Author: staff
Diesel is now the most expensive fuel at Europe’s pumps. The EU weighted average price of diesel reached €2.226 per litre on 21 September 2026, according to the European Commission’s Weekly Oil Bulletin. That was the highest level since the data began in 2005. That is 13.4 cents more than a litre of Euro-super 95 petrol. Filling a 50-litre tank with diesel now costs about €111. Roughly 40% of that amount goes on taxes. Taxes on diesel averaged €0.861 per litre across the bloc, or 38.6% of the pump price. On petrol, the tax bill is €0.981 per litre, about…
Die deutsche Wirtschaft sendet widersprüchliche Signale: Während der Ifo-Index leicht steigt, kündigen Autokonzerne Werksschließungen an. Was ist aus der milliardenschweren Initiative „Made for Germany“ von Friedrich Merz geworden? POLITICO-Industrieexperte Tom Schmidtgen analysiert, ob die versprochenen Investitionen echtes Geld sind und was der anstehende „Invest in Germany Summit“ mit dem Kanzler bringt. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview erklärt der wirtschaftspolitische Sprecher der SPD-Fraktion, Sebastian Roloff, wie der Standort Deutschland wieder attraktiv werden soll. Dabei geht es um den Investitionsbooster, geplante Steuersenkungen und die Frage, warum Entlastungen für kleine und mittlere Einkommen jetzt entscheidend für die heimische Wirtschaft sind. Auf geopolitischer Bühne lehnt Donald Trump…
Addressing Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney in Strasbourg, von der Leyen said she wanted to bring the relationship “to the highest level possible” in this “openly hostile world”. Canada has been getting closer to the EU as relations with Washington cooled under Trump. Trade talks collapsed in August 2026, and Trump responded with aggressive 25% to 50% tariffs on Canadian goods. He also threatened their sovereignty, with comments about absorbing Canada and making it “the 51st US state”. For geographical reasons, Canada cannot turn to full EU membership, so the European Commission is proposing a new “associate member” status. Since…
US President Donald Trump said that he and a large group of leaders of artificial intelligence companies signed a voluntary accord on Tuesday that will include internal and external reviews during a meeting aimed at addressing Americans’ fears about the technology and its risks on humanity. “I think I’m seeing tremendous self-policing. And they understand that they have to self-police,” Trump told reporters during an impromptu press conference outside the West Wing. Trump and US House Speaker Mike Johnson met with leading executives from top tech and AI firms at the White House that are spending hundreds of billions of…
“As Gordon Brown has said, we can be the world’s innovation nation, and he’s right, we can,” Burnham told Labour’s conference on Tuesday, saying the U.K. could be “an honest broker” in the debate on regulating AI. “Just as Gordon did in the financial crisis in 2008, so Britain will do it again — step forward, and bring people together around what’s right for the future — securing our prosperity, but also our safety.” Burnham served in Brown’s government as health secretary until Labour lost power in 2010. He has picked colleagues who served with him in Brown’s ministerial team…
By Euronews Published on 29/09/2026 – 9:00 GMT+2 The first terminally ill child to be euthanised in the Netherlands under an expansion of the country’s assisted-dying laws was one year old and is the youngest person in the world to die by euthanasia. Dutch officials revealed in June that a child had died by euthanasia last year but gave no further details about the age of the infant or the terminal illness. But an official government report published earlier this month said that the child had been born prematurely, had contracted sepsis and had been diagnosed with “extensive brain damage” at…
French firefighters gathered at the foot of the Eiffel Tower on Monday to demand more resources and staff. Unions say fire and rescue services have faced funding shortages for years, while climate-related emergencies are increasing. Protesters displayed a model of a Canadair water bomber and banners highlighting deaths, suicides and cancer among firefighters. Union representatives said France had 3,871 wildfire trucks in 2024 but needs around 5,000 to ensure nationwide coverage and provide reinforcements during major fires. They also called for enough trained personnel to operate the vehicles.
On a special edition of Westminster Insider from Labour Party conference, Pat and Sascha sat down with the new Mayor of Greater Manchester, Bev Craig, at the POLITICO Pub in Liverpool. In a conversation recorded in front of a live audience on Tuesday, shortly before Andy Burnham’s conference speech, Craig opened up about what it’s really like taking over from her predecessor — and how she plans to make the job her own. Fresh from a trip to New York, she revealed what she learned from Mayor Zohran Mamdani and what Greater Manchester might borrow from his playbook. Craig told…
The blockade of Ukraine’s Black Sea export routes is becoming “critical”, with potentially far-reaching implications for global food prices, Ukraine’s Minister for Agrarian Policy and Food, Taras Vysotskyi, has told Europe Today. “We can already see that on average, grain prices have increased by 25 percent,” Minister Vysotskyi said. “If you multiply it by the overall grain and food consumption out of grain, within a year, it could mean up to $60 billion in additional costs (for) consumers throughout the world.” Russia has recently intensified strikes on Ukrainian Black Sea vessels and infrastructure, on which Kyiv relies for the export…
Published on 29/09/2026 – 9:15 GMT+2•Updated 10:06 Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree to boost the army by 15,500 troops in the fourth such order this year. “The authorised … strength of the Russian armed forces is to be set at 2,441,630 units, including 1,550,500 military personnel,” the decree said. Putin previously signed decrees boosting the army’s size in March, June and July. The combined increase since March amounts to 47,860 soldiers. Russia’s president did not state the reason for the decision, but it has been taken against the backdrop of rising losses in Moscow’s full-scale war in…