Russian President Vladimir Putin is not among the names listed by the Kremlin as being due to attend peace talks on the war in Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday, despite calls from Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky for him to attend.

Russia’s delegation will instead be headed by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, according to the Kremlin statement.

Zelensky had previously said he would attend the talks and meet Putin in person if the Russian president agreed, and said he would do everything he could to ensure the face-to-face meeting took place.

US President Donald Trump will also not be attending, according to media reports, despite previously hinting he would if Putin were there.

Zelensky will be in the Turkish capital Ankara on Thursday to meet President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

He said he would attend direct talks in Istanbul with Russia, but only if Putin also attended.

“I am waiting to see who will come from Russia, and then I will decide which steps Ukraine should take. So far, the signals from them in the media are unconvincing,” he said in his nightly video address on Wednesday.

Putin and Zelensky have not met in person since December 2019. Russia and Ukraine last held direct negotiations in March 2022 in Istanbul, shortly after Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbour.

Fighting has raged in Ukraine since then. Russian forces have slowly expanded the amount of territory they control over the past year, mostly in the east of Ukraine.

On Sunday Putin called for direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Turkey’s largest city “without pre-conditions”. Zelensky then announced he would go in person and expected the Russian president to travel as well.

Putin’s suggestion of direct talks in Istanbul followed Western powers’ call for a 30-day ceasefire, after European leaders met in Kyiv on Saturday.

After Trump called for Ukraine to accept the offer on Sunday, Zelensky said he would travel there himself.

“There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will be waiting for Putin in Türkiye on Thursday. Personally,” Zelensky wrote in a social media post.

Earlier on Wednesday, Trump had floated the possibility of joining the meeting himself if Putin did.

The US president, who is currently in Qatar, told reporters he did not know if his Russian counterpart would attend “if I’m not there”.

“I know he would like me to be there, and that’s a possibility. If we could end the war, I’d be thinking about that,” Trump said.

The US is expected to send a high-level delegation to the talks.

The country’s top diplomat, Marco Rubio, arrived in Turkey on Wednesday, where he will meet Nato foreign ministers on Thursday.

Ahead of that meeting, Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said he met Rubio on Wednesday evening. Sybiha said he had reaffirmed Ukraine’s commitment to US peace efforts, and called on Russia to “reciprocate Ukraine’s constructive steps”.

Rubio plans to travel onwards to Istanbul on Friday, where the State Department says he will attend talks with European counterparts to discuss the war in Ukraine.

Arriving at his hotel in Antalya on Wednesday, Rubio did not answer when the BBC asked him if Putin would be coming to Turkey.

Since returning to the White House, President Trump has sought to broker a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine.

He ended a years-long Western boycott of Russia’s leader by speaking to Putin over the phone in February, and his envoy Steve Witkoff has met Vladimir Putin for talks in Moscow.

Trump has previously said Russia and Ukraine were “very close to a deal”.

On Sunday, when Putin proposed the direct talks, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform: “A potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine!”

Source: BBC

The election of a new taoiseach has been delayed after a bitter row in the Dáil (Irish parliament), forcing the suspension of proceedings twice.

The Irish parliament returned to nominate Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin as the new taoiseach (prime minister) before he is formally appointed to the office by President Michael D Higgins.

Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy called for a 15 minute suspension after Teachtaí Dála (TDs) refused to “stop shouting” at her and take their seats.

After it resumed several TDs continued to challenge her over a decision to allow independent TDs who are supporting the government to sit on the opposition benches.

They refused to take their seats and the proceedings were then suspended for 30 minutes.

Ceann Comhairle Verona Murphy suspended the Dáil for 15 minutes

Sinn Féin President Mary Lou said it was a “brazen” move by the government to allow this arrangement to happen.

Source: BBC

Germany’s far right is in a buoyant mood.

On Saturday, while its conference was under way in the eastern city of Riesa, in Saxony, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) laid out ambitions to close Germany’s borders, resume buying Russian gas and, in effect, dismantle the EU.

German media reported that party’s agreed manifesto includes plans to quit the Paris climate deal, exit the Euro currency and create a new confederation of states.

The AfD’s leader, Alice Weidel, even publicly embraced the term “remigration” – a word that’s widely understood to mean the mass “return” or deportation of people with a migrant background.

Thousands of anti-AfD protestors swarmed the streets in Riesa on Saturday, seeking to obstruct access to the conference venue.

When Alice Weidel eventually took to the stage, she described the activists outside as a “left-wing mob.”

And, in front a delighted conference hall of delegates, spoke of “large-scale repatriations”.

“And I have to be honest with you: if it’s going to be called remigration, then that’s what it’s going to be: remigration,” she said.

It’s a striking departure from just a year ago when she sought to distance herself from a scandal that centred on the highly controversial concept.

There were nationwide anti-AfD demonstrations after it emerged that senior party figures had been among those at a meeting where “remigration” was allegedly discussed with Martin Sellner, an Austrian far-right activist who has a neo-Nazi past.

Sellner has written about “remigrating” asylum seekers, some foreigners with residency rights and “non-assimilated” citizens.

A buzzword in Europe’s far-right, some claim legal residents wouldn’t be forced to leave. Critics say “remigration” is simply a euphemism for an overtly racist mass deportation plan.

But Alice Weidel’s decision to personally coin the term, weeks out from a snap federal election, demonstrates her party’s growing radicalism and confidence.

She also pledged to tear down wind farms which she called “windmills of shame”, leave the EU’s asylum system and “throw out” gender studies professors.

The AfD is consistently polling second in Germany and made gains in recent regional elections in the country’s east – where the party is strongest.

However, it’s highly unlikely to win power because other parties won’t work with the AfD.

Sections of the AfD have been classed by domestic intelligence as right-wing extremist.

In 2024, a talisman of the AfD’s hard-right – Björn Höcke – was fined twice for using a banned Nazi SA paramilitary phrase, “Alles für Deutschland” (“everything for Germany”).

He’s called it an “everyday sentence” and denied being aware of its origins, despite formerly being a history teacher.

Reports that members of the conference in Riesa this weekend chanted “Alice für Deutschland” drew quick comparisons in German media.

However, AfD figures have frequently complained that they are demonised and persecuted by a biased media and establishment.

And Alice Weidel’s party – of which she is the co-leader and now Chancellor candidate – has ridden out repeated storms to now hover around or even above 20% in national polls.

The 45-year-old economist, who previously worked for Goldman Sachs and is in a same-sex relationship, has sought to polish the rougher edges of her party.

But for those strongly opposed to the AfD she is a fig leaf or – as one Social Democrat put it – a “wolf in sheep’s clothing”.

Regardless, she’s enjoying a new spotlight after being invited by tech billionaire – Elon Musk – for a live talk on his X platform last week, where he wholeheartedly endorsed the party.

Her declaration during this discussion that Adolf Hitler was, in fact, a communist sparked condemnation, given the Nazi leader’s well-known anti-communism.

Critics warned of Nazi revisionism – something the AfD has been accused of before.

Björn Höcke once called for a “180-degree turnaround” in Germany’s handling of its Nazi past while a former co-leader, Alexander Gauland, described the Nazi era as “just a speck of bird’s muck in more than 1,000 years of successful Germany history”.

Nevertheless, the AfD’s anti-establishment, anti-immigration and anti-“woke” agenda is finding followers in Germany who go to the polls on 23 February.

Source: BBC

Uneasy lies the head that wears a crown. This is especially true for French President Emmanuel Macron this year as France grapples with a serious political crisis.

Europe’s second-largest economy has no prime minister, no government, and Macron is hoping for a political miracle. He must appoint a new premier to get a 2025 budget approved by parliament as soon as possible.

How did we get here?

Following a landslide victory by the far right in the European elections in June, the president dissolved the  National Assembly, France’s lower house, and called snap parliamentary elections. While a leftist coalition swept up most seats, no party ended up winning an outright majority.

After two months of tense ambivalence, Macron finally appointed a new prime minister in early September. Michel Barnier, a former foreign minister and Brexit negotiator, would spearhead France’s new government – which turned out to be dominated by conservatives and centrists.

Fast-forward three months and everything has crumbled, yet again. After Barnier decided to push through his sweeping social security budget without a parliamentary vote, both the left-wing New Popular Front alliance and the far-right National Rally tabled votes of no confidence. Both were passed on Wednesday, toppling Barnier and his government.

It’s the first time a government has fallen to a no-confidence vote in France in more than 60 years. On Thursday morning, Barnier became the shortest-serving prime minister in modern French history when he handed his resignation to Macron.

What happens next?

Calls for Macron to resign poured in from his opponents after Barnier was defeated. Insisting the president’s  resignation could break the deadlock, Mathilde Panot, head of the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, told reporters he was “now calling on Macron to go”. Marine Le Pen, the far-right leader, said pressure was piling up on the president but that he alone had the last say on the matter.

But Macron has insisted, time and again, that he will not buckle under pressure. In an address to the nation Thursday night, Macron vowed to stay in office until the end of his term in 2027. He also announced that he would name a prime minister “in the coming days” but gave no hint about who that may be.

According to presidential sources, Macron is set to meet leaders of his own centrist forces, as well as the Socialist Party and the conservative Les Républicains on Friday to search for a compromise. Members of the far-right National Rally, hard-left France Unbowed, the Green Party and the French Communist Party have not said they will meet with the president so far.

Referring to the record five-year reconstruction of Notre-Dame, which will open its doors once again on Saturday, Macron said “we are able to do great things … we can do the impossible”. But the task is critical. Naming a replacement means finding someone capable of leading a minority government in a parliament with no majority.

Meanwhile, Barnier will stay on in a caretaker capacity, overseeing everyday business until the president appoints a new government.

What can Macron do now?

Macron cannot dissolve parliament like he did in June to hold new legislative elections until at least June 2025, meaning policymakers will have to battle potential stalemates, depending on who is chosen for premiership.

Concerns about the French economy are building in the face of the political chaos. France’s debt could rise to 7 percent of GDP next year if significant budget reforms are not put in place.

While it would be possible to extend the 2024 budget to 2025, avoiding a US-style government shutdown, it would mean no new measures could be introduced. With this option, it is unclear how or even when a new budget could be passed. The budget extension would also have to be voted by MPs, who could oppose the decision.

Macron has promised to pass a “special” finance law that will guarantee the continuity of the state within the next ten days. Since it is the first time in 45 years that France will end the year without a budget, the law is essential to ensure that public services continue to function. He also promised that at the start of the new year, the new government will prepare a new budget.

Whatever happens, the French president must act quickly to stave off any further pandemonium.

Reappoint Barnier or opt for a similar profile

Macron would have every right, constitutionally-speaking, to reappoint Barnier as prime minister. He could argue that given these dire times, choosing someone supported by a common base of centre to right-wing parties, would be better suited to pass a budget bill.

While it seems unlikely that Macron will take this route, he may opt for a similar type of profile as Barnier. French daily Le Parisien floated the name of François Baroin, a member of the conservative Les Républicains party who has spent most of his career working in politics. Baroin ticks the same boxes as Barnier and is considered, by his supporters, to be capable of speaking with everyone while not straying far from Macron’s political agenda. Staunch conservative Bruno Retailleau, who served as interior minister under Barnier with a hard-line stance on immigration and who promised to “restore order”, has also been mooted.

But both men have the same disadvantage as the outgoing prime minister and would risk facing no-confidence votes. Neither would be democratically chosen and neither belong to the New Popular Front, the left-wing alliance that hold the largest share of seats in parliament.

Choose a close ally

The French president could be tempted to take back control by appointing one of his close friends, such as Sébastien Lecornu, who served as defence minister in Barnier’s now toppled government. Defecting from the Les Républicains party to throw all his weight behind Macron’s 2017 presidency, he has proven his track record as a loyal ally.

Some say this move would appease Le Pen. Rumours of Lecornu dining with the far-right leader in March were leaked by French newspaper Libération, allegations later denied by Lecornu. Le Pen also said she intended to let the new prime minister do the job by promising to work with whoever is chosen in an interview on French TV channel TF1 on Wednesday.

Find a sweet spot

With every government reshuffle, the same name pops up – that of François Bayrou. A centrist veteran whose MoDem Party has been part of Macron’s alliance since 2017, Bayrou has made his rural roots a key part of his political identity. He has unsuccessfully run for president three times in the past.

For his supporters, Bayrou is well-placed to convince at least part of the Socialist Party not to file a no-confidence motion against him and does not rub the far-right National Rally the wrong way either.

Choose a leftist

When Macron appointed Barnier in early September, he made it clear he did not want a left-leaning prime minister. Lucie Castets, the candidate for the New Popular Front, and Bernard Cazeneuve, who served as PM under Socialist president François Hollande, were both left by the wayside. 

Choosing someone like Cazeneuve could be a way to encourage Socialist lawmakers to stray from the leftist alliance and expand a centrist ruling group, but those rallying behind Macron have a fraught relationship with the left. What’s more, Macron does not want to hear about tax rises for the rich or repealing the controversial pension reform.

And appointing someone from the New Popular Front, such as Castets, is pretty much out of the question for the president. It would mean effectively acknowledging his defeat in the European and French parliamentary elections, which could lead to his party unravelling.

France is holding its breath to see who will lead its next government. But with every contender, the risk remains that MPs will choose to table a no-confidence motion and topple one pick after another.

Source: France 24

The UK government is hiring a new negotiator to help deliver a “reset” of relations with Europe.

The job posting says the role will lead the government’s relationship with the European Union and negotiations with the EU “on key UK interests”, with mentions of trade, security and border policy.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has committed to a “reset” of relations between the UK and EU, and previously said he would seek a better deal on trade than the one negotiated by Boris Johnson in late 2020.

However, the prime minister has said that resetting does not mean reversing Brexit.

The new negotiator role is advertised as “a high-profile senior position that will receive significant public scrutiny and political attention” in the job posting published online by the Cabinet Office.

The Second Permanent Secretary for European Union and International Economic Affairs would act as a “sherpa” – “a senior and personal representative of the prime minister at international summits and engagements”.

The person would be required to oversee and lead policy development on trade, including the Windsor Framework, the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, the Entry and Exit Scheme – a new upcoming digital EU border scheme – and other border policy questions.

The salary range is £153,000 to £200,000.

A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office said: “As we reset our relationship with the EU, building closer trade and security links and encouraging more investment from around the world, this new role will oversee that work.”

“Reporting to the minister for European Union relations, they will lead official-level discussions with the EU as we drive economic growth.”

Starmer has said he wants to strengthen relations with the EU.

In October, he made his first visit to Brussels since becoming prime minister, where he was welcomed warmly by EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Starmer called for closer co-operation on defence and security, climate change, irregular migration, and on delivering economic growth to help make Brexit work in the UK’s interest, he said.

US President-elect Donald Trump’s senior economic advisor Stephen Moore told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme last week that the UK “has to choose between the Europe economic model of more socialism and the US model which is more based on a free enterprise system.”

He said the UK is “caught in the middle”, but believed “Britain would be better off moving towards more of the American model of economic freedom and if that were the case, I think it would spur the Trump administration’s willingness to do the free trade agreement with the UK”.

Source: BBC

The Labour Party won a landslide victory in the UK general election on Thursday, making Keir Starmer the country’s first Labour prime minister in 14 years. Starmer’s victory caps a remarkable political rise for the former human rights lawyer and chief prosecutor, first elected an MP in 2015.

Always neat in appearance, with his well-combed greying hair, stern expression and dispassionate voice, 61-year-old Starmer is an outlier in UK politics compared to his peers and Conservative predecessors.

Far removed from the antics of the likes of Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Jeremy Corbyn and Nigel Farage – whose careers have been peppered with controversy and scandal – the Labour Party leader stands out for his ability to keep a low profile.

So much so, in fact, that little is known about 10 Downing Street’s new occupant.

A knight with humble origins

Sir Keir – he rarely uses the honorific title himself – was awarded a knighthood in 2014 for his services to “law and criminal justice”.

Starmer comes from a modest background. Born to blue-collar parents in 1962, Starmer was named after Keir Hardie,  founder of the Labour Party of which his parents were staunch supporters, and grew up in a small town in Surrey.

“My dad was a toolmaker and worked in a factory all his life, and my mum was a nurse,” Starmer often noted in speeches.

The first among four siblings to receive higher education, Starmer attended the University of Leeds from where he graduated with honours and a law degree before heading to Oxford for postgraduate studies.

Starmer then became a barrister in 1987, specialising in human rights law and represented death row inmates in Africa and the Caribbean.

Often providing legal advice for free, Starmer also worked on several high profile cases including the defence of environmental activists against McDonald’s and Shell.

Nicknamed “lefty lawyer” by opponents, Starmer took legal action against human rights violations in the context of the Northern Ireland conflict and helped set up the Northern Ireland Police Board following the Good Friday agreement that ended decades of violent conflict in Northern Ireland.

In 2008, Starmer was appointed Director of Public Prosecutions where he oversaw the prosecution of MPs charged with embezzlement and journalists accused of phone hacking.

A late start in politics

Starmer’s entry into politics came fairly late in life, at the age of 52.

He was first elected to parliament in 2015, serving as the member for his London constituency where he lived with his wife and their two children.

Quickly climbing the ranks of the Labour Party, Starmer soon became shadow Home Office minister before quitting the role in protest of former party head Jeremy Corbyn’s lack of leadership during the Brexit campaign.

Starmer went on to become the party’s spokesman on Brexit-related issues and eventually took over the party’s leadership when Corbyn stood down following Labour’s crushing defeat in the 2019 general elections against Boris Johnson’s Conservatives.

‘Conspiracy of silence’: Why Brexit has been largely absent from UK election campaign

It was from that point on that Starmer firmly established himself as a politician, said Thibaud Harrois, lecturer in contemporary British civilisation at Sorbonne-Nouvelle University.

“Keir Starmer made it his mission to turn the page on Jeremy Corbyn,” Harrois said, adding that “he started by dismissing all those accused of anti-Semitism from within the party, including Jeremy Corbyn himself.”

In May, Starmer expelled Corbyn from the party after suspending him over a row on anti-Semitism.

Intent on winning the popular vote, Starmer also started aligning Labour’s policies with the centre by preventing left-wing candidates from standing for the party.

Recentering Labour

“He really reshaped the then very left-leaning Labour Party in an attempt to appeal to a more centrist, even centre-right electorate,” Harrois said.

Politically, Starmer favours economic interventionism and social policies, while remaining firm on immigration and security, he said.

“But he always remains measured, refusing to make big promises and constantly reminds people that the state coffers are empty”, he added.

Harrois also highlighted Starmer’s “cautious” posture, often denounced by Tories and the hard left as “lacking in courage” and “prevents people from seeing his true position”.

While he has promised to repeal laws restricting the right to strike, he has backpeddled on his proposal to increase welfare benefits.

Starmer also watered down what was seen as his flagship policy: investing up to 28 billion pounds (€33 billion) a year in renewable energies.

Despite attracting criticism from both ends of the political spectrum for his ideas, Starmer sought to court the public’s favour by calling attention to his modest upbringing.

“Unlike Tony Blair, for example, Keir Starmer is well aware that he is not charismatic,” said Harrois. “By emphasising his background, he plays on the image of a man who is above all serious, straightforward and methodical,” he said, adding that Starmer’s cultivated image has become an asset “after years of scandals” in UK politics.

But Starmer’s arrival at number 10 is mostly “contextual”, driven by “the population’s desire for change”, Harrois said.

“In the current political landscape and in this particular context, he has succeeded in establishing himself as the serious alternative”, he said.

A position perfectly illustrated by Starmer’s campaign slogan, chanted at every meeting: “It’s time for change”.

Source: France 24