“Our conversations with various stakeholders in Europe have reinforced our belief that an enormous opportunity exists around the creation of a new league on the continent,” Silver said in a statement. “Together with FIBA, we look forward to engaging prospective clubs and ownership groups that share our vision for the game’s potential in Europe.” In an announcement Monday that the two parties were pressing ahead with the European expansion, FIBA Secretary-General Andreas Zagklis said: “The format of the league respects European sport model principles by offering any ambitious club in the continent a fair pathway to the top.

Since returning to power in 2023 for a fourth term, Fico’s Smer party has taken steps to dismantle anti-corruption institutions, including abolishing the Special Prosecutor’s Office, which handled high-profile corruption cases, and disbanding NAKA, an elite police unit tasked with fighting organized crime. The ruling coalition has also cracked down on independent media and amended the constitution to grant Slovakia’s national law precedence over EU law in “cultural and ethical matters.”

France’s national postal and banking services were knocked offline by a suspected distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack on Monday, according to an announcement by La Poste. The postal service called the attack “a major network incident” that was disrupting “all of our information systems.” La Poste’s online mail and banking services, website, and mobile app are among the services that are temporarily unavailable, per a machine translation of the announcement, which said customers could still carry out banking and postal transactions in person.

The protest, organized by veteran opposition leader Sali Berisha and his Democratic Party, followed scenes of chaos in Albania’s parliament last week, when police intervened after lawmakers brawled and set off flares inside the chamber. “We do not condone any form of violence — especially violence exercised by those in power. There is no more blatant form of violence than the extortion and systematic looting carried out by Edi Rama and his ministers against the Albanian people,” Berisha told POLITICO Tuesday via his spokesperson, saying the protests were intended to “stop this violence.”

European leaders moved swiftly to back Greenland on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump named a special envoy to the Arctic island, sparking a new diplomatic frenzy on the continent. Trump’s appointment of Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry as his envoy to Greenland marks another move in his gambit to annex the self-governing Danish territory. The U.S. “has to have Greenland for national security,” Trump…

President Donald Trump’s first year back in office shattered any remaining illusions among European leaders that he can be managed or controlled. His open hostility toward the European Union has strained a transatlantic alliance that’s endured since World War II and deepened rifts between Europe’s national leaders and within the bloc, imperiling its ability to respond to Trump’s threats and taunts with the kind of unity and strength he respects.

The government said on Tuesday that it changed tack after listening to concerns from the farming community and businesses about the reforms. “We have listened closely to farmers across the country, and we are making changes today to protect more ordinary family farms,” said Environment Secretary Emma Reynolds.  The government estimates only 185 farming estates will now fall into scope, down from 375, and 1,100 estates overall will pay more inheritance tax in 2026-27, down from an initial figure of 2,000.

After Russia last week brushed off German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s call for a Christmas сeasefire, Zelenskyy warned that Moscow is planning massive attacks over the holiday period. “The military must pay attention directly, protect as best they can — it’s not easy, because there is a shortage of air defense , unfortunately. And people need to pay attention — a lot of attention these days, because these ‘comrades’ can strike: nothing is sacred,” Zelenskyy said in an evening post on Telegram on Monday.

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Unreliable. Creating more problems than solving them. A negative force on the world stage. This is how large shares of America’s closest allies view the U.S., according to new polling, as President Donald Trump pursues a sweeping foreign policy overhaul. Pluralities in Germany and France — and a majority of Canadians — say the U.S. is a negative force globally, according to new international…

The felling of the “reparations loan” proposal, which would have recycled Russian assets that are mostly frozen in a clearing bank in Belgium, deprives Ukraine of guaranteed funding for the next two years. It was Belgium’s legal anxieties over the loan, along with French President Emmanuel Macron’s and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s reluctance to join German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in championing the proposal, that doomed it.

Ein turbulentes politisches Jahr 2025 neigt sich dem Ende zu. Von der vorgezogenen Neuwahl im Februar über die Zitterpartie bei der Kanzlerwahl von Friedrich Merz bis hin zu den ersten Auslandsreisen der neuen Regierung: In dieser Sonderfolge blickt ein Teil des POLITICO-Teams zurück. Rixa Fürsen, Pauline von Pezold, Gordon Repinski, Hans von der Burchard und Rasmus Buchsteiner erinnern sich an die Wahlpartys, die dramatischen Stunden vor der Kanzler-Vereidigung und warum der erste Trip nach Kiew fast an einer Taxifahrt gescheitert wäre.

Investing in cloud infrastructure would unlock more than €1 trillion growth in the EU – POLITICO Skip to main content Source link

Vice President JD Vance gave a stark outlook on the reality of the Russia-Ukraine war, saying he doesn’t have “confidence” there will be a peaceful solution to the gruesome conflict reaching its fourth year. “We’re going to keep on trying to negotiate. And I think that we’ve made progress, but sitting here today, I wouldn’t say with confidence that we’re going to get to a peaceful resolution,” the vice president…

Landry, a Republican who has been in office since early 2024, called the “volunteer position” an “honor” in a post on social media and said he would work to “make Greenland a part of the U.S.”  “This in no way affects my position as Governor of Louisiana!” he added.  Greenland’s Prime Minister Jens-Frederik Nielsen posted a statement about the appointment on social media, saying “it may seem like a lot” but urging calm and reiterating Greenland’s right to self-determination. 

LONDON — Chancellor Rachel Reeves will make a statement responding to new assessments of the U.K.’s finances on March 3, the U.K. Treasury said on Monday. In a statement, the Treasury said it had asked the U.K.’s independent fiscal watchdog, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), to prepare an economic and fiscal forecast for that date. However, it said the forecast will “not make an assessment of the government’s performance against the fiscal mandate and will instead provide an interim update on the economy and public finances.”

However, regardless of Europe’s efforts to support Ukraine, the only thing that really matters is America’s security guarantees, which Zelenskyy must now secure — even if it means concessions elsewhere. As much as Europe may like to think otherwise, Washington’s guarantees are the only viable path to peace for Ukraine. Europe can’t even deploy its multinational force without U.S. logistical support.

White House envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday that talks in Miami with both his Russian counterpart Kirill Dmitriev and with Ukrainian national security adviser Rustem Umerov were “productive and constructive” — but the discussions offered no clear breakthroughs to ending the war. “Ukraine remains fully committed to achieving a just and sustainable peace,” Witkoff wrote in a statement. “Our shared priority is to stop the killing, ensure guaranteed security, and create conditions for Ukraine’s recovery, stability, and long-term prosperity.”

Corruption today remains a major problem in Romania and Dan made it his mission to restore voters’ faith. In his first six months, however, he prioritized painful and unpopular public-sector spending cuts to bring the budget deficit — which was the EU’s biggest — under control. “On the big problems of society, starting with corruption, we didn’t do much,” Dan confessed.

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Wie kann Europa sich und die Ukraine verteidigen? Mit Claudia Major – POLITICO Skip to main content Source link

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PARIS — The military recruitment center across from the Eiffel Tower, in the posh 7th district’s historic École Militaire, is filled with promotional posters for the armed forces. In the lobby, I met 26-year-old Charlotte, who currently works in marketing for a private company but is considering joining the French army. “The geopolitical context is inspiring me to sign up and serve, using my skills,” she told me.

The future may be electric, but that future is being postponed. The European Commission, citing the need for flexibility, has softened its ambitious plan to ban the sale of gas-powered cars by 2035. Instead of requiring 100% of new cars to be zero-emission vehicles by that date, the revised plan would allow 10% of new car sales to be hybrids or other vehicles as long as manufacturers purchase carbon offsets to compensate.

The CEOs of Polymarket and Kalshi were facing off with the federal government one year ago. Now they’re new power players in Washington. Wall Street’s newest whiz kids were up against the full force of the federal government a year ago. Now, with President Donald Trump in charge, Shayne Coplan and Tarek Mansour — the messy-haired, 20-something billionaires behind the betting platforms Polymarket and Kalshi — are riding high.