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It’s time for a plan C in Ukraine

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:44:44 GMT

Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor at POLITICO Europe. Last November, top United States general Mark Milley, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, infuriated Kyiv — as well as some more hawkish officials from President Joe Biden’s administration — by comparing the conflict raging in Ukraine to World War I, and suggesting stalemate had been reached.Around Christmas of 1914, Milley said, “you’ve got a war that is not winnable anymore, militarily.”Later, speaking at New York’s Economic Club, he added: “When there’s an opportunity to negotiate, when peace can be achieved, seize it. Seize the moment.” The following week, he repeated his suggestion that the time had arrived for negotiations — Ukraine’s successful counteroffensives around Kharkiv in the northeast and Kherson in the south meant Kyiv could negotiate from a position of strength.“Russia right now is on its back,” Milley said.Milley was wrong about WWI — the war was militarily winnable — and was done so by the Western al...

Meloni’s Western nationalism

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:44:44 GMT

Anthony J. Constantini is writing a PhD on democratic spread and populism at the University of Vienna.Since becoming Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni has been something of a surprise for Brussels-based skeptics.As leader of the post-fascist Brothers of Italy, many had expected her to be a firebrand alá Hungary’s Viktor Orbán. But she has instead sought a different goal: to become the first populist-right leader to forge a genuine Pan-European alliance.And if she’s successful, it could change the game in Brussels forever.Domestically, Meloni has toned down her previously anti-European Union language. And when it comes to foreign policy, she has been resolutely pro-Ukraine, visiting the country and speaking out against then coalition partner Silvio Berlusconi’s pro-Russia statements. Meloni has also been on good terms with other European leaders, and has even managed to get along well with United States President Joe Biden — a rarity for populist-right European leaders. Surprisi...

Rishi Sunak is attempting a leadership reset. He may be too late

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:44:44 GMT

LONDON — Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sees himself as a problem-solver. But the task of fixing his own leadership style may prove too much, even for him.With the Tories lagging far behind in the polls and having suffered two big by-election defeats in July, the party is demanding a “reset” of both Sunak’s approach to governing and his broader vision for the country.MPs and other Conservative insiders say they would like to see the PM demonstrate with more aggression and passion that he is on the side of voters and determined to make a difference to their lives.Last week’s long-anticipated ministerial reshuffle proved an anti-climax, more limited in scope than originally planned. A more dramatic reorganization has been shunted into the late fall, according to two people familiar with Sunak’s thinking.For some, this is yet more evidence of Sunak’s overly cautious approach, with time running out before next year’s general election. “It’s absurd,” said one generally-loyal...

What being thrown out of Russia taught me about the Kremlin’s war on the media

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:44:44 GMT

During my 10 years as a Moscow-based journalist, I struggled to imagine how and when I would eventually leave Russia.  Half Russian myself, I had moved there in 2013, keen to learn more and report on a country that I felt was often misunderstood by many in the West.In the end, the decision was made for me last month when a representative of Russia’s foreign ministry called to tell me that my visa would not be renewed and I had six days to leave.The decision, I was told, had been taken by the “relevant authorities,” a term widely used to refer to the security services.After POLITICO published a news story on my expulsion, I received a message from a fellow journalist wishing me luck.“The same thing happened to me,” they wrote.In the days since, other colleagues have shared their stories about their de facto expulsions from Russia. Most have deep ties to Russia and speak the language fluently.Taken together, their cases illustrate a worrying trend: Journalists from Western c...

Munich car show a grim affair for European automakers

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:44:44 GMT

BERLIN — Consider this a final warning for Europe’s car industry.The IAA motor show gets up and running in Munich on Monday, but rather than purring Mercedes engines and silhouettes of sleek new Porsches wrapped under sheets of crisp satin cloth, the spotlight will be on Tesla and China’s insurgent all-electric brands.After a few years of sparring, this is where rivals to Europe’s legacy brands start landing punches.In a rare motor show appearance, Elon Musk’s Tesla is set to unveil an updated version of its best-selling Model 3 in Munich, while Shenzhen-based BYD — the country’s largest electric car company — will have a record six models on show in the IAA exhibition halls.The show’s organizers say 41 percent of those exhibiting will be Asian companies, which includes big battery-makers from South Korea such as LG and Samsung. The roster of Chinese companies has more than doubled since the last bash in 2021, and that includes market leaders in ba...

Jasson Domínguez belts second homer as young Yankees sweep Astros

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:44:44 GMT

HOUSTON — Having already homered off one Yankees killer in his major league debut, Jasson Domínguez teed off on another on Sunday.The 20-year-old, playing in just his third game, cranked his second home run in the sixth inning when Cristian Javier hung a slider over the inside part of the plate. The two-run blast broke a 1-1 tie, thus paving the way for a 6-1 win and series sweep for the Yankees.The Yankees had not swept the rival Astros in a three-game series since September 2013. Domínguez, who homered off the 40-year-old Justin Verlander on Friday, was just 10 years old at the time.The right-handed Javier entered Sunday’s start with a 1.83 ERA over 19.2 career innings against the Yankees, and he mostly cruised until the sixth. A DJ LeMahieu double got the Bombers on the board just before Domínguez’s blast.Javier totaled six innings, four hits, three earned runs, zero walks, eight strikeouts and 96 pitches.Gleyber Torres added a run in the ninth wh...

One dead in multi-vehicle crash in Caledon

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:44:44 GMT

One person is dead following a two-vehicle crash in Caledon. Provincial police were called to a crash on Highway 10 near Olde Base Line Road just before 7 p.m. Sunday evening. One person was pronounced dead at the scene while two others sustained non-life threatening injuries.

Francis opens clinic on 1st papal visit to Mongolia. He says it’s about charity not conversion

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:44:44 GMT

ULAANBAATAR, Mongolia (AP) — Pope Francis wrapped up the first-ever papal visit to Mongolia on Monday by inaugurating a church-run homeless clinic and shelter, insisting that such initiatives aren’t aimed at winning converts but are simply exercises in Christian charity.Francis toured the House of Mercy, a three-story structure housed in an old school, which the local church has opened as an expression of the roots that it has taken in the three decades that the Catholic Church has had an official presence in Mongolia. It was the final event of an historic four-day visit to a region where the Holy See has long sought to make inroads.Several of the foreign-staffed Catholic religious orders in Mongolia run shelters, orphanages and nursing homes to care for a population of 3.3 million where one in three people lives in poverty. But the new clinic for homeless people, people with disabilities and victims of domestic violence is aimed at showing the outreach of the Mongolian Catholic Chu...

Lynx clinch playoff berth with 86-73 win over Phoenix; Cheryl Reeve gets 300th win as coach

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:44:44 GMT

Kayla McBride and Napheesa Collier have been the sparkplugs for much of the Lynx season.With the outcome in doubt, both did their thing Sunday.But so did many others in a second-half surge as Minnesota pulled away to beat lowly Phoenix 86-73 and secure a postseason berth.“This is a team that’s got a belief in themselves, and that third quarter I thought was really special the way we came out exactly how we needed,” said coach Cheryl Reeve, who earned win No. 300 in her 14th season as Lynx coach. Only Mike Thibault (379) and Bill Laimbeer (306) have more in WNBA history.Collier had eight of her 22 points, and McBride seven of her 23, in the deciding frame that saw the Lynx turn a halftime tie into a 15-point lead.“On the defensive end is where we stood out and that got us out in transition,” McBride said. “Then it became fun at that point. When we’re playing off our defense that’s the best version of us. We came out with a different fire, a different mentality.”But this one was far f...

You Paid For It: How Hazelwood got out of the financial hole

Published Fri, 27 Dec 2024 22:44:44 GMT

HAZELWOOD, Mo. - The city of Hazelwood was in a deep financial hole, but is beginning to see some light thanks to projects like the Aviator Business Park, a 155-acre development off North Lindbergh Boulevard at the site of the abandoned Ford plant.Hazelwood had been flirting with bankruptcy at one point.“It was a really big deal when the Ford plant closed and we had to figure out what we wanted to do, and we were able to come up with a development agreement with Panattoni for them to come in a clean up the site,” Hazelwood City Manager Matthew Zimmerman said.Ford employed more than 2,000 people at the Hazelwood plant and generated over $3 million a year in revenue for the city. Gateway Cup Cycling event takes center stage in The Hill neighborhood “To see all that close and leave was pretty scary for our community,” Zimmerman said. “But we’ve survived it, we’ve had a lot of success in a lot of areas. We were able to grow some of that revenue back and some of those jobs back.”And th...