The same Czech government that vowed “not a single crown” for Ukrainian weapons is now moving budget lines into the US-led Nato Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List fund, as leaders head into a high-stakes Ankara summit.
In Prague, the same government that tried to quietly loosen conflict-of-interest rules for its own prime minister is now being pushed by internal dissent and EU scrutiny to rethink the deal before it blows up.
By quietly rerouting sanctioned timber through China, Kazakhstan and EU neighbours, Russian suppliers are testing whether Europe’s fractured enforcement can uphold its own wartime embargoes.
What began as a lucrative OnlyFans “agency” promoted by one of the Czech Republic’s biggest influencers is now at the centre of a human‑trafficking case that could send him and his associates to prison for up to 12 years and shake the country’s online creator economy.
As Andrej Babiš rages against a supposed “deep state” while surrounding himself with pro-Russian and ultra‑conservative allies inside his own office, even long‑time insiders from his party ANO fear he is slipping further into paranoia and culture‑war politics.
Some OnlyFans middlemen allegedly got rich by managing then exploiting young models, with a recent investigation seeing four charged by Czech police. Now the EU has to face adapting their human trafficking strategy.
Global military expenditure hit a record high last year, after rising for more than a decade. Poland leads the way in the eastern flank of Nato, despite a steep budget deficit.
In a strategic about-face, the Czech Republic is looking to join French President Emmanuel Macron’s initiative to build a pan-European nuclear deterrent.
Responsibility for Europe reads differently from Bratislava than from Brussels. The new German defence strategy is worth reading carefully, particularly from the capitals whose security still depends on German territory. Responsibility for Europe will be defined in the next decade by what Berlin does if Washington no longer underwrites European defence at previous levels. Germany has now stated, in writing, that this is the planning horizon.
The initiative aims to give the government power to arbitrarily persecute anyone, including universities, activists, media, NGOs and others. Those who opt not to register would face fines of up to €600,000.
Global arms flows are surging to Cold War levels, fuelled by European rearmament and the war in Ukraine. Ukraine, Poland, and the Czech Republic are reshaping Europe’s defence landscape, while a Czechoslovak Group’s record-breaking IPO exposes links between business and politics. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia eyes Ukrainian weapons amid drone threats, highlighting a defence boom that is both highly profitable and increasingly entangled with geopolitics.