Politico writes:
The French army painfully realized how difficult it was to cross Europe in the spring of 2022, when it deployed a battalion to Romania in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
[…]
"We discovered the extent of the administrative red tape. There's a war in Ukraine, but customs officials explain that you don't have the right tonnage per axle and that your tanks aren't allowed to cross Germany," Toujouse recalled. "It's just unbelievable."
It’s time for the Portuguese to start getting their permits now, so that they can to get to the spot when Russia attacks Estonia in 2030.
In Turkey-occupied Northern Cyprus, The Guardian writes, Turkish Cypriots stepped up demonstrations against a law allowing headscarves to be worn in schools:
Turkey’s president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has warned protesters in breakaway northern Cyprus not “to sow seeds of hatred” amid mounting discord over Ankara’s perceived attempts to Islamise one of the world’s most secular Muslim societies.
[…]
Friday’s demonstration, which followed almost daily protests over the hijab law, was organised by more than 100 trade unions and civil societies many of which still advocate the island’s reunification as a bi-zonal, bi-communal federation.
“Partly because of Kemalism but also because of eighty-two years of British colonial rule, Turkish Cypriots are by far the most secular Muslims in the world,” said Hubert Faustmann, professor of history and political science at the University of Nicosia in the internationally recognised south.
For Turkish Cypriots who have long opposed Ankara’s ever-expanding influence in the north, the regulation, he said, was further proof of the leader’s determination to not only erode long-held secular traditions but ultimately alter their own identity.
“What we are witnessing is a cultural clash,” Faustmann said. “The legislation on headscarves is seen as part of a package of continuous attempts by Erdoğan to unwind the secular character of the community.”
[…]
Increasingly, he lamented, Turkish Cypriots had been made to feel like a minority “in our own land” as a result of hundreds of thousands of mainland settlers moving to the north.
Some context from Wikipedia:
On 1 May 2004 Cyprus joined the European Union, together with nine other countries. Cyprus was accepted into the EU as a whole, although the EU legislation is suspended in Northern Cyprus until a final settlement of the Cyprus problem.
Does this matter? No idea. The Guardian tends to exaggerate when it comes to protest, so this may not be a big deal. Still, nice to see Turkish Cypriots not blindly accepting everything that comes from the mainland.
Europe in Space writes:
As [European Space Agency] awaits its chance to see one of its astronauts follow in the footsteps of Armstrong and Aldrin, Italy has carefully charted its own course through engineering prowess, diplomatic agility, and the not-so-subtle cultivation of influence in Washington. With the Multi-Purpose Habitat nearing design maturity and Meloni leveraging her growing rapport with Trump, Italy may yet find a way to the Moon that sidesteps the slow machinery of [european] consensus.