused tens of thousands of deaths and forced more than 14 million to flee their homes, which has made the country the scene of the worst displaced persons crisis on the planet, according to the United Nations.
International
SpaceX postpones the seventh test of its powerful Starship rocket for Wednesday
SpaceX postponed to Wednesday the next test flight of its powerful Starship rocket, whose launch was initially scheduled for Monday afternoon from its base in southern Texas (USA).
According to Elon Musk’s signature on Saturday night, the Starship will take off at 16:00 local time (22:00 GMT) on Wednesday, from Starbase, the firm’s space center located in the Texas town of Boca Chica.
For this test, the mission will transport ten replicas of the latest generation of Starlinks, which will be put on a suborbital trajectory, which is where the rocket will move.
This operation is crucial, because SpaceX plans to use the Starship in the future to put into orbit the next generation of its popular broadband internet satellites, which will be larger and heavier than the current ones.
On the seventh flight, the mission engineers will again try to catch the powerful first stage of the Starship, called Super Heavy, which in the previous test carried out last November could not be carried out.
Once separated from the second stage, that is, the Starship as such, if the weather allows it is expected that the Super Heavy will arrive at a Starbase platform, where it will be captured by mechanical arms, as already happened successfully in the fifth test.
International
Trump describes politicians in charge of the fires in Los Angeles as “incompetent”
The President-elect of the United States, Donald Trump, called this Sunday “incompetent” the politicians and local officials in charge of the fight against the fires in Los Angeles, in Southern California (USA), which have so far left 16 people dead.
“Fires continue to roat Los Angeles. Incompetent politicians have no idea how to turn them off,” Trump said early this Sunday morning on his social network Truth, a comment that continues to fuel the dispute he has with the governor of California, the Democrat Gavin Newsom.
The governor has previously accused the Republican of politicizing the tragedy and has even extended an invitation to Trump to visit the area, devastated after the forest fires that broke out since last Tuesday.
“Thousands of magnificent houses have disappeared and many more will soon be lost. There is death everywhere. This is one of the worst catastrophes in the history of our country. They just can’t put out fires. What’s wrong with them?” Trump questioned himself, who on January 20 will assume his second term as president of the United States.
The number of deaths from the fires that broke out earlier this week in the Los Angeles area, in Southern California (USA), has risen to 16, according to the local forensic doctor’s office.
According to the latest update made by the forensic doctor of Los Angeles County, 11 of those deaths have occurred due to the Eaton fire, located northeast and near the cities of Pasadena and Altadena.
The other five correspond to the Palisades fire, the largest and largest so far, contained in only 11%.
The fires have devastated at least 15,000 hectares, destroyed about 12,000 structures, including cars, and are responsible for the disappearance of about thirteen people, among which some of those reported as dead could be, according to Los Angeles County sheriff Robert Luna.
The Sudanese Army takes a Khartum neighborhood in an offensive to recover the capital
SpaceX postpones the seventh test of its powerful Starship rocket for Wednesday
Trump describes politicians in charge of the fires in Los Angeles as “incompetent”
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