Mette Frederiksen's ability to remain in power since 2019 has been a success story for Europe's beleaguered Party of European Socialists. Polls predict a drubbing in the very cities that once anchored the party's power. But the biggest humiliation may come in Copenhagen, where the Social Democrats are poised to lose control of city...
The mafia has made performance-enhancing drugs ‘worth more than cocaine’
On a quiet street in Poland, a group of camouflaged police officers have gathered. They carry machine guns, apart from the man at the front, who is driving a handheld battering ram into an unmarked door. The lock quickly snaps and the police pour inside. They have entered a laboratory,...
Polish railway track blast an ‘unprecedented act of sabotage
Warsaw said in October that Poland and Romania had detained eight people suspected of planning sabotage on behalf of Russia An explosion that damaged a Polish railway track on a route to Ukraine was an “unprecedented act of sabotage”, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Monday as he vowed to...
Czechs and Slovaks commemorate Velvet Revolution rallying for democracy and Ukraine aid
The manifestations underscore a renewed resolve to defend not just domestic democracy, but also the transatlantic bonds that have sustained Ukraine's fight for sovereignty. Thousands of Czechs and Slovaks gathered on 17 November to mark the 36th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution – the peaceful uprising that toppled communist rule...
Europe is not doing enough to detect HIV, hepatitis
The ECDC says the region could still meet its testing targets for HIV, but that it will be harder to improve detection for hepatitis B and C. Many European countries are falling behind on efforts to detect life- threatening diseases such as HIV and hepatitis, a new analysis has found. In 2018,...
Europe ‘not ready’ for Russian drone attack
Europe is not ready to deal effectively with a Russian drone attack and must integrate Ukraine's "battle-tested" capabilities to better protect itself, EU defence commissioner Andrius Kubilius said Monday. The 27-nation bloc is scrambling to plug its drone defences after NATO jets shot down Russian drones over Poland in September. "Why...
How sanctions dismantled one of the Kremlin’s key strongholds in Europe
Bulgaria, Romania, and Moldova have demonstrated that they are capable of fundamentally rethinking and strengthening their own energy security. A decade ago, it seemed unthinkable that Russia’s Lukoil could lose its foothold on the Balkans and along the Black Sea. Its assets dominated Bulgaria’s fuel market, supplied a meaningful share...
Serbia faces tight deadline to resolve NIS ownership amid looming fuel crisis
Energy Minister Dubravka Đedović Handanović declared the energy sector "almost impossible" to manage under the U.S. sanctions, offering her resignation. Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić warned on Sunday that a resolution for the Oil Industry of Serbia (NIS) – the country’s primary refiner, which the United States has sanctioned over its...
«Weapons of influence»: Russia’s ship registers, the «Shadow Fleet», and the role of third countries in enabling russian aggression
When in the spring of 2022, after the start of the large-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the activities of one of the key instruments of the Kremlin's global influence, the Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RMRS), faced a wave of sanctions, it seemed not only a natural situation, but also...
Hungary ready to clash with Croatia over Russian oil supplies
Tensions flared between Budapest and Zagreb after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán claimed that Croatia’s Adriatic pipeline lacked the capacity to replace Russian oil imports to Hungary and Slovakia. Speaking in Washington on November 7 during his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, Orbán asserted that Croatia was “unable to...