Top U.S. and Russia envoys plan to meet in Miami on Saturday, despite talks having taken a downward turn this week. Kirill Dmitriev, Russian President Vladimir Putin’s special presidential representative for investment and economic cooperation, is flying to Florida to meet with Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, a White House official confirmed to POLITICO. “Arrived in the U.S. to continue the U.S.–Russia dialogue — visit planned a while ago based on an invitation from the U.S.

President Donald Trump has ordered an aircraft carrier strike group to the Caribbean, a major escalation of warships in the region as the U.S. attacks alleged drug-running boats and increases pressure on Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. The U.S.S. Gerald Ford, the Navy’s newest aircraft carrier, is moving from the Mediterranean and is accompanied by three destroyers. Deploying a carrier is a significant move for any White House, and often suggests larger scale military operations.

An investigation by EU regulators has found TikTok and Meta in breach of the Union’s rules concerning illegal or harmful online content. The European Commission (EC) said on Friday that preliminary findings show both companies are not complying with Digital Services Act (DSA) rules that require them to give researchers adequate access to public data. The Commission called Meta and TikTok’s procedures and tools for requesting access to public data “burdensome,” saying that researchers are consequently often left with partial or unreliable data, which affects “their ability to conduct research, such as whether users, including minors, are exposed to illegal or harmful content.”

Lahbib's comments followed the collapse of a plan to raid Russia’s sovereign assets that have been immobilized in the EU since the start of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Under the proposal, the money would be sent to Kyiv as a “reparations loan,” only due for repayment in the unlikely event that Russia pays war damages in future.  Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever blocked the plan at a European Council leaders’ summit in Brussels on Thursday night because he feared his country would face legal and financial retaliation from Putin. 

Liz Truss is never far from the shores of the United States, hobnobbing with the folk seeking to “Make America Great Again.” What does she think Britain can learn from the second Trump era? Anne McElvoy travels to Washington to talk to the former Conservative Prime Minister Liz Truss, who’s on a self-proclaimed “mission” to remake the U.K. in the image of MAGA-land.

"It’s a bit sour for me that we are finger-pointed, now, as the unwilling country,” De Wever told reporters. He described the idea of Belgian taxpayers ending up on the hook as "completely insane." Donald Trump's ambiguous attitude to how to deal with Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, despite this week sanctioning Russia’s two biggest oil companies, has put the onus on Europe to bolster its support.

President Donald Trump will meet with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in South Korea on Oct. 30, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Thursday. The president will participate in a bilateral meeting with the Chinese leader at the end of a trip through three countries in Asia. She did not provide any details on the content of the meeting.

The U.S. slapped sanctions on Russia’s two biggest oil companies, Rosneft and Lukoil, and their subsidiaries in an attempt to pressure Russia to take ceasefire negotiations more seriously. “I just felt it was time,” Trump said less than a week after he announced that he’d be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Hungary and declared that the Russian leader was ready for peace.

The Trump administration is ramping up the pressure on the European Union to repeal or overhaul a regulation on corporations’ greenhouse gas pollution — in the latest example of the United States’ willingness to wield its economic might against an international climate initiative. It comes less than a week after the U.S. scored a surprising victory over a proposed United Nations climate fee on shipping, in what one Trump Cabinet member described Wednesday as an “all hands on deck” lobbying blitz.

“If the aim is to keep Ukraine in the fight, you need to keep the criteria open,” said a senior EU diplomat. They claim that attaching a “Buy European clause” would prevent Kyiv from accessing much-needed weapons such as the Patriot missile defense system that are only produced in the U.S.

The U.K.’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said on Wednesday that it’s designating Apple and Google with strategic market status in their respective mobile platforms. The decision, which affects the companies’ operating systems, app stores, browsers, and browser engines, will enable the regulator to take targeted actions to enhance competition in the space. The CMA had launched investigations into Apple and Google in January, and had…

Several ministers and deputy ministers have resigned over their alleged involvement in the scandal. The EU has already fined Athens €400 million after finding evidence of systemic failings in the handling of farm subsidies from 2016 through to 2023. Greece also risks losing its EU farm subsidies unless it provides an improved action plan on how it will stop funds being siphoned off into corruption.

It calls on the European Commission to fully apply existing budget rules allowing for the exclusion of entities inciting hatred, and to make beneficiaries of programs such as Erasmus+ and CERV (Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values) sign pledges that they will respect and promote EU rights and values. The document comes just one day before a European Council meeting in Brussels at which EU leaders are…

Friedrich Merz wollte mit seinem klaren Kurs zur AfD eigentlich Ruhe schaffen. Stattdessen läuft die Debatte in der CDU heftiger als zuvor. Mit Rasmus Buchsteiner spricht Gordon Repinski über den Ursprung des Unvereinbarkeitsbeschlusses, seine politische Halbwertszeit und die Frage, wie sich die CDU mit dem Bestand des Beschlusses auch ein zeitliches Problem hat.Im 200-Sekunden-Interview reagiert Sven Schulze, CDU-Landeschef und Spitzenkandidat in Sachsen-Anhalt, auf die Brandmauer-Debatte.

The Premier League is celebrated for its drama, unpredictability, and fine margins. But every now and then, the balance collapses entirely. A team collapses under pressure, another finds ruthless rhythm, and the scoreline becomes a record that haunts or defines them. These are the days when goal difference feels like a work of fiction, and football’s unforgiving side takes centre stage.

Five diplomats present at the talks told POLITICO that Athens objected to a single passage, the final paragraph of the text, that “welcome[d]” the IMO measures “as the first legally binding global sectoral climate regulation that will contribute to the reduction of emissions from shipping.”  Three of the diplomats, who were granted anonymity to discuss closed-door talks, said Greece had opposed any mention of the IMO levy and rejected several attempts at compromise.

The Magic of the Unthinkable The Premier League thrives on drama. Every season brings a reminder that reputation counts for nothing once the whistle blows. Money, history, and world-class squads can crumble under the pressure of sheer belief and audacity. These are the moments that define why football is more than a game — it is theatre, rebellion, and chaos wrapped into ninety minutes.

Ahead of the meeting, Kurti spoke positively about the prospect of a partnership between his country and the U.K., which officials are expected to discuss on the sidelines of Wednesday’s gathering. He told a private meeting: “We want to help the U.K. — we consider that that is our friendly and political duty. We have limited capacity but still we want to help, and as we speak there is regular communication between our teams of state officials from our ministry of internal affairs and lawyers about how to do this smoothly for mutual benefit.”

The Premier League’s Dark Side of Discipline Red cards are part of football’s drama. Sometimes they’re justified, sometimes they’re rash, and occasionally they’re pure theatre. The Premier League, home to some of the toughest tackles and fiercest rivalries in football, has seen its fair share of red mist moments. Whether it’s an act of pure aggression or a heat-of-the-moment lapse, the players below have all left their mark on the record books for the wrong reasons.

Brussels’ agenda for the next year will include a landmark initiative on short-term rentals that is due in the spring. Tourist flats — furnished accommodation for brief stays — are a major factor in sky-high housing costs in the bloc’s major cities, and Housing Commissioner Dan Jørgensen has signaled a desire to regulate such properties. “We cannot allow that locals are pushed out of their neighbourhoods,” Jørgensen said Tuesday, adding that the Commission’s proposal “will strike the right balance with a firm but fair approach.”

The Best La Liga Derbies Outside El Clásico When people think of Spanish football, they often jump straight to El Clásico. Yet beyond the glamour and global spotlight of Real Madrid versus Barcelona lies a league built on deep-rooted regional rivalries. These derbies capture local pride, historical grudges, and generations of emotion. Here are the fiercest La Liga derbies outside of Spain’s most famous fixture.

“Our regional and global order is being redrawn. And Europe must fight for its place in a world where some major powers are either ambivalent or hostile to us,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told the European Parliament on Tuesday. China — which dominates the supply of critical minerals — earlier this month announced broad export controls on rare-earth magnets…

The freeze helped ensure Lecornu's government would at least temporarily have the tacit support of the Socialists, who opposed the 2023 reform. He survived the first no-confidence vote against his government on Thursday by 18 votes. Macron praised Lecornu's decision as a way to "appease the public debate." The French president insisted the reform remains "necessary for the country" and said he saw Lecornu's move as "neither a repeal nor a suspension" but rather a "delay."

The statement comes just days ahead of a critical European Council meeting on Thursday, where leaders will debate using frozen Russian assets to fund Ukraine and tightening sanctions on Moscow. Zelenskyy and members of the so-called Coalition of the Willing are then set to gather Friday in London to coordinate further military and financial support. Trump said late Sunday that the war should be frozen along the current battle lines, a proposal that would leave Moscow in control of vast areas of occupied Ukrainian territory.

For most enterprise companies, AI is either a promise that has yet to deliver or a security risk. The effort of Lithuania’s most famous entrepreneur duo to solve that conundrum has garnered attention — and funding. Just months after Nexos.ai came out of stealth with an $8 million funding round led by Index Ventures, Nord Security co-founders Tomas Okmanas and Eimantas Sabaliauskas have closed a €30 million Series A (approximately $35 million) for this new startup — a a platform that helps companies adopt AI tools securely by acting as a middleman between employees and AI systems.