Author: staff

BRUSSELS — The body of a 56-year-old woman was found Tuesday in a hotel in the heart of Brussels’ European Quarter. The woman checked into the Aloft Brussels Schuman hotel — a short distance from the European Parliament, Commission headquarters and Council buildings — in late December and died sometime afterwards but was not discovered for weeks, according to local media reports. A spokesperson for the Brussels prosecutor’s office confirmed to POLITICO that the woman’s body was found at Aloft but said the scene did not appear suspicious.

The EU’s new trade chief Maros Sefcovic on Wednesday in Davos told the BBC that he was open to Britain joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM) as part of a post-Brexit “reset”. The British government minister in charge of relations with Europe appears to have ruled out becoming part of a pan-European trade agreement after the idea was mentioned by the EU’s trade chief in Davos on Wednesday.The news comes after the EU’s new trade chief, Maros Sefcovic, told the BBC that he was open to Britain joining the Pan-Euro-Mediterranean Convention (PEM) as part of a post-Brexit “reset”. Subsequently, Nick Thomas-Symonds,…

Musk quickly thanked the Israeli prime minister for his support. The Tesla and SpaceX chief sparked a firestorm of controversy Monday by giving a stiff-armed, flat-palmed gesture to a crowd at a rally following U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration. The gesture resembled the Roman salute which was appropriated by European fascists including Nazi führer Adolf Hitler and Italian dictator Benito Mussolini in the first half of the 20th century. Musk’s gesture went viral, and critics around the world lambasted the man who has recently become one of Trump’s most prominent advisers. The billionaire sparked outrage in November 2023 when he publicly…

Rising geopolitical tensions are increasing fragmentation of the global financial system and pose a risk to both global prosperity and human progress, according to a report from the World Economic Forum. The economic costs of global fragmentation could potentially be more than the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as the 2008 global financial crisis (GFC), according to the recently released World Economic Forum (WEF) report, entitled Navigating Global Financial System Fragmentation. The report has been developed in partnership with US management consulting firm Oliver Wyman. This is mainly because of an increasing number of countries using worldwide trading and financial systems to…

“On the first day of my tenure as chancellor, I will instruct the interior ministry to impose permanent border controls with all our neighbors and refuse all attempts at illegal entry,” Merz said in a speech Thursday. He promised an “effective entry ban” for individuals lacking valid travel documents, including those seeking asylum. Facing mounting political pressure from the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has linked rising crime to migration in its campaign rhetoric, Merz’s hard-line stance on immigration reflects a bid to draw support away from the AfD and solidify his conservative base as the election nears. Merz…

Trump on Wednesday threatened to impose more sanctions and tariffs on Russia if President Vladimir Putin fails to make a deal to end the war in Ukraine. Russia has been waging a full-scale invasion of Ukraine for almost three years, in a brutal conflict which has claimed tens of thousands of lives on both sides as Kyiv’s forces resist the Kremlin’s assault. “Settle now, and STOP this ridiculous War! IT’S ONLY GOING TO GET WORSE. If we don’t make a ‘deal,’ and soon, I have no other choice but to put high levels of Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions on anything…

A court in Paris has accused the overthrown Syrian ruler of complicity in war crimes in relation to a deadly attack on civilians in 2017. Judges in France have reportedly issued a new arrest warrant against Syria’s deposed leader Bashar al-Assad for alleged complicity in war crimes linked to a barrel bomb attack on civilians in 2017 that killed a French-Syrian man. A legal source with knowledge of the case told French outlets that the Paris Tribunal’s special unit for crimes against humanity and war crimes issued the mandate this week as part of a probe into the death of…

But when asked about the possibility of Britain joining the scheme on Radio 4’s Today Programme on Thursday during a morning broadcast round, Pennycook said: “We’re not seeking to participate in that particular arrangement. “I think in general the government has been very clear … that we do want a closer relationship with our European partners, both in trading terms but also importantly … in terms of security and defense cooperation, where we need to work far more closely. So absolutely we do want a closer relationship. As for this particular arrangement, no, we are not seeking to participate in…

After a fragile ceasefire took hold in Gaza, Israeli strikes and settler attacks have hurt and killed a number of Palestinians in the West Bank. As Palestinians returned to their homes in Gaza on Thursday under the terms of a long-awaited ceasefire deal, Israeli armoured vehicles were seen in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank.A major Israeli military operation has been launched in the area, and suspected Israeli settlers have torn through two Palestinian towns.Elsewhere Thursday, Israeli forces killed two Palestinian militants who reportedly carried out a deadly attack on a bus in the West Bank earlier…

Raphael survived by hiding under dead bodies inside a nearby bomb shelter, according to the Times of Israel. “Music is one of the strongest ingredients in my healing process,” she said during the Rising Star final. In a separate interview, she said she would use her appearance in Eurovision to “tell them the story of the country, of what I went through, of what others went through.” “But not from a place of seeking sympathy,” she added. “I want it to be from a place of standing strong in the face of this, and in the face of the boos…