Category: Politico News

Ben Coates is the author of “Why the Dutch are Different: A Journey into the Hidden Heart of the Netherlands” (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2015) and “The Rhine: Following Europe’s Greatest River from Amsterdam to the Alps” (Nicholas Brealey Publishing, 2018).  The autumn of 2010 feels like a long time ago now.  As the year’s end […]

PARIS — As he says goodbye to his top ally in Europe, French President Emmanuel Macron is bracing for the worst. Macron and his closest confidante in the European sphere, Italian PM Mario Draghi, were once the steady duo that coalesced across EU policy areas as they saw eye to eye on a range of […]

NAGORNO-KARABAKH — A lone Azerbaijani soldier stands on a rocky outcrop in the foothills of Nagorno-Karabakh, a contested region within the country that was briefly — if tenuously — stable under a Russia-brokered cease-fire. Behind him, just visible in the distance, is the city of Stepanakert, inside Azerbaijan’s internationally recognized borders but governed by its […]

Government officials in Kyiv dismissed a report by Amnesty International critical of Ukraine’s military as “fake” and “propaganda” after the human rights organization argued the country’s wartime tactics endanger civilians and violate international law. The report published Thursday alleges Ukraine’s military is violating international humanitarian law by turning civilian facilities into military targets, for example […]

Listen on Spotify Apple Music Google Play EN_Google_Podcasts_Badge Created with Sketch. Stitcher Acast In this bumper edition before the summer break, we explain the monkeypox outbreak in Europe and the EU’s response. We also preview the biggest lobbying battle brewing in Brussels between Big Tech platforms and telecom operators. POLITICO’s Samuel Stolton, who covers competition […]

French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne announced Thursday that an “ambassador for LGBT+ rights” position will be created and filled before the end of the year. In a statement, Borne’s office said the ambassador will be responsible for “coordinating French diplomatic action to protect against discrimination and promote LGBT+ rights around the world.” Borne also announced […]

The Bank of England Thursday raised its benchmark interest rates by 50 basis points to 1.75 percent, marking the largest interest rate hike since the central bank gained independence in 1997. “Inflationary pressures in the United Kingdom and the rest of Europe have intensified significantly since the May Monetary Policy Report and the MPC’s previous […]

German Finance Minister Christian Lindner, a self-described budget hawk, is offering a trade-off in the ongoing EU fiscal rules debate: Tighter enforcement of spending limits, in exchange of a degree of flexibility on the pace of debt reduction. In an interview published Thursday in Handelsblatt, he delivered Berlin’s opening salvo. “I advocate for more binding […]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy lambasted controversial former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder in a video address Wednesday night. Zelenskyy said that “it is simply disgusting when former leaders of powerful states with European values work for Russia.” Though he didn’t mention the former chancellor by name, Zelenskyy was reacting to comments Schröder had made in an […]

Speaker Nancy Pelosi concluded her whirlwind 19-hour visit to Taiwan Wednesday, leaving behind fevered messaging on both sides of the Taiwan Strait about the significance of her visit. But she’ll return to a muddled mess in Washington, bracketed by warnings from journalists and China experts about the long-term damage that her visit may have inflicted and rare GOP lawmaker applause for thumbing her […]