WORLD WORLDWIDE EUROPE Eu - euobserver - The Friday Five - Friday 7 August 2026.

 

The Friday Five Editor-in-chief picks her favourite stories of the week. Poland’s six‑minute Russia missile scare shows how fast Nato can spot a threat — and the agonising slowness of deciding if to fire back The Russian missile was in Polish airspace for six minutes. Everything Poland did well happened after it hit the ground. From the Vlora to Ceuta: has Europe forgotten that ‘they are people’? On 8 August 1991, thousands of Albanians arrived in Bari aboard an overcrowded cargo ship. 35 years later, as Ceuta tests Europe’s new migration architecture, the words of Bari’s mayor Enrico Dalfino offer an uncomfortable measure of how far Europe’s migration debate has travelled: can Europe still say “they are people”? Internal documents reveal Shell decision to keep polluted Niger Delta pipeline open despite staff warnings Shell records disclosed in a UK court case show the company kept a major Nigerian pipeline running despite warnings that oil theft was causing spills across the Niger Delta. Germany has lost its moral compass, as it shields Israel from sanctions and legal scrutiny Germany has betrayed its post-war moral and legal foundations by shielding Israel from accountability for alleged violations of international law, writes former EU envoy Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff. ‘Cursed August’ returns to haunt Russia as Putin’s regime comes under pressure The Putin regime is rigid but brittle, and under increasing stress; don’t switch your phones off.   Copyright © 2026 EUobserver.com. All rights reserved.