Author: staff
Germany and Italy — the bloc’s two big manufacturing economies — performed less well, with GDP contracting by 0.1 percent quarter-on-quarter. Franziska Palmas, senior Europe economist at Capital Economics, said that this leaves the long-suffering German economy at its pre-pandemic size. “Germany is likely to be hit harder than other major economies by tariffs and continue to struggle this year before fiscal stimulus starts to boost the economy in 2026,” she said. Spain continues to outperform, growing by 0.7 percent, making it the fastest-growing economy across the entire European Union. Year-on-year, Spanish GDP expanded by 2.8 percent. The currency area’s…
In order to avoid a similar fate, Merz — before even taking office — moved to pass landmark legislation loosening Germany’s so-called debt brake, overturning years of self-imposed fiscal austerity and allowing for massive spending on defense while unlocking €500 billion in borrowing for infrastructure. But despite that legislation, a major budget gap still looms, forcing Merz’s government to make tough spending decisions in the next several months. “There’s no time to lose now,” said Klingbeil, a leader of the SPD. “Everyone in the cabinet will have to save. There’ll be a strict consolidation course, which I also demand of…
Moldovan President Maia Sandu on Wednesday accused Russia of planning an “unprecedented” campaign to interfere in the country’s September parliamentary election, warning of a large-scale effort involving illegal financing, cyberattacks and disinformation. “The Russian Federation wants to control the Republic of Moldova from autumn onwards,” Sandu said at a press conference in the capital Chișinău. She called the plan a “direct threat to our state security, the country’s sovereignty, and the European future of Moldova,” and urged citizens and institutions to remain vigilant. Authorities have identified at least 10 main tools of interference in the electoral process, including the use…
By Euronews with AP Published on 30/07/2025 – 15:45 GMT+2 One of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck off the coast of Russia on Wednesday, injuring several people, according to local authorities. The 8.8 magnitude earthquake’s epicentre was around 119 kilometres from the Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky, which has a population of 180,000, on the Kamchatka peninsula. Tsunami waves reached as high as 10-15 metres in some sections of the Kamchatka coast, according to Russia’s Oceanography Institute. Scientists expect aftershocks at magnitudes of up to 7.5, according to the local branch of the Russian Emergency Ministry. It said more tsunamis are possible…
PARIS — French President Emanuel Macron said the European Union failed to leverage its massive single market and sufficiently scare the United States into accepting a better deal than the one it reached Sunday. “We need to be feared. We weren’t feared enough,” Macron told ministers at the weekly cabinet meeting Wednesday, said a French official close to Macron, who was granted anonymity as it is often customary practice. Macron was noticeably silent in the days after U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen struck the accord, which will see the EU pay 15 percent tariffs…
By Euronews Published on 30/07/2025 – 14:56 GMT+2 ChatGPT is launching a “Study Mode” to promote responsible academic use of the chatbot, amid concerns over the misuse of artificial intelligence (AI) in schools and universities. Designed to help students do homework, prepare for exams, and learn new topics, the feature allows users to learn in an interactive, step-by-step, classroom-like manner. The goal is to help students understand and analyse the material, rather than relying on ready-made solutions, according to OpenAI, the maker of ChatGPT. In one example, a user asked for help understanding Bayes’ theorem. The chatbot responded with questions about…
At the beginning of July 2025, 29,044 companies owned by Ukrainians were recorded in the Polish National Court Register. Of this number, 13,014 companies were opened after February 2022, i.e. after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which resulted in around one million refugees from Ukraine settling in Poland. Gremi Personal’s analytical centre highlights that approximately 6% of all new companies registered in Poland in the last 3.5 years are owned by Ukrainians, and the total capital of companies established after the outbreak of war exceeds PLN 533 million (approximately €125 million). In 2024, Ukrainian entrepreneurs and employees paid almost PLN…
The Commission wrote in a statement on Wednesday that the following countries expressed an interest in taking the loans: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Spain, Finland, Hungary and Lithuania, Slovakia, Latvia, Croatia, Poland, Greece, Portugal, Romania, France and Italy. In their request to the Commission, countries set out a minimum and maximum amount they will formally request to borrow later in the year. This paves the way for the EU executive to tap financial markets and borrow on behalf of its 27 member countries. The Commission did not report the figures for each country, but Poland’s Deputy Prime Minister…
“The Commission is a reflection of national sensibilities,” Ribera said in an interview on Spain’s Cadena Ser radio network. “Institutionally it shouldn’t be so, it is supposed to be independent and represent the interests of the EU, but the truth is that everyone comes with their cultural context, their beliefs.” Ribera herself hails from Spain, one of the EU’s most vocal critics of Israel’s war in Gaza, and was serving as the country’s deputy prime minister when Madrid recognized Palestinian statehood last year. The Commission vice president said that EU ambassadors’ refusal to back Brussels’ proposal to curtail Israel’s access…
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot called on more countries to recognize Palestinian statehood. “In New York with 14 other countries, France launches a collective call: We express our desire to recognize the State of Palestine and invite those who have not yet done so to join us,” Barrot wrote in a post on X, accompanied by a joint statement of foreign ministers made at a United Nations conference in New York. The statement was signed by the foreign ministers of Andorra, Australia, Canada, Finland, France, Iceland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Slovenia and Spain.