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BERLIN — German conservatives’ determination not to play ball with the far right is ebbing away. Friedrich Merz, favorite to be chancellor after next month’s election, signaled he’d try to push tougher migration measures through parliament even if passage depends on the support of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party — a taboo-busting move […]

Five parties agreed to form a new Belgian coalition government late Friday, concluding months of negotiations and paving the way for Flemish nationalist Bart De Wever to serve as the country’s next prime minister. “After seven long months, we finally have a government for the country,” said Conner Rousseau, the president of Vooruit, one of the […]

FLENSBURG, Germany — Friedrich Merz is Germany’s likely next chancellor, but how he will form a coalition government is looking increasingly uncertain. At a campaign event on Friday in the northern German city of Flensburg, Greens chancellor candidate Robert Habeck cast doubt on the possibility of a coalition between his party and Merz’s conservative alliance […]

German chancellor Olaf Scholz reiterated his call for the country to relax its strict spending rules, pushing for Germany’s constitutional debt brake to be reformed immediately after national elections later this month. “We need a reform of the debt brake in our constitution directly after the upcoming election,” Scholz told the Munich Security Conference on […]

Hamas freed three Israeli hostages on Saturday morning in a televised event in central Gaza in the latest exchange under the cease-fire agreement in the region. The Palestinian militant group freed Ohad Ben Ami, Eli Sharabi and Or Levy, who were captured in the Oct. 7. 2023, attack on Israel. The three men appeared on […]

The United States has already had “very serious” talks with Moscow about ending its war in Ukraine, U.S. President Donald Trump said late Friday, adding that discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putin could yield “significant” action soon. “We will be speaking, and I think will perhaps do something that’ll be significant,” Trump told reporters at […]

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is making a diplomatic push to win over Donald Trump’s White House ahead of any negotiations with Russia, using Ukraine’s mineral wealth as leverage. “The coming weeks could be very busy in diplomacy,” said Zelenskyy in a post on Telegram late Saturday, adding that he valued “cooperation with President Trump.” The […]

The Pentagon expects to send two flights of migrants to Guantanamo Bay this weekend, the first step in President Donald Trump’s plans to use the the base for detaining people swept up in his crackdown on illegal immigration. The final details are still getting worked out, according to two defense officials, but the planes likely […]

Pete Marocco was furious. It was Thursday, Jan. 23, and the Trump administration official had discovered that the U.S. Agency for International Development recently made $153 million in payments for a range of expenses. Marocco, who was effectively running the agency from the State Department, demanded to know why the money was sent, according to […]