Author: staff

Greece has bought 24 French-made Rafale fighter jets, but Turkey can’t easily match that after it was expelled from the F-35 program in 2019 after buying Russia’s S-400 air defense system. Instead, Ankara now aims to buy 40 Eurofighter Typhoon fighter jets — 20 used ones from the United Kingdom and 20 new ones — and wants them equipped with Meteors. The missiles are made by Paris-based European arms-maker MBDA. Despite being NATO allies, Athens and Ankara have been at odds for years over a number of bilateral squabbles, including maritime boundaries, overlapping claims to their continental shelves and Cyprus. In…

Ferrand isn’t a judge, but the former head of the French National Assembly and one of Macron’s earliest supporters. Like Ferrand, both the outgoing president of the Conseil Constitutionnel, Laurent Fabius, and his predecessor Jean-Louis Debré, had previously presided over the National Assembly. Fabius and Debré were both politically aligned with the presidents who appointed them as well. But Debré was appointed by former President Jacques Chirac when he was just weeks away from leaving office and thus didn’t stand to benefit from Debré’s new role. Fabius, meanwhile, had not historically been close to the president who appointed him, François…

PARIS — Le patron de Tesla, X et SpaceX Elon Musk ne prévoit pas d’assister au Sommet français sur l’intelligence artificielle, qui a débuté ce lundi matin à Paris. Le milliardaire a déclaré sur X qu’il ne pouvait pas être présent parce qu’il était en plein “travail critique à Washington DC”, mais il a proposé de participer en vidéo. Parmi les invités de marque présents figurent le Premier ministre indien Narendra Modi, le vice-président américain JD Vance et la présidente de la Commission européenne Ursula von der Leyen. Vance et von der Leyen devraient s’exprimer mardi.

A court in New York has begun hearing opening statement in the trial of a man accused of trying to kill the British-American author Salman Rushdie at a reading event in 2022. A man has gone on trial in New York accused of trying to murder the British author Salman Rushdie during a reading at an event in 2022.Rushdie, 77, is expected to testify during the proceedings against Hadi Matar, bringing the writer face-to-face with his knife-wielding attacker for the first time in more than two years.Rushdie, the Booker Prize-winning author, was about to speak about keeping writers safe from…

PARIS — Elon Musk is not planning on attending French President Emmanuel Macron’s artificial intelligence summit in Paris in person. The tech billionaire said on X that he could not make it because he was in the middle of “critical work in Washington DC” but offered to participate via video. The AI Action Summit, an important pet project of Macron’s, began Monday morning in the French capital. Among the high-profile guests attending are Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, U.S. Vice President JD Vance and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Vance and von der Leyen are scheduled to speak on…

Britain’s Tech Secretary Peter Kyle tells POLITICO the chatbot — which has sparked fears China is stealing a march in the AI race — is being assessed to ensure “safety is there from the onset.” Jan 30 3 mins read

Ireland’s latest wellness experience draws on an eastern European tradition – thanks to a chance encounter. One day as Paul O’Neil was tending to his new beehives, a family with three young children walked by. It sounds like an ordinary enough scene, except the encounter took place on a remote patch of Valentia Island in Ireland that few people stumbled upon.  The father spotted Paul dressed up in his bee suit and immediately started waving eagerly. This was Anton Tovarnitskyi, a Ukrainian man who had just escaped the war and relocated with his family to the island, which is tucked away…

A senior Moldovan government official confirmed the details to POLITICO. “Russia blocked the EU-proposed solution for the Transnistrian region” over fears of losing its hold over the unrecognized state,” added the official, who was granted anonymity to discuss the arrangement. Moscow has historically provided free gas to the separatist authorities, allowing them to fund pensions and soldiers’ salaries through energy sales. However, a plan to secure alternatives with the support of the EU would have meant tariffs gradually increasing and integration with the continent’s energy markets. “If the Transnistrian region moves toward market prices, it weakens Russia’s grip — eliminating…

Hancock — a former British health secretary famed for his stint on grueling outback reality show ‘I’m a Celebrity … Get Me Out of Here!’ — found himself at the center of a storm when his own biographer decided to leak his WhatsApps to the Telegraph newspaper. Hancock said he had wanted to “frighten the pants off everyone” to ensure compliance with Covid-19 rules — and called teaching unions a “bunch of absolute arses.” Nothing like a grown-up approach at the top of government, although Hancock accused the Telegraph of running a “partial, biased account to suit an anti-lockdown agenda.” Boris…

Shortly before the second round, Romania’s Constitutional Court ruled that the first round of voting had been so badly tainted by a Russian influence operation on social media that the entire process had to be scrapped and started over. Iohannis was allowed to remain in office until the rerun of the presidential election, which is scheduled to begin on May 4.  But lawmakers from opposition parties on the far right and the liberal USR party joined forces to file a motion to suspend Iohannis from office, claiming that Romania’s political establishment had failed to provide answers to questions about election…