Author: staff

I saw this more closely than most. Within a single extraordinary fortnight, I went from serving Liz Truss’ first Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng to working with his successor Jeremy Hunt, moving from the budget that blew up the bond markets to the one built to calm them. Few advisers get to serve a chancellor who detonates a budget, as well as the one brought in to steady the ship only days later. And there is no better crash course in the life cycle of a budget: the whispers, the over-interpretation, the panic, the denial and the sudden transformation of every think…

Ukraine’s Kateryna Sadurska has raised the bar again with an 86 metre no fins dive at the Blue Element competition in Dominica. She completed the descent and return in 3 minutes 32 seconds, using ten strokes before freefall and thirty one on the way up. The dive was calm and steady, which is striking given the effort needed for Constant Weight No Fins discipline (CNF). Sadurska has now set eight world records and has pushed this discipline forward by ten metres since 2023. She said she heard whale clicks near the bottom, a moment that

The annual Tori-no-ichi festival opened on Monday at Ootori Shrine in Tokyo’s Asakusa district, drawing business owners and tourists hoping to secure good fortune for the coming year. The centuries-old event, held each November on zodiac “rooster days,” features long rows of stalls selling ornate bamboo rakes known as kumade. Decorated with symbols of luck such as gold coins, red sea bream and figures of next year’s zodiac animal, the horse, the rakes are believed to help owners “rake in” prosperity. Vendors send buyers off with ceremonial clapping and chanting, a tradition that has endured since the Edo period. One…

That trade deal, which President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen clinched at Trump’s Turnberry golf resort in Scotland, sets a baseline tariff of 15 percent on most EU imports to the U.S., while the EU committed to cutting most of its own tariffs to zero. At the time, the EU and the U.S. pledged to work together to reduce tariffs on steel and aluminum — but remained vague on the details. After the Europeans raised the steel tariffs on Monday, Lutnick responded by calling on the EU to “analyze their digital rules, trying to come…

Russian drones struck Kharkiv overnight, killing four people and injuring at least 13 in Ukraine’s second-largest city. According to regional head Oleh Syniehubov, eight residential buildings, a school and power lines were damaged. Fires spread through parts of the city, and emergency teams recovered an additional body from the rubble. The strikes also caused power outages after a transformer substation and sections of the heating network were hit. Two children were treated for shock, and more injuries were reported from shattered glass. Ukraine’s Air Force said Russia launched more than 160 drones across the country, most of which were intercepted.

How the Kremlin gets Ukrainians to betray their country Two young people were desperately short of cash. Then the Kremlin stepped in to help. By VERONIKA MELKOZEROVA in Kyiv Illustration by Hokyoung Kim for POLITICO Olena, 19, and Bohdan, 22, smile happily as they enter the room; they’re in handcuffs and are accompanied by armed Security Service of Ukraine agents. It’s the first time the couple has seen each other in a month; both are being held in a detention center until their trial on treason charges. Olena is blonde with soft, childish features, and Bohdan is an athletic young…

The EU has confirmed a financial contribution of €82 million to the Palestinian Authority (PA) to support stabilisation efforts in the West Bank, at the first meeting of the Palestine Donor Group in Brussels on Thursday. “Our aim is to strengthen governance, build a more resilient economy, stabilise finances, improve services for the population, and create conditions for future effective governance across all territories”, Dubravka Šuica, EU Commissioner for the Mediterranean said. Although this money was already pledged, and no additional commitment was announced by the EU, the Palestinian minister of Planning and International Cooperation told Euronews that this renewed…

What makes the affair complicated is that the ID group dissolved after last year’s EU election, with a majority of its members and staff absorbed into the new Patriots for Europe group. While the Parliament’s budgetary control committee considers the two groups to be related — and therefore, the Patriots potentially liable to pay back the cash — the Patriots have pushed back, arguing that they are two separate legal entities. “The absurd claim that the Patriots are the legal successors to the ID group is baseless,” Patriots MEP Tamás Deutsch said in September, after the budgetary control committee instructed the…

Germany has opened its 2025 Christmas markets with noticeably tighter security, a response to the deadly vehicle attacks in Magdeburg last year and in Berlin in 2016. Visitors still gather around stalls serving mulled wine, grilled sausages and caramelised apples, but many markets now use heavy barriers and increased patrols to manage the risk. Some smaller towns have cancelled their events because they cannot afford the new requirements. Larger cities have pushed ahead, trying to balance safety with the familiar feel of lights, rides and handmade goods.

“Les discussions ont permis de réaliser des progrès significatifs en vue d’un rapprochement des positions et de l’identification d’étapes suivantes clairement définies”, ont relaté Washington et Kiev dans un communiqué commun, qui précise que l’Ukraine a “réaffirmé sa gratitude” envers les Etats-Unis et Donald Trump personnellement. “Les deux parties ont réaffirmé que tout accord futur doit respecter pleinement la souveraineté de l’Ukraine et garantir une paix durable et juste.” Discussions “tendues” Malgré l’optimisme affiché, “les négociations ont été tendues”, décrit une personne au fait des pourparlers de dimanche, qui s’exprime sous anonymat pour discuter des négociations. “La partie américaine ne…