By&nbspEuronews

Published on 17/07/2025 – 16:26 GMT+2
•Updated
16:44

The arrest of Varna’s Mayor Blagomir Kotsev has escalated from a local courtroom drama into a regional diplomatic flashpoint, as protests sweep Bulgaria and extend to Brussels, Germany and the UK.

Kotsev, a prominent figure from the opposition “We Continue the Change – Democratic Bulgaria” party, was detained on 8 July on allegations of embezzling public procurement funds through a catering contract.

He has firmly denied all charges, describing the case as politically motivated. The controversy deepened when a key witness later admitted their testimony had been coerced.

On Thursday, during a hearing in the Sofia appellate court, prosecutors presented 59 pages of additional evidence, which Kotsev’s defence dismissed as irrelevant and part of a smear campaign.

The mayor’s arrest has triggered strong reactions not only from within Bulgaria’s reformist circles but also from European political allies.

Vasil Terziev, the mayor of Sofia, condemned the detention as a targeted act of selective justice. Meanwhile, the Renew Europe group in the European Parliament, of which Kotsev’s party is a member, labelled the arrest “political repression” and a threat to EU democratic norms.

In response, protests have broken out across Bulgaria, with slogans such as “The law is not a weapon.” Supporters of Kotsev have also mobilised abroad, organising demonstrations in Brussels, Berlin and London.

Bulgarian-German relations on the line?

The involvement of the German ambassador at a recent protest has heightened tensions between Sofia and Berlin, prompting an unprecedented reaction from the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry.

Germany’s ambassador to Bulgaria was seen joining one of the protests in Varna, standing in apparent solidarity with Kotsev’s supporters, in an unusual diplomatic action that sparked swift retaliation from Sofia.

The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry issued a formal diplomatic note, criticising what it perceived as direct interference in the country’s internal judicial affairs.

Germany has not yet released an official response, but the ambassador’s presence reflects Berlin’s broader concern over rule-of-law issues within some EU member states.

Meanwhile, three other ambassadors — from France, the Netherlands and the UK — attended Kotsev’s hearing on Thursday.

At a time when Bulgaria is seeking to solidify its position within the eurozone and Schengen area, the brewing crisis puts Sofia under pressure to demonstrate genuine progress on judicial independence and anti-corruption reforms.

In its 2024 rule of law report on Bulgaria, the European Commission expressed lingering concerns over the remaining reforms Sofia is expected to undertake.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Astronomers have discovered the earliest seeds of rocky planets forming in the gas around a baby sun-like star, providing a precious peek into the dawn of our own solar system.

It’s an unprecedented snapshot of “time zero,” scientists reported Wednesday, when new worlds begin to gel.

“We’ve captured a direct glimpse of the hot region where rocky planets like Earth are born around young protostars,” said Leiden Observatory’s Melissa McClure from the Netherlands, who led the international research team. “For the first time, we can conclusively say that the first steps of planet formation are happening right now.”

The observations offer a unique glimpse into the inner workings of an emerging planetary system, said the University of Chicago’s Fred Ciesla, who was not involved in the study appearing in the journal Nature.

“This is one of the things we’ve been waiting for. Astronomers have been thinking about how planetary systems form for a long period of time,” Ciesla said. “There’s a rich opportunity here.”

NASA’s Webb Space Telescope and the European Southern Observatory in Chile teamed up to unveil these early nuggets of planetary formation around the young star known as HOPS-315. It’s a yellow dwarf in the making like the sun, yet much younger at 100,000 to 200,000 years old and some 1,370 light-years away. A single light-year is 6 trillion miles.

In a cosmic first, McClure and her team stared deep into the gas disk around the baby star and detected solid specks condensing — signs of early planet formation. A gap in the outer part of the disk gave allowed them to gaze inside, thanks to the way the star tilts toward Earth.

They detected silicon monoxide gas as well as crystalline silicate minerals, the ingredients for what’s believed to be the first solid materials to form in our solar system more than 4.5 billion years ago. The action is unfolding in a location comparable to the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter containing the leftover building blocks of our solar system’s planets.

The condensing of hot minerals was never detected before around other young stars, “so we didn’t know if it was a universal feature of planet formation or a weird feature of our solar system,” McClure said in an email. “Our study shows that it could be a common process during the earliest stage of planet formation.”

While other research has looked at younger gas disks and, more commonly, mature disks with potential planet wannabes, there’s been no specific evidence for the start of planet formation until now, McClure said.

In a stunning picture taken by the ESO’s Alma telescope network, the emerging planetary system resembles a lightning bug glowing against the black void.

It’s impossible to know how many planets might form around HOPS-315. With a gas disk as massive as the sun’s might have been, it could also wind up with eight planets a million or more years from now, according to McClure.

Purdue University’s Merel van ’t Hoff, a co-author, is eager to find more budding planetary systems. By casting a wider net, astronomers can look for similarities and determine which processes might be crucial to forming Earth-like worlds.

“Are there Earth-like planets out there or are we like so special that we might not expect it to occur very often?”

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AP video journalist Javier Arciga contributed to this report.

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The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Department of Science Education and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on Wednesday issued his latest threat against the U.S. and “its dog on a leash, the Zionist regime [Israel]” as nations urge nuclear negotiations but eye sanctions options. 

“The fact that our nation is ready to face the power of the United States and its dog on a leash, the Zionist regime, is very praiseworthy,” Khamenei said in comments translated by Reuters to state TV. 

Khamenei went on to claim that last month’s attack on the U.S. Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar was just the beginning of what Tehran could throw at Washington and warned that “an even bigger blow could be inflicted on the U.S. and others.”

IRAN VOWS RETALIATION IF UN SECURITY COUNCIL ISSUES SNAPBACK SANCTIONS ON ANNIVERSARY OF NUCLEAR DEAL

While the U.S. has assessed that Iran’s nuclear program has been set back by up to two years following its strikes on the Fordow atomic site in June – which followed a series of strikes issued by Israel on Tehran’s nuclear and military sectors – much of Iran’s missile capabilities remain intact. 

It is unclear the exact extent that Iran’s missile and drone program was degraded after the Israeli strikes targeted its stockpiles and launching capabilities, but security experts have warned Tehran’s missile and drone programs remain a “significant” threat.

Israel has estimated that even after its strikes, Iran likely still possesses some 1,500 medium-range ballistic missiles and 50% of its launching capabilities, reported Bill Roggio, senior fellow and editor of Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ (FDD) “Long War Journal.”

Similarly, Iranian expert Behnam Ben Taleblu told Fox News Digital that “Post strikes, the program still exists and, despite being handicapped, poses a significant regional threat.”

A big banner depicting Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is placed next to a ballistic missile in Baharestan Square in Tehran, Iran, on Sept. 26, 2024 on the sideline of an exhibition which marks the 44th anniversary of the start of the Iran-Iraq war. (Photo by Hossein Beris / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP)

IRAN CLAIMS ITS PRESIDENT WAS INJURED IN ISRAELI AIRSTRIKE LAST MONTH

“This is especially true at shorter distances since Iran’s single-stage solid fuel short-range ballistic are much more precise,” Ben Taleblu, senior director of the FDD’s Iran program, said. “This means that in another iteration of an Israel-Iran-America conflict, the chances of retaliatory strike on U.S. regional bases remains high.” 

Khamenei’s threats followed similar warnings by other top Iranian officials as western nations mull reinforcing snapback sanctions if Washington is unable to make headway on nuclear negotiations “by the end of the summer.” 

President Donald Trump has said he is committed to continuing talks with Iran to avoid further military action, but on Tuesday evening, he told reporters he’s “in no rush to talk” despite the ever-looming deadline for when a deal needs to be reached. 

Security experts have told Fox News Digital that snapback sanctions pose their own risk as the measure could prompt Iran to withdraw from the world’s largest nuclear agreement – the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, which some 190 nations have signed on to.

A model of a missile is carried by Iranian demonstrators as minarets and the dome of a mosque is seen in the background during an anti-Israeli gathering at the Felestin (Palestine) Sq. in Tehran, Iran, on Monday, April 15, 2024. (AP Photo/Vahid Salemi)

“A sustainable and verifiable diplomatic solution that addresses the security interests of the international community is essential,” the German Foreign Ministry confirmed for Fox News Digital this week. “If such a solution is not achieved by the end of the summer, the snapback mechanism will remain an option for the E3.

“We continue to coordinate closely with our E3 partners on this issue,” the ministry added in reference to the European nations that signed the 2015 nuclear agreement known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, which are France, Germany and the U.K.