A little late
I apologize, but I was too busy to send the newsletter this Sunday. Nevertheless, I still compiled a list of the most important news from the previous week. Give it a scan. It’ll probably include some news you missed.
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Euractiv Stories
EU countries are weighing plans to hand Frontex powers to assist with airspace surveillance and the protection of critical infrastructure, according to confidential European Council documents seen by Euractiv.
NATO has begun testing drones and anti-drone technologies ahead of integrating them into air defences on the Eastern Flank next year.
Ukraine plans to open offices in Berlin and Copenhagen by the end of the year to facilitate cooperation in the defense industry and future arms exports.
Germany’s foreign minister, Johann Wadephul, has reignited tensions within Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s government after saying that parts of Syria are too devastated for the almost one million Syrians living in Germany to return.
Europe’s Defense News
• NATO has overtaken Russia in ammunition production after years of lagging, Secretary General Mark Rutte said at a NATO industry forum in Bucharest. The Kyiv Post has the story.
• After several days of tense talks, EU negotiators struck a late-night agreement to open previously civilian-only research funding to projects with military applications, Euractiv reports.
• Poland, Romania, and Denmark are deploying the American Merops system to defend against Russian drones, the Associated Press reports.
• German MPs claim the far-right AfD acts as a “sleeper cell loyal to Russia,” following numerous parliamentary enquiries into military and critical infrastructure, Euronews reports.
• Spain backed its commitment to Europe’s next-generation fighter jet project FCAS with €700 million of funding to be paid over the next six years, even as Franco-German quarrelling casts doubt over the project’s future, Euractiv reports.
Russia/Ukraine
• The European Commission is considering plugging Ukraine’s colossal funding gap with cash raised from common EU debt and bilateral member state grants, Euractiv reports.
• South Africa will investigate how 17 South African citizens were lured into joining a mercenary force in the Russia-Ukraine war “under the pretext of lucrative employment and contracts,” the Associated Press reports.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered Russian foreign and defense officials to submit proposals to possibly resume nuclear tests, Axios reports.
Eastern Europe & Eurasia
• Hundreds of riot police separated opponents and loyalists of Serbia’s autocratic President Aleksandar Vučić in central Belgrade as political tensions boiled after a year of persistent anti-government protests, the Associated Press reports.
• The Trump administration lifted sanctions on Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, reversing course after the U.S. accused the pro-Russian ultranationalist of causing instability in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Politico Europe reports.
• Bosnia’s Constitutional Court rejected appeals by former president of Bosnia’s autonomous Serb Republic, Milorad Dodik, of a verdict barring him from politics and against a decision to strip him of his mandate as a regional president, Reuters reports.
• Czechia’s likely next prime minister, populist Andrej Babiš, signed a coalition agreement with the far-right Freedom and Direct Democracy (SPD) and right-wing Motorists for Themselves (Motoristé sobě) parties, Politico Europe reports.
• U.S. President Donald Trump hosted the leaders of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan at the White House, and emphasized his administration’s efforts to expand and secure U.S. supply chains through new global agreements, Reuters reports.
Other International News
• The United States approved the sale of sniper rifles last year to Brazil’s elite police unit BOPE, which is linked to a recent raid that killed 121 people—despite objections from U.S. diplomats, including the ambassador, who warned the weapons could be used in extrajudicial killings. Reuters has the story.
• The Dispatch has a report from Britain’s longest-running protest camp, which is forty miles west of Glasgow, deep in the woods beside a nuclear submarine base.
• The United Nations Security Council adopted a U.S.-backed resolution supporting Morocco’s plan for Western Saharan autonomy under Moroccan sovereignty, Reuters reports.
• The United States is working with the Sudanese army and RSF to bring about a humanitarian truce in Sudan and could have an announcement soon, the Associated Press reports.
• U.S. President Donald Trump said that he has asked the Defense Department to prepare for potential “fast” military action in Nigeria to “completely wipe out the Islamic Terrorists who are allegedly committing atrocities against Christians, Reuters reports.
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