EUROPEAN UNION: Top EU officials today outlined plans to expand the bloc’s arms industry at an unprecedented pace as it seeks to respond to Russia’s war on Ukraine and US hints it will reduce European commitments.

“After decades of underspending, we must invest more on defence, but we need to do it better and together,” said EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell.

INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL COURT: The arrest of two high-ranking Russian military officers was ordered today on charges linked to attacks on civilian infrastructure in Ukraine.

Warrants were issued for the detention of Lieutenant General Sergei Ivanovich Kobylash, commander of the long-range aviation of Russia’s Aerospace Force at the time of the alleged crimes, and Admiral Viktor Kinolayevich Sokolov, who was the commander of the country’s Black Sea Fleet.

GERMANY: A military officer used an unsecured phone line at a Singapore hotel to join a conference call that was hacked by Russians and leaked to the public, Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said today.

“Not all participants adhered to the secure dialling procedure as intended,” Mr Pistorius said as he briefed reporters in Berlin on the initial results of an ongoing investigation.

KOSOVO: A court sentenced Blendi Vrajolli today to three-and-a-half years in prison for planning attacks against an LGBT+ march in Pristina last year.

A court statement said that he had contacted a person in Saudi Arabia to learn how to create bombs that he planned to use against the march in the capital and at the Merdare border crossing.