Who is Karen Malayan: Russia’s top diplomat in Brussels, or yet another spy?
Vladimir Putin’s envoy to the EU had a strange career path, a spy-linked uncle, spy friends, and allegedly played a role in pre-Brexit dirty tricks in the UK.
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MEPs voting to shield themselves from investigation? Sadly, that’s all too typicalMEPs in the European Parliament’s budgetary control committee voted to shield the Patriots for Europe group from any criminal investigation into misspending EU funds.
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Orbán watches World Cup in US as Fidesz falls apart (95 days after the election)
The Tisza government is poised to topple Orbán-era power brokers but a messy battle over Hungary’s presidency now risks dragging the Constitutional Court into a full-blown legitimacy crisis.
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EU’s Gaza reconstruction pledge means nothing without Israel giving access to the enclave
Even the relevant EU commissioner, Dubravka Šuica, acknowledged the central obstacle: “To be open, the key problem is access to Gaza,” she said.
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Russia and China have a plan to disable Starlink, as Ukraine war comes to space (Ukraine Battlefield update: Day 1,604)By treating Starlink as a “space blockade” that must be broken, Moscow and Beijing are turning the Ukraine war into a test case for who will control the orbital infrastructure behind future global conflicts.
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The ICC is in its worst crisis yet — and Europe’s double standards are a big part of the problem
A tribunal created for one conflict — while acts of aggression in the Middle East and Latin America go unanswered — serves the court’s critics their strongest argument on a silver platter: that international criminal justice is a selective instrument of Western power, not a universal principle.
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Listen: France legalises assisted dying, is Europe following?
With France now joining just five other EU countries that permit assisted dying, millions of Europeans still face radically different choices over how they can end unbearable suffering, depending purely on which border they live behind.
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How Pakistan’s slave‑like cotton labour still feeds EU fashion despite new rules
Pakistani women and children pick cotton in bonded labour for a few euros a day while Europe’s biggest fashion brands exploit legal loopholes to keep their clothes and their consciences officially clean.
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Chinese Mission to the EU and Europe Jacques Delors jointly hold seminar on China-EU cooperation on Green transition
Under the theme of “A Sustainable and Just Transition to a Zero-Carbon Economy: EU-China Cooperation and Innovation in Maritime Transport,” the seminar focused on in-depth discussions on advancing China-EU green transition cooperation.
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From Trojan Horse in Brussels to executive for China’s BYD – Hungary’s Szijjártó makes classic ‘revolving doors’ moveWith Chinese electric car giant BYD already under fire over allegations of forced labour and huge state subsidy that is destroying Europe’s domestic car industry, Hungarian former foreign minister Péter Szijjártó’s latest move exposes just how easily powerful insiders can cross the line between public office and private corporate interests.
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EU offers India the keys to Horizon, months after signing ‘mother of all trade deals’ with Delhi
India is set to join the EU’s Horizon programme in October, the latest incentive offered by Brussels as it aims to boost trade ties with Delhi.
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Russia is running out of missiles, had to skimp on defence of a nuclear‑submarine base (Ukraine Battlefield update: Day 1,603)Russia’s scramble to plug holes in its air defences is now exposing key bases, as Ukraine claws back ground in the south and steps up drone and naval strikes.
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EU’s top court is the hard-right’s next target – and MEP Weimers’ report just pulled the trigger
Presented as a transparency exercise, a draft European Parliament report would curb the Court of Justice’s power to defend judicial independence across the Union and with it the legal infrastructure on which the EU’s citizens, companies and rights depend, warns Alberto Alemanno.
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EU home affairs Brunner branded ‘completely lost’ in secret Brussels meeting on Taliban deportations
The European Commission and MEPs held a closed-door meeting to discuss the Taliban. Magnus Brunner, the EU home affairs commissioner, was speaking at the meeting and appeared “completely lost” on the subject, said one EU source.
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Kushner‑backed luxury project in Albania becomes a litmus test for EU accession green standards
As Albania’s EU membership momentum hits full steam, Brussels’ institutions and Albanian civil society speak out about what accession with current environmental scandals could mean for the EU’s credibility
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The farming lobby is in bed with the pesticide industry – against the interests of farmers themselves
The lobbyists’ goal is to convince MEPs to radically dismantle the existing EU rules on pesticide authorisation and use, rules meant to keep too toxic products off the market.
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Listen: Can Europe remain prosperous with a rapidly ageing population?
As EU leaders talk tough on cutting immigration, their own data shows that without more foreign workers Europe’s pension systems, hospitals and care homes could buckle under the weight of its ageing citizens.
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Le Pen and Farage – the far-right always play the ‘victim’ card
Whether it’s Nigel Farage’s secret multi-million pound crypto donations, or Marine Le Pen’s corruption conviction, anything that catches the far-right out is, by default, against the will of the people.
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Exclusive: Frontex returned almost 50 people to Afghanistan this year with help from NGO fronted by UK security veterans
The little-known Irara NGO was the largest non-state recipient of Frontex funding last year, receiving some €39m in 2025. The NGO is headed by UK security veterans and operates in 36 countries, including Afghanistan.
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EU-banned facial-recognition cameras made in Spain now watch millions of Indians
From Delhi to Jaipur, India is rolling out facial-recognition technology to monitor millions of its citizens. Investigate Europe has found that behind much of the software is Spanish company Herta Security – but critics argue the government promise of public safety is not the main aim.
