11 h. ago EU could admit new members by 2030, says its foreign policy chief

Kaja Kallas tells reporters more countries could join 27-country bloc, including Montenegro, Albania and UkraineThe European Union could admit new members by 2030, its foreign policy chief has said, as officials praised reform efforts by frontrunners Montenegro and Albania, while criticising backsliding in Serbia and an even steeper democratic decline in Georgia.The verdicts came as the European Commission published its annual report cards on 10 countries that aspire to join the EU, after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 injected new momentum into a process that had long been moribund. Continue reading...

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13 h. ago Zelenskyy calls for Ukraine to join EU before 2030 after commission delivers warning on corruption

EU says reforms needed ‘with regards to the fundamentals, in particular rule of law’ to have a chance to ‘provisionally close accession negotiations by the end of 2028’We will formally get the EU’s commentary on the enlargement ratings (9:26) in just over an hour – when EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and EU enlargment commissioner Marta Kos are due to speak to journalists – but we have just had a brief glimpse of what’s coming during Kos’s appearance in the European parliament.She said these have been “significant advances on the EU path achieved so far by Montenegro, Albania, Moldova and Ukraine,” stressing that “reforms pay off.”I can say that these four candidates have matched their ambitions with concrete actions. Continue reading...

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3 d. ago What did Pasolini know? Fifty years after his brutal murder, the director’s vision of fascism is more urgent than ever

With mystery still surrounding Pier Paolo Pasolini’s death, the poet and film-maker’s warnings of corruption and rising totalitarianism offer a chilling message for our timesPier Paolo Pasolini was murdered at around midnight on 2 November 1975. His blood-soaked body was found the next morning on waste ground in Ostia, on the outskirts of Rome, battered so badly the famous face was almost unrecognisable. Italy’s premier intellectual, artist, provocateur, national conscience, homosexual, dead at the age of 53, his scandalous final film still in the editing suite. “Assassinato Pasolini,” the next morning’s papers announced, alongside photographs of the 17-year-old accused of his murder. Everyone knew his taste for working-class hustlers. A hookup gone wrong was the instant verdict.Some deaths are so suggestive that they become emblematic of a subject, the deceiving lens through which an entire life is forever after read. In this weirdly totalitarian mode of interpretation, Virginia Wo...

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6 d. ago Senate Democrats demand list of donors to $300m Trump ballroom

Letter warns White House of ‘blatant corruption’ risk from contributing companies with business before governmentUS politics live – latest updatesSenate Democrats, led by Adam Schiff of California, are calling for full disclosure on how Donald Trump’s planned White House ballroom is being financed.The effort follows the release of a donor list showing that wealthy individuals and corporations, many with business before the federal government, have contributed to the project. Democrats argue that without transparency, the financing of the ballroom could become a channel for improper influence within the administration. Continue reading...

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1 week ago Zelenskyy calls Trump’s proposal to freeze war at current frontlines ‘good compromise’

US president’s remark seen as modest win for Ukrainian leader, who acknowledges Russia will not accept proposalEurope live – latest updatesVolodymyr Zelenskyy has voiced support for Donald Trump’s proposal for Ukraine and Russia to freeze the war at the current frontlines, calling it “a good compromise”, even as he acknowledged Moscow had made clear it would not accept the arrangement.“I think that was a good compromise but I’m not sure that Putin will support it, and I said it to the president,” Zelenskyy said on a visit to Oslo, part of a tour of Scandinavia to seek additional military support. Continue reading...

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2 w. ago Zelenskyy calls for more US Patriot air defences after Trump again sides with Putin

Ukrainian president ready to join Putin-Trump summit and asks for additional anti-missile batteries, paid for with frozen Russian assetsTrump suggests carving up Ukraine’s Donbas region to end war after meeting with ZelenskyyVolodymyr Zelenskyy has called for the delivery of an additional 25 US Patriot anti-missile batteries amid the rapidly escalating air war with Russia, as it became clear that Donald Trump had once again tacked sharply towards Moscow.The Ukrainian president added that he would be ready to join Vladimir Putin and Trump at their summit in Hungary if he was invited. Continue reading...

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2 w. ago Zelenskyy urges allies not to appease Russia after failing to secure US missiles

Ukraine’s president calls for meeting of European-led ‘coalition of the willing’ on his return from talks with TrumpUkraine’s president has urged allies against appeasing Russia after returning from a trip to the US, where he failed to secure long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles.Volodymyr Zelenskyy had flown to Washington after weeks of calls for the weaponry, hoping to capitalise on Donald Trump’s growing frustration with Vladimir Putin after a summit in Alaska failed to produce a breakthrough in the war. Continue reading...

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3 w. ago Ukraine war briefing: Moscow voices ‘extreme concern’ at Trump threat to send Tomohawk missiles to Kyiv

US president says he may warn Russian counterpart ‘look, if this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks’. What we know on day 1,328Donald Trump has threatened to send longe-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine if Vladimir Putin does not end his invasion. “I might talk to him [Putin]. I might say, ‘look, if this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks,’” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to the Middle East. The US president said Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy had asked for Tomahawks in a call on Saturday when they were discussing a fresh supply of weapons for Kyiv. “Tomahawks are a new step of aggression,” added Trump. “Do they [Russian forces] want to have Tomahawks going in their direction? I don’t think so.” Trump has been mulling potential supplies of the long-range missiles to Kyiv via European allies ever since his meeting with Putin in Alaska in August failed to produce a peace deal. Putin has pre...

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3 w. ago Ukraine war briefing: Moscow voices ‘extreme concern’ at Trump threat to send Tomahawk missiles to Kyiv

US president says he may warn Russian counterpart ‘look, if this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks’. What we know on day 1,328Donald Trump has threatened to send longe-range Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine if Vladimir Putin does not end his invasion. “I might talk to him [Putin]. I might say, ‘look, if this war is not going to get settled, I’m going to send them Tomahawks,’” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on his way to the Middle East. The US president said Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy had asked for Tomahawks in a call on Saturday when they were discussing a fresh supply of weapons for Kyiv. “Tomahawks are a new step of aggression,” added Trump. “Do they [Russian forces] want to have Tomahawks going in their direction? I don’t think so.” Trump has been mulling potential supplies of the long-range missiles to Kyiv via European allies ever since his meeting with Putin in Alaska in August failed to produce a peace deal. Putin has pre...

Events

3 w. ago Ukraine war briefing: Latest refinery strike shows ‘no safe places in Russia’s deep rear’

Bashneft oil refinery in Ufa is 1,400km from Ukrainian border; Zelenskyy says Trump can repeat Middle East peace success in Ukraine. What we know on day 1,327Ukrainian drones have struck Russia’s Bashneft oil refinery in Ufa, 1,400km from Ukraine, causing explosions and a fire, a source in Ukraine’s SBU security service told Reuters on Saturday. “This is the third SBU deep strike in Bashkortostan in the last month Such strikes demonstrate that there are no safe places in the deep rear of the Russian Federation.”Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Donald Trump to broker peace in Ukraine “[like in] the Middle East” during a phone call on Saturday. “If a war can be stopped in one region, then surely other wars can be stopped as well, including the Russian war,” Zelenskyy said, hailing Trump’s “outstanding” Gaza ceasefire plan and calling for the US president to pressure the Kremlin into negotiations.Russian attacks on Ukraine killed at least five people on Saturday and cut power to parts of Ukra...

Events

3 w. ago Zelenskyy urges Trump to use Gaza ceasefire momentum to broker peace in Ukraine

Ukrainian leader discussed request for Tomahawk cruise missiles in phone call with US presidentUkraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, urged Donald Trump to use the momentum of the Gaza ceasefire to broker peace in Ukraine, as the two leaders spoke by phone on Saturday.Trump and Zelenskyy discussed Ukraine’s request for the US to allow the delivery of Tomahawk cruise missiles to bolster Kyiv’s ability to conduct long range strikes inside Russia, among other issues, according to Axios. Continue reading...

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