Section: European Voice (EU)
Diplomacy, disrupted
ne hundred years ago, in the days when diplomatic summits followed wars, carved up continents and sometimes lasted months (today’s attendees complain if they run past midnight), Harold Nicolson attended the Paris Peace Conference as a junior U.K. diplomat. His conclusion: “Amateurish diplomacy leads to improvisation.” “Nothing could be more...
Tusk: ‘It is simply too late to impeach Donald, at least the European one’
Donald is now a very lame duck — Donald Tusk, that is — and he feels free to speak his mind. On Wednesday night, the outgoing European Council president used his newfound liberty to give a speech that criticized Germany and the Netherlands for being “overly tough” with Greece during its debt crisis, that rebuked Emmanuel Macron for recent remarks...
Trump says he’s not watching impeachment hearing — then critiques it
President Donald Trump on Wednesday dismissed the House’s impeachment proceedings as a “hoax” and said he was “too busy to watch” — and then blasted Democrats’ choice of questioners at a hearing he said he hadn’t been briefed on. “I’m sure I’ll get a report,” Trump told reporters at a short Oval Office pool spray...
Trump weighs conditioning foreign aid on religious freedom
Aides to U.S. President Donald Trump are drafting plans to condition U.S. aid to other countries on how well they treat their religious minorities, two White House officials said. The proposal is expected to cover U.S. humanitarian assistance, and could also be broadened to include American military aid to other countries. If the proposal becomes...
Who will betray Trump?
WASHINGTON — From the moment Francis Rooney expressed alarm to his House colleagues that Donald Trump might have abused presidential power in his dealings with Ukraine — and more dramatically, that an impeachment inquiry could be warranted — the Florida Republican was a marked man. He made for a most unusual suspect. A silver-haired business...
Trump says he’ll release transcript of a second call with Ukrainian president Tuesday
U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday said he plans to release a transcript of a second phone call with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, one that occurred months before the July call that kickstarted House Democrats’ impeachment inquiry. “They want to have a transcript of the other call, the second call, and I’m...
30 years after Wall’s fall, Europe’s new divisions
Thirty years ago, on November 9, 1989, the Berlin Wall came down — and with it vanished the dividing line that had separated Germany and Europe for several decades. The process of reunification that ensued was astonishingly peaceful. For many, this amounted to a miracle. Yet, as soon as October 3, 1990, during the Berlin unification celebrations,...
Ursula von der Leyen seeks new balance
Ursula von der Leyen has lost her balance — at least a bit. When the European Parliament narrowly confirmed von der Leyen as the next European Commission president in July, MEPs expected a College of Commissioners with an equal number of conservatives and social democrats — nine each from the EU’s mainstay center-left and center-right...
Romania puts forward 2 center-right MEPs for Commission post
Romania’s new government on Wednesday put forward two center-right MEPs, Adina-Ioana Vălean and Siegfried Mureșan, as candidates to be the country’s next European commissioner. Commission President-elect Ursula von der Leyen will have to choose between the two. Vălean may be considered the front-runner as von der Leyen is under...
Twitter drops all political ads in shot at Zuckerberg
Twitter will no longer run political ads, CEO Jack Dorsey announced on Wednesday, a move that comes as fellow social media giant Facebook faces rising heat over its policy of allowing candidates to lie in their campaign messaging. “We believe political message reach should be earned, not bought,” Dorsey said in a series of tweets. “While internet...
