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Brussels and NATO have promised a tougher response to Russia after Germany blamed Moscow for the drone attack on Leipzig airport, with Ursula von der Leyen calling it a new escalation on European Union soil.

At the same time, Finland has run Europe's largest civil defence exercise since the Second World War, and a leaked police report has thrown the Spanish government into turmoil over who steered the Ceuta border crisis.

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1️⃣ 🇫🇮🇷🇺 Finland runs Europe's largest civil defense exercise since WWII: Finland has staged the largest civil defence exercise in Europe since the Second World War, with more than 2,000 people in the city of Kuopio rehearsing a Russian attack that cuts off power and water. Savon Voima chief executive Juha Räsänen said cyberattacks on his company's network had risen sharply since the invasion of Ukraine, and that engineers found at least 10 stickers placed on vulnerable parts of the energy infrastructure last year.

2️⃣ 🇩🇰🇬🇱 Denmark sends conscripts to Greenland as Arctic tensions grow: Danish conscripts have been deployed to Greenland for the first time in recent history, part of the first cohort under Denmark's extended conscription programme, as Copenhagen bolsters its Arctic presence after US demands to acquire the territory. The conscripts are taking part in Arctic Endurance, part of NATO's Arctic Sentry mission, which Russia has called a direct security threat.

3️⃣ 🇺🇦 Zelenskyy furious after shootout between Kyiv's spy services: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called a shootout in Kyiv between the SBU internal security service and the GUR military intelligence agency "absolutely shameful", after three officers were reportedly wounded, and fired a senior SBU officer. Reports said the gunfight stemmed from the SBU detaining a leader of an anti-Kremlin Russian unit fighting for Ukraine under GUR supervision.

4️⃣ 🇪🇺 11 EU countries demand end to 'obstructive' vetoes on foreign policy: Eleven EU countries including France, Germany and Spain wrote to High Representative Kaja Kallas demanding an end to the "obstructive" vetoes that have paralysed the bloc's foreign policy, urging greater use of constructive abstentions. They want to explore moving from unanimity to qualified majority voting, though that switch would itself require unanimity, and none of the Baltic states signed.

5️⃣ 🇨🇳🇪🇬 Xi visits Egypt as China seeks deeper influence across the Mideast: Chinese President Xi Jinping told Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi that the two countries should jointly oppose "unilateralism and acts of bullying", on his first visit to Egypt in a decade, according to the state news agency Xinhua. China has invested more than $10bn in Egypt, and the Suez Canal has become an important alternative route as Hormuz shipments are disrupted.

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Major Story

🇪🇺🇷🇺 EU and NATO vow to step up pressure on Russia

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Leipzig marks a new escalation on European Union soil directly attributed to Russia, a day after Germany blamed Moscow for a failed drone attack on the airport.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said the alliance stood in full solidarity with Germany, and both warned that Russia was growing increasingly reckless.

Two suspects have reportedly been identified, including a Belarusian with a Russian passport who entered on a tourist visa, and another holding Latvian and Russian passports who flew out of Berlin two days before the failed attack.

Russia rejects the accusation and has responded to German sanctions by closing Goethe-Institut cultural centres in Moscow, St Petersburg and Yekaterinburg, with Russian President Vladimir Putin calling Berlin's measures a serious mistake.

Several further acts of suspected sabotage were reported in Germany within 24 hours, including attacks on electricity substations at Bergheim and near the Jänschwalde power plant, while Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said a fire at a drone factory was deliberate arson.

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Other News

1️⃣ 🇹🇷🇷🇺 Turkey's relations with Russia, China don't mean turning its back on the West, Erdogan says: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said seeking deeper ties with the East did not mean turning Turkey's back on the West, reiterating his goal of full membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation as he returned from its summit in Bishkek. He met Russian President Vladimir Putin on further nuclear cooperation and called for a mechanism to protect Black Sea shipping.

2️⃣ 🇪🇸🇲🇦 Spanish government in turmoil as Ceuta crisis deepens: A leaked police report suggested the Ceuta border crisis, in which more than 80,000 migrants crossed into the Spanish enclave, was planned and steered by Moroccan authorities, contradicting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's repeated exoneration of Rabat. The head of Spain's national police then said there was no evidence "whatsoever" of Moroccan orchestration.

3️⃣ 🇺🇸🇮🇷 Trump suggests renaming Strait of Hormuz as Trump Strait amid Iran war: US President Donald Trump suggested renaming the Strait of Hormuz as "Trump Strait", writing that the waterway was under US control, less than 24 hours after US strikes killed at least four people including two children at a wedding in Sirik. Iran maintains the strait is closed and under its control, and US petrol reached $4.12 a gallon, up from under $3 before the war.

4️⃣ 🌍 UN warns of 'supersized' El Niño as countries prepare for impact: The World Meteorological Organization said the developing El Niño could be the strongest for more than 70 years and last until at least February 2027, with UN Secretary-General António Guterres warning the world had entered a "danger zone of extreme weather". Panama will cut vessel numbers through its canal by more than 10% in anticipation of lower rainfall.

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