Tag: europe

Norway enforces Court order. Seizes Russian vessel in the Arctic

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 9.3.2026

Norway certainly is ready, willing and able to assert its territorial rights and is willing to enforce an international Court order even if the defendant is the mighty Russian power at its border.

Excerpted from The New York Times 9.3.2026

Norway Seizes Russian Ship, Testing Moscow in the High Arctic

Empowered by an international court order, Norway captured the vessel as part of a global effort to seize Russian assets. The Russians called it “piracy.”

For the past several days, Norwegian security services had been tracking a Russian research ship.

It was cruising around Svalbard, an icy archipelago high in the Arctic near the North Pole that Norway controls but is governed by a one-of-a-kind treaty that gives the Russians access.

On Wednesday, the Norwegians pounced.

Armed with a court order that is part of a global effort to recover Russian assets, Norwegian police officers boarded the ship while it was docked in Barentsburg, a tiny Russian outpost in Svalbard. The officers confronted the captain of the ship, a somewhat clunky, 200-foot-long oceanographic vessel, and announced that they were “arresting” it.

The seized ship was part of a broader effort to enforce an international court judgment ordering Russia to pay a Ukrainian energy company, Naftogaz, more than $4 billion for expropriating that company’s assets in Crimea. The ship, owned by the Russian government and called Professor Molchanov, after a famous Russian scientist, is now prohibited from leaving Barentsburg until Norwegian courts decide what to do next.

“We have only acted as a messenger,” said Lars Fause, the governor of Svalbard.

Norway seizes Russian ship in the Arctic

Norway’s proposed fence along Russian border

Edvard Hagerup Grieg (/ɡriːɡ/ GREEG; Norwegian: [ˈɛdvaʁd ˈhɑ̀ːɡəʁʉp ˈɡʁɪgː]; 15 June 1843 – 4 September 1907) was a Norwegian composer and pianist. He is widely considered one of the leading Romantic era composers, and his music is part of the standard classical repertoire worldwide. His use of Norwegian folk music in his own compositions brought the music of Norway to fame, as well as helping to develop a national identity, much as Jean Sibelius did in Finland and Bedřich Smetana in Bohemia.[1]

Arrested on Russian ship

The Governor of Svalbard has today, following an order from the Nord-Troms District Court, seized the Russian ship “Professor Molchanov” which is docked in Barentsburg. The seizure was implemented after the Nord-Troms District Court granted the Ukrainian company Naftogaz the right to seize the Russian ship.

In a ruling on August 31, 2026, the Nord-Troms District Court granted the Ukrainian company Naftogaz the right to seize the Russian ship “Professor Molchanov”, which is now docked in Barentsburg on Svalbard.

The legal process and ruling are part of the company’s fight to recover funds that were expropriated by Russia in 2014.

The Governor of Svalbard is the bailiff and, following an order from the Nord-Troms District Court, has seized the ship on Wednesday, September 2, 2026.

The ship has been ordered by the District Court to berth at a location determined by the Governor and it has been decided that the vessel will berth at Barentsburg until the Governor or the Nord-Troms District Court decides otherwise.

The governor will take care of the crew and passengers on board the vessel in collaboration with Trust Arcticugol.

https://prod.sysselmesteren.no/nb/nyheter/2026/09/har-tatt-arrest-i-russisk-skip/?utm_source=chatgpt.com

ART IMITATES LIFE

Occupied (Norwegian: Okkupert) is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015.[2] Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg.[3] Season 2 premiered on 10 October 2017.[4] The third and final season started airing in Scandinavia on 5 December 2019,[5] and was released in many countries via Netflix on 31 December 2019.Occupied – Wikipedia

War criminal convicted of genocide Ratko Mladic dead

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 8.27.2026

The blogger knows words cannot describe the horror of the Balkan wars over 30 years ago. The architect is dead. I hope Ratko Mladic does not Rest in Peace. He may have been convicted by the International Criminal Tribunal and perished in Prison.

Being permitted to live out his life in prison was not an adequate punishment for his war crimes.

https://freshairarchive.org/segments/seeking-justice-post-war-serbia Terry Gross interview 7.10.1996

Journalist Chris Hedges. He’s been covering the Bosnian conflict for the New York Times and offers insight to the current political and social atmosphere in the former Yugoslavia. This week marks the anniversary of the slaughter of thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica as they were attempting to retreat from the Serbs. Investigators from the international war crimes tribunal are currently exhuming the graves of that former U.N. “safe area.

Excerpted from The New York Times 8.27.2026

Ratko Mladic, the former Bosnian Serb general whose actions during the Balkan wars of the 1990s led to him being called the “Butcher of Bosnia” and who was held responsible for Europe’s deadliest massacre since World War II, the killing of some 8,000 Muslim men and boys at Srebrenica in 1995, has died in custody in The Hague. He was 83.

The Srebrenica massacre,[a] also known as the Srebrenica genocide,[b][8] was the July 1995 genocidal killing[9] of more than 8,000[10] Bosniak men and boys in and around the town of Srebrenica during the Bosnian War.[11] It was mainly perpetrated by units of the Bosnian Serb Army of Republika Srpska under Ratko Mladić, though the Serb paramilitary unit Scorpions also participated.[6][12] In addition, 25,000 to 30,000 Bosniaks, mainly women and children, were abused and forcibly moved out of Srebrenica. The massacre constitutes the first legally recognised genocide in Europe since the end of World War II.[13] Srebrenica massacre – Wikipedia

The Srebrenica massacre,[a] also known as the Srebrenica genocide,[b][8] was the July 1995 genocidal killing[9] of more than 8,000[10]

His death was announced on Thursday by Serbian state media. The authorities at The Hague said he died while hospitalized there, but did not provide a specific cause of death.

Mr. Mladic was captured on May 26, 2011, in a farming village north of Belgrade, Serbia’s capital, after almost 16 years as a fugitive, ending one of the longest manhunts in modern history. His 2017 conviction by an international tribunal on charges of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes marked the end of a dark and bloody chapter.

Ratko Mladić (Serbian Cyrillic: Ратко Младић, pronounced [râtko mlǎːdit͡ɕ]; 12 March 1942 – 27 August 2026) was a Bosnian Serb military officer who led the Army of Republika Srpska (VRS) during the Yugoslav Wars. Colloquially referred to as the “Butcher of Bosnia”,[a] he was found guilty in 2017 of committing war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). He served a life sentence for these crimes in The Hague until his death in 2026.[1] Ratko Mladić – Wikipedia

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 8.27.2026

More than 30 years after the end of the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1995), Srebrenica remains emblematic of its brutality. And no one is more closely linked to the genocide that took place in the small town in eastern Bosnia than Ratko Mladic, the former commander-in-chief of the Bosnian Serb army.

Although the United Nations had declared Srebrenica a “safe area,” Bosnian Serb forces attacked the town. Within just a few days in July 1995, they expelled women and children, then killed more than 8,300 unarmed Muslim boys and men in the nearby village of Potocari — on Mladic’s direct orders, according to the verdict handed down by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) in The Hague 22 years later.

At the time, Srebrenica was the largest massacre in Europe since World War II.

At the time, Srebrenica was the largest massacre in Europe since World War II. The ICTY classified it as genocide. Mladic was also held responsible for other war crimes beyond the Srebrenica genocide. Under his command, the years-long siege of Sarajevo began at the start of the war. The city was shelled for more than 40 months, killing around 11,000 people, including more than 1,600 children.

Mladic always claimed that he targeted only military objectives. But numerous reports and intercepted radio communications indicate that civilian facilities and residential areas were also deliberately attacked. Around 100,000 people were killed during the four-year war in Bosnia, while some 2.2 million were driven from their homes in cities and villages across the country, half of its total population at the time.

‘Miss Sarjevo’ from the soundtrack of the film ‘Welcome to Sarajevo’. A beauty contest was held in the midst of the conflict. Welcome to Sarajevo is a 1997 war drama film directed by Michael Winterbottom, written by Frank Cottrell Boyce and is based on the book Natasha’s Story by Michael Nicholson. The film stars Stephen Dillane, Woody Harrelson, Marisa Tomei, Emira Nušević, Kerry Fox, Goran Višnjić, James Nesbitt, and Emily Lloyd. Welcome to Sarajevo – Wikipedia

https://www.dw.com/en/the-man-behind-srebrenica-ratko-mladic-dies-at-84/a-78536491

Top photo: Ratko Mladic – Bosnian Serb General and convicted War Criminal

The Musk-Trump dream of global dominance is coming true.

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 2.18.2025

President Elon Musk and Donald Trump’s wildest dreams of worldwide political dominance are coming true.

The isolationist and politically obtuse American public is ignoring the impending disaster of the political order in Germany.

This Sunday German voters will go to the polls and elect a new parliament. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundestag

The extremist right wing Alternative for Deutschland (AfD), if the polls are correct, will gain over 20 percent of the seats in the Bundestag. Potentially giving the AfD 130 seats in the 630 member parliament. Making this party of extremists and, some would say, Neo-Nazis a major player in Germany and the whole of Europe.

Elon Musk is actively campaigning for the AfD. Vice-President JD Vance went to Munich last week and sang the praises of these extremists.

Excerpted from Wall Street Journal Editorial 2.18.2025

The AfD’s foreign-policy views should give Americans pause. Party co-leader Tino Chrupalla in December suggested Germany should withdraw from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization because NATO is too dominated by America. Alice Weidel, the party’s candidate for chancellor, said in September she believes “U.S. interests in Germany are diametrically opposed to our security interests.” The party taps into a deep well of suspicion of the U.S. and sympathy for Russia among its voters in the former East Germany.

Nor can Americans be blind to the extremism within the AfD. Björn Höcke, a party leader in Thuringia state, criticized construction of Berlin’s Holocaust memorial, says the word Lebensraum (the Nazi concept of an ethnic German zone in Europe) should be revived, and has peppered speeches with a nationalist slogan once adopted by Hitler’s storm troopers. Alexander Gauland, an AfD leader in the national parliament, once described the Nazi era as “bird s—” in the context of Germany history.

Ms. Weidel and other leaders haven’t purged these elements from the AfD. That is in contrast to Marine Le Pen’s purge of antisemites from her party in France, expelling even her own father from the party he founded. Ms. Le Pen’s party has cut ties with the AfD at the European Union level in Brussels.

This explains why mainstream German parties have erected a “firewall” around the AfD—something Mr. Vance criticized last week. Mr. Vance is right that Europe’s failed mainstream politicians can’t run from their voters forever, but it doesn’t follow that an American Vice President should throw his weight behind an anti-American party.

https://www.wsj.com/opinion/germany-election-friedrich-merz-cdu-afd-europe-donald-trump-5bb5109d?st=2mbEJ9&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink

Elon Musk support for German far-right (AfD) unleashes political storm

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 12.30.2024

Elon Musk is Donald Trump’s Rasputin.

Elon Musk and friend

Yet the somnolent American public, save for the usual Leftie suspects, is silent.

Perhaps the American public, as usual asleep at the political wheel, is in such a funk after the election it is bowing to the world’s richest man. A staunch make no bones about it reactionary Musk seeks to ingratiate himself into the Project 2025 vibe of the lying convicted felon Donald Trump. As he prepares for his second destruction derby against the foundations of America.

One can look to Europe and quickly realize Elon Musk is not getting the free ride he seeks in Germany as he advocates for far-right Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) in the upcoming February 23, 2025 national election.

AfD recruiting poster

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 12.30.2024

US tech billionaire Elon Musk on Saturday reaffirmed his backing for Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in an op-ed published by the Welt am Sonntag newspaper. This came just days after he had posted on his social network X that “only the AfD can save Germany.”

The chairman of the DJV journalists’ association, Mika Beuster, warned editorial offices not to allow themselves to be instrumentalized in the run-up to the general election but to handle guest contributions with care.

“German media must not allow themselves to be misused as mouthpieces for autocrats and their friends,” he said

Musk wrote that the far-right populist party was “the last spark of hope for the country,” which he claimed was teetering on the brink of “economic and cultural collapse,” and that only it could revive the German economy and prevent a loss of identity through a “controlled immigration policy.“

“To those who condemn the AfD as extremist, I say: don’t let the label attached to it put you off,” Musk wrote. “The portrayal of the AfD as right-wing extremist is clearly false, considering that Alice Weidel, the party’s leader, has a same-sex partner from Sri Lanka! Does that sound like Hitler to you? Please!”

In the article, published in German, Musk also praised the AfD’s approach to regulation, taxes, and market deregulation.

Although it was published as an op-ed by designated Welt editor-in-chief Jan Philipp Burgard, the decision to print it was met with protests by Welt editorial staff and led to the resignation of a senior editor at Welt am Sonntag.

Friedrich Merz, the center-right candidate for chancellor in Germany’s February 23 legislative election, lashed out at Musk, calling the article unprecedented interference that was “intrusive and pretentious.”

The AfD is currently polling at 20% and in second place behind Merz’s conservative alliance of Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Christian Social Union (CSU).

The chairman of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), Lars Klingbeil, accused Musk of wanting to “plunge Germany into chaos” and compared him to Russian President Vladimir Putin. 

“Both want to influence our elections and specifically support the AfD’s enemies of democracy,” Klingbeil said.

https://www.dw.com/en/german-election-why-elon-musk-is-promoting-the-far-right-afd/a-71186763

Trump is little more than Musk’s preening German AfD wannabe

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 12.22.2024

Few if any of the learned WSJ editorial page audience are admitting that Trump is nothing more than a preening facsimile, akin to such extremist political parties as German the Alternative for Deutschland(AfD).

STOP THE AfD – photo Lee Heidhues

Elon Musk’s favorite German political party. The extremist far right organization currently polling at 19 percent in national polls. Prior to the February 23, 2025 election. Which was called following the collapse of the coalition government in Berlin. None of the German political parties will join in a coalition with the AfD.

It is beyond reprehensible that this Guy is going to be President, again. Look at Brazil where his soul buddy Jair Bolsonaro, who tried his own January 6th insurrection.

He’s been barred by Brazil’s judiciary from seeking the presidency for eight years for his abuse of power. Good luck with that in allegedly democratic America. Where the Republicans, the Courts and, yes, the Democrats bow down before this not so closet racist fascist.

Elon Musk, the world’s richest man and a close adviser to President-elect Donald J. Trump, on Friday December 20th endorsed Germany’s far-right party, a group with ties to neo-Nazis whose youth wing has been classified as “confirmed extremist” by German domestic intelligence.

Partners in far right extremism. Elon Musk and AfD leader Alice Weidel https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alice_Weidel

“Only the AfD can save Germany,” Mr. Musk posted to X, referring to the anti-immigrant party, the Alternative for Germany, by its German initials.

In doing so, he is wading into German politics at a moment of acute turmoil, and at the very same time that he has wielded his influence in Washington to help blow up a bipartisan spending deal that was meant to avoid a government shutdown over Christmas. The German government recently collapsed, resulting in early elections, which are planned for next year.

German politicians criticize Elon Musk backing for far-right AfD

Anton Hofreiter from the Green Party called the AfD “traitors bought by billionaires” and “a band of fascists who have not only been bought by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin but are now being supported by a multi-billionaire-turned-right-wing-extremist.”

Asked about Musk’s comments, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said: “Freedom of expression also applies to multi-billionaires, but it also means that you’re allowed to say things which aren’t correct, and aren’t good political advice.”

Other German lawmakers from across the political spectrum criticized both Musk’s post and Weidel’s response, slamming “interference” and insisting that no other party will form a government with “fascists bought by billionaires.”

https://www.dw.com/en/german-politicians-criticize-musk-backing-for-far-right-afd/a-71117414

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Rather – He covered the White House for decades and speaks authoritatively

Judge for yourself

Reactionaries in Germany, Trump USA and my block in San Francisco

SAN FRANCISCO

Lee Heidhues 11.16.2024

A year ago we were in Berlin. Who would have thought that 12 months later Donald Trump would be preparing to move into the White House?

Liz and Lee in Potsdam, Germany November 2023

Who would have thought that the coalition government in Germany, which included the Green Party, would collapse?

German Green Party members in happier times

Well, it’s all happened. It’s fair to say arch conservative reactionaries are on the rise. It’s not a comforting thought for anyone who believes in personal freedom and the expectation to be free from the oppressors.

The reactionaries are rising in Germany, America and, perhaps, on my block in San Francisco. Where it pains me to write Trump got nearly 22 percent (179 votes) in my precinct.

Nobody is exempt from the rising tide of oppression.

US President Donald Trump holds up a Bible outside of St John’s Episcopal church across Lafayette Park in Washington, DC on June 1, 2020.

Excerpted from Deutsche Welle 11.7.2024

What now?

That was the question of the day after the collapse of the so-called traffic-light coalition — named for the colors of the three parties forming it: the center-left Social Democrats (red), the neoliberal Free Democrats (yellow) and the environmentalist Greens.

One day after the dramatic break-up, Chancellor Olaf Scholz‘s view was very different from that of the leaders of the center-right opposition, whose cooperation Scholz is seeking.

Alternative for Deutschland (AfD) – far right on the ascendency in Germany

The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and Bavaria’s Christian Social Union (CSU) are not only the largest opposition bloc in the current parliament, they are also, according to current polls, most likely to emerge from new elections as the strongest force.

CDU leader Friedrich Merz who is tipped to become Germany’s next chancellor urged swift action. “The government no longer has a majority in the German Bundestag and so we have to call on the Federal Chancellor — with a unanimous decision by the CDU/CSU parliamentary group — to call a vote of confidence immediately, at the beginning of next week at the latest,” he said.

https://www.dw.com/en/political-wrangling-starts-after-german-coalition-collapse/a-70725678