5 TIMES THE WINTER OLYMPICS GOT SUPER POLITICAL Invasions, nuclear crises and Nazi propaganda: The Games have seen it all. By SEBASTIAN STARCEVIC Illustration by Natália Delgado /POLITICO The Winter Olympics return to Europe this week, with Milan and Cortina d’Ampezzo set to host the world’s greatest athletes against the snowy backdrop of the Italian Alps. But beyond the ice rinks and ski runs, the Games have long doubled as a stage for global alliances, heated political rivalries and diplomatic crises.  “An event like the Olympics is inherently political because it is effectively a competition between nations,” said Madrid’s IE Assistant Professor Andrew Bertoli, who studies the intersection of sport and politics. “So the Games can effectively become an arena where nations compete for prestige, respect and soft power.” If history is any guide, this time won’t be any different. From invasions to the Nazis to nuclear crises, here are five times politics and the Winter Olympics collided. 1980: AMERICA’S “MIRACLE ON ICE” One of the most iconic moments in Olympic history came about amid a resurgence in Cold War tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union. The USSR had invaded Afghanistan only months earlier, and Washington’s rhetoric toward Moscow had hardened, with Ronald Reagan storming to the presidency a month prior on an aggressive anti-Soviet platform. At the 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York, that superpower rivalry was on full display on the ice. The U.S. men’s ice hockey team — made up largely of college players and amateurs — faced off against the Soviet squad, a battle-hardened, gold medal-winning machine. The Americans weren’t supposed to stand a chance. Then the impossible happened. In a stunning upset, the U.S. team skated to a 4-3 victory, a win that helped them clinch the gold medal. As the final seconds ticked away, ABC broadcaster Al Michaels famously cried, “Do you believe in miracles? Yes!” The impact echoed far beyond the rink. For many Americans, the victory was a morale boost in a period marked by geopolitical anxiety and division. Reagan later said it was proof “nice guys in a tough world can finish first.” The miracle’s legacy has endured well into the 21st century, with U.S. President Donald Trump awarding members of the hockey team the Congressional Gold Medal in December last year. 2014: RUSSIA INVADES CRIMEA AFTER SOCHI Four days. That’s how long Moscow waited after hosting the Winter Olympics in the Russian resort city of Sochi before sending troops into Crimea, occupying and annexing the Ukrainian peninsula. Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych had fled to Moscow days earlier, ousted by protesters demanding democracy and closer integration with the EU. As demonstrators filled Kyiv’s Independence Square, their clashes with government forces played on television screens around the world alongside highlights from the Games, in which Russia dominated the medal tally. Vladimir Putin poses with Russian athletes while visiting the Coastal Cluster Olympic Village ahead of the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics. | Pascal Le Segretain/Getty Images No sooner was the Olympic flame extinguished in Sochi on Feb. 23 than on Feb. 27 trucks and tanks rolled into Crimea. Soldiers in unmarked uniforms set up roadblocks, stormed Crimean government buildings and raised the Russian flag high above them. Later that year, Moscow would face allegations of a state-sponsored doping program and many of its athletes were ultimately stripped of their gold medals. 2022: RUSSIA INVADES UKRAINE … AGAIN There’s a theme here. Russian President Vladimir Putin made an appearance at the opening ceremony of Beijing’s Winter Games in 2022, meeting on the sidelines with Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and declaring a “no limits” partnership. Four days after the end of the Games, on Feb. 24, Putin announced a “special military operation,” declaring war on Ukraine. Within minutes, Russian troops flooded into Ukraine, and missiles rained down on Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities across the country. According to U.S. intelligence, The New York Times reported, Chinese officials asked the Kremlin to delay launching its attack until after the Games had wrapped up. Beijing denied it had advance knowledge of the invasion. 2018: KOREAN UNITY ON DISPLAY As South Korea prepared to host the Winter Games in its mountainous Pyeongchang region, just a few hundred kilometers over the border, the North Koreans were conducting nuclear missile tests, sparking global alarm and leading U.S. President Donald Trump to threaten to strike the country. The IOC said it was “closely monitoring” the situation amid concerns about whether the Games could be held safely on the peninsula. South Korean Vice Unification Minister Chun Hae-Sung, shakes hands with the head of North Korean delegation Jon Jong-Su after their meeting on January 17, 2018 in Panmunjom, South Korea. | South Korean Unification Ministry via Getty Images But then in his New Year’s address, North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un signaled openness to participating in the Winter Olympics. In the end, North Korean athletes not only participated in the Games, but at the opening ceremony they marched with their South Korean counterparts under a single flag, that of a unified Korea. Pyongyang and Seoul also joined forces in women’s ice hockey, sending a single team to compete — another rare show of unity that helped restart diplomatic talks between the capitals, though tensions ultimately resumed after the Games and continue to this day. 1936: HITLER INVADES THE RHINELAND Much has been said about the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, in which the Nazi regime barred Jewish athletes from participating and used the Games to spread propaganda. But a few months earlier Germany also hosted the Winter Olympics in the town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, allowing the Nazis to project an image of a peaceful, prosperous Germany and restore its global standing nearly two decades after World War I. A famous photograph from the event even shows Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels signing autographs for the Canadian figure skating team. Weeks after the Games ended, Hitler sent troops into the Rhineland, a major violation of the Treaty of Versailles that was met with little pushback from France and Britain, and which some historians argue emboldened the Nazis to eventually invade Poland, triggering World War II.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino said Monday the world football governing body should lift its ban on Russia competing in international tournaments. Russia was banned from taking part in international football tournaments by FIFA immediately following the country’s invasion of Ukraine in the winter of 2022. The ban has remained in place, though youth teams have been allowed to compete since 2023. “We have to,” Infantino told Sky News in an interview when asked if he would look into lifting the ban. “I’m against bans, I’m against boycotts as well,” he added, saying they just “create more hatred.”  It would send a positive message to have “girls and boys from Russia” participating in football tournaments across Europe, he said.   Infantino maintains close ties with U.S. President Donald Trump and awarded him the newly created FIFA Peace Prize — widely seen as a token honor after the American president did not get the Nobel Peace Prize despite campaigning heavily for it — in December. FIFA also opened an office in New York’s Trump Tower in July and appointed Trump’s daughter Ivanka to the board of an education charity project co-funded by 2026 FIFA World Cup ticket sales.  The U.S. is hosting the World Cup this summer together with Mexico and Canada and has faced calls for boycotts from some quarters of politics and society over the Trump administration’s foreign policy. Russia hosted the tournament in 2018.

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Keine Brandmauer in München: Nach zwei Jahren sind drei AfD-Politiker wieder auf die Münchner Sicherheitskonferenz eingeladen. MSC-Chef Wolfgang Ischinger setzt auf Dialog statt Ausgrenzung, auch wenn die Entscheidung für Kritik bei den Grünen und Sicherheitsbedenken in der Union sorgt. Pauline von Pezold und Gordon Repinski analysieren die Hintergründe der Einladung und das juristische Tauziehen hinter den Kulissen.  Wahlkampf-Check Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: In Schwerin zeichnet sich ein Zweikampf zwischen SPD und AfD ab, während die CDU in Umfragen bei 13 Prozent stagniert. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview bezieht CDU-Spitzenkandidat Daniel Peters Stellung: Wie viel „Politikwechsel“ ist mit ihm machbar und wo zieht er die Linie gegenüber der AfD?  Eskalation im Iran: Während das Regime in Teheran mit äußerster Brutalität gegen die eigene Bevölkerung vorgeht und die Armeen der EU-Staaten als Terrororganisationen einstuft, stellt sich die Frage nach der Rolle des Westens. Nahost-Experte Daniel-Dylan Böhmer, Korrespondent für Außen- und Sicherheitspolitik von  WELT, ordnet ein, warum ein US-Militärschlag unter Donald Trump aktuell unwahrscheinlich bleibt und welche Vermittler jetzt gefragt sind. Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig. Für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Der Berlin Playbook-Newsletter bietet jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. Jetzt kostenlos abonnieren. Mehr von Host und POLITICO Executive Editor Gordon Repinski: Instagram: @gordon.repinski | X: @GordonRepinski. POLITICO Deutschland – ein Angebot der Axel Springer Deutschland GmbH Axel-Springer-Straße 65, 10888 Berlin Tel: +49 (30) 2591 0 information@axelspringer.de Sitz: Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB 196159 B USt-IdNr: DE 214 852 390 Geschäftsführer: Carolin Hulshoff Pol, Mathias Sanchez Luna

TOKYO — Britain’s prime minister has urged Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, formerly known as Prince Andrew, to answer questions in the U.S. about his friendship with Jeffrey Epstein. Keir Starmer suggested Mountbatten-Windsor would not be sufficiently focused on Epstein’s victims if he did not accept an invitation to testify before the U.S. Congress about his past exchanges with the convicted sex offender, who died in 2019. An email exchange dated August 2010, released by the U.S. Department of Justice on Friday, showed Epstein offered the then-Duke of York the opportunity to have dinner with a woman he described as “26, russian, clevere beautiful, trustworthy.” Mountbatten-Windsor replied: “That was quick! How are you? Good to be free?” The exchange happened a year after Epstein was released from jail following a sentence for soliciting prostitution from a person under 18. Another newly released file appears to show Mountbatten-Windsor crouching on all fours over an unknown woman. Mountbatten-Windsor missed a November deadline to sit for a transcribed interview that was set by the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. During a visit to China and Japan this week, Starmer was asked by reporters whether Mountbatten-Windsor should now apologize to Epstein’s victims and testify to Congress about what he knew. The prime minister replied: “I have always approached this question with the victims of Epstein in mind. Epstein’s victims have to be the first priority,” he said. “As for whether there should be an apology, that’s a matter for Andrew,” Starmer added. “But yes, in terms of testifying, I have always said anybody who has got information should be prepared to share that information in whatever form they are asked to do that because you can’t be victim-centered if you’re not prepared to do that,” Starmer said. In 2019, Mountbatten-Windsor was accused in a civil lawsuit of sexually assaulting Virginia Giuffre, one of Epstein’s accusers, but he denied all allegations. Mountbatten-Windsor has faced a backlash for his friendship with Epstein, but has not been charged with a crime in either the U.K. or the U.S. Mountbatten-Windsor was stripped of his royal titles in October amid continued scrutiny of his past friendship with Epstein.

LONDON — Donald Trump’s appointment of his former boss on “The Apprentice” as his special envoy to Britain made for a headline-grabbing pick during his presidential transition. But Mark Burnett has made a quiet exit from the diplomatic world.  The British-born Falklands veteran turned Hollywood producer left the role liaising between D.C. and London “around August,” his publicist in the entertainment world, Lina Catalfamo Plath, confirmed to POLITICO, noting it was the end of his term. But Burnett’s departure from the diplomatic service hadn’t been publicized and he was still listed as special envoy on Buckingham Palace’s attendance list at the state banquet for the Trumps in Windsor on Sept. 17.  Billionaire investment banker and Republican donor Warren Stephens arrived in London as U.S. ambassador in May, and has been actively involved in pushing Trump’s policy objectives. “I don’t think there was room for both him and the ambassador,” one person who worked with Burnett in the diplomatic arena and granted anonymity to discuss the issue said this week. The White House and the U.S. embassy in London are yet to respond to requests for comment. There had long been concerns there would be “conflict and confusion” in having the two separate but hard to distinguish roles, as covered in a POLITICO profile of Burnett published in March. “He speaks to the president a lot — they’re personal friends,” said one U.S. government official at the time, who was granted anonymity to discuss the nature of the special envoy’s role. “He will tell you that Trump used to work for him for 15 years,” the official added with a laugh. As a producer in the largely MAGA-antithetical television industry, Burnett’s public relationship with Trump wasn’t always easy. Burnett faced heat over the existence of tapes of the Republican saying a deeply offensive racial epithet. The producer even distanced himself from the then-presidential candidate in 2016 after the infamous “Access Hollywood” tape leaked. While special envoy, Burnett was credited with helping present the British case to Trump over the Chagos deal with Mauritius, which has again come under pressure after Trump recently turned against it. But his most showbiz moment in the role was when during a Downing Street meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer not long after Trump’s inauguration he was able to get the president on the phone for an impromptu chat. Two weeks later, the PM got his White House meeting with Trump, and Burnett was there too.

KYIV — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said late Thursday he couldn’t say whether U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal of a weeklong truce would work, but cast the initiative as an “opportunity.” Trump’s ceasefire initiative is an attempt to spare the residents of Ukrainian cities from an onslaught of Russian attacks that have plunged civilians into sub-zero conditions by devastating their power grids and central heating systems. The U.S. president had said Thursday that he secured an assurance from Russian President Vladimir Putin that Moscow’s forces would not fire on Ukrainian cities during a period of bitter cold. “This is an initiative of the American side and personally of the president of the United States. We can regard it as an opportunity rather than an agreement. Whether it will work or not, and what exactly will work, I cannot say at this point. There is no ceasefire. There is no official agreement on a ceasefire, as is typically reached during negotiations,” Zelenskyy told reporters Thursday evening. Zelenskyy said the prospect of such a truce reopened a long-running discussion to de-escalate the war via an agreement that the Kremlin would stop destroying Ukrainian energy infrastructure, and Kyiv would halt attacks on Russian oil depots and refining facilities. Zelenskyy said the Russians had not accepted such a deal last year and he sounded skeptical about their sincerity this time. “At that time, Russia’s responses to such de-escalation steps were negative. We will see how it unfolds now,” he told the reporters. DAMAGE ALREADY DONE A truce would come very late, given the scale of damage already wrought by the Russians. In Kyiv, Russian forces have destroyed an entire power plant in the biggest residential district, depriving almost 500,000 residents of heating and electricity. The situation is so dire that the European Commission had to send 447 emergency generators worth €3.7 million, with individual countries, such as Germany and Poland, also sending other energy equipment worth millions of euros to prevent a humanitarian catastrophe in Kyiv and other cities. The Ukrainians have hit back by striking Russian oil refineries and power plants in Belgorod, and some other Russian cities within the range of strike capabilities. “The Americans said they want to raise the issue of de-escalation, with both sides demonstrating certain steps toward refraining from the use of long-range capabilities to create more space for diplomacy,” Zelenskyy said.   He added that Kyiv has agreed with the U.S. initiative, as it always agrees to “all American rational ideas.” “If Russia does not strike our energy infrastructure — generation facilities or any other energy assets — we will not strike theirs. I believe this is the answer the mediator of the negotiations, namely the United States of America, was expecting,” Zelenskyy said. Whether Russia is really serious about a ceasefire was another question, Zelenskyy cautioned. NEW BOMBARDMENT Indeed, there was little sign of goodwill from the Russian side on Friday. The Russian armed forces shelled Ukraine with more than 112 drones and various missiles, the Ukrainian Air Force reported Friday.  Although Kyiv has not been attacked on Friday, and no strikes on energy facilities were reported, the eastern region of Kharkiv was heavily shelled. Two people there were wounded, and one person was killed, the governor, Oleh Synegubov, said in a Telegram statement. Civilian infrastructure was hit and power cables were damaged by the attacks. The air force also reported Russian drones in Sumy, Dnipro and Chernihiv regions, as the attacks continued. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also sounded skeptical about a ceasefire on Thursday. “We have spoken many times. President Vladimir Putin has often reminded us that a truce, which is again being sought by Volodymyr Zelenskyy, at least for 60 days, and preferably longer, is unacceptable for us,” he told Turkish media. Lavrov claimed all the previous periods in which Russia has slowed its offensives were used by the West “to pump Ukraine with weapons, and restore the strength of its army.”

Initial talks between Denmark, the U.S. and Greenland over the Arctic island’s fate “went well” but the dispute is not over, the Danish foreign minister said Thursday.   Lars Løkke Rasmussen and Greenlandic Foreign Minister Vivian Motzfeldt met with U.S. Vice President JD Vance and Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington on Jan. 14 and agreed to establish a “working group” to discuss Greenland and Arctic security amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s demands to take over the self-ruling Danish territory. “After that there was a huge derailment,” Rasmussen said, apparently referring to Trump’s threat to impose tariffs on several European countries unless they agreed to hand over Greenland — a threat that he eventually walked back after saying he’d reached a “framework” toward a deal with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, the details of which have not been made public. “Things escalated, but now we are back on track,” Rasmussen told reporters at the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels. The first meeting of the working group on Wednesday “went well and took place in a constructive atmosphere and tone.” “I’m a little more optimistic today than I was a week ago,” he added, but warned the dispute has not been “resolved” and more talks are planned. Trump’s threats to seize Greenland roiled Europe and fractured transatlantic relations, leading to calls from leaders for the EU to become more unified and independent to ensure its own security. France and Germany went so far as to call for the EU to explore deploying its “trade bazooka,” the Anti-Coercion Instrument, before Trump backed down. Rasmussen credited Trump’s climbdown from launching a trade war to a “very strong European signal of solidarity” over Greenland. “It has become clear that the price for going down that path has been too high,” he said.

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen has one person to thank for rescuing her from a looming political abyss: U.S. President Donald Trump. Frederiksen’s party has seen a dramatic surge in poll ratings through January — just months after awful results in last year’s local elections — as it launched a vehement defense of Denmark’s sovereignty against Trump’s aggressive threats to annex Greenland. “After a long time, they have finally drawn a clear line instead of appearing submissive,” said Per Clausen, a left-wing Danish MEP from the opposition Enhedslisten party, who credited the change in approach with driving a leap in voter support. The phenomenon is not unique to Denmark. In elections from Canada to Australia, standing up to Trump has become electoral rocket fuel, as leaders who frame themselves as defenders of national sovereignty and liberal democracy are being rewarded by voters eager for pushback against the U.S. president. Frederiksen’s center-left party — which governs in a coalition with the center-right Moderates and Venstre parties — netted 22.7 percent of the vote and 41 parliament seats in a new poll by Megafon, a reputable Danish consultancy, conducted from Jan. 20 to 22 among 1,012 Danes. That’s a sharp upswing from the last poll by Megafon in early December, which showed Frederiksen’s party winning just 32 seats. The Social Democrats currently hold 50 seats out of 179, and the latest polls show that it would still be the largest party in parliament with 41 seats, putting them back in pole position to lead coalition talks, but leaving them dependent on partners to maintain power. The uptick in support is even more notable given that the Social Democrats suffered a terrible result in municipal elections in November, which saw Frederiksen’s party lose Copenhagen, a symbolically important seat, for the first time in 100 years. The Moderates, led by Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen, nearly tripled its vote share in the poll from 2.2 percent to 6.4 percent, equal to about 12 seats. Another poll published Monday by the research institute Voxmeter for Danish news agency Ritzau showed support for Frederiksen’s Cabinet at 40.9 percent, the highest in two years. If an election were held now, the coalition would be forecast to win 73 seats. That would still leave them 17 seats short of the 90 needed for a majority and needing to negotiate with other parties — but is far from what just months ago looked like an imminent wipeout. RALLY AROUND THE FLAG Since then, the world — and Danish politics — has changed dramatically. Trump said in early January that he would seize Greenland, a self-ruling Danish territory in the Arctic, by any means necessary, an oft-repeated threat that took on new menace after the American capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Frederiksen, who has been in power since 2019, has mounted a spirited diplomatic defense of the Arctic island, successfully repelling Trump’s advances for now. And, according to the polls, Danes have rallied around her. Standing up to Trump has become electoral rocket fuel, as leaders who frame themselves as defenders of national sovereignty and liberal democracy are being rewarded by voters. | Mads Claus Rasmussen/EPA “There isn’t really another explanation for it,” said Anne Rasmussen, a political science professor at King’s College London and the University of Copenhagen, referring to the surge in support. “It’s first and foremost Greenland.” Rasmussen said the last time Denmark experienced such a wave of solidarity with its government was during the Covid pandemic, adding that national crises tend to favor incumbents. “I do think many Danes are currently moving towards the Social Democrats because the party is delivering on its core priorities … while also demonstrating strong leadership when even the most powerful man in the world challenges [Danish] sovereignty,” said Danish MEP Christel Schaldemose, who hails from Frederiksen’s Social Democrats party. Frederiksen’s government also reached an agreement this week with left-wing parties to hand out €600 million in tax-free food vouchers to more than 2 million people hit by rising food prices. TICK TOCK The question now is whether Frederiksen will call an election anytime soon to capitalize on her political gains. Under Danish electoral law, the vote must be held before Nov. 1. Frederiksen has gambled with an early election before, holding a snap vote in 2022 amid falling support, which saw her snag victory. “It might look like a little bit too instrumental to do it [call an election] in the middle of the biggest foreign policy crisis for Denmark and the world order … but it’s probably very likely that it will come before the summer,” Rasmussen said. “She will still wait a little bit, but I don’t think she will wait that long.” Frederiksen cut an influential figure in Brussels, especially during Denmark’s presidency of the Council of the EU in 2025, but had faltered domestically thanks to missteps ranging from her decision to cull Denmark’s entire population of 17 million minks to prevent the spread of Covid-19, to the dubious jailing of a former intelligence chief, providing an electoral opportunity for the opposition. The leader of Denmark’s right-wing Danish People’s Party, Morten Messerschmidt, told POLITICO that he would welcome earlier elections, calling them “a valuable opportunity” for the country to form a new government. Frederiksen, whose approval rating plummeted from 79 percent in 2020 to 34 percent in a December YouGov poll, rejected speculation that she would resign following the disastrous local elections in November. “They really had a bad election,” Rasmussen said, but added the government has since moved to address voters’ concerns on the cost of living with the food voucher scheme. That’s important because Frederiksen’s Greenland boost in the polls won’t last forever. “I don’t think it’s just going to sort of disappear overnight, but you can imagine that as some of the national issues again become more prominent on the agenda, people are going to base their judgments more on them when they think about who to vote for,” Rasmussen said. Frederiksen, who has been in power since 2019, has mounted a spirited diplomatic defense of the Arctic island, successfully repelling Trump’s advances for now. | Sean Gallup/Getty Images Rune Stubager, a professor of political science at the University of Aarhus, agreed that the Greenland crisis had caused “kind of a rallying effect,” but added “once the pressure subsides, I would, however, expect the government to drop again as attention would then turn to domestic issues.” Stine Bosse, a Danish MEP and member of the Moderates, said Frederiksen and the government’s handling of transatlantic tensions over Greenland would stand them in good stead. “This is probably the most difficult foreign policy situation Denmark has faced in many years, and the government has handled it in the best possible way,” said Bosse. “They have kept a cool head, a warm heart, and demonstrated a high level of professionalism.”

The territorial destiny of Donetsk is the key issue preventing the conclusion of a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday. “The one remaining item … is the territorial claim on Donetsk. There is active work going to try to see if both sides’ views on this can be reconciled,” Rubio told a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee meeting. “It’s still a bridge we haven’t crossed. It’s still a gap, but at least we’ve been able to narrow down the issue set to one central one, and it will probably be a very difficult one.” Ukraine’s Donbas, which consists of the coal-rich Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east of the country, has since 2014 been the site of an armed conflict between the Ukrainian military and Russia-backed separatists. According to open-source maps of the conflict, Russian forces now control about 80 percent of the Donbas region. Annexing the Donbas has been one of the maximalist war goals of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who in December said Russia will seize it “one way or another” if Ukraine doesn’t give it up voluntarily. Ceding Donbas was also one of the points in a 28-point plan circulated by U.S. President Donald Trump’s team, which drew criticism from Ukrainian and European officials as heavily skewed in Russia’s favor. An updated proposal watered down some of the more pro-Russian aspects of the initial plan. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has repeatedly vowed that Ukraine will not give up Donbas as part of any ceasefire deal, as that would give Putin a springboard for a future invasion.

Listen on * Spotify * Apple Music * Amazon Music Die USA erleben eine neue Eskalation in der Migrationspolitik: In Minnesota stirbt erneut ein Mensch bei einem Einsatz der Einwanderungsbehörde ICE. Die Debatte über Gewalt, Rechtsstaatlichkeit und politische Verantwortung spitzt sich zu – und könnte auch nach Europa überschwappen. In Hamburg trifft sich der Kanzler mit internationalen Partnern zum Nordsee-Gipfel. Es geht um Energie, Offshore-Wind und die Frage, wie Europa unabhängiger werden kann, auch als Antwort auf Donald Trumps Attacken gegen erneuerbare Energien. Unseren Politico Pro-Newsletter ‘Energie und Klima’ findet ihr hier. Innenpolitisch geht es nach Nordrhein-Westfalen: Die SPD schickt Jochen Ott als Spitzenkandidaten ins Rennen gegen Hendrik Wüst. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview erklärt er, wie er das scheinbar aussichtslose Duell drehen will. Und: In Sachsen-Anhalt legt die AfD ihr Regierungsprogramm vor. Pauline von Pezold analysiert, was darin zu Familie, Inklusion, Waffenrecht und Russland steht – und warum das Papier weit über das Bundesland hinaus Bedeutung hat. Den Spaziergang mit AfD-Spitzenkandidat Ulrich Siegmund hier nochmals hören. Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum Hören – kompakt, international, hintergründig. Für alle Hauptstadt-Profis: Der Berlin Playbook-Newsletter bietet jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. Jetzt kostenlos abonnieren. Mehr von Host und POLITICO Executive Editor Gordon Repinski: Instagram: @gordon.repinski | X: @GordonRepinski. POLITICO Deutschland – ein Angebot der Axel Springer Deutschland GmbH Axel-Springer-Straße 65, 10888 Berlin Tel: +49 (30) 2591 0 information@axelspringer.de Sitz: Amtsgericht Berlin-Charlottenburg, HRB 196159 B USt-IdNr: DE 214 852 390 Geschäftsführer: Carolin Hulshoff Pol, Mathias Sanchez Luna