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2 weeks ago | 
politico.eu | Victor Jack |Lucia Mackenzie |Sam Clark
GULF OF FINLAND — Before Russia bulldozed its way into Ukraine, Ilja Iljin mainly hunted for people stranded at sea. Now, he also hunts saboteurs. Iljin, a deputy commander of Finland’s coast guard, is increasingly on the lookout for tankers about to commit sabotage. Behind him is a small army: dozens of radars and cameras, numerous patrol boats, a fleet of planes and helicopters — all deployed to scour a stretch of water as large as Belgium.
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1 month ago | 
politico.eu | Laura Kayali |Joe Gould |Robbie Gramer |Lucia Mackenzie
Europe’s dependence on American weapons is facing a reckoning thanks to Donald Trump. His administration’s unpredictability and repeated attacks on NATO partners are forcing a rethink of arms purchases by some key allies. For the U.S. industry, the sales pitch they’ve relied on for decades — American weapons like fighter jets and air defenses that come with a key bonus of U.S. protection — is falling flat. While no radical decisions have been made, warning lights are flashing in allied capitals.
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1 month ago | 
politico.eu | Lucia Mackenzie |Veronika Melkozerova |Jamie Dettmer
Donald Trump's attacks on Ukraine are forcing European countries to think the unthinkable: The U.S. may stop arming Kyiv. But both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and military analysts think that while losing U.S. support will be a major blow and will hit deliveries of key weapons, Ukraine backed by its European allies will be able to keep fighting for many months. Governments are racing to show diplomatic and military support for Ukraine.
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Jan 20, 2025 | 
politico.eu | Joshua Posaner |Jacopo Barigazzi |Lucia Mackenzie |Johanna Sahlberg
Much of Europe is anxious about Donald Trump’s return to the White House, but there’s little to suggest the continent’s arms manufacturers expect a crisis. Europe is seeing a dramatic boost in defense budgets, driven by both long-standing pressure from Washington and the continent’s own reaction to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. That promises a glut of military contracts for weapons-makers in Europe as well as in the U.S., South Korea and elsewhere.
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Dec 30, 2024 | 
politico.eu | Giovanna Coi |Lucia Mackenzie |Hanne COKELAERE
Gone are the days of Europe’s open-door policy for Syrian refugees, epitomized by then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s slogan “We can do it!” Securing Europe’s borders has become the No. 1 priority, and in some places the political debate has even started to include removing migrants from the EU’s territory entirely. Brussels has been no exception to this reality. The European Commission, reconstituted on Dec.
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Dec 29, 2024 | 
politico.eu | Claudia Chiappa |Lucia Mackenzie
The rising number of patients — especially young people — with mental health disorders dying by euthanasia has also spurred fierce debate in the Netherlands, Buijsen said. The number of euthanasias for patients with psychiatric disorders doubled over the last five years, from 68 to 138. Similar debates arise around cases of minors and patients with dementia, he said. But it’s not a one-size-fit-all.
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Dec 9, 2024 | 
politico.eu | Giovanna Coi |Lucia Mackenzie
Many of the more than 6 million Syrians who have fled their country since the start of its civil war in 2011 may now be hoping that the fall of Bashar Assad’s repressive regime will finally allow them to return. But it’s unlikely to be that simple. The nation is utterly shattered by war, to say nothing of the devastating earthquakes of 2023. Syria’s water and healthcare infrastructure is broken and the country needs billions of dollars for aid and reconstruction.
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Oct 24, 2024 | 
politico.eu | Zia Weise |Lucia Mackenzie
BRUSSELS — Intensify efforts to fight global warming or start planning a funeral for the Paris Agreement, the United Nations is telling governments ahead of this year’s international climate summit. Current plans and policies will lead to 2.6 to 3.1 degrees Celsius of global warming this century, with zero chance of limiting the temperature increase to the totemic 1.5C target agreed in Paris in 2015, according to a new report out Thursday.
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Oct 22, 2024 | 
politico.eu | Giovanna Coi |Lucia Mackenzie
What a difference a decade makes. In 2015, when 1 million refugees, many of them from Syria, made their way across Europe, then-German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed them all, famously announcing: “We can do this!”Since then, nearly 4.5 million Syrians (nearly a fifth of the country’s pre-war population) have made their way to Europe, fleeing a now-stagnant civil war and an interminable humanitarian crisis.
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Oct 8, 2024 | 
politico.eu | Lucia Mackenzie |Gabriel Gavin
The contract for Russian gas is toxic. The gas is replaceable. Let’s move on. That’s the logic many European officials have adopted as a multibillion dollar deal keeping Russian gas pumping through Ukraine into the European Union nears expiration at year’s end. And the data shows they’re broadly right: The EU can generally go elsewhere for that gas. Yet for a few countries — primarily Austria, Slovakia and Hungary — the prospect poses a costly dilemma that could ripple across Europe.
