Arctic region: the European Union wants to catch up

Yesterday, the European Union unveiled a new plan for the Arctic, dubbed "Northern Neighbourhood", which is intended to prepare the bloc for the rise in military and commercial activity in the Far North, driven by the melting ice. "The Arctic is a place where the tectonic plates of geopolitics collide," said Ursula von der Leyen, President of the Commission, highlighting Russia's growing military presence and the race for new sea routes and critical resources.

In terms of security, the strategy envisages a pilot project for satellite and maritime surveillance from 2027, involving the sharing of vessel-tracking data to identify vessels in the Russian "ghost fleet". In the longer term, Brussels is considering establishing a maritime security hub and a centre for monitoring submarine cables in collaboration with NATO, without specifying how these projects would be funded.

On the energy front, the EU remains opposed to oil and gas drilling in the region, but has given up on persuading the rest of the world to follow suit – a step back regretted by the Socialist MEP Delara Burkhardt. Norway, a major energy supplier to the EU, has already made it clear that it will continue to drill in the Arctic. Brussels also plans to develop projects involving critical raw materials with Canada, Greenland, Norway and the United States to reduce its dependence on China, even though some deposits in Finland and Sweden are facing opposition from local and indigenous communities.

With regard to new trade routes, the text is limited to a simple study, even though the number of ships operating in the area covered by the Polar Code has surged by 40 per cent between 2013 and 2025. The environmental aspect is also rather limited, with plans to make the rules on black carbon emissions from ships legally binding and to extend the definition of Arctic waters to include everything north of the 60th parallel. Politico

🇷🇺 Russia - 🇺🇦 Ukraine • A Russian air strike killed three people and injured six others during the night between Monday and Tuesday in the Kyiv region, whilst a drone attack left two people dead last night near Kharkiv. The strikes are also targeting the energy infrastructure, with 76 attacks on electricity, oil and gas facilities in the space of a week, according to Volodymyr Zelensky, despite the "energy truce" announced by Donald Trump, and more than 550,000 households left without power on Monday. For its part, Ukraine struck an oil refinery and an oil depot in St Petersburg.

🇺🇸 United States - 🇷🇺 Russia - 🇺🇦 Ukraine • Russia today accepted the US proposal for a trilateral meeting with Ukraine, following a meeting between envoy Steve Witkoff and Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg, during which Moscow released the American Stephen Hubbard, who had been detained since 2022, officially "without any quid pro quo" according to Donald Trump. The day before in Oslo, Volodymyr Zelensky had welcomed Washington's reinstatement of warnings regarding Russian missile strikes, whilst Marco Rubio described the exchange with Steve Witkoff as "positive".

🇺🇸 United States - 🇺🇦 Ukraine • US Defence Secretary Hegseth has insisted that Washington has not restricted Ukraine's access to the Starlink network, citing the terms of service of Elon Musk's company. Volodymyr Zelensky had stated on Monday that connections remained limited in several sectors of the front line, making it difficult to intercept Russian drones.

🇧🇬 Bulgaria - 🇷🇴 Romania - 🇷🇺 Russia • NATO is to deploy more maritime patrol aircraft, radar systems and drones to the Black Sea following a series of attacks on merchant ships off the coasts of Romania and Bulgaria, which have left at least 23 seafarers dead or missing. The EU has condemned "a dangerous and unacceptable escalation", with six attacks in 10 days by drones suspected of belonging to Russia, although the alliance has so far refrained from naming those responsible.

🇦🇱 Albania • Clashes between protesters and the police are continuing in Tirana, where around 300 people – two-thirds of whom are police officers – have been injured in the space of a week. Prime Minister Edi Rama has denounced a "hybrid war" fuelled from abroad and has proposed lowering the age of criminal responsibility and banning social media for under-16s, whilst university lecturers joined students on the streets on Tuesday.

🇵🇹 Portugal • On Tuesday, the police cleared the camp set up by protesters in Rossio Square, Lisbon, to protest against the housing crisis, and arrested 55 people, whilst the protesters in Porto dismantled their camp themselves. House prices in the country have more than doubled since 2017.

🇬🇷 Greece • Nearly 10,000 pupils and teachers demonstrated in Athens today to demand more funding for education and smaller class sizes, in solidarity with the protests in France. Marches also took place in other cities, stepping up the pressure on Kyriakos Mitsotakis's government.

🇮🇹 Italy • Italian retailers fear food shortages due to the lorry drivers' protest against fuel prices, which is disrupting deliveries and leaving two airports in Calabria without jet fuel. Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini says he is prepared to consider capping the price of diesel.

🇦🇷 Argentina - 🇪🇸 Spain • During a visit to Madrid, Argentine President Javier Milei described Pedro Sánchez as a "dictator", a "thief" and a "corrupt" leader, calling on the Spanish people to "vote the Socialists out" ahead of the snap general election on 29 November. Spanish diplomatic officials have condemned this as "interference" in national politics.

🇷🇴 Romania • On Tuesday, Parliament appointed the independent, pro-European diplomat Luca Niculescu as Prime Minister, with 280 votes, bringing an end to several months of political crisis. Backed by the PSD (Social Democratic Party), his government will have to reduce the budget deficit by December to avoid a further downgrade of the country's credit rating.

🇪🇺 European Union • The President of the Council of the EU, Antonio Costa, has proposed moving the European summit, scheduled for 18 and 19 March in Brussels, to Rome, to mark the 70th anniversary of the Treaty of Rome, which established the European Economic Community. The initiative has yet to receive the go-ahead from the 27 Member States.

🇺🇸 United States • With less than two weeks to go until the mid-term elections on 3 November, Donald Trump's approval rating has fallen to 31 per cent – an all-time low according to Reuters/Ipsos – and the Democrats hold a 12-point lead in the polls. Disillusionment is also spreading amongst Latino voters, two-thirds of whom now hold an unfavourable view of the president, according to a poll by the New York Times and Siena College.

🇨🇦 Canada • On Monday, voters in Alberta rejected, by more than 76 per cent, the idea of holding a referendum on the oil-rich province's independence – a victory for Premier Mark Carney, who hailed it as a "clear choice" for "unity". The separatist movement had attracted the interest of the Trump administration and Elon Musk.

🇵🇦 Panama • The Panama Canal has broken its freight record, with the authorities having increased the frequency of transits in response to the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, before being forced to scale back operations due to a lack of water in the artificial lakes, despite El Niño.

🇨🇺 Cuba • Nearly 29 per cent of Cuba's 9.4 million people face problems accessing water, a consequence of the economic crisis exacerbated by the US oil embargo, as most of the water has to be pumped using electricity. For want of a better alternative, some residents are having wells drilled.

🇦🇺 Australia • Independent MP Helen Haines, who was deliberately run over by a vehicle on Monday near her constituency office in Wangaratta, has had both legs amputated and is now in a stable condition. The driver, a 43-year-old man known to the police, has been charged and appeared in court today.

🇨🇳 China - 🇺🇸 United States • Beijing accuses the US warship USS Charleston of having "illegally" entered waters near Sabina Bank, in the Spratly Islands, and has deployed naval forces to monitor it. Taiwan, for its part, has reported a skirmish with a Chinese vessel.

🇰🇵 North Korea - 🇰🇷 South Korea • Seoul has vowed a firm response should Pyongyang carry out its threats to deploy additional tactical strike weapons along the border and resume loudspeaker broadcasts towards the South. The South Korean Ministry of Defence defends its warning shots as a "legitimate defensive measure".

🇮🇳 India • UN experts are calling for an independent inquiry into the crackdown on recent protests, during which unarmed students were reportedly beaten with batons. The opposition and student organisations are demanding the resignation of the Election Commission chairman, who is accused of favouring Prime Minister Narendra Modi's BJP (Hindu nationalist, far-right).

🇸🇩 Sudan - 🇸🇸 South Sudan • Drone strikes on a market in Abyei, an oil-rich region disputed between the two countries, have left 153 people dead according to a new toll, compared with the 73 initially reported. South Sudan has blamed the Sudanese army and summoned Khartoum's ambassador to lodge a protest.

🇪🇬 Egypt - 🇸🇩 Sudan • A few days after an airstrike attributed to Egypt on the Jabal al-Uqaydat artisanal gold mine – which, according to the NGO Emergency Lawyers, left at least 72 people dead on 10 October – survivors are returning to the site, having no other means of livelihood. Hundreds of people remain missing.

🇲🇱 Mali • More than forty civilians were killed on Sunday in attacks by armed men on motorbikes against settlements of the Daoussahak community in the Ménaka region, in the north-east of the country. The community attributes these killings to the Islamic State.

🇰🇪 Kenya • Self-proclaimed pastor Paul Mackenzie and his accomplices have been found guilty of the murders of 191 people, including 190 children, within their cult, which urged followers to starve themselves to death in order to "meet Jesus". The prosecution has hailed the verdict as "historic" in the Shakahola Forest massacre case.

🇰🇪 Kenya - 🇳🇬 Nigeria • Nigeria has announced its first case of Ebola: a woman who arrived in Abuja from Uganda, carrying the Bundibugyo strain currently affecting the DRC; 44 contacts have been identified. Kenya, for its part, has confirmed a ninth case, all linked to the same outbreak. In the DRC, the epidemic has surpassed 9,000 cases with 4,381 deaths, and the Africa CDC is calling for international mobilisation.

🇾🇪 Yemen • A ballistic missile attack carried out on Monday by Houthi rebels against a government military training camp in the province of Shabwa has left 73 people dead and 200 injured, according to the latest figures. 14 people are still missing.

🇮🇷 Iran • Two oil tankers caught fire south of the Strait of Hormuz after striking Iranian mines, according to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy, which also claims to have shot down a US drone on Monday evening.

🇮🇱 Israel - 🇵🇸 Palestine • Violence by settlers in the West Bank, where a Washington Post photographer and a convoy of European diplomats were attacked, is causing embarrassment for Benjamin Netanyahu in the run-up to the general election on 27 October. Brad Lander, the Democratic candidate for the US Congress, was also arrested by the Israeli army along with around 80 volunteers who had come to help Palestinian farmers harvest olives near Bethlehem.

🇮🇷 Iran - 🇷🇺 Russia • Tehran insists that Iran and Russia have "never" worked together as closely as they do today. Last Monday, however, Donald Trump dismissed the idea that China and Russia were aiding Iran, arguing that both countries would have too much to lose.