Canada orders TikTok to shut down its operations in the country, citing unspecified “national security risks”.However, this does not mean that the app is banned in the country.
The Canadian government’s decision is said to be based on information gathered and reviewed by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service. Shutting down TikTok follows a “multi-step national security review process” designed by the country’s intelligence agencies, according to the government.
– The government is taking action to address the specific national security risks related to ByteDance Ltd.’s operations in Canada through the establishment of TikTok Technology Canada, inc, said the Canadian Minister of Innovation, Research and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, in a statement according to Engadget.
US lawmakers have also cited national security concerns and also the app’s links to China, and the US recently passed a law that could ban the app. However, the decision in Canada does not mean that the app will be banned in the country, only that the company’s operations in the country will be shut down.
TikTok says it will challenge the government’s decision and that jobs will be lost.
– Shutting down TikTok’s Canadian offices and destroying hundreds of well-paying local jobs is not in anyone’s best interest, and today’s shutdown order will do just that, says a spokesperson for the company. We will challenge this order in court.
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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán launched a harsh attack against Sweden’s political leadership in a fiery speech over the weekend.
“This is how a country collapses” and “what remains is barbarism”, said the Hungarian prime minister, who also claimed that hundreds of underage girls have been arrested for murder in Sweden.
During a political event in Sátoraljaújhely, Hungary, Orbán once again delivered scathing criticism of Swedish politicians. His message was clear: Sweden’s authorities have betrayed their people and allowed the country to fall apart.
— This news of the week is that in Sweden, 284 underage girls were arrested for murder. Not because they killed one person together, but each one separately, Orbán claimed before the audience.
The Hungarian leader continued by describing how these girls are exploited by criminal networks because they cannot be sentenced in court, and he argued that Swedish authorities bear ultimate responsibility.
— This is how a country collapses, every rule, all order breaks down. What remains is barbarism.
These are outrageous lies. Not surprising coming from the man who is dismantling the rule of law in his own country. Orbán is desperate ahead of the upcoming Hungarian election. https://t.co/55uPGwPvMi
Orbán emphasized that this development has been ongoing for fifteen years under different Swedish governments and that the authorities have effectively relegated the country outside European civilization. As a final jab at the Swedish government, he added:
— By the way, these are the Swedes who lecture us about the rule of law.
The statement has spread through a video where images from Orbán’s speech are interspersed with clips of Swedish police and various crime scenes.
“The Swedish people deserve better”, wrote the Hungarian prime minister when he shared the video – a clear indication that his criticism is directed at the country’s ruling elite, not at the Swedish people.
“Outrageous lies”
Orbán’s claims are based on an article from German newspaper Welt. The article reported that approximately 280 girls between 15 and 17 years old were investigated for violent crimes during the previous year – not exclusively murder as Orbán claimed.
The attack comes after a period of diplomatic tensions between the two countries’ governments. Hungary was the last to approve Sweden’s NATO membership, and the Swedish government has in turn directed harsh criticism at what is alleged to be Hungary’s democratic backsliding and restrictions on LGBTQ rights. As recently as August, Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson accused Hungary’s leadership of standing “on the wrong side of history”.
The Swedish prime minister chose to respond to Orbán’s statement on X by focusing on the incorrect figures rather than how he and other Swedish politicians have failed to stop the advance of organized crime.
“These are outrageous lies. Not surprising coming from the man who is dismantling the rule of law in his own country. Orbán is desperate ahead of the upcoming Hungarian election”, he claims.
Donald Trump intends to sue The New York Times for defamation. He calls the newspaper “one of the worst and most degenerate newspapers” in US history.
Last week, the president threatened to sue the newspaper after it reported on, among other things, a sexual drawing that Trump allegedly gave to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. The drawing’s signature resembles Donald Trump’s, but the president firmly denies that he drew it and handed it over to Epstein.
Now the president is suing the newspaper for $15 billion, for defamation and libel.
“The New York Times has been allowed to freely lie, smear, and defame me for far too long, and that stops, NOW!” he writes on his social media platform Truth Social.
Trump also sued The Wall Street Journal for $10 billion this summer following their reporting on Epstein and the president. Furthermore, the president writes that the new lawsuit will be filed in the state of Florida.
The New York Times has not yet commented on Trump’s statement.
The German government is conducting talks with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan to enable large-scale deportations. The plan is to send back Afghan citizens on regular flights instead of individual expensive charter planes.
German government representatives have initiated direct negotiations with the Taliban about establishing a system for regular deportations, reports the newspaper Bild. A delegation from the German interior ministry met with Afghan representatives in Qatar in early September to discuss a permanent deportation mechanism.
Now interior minister Alexander Dobrindt (CSU) is planning to send German representatives to Kabul for continued talks on site, where Qatar is functioning as a mediator in the negotiations.
The new strategy represents a dramatic escalation of deportations. Instead of using charter planes for small groups, Afghan citizens would be sent home on regular commercial flights, which would enable significantly more frequent and regular deportations.
Since the Taliban took power in 2021, Germany has only conducted two deportation flights to Afghanistan – 28 people in autumn 2024 and 81 people in July 2025. All those deported were seriously criminal individuals.
Over 100,000 serious crimes
The need for deportations is urgent according to the government. Between 2015 and 2024, German police registered 108,409 serious crimes where at least one Afghan suspect was involved, according to the federal government’s own statistics.
Approximately 11,500 Afghans are estimated to currently be in Germany illegally, according to the German migration office BAMF. In total, around 461,000 people with Afghan roots live in the country, of whom 347,600 have sought asylum in the country.
The CDU/CSU and SPD wrote into their coalition agreement that deportations to both Afghanistan and Syria should resume as quickly as possible.
“We will deport to Afghanistan and Syria and start with criminals and people who pose a security risk”, they promised.
“Inhumane treatment”
The decision faces harsh criticism from asylum activists and lobby organizations, and after the latest deportation in July, the group Pro Asyl claimed that people deported to Afghanistan risk being tortured.
“Due to the dramatic situation on the ground, all deportations to the country violate the international law prohibition on deportation, since torture or inhumane treatment threatens”, they claimed at the time.
With that justification, Germany’s influential refugee organizations therefore continue to demand a complete halt to all deportations to Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
The murder of conservative debater Charlie Kirk on September 10 has taken a dramatic turn. 22-year-old Tyler Robinson has been in custody since Friday, suspected of the murder.Meanwhile, journalist Kim Iversen has launched an alternative analysis that has gained widespread attention.
She describes the murder as a professionally planned operation where Israel is pointed out as a possible actor.
Charlie Kirk, founder of the organization Turning Point USA, was shot dead on Wednesday during a speech in Orem, Utah. After intensive investigation, police arrested Tyler Robinson, 22, on Friday through tips from relatives and surveillance camera analysis.
Bullet casings with inscriptions interpreted as radical left-wing symbols are reported to have been found nearby. Police have not yet commented further on the findings, but authorities are now investigating both Robinson’s motive and possible contacts with other persons or groups.
Tyler Robinson, 22, is currently detained suspected of the murder of Charlie Kirk. Montage. Photo: X/@badazn
Kim Iversen’s analysis
Parallel to the official investigation, journalist Kim Iversen has presented her own analysis that questions the lone gunman theory. She believes several factors point to a more sophisticated operation.
– I think the vast majority of people are not actually believing that it was a radical leftist. Most people believe it was a professional hit. It was an assassination done by a pro. All roads lead to that, she says.
A central point in her reasoning is that Fox News quickly reported on “foreign intelligence information” in connection with the case – something she sees as both strange and potentially revealing.
– Why would there be any foreign intelligence on this at all right now? she asks rhetorically.
Kim Iversen claims that Kirk had recently begun taking a more critical stance toward Israel. He had reportedly declined an invitation from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, something she interprets as sensitive given Kirk’s significant influence among young conservatives.
Other profiles have also warned that Kirk risked becoming a threat if he openly switched sides on the Israel issue. Host Harrison Smith recently described him as ready to become the “next major anti-Zionist voice”.
– It’s a little bit too perfect, right? Charlie Kirk has a massive audience. His audience was young. the very generation that is very against Israel. And Charlie Kirk, who had been very pro-Israel,had started to question things over the last few weeks, says Iversen.
The question of who had the most to gain from the murder is central to Iversen’s analysis. She believes it is primarily Israel that has both the interest and capacity to prevent Kirk from turning his young following in a more critical direction.
– And if Charlie Kirk is starting to change his tune, who benefits the most is mostly Israel on this. They didn’t like him switching and leading his entire base of millions of youth who they’re already fragile with in a direction they don’t want., she says.
Kim Iversen also emphasizes that such an operation would not just be about eliminating Kirk, but about sending a clear signal.
– The one that has the most to gain and who has the sophistication to pull this off and who has ties into our law enforcement to be able to plant evidence like guns with trans inscriptions all over it, whatever that means.. My bet would be on Israel.
By asking the question “cui bono” – who benefits – Iversen places the murder in a geopolitical context rather than a domestic political one. In her analysis, the motive is as much strategic as personal: to avoid a crack in the American conservative movement regarding support for Israel.
Still many unanswered questions
Robinson’s arrest gives authorities a suspect to test the evidence against, but according to Kim Iversen and several other analysts, it does not rule out alternative interpretations.
Her conclusion is that the narrative of a lone radical left-wing activist is not credible, that the incident instead bears traces of a professional operation, that reports of “foreign intelligence information” are strange and suggest external involvement, and that Israel has the most to gain from Kirk being silenced just now when he had become increasingly critical.
The murder of Charlie Kirk will therefore likely continue to be discussed both within the official justice system and in alternative media where theories about geopolitical motives and foreign involvement live on.
