Author: staff

Europe is getting older, and the political willpower to handle such a shift is threatened by the “greying of politics”, according to a new report. Ageing leaders, as well as ageing voters, are “narrowing the political space for changes”, said researchers from the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The report pays particular attention to emerging economies in Europe where the EBRD invests. In this part of Europe, a shrinking working-age population could reduce annual GDP per capita growth by an average of almost 0.4 percentage points between 2024 and 2050. Such a transition, driven by falling fertility rates…

Kaum zurück aus Afrika, muss Kanzler Friedrich Merz in Berlin in den Ring: Beim Arbeitgebertag trifft er auf seinen aktuell lautesten Kritiker, JU-Chef Johannes Winkel. Es geht um die Zukunft der Rente. Rasmus Buchsteiner analysiert, ob ein neues Rentenpaket den Aufstand der Jungen stoppen kann und warum Merz heute jedes Wort auf die Goldwaage legen muss. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview: Philipp Türmer. Der Juso-Vorsitzende hält dagegen. Er nennt die Pläne der Jungen Union „langweilig“, fordert eine Einbeziehung von Selbstständigen, Beamten und Politikern in die Rentenkasse und erklärt, warum die Koalition trotz des Streits nicht platzen wird. Außerdem: In Washington tobt ein Machtkampf…

Published on 25/11/2025 – 5:54 GMT+1 Gunmen fired on a Yemeni provincial leader’s motorcade Monday, killing at least five security officers and wounding two others, according to authorities. The attack targeted Taiz Governor Nabil Shamsan on a road linking the southwestern city to the rest of the country, said Mohamed Abdel-Rahman, a provincial spokesperson. Abdel-Rahman added that two assailants were killed in the shootout. In a statement, the governor’s office said security and military forces were working to bring those behind the attack to justice. No group has immediately claimed credit for the attack so far. The province’s capital, also…

Insiders say a drawn-out fight over the future of drilling in the U.K.’s Scottish oil and gas heartlands is finally reaching its conclusion.  It is a row which has split the governing Labour Party, pitted Miliband against the all-powerful Treasury, and will, some of Labour’s own MPs fear, undermine the government’s climate credentials and expose the party to even more political pain.  “If a progressive government with a big majority, in the country that started the Industrial Revolution, can’t hold firm on new fossil fuel drilling,” worried one Labour MP, “how can we expect developing countries to do what’s needed to…

I saw this more closely than most. Within a single extraordinary fortnight, I went from serving Liz Truss’ first Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to working with his successor Jeremy Hunt, moving from the budget that blew up the bond markets to the one built to calm them. Few advisers get to serve a chancellor who detonates a budget, as well as the one brought in to steady the ship only days later. And there is no better crash course in the life cycle of a budget: the whispers, the over-interpretation, the panic, the denial and the sudden transformation of every think…

Ukraine’s Kateryna Sadurska has raised the bar again with an 86 metre no fins dive at the Blue Element competition in Dominica. She completed the descent and return in 3 minutes 32 seconds, using ten strokes before freefall and thirty one on the way up. The dive was calm and steady, which is striking given the effort needed for Constant Weight No Fins discipline (CNF). Sadurska has now set eight world records and has pushed this discipline forward by ten metres since 2023. She said she heard whale clicks near the bottom, a moment that

The annual Tori-no-ichi festival opened on Monday at Ootori Shrine in Tokyo’s Asakusa district, drawing business owners and tourists hoping to secure good fortune for the coming year. The centuries-old event, held each November on zodiac “rooster days,” features long rows of stalls selling ornate bamboo rakes known as kumade. Decorated with symbols of luck such as gold coins, red sea bream and figures of next year’s zodiac animal, the horse, the rakes are believed to help owners “rake in” prosperity. Vendors send buyers off with ceremonial clapping and chanting, a tradition that has endured since the Edo period. One…

That trade deal, which President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen clinched at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, sets a baseline tariff of 15 percent on most EU imports to the U.S., while the EU committed to cutting most of its own tariffs to zero. At the time, the EU and the U.S. pledged to work together to reduce tariffs on steel and aluminum — but remained vague on the details. After the Europeans raised the steel tariffs on Monday, Lutnick responded by calling on the EU to “analyze their digital rules, trying to come…

Russian drones struck Kharkiv overnight, killing four people and injuring at least 13 in Ukraine’s second-largest city. According to regional head Oleh Syniehubov, eight residential buildings, a school and power lines were damaged. Fires spread through parts of the city, and emergency teams recovered an additional body from the rubble. The strikes also caused power outages after a transformer substation and sections of the heating network were hit. Two children were treated for shock, and more injuries were reported from shattered glass. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched more than 160 drones across the country, most of which were intercepted.

How the Kremlin gets Ukrainians to betray their country Two young people were desperately short of cash. Then the Kremlin stepped in to help. By VERONIKA MELKOZEROVA in Kyiv Illustration by Hokyoung Kim for POLITICO Olena, 19, and Bohdan, 22, smile happily as they enter the room; they’re in handcuffs and are accompanied by armed Security Service of Ukraine agents. It’s the first time the couple has seen each other in a month; both are being held in a detention center until their trial on treason charges. Olena is blonde with soft, childish features, and Bohdan is an athletic young…