Power Play

15 hours ago | politico.eu | Seb Starcevic

The European Union’s culture chief hit out at Eurovision for banning performers from waving the EU flag, saying Europeans should not need permission to celebrate their identity. The circle of stars was forbidden at last year’s event in Malmö along with other non-national flags, drawing a sharp rebuke from Brussels.

17 hours ago | politico.eu | Mari Eccles

BRUSSELS ― Forget the smoke-filled backrooms of the EU's glory days. Forget hushed conversations in crowded Brussels bars. Forget even the Finnish saunas so beloved of Nordic diplomats. Where most politics takes place these days is over WhatsApp. And Wednesday's bombshell "Pfizergate" ruling means that — in theory — we should be able to get far greater access to officials' and politicians' text messages. After all, who's going to bother going back to the 1980s?

18 hours ago | politico.eu | Nick Dearden |Peter Maybarduk

Nick Dearden is the director of Global Justice Now. Peter Maybarduk is the Access to Medicines director of Public Citizen. Both are members of the People’s Medicines Alliance. U.S. President Donald Trump has more tariff chaos up his sleeve, and medicine in his sights. This week, he issued an executive order blaming America’s sky-high drug prices on other countries — and pharmaceutical tariffs could be next.

1 day ago | politico.eu | Noah Keate

Prime minister’s questions: a shouty, jeery, very occasionally useful advert for British politics. Here’s what you need to know from the latest session in POLITICO’s weekly run-through. What they sparred about: The economy, mostly. Tory Leader Kemi Badenoch picked Keir Starmer’s brains on the U.K.’s grim economic outlook — and got an unwelcome reminder of the Liz Truss era in reply.

1 day ago | politico.eu | Noah Keate

LONDON — Mark Carney made clear his fellow Canadians “weren’t impressed” when Britain offered Donald Trump a historic second state visit. The Canadian prime minister, whose Liberal Party won the country’s federal election last month after a race shaped by anger at the U.S. president, told Sky News the offer from U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer was grating. “To be frank, they [Canadians] weren’t impressed by that gesture … given the circumstance,” Carney told Sky News.