US President Joe Biden must drop his re-election bid or Donald Trump is sure to return to the White House, former Italian prime minister Matteo Renzi said on Wednesday (3 July).

In today’s edition of the Capitals, find out more about Poland reportedly scaring Belarus with new trade measures, Bulgaria's Boyko Borissov failing to form a new government, and so much more.

China's President Xi Jinping made a congratulatory call on Thursday (4 July) to incoming European Council President Antonio Costa, Chinese state media said, a few hours before European Commission curbs on Chinese electric cars are scheduled to take effect.

Cuba is building a new radar site likely to be capable of spying on the US Guantanamo base, a Washington think tank found using satellite images, the latest upgrade to the country's surveillance capabilities long thought to be linked to China.

Russia declared a member of the Romanian embassy in Moscow persona non grata in response to Romania's decision to do the same to a Russian diplomat at the end of May, Romania’s Foreign Ministry announced Wednesday.

Bulgaria's parliament on Tuesday rejected the government proposed by the country's largest party, plunging the EU's poorest country into another political crisis and greatly diminishing the prospects of avoiding the seventh general election in just over three years.

Slovakia's Constitutional Court has ruled that most of the criticised changes to the country's Criminal Code are constitutional and can be implemented, a decision that could potentially jeopardise Slovakia's access to EU funds.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko has held close government meetings to discuss how to deal with the new in-depth checks on goods which Poland has introduced as a measure to slow down the flow of goods from Belarus, Polish media report.

Portugal and Spain have agreed to participate jointly in meetings with France on energy interconnections, arguing that the issue is a European one and not just one between the Iberian peninsula and France, the environment ministers announced on Wednesday.

Spanish far-right party VOX has rejected claims from Luise "Alvise" Perez, viewed as the 'rising star' in Spain's far-right scene, that his party SALF has been denied entry into the EU's conservative ECR group.

As Italy's Five Star Movement (M5S) looks to Thursday's decision on its membership of the European Parliament's Left group, it remains to be seen whether its controversial past deals in a previous government with Matteo Salvini's Lega will make the EU group look the other way.

Czechia has been subjected to targeted information operations aimed at reducing support for Ukraine, a recent report by the Czech National Centre for Combating Organised Crime (NCOZ) has revealed.

Russia's central bank told businesses they should use "multiple choice solutions" including cryptocurrencies and other digital assets to facilitate payments with foreign partners to counter Western sanctions imposed over the Ukraine conflict.

With the UK Labour Party leading in the polls by a 20 point lead over the incumbent Conservative Party, a change in government following Thursday’s (4 July) snap general election seems inevitable and is likely to have a positive impact on somewhat icy post-Brexit UK-EU relations.

Turkish President Tayyip Erdoğan told Russia's Vladimir Putin on Wednesday (3 July) that Ankara could help end the Ukraine-Russia war, but Putin's spokesman said Erdoğan could not play the role of an intermediary in the 28-month-old conflict.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Wednesday (3 July) called for vigilance in the face of far-right political gains in Europe, citing narratives that dehumanise migrants and asylum seekers.

Russian disinformation campaigns are targeting social media to destabilise the French political scene — currently in a legislative campaign — by steering it more towards the "extremes" and fragmenting the so-called "Republican front", a study found.

NATO members are increasingly concerned about the risks to the cohesion of the Western military alliance posed by the possible entry of the French far-right into government, and whether Paris' influence and commitment to Ukraine could wane in the near future.

Germany’s three-party government coalition did not manage to reach an internal deal on the 2025 draft budget by Wednesday (3 July), which had previously been named as the deadline for an internal agreement, as differences over potential spending cuts prove difficult to bridge.

UK citizens head to the polls today for a general election widely expected to end the 14 years of Conservative rule and return the Labour Party to power, prompting questions about what it will mean for the EU-UK relations and why - while Europe is shifting to the right - the UK is turning left.