Author: staff

Georgescu, extremely religious and nationalistic, campaigned on reducing Romania’s reliance on imports, supporting farmers, and increasing domestic production of food and energy. He has also argued that the EU and NATO do not properly represent Romanian interests and claimed Russia’s war in Ukraine, a Romanian neighbor, is manipulated by American military companies. A little-known university professor who leveraged TikTok to rally voters around him, Georgescu has drawn fierce criticism for his previous comments supporting Romania’s 20th Century fascist Legionary Movement. Turnout across the country and the Romanian diaspora was 52.5 percent, slightly above the 51.2 percent who voted in the previous…

The federal government argues that the volume of traffic on the motorway network has increased more than five times over the past sixty years. Swiss voters took to the polls on Sunday to vote no to bigger motorways, no to easier evictions and tighter subletting rules and yes to a new healthcare financing model.The Swiss government’s proposal to allocate €5.3 million for expanding motorways and constructing new roads at six key locations, including near Bern and between Geneva and Lausanne, was rejected by 52.7% of voters. The plan, approved by parliament last year, faced opposition from those concerned about its…

Romania is on track to buck the global trend of a hard-right pivot as reformist candidate Elena Lasconi was forecast to beat nationalist George Simion to reach the final round of the country’s presidential election, early exit polls showed Sunday. Romania’s current center-left Prime Minister, Marcel Ciolacu, is set to come out on top in the first round of the presidential ballot, with 25 percent of the votes, followed by Lasconi, who scored 18 percent, according to the exit poll. Simion got 15 percent, behind independent candidate Călin Georgescu, who scored 16 percent. The preliminary results could still change as…

“I am ready to represent everyone in Poland,” Nawrocki told a PiS convention in Kraków, Poland’s second-largest city and its longtime historic capital, referencing his working class background. “I’ve led a normal and humble life,” Nawrocki added in a swipe at Trzaskowski, whom PiS has long painted as elitist. “Millions believed Poland could get better, but they were wronged,” Nawrocki said of the 2023 election that elevated Tusk to power. “As president, I will table new legislation to address [issues like] energy security or economic freedom.” In a lengthy speech, Nawrocki also criticized the EU’s Green Deal as an obstacle…

After Kyiv reportedly began deploying the weapons last week, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Kremlin reserved “the right” to strike military targets of countries that had supplied the missiles to Ukraine. But Germany has repeatedly refused to join its allies in providing similar weapons. On Friday, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz again ruled out sending German-made Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine. Scholz has made his self-proclaimed “prudent” policy toward Russia a cornerstone of his campaign strategy for Germany’s snap election on Feb. 23. Scholz also has repeatedly spoken out against the French proposal to potentially send Western troops — be…

The comments come as tensions between NATO and Russia reach a new high. Russian President Vladimir Putin last week warned that the war in Ukraine had taken on “a global character” after the U.K., the United States and France authorized Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike targets deep inside Russia. That means Moscow is now ready to cause “unprovoked attacks against our critical national infrastructure,” McFadden will warn, including power grids, which “can turn the lights off for millions of people.” Russian state-aligned groups including an “unofficial army of cybercriminals and hacktivists” have stepped up their attacks in the…

The negotiator role would also involve acting as an EU “sherpa” — representing the prime minister in negotiations with the bloc — and leading talks with Brussels on a proposed security cooperation agreement. It will also include dealing with existing Brexit agreements and upcoming changes to EU border rules that aim to digitalize entry to the bloc and to impose a fee for Britons starting next year, the so-called EU Entry/Exit System. The move to appoint a new negotiator comes after Starmer visited Brussels last month for the first time since becoming prime minister, where he met with European Commission…

It comes amid rising fears among European countries over Trump’s impact on the alliance, given his previous comments questioning the value of NATO and threatening not to defend members who don’t pay enough into the organization. Rutte, who formally became NATO’s secretary-general in October, also met with U.S. Congressman Mike Waltz, Trump’s pick for national security adviser. “A strong NATO that restores deterrence and peace requires all member nations to do their part commensurate with their economic strength!” Waltz said on X following the meeting. Rutte, who was Dutch prime minister for almost 14 years, was seen as having a…

Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 66 people were wounded in the strikes, the fourth such attacks on central Beirut in less than a week. At least 20 people have been killed in Israeli air strikes on the Lebanese capital Beirut as diplomats scramble to broker a ceasefire.Lebanon’s Health Ministry said 66 people were wounded in the strikes, the fourth such attacks on central Beirut in less than a week.The strikes early on Saturday morning destroyed an eight-story building with a legislator for Hezbollah saying none of the group’s officials were inside at the time.The attack also stripped the facades from nearby…

“If you succeed and escape, you arrive in neighboring countries. But then you have to make the tough passage to Europe through mountains and smuggling routes — that’s very dangerous and very difficult. Women are more vulnerable, so they rarely travel on foot. The majority of Afghans who come to the EU are men,” he said. It’s mostly Afghan men who undertake the treacherous journeys to Europe, and men who wait years to seek family reunification with their wives and children. Activists also point out that the data of a single month doesn’t indicate that the decision to grant asylum…