World
Exclusive: Former MEP Kaili doubles down on ‘Belgiangate’
It was billed as the scandal that threatened to shake the core of European democracy.
Explosive allegations, a spectacular police operation and allegations of big money used by three non-EU countries to influence the European Parliament’s decisions.
At the centre of the storm was then-MEP and Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili, young, glamorous, and well-connected.
Three years later, the European Parliament corruption scandal remains unresolved, the trial date has not been set, and the methods used by Belgian authorities have come under scrutiny.
Kaili, who was relieved of her duties as an EU lawmaker and declared persona non grata, says she was set up and is demanding justice.
“Justice is based on evidence and facts,” Kaili said in an exclusive interview for Euronews. “Three years ago, optics were presented as justice, but now we have the clarity to see what actually happened.”
Her case has returned to the media spotlight after former EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, top European civil servant Stefano Sannino, and a staff member connected to the College of Europe were detained and named as suspects in a separate alleged corruption case earlier this month, investigated by the European Public Prosecutors’ Office (EPPO) and led by the Belgian police.
Kaili is defending her innocence and accusing Belgian authorities of botched methods, political framing, collusion with the media and the staging of evidence.
Kaili also said she was not surprised by the arrest of three Italian nationals in connection with the Mogherini case, as there is an effort to portray southern European countries as corrupt in public opinion, according to her.
Kaili told Euronews her professional career and personal life have been upended since the scandal broke in 2022. She also says her case is a warning to other politicians.
“When they destroy the principle of presumption of innocence, when they chose a target, stage photos and write the script before the case opens, that means being a politician in Belgium, in the European Union, is not safe,” she told Euronews.
“Politicians should not be afraid to work at European institutions. They should not be afraid to become a target. I hoped that my case would serve as a lesson. But what happened to Mogherini, it’s another case of selective political prosecution.”
Anatomy of a very public scandal
In December 2022, Belgian authorities conducted a series of spectacular raids across several locations, including Kaili’s Brussels home, as part of an investigation led by magistrate Michel Claise.
A photograph of a suitcase, replete with €500 banknotes, was released by the Belgian federal police as what they called evidence of alleged corruption, with Kaili at the centre of it.
The picture went global, and she became the face of the scandal.
She was arrested and her parliamentary immunity waived. Her partner, Francesco Giorgi, and her father, who was found with a suitcase containing cash in a hotel, were also apprehended and accused of being complicit in the alleged corruption scheme, which added up to more than €1.5 million seized in total.
Throughout the investigation, Kaili said she had no personal connection to the money found at her home address, pointing instead to another former MEP, Pier Antonio Panzeri.
Belgian authorities suggested that Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania could have paid Kaili and others large sums to lobby on their behalf. Qatar and Morocco have repeatedly denied the allegations of cash for influence.
The spectacular operation, with no precedent in European history since the EU common institutions were established, put Belgium, its police, secret service and investigative authorities at the centre of an international story, without fear or favour for politicians or foreign governments.
That was in sharp contrast with the picture that emerged after the Paris and Brussels terrorist attacks, in which Belgian authorities came out tainted by operational failures.
At the time, Kaili was a well-known figure in the Brussels bubble, often attending high-profile events and meetings. She has maintained her innocence throughout and refused a plea deal.
Now she is demanding justice for herself.
Troubled and difficult investigation
Since the European Parliament corruption scandal first broke, the investigation has suffered several setbacks, including the resignations of key figures in the case.
Its lead investigative judge, Claise, who first headed the case, resigned in 2023 over concerns of conflict of interest. However, he denied that it played any role in the investigation.
The Belgian federal prosecutor in charge of the case at the time, Raphael Malagnini, also resigned in 2023 to take a different job.
The methods employed by the investigating authorities, which also included the Belgian secret service, have also come into question.
Kaili spent four months in preventive detention before she was released under electronic bracelet monitoring. Her lawyers said at the time that the treatment she received while in prison amounted to torture.
Questions around the way Kaili’s immunity as an elected member of the European Parliament was lifted, which her lawyers argue was done illegally, the nature and timing of sensitive leaks published in the press and counter-probes have impacted the case, which is still not set for trial.
While information “leaking” to the media during an active probe is not rare and reflects the investigative nature of journalism, the details, timing and access to documents deemed highly sensitive went beyond just leaks, according to Kaili.
She told Euronews that Belgian authorities worked closely with a group of journalists to “write and present a script” in which she would be found guilty before she could defend herself.
“We have messages between the prosecutor, the police and journalists preparing articles before the investigation even started, deciding how they would title it and trying to twist everything to fit a headline,” she said. “These are not leaks, this is pre-orchestration.”
At the time, the Greek centre-left politician was portrayed as an ambitious woman seeking to climb the social ladder, enjoying the perks of an expensive lifestyle beyond her duties as a politician.
“I was actually very hard working,” she pointed out.
Kaili insists that she had a mandate from the European Parliament to establish relations with the Gulf countries, citing internal emails.
Asked by Euronews what the motivation could ultimately be if her allegations — which would point to serious negligence — are proven correct before the law, she replied: “That’s a very good question, but it would require a trial.”
Belgian fixation with southern Europe?
The former MEP told Euronews she decided to speak up now because of what she calls a worrying pattern related to southern European nationals working for EU institutions.
Earlier this month, one of Italy’s top diplomats, Mogherini, stepped down from her role as rector of the College of Europe, an influential educational institution close to the EU, over public allegations of graft, again implicating a high-level official from the south of the continent.
Lawyers representing Mogherini said she was ready and willing to collaborate in the investigation, which remains ongoing.
“I think it’s easy to attack the southern European countries and create a narrative and an assumption. But the assumption of the opposite of facts and it destroys lives,” she said.
“And the reason why I’m speaking out, even though it has caused to much trouble to my family, and even to my case, is because this should not happen to anyone,” Kaili concluded.
The Belgian prosecutor’s office did not respond to a request for comment by Euronews.
Watch the entire interview in the player above.
World
AI helped a musician with Parkinson’s finish his new album when he could no longer play guitar
LONDON (AP) — Samuel Smith spent years writing songs with a guitar in his hands.
Now, the London-based singer-songwriter is using artificial intelligence tools to help him continue making Americana music after Parkinson’s disease largely took away his ability to play guitar.
Smith, who was diagnosed with the progressive neurological disorder in 2020, recently released his second album, “The Art of Letting Go.” For one of the eight tracks, an instrumental piece titled “Horizon,” he relied on platforms that use AI to generate music to create demo arrangements that would convey his vision to the musicians who recorded the song.
The demos he created by humming rough melodies into his phone and uploading the recordings into song generators like Suno and Udio weren’t for mixing into the final studio version of “Horizon,” Smith stressed. But tremors, stiffness and fatigue, which are common symptoms of Parkinson’s, caused his guitar skills to deteriorate during the more than a year he worked on the album, he said.
“So then I’m faced with a question,” Smith, 49, said. “‘Don’t play, don’t be creative, or find a way out, find a route.’ And for me, this was the route.”
Generative AI has divided the music industry, whose artists and record labels have complained of their copyrighted work being used to train the models behind AI-powered music tools. Sony Music Entertainment, Universal Music Group and Warner Records sued Suno and Udio in June 2024, although Universal later reached a settlement and partnership deal with Udio and Warner did the same with Suno.
Less discussed is what those platforms can do when employed by a serious musician like Smith, whose disease affects the tools central to his songwriting and identity as a guitarist: his hands. He released his debut album, “In the Springtime,” in 2023, saying he wanted to give his two sons a way to remember when he could perform and record music himself.
“I’d always written, I’d also played, I always sung,” he said. “And immediately it became clear to me that I was in trouble, that my music was going to be seriously compromised.”
From prompts to convincing demos
AI music generators use systems trained on large datasets of recorded music and audio. The platforms analyze patterns in melody, harmony, and rhythm before generating new audio based on prompts or uploaded recordings. Users don’t need musical talent to end up with a serviceable song, or even a popular one.
Smith said producing convincing demos from the synthetic tracks the apps generated often required “50, 100, 150 attempts” and extensive editing “to get something that sounds close to my music.” After humming a song into his phone and uploading the recording, he gives prompts describing instrumentation, mood and style. .
“AI is not replacing anything for me,” he said. “It’s unlocking, it’s enabling. It’s allowing me to keep writing. I upload my lyrics; AI doesn’t create my lyrics. I upload my music; AI does not create my music.”
He added: “It then brings it to life in a way that I can play to session players and say, ‘Here, that’s what I’m thinking, that is what I’m hearing.’”
A bittersweet guitar duet
The album was produced by Grammy-winning pianist and producer Matt Rollings, who assembled a group of established roots and bluegrass musicians for the project. They included dobro player and 16-time Grammy winner Jerry Douglas, Grammy-winning banjo player Alison Brown, fiddler Stuart Duncan, guitarist Bryan Sutton, bassist Viktor Krauss and singers Jonatha Brooke and Glen Phillips.
For Smith, the experience of singing in a Nashville studio alongside musicians he had admired for decades was “an extraordinary moment.”
Grammy-nominated guitarist Julian Lage, known for his jazz and acoustic recordings with Blue Note Records, performed on the album’s title track and on “Horizon.” The latter recording became a bittersweet high point in Smith’s career; despite the progression of his disease, he managed to play a guitar duet with his friend.
“I hadn’t been able to play for months, but I kept telling myself that if I wrote something to take to the studio, perhaps the clouds would part for a few minutes,” Smith said. “That’s what happened. I had a window of about 10 minutes in the studio when my arm freed up. … So in the end, I was able to capture the last breath of my guitar playing.”
New possibilities and perils
Experts said AI-assisted music tools could benefit other people with disabilities or illnesses.
Ruaidhri Mannion, a composer, music producer and sonic artist who teaches at Brunel University of London, said technology like affordable digital recording software “effectively democratized the making of music” in recent decades. By helping songwriters and musicians communicate ideas and collaborate more easily, AI tools that generate polished-sounding material from voice or text prompts could work in the same way, he said.
“If these tools are able to enable people to be able to participate with other creative groups and encourage more people to feel confident to be able to reach out to an ensemble or an orchestra or something, then I think that is all for the better,” Mannion said.
But an overreliance on technology could intefere with the trial and error, frustration and synergy that are necessary parts of a musician’s artistic development, Mannion said.
“What makes a lot of music-making meaningful is the collaborative element,” he said. “There’s a lot of experimentation and development and failure that’s part of musical discovery.”
Udio and Suno have denied copyright infringement allegations and said they wanted to work with the music industry, not in opposition to it. Some musicians are unconvinced. A group of recording artists and activists, including singer-songwriter Tift Merritt, David Lowery of the bands Cracker and Camper Van Beethoven, and ECR Music Group President Blake Morgan, published an open letter in February under the heading “So no to Suno.”
“Many in our community are embracing responsible AI as a tool for creation, and as a means for fans to explore and interact with our artistry. That’s wonderful,” the letter read. “But it’s not the same as creating an environment where AI-generated works sourced from our music are mass distributed to dilute our royalties or, worse yet, reward those actively seeking to commit fraud. Artists need to know the difference.”
‘Show us what you can do’
Smith said he thinks his experience demonstrated how AI could benefit society and expand creative access, if it’s developed responsibly.
“My message would be that if these companies want to show they’ve got a place, a role in society, then step up,” Smith said. “Engage with health professionals, engage with music therapists, engage with society and show us what you can do.”
On May 21, Smith collaborated with the Berklee Music and Health Institute for an event in New York that brought together music industry leaders, researchers and clinicians to examine how music can support people living with neurological conditions. Smith discussed his experience living with Parkinson’s and sang again alongside musicians who played on “The Art of Letting Go.”
Creating music is crucial to the legacy Smith hopes to leave for his children, ages 4 and 17.
“My 4-year-old is probably never going to remember me playing, and it’s heartbreaking,” he said. “But I’ve been able to pull this into something and refuse to be defined by this disease.”
World
Christian farming communities under siege as US report names Fulani militants Nigeria’s deadliest threat
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JOHANNESBURG — An estimated 30,000 mostly Muslim Fulani militants are operating in Nigeria, causing “worsening insecurity and religious freedom violations,” according to an influential new report.
The report, by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF), states “violence by Fulani militants caused the highest number of deaths among all religious communities in Nigeria over the last year, as compared to attacks by organized insurgent groups and criminal gangs.”
The Fulanis, so-called herders of livestock, have, according to the USCIRF report, “targeted Christian (farming) communities in the Middle Belt and, increasingly, the South, burning homes and churches as well as kidnapping, raping, and murdering.”
CHRISTIANS TARGETED IN SYSTEMATIC KIDNAPPING CAMPAIGN IN NIGERIA BY JIHADI HERDSMEN, EXPERTS SAY
Funerals were held for about 27 Christians reportedly killed by Islamist Fulani tribesmen in Bindi village, Plateau State, Nigeria, on July 28, 2025. (Christian Solidarity International)
But a former counterterrorism expert at the State Department told Fox News Digital that the kind of strikes the U.S., working with Nigerian government forces, have recently carried out in Nigeria’s North against Islamist terrorist organizations such as Boko Haram and Islamic State, wouldn’t work against the Fulanis in the predominantly Christian central areas of the country.
Sterling Tilley, former acting director within the Bureau of Counterterrorism, who has worked in Nigeria for the State Department, said that the U.S. “militarily dealing with the farmer-herder conflict is not advisable because it is likely to bring more instability in the country.” Tilley, now director of the Thomas R. Pickering Graduate Foreign Affairs Fellowship at Howard University, added, “There are some steps that can be taken to quell the violence, but there must be Nigerian political will to do so.”
Young people protest against the killings following a deadly attack by Fulani militants on Christian-majority villages in Benue state, that left 218 people dead and 6,000 displaced. The protest took place in Benue state in June 2025. (Open Doors UK)
This week, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth commented on the recent strikes ordered by President Donald Trump on Nigeria, saying, “Maybe a year ago, [the president] heard the call of Nigerian Christians who were being targeted and killed by ISIS. And he said, ‘Pete, I want the War Department to focus on ensuring that we do everything we can to protect those Christians.’”
NIGERIA NAMED EPICENTER OF GLOBAL KILLINGS OF CHRISTIANS OVER FAITH IN 2025, REPORT SAYS
Christians make up approximately 48% of Nigeria’s population. Fulani militants, the USCIRF report stated, “have often carried out operations during Christian holidays such as Christmas or Easter to further maximize the psychological impact, terrifying those communities from gathering to celebrate or worship. During attacks, assailants sometimes utter slogans with religious connotations, such as “Allahu Akbar“ (Arabic for “God is great”).
But, according to the report, Muslims are being attacked too. “Fulani assailants have not spared Muslims, raiding herders’ cattle and violently attacking non-Fulani Muslim communities,” the report added.
Coffins arrive at Ibrahim Babanginda Square in Makurdi, Benue State, on Jan. 11, 2018, during a funeral service for victims of clashes between Fulani herdsmen and natives of Guma and Logo districts. (Pius Utomi Ekpei/AFP)
“Violence at the hands of militants from the Fulani tribe far outnumbers violence from all other militant groups such as Boko Haram or ISWAP (Islamic State West African Province),” Henrietta Blyth, CEO of Open Doors UK & Ireland, an organization that highlights the persecution of Christians, told Fox News Digital.
While her organization was not part of the report, she said, “My heart has been broken as I have heard stories from women and men who have seen their beloved family members butchered in front of them or carried off into a life of slavery.”
AFRICAN UNION CHIEF DENIES GENOCIDE CLAIMS AGAINST CHRISTIANS AS CRUZ WARNS NIGERIAN OFFICIALS
Fulani Muslim men pray in Masallacin Shehu Mosque, Sokoto, Sokoto State, Nigeria, on April 24, 2019. (Luis Tato/AFP via Getty Images)
Blyth added: “The situation is complicated, and as the report concludes, it is too simplistic to say all perpetrators are religiously motivated. What is undisputable is that Christians are highly vulnerable and often the victims, paying the price in blood. They desperately need protection and, for hundreds of thousands driven from their homes, the chance to heal and rebuild their lives.”
The USCIRF report also stated, “Criticism of responses to Fulani militant violence from federal and state authorities has often described their responses as unsatisfactory at best and complicit at worst.”
Tilley told Fox News Digital that elections are to be held in Nigeria next year, and “the Fulani do have considerable political influence as a voting bloc. Thus, the Nigerian government seems reluctant to take actions necessary to quell the violence for fear that they could lose their base of support in the North and Middle Belt.”
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Fox News Digital reached out to the Nigerian government for comment but did not receive a response by publication time.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that Russia may be preparing to launch a “massive” new attack against Ukraine.
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“We have intel indicating that Russia is preparing a new massive attack,” Zelenskyy said in a post on social media late on Friday, while also advising people to listen out for air raid alerts and keep safe.
“The air force and protectors of our skies will be working around the clock, as always,” he added.
It comes after Russia deployed its nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile in a massive wave of strikes on the Kyiv region last weekend. Ukraine said the attack included 90 missiles and 600 drones.
The use of the Oreshnik, an intermediate-range ballistic missile that Russia first used in a strike on Dnipro in 2024, drew strong criticism from leaders across Europe.
On Friday, Zelenskyy also reiterated his call for more Patriot missile systems from the US. The Patriot is an air and missile defense system used to intercept ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, drones, and aircraft.
Zelenskyy told reporters in Sweden on Thursday that he was being “very persistent” in his pursuit of new missiles for the system. He reportedly wrote to US President Donald Trump earlier this week asking for more ammunition.
“For us — for a nation fighting for its survival — there is hardly anything more painful to see than Patriot batteries with no missiles loaded,” he said in his letter to Trump.
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