Russia is losing its grip on Kaliningrad, despite using the exclave for anti-Nato scare stories
Nuclear sabre-rattling only underlines the fragility of Russia’s grip on its trophy territory.
EU and the World
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Ceuta has become a laboratory for the degradation and dehumanisation of migrants
We went to Ceuta to see how Europe treats people who arrive at its borders. We came back asking how Europe can still call itself a continent governed by law. What we saw there was the often abstract failure of migration policy made brutally concrete: the daily humiliation of human beings.
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From Munich to Prešov and Leipzig: a GRU-linked sabotage network operated from Slovak territory
Slovakia has become a staging ground for Russian operations. A bad news meaning Europe’s defence industry, airports and supply lines to Ukraine can be targeted far from the actual front line.
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How a Chinese ‘smart sex toys’ company fed Russian war tech against Ukraine — and exposed an EU sanctions blind spot
Sanction one company, and another appears. Europe needs to start screening addresses in the EU sanctions-list against Russia. Most are in China and Hong Kong, but have generic names, no websites, and almost no public footprint.
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Macron’s ego may just have permanently damaged EU unity on Russia
France has a history of non-compliance with EU rules, such as its years-long trampling on the Stability and Growth Pact, and is second only to Italy in the number of EU-law infringement cases it has fought in the European Court of Justice over the decades.
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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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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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Von der Leyen’s State of the Union likely to tiptoe around China ahead of trade showdown
The EU’s competitiveness problems and its trade dispute with China have not gone away, but Ursula von der Leyen won’t pile on the criticism of Beijing at Wednesday’s State of the Union address, as trade talks enter the crunch stage.
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The Pope, Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon just handed Brussels a mandate to rein in AI
When Bernie Sanders and Steve Bannon take the stage together to call for responsible AI development, and
Pope Leo XIV does so in his encyclical Magnifica Humanitas, all aligning with the direction of EU regulation, there is political space for urgent action. -
Canada’s Carney’s ‘unique alliance’ with the EU? It’s already being builtA pro-EU technocrat, Mark Carney is the sort of politician Brussels loves to do business with.
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Leipzig was a warning shot. Here’s what real deterrence against Kremlin terror would look like
The wave of Russian state terrorism now breaking over Europe is quite different from the leftwing Baader-Meinhof group of the 1970s. It is part of a big plan to break Nato, yet Germany (and Spain, France, and Belgium) is not taking this seriously. This sends a clear message to the Kremlin: keep attacking us, writes Edward Lucas.
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The EU’s Arctic problem won’t go away without Norway, Iceland and UK’s help
With Monday and Tuesday’s Arctic summit, the EU’s real Arctic weakness is not a lack of ambition, but a lack of a proper category for its closest non-member neighbours – Norway, Iceland, and increasingly the UK.
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Why is the Berlaymont trying to strangle the European External Action Service?
It is reasonable to suspect that there has been a deliberate strategy to financially strangle the European External Action Service, in order for the EU Commission to de facto gain ground on EU foreign policy, writes the S&D’s coordinator on foreign affairs Spanish MEP Nacho Sánchez Amor.
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EU universities struggle to cut out Israeli partners, with €15m in EU funds in defence-linked projects
A total of 34 European universities remain involved in 38 Horizon Europe research projects with Israeli entities linked to defence or dual-use technology – despite pledges to suspend such ties, according to a new investigation by Investigate Europe.
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Revealed: Inside the Israeli campaign to derail European university boycotts
An investigation by Investigate Europe reveals how Israeli academic organisations and legal allies are fighting to keep research ties with European universities alive — putting human rights, academic freedom and Israel’s future in Horizon Europe at the centre of a growing legal and political battle.
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Why is the courage lacking to stand up to Trump? French author Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s wartime writings offer a clue
As the French pilot and author of The Little Prince noted in his Wartime Writings, if men are unwilling to fight for the greater good, all they will ultimately be left with is a peace anchored in shame.
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Trump’s self-sabotaging America is leaving Europe with a weaker ally against Putin
US leadership is badly dented. Europeans should hope for the best but plan for the worst, warns Edward Lucas.
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It seems impossible not to mention Gaza if you meet Israelis on holiday in EuropeI made friends with two Israeli couples while on holiday in Greece this summer and when the conversation inevitably turned to Palestine, I was struck by how misinformed, scared, and ashamed they were.