Author: staff
The Netherlands faces a snap election on Oct. 29 after far-right chief Geert Wilders pulled his party out of the government Tuesday and toppled the coalition. Wilders’ far-right Party for Freedom (PVV), the conservative People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), and the Labour-Green-Left alliance (PvdA-GL) are tightly bunched in the no-longer-hypothetical election race, according to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls. The far right stormed to a shock victory in the last Dutch election back in November 2023, ushering in a right-wing government headed by Prime Minister Dick Schoof. But Wilders — one of Europe most hard-line anti-migration politicians — brought…
Britain’s Labour government is inundated by think tanks hoping to catch its ear — and given the party’s struggles and rise of Reform UK, it may appreciate the help. POLITICO runs through the main players. May 12 15 mins read
Published on 06/06/2025 – 12:09 GMT+2•Updated 12:32Ukraine’s defence forces claim to have launched a “preemptive” strike as Russia was preparing for a large-scale drone and missile attack on Ukrainian cities. The General Staff reported that Ukraine hit a Russian airfield and military facilities on the eve of Moscow’s massive attack overnight on Friday. Kyiv says on the night of 6 June it hit Engels airfield in Russia’s Saratov region, a place of concentration of Russian aircraft left over from the Ukrainian Security Service (SBU) operation. Also in the Saratov region, numerous hits were confirmed on at least three fuel reservoirs on the eve…
Published on 06/06/2025 – 11:48 GMT+2The EU published a digital strategy on Thursday to diversify and expand digital alliances with “like-minded partners” such as Japan, South Korea, Canada and India, but no mention was made of the US.This year, digital trade agreements with Singapore and South Korea were signed to facilitate data flows – despite critics warning it could pave the way for threats to personal data. The bloc also plans to structure its growing diplomatic network through the creation of a Digital Partnership Network, aimed at connecting these relationships in a more strategic and coordinated way. But while the strategy highlights a wide array…
The Joint GP IT Committee — which represents GPs across the UK in discussions related to the use and management of GP data — asked NHS England to refer itself to the data watchdog over the issue following a meeting last Thursday. But Michael Chapman, director of research and clinical trials at NHS Digital, wrote to seven members of the committee that evening saying the review would instead be carried out in-house by the organization’s data protection officer “to establish the facts ahead of any approach to the [Information Commissioner’s Office],” citing “standard procedure when data protection concerns are raised,”…
Less than a week after lavishing praise on each other in the Oval Office, US President Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, fell out spectacularly and publicly. In a war of words that escalated on Thursday, both men took to their own social media platform to attack the other. Although many political analysts had predicted that their alliance would not last, the speed with which it imploded was nevertheless dramatic. Just last Friday, Trump was celebrating Musk’s work as the head of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), overseeing the slashing of billions of dollars in federal…
The eurozone economy posted a stronger-than-expected performance in the first quarter of 2025, with growth largely driven by investments and exports, reinforcing expectations that the European Central Bank (ECB) will adopt a more cautious approach to further rate reductions.Gross domestic product (GDP) in the euro area expanded by 0.6% quarter-on-quarter, marking the fifth consecutive quarter of expansion, according to Eurostat’s third estimate released on Friday. This figure represents an upward revision from the previous 0.3% estimate and marks the highest quarterly growth rate since the third quarter of 2022.For the broader European Union, economy also grew by 0.6% in the…
Following the implosion of U.S. President Donald Trump’s bromance with the world’s richest man Elon Musk on Thursday, European politicians indulged an emotion they haven’t felt recently toward Washington: Schadenfreude. Radosław Sikorski, the Polish foreign minister, went for a classic rendition of the German loanword for taking delight in another’s misfortune. “See, big man, politics is harder than you thought,” he said on X, Musk’s own social media platform. The barb was squarely aimed at the tech billionaire, who had previously called Sikorski “small man” in a war of words on X in March. Thierry Breton, Europe’s former internal market…
But Kadis said the new act would go well beyond the scope of the MSPD, providing a framework to implement the wide-ranging goals of the new European Ocean Pact, a policy promise of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s second term. Those goals include cutting red tape, promoting sustainable aquaculture and fishing, boosting ocean tourism, strengthening maritime defense and investing in ocean science. “The [Ocean] Act will ensure that existing targets linked to the ocean are identifiable under one roof and will facilitate their coherent and effective implementation, while at the same time decreasing administrative burden,” Kadis said Thursday. But…
“We would like to take it to the highest level,” he added, in a seeming reference to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Kara-Murza made the remarks after addressing members of the European Parliament in Brussels on Thursday together with Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of former Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who died in an Arctic prison last year. Navalny’s team claims he was murdered on Putin’s orders. Ilya Yashin, another Russian opposition politician who took part in Thursday’s discussion in Brussels, said the EU could mediate between Russia’s democratic movement and Ukraine’s government. “We want to start this dialogue with Ukraine,”…