Azerbaijan will hold snap leadership elections Wednesday (7 February) with President Ilham Aliyev poised to secure a fifth term on a wave of popularity fuelled by his army's sweeping victory over Armenian separatists.

The United States and Britain launched strikes against 36 Houthi targets in Yemen on Saturday (3 February), in the second day of major US operations against Iran-linked groups following a deadly attack on American troops last weekend.

Around 200,000 people took to the streets in Germany on Saturday (3 February), most of them in the capital Berlin, as nationwide protests against the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party entered their fourth week.

The European Green Party (EGP) has elected heavyweights German Terry Reintke and Dutch Bas Eickhout as their EU elections lead candidates. A push to include southern and eastern candidates in the leadership failed during the party's  electoral congress in Lyon on 2-4 February.

In their rush to vote down burdensome amendments on a bill regulating consulting companies, Renaissance MPs also voted down amendments that support its own cloud security strategy - casting doubt as to its consistency in pushing the scheme forward.

The United Nations' highest court on Friday (2 February) ruled that it will hear a case in which Kyiv has asked it to declare it did not commit genocide in eastern Ukraine, as Russia claimed as a pretext for attacking its smaller neighbour.

The US military launched airstrikes on Friday (2 February) in Iraq and Syria against more than 85 targets linked to Iran's Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and the militias it backs, in retaliation for last weekend's attack in Jordan that killed three US troops.

A Serbian appeals court acquitted four former intelligence officers jailed for the brutal 1999 murder of journalist Slavko Curuvija, a fierce critic of late strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

The changes to the Slovak criminal code being hurried through parliament by Robert Fico's government have seen weekly protests led by the opposition, expressions of concern by the Prosecutor General's office and even backlash from within the ranks of the ruling coalition.

The European Council and Parliament reached a provisional agreement on Thursday (1 February) on legislation aimed at ensuring the smooth functioning of the single market during crises.

Germany’s largest opposition party, the conservative CDU, blocked a decisive vote on parts of the annual budget scheduled for Friday (2 February), leaving unresolved the feud over agricultural subsidies that had led to mass protests of farmers in recent weeks.

Diplomats agree that Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni played a key role in taming Viktor Orban during the extraordinary EU summit on Thursday (1 February). Their ideological closeness helped – which possibly augurs a bright future for Meloni.

Last week, Spanish lorries full of fruit, vegetables, wine and ham were dumped by French farmers during blockades in south-east France and Brittany. The row continued this Tuesday.

The European Commission published on Friday (2 February) its annual work programme for European standardisation, with four out of eight policy priorities addressing standard setting in technology, and quantum computation infrastructure topping the list.

The ambassadors of the 27 countries of the European Union unanimously adopted the world’s first comprehensive rulebook for Artificial Intelligence, rubber-stamping the political agreement that was reached in December.

In a letter dated Tuesday (30 January), MEPs expressed their concerns about the independence of Hungary’s appointed authority to enforce the EU’s Digital Services Act.

2024 will be a busy year for French green policy, according to the broad outlines of the agenda presented by Ecological Transition Minister Christophe Béchu on Wednesday (31 January).

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European consumers will have the right to have common household appliances, including mobile phones, repaired, while EU countries will have to produce schemes to boost repair rates according to a new law adopted on Friday (2 February).

At a time of increasing geopolitical uncertainty, is predicting the future of the world economy useful - or even possible?