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Europe
Germany
11.06.2025 26% of immigrants - approximately 2.6 million people - consider leaving Germany. ’The main reasons include political dissatisfaction, discrimination in the workplace and during interactions with authorities, high tax burden, and bureaucratic hurdles’. Family considerations and ’better economic prospects in other countries’ are additional factors driving this trend - around 1.2 million (12%) plan to stay temporarily,. while approximately 3 million (30%) are unsure. Approximately 300,000 (3%) already having concrete emigration plans. The EU’s largest economy is currently grappling with an aging population and a substantial shortage of qualified workers in the information technology, renewable energy, construction, and medical sectors. The study found that knowledge-intensive sectors - particularly IT, financial services, and insurance - were most affected, with 30 to 39% of surveyed migrants in these fields indicating they might leave Germany. A slim majority of immigrants (57%, or roughly 5.7 million people) want to stay in Germany permanently. "Those who immigrated for work or education, who have higher education levels, greater economic success, and better language integration, are more likely to consider leaving or have concrete emigration plans," explained IAB researcher Olbrich. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
European Union
12 Jun 2025 2025 European Heritage Awards winners announced. (Source: European Commission)
Ukraine
June 12, 2025 The June 10 attack. In the early hours of June 10, Kyiv experienced a prolonged aerial assault involving more than 300 drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles. The attack lasted for five hours, took place across seven of the capital’s ten districts, featured a combined total of 315 aerial threats and was launched in waves throughout the early morning hours to overwhelm the capital’s air defense systems through sheer volume and tactical diversity, designed to exhaust interceptor stockpiles and exploit gaps in radar coverage. The attack inflicted significant destruction on Ukrainian infrastructure. The drones used in the attack were primarily, the Iranian-made Shahed-136 and Shahed-131 loitering munitions. Russia also launched Iskander-M ballistic missiles and probably Kh-101 air-launched cruise missiles. Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence announced that it had intercepted 277 out of the 315 aerial threats. The defense network consists of many Western systems, including the IRIS-T, NASAM, and Patriot missiles, as well as legacy Soviet systems such as the S-300. Key infrastructure, including Kyiv’s power grid and major hospitals, remained operational throughout the attack. Repeated attacks of this scale will deplete missile defense stockpiles faster than they can be replenished. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
Africa
South Africa
(Wednesday), 11 Jun 2025 Torrential rain, flooding and landslides claim 49 lives in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province, which stretches from the Indian Ocean into high inland mountains, after the severe winter storm truck on Monday with heavy rainfall, snowfalls and strong winds causing damage. (Source: The Guardian – Nigeria)
Asia
India
8:38 PM CEST, June 12, 2025 One passenger survived the crash of an Air India plane bound for London today in Ahmedabad. Air India said the flight bound for London Gatwick Airport was carrying 242 passengers and crew, with 169 Indians, 53 Britons, seven Portuguese and one Canadian aboard. The death toll includes medical students who were in a college hostel when the plane hit the building shortly after takeoff. It appeared the aircraft had its nose up and was not climbing. This is the first crash of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner twin-engine aircraft introduced in 2009. Shares of Boeing Co. tumbled nearly 9% before trading opened in the U.S. (Source: AP - U.S.)
Iran
12 June 2025 - 10:43 Where are Iran's nuclear facilities? Busher, Fordow, Isfahan, Khondab, Natanz, Tehran Research Centre. A complex at the heart of Iran's enrichment programme on a plain abutting mountains outside the Shiite Muslim holy city of Qom, south of Tehran, Natanz houses two enrichment plants: the vast, underground Fuel Enrichment Plant (FEP) and the above-ground Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP). The FEP was built for enrichment on a commercial scale, able to house 50,000 centrifuges. About 16,000 centrifuges are installed there, roughly 13,000 of which are in operation, refining uranium to up to 5% purity. FEP is about three floors below ground. Damage has been done to centrifuges at the FEP, including an explosion and power cut in April 2021 that Iran said was an attack by Israel. The above-ground PFEP houses only hundreds of centrifuges but Iran is enriching to up to 60% purity there. Fordow, on the opposite side of Qom is an enrichment site dug into a mountain and therefore probably better protected from potential bombardment than the FEP. The 2015 deal with major powers did not allow Iran to enrich at Fordow at all. It now has about 2,000 centrifuges operating there, most of them advanced IR-6 machines, of which up to 350 are enriching to up to 60%. Isfahan, Iran's second largest city has a large nuclear technology centre on the outskirts. It includes the Fuel Plate Fabrication Plant (FPFP) and the uranium conversion facility (UCF) that can process uranium into the uranium hexafluoride that is fed into centrifuges. Iran also stores enriched uranium at Isfahan. There is equipment to make uranium metal, a process that is particularly proliferation-sensitive since it can be used to devise the core of a nuclear bomb. The IAEA has said there are machines for making centrifuge parts at Isfahan, describing it in 2022 as a new location. In Khondab Iran has a partially built heavy-water research reactor originally called Arak. Heavy-water reactors pose a nuclear proliferation risk because they can easily produce plutonium which, like enriched uranium, can be used to make the core of an atom bomb. Under the 2015 deal, construction was halted, the reactor's core was removed and filled with concrete to make it unusable. The reactor was to be redesigned “to minimise the production of plutonium and not to produce weapon-grade plutonium in normal operation”. Iran has informed the IAEA that it plans to start operating the reactor in 2026. Iran's nuclear research facilities in Tehran include a research reactor. Iran's only operating nuclear power plant in Busher, on the Gulf coast, uses Russian fuel that Russia then takes back when it is spent, reducing the proliferation risk. (Source: TimesLive - South Africa)
June 12, 2025 Iran has rejected the latest U.S. nuclear proposal. Supreme Leader Khamenei dismissed calls to halt uranium enrichment, calling them contrary to Iran’s national interests. “Who are you to decide whether Iran should have enrichment?” Khamenei said. U.S. President Trump has threatened military action if negotiations fail. His envoy, Witkoff, called Iranian uranium enrichment a red line. Javan Daily, the newspaper affiliated with the Revolutionary Guards reported that Iran is prepared to walk away from nuclear negotiations if its demands are not met. It claimed Iran is negotiating from a position of strength, with its nuclear capabilities serving as a deterrent against threats. (Source: IranWire - owned by a UK-based company, registered office address: London, United Kingdom)
June 12, 2025 The U.S. anticipates potential retaliation from Iran, particularly against American sites in Iraq, where pro-Iranian militias previously attacked the embassy in Baghdad following the 2020 killing of Iranian commander Soleimani. The Islamic Republic's Defense Minister warned yesterday that Tehran would target all American bases in the region if a conflict were to erupt. ’We will target all American bases in host countries without hesitation.’ He added that Iran would not remain passive and would retaliate decisively against any aggression. (Source: IranWire - owned by a UK-based company, registered office address: London, United Kingdom)
12 June 2025, 10:03 The 6th round of Iran US talks will be held in Muscat this Sunday the 15th, Oman's foreign minister Busaidi made the announcement on the social platform X. Within hours, it also emerged that Israel is now understood to be considering military action against Iran in the coming days. Sources have told US media a strike could be imminent as Washington and Tehran move closer to agreeing provisions for uranium enrichment. Israel views that as unacceptable as it aims to curb Iran's nuclear capabilities. An accord could see the US lift some of its crushing economic sanctions on Iran in exchange for it drastically limiting or ending its enrichment of uranium. A failure to get a deal could see tensions further spike in a Middle East on edge over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip. (Source: LBC – United Kingdom)
North America
United States
12 June 2025 With Israel preparing to strike Iran quickly if Witkoff's diplomacy fails this weekend, U.S. fears Iran's response to Israeli strike would be mass casualty event. Last Thursday, President Trump's envoy Witkoff held a closed-door briefing on Iran with a group of top Senate Republicans. Witkoff told the Senators that military strikes by Israel are on the table if no agreement is reached. He then brought up Iran's ballistic missile capabilities. Witkoff warned that Iran could unleash a mass casualty response and damage if Israel bombs their nuclear facilities. The U.S. is concerned Israel's air defenses would not be able to handle an Iranian response involving hundreds of missiles. According to U.S. intelligence estimates, Iran has 2,000 ballistic missiles with warheads that can carry 2,000 pounds of explosives or more. Israel is within range for many of these missiles. An U.S. official said the Iranian goal is to produce more ballistic missiles than the number of missile defense interceptors Israel has. Iran's retaliation could overwhelm Israel's defenses and cause heavy damage, he said. Iran has also vowed to strike U.S. targets in the region in the event of an attack on its nuclear sites. Testifying today before the House Armed Services Committee, CENTCOM commander Gen. Kurilla said an Israeli strike on Iran would expose U.S. forces in the Middle East to the threat of Iranian retaliation. Gen. Kurilla is no longer expected to travel to Israel this weekend. The U.S. is in the process of withdrawing diplomats and military families who could be in harm's way. The State Department imposed security restrictions today on U.S. diplomats and their families in Israel. Israeli officials say the Israel Defense Forces are on high alert. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ’has been waiting for a green light from Trump to make his move’. ’The fact that two previous Iranian missile attacks ended with limited damage and few casualties gave Israeli officials confidence they could deal with similar attacks in the future’. Israel's security cabinet will convene today to discuss the crisis. Witkoff spoke yesterday with Netanyahu about the rising tensions, and will meet his top adviser Dermer tomorrow, ahead of his trip to Oman, along with Mossad director Barnea. Trump stressed today that he wants to avoid conflict but said that will require concessions that Iran has been unwilling to make. Trump added that he still wants a deal and would prefer Israel not do anything to ruin it so long as there's a chance. (Source: Axios - U.S.)
12.06.2025 Sources with knowledge of the situation said that Israel views any nuclear agreement between the US and Iran, particularly if it allows Tehran to enrich uranium, as unacceptable. The sources, however, said they were unaware of any US plans for direct involvement in any possible Israeli strike against Iran. While the US demands a complete halt to enrichment, Iranian negotiators insist the program is non-negotiable and will continue with or without a deal. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
Jun 12, 2025, 5:20pm GMT+2 The White House and Congress will need to make hard decisions about how America sees its vast migrant workforce. Even the most dedicated restrictionists, like White House border czar Homan, acknowledge that criminals are a tiny minority. The Trump administration is planning to ramp up civil and criminal prosecutions of companies that employ workers without legal status, Homan said in an interview yesterday. “They’re coming here for a better life and a job, and I get that,” Homan said. “The more you remove those magnets, the less people are going to come. If they can’t get a job most of them aren’t going to come.” Behind the scenes, American companies are freaking out, calling in a panic about the possibility of civil and criminal sanctions, or about the operational impact of losing a huge labor force, said Thomas, a partner at Holland & Hart, who represents employers in immigration cases. Trump appeared to respond to those worries today morning: “Our great Farmers and people in the Hotel and Leisure business have been stating that our very aggressive policy on immigration is taking very good, long time workers away from them, with those jobs being almost impossible to replace,” he posted on Truth Social, promising that changes are coming. Major public companies have begun to warn investors that their models depend on migrant labor. Unlike most developed economies, the US has no standardized national requirement that employers use its system for checking workers’ papers, known as eVerify - and many workers evade that system by using a different legal worker’s identity. Almost a quarter of construction workers lack legal status, a 2021 survey found, and as many as half of meatpacking workers. A focus on those industries could also undercut two of Trump’s campaign promises: to make housing more affordable and bring down food prices. While cameras roll for dramatic deportation footage, the industries dependent on illegal migration are maintaining business as usual. “Congress has a job to do,” Homan said. “We’re going to do worksite enforcement operations until there’s a deal made.” Democrats may also see employers, rather than workers, at the center of the debate. The prospect of a bipartisan agreement seems as remote as ever. The US has struggled for decades to reach an agreement to regularize the “magnet” of migration, a tacit agreement system. “I truly believe that nobody hires an illegal alien from the goodness of their heart. They hire them because they can work them harder, pay them less, and undercut their competition - that hires US citizen employees, and drive wages down,” he told. (Source: Semafor – U.S.)
06/12/25 10:34 AM ET The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) published a new poster online featuring World War II imagery, urging citizens to help locate and report immigrants who are in the country without documentation. Help your country and yourself, reads the poster, which shows Uncle Sam with a hammer nailing a flier to a wall. Report all foreign invaders, it says, providing a phone number to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Trump ordered plans for the U.S. military to assist in his deportation efforts, as DHS officials say threats against ICE agents and other federal law enforcement officers have ramped up in recent weeks. (Source: The Hill – U.S.)
See also the poster: June 11, 2025 5:22 pm "Help your country locate and arrest illegal aliens" (Source: X / Homeland Security = U.S.)
14,7Million views
Jun 12, 2025 08:22 IST Talks between the US and Iran over its rapidly advancing nuclear program appear to have hit an impasse. US intelligence indicates that Israel has been making preparations for a strike against Iran's nuclear facilities. (Source: India Today)
June 12, 2025 12:00 AM GMT+2 United States is preparing a partial evacuation of its Iraqi embassy and will allow military dependents to leave locations around the Middle East due to heightened security risks in the region. The partial evacuations come after 18 months of war in Gaza that has raised fears of a wider conflagration pitting the U.S. and Israel against Iran and its allies. In an interview released today, Trump has repeatedly threatened to strike Iran if stuttering talks over its nuclear programme fail and he said he was growing less confident that Tehran would agree to stop enriching uranium, a key American demand. A senior Iranian official told that a military threat has always been part of the United States’ negotiation tactics with Iran. Iran is not seeking a nuclear weapon and U.S. militarism only fuels instability, Iran's U.N. mission today posted on X. Iranian Defence Minister Nasirzadeh said today that if Iran was subjected to strikes it would retaliate by hitting U.S. bases in the region. The United States has a military presence across the major oil-producing region, with bases in Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. In recent months the United States had deployed more military assets in the Middle East -- including B-2 bombers, which have since been replaced, and extending the deployment of a second aircraft carrier, which has since departed. Iraq, a rare regional partner of both the United States and its arch regional foe Iran, hosts 2,500 U.S. troops. Iraq's state news agency cited a government source as saying Baghdad had not recorded any security indication that called for an evacuation. Oil futures climbed $3 on reports of the Baghdad evacuation with Brent crude futures at $69.18 a barrel. Earlier today Britain's maritime agency warned that increased tensions in the Middle East may lead to an escalation in military activity. It advised vessels to use caution while travelling through the Gulf, the Gulf of Oman and the Straits of Hormuz, which all border Iran. The next round of nuclear talks between Iran and the United States are due in the coming days with Iran expected to hand over a counter proposal after rejecting an offer by Washington. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)
6/12/2025 Los Angeles yesterday endured a sixth day of protests that have been largely peaceful but occasionally punctuated by violence, mostly contained to a few blocks. "Los Angeles was safe and sound for the last two nights. Our great National Guard, with a little help from the Marines, put the L.A. Police in a position to effectively do their job," Trump posted on social media today. "They all worked well together, but without the Military, Los Angeles would be a crime scene like we haven’t seen in years." Trump is carrying out a campaign promise to deport immigrants, employing forceful tactics consistent with the norm-breaking political style that got him elected twice. A battalion of 700 Marines would join the National Guard under the authority of a federal law known as Title 10, not to conduct civilian policing but to protect federal officers and property, the military said. "Title 10 forces may temporarily detain an individual in specific circumstances such as to stop an assault, to prevent harm to others, or to prevent interference with federal personnel performing their duties," the Northern Command said. (Source: MSN - U.S. / Reuters - United Kingdom)
Wednesday 11 June 2025 18:54 BST The State Department is preparing to order the departure of all nonessential personnel from the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad due to the potential for regional unrest. The Baghdad embassy has already been on limited staffing, and the order will not affect a large number of personnel, but the department also is authorizing the departure of nonessential personnel and family members from Bahrain and Kuwait. That gives them an option on whether to leave the country. (Source: The Independent - United Kingdom)
6.11.2025 1:40 PM Polling shows that Trump's focus on the border and his promise to stop the flow of immigrants was a major factor in convincing voters to give him another try at the presidency. The border is no longer the focus. Four months after Trump returned to the Oval Office, the number of migrants crossing the southern border in recent months has been a fraction of what was seen over the past few years. But Trump - and his anti-immigrant advisors, like White House Deputy Chief of Staff Miller - are still in crisis mode. Now, the White House wants you to believe that the crisis extends to nail salons, hardware stores, farms, and restaurants across the country, where undocumented immigrants who are peacefully exchanging labor for dollars are being targeted. Here's how The Wall Street Journal summarizes what's happening: "Federal agents make warrantless arrests. Masked agents take people into custody without identifying themselves. Plainclothes agents in at least a dozen cities have arrested migrants who showed up to their court hearings. And across the U.S., people suspected of being in the country illegally are disappearing into the federal detention system without notice to families or lawyers, according to attorneys, witnesses and officials." The White House wants Americans to believe that rounding up suspected illegal immigrants in communities across the country is merely an extension of its efforts to fix the border crisis and prevent dangerous criminals from entering the country illegally. Distinctions can be lost and context collapses in the face of a crisis. It is one thing for the administration to target criminals and gang members who have done actual harm to people and property. That is not what is currently happening - as Miller's edict demanding more disruptive arrests makes clear. These workplace raids are not just a new front in the Trump administration's war on immigration. They are a different policy altogether. One that the administration can gleefully use to justify further escalations of force that will erode the civil liberties of immigrants ’and American citizens alike’. (Source: Reason. – U.S.)
(Wednesday), 17:07 ET, Jun 11 2025 The anti-ICE riotests continued through today in Los Angeles, the nation's second-largest city - with another downtown curfew anticipated today night to stop vandalism and looting. White House Press Secretary Leavitt suggested that police in Los Angeles were not being allowed to do their jobs by the Governor of California. A federal judge in San Francisco denied California's request to immediately block Trump from using Marines and members of the state's National Guard on Tuesday, despite Gov. Newsom's pleas. (Source: The Mirror US)
June 11, 2025, 5:20 a.m. ET On the fifth day of protests in Los Angeles against federal immigration raids, yesterday evening, from a studio in Los Angeles, in a nationally televised address, Gov. Newsom of California implored demonstrators to be peaceful and said those who incited violence or destroy property would be prosecuted. He said 370 people had been arrested so far. Newsom made the case that President Trump’s decision to send military forces to immigration protests in Los Angeles ’has put the nation at the precipice of authoritarianism’. “You are the ultimate authoritarian who shut down restaurants and masked our kids while you went to the French Laundry,’ Gallagher, the Republican leader of the California State Assembly said on X, referencing a dinner party at the famed Napa Valley restaurant that Newsom attended while gatherings were restricted in 2020. The governor is considered a possible Democratic presidential candidate in 2028. The address was an unusual move for Mr. Newsom, who has dyslexia and dislikes reading from a teleprompter to deliver formal speeches. Well beyond his stated intent to just go after violent and serious criminals, Mr. Trump's agents are arresting dishwashers, gardeners, day laborers and seamstresses, Newsom said, and that Mr. Trump had inflamed a combustible situation by taking over California’s National Guard, and by calling up 4,000 troops and 700 Marines. ’Other states are next. Democracy is next’, he said. Newsom called on Americans to stand up to President Trump. Not since the civil rights movement in the 1960s has a president sent National Guard troops to quell unrest without the support of the state’s governor. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)
Globalization
6/12/2025 The annual Bilderberg Meeting formed in 1954 to foster dialogue between the U.S. and Europe kicks off in Sweden today. Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson will give a speech on Sweden's and the EU's competitiveness and Sweden's support for Ukraine. Transatlantic relations top the agenda, with Ukraine, critical raw materials and AI also on the list, the organisers said. Other than that, information is scarce. (Source: MSN - U.S. / Reuters - United Kingdom)
See also: This year's delegate list, published by the organisers. (Source: Bilderberg Meetings)
Sun
June 11, 2025 Chaotic solar magnetism in the solar polar region - first-ever images of Sun’s South Pole released by the European Space Agency’s Solar Orbiter. (Source: The New York Times - U.S.)
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