Author: staff

The polling is a long way out from a general election — which does not need to take place until August 2029 — and Reform’s lead is within the margin of error. POLITICO’s Poll of Polls has Labour and Reform level pegging at 25 percent each, with the Conservatives sitting on 22 percent. Nevertheless, the study will ring alarm bells in No.10 Downing Street, coming just months after Labour won a landslide majority with 33.7 percent of the vote. At the election, Reform UK came third on 14.3 percent. The results are also grim for Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch, who…

Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy look at the day ahead in British politics. Overnight, Donald Trump decided to pause tariffs on Canada and Mexico but pressed ahead with imposing them on China. They’ve retaliated by putting tariffs on American gas, coal, oil and farming equipment. But what will the consequences be for the UK? Sam and Anne discuss how the UK maps out its position and ask if the UK could come out on top of this global shoot-out thanks to Brexit – and if a limited US trade deal could be on the…

As a way of wooing Washington, pressure is building within the EU to harden the bloc’s trade stance toward China. It’s a wager that taking on Trump’s biggest foe will keep Europe out of the tariff firing line. Just last week, EU trade chief Maroš Šefčovič floated the idea of teaming up with Washington to “deal with the joint challenges coming from China’s non-market policies.” It was the first time Brussels has explicitly linked its policy toward Beijing with an effort to keep Trump on side.  Despite Trump’s recent actions, there is still a preference in Brussels for sticking with…

“When targeted, unfairly or arbitrarily, the European Union will respond firmly,” she said. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk also weighed in: “We have to do everything to avoid this totally unnecessary and stupid tariff war or trade war.” EU leaders also underlined that they will protect Greenland. Von der Leyen did stress that the partnership with the U.S. “remains our most consequential relationship,” and offered a carrot in response to Trump’s pressure to increase defense spending. The bloc is ready to look at its fiscal rules “to allow for a significant increase in defense spending,” she said. That follows demands…

– Wohin steuert die FDP und droht jetzt auch noch interner Streit: Analyse mit Gordon Repinski und Rixa Fürsen.– Im 200-Sekunden-Interview: Die FDP-Europaabgeordnete Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann über die Nervenstärke von Wolfgang Kubicki und das Verhältnis zur AfD.– EU-Gipfel ohne deutschen Wirtschaftsminister: Wie Robert Habeck ein wichtiges Treffen in Warschau schwänzt.  Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es morgens um 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team bringen euch jeden Morgen auf den neuesten Stand in Sachen Politik — kompakt, europäisch, hintergründig. Und für alle Hauptstadt-Profis:Unser Berlin Playbook-Newsletter liefert jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. Hier gibt es alle Informationen und…

In December, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv has lost more than 43,000 soldiers killed in action with more than 370,000 wounded in almost three years of fighting. The Kremlin does not reveal casualties, but Syrskyi estimated that in 2024 alone Russia lost 150,000 soldiers killed and more than 400,000 wounded. Ukraine’s General Staff said Russia has lost 818,740 troops killed or wounded since the full-scale war began. Even though Syrskyi said Russia’s losses were “many times higher” than Ukraine’s, the impact is felt on the front. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Kyiv has lost more than 43,000 soldiers killed…

But dependence on U.S. LNG will only “increase as time goes on” as domestic output falls during the next decade, predicted Glen Bryn-Jacobsen from National Gas. LNG also pollutes more heavily than domestically-sourced gas — due to the regasification process and shipping — so stepping up imports could all create yet another Whitehall row between growth hawks and greenies. Ana Maria Jaller-Makarewicz, lead energy analyst, Europe, at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, argued the U.K. should be ramping up domestic clean energy as an alternative. “Instead of committing to more LNG imports, risking increasing potential emission impact,…

The death of a citizen abroad isn’t something that would normally draw public comment from top Slovak or Ukrainian officials, but Russia’s ongoing war on Ukraine has stoked mutual tensions to the boiling point. Slovakia initially provided close political, military and civic support to neighboring Ukraine following Moscow’s February 2022 invasion, and by early 2023 the nation of 5.4 million people had recorded over 1.2 million arrivals from Ukraine. Since Russia-friendly Slovak PM Robert Fico returned to power in late 2023, however, his administration has cut off the flow of state arms to Ukraine. Fico also visited Russian President Vladimir…

President Donald Trump has agreed to pause new tariffs on Canadian goods for at least 30 days, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Monday after a phone call with the U.S. leader. “I just had a good call with President Trump,” Trudeau wrote on the social media platform X. “Proposed tariffs will be paused for at least 30 days while we work together.” Earlier today, Trump reached an agreement with Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to delay threatened tariffs on Mexico for a month while the two sides work on fentanyl and migration issues that had motivated the U.S. president to…

The centre-right CDU has been accused of breaking ‘taboo’ by putting forward a motion to the Bundestag for a stricter migration policy which was backed by the far-right Alternative for Germany party (AfD). The front-runner to become Germany’s Chancellor, Friedrich Merz, says his centre-right Christian Democrats (CDU) party will “never” work with the AfD, calling the far-right party his “most important opponent” in the country’s upcoming election.”I can assure voters in Germany very clearly of one thing: we will not work with the party that calls itself Alternative for Germany – not before (the election), not after, never. This party…