Investigative reports into Jeffrey Epstein's trafficking network expose connections to Baltic political elites, including the presidents of Estonia and Lithuania.
The EU Commission stands by its vow that “there is nothing to ‘cure’ in LGBTIQ+ people,” yet so-called ‘conversion’ practices still continue unregulated in 18 member states despite recent campaigning. But will a ban on such practices be enough?
The EU debates how to rewrite its farm policy, miners’ fields, blocked borders and undercapitalised smallholders. It reveals a looming showdown over who will actually profit from Europe’s next big enlargement.
Under the current EU budget, social spending through ESF+ amounts to nearly €96bn. According to internal calculations made by European Parliament services, total social spending could fall under the next MFF to between €63bn and €87bn.
Despite a strict ban in Spain on products from the illegally-occupied territories, three Israeli agricultural giants are openly boasting about shipping dates and nuts to the country — often relying on local suppliers and major supermarket brands to quietly reach Spanish shelves.
Among EU officials, the Brussels rationale has hardened into doctrine: “Pashinyan is taking Armenia away from Russia.” That sentence has become the whole of EU policy toward Yerevan. It is also a strategic error, one that is making Armenia less democratic and less safe at the same time without loosening Russia’s grip.
The US has formally launched a review of its military presence in Europe, aiming to push allies to take greater responsibility for defence. While the move could accelerate Nato’s Europeanisation, it could also create a dangerous “transition gap” before the continent’s capabilities are ready.
The threat of ‘total economic war’ looms. And July sees highest civilian deaths since 2022 (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,616)Analysts say Russia’s push to choke off fuel routes and seize the town of Kostiantynivka could redraw both the military map in the east and the economic map across the whole region.
The EU has reached record highs in a blazing, deadly summer that’s nowhere near cooling. France and Spain are now using the EU’s solidarity mechanism to curb uncontrollable flames, and the EU plans to buy its own fleet in preparation for the crisis worsening in future.
By shutting down M1’s news and dismantling the state media conglomerate that powered Orbán across 16 years, Magyar is testing how far a new Hungarian government can go in rewriting the rules of information and how loudly the old guard in Budapest and Brussels will protest.
We are told every day that we are in a mighty struggle between liberal democrats and illiberal populists. We are told that ‘we’, the former have to defend our freedoms against ‘them’, the latter.
This framing is wrong and it is a gift for semi-authoritarian parties, warns Michael Meyer-Resende.
Hitting EU targets for heat pumps, solar and wind could wipe out liquefied natural gas (LNG) demand equivalent to twice Qatar’s potential LNG supply, cutting households’ exposure.
What went wrong? Russian missile attack on open-air weapons exhibition exposes catalogue of errors (Ukraine Battlefield update, Day 1,615)Investigators now say the exhibition near Bucha that Russia hit was advertised online, poorly sheltered and held beside civilian homes, exposing how ignored warnings and lax oversight handed Moscow an easy but devastating target.
China became a hub of industrial manufacturing because it was able to produce essentially the same goods as Western countries, but much more cheaply. Something similar is now happening in artificial intelligence.
Preserving this Greek carve-out sends precisely the wrong signal. It tells companies that sufficiently valuable commercial interests may eventually secure exemptions. It tells member states that delaying agreement can produce favourable outcomes. And it tells Moscow that Europe’s political unity remains negotiable when influential industries are affected.
The deadly attack on Berlin’s annual pride parade was widely condemned by leaders across Europe from across the political spectrum, as the hard-right courts their newest voter base: the LGBTI+ community.
The FBI chief Kash Patel is heading to Moscow, where he is to be hosted by the Russian security service, the FSB. Nothing wrong with that in principle: under the previous administration the then CIA chief Bill Burns regularly acted as message-carrier to the Kremlin. But news of the visit comes as allies’ trust in American spookdom is hitting new lows, warns Edward Lucas.
![Rima Hassan in her Brussels office: '[It's] not merely a lack of courage; it is a criminal policy to advocate for a two-state solution today'](https://static.euobserver.com/2026/07/DSC_0345-2-2400x1602.jpg)
Rima Hassan MEP has seen displacement, an Israeli prison, refugee camps, and since becoming a politician just two years ago, has faced 22 legal proceedings. But the Left Franco-Palestinian MEP will not stop denouncing ‘the genocide that is currently taking place’.
While an internal panel cleared Karim Khan of misconduct, US and Israeli pressure has pushed ICC governments toward a politically charged removal vote that quietly rewrites the court’s own rules.
Three Epstein-linked men, including Siad, have now died before trial, leaving victims to piece together the network with journalists instead of judges.
By racing ahead of the currently stalled EU process, Sweden joins a small group of member states using national bans on ‘forever chemicals’.