Author: staff

LONDON — When Octopus Energy boss Greg Jackson appeared on Desert Island Discs in 2023 — one of the U.K.’s longest-running, most-loved BBC radio shows — his first song choice was a 1980s banger: Yazz’s “The Only Way Is Up.” The optimism was on-brand for Jackson, one of the energy industry’s most polished lobbyists with half of Westminster on speed dial. Octopus, the clean energy start-up he founded in 2015, this year became the single largest provider to U.K. households. The multibillion pound firm has its tentacles firmly around the corridors of power, selling politicians on its vision of homes…

EuroStack advocates see that the tide can be turned only with sustained investment, guaranteed government demand, and unified rules on transferring and securing data.  Sebastiano Toffaletti, secretary-general of the Digital SME Alliance and one of the authors of a study on the EuroStack, claims that a Buy European Tech Act could be a decisive step toward a European cloud.  “Europe has plenty of industrial capacity that just needs to be federated,” he said.  “If the European companies were reassured that governments would buy from them, then they would immediately invest and overcome the fragmentation,” he said. The same goes for AI,…

Former central banker Mark Carney is set to become Canada’s next prime minister after succeeding Justin Trudeau as leader of the governing Liberal Party. Mark Carney will become Canada’s next prime minister after Canada’s ruling Liberal Party elected him as its leader on Sunday to replace Justin Trudeau.Trudeau had resigned as prime minister on 6 January as domestic problems mounted, plummeting his popularity in the country. He had vowed to stay in power until his party elects a new leader to replace him.The Canadian leader had come under pressure from his own party who lost their trust in him, resulting…

Trudeau gives his final speech as Canadian Prime Minister. Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau delivered an emotional farewell speech to a conference of his Liberal Party on Sunday.The Canadian leader served in his post for almost a decade, assuming the top job on 4 November, 2015.Trudeau resigned from his post on 6 January after months of domestic problems which saw his popularity plummet. The declining economic conditions and the country’s direction resulted in dismal polls for Trudeau, who fell in popularity by a significant two digit margin to his main rival Pierre Poilievre of the Conservative Party.Trudeau was also under…

Georgescu came out of nowhere to win the first round of the presidential vote last November, partly on the back of a wildly successfully TikTok campaign. But the Constitutional Court annulled his victory after an alleged Russian operation was seen to influence the result. The Trump administration, itself aligning with the Kremlin on core foreign policy objectives, has supported the idea of allowing Georgescu to compete. Trump’s senior adviser Elon Musk reacted immediately to Sunday’s news from Romania with a tweet saying: “This is crazy.” Romania’s Central Electoral Bureau blocked Russia-aligned, far-right candidate Călin Georgescu from running in May’s presidential election. | Daniel Mihailescu/Getty…

Talks on the truce and hostage deal are under way to end fighting between Hamas and Israel that erupted after the militant group carried out a cross-border raid in October 2023 that killed 1,200 Israelis — and triggered Israel’s invasion of Gaza, which has reportedly killed more than 60,000 Palestinians and left the besieged enclave in ruins. Shortly before U.S. President Donald Trump’s inauguration, both sides agreed to a cease-fire with an initial six-week phase. But while Hamas is pushing to begin talks on the second phase of the truce, Israel wants to extend the first phase of the deal…

After the publication of the interview, a response came from Russia: “You will still have to answer for your actions and return what was stolen,” Russian parliament speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said. Last year, the G7 countries agreed to provide Ukraine with $50 billion via a series of bilateral loans that Kyiv could pay off using windfall profits from frozen Russian state assets. In the interview, Lecornu also noted that he considers the U.S. an ally of France, “despite its great unpredictability,” and he called for calm, even while Europe faces a threat from Russia. “I’m not one of those who…

In response to Musk’s post, Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski emphasized that the Polish Digitization Ministry is one of the largest providers of Starlink to Ukraine, with Warsaw funding half of the 42,000 Starlink terminals operating in the country at a cost of about $50 million a year. “If SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider we will be forced to look for other suppliers,” Sikorski wrote in his post on X, calling out the “ethics” from Musk’s side “of threatening the victim of aggression.” As POLITICO reported a week ago, the European Commission is already looking into how it…

“My position is clear: The United States are an ally in the transatlantic alliance,” von der Leyen told a press conference marking the first 100 days of her second term in office. The German politician also insisted that Europe’s relationship with the U.S. was “totally different” from the one it has with China, brushing aside the need for “de-risking” with the United States. But von der Leyen, who is yet to meet Trump in person since he was sworn in on Jan. 20, did point to a number of problems in world affairs that can be linked to Trump’s actions,…

“Ukraine has been seeking peace from the very first second of this war. Realistic proposals are on the table. The key is to move quickly and effectively,” Zelenskyy wrote on X. The delegation Zelenskyy announced for the talks in Saudi Arabia is made up of diplomatic and military representatives, including his chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha and Defense Minister Rustem Umerov. The delegation is set to meet with U.S. negotiators on Tuesday in a bid to repair ties with the Trump administration. Zelenskyy said he will visit Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Monday,…