DORTMUND, GERMANY: Spain international Marc Bartra was injured in the explosion which hit the Borussia Dortmund team bus on Tuesday and saw their Champions League game against Monaco called off, the club confirmed.
The 26-year-old center-back injured his hand and was taken to hospital for treatment, said Dortmund’s CEO Hans-Joachim Watzke.
The quarter-final first leg was rescheduled for 1845 local time (1645 GMT) on Wednesday.
“There has been an attack with explosives on the team bus,” said Watzke.
“The whole team is in a state of shock, you can’t get pictures like that out of your head.
“I hope the team will be in a position to be able to compete tomorrow on the pitch.
“In a crisis situation like this, Borussia pulls together.”
The explosions came shortly after 1900 local time on Wittbraeucker Strasse, around ten kilometers (6 miles) from the Dortmund stadium Signal Iduna Park.
According to the police, three explosive devices were detonated near the team bus while it was en route. Several of the vehicles’ window panes were broken.
In the aftermath of the explosions, the Dortmund team was taken back to the team hotel.
“For security reasons, we do not want to announce the next steps in the procedure,” added Watzke.
With the 80,000-capacity stadium filling up just before the scheduled kick-off time, fans were told to stay in the ground until police signalled it was safe for them to leave.
“All our support for Marc Bartra, BVB and all their fans,” tweeted Barcelona, Bartra’s former club, before their Champions League quarter-final against Juventus on Tuesday.
An attack of this nature is unpredecented in German club football.
The national team, which included some current Dortmund players, was involved in the terror attack in the November 13 terror attacks on Paris in 2015.
The German team spent the night at the Stade de France, on police advice, following their friendly defeat to hosts France and flew home the next morning.
Four days later the Germany-Netherlands friendly in Hanover was called off at short notice through fear of a terror attack.
Dortmund’s Bartra injured in team bus explosion
Dortmund’s Bartra injured in team bus explosion
US bars five Europeans it says pressured tech firms to censor American viewpoints online
WASHINGTON: The State Department announced Tuesday it was barring five Europeans it accused of leading efforts to pressure US tech firms to censor or suppress American viewpoints.
The Europeans, characterized by Secretary of State Marco Rubio as “radical” activists and “weaponized” nongovernmental organizations, fell afoul of a new visa policy announced in May to restrict the entry of foreigners deemed responsible for censorship of protected speech in the United States.
“For far too long, ideologues in Europe have led organized efforts to coerce American platforms to punish American viewpoints they oppose,” Rubio posted on X. “The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate these egregious acts of extraterritorial censorship.”
The five Europeans were identified by Sarah Rogers, the under secretary of state for public diplomacy, in a series of posts on social media. They include the leaders of organizations that address digital hate and a former European Union commissioner who clashed with tech billionaire Elon Musk over broadcasting an online interview with Donald Trump.
Rubio’s statement said they advanced foreign government censorship campaigns against Americans and US companies, which he said created “potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences” for the US
The action to bar them from the US is part of a Trump administration campaign against foreign influence over online speech, using immigration law rather than platform regulations or sanctions.
The five Europeans named by Rogers are: Imran Ahmed, chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate; Josephine Ballon and Anna-Lena von Hodenberg, leaders of HateAid, a German organization; Clare Melford, who runs the Global Disinformation Index; and former EU Commissioner Thierry Breton, who was responsible for digital affairs.
Rogers in her post on X called Breton, a French business executive and former finance minister, the “mastermind” behind the EU’s Digital Services Act, which imposes a set of strict requirements designed to keep Internet users safe online. This includes flagging harmful or illegal content like hate speech.
She referred to Breton warning Musk of a possible “amplification of harmful content” by broadcasting his livestream interview with Trump in August 2024 when he was running for president.
Breton responded Tuesday on X by noting that all 27 EU members voted for the Digital Services Act in 2022. “To our American friends: ‘Censorship isn’t where you think it is,’” he wrote.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said France condemns the visa restrictions on Breton and the four others. Also posting on X, he said the DSA was adopted to ensure that “what is illegal offline is also illegal online.” He said it “has absolutely no extraterritorial reach and in no way concerns the United States.”
Most Europeans are covered by the Visa Waiver Program, which means they don’t necessarily need visas to come into the country. They do, however, need to complete an online application prior to arrival under a system run by the Department of Homeland Security, so it is possible that at least some of these five people have been flagged to DHS, a US official said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss details not publicly released.
Other visa restriction policies were announced this year, along with bans targeting foreign visitors from certain African and Middle Eastern countries and the Palestinian Authority. Visitors from some countries could be required to post a financial bond when applying for a visa.
