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Defense lobbyists send their big guns to Brussels

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:15:23 GMT

BRUSSELS — For a peace project, the European Union is building a pretty generous war chest — and lobbyists are gearing up to pry it open.With EU leaders set to give their final sign-off this week on a plan to lock arms and buy arms together, the bloc is speeding toward a new stage of defense integration. In the leadup, weapons-makers from both sides of the Atlantic have been clamoring for facetime with key commissioners and EU lawmakers, while lobbying firms are drafting military experts for their Brussels office.“In 20 years in public affairs, I’ve never seen so much development on a policy area as on defense in the last five years,” said Benoît Chaucheprat, a co-founder of C&V Consulting, a three-year-old boutique firm that’s unique in Brussels for its focus on defense policy.It would be a mistake, however, to solely credit Vladimir Putin’s war on the EU’s border for the bloc’s shifting perspective. “We can’t say that the invasion of Ukraine is a g...

Ammo for Ukraine? EU might not be up to the task

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:15:23 GMT

Paul Taylor is a contributing editor at POLITICO.PARIS — The European Union is breaking new ground with an ambitious plan to jointly procure urgently needed ammunition for Ukraine and to ramp up European defense industries for a new era of confrontation with Russia.This has become a crucial test for the credibility of common European defense efforts — but it’s a daunting challenge for an organization that was born as an economic peace project without a military bone in its body.And some EU members aren’t sure Brussels is up to the job.With Ukraine burning munitions faster than the entire Western world’s arms factories can churn them out, expanding manufacturing capacity that’s shrunk for 30 years is now the bloc’s top priority. Thus, the EU has agreed to spend €1 billion to transfer more of its members’ existing munitions stocks to Kyiv, and another billion to jointly order the most frequently used 155-millimeter NATO standard artillery shells from European industry. Eighteen c...

Live blog: European Council summit

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:15:23 GMT

And we’re back. Roughly six weeks after EU leaders last gathered in Brussels, they’re returning for more.This time, the guests may be a little lower wattage — Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s February visit brought out hordes of onlookers. And the topics may be a little less contentious — migration kept leaders up all night. But that’s not to say there won’t be drama. Germany’s fractious coalition government is feuding with the EU over its attempts to phase out traditional, combustion engine cars. And French President Emmanuel Macron’s government is teetering amid strikes and no-confidence votes over his push to raise the retirement age. That’s all before getting to the official agenda. During the two-day session, EU leaders are expected to approve a deal to send Ukraine 1 million rounds of ammunition over the next 12 months and discuss their attempts to keep clean tech investments from fleeing for the U.S. and its enticing subsidies.They’l...

How Charles Michel lost the room

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:15:23 GMT

Growing criticism won’t stop the European Council president from looking for his next job. Photo-illustration by Anthony Gerace for POLITICOBRUSSELS — Her patience finally exhausted, the Danish prime minister rounded on Charles Michel.Mette Frederiksen had expected a certain amount of disorder. Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit that day to Brussels had upended the usual business of the European Council summit she was attending, along with the European Union’s 26 other national leaders.But with evening falling, the Ukrainian president gone and the EU Quarter emptying out, the conversation in the room — on migration and the economy — was still flitting from topic to topic. Some leaders took advantage of the disorder to re-up proposals that had been dismissed during negotiations among ambassadors ahead of the February gathering.And so, in a rare interjection, the Danish prime minister took to the mic to voice her displeasure. But the target of her ire wasn’t the subject of the debate; ...

Germany and France steal the show — again

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:15:23 GMT

Germany’s coalition government can’t stop bickering. France is a country in revolt. And the EU’s two biggest countries are bringing their baggage to Brussels. EU leaders had hoped to focus on the economy and foreign affairs when they gather in Brussels on Thursday for a two-day summit. But Germany and France have already hijacked the occasion. Berlin is mounting a last-minute attempt to stop an already-settled plan — phasing out traditional, combustion engine cars by 2035. And Paris is miffed that the EU omitted the nuclear industry from a legislative package meant to keep clean tech investors in Europe and away from the U.S. and its alluring subsidies.Then there are France’s domestic woes. The country will grind to a halt on Thursday as trade unions call for workers to down their tools and protest President Emmanuel Macron’s deeply unpopular push to raise the retirement age. Public transport, schools, waste collection and train services are expected to be disrupted. ...

Man shot to death in East County identified

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:15:23 GMT

SAN DIEGO -- A man killed in a shooting Monday in the Lemon Grove area has been identified, authorities said.Gregory Moore, 39, of San Diego, was announced as the deceased, Lt. Chris Steffen with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department stated in a news release Wednesday. 6-year-old boy killed in crash The incident occurred Saturday around 10 p.m. in the 2800 block of Lemon Grove Avenue, where deputies found Moore unconscious with gunshot wounds to his left upper leg and lower body in a vehicle, according to law enforcement. Authorities applied a tourniquet to the victim's leg before the paramedics arrived, but he later died at the hospital due to his injuries.Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call the Homicide Unit at (858) 285-6330/after hours at (858) 565-5200.  You can remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

Australia decides referendum question to create Black Voice

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:15:23 GMT

CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian government on Thursday released the wording of a referendum question that promises the nation’s Indigenous population a greater say on policies that effect their lives.Australians will vote sometime between October and December on the referendum that would enshrine in the constitution an Indigenous Voice to Parliament.An emotional Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said such a body promoting Indigenous views to the government and Parliament was needed to overcome Indigenous disadvantage.“We urgently need better outcomes because it’s not good enough where we’re at in 2023,” Albanese told reporters.Indigenous Australians from the Torres Strait archipelago off the northeast coast are culturally distinct from the mainland Aboriginal population. The two peoples account for 3.2% of the Australian population and are the nation’s most disadvantaged ethnic group.“On every measure, there is a gap between the lives of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander...

Thai police bust call scammers who preyed on older Americans

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:15:23 GMT

BANGKOK (AP) — Thai police said Wednesday they busted an international gang that operated call centers to deceive older Americans into wiring them money, netting more than 3 billion baht ($87 million).Police said they arrested 21 suspects Tuesday after raiding nine locations in four Thai provinces, seizing 162 bank accounts, 61 mobile phones, two cars, one gun, and multiple real estate properties. Another Thai suspect was arrested Wednesday. U.S. agents took part in the raids.The suspects, including five Indian nationals and 15 Thais, have been charged with involvement in transnational crime, fraud by impersonating others, fraud of the people, inputting false information into computer systems that causes damage to others, money laundering and conspiring to launder money.The scammers claimed to be law enforcement agents investigating money laundering and told victims their funds were suspicious so needed to be transferred to them to be verified, police said. In addition to that fairl...

Police find two more victims at site of fatal fire in Old Montreal, total now 4

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:15:23 GMT

MONTREAL — Police say two more bodies were recovered Wednesday from the wreckage of a building in Old Montreal that was destroyed by fire last week, bringing the total number of confirmed victims to four.A Montreal police spokesman said the bodies of the third and fourth victims have been turned over to a pathologist for identification as the search for others continues.Earlier Wednesday, one of the first two confirmed victims was identified and police said at least five others remained missing in the rubble of the historic building.Police Insp. David Shane identified the victim as 76-year-old Camille Maheux.Maheux’s body was recovered from the fire on Sunday evening; a second body was removed from the rubble on Tuesday but has not yet been identified. “The investigation and search for other victims are ongoing,” Shane told reporters at the scene Wednesday after formally announcing Maheux’s death.Firefighters and police said a fire tore through the historic s...

Uvalde parents get rendering photos of new school replacing Robb Elementary after mass shooting

Published Sun, 23 Feb 2025 10:15:23 GMT

AUSTIN (KXAN) -- Parents in Uvalde are now getting a look at what the new elementary school replacing Robb Elementary will look like after the May 24 mass shooting killed 19 children and two teachers.The new campus is expected to accommodate 800 students. That is nearly twice as big as Robb Elementary.The new campus will have a lot of new security measures, including fencing around the play fields, keyless entry points and privacy gates that are 9 feet tall, officials said. Additionally, there will be a secure waiting space at the front of the campus for visitors, as well as a new road to help first responders access the school to the north.There are also plans to memorialize the 21 Robb Elementary shooting victims in the school's new design.At a recent rally at the Texas Capitol, passionate chants for school safety lulled into pained silence as Caitlyne Gonzales took the microphone that day. ’21 for 21′: Hundreds join Uvalde survivors at Texas Capitol to call for gun safety “I re...