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Germany’s Federal Network Agency is “well prepared” to respond to online interference in the country’s Feb. 23 parliamentary election, the agency’s president Klaus Müller said following a stress test with social media platforms on Friday. “Today we realistically simulated possible infringements, tested the platforms’ reporting procedures and mechanisms and practised action and the relevant exchange of […]

President Donald Trump said Friday he would sign an executive order next week to undo a Biden-era plan to phase out plastic straws by 2027. “BACK TO PLASTIC!” Trump wrote on his social media site Truth Social. Paper straws, he continued, “don’t work.” Republicans and Democrats butted heads over straws last summer when the Biden […]

The war in Ukraine could turn into the European Union’s “Afghanistan,” a grinding and costly engagement with “no way out,” Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán claimed Friday. Speaking to former Fox News host Tucker Carlson at a media event in Dubai, Orbán noted the hundreds of billions of euros in aid the EU has spent […]

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 […]