A ministry spokesperson said China will closely monitor the legislation process of the act and assess its impact and China and Beijing will resolutely defend Chinese firms’ legitimate rights and interests

International News via Reuters:

China commerce ministry on Friday expressed “grave concern” over the EU’s proposed Industrial Accelerator Act (IAA) which imposes restrictions on foreign investment in batteries, EVs, solar PV and critical raw materials, according to a statement.

A ministry spokesperson said China will closely monitor the legislation process of the act and assess its impact and China and Beijing will resolutely defend Chinese firms’ legitimate rights and interests.

The intensely debated IAA, unveiled Wednesday, will set low-carbon and ‘Made in EU’ requirements for public procurement of, or subsidies for, making aluminium, cement and steel, and technologies including wind turbines, electrolysers or electric vehicles.

The Chinese spokesperson said the bloc’s use of industrial development and green transition goals to justify new barriers amounts to protectionism that will backfire, undermine global trade rules and fair competition, and disrupt supply‑chain stability.

Reporting by Shi Bu and Ryan Woo; Editing by Toby Chopra

Reykjavik in 2013 abandoned EU membership talks after four years of negotiations

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Iceland should hold a referendum on August 29 on resuming talks to join the European Union, the Nordic country’s government said on Friday, fast-tracking a pledge to hold the vote no later than 2027 at a time of geopolitical unrest.

Reykjavik in 2013 abandoned EU membership talks after four years of negotiations, but a rise in the cost of living and the war in Ukraine in recent years rekindled the island nation’s interest in joining the bloc, polls have shown.

Repeated threats by U.S. President Donald Trump to annex Greenland, located between Iceland and the United States, also made the question of EU membership more pressing for the North Atlantic country, home to almost 400,000 people.

Foreign Minister Katrin Gunnarsdottir told a press conference the government’s decision on the proposal was unanimous, public broadcaster RUV reported.

The outcome of the membership negotiations with the EU will be subject to a second referendum on whether to join the bloc.

Reporting by Louise Rasmussen and Anna Ringstrom, editing by Terje Solsvik

There will be four more state elections this year

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German Chancellor Friedrich Merz faces his first electoral test since taking office last May on Sunday, when voters go to the polls in the south-western state of Baden-Wuerttemberg, offering his party a chance to reclaim dominance.

There will be four more state elections this year.

Baden-Wuerttemberg, home to Mercedes-Benz and a historic centre of Germany’s car industry, was for years a stronghold of Merz’s conservatives. But for the past decade, his Christian Democrats (CDU) have been the junior partner in a Greens-led coalition there.

Opinion polls suggest the partnership will continue, although it is unclear whether the CDU’s candidate – 37-year-old newcomer Manuel Hagel – or the more experienced Cem Ozdemir from the Greens will come out on top to replace the popular Green premier, Winfried Kretschmann.

With the latest poll for the broadcaster ZDF putting the two neck-and-neck on 28% support, a victory for the Greens could stir internal party discontent with Merz, whose own ratings have hit record lows.

Still, moderate former agriculture minister Ozdemir  would be unlikely to cause serious problems for the government in the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament that represents the states.

FAR-RIGHT AFD MAINTAINS STRONG SUPPORT

Aside from the choice of premier, there will be close attention to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has been polling at around 20%, maintaining the strong gains it has made across Germany in recent years.

Merz has ruled out any cooperation with the AfD, whose support in Baden-Wuerttemberg – one of Germany’s most prosperous regions – has been boosted by a crisis in the country’s car industry.

Also underlining the ongoing transformation in German politics is the possibility that the far-left Left Party will pass the threshold to enter state parliament, and the shrivelling in support for the centre-left Social Democrats to single figures in recent polls.

Overshadowing the election is the uncertainty caused by the U.S.-led conflict with Iran, which has already jacked up fuel prices and could stoke deeper economic problems if the war continues, although there is little sign of any direct impact on the vote.

“Voters are smart, they know that in Baden-Wuerttemberg, it’s about state political issues,” said Manfred Guellner, head of the polling group Forsa.

The Baden-Wuerttemberg election will be followed by a vote in the neighbouring state of Rhineland-Palatinate on March 22, then by ballots in Saxony-Anhalt, Berlin and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in September.

Reporting by James Mackenzie, editing by Andrei Khalip

Once among the most democratic and pro-Western of the successor states to emerge from the Soviet Union, Georgia has turned increasingly authoritarian since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine

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The European Commission said on Friday it was suspending visa-free travel for holders of Georgian diplomatic, service and official passports in response to what it called a deliberate and persisting violation of the commitments taken under its visa-free regime.

“Representatives of Georgian authorities have to use their diplomatic or service passport when travelling to the EU for official and diplomatic purposes. Not doing so may result in the issuance of an entry ban,” the Commission said in a statement.

Once among the most democratic and pro-Western of the successor states to emerge from the Soviet Union, Georgia has turned increasingly authoritarian since the outbreak of the war in Ukraine and has deepened economic ties with neighbouring Russia.

Reporting by Gianluca Lo Nostro; Editing by Makini Brice

Voters will choose from over 3,000 candidates to fill 102 Senate seats and 182 House seats, in a vote analysts predict will be divided among dozens of parties

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Colombians head to the polls on Sunday to elect a new Congress and choose three of the presidential candidates who will contest elections this May, a vote that will shape the next president’s ability to push through legislation and fulfill their agenda.

Voters will choose from over 3,000 candidates to fill 102 Senate seats and 182 House seats, in a vote analysts predict will be divided among dozens of parties, likely forcing the next president to form a coalition government. 

Some 41.2 million eligible voters will also be able to participate in consultations through which the right, center and left-wing parties will select their presidential candidates.

However, the candidates leading the polls, leftist Ivan Cepeda, an ally of current President Gustavo Petro, and right-wing Abelardo De La Espriella, will not participate in Sunday’s consultations but will be on the ballot for the May 31 presidential election.

Sergio Guzman, the director of consultancy firm Colombia Risk Analysis, said that with a Congress split among several political parties, “any government will see its legislative proposals diluted” and have difficulty getting them approved.

Morgan Stanley also expects Colombia’s fragmented party system to persist in Sunday’s legislative vote, meaning centrist and traditional parties will likely remain crucial to forming congressional alliances.

JPMorgan said Colombian assets currently price little extra election risk, suggesting the legislative vote alone is unlikely to move markets unless it clearly signals a shift in policy.

A divided result would likely keep markets steady. Stronger opposition momentum could support the peso and narrow sovereign spreads, while gains for the left could weigh modestly on local assets and keep fiscal concerns in focus.

For Guzman, the consultations to choose candidates will allow the right, the left, and the center parties to measure their strength in the lead-up to the presidential elections.

Petro has repeatedly questioned the software that will be used for the vote count in the elections, calling it unreliable and vulnerable to fraud, and has raised doubts about the way in which the physical tally sheets from the polling stations, called E-14, are filled out manually.

“The transparency of the Colombian electoral process is complete and absolutely guaranteed. There are absolute guarantees with the software and the E-14 forms,” ​National Registrar Hernan Penagos recently said.

The registrar denied the possibility the software used to tally the votes could be altered, and reiterated the main guarantee would be the 860,000 jurors at the 125,000 polling stations set up throughout the country, in addition to more than three million party witnesses.

Some 246,000 members of the military forces and the national police have been placed on high alert to prevent attacks by illegal armed groups seeking to disrupt the election or pressure voters to cast their ballots for certain candidates, Defense Minister Pedro Sanchez said this week.

Leftist guerrillas throughout the country often carry out attacks during elections, a common occurrence of the six-decade internal armed conflict that has left more than 450,000 dead in Colombia.

Report by Luis Jaime Acosta in Bogotá, additional report by Rodrigo Campos in New York, editing by Chris Reese