Bulgaria will hold a snap parliamentary election on April 19, President Ilijana Iotova announced on Wednesday, making it the eighth vote in almost five years.
She stated her intention to sign a decree to appoint a caretaker Cabinet, which would be sworn in by parliament, before scheduling the April vote. Iotova insisted that Bulgarian institutions create the conditions so that Bulgarian...
Bulgaria will hold snap parliamentary elections, President Iliana Iotova has said. The announcement on Wednesday, February 18th paves the way for the country’s eighth vote in five years.
The decision follows massive protests in late 2025 that toppled the GERB government.
The demonstrations—which erupted over Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria’s (GERB)...
THE WHAT? cosnova Beauty has confirmed it will not raise prices across its portfolio, including essence makeup and Catrice Cosmetics, despite rising costs and global tariff pressures impacting the wider beauty market.
THE DETAILS The company said it plans to absorb cost increases linked to manufacturing, raw materials and logistics rather than passing them on to consumers. cosnova...
Denmark’s Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen announced on Tuesday, January 13th that he and Greenland’s Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt will meet with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio at the White House on Wednesday.
The meeting will take place after U.S. president Donald Trump once again raised the prospect of the United States...
The European Central Bank held its key deposit rate at 2 percent for a fifth consecutive meeting on Thursday, as policymakers weighed fresh geopolitical shocks and a stronger euro that could complicate the inflation outlook for the eurozone.
The ECB said that its updated assessment “reconfirms that inflation should stabilize at its 2 percent target in the medium term” and that...
EVIAN-LES-BAINS, France — The EU and the U.K. will hold their second bilateral summit on July 22 in Brussels, the two sides announced on Tuesday.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, European Council President António Costa and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen made the announcement in simultaneous social media posts after meeting on the sidelines of the...
On December 7, two Muslims abducted a 14-year-old Christian girl in Pakistan. Her brother, Sahil George, believes the assault was an act of revenge over a prior dispute.
George, a 21-year-old member of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church in Sahiwal (Punjab Province), says the perpetrators were Muhammad Bilal Arshad and Muhammad Zohaib, who took her sister to a house at...
European leaders struck a triumphant tone early Wednesday after the EU finally clinched a deal to implement its long-delayed trade pact with the United States, ending months of tariff threats and transatlantic brinkmanship.
“A deal is a deal, and the EU honours its commitments,” European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X. “Together, we can ensure stable,...
BRUSSELS ―The leaders of the European Union’s 27 governments will meet “in the coming days” to discuss a response to U.S. President Donald Trump’s threats to seize Greenland, European Council President António Costa announced late Sunday.
Costa called the extraordinary meeting of the European Council after EU ambassadors huddled in Brussels on Sunday to...
BRUSSELS — A landmark transatlantic trade deal will not be approved by EU lawmakers after U.S. President Donald Trump hit European countries with new tariffs as part of his efforts to wrest control of Greenland from Denmark.
Confirmation that the European Parliament will not move forward with ratification of the agreement, signed by Trump and European Commission President Ursula von...
European leaders will convene on Tuesday at 11.00 a.m. CET to discuss the war in Ukraine, a Polish government spokesman announced.
“At 11:00 am, Prime Minister Donald Tusk will take part in another conversation of European leaders on the subject of Ukraine,” government spokesman Adam Szlapka wrote on X.
The meeting is part of the ongoing high-level diplomatic negotiations...
Anyone who travels frequently knows the underlying anxiety of handing your luggage over at the check-in desk. You watch it disappear down the conveyor belt, silently hoping it survives the brutal, behind-the-scenes gauntlet of modern baggage handling.
For those of us who demand gear that works just as hard as we do, the Australian carry experts at Bellroy have delivered a spectacular...
PARIS — French voters will go to the polls to elect a new president on April 18 and on May 2 next year, according to two government officials who were granted anonymity to speak about a decision that has not yet been made public.
The election details, first reported by local newspaper Ouest France, are expected to be publicly announced after a cabinet meeting Wednesday morning....
Georgia’s and Ukraine’s foreign ministers met again in Chișinău on May 15th, in the latest sign of increased communication between the two countries despite years of strained relations.
Georgian foreign minister Maka Bochorishvili and her Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha held talks on the sidelines of the 135th session of the Council of Europe’s Committee of Ministers....
The International Maritime Organization on Thursday paused an effort to evacuate ships stuck in the Persian Gulf after a vessel was attacked crossing the Strait of Hormuz.
The new attack threatens the fragile ceasefire signed by Iran and the U.S. last week, which requires Iran to restore normal shipping operations through the Strait of Hormuz. Ship traffic through the...
Iceland will hold a referendum “in the coming months” on whether to reopen negotiations to join the European Union, Prime Minister Kristrún Frostadóttir has said.
Speaking in Warsaw, Frostadóttir confirmed voters would decide whether to resume accession talks abandoned in 2013. Her centre-left government, elected in 2024, had pledged a vote by next year....
Iran is refusing to send its negotiating team to Islamabad to continue talks this week until President Donald Trump lifts the U.S. blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, according to two Middle East officials briefed on the situation,granted anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.
Trump, who hinted on Tuesday that high-level negotiations with Iran would resume...
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...
Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed Moscow’s economic, political, and security ties with Beijing as a “stabilizing” factor in turbulent times during a video call with China’s Xi Jinping on Wednesday, February 4th.
Moscow and Beijing have sought to present a united front against the West, with ties deepening significantly since Russia’s war in Ukraine....
LONDON — Police have asked the U.K. government to hold back from publishing a key exchange in which Downing Street asked Peter Mandelson about his links to Jeffrey Epstein, two people familiar with the discussions told POLITICO.
No. 10’s then-chief of staff Morgan McSweeney emailed Mandelson asking three questions about his ties to the convicted sex offender, before Mandelson...
Portuguese voters head back to the polls for the runoff round of the country’s presidential election on Sunday despite an ongoing state of emergency amid devastating storms.
More than 7,000 people have been evacuated in Spain and Portugal since early February and at least two people died after torrential rain and flooding hit the Iberian Peninsula. Portugal has declared a state...
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...
Russia said on Friday, February 13th, that a new round of talks with the U.S. and Ukrainian officials seeking to broker an end to the four-year war would take place next week. Two previous rounds of U.S.-brokered talks in Abu Dhabi have failed to lead to a breakthrough, with Moscow and Kyiv remaining far apart on the key issue of territory.
“There is an agreement that it will indeed...
Britain said on Saturday it has paused plans to transfer sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius, delaying legislation needed for the deal amid opposition from Donald Trump. The islands host the key U.S.-UK military base on Diego Garcia.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government said it will seek Washington’s approval before moving forward. The agreement would lease back...
urope has spent the last week rummaging around for leverage that would force U.S. President Donald Trump to back off his threats to seize Greenland from Denmark.
While Trump now says he will not be imposing planned tariffs on European allies, some politicians think they’ve found the answer if he changes his mind again: boycott the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
The quadrennial soccer...
The latest European Parliament Eurobarometer has the imprimatur of social science but speaks only in terms of institutional self-affirmation. There is, of course, serious fieldwork behind the stats. But the issue is that the whole exercise is designed in advance with one outcome in mind: How can we turn public anxiety into a mandate for more of the EU?
News outlets have trumpeted the...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington on Wednesday, February 11th, to discuss recent indirect talks between the United States and Iran over Tehran’s nuclear program.
Netanyahu has stressed that any agreement must also curb Iran’s ballistic missile capabilities and end its support for allied militant groups across the...
The Trump administration is telling foreign officials and others that it will not reschedule a summit between the U.S. president and Chinese leader Xi Jinping until the Iran war ends.
A Washington-based diplomat privy to U.S.-China summit planning confirmed that the administration has made clear “the next dates for the Trump-Xi summit will only be proposed after the active part of the...
LONDON — The U.K. government on Friday announced plans to hold tech company executives criminally liable if they fail to remove non-consensual intimate images from their platforms.
A new government amendment, which is yet to be published but will be tabled to the Crime and Policing Bill and debated in the Commons next week, would mean senior executives who ignore media regulator...
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s government is setting aside a plan to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius because of opposition from U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, according to British media reports.
A bill underpinning the deal will not be included in the King’s Speech next month, The Times and other outlets reported on Saturday. POLITICO...
Talks between Ukrainian and U.S. officials are underway in Miami, weeks ahead of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as Washington and Kyiv explore the outlines of a possible peace framework.
Ukraine’s delegation includes intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov, a close adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Defence Minister Rustem Umerov, and...
U.S. and Russian officials are expected to meet in Miami this weekend as part of the Trump administration’s push to bring an end to nearly four years of war between Kyiv and Moscow, according to two people familiar with the matter.
As President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the fighting have faltered, the U.S. has ratcheted up pressure on Ukraine to make concessions that would...
BRUSSELS — America’s trade partners expressed quiet relief at the Supreme Court’s rebuke of President Donald Trump’s tariffs on Friday, but they are already bracing for his next trade salvo.
In a bombshell 6-3 ruling, the top U.S. court struck down the sweeping “reciprocal” tariffs Trump imposed on trading partners last year, when he imposed a 15 percent...