EU

Schengen passport stamps end next month, replaced by fingerprints and facial scans for more than 60 nationalities including the UK, US, and Australia.

As Ireland confirmed in February 2026 that its Basic Income for the Arts scheme would become permanent, creative work moved closer to public infrastructure than private risk.

As a ceasefire holds and 603 bodies pile up, Europe’s principled abstention has become a costly vanity.

A street brawl in Lyon has sparked a bitter public row between Paris and Rome and it unmasks how lines of sovereign authority are starting to vanish.

Some small states tried to champion democratic values on the world stage but found that moral stands are often too hard to maintain without an economic shield.