European Union

Residents fled their homes on Sunday (11 August) as a fast-moving wildfire outside Athens fuelled by hot, windy weather burned trees, houses and cars and sent smoke clouds over the Greek capital.

Belarus sent more troops to reinforce its border with Ukraine on Saturday (10 August), saying Ukrainian drones had violated its airspace in the course of Kyiv's military incursion into Russia's Kursk region.

Donald Trump's US presidential campaign said on Saturday (10 August) some of its internal communications were hacked and blamed the Iranian government, citing past hostilities between Trump and Iran without providing direct evidence.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pledged to "strengthen our Ukrainian spiritual independence", suggesting that the country's leadership was moving towards banning the branch of the Orthodox Church that has links to Moscow.

Rescuers in Gaza said an Israeli air strike on a religious school housing displaced Palestinians killed 93 people on Saturday (10 August), sparking international condemnation despite Israel's insistence that it was targeting militants.

Russia moved extra tanks, artillery and rocket systems to its southern Kursk region and imposed “anti-terrorism” measures in border areas as it battled a shock incursion by Ukraine's military.

Russian military personnel are being trained in Iran to use the Fath-360 ballistic missile system, European intelligence sources said, adding that they expected the delivery of hundreds of the satellite-guided weapons to Russia for its war in Ukraine.

Britain has readied a huge police response in case of further racist rioting this weekend and the government said it is considering tougher regulations for social media companies following unrest driven by online misinformation.

Sweden's ambassador to Bamako, Kristina Kuhnel, has been ordered to leave the West African Sahel nation within 72 hours, Mali's foreign ministry said on Friday (9 August), because of what it called a "hostile" statement by a Swedish minister.

Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska came under attack from supporters of the war in Ukraine on Friday (9 August) after making a rare anti-war statement in which he described the conflict as "mad" and called for a ceasefire without pre-conditions.

The United States, Britain and Canada unveiled sweeping sanctions against Belarus on Friday (9 August) to mark the fourth anniversary of a contested presidential election that returned strongman President Alexander Lukashenko to power.

Czech police are investigating groups of mostly young people hunting for paedophiles on the internet to blackmail them or beat them up, a spokesman said Friday (9 August).

Italy is the largest beneficiary of the Next Generation EU, but while the Italian government boasts the success of being the first to have obtained the payment of the fifth instalment of the NGEU and to have applied for the sixth, the problem of spending the funds remains to be solved.

There is so far "no objective element" to confirm that former Catalan separatist leader Carles Puigdemont managed to flee Spain for Belgium after his controversial visit to Barcelona on Thursday (8 August), according to Catalan police chief Eduard Sallent.

Israel withdrew the accreditation of eight Norwegian diplomats working at Norway's mission to the Palestinian Authority on Thursday (9 August), in response to which Norway said it hopes to seek dialogue and improve relations.

United Nations member states approved its first-ever treaty aimed at combating cybercrime, a controversial text opposed by digital rights organisations and Big Tech companies.

Ukraine’s latest foray into Russian territory may provide a much-needed boost to Ukrainian morale, but is unlikely to last long or change the course of the war, according to defence analyst.

The French agriculture ministry sharply lowered its estimate of the country's 2024 soft wheat output, now expected 25% below last year's volume, making it one of the worst harvests of these past 40 years in the EU's largest grain grower.

Beijing said on Friday (9 August) it had filed an appeal with the World Trade Organization over the European Union’s imposition, effective on 5 July, of provisional tariffs of up to 38% on imports of electric vehicles from China.

The European Parliament is in recess over the summer from 29 July to 1 September 2024.

Source : © European Union, 2024 - EP