Author: staff

The nominations for the 97th Academy Awards were announced Thursday — and the list is decidedly politics-heavy. From a Vatican intrigue thriller, to a documentary about an assassinated Congolese freedom fighter, to a certain New York real estate tycoon-turned-president’s biopic, these are the political flicks that received an Oscars nod. The Apprentice Before he was the president of the United States, Donald Trump was a young, ruthlessly ambitious real estate developer in New York City. “The Apprentice,” starring Romanian-American actor Sebastian Stan in a blond wig and a whole lot of foundation, begins in the early 1970s and charts Trump’s…

No one wants to end the war in Ukraine more than Ukrainians do, but it needs to result in just peace, the head of Ukraine’s presidential administration told Euronews in Davos after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy addressed the delegates calling on Europe to wake up. Europe can’t allow itself to be second or third in line for its allies, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his speech in Davos, delivering a stark wake-up call for the continent once more. The message couldn’t be more urgent: Russia’s all-out war against Ukraine, now in its third year, remains at everyone’s doorstep. Battles involving…

Notable instances of procedural sluggishness include a landmark trade deal recently signed with the Latin American Mercosur bloc that was 20 years in the making. Meanwhile, Turkey applied to join the bloc in 1987 — and its application is still pending.  “I got a call from the head of a major airline,” Trump recalled. “He said, sir. Can you help us? Landing in Europe is brutal — they charge us fees on everything. I said, how does it compare to China? And he said, ‘It’s much worse.’” Friends of his in the EU, he added, “want to be able to compete…

The European Commission has proposed financial support for farmers negatively impacted by the EU-Mercosur trade agreement – but the safety net would only be triggered in the ‘worst-case scenario’ and the EU executive says it won’t be needed. Farmers fear the as-yet unratified deal with the Latin American bloc comprising Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Bolivia could disrupt European markets, particularly in sensitive sectors such as beef and poultry.The EU has promised to introduce safeguards, partly to win over countries like France and Poland, where farmers hold considerable political sway. But recent communications about these safeguards have sown confusion.At a…

Trump used Davos to warn Europe, demanding NATO allies raise defence spending to 5% of GDP and threatening tariffs on companies not manufacturing in the US. He linked lower oil prices to ending the Ukraine war and assured LNG exports to Europe would continue. In his first major international address since returning to the White House, US President Donald Trump made it clear that his second term would see no softening of his stance on trade, defence, or global diplomacy.Speaking via videoconference at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday, Trump issued a stark warning to European allies, demanding…

“C’est plus qu’un signal d’alarme, c’est une claque”, considère Christian Miele, general partner chez Headline, une société de capital-risque, qui investit dans la française Mistral AI. La présidente de la Commission européenne, Ursula von der Leyen, a beaucoup mis en avant l’ambition de faire de l’UE un leader en matière d’innovation dans le domaine de l’IA, dans le cadre d’un effort plus large visant à permettre au Vieux Continent de rattraper les Etats-Unis et la Chine. Le président Emmanuel Macron prévoit de tenir un discours similaire lors d’un sommet mondial sur l’IA qui se tiendra à Paris le mois prochain.…

The extension of EU sanctions shouldn’t be automatic, the Hungarian government has said, in remarks that threaten to unravel the bloc’s collective reaction to Russia’s war on Ukraine Hungary has ratcheted up its criticism of EU sanctions on Russia as a crucial deadline to renew the restrictions looms closer, stoking fears the punitive regime painstakingly built across 15 different packages could soon come undone.The bloc’s sectoral sanctions imposed on Moscow for invading Ukraine include sweeping bans on trade in energy, technology, finance, luxury goods, transport and broadcasting, and a freeze of €210 billion assets held by the Russian central bank…

“The execution of prisoners of war is a serious violation of the Geneva Convention relative to the Treatment of Prisoners of War and is classified as a grave international crime,” the prosecutors added. Earlier Thursday, Telegram channels spread a video showing Russian soldiers taking turns methodically shooting unarmed Ukrainian troops in the back one by one. “Leave one for me,” one of the Russian soldiers says as a seventh Ukrainian POW is seen lying on the ground. Then the video stops. POLITICO could not independently verify the video. Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets has filed a war crime claim over the…

The conservative European People’s Party (EPP) has questioned the use of public funds for campaigns they say run against the EU’s own interests. The Commission says it’s fixed the problem, but some see it as part of a wider attack on environmental campaigners. Some financing from the EU’s €5.4 billion environmental programme LIFE may have been inappropriate, a senior European Commission official has admitted, as right-wing lawmakers protested about the use of public funds to help non-governmental organisations lobby MEPs and within the EU executive itself.Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin told MEPs on Wednesday evening the EU executive had merely followed the…

A short transfer is a gift after a long flight- these airports are a stone’s throw from the city. There’s nothing worse than landing at your long-awaited holiday destination only to find a lengthy transfer from the airport to the city. Despite the names of some airports, they’re located woefully far away from the cities they serve. Ever flown into Paris-Vatry Airport? If you have, you’ll have been surprised to find yourself around 160 km away from the City of Lights.Similar situations can be found at ‘Munich West,’ an airport that is 120 km from Munich, and at Frankfurt Hahn, 125…