Author: staff
They were speaking in the Ukrainian capital on the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion. “I invite the Commission to use all the tools we have in the treaty to overcome this, to avoid that everyone can blackmail the European Union,” Costa said. “And we have tools in the treaties.” The pronouncements came after Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who faces an election in April, repeated his threat to block the EU loan, accusing Kyiv of slow-walking repairs to the Druzhba oil pipeline, which was damaged in a Russian drone attack in late January. “It’s not the first time when the…
Updated: 24/02/2026 – 19:30 GMT+1 Rising VAT and tax reforms are hitting Russia’s small businesses hard. Beauty salons in St. Petersburg and Moscow’s Mashenka bakery face closure as costs soar, demand drops, and owners struggle to stay afloat amid stricter regulations and economic pressures from four years of war. … More
Published on 24/02/2026 – 19:13 GMT+1 Laurence des Cars, the embattled director of the Louvre Museum in Paris has resigned. She’d been under constant criticism over security failures following the daring daylight robbery in October last year at the world’s most popular museum. In a statement on its website, the Elysee Palace of French President Emmanuel Macron thanked her for her service. “Mrs. Laurence des Cars has submitted to the President of the Republic her letter of resignation from the presidency of the Louvre Museum,” it begins. “The Head of State accepted it, hailing an act of responsibility at a…
After Kushner’s no-show, Barrot said in an interview Tuesday that he had requested the American envoy be barred from meeting members of the French government until he “respects the most basic customs of diplomacy and responds to the summons of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.” Kushner and Barrot have since “agreed to meet in the coming days to continue working toward a strong bilateral relationship,” the official close to Barrot said. The official did not answer POLITICO’s question as to why Kushner, the father of U.S. President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and diplomatic envoy Jared Kushner, had missed his meeting. The U.S. Embassy…
Published on 24/02/2026 – 18:49 GMT+1 EU Trade Commissioner Maroš Šefčovič urged lawmakers on Tuesday to move ahead with the EU-US trade pact even as Washington piles on new tariffs and legal uncertainty puts the agreement’s terms in doubt. The deal was abruptly frozen Monday after a ruling by the United States Supreme Court declared most of the tariffs imposed worldwide by the White House in 2025 illegal. Shortly after the ruling, US President Donald Trump announced new 10% duties on imports from US allies, including the EU. “It is imperative we keep the process moving forward in implementing our…
The most recent official snapshot of the US economy arrived last Friday, the very same day the Supreme Court struck down most of Trump’s tariffs. The Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) released its advance estimate for last year’s fourth quarter GDP, placing annualised real growth at just 1.4%, well below forecasts that had clustered around 2.5% and a sharp deceleration from the 4.4% registered in the third quarter. For the full year, real GDP grew 2.2% in 2025, down from 2.8% in 2024. The numbers starkly contrast with President Trump’s declarations during a Fox Business interview just a week before,…
For decades the shrinking Aral Sea has been the poster child for environmental catastrophe. Behind images of rusty fishing boat shells sitting awkwardly among the sand dunes lies a story of human recklessness and an insatiable thirst for resources. Once the fourth largest lake on Earth, the Aral Sea is fed by two rivers that originate in the high mountains of Central Asia. In the 1960s, the Soviet government decided to plant cotton fields on enormous swathes of land in the region, and the rivers were diverted for irrigation. The Aral Sea’s water supplies soon began to dwindle. By the…
“The European Union will not let Russia freeze our brave Ukrainian friends into submission. On the contrary, we are doubling down on our support to ensure that we keep the lights on,” Jørgensen said. He said the €920 million would be used to “strengthen grids, restore damaged heat and power plants, improve physical protection and boost decentralized electricity generation and heat supply.” Since last year Russia has launched almost daily attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, with 217 reported this year. In January alone Moscow deployed some 6,000 attack drones, 5,500 aerial guided bombs and 158 missiles against thermal power plants,…
Senior Russian security official Dimitry Medvedev threatened Kyiv, Paris and London with nuclear strikes on Tuesday, following unfounded reports from the Kremlin alleging that France and the UK were working on supplying Ukraine with nuclear weapons. Russia’s primary foreign intelligence agency, the SVR, claimed that “London and Paris” were “preparing to arm Kyiv with a nuclear bomb” on Tuesday, alleging that Ukraine’s allies sought to achieve a “victory over Russia at the hands of the Ukrainian Armed Forces”. The claims were subsequently picked up by the Russian state news agency TASS and amplified by pro-Kremlin accounts on social media, who…
The White House warned Mexican drug cartels on Tuesday not to harm US citizens as violence continued across Mexico following the death of Jalisco New Generation Cartel leader Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes. “The Mexican drug cartels know not to lay a finger on a single American or they will pay severe consequences under this president. And they already are,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a Fox News appearance on Tuesday morning. Leavitt said Washington had no reports of US citizens harmed in the violence. “Right now, we are unaware of any reports of any Americans being hurt, kidnapped,…