Author: staff
The chancellor is back out on the road to start the government’s re-launch week, ahead of the parliamentary recess. In today’s episode, Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy explain how comments on a proposed wealth tax by Rachel Reeves’s cabinet colleagues may have already put her in a tricky situation. Elsewhere, Buckingham Palace has confirmed that Windsor Castle will host US President Donald Trump for a second unprecedented state visit in September.
Though France’s credit rating has not been downgraded this year, the yield on the country’s 10-year bond has crept well over 3 percent in 2025 and in recent days has been higher than that of Cyprus, Portugal and Spain — meaning financial markets view Europe’s second-biggest economy as a risker investment than those other countries. Bayrou has promised to bring France’s budget deficit down from 5.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2024 to 5.4 percent this year as part of the government’s plan to ratchet the figure down to 3 percent of GDP, as required by European Union rules,…
Countries like the Netherlands and Belgium have long traditions of collective action for consumers, while in other EU countries legal routes have been limited or don’t exist. But before the directive, legal avenues to take consumer group actions were “quite patchy” across the EU, said Florence Danis, also a lawyer at Linklaters. The first article of the EU directive on collective redress says it will put in place “appropriate safeguards to avoid abusive litigation.” The power to take up cases is granted only to not-for-profit, independent, consumer-focused organizations, while EU countries are required to create a legal route for these “qualified entities.” According…
Kinsella declined to be interviewed for this story because of his government advisory role. But his analysis is shared by many including the country’s Fiscal Council, a statutory body set up to monitor Irish fiscal policy. Disappearing windfall In April, the Fiscal Council warned the government not to use corporate windfalls to fund permanent spending, because of the risk they could “easily disappear.” The source of these Irish corporate revenues is no mystery. What appear to be pharmaceutical exports or imports of digital services are in substance the effects of massive U.S. firms shifting their profits to Ireland, via intangible…
By Maia de la Baume and Shona Murray Published on 14/07/2025 – 6:30 GMT+2The EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas is set to offer an exhaustive list of 10 possibilities for the EU to respond to Israel’s action in Gaza during a meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels this week, but EU diplomats told Euronews there’s little appetite across the EU to take any action against Tel Aviv.Kallas’ 10 options include suspending visa free travel and blocking imports from the Jewish settlements in response to Israel’s breach of the EU-Israel Association Agreement, according to a document issued by Kallas’s office seen…
Die gescheiterte Wahl dreier Verfassungsrichter hat der schwarz-roten Koalition ihren ersten echten Erschütterungstest beschert. Keine Mehrheit, kein Plan B – und ein Sommerinterview von Friedrich Merz, das mehr Fragen aufwirft als beantwortet. Zwischen Koalitionsvertrag und politischem Taktieren analysiert Gordon Repinski, wie tief der Riss wirklich ist – und ob Jens Spahn noch der richtige Mann an der Fraktionsspitze ist.Im 200-Sekunden-Interview spricht Dirk Wiese, parlamentarischer Geschäftsführer der SPD, über Vertrauen, Verantwortung und warum er die Union nun in der Pflicht sieht, die Wahl im September nachzuholen – mit der umstrittenen Kandidatin Frauke Brosius-Gersdorf. Außerdem: Handelsstreit mit den USA. Die EU verschiebt…
Published on 14/07/2025 – 5:53 GMT+2French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday announced an additional €6.5 billion in military spending over the next two years. The French leader set out these plans in a speech in which he called for intensified efforts to protect Europe and to support Ukraine in the face of Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion. France will aim to spend €64 billion in annual defence spending in 2027, according to Macron. This figure is double the €32 billion the country was spending on defence when he became president in 2017. “Since 1945, freedom has never been so threatened, and never so seriously,”…
“The platforms themselves should be policing this issue. Arguably, they’re in the privileged position of having the data to do so. And really, enforcement should be a last resort,” he added. But even when Big Tech responds to takedown requests, the content can simply appear again if social media firms are not actively policing what goes on their platforms. Harris said the FCA found that 55 percent of the adverts Meta had taken down after a request by the watchdog popped up again, with either identical or almost identical content. A Meta spokesperson said: “There was an isolated incident in…
The high-profile visit coincides with a U.K. parliamentary recess — potentially helping sidestep a diplomatic row. Britain’s MPs, who have mixed views of Trump, will be out of Westminster, with some traveling to their annual party conferences. U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer handed the invitation letter from King Charles to Trump during a high-stakes visit to the White House in February. The U.K. prime minister told Trump the second state visit would be “truly historic” and “unprecedented.” Second-term presidents have tended to be invited for lunch or tea with the monarch, rather than given the full pomp of a second…
Macron’s speech on the armed forces — which is a French tradition ahead of the July 14 Bastille Day military parade — comes on the heels of last month’s NATO summit, where allies committed to boosting core defense spending to 3.5 percent of GDP by 2035. Europe’s NATO member countries are looking to deter an expansionist Russia while preparing for reduced American military involvement on the continent. The French president had first hinted back in January that France would need to increase military spending by more than the €3 billion spending rises already foreseen for 2026 and 2027 in the country’s seven-year…