Europe

More than half a million KitKat bars vanished in Europe last week after thieves stole the truck carrying the confectionery, Nestle said. In a statement, the Swiss food giant said the shipment consisted of 413,793 KitKat bars from the brand’s new range. The truck departed from central Italy to distribute the chocolate across Europe, but it never arrived at its planned final stop in Poland. Nestle said neither the vehicle nor the merchandise has been accounted for, and it did not specify the exact location where the truck was…

Europe’s hunt for an economic reset has stretched across two turbulent years, ever since the abrupt end of cheap Russian oil and gas collided with a steady slide in competitiveness against the United States and China. Each time a fix seemed within reach, President Donald Trump shifted the terms of debate—first with his Liberation Day tariffs, and now with the Iran War. Yet, in a twist, the very disarray Mr Trump provokes has jolted into motion reforms long stalled by member-state pushback. Chief among them is “EU Inc,”…

Katya AdlerEurope EditorThursday March 19, 2026 Turbulence in the Middle East has sent a fresh shudder through Europe’s energy system, stirring memories of past shocks that rattled the European Union. Seven months after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the President of the European Commission rose in the European Parliament to charge Moscow with distorting the EU’s energy market. "They prefer to flare the gas than to deliver it," proclaimed Ursula von der Leyen, as spiralling energy…

Tallinn’s Slava Ukrainia restaurant was meant as a refuge for people displaced by the war next door. One winter morning, it became a crime scene. CCTV captured two men outside: one filming, the other setting the blaze that would gut the Ukrainian-themed eatery. Within weeks, a cross-border investigation had tracked the suspects — Moldovan nationals — to Italy. By summer, an Estonian court had convicted one of arson in the interests of a foreign intelligence service. Prosecutors said he worked for Russia’s military…

Iran accuses U.S., Israel and Europe of exploiting unrest as casualty claims mount Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian accused the United States, Israel and European leaders of exploiting the country’s economic crisis to incite nationwide protests, as Iranian authorities and rights groups issued sharply conflicting death tolls from the two-week upheaval. In a live state television address, Pezeshkian said foreign actors “provoked, created division, and supplied resources,” drawing “some innocent people into this movement”…

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said “we are at a crossroads” amid a U.S. threat, signaling a pivotal moment for Europe’s economic and security posture as tensions with Washington simmer. Von der Leyen’s remark, delivered during live remarks monitored by Axadle Times, underscored the sensitivities in transatlantic ties as the European Union assesses risks to its strategic industries and broader interests. No further details were immediately available on the specific nature of the U.S. threat or the…

Outside the White House, Denmark’s foreign minister jogged toward a car, fished out a pack of cigarettes and lit up. The video went viral: Lars Løkke Rasmussen, smoke curling from his lips, wordlessly offering a cigarette and lighter to his Greenlandic counterpart, Vivian Motzfeldt. The moment captured the mood of a week in which Europe, Denmark and Greenland were forced to contemplate something once unthinkable — deterring the United States from taking Greenland. “We didn’t manage to change the American position,” Rasmussen…

TikTok will begin rolling out new age-detection technology across Europe in the coming weeks, the company said, as the ByteDance-owned platform faces mounting regulatory pressure to better identify and remove accounts belonging to children under 13. The previously unreported system follows a year-long pilot in Europe and is designed to strengthen enforcement of TikTok’s minimum-age rules without resorting to blanket, intrusive checks. The company said the tool analyses profile information, posted videos and behavioral…

Storm Goretti battered northern Europe with heavy snow and gale-force winds, knocking out power to hundreds of thousands of homes, closing schools and suspending rail services across France, Britain and Germany as the region endured a week of freezing weather. Emergency crews from the Atlantic coast to the North Sea scrambled to clear downed trees, restore power and keep key corridors open after Goretti slammed into Britain yesterday and moved eastward overnight. France absorbed some of the worst of the impacts as the storm…

Europe’s deep freeze forced widespread travel cancellations and claimed at least six lives for a second straight day, as snow, ice and high winds disrupted transport networks from the North Sea to the Balkans and forecasters warned of more wintry weather ahead. Five people died in France after weather-related accidents on icy roads, authorities said, including three in black ice crashes in the southwest. A taxi driver died after veering into the Marne River in the Paris region; his passenger was being treated for…