Draft committee arrangements of the European Parliament’s biggest groups, seen by Euractiv, show that some heavyweight lawmakers surprisingly secured only substitute status due to the high demand for seats in the environment (ENVI) and industry (ITRE) committees.

A former Kosovo rebel commander was found guilty of war crimes on Tuesday (16 July) and sentenced to 18 years behind bars for abuses and murder in 1999 during Pristina's independence struggle.

European Union Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson said the Commission will propose changes to the EU's visa regime within July, according to two letters addressed to member states and seen by Euractiv, sent at the time Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is hunting for votes for reelection from the right.

The US received intelligence in recent weeks about an Iranian plot to assassinate former President Donald Trump, CNN said on Tuesday (16 July), and a US official said the Secret Service shared details of an increased threat with the Trump campaign.

In today’s edition of the Capitals, find out more about the Czech MEP calling the 'cordon sanitaire' effective, Metsola hinting at good cooperation with future European Council President Antonio Costa, and so much more.

Bulgaria expects help from EU countries to tackle the fires caused by the heatwave that has swept the country over the past two weeks, as large fires are reported almost hourly nationwide.

Polish MEP and ex-prime minister Ewa Kopacz of the ruling Civic Coalition (KO, EPP) was re-elected as one of the 14 vice presidents of the European Parliament, achieving the second-highest result among them.

European Council President-elect António Costa is a “strong and effective politician” who will “respect” the European Parliament when he takes office, newly re-elected European Parliament President Roberta Metsola said after meeting him on Tuesday.

Greece has ordered some businesses not to let their employees perform heavy outdoor duties during afternoon hours this week as the country sizzles in yet another heat wave.

Isolating far-right parties works, Czech MEP Ondřej Kolář (EPP) told Euractiv Czechia after the newly formed Patriots for Europe group failed to win any vice-presidential seats in the European Parliament on Tuesday.

As the European Political Community (EPC) gears up to meet this week and discuss the arc of conflict and instability and Europe's borders, European leaders must heed Winston Churchill's call to action, write Dylan Macchiarini Crosson and Steven Blockmans.

After several EU countries announced a boycott of the upcoming informal council meeting in Hungary, Germany seems ready to follow suit as not a single minister will travel to Budapest to attend the meeting.

Donald Trump's former leading rivals for the Republican presidential nomination, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, offered full-throated endorsements of his candidacy at the party's convention on Tuesday (16 July).

To be secure, von der Leyen needs support from a forth political group. This will most likely come from the Greens. But Green support cannot be at the expense of alienating large parts of her own EPP group.

US Senator Bob Menendez was convicted on Tuesday (16 July) on all 16 criminal counts he faced including bribery at his corruption trial in Manhattan federal court, completing the once-powerful New Jersey Democrat's dramatic downfall.

European governments must step up efforts to incentivise the private sector to invest in Ukraine in order to fund the war-torn country’s “enormous” enormous recovery and reconstruction needs, a senior EU official said on Tuesday (16 July).

Newly elected and re-elected members of the European Parliament are gathering in Strasbourg for the first plenary session of the new mandate.

By electing the institution’s vice-presidents, the members of the European Parliament kept the far-right political families isolated from vice-president positions on Tuesday (16 June), in a move that secured the cordon sanitaire in place.

Romania expects to sign a government-to-government agreement with the United States to purchase latest-generation F-35 fighter jets as early as this fall, the defence ministry said on Tuesday (16 July).

The European Court of Auditors has criticised the European Commission for setting unachievable hydrogen production and import targets for 2030, while praising its swift adoption of the market rulebook, in a new report published on Wednesday (17 July).