Leftist politician, Lenin Moreno from PAIS Alliance, (Proud and Sovereign Fatherland) beat conservative candidate Guillermo Lasso who received 30,81% of votes in the first round. Candidate for president needs 40% of all votes and 10 percentage point difference to win the elections. Lenin Moreno served as a Vice President under President Rafael Correa. Moreno represents the government which focus on poverty reduction, disability rights and closer Latin American integration.

The European Union Parliament has approved a free trade agreement between EU and Canada. The Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement (CETA) has been five years in the making and its ratification is set to drop all trade barriers between the EU and Canada. Debate lasts almost three hours and the deal was approved by 408 voters, 254 was against. Hundreds of protesters showed up in Strasbourg claiming that only big companies will benefit on this agreement and that will change food safety.

President Donald Trump’s national security adviser, Michael Flynn stepped down Monday after it comes out that he had contacts with Russian ambassador, Sergei Kislyak. His talks concerns U.S. sanctions on Russia. Originally, he denied but Justice Department informed The White House that Flynn could be vulnerable to Russian blackmail. He held this function for three weeks and three days. He issued the statement in which he apologized President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence for presenting incomplete information regarding his phone calls with the Russian ambassador.

Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, current president of Turkmenistan received 97,7% of the vote in the gas-rich Central Asian nation and he beat eight other candidates. The former dentist and health minister took power in 2006 and has been major figure in the former Soviet republic after the death of dictator Saparmurat Niyazov. The country last year amended the constitution which now removes age limit and allows Berdymukhamedov to be president for life. Human Rights Watch, organization which protects human rights said that elections in Turkemnistan are not free and fair and in this time there will be no exception to this rule.

Frank-Walter Steinmeier was elected by the Federal Assembly, made up of 630 federal members of parliament and delegates from 16 states. This centre-left politician received 931 of 1260 votes. Former president, Joachim Gauck did not decide to run in the next elections, because of his age and he will step down on March 18. Steinmeier previosuly was a vice chancellor and foreign minister under chancellor Angela Merkel. In his speech Steinmeier said: “Let’s be brave, because then we don’t have to be afraid of the future”. He also mentioned that we live in tough times and Germany should be a role model state for other nations.

European Union leaders melt in Valetta to give their political backing to a series of new measures aimed at stemming the flow of migrants from the Libyan coast to Italy. After an EU-Turkish deal, the Mediterranean crossing is now the main migrant route. Some of the key declarations include capacity building in Libya for key authorities to acquire control over land and sea borders, financial support for Libyan national coastguard, attempt to step up voluntary returns by migrants, assist in policing Libya’s land borders, and that the EU would look at the possibility of sending migrants back to Libya (and the potential barriers to this, whilst respecting international law).