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Friedrich Merz challenges Ursula von der Leyen for Europe’s crown – POLITICO Skip to main content

Despite the US president’s claims of low support, Zelenskyy’s approval rating reached 57% in February — higher than Trump’s own. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s approval rating grew to 57% at the beginning of February, according to the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) — contrary to US President Donald Trump’s claims that Zelenskyy only has minimal support among the population. Speaking at Mar-a-Lago after his US delegation finished talks with Russia, Trump said that Ukraine needs to hold elections because the Ukrainian leader allegedly has a low approval rating.”We have a situation where we haven’t had elections in Ukraine, where…

Wang met his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in  Johannesburg on Thursday. Wang’s remarks come after American and Russian officials met in Saudi Arabia this week, without Kyiv’s involvement, to discuss ending the conflict. The talks in Riyadh have raised fears that Washington and Moscow could broker a peace deal on terms favorable to Russia. U.S. President Donald Trump, who has long threatened to pull American aid from Ukraine, has echoed Kremlin talking points in recent days, calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator” and blaming Kyiv for Moscow’s brutal full-scale invasion. China has…

The AfD received €2.35 million from Gerhard Dingler, allegedly funnelled through him by billionaire Henning Conle, risking a €7 million fine if confirmed. Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) has been entangled in a donation scandal that, if confirmed, would see the party risk millions in fines. The AfD was gifted a record €2.35 million from Gerhard Dingler, a former regional manager for Austria’s Freedom Party (FPÖ), on 1 February.However, an investigation from Der Spiegel and Austrian newspaper Der Standard suggests that Dingler was given the money by German billionaire Henning Conle.The reports say that Dingler presented his bank with…

The Philippines said China’s crew flew within 3 metres of its plane in the airspace above Scarborough Shoal on Tuesday. The US has criticised China for conducting what it called “dangerous” helicopter manoeuvres over a disputed island in the South China Sea. A Chinese navy helicopter flew within 3 meters of a Philippine patrol plane on Tuesday in the airspace about Scarborough Shoal, according to Manila. The two countries have long had standoffs over the island, which lies off the northwestern Philippines, but tensions in the area have increased in recent years. MaryKay Carlson, the US ambassador to Manila, rebuked…

“You have a role to play,” Macron said.    The French president referred several times to World War II and to former President Charles de Gaulle, who led the French Liberation Army’s resistance against German occupation. Macron said stepping up to Russia was necessary to defend the country’s interests.  While he declined to compare Russia to Nazi Germany in the 1930s, Macron said it was important to see the country “for what it is: it is a dangerous military power that has become imperialist.”  Macron was also asked about the formation of a common European army, but said diverging views…

Philippe Tabarot will also talk to staff at the airline, after female employees told Radio France that they had been sexually harassed. French Transport Minister Philippe Tabarot will speak to Air France executives on Wednesday about claims of a culture of sexual harassment within the company. The meeting comes shortly after the public broadcaster Radio France published the testimonies of a number of female Air France employees, who say they were sexually harassed by their colleagues. The women allege that the airline “protects the abusers, not the hostesses”. When contacted by Radio France, Air France categorically denied the claim, saying…

The company sued producers of Birkenstock-like footwear at a regional court in Cologne, which initially granted them the right to label their contoured cork footbeds as works of art. But a higher court in Cologne rejected the claim, saying mere handicraft wasn’t enough to claim there was an artistic idea behind the object’s design. Birkenstock appealed, but the Federal Court of Justice ruled the higher court had been correct in saying the company had failed to prove the design of the sandal was based on artistic considerations. “For copyright protection, a degree of design must be achieved that shows individuality,” the…

New data from US space agency believes that the 2024 YR4 asteroid now has over a 3 per cent chance of hitting the planet in 2032, making it the highest-threat asteroid ever detected.  NASA has released new data that suggests that the 2024 YR4 asteroid would pose a risk to some of the most densely populated regions in the world if it were to hit Earth.2024 YR4 could likely hit somewhere along a “risk corridor” which NASA has identified as stretching across the eastern Pacific Ocean, northern South America, the Atlantic Ocean, African, the Arabian Sea, and South Asia.Cities on…

Saramo, Spain’s Isabel Serra and Portugal’s Catarina Martins argued they had been on an “observation mission” to monitor compliance with a recent EU court ruling annulling the agriculture and fishing arrangements between the EU and Morocco. The MEPs were traveling in a personal capacity as their visit was not an official mission organized by The Left group or by the Parliament, two officials told POLITICO.  In an October 2024 ruling, the EU’s Court of Justice sided with the Polisario Front of Western Sahara, which had appealed to have trade deals annulled that allowed Morocco to export fish and farm products…