Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado insisted Monday (29 January) that elections cannot proceed without her name on the ballot, as the United States announced it was reimposing some sanctions against the country following her disqualification.

In today’s edition of the Capitals, find out more about the EU Commission removing a Holocaust remembrance video following Polish backlash, the AfD dismissing mass protests as a ‘last ditch effort’ to keep them from power, and so much more.

The United States vowed to take “all necessary actions” to defend American forces after a drone attack killed three US troops in Jordan, while Qatar said it hoped US retaliation would not damage regional security or undercut progress toward a new Gaza hostage-release deal.

Albania's Constitutional Court has ruled that the deal signed with Italy to allow the processing of migrants picked up in the Mediterranean by Italy in the northern coastal town of Shëngjin is in line with the constitution.

The UK will finally roll out post-Brexit border checks Wednesday (30 January) on food, plant and animal products imported from the EU, fanning fears of more price hikes, empty shelves and even Valentine's Day flower shortages.

The controversial amnesty law to pardon separatist leaders and their supporters for unlawful actions that took place between 2012 and 2023 will be facing its final amendment debate in the Spanish parliament on Tuesday.

EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue Miroslav Lajcak has embarked on a mission to defuse tensions between Serbia and Kosovo following Kosovo’s announcement that it will only accept the euro within its borders, which began in Belgrade on Monday and will continue in Pristina on Tuesday, EU spokesperson Peter Stano has confirmed.

Croatia’s criminal justice system is swamped with human trafficking cases, representing nearly 15% of the cases that went through the country’s entire prison system in 2022, justice ministry data shows, Večernji List daily reported on Monday.

AUR Senator Claudiu Târziu deliberately chooses topics in line with Hungarian far-right politicians while serving the interests of Russian President Vladimir Putin, former Romanian Intelligence Service Director Eduard Hellvig wrote on social media on Monday.

Tatjana Ždanoka, a long-serving member of the European Parliament from Latvia, is allegedly an agent working with Russian intelligence services, according to a collaborative investigation released by the independent Russian media outlet The Insider on Monday (29 January).

The Italian G7 Presidency kicked off with an Italy-Africa summit in Rome, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s government (Fratelli d’Italia/ECR) pledging to make African development a central theme of its mandate through the Mattei Plan.

While the EU and US are locked in a stalemate regarding the creation of the Global Arrangement on Sustainable Steel and Aluminium (GASSA), European steelmakers have urged Brussels to resume talks.

The recent large-scale protests against right-wing extremism are being dismissed by the AfD party, which remains unfazed and sees this as a desperate “last-ditch effort” to sway public opinion ahead of crucial elections.

In an interview on RMC on Monday, Jordan Bardella, head of the Rassemblement National list for the European elections, said he expected Gabriel Attal’s government to give “up the Green Deal”, proof for the opposition,  the party is climate sceptical.

The video released by the European Commission to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Saturday has sparked a backlash in Poland, prompting the EU executive to remove the social media post, which Warsaw said was misleading.

Given its limited supply, green hydrogen must be reserved for hard-to-decarbonise sectors such as aviation and shipping, rather than directed towards sectors that can be electrified, writes Aoife O’Leary.

Stricter reimbursement rules for joint procurement of European-made defence equipment, and a way to work around vetoes would make deliveries to Kyiv faster and long-term, according to a document seen by Euractiv. 

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EU member states on Monday (29 January) agreed unanimously to a plan to set aside billions of euros of windfall profits from Russian central bank assets frozen in Europe, in a first step of a plan towards their possible use for Ukraine’s future reconstruction. 

The EU is unlikely to follow through on its threat to cut funding to Hungary if Budapest fails to approve a €50 billion Ukraine aid package later this week, experts told Euractiv.