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European consciences have started waking up to the Israeli government’s crimes in the occupied Palestinian territories – and it is about time. What has caused this long and slow awakening? Is it Israel’s killing of more than 54,000 Palestinians since Hamas’s horrific attack on 7 October 2023? Thousands of babies at risk of dying from … Read more
Poland’s presidential election runoff could have far-reaching implications for its place in Europe – either cementing the country’s hard-won seat at the EU’s top table, or heralding a return to altogether trickier times. The mayor of Warsaw, Rafał Trzaskowski, faces off against the historian Karol Nawrocki on Sunday in a neck-and-neck race, pitting a liberal … Read more
As a former football pundit, columnist, seminarian and novelist, André Ventura is not a man given to understatement. But as the final results of Portugal’s snap general election confirmed that his far-right Chega party had leapfrogged the socialists to become the second biggest party in parliament, his words may have been spot on. “Nothing will … Read more
Kamila Gunišová Michal Zálešák It may come as a surprise to many, but racial segregation in schools exists today in several countries in the EU. In Slovakia, more than 60% of Roma children attend schools where they are in the majority. Worse still: segregation is being rebranded, not removed. In nearly a quarter of all … Read more
According to article 2 of the treaty of the European Union, the EU is founded on respect for human dignity in societies where “pluralism, non-discrimination [and] tolerance prevail”. Try telling that to the organisers of next month’s Budapest Pride march. Following new laws introduced by Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz government, Hungary has become the first EU country … Read more
Three-plus years into the war in Ukraine, much remains uncertain, including when the bloodshed will cease and on what terms. But we can be sure about one thing: although no one took seriously Donald Trump’s boast that he would end the war within 24 hours – perhaps not even Trump himself – it’s now evident … Read more
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/picture/2025/may/26/ella-baron-donald-trump-condemnation-vladimir-putin-cartoon-russia-ukraine
The last great voice of wartime European cinema has gone with the death of documentary film-maker Marcel Ophuls, son of director Max Ophuls; he was born in Germany, fled to France with the rise of Hitler, fled again to the US with the Nazi invasion and then returned to France after the war. He therefore … Read more
The noises in Kyiv in the early hours of Sunday morning went like this. First was the staccato sound of the air defences booming on the edge of the city. As those guns stopped, the sound of drone motors approaching was audible, getting quickly louder before the briefest moment of silence and then a sudden … Read more
Benjamin Netanyahu and Vladimir Putin enjoyed a friendly phone chat earlier this month, marking the 80th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat. The Israeli and Russian leaders have much in common. Both claim to be still heroically battling Nazis, in Gaza and Ukraine respectively. This fiction is used to justify the mass murder of civilians, spiralling … Read more