central Europe

Bundz cheese from Poland.

Polish cheesemakers bask in newfound fame

Food

The food website Taste Atlas recently rated the light and creamy bundz, made from sheep’s milk, as one of the top cheeses in the world. The cheese doesn’t come from France or Italy — it comes from the southern mountains of Poland.

Venice’s Grand Canal was for centuries a thoroughfare for the global shipping trade on the ancient Silk Road.

Italy is caught in the middle of the EU’s tussle with its ‘systemic rival,’ China

On China's New Silk Road
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy listens to a translator as he and US President Donald Trump hold a bilateral meeting

Trump scandal threatens to derail Ukraine’s anti-corruption efforts

Richard Spencer

Poland’s right-wing nationalist government objects to visit by US white supremacist Richard Spencer

Conflict
Election campaign posters for the leader billionaire politician Andrej Babis in Prague, Czech Republic, reading: "Stand up against corruption and stop babbling."

The populist tide has spread to one of Central Europe’s last liberal democracies

Global Politics
Protesters in Prague show symbolic red cards to Czech President Milos Zeman on the anniversary of the Velvet Revolution in 2014.

Things just got shaky for the last liberal democracy in Central Europe

Global Politics

For the last few years, the Czech Republic has been viewed as the last bastion of liberal democracy in Central Europe. That could soon change.

Hungarian women leave voting booths at a polling station during a referendum on European Union migrant quotas in Veresegyhaz, Hungary, on Oct. 2.

Not all Hungarians back their leader’s campaign against Muslim migrants

Global Politics

In Sunday’s referendum, almost all Hungarian voters rejected EU quotas for resettling refugees across the 28-nation bloc. But little more than 40 percent actually voted — well below the threshold needed for the referendum to be valid. And some who did vote spoiled their ballot in protest.

At a court in Szeged, Hungary, judges have convicted 688 migrants of crossing the border with Serbia illegally.

Hungary is putting hundreds of migrants on trial … for crossing the border

Global Politics

When it comes to the migrant crisis, Hungary sees itself as the responsible adult in Europe.

Thousands of migrants and refugees arrive daily by train into Tabonovzce, Macedonia, on their way north. Volunteers with flashlights illuminate their path as they walk to an informal crossing point into Serbia.

Volunteers light the way for refugees crossing through Macedonia

Conflict

Driton Maliqi was studying for his PhD in political science when the migrant crisis exploded. Now he’s volunteering 24/7 to help them get through Macedonia.

A man applies for Liberland citizenship in the village of Backi Monostor, Serbia May 1, 2015. A Czech citizen, Vit Jedlicka, has proclaimed a new sovereign state lying on the border between Croatia and Serbia.

On the Danube, the world’s newest micro-nation. But Liberland has a problem.

Global Politics

What if you found an unclaimed patch of land and declared a new nation based on love, freedom and voluntary taxation? That’s what Vit Jedlicka has done on the border of Serbia and Croatia.