Europe

26 February 2024; AA: Hungary’s parliament on Monday approved Sweden's NATO membership, essentially sealing the deal, as it was the last member of the alliance that had not yet given the green light.

The vote took place in the capital Budapest following last week’s meeting between Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson.

The vote of 188-6 was not close.

26 February 2024; AA: Thousands of Spanish farmers staged another massive protest in Madrid on Monday, this time coinciding with a key agriculture meeting in Brussels.

Government officials said at least 5,000 farmers and 100 tractors joined the march in the Spanish capital.

Unlike last week’s massive farmers’ protest in Madrid, this one was organized by the country's three main agricultural unions, which are in dialogue with the Spanish government.

26 February 2024; AA: Denmark on Monday closed its investigation into the 2022 Nord Stream blasts, saying there was a "deliberate sabotage" but no "sufficient grounds" to pursue a criminal case.

The joint investigation was conducted by Copenhagen Police and the Danish Security and Intelligence Services (PET).

PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday that sending Western troops on the ground in Ukraine is not “ruled out” in the future after the issue was debated at a gathering of European leaders in Paris, as Russia’s full-scale invasion grinds into a third year.

The French leader said that “we will do everything needed so Russia cannot win the war” after the meeting of over 20 European heads of state and government and other Western officials.

22 February 2024; MEMO: Palestinians have a right “to use force and resist foreign oppression” in order to establish an independent state as they are under occupation, China’s Foreign Ministry legal advisor Ma Xinmin told the International Court of Justice (ICJ) today.

22 February 2024; MEMO: Twenty-six French lawmakers have asked the International Olympic Committee to bar Israel from competing in the upcoming Olympic Games in Paris.

In a letter to Thomas Bach, the head of the International Olympic Committee, the lawmakers condemned “the unprecedented war crimes committed by Israel” against the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

23 February 2024; MEMO: Nestlé has seen “hesitancy among consumers and a preference for local brands” in the Middle East since the start of the Israeli devastating war on the besieged Gaza Strip, its CEO said in a call with journalists on Thursday, Reuters reports.

26 February 2024; MEMO: Jacob Rothschild, a British Jewish banker, passed away at the age of 87, his family announced on Monday, Anadolu Agency reports.

Jan 21 (Reuters) - The scale of NATO's Steadfast Defender 2024 exercises mark an "irrevocable return" of the alliance to Cold War schemes, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told the state RIA news agency in remarks published on Sunday.

NATO said on Thursday it was launching its largest exercise since the Cold War involving some 90,000 troops, rehearsing how U.S. troops could reinforce European allies in countries bordering Russia and on the alliance's eastern flank if a conflict were to flare up with a "near-peer" adversary.

FRANKFURT/BERLIN, Jan 21 (Reuters) - Hundreds of thousands of people have taken to the streets across towns and cities in Germany this weekend as the country enters a second week of nationwide protests against the right-wing Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Demonstrations have gained momentum after reports emerged from investigative news website Correctiv of a meeting of right-wing extremists in Potsdam at which migration policies including mass deportations of people of foreign origin were discussed.