Tag: eu

Europe Turns on Turkey as the War Cycle Expands

I have warned that once geopolitical tensions ignite, they do not remain contained, and what we are now witnessing is the steady expansion of conflict lines as Turkey is being recast from a strategic NATO partner into a geopolitical threat by the very alliance it once helped anchor.

The European Union has now openly shifted its tone, with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen effectively grouping Turkey alongside Russia and China, stating that Europe must ensure it is not influenced by “Russia, Turkey or China,” which is an extraordinary statement when directed at a NATO member and signals a clear break in strategic trust, especially when such language aligns closely with broader geopolitical narratives emerging from the Middle East.

Not so coincidentally, tensions are escalating rapidly between Turkey and Israel. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly warned that Israel faces a widening circle of adversaries and must prepare for emerging threats across the region. Turkish officials have responded by accusing Israel of deliberately seeking its “next enemy,” with Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan stating that Israel “cannot live without an enemy.” Bibi has remained in control by posturing Israel as on the defensive against external enemies, yet he has become the aggressor. It is Netanyahu, not Israel, who could not survive without an enemy to ward off.

When you step back and examine Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, this is a nation that has never accepted a subordinate role within Europe. Turkey has long viewed itself as a regional power with deep historical roots tied to the Ottoman Empire, and Erdoğan has made that posture explicit by declaring that no one can “threaten or bully Turkey,” reinforcing Ankara’s willingness to confront both Europe and its traditional allies when it perceives its sovereignty to be at risk.

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Hungarian Law Prohibiting Children From Accessing LGBT Content Violates EU Law, Court Says

A Hungarian law prohibiting the access by minors to LGBT content violates European Union law, the European Court of Justice (ECJ) ruled on April 21.

The court said in a statement that the 2021 law, aimed at protecting children and prohibiting or restricting childrens’ access to content on transgenderism and homosexuality, “stigmatises and marginalises LGBTI+ persons.”

“Although those amendments are, according to that Member State, intended to protect minors, several of them have the effect, in essence, of prohibiting or restricting access to content having as a defining element the portrayal or promotion of deviation from the self-identity corresponding to the sex assigned at birth, of gender reassignment, or of homosexuality,” the European Court of Justice said.

The court said the restrictions Hungary placed interfered with the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the European Union.

The European Court of Justice said Hungary violated Article 2 of the Treaty of the European Union, which the statement defined as “the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities.”

The court said this was the first such action brought against an EU member state.

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Study: Record-Breaking E.U. Migrant Flood Hits 64.2 Million in 2025

The number of migrants living in the European Union (E.U.) reached a record-breaking 64.2 million by 2025, a study published Wednesday revealed.

The study, conducted by the ​Centre for Research and Analysis on Migration ​at RFBerlin, shockingly found that the amount of foreign-born individuals in the EU has skyrocketed over the past 15 years, going from around 40 million in 2010 to over 64 million in 2025. The study draws from official statistic data by Eurostat and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

Per the study’s findings, foreign-born population across the EU increased by some 2.1 million between 2024-2025, an amount that, while slightly bellow the 2.6 million increase documented between 2024 and 2024, is still “high by historical standards.”

“Immigration in the European Union (EU) has reached historically high levels. Over the past fifteen years, the EU’s foreign-born population has expanded substantially, reflecting both long-term migration trends and major recent displacement episodes,” the study read.

Germany remains the main destination for migrants, going from 10 million foreign-born in 2018 to nearly 18 million by 2025. While Germany remains in the lead, Spain — whose socialist government is presently amid a process to grant mass amnesty to half a million illegal migrants — is described in the study as the European country with the fastest growth in migrant population in recent years, adding roughly 700,000 more foreign-born residents during 2025 alone for a total of of some 9.5 million.

Spain alone accounted for roughly a third of the entire foreign-born population growth in the EU during 2025, the study found.

In terms of asylum applications across the EU, the study found that 669,365 such applications were filed in 2026,  a 26.6 percent decrease when compared to 2024. Germany, Spain, Italy, and France collectively accounted for nearly three-quarters of all asylum applications in the past year, with each country notably having dissecting origin-country profiles.

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Spain’s Sánchez urges EU to break Association Agreement with Israel within 48 hours

During a Socialist Workers’ Party rally in Gibraleón under the slogan ‘Defend Public Services’, on Sunday, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Socialist candidate María Jesús Montero confirmed they would ask the EU to end its Association Agreement with Israel.

Pedro Sánchez used an election rally in the province of Huelva to deliver one of the most far-reaching foreign policy messages of recent weeks. “This Tuesday, the Government of Spain will take to Europe the proposal that the EU sever its association with Israel,” he told supporters.

The prime minister added that Spain is “a friend of Israel”, but that it does not share the actions of its government, and urged other European countries to join the initiative.

The announcement did not come out of the blue. Days earlier, Sánchez had called on the EU to suspend its Association Agreement with Israel after what he described as the heaviest Israeli attack on Lebanon since the start of the offensive. On Sunday, that appeal hardened into a firm pledge, with a date set for action.

Spain’s stance on this conflict has been hardening for months. Sánchez and Ireland had already called for an urgent review of the EU–Israel agreement, arguing that respect for human rights and democratic principles is an “essential element” of the relationship.

At the European Pulse Forum 2026, held in Barcelona, Sánchez argued that Israel is “trampling on and violating” several articles of the Association Agreement, and said that Spain is “ready to take that step together with many other European countries”. Netanyahu responded by accusing Spain of waging a “diplomatic war” against Israel, to which Sánchez replied by taking the debate to the European institutions.

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Russian Missile Strikes Would Bury EU’s Drone Scheme for Ukraine Instantly – Expert

The key vulnerability in this plan lies in the gap between the European assembly of the “carcasses” and the Ukrainian installation of the “brains,” suggests military journalist Aleksey Borzenko, deputy chief editor of the Literary Russia newspaper.

Speaking to Sputnik, Borzenko argued that the arrangement remains viable only until Russian missiles target the assembly sites.

The main issues lie in logistics and combat efficiency, he explains:

The drones’ fuselages and engines cannot be shipped to Ukraine in low-profile containers, so they will remain viable only until Russian Kalibr missiles strike them.

Splitting the production cycle into two unsynchronized stages — one in Europe and one in Ukraine — creates a bottleneck at final assembly. As a result, even simple disruptions, such as border protests or bureaucratic delays, can easily paralyze the entire process.

Even if Europe manages to deliver thousands of drones, they will likely be shot down by Russian air defenses and electronic warfare systems. Thus, increasing the number of UAVs would merely drive up European budget expenditures without improving outcomes.

“Meanwhile, the European facilities themselves—whose addresses have been made public—become legitimate targets. Attacks on them don’t have to be purely military; targeted acts of sabotage or cyberattacks on design documentation would suffice,” the expert adds.

Ultimately, while the plan may look viable on paper, its actual results will be inversely proportional to the billions of euros spent on it, Borzenko concludes.

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Europe’s Drone Pipeline to Ukraine Could Soon Be In Russia’s Crosshairs – Analyst

The Russian Defense Ministry’s statement on Europe’s plan to scale up drone production for Ukraine contained an explicit warning, says military analyst Ivan Konovalov speaking to Sputnik: Europe is turning into a “strategic rear base.”

The term applies to infrastructure that, while located outside the battlefield, directly sustains combat operations.

Under this logic, European hubs supplying Ukraine with drone components, data systems, FPV drones and heavy fixed-wing UAVs are no longer a “civilian facility in a peaceful country.”

“Once the production cycle on their territory is integrated into Ukraine’s strike capabilities against Russia, the line is crossed – they become a target deep within the enemy’s operational structure,” remarks the analyst.

After Russia’s strikes dismantled Ukraine’s centralized drone production, a workaround emerged: assembly lines were set up in Bavaria and the UK, using foreign-made components, while the finished systems were marketed as “Ukrainian.”

However, European production creates a long, predictable supply chain via Poland or Romania, exposed to disruption, insurance risks, and logistical bottlenecks, says the pundit.

Large shipments would be visible to reconnaissance and potentially easier to disrupt at critical junctions, he argues.

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Europe vs. Russia in a War: Food, Energy, and Logistics Favor Russia

A companion analysis I conducted for The Gateway Pundit examined European versus Russian military capabilities without U.S. support, focusing on direct military hardware such as tanks, aircraft, carriers, submarines, and nuclear weapons.

It found that Russia holds decisive advantages in ground-force experience, armored production, submarine power, Arctic dominance, and tactical nuclear weapons. Europe’s theoretical hardware advantages are undermined by readiness failures, fragmented command, and a complete lack of peer-level conventional warfare experience.

Raw firepower is only part of the equation. Wars are won or lost on the ability to sustain operations over time. That means keeping weapons factories running, fuel flowing, soldiers fed, and supply lines open under fire. On every one of those dimensions, Russia’s position is stronger than Europe’s. In some cases, the gap is not even close.

European defense spending has risen sharply since 2022, but remains structurally insufficient for a peer conflict. At the 2025 NATO Summit in The Hague, allies committed to investing 5 percent of GDP by 2035, with at least 3.5 percent on core defense. Commitments and current reality remain far apart, however. Sixteen European allies barely exceed the 2 percent threshold, spending between 2 and 2.1 percent of GDP in 2025, and only Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland are projected to reach 3.5 percent this year.

By contrast, Russia’s total defense spending reached RUB 6.3 percent of GDP and 32.5 percent of the federal budget.

Putin claimed in December 2025 that since February 2022, Russia increased tank production by 2.2 times, aircraft by 4.6 times, strike weapons and ammunition by 22 times, infantry fighting vehicles and armored personnel carriers by 3.7 times, electronic warfare and communications equipment by 12.5 times, and rocket artillery by 9.6 times, with the defense sector now employing approximately 4.5 million people and accounting for 20 percent of all manufacturing jobs.

General Christopher Cavoli told the US Senate Armed Services Committee in April 2025 that Russia is replacing battlefield losses at an unprecedented rate due to industrial expansion and full transition to a war economy.

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Hormuz Blockade: Europe Mobilizing Against the U.S., Not the Iran Regime

When President Trump announced on Truth Social that the U.S. Navy would blockade “any and all Ships trying to enter, or leave, the Strait of Hormuz,” he also instructed the Navy to interdict vessels that had paid tolls to Iran and to destroy mines Iran had placed in the waterway.

CENTCOM subsequently clarified the actual scope: the blockade applies to vessels entering or departing Iranian ports and coastal areas and does not affect ships transiting the strait to and from non-Iranian ports. The blockade is therefore a naval embargo on Iranian trade, not a closure of the strait to international shipping generally.

Trump took the action in response to Iran’s “world extortion.” The IRGC had imposed a de facto toll regime in the strait. The Tehran regime said that vessels would be required to submit documentation, obtain clearance codes, and accept IRGC-escorted passage through a single controlled corridor. Trump’s goal was to stop Iran from policing the strait and profiting from its closure while the rest of the world absorbed the economic damage.

Neither the U.S. nor Israel is dependent on oil transiting the Strait of Hormuz. Around the globe, the U.S. is the primary enforcer of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), maintaining freedom of navigation for all countries. Trump’s request for Europe and other allies to support U.S. freedom-of-navigation patrols in the Strait of Hormuz was rejected.

Europe’s argument was that the U.S. took action against Iran unilaterally and therefore could not expect European support. President Trump’s position is that the U.S. has spent trillions defending Europe and keeping sea lanes open around the globe for 70 years, and it was reasonable to ask for reciprocity.

Instead, Europe blames Trump for the Hormuz closure, completely ignoring the fact that it is the IRGC, not the U.S., that has closed the strait.

Their refusal to help reopen it is a classic example of cutting off your nose to spite your face, since Europe’s energy supplies are at stake, not America’s. However, anger at Trump is mobilizing Europe to form a coalition to protect the Strait from America rather than from Iran.

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With Hungary’s Orbán Gone, Europe May Escalate in Ukraine, Triggering a War Without U.S. Backing

Viktor Orbán’s concession on Sunday following Hungary’s parliamentary election removes the most consistent single-state obstacle to EU consensus on Ukraine, and in doing so raises the probability of European escalation in a conflict the continent lacks the military capacity to sustain without American backing.

Orbán conceded defeat after early results showed the opposition Tisza party on course for a two-thirds majority, with Tisza projected to win 135 of 199 seats and Fidesz taking 57. Voter turnout surpassed 77%, the highest since the fall of communism in 1989. Tisza’s leader, Péter Magyar, a former Fidesz insider who founded the party two years ago, will become prime minister.

joint EU summit communiqués on Ukraine carried an asterisk noting the position “was firmly supported by 26 heads of state or government” rather than all 27, because Orbán refused to sign any statement backing Kyiv. He vetoed a €90 billion EU loan to Ukraine, tying the bloc to a dispute over a damaged pipeline carrying Russian oil. He also blocked a 6.6 billion euro lethal aid package from the EU’s European Peace Facility, satellite image sharing with Ukraine, and EU accession talks for Kyiv.

Magyar stated Monday that Hungary would maintain its opt-out from participating in the €90 billion (approximately $100 billion) loan financially but would not veto it, allowing the EU to proceed. His personal reservations about weapons transfers and Ukraine’s EU accession bid are structurally irrelevant. Measures requiring unanimity were blocked by Orbán. Magyar will not block them. The brake is gone.

The significance of Orbán’s removal is that, without a veto blocking consensus, the EU is more likely to agree on additional weapons, money, and equipment transfers to Ukraine. That trajectory increases the probability of a Russian reaction. The question is whether European leaders have accurately calculated the risk.

European behavior suggests they have not. Countries that genuinely believe they must confront a nuclear-armed adversary, the world’s number-two military power, alone would be pushing for negotiations, not escalation.

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What a piece of 15,0000-year-old jewellery found in a Devon cave tells us about this prehistoric ‘civilization’

A piece of prehistoric jewellery, discovered in a West Country cave, is helping to shed new light on Stone Age Europe’s most spectacular culture.

Known as the Magdalenian, that 21,000 to 13,000 year old prehistoric ‘civilization’ dominated much of Western Europe, particularly southwest France, northern Spain and parts of Britain and Germany for most of the final 10,000 years of the Ice Age. A detailed scientific analysis of the British Magdalenian jewellery item, carried out at University College London and the Natural History Museum, has now revealed that it was a polished pendant made from a seal’s tooth.

It’s the first such artefact identified in Britain – and only the fourth anywhere in Europe.

The discovery adds to the substantial evidence showing that Stone Age Magdalenians were extremely fashion-conscious – and that they had a particularly strong preference for maritime-originating jewellery.

For, as well as the four seal-tooth pendants, many sites across Europe, often located far from the sea, have yielded literally thousands of marine shells, virtually all of which would have been used as personal adornments (as pendants, like the seal tooth – but also to beautify clothing and for use in necklaces, bracelets, anklets and headwear).

The scientific investigation into the British artifact (found in Kent’s Cavern, Torquay, Devon) has identified it as a premolar tooth of a grey seal, that had been polished and perforated by a Magdalenian artisan, using a handheld flint boring tool. Microscopic analysis of the wear pattern in the hole has revealed that the tooth had been worn as a pendant, suspended on some sort of cord. The wear, caused by the cord, was so substantial that the pendant appears to have been worn for many years or even decades.

Indeed, it’s conceivable that it may have been a valued heirloom, worn successively by several generations of the same family. Its value and significance to the Kent’s Cavern Magdalenian community – probably an extended family living there seasonally for many generations – is underlined by the fact that the seal tooth would have had to have initially been imported from the seashore which in Magdalenian times was between 50 and 100 miles away.

However, there would have been a direct river connection between the Kent’s Cavern area and the sea – along the river Teign’s prehistoric lower course (now submerged under the English Channel) and then along a now long-vanished major prehistoric waterway, dubbed the Channel River by archaeologists, to the Atlantic. In Magdalenian times, the Thames, the Rhine and the Seine were merely that Channel River’s major tributaries.

Even when living hundreds of miles from the sea, Magdalenian people had a strong cultural connection to it.

Via the Channel River and its many tributaries, they had an easy and direct connection to the Atlantic. They used large numbers of periwinkle, European cowrie and so-called ‘tusk’ shells as well as fossilised molluscs, sea urchin spines and sharks’ teeth to make jewellery and other adornments.

Like ordinary Atlantic seashells, these fossils must have been highly valued because they were often imported from hundreds of miles away. Shells were also imported to inland Magdalenian sites in France, Spain, Germany and Czechia from the Mediterranean. Some had travelled up to 600 miles.

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