Europe

European leaders and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney are meeting in Armenia on Monday for a European Political Community summit focused on security and geopolitical tensions as uncertainty grows over US policy under President Donald Trump. The talks in Yerevan come amid strains over the Iran conflict, the war in Ukraine and shifting transatlantic ties.

US President Donald Trump's abrupt decision to withdraw thousands of troops from Germany has refocused attention on the US military presence in Europe, which not only acts as a deterrent to Russia but also allows Washington to project US power across the globe. Here's a look at the current American military deployment in Europe and the possible implications of Trump's move.

The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency will accept more data from clinical trials in China to accelerate drug approvals.

The regulator plans to set out a strategy later this year, as it wants to leverage the depth of research coming out of China at an ever-increasing rate.

“It’s got to a stage where Western countries like ourselves can no longer have a strategy of not accepting Chinese data — particularly pre-clinical data — to initiate clinical trials here, because what we will end up doing is closing ourselves off to some of the most promising innovative drug development,” Lawrence Tallon, chief executive officer at the MHRA, said in an interview.

Agree with the text but is a bit annoyed that yet again biomethane is forgotten.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/46365188

Storm Daniel, which struck central Greece in September 2023, devastated the town of Palamas, leaving behind a chaotic mix of mud, debris, dead cattle, and shattered lives.

Vaios Giatropoulos moved with his family to a village where their home is on higher ground. Returning is unthinkable. “I don’t want to feel that sense of dread with every drop of rain. For several months, we feared it would flood again. I even thought about seeing a psychologist,” he recalls.

Giotopoulos belongs to a steadily expanding group of Europeans: the continent’s first climate migrants. Displacement within national borders is no longer an academic issue, as more people are affected by storms, floods, wildfires and droughts.

The Geneva-based NGO Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) estimates that approximately 413,000 people were displaced in the EU between 2008 and 2023. So far, 2023 has been the worst year on record, with over 200,000 Europeans internally displaced, mostly due to wildfires and storms.

A woman with stage IV cancer said: I’ve already sent you an invitation to my funeral… I can’t afford it.

Why are cuts hitting us citizens… but not politicians?

Merz, visibly irritated, shot back:

At no point… was it ever considered to raise government salaries.

I would be grateful if you would not repeat that unchecked.

German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said he has told his Iranian counterpart Abbas Araghchi in a phone call that Tehran must reopen the Strait of Hormuz to international shipping and abandon its nuclear weapons program." "I emphasised that Germany supports a negotiated solution," Wadephul said in a post on X about the call. "As a close US ally, we share the same goal: Iran must completely and verifiably renounce nuclear weapons and immediately open the Strait of Hormuz, as also demanded by" US Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Iran virtually closed off the strait — a vital waterway for the transport of oil, gas and fertilizer — after the US and Israel launched attacks on it on February 28 and has so far not reopened it despite the current ceasefire, causing economic disruption across the globe. However, it denies wanting to produce nuclear weapons and says its uranium enrichment activities, which are viewed with suspicion by many Western countries, are for civilian purposes only.

Austrian police detained a 39-year-old man in connection with an attempted blackmail case in which rat poison was placed in jars of baby food produced by the German brand HiPP, a spokeswoman for the Public Prosecutor's Office in Eisenstadt told Germany's DPA news agency on Saturday. The APA news agency cited police as saying that the suspect was arrested in Burgenland, a state in southern Austria. Earlier, the Austrian tabloid newspaper Kronen Zeitung reported that the suspect had been arrested in the state of Salzburg, which borders Germany. The prosecutor's office has confirmed that the suspect has been detained in Austria. His identity has not been disclosed for tactical reasons relating to the ongoing investigation. Police have stated that he is currently being questioned.

Update/correction: Merz said exchange of words with Trump not reason for American withdrawal

There is no connection between the withdrawal of 5,000 American troops from Germany and the public exchange of words between US President Trump and German Chancellor Merz. Merz stated this in an interview with the German broadcaster ARD.

🚨 KITE Insta Analysis: A 25% US tariff on EU autos would hit Europe’s automotive core hard. In our KITE simulation, 🇩🇪 Germany’s auto-sector output falls by almost €15bn in the short run and about €30bn in the long run. Losses are also sizeable in 🇮🇹 Italy, 🇸🇰 Slovakia, and 🇸🇪 Sweden.

The broader macro hit is smaller than the sectoral one — but still meaningful. Real value added falls most in 🇸🇰 Slovakia (around -0.85% short run), followed by 🇩🇪 Germany, 🇭🇺 Hungary, and 🇸🇪 Sweden. This is what deeply integrated auto supply chains look like under tariff stress.

For 🇩🇪 Germany, the EU remains by far the biggest destination for automotive exports. But outside Europe, the 🇺🇸 US is the single most important market — ahead of 🇨🇳 China and 🇬🇧 the UK. That helps explain why US auto tariffs would bite German industry so directly.

For the EU as a whole, the biggest extra-EU destinations for automotive exports are the 🇺🇸 US and 🇬🇧 UK, followed by 🇨🇳 China, 🇹🇷 Türkiye, and 🇨🇭 Switzerland. So even a sector-specific US tariff would hit one of the EU’s most important external export markets.

As always, huge CAVEAT: We don’t have any details beyond “25% on EU automotives”. So these simulations give us direction and sense of magnitude, no “exact” forecast

Source: Julian Hinz on X/Twitter.