Connect with us

World

Russia ‘hijacking’ frustration with EU accession – North Macedonia FM

Published

on

Russia ‘hijacking’ frustration with EU accession – North Macedonia FM

Frustration over the delay in North Macedonia’s EU accession is creating an opening for Russia to sow discord in the country through an “arsenal” of hybrid warfare, the country’s foreign minister has warned.

ADVERTISEMENT

Bujar Osmani told Euronews on Tuesday evening that Russia is using targeted disinformation campaigns – including online trolling and fake news – to “fracture the social fabric of society” in the country and the wider Western Balkans and stall their accession to the EU. 

“Obviously Russia designed disinformation in order to keep North Macedonia from achieving its strategic goals, which is NATO and EU membership,” Osmani said.

“The frustration that is built up along the way (to EU membership) is being hijacked by malign forces trying to channel this energy of frustration into their windmill,” he added.

North Macedonia became an official candidate to join the European Union almost two decades ago along with Croatia and Slovenia, now fully integrated EU members. 

Its accession path has been stalled due to disputes with Greece over the country’s name, and with Bulgaria over the the rights of minorities as enshrined in the constitution.

Advertisement

A further four countries in the region – Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and Serbia – are also official EU candidates. Formal accession negotiations have opened with all nations except for Bosnia and Herzegovina. Kosovo, which is not recognised as an independent state by all EU member states, is a ‘potential candidate’ for accession.

But their bids have been plagued with delays and difficulties. Osmani said that the region is now at a “geopolitical crossroads” where the political arena is becoming increasingly polarised between pro-Europeans and anti-Europeans.

The separatist movement in Bosnia’s Serb-majority Republika Srpska and the delays in normalising relations between Serbia and Kosovo are all examples of tensions that are being exacerbated by Russian-backed actors, Osmani said.

“I believe that behind all those efforts to keep the region stalling, to keep the region in perpetual confrontation and conflicts, is the Russian Federation through its arsenal of means but also proxy state and non-state actors in the region,” he said.

“The only response is to unequivocally continue with our agenda for Euro-Atlantic integration.”

Advertisement

Osmani backs Brussels’ new approach of ‘phased’ integration, including the €6-billion growth plan for 2024-2027 designed to open the bloc’s common market to the Western Balkan candidates and tipped to boost their economies by as much as 10%.

“We have realised that the default concept of EU accession is all in or nothing. The road is long, the journey is difficult, and people and the candidates do not see any benefits from the road itself,” Osmani explained.

“What we want to see is a gradual integration of the region into the single market before membership and integration into the formal formats of the European Union before integration itself,” he added.

This could mean giving Western Balkan nations observer status at EU ministerial meetings such as the Foreign Affairs Council, an idea that his EU counterparts are supportive of, Osmani said.

“One of the most significant threats of our time”

Osmani spoke to Euronews following the launch of the European External Action Service’s (EEAS) second annual disinformation report, which named Russia as the primary culprit of spreading harmful misinformation on digital platforms, and Ukraine the main target.

Advertisement

The EU’s foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell described disinformation as “one of the most significant threats of our time,” and a “cancer that puts the health of democracy at risk.”

The report, which is based on an investigation of 750 cases of so-called Foreign Information Manipulation and Interference (FIMI), says other states such as China also use interference to undermine democratic institutions and stoke polarisation abroad, as a means to “achieve their own political and economic goals.”

The most targeted individuals in the cases investigated were Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron, Josep Borrell himself as well as celebrities such as Nicolas Cage and Margot Robbie, whose voices and faces were deliberately manipulated to sow misinformation. 

ADVERTISEMENT

Telegram and X emerged as the preferred platforms for FIMI attacks, with attacks also orchestrated on Facebook, TikTok, Youtube and Reddit as well as Russian social networks VKontakte and Odnoklassniki.

While the report notes it is “prudent” to prepare for potential interference ahead of June’s European elections, it also warns against “inflating the threat.”

Speaking during the event, Osmani said the Western Balkans was the “soft underbelly” of the EU when it came to foreign interference and the “fire line” in the disinformation war between East and West.

Advertisement

World

Vanity Fair parts ways with Olivia Nuzzi amid Robert F. Kennedy Jr. controversy

Published

on

Vanity Fair parts ways with Olivia Nuzzi amid Robert F. Kennedy Jr. controversy

NEW YORK (AP) — Vanity Fair is parting ways with West Coast editor Olivia Nuzzi amid ongoing controversy over her relationship with profile subject Robert F. Kennedy Jr. while she was the Washington correspondent for New York magazine.

A joint statement Friday from the magazine and Nuzzi said that they “have mutually agreed, in the best interest of the magazine, to let her contract expire at the end of the year.” She had been hired as its West Coast editor in September.

Nuzzi, 32, had been a star reporter for New York magazine known for colorful political profiles until the fall of 2024, when it was revealed she had an intense personal relationship with Kennedy, a presidential candidate at the time she wrote about him and now head of the Department of Health and Human Services. Nuzzi was fired by New York for not disclosing her relationship.

She reflected on their relationship and the fallout from it in the memoir “American Canto,” which refers to Kennedy as “The Politician” and ex-fiancé Ryan Lizza as “the man I did not marry.” It was excerpted in Vanity Fair but competed for attention with a series of Substack posts by Lizza that contained embarrassing allegations.

Their feud quickly gripped media insiders as Lizza alleged that Nuzzi had an affair with another profile subject and had given Kennedy political advice, both considered off limits for journalists. Lizza even posted salacious, cringeworthy text messages from Kennedy to Nuzzi that he had intercepted.

Advertisement

Nuzzi denounced her ex-fiance’s posts, in a Substack interview with Emily Sundberg, as “fiction-slash-revenge porn.”

Friday’s announcement came only days after the publication of “American Canto,” disdained by critics and apparently of little interest to the reading public. The book ranked just 6,094 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list as of Friday afternoon.

Critics were harsh: “A tell-all memoir? Ha. This is a tell-nothing memoir,” wrote Helen Lewis in The Atlantic.

Through a miserable week, Nuzzi posted a humorous Substack column of “Signs Your Book Rollout Has Gone Awry.”

Among them: “Monica Lewinsky reaches out to check on your mental health.”

Advertisement

Continue Reading

World

Canadian politician arrested after claiming threatening voicemail was AI

Published

on

Canadian politician arrested after claiming threatening voicemail was AI

NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

A Canadian politician who claimed a voicemail she allegedly left a potential mayoral candidate last summer was artificial intelligence has been arrested and charged with making threats.

Ontario Councilor Corinna Traill was arrested on Wednesday and charged with two counts of uttering threats, the Peterborough Police Service in Ontario said.

In September, former mayoral candidate Tom Dingwall wrote on his Facebook that in August Traill left him a voicemail, telling him not to run for mayor so a friend of hers could run unencumbered.

MIT STUDENTS FLOCK TO AI MAJORS AMID PROMISES OF HIGH-PAYING CAREERS

Advertisement

Ontario Councilor Corinna Traill was arrested on Wednesday and charged with two counts of uttering threats, the Peterborough Police Service in Ontario said. (Corinnatraill.ca; Kirill Kudryavtsev/ AFP via Getty Images)

“Miss Traill made it clear that if I did not, she would come to my home, kill me, and sexually assault my wife, then sexually assault her again,” he alleged.

He called for Traill to step down, adding, “To be clear, no elected official, paid to represent us, should utilize intimidation or threats to dissuade anyone from pursuing elected office or engaging in public service, especially to the benefit of their friend.”

In her own statement posted to Facebook in September, Traill denied having sent the voicemail.

OPEN AI’S SAM ALTMAN ISSUES ‘CODE RED’ TO BOLSTER CHATGPT’S QUALITY, DELAYS OTHER PRODUCTS: REPORT

Advertisement

“I want to state clearly and unequivocally: I did not create this message,” she wrote. “I have been advised that artificial intelligence technology was involved. Portions of the voicemail were my voice, but other parts were artificially generated.”

She wrote at the time that her team was trying to figure out who created the message.

“For more than a decade I have worked to represent the best interests of our community, advocate for our residents, and ensure that local decision-making reflects the values and priorities of the people I serve,” she added. “That dedication will not waver in light of these circumstances.”

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

Traill has been released from jail on her own recognizance and is expected to next be in court in January, the police department said.  

Advertisement

Fox News Digital has reached out to Traill for comment.

Continue Reading

World

US Supreme Court to consider Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship

Published

on

US Supreme Court to consider Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship

The Supreme Court is likely to hear oral arguments early next year, with a ruling in June on a matter that has been blocked by several lower courts as being unconstitutional.

Advertisement

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to decide the legality of President Donald Trump’s bid to end birthright citizenship, as the Republican administration continues its broad immigration crackdown.

Following its announcement on Friday, the conservative-dominated court did not set a date for oral arguments in the blockbuster case, but it is likely to be early next year, with a ruling in June.

Recommended Stories

list of 3 itemsend of list

Several lower courts have blocked as unconstitutional Trump’s attempt to put restrictions on the law that states that anyone born on US soil is automatically an American citizen.

Trump signed an executive order on January 20, his first day in office, decreeing that children born to parents in the US illegally or on temporary visas would not automatically become US citizens.

Advertisement

Lower courts have ruled the order to be a violation of the 14th Amendment, which states: “All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside.”

Trump’s executive order was premised on the idea that anyone in the US illegally, or on a visa, was not “subject to the jurisdiction” of the country, and therefore excluded from this category.

The Supreme Court rejected such a narrow definition in a landmark 1898 case.

The Trump administration has also argued that the 14th Amendment, passed in the wake of the Civil War, addresses the rights of former slaves and not the children of undocumented migrants or temporary US visitors.

In a brief with the court, Trump’s solicitor general, John Sauer, argued that “the erroneous extension of birthright citizenship to the children of illegal aliens has caused substantial harm to the United States”.

Advertisement

“Most obviously, it has impaired the United States’ territorial integrity by creating a strong incentive for illegal immigration,” Sauer said.

Trump’s executive order had been due to come into effect on February 19, but it was halted after federal judges ruled against the administration in multiple lawsuits.

District Judge John Coughenour, who heard the case in Washington state, described the president’s executive order as “blatantly unconstitutional”.

Conservatives hold a 6-3 majority on the Supreme Court, and three of the justices were appointed by Trump.

Cecillia Wang, national legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union, which has spearheaded the legal challenges to the attempt to end birthright citizenship, said she is hopeful the top court will “strike down this harmful order once and for all”.

Advertisement

“Federal courts around the country have consistently rejected President Trump’s attempts to strip away this core constitutional protection,” Wang said.

“The president’s action goes against a core American right that has been a part of our Constitution for over 150 years.”

The Supreme Court has sided with Trump in a series of decisions this year, allowing various policies to take effect after they were impeded by lower courts that cast doubt on their legality.

Among these policies were Trump’s revocation of temporary legal protections on humanitarian grounds for hundreds of thousands of migrants, deportations of migrants to countries other than their own and domestic immigration enforcement raids.

Advertisement
Continue Reading
Advertisement

Trending