Author: staff
“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…
“We have the NATO secretary-general talking about adding Ukraine to NATO,” Grenell told the Davos panel, tuning in on video from Los Angeles. “The American people are the ones that are paying for the defense. You cannot ask the American people to expand the umbrella of NATO when the current members aren’t paying their fair share, and that includes the Dutch who need to step up. “And so when […] we have leaders who are going to talk about more and more, we need to make sure that those leaders are spending the right amount of money,” he added. Ukraine,…
Wie die AfD nach der Bluttat von Aschaffenburg insbesondere die Union ins Visier nimmt. POLITICO-Reporterin Pauline von Pezold mit Insights dazu. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview: Unions-Fraktions-Vize Gitta Connemann zu sinkenden Umfragewerten und wie thematisch flexibel der Kanzlerkandidat Merz wirklich ist. Eine neue Umfrage bestätigt Daniel Günther in der Wahl seines grünen Koalitionspartners – und düpiert damit Markus Söder. 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…
We should hand it to the Finns. When this type of damage to the Baltic Sea’s cables and pipelines became a reliable trend last autumn, the country’s authorities stepped up their already active surveillance in the Gulf of Finland. Granted, it’s a small body of water, with similarly small shipping lanes, but Finland made sure no movement went unseen. And lo and behold, on Dec. 25, the Cook Islands-flagged Eagle S tanker crisscrossed the gulf, damaging not one but four undersea cables. We know all this because Finnish authorities were actively observing. Better yet, the tanker was only slightly outside…
Intercepted phone calls and documents obtained by POLITICO reveal how Alexander Lukashenko’s regime weaponized migration. By TATSIANA ASHURKEVICH Illustrations by Chiara Vercesi for POLITICO The guidance from the Belarusian government was clear: Let the migrants go to Europe. When Ihar Kachalau, the deputy head of the criminal police in Minsk region, received reports about the disappearance of several people who had traveled to Belarus from Africa to learn how to play football, he phoned the Ministry of Internal Affairs to ask for advice. “The minister gave explicit instructions,” said Mikhail Bedunkevich, a senior official in the ministry, in an intercept…