Author: staff

FLENSBURG, Germany — Friedrich Merz is Germany’s likely next chancellor, but how he will form a coalition government is looking increasingly uncertain. At a campaign event on Friday in the northern German city of Flensburg, Greens chancellor candidate Robert Habeck cast doubt on the possibility of a coalition between his party and Merz’s conservative alliance following the Feb. 23 election. It has become “more complicated” to work with Merz after his conservatives weakened Germany’s firewall against the far right last week by accepting the Alternative for Germany’s (AfD) support in parliament to push through anti-immigration measures, Habeck said. “If this…

Here’s what investors are eyeing on the markets next week, according to investment platform AJ Bell. BP, Tuesday 11 FebruaryAt the start of next week, those following oil and gas firms will be paying attention to British firm BP, which releases its full-year results on the 11 February.The shares are struggling to recover from two-and-a-half-year lows, with investment analysts Russ Mould, Danni Hewson, and Dan Coatsworth from AJ Bell noting that stakeholders “are becoming restless”.Many hope that BP will currently give more clarity on its future oil and gas production strategy in light of the renewable energy transition.“Shares show marked…

As the US president announced controversial plans to “take over the Gaza Strip”, Euronews checked in with Arab American voters from across the political spectrum. When Euronews spoke to Faye Nemar and Albert Abbas soon after Donald Trump clinched a second term in the White House back in November, they were upbeat. The Lebanese American founders of the MENA American Chamber of Commerce (MENACOC) had just hosted an “iconic” meeting with Trump at Abbas’ restaurant in Michigan, where Trump signed a “peace plaque”.“We saw the sincerity in his platform,” Nemer told Euronews at the time. “He was a very genuine individual,…

Here are our four top recommendations to read this month. February is the shortest month of the year, so none of the books we’ve suggested are particularly tome-like in form. Instead, here’s a selection of lithe yet perfectly put together pieces of prose to settle into as you weather the month’s long winter nights. Fiction: “We Do Not Part” by Han Kang, translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah MorrisLast year’s Nobel Prize winner Han Kang made history as the first Asian woman to win the prize. Any English-language reader of hers will know how deserved the acclaim is from…

Undersea earthquakes this week have prompted the evacuation of more than 10,000 residents and workers. With seismic activity in in full swing, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis visited Santorini on Friday, as the Aegean island imposed more precautionary measures in case of a major earthquake.During his visit, Mitsotakis inspected emergency preparedness facilities and announced a €3m funding package for constructing an emergency evacuation route in the southern part of the island.“We are preparing for the worst while hoping for the best. That’s what a serious and organised state must do,” Mitsotakis said during a meeting with local officials.The heightened seismic…

Her latest role follows a five years spell in Washington representing the U.K. She has just been replaced by former Labour Cabinet minister Peter Mandelson, the first non-career diplomat to take up the post in more than half a century. Announcing the move, Foreign Secretary David Lammy said: “The Western Balkans is of long-standing importance to the U.K., and our partnerships in the region are central to our efforts to tackle irregular migration and bear down on the evil trade in human lives.” He added: “With her experience and expertise, Dame Karen Pierce is the ideal person to drive this…

Most European cases have been reported in people who had travelled to parts of Africa with ongoing mpox outbreaks. Ireland is the latest European country to identify a case of a contagious new strain of mpox that is ravaging Central Africa.The Irish patient had recently returned from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the epicentre of an outbreak that has infected thousands of people since the new strain was detected in 2023.There are two subtypes of the mpox virus. Clade II, which is endemic in West Africa, caused the global outbreak that had health authorities on high alert in…

“The scale of this disruption underscores the far-reaching consequences of the funding pause on global food assistance efforts,” a senior WFP official wrote in one of the emails seen by Reuters. The agency estimates that more than 507,000 metric tons of food — worth more than $340 million — are stranded, whether en route by sea, sitting in warehouses in 23 countries or stalled in domestic U.S. supply chains. The situation has been compounded by a drastic restructuring at USAID, the main U.S. agency funding global food relief. Thousands of staff are reportedly being cut under a plan led by…

“The pressure just can’t be military. You have to put economic pressure, you have to put diplomatic pressure,” he told the Post. “And if there’s anybody who understands leverage, it’s President Donald J. Trump,” Kellogg said in the interview.   In the end, both Kyiv and Moscow will have to give up something to end the “industrial-size” killing in the Ukraine conflict, Kellogg told the newspaper. “Very frankly, both sides in any negotiation have to give; that’s just the way it is in negotiations,” he said. Kellogg denied a media report that he would present a peace plan during next…

“Really, the need for rebuilding society in Brussels is clear. And if we see what the citizens are asking for, it is really to clean up the streets, get the lighting back, make sure that people are living in good conditions, that we have access to jobs and that our kids are going to school again. This is about quality of life,” she said. She argued that although Brussels is a logistical hub and has many of the problems common to big cities, the fact that it is administrated by 19 different mayors is a particularly big problem.  “Nineteen authorities,…