As Europe faces increasingly frequent and complex crises, the European Commission is stepping up efforts to strengthen preparedness across the EU. From helping citizens protect themselves during emergencies to ensuring that national civil protection systems can keep operating when disaster strikes.

In a letter shared exclusively with The New Republic, Senator Chris Van Hollen condemned multiple errors at Meta that have affected left-wing groups and individuals.

YouTube video by Tim Gaspar for LA City Council

National Prepardness month

The Swedish financial system is stable and the financial sector’s preparedness for crisis and war has been strengthened. The geopolitical situation increases the risk of both financial and operational shocks in the financial system. The rapid technological development, particularly within artificial intelligence, is also enhancing the significance of operational risks and could make the risks in the financial sector more complex and difficult to assess. The conflict in the Middle East has increased the probability of a deeper recession, rising inflation and higher interest rates in Sweden. This could lead to highly indebted households and non-financial corporations to once again experience pressure on their margins, which increases the risk of credit losses in the banking sector. Swedish banks have a significant exposure to commercial real estate firms. The commercial real estate sector’s financial situation has strengthened recently, but several commercial real estate firms are highly indebted, have short fixed interest-rate terms and high vacancies, which makes them vulnerable. However, since the major Swedish banks have significant capital and liquidity buffers and continue to have a good profitability they are resilient to such a scenario. During the spring, periods with large price fluctuations and high volatility on global financial markets occurred. Such situations could in a worst-case scenario lead to a weakening of the financial position of Swedish life insurance undertakings and occupational pension undertakings. This could also lead to higher borrowing costs for Swedish banks. However, life insurance undertakings and occupational pension undertakings have a strong solvency, and the major banks have a good liquidity position. Overall, the Swedish financial system has good resilience to strong price fluctuations in global financial markets. The security situation is strained, and the Swedish financial sector needs to be able to continue to function in the event of heightened states of alert and war in Sweden. The Government has tasked FI with leading and coordinating the preparedness work for the financial services sector. During the past year, FI published a planning guidance for financial firms and established a new structure for private-public collaboration within the sector. FI also categorized the firms that are identified as being important for total defence, built up a function for situational awareness, enhanced the collaboration with both the private sector and other actors, and participated in and completed exercises to enhance the sector’s ability to manage crises and war. The Government submitted a proposal to the Parliament for the establishment of a new function for operational crisis management in the financial sector as of 1 July 2026 under the leadership of the Swedish Riksbank. This function will include Finansinspektionen, the Swedish National Debt Office and certain financial firms. * Report: Financial stability and prepardness (2026:1) ( < 1MB)

JOHOR BARU: His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia, was presented with a briefing on the implementation and progress of flood mitigation projects, as well as the readiness of relevant agencies to handle potential flood disasters in Johor.

BE READY PLUS is an EU-funded project designed to help Europe better predict and respond to new infectious disease threats. To be fully prepared for the next epidemic or pandemic, Europe needs a strong and well-organized partnership. BE READY PLUS will pave the way towards the successful launch and implementation of the partnership. This partnership will create a research and innovation ecosystem that can quickly and effectively respond to future health crises. It will also work closely with Europe’s broader health security system to ensure a fast and coordinated response.   Enveloppe ANRS MIE pour les équipes françaises 1 million d’euros. Maximum budget requested par the French team within a single project : 250k€ Anticipated number of fundable research groups : 4   Pays participants : Allemagne, Autriche, Belgique, Danemark, Espagne, Estonie, France (ANRS MIE/inserm), Grèce, Hongrie, Irlande, Italie, Moldavie, Norvège, Nouvelle Zélande, Pays Bas, Tchéquie, Turquie Webinar for applicants : 28 January 2026, 11 :00 Inscriptions Submission deadline pre-proposals : 13 April 2026, 13 :00 Full proposals: 20 August 2026, 13:00 CET JTC2026_Call_Text- Guidelines for Applicants and Pre-Proposal Template   -> Contact : inmaculada.ortega-perez@inserm.fr / anne-laure.annic@inserm.fr / iris.saada@anrs.fr : 01 82 53 33 34

Predict project had identified 160 potentially dangerous coronaviruses but was wound down three months before outbreak

Finland has long been a nation of preppers, thanks in part to its close proximity to Russia. So could its self-sufficiency be a role model for other nations, including Australia?