UTENA, Lithuania—Some 1,500 paramilitaries descended on this industrial city in northeastern Lithuania late last month, taking up positions at government buildings and around critical infrastructure to prepare for what many in this frontier city now fear: a Russian invasion.
Clad in military fatigues and armed with rifles loaded with blank cartridges, members of the Lithuanian Rifleman’s Union, or LRU, a state-funded paramilitary group, spent several days training to repel a possible enemy attack.
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Eve Hartley
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PARIS—French authorities said they’ve detained four more people in connection to the Louvre heist, including a man suspected of being the only thief to remain at large after purloining the nation’s crown jewels.
Paris Prosecutor Laure Beccuau said two men, ages 38 and 39, and two women, 31 and 40, have been taken into custody for questioning. Beccuau said all four detainees came from the Paris region, without disclosing further details.
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Noemie Bisserbe
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The German economy may be showing signs of a life after more than half a decade of stagnation.
Europe’s largest economy has suffered a series of recent blows, including a surge in energy costs after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, higher tariffs on its exports to the U.S and fierce competition from China in key sectors such as automobiles.
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Don Nico Forbes
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Moody’s boosted Italy’s sovereign-credit rating on expectations for a decline in government debt.
The ratings agency on Friday upgraded Italy’s rating one level to Baa2 from Baa3. The outlook was revised to stable from positive.
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Kelly Cloonan
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BERLIN—Europe is moving to relax some of the world’s tightest digital regulations in a bid to boost growth and reduce its reliance on U.S. tech.
Germany and France on Tuesday backed an effort by the European Union, long seen as a global rulesetter for technology, artificial intelligence and digital services, to loosen regulatory strictures on the fast-growing, U.S.-dominated sectors.
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Bertrand Benoit
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The Dutch government handed back control of semiconductor manufacturer Nexperia to its Chinese owner, moving toward resolving a spat that had blocked vital chip supply to the auto industry.
Dutch economic-affairs minister Vincent Karremans said Wednesday that the decision had been made in consultation with the Netherlands’ European and international partners and followed recent meetings with Chinese authorities.
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Adrià Calatayud
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Wilmer Chavarria was living the good life after faking his own death.
For four years, the Ecuadorean drug boss allied with Mexico’s Jalisco cartel moved among Dubai, Morocco and Spain, allegedly overseeing his drug empire and hit jobs back home—all while staying at the most exclusive hotels, Ecuador’s government said. To avoid detection, he underwent seven surgeries to alter his appearance and changed his name to Danilo Fernández.
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Ryan Dubé
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France denounced the U.S. military strikes on alleged drug boats as a violation of international law. Canada and the Netherlands have stressed they aren’t involved. Colombia has vowed to cut off intelligence cooperation with Washington. Mexico summoned the U.S. ambassador to complain.
Two months into the Trump administration’s military campaign against low-level smugglers in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific, the coalition of partners that has long underpinned U.S. antidrug operations in the region is fraying.
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Vera Bergengruen
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BRUSSELS—The European Union is racing against the clock to overcome Belgium’s objections to a plan to fund Ukraine’s defense using Russian money.
Ukraine is on course to run out of cash in the spring, EU officials say, and they see their loan proposal as the best option for allowing Kyiv to continue buying weapons. The plan would lend as much as 183 billion euros (about $213 billion) to Ukraine, backed by Russian financial assets that are immobilized in Belgium.
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[ad_2] Laurence NormanBERLIN—Germany will build a database of young people detailing their fitness, aptitude and outlook to help it pick whom to draft should the country be attacked.
The proposed move, a step toward reintroducing military conscription, comes as countries across Europe grapple with how to repopulate their armed forces under pressure from Washington and an expansionist Russia that European capitals accuse of waging a hybrid war on the continent.
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Bertrand Benoit
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LONDON—The U.K. has long been torn between two mutually exclusive desires: Voters want European levels of welfare with American levels of taxation.
By accident or design, that debate is slowly being resolved in the direction of higher taxes, as Britain’s Labour government prepares its second major tax increase in as many years.
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David Luhnow
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Barely 24 hours had passed since thieves had broken into the Louvre Museum and stolen France’s crown jewels when the mayor of Langres, a walled medieval town in Eastern France, received a troubling phone call.
The director of the town’s museum was on the line to report that it too had been robbed. Thieves had penetrated the Maison des Lumières Denis Diderot overnight and gone straight for a display case housing its collection of historic gold and silver coins.
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Noemie Bisserbe
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The European Central Bank’s key interest rate is unlikely to change unless the eurozone economy is hit by another big shock, a member of its executive board said Wednesday.
The ECB last month left its key rate at 2% for the third straight meeting, with inflation close to its target.
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Paul Hannon
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If you want to see what a “living constitution” looks like, go to Europe. On Tuesday, in Vainik v. Estonia, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that four longtime prisoners in Estonia were due restitution from the state for “weight gain, sleeping problems, depression, and anxiety” caused by not being allowed to smoke in prison.
The decision was grounded on Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. The text of Article 8 doesn’t mention any right to enjoy a cigarette whenever one pleases. Rather, it protects a broad “right to private life,” which the court accused Estonia of violating in the Vainik case. “The Court,” the judges wrote, “was sensitive to the context of the already limited personal autonomy of prisoners, and that the freedom for them to decide for themselves—such as whether to smoke—was all the more precious.” An odd ruling, but perhaps Europe loves its cigarettes that much?
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John Masko
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Tensions with the U.S. will heighten under the new left-wing president.
Robert C. O’Brien
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