Escalating Ukraine Conflict and Diplomatic Tensionsactive

Coast Guard rescues 26 people, including a woman and a minor.

On Odesa’s sunlit Langeron beach, life resumes under gunfire as residents defy drones and propaganda alike. From fallen imperial statues to frontline defences, this port city fights not just Russia’s attacks, but the lingering shadows of empire today in the streets.

I hope that we won't be forced to resort to such steps, Rudenko added

One person was killed and 11 others were injured, including a child, as a result of a Russian strike on civilian infrastructure in Odesa.

According to its sources, Kallas criticized the US for not increasing pressure on Russia.

A long public career found its zenith with his investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election

These personal pictures reveal another side to life amid war

Vyacheslav Nikonov admits that US sanctions on Russia are unlikely to be lifted quickly, some of them "will be simply impossible" to lift

Vyacheslav Nikonov says that his US colleagues insist on the dependence of the bilateral relations on early settlement of the Ukrainian crisis

Vyacheslav Nikonov says that after a long break, the parliamentarians have relaunched a relations workgroup

Ukraine’s Human Rights Commissioner, Dmytro Lubinets, stated that thanks to ongoing humanitarian dialogue with Russia’s Human Rights Commissioner, Tatyana Moskalkova, it remains possible, among other things, to deliver letters and parcels to prisoners of war.

Vyacheslav Nikonov added that this was "the first visit in a long time"

The Education Department announced Friday that student loan borrowers will have to get out of the Biden-era Saving on Valuable Education (SAVE) Plan by the end of the summer.   Currently, more than 7.5 million borrowers are still in the SAVE Plan after a court officially terminated what had been called the most generous student loan repayment option available.   On July 1, borrowers…

Hungary’s foreign intelligence services monitored private conversations of the investigative reporter Szabolcs Panyi, he alleged Friday in an interview with POLITICO after being accused of espionage. Panyi, who has reported for years on Russian influence in Hungary, said he was warned by sources within the government that his conversations with contacts had been intercepted and passed to the Hungarian Information Office, later to be used by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government in an effort to discredit him. The alleged campaign began in the middle of 2025 and became “more aggressive” after Direkt36, a nonprofit investigative journalism center in Hungary that Panyi writes for, published an article last year about a Hungarian intelligence operative attempting to recruit officials working for the European Commission in Brussels. “After this reporting, I already received warnings from Hungarian security sources that the Hungarian Information Office chief is really pissed,” Panyi told POLITICO, about the civilian foreign intelligence agency of Hungary. “I got the tip that Hungarian foreign intelligence was aware of certain conversations about an investigation I was working on involving members of the Hungarian Cabinet.” The spying allegations land at a perilous moment for Orbán, just weeks before a high-stakes election with huge implications for Europe, as POLITICO’s Poll of Polls shows his party trailing by roughly nine percentage points amid intensifying criticism of democratic backsliding and EU obstructionism. Hungarian government spokesperson Zoltán Kovács did not respond to multiple requests for comment about Panyi’s accusations on Friday afternoon. ‘Kompromat’ Panyi said he believes surveillance was likely carried out by bugging a room or via the phones of his sources, since there was no indication that other information on his devices was leaked. He regularly checks his phone for spyware after he reported in 2021 that it had been infected by the Israeli spyware tool Pegasus — which was reportedly also used to target prominent figures including Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Saudi dissident Jamal Khashoggi Panyi added that pressure intensified when the government became aware he was investigating Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó’s communications with Russian officials, including the alleged use of a separate phone not disclosed to his ministry. “That’s when they grabbed all the material they had on me, edited it, spun it around and published it as a sort of kompromat,” Panyi said, referring to a Russian term for compromising material. Szijjártó has acknowledged speaking with Russian counterparts before and after EU meetings, following reporting by The Washington Post that he gave Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reports on what was discussed, and the possible solutions proposed, during EU meetings. On Thursday, Minister of the Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás announced that the government had filed a criminal complaint against Panyi, accusing him of espionage and collusion with Ukrainian intelligence services. The complaint alleges he shared sensitive information about Szijjártó but does not disclose specific details or evidence. Prosecutors now have to decide whether to launch an investigation or not. The Hungarian Parliament and the Dunabe river in July 2021. | Gergely Besenyei/AFP via Getty Images Orbán and Szijjártó have maintained close relations with the Kremlin — including making multiple trips to meet top-level officials in Moscow — even after the EU ostracized Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. That has fueled ongoing tensions between Budapest and Kyiv, which continues to resist Russia’s aggression. ‘Betrayed’ Panyi said it had been an “open secret” among European security services that communications between Szijjártó and Lavrov were a regular occurrence. He said the communications were monitored by multiple intelligence agencies, but that no action was taken by EU governments. “I kind of feel betrayed. I’ve always been feeling betrayed by the EU … how they let Orbán build his own small Russia,” he said. But this time “they had evidence that something almost criminal was going on and they didn’t act. As a Hungarian journalist and citizen, my mission was to make it public.” The European Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Panyi argued that the scare tactics he accuses the prime minister’s Fidesz party of using reflect that Orbán is not in command, “but on the back foot.” “We don’t want to go back to an era where intelligence services are used to suppress dissent,” he added. “What happened to me was meant to psychologically pressure me and shatter my credibility.” Despite that, Panyi said he has received an outpouring of public support — including €10,000 through small donations on a crowdfunding website to support his work in just three days. In a statement on the Media Forum Association, together with other media outlets, Direkt36 said it “firmly rejects and condemns the coordinated smear campaign launched against journalist Szabolcs Panyi, supported by secret service methods and conducted by the government media.” “We find it alarming that the government is already trying to stigmatize the journalist on charges of espionage,” it added.

The secretary of state says the role of the US is to "try to figure out what both sides want" and see whether a compromise is possible

Dmytro Lubinets, the Verkhovna Rada Commissioner for Human Rights, has called on the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Russian side to establish a humanitarian corridor for the safe evacuation of civilians from Oleshky and surrounding settlements in the Kherson region.

The lesson of the anti-EU backlash following the annulled polls in Romania last year is that election-related social media manipulation must be identified swiftly, long before polling day in Bulgaria.

The helicopter was certified for carriage of passengers and cargoes, instrument flights in challenging weather conditions, and takeoffs from and landings on elevated pads

Hungary’s actions to block EU decisions regarding Ukraine are linked to Viktor Orbán’s election campaign and are completely unacceptable, as they undermine the European Union’s ability to act as a unified whole.

The EU official stated that if Orban remained in power, the EU would have to change its working methods to circumvent Hungary's veto.

Moscow demands that the Czech side immediately investigate the attack on the Russian center in Prague

The Russian Embassy in Tehran said Friday that food and medicine supplies were sent to Iran.

The designation comes days after Pavel Talankin's film won best documentary at the 2026 Academy Awards.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban has spent the past 16 years perfecting what he calls an “illiberal laboratory” in the European Union member state, holding it up as an election-proof model for nationalist allies such as US President Donald Trump.

The Kremlin on Friday denied reports that President Vladimir Putin had asked Russia’s richest men to bankroll the war in Ukraine, pushing back on claims that Moscow is scrambling for cash as military spending surges. “It’s not true that Putin made such a request,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, according to Reuters. Peskov explained that one individual had independently offered to donate a “very large sum” to the state during a recent meeting with business leaders, describing it as a personal initiative. “This was absolutely his initiative, and not President Putin’s. Although, of course, the head of state welcomed such an initiative,” Peskov added, insisting the money was not intended for the war. He added that many of those present at the meeting had built their fortunes in the 1990s thanks to links to the state and may now see it as their duty to contribute. The denial follows reports first published by independent Russian outlet The Bell, citing anonymous sources, who said Putin had urged entrepreneurs behind closed doors to help plug growing holes in Russia’s wartime finances, and signaled Moscow would press on with the war until it secures full control over eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region. Pressure is mounting on Russia’s finances as the cost of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine continues to climb. The Kremlin’s defense budget has surged 42 percent to 13.1 trillion rubles (€130 billion) over the past year, forcing Moscow to shore up its finances. Economy Minister Maxim Reshetnikov has floated another windfall tax if the ruble weakens further, after Moscow already raised around 320 billion rubles (€3 billion) from big business in a one-off 2023 levy. In January, the government also hiked VAT to 22 percent to raise additional revenue.

Keep our news free from ads and paywalls by making a donation to support our work! Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support. President Karol Nawrocki has signed into law a bill granting legal amnesty to Poles who have taken up arms in defence of Ukraine. Normally, under Polish law, serving in a foreign military without official consent is a crime punishable by up to five years in prison. The legislation provides immunity for Poles who joined the Ukrainian armed forces between April 2014, when Russian-backed separatists began the war in Donbas against the Ukrainian government, until the law enters into force, which will happen three months after its publication. Prezydent Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej Karol Nawrocki podpisał 5 ustaw: ✔️ustawę z dnia 27 lutego 2026 r. o zmianie ustawy o zmianie ustawy o szczególnych rozwiązaniach związanych z usuwaniem skutków powodzi oraz niektórych innych ustaw oraz ustawy – Prawo wodne (nr druku… — Rafał Leśkiewicz (@LeskiewiczRafa) March 27, 2026 The new regulations were first proposed in December 2024 by MPs from the centrist Civic Coalition (KO), Poland’s main ruling party, and received rare bipartisan support. Last month, both the KO-led ruling coalition and the main opposition party, the national-conservative Law and Justice (PiS), which is aligned with Nawrocki, voted in favour of the bill. However, all MPs present from the far-right Confederation (Konfederacja) group abstained from voting, while all three lawmakers from the radical-right Confederation of the Polish Crown (KKP) party led by Grzegorz Braun voted against the bill. Both those groups are critical of Ukraine. Click here to help us continue providing news free from paywalls and ads The new rules require Polish citizens or foreigners residing in Poland who have served in the Armed Forces of Ukraine to submit a written statement to the Polish defence ministry specifying the dates and places of their enlistment and discharge upon their return to Poland. Those who have already been sentenced for fighting in Ukraine’s armed forces are also granted an amnesty. It is not known how many such convictions have been issued, as no such statistics are kept, notes news service WNP. The authors of the bill argue that, “in the existing international context, the participation of a Polish citizen in Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression cannot be perceived as a violation of the constitutional obligations of loyalty to Poland, concern for the common good, or obligation to defend the homeland”. The first unit of the Ukrainian Legion – a volunteer force of Ukrainians living abroad that is being recruited and trained in Poland – has been sent to Ukraine, says the Ukrainian ambassador. He says over 1,000 people have signed up for the legion so far https://t.co/0a16ScBNqF — Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) December 27, 2024 Andrzej Podgórski, spokesman for the so-called Polish Legion, an organisation of Polish volunteers fighting for Ukraine, said last month that its members have been pushing for such a law for a long time. “Many of these volunteers who are fighting for Ukraine, besides the daily challenges of just surviving from day to day, also have this worry about ‘what will happen when I return home’,” he said, quoted by news website Gazeta.pl. “It’s important to provide them with this psychological peace of mind.” There are no precise data on how many Poles have fought in Ukraine, but it is estimated that hundreds may have done so. There have also been 23 confirmed deaths of Poles serving in Ukraine, notes Polish military news service MilMag. Poland has been one of Ukraine’s strongest supporters since Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, providing diplomatic, humanitarian and military support to its eastern neighbour. The Polish government is sending 379 power generators to Ukraine, where Russian attacks have left many without heat and power The city of Warsaw is providing an additional 90 generators, while a public appeal has raised €1.6 million to buy more equipment https://t.co/DzFlZ1bXe7 — Notes from Poland 🇵🇱 (@notesfrompoland) January 24, 2026 ​ Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support.

The Philippines is seeking broader defense cooperation with NATO's European members, even as US President Donald Trump remains critical of the transatlantic security alliance's lack of involvement in the Middle East war. While some observers say the move aligns with the long-standing security partnership between the Philippines and the United States, NATO's dominant member, others argue that Manila could face a "strategic dilemma" if its ties with the 32-member alliance are contradictory to...

According to the Russian leader, Moscow has never refused to cultivate and restore these ties

An unidentified businessman was said to have proposed the idea during a private meeting, but the Russian president himself did not request that donations be made to the state, according to the Kremlin.

On March 27, law enforcement officials in Kyiv conducted over 20 searches at the premises of Kyiv University of Culture.

Europe and the U. K. desperately need Moscow’s energy as global supply tightens, Russian sovereign wealth fund chief Kirill Dmitriev warned this week. “Russia will certainly receive many requests from Europe and Britain … and will decide whether to give or not,” Dmitriev predicted at a meeting of Russia’s union of industrialists and entrepreneurs, according to state-owned news agency RIA Novosti. “Our prediction is very clear: Europe and Britain will beg for Russian energy resources,” he added. Dmitriev, who heads the Russian Direct Investment Fund, said oil could spike to $150-$200 a barrel as conflict in the Middle East rattles global energy markets, warning of a “most severe energy crisis” that Europe is not prepared to handle. He also claimed the West had “shot itself in the foot” by cutting reliance on Russian energy after Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Dmitriev, an increasingly visible Kremlin economic envoy who has negotiated with the U. S. about the war in Ukraine, has ramped up his messaging in recent days, casting Russia as indispensable to global energy markets as supply tightens and arguing Western sanctions have backfired. His bullish remarks come with energy prices skyrocketing as Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz disrupts liquefied natural gas flows and pushes crude oil toward $100 a barrel, stoking fears of a broader economic shock. So far, Brussels is holding the line. “There is no road back to dependency on Russian energy,” EU Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen said this week, insisting the bloc should not import “as much as one molecule.”

In 2025, the volume of export and import trading operations of Inter RAO across the Russian border totaled 9.7 bln kWh

This facility holds over 6,000 tons of gold and is crucial to the global financial system. However, several European countries are debating whether they should reclaim it.

A series of stabbings, shootings, and other violent incidents involving students has been occurring in Russian schools across the country. What is happening?

Kiev currently has enough money to cover military spending until June

Dmitry Peskov noted that the aggressive marine environment was causing increasing damage every day to the destroyed line of the Nord Stream pipeline

In an escalation of Hungary's campaign against independent media, award-winning journalist Szabolcs Panyi has been accused of "espionage" following his investigations into the Budapest-Moscow hotline. In this exclusive interview, Panyi warns that the Orbán government is officially importing the "Putin model" to criminalize investigative reporting, turning national security into a tool of political theatre.

When Russian banks were cut off from SWIFT in 2022, the goal was clear: deliver a fast financial shock. It didn’t quite work that way. Russia kept exporting, oil revenues surged and before long a different narrative began to take hold — that the sanctions had not worked after all. That conclusion is easy to […] The post Russia survived without SWIFT, but that doesn’t mean it won appeared first on Asia Times.

The sides confirmed their similar assessments of the scale of the terrorist threat in West Africa and compared approaches to counter international terrorist organizations under the coordinating role of the UN

The leaders emphasized their commitment to continuing close cooperation in connection with Kyrgyzstan’s current chairmanship of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization

No casualties were confirmed

According to Ruslan Garifullin, NATO military vehicles get stuck, especially when the roads become muddy

According to experts, people most often trust spirits and deities that can protect a person

The serviceman emphasized that he wouldn’t call "advanced" the unmanned aerial vehicles’ assembly by Ukrainian troops

As of 08:35 Moscow time, the price of the June 2026 palladium futures contract on NYMEX stood at $1,416 per troy ounce, while the April 2026 platinum futures contract rose by 2.34% to $1,882 per troy ounce

Russia suffered approximately 1,293,170 casualties in Ukraine between February 24, 2022 and March 23, 2026, with 1000 soldiers killed or wounded in the past 24 hours.

The Ukrainian defense industry is currently operating at only half capacity due to a lack of funding. To increase drone production for its own needs, the state is ready to sell certain defense systems that are in surplus to its partners.

Van Orden opined that the parties have to "pursue dialogue, even in times of tension"

Harmeet Dhillon, the Justice Department's assistant attorney general for civil rights, announced the investigations on X.

Abandoning the D. C. headquarters is the Trump administration’s latest and most visible move toward eliminating the Education Department altogether.

BUDAPEST.- The pro-Russian government of Hungary has filed criminal charges against a prominent investigative journalist, accusing him of engaging in espionage activities in coordination with a foreign country, a minister said on Thursday. The journalist, Szabolcs Panyi, specializes in covering national security and intelligence matters, and has published extensive reports detailing Russian influence operations in Hungary, as well as the relationship between Moscow and the Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs. Panyi denies the accusations, and a media outlet for which he writes has accused the Budapest government of resorting to "authoritarian tactics" to discredit the journalist and his findings. In a secretly recorded conversation, made without Panyi's knowledge and released this week in an edited format by media outlets linked to the government, the journalist is heard speaking with a source about confirming a phone number used by the Hungarian Foreign Minister, Péter Szijjártó, as part of an investigation he was conducting into communications between Szijjártó and his Russian counterpart. The Washington Post, citing several current and former European security officials, reported over the weekend that Szijjártó regularly spoke with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during breaks in European Union council meetings to provide him with "direct reports on what was being discussed" and potential solutions...

Skeptics of a clean reauthorization of the nation’s warrantless spy powers are working on new language with the White House after a meeting with top Trump administration officials, lawmakers said. “I can tell you that we’re working on fresh language right now, and I’m involved in that. And it’s based upon an understanding and respect…

President Volodymyr Zelensky expressed his gratitude to Canada for a new package of sanctions targeting, in particular, 100 tankers belonging to Russia’s shadow fleet.

The demand for copper has surged due to new technologies, but suppliers are struggling to meet it, and this gap is likely to widen in the coming years, leading to a global shortage. While copper prices are currently at historically high levels, the financial risks associated with mining mean that prices will need to rise significantly further for mining companies to become profitable in addressing the supply shortage. These are the key findings from our analysis of the global copper market, conducted in March 2026. Latest major market analysis on copper predicts its future. Copper is an essential material used in the generation and distribution of electrical power; cables, wires, motor windings, transformers, and cooling equipment in data centers; and in the advanced manufacturing of consumer and defense products. It is so important that, in 2025, the United States Geological Survey designated copper as a mineral "vital to the economy and national security of the United States." Copper is abundant in the earth's crust, but not enough is being extracted to meet demand. This is because investors are seeking higher and more stable returns than those currently offered by copper mines, and the industry faces complex permitting processes and a shortage of skilled labor. Our…

Government not on course to meet its three objectives, including to shift power from Whitehall to local areas, says IFG Keir Starmer’s drive to reform public services is failing to live up to its aims of shifting power from Whitehall to local areas, a report from the Institute for Government has found. Last summer, the government set out its three guiding principles for reform aimed at making public services such as the NHS, court system and children’s social care easier to access and better at helping people. Continue reading...

The plan is reminiscent of efforts by the White House to fund favored agencies during last fall’s government shutdown.

Donald Trump noted that former US President Joe "gave $350 billion away," which was "way too much"

The government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban has pursued an intensifying campaign against critics in a tough race before April elections.

Restrictions that had left Moscow residents without mobile internet for three weeks – with the Kremlin citing “security” – were lifted on Wednesday while St Petersburg endured a third consecutive day of outages. Some fear an attempt to isolate Russians from information from the outside world amid a parallel government effort to ramp up digital surveillance.

White House adviser David Sacks said Congress could pass bipartisan artificial intelligence legislation within months, a move that would fulfill President Donald Trump’s pledge to create a national playbook for regulating the emerging technology.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s government accused prominent journalist Szabolcs Panyi of being a spy. “Panyi Szabolcs … spied against his own country in cooperation with a foreign state,” Minister of Prime Minister’s Office Gergely Gulyás said Thursday at a press briefing. Hungary is set to hold parliamentary elections on April 12, with Orbán’s Fidesz polling behind Péter Magyar’s opposition Tisza party. Previously, Orbán accused EU institutions of interfering financially in the Hungarian election campaign to prevent him from being reelected. The official complaint alleges the reporter engaged with foreign intelligence services and shared sensitive information about Minister of Foreign Affairs Péter Szijjártó. The country’s Justice Minister Bence Tuzson said his government described this as “an extraordinary situation” and a “serious criminal offense.” According to the minister’s statement, the allegations are based on “publicly known information.” Panyi had previously published a transcript of a 2020 conversation between Szijjártó and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov discussing elections in Slovakia. But Panyi denied accusations of wrongdoing and slammed the Hungarian government for acting like “an ally of the Kremlin” in a Facebook post. “Accusing investigative journalists of espionage is virtually unprecedented in the 21st century for a European Union member state,” he said. “At no point in this process did I engage in espionage. Nor did I cooperate with any foreign intelligence service in wiretapping or surveilling Péter Szijjártó,” Panyi continued. Panyi explained he had tried to find out whether Szijjártó used another phone to communicate with Russian officials that was not disclosed to his own ministry. Szijjártó admitted that he spoke to Russia before and after EU meetings, following a Washington Post report that claimed he had maintained close ties with the Kremlin throughout the war in Ukraine. Szijjártó and Gulyás, both members of Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz party, have publicly accused the pro-European Tisza party and Ukraine of being involved. “[What’s] serious is that this Hungarian journalist, who maintains active ties with foreign services, belongs to the innermost circles of the Tisza Party, ” Szijjártó said in a Facebook video. Later Thursday, Gulyás linked the probe to another espionage case with two more alleged spies involved, both of whom “were trained abroad, maintained contacts, and moved in and out of the Ukrainian embassy.” Gulyás’ office did not respond to POLITICO’s request for comment on whether investigating journalists critical of their government could harm press freedom in Hungary. Antoaneta Roussi contributed to this report.

BRUSSELS — EU countries are moving ahead with plans to set up deportation centers outside the bloc after the European Parliament backed tougher migration rules. Germany and the Netherlands want to have plans in place by the end of 2026 for so-called return hubs — facilities in third countries where rejected asylum seekers would be sent before deportation. Austria, Denmark and Greece are also involved in those talks. “We are now consistently pursuing this path and aim to have reached agreements with third countries by the end of this year in order to take the next step: the establishment of these return hubs,” Germany’s Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said while meeting Dutch Migration Minister Bart van den Brink on Thursday. “This is a complicated, difficult task, but it is a feasible one because we now have the necessary legal framework in place,” he said, saying the framework approved by the Parliament had put the initiative “on solid legal ground.” EU lawmakers on Thursday agreed to start negotiations on new migration measures aimed at speeding up returns and penalizing rejected asylum seekers who refuse to leave. “There is a new consensus in Europe,” said Charlie Weimers, the Swedish negotiator for the right-wing European Conservatives and Reformists group. “The era of deportations has begun.” !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r Human rights groups warn the plans could expose people to abuse. Return hubs are “essentially legal black holes,” the International Rescue Committee, a humanitarian NGO, said ahead of the vote. The concept builds on efforts already underway in some EU countries. Denmark passed a law in 2021 allowing it to transfer asylum seekers to third countries for processing, while Italy struck a deal to set up processing and deportation centers in Albania — though legal challenges have slowed those plans. A breakdown of Thursday’s vote shows the text secured backing from a majority of MEPs in most EU countries, reinforcing expectations that negotiations with the Council — launched hours after the vote — could move quickly. “The citizens of the EU expect us to deliver on our pledge for a functional return system,” Cyprus’ Deputy Migration Minister Nicholas Ioannides said after the first negotiating meeting, adding he aims for a deal by the end of June. The system must ensure those without a legal right to stay in the EU are “effectively returned,” and that decisions are enforced across the bloc. Lawmakers split largely along political lines. Left-wing groups opposed the rules, while most lawmakers in the liberal Renew group either voted against or abstained. The center-right European People’s Party (EPP), the ECR and the far-right Patriots and Europe of Sovereign Nations groups backed the text. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r The EPP struck a deal with right-wing groups earlier this month after talks with centrist allies collapsed, securing the Parliament’s position. Their text strengthens detention and deportation provisions, including limiting the ability of appeals to halt removals. The EPP’s cooperation with right-wing groups — some of it coordinated via a WhatsApp chat — has fueled criticism that it is shifting away from its traditional centrist alliances. “History will remember that the so-called moderate right-wing group sounded the death knell of what remained of the cordon sanitaire,” said Greens negotiator Mélissa Camara, referring to the informal arrangement to sideline the far right. Zoya Sheftalovich contributed reporting.

"We helped, but Ukraine is not our war," the US president emphasized

NATO Secretary General insists US President Donald Trump has made the alliance more resilient. Rutte justified Trump’s pressure on allies to spend more on defence and praised ability to draw Putin to the table for talks.

The drones are an improved version of a weapon that Iran sent to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine.

Defense factories in NATO member states with highly developed military-industrial complexes need to build new production lines and introduce additional work shifts to increase the pace of weapons manufacturing.

Russian officials confirmed Wednesday that Moscow is sending fuel to Cuba as humanitarian aid, intensifying geopolitical tensions as a Russian oil tanker likely bound for the island approaches the Caribbean. Moscow’s announcement comes amid a US effort to choke off oil supplies to Havana that has led to a worsening energy crisis and an unfolding humanitarian disaster.

Trump and other American presidents have criticized Canada for failing to meet the alliance’s military spending minimum of 2 percent of gross domestic product.

European NATO members and Canada increased their defense spending by an aggregate of 19.6% in 2025, the second consecutive year at that rate. German defense spending, famously sluggish to rise, reached 2.4% of GDP.

A whistleblower’s explosive testimony points to a covert operation targeting Hungary’s opposition — raising urgent questions about state power, intelligence agencies and the integrity of the upcoming election.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in Saudi Arabia for an official visit.

Dmitry Peskov emphasized that Russia is closely monitoring the situation in the Middle East

Europe needs Ukraine's experience if it talks seriously about improving defense of the continent, including in the format of the European Security Council if it is created in the future.

NATO's European allies and Canada increased defence spending by 20% ​in 2025 compared to the previous year in real terms, alliance chief Mark Rutte said in his annual report published Thursday, urging NATO members to keep up ​the momentum. "I ‌expect Allies at the next NATO Summit in ⁠Ankara to show they are on a clear and credible path towards the 5% objective," he wrote, ‌adding that "a strong transatlantic bond remains essential in an age of ⁠global uncertainty".

“We’ve moved from a discount to either no discount or, in some cases, even a partial premium,” Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak told reporters.

Hungary blocked a decision previously supported by other EU member countries, and the situation represents "a clear violation of the principle of sincere cooperation," according to the European Council president.

President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said that President Trump “still chooses a strategy of putting more pressure on the Ukrainian side.”

The Russian president noted that in the modern world, success in global markets belongs to those who invest in technological innovation and continuously work to improve their efficiency

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has ordered a halt to the transit of natural gas through Hungary to Ukraine starting in July.

The Hungarian prime minister has demanded that Vladimir Zelensky immediately withdraw Ukrainian operatives from Hungary

The document states that the United States accounted for 60% of NATO’s total defense spending in 2025

In a joint letter to the EU, 18 Turkish and international media and rights groups call for a swifter and easier visa regime for Turkish journalists to relieve their 'professional isolation'.

At least 34 members of the European Parliament are urging the EU’s top leadership to take action against the Venice Biennale’s decision to reinstate Russia, escalating the political backlash against the prestigious art exhibition set to start on May 9. In a letter obtained by POLITICO to be sent later Thursday, lawmakers call on Brussels to suspend EU funding to the Biennale if Russia’s participation goes ahead and to impose “restrictive measures” on individuals and entities linked to the Russian pavilion. “What is unfolding … is much more than a cultural controversy,” they wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Cypriot Foreign Minister Constantinos Kombos, describing the decision as “a test of whether the European Union means what it says — about Ukraine, about values, and about the rule of law.” The intervention raises the stakes in a dispute that has been building since the Biennale Foundation confirmed earlier this month that Russia would return for the first time since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The decision has already drawn condemnation from more than 20 European governments and prompted warnings from the European Commission that it could review — and potentially withdraw — funding for the event. Now, MEPs are pushing for concrete measures. They argue that EU funds — amounting to roughly €2 million over three years — should not “directly or indirectly” support a platform that could rehabilitate Russia’s international standing. They also call for a sanctions compliance review of those involved in organizing the Russian pavilion, citing alleged links between its commissioner and Rostec, a Russian state-owned defense conglomerate, and urge targeted restrictive measures against anyone connected to the Kremlin or its war effort. The Biennale has defended its decision by arguing that art should remain a space of dialogue, free from political exclusion. Italy has also moved to distance itself from the foundation. Italian Culture Minister Alessandro Giuli has asked the government’s representative on the Biennale’s board, Tamara Gregoretti, to step down, citing a breakdown in trust. According to the culture ministry, she failed to inform Rome about the possible participation of the Russian Federation and later supported it despite the issue’s international sensitivity. Gregoretti has not resigned. At the heart of the dispute is a broader question over whether cultural platforms can remain neutral in wartime. For the Biennale, the answer has been yes. For a growing number of European policymakers, that stance is no longer tenable. “The political, moral, and legal case is clear,” the lawmakers wrote. “What is now needed is action.”

According to Dmitry Peskov, Russia hopes that efforts are being made to steer the entire process toward a peaceful settlement

Europe and Canada raised their defense expenditure by one-fifth last year, according to NATO’s annual report published Thursday, despite a significant gulf in spending across the alliance. In a sign of how Russian aggression and Donald Trump’s browbeating is pushing allies to splurge more on defending themselves, all of NATO’s 32 members met the 2 percent of GDP expenditure target in 2025, the analysis found. The spending for last year in the report is based on NATO estimates. Overall defense spending was $1.4 trillion, a 6 percent increase on 2024. “This shows that NATO allies recognise our changed security environment, and the need to meet our collective obligations,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte wrote in the report. “I expect the NATO Summit in Ankara this July to build on our achievements in 2025. There is no room for complacency and no time to waste.” Yet the report revealed wide discrepancies in spending among allies. In 2025, Spain, Portugal, Albania, Belgium and Canada spent the lowest share of their GDP on defense — all at 2 percent. Poland had the highest spending as a percentage of GDP in the alliance, at 4.3 percent, while Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, and Denmark were well above 3 percent. Luxembourg, Belgium and Slovenia raised their spending the most year-on-year in absolute terms, while spending dropped in Hungary, the Czech Republic and the U. S. Between 2024 and 2025, Europe and Canada increased their defense spending by 19 percent to $574 billion, the report found, while U. S. expenditures shrank marginally to $838 billion. The U. S. share of overall NATO defense spending sank from 64 percent to 59 percent last year. Meanwhile, Europe and Canada’s spending on major equipment rose by 34 percent last year, the report states. As a share of their total defense expenditure, Greece spent the most on personnel, Albania splurged the most on infrastructure, Belgium forked out the most on operations and maintenance and Luxembourg spent the most on equipment and research. Last year, NATO countries agreed to raise their defense spending target to 5 percent of GDP by 2035 under pressure from Trump.

The trade agreement that President Trump reached with the European Union has overcome a significant obstacle that had delayed its implementation for months.

Chinese self-driving technology firm Pony AI plans to launch robotaxi services with partners Uber Technologies and Verne in Zagreb, Croatia, spearheading commercialisation of autonomous cabs in Europe amid an accelerated go-global drive. The three companies aimed to operate a fleet of thousands of robotaxis in various European cities over the next few years after achieving consistent performance and safety, Guangzhou-based Pony said on Thursday. Neither the starting date for the service nor the...

President Volodymyr Zelensky stated that Ukraine is capable of producing 2,000 interceptor drones per day, provided the necessary funding is available.

Keep our news free from ads and paywalls by making a donation to support our work! Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and is published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support. Poland’s economy has moved closer than ever to the European Union average, new data from Eurostat show. Its GDP per capita adjusted for differences in cost of living (so-called purchasing power standard, or PPS) reached 81% of the EU-wide figure in 2025. That is Poland’s highest ever figure and underscores the country’s rapid economic growth over the three decades. In 1995, when Eurostat first started recording such data, Poland’s GDP per capita (PPS) stood at just 44% of the EU average. Since then, it has overtaken Greece (whose figure is now 68% of the EU average) and caught up with Portugal (81%), but remains behind some other eastern EU member states such as the Czech Republic (92%). Across the bloc, Luxembourg (239%) and Ireland (237%) recorded the highest GDP per capita in PPS terms compared to the EU average, followed by Denmark (127%). At the other end of the scale were Bulgaria and Greece (both 68%) and Latvia (71%) Overall, Poland’s figure of 81% if the joint-18th highest among the EU’s 27 member states, equal with Portugal and just behind Lithuania (88%) and Slovenia (91%), while ahead of Estonia (79%) and Romania (78%). Poland’s 37 percentage-point improvement on this metric since 1995 is the sixth-largest gain among EU countries, behind Ireland (130 pp), Lithuania (54 pp), Romania (48 pp), Estonia (43 pp) and Latvia (41 pp). Poland has been one of Europe’s fastest-growing economies in recent decades. It was the only EU member state to avoid recession during the 2007–2009 global financial crisis and remained among the stronger performers during the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2025, Poland recorded GDP growth of 3.6%, the fourth-highest rate in the EU, behind Ireland (12.3%), Malta (4.0%) and Cyprus (3.8%), according to Eurostat. Ireland’s growth figure, however, is widely seen as distorted by the activities of multinational companies, while Malta and Cyprus both have relatively small economies. ​ Notes from Poland is run by a small editorial team and published by an independent, non-profit foundation that is funded through donations from our readers. We cannot do what we do without your support. Main image credit: Oleksii Topolianskyi/Unsplash

"The US needs nothing from NATO, but 'never forget' this very important point in time," Donald Trump stated

The Hungarian prime minister highlighted that "Ukrainian spies and IT specialists on Ukraine’s payroll" are actively involved with the opposition Tisza party

A judge in the Ural Mountains city approved a request from the state prosecutor's office to remove the film from three online video platforms.

NATO’s European allies and Canada increased their defense spending nearly 20% for the second straight year in 2025, yielding to US President Donald Trump’s demands and responding to mounting threats from Russia.

The Ukrainian side is awaiting the release of a €90 billion EU loan or an alternative solution to secure funds for financing the army.

"Issues like territoriality are the main topic of discussion," Dmitry Peskov said

Zimbabwe says it is engaging the Russian government to repatriate bodies and bring home those still alive.

Authorities said that an industrial site was damaged in the Kirishky district, which is home to the Kirishinefteorgsintez oil refinery.

According to the investigation, the suspect, acting on behalf of Ukrainian intelligence services, received the coordinates of a cache containing explosives, ammunition, detonators, and two quadcopters

German Economy Minister Katherina Reiche said the coalition may introduce additional measures to help alleviate the impact of surging fuel prices after lawmakers approved an initial package.