Politico Europe – Politique
• 19/05/2026
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Politico Europe – Politique
• 19/05/2026
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After years of Hungary’s former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán blocking ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 19/05/2026
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Xi Jinping empfängt den russischen Präsidenten Wladimir Putin in Peki...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 19/05/2026
LONDON — A little-known British defense minister is being urged by MPs to consider a bid to replace Keir Starmer, as a leadership crisis consumes the governing Labour Party.
Al Carns, the minister for the armed forces, is being touted by supporters who say the party now needs a radical change if it is to win back thousands of voters who dumped Labour for Nigel Farage’s Reform UK or the left-wing Greens at recent local elections.
Carns, who only entered parliament as the MP for th...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
The Trump administration has been dancing around the question of whether it will carry out military strikes against Cuba. I am told it is increasingly willing to take such a step.
That’s a significant escalation from a few months ago, when officials were primarily focused on using economic and diplomatic pressure to squeeze the communist regime in Havana.
A U.S. official and a person familiar with the administration’s discussions on Cuba told me that President Donald Trump and his aide...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
President Donald Trump announced Monday he would delay his plan to strike Iran in hopes of further diplomatic negotiations.
The U.S. plan to further strike Iran was scheduled for Tuesday, Trump wrote on Truth Social. He met with his national security team over the weekend after no movement on a deal with Iran, and threatened on Sunday that Iran “better get moving, FAST, or there won’t be anything left of them.”
The president said he reconsidered the strikes after request...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is suspending entry into the U.S. for 30 days for travelers who have visited areas where there is an ongoing outbreak of the Ebola virus, the agency announced on Monday. That restriction does not apply to U.S. citizens, U.S. nationals or lawful permanent residents returning from Ebola outbreak areas.
In a statement posted to its website, the agency said it would impose “entry restrictions” on passengers who do not hold a U.S. passport if...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
Deep foreign aid cuts allowed the deadly Ebola virus to spread undetected in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Uganda, while ongoing conflict has complicated efforts to build resilient health care services in the region, experts warned Monday.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez framed the crisis as a matter of security and justice at the World Health Organization’s annual meeting in Geneva, where the pressing question for health leaders is how to continue funding global health ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
Brussels’ answer to a looming fertilizer crisis is to make more use of cow dung.
Grocery price spikes are on the horizon amid the unending war in Iran and the rising cost of fertilizer. Yet the European Commission’s plan to shore up Europe’s supply, due out Tuesday, centers around a long-term regulatory push to recycle more manure and farm waste into fertilizer.
It’s not the quick fix some were hoping for.
Farmers “expected bold action,” said MEP Veronika...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
A federal jury in California took just a few hours on Monday to unanimously dismiss Elon Musk’s claims alleging that Sam Altman and OpenAI deceived him into funding the company with promises to operate it as a nonprofit for the public welfare.
Musk accused the ChatGPT-maker and its leaders, including CEO Altman and president Greg Brockman, of effectively “stealing a charity” by later starting a massive commercial venture that has become one of the most well known and highly valu...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
MADRID — Spain’s flurry of regional elections over recent months — most crucially in Andalusia this Sunday — has delivered an ominous message to the ruling Socialist Party of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez ahead of next year’s general election.
As Spain’s most populous region, Andalusia was of particular importance, and the Socialists’ heavy defeat was a historic and humiliating blow for a party that once regarded it as one of its strongholds.
The conservative ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
DUBLIN — Ireland’s president on Monday said she was “very proud” of her sister, who earlier in the day was detained by Israeli forces while sailing to Gaza as part of an aid convoy.
Margaret Connolly, a general practitioner in the town of Sligo in Ireland’s northwest, was among at least six Irish members of the Global Sumud Flotilla to be detained when Israeli troops boarded her vessel on Monday, according to Karen Moynihan, an Irish spokesperson for the pro-Gazan aid group.
...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
The Trump administration will extend for another month a waiver allowing the sale of Russian crude already loaded on tankers, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Monday.
The move is aimed at keeping more oil on global markets and tempering crude prices as the war in Iran, now nearing its third month, continues to choke off shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. But critics have blasted the waiver as allowing Russia to profit from elevated oil prices and enriching Moscow’s war machine.
...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
PARIS — Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent has said he will extend a temporary pause of U.S. sanctions on Russian oil exports until mid-June.
The decision deals a major blow to Kyiv and to the European Commission, which has urged Washington to resume sanctions to squeeze President Vladimir Putin’s war chest more than four years into his war on Ukraine.
Bessent announced a 30-day extension of the sanctions waiver during a meeting of G7 finance ministers in Paris on Monday, three officials...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
WARSAW — Two senior Polish defense ministry officials are on their way to Washington to get more information on why the U.S. suddenly canceled the deployment of 4,000 soldiers on a planned rotation to the country.
Paweł Zalewski and Cezary Tomczyk — both deputy defense ministers — will try to get details on what Zalewski called “the incident.”
“No one in Poland knew that the rotation of the American brigade would be suspended,” Zalewski told TOK FM radio on Mond...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
ATHENS — European prosecutors are looking into how Greece used EU funds to construct migrant camps, said two Greek officials familiar with the inquiry.
The European Public Prosecutor’s Office is focusing its investigation on the construction of two migrant reception and accommodation centers between 2020 and 2021, during the Covid pandemic period.
According to the officials, who spoke to POLITICO on condition of anonymity, the contracts in question were awarded to private companies wit...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez on Monday issued a sharp warning to the U.S., saying any military action taken against the country from its northern neighbor would result in a “bloodbath” in response.
“The threats of military aggression against Cuba from the biggest military power on the planet are already known,” Díaz-Canel said in a post to social media. “The threat alone is an international crime. To make good on it would provoke a bloodbath of incalculable consequences...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
BERLIN — Former German Chancellor Angela Merkel hit out at the EU on Monday for not using its diplomatic clout to help end Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
“I think the military support we’ve provided so far is absolutely the right thing to do. I also think it’s right that we do much more to create a deterrent effect beyond our support for Ukraine. What I regret is that, in my view, Europe is not making sufficient use of its diplomatic potential,” Merkel said during an...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
Russia and Belarus practiced deploying tactical nuclear weapons on Monday, just one day after Ukraine carried out its biggest drone attack on Moscow.
In a statement, Belarus’ Defense Ministry said the exercise, which was held with units of the Russian armed forces, intended to test the military’s readiness to launch nuclear weapons from mobile or unplanned launch sites. It also stated the drill was a scheduled event and not aimed against any specific third party.
The joint military exe...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
ROME — Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s party has picked a new fight with an unlikely political target: peacocks.
Footage of the birds has been trending on social media as they roam the streets of Punta Marina, a beach resort on Italy’s Adriatic coast, where residents complain of sleepless nights caused by mating calls, droppings and damage to roofs and cars.
The birds became comfortable in residential areas during the quiet years of the Covid pandemic, and the population boomed...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
KYIV — Ukraine hit Russia with more than 1,300 drones over the weekend, penetrating Moscow’s heavy air defenses and successfully hitting targets in and around the capital.
While Ukrainian drones have penetrated Moscow’s air defenses before, this time they hit a wide range of targets, including industrial plants and an oil refinery. Three people were killed and 12 wounded, Russian authorities said.
“This is significant also because the Moscow region is the most heavily saturated w...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
Étienne Davignon, former European Commission vice president and veteran Belgian diplomat accused of involvement in the 1961 detention and mistreatment of Congolese leader Patrice Lumumba, has died at the age of 93, Belgian media reported Monday.
Davignon was ordered by a Brussels court in March to stand trial over Lumumba’s assassination, in what was set to become the first criminal prosecution linked to one of Belgium’s darkest colonial chapters.
Lumumba, the first prime minister of n...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
LONDON — Keir Starmer looks headed for a bitter Labour leadership contest. And, like it or not, Britain’s relationship with the EU will be on the ballot paper.
Britain’s prime minister is reeling from dire election results, and his potential rivals are circling. While no formal contest has yet been triggered, the shadow-boxing has begun.
Ambitious former minister Wes Streeting has made his first move. The popular mayor of Greater Manchester, Andy Burnham, thinks he’s found a way ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
Kyiv and Budapest have agreed to hold talks regarding the rights of Hungarian minorities in Ukraine, Hungary’s foreign minister announced Monday in an upbeat sign for Ukraine’s EU membership bid.
Anita Orbán, who was sworn in as Hungarian foreign minister earlier this month, wrote in a post on X that the discussions, which are set to kick off on Tuesday, would set the stage for the “prompt and reassuring settlement of minority rights issues.”
The rights of Hunga...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
PARIS — U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Monday urged allies to sanction Iran as peace talks between the two countries continue to stall.
“We call on all the G7 and on all of our allies and the rest of the world to follow the sanctions regimes so that we can crack down on the illicit financing that is fuelling the Iranian war machine and get this money back to the Iranian people,” Bessent said as he entered a meeting of G7 finance ministers in Paris.
Finance minist...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/05/2026
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is pressing Brussels to loosen the EU’s fiscal rules to help governments absorb the economic shock unleashed by the Iran war and soaring energy prices.
In a letter to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, first reported by Italian media, Meloni requested that “investments and extraordinary measures needed to address the energy crisis” be exempted from the bloc’s Stability and Growth Pact. That framework requires EU memb...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 05/05/2026
BRUSSELS — One of the top officials in the European External Action Service is set to leave her post after just over a year in office.
Belén Martínez Carbonell is to stand down as secretary general of the EEAS, according to eight diplomats and officials with knowledge of the plans, all granted anonymity to speak freely. Two of them said Carbonell was already sharing the news with colleagues.
No timeline has been given for her departure.
The Spanish official, who has worked in the EE...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 05/05/2026
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Die versprochene Wirtschaftswende stockt, das Wachstum liegt bei mage...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 05/05/2026
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European political parties are misspending their cash, while the publ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 05/05/2026
Secret Service officers shot a man during an exchange of gunfire Monday near the White House in an incident that wounded a child who happened to be in the area.
The incident near the Washington Monument comes amid increased concerns about political violence about a week after a gunman attempted to breach the security perimeter at the annual White House Correspondents’ Dinner in Washington in an alleged effort to assassinate President Donald Trump.
Monday’s episode u...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 05/05/2026
BERLIN — Facing new tariffs from U.S. President Donald Trump on Germany’s prized auto industry — immediately after his threat to withdraw American troops — Chancellor Friedrich Merz has offered a disarmingly conciliatory response: Trump is essentially right.
Since Merz broke from his usual measured script to sharply criticize the Trump administration’s handling of the Iran war last week, an angered U.S. president has retaliated by targeting Germany’s weak spots: its reliance on the ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 05/05/2026
BRUSSELS — The European Commission will on Wednesday ask EU countries to eradicate poverty, arguing that governments can access the money to act if they use existing EU funds more effectively.
The plan, set out in the Commission’s first anti-poverty strategy and seen by POLITICO, will urge governments to better coordinate national policies, engage young people, support those living paycheck to paycheck and review protections for older and other vulnerable people.
But for now the strate...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 05/05/2026
LONDON — If you thought Keir Starmer was in trouble now, just wait for Thursday’s elections.
The opinion polls would have to be “dramatically out” for the British PM — already hit by dire favorability ratings, a scandal over his pick for U.S. ambassador, and deep disenchantment among his own MPs — to avoid a terrible set of results in nationwide votes held May 7, top psephologist John Curtice, a professor at the University of Strathclyde, says.
With local votes taking place across swat...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 04/05/2026
The U.S. attacked Iranian boats in the Strait of Hormuz on Monday after Tehran targeted Navy ships, threatening to upend a fragile ceasefire and President Donald Trump’s new vow to open the critical pathway.
The U.S. military “blew up” six small Iranian boats after its forces launched “multiple cruise missiles, drones and small boats” at the ships but did not hit them, according to U.S. Central Command head Adm. Bradley Cooper, who leads America’s operations in the region. He did not say ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 04/05/2026
BERLIN — Germany thought the United States would soon deploy long-range missiles on its soil that could strike deep into Russia and help deter an attack.
That plan is now effectively dead.
After Donald Trump’s move to cut thousands of U.S. troops from Germany, one of the units likely to go is a specialized force that was supposed to bring Tomahawk cruise missiles to Europe. Without it, Berlin and its allies are left with a gap in their defenses — and no quick way to fill it.
“...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 04/05/2026
ATHENS — As Washington moves to reduce its military presence in Europe, the continent needs to look to Ukraine and learn from its defense-tech revolution, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on Monday.
“We must view this as a renewed call to develop and deploy our own capabilities available more quickly, there is simply no way around this,” Wadephul said in Athens, where he travelled to participate in military cooperation talks with his Greek counterparts.
“The example of Ukra...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 04/05/2026
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Europe yet again finds itself on the receiving end of Donald Tru...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 04/05/2026
Stéphane Séjournés Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) kommt nicht zur Ruhe: EU-Bürokraten haben sich dagegen gewehrt, Regierungen haben es kritisiert – und die größten Exporteure der EU können es auch nicht leiden.
Der EU-Industriekommissar bekam vergangene Woche auf der Hannover Messe – Europas größter Industriemesse – aus erster Hand einen Vorgeschmack auf die Feindseligkeit der deutschen Exporteure gegenüber seinem Vorzeigeprojekt.
„Es ist ein bürokratisches Monster – ein ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 04/05/2026
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Übermorgen ist Friedrich Merz genau ein Jahr im Amt. Die Bilanz fällt...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 04/05/2026
Blackout: Inside Germany’s far-left war on infrastructure
An investigation reveals the scale of sabotage targeting energy and transport networks.
By ALEXANDER DINGER, LENNART PFAHLER and PHILIPP WOLDINin Berlin
Illustration by Natália Delgado/ POLITICO
It was 6 a.m. when Andreas Thomsen realized something was wrong. The lights in his Berlin home refused to turn on. The appliances did not hum. The electric shutters stayed stubbornly shut. The only sou...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 04/05/2026
The matador and the moderate: Andalusia’s president courts far right in the bullring
Conservative Juanma Moreno is keen to win over ultranationalist bullfighting aficionados ahead of the May 17 election in Spain’s largest region.
By GUY HEDGECOEin Madrid
Illustration by Natália Delgado/ POLITICO
Andalusia’s upcoming regional election is being fought out in the most stereotypical of Spanish settings: the bullring.
Incumbent region...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 04/05/2026
President Donald Trump said Sunday the U.S. will help free some ships stuck in the Strait of Hormuz amid the U.S. and Israel’s ongoing war with Iran.
Trump said in a social media post that several countries not directly involved in the war had requested assistance from the U.S. in helping free their vessels that were stuck in the strait, many of which he said were running low on food, amid ongoing regional tensions.
“For the good of Iran, the Middle East, and the United State...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 03/05/2026
BERLIN — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz tried to lower the temperature of transatlantic relations on Sunday by talking up his relationship with President Donald Trump — but didn’t pretend things are rosy.
After Merz took a swipe at Trump over U.S. military action in Iran last week, the president responded by insulting Merz on social media and saying he would pull American troops out of Germany. Days later he threatened to hit the EU with higher auto tariffs.
“I believe th...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 03/05/2026
PARIS — Jean-Luc Mélenchon announced his fourth run for French president on Sunday, becoming one of the highest-profile candidates to formally join the race to replace term-limited Emmanuel Macron next year.
“Yes, I am a candidate,” the 74-year-old leftist said in an interview with French broadcaster TF1, describing himself as best suited to face “an agitated season in global history” — pointing to geopolitical, economic and environmental risks.
Mélenchon, who quit the center-left Soci...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 03/05/2026
NEWARK, New Jersey — FIFA has deftly navigated Argentina’s military dictators, Russia’s oligarchs and Qatar’s royal family to get what it wants at previous World Cups. Soccer’s powerful governing body may have met its match this year in New Jersey’s elected politicians.
The state will host the championship match of the world’s biggest sporting event, but instead of welcoming it as a source of celebration, the state’s politicians are treating the tournament and its organizers as villa...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 03/05/2026
BRUSSELS — European governments worry Vladimir Putin will see this as his moment to strike.
Defense officials and lawmakers fear the Kremlin will consider the next year or two, while Donald Trump is still in the White House and the EU hasn’t yet reinforced its military capacity, as the time to test the West’s commitment to NATO, according to three EU politicians with direct knowledge of the discussions, interviewed for this article. While Russia’s war in Ukraine has show...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 02/05/2026
A company that makes the abortion drug mifepristone asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday to hit pause on Friday’s lower court ruling that cut off telemedicine access to the pills nationwide, including in states where abortion is legal.
The emergency appeal asks the high court to temporarily restore a federal policy that allows the pills to be prescribed online and delivered by mail, arguing that failing to do so would cause “immediate chaos” and leave patients around the co...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 02/05/2026
OTTAWA — The video playing was clearly Pete Hoekstra, the frequently combative U.S. ambassador to Canada. But something was off. He kept referring to Canada as a partner?
“For all of the critical things that we need, Canada would be an ideal partner,” Hoekstra said in a prerecorded conversation at a conservative think tank in March.
Hoekstra ticked off the ways the two countries could work together: deepened military cooperation in the Arctic, including through Trump’s “Golden Dome”; b...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 02/05/2026
What happens when you combine artificial intelligence with deadly weapons?
That’s one of the pressing issues facing David Sacks, special adviser to President Donald Trump on all things AI. And as we see the rapid expansion and adoption of artificial intelligence — not to mention a growing anxiety over its potential for wreaking dystopian level havoc — Sacks is playing a key role in shaping White House policy around the burgeoning technology.
Like his close friend, Elon Musk, Sacks was ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 02/05/2026
President Donald Trump is pushing to deregulate the artificial intelligence industry and make it easier for the technology to develop rapidly. His voters are not fully on board.
New results from The POLITICO Poll find that Trump voters are supportive of government oversight of the industry and split over whether the benefits of AI outweigh the risks, as the technology stokes fears of mass job loss, economic disruption and threats from China.
Only 13 percent of people who vote...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 02/05/2026
U.S. President Donald Trump said the U.S. Navy behaved “like pirates” in its blockade of Iranian ports and seizure of an Iranian vessel earlier this week.
“We took over the ship, we took over the cargo, we took over the oil. It’s a very profitable business,” Trump said at an event in Florida on Friday. “We’re like pirates. We’re sort of like pirates, but we are not playing games.”
Tension between Washington and Tehran is ratcheting higher amid unsuccessful negotiations to permanently e...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 02/05/2026
MIAMI — Florida’s politically influential Cuban American community is pressuring President Donald Trump to fully oust Cuba’s communist leadership as the Trump administration looks willing to settle for less.
Cuban opposition activists, especially in South Florida, have been taking their uncompromising message public for months. This includes everything from holding prayer sessions to caravaning in the streets of Miami to signing a road map document called the “Freedom Accord,” which set i...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 02/05/2026
Germany’s defense minister sought to downplay the impact of Washington’s decision to withdraw 5,000 troops from the country, casting the move as expected and using it to underline Europe’s need to take greater responsibility for its own security.
“It was anticipated that the U.S. might withdraw troops from Europe, including Germany,” Boris Pistorius said on Saturday, adding that “if we are to remain transatlantic, we must strengthen the European pillar within NATO.”
NATO said it was “w...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 02/05/2026
The European Commission said it will “keep our options open” as the EU weighs U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to impose a 25 percent tariff on automobiles and auto parts from Europe, raising the prospect of a transatlantic trade war.
Trump announced Friday night on Truth Social that he would increase the tariff on cars and trucks from the current 15 percent in response to the EU “not complying” with the trade deal reached by the two sides last summer at Trump’s Turnberry golf c...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 02/05/2026
A majority of U.S. adults say that President Donald Trump’s decision to strike Iran was wrong, according to a new survey, as the war drags on and gas prices inch higher.
Sixty-one percent of U.S. adults said it was a mistake for the U.S. to use military force against Iran in a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll released Friday. Thirty-six percent viewed it as the right decision.
Separately, only 19 percent of respondents told the poll that they believed American military actions ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 02/05/2026
SANTA MARTA, Colombia — The vibe was good at the world’s first climate summit outside of the United Nations process. Now comes the hard part.
Nearly 60 countries met along Colombia’s Caribbean coast this week to break away from what they describe as a troubled U.N. process on global warming, so they could move faster toward flipping their economies to clean energy — instead of just talking about it. They zeroed in on the basic steps of phasing out fossil fuels — surpassing in theory aspir...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 01/05/2026
President Donald Trump on Friday said he will raise tariffs on automobiles and auto parts from the European Union because the 27-country bloc is not living up to its end of a trade agreement struck last summer.
“I am pleased to announce that, based on the fact the European Union is not complying with our fully agreed to Trade Deal, next week I will be increasing Tariffs charged to the European Union for Cars and Trucks coming into the United States,” Trump wrote on Truth Social. “The Tari...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 01/05/2026
President Donald Trump has largely turned his attention away from the ongoing war in Ukraine — and Europe has stopped waiting for him to refocus.
Nearly two months into the Iran war, Trump’s preoccupation with the Middle East has turned Ukraine into an afterthought inside the West Wing, and an organizing principle across the Atlantic.
“Things seem to be stuck and need new momentum,” said a European official who, like others interviewed for this report, was granted anonymity to speak ca...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 01/05/2026
Incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar defended his decision to pick his brother-in-law as justice minister Friday, calling the lawyer’s professional competence “unquestionable.”
Magyar stressed that Márton Melléthei-Barna is the right man for the job and announced in his monologue posted on X that the incoming minister’s wife will make “another sacrifice” and step down as judge “to avoid even the appearance of an intertwining of branches ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 01/05/2026
BRUSSELS — Large parts of the EU’s mega trade deal with the Latin American Mercosur bloc finally kicked in Friday, but the political fight over it continues.
Negotiations started in 1999 and have been marked by repeated setbacks, leaving officials in Brussels wondering whether the deal to create a 720-million-person free-trade area would ever take effect.
The European Commission is provisionally applying the trade part of a broader pact with the Mercosur countries — Argentina, Brazil, ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 01/05/2026
The Venice Biennale’s “cowardly choice” to allow Russia to participate in its 2026 exhibition “continues to harm” the organization, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha said Friday in a renewed call to ban Moscow’s return to Italy’s most prestigious art exhibition.
His comments follow the resignation of the entire Biennale jury over the organizers’ controversial move to allow Russia to participate for the first time since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“The jury’s deci...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 01/05/2026
U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday he would “probably” remove American troops from Spain and Italy, in renewed attacks against Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez and Italian leader Giorgia Meloni.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, the American leader said Italy had “not been of any help to us,” and accused Spain of being “absolutely horrible.” Both Spain and Italy have denied U.S. military planes that are taking part in the Iran war fro...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 01/05/2026
LONDON — A 45-year-old man has been charged with attempted murder after two Jewish men were stabbed Wednesday in the U.K. capital.
Essa Suleiman faces two counts of attempted murder and one count of possessing a bladed article in a public place following the stabbing of two Jewish men — Shloime Rand, aged 34, and Moshe Shine, aged 76. The attack took place in Golders Green, north west London.
Both were taken to hospital, with Rand subsequently discharged.
Suleiman was also charged ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 01/05/2026
Während die USA und der Iran in einen militärischen Konflikt am Golf verwickelt sind, scheint China sich vornehm zurückzuhalten. Aber der Schein trügt. Rixa Fürsen spricht mit dem China-Spezialisten Felix Lee über Pekings Doppelstrategie. Warum blockiert China Resolutionen im UN-Sicherheitsrat, obwohl es massiv auf Ölimporte aus der Golfregion angewiesen ist? Lee analysiert Chinas „Energiewende“, die vor allem sicherheitspolitisch motiviert ist und weshalb das Land durch seine massiven R...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 01/05/2026
SURREY, England — There are impassioned election fights going on in this leafy part of England — but you’d be hard-pressed to find a voter jumping for joy at the prospect.
Across Surrey’s county and borough councils there’s a united theme: apathy and anger at politicians of all stripes.
Rising costs, struggling public services, and general disillusionment with national politics mean even in well-to-do Surrey suburbs — once Conservative strongholds — the public appears...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 01/05/2026
The Trump administration insists that its naval blockade is putting the squeeze on Iran and that the regime is just a “matter of days” away from an energy crisis unless it capitulates.
Energy experts are skeptical and say the White House is misreading both the timing of the harm to the Iranian oil industry as well as the regime’s tolerance for pain.
The standoff comes as benchmark oil prices hit a four-year high Thursday while the average price at the pump jumped to $4.30 a gallon...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 28/04/2026
Malta’s Prime Minister Robert Abela on Monday evening called a snap general election, citing a need for “stability” amid geopolitical turmoil.
The vote will take place on May 30, nine months before the end of the prime minister’s term.
“In light of the current global realities and challenges ahead, our country needs a renewed mandate to move forward with stability. I will be recommending to H.E. President Myriam Spiteri Debono the dissolution of Parliament...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 28/04/2026
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Today on the pod, we’re talking money, money, money.
An important ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 28/04/2026
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Die Amtszeit von Bundespräsident Frank-Walter Steinmeier endet im kom...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 28/04/2026
King Charles will use his speech to Congress to help repair the “special relationship” between the U.S. and Britain that has been under strain over the Iran war.
The king plans to focus on reconciliation and renewal in a speech Tuesday before the House and Senate that is expected to run about 20 minutes, according to royal aides.
Charles will celebrate “one of the greatest alliances in history,” which has been tested as President Donald Trump complains about Prime Minister Keir Starmer...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 28/04/2026
LONDON — The British public want politicians to steer clear of religion just as key Westminster figures amp up debates on Christianity’s role in the country, new polling shows.
A survey for POLITICO by independent London-based polling company Public First found 65 percent of voters back a separation between Christianity and politics — a view held by a clear majority of supporters of all the main political parties.
The findings come as Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s challengers on t...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 28/04/2026
Trump’s Voice of America: The free-speech crusader pushing MAGA on Europe
U.S. diplomat Sarah Rogers is pledging $500 million to fight online “censorship” and ripping into European elites over mass migration.
By TIM ROSS, NAHAL TOOSI and STEFANIE BOLZEN
Illustration by Robert Carter for POLITICO
Illustration by Robert Carter for POLITICO
Depending on who you ask, she’s either just another MAGA troll meddling in European democracy, or the best ho...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 27/04/2026
STRASBOURG — Europe’s Socialists have spent years scolding the center-right for cutting deals with the far right. Now they are facing the same charge.
When Romania’s Social Democrats (PSD) on Monday teamed up with the far-right Alliance for the Union of Romanians (AUR) to topple Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan and the centrist coalition government they had previously backed, lawmakers in Brussels said the center left is doing what exactly what it has long accused the center-right European Peo...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 27/04/2026
BRUXELLES — Nuti Ivo, une tannerie italienne appartenant au groupe LVMH, a acheté des peaux animales à des entreprises paraguayennes liées à la déforestation, selon l’enquête de l’ONG Global Witness, alors même que son dirigeant tente d’obtenir des exemptions dans le cadre de la réglementation européenne contre la déforestation.
Avec le soutien de députés et de responsables publics européens, l’industrie du cuir fait campagne auprès de la Commission européenne pour que ses nouvelles règle...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 27/04/2026
PARIS — C’est finalement un “oui”. A l’issue d’une réunion de plusieurs heures à huis clos, les députés de la commission d’enquête sur l’audiovisuel public ont voté en faveur de la publication du rapport rédigé par le député de l’Union des droites pour la République (UDR), Charles Alloncle. Douze députés se sont prononcés pour et dix contre, selon deux participants aux discussions.
Cette décision fait suite à plusieurs jours de débats au sein des ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 27/04/2026
BRUSSELS — National capitals are skeptical and even downright dismissive of a new application created by the European Commission to check the age of internet users, government ministers and officials told POLITICO.
The EU executive on Wednesday will recommend that countries use an app it designed to protect kids from online harms, as governments roll out age checks for illegal content such as pornography, alcohol — and, likely soon, social media.
But government of...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 26/04/2026
One moment was utterly familiar: The massive ballroom at the Washington Hilton was filled with an indistinct buzz from thousands of mostly inconsequential conversations all blended together across a sea of hundreds of tightly packed tables, just like always happens before the formal program gets underway at the annual White House Correspondents Dinner.
The next moment was utterly bizarre: Women in gowns, men in tuxes, nearly everyone in the place crouching down on the floor as the ballroo...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 26/04/2026
Conservative television broadcasters are getting bigger under Donald Trump — and thanks to his top communications regulator, they may get enhanced power to mute the president’s critics.
The Federal Communications Commission’s approval of a $6.2 billion merger between the TV station owners Nexstar and Tegna is one step toward agency chair Brendan Carr’s goal of boosting local broadcasters’ market heft, a shift that can help them counter the programming decisions of networks such as NBC and...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 26/04/2026
U.S. President Donald Trump was evacuated from a gala dinner with news media on Saturday, as a shooting at the Washington Hilton sent Cabinet members ducking under tables and turned the sprawling venue into a massive crime scene.
Federal and local law enforcement officials said a suspect was taken into custody. At a White House press conference late Saturday night, Trump said that he had spoken with a Secret Service officer who was shot and hit in the vest at the scene and is now “doing g...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 25/04/2026
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who is stepping down after his party’s landslide election defeat earlier this month, said on Saturday that he is giving up his seat in Hungary’s parliament but intends to remain leader of the Fidesz party.
In a video posted on Facebook, Orbán said the decision followed a Fidesz meeting during which party officials agreed to carry out a major restructuring of the party’s parliamentary grouping after the heavy election loss, which ended OrbánR...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 25/04/2026
U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday abruptly canceled a planned trip by special envoy Steve Witkoff and the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner to Pakistan, pulling back from what had been billed just a day earlier as a potential jump-start to fragile Iran talks.
“I just cancelled the trip of my representatives going is [to] Islamabad, Pakistan, to meet with the Iranians,” the president wrote on Truth Social. “Too much time wasted on traveling, too much work! Besides which, ther...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 25/04/2026
U.S. President Donald Trump’s $10 billion lawsuit against the IRS over the leaking of his tax returns ran into turbulence Friday as a judge ordered a hearing on whether the Constitution allows the president to sue the federal government he oversees.
U.S. District Court Judge Kathleen Williams has asked Trump’s private attorneys and Justice Department lawyers representing the IRS to address whether his control over the government’s actions in the case means it’s the kind of dispute federal...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 25/04/2026
Two U.K. Eurofighter Typhoon jets took off early Saturday morning after Russian drones approached the Romanian border with Ukraine, Romania’s defense ministry said.
Authorities said that the British aircraft stayed in Romanian airspace and were authorized to engage the drones, but didn’t shoot on them as they hadn’t breached the national border.
Explosive debris from the Russian drones did fall on a farm in the Romanian town of Văcăreni, the authorities said.
The ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 25/04/2026
ATHENS — French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Saturday vowed to assist each other in case of security threats as they boosted bilateral defense cooperation.
As Macron visited Athens, the two governments signed nine bilateral deals, including the extension of an overarching defense pact that will be automatically renewed when it expires in five years.
“In this partnership, there is a mutual support and assistance clause in case of armed ...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 25/04/2026
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi flew to Islamabad Friday night to negotiate a more lasting truce between Iran and the U.S. following a ceasefire agreement between the two countries.
Araghchi met with Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir and Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in Pakistan’s capital on Saturday to discuss the situation in Iran, according to the prime minister’s X account.
Pakistani Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said in an X post that S...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 25/04/2026
ATHENS — French President Emmanuel Macron and Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Saturday both called for spreading out the repayment of the EU’s post-pandemic recovery plan and for more EU debt to finance the bloc’s investment priorities.
“We got indebted during Covid. Today some tell us that we need to reimburse fast. It is idiotic,” Macron said during a press conference at the Maximos mansion in Athens alongside Mitsotakis. “Let’s extend tha...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 18/04/2026
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Politico Europe – Politique
• 17/04/2026
BARCELONA — The EU’s revised merger guidelines will not offer a free pass for European industries to consolidate, the bloc’s competition chief Teresa Ribera told POLITICO.
The European Commission has nearly completed its revamp of the bloc’s merger rules, which is due to be published on May 2. Departmental consultations of the 100-page draft guidelines began this week.
“We cannot use merger operations as a substitute for market integration,” Ribera said in an interview on th...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 17/04/2026
PARIS — European leaders pledged to rapidly ramp up a multinational effort to secure the Strait of Hormuz after Iran said it would reopen the vital waterway to maritime traffic, even if Donald Trump doesn’t want their help.
French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and the prime ministers of Italy and the United Kingdom, Giorgia Meloni and Keir Starmer, jointly announced Friday that they would be spearheading what Starmer called a “defensive̶...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 17/04/2026
BRUSSELS ― The EU is to game out how it would respond if one of its countries was attacked.
In the first operation of its kind, chief diplomat Kaja Kallas is to oversee what’s called a “tabletop” exercise next month to establish how the bloc’s mutual assistance clause, Article 42.7, would work in practice, a senior EU official said. The plan is to test the bloc’s political rather than military response.
“We’ll follow up with an exercise with th...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 17/04/2026
BRUSSELS — There is “no indication” of jet fuel shortages causing widespread flight cancellations in Europe, Transport Commissioner Apostolos Tzitzikostas said Friday, speaking hours before Iran lifted its Strait of Hormuz blockade.
Jet fuel prices in Europe have more than doubled since the U.S. and Israel launched their war against Iran on Feb. 28; Tehran retaliated by blocking most shipping through a strait responsible for about a fifth of the world’s crude oil imports.
The avi...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 17/04/2026
The EU is prepared to send additional warships as part of a mission to protect shipping in the Middle East and keep the Strait of Hormuz open “once a ceasefire takes hold,” the bloc’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas, said Friday.
Dozens of European leaders, including those of France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom, convened in person and by video call to discuss organizing a joint maritime force to secure the strategically vital waterway, through which a fifth of the world...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 17/04/2026
The Strait of Hormuz, the waterway crucial for global trade that Iran has effectively closed since the beginning of the U.S.-Iran conflict, has reopened after a 10-day ceasefire was called between Israel and Lebanon, President Donald Trump and a top Iranian official said on Friday.
“In line with the ceasefire in Lebanon, the passage for all commercial vessels through Strait of Hormuz is declared completely open for the remaining period of ceasefire,” Iranian Foreign Minister Abb...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 17/04/2026
The Pentagon’s top policy official is warning that future military support for Ukraine cannot depend on the United States, sharpening pressure on European allies to take the lead.
In remarks delivered at this week’s Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting in Berlin and published on X on Thursday evening, Elbridge Colby said Washington’s support had relied heavily on “drawing down finite U.S. stockpiles,” an approach he signaled is no longer sustainable.
“Europe must accelerate its assump...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 17/04/2026
BRÜSSEL – Die EU sollte ihr fragiles Handelsabkommen mit den Vereinigten Staaten nicht durch viele zusätzliche Forderungen „überfrachten“, sagte Handelskommissar Maroš Šefčovič am Freitag gegenüber POLITICO.
Vor einem Besuch in Washington in der kommenden Woche betonte Šefčovič, sowohl die USA als auch die EU müssten „sich an die Vereinbarung halten“, die im vergangenen Juli im schottischen Turnberry geschlossen und im darauffolgenden Monat in einer gemeinsamen Erklärung festgehalte...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 17/04/2026
Progressive leaders from around the world are gathering in Spain on Friday to coordinate a response to the rise of far right and nationalist movements from Europe to the U.S. — with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez at the center of the push.
More than 3,000 participants from over 100 organizations are convening in Barcelona for the launch of the “Global Progressive Mobilization,” a new initiative aimed at strengthening international cooperation among left-leaning parties and activists...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 15/04/2026
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European ambassadors are gathering to prep for a leaders’ summit taki...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 15/04/2026
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Gesundheitsministerin Nina Warken macht ernst: Bis zum 29. April will...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 15/04/2026
The pharmaceutical sector is the engine room that drives clinical trial activity and the benefits that go way beyond patient care. Clinical research delivers significant economic growth, and the European Union has the potential to deliver so much more.
That’s why it’s good news that the European Medicines Agency (EMA), alongside the European Commission and Heads of Medicines Agencies (HMA), have set a new target for increasing clinical trials in the EU. The 11.1 percent target should brin...
Politico Europe – Politique
• 15/04/2026
Viktor Orbán is out — and his crown as the EU’s chief disruptor is suddenly up for grabs.
The handover comes at a delicate moment, with the bloc leaning on unity to push through sanctions, budgets and other decisions that still require unanimity. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wasted no time this week after Orbán’s defeat to suggest changes to the EU’s voting rules to avoid future bottlenecks.
For years the pugnacious Hungarian prime minister has wielded...