Macron and Starmer to guide Europe’s Trump attraction offensive after they journey to US – Europe dwell | Europe

Pope Francis is exhibiting enchancment, is alert and performing some work, the Vatican mentioned, because the 88-year-old pontiff started his eighth day in hospital battling pneumonia, Reuters reported.

Vatican spokesperson Matteo Bruni mentioned in a short replace on Friday that Francis had slept properly in a single day and was capable of eat breakfast.

A Vatican official, who didn’t want to be named as a result of he was not authorised to discuss the pope’s situation, mentioned that Francis was respiration on his personal, with out assist of any machines.

The pope was capable of transfer round his hospital room, was taking some cellphone calls and was persevering with to do some paperwork, the official mentioned.

Sweden is investigating a attainable breach of an undersea cable off the island of Gotland on the nation’s southwestern coast within the Baltic Sea, the coastguard mentioned on Friday, in an space the place a number of seabed cables have been broken in current months.

The Baltic Sea area is on alert and the Nato alliance has boosted its presence after a sequence of energy cable, telecom and fuel pipeline outages since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. Most have been brought on by civilian ships dragging their anchors, Reuters famous.

Swedish prime minister Ulf Kristersson mentioned in a social media submit that he was being saved updated on the related authorities as they’re investigating the reviews.

“We take all reviews of attainable injury to infrastructure within the Baltic Sea very significantly. As I mentioned earlier, they should be seen within the context of the severe safety scenario that exists,” he mentioned.

Morning opening: Attraction offensive

Jakub Krupa

French president Emmanuel Macron and UK prime minister Keir Starmer will lead Europe’s attraction offensive subsequent week as they each journey to the US to satisfy with president Donald Trump in an more and more determined bid to alter his thoughts on Ukraine and European safety.

Macron outlined components of his technique on Thursday evening. Throughout a Q&A session on social media that he would inform Trump to not be “weak” on Russian president Vladimir Putin, warning in regards to the penalties that might have in relation to different powers all over the world, like China. “That’s not who you might be, it’s not your trademark,” he mentioned he would argue. Let’s see if this works.

However different leaders, like Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, are additionally rumoured to be wanting into easy methods to get to see Trump quickly.

Touchdown these European arguments with the US president won’t be straightforward, however Ukraine’s future and the continent’s safety are at stake.

A number of nations in central and japanese Europe signalled rising considerations about Russia probably attempting to make use of the peace talks to revive its plans for “spheres of affect,” and request the elimination of US troops within the post-1997 Nato member states like Poland and Romania, with far-reaching penalties for his or her safety.

Earlier than anybody will get to Trump, Poland’s overseas minister Radosław Sikorski is anticipated to discuss all these points with US state secretary Marco Rubio when the pair meets in Washington tonight.

Nonetheless, taking a look at this checklist of names exploring diplomatic channels to get to the US, there’s a notable absence of anybody representing Germany.

Amid the whirlwind of developments in Ukraine, it’s straightforward to lose sight of the German federal election this Sunday, which commentators describe as probably probably the most consequential in a long time.

And with simply two days to go, greater than 1 / 4 of German voters are but to determine who to vote for. This might nonetheless change the consequence and trigger an upset on Sunday evening.

In a serious coverage speech in Berlin in 2011, on the top of the euro disaster, Poland’s Sikorski mentioned he feared German energy lower than German inaction. Might this nonetheless be the case 14 years later within the new safety atmosphere?

And if that’s the case, will post-election Germany have the ability to ship on that?

It’s Friday, 21 February 2025, and that is Europe dwell. It’s Jakub Krupa right here.

Good morning.