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A woman votes during the parliamentary elections, in Pristina, Kosovo, February 9, 2025. R
Who could Kurti team up with? The Democratic Party of Kosovo, or PDK, and the Democratic League of Kosovo, LDK, are projected to receive 21% and 20% respectively, while the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, the AAK, got 6%.
But it is possible that the opposition parties could form a government on their own. Former Prime Minister and AAK leader Ramush Haradinaj said he was “looking forward to cooperating on the creation of an opposition government” to keep Kurti out of power, and Kurti himself has said he would not engage with the opposition parties.
What’s at stake? Under Kurti’s leadership, tensions escalated with both neighboring Serbia and Kosovo’s Serb minority. His left-leaning government banned the use of the Serbian dinar and shut post offices used by Serbs, drawing criticism from Western governments and leading the EU to suspend aid funding. In contrast, both the LDK and PDK are center-right and pro-Western, with the PDK campaigning on rejoining NATO and restoring relations with the US.
Should Kurti form the next government and continue with his anti-Serb stance, Kosovo risks becoming even more isolated. But should the opposition take power, it could redefine Kosovo’s relations with the US and the EU – which it wants to join – and potentially relaunch peace talks with Serbia.Spanish Vox party leader Santiago Abascal presided over the European Patriots Summit in Madrid over the weekend. The event brought together numerous conservative leaders from across Europe under the banner of "Make Europe Great Again."
Who are the Patriots and what do they want? Formed after the May 2024 European election, the bloc includes 86 members from 14 countries, representing 19 million votes. It is the third largest group in the 720-seat European Parliament, and it opposes green policies, migration, gender and family diversity, and “population replacement.” It wants to change the EU’s governance structure to one based on national sovereignty and boost Europe's economic competitiveness.
Could the Patriots make it happen? Other right-wing parties, including Italy’s Fratelli d’Italia, or FI, Poland’s Law and Justice, and the German AfD have so far refused to join. However, in a letter sent in late January, the European Conservatives and Reformists group, home to Italian Prime Minister and FI leader Giorgia Meloni, urged the center-right European People’s Party to ally with the Patriots. And as tariffs loom, Le Pen claims that the group is the only one that can “talk with the new Trump administration.”
We’ll be watching whether the AfD or other parties change their tune about joining the Patriots – and how this impacts the EU’s ability to negotiate with Trump.Hard Numbers: France sends jets to Ukraine, Black women suffer higher maternal mortality, Ismailis get new Aga Khan, Football fans get ready to rumble
A Mirage 2000 fighter jet of the French Air Force takes off.
6 of 26: The French Air Force delivered the first batch of Mirage 2000 fighter jets promised to Ukraine. According to a budget report, France was to transfer six of its 26 Mirage 2000-5 aircraft, but the Elysee will neither confirm nor deny the number “for security reasons.” France also reportedly trained Ukrainian pilots and mechanics to operate the planes.
3.5: Black women in the US died at a rate nearly 3.5 times higher than white women during childbirth in 2023, according to new data released this week. While maternal mortality overall fell below pre-pandemic levels, racial gaps widened. The maternal death rate for Hispanic and Asian American women fell from 17 to 12 and 13 to 11 (deaths per 100,000 live births), respectively, and the rate for white women dropped from 19 to 14.5, but the rate of Black maternal death rose from 49.5 to just above 50.
50: Following the death of the Aga Khan on Tuesday, his eldest son, Prince Rahim Al-Hussaini, has been named the 50th hereditary spiritual leader of the world’s 15 million Shia Ismaili Muslims. Like his father, Prince Rahim is considered a direct descendant of the Prophet Muhammad.
116.8 million: Are you ready for some football? A whopping 116.8 million viewers are expected to tune in to Super Bowl LIX on Feb. 9 to watch the Kansas City Chiefs take on the Philadelphia Eagles. But the big numbers aren’t just on the screen: Locally, the event is expected to generate $76.3 million in spending in New Orleans: $66.1 million for accommodations, $8.6 million in restaurants, and $1.6 million on transportation. That’s a lot of beer and chicken wings.
Hard Numbers: DOGE cuts boost Palantir stocks, Shooter rampages at Swedish school, Trump makes “rare” demand of Ukraine, Rebels in DRC announce ceasefire
Tesla CEO and X owner Elon Musk addresses a stadium audience in Washington, DC, on Inauguration Day.
10: At least 10 people were believed to be dead following a shooting at an adult education center in central Sweden on Tuesday. As of this writing, police have not released information about the shooter’s identity or motive, except to say that it was a man who is believed to have acted alone.
500,000: What does Donald Trump want in exchange for continuing to support Ukraine? Something rare. The US president suggested on Monday he wanted US access to Ukraine’s rare earths and critical minerals – those used in batteries, microchips, and other advanced technologies. China currently dominates the global supply. Ukraine has at least 15,000 hectares worth of deposits already mapped out, and 500,000 tons of Lithium which could be worth tens of trillions of dollars. Kyiv said it was “ready to work with America.”
900: After more than 900 people were killed last week in the battle for Goma, a key city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels who have wrested control of the city from the Congolese army announced a unilateral ceasefire on Tuesday. The move is meant to facilitate the arrival of humanitarian aid. DRC and Kenyan leaders are to meet next week in a fresh attempt to end the more than three-year-old conflict.Ian Bremmer shares his insights on global politics this week on World In :60.
What does Putin mean when he says Europe "will stand at the feet of the master"?
It means that he loves to troll his adversaries. Don't you remember when he said that he actually thought Biden would be a better president from Russia's perspective than Trump? He trolls. It's all misinformation. It's propaganda. It's all served to undermine and show that he's powerful, and he can say whatever he wants. And of course, he would love to see a fight between the Americans and their allies, whether it's the Nordics on Greenland or it's Canada on 51st state, or it's Panama on the canal, or it's Europe on tariffs. And he wants to undermine the countries that gets a divide and conquer kind of response from Putin. And that is what he is doing when he trolls the Europeans.
What's next for Panama after deciding to exit China's Belt and Road Initiative?
Well, certainly, of all the countries that are facing a deeply asymmetric relationship on the back of threats from President Trump, Panama is high on that list. And they really are trying to find a way to avoid tariffs and avoid the Americans squeezing them on the canal. And an easy way to do that, because they've heard this now directly from Trump and from Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, is that the Chinese have too much influence over transit. And that is particularly true through these port facilities that a Hong Kong-based company, read, China, is in charge of. And so, they are opening investigations into the contract and into how they engage there. And they're also saying they'll pull out of Belt and Road. All of that is clearly going to upset and antagonize the Chinese. And I think that the Panamanians are very, very comfortable showing that they are going to orient much more towards the United States, given how much more they rely on the Americans.
How would a potential Turkey defense pact with Syria reshape power dynamics in the Middle East?
Given who's on the ground in Syria and the fact that the Americans are likely to pull out the over 2,000 troops they have there, and that Trump has said it's really up to Turkey to maintain that relationship, they were the ones that were closest to the rebels that ended up defeating, overthrowing Assad's regime. Not surprised at all that that is where the diplomacy is heading. But that doesn't mean that it's going to be stable, and it certainly doesn't mean that the Kurds on the ground are going to be handled well. And that will be what we need to watch carefully. But Turkey, a NATO ally that has a lot of influence across the region and particularly now on the ground with Syria, I think that'll be relatively stable given the support from the United States. That's it for me, and I'll talk to you all real soon.
Cabs drive along Westminster Bridge in front of the British Parliament with the Elizabeth Tower and the famous Big Ben bell.
The United Kingdom is set to unveil the world’s first national law criminalizing the use of artificial intelligence tools for generating child sex abuse material, or CSAM.
Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said in a Sunday BBC interview that AI is leading to “online child abuse on steroids.” A series of four laws will, among other things, make it illegal to possess, create, or distribute AI tools designed to make CSAM, which would carry a maximum five-year prison sentence. The government will also criminalize running websites where abusers can share this material or advice about cultivating it.
The Internet Watch Foundation, which focuses on eliminating CSAM on the internet, issued a new report on Sunday showing that AI-generated CSAM found online has quadrupled over the past year.
The United States criminalizes CSAM, but there’s some gray area about whether AI-generated content is treated the same under federal law. In 2024, 18 states passed laws specifically outlawing AI-generated CSAM, but so far there’s no federal law on the books.Lettering on a logo of the European Union, AI-Act, the symbolic image for the laws and regulation of artificial intelligence in Europe.
As of Sunday, companies in Europe cannot legally use AI for facial recognition, emotion detecting, or scoring social behavior. The penalty is steep: up to $36 million in fines or 7% of global annual revenue.
The AI Act was formally adopted in September after years of deliberation in the European Union’s deliberative bodies. This is the first major government to bring comprehensive AI regulation to bear, and the rest of the law’s provisions will roll out over the next year and a half.
Europe had already gone much further on AI safety than the US federal government under Joe Biden, but with Donald Trump in office — who recently scrapped Biden’s safety-focused AI executive order — the gap in regulation between America and Europe promises to be even greater.
Trump has vowed to retaliate against the EU over the AI Act, which he previously called a “form of taxation,” but that threat wasn’t enough to deter Brussels from plowing ahead.