Harriet Blake reports the machinery of politics from the inside — who is up, who is briefing against whom, and what it means. Sharp, plugged-in, and fluent in the gap between the spin and the story.
Von der Leyen pushed all 27 member states for stronger border controls ahead of the Brussels summit. Leaders agreed to use trade, aid and visa policy as leverage — and backed Poland's plan to suspend asylum claims from migrants pushed across its border by Belarus and Russia.
The European Commission confirmed Cyprus is ready to join Europe's border-free zone after the island implemented 120 recommendations on borders, visas and security. Austria and the Netherlands have reservations over the Green Line and the British base areas, and unanimous EU Council approval is needed — making late 2027 or 2028 the earliest realistic entry.
The European Commission president used her State of the Union address to call for the Single Market to be completed and red tape cut. A new EU Inc proposal would let founders register a company online in 48 hours for less than €100.
Gender-based violence against women candidates and officials was recorded in at least 22 countries. Overall election quality stayed broadly stable, but democratic safeguards have been eroding since 2020.
Seven men were arrested after three vans were found near the Gloucestershire base, which the US had been using to fly bombers over the Middle East. Iran's ambassador denied any involvement.
Foreign Minister Kėstutis Budrys wants the designation in place before EU ministers meet on 12 October. No Russian entity has ever appeared on the EU terrorist list, which currently includes Hamas, Islamic State and the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks.
Zelenskyy said the announcement was news to him, but Ukraine would accept it if Russia did. Within hours, Russia hit a Kyiv power plant with a drone.
The US ambassador to NATO has sought to calm European fears of an American military pullback. His reassurances come after Trump warned that protection for members would depend on whether they spent enough on their own defence.
EU leaders agreed in December 2025 to raise the money on capital markets, with the European budget as security. A separate reparations loan backed by immobilised Russian sovereign assets is still on the table, but Belgium, Italy and Bulgaria are pushing back.
The package adds 743 people and 826 companies to the EU's sanctions list, with more than half of the military-industrial entries tied to ballistic missile production.
Chancellor Friedrich Merz travelled to Kyiv to stand alongside the Ukrainian president, with Berlin declaring it 'fully supports' him. Deutsche Bank's chief executive warned separately that gains by the far-right AfD and the Left Party were spooking foreign investors.
The US Treasury has suspended sanctions on Russian diesel exports until 7 April after Trump agreed to take 300,000 tonnes immediately, with millions more to follow. Zelensky called the deal a gift to Putin that would prolong the war.
Scott Bessent made the announcement at the Newsmax Policy Summit on Thursday, saying authorities know where the assets are. The move extends a sanctions campaign that has already frozen hundreds of millions in Iranian crypto holdings.
The administration struck deals with more than 20 partners in 2025, but several never materialised or remained non-binding. Their combined share of US exports fell from 44% to 42% in the year that followed.
The measures freeze the court's US assets and give American companies six months to cut ties with it. The EU says it may use a blocking mechanism to shield European firms from having to comply.
The plan aims to cut the deficit from 5.4% of output to 5% by 2027, but France's fiscal watchdog calls the effort limited. Student protests over school conditions are adding to the pressure on Lecornu's government.
The Treasury's Operation Economic Outcast promises new financial measures week after week. But with Trump's approval at 33 percent and support for the war at 36 percent, the White House is still searching for a path to victory.
Moscow has shown little urgency to commit to a trilateral meeting with Ukraine and the US, first agreed in early September. The Kremlin continues to reject a ceasefire and demands Kyiv surrender the partially occupied Donbas.
A $14 billion arms sale pre-notified to Congress has stalled with no sign of progress. Former officials say using weapons transfers as leverage marks a fundamental break from longstanding US policy.
The UK prime minister made the offer to Chancellor Merz in Berlin as the two countries ratified a new defence treaty. Germany is weighing its options after its rival fighter project with France and Spain collapsed in June.
Treasury says the ships moved Iranian crude, gas and chemicals to China, India and Pakistan despite existing sanctions. The action forms part of Operation Economic Outcast, Washington's ongoing pressure campaign against Tehran's oil revenues.
Islamabad agreed to the rapid deployment at an emergency meeting in Riyadh, invoking a joint defence pact with Saudi Arabia and Turkey for the first time. It is a sharp reversal of the restraint parliament imposed in 2015, when it voted to keep Pakistan out of the Saudi-led war in Yemen.
The British prime minister told the Labour Party conference Britain should consider all options, from closer EU ties to rejoining outright. France's finance minister responded immediately: "Come back, anytime."
Tehran offered to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restart nuclear talks within a week if Washington lifted its naval blockade. Trump said he offered Iran "nothing" — but his team is also weighing a return to large-scale military operations.
Chris Murphy, a Connecticut Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was denied access to Al Udeid Air Base during an October trip to the Middle East. The Pentagon says it applied travel guidance issued by Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth evenly.
The US secretary of state warned that Russia and China were expanding in the Arctic during his first stop on a NATO tour. His visit came weeks after a US security pact with Denmark and Greenland opened the way for two new American military bases there.
The far-right leader says she would cut spending by €140 billion by 2032 and bring the deficit below the EU's 3 percent limit by 2030 if elected next year. The announcement came as she sought to regain ground after antisemitism accusations against her top ally, Jordan Bardella.
Europol and the EU's Joint Research Centre scanned almost 200 emerging technologies and flagged ten as critical to future policing. Senior officials say the agency must first prove it can build the safeguards to match.
The spending review had been expected in spring, but October 2027 is now the working assumption. Britain's finance minister must also close a £4.7 billion gap in the existing defence plan when he delivers his first budget on 28 October.
The plan would bring Ukraine, the UK and Norway into a new security structure with six institutions, including a security council and rapid reaction force. It comes as European confidence in US security commitments has sharply fallen.
The European Commission wants incoming members to give up the power to block some Council decisions for as long as 15 years, with voting rights removable if they breach EU values. The rules would not apply to existing member states, making backsliding by older members harder to punish. EU leaders debate the plan at a Brussels summit on 15-16 October.
The European Commission's enlargement proposals, published on 6 October, include restrictions on agricultural support for Ukraine even after accession. Brussels hopes the terms will ease fears in Poland, France and Italy, where farmers have long protested the flow of cheaper Ukrainian grain.
The ruling ends a legal block placed by a Falklands War veterans' group, leaving Milei's 2023 deregulation decree in force. Both houses of Congress must reject it to overturn it — the Senate already has, but the lower house has never voted.
China raised the idea with US officials this year, with talks focusing on national laboratories and equivalent Chinese facilities. Washington plans to keep pressing the proposal ahead of a likely second Trump-Xi meeting later this year.
Monthly immigrant visas and refugee admissions from 45 majority-Muslim nations dropped from 21,096 to 808 between December 2024 and February 2026. Refugee arrivals from those countries fell to zero, and roughly 13,000 healthcare workers were among those blocked.
The right-wing senator took 47% to the president's 45%, with neither reaching the majority needed for an outright win. The two will meet again on October 25, with Bolsonaro also pledging amnesty for his jailed father if elected.
The two leaders have written to European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen calling for a mechanism that could restrict Chinese access immediately, without needing every member state to agree. Bloomberg Economics put the cost of lost market share to Chinese manufacturers at 0.7 per cent of EU GDP in 2025.
Spain's prime minister made the move after right-wing parties blocked emergency measures on evictions and speculation. Polls point to a People's Party-led government backed by Vox — which would be the first time a far-right party has entered central government since the end of the Franco dictatorship.
Lin Chia-lung spent three days in Phoenix, touring TSMC's $265 billion chip plant and meeting Arizona's governor. His itinerary kept him out of Washington and away from the State Department.
Members backed the motion 1,022 to 813 at the Brighton conference. Four of the party's five MPs opposed it, and the chair of Jewish Greens said she could consider her future in the party.
New York Attorney General Letitia James is leading the coalition, which argues that scrapping requirements for coal- and gas-fired plants to cut greenhouse gas emissions will set climate protections back decades.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed 21 bills targeting federal immigration enforcement in the state. The package also bans shock gloves for all officers in California, including federal immigration agents.
British gene-edited crops would be exempt from EU rules until new European regulations take effect in 2028. The wider agreement would strip away most food and agricultural trade checks, but leave Britain bound by EU rules it no longer shapes.
A California-led coalition says the new federal standard — 34.9 miles per gallon by 2031 — falls far below the legal requirement to set the highest feasible limit. The plaintiffs argue drivers will lose nearly $220 billion in fuel savings as a result.
The existing guarantee will stay in place until April 2030, in line with Labour's last manifesto pledge. After that, the annual earnings link will go, saving an estimated £15 billion a year by the end of the 2030s — money Burnham says will pay for a new National Care Service.
Both measures fell at Friday's vote, with the Catalan separatist party Junts joining the opposition to defeat them. The government is now weighing whether to dissolve parliament.
The White House has urged Germany and France to tap emergency stockpiles as diesel hits record highs at UK forecourts and US pump prices climb over 70%. EU officials have flatly rejected any American export ban, and it remains unclear whether either side will act.
The Prime Minister told the BBC his government could seek full membership, not just a closer trading arrangement. France and Spain welcomed the prospect, though the terms of any return remain unresolved.
A bipartisan group of representatives warned that relief would strengthen Moscow and prolong the war. The pushback comes as the administration weighs offering sanctions relief in exchange for the release of political prisoners.
The new rules set a fleet average of 34.5 mpg by 2031, down from 50.4 mpg under Biden. Projections tied to an earlier proposal suggested the shift could add 100 billion gallons of fuel consumption through 2050 — though the final rule has yet to be published.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Vice Premier He Lifeng struck the deal, giving both sides time to keep talking at summits planned for later in the year. Wider disputes over Taiwan, Iran and AI were discussed but left unresolved.
Tehran sent the proposal through Qatari mediators, offering to halt fighting across the region in exchange for the US lifting port blockades, releasing frozen funds and waiving oil sanctions. Iran had received no official response as of Saturday, though indirect talks are continuing.
Xi Jinping made his second formal state visit to the US, meeting Donald Trump for talks on AI, Taiwan and trade. The two sides agreed to extend their one-year trade truce by two months before it was due to expire in November.
The administration has legally obligated $307 million so far, with the remaining $93 million due before the fiscal year ends on 30 September. Initial deliveries, including offensive weapons and armoured vehicle parts, began this month, with the rest expected by 2029.
The US Department of Justice has filed to join X's court challenge against the European Commission's ruling, arguing Brussels has overstepped its territorial reach. The EU says it is simply enforcing rules that protect its own users.
Xi Jinping's trip to Washington is his first state visit since 2015. Analysts are cautious about the chances of a major deal, though there may be room for progress on tariffs, farm purchases and some export controls.
The Central Elections Committee voted to exclude Ra'am and the Joint List, and separately disqualified two Arab legislators. The decisions have no final effect yet — the Supreme Court must approve them, and appeals are expected next week.
Xi Jinping arrived at Joint Base Andrews on Wednesday for a three-day state visit, greeted on the tarmac by Trump in an unusual diplomatic gesture. The two sides also agreed to extend their tariff pause, which had been due to expire on November 10, giving both governments more time for talks.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the invitation after meeting Russia's foreign minister in New York. The Kremlin says no decision has been made — and Putin has an active International Criminal Court warrant for crimes against humanity.
US firms still hold the frontier in advanced AI models, but China has narrowed the lead to under 3%, according to Stanford researchers. It now accounts for more than nine-tenths of global humanoid robot shipments and has over two million robots working in its factories.
Abbas Araghchi says his delegation will use the platform to defend Iran's rights and interests. He described the trip as taking place in what he called a continuing state of war, and is expected to hold talks with foreign ministers during High-Level Week.
The money is being redirected from Slovakia, North Macedonia, Tunisia and Iraq to Panama, Peru, Ecuador and Colombia. The State Department says it will help secure the Panama Canal and counter Chinese influence in the region.
France and Luxembourg secured the exemptions as part of a deal extending EU sanctions against around 3,000 Russian individuals and entities until 2029. Ukraine called the decision shameful, with Zelenskyy warning that wars are not won through concessions.
The Iranian delegation walked out after hearing the threats. It is unclear whether their departure signals a lasting break in negotiations or a tactical response to Trump's language.
United Russia is projected to take 355 of 450 seats — its strongest result ever, and enough to change the constitution. Every party on the ballot backed the Kremlin and the war; genuine opposition parties were barred from competing.
The administration is preparing sanctions that would bar US citizens and companies from providing money, goods or services to the court without a Treasury licence. They would take effect after a grace period of six to seven months, potentially disrupting the ICC's technology, insurance and payroll.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent raised the idea of a joint notification mechanism for AI incidents at national security level during eight hours of talks in New York on Sunday. Details of the framework's scope and timeline have not been made public, and China has not formally responded.
The president dismissed expert warnings about unchecked AI growth as Democratic hoaxes. The new force has no announced structure, budget or timetable.
The pull-aside with Delcy Rodríguez will be the highest-level contact between Washington and Caracas since Obama met Nicolás Maduro briefly in Panama in 2015. It follows the US operation that captured Maduro earlier this year, and comes as Trump says a deal would give the US majority control of Venezuela's oil reserves.
The summit in western Ukraine produced 50 agreements, more than half focused on solar and wind energy. Zelenskiy said the grouping could reduce Europe's dependence on Russian energy and strengthen regional security.
The executive order calls for a panel to examine independent monitors for frontier AI companies, safety plans and a 'kill switch' for advanced systems. It leaves open who sits on the panel, which companies would be covered, and whether the recommendations will become law.
The deal, set to be signed at the UN General Assembly next week, gives Washington unilateral authority to build military structures on the island. Greenland stays under Danish sovereignty, but many details — including financial terms and the full text — have not been made public.
Magdalena Andersson's bloc is projected to win 176 seats in the Riksdag to 173 for the outgoing right-wing government. Andersson, who was prime minister until 2022, has begun coalition talks, though ideological differences among her partners could slow the formation of a new government.
The president claims Iran wants a deal and that he has spoken with officials there directly. A UN mission complicates the picture: it says two US strikes in February, one on a primary school where about 120 children died, amount to war crimes.
Lance Schroyer's nomination was withdrawn without explanation, leaving ICE without a Senate-confirmed director for the first time since 2017. Paul had held up the hearing demanding answers over the fatal shooting of two US citizens by federal immigration agents in Minneapolis.
The package mandates sanctions on Russia's leadership, energy sector and shadow fleet. It also lets Trump use tariffs as secondary sanctions against countries buying Russian oil — with China and India seen as the likeliest targets.
The $2.8 billion package reverses a Biden-era pause over civilian casualty concerns in Gaza. At least one US senator has said he will work to block it.
Magdalena Andersson's centre-left bloc is projected to take 176 seats to Ulf Kristersson's 173. The result won't be confirmed until Wednesday, when early ballots and votes from abroad are counted.
The president described opposition to AI development as a plot that only benefits China. Both Washington and Beijing have now pushed back against tech leaders' calls to slow the pace of frontier AI ahead of a planned Trump-Xi meeting on September 24.
Miki Zohar said he would act to revoke the citizenship of directors Yuval Abraham and Rachel Szor after their film NAZA won the Special Jury Prize at Venice. The documentary features 24 Israeli military whistleblowers discussing AI targeting systems used in Gaza, and includes an account of an attack on one person that was approved despite an expected 500 civilian deaths.
The agency says repealing most of Biden's climate rules will save $310bn and cut energy prices. Those rules had been estimated to prevent 4,500 premature deaths a year.
Speaking at the Pentagon — struck by one of the hijacked planes 25 years ago — Trump framed the US-Israeli war on Iran as a continuation of the post-9/11 fight. The conflict is now seven months old and has reached a stalemate, with Iran still holding the Strait of Hormuz.
The Financial Times says US officials have briefed European counterparts on plans to expand John Ratcliffe's involvement. The CIA called the report false, without saying which parts it disputes.
The diplomats were accused of activities incompatible with their status under the Vienna Convention, though Budapest gave no further details. It is Hungary's first such expulsion since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The result is the party's strongest in its 13-year history and leaves it three seats short of a majority. Its state leader has begun talks to win over individual MPs from other parties. No far-right party has governed a German state since World War II.
The demand came hours before Canada was due to hit $20bn worth of American goods with retaliatory tariffs. It is unclear how any sales ban could be enforced, given existing trade agreements and FAA approvals already in place.
A report released by Senator Richard Blumenthal's office alleges USPS restarted development of a system tied to Trump's mail-voting restrictions in late July, weeks after court orders blocked the underlying executive order. Agency leaders had told Congress the injunctions had stopped all work.
The US military says Iran fired first, and struck back with what it called a 'powerful response'. Trump warned further Iranian attacks would be met with an even harder blow. Casualty figures have not been confirmed.
Prize courts, rooted in 18th-century naval law, allow the US to formally condemn and sell enemy vessels captured at sea. The administration says the revival will reinforce its Iran blockade and help cover the cost of the conflict through cargo sales.
The US president made at least two separate public statements on 27 August dismissing any Russian threat to NATO territory. His remarks came after reports that CIA Director John Ratcliffe had travelled to Moscow — a visit Trump called routine, though it was the first by a CIA chief to the Russian capital since 2021.
A new poll puts his Progressive Conservatives back in first place after his combative stance against US tariffs won over voters. His personal approval had hit 24 per cent in July; it now stands at 36.
Premier Susan Holt has launched a five-month public consultation on whether to lift the moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, in place since 2014. A decision is expected in January 2027, though Holt was careful to say the review is
The posts came after the Washington Post and CNN reported that five months of war with Iran had significantly depleted American missile stocks. Trump called the disclosures treasonous and said those responsible would face long prison terms.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent says the measures are designed to collapse the Iranian government, calling it the greatest coordinated economic isolation in history. Any country still trading with Tehran — including China — has been warned it faces US penalties.
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called the plan a 'one-two punch' — a naval blockade combined with what he dubbed the financial equivalent of a bombing campaign. Former US diplomats warn it could take years to build a coalition that makes the measures stick, and that Iran may strike Gulf energy infrastructure in retaliation.
Trade talks collapsed Friday after a brief three-day pause raised hopes of a deal. Canada's retaliatory tariffs, targeting steel, dairy and electronics, are set to kick in on September 8.
Prime Minister Mark Carney suspended negotiations and pledged to match new US tariffs after overnight talks broke down on August 22, with up to $28 billion in Canadian exports facing a 50% levy. A Conservative MP publicly called the response an overreaction — and US Vice-President JD Vance praised him for it.
The White House will temporarily suspend import tariffs on 300,000 metric tons of ground beef, hoping to ease prices before November's elections. Republican lawmakers and the cattle industry say it will punish ranchers who are only now enjoying profitable years.
The US Treasury has rewritten Hezbollah's designation to make explicit that it operates as a direct arm of Iran's Revolutionary Guard. Separately, ten people accused of moving hundreds of millions of dollars by courier across four countries have been sanctioned.
Washington has frozen the assets of Tomoko Akane, the court's Japanese president, and a senior trial lawyer, barring them both from the US financial system. The ICC said the move puts the entire international legal order at risk.
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