Polish farmers ended a blockade of a Poland-Ukraine border crossing after reaching an agreement with Warsaw that met their demands, defusing a dispute that had become an early test of the new government of Prime Minister Donald Tusk.
Newly appointed Polish Agriculture Minister Czesław Siekierski signed the deal with Polish farmers blockading the Medyka-Shehyni border crossing with Ukraine late Saturday. The protest — which started over a month ago — was called off on December 24 following an agreement with the government, but it resumed on Wednesday amid farmers’ mistrust over the deal.
Farmers accused the new Polish government of failing to defend them against Ukrainian grain imports, but also demanded a series of financial support measures. Saturday’s deal finally implemented those financial demands — which include launching corn production subsidies, maintaining agricultural taxes at 2023 levels and increasing preferential liquidity loans — but didn’t include restrictions on Ukraine imports.
The measures “will be implemented after the legislative process is completed and acceptance by the European Commission is obtained,” the Polish Agriculture Ministry said.
Despite calling off the blockade, protesting farmers said that the “most important” demand now is “to limit the inflow of goods from Ukraine.” EU Agriculture Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski told Polish media on Friday that he would demand an EU-wide restriction on items like sugar, eggs and poultry from Ukraine.
“These imports are growing in a way that threatens the competitiveness of the EU sector, including Polish poultry and sugar production,” he said. The Polish commissioner has already clashed with other members of the European Commission over full trade liberalization with Ukraine, which the EU executive is expected to recommend as early as next week.
“Ukraine is such a country that they just want to take, take, take, and give nothing back,” Roman Kondrów, one of the protest leaders, told POLITICO by phone on Thursday, warning about the risks of allowing the country to join the EU without restrictions.
In the meantime, Polish truckers are continuing to protest as they want the government to end an EU-Ukraine agreement that liberalized road transport rules in an effort to help the Ukrainian economy, crippled by the Russian invasion.
Underpinning the narratives of both groups are doomsday scenarios about the impact on Poland of Ukraine one day becoming a member of the EU. At a summit in December, EU leaders agreed to open accession talks with Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Moscow has “no interest” in attacking a NATO member and called U.S. President Joe Biden’s warning that Russia would do so if it wins the war in Ukraine “complete nonsense.”
Biden earlier this month warned that “if Putin takes Ukraine, he won’t stop there,” and will attack NATO countries resulting in “American troops fighting Russian troops.”
Putin said Biden’s words were just an attempt to support “mistaken policy” toward Russia and the war in Ukraine.
“It is complete nonsense — and I think President Biden understands that,” Putin said during an interview published Sunday by Rossiya state television.
“Russia has no reason, no interest — no geopolitical interest, neither economic, political nor military — to fight with NATO countries,” Putin said.
In the interview, Putin also warned of “problems” with Finland after the EU country joined NATO.
“Did we have any disputes with them? All disputes, including territorial ones in the mid-20th century, have long been solved,” Putin said. But “now there will be, because now we are going to create the Leningrad military district and concentrate certain military units there,” he said.
In mid-November, Finland began closing its 1,340-kilometer border with Russia, accusing Moscow of pushing asylum seekers, mostly from Africa and the Middle East, toward the Nordic country.
British Foreign Secretary David Cameron and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock on Sunday called for a “sustainable cease-fire” in the Middle East, lamenting that “too many civilians have been killed” in the Israel-Hamas war.
In a joint article in the Sunday Times, Baerbock and Cameron made clear that: “We do not believe that calling right now for a general and immediate cease-fire, hoping it somehow becomes permanent, is the way forward.”
“We must do all we can to pave the way to a sustainable cease-fire, leading to a sustainable peace,” they said.
The article represents an apparent shift in the stances of both countries on the conflict in Gaza. The British government has called for a “humanitarian pause” in the fighting, but has stopped short of urging a cease-fire. Germany has staunchly defended Israel’s right to defend itself since the attacks by Hamas on October 7.
“Our goal cannot simply be an end to fighting today. It must be peace lasting for days, years, generations,” the two ministers said in their article, stressing that they support “a cease-fire, but only if it is sustainable.”
The international calls for an immediate cease-fire are “an understandable reaction to such intense suffering, and we share the view that this conflict cannot drag on and on,” Baerbock and Cameron wrote. That is why the two governments “supported the recent humanitarian pauses” and are “pushing the diplomatic effort to agree further pauses to get more aid in and more hostages out,” they said.
“Only extremists like Hamas want us stuck in an endless cycle of violence, sacrificing more innocent lives for their fanatical ideology,” the two ministers wrote.
However, “the Israeli government should do more to discriminate sufficiently between terrorists and civilians, ensuring its campaign targets Hamas leaders and operatives,” Cameron and Baerbock said.
“We do not believe that calling right now for a general and immediate cease-fire, hoping it somehow becomes permanent, is the way forward” because “it ignores why Israel is forced to defend itself: Hamas barbarically attacked Israel and still fires rockets to kill Israeli citizens every day,” they said. Baerbock and Cameron prefer “a sustainable cease-fire, leading to a sustainable peace. The sooner it comes, the better — the need is urgent,” they said.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna, meanwhile, on Sunday urged an “immediate and durable” truce in the Gaza Strip. Speaking in Tel Aviv during a meeting with her Israeli counterpart, Eli Cohen, Colonna said that “the truce should lead to a lasting cease-fire with the aim of releasing all hostages and delivering aid to Gaza.”
As the world continues to turn evermore in an extreme right-leaning direction, it can be no real surprise (especially not to the highly jaded ones) that Argentina’s latest president is none other than Javier Milei a.k.a. “El Loco.” And yes, he seems to be someone who acts the way Donald Trump truly wanted to while still kind of “holding back” (believe it or not). Because, at the bare minimum, at least Trump never dressed up in a superhero costume reminiscent of Nacho Libre while calling this alter ego “General Ancap.” Though he probably wanted to do something similar (with his rightful alter ego name being something like General Shithead or General Cheeto). Indeed, Trump’s “congratulations” for Milei appear as much a sign of his own hope for more dystopia during the 2024 election as they do “genuine happiness” over the fact that unhinged men keep fortifying patriarchy’s hold over the political arena, ergo what goes on in the world.
With his own demagoguery, Milei rose to political prominence in much the same way that Trump did: through a lot of publicly-displayed buffoonery. Specifically, he was an economic (therefore, political) pundit that made numerous TV appearances, sometimes in the guise of the aforementioned alter ego. Usually, so that he might sing about Argentina’s economic crisis in that getup. His career as an “economist” for various privately-funded companies, including Corporación América, as well as a think tank called Fundación Acordar, only added to the insulated reverence he kept building over the years. Having his own radio show, Demoliendo mitos (a.k.a. Demolishing Myths—ha! As if!) didn’t hurt his steady building of a following either. One that, like the Americans who gravitated toward Trump, simply wanted to see a radical change—any radical change—in their government. One that, in Argentina, has been dominated by Peronism since the time of Perón.
In fact, Milei’s victory over erstwhile current president Sergio Massa marks the first time since the country returned to a “democracy” (back in 1983) that such a dominant far-right presence has managed to take hold of the government. Because, as is often the case, the right tends to triumph in elections when the left is blamed for economic crises and the correlative rising poverty and crime rates. Both of which Argentina is suffering from big time, what with the poverty rate hovering at over forty percent. Milei, a self-declared libertarian, clearly saw this as an opportunity to swoop in and act as that “superhero” he mimicked on TV. The kind who wields chainsaws in public while on the campaign trail to indicate his “seriousness” about wanting to make “dramatic cuts” in order to “stabilize” the economy and curb the out-of-control inflation problem that has been plaguing the country.
As Milei put it, “There is no room for gradualism. There is no room for half measures.” The Netherlands’ latest far-right leader, Geert Wilders, would likely agree. Wilders even wears a red tie, a signature of Donald Trump (apart from the red, shudder-inducing “Make America Great Again” hat). As leader of the ironically-titled Party For Freedom, much of Wilders hardline politics is rooted in “nativist,” anti-immigration views—with an especial emphasis on being distinctly anti-Islam (his vocal sentiments have, indeed, made him a target for many Islamic extremist death threats). While his economic policies are less in the spotlight than Milei’s, Dutch philosopher Rob Riemen might as well be talking about both men when, in 2010, he cited Wilders and his party as “the prototype of contemporary fascism” in that he has finagled “the politicization of the resentment of the man in the crowd” (this description also easily applying to Trump’s political rise as a demagogue).
Throughout the globe, this alarming turn of phrase has continued to gain traction in terms of the far-right gradually “collecting” power and entering increasingly into mainstream government after lying in wait to pounce on the “right moment” (no pun intended) via taking advantage of public dissatisfaction with things that ultimately have nothing to do with conservative “soapbox solutions.” In Europe especially, the far-right continues to gain control of governments at the highest level. This includes Giorgia Meloni in Italy, Petteri Orpo in Finland and Viktor Orbán in Hungary. Another alarming “tidbit” of late is that if French presidential elections were held today, polling wisdom suggests far-right extremist Marine Le Pen (who has already run for the role of French president three times) would finally win.
All across the world, not just in Europe and South America (see also: the recent power held by Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro and Chile’s José Antonio Kast), a fascist, far-right darkness is taking hold. One spurred by the age-old idea that conservative parties are somehow “miracle workers” at resuscitating the economy (of course, the Tories in Britain are the most glaring present evidence to the contrary). Milei simply happens to be among the freshest, most overt examples of how, when people turn to the right for “fiscal salvation” (which, by the way, never actually comes), they, without fail, seem to forget, every time, about the even higher price one must pay in the sacrifice of human rights so as to achieve that so-called salvation.
In Argentina’s case, toppling the Peronism that has dominated the country’s politics since the time after Juan Perón’s first “presidency” (read: a presidency that employed many dictatorial tactics) is yet another sign of how extreme things have become. With voters turning to “shock politics” in a bid to seek a change that can never truly come unless the system of capitalism is dismantled entirely. And no, that does not automatically mean turning to socialism (that age-old conservative fear), but rather, a reassessment entirely of humanity’s priorities.
Naturally, the likelihood of that happening is nil, with Žižek’s adage, “It’s easier to imagine the end of the world than the end of capitalism” automatically coming to mind amid increasingly absurd voter “preferences” relating, in the end, to how they can better secure their financial well-being instead of their emotional and spiritual one. In short, putting a more colorful Band-Aid (represented by the superhero costume-wearing politician) on a fatal wound that needs a different cure entirely.
In two German state elections that are seen as a bellwether of the national mood, the far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, surged while the three parties that make up the country’s federal coalition government suffered significant losses.
Conservative forces won clear victories in both the states of Bavaria and Hesse. In Bavaria, the Christian Social Union (CSU), a sister-party to the center-right Christian Democratic Union (CDU), is projected to win 37 percent of the vote. In Hesse, the CDU is set to win 34.6 percent of the vote.
But the biggest winner of the night was arguably the AfD, a party that has become increasingly extreme since its founding in 2013. The AfD came in second place in Hesse and third place in Bavaria, according to preliminary results, landmark gains for the party.
The AfD’s strong performance outside its traditional bastion in the states of the former East Germany suggests the party has successfully expanded its base of support. This development has already sparked a renewed flurry of soul-searching among leaders of mainstream parties.
“The increased performance of the AfD can only worry every democrat in this country,” Ricarda Lang, a co-leader of the Greens, said on public television. “I would like to see us move away from finger-pointing and for every democratic party to now consider what we can do to make [the election results] look different again in the future.”
In both Bavaria and Hesse, the three parties that make up German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition — the center-left Social Democrats (SPD), the Greens, and the liberal Free Democrats (FDP) — all saw their support drop. That outcome demonstrated widespread dissatisfaction with the federal government at a time of growing economic and social insecurity.
The German economy has been stuck in an extended rut, precipitated in part by the surge in energy prices that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. A sharp rise in the number of asylum seekers entering Germany this year and a growing shortage of affordable housing has also fueled voter dissatisfaction.
The AfD was clearly able to capitalize on this discontent. Robert Lambrou, the AfD’s parliamentary group leader in Hesse, where the party was projected to win 18.4 percent of the vote, called the party’s performance in the state “breathtaking.” Many people, he added, “feel that a change in policy is needed. We have high inflation, high energy prices, high rents. We have completely unchecked mass immigration. There is a lot to be done here.”
In Bavaria, the AfD was projected to win 14.6 percent of the vote, just behind the Free Voters, a right-wing upstart party that governs in coalition with the CSU in the state. The outcome means that, in both state elections, the AfD outperformed all parties in Germany’s federal ruling coalition, a scenario that would have been hard to imagine some years ago.
Germany’s ruling coalition had already been beset by infighting, particularly between the Greens and the FDP — parties that are in many ways ideological opposites. The poor outcome for the coalition parties may well make the discord worse, as each party seeks to reinforce its base of support.
In Hesse, a former SPD stronghold, the Social Democrats suffered an embarrassing defeat, winning just 15.1 percent of the vote, according to projections. The loss is all the more stinging for the party because its candidate in the state is Scholz’s federal interior minister, Nancy Faeser, who in a speech called the result “very disappointing.”
With such a poor result, many are now speculating on whether Faeser will be able to keep her job as interior minister. Chancellor Scholz is likely to face pressure to make sweeping changes in order to reverse the fortunes of his party and coalition.
The election outcome was particularly disastrous for the FDP, a junior partner in Scholz’s coalition. The party won just three percent of the vote in Bavaria and five percent of the vote in Hesse, according to projections. The party is in danger of crashing out of both state parliaments if it fails to meet the required five-percent hurdle.
For the leaders of Germany’s federal coalition government, the election outcome has already raised loud alarm bells. The only question is whether there’s enough unity within the coalition to turn the tide.
“Of course, we are not deaf and blind,” SPD Secretary-General Kevin Kühnert said on German public television after the initial election results came in. “All of us together in this coalition should recognize the signals.”
LONDON — Britain is in talks to move more training and production of military equipment into Ukraine, U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said.
In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph, which took place following a briefing with Chief of the General Staff Patrick Sanders on Friday, Shapps said he had been “talking today about eventually getting the training brought closer and actually into Ukraine as well.”
“Particularly in the west of the country, I think the opportunity now is to bring more things ‘in country,’ and not just training but also we’re seeing [U.K. defense firm] BAE, for example, move into manufacturing in country,” he said.
“I’m keen to see other British companies do their bit as well by doing the same thing. So I think there will be a move to get more training and production in the country,” Shapps said.
The U.K. and other NATO members have so far avoided setting up a military presence in Ukraine to reduce the risk of a direct conflict between the defense alliance and Russia.
Dmitry Medvedev, chairman of Russia’s security council, suggested that British soldiers training Ukrainian troops in Ukraine would make them legitimate targets for Russian forces. The move would “turn your instructors into legal targets for our armed forces,” Medvedev said on Telegram. “Knowing full well that they will be mercilessly destroyed. And not as mercenaries, but precisely as British NATO specialists.”
Shapps traveled to Kyiv last week where he met Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Talking about Russian attacks on commercial vessels in the Black Sea, Shapps said: “It’s important that we don’t allow a situation to establish by default that somehow international shipping isn’t allowed in that water.”
NEW DELHI — With the clock likely ticking on his time in Downing Street, Rishi Sunak wants to secure a legacy on the world stage. The rise of Artificial Intelligence (AI) may be just what he needs.
The British prime minister faces a general election next year with his Conservative Party languishing 18 points behind the Labour opposition in the polls.
But though Sunak told reporters travelling with him to the G20 leaders’ summit in India this weekend he was “entirely confident” he can still win re-election, U.K. government insiders say the PM already has one eye on his possible post-Downing Street legacy.
Sunak takes pride in how he has helped repair the U.K.’s diplomatic standing after the rancour of Boris Johnson’s premiership and Liz Truss’ brief but disastrous stint in power. He sees the Windsor Framework — the agreement on post-Brexit trade checks in Ireland which markedly improved U.K. relations with the EU and the U.S. — as his signature achievement so far.
Now the bigger prize in Sunak’s sights is the opportunity to position the U.K. as the leading authority on the governance of AI.
“He sees it as one of his long-term legacy pieces,” one government adviser told POLITICO. “Shaping the world’s response to a paradigm-shifting technology would be a big deal — and it would be recognized as a big deal.” A second government official said Sunak “never misses a chance” to bring up AI.
There are several existing international forums for governments to discuss AI regulation, including a G7 process and the EU-U.S. Trade and Technology Council. Sunak’s challenge is to convince countries to take the U.K. seriously as a place to bring existing initiatives together and fold in unrepresented countries. And that will require some skillful diplomacy.
From G20 to AI summit
Sunak used conversations with other world leaders at the G20 to drum up interest in his landmark AI safety summit, which is taking place in the U.K. in November. The invitation list has yet to be made public, but is expected to include a range of countries including China.
The prime minister told POLITICO en route to New Delhi: “So far, the response we’ve had has been really positive, people are really keen to participate and they recognize that the U.K. can play a leadership role in AI.”
At a technology-focused session of the summit on Sunday the PM made comments on the need to develop AI responsibly. He praised India for “bringing AI to the top of the agenda at the G20” and said that there was “an opportunity for human progress that could surpass the industrial revolution in both speed and breadth.”
He told leaders that first and foremost, the development of AI had to be done safely to manage risks. “This requires international cooperation,” he said. “The U.K. will be hosting the first ever international AI Safety Summit in November to help drive this forward.”
Sunak added that the technology must also be developed securely “to protect the digital economy from malevolent actors and states” and fairly to “ensure inclusivity.”
“Getting this right is one of the greatest challenges and opportunities of our age,” Sunak said. “Let’s work together to make sure we all benefit.”
Lacking luster
But to make Sunak’s summit a success — and help secure his legacy — he will be reliant on the buy-in and active participation of fellow world leaders.
Despite Sunak congratulating his host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on a successful summit, the G20 was noteworthy for the absence of powerful figures including China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
Sunak will be hoping to avoid similar ‘no shows’ at his AI summit. He has already been dealt a blow with news last month that U.S. President Joe Biden will not be attending.
Key European leaders have also failed to confirm their attendance. In comments to POLITICO, one French official questioned the need for U.K. mediation, given alternative international avenues for discussing AI.
Sunak’s experience at the G20 also demonstrates the difficulties of choreographing the good optics and effective diplomacy required for a successful summit.
Predictions from U.K. government figures that Sunak would be mobbed by the adoring public did not materialize in a locked-down New Delhi where there were few people on the streets.
There were also hiccups in Sunak’s summit agenda. He had been due to meet Modi at his house on Friday but that was replaced with a 20-minute meeting on the margins of the summit on Saturday. On Friday night Modi hosted President Biden for dinner instead. The two leaders held talks for about an hour.
A planned business reception for Sunak on Friday at the British High Commission was also cancelled, because of transport issues. Sunak’s spokesperson said rescheduling was “part and parcel” of any summit.
Things did improve over the weekend for the British PM. Modi and Sunak were filmed bear-hugging each other when they met. According to the U.K. government’s readout, Modi “noted the warm reception” Sunak had had in India, and the pair had agreed to continue moving towards a free trade agreement “at pace.”
The Indian government said Modi has now formally invited Sunak for a bilateral visit, after POLITICO reported that U.K. officials were already drawing up plans for a possible return trip for Sunak later this year.
NEW DELHI — British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak raised “very strong concerns” with Beijing about China’s alleged interference in the U.K. parliament.
Sunak relayed his concerns to Chinese Premier Li Qiang at the G20 summit in India following the arrest of a purported Chinese spy working in the parliament.
Sunak told broadcasters in New Delhi that he expressed “very strong concerns about any interference in our parliamentary democracy, which is obviously unacceptable.”
He added that his meeting with Li in the margins of the G20 gathering was an example of the benefits of engagement rather than “shouting from the sidelines.”
“We discussed a range of things and I raised areas where there are disagreements,” Sunak said. “And this is just part of our strategy to protect ourselves, protect our values and our interests, to align our approach to China with that of our allies like America, Australia, Canada, Japan and others, but also to engage where it makes sense,” he said.
The Sunday Times reported that a parliamentary researcher with links to several senior Tory MPs, including the foreign affairs committee chair Alicia Kearns, was arrested under the Official Secrets Act.
The researcher was arrested along with another man on March 13. Officers from the Metropolitan police’s counterterrorism command, which covers espionage, are investigating, the paper said.
The researcher, in his 20s, was arrested in Edinburgh and the second man, who is in his 30s, was detained in Oxfordshire, according to the report. Police also carried out checks at an address in east London. Both men were held at a south London police station before being bailed until a date in early October.
The Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, which has pressed the U.K. government for a more hawkish stance toward Beijing, said it was “appalled at reports of the infiltration of the U.K. parliament by someone allegedly acting on behalf of the People’s Republic of China.”
Kearns declined to comment but said on social media: “While I recognize the public interest, we all have a duty to ensure any work of the authorities is not jeopardized.” A person close to her told the PA news agency: “It is inevitable the Chinese Communist Party would target and seek to undermine parliament’s leading voices who have demonstrated the ability to constrain the CCP’s ambitions.”
The researcher also had links to security minister Tom Tugendhat, but is said to have had no contact since Tugendhat took on that role, according to the Sunday Times report.
At the end of August, James Cleverly, the foreign secretary, visited Beijing amid criticism from hawkish Tory MPs.
Conservative MP Iain Duncan Smith said U.K. institutions were “deeply penetrated by the Chinese,” and that the government was “so desperately thinking about China as a business problem, they fail to realize how dangerously threatening China really is becoming.”
A meeting between Sunak and Li at the margins of the G20 had been discussed in the run-up to the summit, as POLITICO reported, but it was not confirmed until Sunday morning.
According to Chinese state-controlled news agency Xinhua, Li told Sunak that the U.K. and China should properly handle disagreements and respect each other’s interests and concerns.
Forget about the scuttled submarine deal that plunged Australia-France relations to an historic low. Paris and Canberra are acting like besties again, thanks to football and online bantz.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have spent most of the weekend joshing about their national teams — Les Bleues and the Matildas — facing off in the quarter-finals of the Women’s World Cup, which Australia is co-hosting with New Zealand.
Ahead of the Saturday match, Albanese threw down the gauntlet in a social media post. “How about a bet @EmmanuelMacron? If [Australia] win tonight, you’ll support Australia in the semi-finals. If [France] win, I’ll support France. Deal?” the Aussie leader wrote. Macron gamely accepted the challenge, not without first praising Australia for “brilliantly” co-organizing the tournament.
The camaraderie is a far cry from where the two country’s relations stood in 2021, when France recalled its ambassadors from Australia and the U.S. after the two countries and the U.K. had cut a deal — dubbed AUKUS— to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, which entailed the cancellation of a pre-existing €53 billion contract with France. Paris’s fury at the loss was palpable, with French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian calling AUKUS “really a stab in the back.”
That ire appears to have subsided, at least when it comes to football. After the Matildas defeated Les Bleues 7-6 in a thrilling penalty shoot-out on Saturday, Macron said he will respect the bet. That might not have been too hard, given whom Australia is playing against in the next round. “Nothing personal against our English friends, but a bet is a bet,” Macron posted. “Good luck Australia for the semi-finals!”
The first Russian lunar mission in nearly half a century ended with a bang.
The Luna-25, which left earth on August 10, crash-landed on the moon nine days later after an incident involving the pre-landing maneuvers malfunctioned, Russian space agency Roscosmos said late Saturday on its Telegram channel.
According to Roscosmos, the last communication with the spacecraft was at 2:57 p.m. Moscow time (13:57 CEST) on Saturday. Efforts after that to get back in contact with the craft did not produce any results, the agency said.
A specially formed commission will now look at why the Luna craft malfunctioned, Roscosmos said.
Russia’s Luna-25 mission was sent to scope out the lunar south pole, where scientists believe there is a plentiful supply of water locked in ice in the perpetual shade of mountain ridges. Firming up water reserves is a critical requirement for supporting life on the moon with breathable oxygen, drinking water and even rocket fuel, which would then help space-faring nations further explore the cosmos from any lunar outpost in the future.
Other countries are also eyeing the moon’s southern region. The U.S. plans to send a mission to the south pole later this decade as part of its Artemis program supported by Canada and European countries.
More immediately, India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission is scheduled to land on the lunar surface on August 23 to explore the south pole. An earlier Indian mission crashed in 2019.
In an unusual diplomatic move, Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni settled a restaurant bill of four Italian tourists who left a restaurant in Albania without paying.
Albania’s Prime Minister Edi Rama raised the issue with his Italian counterpart while Meloni was visiting Albania with her family last week. The incident reportedly took place in Berat, which sits on the Osum River, .
Meloni responded by telling her ambassador to “go and pay the bill for these idiots,” Italian paper La Stampa reported. The bill amount to around €80, according to the BBC.
Italy’s embassy in Albania confirmed that it paid the bill with Meloni’s personal funds.
“The Italians respect the rules and pay off their debts and we hope that episodes of this kind will not repeat themselves,” the embassy said.
Francesco Lollobrigida, the Italian agriculture minister, told Reuters that it was a matter of national pride. “She offered to pay the bill. The ambassador was on his way back to Tirana and was available to do this,” he told the news service. “A few dishonest individuals cannot embarrass a nation of decent people,” Lollobrigida said.
Italy intends to leave the Chinese Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) “without doing damage” to its relationship with Beijing, Italian Defense Minister Guido Crosetto said.
“The issue today is: how to walk back [from the BRI] without damaging relations” with Beijing, Crosetto said in an interview with Corriere della Sera. “Because it is true that China is a competitor, but it is also a partner.”
In May, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said the country could enjoy good relations with China even without being part of Beijing’s controversial infrastructure initiative. Crosetto’s comments are the first confirmation of Italy’s intention to leave the Chinese program.
“The choice to join the Silk Road was an improvised and wicked act, made by the government of Giuseppe Conte, which led to a double negative result. We exported a load of oranges to China, they tripled exports to Italy in three years,” said Crosetto in the interview.
In 2019, Italy became the first G7 country to join China’s global infrastructure program to the surprise of allies in the West.
Critics noted that Rome’s decision to enter the Beijing initiative did not improve its trade deficit with China. Chinese exports to Italy increased 51 percent from 2019 to 2022, while China’s imports from the EU country rose by 26 percent during the same years, according to Italy’s Trade Agency.
French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, meanwhile, said France wants better access to the Chinese market and a more “balanced” trade relationship, not a “decoupling.”
“We don’t want to face some legislative hurdles or some other barriers to get access to the Chinese markets,” Le Maire told a press conference in Beijing a day after what he called “constructive” trade talks with Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng.
Lionel Barber is former editor of the Financial Times (2005-20) and Brussels bureau chief (1992-98)
Nobody does “No” better than the French. Charles De Gaulle said “Non” twice to Britain’s bid to join the European Economic Community; Jacques Chirac said “Non” to the Iraq war; and Emmanuel Macron this week gave a thumbs down to Fiona Scott Morton, the American Yale academic selected for the post of top economist at the EU’s powerful competition directorate in Brussels.
L’affaire Scott Morton may seem trivial in comparison to the (still unresolved) debate over Britain’s place in Europe or armed conflict in the Middle East, but the French veto of the first foreigner to take up the post says an awful lot about the European Union’s current paranoia about America’s influence and power.
As Macron has pushed a vision of Europe that stands up to the U.S., resisting pressure to become “America’s followers,” as he put it in April, such thinking has strengthened in Brussels.
The Scott Morton fiasco brings back memories of a lunch in Brussels exactly 30 years ago when some officials suspected the U.S. was engaged in an Anglo-Saxon plot to sabotage their plans for economic and monetary union. “Remember James Jesus Angleton,” said a stone-faced Belgian bureaucrat, invoking the name of the legendary, obsessive CIA counterintelligence officer at the height of the Cold War.
Professor Scott Morton was selected as the best candidate in open competition. She enjoyed the backing of Margrethe Vestager, the Danish EU competition commissioner often described as the most powerful antitrust regulator in the world. She also had support from Ursula von der Leyen, German president of the European Commission, whose leadership during the Ukraine war and the COVID pandemic has won widespread praise on both sides of the Atlantic.
All this counted for naught. Despite her distinguished academic pedigree, Scott Morton, a former Obama administration antitrust official, worked for Apple, Amazon and Microsoft in competition cases in the U.S. The notion her background somehow disqualified her for the job shows George W. Bush was wrong when he complained the French had no word for “entrepreneur.” Today’s problem is that Paris has no understanding of the term “poacher turned gamekeeper.”
As Carl Bildt, former Swedish prime minister, tweeted: “Regrettable that narrow-minded opposition in some EU countries has led to this. She was reportedly the most competent candidate, and a knowledge of the U.S. and its antitrust policies should certainly not have been a disadvantage.”
Now, President Macron’s opposition to the appointment has attracted a good deal of support in the Commission, in the European Parliament and among European trade unions. Cristiano Sebastiani, head of Renouveau & Démocratie, a trade union representing EU employees, said senior EU officials should “be invested, believe and contribute towards the European project. The very logic of our statute is that an EU official can never go back to being an ordinary citizen.”
France’s veto of Professor Scott Morton is de facto a veto of Vestager, who was almost untouchable during her first term as competition commissioner between 2014-19. She won kudos for investigating, fining and bringing lawsuits against major multinationals including Google, Apple, Amazon, Facebook, Qualcomm, and Gazprom. More controversially, at least in Paris and Berlin, she vetoed the planned merger between Alstom and Siemens, two industrial giants intent on creating a European champion.
Vestager’s second term has been a different story. She has suffered reverses in the courts which overturned punitive fines against Apple and Qualcomm. Then, although she ranks as a vice-president of the Commission, Vestager found herself challenged by a nominal underling in the shape of Thierry Breton, a former top French industrialist put in charge of the EU’s internal market.
Both have battled over the policing of the EU’s Digital Markets Act and over policy on artificial intelligence, a proxy fight for influence overall in Brussels.
Vestager and Breton have battled over the policing of the EU’s Digital Markets Act and over policy on artificial intelligence | Olivier Hoslet/EPA/AFP via Getty Images
Breton favors the so-called AI Pact, an effort to bring forward parts of the EU’s draft Artificial Intelligence Act. This would ban some AI cases, curb “high-risk” applications, and impose checks on how Google, Microsoft and others develop the emerging technology.
By contrast, Vestager favors a voluntary code of conduct focused on generative AI such as ChatGPT. This could be developed at a global level, in partnership with the U.S., rather than waiting for the two years it will take to secure legislative passage of Breton’s AI Pact.
So what’s the solution? If Europe is to have any chance of prevailing, so the argument goes, member states must take a far harder-nosed attitude to competition policy. This leads in turn to the creation of national or pan-European champions at the expense of crackdowns on subsidies and other anti-competitive behavior. In short, the very liberal policies designed to protect the single market’s level playing field and embodied by the fighting Viking.
For those who occasionally wonder how power has shifted inside the EU since Brexit took the U.K. out of the equation, it is proof indeed that “liberal Europe” is on a losing streak.
Ankara hasn’t seen sufficient progress from Sweden to support its application to join NATO, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan warned U.S. President Joe Biden in a phone call Sunday ahead of a summit of NATO leaders this week.
“Erdoğan stated that Sweden has taken some steps in the right direction by making changes in the anti-terrorism legislation,” Turkey’s communications directorate said in a statement following the bilateral call.
But the supporters of “terrorist organizations” — pro-Kurdish groups including the PKK and YPG, which are banned in Turkey — continue to hold demonstrations in Sweden, the statement said. “This nullifies the steps taken,” it said.
The call comes ahead of a two-day summit of NATO leaders in Lithuania that starts on Tuesday. Biden has thrown his support behind a push to get a deal done on Sweden at the meeting in Vilnius.
Erdoğan’s administration has been blocking Sweden’s hopes of joining the defense alliance, accusing Stockholm of backing Kurdish separatism. While it had initially accused Finland of doing the same, Erdoğan later gave the green light on Helsinki’s application and the country became a NATO member in April.
Biden and Erdoğan also discussed the sale of U.S. F-16 fighter jets to Turkey in the call, with the Turkish president “noting that it is not correct to associate” Ankara’s request for F-16 aircraft with Sweden’s NATO membership bid, according to the statement.
On the call, Erdoğan also brought up Turkey’s “desire to revive the EU membership process,” according to the statement. The Turkish president said he would like to see EU member states send a “clear and strong message” in support of its EU bid at the NATO summit in Lithuania.
While Turkey became a candidate for full membership of the EU in 1999, talks have effectively stalled over the past decade. The country has not committed to making the reforms required to meet the criteria set out by Brussels.
Erdoğan and Biden agreed to meet face-to-face in Vilnius and discuss Turkey-U.S. bilateral relations and regional issues in detail, according to the Turkish statement.
LONDON — “Britain Trump” may have a long wait on his hands if he’s going to stage the kind of comeback dreamed of by the former American president.
Boris Johnson’s exit did nothing to discourage comparisons with its blasts at the “kangaroo court” of lawmakers whose verdict sealed his fate, condemning the committee which judged him to have lied to parliament as a “witch hunt” seeking “revenge for Brexit.”
But while Monday’s debate in the House of Commons on the committee’s findings could have presented a crunch moment, with MPs forced to decide whether or not they would condemn or back their former leader, it has instead been deflated as Johnson told his loyal supporters Friday not to bother opposing the verdict. Johnson himself, the Sunday Times reported, will spend the day celebrating his 59th birthday far away in Oxfordshire.
While Donald Trump pursues the narrative of martyrdom at every available opportunity, for now at least, Johnson is ducking tests of his popularity and biding his time.
Unfortunately for Johnson, polls suggest he’s not that popular.
James Johnson, director of JL Partners which carries out polling on both sides of the Atlantic, described the respective standing of the two leaders as “very different — there’s 40 percent that backs Trump regardless. By comparison, Johnson wins the support of only about 15 to 18 percent of the population.”
Perhaps more crucially, the pollster added: “Trump has almost become a form of identity for many Republicans. If you back Trump, then you’re standing up to the liberals, you’re standing up to what’s going wrong in society. I don’t think Boris takes on anything as totemic as that.”
A Tory MP in a seat where Johnson remains popular commented that he had received only one email about the so-called partygate report, suggesting that while some voters may not care much about his misconduct, neither are they clamoring for him to come back.
Without an outpouring of support amongst voters, few within his own party in Westminster have run to his defense either.
“I’m done with that drama. There’s no way I’m ever going back there,” one Conservative minister said over the weekend, speaking on condition of anonymity in order to speak candidly.
For others the collective running out of patience is symptomatic of cultural differences across the Atlantic. A U.K. diplomat, previously based in the U.S., said that while Trump is still able to whip up crowds, “I think a bit sooner than in America we get sick of it and just actually want people to shut up.”
Not so Trumpian
Trump’s offhand anointing of Johnson back in 2019 — “they call him Britain Trump” — never rang that true, for all their shared populist tendencies.
Even as he pushed for Brexit, Johnson retained a liberal streak, unable to get as fired up about immigration or spending cuts as many of his colleagues would have liked. His famed rhetoric was rambling and deliberately ridiculous, rather than hectoring.
The route back may look harder for Johnson than it does for Trump, but that doesn’t mean he won’t try | Leon Neal/Getty Images
However, his resignation marked a sharp change in tone as he announced his departure with a savage attack on the committee which had condemned him.
In the immediate aftermath, there were signs of an insurrection as two of his close allies, ex-ministers Nadine Dorries and Nigel Adams, swore to go down with him.
The report’s full publication brought fresh howls of anguish as his supporters tweeted graphics boasting “I’m backing Boris,” while David Campbell Bannerman, chairman of the Conservative Democratic Organisation, warned that Tory MPs would face deselection if they backed what he called a “Stalinist show trial.”
But without Trump’s popularity with voters, it has proved difficult for Johnson to capitalize on a sense of martyrdom in the short term.
Matthew McGregor, a former adviser to the U.K. Labour Party and the U.S. Democrats and now CEO of campaign group 38 Degrees, points out that Trump stole a march by using the primary system to his advantage, but it would be difficult for Johnson to stage any equivalent “takeover” of the Conservative grassroots and equally difficult to run as an outsider.
While Johnson could, in theory, run for election to the House of Commons again, party headquarters would likely need to sign off on his candidature, which seems unlikely at this juncture.
A Conservative MP who served as a minister under Johnson said that insofar as he has a strategy, “it is to say you’ve got to throw absolutely everything at this, and some people will stick with you,” but “the trouble with this is that there are diminishing returns.”
Never say never
The route back may look harder for Johnson than it does for Trump, but that doesn’t mean he won’t try.
The two men share some temperamental qualities, as one former Tory minister who worked closely with Johnson admitted: “They both have a sense that because they have won against the odds their own judgment is infallible.”
“Their shamelessness is a superpower,” said McGregor. “The ability to give zero fucks whatsoever allows them to do things that other politicians can’t do, and that is pretty powerful.”
Guto Harri, who was Johnson’s head of comms, claimed this week in the Mail that Johnson last year told MPs who were urging him to resign with dignity that “dignity is a grossly overrated commodity and that I prefer to fight to the end.”
The Tory party’s torrid love affair with Johnson has been a long one — longer than Trump’s political career so far. Johnson may have the stomach for an even longer game.
SINGAPORE — China put European patience to the test on Saturday, with a seasoned Chinese diplomat attributing Russia’s war on Ukraine to a failed security architecture in Europe.
It fell to Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren to challenge that very Chinese interpretation.
“I was actually a little bit surprised to hear it,” Ollongren told POLITICO in an interview moments after she made an impromptu rebuttal of ex-ambassador Cui Tiankai on a panel at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore. “It’s very, very false.”
Cui, a former envoy to the U.S. and unofficially an adviser to the Chinese delegation at this top Asian security forum, told the event on Saturday that Europe had showed little success in ensuring the Continent’s security, and suggested that the other nations at the forum should take a lesson from China and Asia instead.
“We used to look to Europe, for their experience in regional integration. But nowadays, maybe people in Europe instead could look to us,” Cui told the gathering. “We don’t impose our ways on you, but maybe you can learn something useful from our experience, from our success,” he said.
“And our region also should learn something very important — from your lack of success. I don’t want to use the word ‘failure,’ [so] a lack of success,” said Cui, who sat next to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov on the panel.
“We will continue with our Asian ways of managing our security situation and managing all the issues,” Cui said. “We don’t need an Asian NATO. We’ll don’t want to see expansion of NATO’s role in our region.”
While the Ukrainian minister steered clear of criticizing Beijing — saying only that Ukraine needed to win the war, not negotiate — Ollongren hit back at Cui’s assertion.
“There was a suggestion by the ambassador that Europe has not succeeded in managing its security very well, because of the war in Ukraine. Of course, I understand there’s a war in Ukraine — but I think it’s not the result of mismanaging our security situation in Europe. It’s the result of not respecting the way we want to manage security in Europe,” the Dutch minister said.
“I think also, there is no lack of respect for China or lack of respect to the culture of China in Europe; we have very high respect for that,” she said.
Ollongren, whose country has taken an increasingly critical stance on China over ties with Russia and tech advancement in military fields, added after the panel that what Cui had presented was a “false perception of the situation.”
“You cannot blame Europe or European countries for Russia’s illegally invading Ukraine,” she said.
Ollongren added that since Cui is no longer an ambassador, she would wait for Chinese Defense Minister Li Shangfu to spell out the official position in his keynote address on Sunday.
An estimated 500,000 people marched through downtown Warsaw Sunday afternoon in a huge rally against the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party, held on the 34th anniversary of the breakthrough election that effectively ended communist rule in Poland.
The march was called by Donald Tusk, former Polish prime minister and former president of the European Council, who is now leading his Civic Platform (PO) party in a bid to defeat PiS in an election due later this year.
“You’re all here because you have just believed we can win,” Tusk told the crowd, which filled Warsaw’s Castle Square. People in the crowd were holding up white-and-red flags and anti-government placards, including the locally famous ones with eight asterisks, denoting the Polish for “f*** PiS.”
“Here’s my pledge to you today: We are going to win this election and hold PiS accountable,” Tusk said.
The rally, which appeared to be the biggest political demonstration in Poland in decades, took place just a few days after PiS-friendly President Andrzej Duda signed off on controversial legislation setting up a special commission to probe Russian influence on Poland’s security. The commission will have vast powers including slapping whoever is found to be making political decisions under Russia’s sway with a 10-year ban from holding public office.
Poland’s opposition has said that the proposed sanctions of the special commission could be used to remove Tusk from politics under trumped-up allegations.
Following criticism in Poland, as well as from the U.S. and the EU, Duda has since moved to blunt the commission’s powers. That would, however, require another vote in the parliament.
Poland is gearing up for what is set to be a close election this fall. According to POLITICO’s Poll of Polls, Tusk’s Civic Platform is currently trailing PiS. But the ruling party does not have enough support to guarantee it a majority in the next parliament.
The standing of PiS in the polls has weakened in 2023 in the wake of double-digit inflation and an economic slowdown. Both are expected to ease later this year, possibly giving the ruling party some room to outdo the opposition and secure an unprecedented third consecutive term in office.
HIROSHIMA, Japan — China on Saturday faced a strong pushback from the Group of Seven countries over its stances on Russia, Taiwan, trade bullying, economic monopoly and domestic interference, with the G7 leaders’ statement reflecting a broad convergence of the U.S., Europe and Japan on a need to change tack.
Issued around the time of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s arrival in Hiroshima, where the summit is taking place, the statement by leaders of the G7 wealthy democracies asked Beijing to do more to stop Russia’s war on Ukraine.
“We call on China to press Russia to stop its military aggression, and immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine,” the leaders said in the statement. “We encourage China to support a comprehensive, just and lasting peace based on territorial integrity and the principles and purposes of the U.N. Charter, including through its direct dialogue with Ukraine.”
Crucially, the U.S. and Europe — the two main constituents of the G7 — came round to a common set of language on China. For France and Germany, in particular, their focus on a conciliatory attitude to China was reflected in the final statement, which began the China section by stating “We stand prepared to build constructive and stable relations with China.”
The G7’s repeated emphasis of “de-risking, not decoupling” is a nod to the EU approach to China, as European member countries are wary of completely cutting off business ties with Beijing.
The language on Taiwan remained the same compared with recent statements. “We reaffirm the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as indispensable to security and prosperity in the international community,” the statement said, adding there’s “no change in the basic positions” in terms of the one China policies.
Domestic interference
Apart from Russia, another new element this year is the mention of domestic interference — which human rights groups say is a reflection of the growing concern about China’s “overseas police stations” in other countries. “We call on China … not to conduct interference activities aimed at undermining the security and safety of our communities, the integrity of our democratic institutions and our economic prosperity,” the leaders said in their statement, citing the Vienna Convention which regulates diplomatic affairs.
On global economics, both sides of the Atlantic and Japan now see the need to fundamentally change the overall dynamic of economic globalization, placing security at the front of policy considerations.
“Our policy approaches are not designed to harm China nor do we seek to thwart China’s economic progress and development. A growing China that plays by international rules would be of global interest,” the G7 leaders said in the statement.
“We are not decoupling or turning inwards. At the same time, we recognize that economic resilience requires de-risking and diversifying. We will take steps, individually and collectively, to invest in our own economic vibrancy. We will reduce excessive dependencies in our critical supply chains,” they said.
One central theme is economic coercion, where China has punished a wide range of countries — from Japan and Australia to Lithuania and South Korea — over the decade when political disagreements arose.
The G7 countries launched a new “coordination platform on economic coercion” to “increase our collective assessment, preparedness, deterrence and response to economic coercion,” according to the statement. They also plan to coordinate with other partners to further the work on this.
For France, the focus on a conciliatory attitude to China was reflected in the final statement, which began by stating “We stand prepared to build constructive and stable relations with China” | Pool phot by Stefan Rousseau/Getty Images
The joint call for diverse sources of critical minerals, while stopping short of naming China, is widely seen as targeted against the Asian superpower that controls, for instance, 70 percent of global rare earths output. The G7 countries “support open, fair, transparent, secure, diverse, sustainable, traceable, rules and market-based trade in critical minerals” and “oppose market-distorting practices and monopolistic policies on critical minerals,” according to the statement.
They also vow to deliver the goal of mobilizing up to $600 billion in financing for quality infrastructure through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment, a rival to China’s Belt and Road initiative. “We will mobilize the private sector for accelerated action to this end,” they said.
In a bilateral in Hiroshima, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron “welcomed the strong unity of purpose at the G7 on … our collective approach to the economic threat posed by China,” a spokesperson for Sunak’s office said.
Pope Francis called for open doors and inclusivity during a visit to Hungary on Sunday.
The Hungarian government has long faced criticism over anti-immigration policies and rhetoric that has stoked xenophobia at home. Concerns about Budapest’s treatment of minorities were exacerbated on the eve of the pope’s three-day visit when Hungarian President Katalin Novák unexpectedly pardoned a far-right terrorist.
Speaking to a large crowd in central Budapest on Sunday morning before wrapping up his trip, the pope did not directly address the Hungarian government’s policies but was blunt about the need to embrace outsiders.
“How sad and painful it is to see closed doors,” the pope said at an outdoor mass, pointing to “the closed doors of our indifference towards the underprivileged and those who suffer; the doors we close towards those who are foreign or unlike us, towards migrants or the poor.”
“Please, brothers and sisters, let us open those doors!” he added. “Let us try to be — in our words, deeds and daily activities — like Jesus, an open door: a door that is never shut in anyone’s face, a door that enables everyone to enter and experience the beauty of the Lord’s love and forgiveness.”
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán — who is not Catholic himself but has close political allies who emphasize their Catholic roots — has tried to capitalize on the pope’s visit, tweeting on Friday that “it is a privilege to welcome” the pontiff and that “Hungary has a future if it stays on the Christian path.”
On Sunday, however, Pope Francis underscored that his message is directed at Hungary itself.
“I say this also to our lay brothers and sisters, to catechists and pastoral workers, to those with political and social responsibilities, and to those who simply go about their daily lives, which at times are not easy. Be open doors!” he said.
“Be open and inclusive,” the pope added, “then, and in this way, help Hungary to grow in fraternity, which is the path of peace.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy held private talks with Pope Francis at the Vatican on Saturday, after meeting earlier in the day with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, who promised full military and financial backing for Ukraine.
Zelenskyy said he sought support for his peace plan from Pope Francis, who in the past has offered to try to help end the full-scale invasion launched by Russia in February 2022. The pontiff also indicated the Vatican would help in the repatriation of Ukrainian children taken by Russians.
In a tweet after the 40-minute audience with the pope, Zelenskyy expressed gratitude to Francis for “his personal attention to the tragedy of millions of Ukrainians.” He said he spoke with the pontiff “about the tens of thousands of deported [Ukrainian] children. We must make every effort to return them home.”
Last month, Pope Francis told reporters that the Vatican was engaged in a behind-the-scene peace mission to put an end to the conflict in Ukraine, without providing further details. “There is a mission in course now but it is not yet public. When it is public, I will reveal it,” he said. The pope and Zelenskyy last met in 2020, before Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Zelenskyy asked the pope “to condemn Russian crimes in Ukraine. Because there can be no equality between the victim and the aggressor,” the Ukrainian president said in his tweet.
At a press conference earlier, Prime Minister Meloni condemned Russia’s “brutal and unjust aggression” against Ukraine, pledged Italy’s support for Kyiv for “as long as is necessary” and urged Moscow to immediately withdraw.
“You can’t achieve peace through a surrender,” Meloni said. “It would be a very grave precedent for all nations of the world.”
Meloni emphasised Italy’s support for Ukraine’s membership of the EU and the “intensification” of a partnership with NATO.
On his arrival in Rome Saturday morning, Zelenskyy had tweeted that the trip was “an important visit for approaching victory of Ukraine.”
He was greeted at a military airfield at Rome’s Ciampino airport by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani. “We reaffirm our support for the Ukrainian people in defending freedom and democracy,” Tajani said.
Also Saturday, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius confirmed that Berlin has approved a new €2.7 billion package of weapons for Ukraine. “We all wish for a speedy end to this terrible and illegal war,” Pistorius said. “Unfortunately, this is not yet foreseeable.”
Zelenskyy is reportedly expected to head to Berlin after Italy, upon the invitation of German Chancellor Olaf Scholz.
