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The head of Germany's air force has said the country is "ready to fight Russia tonight", and will "protect every inch of Nato" if Moscow were to launch an attack on allied territory. Lt Gen Holger Neumann, the Luftwaffe's commanding officer, delivered among the most blunt statements from a senior German military figure in years during his first interview with a British newspaper. He said devastating air strikes would be unleashed on Russia should it move against any Nato member, and that defensive action would be "32 against X", referencing the power of combined air forces. "Fight tonight means if...

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz is a lying Fritz, a Pinocchio, a varnished monkey, a foppish dandy, and a showboat. I live in the U.S., so he can't prosecute me like he just did with German citizens who called him those things. #FriedrichMerz #Germany #Politics #News

Tommy Robinson was detained by police on Saturday at Heathrow airport under counter-terrorism laws, after a week in which he rose to further prominence on social media. It was understood the far-right activist, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was stopped and had his phones seized under section 3 of the Counter-Terrorism Border Security Act 2019. Robinson used social media to claim he was detained for almost three hours and had his iPhone and Samsung Galaxy phones taken, and to ask his supporters to donate money to fund his legal defence. A spokesperson for Robinson posted on X: “They likely...

Britain’s tilt to the right is being felt on its streets and in its politics. From Reform UK’s surge in local elections to far-right rallies that draw tens of thousands of people, once fringe voices seem to be moving into the mainstream. CNN's Jomana Karadsheh reports.

The European Union announced it would resume membership talks with Ukraine and Moldova on Monday. “All member states agreed to open the first accession negotiations cluster with Ukraine and Moldova,” EU President Antonio Costa said in a social media post on Friday. The announcement came after the new government in Hungary agreed to drop its longstanding veto against Kyiv. The European Union formally opened entry negotiations with Ukraine back in June 2024, kickstarting a complicated undertaking that usually takes years and involves negotiations on anything from agriculture to the rule of law. Launched as a powerful statement days after Russia’s...

Alice Smith reposted Nina Wysocka @realninawysocka Elon Musk to Starmer: “Murderous migrants beheading innocent people in their hometown is what’s making people angry, not social media!”

European confidence in an American “security guarantee” has hit a historic low, a survey suggests, with only one in 10 people across 15 countries seeing the US as an ally and majorities in all doubting it would come to their aid if they were attacked. The survey, published on Wednesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank before critical G7 and Nato summits in France and Turkey over the coming weeks, revealed “deep European distrust in the US”, the authors said. It also showed that, while many Europeans felt relations with Washington would improve once Donald Trump leaves...

This applies to tankers described by Brussels as "shadow fleet"NICOSIA, June 8. /TASS/. EU member states have authorized their warships operating in the Mediterranean as part of Operation IRINI to detain foreign tankers suspected of transporting Russian oil as part of what Brussels describes as the "shadow fleet," EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. TASS has summed up what is known to this moment. Kallas’ statementEU member countries have authorized their warships to detain foreign tankers suspected of shipping Russian oil, Kallas said. This applies to tankers described by Brussels as "shadow fleet." According to Kallas, the main objective...

The leaders of Ukraine and its close European allies - the UK, France and Germany - have set out out five conditions for reaching a "just and lasting" deal to end the war with Russia. In a joint statement after talks in London, Volodymyr Zelensky, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said they would "stand firmly with Ukraine". The five conditions include a stop to the fighting, starting negotiations from the current position in the field as well as "robust" security guarantees for Ukraine. The leaders reiterated the need for the...

Keir Starmer will host Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz for talks in Downing Street on Sunday to discuss support for Ukraine. The Ukrainian leader will visit the UK with the French president and German chancellor after a week of heightened hostilities and Vladimir Putin’s rejection of his proposal of face-to-face talks on Moscow’s war. The three countries meeting the Ukrainian leader are some of Kyiv’s staunchest allies. The UK and France are leading the “coalition of the willing” initiative to provide security guarantees for Ukraine as part of a peace process. A large-scale Ukrainian drone attack targeted St...

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced a sweeping agreement with Hungary’s new government led by Prime Minister Péter Magyar, including the release of more than €16 billion in previously frozen EU funds, Hungary’s decision to join the European Public Prosecutor’s Office (EPPO)... The Commission president emphasized that the European Union and the Hungarian government had already established an intensive joint working structure... The European Commission president also announced that Brussels would release €10 billion from previously frozen EU funds following progress in negotiations and reforms. In addition, she revealed that €4.2 billion in cohesion funds tied to...

The European Commission found the treatment of the Gaza flotilla activists shown in a video released by Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir is "completely unacceptable", a spokesperson said on Wednesday. "Every detained person must be treated with safety, dignity and according to international law," spokesperson Anouar El Anouni said in a post on X. "We call on the Israeli government to ensure the protection and dignified treatment of these activists, including several EU citizens," he added. Israeli police forced activists who were aboard a Gaza-bound aid flotilla to kneel on the ground in rows with their hands tied behind...

As we mark the 81st anniversary of the end of the second world war in Europe this Friday, 8 May, it’s clear that Germany will again be the leading European military power. Already next year its defense spending will be as much as that of France and Britain combined — and it is projected to be significantly larger by 2030. The German government’s declared goal is to have the strongest conventional army in Europe. True, France and Britain have nuclear weapons, but that means less money to spend on the rest of defense. So, the question is not “will this...

Germany announced a new military strategy with the goal of building “Europe’s strongest conventional army” by 2039. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius revealed the proposal speaking to the German parliament on Wednesday, and detailed a public outlining for the “future direction” of the Bundeswehr, the German Armed Forces. One of the goals of the plan, the German Defense Ministry said in a statement, is for Germany to take “more responsibility” within NATO. “We are developing the Bundeswehr into the strongest conventional army in Europe. In the short term, we are increasing our defense and resilience, in the medium term we are...

Incoming Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar will reverse Viktor Orbán’s decision to leave the International Criminal Court (ICC) and enforce an ICC arrest warrant against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. ...... “I… made it clear to the Israeli prime minister that we will not back down, because my colleagues have examined it and we can still stop [Hungary’s withdrawal from the ICC]… If someone is a member of the International Criminal Court and a person who is wanted enters the territory of our country, he or she must be detained.” – Péter Magyar

EU officials have arrived in Budapest for high-stakes talks aimed at reshaping the bloc’s strained relationship with Hungary, weeks before the new government takes office, as the country’s departing prime minister, Viktor Orbán, admitted a “political era has ended” and suggested he would stay on as leader of his party in his first interview since the election. Speaking to the pro-government outlet Patrióta, Orbán described Sunday’s election as an “emotional rollercoaster” after the opposition Tisza party won a landslide victory, bringing an end to his 16 years in power. Péter Magyar’s party won a supermajority, giving it the power to...

Journalist Avi Lipkin describes modern Europe as a “sinking ship,” due to large Islamic populations endangering the coalition of European nation-states. “There are a lot of Jewish people now leaving the UK and moving to Israel because the situation has become very unstable, very dangerous for the Jewish people there,” Mr Lipkin told Sky News Digital Presenter Gabriella Power. “Keir Starmer is not taking the classical British approach; he is gone off to the left, and Macron has gone off to the left … from Israel, we see Europe as a sinking ship neutralised by massive, massive Islamic populations which...

Iran has achieved a singular statistic in its current front against Israel. After firing more than 400 missiles over nearly a month, Tehran apparently hasn’t hit a single Israeli military target. That leaves the Islamic Republic with a 100% civilian casualty ratio—a benchmark of the number of civilian casualties relative to combatant ones. Not long ago, civilian casualty ratios were at the heart of discussions of the Israel-Gaza war, with Israel’s critics claiming that “disproportionate” levels of civilian casualties were evidence of war crimes. In reality, Israel’s infliction of 30% to 40% military casualties on an adversary hiding behind civilians...

Few EU leaders will miss Hungary's Prime Minister ⁠Viktor ⁠Orban if he loses an April 12 election after ⁠he blocked key policies, including vital aid to Ukraine, but they don't expect his rival - if elected - to fully reverse Budapest's ​approach to Europe. Most opinion polls suggest Orban's nationalist Fidesz party, in power since 2010, could lose to Peter Magyar's centre-right Tisza party. Orban, who maintains friendly ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin and is also ‌a close ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, has ‌often infuriated his EU partners, most recently by blocking a vital 90 billion euro...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made a plea to Donald Trump on Monday, telling CNN he wants the US president “to stay on our side.” Speaking at the Presidential Palace in Kyiv on the eve of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Zelensky said the United States is far too big and too important to walk away from the conflict. And he hopes that Trump, during his State of the Union address Tuesday, will back Ukraine as it fights back against the Russia of President Vladimir Putin. “They have to stay with … a democratic country which is...