Hamas has seen about half its forces wiped out in eight months of war and is relying on hit-and-run insurgent tactics to frustrate Israel's attempts to take control of Gaza, US and Israeli officials said.

Veterans and world leaders meet in Normandy on Thursday (6 June) to mark the 80th anniversary of 1944 D-Day landings, when more than 150,000 Allied soldiers arrived in France by sea and air to drive out the forces of Nazi Germany.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday (5 June) that Russia could provide long-range weapons to third countries to strike Western targets in response to NATO allies allowing Ukraine to use their arms to attack Russian territory.

In today’s edition of the Capitals, find out more about German businesses warning against 'Dexit', Meloni calls for EU migration policy to be based on Italy-Albania deal, and so much more.

The top national delegations will reshape the Parliament's balance of powers while feeding new priorities into the legislative work, and with voting set to start on Thursday (6 June), Europe Elects' final projections for Euractiv lay out what could lie ahead.

Prosecutors are investigating George Simion, leader of Romania's far-right AUR party, for allegedly orchestrating the falsification of thousands of signatures needed for Silvestru Șoșoacă's candidacy as an independent in the EU elections, something AUR denies.

The Bulgarian army is struggling to shake off the pre-election wave of disinformation that soldiers are about to be sent to fight in Ukraine, despite pro-Russian far-right political forces and President Rumen Radev continuing to say this is in the works.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who was shot several times in an assassination attempt on 15 May, unexpectedly posted a video on Facebook in which he said he did not believe the attack on him had been carried out by a "lone madman", blamed the media and the opposition, and announced that he would be able to return to work in early July.

Respect for European values is the absolute "red line" of the conservative Partido Popular (EPP), the main opposition force in Spain, for any future alliance in the European Parliament after Sunday's elections, the party's main candidate in the European elections Dolors Montserrat told Euractiv's partner EFE in an interview.

The deal Italy has struck with Albania to have the latter process the asylum claims of thousands of migrants picked up at sea sent to it by Italy should be replicated at the EU level, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said on Wednesday, adding that it could be part of a structural solution for the EU.

Franco-German armoured vehicle manufacturer KNDS is to open its first factory on Ukrainian soil, the French Elysee Palace has confirmed, with details to be worked out between President Emmanuel Macron and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy when they meet at the Normandy landings commemorations on Thursday.

Germany's exit from the European Union, also known as "Dexit", would cost the country's economy €200 billion a year, business lobby INSM warned on Wednesday, as Germany's far-right AfD party, currently second in the polls ahead of this weekend's EU elections, maintains a strong anti-EU rhetoric.

Disinformation is in full swing in Slovakia, with pro-Russian forces accusing opposition leader Michal Šimečka of the Progressive Slovakia party (PS) of planning an uprising similar to the 2014 Maidan in Ukraine, alongside narratives that foreign entities plotted the assassination of Prime Minister Robert Fico and that the EU wants to kill cows and force citizens to eat worms instead.

A more right-wing European Parliament could mean fewer regulatory initiatives in the area of tech, a weakened push for market integration, but more support for defence tech, according to party manifestos and an interview with an expert.

Dutch voters on Thursday (6 June) kicked off a four-day election marathon across the 27 nations of the European Union -- providing an early litmus test of how far right the next EU parliament might shift.

Today is the first day of the European elections, with citizens heading to the polls to determine who will sit in the new European Parliament, first in the Netherlands today and then in the other EU countries on 7-9 June. 

With Belgians voting in regional, federal and European elections on the same day, the far-right and the far-left are set to make serious gains as experts differ on whether the substantial number of people aged 16-23 voting for the first time will influence the outcome.

Natural disasters prompted by climate change are putting pressure on EU forest resilience, but the bloc’s Forest Monitoring Law could help forest owners, researchers, policymakers and civil society address these risks.

In the face of escalating ecological, social, economic, and political challenges threatening life on Earth, a European network championing community-led climate change and sustainability initiatives has evolved.

Beijing has toughened its critical tone towards the European Union’s protectionist measures against China, warning of increased friction in trade relations. As a trade war brews, the EU is uniting with Japan in fending off Chinese clean tech competition.