International News

German union IG Metall said on Friday it has reached a deal with Volkswagen to avoid involuntary redundancies at the carmaker’s production sites in Germany by 2030. Union representatives have been in talks for weeks with the company – Europe’s biggest automaker – over cost-cutting measures, including plans to close three plants and cut jobs. … Read more

Preparing to support Ukraine “in all scenarios’ – that’s how the head of the EU Council described the gist of the last European summit of the year, before Donald Trump returns to the White House. We explore the EU’s preparedness with Belgian Foreign Minister Bernard Quintin He raises the thorny issue of possible troop deployments … Read more

Sweden announced it would cease funding the UN Palestinian refugee agency (UNRWA) after Israel decided to ban its operations from January, citing alleged links to the October 7, 2023 attacks. Instead, Sweden said it will increase humanitarian aid to Gaza through other UN and international organizations. Source link

A delegation of US diplomats on Friday met with representatives of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, marking the first in-person official meeting between the US and Syria’s new de facto rulers amid uncertainties over the county’s political future following Bashar al-Assad’s ouster. Source link

This week on Paris des Arts: Riad Sattouf, the graphic novelist and film director, takes us to Paris’s Musée des Arts et Métiers. His comic books have been translated into 23 languages, as he captivated the world with his series “The Arab of the Future,” which sold 3.5 million copies. He tells us more about … Read more

Things may look bleak for the European Union in the depths of winter, with challenges across the board: the threat of a trade war with the US, weakened political figures in Germany and France, European farmers threatening protests about the Mercosur deal, an uncertain outcome for the conflict in Ukraine, more budgets being tightened for … Read more

As has so often been the case since the overthrow of communism 35 years ago, Romania is currently teetering between the tragic and the macabre. It is simultaneously sad and disgusting that a massive backlog of reforms and a deep distrust of politicians have propelled extreme right-wing, pro-Russian fraudsters to major electoral successes in recent … Read more

Nations around the Indian Ocean are preparing to mark 20 years since a devastating earthquake and tsunami wiped entire villages off the map and killed around 230,000 people. Even though early warning systems and preventive measures have been put in place since the tragedy, the trauma of the disaster on December 26, 2004 still haunts … Read more