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In the north German town of Hamburg, about 250 000 people celebrated Christopher Street Day in a long parade crossing the inner city.

Faced with a steep decline in local oyster populations, a UK biodiversity project aims to bring back the species to the country's coastlines.

Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.

Archaeologists have excavated four new rooms in a middle-class home in Pompeii, discovering ceramic dishware and decorative items.

Palestinian militants fired flurries of rockets at Israel from the Gaza Strip while the sons of Khaled Mansour, Islamic Jihad's senior commander killed by an Israeli airstrike, saying goodbye to their father in the morgue

The tour in Croatia's capital is aimed at reviewing objectively the legacy of Josip Broz Tito, the former Yugoslavia's Communist leader who still sparks heated debate more than four decades after his death.

Hopes are diminishing for saving the whale, which shows signs of illness and has been refusing food, thousands of kilometres from its usual habitat.

It is one of the most popular events at the San Francisco Zoo. The year's new batch of penguin chicks waddle their way past hundreds of excited guests, before ceremoniously taking their first swim at their new home on Penguin Island.

After almost 3 years of Covid-19 restrictions, annual festivities focusing on the rights of LGBTQ+ people are back.

Images by night of red lava gushing, bubbling and flowing out of a fissure in a valley near Mount Fagradalsfjall in Iceland.

The government said it had asked for help from international experts in “friendly countries” with experience in the oil sector, following the blast in Matanzas.

A worker was injured and radiation equipment damaged in Russian shelling on Saturday night, Ukrainian officials claim. Earlier the IAEA warned of "disaster" at the plant.

Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.

Local people have largely accepted investigators' belief that street vendor Alika Ogorchukwu was killed in the street by a man known to have psychiatric problems.

The cargo ships carrying over 160,000 tonnes of corn and other foodstuffs left Chernomorsk and Odesa, heading for Turkey, Italy and China under an international deal struck in July.

Israel has reportedly agreed to a Cairo-brokered truce following two days of violence in which around 30 Palestinians have been killed, with rockets fired at Jerusalem in retaliation.

Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.

Toretsk is on the frontline of the war in Ukraine, yet cyclists pedal around the streets, going about their daily business as if defying the surrounding danger.

Hundreds of thousands of spectators lined Amsterdam's historic canals Saturday to celebrate Canal Parade.

Both British and European courts had refused to intervene in the case of the 12-year-old boy, who had been in a coma for four months.

The pungent smell of rubbish wafts through Karachi's streets.

Israeli warplanes stepped up strikes on Saturday with hits on four residential buildings in Gaza City, all locations apparently linked to Islamic Jihad militants.

Russian shelling hits furniture factory in Kharkiv and residential buildings in Kostantynivka.

Thousands of performers from across the world are in Scotland for the world's largest arts gathering.

Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.

Countries across Europe are taking emergency measures as water levels hit new lows and temperatures continue to soar.

Volunteer firefighter Harold Baker said the 10 victims included his son, daughter, father-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, three grandchildren and two other relatives.

Shiite Muslims take part in a mourning ritual in Iraq's southern city of Basra.

From a new Russian assault in the eastern Donetsk region, to warnings over Russian shelling at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant: the latest developments in the war.

Poland's prime minister said the bus was taking pilgrims to the Catholic shrine in Medjugorje, Europe’s third-most popular pilgrimage destination.

The parents of a child killed in the 2012 US school shooting said Jones' false claims that it was a hoax caused them a decade of trauma, threats and harassment.

High diving competitors at a water reservoir in rural Czech Republic beat the heat.

Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond - latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.

Here is our selection of the most striking photographs that made the news this week.

Taiwan's defence ministry says it issued an alert and activated patrols and missile systems in response to Chinese exercises following the visit of senior US Democrat Nancy Pelosi.

This book is one of the most important ever written on Britain’s tortuous relationship with Europe in the last 50 years. It has been dismissed as a book written by a haut fonctionnaire, what in English would be called a Whitehall Mandarin. Nothing could be further from the truth. The reason Barnier comprehensively out-negotiated his [...]

The post Barnier’s Secret Brexit Diary – A British perspective appeared first on The Federal Trust.

What is it about England’s right-wing journalism and France? The obsessive hate against France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, in papers like the Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, and Spectator is without precedent. As news arrived of the death of 27 refugees drowned in the Straits of Dover, the Daily Mail summed up the style and language of the Francophobe press. It blasted the “Tantrum [...]

The post The Macron Obsession – a Very English Virus appeared first on The Federal Trust.

The extraordinarily tight outcome of the German elections has created the danger for the European Union of prolonged negotiations before the next federal government can be formed, lasting even as long as until Christmas. However, it also contains a most significant opportunity. This is not merely due to the defection of voters from the anti-European [...]

The post The German elections and the future of the euro appeared first on The Federal Trust.

This essay was commissioned by Léo Keller on behalf of the Blogazoi blog, as part of a collection to be published following the German election.   It is over 21 years since Angela Merkel took over from Wolfgang Schäuble as leader of the CDU, Germany’s most consistently successful political party. Schäuble, the heir apparent to the long-serving [...]

The post Angela Merkel, Britain and Europe: a view from offshore appeared first on The Federal Trust.

From Unidentified Political Object to European Democracy Thirty years after the foundation of the European Union by virtue of the 1992 Maastricht Treaty the nature of the Union has been established at last. At the time of its creation as successor of the European Communities the EU used to be described by the then President [...]

The post The Identity of the EU appeared first on The Federal Trust.

6 years ago I published a book “Brexit. How Britain Will Leave Europe.” It came out before the May 2015 election. It set out all the reasons, based on 20 years of door knocking in what we now call a red wall seat, why I thought that if a populist plebiscite on Europe were to [...]

The post A Brexit Cassandra appeared first on The Federal Trust.

Within ten days after the finalisation of the UK withdrawal from the EU, the European Union is to start an ambitious Conference on the Future of Europe. The aim of the Conference is to discuss the place of the citizens in the construction of the Union and to underpin European democracy with a solid political [...]

The post Building Bridges in times of Divergence appeared first on The Federal Trust.

In May 2021 Northern Ireland will mark the hundredth year of its existence. These years have been marked by long periods of turmoil rather than any sense of contentment or stability. There has been and remains an atmosphere of unease. Governments in Northern Ireland have been marked  by periods of social and religious discrimination, been [...]

The post A United Ireland – An Empty Slogan? appeared first on The Federal Trust.

The author wishes to dedicate the present essay to the memory of the ever inspiring Michael Burgess, in live Founder and Director of the Centre for Federal Studies at the University of Kent.   For decades, it has been common practice in academic circles to refer to the EU as a rare bird, an ‘ava [...]

The post The European Union: From organisation ‘sui generis’ to democratic regional organisation appeared first on The Federal Trust.

The future of the financial services industry - centred in the City of London - matters enormously to the health of the United Kingdom’s economy. The Trade and Co-operation Agreement (TCA) has few provisions on financial services and the UK now appears set to drive a wedge between EU and British rules so it can [...]

The post Brexit: Ending the City’s Dominance of European Finance? appeared first on The Federal Trust.

Viktor Orbán delivered the opening address at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Dallas, Texas, where he was met with a "heroic welcome".

Russian president Vladimir Putin would be more likely to wage war against Nato if he won in Ukraine, Nato secretary general Jens Stoltenberg has warned.

Nato members are discussing with defence companies boosting weapons supplies to Ukraine, Nato chief Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday. "We're now working closely with the defence industry to produce more and to deliver more of different types of ammunition, weapons and capabilities," he said. Stoltenberg added the war in Ukraine was the most dangerous period for Europe since World War II and Russia must not be allowed to win.

Some Spanish supermarkets are experiencing ice shortages and limiting the number of bags sold to consumers as demand soars amid the third heatwave of the summer. High energy prices are being blamed for the lack of supplies, and, as a result, the price of ice bags is also increasing. "The increased demand due to the high temperatures is leading to hoarding," Spain's biggest retailer Mercadona spokesperson told Reuters.

Estonian foreign minister Urmas Reinsalu has called on the EU to impose a ban on travel visas for Russian citizens in order to further isolate Russia, Bloomberg reported. He raised the issue during a three-day trip to Ukraine when he met with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. The EU-wide visa ban should be part of the sixth round of sanctions imposed on Moscow over Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Reinsalu said.

EU member states are expected to have their gas-storage facilities filled at 80 percent of capacity by 1 November, as the bloc prepares for possible further disruptions and peak demand during the winter, Reuters reported. European gas storage facilities were 70.54 percent full earlier this week, according to data from Gas Infrastructure Europe released on Thursday. This level was higher than the five-year average of 70.32 per cent.

Russian president Vladimir Putin's ex-wife, Lyudmila Ocheretnaya, and her husband have a house in Biarritz, France, two flats in Malaga, Spain, and one apartment in Davos, Switzerland, according to associates of the jailed Alexei Navalny, Polish media reported. The villa in France was bought for €5.3m in 2013. One flat in Malaga cost her €790,000 and the other one €1.4m. The flat in Davos was purchased for €3.6m in 2014.

Three ships, carrying 58,041 tonnes of corn, are due to leave Ukrainian ports on Friday under the safe passage agreement reached to unblock grain exports, Reuters reported. The Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul, which monitors the compliance with the deal, said two vessels will leave from Chornomorsk and one from Odessa. On Monday, the first ship was allowed to leave Ukraine's Odessa port since the war began.

Dr Ming-Yen Tsai, head of the Taipei Representative Office in the EU and Belgium, responds to EUobserver op-ed on Taiwan by the Chinese ambassador to Belgium. "Taiwan is an 'island of resilience'. That will continue to be the case."

With the prolonged lack of rain and high temperatures, fears have emerged over water shortages and droughts decreasing crop yields — prompting calls to use less water and reuse urban wastewater for agricultural irrigation.

Lawmakers in France, Italy, and the US have voted to let Finland and Sweden join Nato.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) is recommending Novavax's Covid-19 vaccine carry a warning of the possibility of two types of heart inflammation, Reuters reported. The heart conditions — myocarditis and pericarditis — should be listed as new side effects for the vaccine, Nuvaxovid, based on a small number of reported cases. Novavaxsaid no concerns about heart inflammations were raised during the clinical trials and that more data would be gathered.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz also rejected Moscow's argument that gas flows were reduced due to a missing turbine, saying it was Russia that refused to take the delivery of the turbine.

China's ambassador to Belgium, Cao Zhongming, says the US has been distorting, obscuring and hollowing out the 'one-China' principle and unscrupulously undermining China's core interests. This is sheer double standards and a shameful act of bad faith.

French health authorities said Tuesday that 2,171 monkeypox cases have so far been confirmed in France, more than half of them in the Paris region. French authorities have opened the capital's first vaccination centre administering the smallpox vaccine, also effective against monkeypox, to targeted groups. Health minister Francois Braun said France has delivered 42,000 doses so far.

Moldova's pro-Russian opposition leader called for snap presidential and parliamentary elections on Tuesday, Reuters reported. Igor Dodon also told the pro-Western government to go to Moscow to negotiate cheaper natural gas from Russia as prices soar. Dodon is under house arrest on treason and corruption charges he denies. Moldova's gas company said the gas price had risen 47 percent in August.

The escalation of the war in Ukraine has forced more than 10 million people from Ukraine to cross the border into neighbouring countries since late February, the UN reported.

Mark Rutte became the longest-serving prime minister in Dutch history on Tuesday. The shrewd, centre-right political survivor spent 12 years in office. On Tuesday he notched up his 4,310th day in office, a day longer than Ruud Lubbers, who served as premier in the 1980s and early '90s. "I feel like I'm getting to the halfway point," Rutte, 55, quipped at a July news conference before leaving for summer vacation.

Spain is introducing new energy-saving measures in a week in an effort to reduce its energy consumption. Air-conditioning should not be set below 27C and heating should not be set above 19C in public buildings, shopping centres, cinemas, theatres, rail stations and airports. Doors will need to be closed so as not to waste energy, and lights in shop windows must be switched off after 10pm.

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.