Europe Watch

African swine fever circulating in Europe linked to earlier introduction, not new outbreak– phys.org

pgnewser June 3, 2025 0

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A study in Genome Biology and Evolution finds that the African Swine Fever virus, currently circulating in Europe, is not the result of a recent introduction. Instead, the virus has been present in the region since 2007. Its current dramatic spread appears to be driven largely by people within Europe traveling longer distances. The paper is titled “Exploiting viral DNA genomes to explore the dispersal history of African swine fever genotype II lineages in Europe.”

African Swine Fever virus is a highly virulent DNA virus that causes a severe hemorrhagic disease of the same name, affecting both domestic pigs and wild boars. The disease is characterized by high mortality rates, leading to significant economic losses in the pork industry.

According to estimates from the Food and Agriculture Organization, the virus has led to approximately $2.1 billion in direct economic losses over the past 17 years. Additionally, the outbreak has destroyed many small and medium-sized farms, contributing to structural transformations in agricultural markets, notably in China. Currently, there is no vaccine against the virus available widely.

Bulgaria Meets Eurozone Conditions, IMF Chief Confirms: ‘We Comment on the Facts’ – Novinite.com

pgnewser June 3, 2025 0

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Kristalina Georgieva, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), told BGNES that Bulgaria has met the necessary criteria for joining the eurozone. She stated that Bulgaria’s progress should be reflected in the upcoming convergence report, which is expected to assess the country’s readiness for entry into the eurozone positively.

Georgieva emphasized that Bulgaria has been operating under a currency board since 1997, with the lev pegged to the euro since 1999, effectively placing the country within the eurozone in practice. Now, she noted, Bulgaria will take the final step to become a full legal member of the eurozone.

Commenting on President Rumen Radev’s decision to propose a referendum on the timing of Bulgaria’s eurozone entry, and his subsequent referral of the issue to the Constitutional Court, Georgieva stated this is within the president’s rights. She clarified that the IMF does not weigh in on such matters, focusing solely on the facts – namely, that Bulgaria has met the eurozone entry criteria.

Ukraine special ops blast Putin’s beloved £3bn Crimean Bridge with bombs ‘planted MONTHS ago’ in latest daring attack– www.thesun.co.uk

pgnewser June 3, 2025 0

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Ukraine‘s SBU intelligence service said the blast left the bridge in an “emergency state” after devastating its foundations.

It was at least the third attempt to destroy the key road and rail link from Russia to occupied Crimea.

The same SBU special forces unit behind Sunday’s historic drone strikes in Russia claimed responsibility for the pre-dawn attack.

They claimed their agents spent months mining the substructure of the 12 mile road and rail link.

The SBU said: “The SBU conducted a new unique special operation and struck the Crimean Bridge for the third time — this time underwater.”

They added: “The operation lasted several months. SBU agents mined the supports of this illegal facility.

“Today, without any casualties among the civilian population, at 4.44am in the morning the first explosive device was activated.

Former CIA Analyst Confirms CIA Was Behind Massive Ukraine Drone Strike on Russian Airfields — ‘100 Percent Sure’– conservativeroof.com

pgnewser June 3, 2025 0

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Ex-CIA analyst Larry Johnson says Ukraine could not have carried this out alone, and that the operation bears the fingerprints of the CIA and/or British MI6.

By now, you’ve all heard about Ukraine’s massive assault using killer drones that attacked Russian airfields housing the nuclear bomber fleet in Siberia, as well as several other locations deep within Russia’s heartland.

The mainstream narrative is that the operation took over 18 months to plan and execute, and was ‘personally overseen’ by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. However, it is hard to believe that Zelensky, a former homo-erotic dancer and actor, was prepared for this attack.

The attack, according to mainstream reports, took out 41 aircraft or roughly 34 percent of Russia’s fleet of strategic bombers.

Bulgaria is close to joining the euro currency but faces disinformation and fear– abcnews.go.com

pgnewser June 3, 2025 0

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SOFIA, Bulgaria — Bulgaria is close to realizing its decades-old goal of joining the euro currency union and deepening ties with the more prosperous countries of Western Europe. But the government faces a populist backlash against the shared currency on the eve of a key decision by European Union authorities.

Fears of inflation, poverty and the unknown are mingling with disinformation spread on social media that aims to turn people against the euro. The discontent tracks with increased support for populist and anti-EU parties across Europe, which is exploited by nationalist and pro-Russian politicians in a country that remains one of Europe’s poorest and most afflicted with corruption.

“Adopting the euro will make us feel the threshold of poverty. After all, prices will be in euros,” said 78-year-old retiree Tanya Ignatova.

“Bulgaria is not ready for the euro. Someday we may be ready, but not now,” said another retiree, Mario Georgiev.

Several thousand people rallied against the euro in the capital on Saturday, urging a referendum on whether to transition from the lev currency to the euro. The head of the pro-Russian Varazhdane party, Kostadin Kostadinov, told the crowd that “Bulgaria has risen and declared: Freedom, we choose the Bulgarian lev!”

Dutch lawmaker pulls party out of ruling Dutch coalition in dispute over migration– abcnews.go.com

pgnewser June 3, 2025 0

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THE HAGUE, Netherlands — Far-right lawmaker Geert Wilders pulled his party out of the ruling four-party Dutch coalition Tuesday in dispute over a crackdown on migration, sparking a political crisis and possibly the end of the 11-month-old government of Prime Minister Dick Schoof.

Wilders announced his decision in a message on X after a brief meeting in parliament of leaders of the four parties that make up the fractious administration.

The government crisis comes just three weeks before the Netherlands is scheduled to host a summit of NATO leaders in The Hague.

Dilan Yesilgöz, leader of the right-wing People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy, said before the meeting that Schoof urged the leaders to act responsibly.

“The Prime Minister who appealed to us this morning said that we are facing enormous international challenges, we have a war on our continent, an economic crisis may be coming our way,” Yesilgöz told reporters in parliament.

Russia banned from ice hockey in 2026 Olympics — RT World News– www.rt.com

pgnewser June 3, 2025 0

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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has made the decision to ban Russian ice hockey teams from the upcoming Winter Olympics in Italy, the president of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), Luc Tardif, told TASS on Monday.

Last week, sports broadcaster ESPN reported that the IOC had confirmed that Russian teams will remain barred from the 2026 Winter Games.

“For the Olympics – it’s an IOC decision,” Tardif replied when asked by a TASS correspondent whether the committee’s ruling regarding Russia’s hockey team was final.

In February, the IIHF ruled to extend its sanctions and ban both Russian and Belarusian teams from participating in the federation’s 2025-2026 championship season.

The IIHF, like many other international sports organizations, banned athletes from both nations at the IOC’s behest following the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in 2022. The committee later allowed certain Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete under a neutral flag, provided they pass a vetting process to determine that they have not supported the Ukraine conflict.

What Is Russia Demanding in Its Peace Memorandum to Ukraine?– www.themoscowtimes.com

pgnewser June 3, 2025 0

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Russian negotiators presented their Ukrainian counterparts with a memorandum outlining two potential frameworks for ending Moscow’s full-scale invasion at talks in Istanbul on Monday.

The proposals, published by state news agencies, mark Moscow’s latest effort to assert its maximalist demands for ending the more-than-three-year war.

The first framework requires Kyiv to completely withdraw from the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, which Russia partially occupies but claims as its own territory. A 30-day ceasefire would enter into force once this troop withdrawal begins, the memorandum says. Ukraine would also be required to relocate its military to an agreed distance from the Russian border.

Ukraine LIVE: Shameless Putin demands ‘written’ NATO pledge as Trump issues peace deadline | World | News– www.express.co.uk

pgnewser May 29, 2025 0

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On Wednesday, the funeral for Tamara, 8, Stanislav, 12, and Roman Martyniuk, 17 — all from the same family — was held in Korostyshiv in northern Ukraine.

The siblings were killed over the weekend when debris from a Russian cruise missile struck their home. The children were killed as they slept in their beds at 3am.

The children’s father, also injured, was released from the hospital to attend the funeral alongside his two surviving children.

“The three kids were incredibly bright, incredibly polite, the smartest, best students, always ready to help, always ready to support others,” said 22-year-old Yuliia Skok, Roman Martyniuk’s teacher.

Under Merz, more Continuity than Change in German Policy toward the Middle East • Stimson Center– www.stimson.org

pgnewser May 29, 2025 0

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European opinion toward Israel appears to be shifting in a more negative direction as the war in Gaza grinds on. But in Germany, where a new government was formed on May 6, foreign policy will likely feature more continuity than breaks with the past.

The new government is led by the center-right Christian Democratic Union and its sister party in Bavaria, the Christian Social Union (CDU/CSU), which together took 29 percent of the vote. Friedrich Merz, a 69-year-old West German with no prior experience in a governing coalition, is the new chancellor.

German political commentators expect Merz’s chancellorship to be strongly oriented towards foreign affairs in a context of uncertainty over the outcome of the Ukraine war and Donald Trump’s tariff policies. In a sign of the importance Merz attaches to foreign policy, he was willing to make concessions to his partner, the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), in the allocation of other ministries in exchange for securing for his party the foreign ministry, which in Germany has traditionally gone to the government’s junior partner.

Merz also plans to create a national security council that would tie Germany’s foreign policy closer to the work of the chancellor. The choice of Johann Wadephul, a personal friend, to head the council is part of this effort to centralize foreign policymaking.

Starmer to attack Farage’s spending plans as ‘mad experiment’ – UK politics live | Politics– www.theguardian.com

pgnewser May 29, 2025 0

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The UK has said it wants to accelerate negotiations to conclude a trade deal with Donald Trump in the wake of the US court ruling that the sweeping tariffs he imposed on imports from more than 60 countries were illegal.

Despite Keir Starmer sealing the first deal with Trump since his so-called “liberation day” at the start of April no legal text exists to bring the concessions he won into force. The UK is also still threatened with a 10% reciprocal tariff on all exports outside the deal which was seen as a life saver for the car and steel industries.

The business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, is expected to meet US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick at a meeting of the OECD in Paris next Tuesday.

Ukrainian Drones Slam Into Moscow Apartment Buildings– www.themoscowtimes.com

pgnewser May 29, 2025 0

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Ukrainian drones struck at least two apartment buildings in and around Moscow overnight, Russian media reported Thursday, as officials sought to downplay the extent of the damage.

Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said air defense systems had destroyed three drones targeting the capital city. “There were no serious damages or casualties,” he wrote on Telegram.

However, images published by Telegram news channels showed the charred facade of a high-rise apartment block in Moscow’s southwestern Troparyovo-Nikulino District. The building is located around 800 meters (0.5 miles) from Russia’s Military Academy of the General Staff, according to reports.

Another video showed a drone slamming into the top floor of a high-rise in Odintsovo, a town west of Moscow near the Skolkovo tech hub.

Spain denies power grid ‘experiment’ caused giant blackout– www.channelnewsasia.com

pgnewser May 28, 2025 0

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MADRID: Spain’s government on Wednesday (May 28) denied a press report that an “experiment” on the national power grid caused a huge blackout that crippled the Iberian Peninsula one month ago.

Authorities have been scrambling to find answers after the Apr 28 outage cut telecommunications, halted transport and plunged cities into darkness across Spain and Portugal.

Conservative British daily newspaper The Telegraph reported on Friday, citing unnamed sources in Brussels, that Spanish authorities “were conducting an experiment before the system crashed, probing how far they could push reliance on renewables in preparation for Spain’s rushed phase-out of nuclear reactors from 2027”.

“The government seems to have pushed the pace recklessly, before making the necessary investments in a sophisticated 21st-century smart grid capable of handling it,” it added.

Asked about the report in parliament, Ecological Transition Minister Sara Aagesen said: “It is false, totally false, that the government carried out any sort of experiment on the grid prior to the outage.”

Germany charges 3 people with spying for Russia, potentially with intent to kill– abcnews.go.com

pgnewser May 28, 2025 0

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BERLIN, Germany — Three people in Germany were charged with working for one of Russia’s intelligence agencies and could have been plotting to kill a man, the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office said Wednesday.

The three men arrested in the “particularly serious case” on June 19, 2024 in Frankfurt were identified as Robert A., a Ukrainian citizen; Vardges I., an Armenian national; and Arman S., a Russian citizen. Their full names weren’t released in line with German privacy rules.

“The spying operation presumably served to prepare further intelligence operations in Germany, possibly even leading to killing,” the German Federal Prosecutor’s Office said.

German prosecutors said at the beginning of May 2024, Vardges I. received an order from a Russian intelligence agency to spy on a man living in Germany who fought in Ukraine’s armed forces after Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.

To do this, Vardges I. recruited Robert A. and Arman S., who are accused of trying to lure the man to a meeting in a cafe in downtown Frankfurt with the aim of identifying him and gathering further information about him. Because the man had previously been in touch with German police, no meeting ever took place, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office said, adding that the three men remain in custody.

Moscow accuses Merz of trying to force Ukraine ‘to continue fighting’– www.yahoo.com

pgnewser May 28, 2025 0

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Russia has accused the German government of warmongering over its promise of further support for Ukraine, after German Chancellor Friedrich Merz announced Berlin and Kiev are aiming to jointly produce long-range weapons.

Commenting on the statement made following a meeting between Merz and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin on Wednesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused the German leader of further fuelling the war with his remarks.

“This is nothing more than an attempt to force the Ukrainians to continue fighting,” he said, accusing Berlin of torpedoing efforts to find a diplomatic solution to the conflict.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Merz said the German and Ukrainian defence ministers are to sign a letter of intent on the “procurement of long-range weapons systems from Ukrainian production.”

Germany’s Merz promises to help Ukraine produce long-range missiles– www.bbc.com

pgnewser May 28, 2025 0

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Germany’s new chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has told Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky that Berlin will help Kyiv produce long-range missiles to defend itself from Russian attack.

“We want to talk about production and we will not publicly discuss details,” he said, when asked by reporters in Berlin if Germany would supply Kyiv with its Taurus missiles.

Merz took office earlier this month, promising to beef up German support for Ukraine, and said this week that there were “no longer” any range restrictions on weapons supplied by Kyiv’s Western allies.

The Taurus has a range of 500km (310 miles) and could reach deeper into Russian territory than other far-range missiles.

Emmanuel Macron & wife Brigitte put on united front for cameras day after shocking face slap drama– www.thesun.co.uk

pgnewser May 27, 2025 0

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EMMANUEL Macron and his wife Brigitte have put on a united front for the world’s cameras a day after the shocking face slap drama.

Viral footage that has overshadowed the start of the couple’s Southeast Asia tour shows the French leader’s wife shoving him in the mouth and jaw after landing in Vietnam.

Furious Macron attempted to downplay the incident last night by claiming the pair were “squabbling and, rather joking”.

He added that the unbelievable incident has been overblown into “a sort of geo-planetary catastrophe”.

The French leader also argued that the clip and viral reaction to it offered a cautionary tale about disinformation in the social media age.

Today, Macron and the First Lady were captured arm-in-arm after arriving at Hanoi’s University of Science and Technology for the French president to make a speech.

IOC upholds ban on Russian teams for 2026 Olympics– www.washingtonexaminer.com

pgnewser May 27, 2025 0

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“The IOC Executive Board recommendation from March 2023 with regard to teams of athletes with a Russian passport remains in place,” an IOC spokesperson said, according to a report. “It is based on the fact that, by definition, a group of Individual Neutral Athletes cannot be considered a team.”

Affirmation of a continued ban, which began as part of sanctions imposed on Russia following its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, arrives after International Ice Hockey Federation President Luc Tardif was quoted as saying the IOC had planned to exclude Russia and its star-studded hockey team from next year’s games.

“We have been pressuring them to make a decision, one way or another, because we’re getting closer to the Olympics and we need to know,” Tardif said.

“Recently, they asked us to send them a schedule without Russia, so that’s where we are. The official statement is pending but the IOC has told us that they are informing the Russian Olympic Committee that they are not participating in the Olympics.”

‘Horsing around’: Macron brushes off video showing wife shoving him in the face– www.france24.com

pgnewser May 27, 2025 0

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A clip showing Brigitte Macron appearing to shove the French president in the face went viral, with local media reporting that the Élysée Palace initially decried the video as “fake”. It was later corrected, though Macron downplayed the moment as ‘horsing around’ with his wife. Online reactions though have been negative, either proclaiming the moment shows domestic violence or mocking the incident. Vedika Bahl goes through what we know in Truth or Fake.

Russia seizes Ukraine border towns, slows bombing after Trump says Putin has gone ‘crazy’– thehill.com

pgnewser May 27, 2025 0

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Russia seized four Ukrainian border towns in the northeast late Monday while tempering down its bombing campaign after three days of intense aerial attacks.

The move comes just days after President Trump claimed Russian President Vladimir Putin has gone “crazy.”

Oleh Hryhorov, the head of the Sumy regional military administration said Monday that Russian forces captured four villages: Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka and Zhuravka. He added that the local population was evacuated early so that they would not be in danger.

The land seizure comes less than a week after Putin ordered the military to formulate a buffer zone along the Russian border with Ukraine. Sumy Oblast borders Russia’s Kursk region, an area the Ukrainian military occupied parts of during last year’s offensive.

Russia launched 60 drones into Ukraine overnight, according to the Ukrainian military. The nation’s Air Force said early Tuesday that 43 Shahed drones were downed in the east, north and south of the country.

 

‘A Man Who Wants Results’: Trump And Kremlin Agreed To Prisoner Exchange, Russian Foreign Minister Says– dailycaller.com

pgnewser May 27, 2025 0

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Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Tuesday that Russia and the White House have agreed to a prisoner swap, according to NBC News.

Lavrov did not provide any additional details as to the nature or persons involved in the swap in his remarks during multilateral negotiations involving Russia, Turkey, the U.S. and Ukraine in Istanbul, Turkey, according to NBC News. The deal would be the second such swap in as many months, as Russian-American woman Ksenia Karelina was released in April after being imprisoned on treason charges in exchange for Russian national Arthur Petrov.

The exchange comes in the backdrop of stalled negotiations between the U.S., Ukraine and Russia to end the three-year war. In light of the slow-moving talks, President Donald Trump has reportedly become frustrated with Putin, and has considered implementing new sanctions against Moscow, a number of unnamed sources told The Wall Street Journal Tuesday.