Closing summary
… and on that note, it’s a wrap!
Police in Germany said they detained a 31-year-old man suspected of painting swastikas with his own blood on dozens of cars, some mailboxes and building facades in the central town of Hanau (16:08).
The Belgian government has pledged to strengthen its new air security centre and take decisive steps to respond to drone sightings which disrupted Brussels airport earlier this week, after an emergency national security council meeting this morning (12:39).
The Czech prime minister, Petr Fiala, has formally tendered his resignation from the government as part of the administration change following last month’s parliamentary elections, with the populist billionaire Andrej Babiš expected to take over in the coming weeks (12:51, 16:50, 17:19).
The spectacular theft of an estimated €88m (£77m) of crown jewels from the Louvre last month was “a deafening wake-up call” for the “wholly inadequate pace” of security upgrades at the Paris museum, the head of France’s state auditor has said (10:55, story).
Poland will roll out a new military training programme this month as part of a broader plan to train around 400,000 people in 2026, the country’s defence ministry said (11:21).
France has urged the EU to take action over Chinese online retailer Shein after it was found to be selling childlike sex dolls and banned weapons on its market place, after a national decision to suspend its operations in the country (10:42, 12:22).
A Dutch court threw out a case brought by pro-Palestinian activists seeking to force the Netherlands to halt trade and weapons exports to Israel over the war in Gaza (11:51).
And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at [email protected].
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
New Czech parliament speaker takes Ukrainian flag off lower chamber's building
… and to give you a taster on what’s to come under the new Czech administration …
In one of the first acts in his role, the newly elected far-right speaker of the lower house of the Czech parliament, Tomio Okamura, has ordered to take down the Ukrainian flag flying over the building since the 2022 full-scale Russian invasion.
The SPD party leader, a signatory to a coalition agreement underpinning Babiš’s incoming government, told reporters from iDnes.cz that the change had a symbolic meaning, making good on his longstanding call to take Ukrainian flags off all public buildings.
In an accompanying video, he said: “Czech Republic first!”
Okamura’s SPD is a political ally of the German far-right Alternative für Deutschland party, with the two sitting together in the European parliament.
Updated
