Europe
World on The Indeks: Europe.
File photo: Photo: FreCha, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
France puts its biggest cities under curfew, and buys itself one quiet night
Overnight curfews now cover parts of Paris, Lyon, Lille, Bordeaux, Nice and Marseille after the worst unrest in years. The government calls it control restored. Its critics call it a confession, and the movement has already called the next march for Saturday.
Paris, France · October 20, 2026
File photo: Photo: Andrew Shiva (Godot13), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
A thousand drones over St Petersburg, and a message for Washington too
Ukraine struck oil sites, a shopping warehouse and a data centre in and around Vladimir Putin's home city. Moscow says it downed 1,015 drones in one night, a claim Kyiv was happy to let stand, because scale was the point.
St Petersburg, Russia · October 19, 2026
File photo: Photo: Beusson, via Wikimedia Commons, CC0.
Nine years out, and Puigdemont can finally come home
A Supreme Court judge has confirmed the arrest warrant is gone, so the Catalan leader who fled Spain in 2017 can return without being detained. The amnesty itself is still undecided, and an early election is six weeks away.
Barcelona, Spain · October 19, 2026
File photo: Photo: FreCha, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
France counts the cost of a weekend of unrest, and Macron tries to split the marchers from the wreckage
Officially 550,000 people marched across France on Saturday. By Sunday night the president was on television promising talks for the peaceful majority and prosecutions for the people who burned and looted, with an election six months away.
Paris, France · October 19, 2026
File photo: Photo: Roland Godefroy, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
Student protests are spreading across Europe. The map tells the story.
France is the epicentre, but Serbia, Greece and Albania are marching too. What the demonstrators want, country by country.
Paris, France · October 18, 2026
File photo: Photo: Krzysztof Dudzik-Górnicki (ToSter), via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 3.0.
The war has reached NATO waters, and Romania is shooting back
Romanian F-16s shot down two fast drones over the Black Sea on Saturday, after a fortnight in which at least seven commercial ships were hit near the Romanian and Bulgarian coasts. The shipping lane Ukraine depends on is becoming a front line.
Bucharest, Romania · October 18, 2026
File photo: Photo: Tauno Tõhk / European Council, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0.
One long table in Brussels, and the decisions Europe can no longer put off
The leaders arrived with the same agenda they left with last time: Ukraine, energy, and who pays. What has changed is how little room is left to keep deferring the answers.
Brussels, Belgium · October 18, 2026
File photo: Photo: Albinfo, via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0.
Albania's Flamingo Revolution stops being peaceful
For 140 days the movement stayed peaceful, and patience was the whole strategy. This week that strategy gave way in Tirana, and the demand shrank to a single word: resign.
Tirana, Albania · October 18, 2026
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