Author: staff

European Council President Antonio Costa continued his Western Balkans tour on Wednesday with a visit to Kosovo, another EU membership hopeful.Costa arrived in the capital Pristina during an institutional and parliamentary crisis. Even after three months of elections, the new parliament chair had not been chosen, and the new government was nowhere in sight.Costa met with Kosovo President Vjosa Osmani and Prime Minister Albin Kurti, who is on a technical mandate while also serving as MP in the new parliament.At a joint press conference with Osmani, Costa said that the dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia is crucial for further EU…

American music legend Bruce Springsteen lambasted U.S. President Donald Trump and his team during a concert in England on Wednesday night. “In my home, the America I love, the America I’ve written about, that has been a beacon of hope and liberty for 250 years is currently in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration,” Springsteen fumed on stage in Manchester during the opening night of a European tour with his E Street Band. “There’s some very weird, strange, and dangerous shit going on out there right now,” Springsteen said later in the show, according to a local…

Boeing has secured a historic deal with Qatar Airways, as part of US President Donald Trump’s regional trade drive. Shares in the largest US aerospace manufacturer rose 2% to a 52-week high on Wednesday following the announcement.During Trump’s visit to Qatar, the White House revealed that the US president had reached agreements totalling $243.5 billion (€209 bn) with the Gulf state. “The landmark deals celebrated today will drive innovation and prosperity for generations, bolster American manufacturing and technological leadership, and put America on the path to a new Golden Age,” stated the White House.The deals include a $96bn (€85.8 bn)…

Findings include abuse of temporary appointments and promotions of multiple people within leadership figures’ “friendly circle” to mid-management roles between 2019 and 2023. This was contrary to what would be beneficial for the agency and is in breach of EU staff regulations, the OLAF investigators found, according to the same two officials. OLAF alleges that recruitment decisions were also steered by personal ties — including appointing friends as chairs of hiring panels, canceling formal selection processes, and ignoring input from official selection committees. The EU’s watchdog also said those decisions were taken to the detriment of the good governance and…

Was passiert heute in der Türkei? Auch Stunden vor möglichen Gesprächen zwischen der Ukraine und Russland bleibt das unklar. Zusammen mit Hans von der Burchard spricht Gordon Repinski darüber, wie Wladimir Putin alle hinhält und sich Donald Trump weiter alle Optionen offen hält.  Im 200-Sekunden-Interview ist der CDU-Außenexperte und langjähriges Mitglied im Auswärtigen Ausschuss, Norbert Röttgen, zu Gast. Mit ihm geht es darum, ob heute für die Ukraine irgendetwas Gutes rumkommen kann, um Hoffnung und um europäische Konsequenz.  Rasmus Buchsteiner berichtet aus der parlamentarischen Arbeit: Dort wird gerade um die Posten in den Ausschüssen verhandelt, gerungen, geschachert. Eine Art Posten-Roulette.…

“The European flag stands for our values, for our European identity, for inclusion — and for the citizenship of nearly half a billion people,” he said. “If national flags belong on stage, the European flag does too.” Only national flags of participating countries are allowed on stage, in green rooms and on the turquoise carpet, where artists make their grand entrance. The same prohibition applies to other flags, such as the rainbow flag, which has previously been a frequent staple at the contest. “Young Europeans should not need permission to wave their flag,” Micallef added. “If the EBU keeps it…

Australia’s living in the future. And it’s not just its time zone. Its pensions industry is light years ahead, doubling in size every five years. It’s far outpacing the U.K., with Australian workers’ funds even helping to foot the bill for British housebuilding and infrastructure. Now the U.K.’s Chancellor, Rachel Reeves, wants to crib from the Aussie’s success — and have U.K. companies make a profit by building up Britain. She’s been taking lessons from her Antipodean counterparts, pledging sweeping changes to the fragmented retirement system by merging hundreds of billions of pounds held in thousands of private pensions into…

What we need is to work across Europe to build world-class, publicly controlled medical research capacity. Then, rather than handing over that research — or, indeed, the patient data underlying it — to the pharma cartel, we need to develop a different model of intellectual property protection that allows for the sharing and licensing of research in a way that supports international collaboration to produce better medicines for all. Such an approach wouldn’t just undercut Trump’s plans to enhance U.S. power, it would also mean no longer treating lifesaving medical knowledge as commercial property that only the richest can afford.…

Is Europe about to have another clamorous disruptor at the leaders’ top table? That’s certainly the fear in Brussels, as the hard-right ultranationalist George Simion stands a strong chance of winning the Romanian presidency on Sunday. European officials are particularly worried the 38-year-old firebrand will join the current duo of wreckers — Hungary’s Viktor Orbán and Slovakia’s Robert Fico — in seeking to scupper aid to Ukraine just as the EU wants to dial up pressure on Russia to end the war. If Bucharest does lurch over to the saboteur camp, it would be a bitter blow as Romania carries…

“Shall we play?” asked the world tennis number one Pope Leo XIV, “Here, perhaps better not,” replied the Pontiff. Jannik Sinner and the newly elected Pope clearly had a whale of a time during a private audience at the Vatican on Wednesday morning.It all started with a humorous exchange between the Pontiff and a journalist two days ago about the possibility of organising a charity tennis match. The reporter had jokingly proposed the participation of veteran US tennis player Andre Agassi. “As long as he doesn’t bring Sinner” the Pope commented, clearly enjoying a pun with the tennis player’s surname.A…