Macron has included the European Union on his last few engagements with Chinese President Xi Jinping. This was seen as an effort to “Europeanise” his dealings with Beijing. Von der Leyen went to Paris last year to meet Xi alongside Macron and also visited Beijing in 2023 alongside the two-term centrist French leader. Before that,…
Under pressure from Beijing’s chokehold on rare earths and the simmering feud over chipmaker Nexperia, EU officials have been asked to tone down their public rhetoric on Beijing, even as the bloc moves forward aggressively with its de-risking plans. Brussels is in “de-escalation mode”, several official sources confirmed, as it looks to convince China to…
Musk was reacting to von der Leyen’s unveiling of the European Democracy Shield, a new strategy to step up the fight against foreign interference online, including in elections. “Democracy is the foundation of our freedom. Democracy is the foundation of our prosperity. Democracy is the foundation of our security,” von der Leyen wrote on social…
Power shifts begin in places most people never see – on assembly lines making batteries and robots, along transmission lines feeding data centre clusters, in local offices selling land and in labs training artificial intelligence models. The United States and China are using these quiet levers to construct different futures. The contest will be decided…
In a dramatic speech in Berlin on Saturday, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen painted a dystopian picture of today’s world as she reiterated her calls for an independent Europe. “Europe is facing up to another seismic change in the way the global economy works. We may be approaching a shift in the international…
STRASBOURG (Reuters) -Recent drone incidents and other airspace violations show Europe is facing hybrid warfare to which it must respond with measures that go beyond traditional defence, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Wednesday. “This is not random harassment,” von der Leyen said in a speech in European Parliament in Strasbourg. “It…
The European Commission has unveiled sweeping measures to shield the EU’s struggling steel industry from a flood of overcapacity that it says is emanating from China, slashing tariff-free quotas by nearly half and doubling duties on excess shipments to 50 per cent. To take effect, the plan must be approved by the European Parliament and…
“Scrambling fighter jets is NATO’s job,” said a senior EU official. The EU’s “job is to be ready to be in the position we need to be when we have to respond — to enhance our readiness and have the tools to be able to react to threats when needed, reinforcing common tools and capabilities…
Once the reporter finished her question on the the GPS jamming, Trump continued: “Nobody knows where it came from, but they did take away her ability to use the phone.” He added: “You know, sometimes that’s a good thing. Sometimes if it happened to me, I’d be very happy.” Beneath the joke, he was unexpectedly au…
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — With China leading the way by announcing its first emission cuts, world leaders said Wednesday they are getting more serious about fighting climate change and the deadly extreme weather that comes with it. At the United Nations’ high-level climate summit, Chinese president Xi Jinping announced the world’s largest carbon-polluting country would…