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2026/11/03:
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As youth protests spread from France to Belgium, Spain, Italy, Greece and Albania, Europe is confronting a stark test of whether under‑18s are treated as political actors in their own right, or merely as props in adult power
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2026/11/03:
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MEP Markéta Gregorová claims to have been stopped in Beijing in what she called “pseudo-scare tactics” over the arrest of a Chinese national accused of spying in Czech
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2026/11/03:
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Americans are voting today in the midterm elections. All 435 seats in the House of Representatives are up for grabs, along with a third of the Senate and according to the polls, the Republicans are expected to lose
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2026/11/03:
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While prosecutors chase the Tates across borders, their macho fantasy of domination is already shaping how a frustrated generation of Romanian men sees women and democracy
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2026/11/03:
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The EU's border agency Frontex is instrumental in helping Libya and Tunisia intercept migrants in distress. A new study reveals the extent of those Frontex-assisted interceptions, totalling some 33,000 between 2018 and
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2026/11/03:
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Kaja Kallas and Wes Streeting set the scene for a process of improving EU-UK relations on Monday. Their logical conclusion is the UK rejoining, some
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2026/11/03:
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A fight over Poland’s top court is fuelling tensions ahead of next year’s election, with judicial independence, EU relations and the country’s future in the bloc all caught up in the
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2026/11/03:
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The European Institute of Innovation & Technology is under renewed scrutiny after an audit suggested “a material level of error” and flagged that it could fail to recover €8.7m from its beneficiaries. This comes after several investigations into the agency were launched in recent
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2026/11/03:
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As residents of occupied Oleshky rushed onto buses bound for Ukraine, Russia's rattled pro-war influencers scrambled to explain away why so few chose to go live with their Russian
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2026/11/03:
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The impact of the EU's new pact on migration and asylum is clearly visible from an Italian port quay on the day of a migrant disembarkation. First touching land after having survived a sail aboard an overcrowded dinghy in a storm, 28 migrants were trooped through a sped-up "tick-boxing" screening, which experts worry will not accurately measure the vulnerabilities they're up
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2026/11/03:
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A new book by a prominent American author argues that the US provoked Russia into invading Ukraine. Catalogue it under “fiction”, writes Edward
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2026/11/02:
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Zelensky’s government has shown it can move at lightning speed to please EU partners on some minority rights, yet same-sex partnership and hate-crime bills remain stuck in the Ukrainian
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2026/11/02:
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The COP17 biodiversity summit wrapped up on Saturday morning in Yerevan. Delegates from nearly every country were in the room, yet very little came out of
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2026/11/02:
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The EU Commission will issue its report cards on the countries in accession talks to join the bloc next week. Defence talks with the UK and a key vote on CO2 emissions will also top the agenda in
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2026/11/02:
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Kaczyński is hoping to make a political comeback in elections in 2027 in a coalition with two far-right parties, the Confederation of Liberty and Independence and the Confederation of the Polish
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2026/11/01:
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Slovak MEP Lucia Yar reflects on her NGO-led trip to the Middle East: 'When I walk through the streets of Brussels, I see more Palestinian flags than I saw during my entire stay in the West Bank, where the Palestinian flag is perceived as a
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2026/11/01:
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Women face greater exposure to AI taking over their tasks, are less represented among the people who build the systems, and are under-financed as
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2026/10/31:
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Dr Henry Giroux has watched student revolts in Europe and is cheering them on. The scholar of critical pedagogy says ‘gangster capitalism’ is allowing the far-right to thrive and that culture is threatening democracy
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2026/10/31:
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Spending on repairing damaged ecosystems would need to rise fourfould, to almost $300bn to meet the natural protection goal countries set in 2022, a recent UN report
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2026/10/31:
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“The Belgian government may call them ‘home visits’, but that doesn’t change what they are: police forcibly entering private homes and traumatising families and children to arrest people", said one critic of the
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2026/10/31:
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Culture, media and rights groups demand that European capitals oppose a 30 percent cut to €8.6bn proposed for AgoraEU in the EU's next long-term budget. “They picked culture because they think it’s an easy target, but it will affect journalists, artists and NGOs who are the backbone of our democratic society” said Nela Reihl, a German Green
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2026/10/30:
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More than 400,000 emails exchanged by members of Germany's far-right AfD party between March 2013 and September 2026, effectively covering the party's entire history, have appeared online. What's in
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2026/10/30:
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Gaia Neiman reports from onboard the Humanity 1 rescue ship in the Mediterranean. The EU continues to fund the Libyan regime that is imprisoning men, women, and children, as a form of migration prevention. Survivors onboard an NGO rescue ship recount what they lived through, while Brussels sets its eye on a new migration facility in authoritarian-led eastern
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2026/10/30:
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From this Sunday, the EU is imposing a new €2 charge on parcels coming from outside the bloc. It comes on top of the €3 charge on small parcels announced in
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2026/10/30:
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Poland is not the first European country Palantir has approached, but other allied nations have already drawn the line. In Switzerland, the Swiss armed forces rejected Palantir’s offers nine times. The military’s conclusion was that it was technically impossible to guarantee that sensitive national data would not reach American intelligence
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2026/10/30:
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German legal precision appears to have prompted the EU to drop its 'associate member' offer to Canada. But on critical minerals, defence and elsewhere, Ottawa and Brussels can still show they are best
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2026/10/30:
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The anti-corruption bolt-on would have a moral and a strategic value, said Polish rightwing MEP and former interior minister Michał Kamiński, who co-signed the text. "The EU must not become a safe haven for kleptocrats ... that buy loyalty and political
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2026/10/30:
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From Serbia's election to wider foreign information manipulation campaigns, coordinated networks can manufacture the appearance of online political support and become more powerful when their content is amplified by the mainstream
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2026/10/30:
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Hungarian prime minister befriends Czech counterpart Andrej Babiš while EU Commission and Council presidents Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa come to Budapest to celebrate the anniversary of the 1956
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2026/10/30:
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Oleshky’s rare ceasefire has let some trapped civilians flee and aid convoys edge in. But now, both armies are racing to fortify positions for the next round of fighting across the Dnipro
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2026/10/30:
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Journalists in Egypt are being jailed and fined in a crackdown that poses questions on the EU's multi-billion deal with Cairo -where human rights are a
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2026/10/29:
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Rumen Radev’s coalition holds 131 of 240 parliamentary seats in Sofia and backs Iliana Yotova. The next president’s test is not what powers the office holds, but whether it will use them to challenge the government - including over its Black Sea
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2026/10/29:
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The Environmental Investigation Agency accuses the European Commission of maladministration for suspending fines and proposing to delay methane rules for oil and gas importers without evidence they threaten
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2026/10/29:
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The EU-Canada summit opens today in Montreal and runs until tomorrow (30 October). One idea is overshadowing the meeting: making Canada an “associate member” of the EU. However, the 27 member states are far from agreed on
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2026/10/29:
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A friend of mine recently proudly showed me her cellar, stocked with three to four weeks of water and food. “Of course, we’ll be sharing it with the neighbours” she said.But the only thought in my head was “After three to four weeks of no food, no electricity, no internet and no water, you’ll be fighting your neighbours off, no inviting them
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2026/10/29:
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Israel's "vibrant democracy" gave the most votes to a man wanted for war crimes by the International Criminal Court in The Hague and accused of perpetrating genocide by UN experts, posing questions on whether Israeli society is aligned with EU
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2026/10/29:
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Seven MEPs from the employment committee visited Amazon warehouses in Germany and Poland this week - ahead of the EU Commission’s Quality Jobs Act proposal expected in
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2026/10/29:
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“Everybody's focusing on the legal basis of Ursula von der Leyen’s associate membership announcement, but frankly I don't care,” says the European Parliament lead on Canada. He hopes digital trade, critical raw materials and Erasmus+ will be prioritised in talks this week in
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2026/10/29:
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Russia's hopes of using a summit with African leaders to increase its influence on the continent have been hit by African anger about the fate of their men recruited by the Russian
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2026/10/29:
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Russia claims it has captured the city of Kostiantynivka, but the fighting continues, as chronicled in messages to his wife by 42-year-old Hennadii
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2026/10/29:
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The European Commission says Frontex's human rights monitoring won't fundamentally change, citing the need to avoid duplication with EU states. But the text of its proposal suggests
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2026/10/29:
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EU member states remain split between a one-year and a three-year delay of the bloc's methane rules, with some saying that a commission action plan could tip the
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2026/10/29:
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A small, homemade, dinghy hoped to escape the deadly EU-sponsored Libyan coastguard by making its way north during one of the stormiest seasons in the Mediterranean Sea. Their successful rescue by volunteers contrasts with the reception they received from Italian authorities, prior to even touching European
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2026/10/28:
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The European Commission has unveiled its plan to help Europe adapt to climate change. But as extreme heat and climate disasters become the norm, the plan offers very few binding
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2026/10/28:
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Publishers and media organisations, including EUobserver, urge the European Commission to improve transparency as concerns grow over restricted access to EU documents, while secrecy surrounding Gaza funding has been picked up by the EU
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2026/10/28:
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New report points to extensive industry access to European politicians, as governments back changes to data protection rules in the name of AI
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2026/10/28:
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Opinion polling from the Pew Research Center found that 69 percent of the French population is dissatisfied with democracy, Italy 62 percent, Poland 47 percent and Spain 68 percent. All are facing upcoming
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2026/10/28:
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The Finnish-Norwegian call was "not coordinated with any of us [allies]" in advance, said Denmark's Mette Frederiksen on Tuesday - directly contradicting Finland's Alexander Stubb and Norway's Jonas Gahr Støre. "I really don't understand what these two countries think can be achieved this way," she
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2026/10/28:
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Australia has announced plans to overhaul its national critical minerals strategy, and the EU says it wants to invest 'massively' in refining and
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2026/10/28:
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Donald Trump’s 9 October diesel deal with Vladimir Putin left Europeans - including Ukraine - out in the cold, as US dollars will now become key aid in the financing of Russia's
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2026/10/27:
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Europeans have not experienced war for so long that they don’t recognize it anymore, and don’t see it coming. That was also the case just before the outbreak of the First World
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2026/10/27:
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Under newly-agreed rules expected to come into force in 2027, airlines will decide whether or not companions to disabled passengers are deemed necessary for safety reasons. Only if their presence is required will their ticket be free, while companions traveling with disabled passengers anyway will have to pay for a full-price
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2026/10/27:
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The bulk of EU agriculture subsidies are set to distributed via a new system of national and regional plans, as governments seize control of the bloc's subsidy
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2026/10/27:
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Israelis are heading to the polls today for legislative elections. It is the first national vote since 2022, and a decisive moment for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is running
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2026/10/27:
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The mere threat of losing control of one maritime strait turned China into a clean tech powerhouse, while Europe, hit by two real energy shocks in a few years, is wasting time watering down its green
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2026/10/27:
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A historically-high number of voters have chosen parties classified as authoritarian or populist, according to a new report analysing parliamentary election results for 260 parties in 31 countries since 1946, or since the year free elections were first
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2026/10/27:
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Brazil's workers' party leader Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva defied all odds to become the first president to win the second round of elections after losing in primaries. Though his adversary has failed to acknowledge defeat, EU leaders and pro-democracy groups expressed relief at the unexpected
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2026/10/27:
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EUobserver revealed last week that a director in the Belgian intelligence service (VSSE) had exchanged WhatsApp messages with ex-EU commissioner Didier Reynders, which may have been part of a criminal conspiracy to block reports into Reynders' alleged
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2026/10/27:
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This is where the borders of three regions meet: Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. It has received less attention in recent months because there have been more active areas of the
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2026/10/26:
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If changes pass, citizens will no longer pay licence fees toward Czech Television and Czech Radio, and the government will instead fund public media operations from the state budget. Opposition MPs and experts have described these far-reaching changes as a dangerous attempt to weaken public service media, threatening their
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2026/10/26:
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Israel's election on Tuesday could bring a new government without changing the country's course. Having worked as a parliamentary adviser in the Knesset and later as executive director of Peace Now, I know how that can happen, writes Shaqued
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2026/10/26:
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The Ukraine battlefield is the hottest part of Russia’s war on the West, but not the only one. The Kremlin is betting that sabotage, intimidation and other sub-threshold attacks will make Ukraine’s allies so distracted, scared and tired that they cut their support to Kyiv. Meanwhile Russia’s political warfare is reaping rewards in Africa, Asia and Latin America, writes Edward
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2026/10/26:
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With European airlines warned off Iran, Iraq, Lebanon and low-altitude routes over Syria, Brussels’ promise to boost the return of migrants and failed asylum-sekkers is colliding with hard security risks, rising costs and a backlog of 5,500 failed deportation
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2026/10/26:
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EU and Canadian leaders will look to flesh out the terms of closer cooperation on energy, trade and defence at a summit in Montréal this
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2026/10/26:
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Vučić acknowledged defeat shortly after 9.30PM on Sunday, when exit polls put his SNS party on 105 seats in parliament, behind the reformist Student List movement, led by cardiologist Ilija Srdanovic, on 135 to
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2026/10/25:
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It’s comforting to imagine an Israeli government formed by anyone left of Benjamin Netanyahu will steer instinctively towards international expectations. But a more centrist Israeli government, like any elected government anywhere, will operate within the political space created by the policy priorities and the empathetic capacity of its voters. There isn’t much room for
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2026/10/24:
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The UN food agency helping Palestinians and others in need across the world has come under scrutiny for its contract with Palantir – the controversial US tech and AI company used by various international border police and militaries to sort data and better identify
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2026/10/24:
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Bulgaria holds its presidential election on Sunday. A moment to decide whether to consolidate power around the current prime minister - prioritising stability over institutional
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2026/10/24:
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Beth Oppenheim, fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, explains how a shift in Israeli society will shape voting on 27 October. Her analysis groups Israeli political forces into liberal Zionists, nationalists, religious nationalists, and ultra-Orthodox
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2026/10/24:
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Starshield, the defense version of Starlink, seems to remain slow despite US assurances that it was fully back. And journalists from Russia reveal what is being discussed by Kremlin and US officials as they seek a deal on
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2026/10/24:
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An Egyptian national who sought protection in Italy after arriving on the island of Lampedusa in August may end up dealing a constitutional blow to the EU's asylum laws after seeking legal
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2026/10/24:
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Katharina von Schnurbein caused controversy in May 2025 when she briefed EU ambassadors in Tel Aviv that proposed EU trade sanctions on Israel were based on "rumours about Jews, as opposed to
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2026/10/23:
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On Sunday, Europeans will once again turn their clocks back by one hour. The familiar ritual will again raise the same question: did the European Union not decide years ago to end seasonal clock
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2026/10/23:
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France needs spending cuts, but its politics can’t deliver them. Former Macron adviser and economist Shahin Vallée on the protests, Le Pen and Mélenchon’s debt plans, and the dilemma holding back ECB
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2026/10/23:
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The messages, seen by EUobserver and published here in full, now form evidence in a Belgian police investigation into Reynders on money-laundering charges, which paints them in a potentially criminal
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2026/10/23:
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Outlets such as EUobserver do more than report on European affairs. They provide a space where different perspectives meet, complex policy debates become accessible and stakeholders can better understand the choices shaping the continent. In doing so, they can help connect the communities that make the European project work. This is also the thinking behind our initiative to develop a media product dedicated to the business
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2026/10/23:
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If there is no offtake market in continental Europe, no-ne is going to take the risk. The thing is, EU buyers already buy plenty of gas (and oil) from the
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2026/10/23:
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The kill zone’s constant drone buzz, mined roads and invisible Russian networks are making basic things, such as a phone call, into life-or-death gambles for exhausted Ukrainian
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2026/10/23:
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The EU's border force Frontex is getting overhauled next Tuesday by a European Commission determined to give the Warsaw-based agency a larger role in deportations, more resources, and more agility to
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2026/10/23:
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The European Parliament has voted to delay EU methane rules for oil and gas importers by three years, two more than the commission proposed. The vote also extends the delay to European producers and opens the door to reopening the law in
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2026/10/22:
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The ICC has received the EU’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. The court's president judge thanked lawmakers for the recognition and said "there is no peace without justice and no security without
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2026/10/22:
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An Italian MEP has gone on hunger strike over the besieged Ukrainian town's lack of access to food, medicine, clean water and basic care. The only route to escape is tapped with mines and rife with attack
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2026/10/22:
)
Five Brussels municipalities, home to nearly one-in-three of the city's residents, have now voted to drive fossil-fuel advertising off their streets. In the city where Europe's climate laws are written, the industry's grip on billboards and on lawmakers has to be broken
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2026/10/22:
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Sunday’s vote could reshape the country’s political future. But even a breakthrough for the student movement would leave a deeper question: can democratic change take root in institutions that protesters say have been hollowed
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2026/10/22:
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The Polish governing coalition voted in parliament to loosen abortion law on Tuesday - but conservative president is expected to block the
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2026/10/22:
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My beef with both far-right and far-left populists is that they're false prophets. In Europe, at least, the squeezes on public services, high taxes, debt burdens and crippling costs of living are legacies of the Covid pandemic, wars in Ukraine and Iran and a eurozone crisis that was never fully resolved. These can’t be wished away, and they won’t be cured with caps on immigration, higher taxes on the rich or the promise of earlier
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2026/10/22:
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The EU is pressing allies, such as the UK, Canada, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Norway to help close a €70bn shortfall in Ukraine’s funding for next
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2026/10/22:
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Moscow has concentrated its biggest force near Pokrovsk and faked new front lines on paper. Meanwwhile, the real battle around Dobropillia is reshaping how Europe must think about any ceasefire, which could lock in Russian
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2026/10/22:
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Defending human and environmental rights could get you in prison, or at least detained - as happened to Italian MEP Benedetta Scuderi. She talks to EUobserver about the double-standard in policing of left and rightwing demos, and the housing crisis sparking much of the youth
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2026/10/21:
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As Europe pours billions into defence and talks up ‘strategic autonomy’, it is quietly undermining its own power by ignoring the students who say they can’t afford the education, housing or stability needed to keep the continent
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2026/10/21:
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Benjamin Netanyahu has not been Israel’s prime minister for every one of those years. Yet even out of office, Israeli politics rarely escaped his gravitational pull. Hungarians know something about that
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2026/10/21:
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Even an eventual change of American leadership doesn't mean the US's bizarre glorification of violence goes away. It is a persistent stain, constantly eroding away at the values of an open and free society. Both are worth defending here in Europe. The US has chosen its own path. Let it walk it
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2026/10/21:
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The EU's top diplomat has backed the idea of a Black Sea naval mission to protect grain ships from Russian drones - but this would require much more than Europe's existing Red Sea operation, while air policing might be more
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2026/10/21:
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The European Parliament called on more spending to build affordable houses, using funds for regional development that currently comprise up to a third of the present EU
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2026/10/21:
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EU officials vowed an end to Arctic oil and gas buying, as the European Commission presented its new Arctic strategy. But while the document commits to keeping Arctic oil and gas “in the ground,” it drops the call for an international
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2026/10/21:
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While US secretary of state Marco Rubio publicly echoes Vladimir Putin’s inflated claims about Russian gains in Donetsk, Ukrainian crews on the ground are using scarce drones to snatch back their own wounded from territory Moscow says it
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2026/10/21:
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In defence, the bigger the order, the longer the production line and the lower the cost of each unit. That is a big reason why Europe has long bought American, for price as much as for technology. Europe could match it by buying together and sharing out the work along the value
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2026/10/20:
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In defence, the bigger the order, the longer the production line and the lower the cost of each unit. That is a big reason why Europe has long bought American, for price as much as for technology. Europe could match it by buying together and sharing out the work along the value
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2026/10/20:
)
MEPs insist that they won't allow EU governments to dictate the terms of the bloc's next seven-year budget, and have called for an extra €25bn in spending on the EU's foreign policy
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2026/10/20:
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Andrej Babiš vows no policy retreat after ANO's election flop. With the opposition gaining ground in a weekend senate vote in Czech Republic, the prime minister has moved to scrap public media license
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2026/10/20:
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From under-resourced schools in France to Spain’s housing crisis and student protests in Albania, the immediate grievances differ. Yet they raise a common question: can young people turn education into secure work and an independent
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2026/10/20:
)
The Quality Jobs Act covers common standards for being able to ‘go home’ and disconnect from remote work, and limits AI's role in recruitment or scrutiny of workers’
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2026/10/20:
)
Spain’s Left has missed its last chance to unite ahead of the snap election on 29 November — a historic failure, not so much because the numbers don’t add up, but because it now fails to offer an
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2026/10/20:
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Empty shelves and too-expensive fuel stocks are the last drop in a sea of negligence faced by southern Italians every day. Life at Europe's edges has left many feeling failed by their government, while EU policies could be making things
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2026/10/20:
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For now, Ukrainians are Europe’s human shields. If their defence breaks, a triumphant, battle-hardened Russia will seek its next victim, while the US may decide to back a winner not a loser. For now, Europe’s problem is only a lack of will-power: a nice problem to
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2026/10/19:
)
Friedrich Merz wanted more time for combustion-engine cars. Emmanuel Macron wanted tougher rules on what qualifies as “Made in Europe.” Now, the two countries have traded one for the other. Both can claim victory at home, and both say they want the same thing: to strengthen Europe’s auto industry against Chinese competition. But the trade-off undermines that very
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2026/10/19:
)
MEPs in Strasbourg will respond to Donald Trump's sanctions against the International Criminal Court, debate Russian drones in the Black Sea and decide positions on short- and long-term
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2026/10/18:
)
Europe's leadership at the COP17 in Yerevan next week will depend not only on what we defend in the negotiations, but also on what we are able to implement and finance at
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2026/10/17:
)
The UK government has once again put touring in Europe on the agenda. As London and Brussels rebuild their relationship, cultural mobility should be treated as part of the economic infrastructure, rather than as an
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2026/10/17:
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Danish prime minister Mette Frederiksen lashed out again at Spanish leader Pedro Sánchez on migration during a summit debate in Brussels on
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2026/10/17:
)
Volodomyr Zelensky flew into Brussels warning that Washington’s surprise ‘diesel deal’ with Moscow risks becoming the thin end of a wider sanctions rollback - just as Ukraine faces a brutal winter, dwindling air defences and a fresh scramble in EU capitals over money, missiles and frozen Russian
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2026/10/17:
)
France and Germany want the rules for cars carved out of the EU's Industrial Accelerator Act and moved into a separate automotive package. Their joint paper also spells out how emissions targets will be
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2026/10/17:
)
While Washington quietly orders Starlink’s military network throttled and Moscow steps up long-range attacks, Ukrainian forces are still capable of audacious
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2026/10/16:
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As the EU enters an unprecedented electoral supercycle, the question is whether it can defend its integrity as the forces challenging it gain influence over its