EU institutions, Brussels, Strasbourg, common policies
A severe weather front brought torrential rain, fierce winds and dangerous lightning to Liguria, Lombardy and northern Tuscany, causing flooding and widespread disruption as emergency services scrambled to respond.
French health regulators have ordered the recall of several batches of condoms found to carry risks of bursting and perforation, raising concerns about product safety and the reliability of medical device supply chains across Europe.
EU Defence Commissioner Andrius Kubilius has identified 100,000 rapidly deployable troops as a baseline deterrence requirement, but analysts warn that decades of military downsizing have left Europe dangerously short of the personnel and readiness needed to meet that target.
At least 12 people were killed and 33 injured in Russian missile and drone strikes on Kyiv and its surrounding region, as a separate report revealed that Washington had reversed a decision to allow Ukraine to licence the domestic manufacture of Patriot air defence systems.
St Pancras International station was temporarily evacuated on Wednesday after an unattended car prompted a controlled explosion by specialist officers. Eurostar services continued normally, and police later declared the incident non-suspicious.
Police representatives in the Spanish enclave of Ceuta have filed formal complaints over severe overcrowding, with reports of up to 70 officers sharing one bathroom and eight to a room, as the European Confederation of Police calls for urgent remediation.
A gunman arrived at a family home in the Rocío district of southern Spain by motorbike, killing three people including a pregnant woman and a child, before fleeing the scene. A fourth person is fighting for their life in hospital.
A proposed overhaul of the EU’s Tobacco Taxation Directive would raise minimum cigarette duties by 139 percent and introduce bloc-wide taxes on vapes and nicotine pouches, marking the most ambitious regulatory shift in over a decade.
Accusations of safety standard violations at Rosatom’s Egyptian construction site are raising fresh questions about the Russian nuclear giant’s operations in the EU, where it is building a plant in Hungary using identical reactor technology.
More than 140 people who allege sexual abuse by the late Harrods owner Mohamed Al-Fayed had their email addresses accidentally shared with other complainants due to a human error, prompting a police apology.