Author: staff

Donald Trump setzt zum nächsten Bruch mit der Weltordnung an. Sein Friedensrat versteht sich als Gegenentwurf zu den Vereinten Nationen und kommt heute erstmals zusammen. Der Rat wird von Trump selbst geführt, Mitglieder sollen hohe Beiträge leisten. Gordon Repinski und Hans von der Burchard besprechen, wieso sich Deutschland und viele Länder der EU raushalten wollen und doch nicht richtig raushalten können. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview widerspricht die Grünen-Parteichefin Franziska Brantner klar der These, der Friedensrat sei eine neue UNO. Sie spricht von einem Projekt, das die Vereinten Nationen umgeht, warnt vor einem fragilen Frieden im Gazastreifen und einer katastrophalen Lage in der…

National unity Both Poroshenko and Zelenskyy stayed at the same hotel during the Munich Security Conference last week — but their paths didn’t cross. “I have only spoken with him three times the past seven years,” Poroshenko said. The last time was more than a year ago and “we discussed his so-called victory plan and I told him not to worry and that we would back it as he’s the commander-in-chief. Unfortunately, that was last time we spoke,” he said. Poroshenko and Zelenskyy harbor deep animosity toward each other and traded fierce barbs during the 2019 election campaign. Nevertheless, Zelenskyy…

Those who say yes believe Zemmour, who regularly praises Knafo’s talent when asked about her publicly, recognizes the dynamic and is perfectly happy to return to the world of the acerbic intelligentsia. An acquaintance who sees them on vacation in the south of France said it was telling to watch Zemmour ambling down the street, pushing their child in a stroller, while Knafo was three meters ahead with a phone glued to her ear. Those who believe the reverse say he would be humiliated, pointing to his 2006 essay “The First Sex” and noting that he has repeatedly belittled the…

“He’s being diplomatic, saying it’s a fantastic organization,” said the official, granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door talks. “He very smartly divided the political from the organizational, saying, ‘Let’s leave politics out of this, let’s focus on the real world [and] stop wasting our resources on scenarios that are zero percent likely.” Europe shrugs A steady line of European energy ministers pushed back against Wright’s pressure on Wednesday, dismissing his calls to abandon the phase-out of fossil fuels and insisting they would continue building renewables. Austria’s energy secretary told POLITICO Europe would not be “blackmailed” by the U.S. on clean energy…

Merz’s remarks, which echoed what he said at the Munich Security Conference last weekend, came on Politischer Aschermittwoch (“Political Ash Wednesday”), a tradition at the end of Carnival, a February pre-Lenten celebration when party leaders traditionally deliver raucous speeches. Merz’s address, however, struck a more sober tone. While criticizing Beijing for “aggressively expanding military outposts in the South China Sea,” the German chancellor said he would speak to Chinese leaders about future cooperation with Europe and Germany during his planned trip to China. Amid a tariff war ignited last year by Trump’s second presidency, Germany and its hard-pressed auto companies…

The remains of the former Polska 2050 caucus — also numbering 15 MPs — side with Pełczyńska-Nałęcz, the minister for EU funds and regional policy. Following her win on Jan. 31, the party leadership voted to freeze personnel changes to de-escalate tensions before a March convention. Their former colleagues called the move an attempt to silence them. The turmoil also split Polska 2050’s representation in the Senate and in the European Parliament after MEP Michał Kobosko left the party Monday. Polska 2050 has been in deep crisis since Hołownia’s disastrous 2025 presidential campaign, in which he won less than 5 percent…

Joachim Nagel: The current Bundesbank president is a more emollient figure, but has clashed more than once with Chancellor Friedrich Merz, most recently on the thorny issue of allowing the EU to issue more joint debt. A member of the Social Democratic Party, Merz’s junior partner in Berlin, Nagel may also be more useful to Merz in keeping the SPD onside in the debate over domestic policy than he would be across town at ECB headquarters. Jörg Kukies: Having been finance minister under Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Kukies has all the political connections he might need to secure the job. Although…

According to the letter from USPE, which represents staff working in the Parliament, a security officer working on the gates of the institution’s Brussels building challenged Van Overtveldt as he attempted to enter with his wife, whose entourage pass for family members had expired. “In response to the security staff’s insistence that he should comply with the institutional rules, he asked to see the badge of the security officer in charge in order to identify her, then angrily threw her document on the floor,” the letter to Metsola, dated, Feb. 16, said. “Subsequently, when the security guard asked him to…

“All the algorithms have biases, we know that. There is no doubt,” he said. “And they are so impactful, when you speak about social media, that having no clue about how the algorithm is made, how it is tested and where it will guide you — the democratic biases of this could be huge.” Since returning to office in 2025, U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has cast Europe’s tech rules as a threat to America’s free speech tradition. While Brussels has spent the past decade designing legislation to rein in Big Tech through landmark laws like the GDPR, Digital Services…

Under the arrangement, struck last year after months of negotiations, the joint U.S.-U.K. base will remain under the control of both countries for the next 99 years under a lease agreement. But Trump posted Wednesday: “I have been telling Prime Minister Keir Starmer, of the United Kingdom, that Leases are no good when it comes to Countries, and that he is making a big mistake by entering a 100 Year Lease with whoever it is that is ‘claiming’ Right, Title, and Interest to Diego Garcia, strategically located in the Indian Ocean.” The Mauritian government — which has long claimed it was…