Author: staff

European countries are paying far more for petroleum oil imports this year, following tensions in the Middle East in February 2026. Consumers are already facing higher petrol and diesel prices. Now, the EU’s import bill shows just how sharply costs have risen. In the second quarter of 2026, the EU spent an average of €27.6 billion a month on petroleum oil imports, up 55.8% from €17.7 billion a month in 2025. But the volume of oil imported barely changed. It rose by just 1.2%, from 36.3 million tonnes a month in 2025 to 36.7 million tonnes. That means the EU…

Sixty investors, representing over €9.5 trillion in assets under management, have called for the EU Methane Regulation to be maintained and implemented as adopted. That statement pre-dated the Commission’s proposed one-year delay. Its central concern, however, is more relevant now: investors need a stable framework against which companies can plan, manage risk and allocate capital with confidence. The regulation was designed with phased implementation. It gave companies, importers and national authorities time to prepare for stronger measurement, reporting and verification of methane emissions. It has helped bring methane from the margins into boardroom discussions, where it belongs. Why methane matters…

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President António Costa will join Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney for two days of talks on trade, security, energy, education and the Arctic on Thursday. The summit “is a very strong statement,” said Mark Camilleri, president of the Canada and EU Trade and Investment Association. “I don’t think there’s any feeling that this is going to be some discreet get-together.” Canada is also looking to move before Europe’s politics shift. Ottawa wants changes to the partnership that will outlast Trump and Marine Le Pen, whose National Rally is polling ahead…

Sponsor-generated content is content produced or curated by an advertiser that lives on POLITICO and is promoted alongside POLITICO’s own editorial content. The content
will be identified as ‘sponsor-generated content’ anywhere it may appear on the website. POLITICO’s editorial department has no involvement in the creation of this content. More information

As night fell over the crash site near Urda, rescue teams continued working among the mangled carriages, using heavy cranes to lift sections of wreckage from the tracks. Footage shows a crane hoisting what appears to be part of a train’s wheel assembly, while emergency workers search the damaged carriages under artificial lighting. The disaster, which occurred when one train struck another that had stopped, is Spain’s second deadly rail collision this year and one of Europe’s deadliest railway accidents of the century. In Madrid, dozens gathered outside City Hall in Cibeles Square for a minute of silence in memory…

KI analysiert fortlaufend Bewegungsmuster Wie das aussehen soll, demonstriert die Polizei gleich selbst. Draußen unter den Kameras führen Statisten eine Auseinandersetzung vor, drinnen in der Polizeiwache schlägt das System Alarm. Auf einem zuvor schwarzen Monitor erscheint das Videobild. Ob die Polizei tatsächlich eingreift, entscheidet der Beamte am Monitor. Die KI analysiert das Videomaterial fortlaufend auf bestimmte Bewegungsmuster. Dafür abstrahiert sie die abgebildeten Personen vereinfacht zu einer Art „Strichmännchen“ und wertet deren Bewegungen aus. So soll sie etwa Schläge, Tritte oder eine am Boden liegende Person erkennen. Hält das System eine Situation für auffällig, schlägt es Alarm. Die Darstellung als „Strichmännchen“…

Published on 28 October 2026 – 22:45 GMT+1 The UN General Assembly has again called for an end to the US embargo on Cuba, but support for the resolution fell to its lowest level in more than 30 years. The resolution, which has been put forward and approved almost every year since 1992, passed with 130 countries in favour, 17 against and 25 abstentions. That’s the lowest level of support since 1995. Last year, more than 160 countries backed the proposal. Germany, Italy and Latvia abstained for the first time in 34 years. Several countries, including Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador,…

1) We’re in the holding pen The chancellor’s big bazooka was to slap a much-anticipated tax rise on banks — but he surprised many by saying it will last only 15 months. It will raise less than £1 billion in its peak year. It wasn’t the only temporary measure Healey unveiled on Wednesday. He extended existing cuts to fuel duty, a tax cut on household energy bills and a £2 cap on bus fares, but only until 2027. They will all need to be reviewed again before his next annual budget. Likewise, some of Healey’s spending plans thin out after…

Previously, these marketplaces only had to collect VAT on behalf of overseas sellers and not domestic ones. Some overseas sellers then exploited this gap to avoid paying the tax by registering as U.K. based companies. The government plans to reinvest the savings made from this policy into the high street through reductions to business rates. The government launched an eight-week consultation into extending VAT online marketplace liability in June, after mounting pressure from retailers.  Amazon estimated that up to £3.2 billion of sales across online retailers in the U.K. are made by sellers avoiding VAT collection — costing the Treasury…

More than nine in 10 governments worldwide have deployed artificial intelligence in public services, but fewer than 30% measure whether it actually works, experts told a digital governance conference in Azerbaijan on Friday. The SOCGOV 2026 forum, held in Khankendi in Azerbaijan’s Karabakh region, brought together government officials and policy specialists to examine whether digitalisation is improving outcomes for citizens or simply replicating existing processes online. Nijat Hajikhanov, a data management specialist at Luxembourg’s National Data Service, cited OECD data showing that while more than 90% of countries had adopted AI in public services, only 28% measured its real-world impact.…