The Daily Populous

Monday February 23rd, 2026 day edition

image for Iceland looks to fast-track vote on joining EU

The move comes after a flurry of visits by EU politicians to Iceland and by Icelandic politicians to Brussels.

If Icelanders vote yes, they could join the EU before any other candidate country, one of the people said.

“The conversation on enlargement is shifting,” EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos, who met with Iceland’s Foreign Minister Þorgerður Katrín Gunnarsdóttir last month in Brussels, told POLITICO.

“It is increasingly about security, about belonging and about preserving our ability to act in a world of competing spheres of influence.

In March 2015, Reykjavík asked to no longer be considered an EU candidate country.

Von der Leyen, who visited Iceland last July, also met with Frostadóttir during a Nordic Council meeting in Stockholm last fall and praised her country for strengthening its cooperation with the EU.

The conversation around deepening ties with Iceland and potentially even resuming accession negotiations began even before Trump returned to office last year, with an EU official saying Brussels had already been paying more attention to the strategically important country. »

Family of man, 21, shot dead by police at Mar-a-Lago express disbelief: ‘We are big Trump supporters, all of us’

Authored by the-independent.com

Martin, of Moore County, North Carolina, was reported missing from his home Saturday by his family, Secret Service spokesman Anthony Guglielmi said.

open image in gallery The president and first lady were in Washington when the incident in Florida took place ( AFP/Getty ).

Martin’s cousin, Braeden Fields, told the Associated Press of his disbelief over the incident and described the family as “avid Trump supporters.”. »

CDU backs stricter Palestinian aid, ends UNRWA funding

Authored by jpost.com
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During the 38th federal party congress in Stuttgart yesterday, Friedrich Merz’s CDU, Germany’s largest party, unanimously approved a motion calling for stricter criteria for aid payments to Palestinians and an end to German and European subsidies to UNRWA.

Until proof of compliance with these conditions is provided, the motion says all payments intended for the Palestinian Authority shall be frozen.

If, after payments are resumed, the PA violates the terms again, the payments shall once more be automatically frozen. »