Latest news with #TikTok-fueled
Yahoo
16-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
George Simion, a MAGA-courting populist, could become Romania's president in controversial election re-run
A hard-right nationalist is favored to win Romania's presidential election run-off on Sunday – a vote being held five months after the original election was annulled. George Simion won 41% of ballots cast in the first round of the re-run on May 4 – double the number of his rival, Nicusor Dan, the centrist mayor of Bucharest. Many see him as taking up the mantle of Calin Georgescu, the obscure ultranationalist who came from nowhere to win the first round and was poised to become Romania's next president – until authorities said his TikTok-fueled campaign had been aided by Moscow, and called the vote off. Georgescu was later banned from May's re-run after being charged with various crimes, including founding a fascist group. Simion and Georgescu showed up to a polling station together to cast their ballots on May 4, giving credence to the adage: 'You can kill a man, but you can't kill an idea.' Simion's commanding first-round lead meant Sunday's run-off had looked set to be a coronation. But, after trouncing Simion in a televised debate, Dan may have closed the gap. An opinion poll on Tuesday put the two candidates neck-and-neck, on 48% each. The outcome could have profound consequences for Romania and the European Union, with Dan pledging to keep the Eastern European country on its pro-Western trajectory, while Simion wants to join a growing axis of hardline populists on Ukraine's border. Alongside Hungary's Viktor Orban and Slovakia's Robert Fico – self-styled 'sovereigntists' who resent being told what to do by Brussels, despite their economies being heavily reliant on EU funds – Simion could further slow EU decisions on aid for Kyiv and sanctions against Moscow. Last year's canceled election has cast a huge shadow over the re-run, said Oana Popescu-Zamfir, director of the GlobalFocus Center, a think tank in Bucharest. 'For the sovereigntist camp, it helped reinforce the narrative that the system is trying to rig elections. For the pro-democratic camp, it put the candidates on the defensive,' she told CNN. Extraordinary decisions require extraordinary explanations, but Romanian authorities did little to justify their canceling of the election. Into this information vacuum poured conspiracies, anger – and US Vice President JD Vance. In his blistering speech at the Munich Security Conference in February, Vance singled out Romania as the grossest case of Europe's 'threat from within,' which he described as the 'retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values' in terms of democracy and free speech. The Trump administration's intense focus on Romania helped make a cause célèbre of Georgescu, who claimed he faced the same 'lawfare' from the 'deep state' as the US president. This provided fertile ground for Simion, who has continued to court the MAGA world. 'Hello to all of our MAGA friends,' Simion said Thursday on the 'War Room' podcast hosted by Steve Bannon, a former Trump adviser and long-time cheerleader of international populists. 'If all goes well,' Simion said, he would put Georgescu 'back in the leadership of Romania,' without saying how. Since his first-round victory, Simion has spent a lot of time outside Romania, traveling to Austria, Italy, Poland, Belgium, France and the United Kingdom. His strategy is twofold, according to Corneliu Bjola, professor of digital diplomacy at the University of Oxford, and an expert in Romanian politics. First, Simion wants to 'establish a presidential profile,' and so has sought audiences with Orban, Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and other prominent figures on Europe's hard-right, Bjola told CNN. Second, he is attempting to mobilize the Romanian diaspora – one of the largest of any country in the world. Whereas mainstream parties have typically treated the millions of Romanians living abroad as an afterthought, Bjola said that Simion has made them a central part of his campaign. About 60% of the diaspora voted for Simion in the first round. Unlike in neighboring Moldova – where the pro-EU President Maia Sandu secured a second-round win thanks to the votes of the more liberal Moldovan diaspora in November – Romanians living abroad have tended to vote for 'anti-system candidates,' said Bjola. Many Romanians who left the country after it joined the EU in 2007 to seek better-paying jobs abroad resent that they had to do so, he explained. Still, it's 'puzzling' given how antagonistic Simion is towards the EU, Bjola added. 'If he managed to implement parts of his agenda, it would make life more difficult for the diaspora.' Dan, Simion's opponent, is also something of an anti-system candidate. A quiet mathematician with a long history as a civic activist, Dan has run as an independent, pledging to end corruption in Romania's institutions. His simple pledge to restore 'competency' to government is seen by many as radical. While Simion has courted the diaspora, Dan has garnered huge backing in Romania's cities, many of which have been filled with EU flags in recent nights in a show of support. Despite trailing heavily in the first-round vote, Dan's campaign has picked up momentum in recent days while his rival's has stuttered. Simion has backtracked on his pledge to build one million apartments and sell them for just €35,000 ($39,000) each, admitting it was a marketing ploy to 'break the information blockade' on his party, the Alliance for the Union of Romanians. Simion's campaign suffered again in what turned out to be the only debate between the two candidates last week. Simion has since avoided squaring off against Dan in other scheduled TV debates, leaving Dan to make his pitch on Romanian television while Simion focuses on social media. 'His team is trying to keep him away from the public eye as much as possible,' said Popescu-Zamfir. Simion prefers TikTok because it is 'controlled communication, whereas in a debate, standing side-by-side, you get to see the contrast,' she said. Investors have grown jittery at the prospect of a Simion victory. After the first-round vote, authorities had to cancel a bond auction, and its central bank sold off foreign exchange reserves to slow the slide of the Romanian leu against the euro. Analysts have warned that victory for Simion this weekend could lead to a much more dramatic financial quake on Monday. Bjola says the economy is not the only concern. He says there is a 'fear' in Bucharest that he hasn't sensed in decades, since the fall of the bloody communist dictator, Nicolae Ceausescu. After Georgescu was banned from running, Simion said the authorities who took the decision 'should be skinned alive in the public square.' Georgescu's supporters clashed with police in the capital that night. Simion has already begun to lay the ground for potential disorder if he does not win on Sunday, observers say. 'We are winning by a landslide,' he told Jack Posobiec, an American far-right conspiracy theorist and podcast host. 'The only thing that can stop us is some people interfering with the voting process,' he said.
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Two Trump-friendly nationalists are vying to lead Ukraine's European neighbors
One of them often dons a Trump-style red baseball cap and wants to make his country 'great again.' The other visited the US president at the White House to drum up support. Both could soon become presidents of major allies on Ukraine's border. In Romania, the hard-right euroskeptic George Simion convincingly won the first round of the presidential re-run on Sunday, making him a strong favorite to win the final round on May 18. On that same day, Poland will also hold the first round of a presidential ballot, where both the nationalist candidate Karol Nawrocki and the far-right upstart Sławomir Mentzen have been making gains. If no candidate wins more than 50% of votes, a second round will be held two weeks later. Although victory for Simion is much more likely than for Poland's right-wing candidates, Europe is now facing the prospect that two of Ukraine's neighbors could by next month be led by presidents who are hostile towards Brussels and aping a MAGA-style politics. 'Congratulations,' Nawrocki said to Simion on Monday in a message of support on X. Also hailing Simion's first-round victory, Mentzen jokingly asked if Romanian authorities 'will cancel the elections again.' This was a reference to the decision last year by Romania's constitutional court to annul the first-round victory of Calin Georgescu, a Kremlin-friendly ultranationalist, after intelligence services pointed to possible Russian interference in his TikTok-fueled campaign, which he and Moscow denied. Georgescu was later banned from May's re-run, after prosecutors charged him with establishing a fascist group and other crimes. The court's decision to cancel the election had little precedent, outraged many in the country and caught the attention of officials in the Trump administration. In his blistering speech in Munich in February, US Vice President JD Vance singled out Romania as the grossest case of what he called Europe's 'threat from within.' Sunday's first-round results showed the court's decision did little to quell Romania's simmering nationalist fervor and may even have inflamed it. Whereas Georgescu secured 22% of votes in November, Simion won a resounding 41% in May's do-over, far exceeding polling expectations. His nearest contender, Nicusor Dan, the centrist mayor of the capital Bucharest, came second at around 21%. Many in Brussels will be hoping that the pro-European Union voters will rally around Dan in the second round, shutting the far-right out of power, as happened in France in its parliamentary election last year. But analysts say divisions among the mainstream parties mean Simion is likely to win the May 18 second round. Although Romania, like Poland, has a parliamentary system, the presidents of both countries are commanders of the armed forces and have significant sway over military spending and foreign policy. While not as brazen as Georgescu, Simion shares many of his views and even cast his ballot alongside him on Sunday. Simion has long voiced his opposition to military aid for Ukraine, and last year was banned by Kyiv from entering the country, citing his 'systematic anti-Ukrainian activities.' He is also barred from visiting neighboring Moldova. Simion has claimed he is not anti-Ukraine or pro-Russia, but simply 'pro-Romanian.' In Poland, the picture is less clear-cut. With President Andrzej Duda of the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) unable to run for a third term, Karol Nawrocki – currently head of Poland's Institute of National Remembrance – is attempting to pick up his mantle. Meanwhile, Sławomir Mentzen, a leader of the far-right Confederation Liberty and Independence alliance, has climbed up the polls – but is deemed unlikely to reach the second round. Although technically running as an independent, Nawrocki has the backing of PiS, which became increasingly authoritarian over its eight years in power, before its defeat in a 2023 parliamentary election by an alliance led by Donald Tusk's liberal Civic Platform party. Nawrocki met Trump at the White House last week to mark the National Day of Prayer. 'President Trump said, 'you will win,'' Nawrocki told private broadcaster TV Republika after his reception in the Oval Office. Nawrocki has accused Volodymyr Zelensky of behaving 'indecently' towards his allies, echoing criticism by Vance that the Ukrainian president is not sufficiently 'grateful' for the support his country receives. In the fallout from Zelensky's Oval Office meeting with Trump and Vance, Tusk – prime minister since 2023 – said it is 'becoming clear who in Poland wants to pursue Russian interests.' Currently polling at around 25%, Nawrocki is trailing Rafał Trzaskowski, the centrist mayor of Warsaw representing Tusk's Civic Platform party, who is leading at around 33%. But Simion's overperforming polling expectations will provide encouragement to Poland's conservative candidates. Mentzen said Simion's first-round victory showed that 'Romanians again want to choose differently than the EU elites would like.' Further to the right than Nawrocki, Mentzen has also tacked closely to Trump, calling for a MAGA-style 'revolution of common sense' in Poland.
CNN
05-05-2025
- Politics
- CNN
Two Trump-friendly nationalists are vying to lead Ukraine's European neighbors
One of them often dons a Trump-style red baseball cap and wants to make his country 'great again.' The other visited the US president at the White House to drum up support. Both could soon become presidents of major allies on Ukraine's border. In Romania, the hard-right euroskeptic George Simion convincingly won the first round of the presidential re-run on Sunday, making him a strong favorite to win the final round on May 18. On that same day, Poland will also hold the first round of a presidential ballot, where both the nationalist candidate Karol Nawrocki and the far-right upstart Sławomir Mentzen have been making gains. If no candidate wins more than 50% of votes, a second round will be held two weeks later. Although victory for Simion is much more likely than for Poland's right-wing candidates, Europe is now facing the prospect that two of Ukraine's neighbors could by next month be led by presidents who are hostile towards Brussels and aping a MAGA-style politics. 'Congratulations,' Nawrocki said to Simion on Monday in a message of support on X. Also hailing Simion's first-round victory, Mentzen jokingly asked if Romanian authorities 'will cancel the elections again.' This was a reference to the decision last year by Romania's constitutional court to annul the first-round victory of Calin Georgescu, a Kremlin-friendly ultranationalist, after intelligence services pointed to possible Russian interference in his TikTok-fueled campaign, which he and Moscow denied. Georgescu was later banned from May's re-run, after prosecutors charged him with establishing a fascist group and other crimes. The court's decision to cancel the election had little precedent, outraged many in the country and caught the attention of officials in the Trump administration. In his blistering speech in Munich in February, US Vice President JD Vance singled out Romania as the grossest case of what he called Europe's 'threat from within.' Sunday's first-round results showed the court's decision did little to quell Romania's simmering nationalist fervor and may even have inflamed it. Whereas Georgescu secured 22% of votes in November, Simion won a resounding 41% in May's do-over, far exceeding polling expectations. His nearest contender, Nicusor Dan, the centrist mayor of the capital Bucharest, came second at around 21%. Many in Brussels will be hoping that the pro-European Union voters will rally around Dan in the second round, shutting the far-right out of power, as happened in France in its parliamentary election last year. But analysts say divisions among the mainstream parties mean Simion is likely to win the May 18 second round. Although Romania, like Poland, has a parliamentary system, the presidents of both countries are commanders of the armed forces and have significant sway over military spending and foreign policy. While not as brazen as Georgescu, Simion shares many of his views and even cast his ballot alongside him on Sunday. Simion has long voiced his opposition to military aid for Ukraine, and last year was banned by Kyiv from entering the country, citing his 'systematic anti-Ukrainian activities.' He is also barred from visiting neighboring Moldova. Simion has claimed he is not anti-Ukraine or pro-Russia, but simply 'pro-Romanian.' In Poland, the picture is less clear-cut. With President Andrzej Duda of the conservative Law and Justice Party (PiS) unable to run for a third term, Karol Nawrocki – currently head of Poland's Institute of National Remembrance – is attempting to pick up his mantle. Meanwhile, Sławomir Mentzen, a leader of the far-right Confederation Liberty and Independence alliance, has climbed up the polls – but is deemed unlikely to reach the second round. Although technically running as an independent, Nawrocki has the backing of PiS, which became increasingly authoritarian over its eight years in power, before its defeat in a 2023 parliamentary election by an alliance led by Donald Tusk's liberal Civic Platform party. Nawrocki met Trump at the White House last week to mark the National Day of Prayer. 'President Trump said, 'you will win,'' Nawrocki told private broadcaster TV Republika after his reception in the Oval Office. Nawrocki has accused Volodymyr Zelensky of behaving 'indecently' towards his allies, echoing criticism by Vance that the Ukrainian president is not sufficiently 'grateful' for the support his country receives. In the fallout from Zelensky's Oval Office meeting with Trump and Vance, Tusk – prime minister since 2023 – said it is 'becoming clear who in Poland wants to pursue Russian interests.' Currently polling at around 25%, Nawrocki is trailing Rafał Trzaskowski, the centrist mayor of Warsaw representing Tusk's Civic Platform party, who is leading at around 33%. But Simion's overperforming polling expectations will provide encouragement to Poland's conservative candidates. Mentzen said Simion's first-round victory showed that 'Romanians again want to choose differently than the EU elites would like.' Further to the right than Nawrocki, Mentzen has also tacked closely to Trump, calling for a MAGA-style 'revolution of common sense' in Poland.
New York Times
23-04-2025
- Business
- New York Times
Mexico Is Becoming a Beacon
This essay is part of The Great Migration, a series by Lydia Polgreen exploring how people are moving around the world today. We know one type of migration well. It's millions of people from poorer countries traveling mostly to wealthy countries — where they receive, increasingly, a hostile reception — in search of safety and opportunity. But there's another type of migration taking place the world over. Smaller, quieter yet persistent, it involves people from wealthy countries seeking new lives elsewhere, sometimes in other wealthy places but also in poorer countries that have traditionally sent rather than received migrants. Perhaps nowhere on the globe are these two waves of migration converging more starkly than in Mexico City, a vast urban agglomeration that has been transformed over the past two decades. It was once known for violent crime, choking haze and broken infrastructure. For decades, many of its ambitious citizens sought to leave, part of a vast tide of migration across the country's northern border with the United States, a nation many Mexicans saw as a beacon of opportunity. These days, Mexico City is itself a beacon, drawing millions of visitors from across the world. It is a pulsing center of global culture that rivals any of the great European capitals. Its historic parks and plazas have been reborn. It is a culinary juggernaut, where securing a seat at top restaurants requires ingenuity and once-obscure taco stands garner viral, TikTok-fueled fame. The city's economy has thrived, too, driven by the growth of a wide range of businesses. There are bustling factories, high-tech start-ups, banking and insurance companies and even a rapidly expanding global film and television business, making not just Spanish-language content for Latin American audiences and art films but also big-budget streaming shows and Super Bowl commercials. Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
News18
21-04-2025
- Health
- News18
Summer Sunscreen Layering: What is Trending in 2025?
Sunscreen application in 2025 is much beyond another step of skincare regime - it's a strategy The science revolving around application of sunscreen is continuously evolving and the trend that is famous in 2025 is that you don't just need one application of a broad-spectrum sunscreen in the morning, rather for advanced skincare and UV rays protection, the requirement is smart layering of the sunscreen. It includes combining various formats and finishes to maximise the benefits of UV rays protection and improve the skin health. Dr Ameesha Mahajan, Cosmetic Dermatologist & Founder, Eden Skin Clinic shares all you need to know: Hybrid formulations of sunscreen Trending now are hybrid sunscreens that combine mineral (zinc oxide, titanium dioxide) and chemical filters (like Tinosorb and Uvinul A Plus) to offer broad-spectrum protection while feeling lightweight and breathable. These formulas are ideal for layering because they blend easily without pilling. Sandwich of SPF SPF sandwiching is gaining a lot of limelight since the beginning of the year 2025 and it includes using a moisturizer that has sunscreen infused, followed by a high SPF sunscreen and then top layer of a setting spray that again is infused with SPF. This method ensures that your skin remains protected even after layering makeup or facing prolonged sun exposure. Application of powder as well as mist Gone are the days of skipping reapplication. This year, people are turning to SPF powders and mists to reapply without disturbing makeup. These portable formats are trending for their convenience, matte finish, and added antioxidant benefits. Sunscreens are now being layered with barrier-strengthening serums underneath—think niacinamide, panthenol, and ceramides—to prevent irritation from harsh sun and pollution exposure. This two-step layering protects from both UV rays and environmental damage. A TikTok-fueled trend in 2025 is mixing different SPF types for custom coverage—lightweight fluids for oily zones and thicker creams for drier patches. However, experts still advise caution with DIY mixing and recommend layering products separately instead. Sunscreen application in 2025 is much beyond another step of skincare regime – it's a strategy. With more people getting conscious about the damaging effects of the sun on skin and predisposing it to premature aging, layering SPF thoughtfully ensures better protection and skin health. Whether you're a skincare minimalist or a beauty maximalist, there's a layering technique that fits your routine this summer.
