Ce week-end, Marine le Pen lance officiellement sa campagne dans le Loiret. L’occasion pour elle de faire une démonstration de forces – 10 000 sympathisants sont attendus. Ses opposants se sont également donné rendez-vous sur place. Entre 20 000 à 30 000 personnes, représentant tous les partis de gauche, devraient défiler sur place, selon le gouvernement. Que va dire Marine le Pen dans son discours ? Doit-on s’attendre, en marge de l’événement, à des débordements ? Pour tout commentaire, écrivez-nous sur Whatsapp au +32 49 07 69 41

**Un message de GSK : Prévenir, soigner, innover : GSK appelle à investir dans la santé des Français pour accélérer l’accès aux innovations et atteindre un objectif : zéro perte de chance pour les patients, en renforçant la recherche et les investissements industriels en France.**

LONDON — Nigel Farage has been careful to downplay his closeness to Donald Trump to a MAGA-loathing British public. But to U.S. conservatives, it’s a different story. 

“There are very few human beings I know with whom I agree on so much as I do with Donald Trump,” the Reform UK leader told an American podcast. “And I admire his guts and I admire his courage.”

During an interview with Trump-aligned commentator Benny Johnson on Sept 30., the veteran Brexiteer struck a markedly warmer tone toward the U.S. president than in any of his recent remarks for a British audience.

“Donald’s been a friend for many, many years. I’m a regular at Mar-a-Lago,” Farage boasted on the Benny Show. “I get on with many of his family. We have a laugh together — I mean, he’s a proper bloke.”

In Britain, Farage has publicly dampened his closeness to Trump as he tries to position himself as a contender for U.K. prime minister, particularly since the war with Iran.

“I haven’t really been in touch with Trump for many months,” Farage said in an interview with Times Radio in April, as the U.S. and Israel got bogged down in a price-spiking conflict with Tehran.

A spokesperson for Farage told POLITICO: “Nigel has never hidden his relationship with the President. However, he has been a critical friend over Canada, Greenland, Ukraine and various other issues.”

Farage, whose right-wing Reform insurgency has been a disruptive force to traditional British politics, had to correct his initial support for the war, which has been perceived negatively in U.K. from the off.

Initially Farage said that Britain should “do all we can” to support the U.S.-Israeli action in the Middle East. He’d later go on to say “let’s not get ourselves involved in another foreign war.”

Farage described Trump’s tariff threats as “wrong” and said that he’d be “having some words” with the U.S. administration; he has also been careful to question Trump’s “51st state” comments on Canada; and, at times, he has distanced himself from Trump’s views on Ukraine.

The U.S. president is deeply unpopular in the U.K., like he is across much of Europe. And Farage’s relationship with him is off-putting to many British voters.

But Farage clearly sees his links with the U.S. right as deeply important, too. As he told Johnson, there have been numerous trips to D.C. and Mar-a-Lago — even if allies have also noted their relationship has cooled since 2024 and not all his Palm Beach visits have yielded meetings with Trump.

Farage noted on the show that there are things they don’t see eye-to-eye on, but was keen to stress they are “friends and allies” who “agree on quite a lot.”

he world is starting to understand that there is no way to fully and lastingly protect itself from President Donald Trump.

The man just can’t let things go — and he’ll get creative to get what he wants.

The latest blowup over Ukraine is emblematic of Trump’s wily persistence, and it suggests a challenging two years lie ahead for the international set even if Democrats gain some power in the midterm elections.

Not that long ago, Trump seemed to have patched up ties with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as Kyiv made gains against Russia. Trump signed legislation last month that was championed by his late friend, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), to impose heavy new sanctions and tariffs to punish Russia for its war on Ukraine.

This month, the original Trump — the one who fawns over Russian leader Vladimir Putin and despises Zelenskyy — roared back. He waived many of the legislation’s penalties on Russia, moved to buy Russian diesel and signaled he’s more interested in doing business with Moscow than seeking justice for Kyiv. Ukrainians suspect the U.S. has pressured them by throttling its satellite connections and intelligence-sharing. (The Trump administration disputes much of this.)

“Russia, frankly, has been fine on Ukraine,” Trump said Monday as he welcomed the idea of an arms control summit with Putin and Chinese leader Xi Jinping that might include talks about Ukraine.

The lesson, foreign officials and others steeped in diplomacy tell me, is that you cannot truly change Trump’s mind or stop his overall trajectory. Even if Trump seems briefly chastened or stages a tactical retreat, he will eventually return in new, often-surprising modes to push his original views and goals. He will try to exhaust you into submission.

Imagine how startling it is to be Ukrainian these days as Trump pressures you to make concessions to Russia by blaming you for a global energy crisis he caused by launching a war on Iran. Or what it’s like for officials across European capitals trying to craft a response, knowing there’s never an end to the process.

“There is no immunity to Donald Trump. He makes a deal in order to make a better deal the next day,” one senior European official mused, having been granted anonymity because the topic involves sensitive diplomacy.

It’s hard to blame world leaders who think they’ve learned to manage Trump only to be bewildered by a sudden left hook on his part. Foreign policy is often driven by hope when you lack good options. And Trumpology is a confounding, but still a relatively new, subfield.

Besides, Trump’s messaging is inconsistent, incoherent and nonstrategic — characteristics that can obscure his single-minded pursuit of his goals. So the global actors dealing with him — whether it’s the Gulf Arab states who shower him with gifts or the Canadians furious over his trade and territorial threats — sometimes think they’ve come to terms with him only to find they’re fighting on a newly configured plane.

A Supreme Court ruling that gutted many of Trump’s tariffs earlier this year was good news in many capitals. But since then, the so-called Tariff Man has moved to impose the import taxes under pretexts not considered by the court, including turning to accusations involving forced labor.

The White House doesn’t dispute Trump’s aggressive tactics.

“There is no greater fighter for America First interests than President Trump — and he is willing to look anyone in the eye to deliver wins on behalf of the United States,” spokesperson Anna Kelly told me in a statement.

The Greenland saga shows the limits of trying to mollify Trump.

In his first term, Trump wanted to buy the frozen island. The idea was shelved amid global laughter, but authorities in Greenland and Denmark made it clear to Trump that they welcomed more U.S. investment in the Danish territory.

In his second term, Trump huffed and puffed about an all-out U.S. takeover of Greenland, only to agree in September to an expanded U.S. military footprint that he could have gotten anyway under existing, decades-old diplomatic accords without all the drama. The whole affair has led to lingering anger in Europe about what Canada’s leader called a “rupture” in the global order — but many European officials hoped that the saga had faded away.

Yet, it’s far from certain that Trump has given up on possessing Greenland. Just days ago, he touted on social media plans to start oil, gas and mineral exploration in “our new and beautiful Greenland.”

The use of “our” is more than a little suggestive.

Defying Trump, too, can get you only so far.

Brazilians effectively told Trump to take a hike when he used tariffs and sanctions to punish the country for charging its former president, Jair Bolsonaro, in a coup attempt.

A few months later, as Bolsonaro was about to start his prison sentence, Trump seemed to admit defeat in his effort to help his political ally. “That’s too bad,” he said in November 2025, with little emotion. (“Brazil Defied Trump and Won,” The New York Times declared.)

But Trump wasn’t done with Brazil. He and his team have pursued efforts to undercut the current Brazilian government while quietly backing Bolsonaro’s son, Flávio, in his efforts to win the presidency this year. The runoff election is on Sunday, and it’s tight.

World leaders are doing what they can to make their countries Trump-resistant, if not all-out Trump-proof.

That has meant everything from diversifying their sources of trade and security alliances to joining Trump on ventures that, on the surface at least, can be helpful to them. (Then there are the many countries, especially in Africa, that diplomats privately tell me are happy to be off Trump’s radar.)

My takeaway from watching all of this, though, is that it’s not enough to stay one step ahead of Trump. You have to stay several steps ahead, and you have to be wildly imaginative about the lengths to which Trump and his devoted aides are willing to go to complicate your life.

The second Trump administration is filled with people who have turned to unique, bizarre and clever interpretations of law and reality to push his agenda. It’s not always clear who is behind which move, but it’s hard to imagine Trump isn’t fine with most of what’s happening.

It’s why a teenager is being held in immigration detention for the actions of his grandmother decades ago. It’s why Congress can scream and shout about its spending orders yet Trump ignores it.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) said other nations should not hope that the Republican Party will shed Trump’s worldview, including his disdain for allies, once Trump’s out of power.

“I would love for our allies to know that we have consistent common adversaries that we’re going to work together to fight. I just don’t know that you can make that guarantee,” Murphy, a frequent Trump critic, told me. “That’s painful to say, but given the state of the Republican Party right now, it’s true.”

I understand why Ukraine and the European Union are trying to diversify their sources of intelligence and military industrial bases as Trump keeps chasing love from Russia.

Despite Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s claims, the reality is that the United States can no longer be trusted for such security assistance.

But it’s not enough to find new intelligence partners or weapons manufacturers. You have to ask bigger questions, like, “What are the untapped streams of intelligence that no one knows are out there? What’s a potential weapon no one has considered? How can I acquire what I need before Trump stops me?”

Governments need to have plans — now — for scenarios that seem completely crazy. Better to be wrong than unprepared.

Still, even if you do all of that … “I don’t think it’s possible to stay two or three steps ahead of Trump,” said Charles Kupchan, a former senior national security official during the Obama administration who apparently enjoys raining on parades.

“He acts on impulse,” argued Kupchan, who has a new book out on the crumbling world order. “We need to try to limit the damage he’s causing and ride him out.”

A Democratic win in November’s midterms — one or both chambers of Congress — is unlikely to do much to rein in Trump’s actions abroad during his final years, current and former U.S. and foreign officials tell me.

He still has the veto and has been willing to ignore congressional demands. There’s also the fact that presidents have significantly more power to act in unilateral ways overseas than they do domestically.

Ukraine, the European Union, the world — all will be dealing with a politically wounded Trump who’s likely to double down on what he feels he must have.

“He’s going to be angrier,” Murphy predicted.

France has reported the first ever human case of Shamonda virus, a disease that had so far only affected animals, in a patient that died in early October.

The patient was severely immunocompromized and had been receiving treatment for a serious illness that made them more susceptible to infection and complications, the country’s agriculture, food and health authorities said Thursday.

Brain complications observed in the patient before their death “would most likely be linked to the infection with the Shamonda virus,” the authorities said.

They added that this is “an exceptional case in a highly immunocompromized patient,” and that there is “no health risk for the general population.”

Health authorities have highlighted the potential of zoonotic spillover — or the jump of diseases from animals to humans — being behind the next pandemic. Currently, over 60% of emerging infectious disease threats are of zoonotic origin, including Covid-19 and Ebola. As diseases adapt and jump from wild animals to pets to humans, their potential for pandemic threats evolves too. For this reason, scientists have been on high alert for the bird flu.

The Shamonda virus, which spreads between animals through bites from infected midges, was detected in European farm animals for the first time this year. It had previously been found only in countries outside Europe, predominantly in Africa. It is mainly observed in cattle, but there have been cases of infections in horses, sheep, goats and an alpaca.

Since the summer, the virus has been detected in farm animals in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said. In cattle, its symptoms include fever, diarrhea, lethargy, reduced milk production and mild respiratory signs.

It’s still not clear whether  the virus caused or contributed to the patient’s death and how the infection was acquired, the ECDC said. French authorities said they believe the patient might have been infected by a midge bite while in eastern France, an area where the virus has been circulating in animals since the spring.

The ECDC said it is “carefully monitoring the situation” and is in touch with French authorities and European partners to “investigate the potential public health implications of this first human infection.”

BRÜSSEL — Konservative und rechtsextreme Abgeordnete haben am Donnerstag dafür gestimmt, wichtige EU-Vorschriften zu Methanemissionen um drei Jahre zu verschieben. Zuvor hatten die fossile Industrie sowie mehrere Mitgliedstaaten Druck ausgeübt, die Vorschriften aufzuschieben.

Diese Position wurde von der Europäischen Volkspartei sowie von der rechtsextremen Fraktion „Patrioten für Europa“ und der rechtsgerichteten Fraktion „Europäische Konservative und Reformisten“ unterstützt.

Sollte der Beschluss von anderen EU-Institutionen gebilligt werden, würde die Frist für die Umsetzung wichtiger Vorschriften zur Regelung der Methanemissionen auf das Jahr 2030 verschoben – weit über die von der Kommission vorgeschlagene Verlängerung bis 2028 hinaus.

Dies geschah nach einer monatelangen Kampagne von Öl- und Gasunternehmen. Sie machten geltend, dass wesentliche Elemente der Vorschriften, die sie zur Überwachung und Nachverfolgung von Leckagen des starken Treibhausgases verpflichten, unklar seien. Das berge die Gefahr von Verstößen, was dazu führen könnte, dass wichtige Lieferungen Europa nicht erreichen.

Mit seiner Haltung schließt sich das Parlament der Forderung der Industrie nach einer dreijährigen Verschiebung an. Die Abgeordneten schlossen sich den Bedenken der Branche hinsichtlich des Risikos von Versorgungsengpässen an, die mit einer übereilten Umsetzung der Vorschriften verbunden wären.

„Die Verschiebung der Anforderungen an Öl- und Gasimporteure im Rahmen der Methanverordnung ist eine Frage der politischen Verantwortung … Wir brauchen rechtssichere Vorschriften …, um die Energieversorgung und die Wettbewerbsfähigkeit Europas zu sichern“, erklärten die Europaabgeordneten Andrea Wechlser und Christian Ehler, beide von der EVP, in einer Stellungnahme gegenüber POLITICO.

„Die Krise im Nahen Osten übt bereits enormen Druck auf die Energiemärkte aus – etwa 20 Prozent des weltweiten LNG-Handels werden über die Straße von Hormus abgewickelt“, fügten sie hinzu.

Der Standpunkt des Parlaments könnte den nationalen Delegationen Rückenwind geben, die auf eine längere Frist drängen. Zuvor hatten sie sich am Mittwoch nach Widerstand seitens Deutschlands, Italiens und Polens nicht auf einen gemeinsamen Standpunkt einigen können. Die Mitgliedstaaten hoffen, am kommenden Mittwoch einen Kompromiss zu finden, nachdem sie daran zu Wochenbeginn gescheitert waren.

Dieser Artikel ist zuerst auf Englisch bei POLITICO erschienen.

BRUSSELS — The center-right European People’s Party joined forces with far-right lawmakers Thursday to push through a vote delaying a key EU climate law governing the methane emissions of oil and gas companies.

It was the latest example of the European Parliament’s biggest group ignoring old taboos and working with the far right to pass legislation weakening environmental rules.

The EU Methane Regulation requires fossil fuel companies to monitor and report emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that’s a major cause of global warming.

The requirements were due to come into force in 2027, but the Commission last week proposed delaying implementation by a year following intense lobbying from the oil and gas lobby and the U.S. government.

The EPP proposed going further, calling for a three-year delay. The amendment passed by 326 votes to 244, with the support of far-right groups Patriots for Europe, the group of Marine Le Pen’s National Rally; and Europe of Sovereign Nations, the group of the German far-right party the AfD. Giorgia Meloni’s European Conservatives and Reformists also backed the proposal.

Most lawmakers from other centrist and center-left groups, including Renew Europe, Socialists and Democrats and the Greens, opposed the three-year delay.

The right-wing majority also voted for an amendment that would force the Commission to review the law and propose any necessary changes by mid-2029.

It comes a year after the EPP — the group of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen — set a new precedent when it sided with the far right to vote to weaken environmental reporting rules for companies, breaching the so-called cordon sanitaire. Since 2024, right wing groups have made up a majority in Parliament.

Thursday’s vote, if adopted by other EU institutions, would move the deadline for implementation of rules to 2030 — well beyond the Commission’s proposed delay to 2028.

It comes after a months-long pressure campaign by oil and gas companies, which claimed that key elements of the rules requiring them to monitor and track leaks of the potent greenhouse gas were unclear, risking compliance failures that could deter critical supplies from reaching Europe.

The Parliament’s position aligns it with industry’s own call for a three-year delay, and lawmakers echoed the sector’s concerns about the risk of supply disruptions linked to hasty implementation of the rules.

“The postponement of the requirements for oil and gas importers in the Methane Regulation is a matter of political responsibility … We need legally certain rules in place … to safeguard Europe’s energy supply and competitiveness,” MEPs Andrea Wechlser and Christian Ehler, both in the EPP, said in a statement to POLITICO.

“The crisis in the Middle East is already putting massive pressure on energy markets—about 20 percent of global LNG trade passes through the Strait of Hormuz,” they added.

The Parliament’s position could empower national delegations — which failed to agree on a joint position Wednesday after pushback from Germany, Italy and Poland — pushing for a longer delay. Member countries hope to find a compromise next Wednesday after failing to find agreement earlier this week.

CORRECTION: This article has been updated to reflect that Parliament voted to delay the rules until 2030.

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron has instructed local authorities to ban protests on Saturday except those organized by unions, he said Thursday.

Any request to “protest” or “regroup” made by people “who have no legitimacy to do so” will be “refused,” Macron said after a security meeting with Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu and intelligence services.

The aim, he added, is to maintain public order and “protect businesses” after last week’s turmoil in France.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets, while incidents of vandalism and looting affected thousands of businesses and public buildings on the sidelines of the protests.

Calls for a fresh round of protests have already begun to emerge online, raising the possibility of a protest movement that becomes a weekly occurrence, as was the case during the 2018-2019 Yellow Vest movement.

“The president believes that six months before a presidential election, debate should take place more in TV studios, in newspapers, and ultimately by the choice at the ballot box,” a person close to the French president said.

Trade unions usually hold talks with local authorities ahead of planned demonstrations. For Saturday, authorities may offer “alternative routes” to ensure maximum security, Macron announced.

He added that he will chair a defense council Friday and announce “new decisions” afterward.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez said elite tactical police units and a military unit normally deployed on French soil for counterterrorism operations would also be mobilized this weekend.

The government has been accused of mismanaging last week’s protests by significantly underestimating the number of demonstrators and consequently failing to deploy enough police to prevent criminal acts on the sidelines.

A protest organized by a major trade union Saturday in Paris has been approved, French media reported, while all protests in the area including Lyon, one of the country’s biggest cities, have been banned.

LONDON — Brussels is proposing to extend negotiations on its core demand for cut-price tuition fees for EU students studying in the U.K. beyond next month’s leaders’ summit, as a package of deals nears completion, three EU diplomats with knowledge of the talks told POLITICO.

The European Commission on Wednesday presented the option to member countries of decoupling the tuition fee demand from the long-delayed U.K.-EU summit on Nov. 20.

A postponement would clear the way for a deal to be struck on other key elements of Britain’s “reset” with the bloc, including new agreements on agri-food trade, emissions trading, and a youth experience scheme.

The diplomats — all of whom were granted anonymity to speak freely about ongoing talks — said the proposal would involve asking the U.K. to commit to finalizing an agreement on tuition fees within six months. The proposal was first reported by the Financial Times.

The EU is pushing for European students to pay the domestic rate for tuition fees when studying at British universities, as they did before Brexit.

But one of the diplomats highlighted that the tuition fee demand was still part of a wider “package” linked to the other three agreements slated for the summit, and that the agreements would not enter into force until there was agreement on all areas. 

In addition, the diplomats confirmed that both sides were considering a joint summit statement on economic security, amid mounting U.K. concerns about the EU’s Made in Europe proposals.

Meanwhile, negotiations on a sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) deal — which would see the U.K. and EU align on agri-food standards — are close to completion, two of the diplomats said. The deal would include temporary arrangements for gene-edited plants and novel foods, such as lab-grown meat.

For gene-edited plants, the U.K. wants to keep its own rules until equivalent EU rules come into force, and has pledged not to change them in the meantime.

For novel foods, the U.K. would follow EU decisions to approve or reject products, but could set its own rules for products the EU has not yet assessed. In both cases, the products would be sold only in Great Britain and would not have access to the EU single market.

Dan Bloom contributed to this report

BRUSSELS — Centrist parties backing European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen clashed at Thursday’s European Parliament plenary over whether to hold artificial intelligence firms accountable for harm.

The EU executive had considered specific liability rules for AI in 2022, but withdrew these last year as part of the EU’s major simplification effort to make the bloc more competitive.

“To withdraw the AI liability directive was a big mistake,” said Alex Agius Saliba, a Maltese vice-president of the Socialists and Democrats, part of the majority coalition. “We strongly urge the Commission to bring forward this important piece of legislation.”

Thursday’s plenary debate, in which discussions centered on a global framework to regulate AI, showed strong tensions inside Europe between the centrist coalition backing von der Leyen. While the center-left pushed for new rules to address a series of AI-fueled hacking incidents, the center-right doubled down on simplification to ensure European companies can compete in the global AI race.

Socialist and Green lawmakers called for a new AI Liability Act in a bid to hold AI companies liable for harm done by their models, as with more traditional manufacturers’ products.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman floated a similar idea for a new liability framework for companies whose models are capable of autonomous cyberattacks in the wake of this summer’s hack by autonomous OpenAI agents into another AI platform, Hugging Face.

“If a phone charger explodes in your house, we never call it innovative. We call it cheap, dangerous junk, and we hold the manufacturer liable for damages,” said Dutch Green European Parliament lawmaker Kim van Sparrentak.

She urged the Commission to “stop scrapping rules to please [U.S. President Donald] Trump” and come up with a “strong new liability act that covers the testing and the development of AI.”

The debate quickly descended into a fierce back-and-forth between key AI-focused lawmakers from von der Leyen’s centrist coalition.

“It feels [to] me like the Greens and the Socialists are living [on] a completely different planet than the rest of us when they are screaming for more regulation,” said Swedish center-right lawmaker Arba Kokalari, who led the work on the AI omnibus, which delayed a core section of the EU’s flagship AI law.

She said the EU already had a comprehensive regulatory framework — the AI Act — of which some parts are not even into force, and said the EU should focus on avoiding falling behind in the global AI race instead. She called for “less bureaucracy, more private investments, better access to data and computing infrastructure.”

Italian Social Democrat Brando Benifei, who led work on the AI Act in the previous mandate, snapped back that Europe should lead with new liability rules, “or we will need to wait for the next blogpost of a CEO to know what is happening.”

German Green lawmaker Sergey Lagodinsky also fired back at Kokalari: “What planet do you live on? Not on the planet where [AI] agents break out.”

International Partnerships Commissioner Jozef Síkela pointed out at the end of the debate that the rules were withdrawn because EU countries and European Parliament lawmakers couldn’t reach an agreement on them.

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron will leave the Élysée Palace in about seven months, and the cost of his departure is already being budgeted.

France’s draft budget for next year, currently under discussion in parliament, includes a €2.3 million provision to help Macron move into furnished offices, according to a parliamentary report first obtained by POLITICO. The sum also covers rent, service charges and security for the next six years.

Former French presidents receive a range of lifelong benefits, including a pension, offices, a chauffeur and police protection. For the first five years after leaving office, they can also employ up to seven staff members, a number that drops to three thereafter.

Despite the budget allocation, Macron does not yet appear to have found his next place of work. The Elysée told POLITICO the provision was a “precautionary measure … based on the experiences of previous presidents.”

Nicolas Sarkozy and François Hollande are the only two living former presidents currently benefiting from the arrangements — even though Hollande has since returned to parliament as a lawmaker.

Hollande said last month that he is receiving a monthly pension of €5,000 for his time at the Élysée, on top of pensions from previous roles and his current income.

Macron, the youngest president in modern French history, will be 49 when he leaves office and has pledged not to draw his presidential pension.

He has kept his plans for life after the presidency close to his chest, leaving unclear to what extent he intends to remain involved in politics. Although he is constitutionally barred from seeking a third consecutive term, he will be eligible to run for president again once his successor takes office. He has not ruled out the possibility of doing so.

The president of Cyprus wrote to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen calling for the EU to resume talks on its mutual defense clause.

“I cannot overstate the importance of this provision for the EU and its Member States, especially in times of geopolitical uncertainty,” Nikos Christodoulides wrote in a letter dated Oct. 20 addressed to von der Leyen, seen by POLITICO.

Article 42.7 of the Lisbon Treaty states that if an EU member is faced with “armed aggression,” other members have an obligation to provide “aid and assistance by all the means in their power.”

The defense clause article had risen up the agenda because of mounting geopolitical threats, including U.S. President Donald Trump’s undermining of the transatlantic alliance, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and hybrid warfare campaign against the EU, and wars in the Middle East.

“Given the gravity of the challenges we face, Cyprus would welcome the resumption of discussions at the relevant preparatory bodies. I would therefore appreciate an update on the proposals under consideration, as well as a timeline for the next steps,” Christodoulides wrote.

The EU gamed out how the clause would work in practice with exercises earlier this year. Cyprus’ six-month presidency of the European Council, which ended on June 30, prioritized the issue after Iranian drones struck a British base on Cypriot soil in March.

But the topic has largely fallen off the bloc’s radar, as the EU turns its attention to negotiating its seven-year, almost €2 trillion budget and finding more funding for Ukraine.

Article 42.7 is not scheduled to be discussed at any European leaders’ summits in the foreseeable future, confirmed an EU official, granted anonymity to speak freely.

Cyberangreifer haben „Millionen“ von Versuchen unternommen, eine kritische Sicherheitslücke in einem Grundbaustein des Internets auszunutzen, teilte ein bedeutender Anbieter von Cyberdiensten am Donnerstag mit.

Cybersicherheitsbehörden weltweit bemühten sich am Mittwoch, auf eine Sicherheitslücke in PHP zu reagieren, einer grundlegenden Programmiersprache, auf der 70 Prozent des Internets basieren. 

Matthew Prince, der CEO von Cloudflare, einem Internetdienstleister, der von vielen Websites zur Abwehr von Cyberangriffen genutzt wird – wodurch das Unternehmen einen guten Einblick in die Aktivitäten von Hackern erhält –, erklärte in einem Beitrag auf X, man habe „Millionen“ von „Versuchen, die Sicherheitslücke auszunutzen“ festgestellt.

„In den zehn Stunden vor der öffentlichen Bekanntgabe der Sicherheitslücke wurden Tausende Zugriffe verzeichnet, was bedeutet, dass Informationen durchgesickert sein müssen; in den 45 Minuten nach der Bekanntgabe waren es dann Zehntausende, innerhalb von zwei Stunden Hunderttausende und mittlerweile Millionen“, sagte Prince.

Die Cloud-Sparte von Amazon teilte zudem mit, dass die Sicherheitslücke „derzeit in großem Umfang ausgenutzt wird“.

Zahlreiche europäische Regierungsbehörden haben ihre Websites vorsorglich offline genommen. Am Donnerstagmorgen gaben wichtige französische Websites wie die des Justizministeriums und der Datenschutzbehörde an, dass derzeit Wartungsarbeiten durchgeführt würden. 

Matthijs van Amelsfort, Leiter der niederländischen Cybersicherheitsbehörde, erklärte gegenüber POLITICO, dass seine Behörde keine Hinweise darauf habe, dass die Sicherheitslücke „aktiv ausgenutzt“ werde, fügte jedoch hinzu, dass sich dies ändern könne, insbesondere da künstliche Intelligenz die Ausnutzung von Sicherheitslücken erleichtere. Die Behörde hatte ihre Website am Mittwoch offline genommen, sie ist nun jedoch wieder verfügbar.

LONDON — Britain’s energy regulator is planning to authorize urgent investment to increase gas pipeline imports from continental Europe this winter, amid fears over the country’s ability to supply all customers in an emergency scenario. 

The plans, outlined in a document published Thursday morning, have been published a day after Energy Secretary Miatta Fahnbulleh approved a controversial North Sea gas project, Jackdaw.  

Government documents show that gas security considerations were given “substantial weight” in her decision. 

In a consultation paper, Ofgem said that, without intervention, Britain would have a “negative supply margin” this winter, in the event of a one in 20-year cold day — a day so cold Britain would only be expected to have one every 20 years — coinciding with the loss of key gas infrastructure. 

This unlikely scenario is a key standard followed by Britain’s energy authorities to assess its resilience in maintaining gas supply — also called the “N-1 gas security” standard. 

A shortfall in gas supply would be a national emergency, potentially requiring power plants or factories to shut down, or in extreme cases homes being disconnected from the gas network.  

Britain has never experienced a “network supply emergency,” but diminishing domestic supply and the threat of Russian sabotage of key undersea gas pipelines has raised fears over the country’s energy security. 

Last year the energy system operator, NESO, said long-term declines in domestic North Sea gas supply and global competition for LNG imports could mean the N-1 gas security standard is breached in winter 2030/31. 

However, there are now fears of a crunch point as soon as this winter, after the Belgian operator of the undersea gas pipeline Interconnector said it would cut planned export capacity to the U.K. because of soaring maintenance and operating costs. EU countries are also facing concerns over gas supply this winter. 

Ofgem, the regulator, said it is now planning to amend gas system operator National Gas’s regulatory licence, allowing them to cover the costs of maintaining imports from Belgium at current capacity, in agreement with Interconnector Ltd, majority-owned by Belgian firm Fluxys. 

“Without intervention, Great Britain could potentially face a negative supply margin in winter 2026/27 involving extremely high gas demand on a 1-in-20 cold weather day and the loss of the single largest element of GB gas infrastructure,” Ofgem said. “The position could become more constrained in future winters without intervention. While these are low-probability stress scenarios, their potential consequences are significant.” 

Costs will be recouped through customers’ energy bills. Ofgem said costs of £147 million could be passed on to bills, adding an estimated £1.19 to every domestic energy bill per year over a five-year period.  

Interconnector Ltd said it would restore British import capacity to 27.8GW this winter, an additional 11.3GW of capacity above the previously announced level. 

National Gas welcomed the plans but insisted that the warning over gas security “should not be interpreted as an indication that gas shortages are expected.” 

The Conservatives’ Shadow Energy Secretary Andew Bowie called the situation “utterly outrageous.” 

Britain is “going cap in hand to Europe and paying vast sums to import foreign gas,” he said, criticizing the Labour government for what he characterized as a failure to fully exploit domestic gas supplies. 

“Britain has one of the most secure and resilient energy systems in the world– and gas interconnectors form part of our diverse energy mix,” Energy Minister Michael Shanks said in a statement. 

“We are working with industry to build a gas system fit for the future, ensuring value for money for consumers while giving investors’ confidence to back Britain’s energy sector.” 

Cyberattackers have made “millions” of attempts to take advantage of a critical hole in a building block of the internet, a key cybersecurity provider said early Thursday.

Two top European cyber officials later told POLITICO that hackers have so far struggled to exploit the vulnerability.

Cybersecurity agencies worldwide continue to scramble to respond to the public revelation Wednesday of a flaw in PHP, a foundational computer programming language used to underpin 70% of the internet. 

Matthew Prince, the CEO of Cloudflare, an internet services company that is widely used by websites to block cyberattacks — giving it a high level of visibility over what hackers are doing — said in a post on X that it’s seen “millions” of “attempts to exploit” the flaw.

Cloudfare saw thousands in the 10 hours before the flaw was publicly announced, meaning information must have leaked, then tens of thousands in the 45 minutes after the announcement, hundreds of thousands within two hours, and now millions, Prince said.

Amazon’s cloud division also said the flaw is “now being broadly exploited in the wild.”

But Thomas Caspers, vice president of Germany’s cyber agency BSI, said in an interview that though his agency has also seen attacks, it has not seen any successful use of the flaw by hackers. 

“It seems a little bit more complicated than expected to exploit,” he said. “When we had the planning process before the release of the patch, we were expecting a much faster track of the attackers.” 

Caspers is not certain why this is the case at this stage, but said it appears that successfully making use of the flaws is harder than expected. Global cyber officials were part of a process coordinated by OpenAI, to find and fix the flaws. “An ad hoc exploitation seems a little more difficult than expected,” he said.

The challenge for bad actors may also be linked to the major AI providers building guardrails so their tools can’t be used to exploit flaws, he said. When a POLITICO reporter as a test asked ChatGPT and Claude, models from OpenAI and Anthropic respectively, how to exploit the PHP vulnerabilities, both chatbots declined to provide the information. The two companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Numerous European government departments took their websites offline as a precaution to Wednesday’s developments. As of Thursday morning, key French websites such as the justice ministry and the data protection authority still featured a message they were undergoing maintenance. 

Matthijs van Amelsfort, the head of the Dutch cybersecurity agency, told POLITICO that his agency has no indication that the flaw is “actively being misused” but said that can change, particularly because AI makes it easier to exploit flaws. The agency took its website offline on Wednesday, but it is now back up.

This article has been updated.

KYIV – At least one person was killed and 34 wounded in Kyiv as the Russian army attacked Ukraine with ballistic missiles and attack drones overnight, the capital city’s prosecutor’s office reported on Thursday. Overall, 12 Ukrainian regions were under bombardment, authorities said.

“Russian ‘humanitarians’ have launched three waves of ballistic missile strikes against Kyiv, using a total of 21. Unfortunately, the city has sustained significant damage and multiple hits, affecting residential buildings, energy infrastructure, a railway station and the metro, shopping centers, and industrial enterprises. Even a monastery is among the damaged sites,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in a post on Telegram after the attack.

Ukrainian forces reported shooting down 181 out of 210 Russian drones but none of the ballistic missiles.

Zelenskyy said Russia launched its attack “almost immediately” after talks between U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin ended Wednesday.  

Witkoff left St. Petersburg after praising Vladimir Putin as a “humanitarian,” a word U.S. Vice President JD Vance suggested was tied to the release of Stephen Hubbard, a U.S. citizen detained by Russia since 2022. “We’re getting close to ending the war. We may be closer now than ever before,” U.S. President Donald Trump said shortly after the talks.

Ukrainian forces said they killed and wounded a record 2,250 Russian soldiers – the largest number of Russian casualties in 24 hours since 2022, Ukrainian Army General Staff said in a press statement sent to POLITICO on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, Russia’s defense ministry reported shooting down 808 Ukrainian drones over 17 regions, including Ukrainian occupied territories.

STRASBOURG — The International Criminal Court has won this year’s Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, awarded by the European Parliament, according to two people with knowledge of the decision.

The €50,000 prize honors defenders of human rights and freedom of thought, with past winners including Nelson Mandela, Alexei Navalny, Belarusian journalists, and the people of Ukraine.

The Socialists and Democrats group nominated the ICC following U.S. President Donald Trump’s sanctions on the court, announced on Oct. 9.

“We stand by the ICC and its officials, and we are committed to safeguarding its work. We must guarantee that the ICC is able to operate independently, free from pressure or external interference,” said S&D vice-chair Yannis Maniatis in early October. “It is a people-based organization, not a political one. If the aggressors become the victims, and if we stand by helplessly as international justice erodes, we risk allowing those who believe themselves above the law to prevail.”

The prize is named in honor of Andrei Sakharov, a Soviet physicist and political dissident. Shortlisted candidates are traditionally invited to the Parliament’s award ceremony, which takes place during the December plenary session in Strasbourg.

Can the government find more cuts across Whitehall to fund its NATO defence commitments?

With less than a week to go until the budget, Treasury minister Emma Reynolds says squeezing more efficiency out of the government could free up cash for defence. But with public services already under pressure, where can the cuts be made without making things worse?

Sam Coates and Anne McElvoy crunch the numbers, look at which sectors are already flashing the warning signs, and which policies the prime minister could scrap to score a political win.

Elsewhere, is Education Secretary Lucy Powell planning to changes shifts in the department after a lukewarm response to keeping Sir Martyn Oliver as the chief inspector of Ofsted?

The Ceuta migration crisis put human rights at the bloc’s external borders to the test, the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights warned in a report Thursday.

The Vienna-based agency warned that there are serious risks to fundamental rights at the bloc’s external borders and the sudden arrival of thousands of migrants to the Spanish exclave of Ceuta in July “put the balance between protecting fundamental rights and safeguarding the EU’s external borders to the test.”  

In late July, more than 70,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into Ceuta in the space of 48 hours, leading to questions about how the EU should deal with sudden mass movements that may be engineered or used against the bloc. In her State of the Union address, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen promised a European emergency response framework, which she said should allow for “time-limited and strictly defined flexibility in standard procedures.”

Greece has called for a measure suspending asylum applications in emergency situations — something that could amount to pushbacks, which are banned under international law. Several countries have thrown their support behind the idea, while others question whether this type of measure should be taken at the level of the EU, rather than in national capitals.

In its report, the agency said any emergency measure should comply with EU and international law, both of which guarantee the right to seek asylum and the principle of non-refoulement — a “cornerstone of refugee protection,” it added.

At a meeting of EU leaders last week, von der Leyen said the Commission would come up with a proposal for the emergency framework before the end of the year. 

“We will always uphold our values and fundamental rights, but we will never compromise on protecting our borders,” she said.

The agency’s report also highlighted other fundamental rights concerns at the EU’s external borders, including the implementation of rights monitoring mechanisms as part of migration reforms, restrictions on search and rescue organizations, and investigations into rights violations at the borders.

According to the agency’s numbers, 12 EU countries opened 322 preliminary criminal investigations between 2020 and 2025, but only nine of those resulted in a conviction.

Gaps in those investigations “lead to a perception of impunity, which risks undermining the rule of law, one of the fundamental values on which the Union is founded,” the report stated.

As the U.S. pushes to revive peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, a question is causing tensions in Brussels: Who actually speaks for the EU?

Zoya Sheftalovich and Sarah Wheaton examine the growing influence of Ursula von der Leyen’s powerful chief of staff, Björn Seibert, and why Finnish President Alexander Stubb may be eyeing a bigger role.

Then, have you ever received a suspicious message from Booking.com? The European Commission has launched an investigation into whether the travel platform is doing enough to protect customers from scams and fraudulent listings.

Finally, Brussels rolls out the diplomatic red carpet for 19 new ambassadors. From Britain and Canada to Ukraine and India, we meet some of the fresh faces arriving on the EU diplomatic scene.

If you have a question or comment, don’t hesitate! Message us on our WhatsApp here or at +32 491 05 06 29.

Articles mentioned in this episode:

• EU probes Booking.com over scamming concerns
• Witkoff to Putin: ‘You are a humanitarian … I salute that’
• Russia ready for 3-way talks on Ukraine war, Kremlin says
• Talking to Putin: Europe seeks a negotiator-in-chief for Ukraine

Neun Länder drängen in die Europäische Union, doch die Tür ist seit über einem Jahrzehnt verschlossen. Während Friedrich Merz in Montenegro die Beitrittschancen der Länder des Westbalkans auslotet, wäre ein Scheitern des nächsten Beitritts durch Montenegro, vor allem für Russland und China eine Genugtuung. Europa-Experte Hans von der Burchard analysiert, warum das kleine Land an der Adria zum Lackmustest für die Erweiterungspolitik wird und welche bittere Pille die Ukraine womöglich schlucken muss.

In Berlin entbrennt zeitgleich auf der Ministerpräsidentenkonferenz ein harter Verteilungskampf um die Energiekosten. Rasmus Buchsteiner beleuchtet die Milliarden-Forderungen von Hendrik Wüst zur Stromsteuer sowie die teuren Rentenpläne von Markus Söder. Die Konferenz beginnt ausgerechnet am Tag der Steuerschätzung. Die entscheidende Frage lautet: Wie sollen diese politischen Versprechen angesichts riesiger Haushaltslücken dauerhaft finanziert werden?

Antworten auf die angespannte Kassenlage liefert Sebastian Schäfer. Der Chefhaushälter der Grünen-Bundestagsfraktion erklärt im 200-Sekunden-Interview, warum er die Steuersenkungspläne der Union für unrealistisch hält. Stattdessen bringt er einen konkreten Sparvorschlag ins Spiel.

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