European Parliament

Turkey’s President Erdogan has vowed to open his country’s border and release hundreds of thousands of migrants into Europe if the European Parliament continues to halt EU membership talks. Yesterday the Euro Parliament voted for a temporary freeze on Turkey’s EU accession talks in response to concerns over Erdogan’s heavy-handed crackdown following July’s failed coup. Daily Mail reports: Turkey’s bid to join the EU now looks doomed after the European Parliament demanded that membership talks with Ankara are frozen.

Discs containing ISIS propaganda were found with two drivers who worked for a private company serving the European parliament. Reuters reports: Citing several unnamed sources, Der Spiegel said both drivers – one in Brussels, one in Strasbourg – had been dismissed and Belgian police were investigating. The European parliament declined to comment because of security considerations. Belgian police were not immediately available for comment.

One of the Brussels bombers who killed 32 people on March 22 had previously worked within the European Parliament six years earlier, an EU assembly spokesperson has confirmed.  25-year-old Najim Laachraoui worked as a cleaner in Parliament in 2009 and 2010, just a few years before helping suicide bombers in the Paris attacks last November and then blowing himself up at the Brussels airport attack a few months later. Curiously, Najim Laachraoui had also taken a selfie with German Chancellor Angela Merkel shortly before the terrorist attacks.

Submitted by Nauman Sadiq

Islamic radicalism, a consequence of Petro-imperialism: