POLITICO

German political heavyweight Angela Merkel avoided discussing her party’s latest election defeats on Monday, instead backing the Christian Democratic Union to return to its identity as a broad-based “people’s party.”

BRUSSELS — European lawmakers are pushing to expand the EU’s flagship AI regulations to hold American tech companies liable for the risks their most advanced models pose to humanity, according to correspondence seen by POLITICO.

NEW YORK — Finnish President Alexander Stubb has a message to European partners amid growing warnings of further Russian escalation: Keep calm and carry on.

The pitch almost never mentions war.

Listen on Spotify Apple Music Deezer Ce samedi, le Rassemblement national a publié un long communiqué pour dénoncer les tentatives d’ingérence et de guerre hybride de Moscou.

U.S.

NEW YORK — Several European countries were among a group of 22 nations that adopted a declaration Monday saying that artificial intelligence “must remain under human direction, oversight and control” and suggesting to create a global supervisory regime.

BRUSSELS — EU countries are moving toward a new deal that could see two prominent Russian billionaires removed from its sanctions list, in exchange for maintaining restrictions on hundreds of others.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s wife, Begoña Gómez, is set to stand trial on charges of influence peddling and embezzlement.

BERLIN — German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Monday pledged to overhaul his party’s platform and decision-making processes after suffering another humiliating election defeat, calling the result a “major turning point.”

BRUSSELS — EU countries are divided over whether to lift sanctions on a controversial billionaire listed among hundreds of businesspeople, politicians and traders accused of supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Former presidential candidate Călin Georgescu was detained Monday on suspicion of fraud by Romanian police and the Directorate for Investigating Organized Crime and Terrorism (DIICOT).

BRUSSELS — Brussels on Monday unveiled an environmental rating scheme for data centers that power artificial intelligence, a move the EU’s energy chief described as the first step in pressuring tech giants into aligning with the continent’s climate effort…

Three news organizations whose journalists were banned from the White House last week are suing President Donald Trump and three top advisers, calling the abrupt lockout a “direct assault on the First Amendment.”

President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party secured a majority in the State Duma, Russia’s lower house, following the country’s first parliamentary elections since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022.

The Irish data privacy authority fined Google €403 million on Monday over how it has been gathering location data from users.

BRUSSELS — Eleven countries, led by Austria, are pushing to pause new EU legislation for 12 months for what the country’s Europe Minister Claudia Bauer described as a “year of simplification.”

It’s a tough time to be a China hawk inside the White House.

Listen on Spotify Apple Music Amazon Music Sky News Can the Liberal Democrats withstand the political turbulence around them?

Listen on Spotify Apple Music Amazon Music Two state elections pile more pressure on German Chancellor Friedrich Merz — raising fresh questions about his leadership and what a weaker Germany could mean for the rest of Europe.

Listen on Spotify Apple Music Amazon Music Ein historisches Debakel erschüttert die CDU: Erstmals in der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik verpasst die Partei den Einzug in einen Landtag.

Europe is a world leader in recycling, but currently only a fraction of its post-consumer textile waste is reused or valorized in some form; the rest piles up in landfills, is incinerated or moves through low-value export routes that obscure where the mat…

STOCKHOLM — As far-right leader Jimmie Åkesson danced beside the pink balaclava-wearing singer Miss Smut at his final campaign rally, he hoped a late surge in the polls would carry his Sweden Democrats into power.

Moscow is moving to expand its capacity to make tens of thousands of the killer drones it deploys in attacks on Ukrainian cities, according to plans from a Russian state company obtained by POLITICO.

DUBLIN ― European Council President António Costa said in an interview with POLITICO that the EU wants to “do more” and “act as much as possible with Canada” as the bloc seeks to define its ties with Ottawa.

DUBLIN — Governments will be more likely to back new EU taxes for the bloc’s next seven-year budget if they raise money that national governments are not already collecting, European Council President António Costa said.

BERLIN — Germany’s embattled Chancellor Friedrich Merz and his conservatives suffered a second major defeat to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) in a regional vote Sunday — a result Merz conceded was a “disaster.”

BRUSSELS — The EU has proposed banning metal waste exports to India and Egypt after both countries failed to prove they manage the waste in an “environmentally sound” manner.

Lawmakers in the United Kingdom, the country that gifted the world The Beatles and S Club 7, will seek answers on how to make the nation’s pop music more competitive on Europe’s biggest stage.

PARIS — Anti-immigration politician Eric Zemmour let slip Thursday that he plans to run in next year’s presidential election, seemingly ending speculation that he might step aside to make way for his partner, MEP Sarah Knafo.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has said he does not want to see his country dragged into war over NATO’s Article 5 mutual defense clause, raising fresh questions about the populist leader’s commitment to the alliance.

DUBLIN — Closer ties between the EU and Canada won’t mean a worse relationship between the bloc and the U.S., according to Irish Finance Minister Simon Harris.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission will consider banning the export of plastic waste to Turkey if the country fails to address pollution and environmental concerns, a Commission official told POLITICO.

Listen on Spotify Apple Music Amazon Music Ein teures Symbol der Abhängigkeit: In Texas nimmt Verteidigungsminister Boris Pistorius den ersten F-35-Kampfjet für die Bundeswehr entgegen.

Listen on Spotify Apple Music Amazon Music The old global order is breaking down.

DUBLIN ― Germany and Spain used separate POLITICO opinion pieces to clash over the total size of the EU’s next approximately €2 trillion seven-year budget, setting the scene for tough negotiations to strike a deal before an informal end-of-year deadline.

LONDON — When Keir Starmer had his first dinner with Donald Trump, he strained so hard to impress the U.S. president that his host offered the British team a second helping of chicken.

Welcome to Declassified, a weekly humor column.

Europe’s existential challenges keep piling up.

Mette Frederiksen is prime minister of Denmark.

BERLIN — Chancellor Friedrich Merz is bracing for a fresh barrage of bad news that is expected to intensify questions about his capacity to remain Germany’s leader when results of two regional elections come in on Sunday.

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OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang and Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon plan to attend next week’s state dinner with President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, four people familiar with the event told POLITICO.

BRUSSELS — Ursula von der Leyen’s bill to keep young Europeans off social media is an ambitious response to the growing outcry over the potential harm of TikTok, Instagram and other online platforms.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk warned Thursday that Russia could launch drone or missile strikes in the coming months against countries supporting Ukraine and play them off as accidents.

President Donald Trump on Thursday suggested the U.S. might set up its first Army base in Poland, a significant shift from earlier in the year when the administration sought to pull troops from the country.

AYRSHIRE, Scotland — King Charles relied on all his pulling power to bring together some of the most powerful people in the world of AI to a rural corner of Scotland.

SAN FRANCISCO — Gavin Newsom told POLITICO he plans to take further action on AI safety before leaving office, raising the possibility of a special California legislative session amid escalating concerns about the technology’s potential risks to humanity.

Romanian President Nicușor Dan proposed member of European Parliament Siegfried Mureșan as the country’s next prime minister in a third attempt to Bucharest out of its political crisis.

The global response to the Russia sanctions bill the U.S.