Author: staff

Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico’s Jack Blanchard share their daily guide to the day ahead in politics in under 20 minutes. The Assad regime’s 50-year rule in Syria has ended, leaving a region on edge. Jack and Sam unpack what this means, how Assad’s fall weakens Russia and Iran, as well as the implications for global oil prices, migration and UK foreign policy. Plus, a closer look at Labour’s EU engagement, as Chancellor Rachel Reeves heads to Brussels and Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer gears up for high-level security talks in the UAE. You can send…

Despite palpable tensions, Annalena Baerbock was not thrown out by the Chinese foreign minister during her visit to Beijing last week. A video circulating on social platforms claims that Germany’s foreign minister was thrown out of a press conference along with German journalists after tensions boiled over during a meeting with her Chinese counterpart in Beijing.Euroverify’s analysis shows that the claims are unfounded and untrue.A reverse image search shows that the footage used in the video was in fact filmed during Baerbock’s first visit to China in April 2023.The original footage, seen here in a Euronews report, shows the then-foreign…

Harriet Harman, a former long-serving MP and minister recently elevated to the Lords, confirmed to POLITICO she would be tabling an amendment to remove the 26 places in the upper chamber currently reserved for Church of England bishops. “There’s nobody who can justify, in 2024, people coming into our legislature in order to scrutinize legislation with their admission being based on ordination in the Church of England,” she said. Some other Labour backbenchers want to see the body that approves appointments to the Lords put on a statutory footing, while Conservative peers are proposing that the end to hereditary peerages…

Kann Friedrich Merz zeigen, dass er der bessere „Friedenskanzler“ sein könnte, weil er härter gegenüber Russland agiert? Diese Frage ist noch offen, doch Merz wird zeitnah erneut zeigen, wie er sich als Sicherheitspolitiker sieht, wenn er der Einladung von Wolodymyr Selensky folgt und nach Kyjiw fährt. Welches Signal der Unions-Kanzlerkandidat dort senden will, bespricht Gordon Repinski mit dem Diplomatie-Experten von POLITICO, Hans von der Burchard. Mit dem Außen- und Sicherheitspolitiker Johann Wadephul geht es im 200-Sekunden-Interview ebenfalls um Merz, Taurus und wie die Ukraine ein Wahlkampfthema in Deutschland ist. Rixa Fürsen, POLITICO-Reporterin, gibt einen Überblick über die Entwicklungen in Syrien…

“It’s difficult to continue being a winning country in a continent which is challenged a lot,” Thomas Bustrup told Hannah Brown on this episode of The Big Question. In the International Institute for Management Development’s (IMD) 2024 World Competitiveness Ranking, Denmark came out third. Singapore and Switzerland took the top two spots, dethroning Denmark from the prized position in 2022 and 2023. Despite this, it’s still pretty good going for a country in Europe where one of the key topics of conversation is the bloc’s dwindling competitiveness. So what’s their secret?In this episode of The Big Question, Deputy Director General of the Confederation…

In April, the European Union adopted an Anti-SLAPP Directive in April and issued recommendations on combating the use of such lawsuits. However, it’s not enough. One of its limitations, explained Urso, is that it only takes into consideration cross-border cases and does not consider domestic cases. The Council of Europe also issued a recommendation in April, setting out a more robust framework for deterring and remedying SLAPPs. This one includes the domestic cases as well, and provides clear indicators on how to evaluate a legal case. The Council of Europe recommendation is also “more outspoken” when it comes to the…

Georgian protesters hopeful of keeping European Union membership dream alive as they take to the streets in an 11th consecutive day of protests against the ruling Georgian Dream party in Tbilisi. Tens of thousands of people flooded the streets of the Georgian capital to demonstrate against the governing party’s decision to suspend EU accession talks for four years.  The rally took place outside the parliament building in Tbilisi and was met with considerable force.  Georgian police used water cannons and tear gas to disperse protesters and quell the unrest.  Riot police units were also deployed to break up the rallies.…

Syria has been devastated by a bloody civil war since 2011 which has its roots in a failed uprising against Bashar al-Assad as part of the Arab Spring anti-government protest movement that swept across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. While many of the regions’ rulers, from Libya to Tunisia to Egypt, either stepped down or were forcibly removed, Assad hung on.He directed the military to launch a brutal crackdown on the unrest with an estimated 3,500 thousand protesters killed.After months of violence by the security services, armed rebel groups began forming across the country and what…

This is Russia’s imperialist thinking laid bare: a belief in greatness that demands sacrifice, a messianic purpose untethered from reason and a chilling comfort with violence. No war crime is too heinous, no bomb too big for a system that knows nothing but oppression and subjugation. Many in Russia are even bizarrely convinced they’re liberating Ukraine by invading it. But let’s not mistake this vox populi to mean that Moscow will resort to nuclear escalation. Doomsday weapons serve Moscow better as tools of blackmail than battlefield instruments. And its reliance on China, which has firmly opposed nuclear escalation, acts as a…

He will receive a salary of at least 15 million euros per season and a signing bonus of more than 100 million euros. Kylian Mbappé was officially welcomed to Real Madrid on Tuesday after years of talks and speculation the Frenchman would eventually join the Spanish giants. Fulfilling his childhood dream in front of a packed Santiago Bernabéu Stadium, he put on the Real Madrid number 9 jersey, passed on from former striker Karim Benzema.Nearly 80,000 fans were present at Bernabéu to welcome the 25-year-old star during his official presentation as the club’s newest player. After signing his five-year contract…