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State of the European Union — the big annual speech and MEPs debate

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:03:41 GMT

Listen on Spotify Apple Music Google Play EN_Google_Podcasts_Badge Created with Sketch. Acast In this bumper episode, we bring you the main takeaways from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s annual State of the European Union address, as well as reactions from members of the European Parliament.  The Commission president needed over an hour to highlight her key achievements and lay out plans for the coming mon...

Robert Peston: We treat grief like a dirty secret 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:03:41 GMT

LONDON — Broadcaster Robert Peston says Britain treats grief like a “dirty secret” and that we do not talk about the impact of death enough. The ITV political editor, whose wife Siân Busby died in September 2012 of lung cancer aged 51, said he was “traumatized for years” afterwards. Speaking on a new episode of Westminster Insider, the broadcaster discussed the effect the loss of his wife had on him, and described the way Brits process death as “unhealthy.” Opening up about the impact of Busby’s death, he said: “Grief is … it’s a sort of dirty secret. Nobody wants to talk about it because nobody wants to talk about death either. “We can’t run away from these things, they’re always there, but we try to run away from them. It’s definitely not healthy.” He added: “The further away I am from it, the more clearly I can see how traumatized I was for years.”A familiar face around Westminster as the BBC’s economics editor before j...

Make-or-break moment looms for Northern Ireland’s failed government

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:03:41 GMT

BELFAST — Jeffrey Donaldson is a man under pressure.The choice the Democratic Unionist Party’s leader makes in the coming weeks will determine whether Northern Ireland regains the cross-community government at the heart of its peace process — or falls deeper into a Brexit-fueled crisis that may last another year or more.Senior figures in the British government and all five of Northern Ireland’s main political parties have told POLITICO that October looms as the make-or-break month for reviving power-sharing at Stormont, the Greek classical parliament building that overlooks Belfast.The introduction of long-awaited post-Brexit trade measures next month offers what may be the final political opportunity for Donaldson to break the deadlock before the election cycles of 2024 kick in.“When you get into the new year you are heading towards a general election,” warned Chris Heaton-Harris, the U.K. government’s Northern Ireland secretary, speaking at an investment conference in ...

When in doubt, Europe scuttles back to euro-acronyms

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:03:41 GMT

Nathalie Tocci is director of the Istituto Affari Internazionali and a part-time professor at the European University Institute. Her latest book, “A Green and Global Europe,” is out with Polity.When European foreign and defense ministers met in Toledo a few weeks ago, they had cause for both celebration and despair.Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European foreign and security policy has been turbocharged: Eleven packages of unprecedented sanctions, the weaning off Russian gas, the revival of enlargement, a €75 billion annual rise in military spending, military assistance to a third state fighting for survival, and the joint procurement of ammunition. For the European Union, it’s a feat — totally unthinkable until now.But beyond a pat on the back and the bitter realization that it took a devastating war to do what has been needed for years, where exactly does Europe stand? Because while these actions are commendable, they also highlight old maladies that need to be addressed.Firs...

The beginning of the end? Catalan amnesty stirs up a political storm in Spain

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:03:41 GMT

MADRID — For the first time in nearly half a century, a Spanish government is considering the introduction of a sweeping, politically motivated amnesty.If approved, it could ensure the formation of a new left-wing government. Critics warn it would open the door to political and territorial instability and could undermine the country’s democratic foundations.The amnesty is the main condition proposed by the pro-independence Junts party in exchange for its support for the acting prime minister, Socialist Pedro Sánchez, in a parliamentary investiture vote.Junts, whose most visible figure is the self-exiled former Catalan president Carles Puigdemont, is calling for a legislative measure that would annul pending legal action and sanctions against pro-independence leaders over their involvement in a failed bid to secede in 2017.The Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE) and its leftist allies, Sumar, are studying the feasibility of such legislation and have begun tentative talks on the matter.Th...

Can you protect us from Russia? Finns have one question for their next president 

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:03:41 GMT

HELSINKI — As five months of campaigning for Finland’s presidential election get underway, one key question looks set to dominate: Whom do Finns trust to deal with Russia?Finland’s president has a big say over foreign policy, and when the Nordic state decided to join NATO last year, it was head of state Sauli Niinistö who led the diplomacy in capitals from Washington to Ankara. Now, with Niniistö heading for the exit after serving the maximum two six-year terms in office, voters must decide who should succeed him at a time when relations with Russia are as frosty as they have been in decades. On the streets of Helsinki on a recent weekday, voters focused on the international nature of the presidential role and the need for a safe pair of hands, with Russia’s assault on Ukraine raging and Finland still finding its feet as a NATO member after its April accession.“The president is the face of the country,” said Tommi Vaurio, a 37-year-old nurse ...

50 shades of gray: Truss, Sarkozy and the art of the political memoir.

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:03:41 GMT

Welcome to Declassified, a weekly humor column.Everyone loves a good political memoir. At least they would if the overwhelming majority of them were not utter horseshit. Dishonest and not wanting to annoy the big-money paymasters they now have at a think tank, it’s rare to find a post-politics book that’s a real page-turner.The journalist Walter Bagehot once asked readers about former British Prime Minister Robert Peel: “Was there ever such a dull man? Can any one, without horror, foresee the reading of his memoirs?” (Peel did indeed write his memoirs, in three parts, with the clickbait title “Memoirs by the Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel.”)But that could be about to change with the news that Liz Truss is bringing out a book next year. Readers with a particularly good memory will recall that Truss was British prime minister for just 44 days (and it might have been shorter had the queen not inconveniently died just after she took office). Truss’ book —...

Alex Murdaugh associate sentenced to 20 years for helping disgraced attorney steal from clients

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:03:41 GMT

(CNN) — A former South Carolina attorney and longtime friend of Alex Murdaugh was sentenced Thursday to 20 years in prison after pleading guilty to state charges related to helping the convicted murderer steal millions of dollars from his clients.Cory Fleming, 54, was sentenced in a Beaufort County courtroom after pleading guilty to the charges last month over his involvement in scheming with Murdaugh to steal from two clients Murdaugh referred to him.Most of the stolen funds were from an insurance settlement Fleming helped secure for the estate of Gloria Satterfield, the Murdaugh family housekeeper who died after a “trip-and-fall” accident at the Murdaugh home in 2018. An investigation into her death has been reopened.Fleming is also charged with stealing from the family of Hakeem Pinckney, who was severely injured in a car crash in 2009 and died in 2011. Prosecutors have said the settlement money that was supposed to go to the Pinckney and Satterfield fami...

Bill Maher is returning to air despite the writers’ strike

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:03:41 GMT

New York (CNN) — Bill Maher said his show is returning to air — despite the WGA writer’s strike raging on.“Real Time is coming back, unfortunately, sans writers or writing,” Maher said on Instagram Wednesday. “It has been five months, and it is time to bring people back to work.”Maher’s show is an HBO original. HBO is owned by CNN’s parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery.Though there were hopes a deal between WGA and production studios could be reached after Labor Day, according to Maher, the strike that began in May is still in full swing.“The writers have important issues that I sympathize with, and hope they are addressed to their satisfaction, but they are not the only people with issues, problems, and concerns,” adding that his staff is still struggling despite his personal assistance.Maher himself is a member of the WGA, the Writers Guild of America West said on X, formerly known as Twitter, adding that his decision was “disappointing.”“It is difficult...

Story hits 3-run HR, Red Sox beat Yankees 5-0 after firing Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom

Published Fri, 21 Feb 2025 10:03:41 GMT

BOSTON (AP) — Trevor Story hit a three-run homer, Tanner Houck pitched six effective innings and Boston climbed out of the AL East basement with a 5-0 victory over the New York Yankees on Thursday in the opener of a doubleheader after the Red Sox fired Chief Baseball Officer Chaim Bloom.Bloom was dismissed after nearly four seasons. He was hired from the Tampa Bay Rays to help revive the farm system and bring financial stability to a team that was one of baseball’s biggest spenders.“It’s not easy,” Red Sox manager Alex Cora said of the move. “I’ve been through this twice already. Obviously, it’s a decision that ownership decided to go this route. We worked together all these years. It’s never easy to hear that.”Rookie Ceddanne Rafaela added a solo shot and Wilyer Abreu had a first-inning RBI single for Boston, which has won nine of the 12 meetings between the longtime rivals this season.Coming off a doubleheader sweep on Tuesday that moved New York ...