Europe

Battle of wills

A New Year’s interview with Volodymyr Zelensky

The Ukrainian president remains defiant, despite the prospect of a bleak year ahead

A heavy strike

Russia tries to overwhelm Ukraine with missiles

As the land war grinds on, the aerial one is heating up

Charlemagne

In Turkey, Erdogan’s charges of Western hypocrisy stick

He is making hay with the war in Gaza

French style

Why French women no longer wear high heels

A footwear revolution in the world’s fashion capital

How to fund it

Europe is struggling to find the money

Rows over budget rules have been bitter

Charlemagne

At Christmas, Europeans look less united than ever

There is no single market for how to celebrate the holidays

The blue queen

The head of the hard-right Alternative for Germany is riding high

Alice Weidel’s laments for the decline of Germany, and broadsides against immigrants, strike a chord among voters

Rough draft

Ukraine’s army is struggling to find good recruits

Russia is suffering immense casualties—but it has the edge in manpower

Navalny vanishes

Alexei Navalny, Russia’s opposition leader, is missing in the gulag

His last message announced a campaign against Vladimir Putin

An early Christmas for Kyiv

Ukraine takes an important step towards EU membership

The EU’s leaders agree to open accession talks with it—but Hungary blocks a big aid package

Charlemagne

Stolpersteine grieve for victims of the Nazis, one at a time

Gunter Demnig’s paving stones spark countless acts of remembrance

Unfair play

Spain’s institutions are groaning under partisan pressure

The left, the right and separatist movements all play a role