Author: staff

France (25) and Italy (49) both dropped several places compared to 2024, while the United Kingdom (20) improved slightly and Poland (31) leaped more than a dozen spots. Greece recorded the worst result in the European Union for the fourth year in a row, coming in at 89. The main reasons for its lackluster score include wiretapping of journalists by intelligence agencies using Predator spyware, government interference, intimidatory lawsuits and inadequate legal guardrails. Its Balkan neighbors also fared poorly, with Croatia (60), Bosnia (86), Serbia (96) and Kosovo (99) all among the worst in Europe.   For the first time since…

Video Sharing platform TikTok has been fined €530 million by the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC) for failing to protect personal data of EU users when transferring it to China, the privacy watchdog said in a statement on Friday.DPC Deputy Commissioner Graham Doyle said that the transfers infringed the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) because TikTok failed to demonstrate that the personal data of users in the EU, remotely accessed by staff in China, “was afforded a level of protection essentially equivalent to that guaranteed within the EU”.“As a result of TikTok’s failure to undertake the necessary assessments, TikTok did…

TikTok has been given six months to bring its data processing practices in line with the EU’s privacy rules, or suspend all data transfers to the country. TikTok said it “strongly contest[s]” the Irish DPC’s findings and plans to appeal in full. “Beyond the DPC’s failure to substantively consider the extensive safeguards [already implemented by Tiktok], we are disappointed to have been singled out despite relying on the same legal mechanism employed by thousands of other companies providing services in Europe,” said Christine Grahn, TikTok’s head of public policy and government relations for Europe, in a written statement. TikTok pointed…

The French president’s slew of meetings with top cardinals and high-level officials of the Catholic Church on the sidelines of Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican last Saturday has caused a stir in Italy, with speculation rife that he might be attempting to influence the selection of the next pontiff, Borgia-style.In what the Italian press dubbed “interventionism of the modern Sun King,” Emmanuel Macron held a meeting at the French embassy in Rome with four compatriots who will be present at the conclave: Archbishop of Marseille Jean-Marc Aveline, Bishop of Ajaccio François Bustillo, Apostolic Nuncio to the US Christophe Pierre…

Tariffs weren’t on the agenda of this week’s Robotics Summit in Boston, United States, where thousands of tech industry workers mingled with humanoid and other robot varieties and talked about how to build and sell a new generation of increasingly autonomous machines.Not on the official agenda, at least.”Jump up to the microphones,” said keynote speaker Aaron Saunders, chief technology officer (CTO) of Boston Dynamics, inviting a standing-room-only crowd to ask him questions. “And I’m the CTO, so don’t ask me about tariffs”.The crowd laughed and complied. But as they streamed onto the show floor at Boston’s convention centre, greeted by…

Inflation in the eurozone stayed marginally above the European Central Bank’s target in April, a fresh increase in services prices keeping the annual rate stuck at 2.2 percent. Data published by Eurostat on Friday showed prices rose 0.6 percent on the month, with strong services inflation more than offsetting declines in energy prices, reflecting the slump in oil markets after U.S. President Donald Trump unleashed his trade tariff offensive. There were few other immediate signs of the U.S. trade strategy apparent in the figures, although officials expect it to have a disinflationary effect in the near term, due to heightened…

Fine Gael has confirmed its delegates at the European People’s Party’s Valencia congress refused on Wednesday to put their names to a motion condemning Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attacks in Israel and calling for the release of remaining hostages, and defended the party’s position.The Fine Gael delegation could not support the motion because it didn’t mention “the ongoing suffering of the people of Gaza”, and didn’t “propose any other actions to bring the conflict to a close, to move towards the building of long term peace built on a two state solution”, the party told Euronews in a statement. The resolution…

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has officially classified the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party as a “proven right-wing extremist organization,” marking the most serious step yet in Berlin’s efforts to contain the rising political force. The move, announced Friday by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution (BfV), means that the AfD is no longer merely under suspicion. The agency says it now has definitive evidence that the party works against Germany’s democratic system. A 1,000-page internal report, according to German public broadcaster ARD, underpins the decision, citing violations of core constitutional principles such as human dignity and…

Updated: 02/05/2025 – 9:46 GMT+2Six months have passed since the collapse of a concrete awning at the Novi Sad railway station in Serbia, which left 16 people dead and one seriously injured. … More The incident on 1 November 2024 has led to national outrage, with legal proceedings ongoing in three prosecutors’ offices.Over the past six months, teachers in primary and secondary schools, high school graduates, lawyers, and workers have also joined the protests and work stoppages.Demonstrators are demanding full transparency over the reconstruction project, accountability for the collapse, and increased funding for education.The government insists it has addressed the…

Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy have a Friday episode to take stock of the by-election, mayoral and local election results so far. Sam’s pulled an all-nighter to cover Reform’s victory in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election – they won by just six seats. The party won the Greater Lincolnshire mayoralty too. So it’s a morning of questions to ponder – how do bigger parties respond to the Reform victories? Could a Starmer visit to Runcorn have secured the few votes needed for victory there? And is Labour focusing on Reform voters at expense of people at the…