Author: staff

Then take Lord Street. The tree-lined high parade purportedly inspired France’s Napoleon III, while living on Merseyside in exile during the 1830s, to rebuild Paris with wide boulevards. Now, the glass awnings hanging over the shuttered shops exemplify the faded splendor of the city. They’ve not seen a window cleaner’s squeegee for many a season. The use of what should be a prime hotel as emergency accommodation for Britain’s asylum seeker backlog has further driven people toward Reform. The town is, by many measures, far from the most deprived in the U.K. But the local MP, Labour’s Patrick Hurley, points…

You may have seen it on LinkedIn or in the headlines: Mario Draghi has spoken again. This is, after all, Super Mario’s superpower — when he speaks, people listen, reinforcing his reputation for delivering words that matter. Last week, his remarks at a popular Italian forum in Rimini were especially sharp toward the European Union’s current trajectory. And that’s why his latest intervention is more than just another speech. The timing is notable, too. Ursula von der Leyen, barely a year into her second mandate as European Commission president, is already facing criticism. Few in Brussels have forgotten that Draghi…

“Under normal circumstances, this election campaign should be very favorable to the incumbents. Opinion polls show that, as of today, we would almost have a majority,” said Nicu Popescu, Moldova’s former deputy minister who is running as a PAS parliamentary candidate. “But of course there are hybrid attacks, there’s non-digital aggression, you have Russia smuggling in millions and millions in cash to buy votes on a very large scale. So, while I’m confident, every vote will matter.” Getting in In Chisinau, Merz, Macron and Tusk will want to signal to Moldovan voters that their country’s future lies with the EU.…

The Council of the European Union could be forced to defend itself in a Hamburg court in what lawyers say would be a first-of-its-kind defamation action linked to an EU sanctions decision—if an appeal now pending before Germany’s Federal Court of Justice succeeds, according to filings seen by Euronews. The case targets the Council’s statement of reasons adopted in September 2023 for listing businessman Alisher Usmanov. Usmanov’s lawyer, Hamburg-based Joachim Steinhoefel, argues that key assertions relied on by the Council have since been shown to be unjustified. One passage stated that Usmanov “reportedly fronted for President Putin and solved his…

Markus Söder will Helgoland für Bayern – und besucht die Insel ohne seinen CDU-Kollegen aus Schleswig-Holstein. Gordon Repinski analysiert das gefährliche Polit-Spiel des CSU-Chefs, seine Parallelen zu Donald Trump und warum Söder für Kanzler Merz zum ätzenden Problem wird.Im 200-Sekunden-Interview: Thomas Erndl. Der verteidigungspolitische Sprecher der Unions-Fraktion über den Streit mit der SPD um die Wehrpflicht und wie die Union den Aufwuchs der Bundeswehr sichern will. Außerdem: Tausende Euro für Make-up und Haare. Wir blicken auf die Ausgaben der Minister für ihr Aussehen – und wer dabei am tiefsten in die Steuerkasse greift. Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es…

First, EU countries that so wish should form an alliance with other countries in Europe, like the U.K. and Norway, as well as those on other continents — like Canada, Japan, Australia, New Zealand and others, including developing countries— to promote non-authoritarian rules-based democracies. Besides freeing us from the incorrect assumption that the world is now Trumpian, such an alliance should give new momentum to free trade and multilateral governance, and pay special attention to the provision of global public goods. Crucially, however, this coalition shouldn’t be antagonistic to the U.S. like the BRICS grouping increasingly is. On the contrary,…

Without a hitch, a now-familiar playbook unfolded: The European Commission stood by its “sovereign right to regulate,” European lawmakers urged the EU executive not to give in, and experts quipped that the EU might have to relinquish the very right to regulate it had claimed as a big win in the trade deal.  “We must stand firm on our principles and react if words actually become action,” said Italian Social Democrat lawmaker Brando Benifei, chair of the European Parliament’s EU-U.S. delegation.   The back-and-forth is the umpteenth episode of a saga that started right after Trump took office. The U.S. has…

Turkey’s transport minister ended up with a speeding ticket after posting a video in which he was driving at excessive speed on a highway. Abdulkadir Uraloğlu shared footage on X late Sunday showing him behind the wheel on the Ankara-Niğde highway, listening to folk songs and clips of speeches by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, with the hashtag #TurkeyAccelerates.The video showed the minister’s speedometer hitting 225 kilometers per hour, well over Turkey’s 140 km/h limit. Within hours, Uraloğlu reposted the clip, admitting he had “effectively denounced” himself. “I unintentionally exceeded the speed limit for a short period,” he wrote, adding that…

The trade deal is a “direct function of Europe’s weakness on the security front, that it cannot provide for its own military security and that it failed to invest, for 20 years, in its own security,” said Thorsten Benner, director at the Global Public Policy Institute in Berlin, who also pointed to failures to invest in “technological strength” and to deepen the single market.  Just like the Qing leadership, Europe also scorned the warning signs over many years. “We are paying the price for the fact we ignored the wake-up call we got during the first Trump administration — and…

Taylor Swift has announced she is engaged to her partner of two years, NFL star Travis Kelce. The pop star made the announcement on Instagram, saying, “Your English teacher and your gym teacher are getting married.” At the time of writing, no furious, ALL CAPS messages from Donald Trump have been posted on Truth Social, but Trump is definitely not a Swiftie. Last year, during the presidential campaign, Trump said Swift would “probably pay a price” for endorsing his opponent, Kamala Harris. Trump’s comments came after the pop star came out in support of Harris, the Democratic candidate. “I’m voting for Kamala…