Global Pulse

标签： Europe

欧洲

  • Ahead of G7, Carney softens tone toward Trump with trade talks at stake

    Ahead of G7, Carney softens tone toward Trump with trade talks at stake

    OTTAWA, Ontario — Just months after catapulting to international fame as a leading voice of middle power resistance to great power coercion, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is poised to adopt a far more restrained tone when confronting U.S. President Donald Trump at the upcoming Group of Seven (G7) summit in France, according to political analysts and trade observers.

    Carney’s January appearance at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, cemented his status as a rising global political star. In a widely celebrated keynote address, he declared the long-standing global rules-based order effectively defunct and delivered a sharp rebuke of large nations using coercion to pressure smaller states. The speech drew global acclaim, overshadowing Trump’s own remarks at the annual gathering and turning Carney into a symbol of pushback against great power overreach.

    But the geopolitical calculus has shifted dramatically as the G7 summit, set to open Monday in Évian-les-Bains, arrives just weeks before a mandatory July 1 review of the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). The updated trilateral trade pact, which replaced the original North American Free Trade Agreement in 2020, has interconnected the three North American economies for more than three decades, and its future hangs in the balance ahead of the review. This week, Trump reignited fears by suggesting he may opt not to renew the landmark agreement.

    For Canada, the stakes could not be higher. More than 70 percent of the country’s total exports flow across its southern border into the United States, making the preservation of the preferential trade deal an existential economic priority for Ottawa. Canadian historian Robert Bothwell notes that Carney faces far greater risks from Trump’s trade policy than any other G7 leader, explaining “we are more exposed to the United States than anybody else.”

    The strained dynamic between the two leaders comes as bilateral tensions have escalated sharply in recent weeks, eroding what has long been one of the world’s most enduring and amicable cross-border alliances. The decades-long partnership, forged by shared geography, common cultural heritage, and centuries of aligned interests, has fractured under repeated friction between the two administrations.

    In one recent sign of the souring relations, a planned reception for Ontario Premier Doug Ford — leader of Canada’s most populous province — hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington was abruptly canceled at the last minute earlier this month. While the reason for the cancellation was not officially confirmed, one senior Ford cabinet minister, Vic Fedeli, struck a defiant tone, saying if Trump pressured the chamber to scrap the event, “Ford should be wearing that as a badge of honor.”

    Just this week, Trump doubled down on his dismissive rhetoric toward Canada, claiming the U.S. “doesn’t need anything that Canada has.” In response, Carney has doubled down on his policy of trade diversification, setting a national goal to double Canadian exports to non-U.S. markets over the next 10 years, and citing Trump’s protracted trade war as a major barrier to cross-border investment confidence.

    Additional friction emerged this week when the long-planned opening of a major new cross-border bridge spanning the Detroit River — a project Trump previously threatened to block entirely — was pushed back indefinitely, with developers citing unresolved logistical and regulatory issues.

    Trump’s confrontational approach to Canada, from launching the 2018 bilateral trade war to his joking (and often repeated) suggestion that Canada should become the 51st U.S. state, has deeply angered Canadian voters. That public backlash directly created the political conditions that allowed Carney to win the 2025 prime ministerial election, after he campaigned on a promise to aggressively confront Trump’s trade aggression.

    Yet despite his campaign rhetoric and high-profile Davos rebuke, political observers say Carney has steadily moderated his tone toward the Trump administration in recent months, in a deliberate bid to avoid further damaging bilateral relations ahead of the USMCA review. U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer has repeatedly highlighted that Canada was one of only two countries (alongside China) that retaliated against U.S. trade tariffs during the trade war, labeling those retaliatory measures a major sticking point in ongoing renewal negotiations.

    Daniel Béland, a professor of political science at Montreal’s McGill University, points to a clear contradiction between Carney’s global rhetoric and his practical trade priorities. “There is a clear tension between what Prime Minister Carney said in his Davos speech about middle powers standing up to hegemons and his attempt to nudge the U.S. administration ‘in the right direction’ with regard to the USMCA review and trade policy more generally,” Béland explained.

    Carney has already downplayed Trump’s recent 51st state comments, framing them as meaningless provocation rather than a serious policy proposal. Canada and Mexico are jointly pushing for a 16-year renewal of the current agreement, while Trump has openly mused about withdrawing from the pact entirely. The most likely outcome, trade insiders say, is a compromise that would replace the fixed renewal with annual reviews over the next decade.

    Ahead of the G7 gathering, Carney has embarked on a series of pre-summit diplomatic stops across Europe. He is set to meet French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday, before traveling to Ireland over the weekend to hold talks with his Irish counterpart — part of his ongoing push to expand Canada’s trade ties beyond the North American market. This trip marks Carney’s ninth visit to Europe in the 15 months since he took office in March 2025.

    Even as Carney pursues trade diversification, analysts note that the U.S. will remain Canada’s largest trading partner for the foreseeable future, an unavoidable reality that shapes every step of Carney’s current trade strategy. “That is an inescapable reality that Carney must keep front of mind even as he seeks to make Canada somewhat less dependent on trade with the U.S.,” Béland added.

  • A blind Ukrainian veteran turns pottery into a business and mentors others

    A blind Ukrainian veteran turns pottery into a business and mentors others

    In a sunlit apartment workshop in central Ukraine’s Vinnytsia, two broad-shouldered men stand focused before a spinning pottery wheel, their hands woven together deep in soft, malleable clay. For both men, connection and direction come not through sight, but through the quiet pressure of touch. One is Ivan Shostak, a 37-year-old combat veteran who lost his vision on Ukraine’s front lines, and now devotes himself to guiding other visually impaired veterans through the healing craft that remade his own life.

    Shostak’s journey to the pottery wheel began long before he lost his sight. A veteran of the 2014 Donbas conflict, he chose to delay reenlistment when Russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, waiting to welcome his second son into the world before returning to duty. Just a few months into his second tour, in March 2023, a rocket-propelled grenade detonated inches above his head during the brutal, months-long Battle of Bakhmut. The blast robbing him permanently of his vision, and left him with a concussion, traumatic brain injury, and damaged neck vertebrae.

    The physical pain was overwhelming, but the hardest trials came after Shostak returned home. Unable to cope with the weight of his injury, his then-wife left, leaving him to navigate his new darkness alone. “There was a family, and after the injury there was no family,” Shostak reflected. Only his parents remained close, standing by him through the darkest days. For six months, he was confined to bed, numbing physical agony with medication, but no drug could ease the crippling despair that settled over him.

    A turning point came when a fellow soldier on home leave stepped in, bringing Shostak to a local rehabilitation center for visually impaired people. In just four weeks, center staff taught him to navigate daily life: how to use a smartphone, how to move with a cane, how to reclaim small acts of independence. It was there that Shostak first learned a life-changing truth: “It turned out you could live even in total darkness.”

    A group visit to a local pottery workshop would spark the new path that would redefine Shostak’s life. As he shaped his first simple plate on the wheel, a long-lost feeling rushed back: the thrill of creating something tangible, of proving he could still contribute, still build. “After that came the thrill that I could still do something,” he recalled.

    Shostak began attending classes regularly, slowly honing his craft, and eventually started selling his handcrafted pieces—everything from mugs and plates to candle holders. When the UN Development Program and Swedish supporters launched the “Pottery in the Dark” rehabilitation project in Vinnytsia, designed to support war veterans who lost their sight in combat, Shostak stepped into the role of instructor. What began as a personal rehabilitation exercise has since grown into a thriving small business and a peer support network for other traumatized veterans.

    Today, Shostak works from a small workshop his older brother—also a serving soldier—built for him in his apartment, running his business with a small team of three who help market and sell his work primarily through his Instagram page. He keeps no rigid schedule, noting that pottery demands emotional alignment: “Clay is that kind of material, and pottery is that kind of work, where if you feel bad, there’s nothing to do here. It won’t come out at all. Everything breaks, comes out crooked. Only when you feel good, you sit down, you work, and it all turns out great.” While firing and glazing are completed at a separate offsite studio, Shostak personally selects every glaze color, guided by his sense of touch and imagination. Every piece he creates bears the emblem of the air assault forces he served in: a dome, wings, and a sword, alongside the unit’s motto “Nobody but us” and Shostak’s name.

    For Shostak, the work is about more than making a living to support his two children—it’s about setting an example. “I have two kids I have to help through life and show by my own example that you have to fight for your life,” he said.

    The project has already transformed lives beyond Shostak’s. Roman Shtohryn, director of the Podillia rehabilitation center hosting the program, reports that six of the 11 veterans who completed the training now earn a steady income from their pottery work. Shtohryn explains that pottery serves unique therapeutic roles for traumatized veterans: it pulls creators into a meditative state of flow, drawing focus away from pain and trauma, and delivers an immediate, tangible reward for their effort—a finished piece they can hold and sell.

    On a recent workday, Shostak guided 47-year-old fellow veteran Viacheslav Sadovskyi, who was injured when a drone exploded near him in 2024, leaving him blind after five reconstructive surgeries. Laughing as he checked in, Shostak reached for Sadovskyi’s hands, guiding them to the spinning clay, walking him through how much pressure to apply, which angles to use, his hands never leaving Sadovskyi’s the whole time. “There, I can feel it,” Sadovskyi said.

    For program leaders, the peer-to-peer model is what makes the work so powerful. “It matters that a veteran teaches a veteran,” Shtohryn said. “We’re equals. We understand and support each other.” To date, Shostak has created more than 1,000 one-of-a-kind pottery pieces—none of which he has ever seen, but every one of which carries the mark of his resilience, and helps build a new future for other veterans walking the same path.

  • What to know about the EU’s new rules on migration and asylum as they come into effect

    What to know about the EU’s new rules on migration and asylum as they come into effect

    BRUSSELS — After years of fractious, high-stakes negotiations, the European Union’s sweeping new migration and asylum regulatory framework is set to take effect this Friday, marking the most significant overhaul of the bloc’s broken migration system in decades. What has become the European Migration and Asylum Pact was crafted to replace a decades-old system widely derided as ineffective, a failure that has proven a powerful political catalyst for far-right populist parties across the bloc to galvanize voter support in recent elections.

    Under the original agreement, all 27 EU member states were required to complete domestic preparations ahead of implementation — including updating national legislation, training border and asylum staff, and expanding border processing infrastructure. But even the European Commission, the bloc’s executive body, has acknowledged that no country has finished all required preparations to fully roll out the new rules.

    The new framework introduces a series of sweeping changes to how the EU processes irregular migration and asylum claims. All foreign arrivals will now undergo mandatory screening at external EU borders that can last up to seven days before being admitted into member states. Asylum seekers originating from nations classified as “safe” by the bloc or deemed to pose a security threat will be pushed through accelerated three-month processing procedures, half the length of the previous timeline. In some cases, applicants will be detained at the border for the full duration of their case review, and rejected claimants will only be granted a single opportunity to appeal the decision.

    A key uncompleted task cited by the Commission is the rollout of Eurodac, an updated centralized biometric database that will store identifying information for all asylum seekers, including children as young as six. The Commission also noted that most member states still need to construct new border facilities purpose-built for screening, processing, and temporary detention, and many have not yet established required independent human rights monitoring mechanisms at border crossings.

    One of the core policy pillars of the new pact is accelerating the return of rejected asylum seekers, both through voluntary repatriation and forced deportation. The framework automatically issues a return order immediately after an application is rejected, a top political priority for centrist and far-right parties that gained significant ground in 2024 EU elections. Under the new rules, returnees will be deported to countries labeled as safe, including Syria and Bangladesh. As of March this year, the European Agency for Asylum reported roughly 802,000 pending first-time asylum claims across the bloc. Currently, member states and EU lawmakers are negotiating plans to establish “return hubs” in third-party countries, where migrants who cannot be directly repatriated to their home countries can be transferred. The details of these offshore facilities are currently being discussed quietly by a coalition of five member states and potential host countries abroad.

    Burden-sharing between member states was the most contentious issue throughout years of negotiations, dividing the bloc along geographic and political lines. Under the old system, asylum claims must be processed in the first EU country a migrant enters, leaving frontline Mediterranean states such as Greece and Italy to bear the overwhelming majority of the burden of irregular arrivals. For years, these countries have argued they lack the capacity to handle the influx, and many have allowed migrants to travel onward to northern and western Europe without formal authorization — shifting the burden to countries like Germany and Sweden, which saw asylum applications surge to record highs at the peak of the 2015 migration crisis, pushing their national systems to the edge of collapse.

    The new pact addresses this gap with a formal solidarity mechanism, designed to share the burden across all member states. When frontline countries face high influxes, other member states are required to either accept a proportional share of asylum seekers or provide substantial financial compensation to offset the cost. Countries can also reduce their required contribution if they receive migrants who have moved onward from other EU member states, a common practice known as secondary movement.

    Despite this compromise, the burden-sharing framework remains unpopular with several Central European member states. Poland has suspended the right to asylum since early 2025, claiming Belarus is weaponizing migration to destabilize the bloc, and has repeatedly extended this temporary emergency measure. Hungary’s new Prime Minister Péter Magyar has retained the hardline anti-migration policies of his predecessor Viktor Orbán, including a blanket refusal to accept relocated asylum seekers. However, Magyar has signaled he will align Hungary’s national asylum rules with the new pact to avoid daily fines of 1 million euros that were imposed for Orbán’s previous violations of EU asylum law.

    EU officials have stressed that implementation will continue long after Friday’s official launch, given that no country is fully prepared. Susan Fratzke, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, noted the transition will be gradual, not immediate. “It won’t be like a light switch turning on on June 12,” Fratzke said. “Some of these things will take time.”

    Susanna Zanfrini, director of the International Rescue Committee’s Italy office, warned that widespread lack of clarity and inconsistent preparation creates harmful uncertainty for all stakeholders. That ambiguity “creates uncertainty for both people seeking protection and the organizations supporting them at the very moment they most need clear information about their rights, options, and access to support to survive, recover and rebuild their lives,” Zanfrini said.

    Leading human rights organizations have roundly criticized the new pact, arguing the accelerated procedures undermine the fundamental right to seek asylum by rushing claims assessments. Critics warn that fast-track processing opens the door to racial profiling, will result in legitimate protection claims being wrongfully rejected, and will lead to a sharp rise in prolonged detention of asylum seekers at EU borders.

    Judith Sunderland, senior refugee and migrant rights adviser at Human Rights Watch, said the new pact “slams the door in the face of people who deserve to be treated with dignity and to have a fair hearing of their claims for protection.” Lukas Gehrke, Brussels chief for the International Organization For Migration, added that even after deportations, many rejected claimants will remain in the EU, and the new pact’s budget cuts integration funding for remaining migrants. “If we under focus on this, the failure of integration becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy,” Gehrke said.

    The reporting was contributed by reporters based across Cyprus, Spain, and Poland, with correspondents in Nicosia, Barcelona, and Warsaw.

  • From white knuckles to open barbs, Trump and Macron bring a rocky history to the G7 summit

    From white knuckles to open barbs, Trump and Macron bring a rocky history to the G7 summit

    The complicated, ever-shifting dynamic between U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron will take center stage next week at the G7 summit in the French alpine resort of Evian-les-Bains, as years of growing tensions over key global policy issues threaten to overshadow the gathering of the world’s major advanced economies. What began with a legendary, knuckle-white first handshake nearly a decade ago has devolved into open disagreement, marking a stark reversal of the warm, much-hyped “bromance” that defined the pair’s early interactions.

  • Ukraine hits fuel supplies to Crimea, sparking a fuel crisis on the Russian-held peninsula

    Ukraine hits fuel supplies to Crimea, sparking a fuel crisis on the Russian-held peninsula

    A sustained and increasingly effective campaign of drone strikes by Ukrainian forces has plunged the Russian-occupied Black Sea peninsula of Crimea into its most severe fuel crisis since Moscow’s illegal 2014 annexation, delivering a fresh blow to the Kremlin’s claim of progress in its four-year full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    The coordinated strikes have targeted critical energy infrastructure deep inside Russia, supply routes along the land corridor connecting mainland Russia to Crimea, and key transport links into the peninsula, leaving tanker trucks charred along highways, stranding motorists in multi-hour queues at gas stations, and forcing occupied authorities to implement strict fuel rationing. As the crisis unfolded as Russia marked its annual Russia Day holiday, the unofficial kickoff to the summer tourist season that Crimea’s economy depends heavily on, the damage has already rippled through the region’s vital hospitality sector.

    To understand the stakes of this escalation, it is necessary to contextualize Crimea’s long-standing strategic and symbolic importance to the Kremlin. First seized by the Russian Empire from the Crimean Tatars in the 18th century following a victory over the Ottoman Empire, the peninsula was transferred from Soviet Russia to Soviet Ukraine in 1954 by then-leader Nikita Khrushchev. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, Crimea became part of the newly independent Ukrainian state, though Moscow maintained a large naval base at Sevastopol under a long-term lease. In 2014, following the ousting of a pro-Moscow Ukrainian president by a popular pro-European uprising, Putin deployed unmarked troops to seize control of Crimea, and oversaw a widely unrecognized referendum to formalize its annexation. The move triggered a separatist insurgency in eastern Ukraine that simmered until Russia launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022; early in that invasion, Russian forces based in Crimea seized large swathes of southern Ukraine and secured the overland corridor to the peninsula that remains Moscow’s primary supply route today.

    Since the start of the full-scale war, Ukraine has systematically targeted Russian assets in and around Crimea to erode Moscow’s control. Ukrainian strikes have sunk multiple Russian warships at Crimean bases, severely degrading Russia’s Black Sea Fleet capabilities and forcing most of the fleet to redeploy to the far eastern Russian port of Novorossiysk. Ukraine has also repeatedly targeted the Kerch Strait Bridge, the iconic fixed span that directly connects mainland Russia to Crimea, which Putin has long framed as a symbol of his regime’s success in annexing the peninsula. An October 2022 truck bombing on the bridge killed five people, destroyed two large spans, and required months of reconstruction, with additional successful strikes following in 2023 and 2025.

    After repeated attacks on the Kerch Bridge left it unsafe for large-scale fuel shipments, Russia shifted most fuel and critical supplies to the overland highway and rail corridor running through occupied territories along the Sea of Azov coast, a route that Russian military planners once considered far more secure than the bridge. That assumption has proven catastrophic: last month, Ukrainian drones struck a convoy of fuel trucks traveling the corridor, leaving dozens of vehicles burned out. In recent weeks, the strikes have only intensified. This week alone, Ukrainian forces repeatedly hit the Chonhar Bridge, another key crossing linking occupied mainland Ukraine to Crimea, disrupting all movement across the span and forcing occupation authorities to deploy temporary pontoon bridges to restore limited access. Ukrainian military officials confirmed the Chonhar strike was intended to cut off Russian military movements of troops, ammunition and fuel into and out of the peninsula.

    Compounding the supply crunch, Ukraine’s long-range drone campaign has targeted refineries, oil storage depots and pipeline infrastructure hundreds of kilometers inside Russian territory, eroding Russia’s total domestic fuel production capacity even as demand rises ahead of the summer travel season. The U.S.-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has highlighted the strategic synergy of Ukraine’s dual strike campaign: long-range attacks cut Russia’s ability to produce fuel, while mid-range strikes on supply lines disrupt what little fuel Russia is still able to route to occupied Crimea.

    “The long-range strike campaign is therefore reducing Russia’s production capacity, while the midrange strike campaign is hurting Russia’s ability to transport the gasoline Russia is still able to produce,” the ISW explained in its recent analysis.

    The acute fuel shortage is already being felt acutely by civilian residents and tourists in Crimea. While the peninsula has experienced periodic supply disruptions from Ukrainian strikes in past years, current shortages represent the worst crisis since the 2014 annexation. In late May, occupation authorities introduced strict rationing, capping sales at just 20 liters of gasoline per vehicle per week, distributed via prepaid coupons. The entire allocation of coupons sold out within minutes of being released on an official government messaging channel, leaving motorists waiting for hours in snaking lines at the few stations still selling fuel.

    Social media platforms have been flooded with residents sharing tips for locating scarce fuel and pleas for assistance, while authorities have launched a dedicated hotline to assist tourists who have found themselves stranded without fuel. While ferries have supplemented fuel shipments from mainland Russia after Kerch Bridge traffic was restricted, and private motorists are allowed to bring up to 100 liters of fuel into Crimea per vehicle from the mainland, the additional supply has been far too little to meet demand. Unregulated black market speculators are now selling gasoline at twice the official market price.

    The crisis has already delivered a severe blow to Crimea’s tourism sector, which is the backbone of the local economy. The peninsula drew nearly 7 million Russian tourists in 2024, and occupation officials had projected an even higher number for the 2025 summer season. However, business daily Kommersant reports that roughly 80% of hotel bookings were canceled in late May and early June as travelers avoid the unstable region. Some hotels have even begun offering free gasoline as a booking incentive to attract hesitant visitors, offers that were immediately taken up by the few travelers still planning trips.

    Recent attacks on passenger rail lines have further eroded traveler confidence. Earlier this week, a Ukrainian drone strike hit a passenger train traveling from Moscow to Crimea, wounding the engineer and killing his assistant, forcing a temporary suspension of all rail service and the evacuation of passengers by bus. A prior strike on a commuter train in Crimea killed one person and injured three others, prompting occupation authorities to cut daytime service over security concerns.

    In a rare public acknowledgment of the scope of the crisis, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed this week that widespread fuel shortages exist and pledged that authorities are taking urgent measures to resolve the issue. The Russian Defense Ministry has remained publicly silent on the repeated strikes along the Crimean land corridor, but prominent Russian pro-war military bloggers have fiercely criticized the military establishment for failing to anticipate the Ukrainian campaign and mounting a glacial, ineffective response. Some bloggers have called for mandatory military escorts for all fuel convoys traveling the corridor, while others have urged the Russian military to escalate strikes on Ukrainian energy and transport infrastructure in retaliation.

    As the fuel crisis and internal criticism continued to unfold, Ukraine delivered an additional symbolic blow to Moscow this week, striking a historic landmark in Sevastopol that houses a massive panoramic painting commemorating the 19th century Russian defense of the city during the Crimean War. According to Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Kremlin-appointed mayor of Sevastopol, the painting was completely destroyed in the fire that followed the strike. Given Putin’s long-standing framing of the 2014 annexation of Crimea as a fulfillment of Russian imperial and historical destiny, pro-war blogger Valery Shiryayev noted the attack would be particularly infuriating to the Russian leader.

    “It’s hard to find another work of art, another part of national heritage, whose destruction would be as painful for Putin,” Shiryayev said.

    As of Thursday, the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine entered its 1,569th day, surpassing the total duration of World War I, with Russian frontline advances having ground to a near standstill even as Ukraine demonstrates growing capability to strike deep into Russian-held and Russian territory.

  • Sweden ditches plan to imprison 13-year-old serious offenders

    Sweden ditches plan to imprison 13-year-old serious offenders

    Sweden’s center-right government has abandoned its controversial proposal to allow imprisonment of serious offenders as young as 13, after failing to secure enough parliamentary backing for the two-year reduction in the age of criminal responsibility. Instead, the administration will push forward a more modest overhaul, lowering the current threshold of 15 to 15, the legislative text expected to be drafted ahead of September’s national general election. The policy shift comes as Sweden grapples with a growing national crisis of underage recruitment into violent organized criminal networks, a trend that has reshaped the country’s long-stable security landscape.

    Justice Minister Gunnar Strömmer explained that the revised reform is designed to address gaps in the current justice system, which currently sentences convicted children under 15 to placement in state-run youth care homes, known as SiS homes. Under existing rules, youth convicted of violent offenses cannot be held in standard prison facilities. Strömmer argued that the current framework fails both public safety and offender rehabilitation, noting that SiS placements have been linked to higher rates of recidivism among young violent offenders. “By lowering the age of criminal responsibility, we can impose fairer, proportionate sanctions and create better conditions for rehabilitation than we can today,” he told reporters, adding that the core goal of the policy is to “protect society from life-threatening crime, and protect crime victims — who are often children themselves.”

    Eight existing adult prisons have already been instructed to set up dedicated, isolated sections to house young offenders, separated completely from the adult inmate population to prevent radicalization and exploitation. According to government data, more than 50 children under the age of 15 appeared in Swedish courts last year facing charges of murder or attempted murder, a statistic that underscores the severity of the youth violence crisis.

    The push for reform comes amid a decade-long shift in Sweden’s homicide trends: the Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention (Brå) recorded a substantial overall increase in homicides over the past 10 years, rising from 87 murders in 2014 to 121 in 2023, though the total fell to 92 in 2024 as law enforcement cracked down on major gang networks. Much of the recent violence can be traced to a brutal turf war between two of Sweden’s most powerful criminal organizations: the Foxtrot gang, led by fugitive Rawa Majid, and the rival Rumba gang headed by Ismail Abdo. The conflict, which peaked in 2023, has seen gangs increasingly exploit underage members to carry out high-risk attacks, from targeted shootings and bombings to contract killings. Abdo was arrested in Turkey in 2025, while Majid is believed to be hiding in the Middle East, and both the United States and United Kingdom imposed sanctions on Foxtrot and its leader last year over their alleged ties to foreign interference.

    In a troubling development that has drawn international attention, multiple recent attacks on Israeli-linked targets in Sweden — including an attack on defense contractor Elbit Systems’ Gothenburg facility and the Israeli embassy in Stockholm — have involved suspects as young as 13 and 14. Sweden’s domestic security service Säpo has publicly linked these plots to Iran, accusing the Iranian government of recruiting Swedish gang members to carry out attacks on Israeli and Jewish targets in Europe. Iran’s foreign ministry has repeatedly rejected the claims as “unfounded and biased,” asserting the accusations are rooted in misinformation spread by Israel. The 2025 US and UK sanctions explicitly cited Foxtrot’s role in carrying out “violence against Jewish and Israeli targets in Europe on behalf of the Iranian regime.”

    Not all stakeholders support the government’s criminal age reform plan. Maria Frisk, secretary-general of leading Swedish children’s rights organization Bris, argued that the solution to youth violence lies not in lowering the age of criminal responsibility, but in strengthening the underfunded and overstretched SiS youth home system. “Nothing indicates that lowering the age to 14 will turn the situation around,” she said in a public statement. Critics have also pointed out that SiS homes themselves have increasingly become recruitment grounds for criminal networks in recent years, as young offenders are exposed to established gang members within the care system, perpetuating a cycle of violence.

  • Here’s how to avoid heat-related illnesses and stay cool this summer

    Here’s how to avoid heat-related illnesses and stay cool this summer

    BERLIN – A new warning from the World Health Organization’s European regional office has underscored the deadly human cost of rising global temperatures, announcing Thursday that more than 200,000 people across the continent have died from heat-related causes over the past four years — and the vast majority of these fatalities could have been avoided.

    As communities across the Northern Hemisphere brace for what could be another record-breaking summer of above-average temperatures, public health officials stress that extreme heat is far more than just an uncomfortable nuisance. Unregulated exposure to sustained high temperatures can trigger heat exhaustion, and progress to life-threatening heat stroke that requires immediate medical intervention.

    Dr. Hans Kluge, regional director for WHO Europe, framed the escalating heat crisis as an immediate consequence of human-caused climate change in an official public statement. “The impacts of climate change are a clear and present danger, and its most immediate and lethal manifestation is extreme heat,” Kluge said. “Heatwaves are no longer freak weather anomalies. They are now a recurring crisis inflicting suffering, claiming lives and fracturing our health systems and infrastructure.”

    The agency is pushing national governments and local public health institutions across Europe to roll out comprehensive heat action plans immediately. Recommended interventions range from opening free, accessible public cooling centers for at-risk communities to implementing mandatory heat safety policies for workplaces, including scheduled outdoor work breaks and flexible shift scheduling that keeps employees out of the dangerous midday sun. Kluge emphasized that the long-term public health goal is non-negotiable: “Our goal is clear and our ambition is bold: zero heat-related deaths.”

    The WHO’s warning came on the same day that global meteorologists confirmed the development of a new El Niño event in the eastern Pacific Ocean. Characterized by unusual natural warming of Pacific surface waters, El Niño is already projected to strengthen to potentially historic levels through the Northern Hemisphere summer and fall. Climate scientists explain that this natural climate cycle will amplify the existing long-term warming driven by decades of fossil fuel emissions, creating a high risk of turbocharged extreme weather events across every continent.

    To help people protect themselves from heat-related illness this summer, WHO has published a set of clear, evidence-based public safety guidelines:

    First, limit exposure during the peak heat window. The hottest hours of most summer days typically fall between mid-morning and late afternoon, so officials advise staying indoors or in shaded areas during this window when possible. If outdoor work or travel is unavoidable, avoid strenuous activity and prioritize shaded rest stops. WHO also recommends spending at least two to three hours in a cool environment every day during heatwaves, and reminds the public to regularly check official local heat warning updates to stay informed of changing conditions.

    Second, take proactive steps to cool indoor living spaces. During daytime hours, close all windows and cover exposed glass with blinds, curtains or external shutters to block hot incoming sunlight. Once temperatures drop after dark, open windows to let in cool evening air. For households with air conditioning, WHO recommends setting thermostats to 27 degrees Celsius (81 degrees Fahrenheit) and pairing cooling with a fan to boost comfort while reducing energy use. The agency also noted that low-income urban and rural communities are disproportionately impacted by extreme heat, as substandard housing and lack of access to affordable cooling technology leaves them far more exposed to dangerous indoor overheating.

    Third, maintain hydration and dress appropriately for hot conditions. Public health officials advise drinking one cup of water per hour even if you do not feel thirsty, to avoid gradual dehydration that can lead to serious health complications. Regular cool showers or baths are an effective way to lower core body temperature, and when those are not available, wiping skin with a cool damp cloth or using a mist spray can provide relief. Clothing should be lightweight, loose-fitting and light-colored to reflect sunlight, and the same rule applies to bed linens for overnight cooling. Anyone heading outdoors should also wear a wide-brimmed hat, UV-protective sunglasses and high-SPF sunscreen to avoid additional sun-related health risks.

    Finally, prioritize protection for the most vulnerable population groups. WHO repeatedly stresses that children and pets should never be left inside a parked vehicle, even for a few minutes: internal temperatures can spike to deadly levels in as little as 10 minutes under direct sun. For caregivers pushing baby strollers, covering the carriage with a thin wet cloth provides cooling shade, while dry cloth traps heat and raises internal temperatures to dangerous levels — adding a small portable fan can also improve airflow for infants. Regular check-ins are critical for at-risk groups including adults over 65, people living with disabilities, and those with preexisting heart, lung or kidney conditions, as well as people who live alone who may not have anyone to help them if they become ill from heat. Manual laborers and other outdoor workers are also at especially high risk when work schedules do not allow for heat-related adjustments.

  • Europe’s central bank raises rates to fight inflation from Iran war, the Fed to decide next week

    Europe’s central bank raises rates to fight inflation from Iran war, the Fed to decide next week

    FRANKFURT, Germany — In a landmark policy shift triggered by the economic fallout of the ongoing Iran conflict, the European Central Bank (ECB) has become the first major global central bank to lift interest rates to counter surging inflation fueled by skyrocketing oil prices. The decision on Thursday puts the ECB ahead of next week’s highly anticipated rate-setting gatherings of the U.S. Federal Reserve, Bank of Japan and Bank of England, as central bankers worldwide grapple with the dual challenge of taming price growth and protecting fragile economic expansion.

    The ECB’s 25-basis-point increase lifts its benchmark policy rate from 2% — a level held steady for 12 months — to 2.25%. The move comes in direct response to a sharp spike in global crude prices triggered by Iran’s disruption of crude flows through the Strait of Hormuz, the strategic waterway that normally carries roughly one-fifth of the world’s daily oil and fuel trade. The strait has remained closed to most commercial vessel traffic for 103 days as of the ECB’s announcement.

    Global benchmark Brent crude traded around $93 per barrel on Thursday, a roughly 27% jump from the $73 per barrel recorded on the eve of the outbreak of the Iran war. The energy price shock has already pushed eurozone inflation to 3.2% in May, well above the ECB’s 2% medium-term target. Higher oil and fuel costs feed directly into price increases for gasoline, diesel, cooking gas, heating oil and a wide range of petroleum-derived products, driving up overall consumer prices. The rate hike is designed to cool consumer and business demand, easing upward pressure on prices as energy costs surge.

    But the ECB’s policy move balances inflation concerns against a backdrop of lackluster eurozone economic growth, leading many market analysts to forecast the increase will be a one-off adjustment rather than the start of a prolonged tightening cycle. The step is widely interpreted as a proactive signal to financial markets that the central bank is committed to preventing inflation from spiraling out of control.

    Speaking at a post-meeting press conference, ECB President Christine Lagarde emphasized that future policy decisions will remain contingent on evolving economic data, particularly the duration and magnitude of elevated energy prices. “We are well positioned to navigate the uncertainty caused by the war, and we will closely monitor the situation and follow a data-dependent and meeting-by-meeting approach,” Lagarde stated, adding that the bank is “not pre-committing to a particular rate path.” She also warned that inflation would likely climb further over the summer months and remain above the ECB’s target well into the first half of next year.

    The ECB’s action follows smaller rate increases from central banks in Australia and the Philippines since the Iran conflict began, and market attention is now turning to upcoming policy decisions from the world’s largest central banks. For the U.S. Federal Reserve, led by newly appointed Chair Kevin Warsh — tapped for the role by President Donald Trump earlier this year — most economists expect policymakers to hold interest rates steady at next week’s meeting.

    Warsh publicly advocated for rate cuts last year, and Trump repeatedly criticized Warsh’s predecessor Jerome Powell for refusing to implement deeper rate reductions. But amid a post-war inflation surge that has pushed U.S. inflation above 4% — a three-year high — Trump and his administration have shifted their stance, now favoring keeping borrowing costs unchanged. Market observers expect the Fed to remove language from its post-meeting statement that previously signaled the next policy move would be a rate cut, clearing the way for a potential rate increase before the end of 2025 if inflation does not cool. Multiple Fed officials have already warned that sustained above-target inflation could force a rate hike by year’s end.

    Higher central bank benchmark rates ripple through the broader economy, pushing up borrowing costs for everything from home mortgages and corporate investment to government debt. By making credit more expensive, rate increases reduce overall demand for goods and services, which in turn eases upward pressure on prices.

    Carsten Brzeski, global head of macro research at ING Bank, argued the ECB may only need one or two additional small hikes to keep inflation in check, as the current inflation surge may be less persistent than feared. Brzeski noted that consumers still grappling with the aftermath of post-pandemic inflation have little appetite to absorb further price increases, forcing businesses to absorb higher energy costs rather than pass them on to shoppers. “The pass-through of higher energy and input prices to final consumption will be limited due to a lack of ability and willingness of consumers to actually pay for these higher prices,” Brzeski explained in a emailed analysis.

    This report was compiled with additional reporting from Rugaber in Washington.

  • Vendee Globe winner Dalin dies aged 42

    Vendee Globe winner Dalin dies aged 42

    The world of elite sailing is in mourning this week following the death of iconic French skipper Charlie Dalin, 42-year-old winner of the 2024-25 Vendee Globe, who passed away after a years-long fight with a rare form of gastrointestinal cancer. Dalin’s wife Perrine Le Pape confirmed the news in a statement sent to French news agency AFP on Thursday, saying, “It is with deep sadness that my family and I announce the passing of my husband, Charlie Dalin, following a long illness.”

    What made Dalin’s historic Vendee Globe victory all the more extraordinary is that he was battling his cancer diagnosis throughout the entire grueling non-stop race. In October of last year, the skipper revealed the full scope of his health struggle in a published memoir, disclosing that he had been diagnosed with a malignant tumor just days before the 2024-25 Vendee Globe got underway. After urgent initial treatment, he returned to the starting line of sailing’s most punishing solo event and received ongoing immunotherapy treatment while navigating the full 24,300-mile course entirely alone.

    Dalin completed the round-the-world route in a blistering record time of 64 days, 19 hours, 22 minutes and 49 seconds, smashing the previous benchmark set by Armel Le Cleac’h in 2017 by more than nine days. When he crossed the finish line in January 2025 to claim victory in the 10th edition of the iconic race, he was met by his wife and their young son Oscar, joining him on his boat for the emotional celebration. At the end of the race, he held a lead of more than half a day over his nearest competitor, a gap that cemented his status as one of the sport’s all-time great performers.

    This was not Dalin’s first run at Vendee Globe glory. In the 2020-21 edition of the race, he crossed the finish line first, only to be relegated to second place overall after competitor Yannick Bestaven received a time bonus for rescuing a fellow skipper in distress. Dalin took the setback with characteristic grace, and remained a beloved figure across the sailing community for his sportsmanship and resilience.

    In late 2023, Dalin was forced to withdraw from the Transat Jacques Vabre race due to an undisclosed medical issue, sparking widespread speculation about his health that he did not address until the release of his memoir months later. Up until that October announcement, only a small inner circle knew of his diagnosis and ongoing treatment as he continued to compete at the highest level of the sport.

    Tributes have already begun pouring in from across the global sailing community, honoring Dalin not just for his historic on-water achievements, but for the extraordinary courage he displayed in competing at the highest level while facing a life-threatening illness.

  • Vendee Globe record winner Charlie Dalin dies at 42 after cancer battle

    Vendee Globe record winner Charlie Dalin dies at 42 after cancer battle

    The world of competitive sailing is in mourning this week after the announcement that Charlie Dalin, the iconic French skipper who claimed victory in the 2024-25 Vendee Globe round-the-world race in record time, has passed away at age 42 following a battle with gastrointestinal cancer. Vendee Globe organizers confirmed his death in an official statement released Thursday, drawing tributes from across the global sailing community and French political leadership.

    French President Emmanuel Macron honored Dalin’s legacy in a public note, calling him “an extraordinary sailor, a rare example of courage, a guiding light on the open sea.” What makes Dalin’s final victory all the more remarkable is that he kept his 2023 cancer diagnosis private throughout the grueling 2024-25 race, pushing through the challenge to set a new benchmark that has redefined single-handed ocean sailing.

    Dalin’s path to the 2024-25 championship was years in the making, marked by near-misses and extraordinary resilience. In the 2021 edition of the four-year race, he crossed the finish line first after 80 days at sea, but was ultimately stripped of the top spot when competitor Yannick Bestaven was awarded a 10-hour time bonus for assisting in the rescue of another sailor. Bestaven’s adjusted finishing time ended up more than two hours faster than Dalin’s, leaving the French skipper with a second-place finish that stung.

    That disappointment faded at the 2024-25 race, which starts and ends at the Atlantic coastal port of Les Sables-d’Olonne in western France. Dalin delivered a masterclass performance, smashing the previous race record held by Armel Le Cleac’h by more than nine days. He finished the grueling 24,000-nautical-mile journey in just 64 days, 19 hours, and 22 minutes at the helm of his yacht *MACIF Santé Prévoyance*, claiming the long-awaited win he had worked decades to earn. Throughout the race, he led the competing fleet for a total of 42 days, finishing nearly 10 days ahead of the previous benchmark.

    Yoann Richomme, Dalin’s closest competitor in the 2024-25 Vendee Globe and a friend of decades, shared a heartfelt tribute to Dalin on social media following the announcement of his death. “What a remarkable fight you waged against this cruel illness. I am deeply impressed by your perseverance and optimism, right up to your final days,” Richomme wrote. “Our battles on the water, from our first tacks in the Figaro class, eventually led us to that fierce contest during the last Vendée Globe, which thrilled us so much. I cherished the years we spent together, the hearty laughs we shared, and our mutual determination to always give our very best on the water.”

    Born in Le Havre, Normandy, Dalin fell in love with sailing at age 6 during a holiday sailing course in Brittany. A graduate in naval architecture from the University of Southampton, he spent seven seasons honing his racing skills in the Figaro class before moving up to the elite IMOCA circuit in 2019. Beyond his 2021 Vendee Globe second-place finish, he also claimed runner-up in the 2022 Route du Rhum, the iconic transatlantic race that runs from France to the Caribbean.

    The Vendee Globe, widely considered one of the most grueling challenges in all of competitive sport, is held every four years. It requires sailors to complete a solo, unassisted voyage around the globe, passing South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, Australia’s Cape Leeuwin, and South America’s Cape Horn across a distance of roughly 24,000 nautical miles, or 44,500 kilometers. Dalin’s record-setting 2024-25 win, achieved while privately fighting a terminal cancer diagnosis, has cemented his reputation as one of the most courageous and talented skippers in the history of the race.