World

Why Poland says Russia and Belarus are weaponizing migration to benefit Europe’s far-right

Published

2 years ago

June 4, 2024

Why Poland says Russia and Belarus are weaponizing migration to benefit Europe’s far-right

POLAND-BELARUS BORDER, Poland (AP) — A Somali woman pushes her bandaged hand between two vertical bars of a thick metal barrier separating Belarus from Poland as she and four other women gaze toward the European Union.

They nod gratefully as a Polish humanitarian aid worker calls to them across a stretch of land as wide as a one-lane road and promises to help. Polish soldiers patrol nearby.

The verdant patch of Bialowieza Forest that spans the border is among the flashpoints of a monthslong standoff between Belarus and its main backer and ally Russia, and the 27-member European bloc, which has seen a surge in migrant flows toward the frontier ahead of EU parliamentary elections that start on Thursday.

WHAT HAPPENED ON THE BORDER?

The number of attempted illegal border crossings from Belarus into EU-member Poland has shot up in recent months to almost 400 a day — from only a handful a day earlier this year, Polish officials say.

Poland’s border guards have also decried increasingly aggressive behavior by some migrants on the Belarus side of the border. They have posted online videos of some throwing rocks, logs and even burning wood at the Polish troops from behind the fence.

There have been cases of soldiers and guards being hospitalized and some have needed stitches after being stabbed or cut by knife-wielding assailants. Last Tuesday near the village of Dubicze Cerkiewne, officials said a migrant reached between the bars of the more than 5-meter (16-foot) -high barrier and stabbed a soldier in the ribs.

For the past few years, EU authorities have accused authoritarian Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of weaponizing migration by luring people to his country to find an easier entry point into the bloc than the more dangerous routes across the Mediterranean Sea.

Still, migrants have died, with some buried in Muslim and Christian cemeteries in Poland.

WHAT DOES POLAND SAY?

Poland sees the new push at the border as an orchestrated attempt by Russia and Belarus to fuel anti-migrant sentiment, which could in turn boost far-right parties in the European vote.

Poland and the EU say migrants — who have trekked to former Soviet countries from as far away as the Middle East and Africa — have become pawns in an effort by Russia and Belarus to destabilize Europe, which has backed Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion more than two years ago.

The $405 million (374 million euro) metal barrier was put up along a 180-kilometer (110-mile) stretch of border under Poland’s previous conservative government in 2022, part of efforts to curb large inflows of migrants that many in the EU want to reduce.

The barrier has been a winning point for anti-immigrant parties that often support or are supported by Russia.

Now the government of Polish entrist Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who took over in December pledging a new pro-EU administration following eight years of stormy conservative rule, has vowed to step up security measures and says it must protect the EU border.

“We are not dealing with (just) any asylum seekers here, we are dealing with a coordinated, very efficient — on many levels — operation to break the Polish border and attempts to destabilize the country,” Tusk said last week while visiting border troops.

WHAT IS THE POLITICAL ENDGAME?

According to Poland, Moscow’s scenario of purportedly seeking to flood the EU with a surge in migrants would provide political ammunition for anti-migrant, far-right parties in countries such as France, Germany and Italy.

Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski alleged at a meeting in Bialystok, eastern Poland, on Monday that many of the migrants who try to break through the Polish border “are people with Russian visas” — meaning they were at some point allowed to enter Russia before heading to Belarus and toward the West.

“They were at least encouraged and maybe even recruited for this operation, so we know who is behind this operation,” he said. “This is intended to have a political effect — to strengthen the far right, which promises to destroy the European Union from the inside.”

The Interior Ministry in neighboring Germany, the key destination for many migrants, has cited an increasing trend in unauthorized migration related to Russia and Belarus. It attributed the rise in part to intensified action taken by Russian security officials against unauthorized migrants following a deadly terrorist attack on a Moscow concert hall in March.

Critics have accused President Vladimir Putin’s Russia of all sorts of malfeasance against the West in recent years, including election meddling, disinformation and fake news campaign s, computer hacking, and alleged poisoning abroad of foes of the Kremlin chief — all allegations that Moscow has denied.

Sviatlana Tsikhnaouskaya, Belarusian opposition leader living in exile, told The Associated Press that Lukashenko’s government is trying “to blackmail the EU and scare it with waves of uncontrollable migrants.”

“In this, the interests of Lukashenko and Putin align,” she said.

WHAT ABOUT THE MIGRANTS?

Caught in the middle are the migrants themselves, including many women and children stuck in hostile marshes and forests along the border. In late May on the Polish side of the border, volunteers were seen giving water to an exhausted Algerian man.

Aid activists have criticized Tusk’s government for tough border policies. He has acknowledged that many soldiers feel conflicted between the need to protect the border and sympathy for humanitarian workers who want to “help others in distress.”

Migrants who do get through can apply for international protection within the EU, which is granted in exceptional cases. Some also get deported to their home countries.

Olga Cielemencka, an activist with Podlaskie Volunteer Humanitarian Emergency Service who promised to help to the Somali woman with the bandaged hand, said her group is trying to offer advice and assistance to the migrants.

“But our abilities to act are very limited,” she said. “There isn’t much that we can do.”

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Associated Press writers Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Dasha Litvinova in Tallinn, Estonia, and Monika Scislowska in Warsaw, Poland, contributed to this report.

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Follow AP’s global migration coverage at: https://apnews.com/hub/migration

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World

Sporticast 510: The Sordid Saga of a Legends’s Former Mansion

Published

3 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

On the latest Sporticast episode, hosts Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams discuss some of the biggest sports business stories of the week, including the latest in a strange sports real estate story.

In 2012, Michael Jordan listed his Bulls-era mansion outside Chicago for about $29 million, or $41 million in today’s dollars. It took more than a decade and multiple price drops for the home to sell, which it did late last year for $9.5 million. The buyer, a partner in a local real estate firm, has since tried multiple ways to monetize the property. Initially he tried to sell timeshares for $1 million each, but that plan was thwarted by the local town council. He’s back in front of that same council this week, seeking approvals related to his next plan: to build a “multi-sensory experience focused entirely on personal transformation.” The tourist attraction would require the use of a parking lot on an adjacent nature preserve.

Next the hosts discuss major upset in college sports. Nebraska’s women’s volleyball team, the top seed in this year’s NCAA tournament, was upset by Texas A&M in the quarterfinals. Riding a wave of volleyball commercial growth, the Huskers spent more on the sport than any other public school in the country, according to numbers from Sportico‘s college finance database. The team reported $2.57 million in ticket sales during the 2023-24 school year, the third highest total for any women’s team at any public school in the country, trailing only Iowa and UConn women’s basketball.

They close by taking about the Big 12‘s proposed private equity plan. A few days after Big 12 member Utah laid out its own on-campus capital ambitions, Sportico reported that the Big 12 is in talks to set up what essentially amounts to a credit facility for its members via a potential partnership with RedBird Capital-backed Collegiate Athletic Solutions.

(You can subscribe to Sporticast through Apple, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts.)

World

Bystanders seen confronting Australian gunman during ISIS-inspired deadly rampage

Published

4 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Bystanders seen confronting Australian gunman during ISIS-inspired deadly rampage

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Bystanders were seen on video confronting a gunman before his ISIS-inspired deadly mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, could begin.

Despite their efforts to disarm him, the gunman eventually overpowered the two bystanders and killed them, according to authorities.

The bystanders were later identified as Boris and Sofia Gurman, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The outlet reported that the Gurmans were walking by as they saw the assailant exiting a vehicle. Though Boris had the upper hand for a moment after picking up the shooter’s rifle, the attacker allegedly picked up another rifle during the confrontation and fatally shot the couple, making them the first victims of the massacre.

“We are heartbroken by the sudden and senseless loss of our beloved Boris and Sofia Gurman,” the family said in a statement on Tuesday afternoon, according to the Sydney Morning Herald. “While nothing can lessen the pain of losing Boris and Sofia, we feel an overwhelming sense of pride in their bravery and selflessness.”

RABBI KILLED IN SYDNEY HANUKKAH ATTACK HAD WARNED AUSTRALIAN PM ABOUT RISING ANTISEMITISM

Bystanders were seen confronting one of the gunmen behind the deadly attack on a Hanukkah celebration at Australia’s Bondi Beach. (Jenny/Reuters)

In the video, obtained and verified by Reuters, an eyewitness replaying the dashcam footage recalls how the incident unfolded.

“You see the shooter here — he fired shots from here, shooting from here. And then look, this guy went and tackled him (shooter), knocking him to the ground. At that point, he had already grabbed the gun,” the witness, who was speaking in Mandarin, said in the video, according to a Reuters translation.

Authorities have identified the shooters as a father, 50, and a son, 24. The father was killed at the scene, while the son was shot by police and taken to the hospital in critical condition. Australian authorities also said that the shooters had improvised explosives and homemade ISIS flags in their vehicle.

On Sunday, the pair opened fire on families celebrating Hanukkah at Bondi Beach, killing 15 people and leaving more than two dozen injured. The Australian government is investigating the incident as a terror attack targeting the Jewish community.

GAL GADOT, ASHTON KUTCHER CONDEMN ANTISEMITIC TERROR ATTACK AT BONDI BEACH HANUKKAH EVENT

Police teams take security measures at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia, on Sunday after a terrorist attack targeting the Jewish community during the first night of Hanukkah. ( Claudio Galdames A/Anadolu via Getty Images)

During the deadly rampage, another bystander, Ahmed al Ahmed, an Australian immigrant, wrestled a gun away from one of the shooters. His attorney said that Ahmed does not regret intervening, despite being “riddled with bullets” and in intense pain.

“He doesn’t regret what he did. He said he’d do it again. But the pain has started to take a toll on him,” Ahmed’s attorney, Sam Issa, told The Sydney Morning Herald. “He’s not well at all. He’s riddled with bullets. Our hero is struggling at the moment.”

The outlet reported that Ahmed has undergone his first round of surgery and that Issa fears the hero bystander may lose his left arm.

“He’s a lot worse than expected. When you think of a bullet in the arm, you don’t think of serious injuries, but he has lost a lot of blood,” Issa said.

President Donald Trump praised Ahmed for his actions, calling him “a very, very brave person” and saying that he has “great respect” for him.

People attend a floral memorial in honor of the victims of a mass shooting that targeted a Hanukkah celebration on Sunday, at Bondi Beach, in Sydney, Australia, Dec. 16, 2025. (Flavio Brancaleone/Reuters)

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The Bondi Beach attack is the worst mass shooting Australia has seen since the country implemented sweeping reforms after a shooter killed 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania, in 1996. Following the Bondi Beach attack, Australian leaders have vowed to strengthen the country’s already restrictive gun laws.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced several proposed actions, including limiting the number of guns one can possess.

“The government is prepared to take whatever action is necessary. Included in that is the need for tougher gun laws,” he said after meeting with his National Cabinet.

Fox News Digital’s Louis Casiano, Bradford Betz and Alex Nitzberg contributed to this report.

Rachel Wolf is a breaking news writer for Fox News Digital and FOX Business.

World

Venezuelan opposition leader Machado injured on covert Nobel Prize trip

Published

5 hours ago

December 16, 2025

Press Room

Venezuelan opposition leader Machado injured on covert Nobel Prize trip

President Maduro’s rival was hurt as she sped on a boat through choppy waters in secret escape from hiding to reach Oslo ceremony.

Published On 16 Dec 2025

Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado was injured as she made a clandestine dash to collect her Nobel Peace Prize last week, her spokesperson has said.

Claudia Macero said late on Monday that the right-wing opposition figure fractured a vertebra during a choppy boat ride that had formed part of a risky cloak-and-dagger journey to reach the Norwegian capital, Oslo, for the Nobel award ceremony.

Dangerous dash

Media reports in the United States said Machado’s escape last week involved wearing a disguise, including a wig, and travelling from a small Venezuelan fishing village on a wooden boat to the island of Curacao, before boarding a private plane to Norway.

Machado has said she feared for her life during the voyage, which saw US forces situated in the Caribbean alerted to avoid a strike on the vessel.

Several similar boats have been attacked in recent months in a campaign that the Trump administration asserts is a bid to avert drug smuggling into the US.

Maduro has accused Washington of seeking to engineer regime change in the hope of seizing Venezuela’s large oil reserves.

The leader of the opposition Vente Venezuela party was attempting to reach the ceremony at which she was due to be presented with the Nobel Peace Prize.

She was announced the winner of the prestigious award in October, with the selection committee praising her role in the country’s opposition movement and her “steadfast” support for democracy.

‘Broken soul’

Despite her speedy trip, Machado failed to reach Oslo in time for the ceremony. Her daughter received the award on her behalf and delivered a speech that slammed Maduro and warned of the need to fight for democracy.

Hours after the ceremony, early on Thursday morning, Machado greeted supporters from an Oslo hotel balcony in what was her first public appearance in a year.

Despite the fracture, she climbed over a barrier to greet supporters outside the hotel, AFP reported.

Machado said authorities in Venezuela would have attempted everything possible to prevent her journey to Norway.

Appearing set to challenge Maduro in the vote, the opposition leader was barred from running in the country’s presidential election in July last year.

She then announced that she would be going into hiding within Venezuela due to fear for her life while Maduro is in power.

The Venezuelan president commented dismissively on the reports of Machado’s injury on television on Monday.

Machado “says she has a broken vertebra”, he said. “What’s broken is her brain and her soul because she’s a demon – she hates Venezuela.”