Author: staff

WARSAW — Liberal Warsaw Mayor Rafał Trzaskowski narrowly won the first round of Poland’s presidential election on Sunday against his right-wing rival Karol Nawrocki, setting the two up for a nail-biting campaign for the second round on June 1. Trzaskowski, part of PM Donald Tusk’s Civic Platform party, won 30.8 percent of the vote while Nawrocki, supported by the populist right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, took 29.1 percent, according to an exit poll by Ipsos released on Sunday evening after the polls closed. The projections are not official results, which will start coming in from Poland’s election authority in…

Dan’s victory, if confirmed by official results, will calm fears in Brussels and other European capitals that Romania — a country of 19 million people that is a key EU and NATO member — would veer hard to the right. The election was closely watched in Washington, where Trump administration officials have been supportive of the country’s threatened right-wing turn. U.S. Vice President JD Vance criticized Romanian authorities in February for canceling the first attempt at holding the presidential election last November. Romania’s top court decided to annul that election and order a rerun over allegations that the candidate who…

Les Républicains and its ideological predecessors dominated French politics for decades, with former presidents like Jacques Chirac and Nicolas Sarkozy among its ranks. But the conservative force fell into political purgatory after President Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 election upended the country’s political balance.  The party has since endured a series of electoral defeats but made an unexpected return to government last September by allying with pro-Macron parties to form a minority government. That move brought Retailleau, 64, into the Cabinet for the first time.  The party is now jockeying to reclaim right-wing voters in a potentially wide-open 2027 presidential race without…

It’s the first time since President Donald Trump unleashed his global tariff war last month that a member of his administration has spoken positively in public about the prospects of advantageous American trade with the EU. Von der Leyen stressed that “what unites us is that, at the end, we want … to have a good deal for both sides.” So far, the Trump administration has slapped a 10 percent tariff on all imports and 25 percent duties on products like steel, aluminum, cars and car parts, all of which apply to Europe as well as other parts of the…

European Council President António Costa, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas, will meet UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in London on Monday to iron out the details of a long-anticipated defence and security pact between the two parties, and potentially discuss future resetting of post-Brexit relations.Starmer previously made it clear that a security pact with the EU is one of the Labour government’s priorities, even setting out the ambition in the party’s electoral manifesto. The EU since agreed closer collaboration on defence was needed, given the current geopolitical situation. This would open the door…

Portugal’s grid is highly integrated with its Spanish neighbor, which is how the power outage spread easily westward. Spain, in turn, is connected by just a few lines to France. Nuclear-friendly France is, according to Spain and Portugal at least, is delaying new links to prevent cheap solar and wind energy from flooding the French market. French grid operator RTE denies this. Both a cable via the Bay of Biscay and an overland powerline should address the shortage. “France has no interest in accelerating our interconnections for its nuclear energy,” Carvalho told El País last week in an interview where…

Double victory for Jasmine Paolini at the Internazionali di Roma. After triumphing in the singles on Saturday afternoon against Coco Gauff, the Italian tennis player, paired with Sara Errani, also won in the doubles tournament.The Italians, defending champions, beat the pair formed by Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens in two sets with a score of 6-4 7-5.”Two crazy and unforgettable weeks in Rome. These were the first words of Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini after confirming themselves as doubles champions for the second year running. “You are special”, they then say to the audience, “Today we played three against two”.At…

Sunday’s snap election is being held two months after Prime Minister Luís Montenegro’s government fell as a result of the so-called Spinumviva scandal. The center-right politician’s  integrity was called into question after the Portuguese press began reporting on Spinumviva — a data protection consultancy controlled by Montenegro’s family, with clients including several companies that hold government contracts. Although the center-right politician denied any conflict of interest and survived several censure motions filed against his minority government, he eventually stepped down after losing a confidence vote in parliament in March. Pre-election polls suggest that the center-right bloc led by the Democratic Alliance coalition has a narrow…

“I voted thinking of a lot of people who are quiet, honest and hard working and who have for long not felt represented,” said Dan as he voted in his home town of Fagaras in Transylvania on Sunday. “I voted for a change that brings prosperity and not one that brings adventure and discouragement of foreign investment.” Simion voted in a small town outside Bucharest, with his political patron, the banned ultranationalist former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu. He claimed he had heard official exit pollsters had been told to release data showing the race was neck-and-neck when they give their…

Cardinal Robert Prevost, a former missionary and teacher, was chosen by cardinals in a secretive conclave this month that lasted barely 24 hours. The first American pope, his papacy begins at a time of crisis of U.S. leadership, as the Trump administration seeks to roll back Washington’s centrality in multinational organizations. In his first week in the job, Leo has signaled that he intends to put peace at the center of his pontificate, saying that “it is the peacemakers that make history.” His first words in St. Peter’s Square on the night of his election were “Peace be with you…