Author: staff
HORSENS, Denmark — The European Commission is probing two platforms and two app stores about their compliance with EU digital regulations designed to protect minors. The Commission has sent requests for information to Snapchat, YouTube, Apple Store and Google Play on how they protect kids on their platforms under the Digital Services Act, the Commission’s Executive Vice President Henna Virkkunen said in Denmark Friday. All four are designated as Very Large Online Platforms under the regulation because they have more than 45 million users in the European Union, so they have to follow strict risk assessment and mitigation provisions. The…
France was plunged into a crisis on Monday when Lecornu resigned from his post as prime minister, just 14 hours after unveiling his new government. Lecornu, a Macron loyalist, agreed to stay on as PM to try to find a way out of the deadlock. The next prime minister will be France’s third in less than a year and will face the arduous task of having to negotiate and pass a budget through a deeply fractured and hostile parliament. Speculation was rife on Friday that Macron would name either someone from his camp, possibly even Lecornu again, or pick a…
“No Going Back” reads the Tron: Ares tagline. Why couldn’t Disney heed its own advice? Greed. The answer’s most definitely greed – as well as the desperate desire to recycle an IP through cynical nostalgia-baiting to better generate interest in a franchise the House of Mouse wants to turn into a profit opportunity. All this despite the fact Tron’s cultural stock dried out in the 80s. So, 15 years after the underwhelming Tron: Legacy and 43 years since the original Tron, one of the first films to extensively use CGI, audiences are going back into The Grid’s digital landscape for a…
Duarte wants to use tax breaks to goad the owners of the city’s 20,000 vacant homes to rent them out at affordable prices, but Pizarro argues his own plan to build 5,000 affordable homes on municipal land could be implemented much faster. Duarte also has a radical proposal to raise the tourist tax to make public transport free for all city residents — but Pizarro’s counterplan to slash the speed limit on Porto’s innermost ring road could prove more controversial. With neither candidate expected to secure a governing majority, Chega may ultimately determine the winning vision. Beyond the biggest cities…
Once home to ruler and astronomer Mirzo Ulugbek’s legendary observatory — a beacon of science in the 15th century — the Uzbek city of Samarkand is set to reclaim its place among the stars. In 2028, the Silk Road city will host the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), the world’s largest space industry gathering. It reflects Uzbekistan’s goal to become an important player in the modern “space age”. Uzbekistan’s space ambitions have accelerated since the establishment of the Uzbekcosmos Agency in 2019. The agency is reshaping how the nation uses space technologies for governance, environment, and development. “In early 2025, Uzbekistan…
The gnome-painting was part of a celebration of new EU protection of quality labels, one of which has been given to handcrafted gnomes from the German village of Gräfenroda, now officially protected as “Original Thuringian Garden Gnomes.” Alas, this column’s application for a protection of quality label was rejected on the grounds of, er, quality. Incidentally, this writer’s favorite gnome available from the shop of the company behind the painting workshop is Johannes der “Ruhende–Holzhacker” (the resting woodcutter), who is adopting a vaguely sexual pose (are you sure about that? — ed) while smoking a pipe and holding an ax (neither…
Published on 09/10/2025 – 20:35 GMT+2 •Updated 10/10/2025 – 6:42 GMT+2 Austrian officials have said the country will refuse to host the 2026 Eurovision Song Contest if Israel is boycotted from the event. Chancellor Christian Stocker and secretary general of the ruling Austrian People’s Party (ÖVP) Alexander Pröll made the announcement on Wednesday, the website Eurovision Fun reported. The European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the body responsible for the annual music competition, said that its general assembly will vote in November on whether Israel can participate. There has been pressure to freeze Israel out of the contest because of the war in…
Three years into her premiership, Giorgia Meloni has defied expectations when she was elected by holding together one of Italy’s most stable governments in recent memory. Over roughly the past decade, Italy has had six governments, meaning about one every 1.7 years on average — an extraordinary rate of turnover even by Italian standards. Yet while political calm has returned to Rome, the same cannot be said for Italy’s sluggish economy. Growth forecasts continue to underwhelm, and waves of frustrated business leaders are pressing Meloni to move faster on reforms she promised, which pledge to bring Italy to the heights…
Drone sightings in Germany earlier this month brought Munich Airport to a standstill, leading politicians to announce new measures against unidentified aerial vehicles. On Wednesday, Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt said that the country’s cabinet had approved a reform which would include the creation of a dedicated drone defence unit within the federal police. The police will now be authorised to shoot down unmanned aircraft if necessary. However, not all drones are dangerous, with many used for civilian purposes, particularly in logistics and healthcare. In these sectors, supplies such as medicine, vaccines and blood samples are transported from one hospital to…
Heute wird’s persönlich: keine Analyse, kein Interview, sondern Antworten auf euer Feedback. In dieser Sonderfolge spricht Gordon Repinski über Themenauswahl, die Idee hinter den 200-Sekunden-Interviews, kreative Erzählformen und einen umstrittenen Moment jeder Folge: den Geburtstag des Tages. Er erzählt, wie spontane Aufnahmen zwischen Brüssel, Berlin und Besenkammern entstehen, warum der Podcast manchmal mitten in der Nacht weiterläuft – und wieso Journalismus immer auch Dialog ist. Ein Blick in den Maschinenraum des Berlin Playbook Podcasts. Mit Anekdoten, über Haltung und Humor. Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es jeden Morgen ab 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team liefern Politik zum…