France bullies EU into delisting top Russian oligarch, angering allies in last-minute showdown
Ambassadors held three meetings on Monday and two more on Tuesday as the clock ticked toward the legal collapse of Russia sanctions due to a French veto.
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‘Bullies cannot be appeased’: Pressure mounts on EU to shield ICC from new US sanctionsWhen the big brother becomes a bully, who stands up to him? The question is no longer simply whether Brussels supports international justice, but whether it is ready to take practical steps to protect it.
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Dutch fossil-fuel exit plan shows EU struggle to set binding deadlines
The Dutch fossil fuel phase-out plan falls short of outlining clear deadlines, as EU countries struggle to fulfil the 2050 climate neutrality goal.
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Ukraine shows how it shoots down jet-powered Russian drones, as Moscow seeks to expand production (Ukraine Battlefield update, day 1,671)Ukraine has finally found ways to hunt Russia’s fastest drones in mid-air, as new satellite images and documents suggest the Kremlin is preparing to flood the battlefield with tens of thousands more.
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Fourth Russia-linked LNG carrier puts Danish shipyard in new ‘sanctions gamble’
The Danish yard is repairing one of its own Nato warships while continuing to service LNG carriers from Russia reportedly linked to Russia’s FSB security service.
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EU-Philippines free-trade pact joins Brussels’ growing ‘harvest’ of Asia deals
An EU-Philippines pact is the latest trade deal to be ‘harvested’, and Thailand and Malaysia are likely to be next.
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German minister slams Costa over EU budget, says he has ‘completely lost touch with reality’
Time is running out for member states to move closer together on the next seven-year budget, with EU leaders aiming to strike a deal by the end of the year. But efforts by European Council president António Costa to bring capitals together in recent weeks have so far yielded little result.
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What JK Rowling’s Voldemort can teach us about Ukraine war
Since the start of the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, as the West decided to support Ukraine in its defensive efforts, Moscow has been sounding exactly like Lord Voldemort: “Give me Ukraine. It cannot win.”
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The secretive Saudi arms deal with Greece making Athens a democratic ‘black box’
When a European government enters a military agreement with a foreign power, citizens should not have to wait for a payment dispute or a renewal crisis to discover what their government has agreed to. Greece’s Patriot deployment in Saudi Arabia raises precisely this question.
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The Houthis Red Sea capture hands the EU a major trade and security headacheSeemingly a second-tier problem from a civil war in a distant land, the Houthis’ capture of Yemen’s Red Sea coast actually risks major disruption to trade and the EU’s security missions on the Horn of Africa.
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EU-Bahrain talks move ahead, even as European political prisoners recount years of torture
Two EU citizens have faced years of uninterrupted torture and rights deprivation while battling Bahrain’s crackdowns during the Arab Spring. The issue has hardly topped the EU’s negotiations with Bahrain on trade and security – which experts think could make-or-break the human rights defenders’ potential release.
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Poland’s pushback drive and EU asylum ‘emergency’ plan put rights ‘on a cliff edge’, warns Europe’s top rights chief
Poland is taking credit for a new so-called European emergency response framework, announced last week by the European Commission president. Details are scant but Poland is seeking to loosen UN rules on pushbacks, citing article 33(2) of the 1951 Refugee Convention.
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Auditors find EU cyber‑attack response is weakened by overlapping systems and secretive member states
Europe spent billions building a common cybersecurity defence. Yet a new audit has found that when a major cyber incident strikes, the EU’s response is not united.
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Loophole in new EU labelling will let fossil-fuelled data-centres pass as ‘green’
The European Commission’s new rating system grades data centres on efficiency, but does not show their emissions or how much power and water they use. It also lets sites partly powered by fossil fuels present themselves as renewable by buying green certificates over a whole year.
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What Ukraine fired at Moscow on Sunday, in its largest air-raid since the war began (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,670)The mass drone raid shows Ukraine can now reach deep into Russia’s most defended airspace. Moscow has to rethink how it protects its energy and logistics hubs before winter.
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Irish regulator hits Google with €403m GDPR fine over invasive location tracking
The consumer-rights group which filed complaints against the tech giant lashed out at the “disproportionate” time taken for the Irish privacy watchdog to protect sensitive location data.
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Germany offers a warning for Europe ahead of 2027 election year: the Putin/Trump security crisis won’t necessarily save the political centre
Mainstream parties might assume that this new age of insecurity will work in their favour. But If Europe’s security environment continues to deteriorate as voters head to the polls in 2027, mainstream leaders should not assume that geopolitics will do the political work of containing the far-right for them.
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Merz ‘fighting for political survival’ as AfD takes another state and The Left wins Berlin
Chancellor Friedrich Merz spoke to press just minutes after polls revealed massive CDU losses. In Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, the party failed to make the five-percent threshold. In Berlin, where the party had held power, it was thrashed by the Left.
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Russia’s hybrid war and Trump’s tantrums are pushing Europe towards real strategic autonomy
Not for the first time, Russian behaviour has proved tactically smart but strategically stupid. The escalating stunts and provocations across Europe have worked in the short term. But European leaders are now far more willing to state bluntly that Russia is the perpetrator.
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Listen: Fuel price spike reignites push for EU windfall tax on oil and gas profits
With fuel bills rising again, a group of EU governments including Spain, Germany and Portugal want a common tax on crisis profits to fund relief and green investments – but most of the bloc is pushing back.