Kazan meeting ends in disappointment

Borrell underlined that the European Union will make every effort to support the peace process and to remain a committed partner to the Afghan people. "Of course, we will have to take into account the evolving situation, but disengagement is not an option.  We are clear on that: there is no alternative to a negotiated political settlement, through inclusive peace talks.

There is still a wide gap between East and West Germany, writes Marcel Furstenau on the website of the German broadcaster, Deutsche Welle. There is still a wide gap, even amongst young people who have only ever lived in a unified country. The new commissioner for eastern Germany, Elisabeth Kaiser, attempts to explain why. Elisabeth Kaiser is from Gera, in the eastern state of Thuringia. When the federal commissioner for eastern Germany was born in 1987, Germany was still divided. Two years later, the  Berlin Wall fell, and on October 3, 1990, the communist GDR  became history. "I did not consciously experience the period of reunification, but the stories of my parents and grandparents have shaped me," Kaiser wrote in an annual report presented in Berlin just in time for the 35th anniversary of German Unity Day. For the 38-year-old member of the centre-left Social Democratic Party (SPD) this is a first, as she has only been in office since May 2025, when the new federal government was formed.