The French justice system chose courage over surrender. The law was clear, and so was the court in its sentencing: no special treatment for Marine Le Pen, no deference to the powerful, no using a candidacy for office as an excuse to break the law with impunity. For more than a decade, from 2004 to … Read more
The court ruling barring Marine Le Pen from running for president has recast a spotlight on her right-hand man, Jordan Bardella, as debate swirls over who may end up representing the far right in France’s 2027 presidential race. While Le Pen’s lawyer has said she will appeal Monday’s court ruling, the process could drag on … Read more
No one would allow that he could not see these much-admired clothes; because, in doing so, he would have declared himself either a simpleton or unfit of his office.” – Hans Christian Andersen, The Emperor’s New Clothes Elon Musk and Donald Trump inherited a state with unprecedented power and functionality, and are taking it apart. … Read more
Donald Trump won back the White House with a promise to transform the US economy. Millions of Americans, struggling with higher prices and bigger bills, elected a president who pledged to revive his country’s industrial heartlands – and leave the rest of the world to pick up the bill. On Wednesday – a day dubbed … Read more
The “Signalgate” scandal confirmed what Europeans already knew. The Trump administration’s disdain for Europe is deep and the transatlantic fracture is structural. While our leaders publicly play down the significance of the unravelling that is manifestly under way, few actually sound as convinced in private. Hopes persist that Europe can prevent the most extreme manifestation … Read more
The engine shuddered to life around half past noon local time on Sunday, and with a guttural roar, the 92-foot-tall Spectrum rocket lifted slowly away from its launch tower, marking the first liftoff of its kind on the European continent. The rocket, launched by Isar Aerospace from within the Arctic Circle at a spaceport on … Read more
The fertilization president Donald Trump has clearly been spending far too much time with Elon-I-offer-my-sperm-to-everyone-who-crosses-my-path-Musk. It seems like the creepy billionaire’s insemination obsession has rubbed off on Trump: the legally defined sexual predator is now calling himself “the fertilization president”. Trump proudly unveiled this new nickname for himself on Wednesday at a White House event … Read more
When I first visited Istanbul nearly 20 years ago, I spoke with an academic who had lived through Turkey’s military coups and political upheavals – some that had unfolded overnight. He was wise and wary, and though I didn’t fully grasp the weight of his words then, they have stayed with me. “If we’re not … Read more
As JD Vance touched down in Greenland, the Trump administration received an unlikely endorsement for America’s first potential territorial expansion since 1947: Vladimir Putin. Speaking at an Arctic policy forum in the northern Russian city of Murmansk on Thursday, Putin presented a more comprehensive case than any US official yet for Donald Trump’s plan to … Read more
Another eclipse is upon us. On Saturday, the moon will cast its shadow on Earth’s surface, a phenomenon that people in parts of the United States, Canada, the Caribbean, Europe, Russia and Africa will get to experience as a partial solar eclipse. It is only partially as impressive as the total solar eclipse that cut … Read more