European Union

As of today, around two million people in Austria who are neither vaccinated nor recovered will only be allowed to leave their homes for urgent reasons such as to go shopping or to work. The last stage of the country's five-step Covid restrictions plan has come into effect after the percentage of intensive care beds occupied by Covid patients rose above 30 percent. What to make of this partial lockdown?

Every year on 11 November tens of thousands of far-right sympathisers gather in Warsaw for their March of Independence to mark Poland's Independence Day, and each time the event has been a source of concern for commentators. Last year the ruling PiS party did not get involved, but this year it helped challenge a court ban on the event. The press is outraged.

One shortcoming is that this cornerstone of EU transparency comes from a radically different era, predating many modern communications tools, such as smartphones and instant messaging, and the emergence of 'Big Data'.

A new report has found a dramatic increase in the number of criminal and administrative cases against people who help migrants. The report comes as a number of sea-rescue activists face up to 25 years in prison in Greece.

The Iraqi government said it was organising a repatriation flight this Thursday (18 November) for its citizens stuck on the Poland-Belarus border on a "voluntary" basis.

The United Nations target of containing global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius “remains within reach, but the work is far from done,” said Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission.

The son of late Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi appeared for nearly the first time in a decade on Sunday (14 November) to register as a presidential candidate for a December vote planned to help end the years of chaos since...

The European Union on Sunday (14 November) condemned a violent crackdown on protesters in Sudan against last month's coup that left six dead and demanded the release of detainees including journalists.

Premature deaths caused by fine particle air pollution have fallen 10% annually across Europe, but the invisible killer still accounts for 307,000 premature deaths a year, the European Environment Agency said Monday (15 November). If the latest air quality guidelines...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said in an interview that he had rejected a defence ministry proposal to hold snap Black Sea military drills in response to NATO activity because he did not want to escalate tensions in the region.

As Germany battles its fourth wave of the coronavirus pandemic, prospects for the coming holiday season are gloomy, forcing the government to consider extending financial assistance for struggling businesses until March 2022.

In today's edition of the Capitals, find out more about Austria imposing a fully-fledged lockdown on the unvaccinated from Monday, Czechia Civic Democrats calling on the outgoing government to help Poland with the border situation, and so much more.

EU's chief diplomat Josep Borrell confirmed new details on sanctions as EU foreign ministers are set to widen punitive measures against Belarus on Monday (15 November) over what EU officials have called a “hybrid attack” at its eastern border.

‘Change continues’, a new anti-graft political force in Bulgaria, is the surprise leader following the parliamentary and presidential elections in Bulgaria on Sunday (14 November), while the country’s President Rumen Radev is well-placed for reelection, having won 48.5% in the first round.