Scholz: Europe Must Remain Strong, Discuss How Best to Work With Trump

07 November 2024, Berlin: Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks to participants at the Deutsche Telekom AG forum following the breakdown of the traffic light coalition. Photo: Carsten Koall/dpa
07 November 2024, Berlin: Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks to participants at the Deutsche Telekom AG forum following the breakdown of the traffic light coalition. Photo: Carsten Koall/dpa
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Scholz: Europe Must Remain Strong, Discuss How Best to Work With Trump

07 November 2024, Berlin: Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks to participants at the Deutsche Telekom AG forum following the breakdown of the traffic light coalition. Photo: Carsten Koall/dpa
07 November 2024, Berlin: Germany's Chancellor Olaf Scholz speaks to participants at the Deutsche Telekom AG forum following the breakdown of the traffic light coalition. Photo: Carsten Koall/dpa

European leaders will continue to work well with the US president in future, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Friday, adding that the European Union must remain strong in light of conflicts in Europe and the Middle East.
"We will continue to work well with the future American president. And the question of how this can be achieved has been the subject of our discussion," Scholz said after talks with other leaders in Budapest.
"One question is quite clear. Together as the European Union, as Europeans, we must do what is necessary for our security," the German leader said, after Republican Donald Trump was reelected to the White House.



Italian Journalist Cecilia Sala Released from Iran and Returning Home

This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)
This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)
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Italian Journalist Cecilia Sala Released from Iran and Returning Home

This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)
This photograph taken in Pordenone on September 16, 2023, shows Italian journalist Cecilia Sala posing for a photo at the Pordenonelegge Literature Festival in Pordenone. (ANSA/AFP)

An Italian journalist detained in Iran since Dec. 19 and whose fate became intertwined with that of an Iranian engineer wanted by the United States was freed Wednesday and is heading home, Italian officials announced.

A plane carrying Cecilia Sala took off from Tehran after “intensive work on diplomatic and intelligence channels,” Premier Giorgia Meloni’s office said, adding that Meloni had informed Sala's parents of the news.

There was no immediate word from the Iranian government on the journalist’s release.

Sala, a 29-year-old reporter for the Il Foglio daily, was detained in Tehran on Dec. 19, three days after she arrived on a journalist visa. She was accused of violating the laws of the country, the official IRNA news agency said.

Italian commentators had speculated that Iran was holding Sala as a bargaining chip to ensure the release of Mohammad Abedini, who was arrested at Milan’s Malpensa airport three days before on Dec. 16, on a US warrant.

The US Justice Department accused him and another Iranian of supplying the drone technology to Iran that was used in a January 2024 attack on a US outpost near the Syrian-Jordanian border that killed three American troops.

He remains in detention in Italy.