Author: Daily Sabah With DPA
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen was hospitalized for a week with severe pneumonia but has since returned home, dpa has learned. Von der Leyen posted a photo on Instagram on Friday showing her working from home, with the caption “Home sweet home… office!” The 66-year-old spent around a week in the University Hospital in the central German city of Hanover, dpa learned. The commission said von der Leyen was not in intensive care and had been in daily contact with her team while in hospital. A commission spokesman had previously said von der Leyen was suffering from severe…
Tens of thousands of members of the paramilitary Basij militia have travelled to Tehran as part of a large-scale manoeuvre, media reported on Friday. The Tasnim news agency reported that around 110,000 members took part. The drill, entitled Rahian-e Quds (Travellers to Jerusalem), was part of a major military show of strength that took place against a backdrop of growing domestic and international tensions. Military equipment was also on display at a parade in the centre of the Iranian capital. Elsewhere in the country, the commander of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), Hussein Salami, commented on the recent change…
After the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) was detected in a herd of water buffaloes in the eastern German state of Brandenburg, pigs in a nearby region are also to be culled, officials said Friday. The deputy district administrator of Märkisch-Oderland, Friedemann Hanke, said that all cloven-hoofed animals within 1 kilometre of the pasture with the affected water buffalo herd would be killed. This includes a pig farm with around 200 animals in the neighbouring district of Barnim, as well as four sheep. The outbreak in Märkisch-Oderland, not far from Berlin, represents the first known cases of FMD in Germany…
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Thursday that he is working to persuade US President-elect Donald Trump to ease access for European partners to US weapons systems. Rutte told dpa that European allies are already investing hundreds of billions of dollars in the US defence industry. However, he believes that much more could be achieved if the US defence sector were liberalized, removing the need for approval from the Congress, the Pentagon and the White House . Rutte pointed to European demand for Patriot missile defence systems. “They cost 2 billion a piece. So this is huge money for…
The sister of OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman has filed a lawsuit in the United States alleging that he regularly sexually abused her over a number of years, starting when they were children. The lawsuit alleges that the abuse began when Ann Altman was 3 and Sam Altman was 12, and also includes an allegation of rape – with the filing alleging the last instance of abuse took place when Sam Altman was an adult but Ann Altman was still a child. In a joint statement posted to his account on X with his mother and two brothers, the OpenAI…
US President-elect Donald Trump said that NATO countries should be spending 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence, up from the current 2% target. “They can all afford it, but they should be at 5% not 2%,” he said during a press conference at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida. “I’m the one that got them to pay 2%,” he continued. Trump, who returns to the White House on January 20, has long been a critic of NATO, claiming that many European members are free-riders who don’t pay their way, relying instead on US taxpayers. At a campaign rally last…
Former NATO secretary general Jens Stoltenberg is set to travel to Washington for the inauguration of incoming US president Donald Trump on January 20. Stoltenberg, who is set to become the head of the Munich Security Conference (MSC), told dpa on Tuesday that his focus will be on strengthening US-European relations in his new role. Stoltenberg is expected to officially take over the role of chairman of the MSC after the upcoming conference meeting from February 14 to 16. With Stoltenberg, a former prime minister of Norway, the world’s largest conference on foreign and security policy will be led by…
Justin Trudeau said on Monday he plans to step down as leader of his governing Liberal Party and as Canada’s prime minister after nearly a decade in power. Trudeau made the announcement in a speech from his Rideau Cottage residence in Ottawa, after weeks of mounting pressure from inside and outside his party. He will continue on as prime minister – a position he has held for nine years – until a new party leader is chosen. “I intend to resign as party leader, as prime minister, after the party selects its next leader thorugh a robust, nationwide, competitive process,”…
More Ukrainian military forces are to be reinforced with drone units, commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Sunday, with a separate drone brigade soon to be put into operation. “We are finalizing the concept of a separate drone brigade and its typical structure, and we are on the home straight,” Syrskyi wrote on Telegram after a meeting with commanders of Ukrainian drone units. “I am also observing the dynamic increase in the effectiveness and survivability of our unmanned systems,” Syrskyi said. Drone units hit 54,000 Russian targets in December 2024 alone, he said, adding that so-called kamikaze drones were used in…
Former Greek prime minister Konstantinos Simitis, who has been credited with paving the way for the south-eastern European country to join the eurozone, has died, Greek Health Minister Adonis Georgiadis posted on the social media platform X on Sunday morning. Simitis, a Social Democrat, was 88. Numerous Greek politicians and former colleagues, as well as political opponents, praised Simitis as the “architect of Greece’s accession to the eurozone” in 2001. Simitis served as Greek prime minister between 1996 and 2004. During his time in office, he tried to modernize his country and reduce red tape according to his motto, “Modernization…