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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).

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Monday Commentary
NATO Summit in The Hague II: everyone survived, now all eyes on Türkiye

NATO Summit in The Hague II: everyone survived, now all eyes on Türkiye

The Nato Summit held in The Hague on 24-25 June was a failure, wrapped in success. It was a success because it avoided public display of divisions, mainly by avoiding issues: it was the shortest summit anyone can remember; it also had a very short final statement that basically had two points, the first a re-commitment to article 5 of the North Atlantic Charter and the principle that an attack on one will be considered an attack on all. The fact that Nato leaders in the Hague had felt the need to re-emphasise this should be a cause of worry not celebration, but in the end, it is good that it was said. The second outcome, the one that received most attention, was the commitment of European countries to spend more on their defence: 5 per cent of GDP, of which 3.5 per cent on hard defence, and 1.5 per cent on related ancillary areas such as infrastructure. You may, if you want, believe that this was a response to US President Donald Trump's insistence. Or, if you are more prudent, understand that countries that matter – Germany, France, Poland and the Scandinavian countries had decided on this course of action quite separately, and as a response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which was a wake-up call. Finland and Sweden’s decision to abandon their neutrality, and join NATO was taken long before Trump returned to the White House. The EU’s decision to spend massively on defence was always to ensure that other European countries are part of this process, willy-nilly.

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News
How is your Esperanto?

How is your Esperanto?

William Murray argues that expanding our linguistic horizons is not as daunting as we might think.
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Live blog
Live Blog - 11 April 2020

Live Blog - 11 April 2020

The number of deaths from coronavirus is now 103,506. In many countries celebrating Easter this weekend governments are struggling to keep their populations at home. In many war-torn regions fighting is still preventing medical teams from doing their jobs to fight covid-19
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Live blog
Live Blog - 10 April 2020

Live Blog - 10 April 2020

Today is Good Friday and the start of the Easter festival in many Christian communities. Most religious events have however been cancelled because of the coronavirus pandemic
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Live blog
Live Blog - 09 April 2020

Live Blog - 09 April 2020

There are now more than 1.5 million confirmed cases of coronavirus world wide, and the number of deaths has reached 90,000. Throughout the world efforts continue to contain the crisis, but leaders have been warning that restrictions are likely to continue well into May, and maybe even as long as the summer.