How a second Trump presidency could tear Europe apart  The former president’s return would cement a shift in the U.S. as a fact that can no longer be ignored. By  BARBARA MOENS,  JACOPO BARIGAZZI,  KARL MATHIESEN,  ALEX WARD and CAMILLE GIJS Illustration by Matthew Brazier for POLITICO This is the moment most of Europe’s leaders hoped they would never see. The date is November 7, 2024, two days after Donald Trump edged out Joe Biden in the U.S. presidential election, and already the once-and-future president has announced he will force Ukraine to s ..read more

John Kampfner is a British author, broadcaster and commentator. His latest book is “In Search of Berlin,” published by Atlantic. “Should Donald Trump win, we’ll have to dress up warm,” stated Markus Söder, one of Germany’s most senior politicians. The leader of the Bavarian conservative party, the Christian Social Union, Söder was responding to the former U.S. president’s — and likely the next U.S. president’s — February warning that he was willing to let Russia do “whatever the hell” it wanted to NATO members that don’t pay their fair share. “We need a fully equipped military,” Söder said. Tw ..read more

KYIV — Donald Trump doesn’t easily forgive or forget. As Trump’s Republican allies in the United States Congress block military aid that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy says Kyiv desperately needs to avoid defeat in its war with invading Russian forces, it’s clear the former U.S. president’s ill will toward Ukraine has deep roots.  It was, after all, a phone call with Zelenskyy that led to Trump’s first impeachment in December 2019, after he was accused of seeking to influence the 2020 election by leaning on the Ukrainian leader to investigate current President Joe Biden and his s ..read more

LONDON — David Cameron was resurrected from the British political wilderness to act as Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s surrogate on foreign policy. But five months into the job, Cameron has pushed the boundaries further than many expected. The British foreign secretary has been described inside government as the “prime minister of foreign affairs,” frequently threatening to overshadow his boss as Sunak battles endless political crises on the domestic front. One Foreign Office insider said officials see him as a “man in a hurry,” rushing to rehabilitate his personal legacy in what, given the Conse ..read more

You don’t speak for Germany and Austria on Gaza! That was the message the two European countries’ leaders told the EU’s chief diplomat during a heated exchange on the Israel-Hamas war.  During a meeting of EU leaders in March, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and his Austrian counterpart Karl Nehammer confronted Josep Borrell on his months-long outspoken critique of Israel as the death toll in Gaza mounted, according to two officials briefed on the exchange. Even so, at the same summit, the group called for a cease-fire in Gaza in a rare show of unanimity among the 27 EU heads of government ..read more

A second coronation does not come guaranteed for Queen Ursula. Two months ahead of June’s Europe-wide election, Brussels is abuzz with European diplomats and officials warning that European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is not a shoo-in for another five year term leading the EU’s executive. One EU official called it the talk of the town. “A big part of it is the arrogance of power,” the EU official continued. “She mistakenly thought she could get away with everything. So some smaller mistakes are now being used against her.” Like other officials quoted in this article, the EU ..read more

European leaders condemned the retaliatory attack by Iran on Israel late Saturday amid soaring fears of a major escalation in the Mideast conflict. Tehran launched a barrage of ballistic missiles and drones against targets in Israel, Iranian state media reported, in a move that could spark an escalation in the fighting in the Middle East. Iran had threatened to retaliate against a deadly Israeli strike on its consulate in Syria. The Israeli military said the launches numbered more than 300 but 99 percent of them were intercepted. U.S. President Joe Biden said American forces helped Israel down ..read more

President Joe Biden has long wanted the spotlight on Beijing as the Big Bad of global politics. But his meetings with Asian leaders at the White House this week are serving as a reminder of how much China has taken second billing to crises in Europe and the Middle East. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s state visit was center stage Wednesday, a powerful symbol of the decadeslong allies’ team up against China. He met with Biden in the Oval Office to discuss military, economic and space-related matters before addressing reporters. Both leaders will then sit down for a state dinne ..read more

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, EU politicians lined up to demand an urgent rethink of European security.  In order to protect themselves in an uncertain world, EU countries must reinforce their own defenses and work together far more closely to coordinate their joint security, the bloc’s leaders declared. That includes pooling cash to pay for the weapons Ukraine needs to repel Vladimir Putin’s forces, as well as longer-term measures to overhaul European arms manufacturing.  Over the past two years the EU has loosed a fusillade of initiatives to meet these ai ..read more

Turkey on Tuesday hit out at Greece’s plans to set aside some of the waters between the two countries for ecological sustainability, as Ankara is contesting the sovereignty of some of the maritime territory involved. The feuding neighbors have been at loggerheads for decades over sovereignty and maritime rights in the Aegean Sea. The Turkish foreign ministry said it would “not accept fait accompli” Athens’ decision to declare two marine parks in the Aegean and Ionian seas ahead of an oceans conference in Greece next week. “We recommend Greece not to involve the outstanding Aegean issues, and t ..read more