Europe

SOPHIA DEBOICK on the traditional songs of celebration continuing to be sung across Europe

STEVE ANGLESEY on the latest sunlit uplands of sovereign Britain.

The West faces an ultimatum from Russia that could result in actual war. Yet we don’t seem to have noticed. Paris Sorbonne professor of international relations and Russia specialist FRANÇOISE THOM analyses the threat.

New rules and standards on EU trade will make the first set of Brexit measures pale into insignificance.

As much as the arrival of a New Year encourages us to look forward, it also offers a chance to look back. JONATHAN SALE flags up the most notable anniversaries in 2022.

He’s remembered as an unsmiling, bloated figure festooned with medals. But at one point the Soviet leader was classed as a heart-throb.

Calmer weather has brought a new surge of migrant boat crossings in the Channel - and with them, new risks.

A Norwegian Christmas advert depicting Santa falling in love with a man called Harry has been widely shared on social media.

Facing rare criticism at home, Vladimir Putin is preparing a crowd-pleasing war against what he considers a ‘fake’ country.

Why Germany and Britain diverge wildly when it comes to justice and imposing prison terms.

WILL SELF on the French far-right politician who emerged from a Jewish background.

Liz Truss, Yolanda Díaz, Valérie Pécresse, Mamata Banerjee, Andrew Bailey. Just some of the names we think will make the headlines in the next 12 months ... for better or worse

A young Frenchman has financially benefitted after finding gemstones, and being allowed to keep half, from a plane crash on Mont Blanc dating back to 1950.

With rival negotiators at odds over the Northern Ireland Protocol, and Boris Johnson and Emmanuel Macron trading insults, it seems that Britain and the EU have never been further apart. But a former diplomat argues that a coming together is inevitable.

Why do German-speaking countries have significantly lower vaccination rates than the rest of Western Europe?

Germany’s new chancellor faces a tough task in steering a risk-averse country through the radical change of modernisation.

The concept is fashionable yet controversial, exerting a romantic appeal on some and exerting deep atavistic fears in others. But at its essence, rewilding is a simple necessity.

Celebrations of Mark Francois' book, Spartan Victory, achieving best-seller status may be premature.

Boris Johnson’s posturing over France is making a terrible situation even worse.

Our columnist (who worked for his rival during the German elections) says Angela Merkel’s successor is a pragmatist, not an entertainer.

As a new variant hits, Austrians are once again dealing with the strangeness of life behind closed doors.

Mafia scams involving farming, tobacco, VAT and alcohol are taking billions out of EU funds. The Covid pandemic has opened the floodgates.

Italy’s Mafia is older than the country itself and, despite the cyclical efforts to stamp out its influence, the rise of the Calabrian ’Ndrangheta clan to displace the Sicilian Cosa Nostra underscores its intrinsic place in Italian society.

The new Commission for UK-EU Relations will propose solutions to problems caused by Britain’s botched exit.

Olaf Scholz's in-tray is bulging, and Germany is braced for change. But can a cautious chancellor deliver it?

Businesspeople, academics, journalists and a top trade unionist have formed a group with the purpose of repairing fractured UK-EU relations.

In the wake of the tragedy in the Channel, media commentator LIZ GERARD’s searing essay exposes how newspapers demonised refugees - and encouraged ministers to follow them.

Umberto Bombana secured the product known locally as Truffle of the White Madonna.

Over the weekend, bicycles were burnt and rocks were thrown in protest against increasing Covid restrictions.

The gifted photographer died last week. His images, however, live on and continue to change the way people think.

Our columnist looks at “only in Berlin” syndrome and at how the country’s capital fails its democracy.

The Balkan nation has emerged as an unlikely global centre of high- tech industry – and of hacking.