It was a cold and windy day in January this year when the Besart and the Aya Zanoubya approached the port of Porto Romano near Durres on Albania’s Adriatic coast, the latter being towed due to an electrical failure that had supposedly prevented it from continuing to its stated destination....
Pay-Per-Like scammers still evading justice in Serbia
Online fraudsters duped unwitting Serbians into handing over their cash for the chance of even bigger payouts just for ‘liking’ videos on YouTube. Many victims lost their savings, but the authorities have been slow to pursue the perpetrators. For one Serbian woman, it began early last year with a WhatsApp...
Turkey’s gas shift threatens Russia and Iran’s last big European market
Turkey could meet more than half of its gas needs by the end of 2028 by ramping up production and increasing U.S. imports, in a shift that threatens to shrink the last major European market for Russian and Iranian suppliers. Washington has publicly pressured allies, including NATO member Turkey, to...
Germany’s China Challenge: Between Rhetoric and Reality
After years of appeasement, Berlin’s attitude to China is hardening. But concrete actions remain elusive. Former Chancellor Angela Merkel came to power in 2005 as a vocal critic of China’s human rights record but gradually adopted a softer stance. While the European Union began labeling China a systemic rival, Merkel...
Kremlin Financial Retaliation? Empty Threats
The Putin regime realizes its war of aggression will be seriously affected if financial assets are handed to Ukraine. But it’s impotent. It’s no surprise the Kremlin has reacted angrily to news that at least $164 bn (and probably much more) in frozen Russian taxpayer funds will likely be used...
European railways show a dangerous failure
While Europe faces the most dangerous security situation in decades, the European Union institutions remain mired in their own rules, procedures, and member state hesitations. Grand speeches about solidarity and deterrence ring hollow when heavy military convoys can take weeks to cross borders within the supposedly border-free Schengen zone. A...
10,000 Slovenians suffer heavy losses over Austrian Ponzi scheme collapse
The Austrian company operating the Lyconet network and the Cashback World program has left thousands of investors worldwide reeling. In Slovenia, where over 10,000 individuals reportedly invested in Lyconet – labeled a Ponzi scheme in several European countries, many fear losing substantial sums, with some having invested over €100,000 or...
EU seeks €133 billion for Ukraine in 2026–27 to avert collapse
Ukraine’s European allies explore reparation loans from frozen Russian assets, avoiding confiscation.To address its budget and military needs in 2026 and 2027, Ukraine requires approximately €133 billion to prevent a “collapse” in its war efforts against Russia, an EU official told EUalive’s partner European Pravda on condition of anonymity. The...
Europe exposed: malicious email messages top cyber threat list
The uneven geographical distribution of risks highlights the need for measures tailored to national contexts. In the second quarter of 2025, email was the only growing source of threats in Eastern Europe, with 4.10% of ICS computers attacked via this vector which is 1.3 times higher than the global average...
Risks of Babiš’ return to power in Czechia
Should Prague join the “sceptic camp” led by Budapest and Bratislava, it could tilt the balance against enlargement momentum. Traditionally, Czechia has been among the bloc’s most active champions of bringing in new members from both the Western Balkans and the Eastern Neighbourhood, often pushing above its weight in EU...