Author: staff

Van Peteghem’s remarks come on the heels of a government agreement last week to spend 2 percent of GDP on defense and finally reach NATO’s decade-old current target. Belgium will seek to activate the national escape clause — a mechanism authorized by the European Commission to loosen fiscal rules — and benefit from some of the €150 billion in loans offered by the EU’s executive branch, he said. Amid Russia’s all-out war on Ukraine and increasing belligerence, NATO leaders are widely expected to raise the defense spending target to more than 3 percent of GDP during a June summit in…

But the American penalties against him were “inconsistent with U.S. foreign policy interests,” Rubio’s spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday, adding that the secretary of state had spoken with Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó to inform him the measures had been dropped. The two top diplomats also spoke about “ways to strengthen U.S.-Hungary alignment on critical issues and opportunities for economic cooperation,” according to a readout of their call. Orbán, from the hard-right Fidesz party, was the first European leader to endorse Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign and is a vocal ally of the Republican. Trump, in turn, hosted the Hungarian…

Anthropic’s artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot Claude is integrating with Google Workspace, promising to help professionals free up time and get work done faster. The San-Francisco-based company announced on Tuesday that users will no longer have to dig through their emails on Gmail, calendar, or documents, as there will be advanced document search capabilities, Anthropic said. As well as this streamlined approach to searching through your Google Workspace without having to specify exactly which file you require, Claude will also be able to pull up meeting notes and past correspondence and search other relevant documents for additional context.Anthropic also announced a tool called…

While Dan is also well placed to collect support from Romanians abroad, he’s not yet well known outside Bucharest, which is in fact his Achilles’ heel. Across Romania, “10 percent of the population don’t know who Nicușor Dan is,” and that could cost him victory in a tight second-round runoff against Simion, according to Ștefureac. A poll published Monday by Curs, a polling company based in Bucharest, concluded the same, giving Simion (54 percent) an 8 percentage-point advantage over Dan (46 percent) in a hypothetical runoff. Ștefureac stressed that it’s early days with the election still weeks away, and that…

In part, Meloni’s actions reflect Italy’s terror at the prospect of losing its historically close ties to the U.S., which it sees as insurance against the Franco-German axis that dominates EU affairs. Unlike other European leaders, she believes that Trump can still be reasoned with and that his trade threats are little more than a brash negotiating tactic, according to two Italian officials familiar with the government’s foreign policy stance.  Meloni also wants to show that she can obtain concessions from Trump and that “if we are less hysterical, we can work with Washington,” said one of the officials, acknowledging…

No nuclear ‘has been’ At the same time, Bihet insists he has a partial solution for the EU’s continued Russian energy reliance: more atomic power. Long a die-hard nuclear proponent — Belgian lawmakers nicknamed him “Atomic Boy” — the Walloon Reformist Movement politician said he wants to overhaul his country’s approach to the low-emissions technology.  “Five years ago, it was a curse word,” Bihet said. “I was a has-been.” Now, he added, “the tide has turned on nuclear power.” Belgium, which has two active nuclear plants, has long treated atomic power ambivalently, banning new reactor construction in 2003. Bihet wants…

Friedrich Merz hat ein Personalproblem: Carsten Linnemann hat ihm einen Korb gegeben und will nicht Wirtschaftsminister werden. Gordon Repinski analysiert, warum das einst begehrte Amt inzwischen wie eine heiße Kartoffel behandelt wird und welche Frau oder Mann aus der Wirtschaft für Merz zur Retterin bzw. Retter werden könnte. – Anderes Verhältnis zur AfD: Wie man in der Alternative darauf reagiert, dass Stimmen in der CDU lauter werden, die der Partei unter Umständen unter anderem Ausschussvorsitze zu zugestehen, berichtet Pauline von Pezold. – Im 200-Sekunden-Interview: Klause Holetschek (CSU) zum künftigen Verhältnis und dem Umgang mit der AfD aus Sicht der Union. …

The disease has the potential to devastate animal agriculture. An outbreak in the United Kingdom in 2001 caused an agricultural and tourism crisis costing more than €15 billion. Authorities slaughtered more than 6 million animals in efforts to eradicate the disease. Germany also reported an outbreak in January that has since been contained. Germany also reported an outbreak in January that has since been contained. | John Macdougall/AFP via Getty Images Černý added that the virus was likely transmitted by accident and should be treated as such until proven otherwise. “The virus can be carried on contaminated shoes, clothing, equipment,…

Because the news broke on a Friday night in Europe, many U.K. officials had to start working at home. “There was a lot of WhatsApp traffic,” said the British official quoted above. “It was people at home trying to have a night off, but then instantly realizing — fuck me, this is really bad.” One French minister, whose portfolio is not directly impacted, was in his constituency in a remote part of France when a friend pulled him aside to flag what just happened. “I went back home and got stuck in front of my TV until 1 a.m.,” he…

Since Trump’s April 2 announcement of new tariffs, a wave of uncertainty has engulfed transatlantic trade, rattling markets and casting doubt on the future of European Union-U.S. economic cooperation. In response, the EU has sought new ways to diversify trade partnerships and has explored opportunities to deepen ties with other major economies like China. According to the Commission president, Europe is “wide awake” and has the opportunity to play “a strong role in the new world order that is slowly emerging.” “We must now use this momentum to open up new markets for our companies and establish as close a…