Between 100 and 200 mainly Moroccan illegal migrants have begun a hunger strike in Ceuta, demanding asylum, transfer to mainland Spain and ‘equal treatment’. The protest comes as hundreds of Moroccan applicants receive negative decisions, while the Spanish enclave’s mayor-president declares there will be ‘no regularization, no asylum and no transfer to the Peninsula’.

‘Meet your new neighbor, America,’ Alberta separatists declared as they promoted an October referendum that could set the province on a path towards a later independence vote. The oil-rich conservative stronghold is being branded the ‘Texas of the North’, while separatist groups increasingly cultivate links with the United States under Donald Trump.

Former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán’s father has offered a ‘large quantity of stone’ for emergency works at the Paks nuclear plant, joining a growing wave of corporate contributions from businessmen linked to the former Fidesz era. His offer follows pledges from Garancsi-, Szíjj- and Tiborcz-linked firms and others as Hungary races to stabilize Danube water levels and avoid the shutdown of the plant.

Greece’s hard-line ‘prison or return’ migration policy is beginning to show measurable results, with 599 migrants choosing voluntary return rather than risk imprisonment under the new illegal-stay regime. Total returns rose 20 per cent in the first half of 2026 and forced returns by 41 per cent, making Greece an early test case for the toughest version of the EU’s new Return Regulation.

Hubert Kós closed the European Aquatics Championships with a third gold on Sunday, winning the 200m individual medley in a national-record 1:54.24. The 23-year-old had already taken gold in the 200m backstroke and 4x100m freestyle relay, helping Hungary finish fifth in the medal table with 17 medals, ahead of host nation France, despite being the smallest nation in the top five.

Budapest’s Festival of Folk Arts will mark its 40th edition with the United States as guest of honour, linking the four-day event at Buda Castle to celebrations of America’s 250th anniversary. Eighteen US artists will showcase traditional crafts, while visitors can help create a new tapestry inspired by Benjamin Franklin’s famous rattlesnake motif.

Europe’s tallest statue of the Virgin Mary was consecrated on Saturday in Konotopie, Poland, where around 2,000 worshippers gathered for the Feast of the Assumption. Privately funded by billionaire Roman Karkosik as a votive offering, the project arrives as Poland, a fundamentally deeply Christian country, wrestles with secularization and declining Catholic practice.

The Spanish Guardia Civil has confirmed that 15 rapes have been registered in Ceuta since the mass invasion from Morocco at the end of July, deepening concerns over security in the enclave. Two suspects who entered during the influx have already been detained in connection with the cases, while at least one has now been ordered expelled to Morocco.

‘If national continuity is sufficiently real to transmit liabilities from the past, it must also be sufficiently real to transmit assets and obligations into the future. Today’s Europeans did not build most of the cities they live in, create the legal systems they rely on, establish their borders or accumulate all the institutional and cultural capital they possess. They inherited them. Yet neither are they the final owners. Their children will inherit what remains.’

Former Cambridge professor Jason Arday has been found dead at 41, days after resigning amid a major plagiarism scandal and widening scrutiny of his academic record. Police are treating the death as unexpected but not suspicious, while people close to Arday said his mental health had deteriorated sharply under intense public criticism in the final days of his life.