Europe
Netherlands: government has to reduce nitrogen pollution
A Dutch court has ruled that prime minister Dick Schoof’s government must intensify efforts to reduce nitrogen pollution in protected areas, marking a legal victory for Greenpeace. Half of the country’s vulnerable habitats…
Turkey: 76 killed in hotel fire
A devastating fire at the Grand Kartal Hotel in the Kartalkaya ski resort has killed at least 76 people, marking one of the country’s deadliest hotel fires. Survivors reported that fire alarms failed…
Poland / Ukraine: agreement on exhumation of WW2 massacre victims
Tensions between Poland and Ukraine have been strained for years over the Volhynia Massacre, in which Ukrainian paramilitary forces killed around 100,000 Polish civilians during World War 2. Polish prime minister Donald Tusk…
Georgia: former PM brutally attacked
Giorgi Gakharia, former prime minister and leader of the opposition party For Georgia, is in hospital with facial and head injuries, after a brutal assault by several men in a hotel lobby. His…
Ukraine: different attitudes from Trump and Biden
Donald Trump has expressed sympathy for Russia’s opposition to Ukraine joining NATO, suggesting such membership provokes Moscow and risks escalating conflict. Trump criticised the Biden administration’s support for Ukraine’s NATO ambitions, stating that…
France: Le Pen’s death highlights his daughter’s rise
Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of France’s far-right National Front (FN), has died at 96, leaving behind a divisive legacy. Known for incendiary rhetoric, he propelled anti-immigration nationalism into mainstream French politics. His controversies…
Azerbaijan: Putin urged to accept responsibility for air crash
President Ilham Aliyev has urged Russia to accept responsibility for the Christmas Day crash of an Azerbaijan Airlines plane, which killed 38 of the 67 onboard. The flight, from Baku to Grozny, was…
Ukraine stops transporting gas to Europe
Ukraine has decided to stop transporting Russian gas to Europe after a deal with Moscow expired, marking a historic and symbolic shift in policy. As a result, both countries will incur financial losses:…
Russia: senior general assassinated
On 17 December Lieutenant-general Igor Kirillov and his assistant were killed in Moscow by a Ukrainian agent in a targeted assassination, intensifying a new front in the conflict. Kirillov, the head of Russia’s…
France: fifty men found guilty of mass rape in landmark case
In a landmark case in Avignon, 72-year-old Dominique Pelicot and fifty co-defendants have been found guilty of mass rape against his wife Gisele over a decade. Dominique, who admitted to drugging and allowing…
