Stories in this section cover the EU-27 countries plus the UK, Norway, Switzerland, Iceland, Liechtenstein, Monaco, Andorra and the Balkan Countries (Albania, Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia).
Border police forces along the European Union's external borders in Bulgaria, Hungary and Croatia are keeping migrants in secret detention centres without providing access to asylum applications, food, water, or toilets. According to research by the non-profit Dutch-based journalism collective, Lighthouse Reports in collaboration with several European newspapers, these actions are in violation of human rights and constitute torture. The migrants detained are not registered anywhere. They are also not given the opportunity to apply for asylum.
German authorities announced on Wednesday (7 December) that they have arrested 25 alleged far-right extremists under suspicion of plotting to overthrow the state and replacing it with a Germany modelled on the Second Reich.
Russia's last remaining independent television channel station, Dozhd TV, commonly known in English as TV Rain, has been ordered to close by Latvia's media regulator less than five months after moving operations to Riga.
Latvia's media regulator, The National Electronic Media Council (NEPLP), announced the ruling on Tuesday (6 December), ordering TV Rain to cease operations by Friday 8 December. It said the decision to order the station to close was taken "in connection with threats to national security and public order."