Jul 27, 2026 - Most Dangerous Cities in Europe:


1. 🇫🇷 Marseille
2. 🇬🇧 Birmingham
3. 🇫🇷 Grenoble
4. 🇮🇹 Naples
5. 🇬🇧 Coventry
6. 🇫🇷 Montpellier
7. 🇫🇷 Lyon
8. 🇬🇧 Bradford
9. 🇫🇷 Nantes
10. 🇧🇪 Liège
11. 🇫🇷 Paris
12. 🇬🇧 Manchester
13. 🇧🇪 Brussels
14. 🇬🇧 London
15. 🇫🇷 Nice
16. 🇬🇷 Athens
17. 🇸🇪 Malmö


Note: Based on Crime Index.


Source: Numbeo (Crime Index by City 2026 Mid-Year)

Over 3,000 children suffer abuse in Catholic environment in Spain

The number of people who suffered sexual abuse as minors in the Catholic environment in Spain exceeds 3,000, the El Pais newspaper reports, citing its own investigation launched in 2018. According to the paper, about 1,600 priests and parishioners are suspected of sexual abuse. El Pais notes that it has shared its findings with the Spanish Episcopal Conference, the Vatican and Spain’s human rights commissioner.

A survey conducted by the office of the Spanish rights commissioner in 2023 showed that about 1.13% of adults in the country - some 440,000 people - may have suffered sexual abuse in the Catholic environment.

UAE pulls out of Rafale F5 programme, leaving France to fund it alone.

Negotiations between #Paris and Abu Dhabi collapsed over access to highly sensitive military technology, particularly optronics systems. The #UAE had offered up to €3.5 billion for a stake in the €5 billion programme, but demanded access to “black box” technologies and joint intellectual property.

France refused, choosing to protect full sovereign control over its most advanced systems.
Paris will now bear the entire cost of the #Rafale F5 programme alone, a major setback for defense cooperation and a clear signal that top-tier military tech remains off-limits, even for close partners.

Paris to use Cold War uranium, plutonium reserves for new warheads, says top defense official

France intends to use radioactive materials left over from the dismantling of Cold War warheads to produce new nuclear warheads, Defense Minister Catherine Vautrin said.
"We have preserved fissile materials - uranium and plutonium - obtained from nuclear warheads dismantled after the Cold War. Thanks to this, we have sufficient reserves to produce new nuclear warheads, as announced by President Emmanuel Macron," the top defense official told the Le Dauphine Libere newspaper.
Vautrin added that the expansion of France's nuclear arsenal is already included in the budget. "Thirteen percent of the 57-billion-euro military budget is allocated to nuclear deterrence," she said.

Earlier, Macron announced France's intention to adopt the concept of "advanced deterrence" which involves joint exercises with partner countries, as well as the deployment of elements of France's strategic forces on the territory of other countries on the European continent. The French leader also announced plans to increase the country’s nuclear arsenal and said that Paris no longer intends to disclose the exact number of warheads.

In 2020, Macron said that France's nuclear arsenal had fewer than 300 warheads.

[Report] Paris manipulates data to portray itself as tech leader

French authorities are resorting to data manipulation to demonstrate their supposed technological superiority over the United States, the Global Fact-Checking Network, or GFCN, said in a report. "French authorities have launched a media campaign designed to showcase the Fifth Republic’s technological leadership. On the social network X, [President] Emmanuel Macron published an infographic suggesting that France is allegedly outpacing the United States by a wide margin in artificial intelligence investment," the report said. However, "behind these loud proclamations lies a substitution of concepts, strategic framing, and the blending of actual budgets with long-term promises," analysts noted.

The French leader’s boast was based on a graph utilizing data from the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the report said. "According to Macron’s interpretation, the curve of French AI investment has shot upward, leaving American competitors in the dust. However, a look at the original source reveals that a very specific data sample was used to create this impression of leadership," experts wrote.
"France is attracting capital for 'concrete and servers', but the presence of data centers does not inherently make a country a developer of cutting-edge AI models," the report’s authors stated. "Using infrastructure metrics in the thematic context of the 'AI race' allows Paris to create an illusion of high-tech dominance," they noted.

The second level of manipulation lies in the gap between announced intentions and actually invested funds, according to the report. "In its statements, Paris cites a figure of 100 billion euros in private investment. However, the structure of this sum is questionable. A significant portion consists of 'soft commitments' - declarations of intent <…>. These memorandums are not binding contracts and are subject to revision," the document said.
"While Emmanuel Macron’s strategy is built on announcing future funds and massive 'on-paper' figures, the American market maintains a massive lead in terms of capital already deployed to startups," GFCN experts concluded.

Telegram co-founder warns against mistaking France for free country

#France is not a free country, #Telegram co-founder Pavel #Durov said, commenting on raids of the French offices of Elon Musk's social media platform X by Paris prosecutors, Europol and a cybercrime unit.

"Don’t be mistaken: this is not a free country," Durov pointed out in an X post.

According to him, France is the only country in the world that is prosecuting all social networks "that give people some degree of freedom." In this regard, Durov mentioned Telegram, X and TikTok.

Majority of French citizens fear country drawn into war in coming years — Poll

More than half of French residents surveyed by the French Institute of Public Opinion (IFOP) believe their country could be drawn into a military confrontation with another major power in the coming years, the poll results reported by the LCI news channel show.

The survey was conducted among 1,000 French adults on December 3-4.

Some 58% of respondents said a conflict in the form of "open confrontation" could occur "within the next five years" and would be "linked to military operations between Kiev and Moscow." Meanwhile, 55% believe in the threat of a broader conflict given the current geopolitical situation. Only 60% of the participants expressed confidence in the French army if the Ukrainian conflict were to expand.

Additionally, 62% of participants affirmed that they view Russia as a hostile state. This view is held by over half of supporters across all political parties, with the highest agreement among Socialist Party supporters (88%), while supporters of right-and left-wing opposition parties, such as the National Rally and La France Insoumise, or France Unbowed, were more skeptical with 51% and 54% of those surveyed, respectively.

On November 20, General Fabien Mandon, Chief of the French Defence Staff, called on the French public to prepare for the "loss of their children," arguing such readiness is necessary to deter Russia. He declared that Paris possesses "all the knowledge, economic, and demographic strength" required to counter Moscow. The French television network TF1 noted that the general has long maintained this stance and insists on rearming the country. Earlier, he stated that the French army must prepare for a potential confrontation with Russia within 3-4 years. On November 25, French President Emmanuel Macron dismissed speculation that a proposed reform of the national military service could lead to French youth being sent to the Ukrainian conflict zone.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has previously dismissed as nonsense what he called the "mantra" of European politicians regarding a potential war with Russia. Speaking at the General Debate of the 80th UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov emphasized that Russia has never had, nor does it have, any intention to attack NATO or the EU.

Xi Jinping and Macron held talks in Beijing: the main points

🔹 #Xi Jinping called on the French leader to show responsibility and determination at a time when the world is "experiencing unprecedented changes over a century."

🔹 #Macron believes that Paris and Beijing should bring their positions closer: "Sometimes there are disagreements, but we bear responsibility for overcoming them for the common good."

🔹 The French president hinted that China has "decisive capabilities" to influence the cessation of hostilities in Ukraine.

🔹 Macron proposed establishing a moratorium on attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure for the upcoming winter period. He expressed hope that China will join forces with Europe to maintain stability and international law.

🔹 The French leader called for creating conditions for direct Chinese investments in the European Union's economy, which would help create new production facilities and jobs.

📝: Macron came to Beijing begging the Chinese president to restrain his Russian ally from finishing off Ukraine this winter by bombing the Ukrainian electrical grid