Dissecting a Vote
NEED TO KNOW
Dissecting a Vote
ROMANIA
The European Union this month said it would investigate if, and how, TikTok was used to meddle in the recent Romanian presidential election and how the China-based social media platform manages such risks.
That move followed a ruling by Romania’s top court to annul the results of the first round of the presidential election after an obscure far-right, pro-Russian candidate, Călin Georgescu, won the vote, the Associated Press reported. Romanian officials believe that Russia was behind an influence operation to promote Georgescu’s run for office similar to one carried out in Moldova recently.
Soon after the court’s decision, Romanian authorities declassified intelligence documents on the campaign that confirmed “aggressive hybrid Russian attacks” on the elections involving vote manipulation, campaign irregularities, and questionable funding, detailing links and substantial financial flows between the influencers and Georgescu’s campaign. Police then conducted raids targeting Georgescu’s supporters including one of his biggest backers, Bogdan Peșchir, who allegedly provided the campaign with Eur 1 million.
Meanwhile, police arrested mercenaries headed toward the capital with weapons in their cars, and tax officials began investigating the financial transactions linked to the campaign, also targeting Georgescu himself. The pressure led to some of those TikTok influencers helping the campaign to flee Romania.
Writing in the Guardian, journalist Paula Erizanu explained why Georgescu’s victory illustrated the dangers of Russian influence in the region. Georgescu wasn’t among the top five vote-getters before the first round, polling in the single digits before the election, according to opinion polls. He has not filed campaign finance reports. Yet he won almost a quarter of the Nov. 23 vote after ballots were counted.
“The burning issue is the need to know how and why,” Erizanu argued.
A political crisis spanning from the Romanian capital of Bucharest to the EU capital of Brussels is developing as a result. At the same time, the Romanian situation is stoking the fight over freedom of speech online between Europe’s right wing and its mainstream political groups, Politico wrote.
Meanwhile, Romanians who voted for him are angry that the government appears to be stifling their chosen candidate. On the campaign trail, he pledged to stop sending military and financial support to Ukraine, reduce his country’s participation in NATO, and push back against “the EU’s free-market economic rules and liberal values,” added the Courthouse News Service.
Many Romanians share Georgescu’s views that NATO and EU memberships have failed to benefit them. They believe the country’s aloof liberal leaders are out of touch with these realities, noted the Atlantic Council. The court’s decision to annul the election might have further undermined faith in the country’s status quo, too, added University of Portsmouth cybercrime expert Anda Iulia Solea.
On TikTok, meanwhile, false rumors are swirling that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen personally compelled Romanian officials to cancel the second round of voting while officials conducted their probe of the vote, Euronews wrote. Initially, Romania’s top court had upheld the results of the first round before reversing itself following the release of classified documents showing election irregularities, Al Jazeera noted.
Over the weekend, a Romanian investigative news outlet, Snoop, wrote that the center-right Liberal Party, a junior member of the outgoing coalition government, had paid for a social media campaign on TikTok via hired influencers but that campaign was hijacked to benefit Georgescu instead. Their candidate, Nicolae Ciucă, came in fifth in the first round.
TikTok, meanwhile, denied giving Georgescu special treatment. Russia said it was “indifferent” to the outcome of the elections, denying interference.
Now, what happens next is anyone’s guess, say analysts. What is clear is that there will be a do-over first round of the presidential election in 2025. But whether Georgescu will face off against centrist candidate Elena Lasconi is unclear. Georgescu may face charges related to the vote.
Georgescu says he’s done nothing wrong. He has denounced the court’s verdict as an “officialized coup” and an attack on democracy.
Still, other candidates are now jumping into the fray. For example, Bucharest Mayor Nicușor Dan recently announced he would run for president when elections are held again in 2025. He has pledged to fight the corruption that’s rampant in Romania, as well as Russian influence, to heal the country’s divisions.
“What happens next in the country, which ousted Communist rule 35 years ago, will be of critical importance to the European Union and Western powers,” wrote Australia’s Lowry Institute. “It is of crucial concern to the European Union and NATO: Romania is hosting construction of the alliance’s largest military base in Europe as the Ukraine conflict rages on with no end in sight yet.”
And for Romanians, it added, the wait goes on.
THE WORLD, BRIEFLY
Ghosts of Christmas Past
GERMANY
German police said they had the man implicated in the deadly attack at a Christmas market in eastern Germany over the weekend on their radar, even as they remain baffled as to his motive, the Wall Street Journal reported.
On Friday, Taleb al-Abdulmohsen, a 50-year-old Saudi dissident, allegedly rammed his vehicle into a holiday market in the city of Magdeburg, killing five people – including a 9-year-old child – and injuring more than 200.
Authorities arrested him at the scene.
Al-Abdulmohsen, who arrived in Germany in 2006 seeking asylum, was a psychiatrist who until recently was working in Bernburg, just south of Magdeburg. He was known for his anti-Islamic views and inflammatory online posts, including supporting far-right causes and the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.
In a 2019 interview with the conservative newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, he described himself as “the most aggressive critic of Islam in history.”
He ran a website helping Saudi dissidents navigate asylum processes and had been vocal against German policies, accusing authorities of “Islamizing Europe.”
Despite multiple warnings from Saudi authorities – four times between November 2023 and September 2024 – about his behavior and potential danger, German officials reportedly dismissed the concerns, according to the Financial Times.
Germany did not investigate the suspect because security officials believed the Saudis were targeting dissidents who abandoned Islam, an act known as apostasy which is punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.
Analysts said the suspect’s profile – a Saudi ex-Muslim with far-right leanings – defied typical security agency expectations, potentially explaining why he had not been closely monitored despite earlier warnings, NBC News added.
In recent years, Germany has faced a series of deadly attacks: In 2016, an Islamic State supporter rammed a truck into a Christmas market in Berlin, killing 12 people and injuring 49. Earlier this year, four people were killed in two Islamist-related attacks.
Friday’s attack comes as Germany faces political and economic headwinds.
Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition government collapsed in November, prompting early elections set for February.
The country is also grappling with a profound economic slump, fueling public discontent and elevating the AfD in the polls. Migration and law and order have emerged as central campaign issues, with the AfD blaming the attack on Germany’s asylum policies, the Washington Post wrote.
On Saturday, Scholz visited Magdeburg vowing to leave “no stone unturned” in investigating the crime. He urged unity, warning that Germany “must not allow those who wish to sow hate to succeed.”
Meanwhile, Interior Minister Nancy Faeser announced heightened security measures at Christmas markets across the country.
International leaders expressed solidarity, with French President Emmanuel Macron recalling the 2016 Nice truck attack, which killed 86 people.
Friday’s attack took place during the same day a French court convicted eight people for their roles in the 2020 beheading of teacher Samuel Paty. Paty was killed by an Islamist extremist for showing his students caricatures of the Prophet Muhammad during a lesson on free expression, the Associated Press reported.
Paty’s murder shocked France and reignited debates over freedom of expression, secularism, and religious extremism.
Separation, Reconciliation
LIBYA
Libya’s warring factions agreed this week to cooperate with the United Nations to end the country’s long-running political deadlock, create a unity government, and pave the way for elections, Africanews reported.
Delegations from the rival legislatures, the High Council of State in Tripoli, and the House of Representatives in Benghazi met near the Moroccan capital this week for talks aimed at ending more than a decade of chaos.
The North African country has been divided into two rival administrations following the ousting and death of autocrat Muammar Gaddafi in 2011, which plunged the country into civil conflict. After much of the fighting died down, two governments, the internationally-recognized Tripoli government in the west and the eastern-based government led by commander Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi, took over the country.
Following their meeting, the parties agreed to cooperate with the UN mission in Libya (UNSMIL) to create a roadmap to end the deadlock, saying that “free and fair elections” are needed to restore stability in the war-torn nation.
They also agreed to work together to form a national unity government, as well as launch institutional, financial, and security reforms, Reuters noted.
The talks came days after UN Deputy Special Envoy for Libya, Stephanie Koury, announced the formation of an advisory committee to resolve electoral issues and outline a roadmap for elections.
The committee will include Libyan experts and respected figures, aiming to provide actionable recommendations for Libyan decision-makers.
A previous attempt to end years of divisions and conflict between the factions stalled following the collapse of plans for an election scheduled for December 2021 amid disputes over candidate eligibility.
The refusal of transitional Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah in Tripoli to step down after the failed 2021 elections deepened the rift, prompting the eastern parliament to appoint its own government.
International stakeholders and diplomats have urged unified support for the UN-led process, warning that failure to resolve the deadlock could lead to deeper divisions and renewed violence.
Even so, Libya’s ambassador to the UN Taher El-Sonni criticized the peace plans, advocating for a national dialogue to build consensus on electoral laws.
Meanwhile, many Libyans remain skeptical of the intentions of political leaders, suspecting that they are reluctant to hold elections that could threaten their positions.
Viral Containment
ALBANIA
Albania is imposing a one-year ban on TikTok over the weekend after the government implicated it in the fatal stabbing of a 14-year-old boy in November by another teenager after an argument on the Chinese social media platform, Politico reported.
During a meeting with teachers and parents, Prime Minister Edi Rama said TikTok starting next year “would be fully closed for all … There will be no TikTok in the Republic of Albania.”
The announcement comes after videos surfaced on TikTok showing young people expressing support for the killing, intensifying concerns over the platform’s incitement of violence and its influence on Albanian youth, who form the largest group of TikTok users in the country.
The company denied involvement in the incident, countering that it found “no evidence that the perpetrator or victim had TikTok accounts” while noting that videos tied to the case were posted on another platform.
The company has requested “urgent clarity” from the Albanian government.
Rama contrasted TikTok’s algorithm in Albania with its operations in China, claiming the platform promotes educational content there and does not promote “the reproduction of the unending hell of the language of hatred, violence, bullying and so on,” the Associated Press reported.
In response to rising concerns, authorities have introduced protective measures in schools, including increased police presence, training programs, and closer collaboration with parents.
However, the opposition Democratic Party criticized the ban, calling it a “grave act against freedom of speech,” and accused Rama of exploiting the situation for electoral gains ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections.
This heightened focus on youth safety and social media comes amid another violent incident involving children in Croatia.
A 19-year-old man reportedly killed a 7-year-old child and injured three others in a knife attack at a primary school in the capital Zagreb on Friday, the BBC added.
Police arrested the alleged perpetrator, with officials saying that he was a former student at the school and had a history of mental illness.
DISCOVERIES
The Comeback Bugs
After World War Two, pesticides helped eradicate bedbugs in most of the developed world.
But those pesky bugs made a comeback more than two decades ago and some populations have become more resistant to conventional pesticides.
Now, scientists at Japan’s Hiroshima University recently discovered the genetic factors that can possibly explain why.
In a new study, a research team unveiled the most complete genomes yet of both insecticide-resistant and non-resistant bed bugs, shedding light on the mutations that have enabled the pests’ global resurgence over the past two decades.
“We identified a large number of genes likely involved in insecticide resistance, many of which have not been previously reported as being associated with resistance in bedbugs,” said Kouhei Toga, first author of the study, in a statement.
Toga and his team used long-read sequencing – a cutting-edge method that pieces together longer DNA fragments with fewer errors – to compare genomes from bed bugs collected six decades apart.
The non-resistant strain came from Nagasaki in 1955, while the resistant strain originated in a Hiroshima hotel in 2010. Their findings showed a nearly 20,000-fold resistance to pyrethroids – a widely used pesticide – in the modern bugs.
To understand this toxic resilience, the researchers identified 729 mutated transcripts – RNA molecules that help turn DNA into proteins – linked to resistance.
Many of these were related to DNA damage repair, cell cycle regulation, insulin metabolism, and lysosome functions, which highlight the complex molecular pathways that fortify these pests against chemical attacks, noted Gizmodo.
Bed bugs’ resistance arsenal includes mechanisms like metabolic detoxification and structural changes to their outer layers, making them hard to kill. The study also confirmed known resistance mutations while uncovering new ones that could guide better pest control strategies.
“Genome editing of these genes could provide valuable insights into the evolution and mechanisms of insecticide resistance,” Toga explained.
With infestations on the rise, the study may help combat bed bugs more effectively and prevent another scare, such as the Paris outbreak ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics in the French capital.