Media Coverage

Emmanuel Macron has begun the first state visit to Germany by a French president in 24 years, to boost ties between the two countries and to emphasize the importance of defending democracy against nationalism in upcoming European elections. “Franco-German relations are indispensable and important...

France has opened its first trial into officials from the Syrian government of President Bashar al-Assad with three top security officers tried in absentia for complicity in crimes against humanity and war crimes. The Paris Criminal Court was on May 21 hearing the cases against the officials for...

The leaders of Norway, Ireland and Spain have said their countries will formally recognize Palestine as a state next week for the sake of “peace in the Middle East,“ prompting Israel to immediately recall its envoys. Norway’s Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Store said on May 22 that a two-state solution...

A Russian playwright and theatre director accused of “justifying terrorism” have told a Moscow court that they are innocent on the first day of their trial over the staging of an award-winning play. The arrest of director Yevgeniya Berkovich and writer Svetlana Petriychuk in May last year sent shock...

A controversial media bill passed this week by Georgia’s parliament is “unacceptable” and will be vetoed, President Salome Zourabichvili said on May 16, reaffirming her opposition to a measure that critics describe as a threat to free speech. In an interview with The Associated Press, Zourabichvili...

Anti-Islam firebrand Geert Wilders and three other party leaders agreed on a coalition deal early May 16 that veers the Netherlands toward the hard right, capping a half year of tumultuous negotiations that still left it unclear who would become prime minister. The “Hope, courage, and pride”...

Authorities in Belarus on May 16 announced raids and the seizure of property belonging to 104 opposition activists who have fled the country, the latest step in a crackdown on dissent that has continued unabated for nearly four years. Belarus’ authoritarian president, Alexander Lukashenko, unleashed...

A facility was opened at the Srebrenica Memorial Centre to store the remains, personal belongings, and clothes of victims of the Srebrenica genocide who haven’t been identified—intended as a place of dignified remembrance. The new facility to store remains of victims of the July 1995 genocide of...

Campus protests by pro-Palestinian activists spread across Europe on May 7 as some called for a break in academic ties with Israel over the war in Gaza, while schools increasingly faced the question under debate in the US: Allow or intervene? German police broke up a protest by several hundred pro...

Georgia’s Parliament moved a step closer on May 1 to passing a law that critics fear will stifle media freedom and endanger the country’s European Union membership bid, as police used water cannons, tear gas, and pepper spray against the tens of thousands of protesters who thronged surrounding...