Euobserver.com

Christian Democratic Union (CDU) opposition leader Friedrich Merz dropped out of the right-wing "Transatlantic Forum" following criticism of the guest list, which includes a gun lobbyist, members of the German far-right, and Trump ally Lindsay Graham, Deutsche Welle reported. The event was due to be hosted by the German state of Baden Wurttemberg, which later pulled out saying some speakers showed "close proximity" to the far-right Alternative für Deutschland (AfD).

Lithuania has become the only EU country to publicly endorse a controversial US visit to Taiwan by House speaker Nancy Pelosi.

Former US president Donald Trump on Tuesday met with Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán ahead of a US conservative event. Trump wrote in a post on his social networking platform Truth Social that he and Orbán "discussed many interesting topics" and celebrated the Hungarian premier's election victory in April, according to The Hill. Orbán is set to speak at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Texas this weekend.

Russia's top court on Tuesday designated Ukraine's Azov regiment as a terrorist group, Reuters reported. It paves the way for captured Azov soldiers to be tried under anti-terror laws and be jailed for up to 20 years. The Azov regiment, which has ultra-nationalist roots, has been one of the most prominent Ukrainian military groups. It said that Russia was looking for new justifications for war crimes with the ruling.

A new idea, besides a windfall tax on polluting Big Energy giants, is to make them invest their profits in their own sustainable futures. After all, these companies have a large 'sustainability debt' and extraordinary transition costs awaiting them.

International donors are playing hide and seek. Instead of stepping up their assistance programmes, richer nations are cutting overseas aid, or reallocating funds from other parts of the world towards the Ukraine crisis.

Ports in Italy cannot impound NGO migrant-rescue ships on grounds they take on board too many people to be safe, the EU court has ruled.

Nuclear stockpiles have been reduced since the Cold War — but the risk of using nuclear weapons remains high, amid conflicts and tensions between nuclear powers in Ukraine, Korean peninsula and Middle East.

Pope Francis could meet Patriarch Kirill, the leader of the Russian Orthodox Church in Kazakhstan in September at a meeting of religious leaders, Reuters reports. Kirill has been accused by the EU of supporting the war in Ukraine, and only evaded personal sanctions because Hungary blocked it. The meeting would be only the second time a pope and a Russian Orthodox Church leader met since the Great Schism in 1054.

Applications to study at Irish universities from EU students has more than tripled since the Brexit referendum, the Irish Independent reported. After the 2016 UK referendum, there were 1,934 applications from EU states in 2017. That had reached 6,383 in 2022, with the upward trend accelerating since 2020/21 — the year the UK formally left the EU. Irish universities teach in the English language.

Russia has introduced an entry ban against 39 UK politicians, officials, business people and journalists for supporting the "demonisation" of the country, Reuters reports. The ban includes Labour party leader Keir Starmer, former prime minister David Cameron, and TV personality Piers Morgan. More than 200 other Britons have already banned by Moscow. The sanctions are largely symbolic, with those on the list unlikely to visit Russia in the forseeable future.

Bulgarian president Rumen Radev has set 2 October as the date for the country's fourth parliamentary election in less than two years. Anti-corruption and reformist prime minister Kiril Petkov's coalition government collapsed in June, and efforts to secure a new majority failed, Reuters reports. Radev appointed former labour minister Galab Donev to lead a caretaker government as Bulgaria is facing surging inflation, and doubts over gas supplies from Russia.

France, Italy and Spain are urging the EU Commission to introduce legislation that Big Tech firms partly finance telecoms infrastructure in the EU, Reuters revealed Monday. EU regulators said in May they were analysing whether tech giants Alphabet (Google), Meta and Netflix should also pay costs of upgrading telecoms networks. The three governments said in a letter that the six largest content providers accounted for 55 percent of internet traffic.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez said his country fully supports North Macedonia's integration into the EU, AP reported. Sanchez held talks Sunday with North Macedonian prime minister Dimitar Kovachevski in the capital of Skopje, ahead of the last stop on his Western Balkan tour, visiting Albania on Monday. "We are more united now than ever before. You can count on me on your European perspective," Sánchez said.

Britain will require foreign companies holding UK property to identify their true owners in an official register, the British government said on Monday. The move is part of a crackdown on Russian oligarchs and corrupt elites laundering illicit wealth, Reuters reported. It will seek to stop the flow of illicit Russian cash into London, and to ensure criminals cannot hide behind secretive chains of shell companies.

Austrian leaders have appealed for an end to anti-vax hatred following the suicide of a well-known doctor, Lisa-Maria Kellermayr, who became vilified by the movement during the pandemic. "Hatred against people is inexcusable. This hatred must finally stop," health minister Johannes Rauch said Saturday, Reuters reports, after Kellermayr's body was found with a suicide note. "Hate and intolerance have no place in our Austria," president Alexander Van der Bellen said.

The uproar over Viktor Orbán's speech hides Hungary's deep economic woes — fuelled by steep inflation, rising energy costs, and the unsustainability of the price cap policy.

Switzerland would match EU sanctions on China imposed in the wake of any potential attack on Taiwan, a senior Swiss official has said. "I strongly believe that we would adopt such sanctions," Marie-Gabrielle Ineichen-Fleisch, in charge of sanctions implementation, told Neue Zuercher Zeitung Saturday. Her office had "no indication that there are many assets of sanctioned persons that have not yet been found" in Switzerland, referring to Russia asset-freezes.

Kosovo has put off new border rules with Serbia following another flare-up in ethnic violence.

Germany should stop using gas to produce electricity, finance minister Christian Lindner said on Sunday, news agency DPA reported. "We have to work on avoiding an electricity crisis on top of the gas crisis," Lindner said. Germany could continue using "safe and climate-friendly nuclear plants" to produce energy until 2024 if necessary, he argued. Nevertheless, economy minister Robert Habeck said such a move could trigger a "crisis" and "blackouts."