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The European Union is in mourning. From Paris to Brussels, via Berlin, tributes have been pouring in from across the continent since the announcement of the death of Jacques Delors on Wednesday at the age of 98. Former Minister of the Economy under François Mitterrand (1981-1984), he dampened the hopes of the left by refusing to run in the 1995 presidential election even though he was the big favorite in the polls.
From Brussels where he remained at the head of the Commission from 1985 to 1995, he played the role of architect in shaping the contours of contemporary Europe: establishment of the single market, signing of the Schengen agreements, Single European Act, launch of the Erasmus program, reform of the common agricultural policy or even the start of the Economic and Monetary Union which will lead to the creation of the euro.
kyiv sees the specter of money problems getting closer. The United States announced on Wednesday the release of $250 million in military aid for Ukraine, their last tranche available without a new vote in the American Congress. Negotiations are still slipping between Republican and Democratic parliamentarians on the validation of the 61 billion envelope insisted on by President Joe Biden and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
Since the start of the conflict, the Kremlin has been banking on the decline in Western aid, and any hesitation from kyiv’s allies reinforces Russia’s belief that its bet will be a winner.
Kim Jong-un steps up his threats. The North Korean leader called for his country to “accelerate war preparations”, including its nuclear weapons program, due to the “serious political and military situation” caused by the “confrontational maneuvers” of the United States and its allies, the official KCNA agency reported this Thursday.
These directives were announced during the plenary meeting of the central committee of the Workers’ Party of North Korea, the annual high mass of the single ruling party.