Author: staff

In hundreds of emails between Ehnbom and Epstein, or his assistant Lesley Groff, their chatty, familiar manner paints a picture of an established relationship that benefited them both. The communications continued from 2005 through 2018 — after his 2008 conviction and during his 13-month jail term. He died by suicide in jail in 2019. Ehnbom later said that she was “deeply outraged” by the abuse girls had been subjected to. The exchanges released by the U.S. Department of Justice and reviewed by POLITICO show Ehnbom telling Epstein she was financially dependent on him to continue her projects in Sweden. These included…

In the meantime, Ukraine’s manpower challenge is of a higher order — as this column has persistently reported since early 2024. Around two million Ukrainians are wanted for military registration violations, the new Defense Minister Mykhailo Fedorov disclosed last month. In November, Ukraine’s Office of the Prosecutor General revealed there are 310,000 criminal cases outstanding for unauthorized absences and desertion with the bulk occurring in 2025. Simply put, the Ukrainian armed forces (AFU) are recruiting insufficient numbers to compensate for losses — and desertions.  Mobilization is unpopular and there’s a growing reluctance to serve. “The main factors responsible for the…

Bien malin qui pourrait prédire qui sera élu maire d’Annecy le 22 mars prochain, tant les projections de notre sondage* exclusif Cluster 17 pour POLITICO sont serrées. Trois candidats sont en mesure de l’emporter : maire entre 2007 et 2020, Jean-Luc Rigaut (divers droite) est crédité de 26% des intentions de vote, tout comme le député Antoine Armand, soutenu par Renaissance, Les Républicains, Horizons et l’UDI. Et, seulement un point derrière, on trouve la liste d’union de la gauche (hors La France insoumise) menée par Alexandre Mulatier-Gachet. Au pied du podium avec 14% des voix, le candidat Rassemblement national, Guillaume…

Costa went on to warn Orbán that failing to abide by the Dec. 18 decision would “constitute a violation of the principle of sincere cooperation” between EU countries and that “no Member State can be allowed to undermine the credibility of decisions taken collectively by the European Council.” However, in a reply later that same day, Orbán — who is up for reelection in April — insisted he would continue to oppose the transfer of funds, accusing Kyiv of slow-walking repairs to the Druzhba pipeline, which was damaged in a Russian drone attack. “There are no technical obstacles to restarting…

The move effectively puts the ball in Brussels’ court as it mulls a response to the brewing crisis. Late on Monday, Slovakia halted its emergency electricity supplies to Ukraine, whose own energy sector is in crisis after years of Russian bombardment. The pushback against the pipeline outage didn’t stop there: Hungary has also blocked a previously agreed €90 billion EU loan to Ukraine, which is needed to keep the country solvent as it defends itself against Russia’s invasion. EU foreign ministers also failed to agree on new sanctions on Russia on Monday afternoon, with Slovakia expressing reservations about the package.…

The U.S. embassy did not immediately respond to POLITICO’s request for comment. Kushner found himself in hot water with French authorities over posts on X by the United States government weighing in on the death of 23-year-old Quentin Deranque, who was killed earlier this month in a fight on the sidelines of a political conference in Lyon. People affiliated with ultra-left groups have since been placed under investigation in relation to the incident. The X account of the U.S. Embassy in France on Friday translated and reposted a statement from the U.S. State Department’s counterterrorism bureau to the effect that:…

The Spanish government has defended the contract it struck for storing wiretaps. Spain’s Interior Ministry said in a statement that the government had awarded a contract to “European companies,” which then bought storage products. “There is no risk to security, technological and legal sovereignty, nor is there any foreign interference or threat to the custody of evidence,” the ministry said. Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska told the Spanish parliament last September that Telefónica, the country’s telecom champion, operated a state surveillance system called SITEL and that storage “cabinets” had been integrated into that system.   Bloomberg reported last July that Huawei equipment…

BRUSSELS — If Europe wants to cut migrant flows then changing the European Convention on Human Rights is the wrong way to go, the Council of Europe’s human rights chief Michael O’Flaherty told POLITICO in an interview Monday.“Changes to the way the European Convention [ECHR] is or is not interpreted is going to have no impact on migratory flows. So if it’s the migratory flows that you’re interested in then you’ve got to look somewhere else,” O’Flaherty said.His remarks come after 46 Council of Europe (CoE) members, including 27 EU countries, agreed in December to change how the ECHR is applied by…

The top leadership of the European Union has sharply accused Hungary of breaching the bloc’s principle of sincere cooperation after the country unexpectedly decided to veto a €90 billion loan to Ukraine over an unrelated energy dispute. The financial assistance programme was agreed in December by heads of state and government after gruelling negotiations. It was in the very last stage of the legislative process, with the first disbursement expected to be made in early April. Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic secured an opt-out from the scheme. “It’s really regrettable,” High Representative Kaja Kallas said at the end of…

Mentzen had appealed the November court ruling, but rather than wait for the process to play out, his allies registered The Empire Strikes Back in January as a Plan B. At a closed-door congress on Saturday, delegates voted to merge the two entities, transferring New Hope’s structures and assets to the new party. Confederation officials have been blunt about their aims. “We can say that we outsmarted the system. It’s quite an original solution,” Wojciech Machulski, Confederation spokesperson and head of The Empire Strikes Back, told Polish outlet Zero.pl. Machulski described the new party as a “technical” solution to ensure…