Colombia's conservative president Abelardo De La Espriella took office in Cali on August 7 in the first presidential inauguration outside Bogotá in modern Colombian history; outgoing president Gustavo Petro did not attend, a break with tradition; Spain's King Felipe VI, Argentina's Javier Milei and FIFA president Gianni Infantino were among those present; De La Espriella pledged to govern from the regions under the banner of the 'Patria Milagro'

Romania's High Court of Cassation and Justice rejected appeals from both the prosecution and the defendants on August 6, clearing the way for the trial of Călin Georgescu, mercenary leader Horațiu Potra and 20 co-defendants on charges of actions against the constitutional order, described in the indictment as an attempted coup; the ruling upholds an earlier Bucharest Court of Appeals decision

Mateusz Morawiecki, Poland's former prime minister, confirmed on August 4, 2026 that his breakaway parliamentary group will formally launch a new party by October; PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński responded by ordering party members to sign a loyalty pledge disavowing external groupings; Morawiecki ruled out any cooperation with Prime Minister Donald Tusk, describing opposition to Tusk as a key organising principle

The death toll from the mass crossing of migrants from Morocco into Spain's Ceuta enclave rose to 67 on August 1 and reached 72 by August 2 afternoon as confirmed by Al Jazeera; Euronews reported Spain's government had received intelligence warnings of the impending Ceuta migrant surge days before the crisis broke; Spain began construction of a maritime barrier at the Tarajal border area; and 22 European Union leaders, including German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Romanian President Nicusor Dan, signed a joint letter criticising Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez's migration policies

An INSA poll published July 23 placed the AfD first among parties in Berlin's Abgeordnetenhaus (city-parliament) race for the first time, weeks before the city-state election; the CDU collapsed after mayor Kai Wegner withdrew his candidacy, while the SPD fell to 13%; despite the AfD's lead, coalition arithmetic still allows a three-way SPD-Greens-Left government to form a majority

One Nation Party leader Pauline Hanson spoke at a UK conservative conference on July 19, urging the audience not to apologise for being white and saying the UK faced massive migration problems similar to those she saw in Australia; her remarks on White Australia policy drew immediate condemnation

Former Manchester Mayor Andy Burnham met King Charles III on Monday morning and was formally appointed Prime Minister, succeeding Keir Starmer; his office confirmed he will also scrap the outgoing government's digital ID scheme

A Paris appeals court shortened Marine Le Pen's public-office ban on July 7, making her eligible to stand in the 2027 French presidential election; Le Pen, 57, immediately declared her candidacy, though the court imposed an electronic ankle bracelet condition she had previously ruled out

Barrett breaks with three fellow conservatives to uphold Mississippi's law allowing ballots cast by Election Day to be counted if they arrive afterward; ruling preserves similar rules in 17 other states

Five structural forces, from concession refusals and snap elections to far-right mainstreaming, that increasingly determine whether a democratic transfer of power actually completes.

An October election looming, Ben-Gvir and Smotrich demand Hezbollah's destruction while opposition brands the US-Iran deal Netanyahu's failure

Months after Congress ousted Boluarte, a fragmented 35-candidate field narrows to far-right Keiko Fujimori versus the left's Roberto Sánchez

A Chaves-aligned conservative wins outright with 48.5% and a single-party legislative majority, the first since 1990