At a Senate hearing soon after President Trump’s first election eight years ago, Marco Rubio had a simple question for the next U.S. secretary of state: “Is Vladimir Putin a war criminal?” Mr. Rubio, then a Florida senator, posed the question to the Texas oilman Rex Tillerson at his confirmation hearing in January 2017. He … Read more
Pope Francis’ complex lung infection is not immediately life-threatening, his doctors said Friday, from the Rome hospital in which he has been treated for the past week, but they warned he is “not out of danger.” The 88-year-old pontiff, who had part of a lung removed in his youth, would remain in the hospital for … Read more
A watercolor by Egon Schiele, “Boy in a Sailor Suit,” is scheduled to be sold next month in London at Christie’s after the auction house brokered a settlement between the consignor and the heirs of a Viennese cabaret performer who owned the work before he was killed in a Nazi concentration camp. The 1914 portrait, … Read more
As the United States and Russia begin talks to end the war, Moscow is pressing its advantage on the battlefield by closing in on Dnipropetrovsk, one of Ukraine’s largest regions and one with a major industrial base. Russian troops are now less than three miles from the region’s border, and they have been pushing forward … Read more
The Swedish authorities said on Friday that they were investigating a new cable break in the Baltic Sea, the latest example of damage to underwater infrastructure in the region. The Swedish Coast Guard said that it had been informed of the cable break on Thursday and was en route to the area, off the eastern … Read more
It has been a rocky few months for Christian Lindner, and for the German political system that he has thrown into chaos. In November, Mr. Linder, who was the federal finance minister, effectively toppled Germany’s fragile government in a bid for his political life. He goaded Chancellor Olaf Scholz into expelling him from the ruling … Read more
As the United States and Russia begin talks to end the war, Moscow is pressing its advantage on the battlefield by closing in on Dnipropetrovsk, one of Ukraine’s largest regions and one with a major industrial base. Russian troops are now less than three miles from the region’s border, and they have been pushing forward … Read more
When German voters go to the polls on Sunday, the fate of companies like SKW Piesteritz will be at the top of their minds. The chemical factory halved its annual Christmas bonus for workers last year, and it just shut down one of its two ammonia plants. Hammered by high energy costs and what they … Read more
While the United States and most of the European Union have shrugged off the pandemic recession and restarted their economic engines, Germany remains idled. Its economy shrank slightly in 2024, after adjusting for rising prices. Forecasts for this year don’t look much better. And other measures look even worse. They show an economy rapidly sliding … Read more
