EU enlargement could reshape energy geopolitics
The European Union’s next wave of eastward enlargement, particularly involving candidate countries in Central and Eastern Europe, could prove decisi...
Europe marks 80 years since the end of World War II, not just with remembrance, but with a sober reflection on the fragility of peace in a shifting world.
Eighty years have passed since Victory in Europe Day, when World War II officially ended on the continent. It was once one of the most joyous moments in European memory. But today, the anniversary feels heavier.
While parades march through London, Paris, and towns across the continent, a different feeling lingers, one shaped by unease, not just remembrance.
Germany’s Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul reflected on the weight of history. “Hardly any day has shaped our history as much as May 8, 1945,” he said. He honoured the sacrifices of the Allied forces and called it a moment when freedom was reclaimed from tyranny. "Our responsibility today is to resolutely defend peace and freedom in Europe."
That responsibility, once fulfilled by recovery and unity, is now tested by the shifting political landscape of the present.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk put it plainly at a memorial in the Netherlands: “The time of Europe’s carefree comfort, joyous unconcern is over. Today is the time of European mobilization around our fundamental values and our security.” The optimism that once defined post-war Europe has grown more cautious.
Even NATO, the transatlantic alliance born from war’s ashes, is showing internal strain rarely seen in its history. Questions around commitment, cohesion, and purpose continue to ripple across capitals.
Yet the core of today’s ceremonies remains the same: remembrance and resolve.
In London, a service at Westminster Abbey and a concert at Horse Guards Parade gathered thousands. In Paris, President Emmanuel Macron is expected to lead tributes at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe. These are familiar rituals—but they echo into a world less certain than the one imagined in 1945.
Germany’s transformation from wartime aggressor to pillar of European democracy remains central to the day. Chancellor Friedrich Merz will lay a wreath at Berlin’s central memorial to the victims of war and tyranny, reaffirming the country’s modern identity grounded in peace.
Across the Atlantic, U.S. President Donald Trump also marked the anniversary. From Washington, he declared it a day to celebrate victory and honour America’s decisive role in the conflict. “We are going to start celebrating our victories again!” he said, pointing to the Normandy landings as the moment history turned.
And in Russia, the day will pass differently. Moscow will mark its Victory Day on May 9 with a military parade in Red Square. Once part of the Allied triumph, Russia now finds itself commemorating separately, a symbol of how divided the post-war order has become.
In Europe, the hope born on May 8, 1945 is still alive. But the clarity of that victory has faded into complexity. Peace, once assumed, now demands attention. The wreaths laid today carry both memory and warning.
Video from the USGS (United States Geological Survey) showed on Friday (19 September) the Kilauea volcano in Hawaii erupting and spewing lava.
At least 69 people have died and almost 150 injured following a powerful 6.9-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Cebu City in the central Visayas region of the Philippines, officials said, making it one of the country’s deadliest disasters this year.
Authorities in California have identified the dismembered body discovered in a Tesla registered to singer D4vd as 15-year-old Celeste Rivas Hernandez, who had been missing from Lake Elsinore since April 2024.
A tsunami threat was issued in Chile after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the Drake Passage on Friday. The epicenter was located 135 miles south of Puerto Williams on the north coast of Navarino Island.
A shooting in Nice, southeastern France, left two people dead and five injured on Friday, authorities said.
The European Union’s next wave of eastward enlargement, particularly involving candidate countries in Central and Eastern Europe, could prove decisive for Europe’s energy security and competitiveness.
Venezuela has closed its embassy in Oslo, Norway’s foreign ministry confirmed on Monday, days after opposition leader Maria Corina Machado won the 2025 Nobel Peace Prize.
NATO is reinforcing its eastern flank as Italy deploys Eurofighter Typhoons to Estonia, Finland opens a new Northern Land Forces Command, and European allies push for a continent-wide “Drone Wall” following Russian drone incursions that exposed gaps in the alliance’s air defences.
Russian jets and drones are testing NATO’s defenses, pushing Europe to rethink how it secures its airspace. Italy has deployed Eurofighter Typhoon jets to Estonia’s Amari Air Base, replacing F-35s under NATO’s Baltic Air Policing mission.
Former Russian president Dmitry Medvedev said on Monday that supplying U.S. Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine could end badly for everyone, especially U.S. President Donald Trump.
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