After decades of military non-alignment, Finland and Sweden submitted applications for N.A.T.O. membership on May 16th. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February sparked widespread support for N.A.T.O. membership in Finland and Sweden almost overnight, reported Finnish broadcasting company Y.L.E. Acceptance into N.A.T.O. requires the approval of all 30 member nations.
On May 11th, Iran announced that it had arrested two European nationals for allegedly attempting to sow chaos and “de-stabilize the country,” according to France 24. French authorities eventually ascertained that the arrested are Cecile Kohler, an education union international representative, and her partner, who went missing while on vacation
On May 4th, the EU proposed its harshest sanctions against Russia since the outbreak of the Ukrainian War. In addition to disconnecting three major Russian banks from SWIFT (the Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication), the proposal calls for a total ban on Russian crude oil imports within six months.
For 30 years, the people of Northern Ireland lived in fear of nationalist paramilitary violence. Over 3,500 people died and at least 47,500 were injured over tension between a majority Protestant, English population which wanted to remain part of the United Kingdom and a minority Catholic, Irish population which wanted
Between March 14th and March 16th, far-right Danish-Swedish politician Rasmus Paludan burned Qurans in several Swedish cities as part of his anti-immigrant, anti-Islam political platform. This triggered huge protests, some of which became violent riots, as young men set trash cans ablaze and threw Molotov cocktails at police vehicles. According
Largely as a consequence of the Ukrainian War and the EU’s harsh sanctions against Russia, inflation has skyrocketed in Europe. According to a report published by Eurostat at the beginning of April, overall inflation in the Eurozone is up to 7.5%, a record high. Energy costs alone have risen by
On April 3rd, Hungary will hold elections for its National Assembly, and Viktor Orban, the current Prime Minister since 2010, faces his greatest organized opposition yet. The far-right, social democrats, green, and liberal parties have all thrown their support behind one candidate, Peter Marki-Zay, in an attempt to end Orban’s
Corsica, an island in the Mediterranean and one of France’s 18 provinces, has been swept up in demonstrations and violent clashes between the police and protesters since early March. On March 2nd, a fellow prisoner attacked Yvan Colonna and left him in a coma, reported The Guardian. He died on
As of March 8th, 2 million refugees have fled Ukraine since Russia began its assault on the nation, reported N.P.R. Over half of these have fled to Poland, while other European countries, such as Hungary and the Czech Republic, have taken several thousands. However, the reception of refugees from Ukraine
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, a non-NATO member, has sparked debates in Finland over its nonmilitary alignment status. On March 2nd, Finnish lawmakers met to discuss Ukraine and Finland’s potential membership in NATO, according to Politico. YLE, Finland’s national broadcasting company found that 53 percent of Finns support joining NATO, up
Under the direction of President Milorad Dodik, one of Bosnia’s three presidents, the semi-autonomous administrative entity of Republika Srpska (RS) has passed laws to establish separate military, judiciary, and administrative institutions. This threatens the territorial integrity of Bosnia-Herzegovina and sparks fears of a second ethnically-motivated secessionist civil war in the
