Valentina Pop

German lawmakers object to arms contracts without open tenders [FREE TO READ] Budget committee stalls government plans to speed up defence procurement

on.ft.com/42OsIKr German lawmakers object to arms contracts without open tenders

Denmark drone incidents expose European airspace vulnerabilities [FREE TO READ] Job of protecting critical national infrastructure grows more complex as Russia tests Nato members

on.ft.com/48yqMJE Denmark drone incidents expose European airspace vulnerabilities

Germany’s new deregulation chief vows to be more subtle than Elon Musk [FREE TO READ] State modernisation minister Karsten Wildberger promises to bring about digital age in country clinging to fax machines

on.ft.com/4npbSdv Germany’s new deregulation chief vows to be more subtle than Elon Musk @chassnews.bsky.social

Denmark suffers ‘serious attack’ on infrastructure with drones closing airport [FREE TO READ] PM Mette Frederiksen refuses to rule out Russian involvement as Nato and EU blame Moscow’s ‘reckless’ behaviour in recent airspace breaches

on.ft.com/4gxC2rG Denmark suffers ‘serious attack’ on infrastructure with drones closing airport @richardmilne.ft.com

‘We had a stampede’: Irish surge across border for weight-loss jabs [FREE TO READ] Historic smuggling haven of Newry plays host to bargain-hunters from the Republic looking for new legal drugs

on.ft.com/4pCLGNM ‘We had a stampede’: Irish surge across border for weight-loss jabs @judewebber.bsky.social

Chinese cargo ship docks in Russian-occupied Crimea [FREE TO READ] Heng Yang 9 stops in Ukrainian port of Sevastopol, which has been under western sanctions since 2014

on.ft.com/46xNbEf Chinese cargo ship docks in Russian-occupied Crimea @christopherjm.ft.com @chriscook.news

EU to block Big Tech from new financial data sharing system [FREE TO READ] Germany argues groups such as Apple and Meta are excluded to protect Europe’s ‘digital sovereignty’

on.ft.com/47NTUfL EU to block Big Tech from new financial data sharing system @bmoens.bsky.social @paolatamma.bsky.social

In charts: Can Germany afford its €1.35tn welfare state? [FREE TO READ] Chancellor Friedrich Merz wants benefit cuts, but his coalition partners are pushing back

on.ft.com/4gwD4US In charts: Can Germany afford its €1.35tn welfare state? @chassnews.bsky.social @olafstorbeck.ft.com

on.ft.com/4nFlZur Germany considers dropping France from flagship fighter jet project

EU plans to unlock €550mn for Hungary to secure Russian energy sanctions [FREE TO READ] Brussels seeks Viktor Orbán’s backing to bring forward ban on Russian LNG and lower oil price cap

on.ft.com/4muUNh1 EU plans to unlock €550mn for Hungary to secure Russian energy sanctions

Lea Ypi: How to think about surveillance [FREE TO READ] A picture of her grandmother posted on social media sent the author to the archives of Albania’s former security services — and raised difficult questions about who watches us today

on.ft.com/4nlEBzu Lea Ypi: How to think about surveillance

Asbestos, gold and spiralling costs: Bundesbank weighs abandoning Frankfurt headquarters [FREE TO READ] A €3.3bn refurbishment of the brutalist site has come under fire from Germany’s Federal Audit Office

Germany’s central bank is considering abandoning its landmark brutalist headquarters in Frankfurt amid regulatory criticism of a multibillion euro redevelopment of the asbestos-stricken site, where half of the country’s gold reserves are stored.
@olafstorbeck.ft.com

The myths that made Putin’s war [FREE TO READ] The Alaska summit exposed the flawed history and personal vanity that fuel the conflict with Ukraine, argues Timothy Snyder

The stories of Hamlet and Rørek are one. Without Scandinavian sagas and priestly chroniclers in Kyiv we would not have the famous Shakespearean play,and Russians would lack their origin legend. To understand them is to see how deception and self-deception began a war and worsens it
on.ft.com/4n2S2UR

‘Red lines’: Ukraine fears more Russian aggression if it gives up land [FREE TO READ] Zelenskyy’s anxiety over territorial concessions increases in the face of Putin’s maximalist demands

on.ft.com/3V9Zhyc ‘Red lines’: Ukraine fears more Russian aggression if it gives up land

Domes, prayers and protests: Anchorage awaits Trump-Putin summit [FREE TO READ] Ukrainian refugees in Alaska have mixed feelings about US and Russian leaders’ meeting

on.ft.com/3HDgehg Domes, prayers and protests: Anchorage awaits Trump-Putin summit

Ion Iliescu, Romania’s first post-communist president, dies at 95 [FREE TO READ] Former apparatchik played leading role in regime change and country’s pivot to west but also brutally repressed dissent

on.ft.com/45kTRVH Ion Iliescu, Romania’s first post-communist president, dies at 95

Meloni revives €13bn Sicilian bridge as part of defence planning [FREE TO READ] Italian government aims to add decades-old project to increased Nato spending pledge

on.ft.com/4fxKarW Meloni revives €13bn Sicilian bridge as part of defence planning

Dmitry Medvedev’s long march from liberal hope to nuclear threat [FREE TO READ] Former Russian president goads Donald Trump with bellicose social media posts

on.ft.com/457vdZW Dmitry Medvedev’s long march from liberal hope to nuclear threat

on.ft.com/45qcMyx Donald Trump readies fresh US sanctions against Russia’s shadow fleet

Donald Trump’s Fed move is ‘wrong’, says German finance minister [FREE TO READ] Lars Klingbeil criticises US president hours before meeting Treasury secretary in Washington

on.ft.com/4oqMHIy Donald Trump’s Fed move is ‘wrong’, says German finance minister

Shoved into vans, slashing tyres: Ukrainians balk at conscription [FREE TO READ] Kyiv’s top brass under fire over violent recruitment practices

on.ft.com/4lumPJ7 Shoved into vans, slashing tyres: Ukrainians balk at conscription

Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s moves against anti-graft bodies had chilling effect, warns official [FREE TO READ] Whistleblowers stop co-operating after president’s attempt to undermine independence of anti-corruption agencies, Oleksandr Klymenko says

on.ft.com/45sXeLy Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s moves against anti-graft bodies had chilling effect, warns official

What have the US and EU agreed on trade? [FREE TO READ] Most exports from bloc to face 15% tariffs while European market will open to more American imports

Big numbers, non-binding commitments and still lots of details to iron out: on.ft.com/46ZPWQI

Bosnia, 30 years on: the looming crisis in the Balkans [FREE TO READ] Trouble is brewing again in the ethnically divided state, exactly three decades after the Srebrenica massacre

on.ft.com/44OEu8W Bosnia, 30 years on: the looming crisis in the Balkans

Liechtenstein hit by Russia-linked ‘zombie trust’ crisis [FREE TO READ] Hundreds of entities in legal paralysis in the principality after US sanctions trigger wave of director resignations

on.ft.com/3GxOSbU Liechtenstein hit by Russia-linked ‘zombie trust’ crisis

The fight for Europe’s future [FREE TO READ] Timothy Garton Ash on the shocks that fuelled a populist challenge — and how the liberal centre could yet hold

Europe is finally jolted into into action by a trio of shocks: Putin, Xi and Trump on.ft.com/4erJ3t1

Kyiv’s sleepless nights under fire [FREE TO READ] Residents forced to alter habits as city suffers barrages lengthier and more intense than at any point during war

“It’s much worse than a few months ago, the alerts are so long now, all night.”

on.ft.com/4kTxE7O

Ursula von der Leyen faces no-confidence vote over Pfizergate [FREE TO READ] Far-right motion relating to pandemic scandal threatens to derail European Commission president’s second-term agenda

on.ft.com/4l06YT7 Ursula von der Leyen faces no-confidence vote over Pfizergate

Germany to boost defence spending at faster rate than France or UK [FREE TO READ] Berlin plans a 70% increase in military spending to €162bn by 2029, according to leaked paper

on.ft.com/3GaFNWo Germany to boost defence spending at faster rate than France or UK

How Iran could hit back at the US [FREE TO READ] American troops in the Middle East and oil supplies from the Gulf could be targets after Trump joins war

on.ft.com/44rJuAi How Iran could hit back at the US