Centralizing the policing of sanctions could serve as a model for other EU countries.

When your most important ally swoops in and closes your third-largest bank while calling it a “money laundering institution,” it’s time to roll up your sleeves and get to work.

That’s exactly what Latvia did when confronted by the U.S. Treasury Department in 2018: It cleaned up its banking sector and passed strict anti-money laundering laws. If that American slap on the wrist hadn’t arrived six years ago, Latvia “would have been in a much more difficult position to enforce sanctions after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” Paulis Iļjenkovs, the country’s top financial investigator, told POLITICO.

In an approach that is unique within the European Union, Latvia has now designated the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) that Iļjenkovs runs as the single central authority for applying and enforcing sanctions imposed by the EU in response to Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine.

Across the bloc, meanwhile, these tasks are spread among some 160 national agencies. The fragmented approach reflects the fact that while the EU has jointly agreed on 13 rounds of Russia sanctions — with a 14th in the works — its 27 member countries are individually responsible for putting them into practice.

Eurovision 2024 : one country got booed by the crowd ! Croatian rocker Baby Lasagna got 2nd place.

Workers for some suppliers of Chinese fast fashion giant Shein are still working 75 hours a week, despite the company promising to improve conditions, a report suggests.

A new investigation by Swiss advocacy group Public Eye has followed up on its 2021 report, which found a number of staff across six sites in Guangzhou were doing excessive overtime.

According to the group, who interviewed 13 employees from six factories in China supplying Shein for its latest investigation, excessive overtime was still common for many workers.

The Ukrainian branch of the NGO Transparency International issued a statement on January 17 warning that ‘attacks on journalists are becoming systematic’

Ilia Vitiuk was an affable and charismatic man when he spoke to EL PAÍS in Kyiv on February 7. Vitiuk was the head of cybersecurity at the Security Services of Ukraine (SSU). He spoke to this newspaper about Russian cyberattacks during the invasion of his country, a subject he has mastered and was comfortable with. He was less friendly with Yevhen Shulhat, a journalist from the Slidstvo Info media outlet, who on April 4 revealed alleged irregular real estate operations within Vitiuk’s family. Three days earlier, while Shulhat was investigating the case, he was harassed by two soldiers and an SSU agent: they identified him while he was visiting a shopping mall and urged him to enlist in the army. Through a store’s security cameras, Slidstvo Infowas able to uncover the identity of the SSU officer who led the operation, a man close to Vitiuk. He was dismissed from his post on May 1 by the president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Investigative journalism has been a risky profession in Ukraine for decades. The death of the founder of the Pravda newspaper, Gueorgui Gongadze, in 2000 caused a national scandal that put the government of former president Leonid Kuchma on the ropes. Gongadze was investigating government corruption and was killed by four policemen. His newspaper is today a benchmark for the media in Ukraine, and in the supervision of power, and Gongadze is an icon of the efforts of Ukrainian society to democratize the system. The media and non-governmental organizations now warn that impunity has increased during the war against Russia.

One of Milan's iconic squares, was filled with symbolic coffins by Italy's second-largest union to highlight the issue of workplace fatalities.

The protest in Piazza La Scala put 172 cardboard coffins on the ground to remember all of the workers who lost their lives last year in the northern Lombardy region. 

The UIL labour union has stressed the need for both the government and businesses to take greater measures to safeguard workers.

Enrico Vezza, the leader of the UIL union, described the day as one of anger and anguish, highlighting that behind each coffin lay the identities of individual people. He noted that 41 workers had already died in Lombardy this year.

least 300 people have died in flash flooding that has ravaged northern Afghanistan in recent days, the Word Food Programme said Sunday.

The provinces of Badakhshan, Ghor, Baghlan, and Herat have all experienced heavy flooding, which has also damaged nearly 2,000 homes, a communications officer from UN agency the International Organization for Migration (IOM) said in a statement a day earlier.

“Flash floods ravage Afghanistan, killing more than 300 people in Baghlan and destroying more than 1000 houses,” the WFP said in a post on X. “This has been one of many floods over the last few weeks, due to unusually heavy rainfall. WFP is now distributing fortified biscuits to the survivors.”

Lord Cameron said while he would not support a major ground offensive in the Gazan city of Rafah, the UK would not copy US plans to stop some arms sales.

He said the UK supplies just 1% of Israel's weapons and warned Israel must do more to protect civilians and allow humanitarian aid through.

For decades, Joe Biden has proudly declared that he is a Zionist, and he has repeated that claim since Hamas’s 7 October attacks on Israel. But for the student anti-war protests gripping the US, the words “Zionist” and “Zionism” have become a watchword – pejorative and emblematic of the violent state policies driving the war on Gaza.

On social media and in the streets, critics no longer call out supporters of the state of Israel as “pro-Israel”: they call them Zionist. Some university encampments have posted signs saying: “Zionists not allowed.”

Student protesters say that their criticisms of Zionism are rooted in the state of Israel’s displacement and ethnic cleansing of Palestinians. Pro-Israel activists have responded by defending the term. “If the last six months on campus have taught us anything, it is that a large and vocal population of the Columbia community does not understand the meaning of Zionism,” a group of more than 500 Columbia University students recently wrote. “We are proud to be Zionists.”

Tens of thousands of Georgians have taken to the streets of the capital Tbilisi on Saturday evening to protest a controversial "foreign influence" bill backed by the government.

Protesters marched to the capital's Europe Square holding Georgian and EU flags, chanting “no to the Russian law”.

The law would target civil society organisations and independent media that receive foreign funding.

Massive rallies have gripped the Black Sea Caucasus country for nearly a month after the ruling Georgian Dream party reintroduced the bill.

Despite a campaign of intimidation ahead of Saturday's rally - in which dozens of NGO workers, activists and opposition politicians received threats or were physically assaulted - protesters turned up in their thousands undeterred by the pouring rain.

Opposition parties say the bill - coined "Russian law" after Russia's passing of similar legislation in 2012 - will be used by the government to clamp down on dissent.

Polls indicate a surge for the right across the continent in next month’s ballots but the centrists are still likely to hold sway in parliament

Far-right gains in next month’s European elections will be hard, if not impossible, to parlay into more power in parliament, experts say, but they could boost nationalist parties in EU capitals – with potentially greater consequences.

Polling suggests far-right and hardline conservative parties could finish first in nine EU states, including Austria, France and the Netherlands, in the polls between 6 and 9 June, and second or third in another nine, including Germany, Spain, Portugal and Sweden.

The predicted rise of the far- right Identity and Democracy (ID) group and the conservative-nationalist European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) has sparked speculation about a “sharp right turn” in the European parliament, potentially jeopardising key EU projects such as the green deal.

ID, which includes Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) in France, Matteo Salvini’s League in Italy, Germany’s Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), Austria’s Freedom party (FPÖ) and Vlaams Belang in Belgium, are on track to be the big winners – from 59 MEPs to perhaps 85.

The drop in fossil fuel generation was driven by wind and solar growth as well as the recovery of hydropower.

Fossil fuels provided less than a quarter of the EU’s energy for the first time in April. 

The good news comes from energy think tank Ember which found that the proportion of electricity generated by fossil fuels in the bloc fell to a record low of 23 per cent last month - a sharp drop of 22 per cent compared to April 2023 despite an increase in demand. It also surpasses the previous record low of 27 per cent from May 2023. 

Wind and solar growth as well as the recovery of hydropower drove the fall in fossil fuel generation and increased the share of renewables in the electricity mix to a record 54 per cent. 

Wind and solar alone generated more than a third of the EU’s electricity in April while gas and coal fell. Coal contributed just 8.6 per cent of the energy mix compared to 30 per cent in 2023. Gas provided 12.1 per cent of the EU’s electricity - a 22 per cent decline year-on-year.

Three decades ago, Chinese dissidents were being smuggled out of the country in a secret operation called Yellow Bird - but as one of them tells the BBC, Beijing is still pursuing them.

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Yan took US citizenship and lived a model American life. He joined the US army and served in Iraq as a military chaplain.

He might have thought the hand of China’s Communist Party could not reach him in his new home, but he was wrong.

In 2021, he decided to run for public office. He stood as a candidate in the Democratic primary for New York's 1st Congressional District.

Yan started noticing some odd occurrences during his campaign. Strange cars followed him and lurked outside where he was staying at three in the morning. At campaign events, people would try to block him from speaking.

He learned why when the FBI came to talk to him. A US private investigator had told them he had been approached by an individual in China, who had asked him to carry out surveillance on Yan. It seems the idea of a former Tiananmen protester entering US Congress was unacceptable.

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The person instructing the private investigator, the FBI assessed, was working on behalf of China’s Ministry of State Security. They were indicted but could not be arrested because they were outside the US.

China has consistently denied claims of political interference. But this is not the only case where it is alleged to have become more assertive in tracking down those it considers dissidents in other countries. There have been claims of “overseas police stations” in the UK and US and of individuals being pressured to return to China or be silent.

Yan’s story reveals that as China has become more confident and controlling at home, it has also sought to extend its reach abroad. And that is increasingly causing friction over issues of espionage, surveillance and human rights.

Russia targets the border city of Vovchansk with intense airstrikes and rocket attacks as part of its major new assault on eastern Ukraine.

The recent offensive marks a significant new phase in the conflict, threatening Ukraine's defensive lines and energy infrastructure.

Vovchansk, situated on the border with Russia, has become a focal point of Russia's latest military operations. The strategic importance of this region is clear as Russia aims to gain control and establish a foothold in northeastern Ukraine.

A familiar horror reached Pooja Kanda first on social media: There had been a sword attack in London. And then Kanda, who was home alone at the time, saw a detail she dreaded and knew all too well.

A man with a sword had killed a 14-year-old boy who was walking to school. Two years ago, her 16-year-old son, Ronan, was killed by two sword-wielding schoolmates while walking to a neighbor’s to borrow a PlayStation controller.

“It took me back,” Kanda, who lives near Birmingham, said about Daniel Anjorin’s April 30 killing in an attack in London’s Hainault district that also wounded four people. “It’s painful to see that this has happened all over again.”

In parts of the world that ban or strictly regulate gun ownership, including Britain and much of the rest of Europe, knives and other types of blades are often the weapons of choice used in crimes. Many end up in the hands of children, as they can be cheap and easy to get.

Polish prosecutors will likely file espionage charges against a Polish judge who fled to Belarus, where he is now seeking asylum.

Thousands of Belarusians have escaped to Poland in recent years to avoid political persecution by President Alexander Lukashenko's regime, which is loyal to Moscow. But Polish judge Tomasz Szmydt went the opposite way.

He has asked Lukashenko for "care and protection," he told Belarusian state news agency BelTA at a press conference last week.

Szmydt said he had resigned from the judgeship in protest at unjust Polish policies towards Belarus and Russia. He accused Warsaw of trying to start conflict under the influence of the US and the UK and claimed that he had been persecuted and intimidated because of his views, and the only way out for him was to flee the country.

Meanwhile, the Polish public prosecutor's office has accused Szmydt of involvement in a disinformation war against Poland. On Thursday, the country's Supreme Court suspended his duties and lifted his immunity as a judge. Daily newspaper Rzeczpospolita reported he would soon be a wanted man and under investigation for espionage, among other things. Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski called Szmydt a "traitor."

Iran’s hard-liners won most of the remaining seats in an election run-off to give them full control over the country’s parliament, authorities said Saturday, while not sharing any details on the turnout. 

The result, and that of the previous vote in March, gives hard-liners 233 of the 290 seats in Iran’s parliament, according to an Associated Press tally. 

Hard-liners seek more cultural and social restrictions based on Islamic sharia, including demanding that women wear the Islamic veil in public. They also express enmity toward the West, particularly the United States. 

Those politicians calling for change in the country’s government, known broadly as reformists, were generally barred from running in the election. Those calling for radical reforms or for abandoning Iran’s theocratic system were also banned or didn’t bother to register as candidates.