Gabriel Attal says state needs ‘real surge of authority’ in speech in Viry-Châtillon, where 15-year-old killed

The French prime minister, Gabriel Attal, is facing criticism for his proposed crackdown on teenage violence in and around schools, after he said some teenagers in France were “addicted to violence”, just as the government seeks to reclaim ground on security issues from the far right before European elections.

In his speech in Viry-Châtillon, a town south of Paris where a 15-year-old boy was beaten and killed this month by a group of young people , Attal said the state needed “a real surge of authority”.

Kari Lake of Arizona warned supporters of ‘intense’ election year in which Democrats will come after them ‘with everything’

Republican US Senate candidate Kari Lake has told supporters to “strap on a Glock” ahead of the 2024 elections as she struggles to gain ground against her Democratic rival in Arizona.

In a campaign speech made to a crowd in Arizona’s Mohave county on Sunday, Lake echoed Trump-like terms in calling Washington DC a “swamp” – and used a reference to carrying guns when she told people to prepare for an “intense” election year.

Investigation urged into alleged bid to turn Rai into propaganda channel for ruling parties before elections

The European commission has been urged to investigate alleged attempts by Italy’s far-right government to turn the public broadcaster, Rai, into a “megaphone” for the ruling parties ahead of the European elections.

The appeal from the European Green party came after the Italian parliament’s supervisory committee for Rai approved a measure allowing the broadcaster’s news channel to televise political rallies in full and without any journalistic mediation in the run-up to the vote in early June.

Belgian PM condemns move by local mayor to shut down radical rightwing conference as ‘unconstitutional’

The NatCon conference featuring Nigel Farage, Suella Braverman and the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, among its speakers will resume on Wednesday after a Brussels court overturned a local mayor’s decision to close it down on Tuesday.

After moves condemned as “unacceptable” and “unconstitutional” by the Belgian prime minister, Alexander De Croo, the organisers took the matter to the conseil d’état, the country’s supreme administrative court.

Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman speak at Brussels event as mayor issues order on public safety grounds

• UK politics – latest updates

Authorities in Brussels have ordered the closure of a radical right conference that was addressed by British politicians including Nigel Farage and Suella Braverman.

Emir Kir, the mayor of the Saint-Josse-ten-Noode district in Brussels, said an order had been issued banning the National Conservatism conference from taking place on Tuesday “to guarantee public safety”.

With a heavy focus on deterrence, the agreement shows how far Europe’s centre has shifted to the right

The Oscar-nominated Io Capitano , now showing in cinemas, is a sensitive and moving portrait of the trials faced by two teenage boys as they attempt to reach Europe, via unofficial migration routes, from their homes in Senegal. The film is unsparing in its depiction of the violence and danger they face along the way – but what it doesn’t show is how the boys’ journey is shaped by European border policy from almost the moment they set off.

Their first stop, the people-smuggling hub of Agadez, Niger, is the capital of a country into which the EU has poured millions of euros in recent years to combat smuggling. It hasn’t halted the trade entirely, but it has forced it further underground. In Libya, where the boys are tortured and trafficked by armed gangs, European governments have striven to keep migrants in place – as painstakingly documented by Sally Hayden in her recent book My Fourth Time, We Drowned – despite the dire threat to their safety.

The former prime minister spent just 49 days in office but wants to stay on the world stage. Her attacks on Biden and praise for Trump are aimed at the populist right

In her new book , the former British prime minister Liz Truss directs scathing attacks and mockery at Joe Biden, president of her country’s closest ally. Biden was guilty of “utter hypocrisy and ignorance”, Truss writes, when the US leader said he “disagree[d] with the policy” of “cutting taxes on the super wealthy” in the mini-budget Truss introduced in September 2022, shortly after taking power.

“I was shocked and astounded that Biden would breach protocol by commenting on UK domestic policy,” Truss adds. “We had been the United States’ staunchest allies through thick and thin.”

With Slovakia the latest member to elect a Russia-leaning leader, the EU is increasingly open to hostile interference

The victory for Peter Pellegrini in Slovakia’s presidential election is just the latest triumph for the far right in Europe. Even though the role of president is largely symbolic, his win over his pro-European rival, Ivan Korčok, by a comfortable six-point margin, consolidates the power of the prime minister, Robert Fico. The result is one of a growing number of victories for politicians supportive of Vladimir Putin in Europe.

Public support for the far right is sweeping across the continent. In the Netherlands and Portugal , far-right parties have also increased their vote share in recent national elections. Meanwhile, polling ahead of German local elections, and Austrian and Belgian parliamentary elections this year, suggests they are likely to make gains in these countries too. There is a real possibility that Austria’s elections might see a return to power for the far right, Putin-supporting Freedom party, if another party can be convinced to join it in a coalition. There is a sense across Europe that the far right is gathering momentum and expanding beyond its usual core vote.

Long-awaited package of measures marks victory for Europe’s centre albeit with ‘doubts and concerns’ over implementation

Almost a decade in the making, the EU’s new migration and asylum pact suffered so many setbacks, stalemates and rewrites that when member states finally announced a deal last year, its passage through parliament seemed assured.

That was, however, to ignore the objections of Europe’s resurgent far-right parties, who felt it was not tough enough (and, perhaps, hoped to profit at the ballot box from allowing the current chaos around migration to continue).