Belgium reached an agreement to form a coalition government on Friday, the nation’s monarchy announced, ending seven months of partisan squabbling over deeply unpopular proposed cuts to social spending and other issues. Full details about the agreement were yet to be officially released. The new government was formed under the stewardship of Bart De Wever, … Read more
The man who has been heavily favored to become Germany’s next chancellor took an extraordinary gamble this week, both for his political future and his country’s longstanding firewall against political extremism. It did not go as he hoped. In an effort to portray himself and his party as tough on immigration, Friedrich Merz, the leader … Read more
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government was “insufficiently transparent” about foreign interference in Canadian politics and sometimes took “too long to act’’ against attempts to meddle in the country’s past two general elections by foreign powers including China and India, a government commission said on Tuesday. “Trust in Canada’s democratic institutions has been shaken, and it … Read more
Washington — Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat, said he won’t seek reelection in 2026, in a surprise announcement that opens up a key seat in the battleground state. Peters, 66, has represented Michigan in the Senate since 2015, after serving in the House. He worked as chairman of the Senate Democratic campaign arm in … Read more
The speaker of the House has for centuries played a singular role among political leaders in the United States, as the only partisan figure in Congress who is also explicitly empowered by the Constitution to lead the legislative branch. One wouldn’t necessarily know that from watching the recent behavior of Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of … Read more
Elon Musk told a gathering of the hard-right Alternative for Germany party this weekend that the country has “too much of a focus on past guilt,” an apparent effort to wipe away the long shadow of the Nazis that has influenced generations of Germans to quarantine extreme political parties from public life. “It’s good to … Read more
The man who is favored to be Germany’s next chancellor has opened the door to working with the Alternative for Germany to pass tough new immigration restrictions, potentially breaking a longstanding effort to shun a party whose flirtation with Nazi language has made it anathema to the political mainstream. The opening by Friedrich Merz, the … Read more
Anita van Duyn, a former retail entrepreneur who left Science of Identity in 1994 after more than a decade in the group and knew Ms. Gabbard as a young woman, has written a letter to members of Congress warning that Ms. Gabbard is “under the complete influence of” Mr. Butler, who she said “harbors ambitious … Read more
When Aleksandr G. Lukashenko last ran for president of Belarus, the former Soviet republic he has led since 1994, he faced an unusual phenomenon: rival candidates who actually tried to win. His eventual victory in that election, in 2020, widely regarded as fraudulent, was met with nationwide protests, a subsequent brutal crackdown supported by Russia … Read more
At the start of his second term President Trump has positioned himself at the crest of a global wave of hard-line conservative populism, offering fuel and inspiration to surging nationalist parties in the European Union and beyond. Those parties are generally united by tough stances against immigrants, support for what they call “traditional” values in … Read more