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The political utility of blaming Russia for infrastructure incidents
Europe

The political utility of blaming Russia for infrastructure incidents

German officials recently linked a failed drone sabotage attempt at Leipzig airport to Moscow, continuing a trend of attributing European infrastructure disruptions to Kremlin-directed hybrid warfare. While leaders cite a consistent pattern of aggression, the lack of public evidence has sparked skepticism regarding the strategic convenience of these accusations.

Performing artists face an existential threat from AI training
Europe

Performing artists face an existential threat from AI training

As artificial intelligence models ingest vast archives of recorded human performance, the legal protections for musicians and actors are buckling under the pressure. Ibán García del Blanco, secretary general of AEPO-ARTIS, warns that without rigorous intervention, the industry risks replacing human creativity with machine-generated mimicry.

MEPs Vote to Strip EU Carbon Border Levy of Emergency Exemptions
Europe

MEPs Vote to Strip EU Carbon Border Levy of Emergency Exemptions

European lawmakers in Strasbourg voted Tuesday to remove a proposed "emergency brake" mechanism from the EU’s carbon border levy. By blocking the Commission’s plan to grant temporary exemptions for specific imported goods, Parliament has signaled a more rigid approach to enforcing carbon costs on foreign producers entering the bloc.

The Male Default: How Medical Research Fails Women
Europe

The Male Default: How Medical Research Fails Women

In European clinical trials, 72 percent of studies fail to provide sex-disaggregated data, while fewer than 0.4 percent include pregnant women. This scientific oversight is not merely a statistical anomaly; it is a systemic bias that treats the male body as the standard, leaving women’s health outcomes dangerously under-researched.

AI Giants Pivot to Regulation as Commercial Realities Bite
Europe

AI Giants Pivot to Regulation as Commercial Realities Bite

The industry's long-standing resistance to oversight has collapsed, replaced by a sudden, industry-led push for guardrails. Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei is now calling for independent, permanent evaluators to monitor frontier labs, marking a radical departure from the sector's previous stance that regulation stifles innovation and economic growth.

Three Hidden Shocks Threatening Europe’s Stability
Europe

Three Hidden Shocks Threatening Europe’s Stability

As Ursula von der Leyen prepares her State of the Union address, the European Union faces a reality check. While Brussels has fortified its energy and supply chain defenses, it remains tethered to a progress illusion that ignores three distinct, looming threats capable of dismantling the bloc’s hard-won security.

Swedish Voters Signal Shift Away From Far-Right Coalition
Europe

Swedish Voters Signal Shift Away From Far-Right Coalition

A public broadcaster poll on Sunday suggests incumbent Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson faces a decisive defeat, with his liberal-rightwing bloc trailing the left-green alliance 46.8 percent to 51.3 percent. The results indicate a significant rejection of Kristersson’s strategy to govern alongside Jimmie Åkesson’s far-right Sweden Democrats.

Europe's Circular Economy Needs a Social Foundation
Europe

Europe's Circular Economy Needs a Social Foundation

The European Union’s push toward a circular economy risks failure if it continues to overlook the people who power the transition. While policymakers focus on material efficiency and competitiveness, the workforce—ranging from waste collectors to product designers—remains sidelined in the current draft of the Circular Economy Act.

Europe

Sweden’s Deportation Shift Sets New Benchmark for European Migration

“The era of deportations has begun,” declared Swedish Democrats MEP Charlie Weimers, marking a sharp pivot in European migration policy. Following the June vote on EU return regulations, Sweden has emerged as a primary architect of a new deterrence-focused system, effectively exporting its domestic strategy to the broader continent.

Mark Carney to address EU Parliament amid Canada-US trade tensions
Europe

Mark Carney to address EU Parliament amid Canada-US trade tensions

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney will attend Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union address in Brussels this Wednesday, signaling a strategic pivot toward Europe as Ottawa navigates a deepening trade conflict with the Trump administration over $20 billion in punitive tariffs on Canadian goods.

Defining European Competitiveness Beyond Rhetoric
Europe

Defining European Competitiveness Beyond Rhetoric

Eleven experts from academia, business, and policy have joined forces to challenge the European Union's economic agenda. Ahead of Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union address, their collective analysis probes whether the bloc’s current industrial ambitions can actually deliver tangible improvements to the daily lives of its citizens.

Ursula von der Leyen faces a five-year-old promise on cage farming
Europe

Ursula von der Leyen faces a five-year-old promise on cage farming

More than 1.4 million people signed the “End the Cage Age” European Citizens’ Initiative six years ago, yet they are still waiting for the Commission to act. As Ursula von der Leyen prepares for her State of the European Union address, campaigners are demanding she finally deliver on a long-overdue legislative pledge.

Europe's Far-Right Pivot on Women's Rights
Europe

Europe's Far-Right Pivot on Women's Rights

Across Europe, far-right movements are abandoning overtly traditionalist rhetoric to rebrand as protectors of women, yet their policy agendas reveal a consistent push to restrict reproductive health and enforce domestic roles through legislative pressure, anti-abortion measures, and the strategic targeting of minority groups.

Sweden’s Opposition Edges Ahead as Far-Right Influence Wanes
Europe

Sweden’s Opposition Edges Ahead as Far-Right Influence Wanes

With 93 percent of electoral districts reporting, the left-wing bloc led by Magdalena Andersson holds a narrow three-seat advantage over Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson’s government. The shift follows a late-campaign surge that overturned earlier polling, leaving the Scandinavian nation in a state of suspended animation until final ballots are tallied.

The EU’s Arctic Blind Spot
Europe

The EU’s Arctic Blind Spot

When a Baltic Sea cable was sabotaged last year, a coalition of ten nations tracked the perpetrators within days. The European Union was conspicuously absent, sidelined by an institutional architecture that restricts cooperation to formal members. This failure highlights a structural weakness in Brussels’ northern strategy that transcends recent Icelandic referendums.

Leipzig Airport Attack Reveals Security Gaps in Schengen Zone
Europe

Leipzig Airport Attack Reveals Security Gaps in Schengen Zone

A near-catastrophic explosion at Leipzig airport, narrowly averted when a drone laden with 1.8 kilograms of plastic explosives failed to ignite near a fuel-heavy transport plane, has exposed critical vulnerabilities in German intelligence and immigration screening as investigators link the plot to Russian military operatives.

US Threatens Retaliation Over EU Industrial Subsidies
Europe

US Threatens Retaliation Over EU Industrial Subsidies

Washington has issued a stern warning to Brussels regarding the EU’s proposed competitiveness fund, specifically targeting its “European preference” rules. The US administration claims these requirements could unfairly disadvantage American firms, threatening retaliatory trade measures unless the European Union grants them equal access to industrial subsidies.

Croatia’s Toxic Legacy: The Gospić Waste Crisis
Europe

Croatia’s Toxic Legacy: The Gospić Waste Crisis

Thousands marched through Zagreb on September 5, demanding accountability for a sprawling network of illegal waste sites in the Lika region. More than 35,000 tonnes of hazardous plastic and medical debris remain buried at the 'Silos' site in Gospić, where groundwater tests have now confirmed the presence of toxic 'forever chemicals'.

France stalls EU sanctions renewal over Alisher Usmanov delisting
Europe

France stalls EU sanctions renewal over Alisher Usmanov delisting

A standoff between France and the remaining 26 EU member states has forced an emergency one-week extension of Russia sanctions, narrowly averting a total collapse of the blacklist. The impasse centers on Paris’s insistence that metals tycoon Alisher Usmanov be removed from the list to address unspecified national security requirements.

Russian drone strike near Polish border targets railway hub
Europe

Russian drone strike near Polish border targets railway hub

A Russian jet-powered Geran drone struck a railway station in Yahodyn on Sunday, narrowly missing a train carrying former CIA director David Petraeus. The attack occurred just minutes after a diplomatic transport carrying former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and other Western officials had cleared the same station.

Von der Leyen’s asylum pivot risks institutionalizing border pushbacks
Europe

Von der Leyen’s asylum pivot risks institutionalizing border pushbacks

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to propose a controversial mechanism allowing member states to suspend asylum procedures during mass arrivals. This potential policy shift signals a move toward legitimizing border pushbacks, a practice previously condemned as a direct violation of international human rights and legal frameworks.

Mark Carney’s Push for a Privileged EU Partnership
Europe

Mark Carney’s Push for a Privileged EU Partnership

Setting the stage for Ursula von der Leyen’s State of the Union address in Strasbourg this Wednesday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is signaling an ambition to forge a privileged partnership with the European Union, aiming to elevate Ottawa’s strategic alignment with the bloc to a new, formal level.

ECB interest rate hikes risk stalling Europe's green energy transition
Europe

ECB interest rate hikes risk stalling Europe's green energy transition

Aggressive interest rate hikes by the European Central Bank to combat inflation may inadvertently entrench fossil fuel reliance. Research from the New Economics Foundation suggests that by increasing borrowing costs, the bank is penalizing capital-intensive renewable energy projects while failing to address the volatile source of current price surges.

Von der Leyen’s SOTEU: Redefining European Competitiveness
Europe

Von der Leyen’s SOTEU: Redefining European Competitiveness

As Ursula von der Leyen prepares for Wednesday’s State of the European Union address, Brussels observers expect her to pivot away from narrow economic growth metrics. Instead, the Commission president is poised to frame competitiveness as the essential bedrock for Europe’s strategic autonomy and its ability to act independently on the global stage.

The CDU’s deepening rift over an AfD ban
Europe

The CDU’s deepening rift over an AfD ban

Following the Alternative für Deutschland's recent electoral success in Saxony-Anhalt, the debate over outlawing the far-right party has moved from the political fringe into the heart of the Christian Democratic Union, as senior leaders break their silence on whether the constitutional order requires such a drastic intervention.

Serbia’s EU Ambitions Clash with Deep-Rooted Nationalism
Europe

Serbia’s EU Ambitions Clash with Deep-Rooted Nationalism

The European Union has funneled over €1.5 billion annually into Serbia since 2012, hoping to pull the nation away from Russian influence. Yet, the recent public mourning in Belgrade for convicted war criminal Ratko Mladić reveals a persistent, regressive nationalism that starkly contradicts the core values of the European bloc.

UK and France lead coalition to ban trade with Israeli settlements
Europe

UK and France lead coalition to ban trade with Israeli settlements

A coordinated push by the UK, France, and nine other nations to block trade from illegal West Bank settlements has intensified pressure on the European Union to adopt a unified stance. The move marks a significant shift in diplomatic policy, targeting both the commercial infrastructure and financial networks supporting the occupation.

Europe

EU struggles to track illicit tobacco trade as criminal networks shift

Criminal syndicates are exploiting fractured legislative landscapes across the European Union, costing member states over €13 billion annually in lost tax revenue. A new report from the European Court of Auditors reveals that the bloc lacks a unified system to monitor the scale or structure of this expanding underground market.

Environmental groups challenge EU water policy shift
Europe

Environmental groups challenge EU water policy shift

Five environmental organizations petitioned the European Ombudsman on Tuesday, alleging that the European Union’s recent decision to weaken water protection standards stems from undue influence by the mining industry. The complaint centers on a lack of transparency and the absence of formal impact assessments during the regulatory review process.