Euobserver.com

Finnish newspaper Etelä-Saimaa reported that Russian citizens have made a total of 212 real estate transactions in Finland between January and July 2022. This compares to 222 properties bought by Russians for the whole of last year. The newspaper says most of the recent purchases have been made in the South Karelia region, close to Finland's border with Russia.

Greek police said they had located 38 Syrian refugees in the Lavara area of Evros, including seven children and a pregnant woman. "Since they were located, Greek police forces and other government services have rushed to their aid, to provide healthcare, food and water and to transfer them to an area of temporary accommodation," it said. The statement comes after public backlash over the reported death of a five-year old.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz said a total ban on tourist visas will not be supported by Berlin — adding that many refugees do not agree with the Russian regime.

The number of so-called 'femicides' in Italy has risen by almost 16 percent over the past year, with the vast majority taking place in a family context. Data published by the interior ministry on Monday showed 125 femicides between 1 August 2021 and 31 July 2022, compared with 108 during the same period in the previous year, with 68 women killed by either their partner or former partner.

After 16 months of talks, Iran says "considerable progress" had been made on to revive the 2015 nuclear deal — but that three issues still needed to be resolved.

There are many things to love about France. But a stated policy of colour blindness is not one of them.

We won't stop illegal plundering of the seas by those who don't respect the rules if the EU doesn't tackle problem of flagging and reflagging of convenience.

Germany must cut its gas use by a fifth if it wants to prevent an energy shortage this winter. If it fails to reach 20 percent gas savings, the country is at "serious risk" of an energy crunch.

The chief executives of Denmark's Vestas and Ørsted, the world's largest manufacturers of wind turbines, respectively, said that governments need to simplify and speed up renewable-energy planning. "We need a fundamental review on how we dramatically shorten the consenting process," Ørsted chief executive Mads Nipper told Reuters. "There is a task force required in every government right now that needs to accelerate permitting," Vestas chief executive Henrik Andersen said.

Some 660,000 hectares of land has been burned from the start of the year until 13 August, according to figures from the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis).

A senior Hungarian judge has spoken to the Observer newspaper about how the government of Viktor Orbán is "constantly overreaching" its authority to sway courts. Csaba Vasvári, a senior judge at the Budapest metropolitan court for 18 years, said we "have been witnessing external and internal influence attempts" for several years — a rare domestic confirmation of EU fears over Hungary's attack on the independence of the judiciary.

Vladimir Putin has said Russia and North Korea will expand bilateral relations. Putin told the North Korean ruler, Kim Jong-un, that the two countries would "expand the comprehensive and constructive bilateral relations with common efforts", the Pyongyang's state news agency KCNA reported on Monday. Separately, the Russian ambassador in Kabul, Dmitry Zhirnov, has said working with the Taliban is necessary where it "suits our interests", the Guardian reported.

So far in 2022 more than 20,017 people have been recorded attempting to cross the Channel between France and the UK, the Guardian reported. At the same point in 2021, the figure was 11,300 crossings. On Saturday the daily total topped 600 for the third time this year, with 607 people detecting crossing the Channel in 14 boats — the equivalent of about 43 people per vessel.

EU leaders condemned over the weekend the stabbing attack on British author Salman Rushdie in New York state, with EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell calling it "despicable". French president Emmanuel Macron said: "[Rushdie] has just been the victim of a cowardly attack by the forces of hatred and barbarism. His fight is our fight; it is universal", while UK PM Boris Johnson said he was "appalled" by the attack.

Russian soldiers shooting at or from Europe's largest nuclear power station in occupied Ukraine will become a "special target" of his forces, Ukrainian president Volodmyr Zelensky said in a video address on Sunday. Zelensky warned that Russia may be about to conduct a false flag operation to claim Kyiv had struck the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. He added anyone giving orders for attacks on the site should face an international court.

Swedish social democrat prime minister Magdalena Andersson on Sunday presented the most extensive toughening of penalties against gang crime ever presented in Sweden. "Too much migration and too weak integration has led to parallel societies where criminal gangs have been able to grow and gain a foothold", Andersson said. The initiative comes after 232 shootings in August and ahead of general elections in Sweden on 11 September.

With war-fatigue starting to take root in the EU, there is a real risk Moscow and Ankara could share the spoils of Ukraine, in a way that leaves its sovereignty severely compromised.

German chancellor Olaf Scholz has promised tax relief and other aid to German citizens struggling with high energy bills due to Russian gas, oil, and coal supply shortages. "Citizens can count on us not to abandon them," he said at a press conference in Berlin Thursday. He vowed to tackle the energy crisis at the EU level. He said international efforts to cap the price of Russian oil were ongoing.

Germany's chancellor Olaf Scholz said the construction of a new pipeline from Portugal would help ween the bloc off Russian gas. "Such a pipeline would massively relieve the supply situation now," Scholz told reporters in a news conference in Berlin. The pipeline would run through Spain, which imports gas from Algeria, through France and to central Europe.

Ukraine is calling on US president Joe Biden's administration to sanction all Russian private banks to help end president Vladimir Putin's ability to wage war, according to Kyiv's envoy to Washington. President Volodymyr Zelensky's government wants the US to add a couple of banks per week to its list of sanctioned financial institutions, according to ambassador Oksana Markarova, who conveyed the request to the US Treasury Department.