Danes head to the polls on Tuesday, with Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen having called early parliamentary elections after her ruling Social Democrats received a big boost from U.S. President Donald Trump. Frederiksen could have waited until October 2026 to call the vote, but moved early after standing up to Trump’s aggressive threats to annex Greenland earlier this year. Her defiance generated a surge of support for the party just months after it suffered a historic defeat in local elections last October.  But foreign policy won’t carry the day in this election. Voters are focused on domestic issues, while Denmark’s fracturing coalition government — with two other party leaders challenging the prime minister — has turned Tuesday’s vote into a cliffhanger.  WHAT WILL DECIDE THE VOTE?  While Denmark may have come together to resist the pressure from the White House, voters are most concerned about what’s happening at home. Ahead of the vote Danish parties debated a plethora of divisive issues, none of which proved decisive. A poll published by Epinion on Monday suggested almost one in five Danes still didn’t know who they’d vote for.   Everything suggests that Frederiksen’s center-left party, the Social Democrats, will prevail in the vote. Her big talking point has been the revival of a wealth tax that hasn’t been enforced in Denmark for 30 years, and whose reinstatement would thrill left-wing voters. But her main challenger, Deputy Prime Minister Troels Lund Poulsen, leader of the center-right Venstre party, argues the measure will prompt the richest Danes to emigrate, weakening the country’s competitiveness.  Politicians have also debated whether to reinstate the country’s “Great Prayer Day” holiday that Frederiksen’s government abolished in 2024, or to step up efforts to clean polluted drinking water, improve animal welfare, lift the ban on nuclear power, increase defense spending, and tighten migration rules.   RED OR BLUE?  Denmark’s political spectrum has long been divided between a red bloc of left-leaning parties and a blue bloc on the right. In 2022, however, Frederiksen broke with tradition by forming a broad centrist government. The current coalition brings together her Social Democrats with the conservative Venstre party and the liberal Moderates led by former Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen.  Polls suggest the red and blue blocs are running almost even, with Rasmussen’s Moderates poised to play kingmaker. Support for the red bloc currently translates into 83 seats, while the blue bloc would get 80 — with 90 seats needed for a parliamentary majority. With Frederiksen and Poulsen heading in different directions politically, a repeat of the current coalition government appears unlikely.   That means Rasmussen will likely decide which direction the country goes in if the elections transpire as forecast. Frederiksen has warned that if Rasmussen doesn’t decide to work with her, “then we will, with a very high possibility, get a right-wing government in Denmark.”  Rasmussen has removed himself from contention to become the next prime minister, and has offered instead to mediate the formation of the incoming government. COCAINE-GATE  In the leadup to the vote, the blue bloc’s largest party, the Liberal Alliance, sparked a media frenzy after leader Alex Vanopslagh — a candidate for PM — admitted to using cocaine during his early days as party leader in the mid-2010s. Some 42 percent of Danes said the 34-year-old politician’s drug use had left them less able to see him as the country’s leader.   The parties in the blue bloc have thrown their support behind Venstre’s Poulsen. But with the Liberal Alliance primed to win the most votes on the right, Vanopslagh is insisting the party should be the one to lead if Denmark ends up with a conservative government.  Liberal Alliance leader Alex Vanopslagh arrives for a debate in Copenhagen on Feb. 26, 2026. | Ida Marie Odgaard/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Images At the same time, he says, he won’t stand in Poulsen’s way. “It won’t be me who ends up derailing a right-wing alliance after the election,” Vanopslagh said on Sunday.  GREENLAND IN THE SPOTLIGHT  For all the domestic focus, Greenland still has a key role to play in Denmark’s election — just not the one you might expect. Greenland and Denmark’s other autonomous territory, the Faroe Islands, each hold two seats in the country’s parliament, and those could prove decisive given how tight the race is.   That could prove a major obstacle for a right-leaning government. According to Lasse Lindegaard, Greenland correspondent at public broadcaster DR, those who represent the islands would be highly unlikely “to back a government that includes or relies on support from the [far-right] Danish People’s Party,” whose leader Morten Messerschmidt has dismissed the idea of Greenland’s independence as “immature and absurd.”  Then there’s the Faroe Islands, which will hold their own parliamentary election just two days after Denmark. Politicians in both self-governing territories are questioning whether to scrap the requirement that they send representatives to the Danish parliament.  “We should enter negotiations with Denmark on an equal partnership — and at that point, we would no longer need our seats in the Danish parliament,” said Beinir Johannesen, leader of the Fólkaflokkurin party and a likely contender for prime minister of the Faroe Islands. THE LOGISTICS  Polls in Denmark open at 8 a.m. on Tuesday and close at 8 p.m. The country uses a proportional representation system, meaning the number of seats that parties win is proportional to their share of the national vote. Exit polls will be published shortly after the polls close, but given how close the race is a definitive outcome may not be clear until late Tuesday evening after all votes have been counted, or even early Wednesday morning.   Then comes the hard part: forming a government. With the two sides so closely matched, the process will almost certainly take weeks. Denmark’s next government is certain to be a coalition, but whether it commands majority or minority support in the parliament remains to be seen. The latter scenario has been the norm in Denmark for decades, but often produces weak prime ministers who must constantly seek the support of other parties under the threat of no-confidence motions. 

HOW TWO WARS ARE PULLING EUROPE AND THE US APART The EU is worried President Trump could abandon Ukraine if the bloc doesn’t support him in the Middle East. By NICHOLAS VINOCUR in Brussels Illustration by Natália Delgado/ POLITICO  The biggest fear of European leaders is that Donald Trump’s war in Iran will lead him to abandon Ukraine. Governments are terrified that the U.S. president could retaliate against America’s European allies for spurning his appeals for assistance in the Middle East, primarily by cutting off what’s left of U.S. help for Kyiv, according to four EU diplomats with knowledge of their discussions. As they scramble to avoid a permanent break in the transatlantic relationship, leaders hope their offer of limited support for his action against Tehran will suffice to convince Trump to stay the course in the conflict with Russia. The war in Iran “must not divert our attention from the support we give Ukraine,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the end of last week’s EU summit in Brussels. It’s easy to see why EU leaders are so anxious. In recent days Trump has repeatedly blasted them for failing to do more to help him unblock the Strait of Hormuz, the shipping route used by about 20 percent of the world’s oil that has effectively been closed by Iran. He has also explicitly linked continued U.S. involvement in NATO to the Middle East conflict. “NATO IS A PAPER TIGER!” he railed in a Truth Social Post over the weekend. “They complain about the high oil prices they are forced to pay, but don’t want to help open the Strait of Hormuz … COWARDS,” he concluded. “[W]e will remember.” At the same time, further deepening fears about the transatlantic alliance, Moscow offered Washington a quid pro quo under which the Kremlin would stop sharing intelligence with Iran if Washington ceased supplying Ukraine with intel about Russia, POLITICO revealed on Friday. While the U.S. declined the offer, according to two people familiar with the U.S.-Russia negotiations, the fact it was proffered in the first place points to a possible tradeoff between U.S. involvement in Ukraine and the Middle East. “There’s a crack right now emerging between, you know, Europe and the U.S., which, again, as an avid pro-American and transatlanticist, I lament,” Finnish President Alexander Stubb said in an interview with the Daily Telegraph. “But it’s a reality that I have to live with. And I obviously try to salvage what I can.” MISSILES LIKE CANDIES Governments are concerned that the war in Iran is using up missiles and air defense munitions that Kyiv needs to protect itself against Russia, the four EU diplomats, who were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive diplomatic exchanges, told POLITICO. “When you see what Trump did on Greenland, how he cut off intelligence-sharing with Ukraine on a whim, there’s always a risk [that Trump could remove U.S. support for Ukraine],” one of the diplomats said. “The concern is obviously that the Middle East is taking attention away from Ukraine,” added a second diplomat from a mid-sized EU country. “The Emiratis are shooting out Patriot [air defense missiles] like candies, whereas Ukraine desperately needs them. It can’t become an either-or situation” in which the U.S. only has enough bandwidth for one conflict and abandons Ukraine, the diplomat added. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has been explicit about the risk of such a tradeoff, telling the BBC on Thursday that he had a “very bad feeling” about the impact of the Middle East war on Ukraine. He lamented the fact that as the war goes on, U.S.-led peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia are being “constantly postponed” in what the Kremlin calls a “situational pause.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is pictured at Moncloa Palace in Madrid, Spain on March 18, 2026. | Alberto Gardin/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images Ukrainian negotiators traveled over the weekend to the U.S. for talks with Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner. The latter praised the talks as “constructive” in a post on X, but gave no hint of when negotiations with Russia would resume. DAMAGE CONTROL European leaders, including France’s Emmanuel Macron, Britain’s Keir Starmer and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, are ramping up efforts to show they support the U.S. president’s goal of freeing up the Strait of Hormuz. In a now familiar role, Rutte has been outspoken in praising Trump’s efforts. The former Dutch prime minister last week called the destruction of Iran’s military capacity by the U.S. and Israel “very important,” linking it to “European security” at a time when some EU leaders, like Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, have criticized the war as “illegal.” Macron has been more circumspect in public, but active behind the scenes. In two separate calls with Trump before last Thursday’s gathering of EU leaders, the French president assured his U.S. counterpart that France would help clear the Strait when conditions allow, according to comments from Trump himself and a third EU diplomat who was briefed on the calls. “This is about managing the man,” the diplomat said. In the early hours of Friday, Macron — who has otherwise pledged to send a naval detachment to the Strait of Hormuz after the hot phase of the war dies down — said France was pursuing the aim of freeing it up via the United Nations. In response to a question from POLITICO at the European Council on Thursday, the French leader said Paris intends to “sound out its main partners” about tabling a resolution in the Security Council on securing freedom of navigation in the vital waterway. Trump is no fan of the United Nations, but he could see an advantage to a U.N. Security Council resolution that forms the basis for a broader coalition to free up the Strait, a fourth EU diplomat said. The southern suburbs of Beirut after an Israeli airstrike on March 10, 2026. | Fadel Itani/AFP via Getty Images The U.K.’s Starmer is also doing more to help Trump in the Middle East. Following reports that Iran had fired a ballistic missile at the Diego Garcia U.S.-U.K. base in the Indian Ocean, Starmer gave the U.S. a green light to use British bases to launch strikes on Iranian sites targeting the Strait of Hormuz. Previously he had only granted permission for the bases to be used for defensive strikes. Starmer was also the main organizer of a statement signed by seven EU and allied countries (the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Canada and Japan) in which they expressed their “readiness to contribute to appropriate efforts to ensure safe passage through the Strait.” Asked about the intent of this statement, which doesn’t promise any immediate material help, the third diplomat said: “It’s part of the same effort. We need to show Trump we are active in the Middle East. It’s in our interests, but also in Ukraine’s.” Such pledges remain vague for now. Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have both asserted they have no intention of being drawn into the war in Iran. But as far as Trump is concerned, “appearances matter — sometimes more than substance,” said the same diplomat.

TOULOUSE, France — The prospect of the hard-left France Unbowed party taking control of Toulouse, France’s fourth-largest city and home to Europe’s best-known airplane maker, is putting industry on edge. It’s not just that a win in the second round of local elections Sunday could give the party’s anticapitalist leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a major boost ahead of next year’s presidential election. That’s a concern for later. The immediate fear is that if France Unbowed makes history here — the party has never come close to controlling such a big metropolis — it will heap taxes on local icons like Airbus to pay for a generous manifesto that includes water subsidies, free public transport for residents under 26 years old, and free school meals and educational supplies. “I’m concerned it will jeopardize plans for new firms and factories to open in Toulouse, including the future prospects of Airbus,” said Pierre-Olivier Nau, the president of the employers’ lobby MEDEF in the Haute-Garonne department, which includes Toulouse. Nau also worries that the hard left’s opposition to adding a high-speed rail connection between Bordeaux and Toulouse, due to cost at least €14 billion, will harm businesses that have been expecting it a long time. France Unbowed’s mayoral hopeful argues the project will damage the environment and push up rents in Toulouse by attracting commuters or remote workers from other cities with higher salaries. A TIGHT RACE MEDEF and other business lobbies are now scrambling to react, given France Unbowed was never expected to get this close to power in Toulouse. Its candidate, lawmaker François Piquemal, was polling behind his Socialist Party rival François Briançon in the run-up to the first round of the vote last Sunday. The Socialist leadership had vowed not to work with the hard left after the torrent of criticism unleashed against Mélenchon following accusations of antisemitic behavior and his unapologetic reaction to the death of a far-right activist. So Piquemal’s second-place finish and his quickly formed alliance with Briançon to topple the longtime center-right mayor, Jean-Luc Moudenc, came as a surprise. The runoff is expected to be close. A poll released Thursday showed Moudenc winning by just two points in the second round, within the margin of error. Two local employers’ lobbies recently slammed the hard left’s plans for Toulouse, and a group of 350 local celebrities, including rugby luminaries and business owners, signed an open letter calling on citizens to vote against France Unbowed. “A lot of business projects have been put on hold,” said Nau. Piquemal says this is scaremongering. The 41-year-old former teacher denied he will raise taxes and downplayed talk among business leaders that Airbus, the region’s dominant employer responsible for more than 200,000 direct and indirect jobs, would reduce investments or shift facilities if he were elected. Airbus declined a request for comment. A general view shows an entrance of the Airbus Defence and Space campus in Toulouse on October 16, 2024. | Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images “Moudenc’s policies, but also [President Emmanuel] Macron’s policies, have worsened living conditions in Toulouse,” Piquemal told reporters in Toulouse on Thursday. “We are the ones who support jobs, we support companies,” he added. “We are the ones defending small shop owners against big corporations.” A soft-spoken man with a light beard and warm manner, Piquemal is characteristic of the new generation of radical left activists in France. He’s just as comfortable discussing toxic masculinity and making videos on TikTok as he is campaigning for rent controls or against Israel’s war in Gaza. He was aboard the so-called Freedom Flotilla with Greta Thunberg and MEP Rima Hassan, carrying aid to Gaza before they were all arrested by Israeli forces. Piquemal, however, is much more understated than his party’s flamethrowing leader. But he’s benefiting from the success of Mélenchon’s adversarial approach to politics. France Unbowed is trying to establish itself as the ultimate anti-establishment party ahead of what is expected to be a showdown with the far right in next year’s presidential election. Most polls show Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella’s party, the National Rally, is currently the favorite in the race for the Elysée. “France Unbowed is the most solid, the best-placed to build a barrage against the far right,” said Ismael Youssouf-Huard, a France Unbowed activist and candidate for the Toulouse city council. “Mélenchon is the sensible choice against the National Rally,” he said. Results in the first round of voting have gone some way toward validating Mélenchon’s provocative approach. France Unbowed won the poor, diverse city of Saint-Denis in the Paris suburbs outright in the first round and is on track to score the mayor’s job in the industrial northeastern city of Roubaix. Hard-left candidate François Piquemal talking to voters in the impoverished Reynerie neighbourhood in Toulouse. | Clea Caulcutt/POLITICO The election in Toulouse is seen as a major test case for Mélenchon ahead of the 2027 presidential election. Can he and his party confirm its leadership role on the left ahead of the presidential election or will more moderate voters, turned off by the hard left’s radicalism, flock toward the opposition? ‘ARE YOU READY FOR SUNDAY?’ At a market squashed between a burnt-out drug dealers’ den and a tower block in the Reynerie neighborhood, Piquemal is trying to get people to vote. “Are you ready for Sunday?” he asked, as he handed out leaflets. “You need to go and vote.” In the Reynerie market, shoppers are pleased to see him. “I’m so happy he did well in the first round,” said Claude Compas, a retired special education teacher. Thibaut Cazal, a leftwing candidate for the city council, hopes to beat abstention in the poorer neighbourhoods of Toulouse. | Clea Caulcutt/POLITICO But some voters are worried about the prospect of the far left running the city. “They say they’ll give free public transport to the youth, but nothing’s free,” said retiree Abdallah Taberkokt. “Who’s going to pay? We are.” Piquemal was generally warmly received — little surprise considering Reynerie swung heavily for him in the first round of the vote. Still, Piquemal thought there was more excitement than usual in his core constituencies. He said he was harnessing “greater momentum” than during the last local election six years ago, when Moudenc narrowly defeated a more moderate candidate backed by a united left. Piquemal’s supporters believe their champion will pave the way for a unified left, despite the fact that the first round of voting exposed deep divisions nationally over local alliances with Mélenchon and the hard left. “These local elections are going to make history,” said Thibaut Cazal, a candidate for councilor alongside Piquemal. “It’ll show that left-wing families can be reconciled.” France Unbowed may still fall short in Toulouse. But even if it does, the party will have proved that it cannot be ignored ahead of the big presidential showdown in 2027.

The Trump administration may suspend sanctions on Iranian oil already at sea in a bid to clamp down on energy prices that have shot up amid the war in the Middle East, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Thursday. It’s the latest play weighed by the administration to stabilize the oil market against price shocks since the U.S. and Israel launched their joint operation in February. The maneuver could free up 140 million barrels of Iranian oil for global use, Bessent said. “In essence, we will be using the Iranian barrels against the Iranians to keep the price down for the next 10 or 14 days, as we continue this campaign,” he said on Fox Business. It’s one of several “levers” Bessent said the administration has at its disposal, as Iranian attacks cripple the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway that carries roughly 20 percent of the world’s oil supply. The administration could also make more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve available, Bessent added. The administration already started making 172 million barrels from the SPR available. “So we have lots of levers, we’ve got plenty more that we can do,” Bessent said. “Some countries are going to do more, the U.S. could unilaterally do another SPR release to keep the price down.” The White House has discussed adding up to 100 million more barrels to the administration’s pledge last week, said a person familiar with the plan who was granted anonymity to discuss conversations within the administration. “Some military advisers are concerned [about] draining so much, and are pushing for more like 50 million barrels on the concern that further destruction of oil and gas infrastructure in the [Middle East] region could leave the country vulnerable from a reserve standpoint,” this person said. A spokesperson for the Department of Energy — which controls the SPR — said in a statement following Bessent’s interview there were currently no plans for another release. “The United States has taken several actions thus far to mitigate disruptions to energy markets,” DOE spokesperson Ben Dietderich said. “While the U.S. continues to consider all options to keep markets supplied, there are currently no plans for an additional SPR release.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Oil and product flows through the strait have plummeted from roughly 20 million barrels a day to just “a trickle,” the International Energy Agency reported last week, marking the largest supply disruption in history. U.S. gas prices are up by more than 85 cents per gallon from the start of the war. Bessent called the blockade a “temporary chokepoint” and implored American allies to help secure the strait. “They’re the ones who need this oil,” he said. “The U.S., we’re an oil exporter.” Trump, in the meantime, has skewered American allies, oscillating between calling for their assistance to insisting on Truth Social that “WE DO NOT NEED THE HELP OF ANYONE.” “We are intervening in markets by creating this excess supply with oil that’s on the water,” Bessent said Thursday.

The EU has sent assistance to Moldova after a Russian attack on a Ukrainian hydroelectric station, which is suspected of polluting the Dniester River, left hundreds of thousands without safe drinking water. The river, also known as the Nistru river, flows through both countries. The Russian attack took place upstream of Moldova. “Russia’s attack on Ukraine’s Novodnistrovsk hydropower plant has spilled oil into the Nistru River, threatening Moldova’s water supply,” wrote President Maia Sandu. “Russia bears full responsibility,” she added. The city of Bălți and the surrounding areas in northern Moldova have been without running water for several days, according to Prime Minister Alexandru Munteanu.  “Our teams are working around the clock on the ground, using all available resources, and our priority is to restore the water supply. However, this will only be done under conditions that fully ensure people’s safety and health,” wrote Munteanu. Russia’s ambassador to Moldova, Oleg Ozerov, was summoned by the government on Monday to answer for the damage, and was “gifted” a plastic bottle filled with polluted water from the Dniester River. Brussels triggered its Civil Protection mechanism on Tuesday to provide emergency assistance to the affected areas of the Moldova, which is an EU candidate country. Luxembourg and neighboring Romania have sent rescue supplies, it was announced today. Russia has frequently targeted Ukraine’s energy infrastructure since invading the country more than four years ago. Neighboring countries have been affecting previously, too, with Russian drones sometimes violating EU countries’ airspace.

The EU is exploring options to protect the Strait of Hormuz including by changing the mandate of its naval missions in the region, top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas said Monday after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened NATO allies if they don’t help. But some EU states are already pushing back, with Luxembourg’s Deputy Prime Minister Xavier Bettel saying that his country would not give in to “blackmail” from the United States to participate in the Iran war. “With satellites, with communications, we are very happy to be useful. But don’t ask us with troops and with machines,” Bettel, who is also foreign minister, said on his way into a gathering of foreign envoys in Brussels on Monday. “Blackmail is also not what I wish for,” Bettel added. The EU is under growing pressure from Washington to help secure freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz, with Trump telling the Financial Times over the weekend that it would “very bad for the future of NATO” if European allies fail to respond to his appeals or refuse to participate. “It is in our interest to keep the Strait of Hormuz open,” Kallas told journalists. “That’s why we are also discussing what we can do from the EU side. We have been in touch with the U.S. on many levels, but of course the situation is very volatile.” Among the options, Kallas said she was discussing with United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres whether the U.N. and the EU could work together on a plan to secure navigation through the strait, a vital artery for trade through which 20 percent of the world’s oil transits. The mission could echo the Black Sea Grain Initiative between Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and the U.N. to allow Ukrainian crops to be safely exported despite an ongoing war, she added. ASPIDES AND ATALANTA Kallas also said that EU foreign ministers would look into changing the mandate of two ongoing EU-backed naval protection missions — Operations Aspides and Atalanta — so that they could help to open the Strait of Hormuz. Currently those missions — originally conceived to protect EU commercial vessels from attacks by Houthi rebels in Yemen — are not operating in the strait and are bound by rules of engagement that would limit their effectiveness, a senior EU diplomat said. “We will discuss with the member states whether it’s possible to really change the mandate of this mission,” said Kallas. “We have proposals on the table … The point is whether the member states are willing to use this mission.” “If the member states are not doing anything with this then of course it’s their decision, but we have to discuss to show we help to keep the Strait of Hormuz open,” Kallas said. In her remarks, Kallas blasted Trump’s decision to lift sanctions on Russian oil exports as a “dangerous precedent,” saying it was important that the ongoing war in the Middle East did not overshadow Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Washington lifted the sanctions on Rosneft and Lukoil exports for one month to alleviate pressure on global oil markets amid a surge in the price of oil to more than $100 per barrel following the attacks on Iran. Even so, the top EU diplomat underscored European efforts to help clear the Strait of Hormuz. Another possibility, she said, was to use a so-called coalition of the willing to secure the strait. This refers to a group of countries rather than the entire 27-member bloc. “But of course you can see it’s difficult,” she said.  Indeed, no sooner had Kallas spoken than EU foreign ministers started pouring cold water on the idea of joining any mission to clear the strait, with Romania’s foreign minister arguing that NATO was a defensive alliance that had no immediate duty to act in the Middle Eastern war. Milena Wälde contributed to this report.

A federal judge has quashed the Justice Department’s criminal probe into Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s Senate testimony regarding the central bank’s headquarters renovation, writing that the grand jury subpoenas were a “mere pretext” to pressure the Fed. “There is abundant evidence that the subpoenas’ dominant (if not sole) purpose is to harass and pressure Powell either to yield to the President or to resign and make way for a Fed Chair who will,” Chief U.S. District Judge James Boasberg wrote. “The Government has offered no evidence whatsoever that Powell committed any crime other than displeasing the President.” U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro, whose office led the investigation, said in a press conference afterward that she would appeal the decision. She sharply criticized Boasberg, saying he “put himself at the entrance door to the grand jury, slamming that door shut, irrespective of the legal process, and thus preventing the grand jury from doing the work that it does.” “This process has been arbitrarily undermined by an activist judge,” she said. Pirro’s plan to appeal the decision could further delay the confirmation process of President Donald Trump’s pick to replace Powell, former Fed Gov. Kevin Warsh. Warsh’s nomination has been blocked by outgoing Sen. Thom Tillis until the investigation into Powell is resolved. The North Carolina Republican warned the administration on Friday afternoon against appealing the decision. “We all know how this is going to end, and the D.C. U.S. Attorney’s Office should save itself further embarrassment and move on,” Tillis posted on X. “Appealing the ruling will only delay the confirmation of Kevin Warsh as the next Fed Chair.” The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Trump has severely criticized Powell for more than a year for his reluctance to lower interest rates, with the president accusing him of holding back the economy. Powell has said the subpoenas were part of Trump’s pressure campaign to force him to cut borrowing costs. The investigation into Powell’s testimony on the status of a costly renovation of the central bank’s headquarters kicked off a firestorm that threatens Trump’s aims to stack the Fed board with appointees who share his views on lowering short-term borrowing costs. Powell’s term as chair expires in May, and Pirro’s vow to appeal the decision could prolong a legal clash that will keep the Fed’s future leadership up in the air. Tillis, who has vowed to block any Fed picks until the Powell probe is publicly dropped, sits on the Senate Banking Committee, which has jurisdiction over Fed nominations. Republicans have a 13-11 majority on the committee, meaning that Tillis’s vote is needed to advance any nominee to the Senate floor if every Banking Committee Democrat votes against them. In a hearing before the committee last June, the panel’s chair, Tim Scott (R-SC), asked Powell about the status of the Fed’s renovations after a New York Post article characterized them as akin to the “Palace of Versailles.” Powell told senators that “there’s no new marble. There are no special elevators. There are no new water features. There’s no beehives, and there’s no roof terrace gardens.” That caught the eye of Federal Housing Finance Agency Director Bill Pulte, who urged lawmakers to look into the matter, and the White House launched its own probe into the project last summer. Several Senate Banking Republicans — including Scott — have said they do not believe Powell committed a crime with his testimony. Sen. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.), a Powell critic, said in a statement that the Fed chief “was wildly underprepared for his testimony, but, as I have said before, I’m not sure it rose to the criminal level.” Wall Street executives and top lawmakers have repeatedly cautioned Trump against actions that might undermine the central bank’s ability to independently set interest rates, which bolsters its credibility and is viewed as a stabilizing force for global markets. Trump has also tried to fire Fed Gov. Lisa Cook over unsubstantiated allegations of mortgage fraud — her fate will be determined by the Supreme Court — and the president has flirted numerous times with attempting to dismiss Powell. In January, Powell posted an extraordinary two-minute video to the central bank’s website claiming that the DOJ’s subpoenas represented a politically motivated attempt to pressure the central bank into lowering interest rates. The threat of criminal charges was a “consequence of the Federal Reserve setting interest rates based on our best assessment of what will serve the public, rather than following the preferences of the president,” he said. The move was unusual because Powell has steadfastly refused to respond to Trump’s blizzard of insults since he returned to the White House. The president has publicly questioned Powell’s intelligence and competence, and has said his monetary policy decisions are driven by politics. In her combative press conference, Pirro called the judge’s decision on Friday “outrageous.” She cited a Supreme Court precedent that grand juries can investigate mere rumors. And she dismissed suggestions that she should look skeptically at allegations that may be politically motivated. “I’ll take a case from the devil if you can give me information that will lead me to possibly find a crime,” she said. “It doesn’t matter where the case comes from.” While Pirro suggested it is exceptional for a judge to block a grand jury subpoena, federal court rules allow them to do so if they believe a subpoena is “unreasonable or oppressive.” In his ruling, issued Wednesday and unsealed on Friday, Boasberg noted that numerous court precedents authorize judges to quash a subpoena when its “sole or dominant” purpose is improper. Boasberg, an appointee of President Barack Obama, conceded that the subpoenas issued to the Fed were relevant to a criminal investigation. But he said their obvious connection to attempts to exert unlawful pressure on Powell and other members of the Fed’s Board of Governors rendered the subpoenas unenforceable. “The President spent years essentially asking if no one will rid him of this troublesome Fed Chair. He then suggested a specific line of investigation into him,” the judge wrote. “The President’s appointed prosecutor promptly complied.” Boasberg’s rejection of the subpoenas to the Fed is just the latest clash between the chief judge of the federal district court in the capital and the Trump administration. The judge’s earlier rulings in a dispute over Trump’s drive to rapidly deport alleged gang members under a two-century-old wartime authority led Trump to call for Boasberg’s impeachment. Some House members embarked on that effort last year, but it has not progressed. Pirro said that in addition to an appeal, which would go to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, prosecutors intend to ask Boasberg to reconsider his ruling because it included some inaccurate dates. That could delay any appeal because judges typically cannot alter rulings while they are under appeal.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright on Friday took action to hit back at two of the Trump administration’s top antagonists: oil supply disruptions brought on by the war in Iran and California Governor Gavin Newsom. Wright issued an order paving the way for a company operating off the California coast to restart an oil pipeline that state officials have kept offline since 2015. The Energy Department framed it as a way to ease reliance on oil imports through the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway for oil tanker traffic that the war has choked off. “Today, more than 60 percent of the oil refined in California comes from overseas, with a significant share traveling through the Strait of Hormuz — presenting serious national security threats,” the department wrote in its announcement. Wright said in a statement that the move would “strengthen America’s oil supply and restore a pipeline system vital to our national security and defense, ensuring that West Coast military installations have the reliable energy critical to military readiness.” Wright’s directive invoked the Defense Production Act, a 1950 law that gives the president broad powers over domestic industry in the interest of national defense. President Donald Trump signed an executive order earlier Friday that delegated some of his authority under the law to the energy secretary, opening the door to Wright’s move. Newsom was quick to push back against the Trump administration’s justification. “Donald Trump started a war, admitted it would spike gas prices nationwide, told Americans it was a small price to pay, and now he’s using this crisis of his own making to attempt what he’s wanted to do for years: open California’s coast for his oil industry friends so they can poison our beaches,” Newsom said in a statement. He called the attempt to restart the pipeline illegal and said that it “wouldn’t lower prices by a cent” due to the fact that oil prices are set on the global marketplace. In overriding California’s authority over a pipeline system that connects a trio of offshore platforms to the California coast, Wright is also bringing the full powers of the federal government to bear against California in an escalating conflict over whether oil producers should be allowed to expand drilling off the Golden State coast. The pipeline owner, Texas-based Sable Offshore Corp., appealed last year to Trump’s National Energy Dominance Council for help securing federal permits to transport its oil to market in a bid to get around state regulators, who had raised environmental concerns. Bringing Sable’s oil to market won’t come close to making up for the supply disruptions caused by the war in Iran, according to Ryan Cummings, chief of staff of the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research. While the nearby oil will provide a more profitable supply to Golden State refiners, “we shouldn’t expect that to really flow through to consumers in any meaningful way in California, and certainly not in the United States,” Cummings said. California Attorney General Rob Bonta has already sued the U.S. Transportation Department over its December move to assert jurisdiction over Sable’s pipelines. Wright’s order sets the stage for more legal clashes between California and the White House. “California will not stand by while the Trump administration attempts to sacrifice our coastal communities, our environment, and our $51 billion coastal economy,” Newsom said. “The Trump administration and Sable are defying multiple court orders, and we will see them back in court.” Wright’s directive is a lifeline for Sable, a company whose stock price had plummeted at the end of last year amid the barrage of regulatory setbacks. Its share value rose significantly after a Department of Justice opinion last week signaled that the company might benefit from a presidential intervention. Company representatives didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. Sable’s pipeline system has been shut down since it was responsible for a major 2015 oil spill in Santa Barbara County, while owned by a different company. Sable purchased the three offshore platforms, the pipelines and an onshore processing facility in 2024 and has been working to restart the operation ever since. But the company has run afoul of state and local agencies in the process. The California Coastal Commission fined the company $18 million, accusing it of defying orders to stop work on its pipeline. California Attorney General Rob Bonta sued Sable in October alleging water discharge violations, and the Santa Barbara County District Attorney filed criminal charges against the company in September alleging environmental violations. In December, the U.S. Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration wrested oversight of Sable’s pipelines from the California Fire Marshal and approved the company’s restart plan. California Attorney General Rob Bonta then sued the federal pipeline regulator, challenging the move in a case that remains ongoing. A California judge last month ruled that Sable still needed a waiver from the state fire marshal before restarting the pipeline, citing a federal consent decree in the wake of the 2015 spill.

The National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management (NFEPWM) will be the first institution to implement the ELENA (European Local Energy Assistance) instrument at the national level in Poland. As the leader of green investment financing in Poland, it is launching a new advisory services segment for companies and local governments preparing sustainable investments. On March 3, 2026, in Luxembourg, Ioannis Tsakiris, a vice president at the European Investment Bank, and Dorota Zawadzka-Stepniak, the board president of the NFEPWM, officially acknowledged an agreement for the ELENA National Pilot Program. The project preparation budget is €4.5 million, with €4.05 million provided as grant support from the ELENA facility — a joint EIB and European Commission facility under InvestEU. Pre-investment support will target local government authorities and heating companies. Increased investments in heating and energy efficiency will lead to energy savings and reduced carbon dioxide emissions. These efforts are part of Poland’s energy transition, with the NFEPWM playing a significant role. In 2026, the fund will allocate 85 percent of its planned green investment budget of €8.8 billion to the energy transition. After a consultation, the European Commission formally approved the ELENA grant, and it was decided to leverage the NFEPWM’s experience to implement an ELENA pilot mechanism nationally. The fund will combine its experience with the EIB’s established practices under the ELENA instrument. After the pilot phase, the NFEPWM plans to continue and expand the program to include beneficiaries from other sectors. > In 2026, the fund will allocate 85 percent of its planned green investment > budget of €8.8 billion to the energy transition. “The competence center, established as part of the ELENA project, addresses market needs in investment consulting to support Poland’s energy transition. The ELENA program will provide the NFEPWM with a unique range of services in Europe, combining advisory and financial support for future beneficiaries. This initiative aligns with the fund’s strategy for 2025–2028, which focuses on developing advisory services and creating a competence center within the fund, as well as utilizing modern financial instruments,” explains Zawadzka-Stepniak. ELENA in Poland: pilot project assumptions Between 2026 and 2029, Polish investors planning thermal modernization of public buildings and upgrades in the heating sector will have access to advisory services. Local government authorities and heating companies will receive comprehensive expert support in preparing their investments. The involvement of relevant experts will facilitate the development of high-quality project documentation, leading to effective funding applications in calls for proposals conducted by the NFEPWM. The pilot program will support entities that choose not to modernize public buildings or heating plants due to a lack of know-how. It will target new investors who can evaluate the profitability of potential investments, helping to expand the NFEPWM program’s beneficiaries. Some Polish local authorities and heating companies, constrained by limited finances, avoid the risk of inefficient spending on investment analysis, missing the chance to secure support from European funds or the Modernisation Fund. Under the ELENA project, the NFEPWM will reach out to these investors, providing technical assistance and identifying financing opportunities for future projects. This approach addresses the need for local governments to enhance energy efficiency and the requirements for heating companies to adopt more environmentally friendly heat generation methods. The future beneficiary will gain a partner in the NFEPWM, an expert in preparing technical documentation for co-financing applications and green project funding. Assistance will focus on supporting preparatory processes, including energy audits, feasibility studies, technical documentation, public procurement services and ex-ante analyses. The transformation of district heating is a priority for change in the Polish economy, making it crucial to enhance the efficiency of district heating systems and increase the use of renewable energy from various sources. More than 15 million Poles are daily users of district heating produced by small municipal heating plants typical of the Central European region. Although the networks are extensive, improving their efficiency is often necessary. The challenges include reducing heat production from coal combustion and minimizing unnecessary heat consumption. Companies are increasingly investing in modern technologies that decrease the release of dust and harmful compounds into the atmosphere. The last 20 years have brought significant changes to the Polish heating sector — carbon dioxide emissions have fallen by nearly 20 percent, the production of harmful dust has been reduced by over 90 percent, sulfur dioxide emissions have decreased by almost 90 percent and nitrogen oxides by over 60 percent. > For nearly 37 years, the NFEPWM has led green transformation financing in > Poland, improving the natural environment and quality of life. It has > co-financed environmental protection and water management investments totaling > nearly 160 billion złoty. Modernizing the heating sector and improving the energy efficiency of public buildings will reduce greenhouse gas emissions locally and nationally. The ELENA project in Poland will co-finance at least 65 entities in the heating sector. Energy efficiency projects will lower energy consumption, increase renewable energy use and enhance facility comfort. Long-term investments will reduce local government operating costs, improving air quality and residents’ quality of life. The national pilot aims to support analyses and documentation for at least 80 thermal modernization investments in public buildings. The ELENA instrument is implemented by the European Investment Bank under an agreement with the European Commission. Established in 2009 as part of the Intelligent Energy Europe II program, ELENA provides pre-investment support for sustainable energy, transport and housing. It is an EIB Advisory grant facility, under InvestEU, which supports the preparation of sustainable investments. As of the end of 2025, the ELENA facility has provided €374 million in grants for 206 projects across the European Union, supporting investments of over €12.7 billion. For nearly 37 years, the NFEPWM has led green transformation financing in Poland, improving the natural environment and quality of life. It has co-financed environmental protection and water management investments totaling nearly 160 billion złoty. Thanks to the NFEPWM, green investments worth approximately 340 billion złoty have been implemented in Poland. Under the Ministry of Climate and Environment, NFEPWM supports EU environmental and energy policy objectives. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Polish National ELENA Pilot Programme Co-funded by the InvestEU Advisory Hub of the European Union

Every day across Europe, millions of citizens wear, sleep on, eat off or rely on rental textiles provided by industrial laundries. From hospital linens and reusable surgical gowns to industrial workwear, hotel bedding, restaurant textiles and hygiene products, textile services operate quietly but indispensably at the heart of Europe’s economy. In many countries, more than 90 percent of hospitals and hotels would be forced to close within days without a continuous supply of hygienically cleaned textiles, while pharmaceutical and food production facilities would halt operations within 24 hours. Behind this essential service stands a highly organi z ed European industry that combines operational excellence with a circular, service-based business model — washing and keeping textiles in use for longer, reducing waste and lowering environmental impact while safeguarding public health. By relying on reuse, repair and professional maintenance, the system significantly reduces the need for virgin raw materials sourced from outside Europe. At the same time, these locally anchored service models create skilled jobs, generate tax revenues in the communities where companies operate and drive continuous innovation in circular solutions — supporting new business opportunities and industrial development across the European Union . > In this time of on going and challenging geo-political change, it will become > crucial to fully recogni z e the strategic value of circular, service-based > business models, which strengthen competitiveness and resilience while > delivering on Europe’s sustainability objectives. > > Hartmut Engler, CEO of CWS Workwear As several important legislative files move forward in Brussels, it is time to reflect on what textile services need to continue to implement sustainable solutions. Public procurement rules are a great vector to promote and encourage circular business models while delivering on the strategic autonomy ambition of the EU. Public authorities across the EU spend over € 2.6 trillion annually on purchasing services, works and supplies, accounting for around 15 percent of the EU ’s GDP. However, too much of this investment is directed toward linear services and disposable goods, slowing down progress toward Europe’s environmental and industrial objectives. With the revision of the EU public procurement rules, it should be recogni z ed that the EU’s circular economy and environmental aims are greatly advanced by the textile rental industry. Specifically, g reen p ublic p rocurement should become mandatory across all EU m ember s tates and should also encourage alternatives to direct purchase such as leasing models or product-as-a-service business models. Public procurement should not be driven solely by value-for-money considerations, but by a holistic lifecycle approach that reflects long-term environmental and social performance. Introducing mandatory lifecycle costing as an award criterion would ensure that sustainability is measured over the full duration of a contract, not just at the point of purchase. > Longevity of product should be the first priority of the upcoming Circular > Economy Act. The most sustainable product is ultimately the one that is kept > in use the longest, putting durability and repairability at the centre of > environmental benefits. > > Elena Lai, s ecretary g eneral of the European Textile Services Association European Textile Services Association (ETSA) members already deliver sustainable business models with product-as-a-service models implementing repair, reuse and extended use. Such business models should be empowered and further supported in legislation, hand in hand with recycling. Extending a product’s useful life delivers far greater climate and resource benefits than breaking products down for recycling after short use cycles. It preserves the embedded energy, water and raw materials already invested. However, prioriti z ing longevity does not mean neglecting end-of-life solutions. At the same time, ETSA members are joining forces to invest in a joint recycling pilot project, translating circular ambition into practical industrial solutions. They are developing innovative processes to transform end-of-life textiles into recycled fib er s suitable for insulation materials, industrial wipers and other high-value applications — with the long-term vision of advancing closed-loop systems in which recycled fib er s can increasingly serve as raw materials for new textile production. Recycling requires stable markets and long-term policy certainty, and the sector is actively investing in building both. By developing concrete use cases for recycled content, these initiatives help strengthen European recycling value chains while further reducing dependency on third-country suppliers. > Europe does not need to invent circular solutions from scratch. They already > exist. The priority now is to put in place policies that support circular, > service-based business models. These models are built on durability and > extending product lifespans to get more value from the resources we already > use. > > Elena Lai, s ecretary g eneral of the European Textile Services Association Textile services are not an emerging concept but a proven, scalable European solution — reducing consumption, anchoring jobs locally, safeguarding public health and lowering emissions. By recogni z ing and supporting service-based reuse models in forthcoming legislation, the EU can accelerate its sustainability ambitions while strengthening competitiveness and strategic autonomy. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer POLITICAL ADVERTISEMENT * The sponsor is ETSA – European Textiles Service Association * The ultimate controlling entity is ETSA – European Textiles Service Association * This political advertisement advocates for the recognition and support of circular, service-based business models within forthcoming EU legislation; by addressing the Circular Economy Act, the revision of EU Public Procurement rules, Green Public Procurement requirements and lifecycle costing criteria, it seeks to influence policymakers and the public debate on EU sustainability, industrial policy and procurement frameworks, bringing it within the scope of the TTPA. More information here.