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BrusselsEU citizens who do not want to unknowingly eat insects should be particularly careful: The EU Commission has already approved four types of insects in different forms as "edible insects".

RomeIt has been a disturbing development. Despite its right-wing government, which has now been in office for almost three months, the number of illegal immigrants in Italy continues to rise steeply. This has caused many voters to become dissatisfied with the right-wing government under Giorgia Meloni.

ViennaThe shocking child porn case of the actor Florian Teichtmeister burdens the entire swamp of left-leaning Viennese cultural celebrities who had covered up and condoned the crimes. But they could not keep the lid on his heinous activities.

StockholmSweden has been experiencing non-stop explosions, shootings and murders for weeks now. The cities of Stockholm and Malmö are particularly affected and the police have been overwhelmed. The government intends to lead the charge against escalating violence by various migrant gangs.

The HagueThe advanced AI text generator ChatGPT is being used for homework assignments by many Dutch students without teachers being aware that the work had been generated by an artificial intelligence bot.

ParisReaders who track down ethnic and sexual prejudices that may offend certain non-white minorities in books, are emerging in French publishing. Known as "sensitivity readers", they are now routinely employed before a book is published, especially if the author is writing about cultures outside their lived experience.

BrusselsIn 2022, the EU border protection agency Frontex again had its hands full. The authority recorded more than 300 000 illegal border crossings – a record high.

From time to time readers ask what it is like trying to communicate with people in an era of mass disinformation. There are a few individual voices, as often as not censored and under attack, against which the TV and print media and the establishment’s Internet sites are arrayed. It is frustrating, especially as so many people are content with a few minutes of managed news headlines. The insouciance in the population is massive.

Last week, the Foreign Ministers of Turkey and Syria met in Moscow. This is the highest level meeting between the two countries who have been on opposite sides of the US-NATO war on Syria for regime change since 2011.

In a “national consultation”, the Hungarian government asked Hungarians about the sanctions against Russia. Some 97 percent of the participants voted against the sanctions. The government regards the result as "indicative".