Europe Watch

These NATO Countries Are Deepening Their China Ties – RedState– redstate.com
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Poland recently closed its border with Belarus in response to the Russian-Belarusian Zapad 2025 military exercise and Russian drone incursions. Caught in the crosshairs of this border closure is China, 90 percent of whose EU-bound rail freight travels across the Poland-Belarus border. Warsaw takes a clear-eyed view of China’s role in supporting Russian aggression, prioritizing national security over economic interests. In the long term, Polish leaders will have to rethink their economic relations with Beijing.

Other European governments have taken action to counter Beijing’s influence, such as Lithuania’s and the Czech Republic’s engagement with Taiwan and other U.S. allies in the Asia-Pacific, while Lithuania has also expelled Chinese diplomats.

In contrast, Hungary, Slovakia, and Turkey—NATO member states, two of which are in the EU—have been working against the U.S.’s interests by fueling the war in Ukraine through purchases of Russian oil and deepening their cooperation with China—Washington’s top foreign enemy—on economic and security matters. This is a concerning trajectory that requires swift action.

France recognises state of Palestine, Macron tells UN; Abbas says Hamas must ‘surrender their weapons’ – Middle East crisis live | Palestinian territories– www.theguardian.com
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Emmanuel Macron announces that France has formally recognized the Palestinian state.

“We must do everything within our power to preserve the very possibility of a two-state solution, Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace and security,” he says.

The time has come.

This is why, true to the historic commitment of my country to the Middle East, to peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians.

This is why I declare that today, France recognises the state of Palestine.

Dutch police use water cannon to disperse anti-immigration protestors | News– www.aljazeera.com
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A a spokesperson for the Hague local government on Saturday said the those targeted by the police water cannon had split from the main demonstration to block a highway.

Held just over a month before the Dutch national elections, the demonstration was organised by right-wing activist Els Rechts.

She campaigns against asylum seekers and for fairer housing policies in the Netherlands.

Translation: Tear gas deployed at Elsfest on the Malieveld

Russian jets violating Estonia airspace ignored NATO warning, officials say – National– globalnews.ca
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Russian pilots ignored signals from Italian jets responding from NATO’s Baltic Air Policing Mission when they violated Estonian airspace, a senior Estonian military official said Saturday.

The 12-minute incursion was the latest test of the alliance’s ability to respond to Russian airborne threats after around 20 Russian drones entered Polish airspace on Sept. 10.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Saturday denied its aircraft flew into Estonia’s airspace, after Tallinn reported three fighter jets crossed into its territory on Friday without permission.

Estonian officials dismissed the denial, saying the violation was confirmed by radar and visual contact and suggested it could be a tactic to draw Western resources away from Ukraine.

The Russian MIG-31 fighters entered Estonian airspace between 9:58 a.m. and 10:10 a.m. local time Friday in the area of Vaindloo, a small island located in the Gulf of Finland in the Baltic Sea, the Estonian military said. A ministry statement said it was the fourth airspace violation by Russia this year.

Putin sacks top general after Ukraine grinds Russia’s summer offensive down as Vlad helps out on military exercise– www.thesun.co.uk
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VLADIMIR Putin has fired his top general amid ongoing humiliating blows from Ukraine.

General Alexander Lapin, 61, was reportedly sacked for failing to sweep through the Sumy region – considered one of the tyrant’s key war goals.

Almost Surrounded By Russian Forces, Residents Of Kostyantynivka Hold Out– www.rferl.org
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Russian forces are trying to advance on Kostyantynivka from several directions, probing for weak spots in Ukrainian defenses. The Kremlin wants to cut off Ukrainian forces’ access to supply routes, which make this city a prime target. Despite constant shelling and disruptions to the water and electricity supply, some locals are hanging on — but are clearly rattled.

Chaos on the streets of France as ‘900k’ refuse to go to work | World | News– www.express.co.uk
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France has been rocked by day of chaos and disruption, with hundreds of thousands of people joining a nationwide strike. Trade unions in the country called for a day of protests against budget cuts, as France continues to be plagued by political turmoil.

Between 600,000 and 900,000 people are thought to have attended the anti-government demonstrations, according to France’s Interior Ministry. Officials said they deployed 80,000 police officers across the country in response to the protests. Police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in Lyon and Nantes, as tensions reached boiling point.

Roads and streets have reportedly been blocked by protesters in other major cities across France.

Major disruptions to public transport have been reported, with many metro lines in Paris said to be closed.

Students also gathered in front of their schools and universities in the capital and beyond, chanting slogans and blocking entrances. Around a third of teachers joined their students in taking strike action, boycotting classes.

Trump says Putin has “really let me down,” as he wraps up historic second state visit to U.K.– www.cbsnews.com
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U.S. companies will be investing 150 billion pounds, the equivalent of over $200 billion, in the U.K. as part of a landmark package announced this week.

“I promised that my government would deliver jobs, growth and opportunity for working people. Today we have secured a historic £150bn of investment commitments from US companies into the UK. Creating 7,600 high quality jobs and driving growth across the country,” Starmer said in a social media post Thursday morning before he welcomed President Trump to his country house, Chequers.

The deal includes the equivalent of over $136 billion in investment in the U.K. from Blackstone over the next decade, according to the British government. It also includes investments from Prologis, Palantir, Amentum, Boeing and STAX.

Trump UK Visit: Anti-Trump Protesters Flood London Streets– crooksandliars.com
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Thousands of protesters flooded the London streets today protesting Donald Trump’s visit to the UK.

The protests followed after the Brits welcomed Trump with Epstein photos projected onto Windsor Castle.

CBC reported:

“Protesters filled London streets, calling Trump a fascist and a racist.”

UK Anti-Trump Protests

The new photos and video of the British protesting Trump are something else, considering the UK is America’s strongest ally.

Russia-backed network behind detonating parcels in Europe, Lithuania says– www.euronews.com
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Fifteen people have been charged over an alleged Russia-backed operation that planned arson attacks across Europe through courier services, Lithuanian prosecutors have said.

In a statement on Wednesday, Lithuania’s prosecutor general’s office in Vilnius said investigations had revealed that suspects with ties to the GRU, the Russian military intelligence service, had led the operations.

The suspects included citizens from Russia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Ukraine.

The network is believed to have hidden home-made explosive devices, containing the highly flammable substance thermite, inside massage pillows and tubes of cosmetics.

Some of these incendiary devices exploded last year in the UK, Germany and Poland while being transported by the courier services DHL and DPD.

Four packages were posted on 19 July 2024 by a member of the network, prosecutors say.

Ukraine expects €2.9bn fund for US weapons to fight Russia, Zelenskyy says– www.euronews.com
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Ukraine expects to have around $3.5 billion (€2.9 billion) in a fund by next month to buy weapons from the United States and help sustain its war effort against Russia’s full-scale invasion, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Wednesday.

The financial arrangement known as the Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) pools contributions from NATO members, with the exception of the United States, to purchase American weapons, munitions and equipment.

“We received more than $2 billion from our partners specifically for the PURL program,” Zelenskyy said at a joint news conference in Kyiv with visiting European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.

“We will receive additional money in October. I think we will have somewhere around $3.5-3.6 billion.”

Zelenskyy declined to provide details of what weapons the first shipments would include, but said that they would definitely contain missiles for Patriot air defence missile systems and munitions for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS).

The Russian Camp Where Abducted Ukrainian Children Reportedly Made Drones– www.rferl.org
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Evidence has been found for the first time that abducted Ukrainian children were used by Russia to assemble military equipment, according to the head of a Yale University team investigating the fate of nearly 20,000 minors reported to have been kidnapped or forcibly displaced.

“It’s the first time we’ve seen any such description of children involved in making devices for military operations,” Nathaniel Raymond, head of Yale’s Humanitarian Research Lab, told RFE/RL.

Raymond said his team had seen Russian government documents which detailed how children aged 13-17 were given a class on assembling drones and other military equipment in April last year.

The incident, mentioned in a new report by Raymond’s team, took place at a beachside camp on the Black Sea called Change.

French unions strike against austerity, pressuring Macron – Reuters– news.google.com
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Hundreds of thousands took part in anti-austerity protests across France on Thursday, urging President Emmanuel Macron and his new Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu to acknowledge their anger and scrap looming budget cuts.
Teachers, train drivers, pharmacists and hospital staff were among those who went on strike as part of the day of protests, while teenagers blocked dozens of high schools for hours.

Sweden raises defence budget by 18% for 2026– www.army-technology.com
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The Swedish Government has unveiled plans to significantly increase its defence budget in the 2026 budget bill, allocating an additional Skr26.6bn ($2.87bn).

This funding surge represents an 18% hike from 2025. It is the largest boost to the nation’s defence capabilities since the Cold War era, the country’s Ministry of Defence (MoD) said…

Projections based on current gross domestic product (GDP) forecasts and the proposed allocations in the Budget Bill indicate that defence spending will rise to 2.8% of GDP in 2026, aligning with NATO’s benchmark.

By 2028, this figure is expected to reach 3.1% of GDP.

Ukraine may soon add warheads, interceptor drones to digital marketplace– www.army-technology.com
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Arsen Zhumadilov, director of Ukraine’s Defence Procurement Agency (DPA), revealed that the Ministry of Defence plan to introduce a new range of systems to the Ukrainian military’s digital marketplace, the DOT-Chain Defence platform, in 2026.

Last week, during DSEI 2025 in London, Zhumadilov revealed that the online marketplace may soon offer interceptor drones and warheads to Ukrainian military units for the first time.

What is the DOT-Chain Defence digital platform?

DOT-Chain Defence was launched in pilot mode only two months ago. Access to the IT system has only been granted to 12 brigades (deployed in Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Kharkiv regions) out of more than a hundred.

Commanders can independently select and acquire systems using funds from the DPA.

The platform operates much like an online store but instead of civilian commodities it offers a range of weapons systems. Initially, DPA focused on supplying first-person view (FPV) uncrewed aerial systems (UAS), but this soon expanded to include other autonomous systems and radio electronic warfare (EW) devices. Currently, the marketplace offers products from 25 companies.

Putin responsible for murder? Navalny’s wife claims he was ‘poisoned’ in prison; demands laboratory report to be made public– timesofindia.indiatimes.com
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Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny‘s wife claimed that independent lab tests on biological samples secretly taken abroad indicate he was poisoned while incarcerated in an Arctic prison in February 2024. Navalny, who was President Vladimir Putin’s most prominent critic, died under mysterious circumstances died under mysterious circumstances while serving a 19-year sentence on charges widely seen as political retribution, AFP reported. In a video statement, Yulia Navalnaya said laboratories in two countries had concluded he was “killed, specifically poisoned,” but withheld details about the substance or the labs involved, urging them instead to release their findings independently.She said his allies “were able to obtain and securely transfer biological samples of Alexei abroad”.”Laboratories in two countries came to the conclusion that Alexei was killed. Specifically: poisoned,” she said in a video posted on social media.“I demand that the laboratories that conducted the analyses publish their results,” she said. “I assert that Vladimir Putin is responsible for the murder of my husband, Alexei Navalny,” she said in the video. “Stop appeasing Putin for some higher ‘considerations’.

Putin spokesman makes chilling WW3 comments as NATO ‘at war with Russia’– www.mirror.co.uk
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NATO countries are “at war with Russia” over Ukraine, the spokesman for Russian President Vladimir Putin has said.

“NATO is at war with Russia,” Dmitry Peskov told Russian state media on Monday. “This is obvious, and it does not require any additional evidence. NATO provides direct and indirect support to the Kyiv regime.” Peskov’s comments reiterated a familiar Kremlin narrative that Western backing of Ukraine amounts to active participation in the conflict.

Tensions soared last week between NATO’s Eastern European allies and Russia. A total of 19 Russian drones flew over Poland overnight on Wednesday, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said, adding that at least three were shot down by Polish and NATO aircraft.

“This situation brings us the closest we have been to open conflict since World War Two,” Tusk warned. The incident marked the first time Russian drones were downed over NATO territory since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

In response to the incursion, Warsaw invoked NATO’s Article 4 on Thursday, which calls for discussions among allies over threats to territorial security. This is a step short of Article 5, which requires collective military defence from allies if a member state is attacked. Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski described the drone attacks as a test of the alliance’s resolve by Russia.

Congress of Deputies - Wikipedia

Congress of Deputies - Wikipedia

Spain’s Supreme Court Moves Closer to Indicting Ruling Socialist Party – The European Conservative
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The Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), currently leading the government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, is facing its most serious judicial threat in decades. According to judicial and police sources, Spain’s Supreme Court now has sufficient “indications” to indict the party itself on charges of illegal financing.

The move would mark an unprecedented escalation in the so-called ‘Koldo case’, a corruption scandal that has already implicated several senior Socialist figures. The investigation is being led by Supreme Court justice Leopoldo Puente, who handles a sealed case concerning an alleged criminal organization tied to two former Organization Secretaries of the PSOE: José Luis Ábalos and Santos Cerdán.

The scandal led to the preventive detention of Santos Cerdán, one of Sánchez’s closest allies until just months ago. Judicial documents describe a “multi-million-euro loot” managed by companies and intermediaries.

Investigators point to two key sources of evidence: documentation seized in police raids on Spanish construction companies earlier this year, and irregular expenses and donations linked to Ábalos and Cerdán during their time running the party’s powerful organizational machinery.

According to the Guardia Civil’s Central Operative Unit (UCO), donations allegedly linked to kickbacks from public contracts may have been funneled into the PSOE’s accounts. Since 2014, the Supreme Court has demanded detailed financial records from the party, including membership fees, voluntary contributions, and payments.