Author: staff

The European Commission is set to table a sweeping “One Europe, One Market” action plan at the March 2026 EU summit, with “Buy European” at its core. Politically, the idea is clear: use European taxpayers’ money to support European industry. But the economic situation is more complicated. The big picture Von der Leyen’s competitiveness roadmap, based on the Draghi and Letta reports, aims to complete the EU single market by 2027. It also redirects public procurement and industrial funding towards EU-based production in strategic sectors: defence, clean tech, chips, chemicals and automotive. The Commission describes this as Europe’s answer to…

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Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has entered its fifth year after starting in February 2022. Over these four years, consumer energy prices across Europe have been heavily affected. Russia’s share of EU pipeline gas imports fell sharply from around 40% in 2021 to about 6% in 2025, according to the European Council, following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and the subsequent wave of EU sanctions, embargoes and efforts to diversify energy supplies. Energy markets were already volatile before the invasion, but the war intensified the pressure. Prices have been more stable across the EU over the past two years. However, household electricity…

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As the United States and China race to develop artificial intelligence (AI), American firm Anthropic is the latest company to sound the alarm that Chinese AI companies have been stealing the technology that could decide who wins. DeepSeek, Moonshot AI and MiniMax secretly generated over 16 million conversations with Anthropic’s AI chatbot Claude, using more than 24,000 fake accounts, to harvest its intelligence and train their own competing models, the company alleges. OpenAI and Google have also warned about similar accusations at Chinese firms this month, raising fears that China is short-circuiting years of costly AI research. What is AI…

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Listen on Spotify Apple Music Amazon Music Brussels is adjusting to a shifting geopolitical landscape. Coreper meetings — regular gatherings of EU ambassadors — are becoming more frequent and offer clear evidence of how the bloc is adapting. What was once largely preparatory now plays a central role in shaping negotiations before leaders ever sit down. Then, the energy saga continues. The European Commission, responding to Hungary’s warnings over disruptions to Russian oil flows through Ukraine’s Druzhba pipeline, says there is no immediate supply risk and that alternative routes are available. So is this a genuine squeeze — or a…

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In the southern region, “the climate models actually don’t show any increasing trend in rainfall on the wettest days.” For that reason, “we can’t quantify the effect of climate change on extreme rainfall in that southern area,” Barnes added, but stressed: “This does not mean that climate change didn’t contribute to the extreme rainfall in the southern region as well, just that it’s difficult to detect overall trends over time.”  Hotter oceans, heavier rain In particular, the researchers also found that the succession of storms was driven in part by a so-called atmospheric river, a long band of wind and…

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Published on 26/02/2026 – 5:28 GMT+1 North Korean leader Kim Jong-un claimed his country could “completely destroy” South Korea if its security were threatened, reiterating his refusal to engage with Seoul during his ruling Workers’ Party congress. North Korea has “absolutely no business dealing with South Korea, its most hostile entity, and will permanently exclude South Korea from the category of compatriots”, Kim said. “As long as South Korea cannot escape the geopolitical conditions of having a border with us, the only way to live safely is to give up everything related to us and leave us alone.” Kim in…

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Presented as an instrument aimed at strengthening farmers’ position in the food supply chain, the targeted revision of the Regulation on the Common Market Organisation was intended to address structural challenges within the sector. Yet, as the trilogue approaches, the debate has gradually crystallized around a different issue: restricting certain denominations used for plant-based products. This shift deserves careful scrutiny. How would limiting widely understood terms concretely improve farmers’ position in the food chain? The connection between the original objective of the proposal and the measure currently under discussion remains insufficiently substantiated. If the stated ambition is to reinforce resilience…

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But Le Pen said she wouldn’t campaign if that were the case. “You can’t campaign under these conditions,” she said, referring to the ankle bracelet. “Can you campaign without going out in the evening to meet your voters at rallies? That would be another way of preventing me from standing as a candidate.” “I am not resigned, I am wise. I know that the decision is not up to me,” she added. Le Pen was found guilty last year of embezzling funds from the European Parliament with her National Rally party; a verdict in her appeals trial is expected July…

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