Europe

17 years old skier Rafael Mini, the only athlete representing San Marino at the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics, will debut tomorrow racing the giant slalom on the iconic Stelvio piste in Bormio

Health workers in Kemerovo are reporting delayed and reduced salaries as the region registers record-breaking budget deficit due to coal industry crisis; delayed payments have been recurrent across Russia, particularly in areas reliant on state funding

Slovenia's last remaining operational coal mine, Velenje will be wound down over the next twenty years at the cost of over €1.1 billion; commercial mining is scheduled to stop in 2033, the target year for the country to phase out coal

Bosnian Serb Leader Milorad Dodik has been criticised for making derogatory comments and using racist rhetoric about Bosniaks at a press conference following the presidential election in Bosnia’s mainly Serb Republika Srpska won by his ally Sinisa Karan

Skiers Ariane Rädler and Katharina Huber won the alpine team combination, the first Olympic victory for the ÖSV women in over ten years; the first gold at Milano-Cortina Winter Games came with snowboarder Benjamin Karl in the men's parallel giant slalom

Madeleine Beck is the only female athlete in the 8-people strong team Liechtenstein; she is an alpine skier who hasn't yet declared in which race she will compete at Milano-Cortina 2026, and never finished or qualified in the last two seasons

88% of Lithuanians oppose raising the retirement age, latest survey shows; Minister of Social Security and Labour underlines there are no plans to make people retire later and the currently existing retirement age for women and men, 65 years, is optimal

Public attention in Bulgaria has been focused on an opaque criminal case, made more disturbing by lack of official information: in a week six people were found dead in Western Stara Planina, all linked to NGO National Agency for Control of Protected Areas

The number of foreign nationals working in Montenegro has almost doubled since 2017 in response to a widening shortage of labour in the country; authorities and employers intensity efforts to fill gaps in the legal framework and the jobs market

Shuttle ships on the Tallinn–Helsinki route are increasing the use of cleaner fuel and will soon be fully powered by renewable energy: in January, 74% of the fuel used was liquefied biomethane and Tallink is set abandon LNG for liquefied biomethane

The Russian personalized mRNA cancer vaccines will be available to patients in Serbia starting in 2026, said Minister without portfolio Nenad Popovic speaking from Moscow following meetings with Russian Health Minister

17 of the 114 films and documentaries released in Catalan throughout 2025 were screened in Andorra, 15% of the total says report by Plataforma per la Llengua on the presence of cinema in Catalan

With the first during of concrete, IAEA officially changed the status of Paks II nuclear power plant from project to under construction; government sees it as a guarantee for reducing ancillary costs, and the "flagship of Europe’s nuclear renaissance"