Authorities in France responded to widespread protests last week that were organized by students who believe that the government is not investing enough in their education, citing oversized classrooms and school buildings in need of repairs, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal.
India’s so-called “Cockroach Janta Party,” a youth movement with a focus on corruption and the lack of economic opportunities, led a protest in Mumbai last week over New Delhi’s latest revision to its voter rolls, which critics said removed more than 130 million names and was seen as an effort by Prime Minister Narendra Modi to rig the rolls, according to a report in The New York Times.
Friedrich Merz, the embattled German chancellor, announced on Sunday that Berlin will provide Ukraine with another $1.1 billion in military aid – just as his poll numbers continue to slide.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview last week that his intelligence service has intercepted a message between Russians stating that Russian President Vladimir Putin is no longer applying the traditional rules of war in the Ukraine War.
Estonia’s top diplomat said in an interview last week that it is becoming obvious that Russia is trying to slowly chip away at the European alliance through sabotage attacks to test the bloc’s resolve.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz watched his overall approval rating hit 10 percent – a new low for any chancellor since the ARD survey started in 1997, with 88 percent of Germans saying they are not very satisfied or not at all satisfied with Merz’s job performance, according to DPA.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry warned last week that weapons factories across Europe that produce artillery for the Ukrainian military could be a legitimate target as the war drags on, according to a report by Reuters.
Russia issued a document last week that warned the alliance of a strategic misstep if NATO carries out any kind of blockade or military action on Kaliningrad and vowed that all bets would be off if such an attack took place.
Belgium’s Foreign Ministry produced a strategic document that was leaked to the Financial Times last week that identified the United States as an unreliable partner and recommends recalibrating the relationship and seek alternative partners.
Boris Pistorius, the German defense minister, is trying to convince the Trump administration to allow European countries to produce Patriot air defense missiles, citing the risks of a wider war with Russia and to keep up with demand in Ukraine.