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Outrageous expenses, devastating scoops: One climate reporter mourns the death of another

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:44 GMT

My favorite John Vidal story, like all of John’s stories, was best told by John himself.Back in 2015, he was in the middle of a mighty reporting trip that took him down the 2,500-mile length of the Mekong River, documenting its strangulation by hydroelectric dams for the Guardian. After staying in a village for a few days in Laos, he thanked the locals for their hospitality by paying for a new water well.When he returned to the Guardian’s shining canal-side offices in London, pockets emptied onto a desk already covered in dog-eared expense receipts, he wrote to the accounting department and claimed the price of the well under the heading of “meals and entertainment.” As an explanation, he added: “Drinks for 500 people.”“Do you think some fucking Guardian beancounter is going to tell me I can’t buy these people a well?” he would conclude in the retelling.It’s a story that combines John’s two great passions in journalism: justice for the planet’s most benighte...

EU’s foreign policy weakness is here to stay

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:44 GMT

Mujtaba Rahman is the head of Eurasia Group’s Europe practice. He tweets at @Mij_Europe.The feverish pitch of international diplomacy since the terrorist attacks on Israel have just highlighted Europe’s big conundrum: Why, as a global economic, trade and regulatory superpower, does the European Union find it so hard to be relevant and punch firmly on the global stage?This problem has been cruelly highlighted by the bloc’s response to the Gaza crisis, seriously undermining its credibility as a foreign policy actor — and even undoing some of the gains it made following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year. The EU’s initial response to the crisis was marked by European Commissioner for Neighbourhood and Enlargement Olivér Várhelyi announcing a unilateral suspension of all EU development aid to Palestine, totaling some €691million, only to have the Commission then clarify the aid would be “reviewed” — not suspended.Later, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s trip to Israel...

Happy Rishiversary! Highs and lows of Rishi Sunak’s first year in power

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:44 GMT

LONDON — Happy anniversary to one of the UK’s most talked-about couples: No. 10 Downing Street and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.It’s been a tumultuous love affair, with a will-they-won’t-they start — and enough bumps in the road to keep a local pothole repair team busy.As Sunak tries to restore the reputation of his governing Tories — still languishing in the polls ahead of an expected election next year — POLITICO takes a trip down memory lane with a month-by-month rundown of some of the key highlights. Buckle up!October 2022It finally happened. After one failed leadership run — in which he lost to Liz Truss and, in a way, to a lettuce — Sunak was elected the new leader of the Conservatives on October 24, 2022. A day later he became prime minister, and vowed his government would be marked by “integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.” That was in no way a massive sub-tweet of Boris Johnson.Sunak’s first port of call was to pick his cabinet. He took a slow and stea...

German hard-left icon set to start a new populist party

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:44 GMT

A popular icon of hard-left politics in Germany announced her intention to start a new political party, potentially creating a potent new anti-establishment force that could further upend the country’s already fragmented politics.Sahra Wagenknecht, the longtime face of The Left, which has roots in East Germany’s Communist Party, says her new faction will represent the large swath of the German electorate that is deeply frustrated with mainstream politics.“We live in a time of global political crises,” she said in Berlin. “And in this of all times, Germany probably has the worst government in its history … Many no longer know who to vote for, or they vote out of anger and despair.”Wagenknecht, a frequent guest on German television talk shows, consistently ranks among the country’s most popular politicians. Polls suggest her party, once established, could become a significant political force: One survey published on Monday put a Wagenknecht party at 12 percent nationally, ...

Trump praises Hungary’s ‘Viktor Orbán’ as great ‘leader of Turkey’

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:44 GMT

Former U.S. President Donald Trump appeared to confuse the leaders of Turkey and Hungary in a campaign speech in New Hampshire on Monday.“There’s a man, Viktor Orbán, anybody ever hear of him?” Trump said, referring to the Hungarian prime minister.“He’s probably, like, one of the strongest leaders anywhere in the world. He’s the leader of Turkey,” the former president said. Turkey’s president is Recep Tayyip Erdoğan.Trump added that Orbán has a “front” with Russia. Neither Turkey nor Hungary has a border with Russia.Trump has previously praised Orbán, who opposes migration and LGBTQ rights, and refers to his governing style as an “illiberal democracy.” Trump hosted him at the White House in 2019.In turn, Orbán was the first European leader to endorse Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign, and urged him to “keep fighting” after the former president was hit with a criminal indictment.“Come back, Mr President. Make America great again and bring us peace,” Orbán told a meeting ...

Ukraine says Israel-Hamas war shows West must ramp up arms production

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:44 GMT

BERLIN — Facing war on two fronts — in Ukraine and in the Middle East — Kyiv is calling on Western democracies to ramp up investment in weapons, saying that arms factory output worldwide is falling miles short of what is needed. In an interview, Ukraine’s Minister for Strategic Industries Oleksandr Kamyshin told POLITICO Western countries needed to accelerate production of missiles, shells and military drones as close to frontlines as possible. “The free world should be producing enough to protect itself,” Kamyshin said, on a mission to the German capital to persuade arms producers to invest in war-ravaged Ukraine. “That’s why we have to produce more and better weapons to stay safe.” Current factory capacity was woeful, he argued. “If you get together all the worldwide capacities for weapons production, for ammunition production, that will be not enough for this war,” said Kamyshin of the state of play along Ukraine’s more than 1,000 kilometers of ...

Reuse or recycle? Inside Europe’s takeaway tug-of-war

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:44 GMT

One of the nerdiest — and most intense — green lobbying fights comes to a head this week. And it’s all about packaging.From takeaway coffee to fast food, Brussels is hoping to oust a lot of single-use packaging from the EU’s consumption habits — in a threat to several packaging industries. Freaked out by the potential changes to their commercially successful business model, parts of the packaging sector have been hassling EU policymakers for months with their complaints on the draft rules.European Parliament officials, assistants and MEPs say the amount of industry lobby requests is unprecedented. The debate, often backed by contradictory data on both sides, has left lawmakers at a loss and created deep splits within groups.“Sometimes I find it almost unethical because you have some companies lobbying based on reports where the data are not available, are confidential,” Pascal Canfin, who chairs the Parliament’s environment committee, told journalists last week.In an op-e...

Protesters march in Panama against the contract extension for a huge copper mine

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:44 GMT

PANAMA CITY (AP) — Protesters blocked streets across Panama on Monday, demanding the government rescind a contract to continue copper mining in a biodiverse region.Teaching and construction unions led calls against the contract with environmentalists, saying continued development threatens forested land and crucial groundwater just 75 miles (120 kilometers) west of the capital, in the state of Colon.Across Panama City, peaceful protesters handed out fliers, but in some areas on the outskirts of the capital police met protesters with tear gas. In anticipation of the largest marches since a cost of living crisis last July, both the Department of Education and the University of Panama cancelled classes. The government used social media to highlight the “enormous contribution” the mine — Panama’s largest private investment ever — makes to the country’s economy.In March, Panama’s legislature reached an agreement with Canadian mining company First Quantum, allowing its l...

Pham, Gurriel homer, Diamondbacks power past Phillies 5-1 to force NLCS Game 7

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:44 GMT

PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Merrill Kelly retired Kyle Schwarber, Trea Turner and Bryce Harper in order in the fifth inning, striking out Schwarber and Harper — October’s biggest home run threats.When the pitcher reached the dugout, manager Torey Lovullo offered a handshake to signal the start was over after 90 pitches. Kelly appeared agitated and gestured with his glove as if to point out he struck out Schwarber and Harper and had much more in the tank.“It kind of just, I think, took me by shock more than anything,” Kelly said.Here might be the real shock — especially in Philly. After losing the first two games of the NL Championship Series, the Arizona Diamondbacks are one win from their first World Series since 2001.Tommy Pham and Lourdes Gurriel Jr. hit back-to-back homers and Kelly struck out eight before his early hook to help Arizona force Game 7 with a 5-1 win over the Philadelphia Phillies on Monday.The winner of Tuesday night’s game advances to the World Series against...

It's Day 20 with no House speaker, and lower-level names seek Trump's support and race for the gavel

Published Sun, 16 Feb 2025 16:17:44 GMT

WASHINGTON (AP) — On Day 20 without a House speaker, Republicans found themselves starting over Monday — bumbling ahead with few ideas about who will lead, what they are fighting over and when they will get Congress working again.Republicans gathered late in the evening to hear quick speeches from the congressmen seeking the job, though none has a clear shot at the gavel. Eight candidates are in the running for one speaker after one dropped out. Behind closed doors, they made their elevator pitches to colleagues ahead of internal party voting.Senior-most among the hopefuls is Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota, but neither he or the other lower-level Republican lawmakers are expected to quickly secure a majority. Instead he and others are reaching out to Donald Trump for backing ahead of elections to choose a nominee. One, Rep. Dan Meuser of Pennsylvania, dropped out.“They all called asking for support,” said Trump, the Republican front-runner in the 2024 presidential race, who was in New ...