Author: staff
Choose your own narrative: The Tory leader offered a different economic take, pointing out growth is down and borrowing is up. Hoping for some contrition, she asked whether Starmer regrets “raising taxes on business” ahead of employers’ national insurance contributions spiking. In a sign Starmer’s aides seemed to be trying to complete a bingo card, the PM mentioned the Tories’ £22 billion fiscal “black hole” Labour are fixing. “The only black hole is the one he is digging,” Badenoch hit back. Nice line. Turning the tables: Starmer, er, briefly forgot how PMQs works by probing the leader of the opposition…
Vučić has taken several steps to deflect the pressure of the public outcry following the collapse of Novi Sad’s recently renovated train station last November, which caused 15 deaths. Protesters believe the collapse was caused by corruption, poorly drafted contracts and a lack of expert supervision in the modernization of the station as part of China’s Belt and Road Initiative. At least 100,000 people from across the country poured into Serbia’s capital on Saturday to demand that the government take corruption more seriously. Vučić claims the movement is aimed directly at him, even though it’s a long shot whether the…
EU Commissioner Henna Virkkunen has previously said she wants member states to speed up the 5G security toolbox implementation. A group of 35 EU lawmakers has called upon Henna Virkkunen, the European Commissioner in charge of technology, to require member states to exclude high-risk vendors from 5G telecom infrastructure in the wake of a probe into alleged bribery of MEPs involving Huawei. “We call upon you to make the EU toolbox for 5G security a legally binding instrument, ensuring its full and uniform application to high-risk vendors,” they said in a letter seen by Euronews. The lawmakers include Aura Salla (Finland/EPP), Svenja Hahn…
But the Commission’s hands are tied. An immovable deadline for the Commission to tell Apple exactly how it should open its products and services up to rivals runs out on March 19. Normally, this would be uncontroversial; a procedural step in getting a company to comply with a new law. But any decision to censure Big Tech under the DMA risks angering Trump, who last week called Apple “a great company.” After that, things get serious, as the Commission starts butting up against deadlines to wrap up multiple year-long noncompliance investigations against Apple, Meta and Google. EU officials have repeatedly promised that…
Baku is expanding its energy strategy beyond Central Asia by solidifying its presence in Israel. Azerbaijan is set to increase its involvement in Israel’s energy sector, following a visit by Azerbaijani officials to Jerusalem. A delegation led by Mikayil Jabbarov, Azerbaijan’s minister of the economy, recently held talks in Israel to finalise a key gas exploration deal.The Azerbaijan State Oil Company (SOCAR) was awarded exploration rights by Israel in 2023. However, progress in the exploration of natural gas off the Israeli coast has been delayed by the war in Gaza, which began in October 2023. On Monday, Israel granted exploratory…
Eurozone inflation eased to 2.3% in February, with core inflation at 2.6%, its lowest since January 2022. France had the lowest rate (0.9%), Hungary the highest (5.7%). The euro slipped ahead of Wednesday’s Fed meeting. Price pressures across the eurozone were revised lower in February, reinforcing expectations that inflation is steadily returning towards the European Central Bank’s 2% target.Headline inflation rose by 2.3% year-over-year last month, down from 2.5% in January and below the previous estimate of 2.4%, according to Eurostat data released on Wednesday.Core inflation, which excludes energy and food, eased to 2.6% from 2.7% in January, marking its…
HELSINKI — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Wednesday that he would be speaking to U.S. President Donald Trump today, following a call between the White House and Kremlin that failed to agree on a full ceasefire in Ukraine. Zelenskyy was speaking in Helsinki, during a press conference alongside Finnish President Alexander Stubb, during which he noted that Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s “words are at odds with reality.” “I will be contacting President Trump today, we will be discussing the details” of his call with Moscow, Zelenskyy added.
History buffs have started to search for new clues among the thousands of documents that were previously classified. A new tranche of files related to the 1963 assassination of US President John F. Kennedy has been released on the orders of the Trump administration. Around 2,200 files — consisting of more than 63,000 pages — were posted on the website of the US National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) on Tuesday. The vast majority of the archives’ 6 million pages of records, photographs, motion pictures, sound recordings and artefacts related to the assassination had already been available to the public.President…
Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy present their guide to the day ahead in British politics. Sir Keir Starmer’s team spent the day trying to work out how the Trump-Putin phone call really went down. Could the UK end up sending more military support to Ukraine before any pause in fighting? The idea of an ice hockey game apparently came up on the call – Anne has an important history lesson on that. Around Westminster, it’s PMQs but the Labour charm offensive to convince its backbenchers of its welfare reforms goes on. 👉Listen to Politics at Sam and…
Zelenskyy also noted that if Russia does not adhere to the fragile ceasefire, Ukraine will fight back: “There won’t be a situation where Russia will continue to shell our energy infrastructure and we won’t respond. We will respond.” Following Tuesday night’s strikes, Russian officials in Krasnodar claimed that a Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at an oil depot Wednesday morning, and the Russian Defense Ministry also reported that several Ukrainian drones had entered Russian airspace. In the much-awaited call between Trump and Putin, which came after weeks of American diplomatic efforts to find a resolution to Russia’s war in…