Author: staff

PARIS — Il a entre 30 et 50 ans, il est cadre, et il est persuadé de payer pour tout le monde. Depuis le mois de juin, “Nicolas”, personnage fictif représentant une part des Français qui se dit assommée par l’impôt, a envahi les réseaux sociaux. L’expression “C’est Nicolas qui paie” s’est multipliée en ligne pour dénoncer les dépenses de l’Etat ou des collectivités, jugées excessives. Son objectif supposé : mettre l’Etat à la diète, notamment en ce qui concerne les dépenses sociales. La tendance est telle qu’elle a poussé l’exécutif à s’intéresser aux inquiétudes de “Nicolas” — sans pour…

The bill still has to be passed by the parliament, where, some activists warn, it risks being stalled by Zelenskyy’s own MPs. The course reversal comes after Ukrainians poured onto the streets for the first anti-government protests since the beginning of Russia’s 2022 full-scale invasion, and European partners — similarly for the first time since 2022 — decried Kyiv’s actions.  European officials warned that kneecapping anti-corruption agencies could cost Ukraine its financial aid and bid to join the European Union. Earlier on Thursday, Zelenskyy was still insisting that anti-corruption agencies were inefficient and needed protection from “Russian influence” — citing…

“We hope that following this deal, the U.K. government will commit to safeguarding farmers’ rights in all future trade agreements, as farmer seed systems are vital for smallholder farmers in India and in many other countries across the world,” said Hannah Conway, trade and agriculture policy adviser at Transform Trade. Drugmakers Under the deal, Indian generic medicines and medical devices can be exported duty free to the U.K., in a move welcomed by the country’s officials. Last year the U.K. imported medicinal and pharmaceutical products worth around £667.4 million from India. “Given the U.K.’s shift away from reliance on Chinese…

The U.K. government launched a campaign Thursday urging British holidaymakers not to bring foreign meat and dairy products back into the country.  London wants to protect British farm animals from infection with foot-and-mouth disease, which has reappeared on the European continent this year. “It is illegal for travelers entering GB to bring with them untreated meat or dairy products including lamb, pork, mutton, venison and goat meat, and all other products made from these meats or containing them — such as sandwiches and sausages — from the EU,” the government said in a press release. Helene Hayman, the U.K.’s biosecurity…

The band was set to perform at the major Sziget Festival in Budapest on Aug. 11.  “This isn’t just protest — it’s support for terror, celebration of extremist violence and a clear anti‑Semitic statement,” Zoltán Kovács, the Hungarian government’s spokesperson, wrote on X. “Granting them a stage normalizes hate and terror, and puts democratic values on the line.”  Sziget organizers said in a statement that the ban was “unnecessary and regrettable,” as the performance, they said, would not constitute hate speech or contravene Hungarian law.   Representatives for Kneecap did not immediately respond to a request for comment. The band’s recent…

Published on 24/07/2025 – 15:27 GMT+2 Twenty member states have flagged their interest in using loans issued by the European Commission to fund defence projects for an estimated total of over €100 billion, Andrius Kubilius revealed on Thursday. The Commissioner for Defence and Space said on X that he is “impressed to hear that already 20 member states will request the loans”. “More than €100 billion will be requested to ramp up European defence,” he added. The Commission’s loan programme, dubbed SAFE, is a key plank of the ‘Readiness 2030’ proposal that aims to see hundreds of billions of euros…

Expectations on trade progress had been low ahead of the one-day summit, with a fight over the EU’s imposition of anti-subsidy duties on Chinese electric vehicles last year still unresolved. In another tit-for-tat dispute, the two sides have closed their public markets to each other for tenders for medical devices. Von der Leyen said that leaders in their discussions had focused on market access, where she highlighted the principle of reciprocity and said the two sides had agreed to work on “concrete solutions” on public procurement. On overcapacity — China’s excess production of subsidized products such as steel, solar panels…

FCAS is led by France’s Dassault, Airbus’ German unit and Spain’s Indra and is designed to deliver a next-generation fighter jet by 2040. However, it’s currently bogged down in disagreements around the work share, which Paris and Berlin are trying to solve. Dassault and Airbus have a notoriously fraught relationship, and the Rafale-maker wants to take the lead in making the FCAS’ warplane. Belgium is an observer member, but said last week it had earmarked €300 million for the program and will ask to become a full member “as soon as possible.” “If I was diplomatic, I would say that Belgium…

Published on 24/07/2025 – 13:43 GMT+2 The Taliban have tortured and threatened Afghan nationals who were forcibly returned from Iran and Pakistan because of their identity or personal history, a UN report said on Thursday. Pakistan and Iran are expelling millions of Afghans who they say are living in their countries illegally. Afghan authorities have urged nationals to return, pledging amnesty for anyone who left after the Taliban returned to power in 2021. But rights groups and the UN have repeatedly warned that some of those returning are at risk of persecution because of their gender, profession or links to the former Western-backed administration. Thursday’s report…

Published on 24/07/2025 – 13:09 GMT+2 Google’s parent company Alphabet has been hit with a complaint by five privacy advocacy groups over potential breaches of the Digital Markets Act (DMA) related to restricting users’ ability to switch between different software applications.  European Digital Rights, Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE), Gesellschaft für Freiheitsrechte e.V. Homo Digitalis and ARTICLE 19 have asked the European Commission to open an investigation into Alphabet as they claim that Android’s core platform service is designed in a way to “deliberately hide from end users the possibility to even disable the pre-installed gatekeeper apps”. “Android also goes…