Author: staff
La future majorité au Parlement, la candidature d’Ursula von der Leyen, son rêve de Mario Draghi, le rôle déterminant de Giorgia Meloni, l’eurodéputé livre ses réflexions sur l’après 9 juin à POLITICO. May 24 7 mins read
Updated: 12/12/2024 – 18:00 GMT+1 Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond – latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel. … More Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond – latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel.
This article was originally published in Farsi Parastoo Ahmadi’s concert was in contravention of Iran’s strict morality laws for women. On Wednesday night, Iranian singer and composer, Parastoo Ahmadi, held a ground-breaking performance. The female musician performed in one of Iran’s traditional caravanserai, the inns once used by Silk Road travellers, and was broadcast live on her YouTube channel. Ahmadi’s performance was in defiance of the strict restrictions placed on female singers in Iran. Women continue to protest against the restrictive gendered morality laws in the country since the ‘Women, Life, Freedom’ emerged in the wake of the death of Mahsa…
“It is true that we spend more on defense now than we did a decade ago,” said Rutte. “But we are still spending far less than during the Cold War. Even though the threats to our freedom and security are just as big — if not bigger.” “During the Cold War, Europeans spent far more than 3 percent of their GDP on defense,” the former Dutch PM said. In the early 1980s, before the collapse of the Soviet Union, NATO’s European members spent an average of about 3.8 percent of GDP on defense. During a Q&A session after his speech,…
The 32 NATO allies are currently in discussion to increase the defence spending benchmark from the current 2% of GDP. Citizens of NATO member states should “accept to make sacrifices” such as cuts to their pensions, health and security systems in order to boost defence spending and ensure long-term security in Europe, the head of the military alliance said on Thursday.”Today I call for your support, action is urgent. To protect our freedom, our prosperity and our way of life, your politicians need to listen to your voices. Tell them you accept to make sacrifices today so that we can…
The ECB has cut rates by 0.25% to 3%, citing progress toward its 2% inflation target and warning of downside growth risks. Lagarde noted signs of slowing momentum and weak investment. A larger cut was debated, but consensus formed around 25 basis points. Policy remains data-driven. The European Central Bank (ECB) cut its key interest rates by 25 basis points on Thursday, lowering the deposit facility rate to 3%. President Christine Lagarde described the move as a sign of growing confidence that inflation is steadily converging towards the ECB’s 2% medium-term target, while cautioning about persistent downside risks to economic growth.In…
The Spectator asked the Tory leader — elected to the head of the U.K. opposition party in November — if she ever took a lunch break. “What’s a lunch break? Lunch is for wimps,” she shot back. “I have food brought in and I work and eat at the same time. There’s no time … Sometimes I will get a steak.” Badenoch added: “I’m not a sandwich person, I don’t think sandwiches are a real food, it’s what you have for breakfast.” The Tory leader went on to confirm that she “will not touch bread if it’s moist.” That prompted…
Violence against ordinary Malians appears to have increased since the departure of a UN peacekeeping mission last year. Russian mercenaries have committed serious abuses against civilians in Mali, as have the country’s army and the Islamist groups against whom they are jointly fighting, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said. In a report published on Thursday, the NGO accused Russian fighters — who are part of its “African Corps”, which was formerly known as the Wagner Group — of deliberately killing non-combatants in its fight against jihadists in the west African country. HRW found that the Russian mercenaries and the Malian…
Under Prime Minister Keir Starmer, the U.K.’s Labour government has sought to re-establish strong ties with China, after successive Conservative administrations adopted a more hawkish stance. Last month Starmer became the first U.K. prime minister to meet President Xi Jinping in person since 2018. Foreign Secretary David Lammy visited China in October, only the second such visit in six years. The trip would be an opportunity to revive the so-called U.K.-China Energy Dialogue, a forum for talks on climate and energy aims launched in 2010 under former Prime Minister David Cameron, but which has not held a formal session since…
The ECB also refrained from offering new guidance on the expected speed and scope of interest rate cuts next year, repeating that it will stick to a “data-dependent and meeting-by-meeting approach.” “Most measures of underlying inflation suggest that inflation will settle at around the Governing Council’s 2 percent medium-term target on a sustained basis,” the ECB said. Staff trimmed their inflation forecasts for 2025 to 2.1 percent from 2.2 percent and continue to see it averaging 1.9 percent in 2026. The Bank’s first forecast for 2027 puts inflation at 2.1 percent. The Bank’s staff were slightly more pessimistic on the…