The center of Kyiv filled with dense black smoke this Monday afternoon. The Russian army bombed the center of the Ukrainian capital in broad daylight, leaving at least one woman dead and 21 injured, including three children. The city's mayor, Vitali Klitschko, reported that Russian drones attacked non-residential buildings in three districts of the city at four in the afternoon. One of the bombed buildings is the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the country's main public scientific research institution, located in one of the most central areas of the city, very close to important monuments, such as the National Opera and the German embassy.

The American political scientist Susan Stokes explores in the book The Regressors: Leaders Who Erode Their Own Democracies (Galaxia Gutenberg) the causes behind the democratic backsliding that the world is experiencing in the 21st century. She points to economic inequalities as one of the key factors and describes the process followed by leaders of different countries and ideologies to dismantle the democratic system from within. We talk about it in a conversation in Barcelona, where she has participated in a debate at the CCCB.

Several fighter jets from Finland and Sweden intercepted a group of Russian warplanes flying over the Baltic Sea this Thursday, according to the Finnish Air Force. This incident adds to the numerous Russian aircraft and drones that have recently violated or approached the airspace of NATO countries. In this case, the Russian squadron, consisting of a Tu-134 transport plane and several MiG-31 and Su-30 fighter jets, was flying in international airspace over the Gulf of Finland.

Denmark has joined this Thursday the increasingly frequent and more serious warnings about a potential Russian military attack against NATO territory. Just a week ago, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk was the first to warn that Moscow is planning missile attacks against border countries, and the next day it was French President Emmanuel Macron who assured that the Russian threat to Europeans has intensified and announced a protection plan. Today, the Danish intelligence services have joined in, stating that Russia will likely intensify its hybrid war in the coming months and adding that a military attack against a NATO country cannot be ruled out.

The Prime Minister of Poland, Donald Tusk, has raised his tone against Russia on the day the country commemorates the 87th anniversary of the Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939. "As we know, history does not repeat itself, but it does rhyme, and today we must read these rhymes of history with the due seriousness," said the Polish leader, who in recent months has been one of the clearest in denouncing the increase in provocations and attacks by Vladimir Putin's regime in the framework of thehybrid war against Europe. "I would prefer to speak only of the heroic deeds recorded in history books, but Russia's escalation of aggression does not allow me to," he said in a video on social media.

The Swedish legislative elections this Sunday leave no clear winner, but there is no doubt about who the losers are. On one hand, the far-right party Sweden Democrats (SD, by its Swedish acronym), which has retreated for the first time since it entered Parliament in 2010 and has lost the title of second-largest force. And the other major casualty is the Social Democratic Party. Although it remains the largest formation in the country, the result obtained is the worst in the last century, since Sweden implemented universal suffrage.

The far-right party Sweden Democrats (SD, by its acronym in Swedish) could be closer than ever to governing. For the first time, all the formations of the country's right-wing bloc are open to the party being part of a possible coalition of government if they obtain enough support in this Sunday's parliamentary elections. The cordon sanitaire that Sweden had also defended has been definitively broken, and the SD is now considered a perfectly legitimate party to be part of the conservative bloc, which aspires to remain in power for four more years.

The elections in Saxony-Anhalt, a small state in eastern Germany, have managed to exceptionally shake up politics across the entire country. A detailed analysis of the result allows for an X-ray of the profile of voters for Alternative for Germany (AfD), which took 43.8% of the total votes, double that of the 2021 elections. We review the keys to a historic election day that could mark the path for the upcoming elections in Germany.

The overwhelming victory of Alternative for Germany (AfD) in Saxony-Anhalt represents a lesson for the Berlin government and, more directly, for the CDU, the traditional German conservative party, which leads the governing coalition at the federal level. "We are deeply shocked; we did not expect this," admitted the Chancellor and CDU leader, Friedrich Merz, in a press conference after meeting with the party's leadership. The Christian Democrats, who had been governing this small state for 25 years, have renounced attempting to form a government after losing 20% of the support they received in the previous regional elections. "We no longer have a mandate to form a government; the AfD has it," said the Minister-President of Saxony-Anhalt and the Christian Democrats' candidate, Sven Schulze.

The far-right party Alternative for Germany (AfD) has swept the elections in the eastern federal state of Saxony-Anhalt, where it has remained at the gates of an absolute majority. The AfD has obtained 43.8% of the votes, more than double that of 2021 (20.8%) and only three seats away from being able to govern alone.

"Europeans are facing a harsh truth: that this is the new normal." This sentence from the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, brings to mind that "new normal" of restrictions on individual freedom in favor of public health to which we had to adapt during the COVID-19 pandemic. The statement, however, is not from six years ago, but from this week. Now, the new normal to which we must get used to is that of systematic attacks by Russia. "We are in a new era of European security," insisted the leader of the EU executive. The message arrived after German authorities directly blamed Moscow for an attack with an explosives-laden drone at Leipzig airport at the beginning of August, one of the most serious sabotage attempts recorded so far on European territory, at a key NATO logistics center.

The first photo I have on my phone's roll from the trip to Georgia is of a khachapuri. The second, of a khinkali. Two names that will quickly integrate into your vocabulary if you visit this corner of the Caucasus; there can't be many restaurants whose menus don't offer the two great emblems of this small country's gastronomy. Georgian cuisine, which used to be considered the best in the Soviet Union, is one of the country's heritages and a key element of its identity. Always with the permission of wine, the true reason for Georgians' pride, who claim to be its inventors. Georgia is a gastronomic and wine jewel; a treasure (still quite preserved and untamed) for lovers of nature and mountaineering; a must for fans of Soviet architecture and urbex. The "beautiful homeland of Stalin", as American journalist Robert D. Kaplan called it in The Revenge of Geography, enjoys (or suffers) a key strategic position, where Europe and Asia meet; "where Russia ends and the Middle East begins", as Kaplan summarizes in the book, which is a good resource for imagining what this turbulent area of the world was like during the post-Soviet chaos. Georgia has a colossal natural border to the north: the majestic peaks of the Greater Caucasus, with Russia on the other side. To the west, the Black Sea; to the south, Turkey and Armenia, and to the east, Azerbaijan.

The Danish Prime Minister, Mette Frederiksen, has returned from vacation with a surprising move: a joint statement with her Italian counterpart, Giorgia Meloni, in which both position themselves as the bulwark not only of security in Europe against the "undeniable" dangers of illegal immigration, but also of the traditional Christian values of the Old Continent. Someone unfamiliar with Scandinavian politics might deduce that Denmark's leader is part of an far-right or, at the very least, conservative party. "We are proud of Europe's Christian cultural heritage and we want to protect it. We hope that those who come to our countries and decide to make Europe their home will respect our values and not try to impose a way of life on us that we do not want." A message that could have perfectly come from the mouth of Viktor Orbán, Marine Le Pen, Santiago Abascal, or, indeed, Giorgia Meloni. But it turns out that Mette Frederiksen is a social democrat; one of the few progressive leaders governing in Europe, at least on paper.

Giorgia Meloni and Mette Frederiksen, two European prime ministers seemingly at political antipodes, are showcasing their common front against "uncontrolled immigration" in the European Union in a joint message released this Monday on social media, in which they call for a tougher stance and advocate for the creation of repatriation centers in third countries. The two leaders emphasize that they have led a strict migratory policy, both in their countries and across Europe, with the argument that "no one can deny that illegal immigration has a negative impact" on European societies: "Increased crime rates, increased pressure on public services, and erosion of public trust."

A few pallets serve as a stage; there is a microphone stand in the center. The speaker is Aleksandr Lukashenko, addressing thousands of migrants stranded at the border between Belarus and Poland: "If you want to go west, we will not stop you, we will not strangle you, nor will we beat you." They applaud him. "It is up to you. Go ahead. Go there," insists the Belarusian president. The scene is not new; it is almost five years old, but it continues to be highlighted as one of the most obvious cases of the instrumentalization of migration as part of the so-called hybrid war against the European Union. The use of migrants as a weapon to achieve political objectives has intensified in Europe following Russia's war against Ukraine and also due to the growth of anti-immigration discourse, which makes this strategy increasingly attractive to actors seeking to exert pressure.

After days of tension and division between Spain and some member states over the migratory crisis in Ceuta, the extraordinary meeting of Interior ministers held this Tuesday has served to stage a general change of stance, at least outwardly. After an initial reaction from several partners blaming Spain and its migration policies for putting EU borders at risk, the message now is that the Twenty-Seven are "united" in supporting Pedro Sánchez's government. This includes Italy, the most belligerent country, which has even temporarily tightened border controls with Spain.

Researcher Irene Fernández Molina is a specialist in the Maghreb, the foreign policy of the European Union, and Euro-Mediterranean relations. Hours after the migratory crisis in Ceuta, we analyze with her what motives may be behind it and what consequences it may have on a European scale.

In 2019, Sanna Marin was 34 years old when she became prime minister of Finland. She immediately gained unusual popularity for a Finnish head of government. But she was the world's youngest prime minister and, moreover, she was a woman. During her first months in office, the social democrat had to lead the response to the covid pandemic. And then came the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a conflict that in Finland was experienced as a threat from the past that was resurfacing. The war caused a historic paradigm shift: Finland abandoned its policy of non-alignment and joined NATO.

Péter Magyar took the helm of Hungary's government on May 9 and has not eased up on the accelerator since then, aiming to leave the autocratic regime built by Viktor Orbán over the last sixteen years behind as quickly as possible, to leave the autocratic regime behind as quickly as possible. The prime minister has christened this democratic transition operation with the name purifying fire, whose top priority is to dismiss Fidesz loyalists holding public office who could hinder the process of reconstructing the rule of law. The first to fall has been the country's president, Tamás Sulyok, whom Magyar described as Orbán's "puppet." This express democratization process has further boosted the popularity of the new government, but it has also raised eyebrows among some organizations and analysts who warn of the risk of overdoing it and falling into the same trap of power concentration as the previous regime.

"Drapati! Drapati! Drapati!" This name has been heard often in recent days' protests in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, that of who, as of a few hours ago, is the new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian army, Mikhailo Drapati. Since last week, many Ukrainians have taken to the streets daily to protest the dismissal of the Minister of Defense, Mikhailo Fédorov, a decision with which Volodymyr Zelensky sided with the old military guard to the detriment of younger voices with an initiative for change. The Ukrainian president chose to dismiss Fédorov and keep the commander-in-chief, Oleksandr Sirski. But on Tuesday night, after six days of demonstrations, he announced Sirski's dismissal and Drapati's appointment as his replacement, responding to the proclamations in the streets.