Catalonia

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez calls coronavirus a war that “the Spanish people” must fight together, but in such a decentralized country it's proving a challenge to coordinate a common response from 17 autonomous regions with their own health systems. With the death toll rising at a terrifying rate and Spain…

By Andrew Burden Updated March 26, 2020 08:55:47 Confined to our apartment in Barcelona — a city in lockdown — every day we look at the numbers on those terrible graphs, and hope Australians will take advantage of the critical head start they have.We moved from Brisbane to Barcelona almost…

The European Union's passportless Schengen area is spending its 25th anniversary effectively suspended and locked down, with temporary restrictions and border controls erected between its member countries because of the coronavirus pandemic. The border-free zone, named after the eponymous Luxembourg village where the agreement was signed, first came into effect in its current…

The alleged leader of an online sexual blackmail ring which exploited dozens of vulnerable women and girls has been named after millions signed petitions in South Korea. At least 74 women, including 16 underage girls, were “virtually enslaved” for months, according to South Korea's National Police Agency. They were blackmailed and…

A short tsunami watch for Hawaii has been lifted after a 7.5 magnitude earthquake struck in the northern Pacific on Wednesday. Forecasters feared the quake, which struck 219 kilometres (136 miles) from Russia’s Kuril Islands, would trigger tsunami waves for nearby shores. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre initially issued a…

Spain's death toll from the coronavirus epidemic soared to 1,002 on Friday from 767 on the previous day, reported the country's health emergencies chief, Fernando Simon. The number of registered cases in the country also rose sharply to 19,980 on Friday from 17,147 on Thursday, Simon said. More: Coronavirus: Travel…

The Spanish government on Thursday (19 March) ordered the closure of all the country’s hotels and promised to implement special measures in nursing homes after a surge in the country’s coronavirus cases and deaths. Officials reported deaths had jumped by more than a third on Thursday to 767, while the…

The numbers of African black rhinos is slowly rising thanks to the efforts of conservationists, new figures have shown.  The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in an update that the total number of these critically endangered rhinos increased from 4,845 in 2012 to 5,630 in 2018 -…

The sarin gas attack on the Tokyo Metro in Japan took place a quarter of a century ago this Friday, an act of domestic bioterrorism that shocked the world. Members of the sinister Aum Shinrikyo (“Supreme Truth”) doomsday cult released the lethal nerve agent, originally developed by the Nazis, on…

This blog is part of EU-LISTCO, an innovative and timely project that investigates the challenges facing Europe’s foreign policy. A consortium of fourteen leading research institutions and universities aims to identify risks connected to areas of limited statehood and contested orders—and the EU’s ability to respond. The Russian authorities were probably…