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Former soccer player Mikheil Kavelashvili was formally inaugurated as president of Georgia on Sunday, cementing the ruling party’s grip in what the opposition calls a blow to the country’s European Union aspirations and a victory for former imperial ruler Russia. Outgoing pro-Western Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili said Sunday morning that she would vacate her residence at the Orbeliani Palace in Tbilisi, but insisted she was still the legitimate office holder.“I will come out of here, come out to you and be with you. … This presidential residence was a symbol as long as there was a president here who was legitimate. I bring legitimacy with me,” Zourabichvili told a crowd of supporters outside the palace.She called Kavelashvili’s inauguration a “parody.”Kavelashvili, 53, who was th...

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un vowed to implement the “toughest” anti-U.S. policy, state media reported Sunday, less than a month before Donald Trump takes office as U.S. president. Trump’s return to the White House raises prospects for high-profile diplomacy with North Korea. During his first term, Trump met Kim three times for talks on the North’s nuclear program. Many experts however say a quick resumption of Kim-Trump summitry is unlikely as Trump would first focus on conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East. North Korea’s support for Russia’s war against Ukraine also poses a challenge to efforts to revive diplomacy, experts say.During a five-day plenary meeting of the ruling Workers’ Party that ended Friday, Kim called the U.S. “the most reactionary state that regards anti-communism ...

A top British diplomat to Canada says the ever-important job of maintaining relationships and information sharing between key allies is not much different than what audiences can watch on a hit Netflix drama. Although The Diplomat is fictional, David Prodger, the British deputy high commissioner to Canada, says the ripped-from-the-headlines storytelling captures what it’s like to keep crises from spilling over from behind the scenes — particularly the “suppressed air of panic” around many of the characters.“I think a lot of those little vignettes were very, very true to to real life,” Prodger told Mercedes Stephenson in an interview that aired Sunday on The West Block.“You’re dealing with big issues, and you’ve got to deal with them quickly as well.”The thriller stars Keri Russell as a car...

Tech entrepreneur Elon Musk caused uproar after backing Germany’s far-right party in a major newspaper ahead of key parliamentary elections in the Western European country, leading to the resignation of the paper’s opinion editor in protest. Germany is to vote in an early election on Feb. 23 after Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party governing coalition collapsed last month in a dispute over how to revitalize the country’s stagnant economy. 2:09 German snap election looms after finance minister fired, ruling coalition breaks Musk’s guest opinion piece for Welt am Sonntag — a sister publication of POLITICO owned by the Axel Springer Group — pub...