News selections: Denmark's registry hacked, early elections in Spain, and the British Green Party classifies Zionism as racism

Hackers penetrated the national registry in Denmark and were able to access the personal data of millions of people, the Ministry of Digital Affairs announced on Monday.

The Ministry said, in a statement, that “the National Registry Administration discovered that unauthorized persons were able, illegally, to access, in particular, the names, addresses, and identity numbers of approximately 8.8 million registered people,” including people who died or emigrated from the country, according to what Agence France-Presse reported.

The statement quoted Digital Affairs Minister Christina Egelund as saying, “This is a very serious incident.” She added, "We are working in cooperation with all relevant authorities to determine the full scope of the incident."

Denmark's population is about six million people, but the national registry includes information on 11 million people, including data on deceased persons and people who have immigrated from the country.

The statement stated that an investigation has been opened into the incident, while the identity of the pirates has not yet been determined.

The government said that the hackers were able to penetrate the national registry by hacking a Danish company that had a legal right to access it, adding that this right had not been revoked.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez announced on Monday that he will call early legislative elections on November 29, after Parliament rejected, on Friday, measures proposed by his government to try to get out of the housing crisis.

In a speech he delivered from Moncloa Palace, the Socialist Prime Minister said: “In order to carry out the profound, pending reforms that we need... we must mobilize our energies... and obtain a much larger, progressive majority that enables us to appease the elites, extract new social gains, and continue changing Spain,” according to what Agence France-Presse reported.

“To do more, we need to renew and expand popular support,” Sanchez, who has been in office since 2018, emphasized in a televised speech, adding that his goal is “to secure a much broader progressive majority in Parliament.”

Tens of thousands of demonstrators went out in marches in Madrid and other Spanish cities, the day before yesterday, Saturday, to demand the provision of affordable housing.

The opposition parties in the Spanish Parliament had voted down the measures proposed by his government, which included the automatic renewal of lease contracts and imposing restrictions on the eviction of tenants from the most needy groups.

The defeat angered protesters against the country's high housing market costs and highlighted the difficulties faced by the minority-led coalition government in passing legislation.

For several years, Spain has been operating under the 2023 budget, the latest national spending plan approved by the Sanchez government.

Providing affordable housing represents one of the most prominent social problems in Spain in recent years, but the protests took on a broader dimension after elderly tenant Maricarmen Abascal was forced to leave an apartment in which she had spent about 70 years, after a company took over the property and raised the rent by 275 percent.

Following the angry reactions, the new owners of the property reached an agreement allowing her to return to the apartment in exchange for a low rent.

Hundreds of demonstrators are camping out more than a week ago in the heart of Madrid to press for reforms.

Recent opinion polls generally indicate that the conservative People's Party - the main opposition party - is ahead of the Socialists.

The left-leaning British Green Party on Sunday classified Zionism as a “form of racism,” in a vote it held during its annual conference, in a move that sparked angry reactions from British Jewish groups and the Israeli government.

Members of the Green Party, which holds five seats in the 650-seat British House of Commons, and which made progress in the recent local and by-elections, approved the classification with 1,022 members supporting it and 813 members opposing it.

The resolution stipulates that Zionism will be treated “like any other form of racism,” and that the party will support the establishment of “a single democratic Palestinian state on the entire territory of historic Palestine.”

The party's popularity is rising under the leadership of Zach Polanski, attracting voters who reject the Labor government's position on the war in the Gaza Strip.

Three organizations representing the Jewish community said in a letter to the party before the vote, “Approval of this proposal would make the Green Party the first British political party with electoral weight to approve, in contemporary memory, a political program that appears to include explicitly anti-Semitic positions.”

The organizations warned of “the repercussions this may have on the security and safety of all British Jews.”

For its part, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs warned that this policy exceeds “the bounds of legitimate political debate.”

She added: “All political parties in Britain, especially the ruling Labor Party, must unequivocally reject this shameful decision.”

Israeli President Isaac Herzog also described the party's decision as a "disgrace." Herzog’s post on the “X” platform said, “Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, and it forms the basis for the right of the Jewish people to establish a state and a national homeland in the Land of Israel.”

Although at least three of the party's five deputies opposed the draft resolution, Polanski said earlier this week that the "displacement and genocide of the Palestinian people" constituted "clearly racism."