Author: staff
Educators, popstars, and a terminally ill cancer patient were among the winners of the inaugural TikTok Awards UK & Ireland 2024 The ceremony, hosted by the social media platform, took place in a star-studded ceremony at Exhibition London with awards presented by Michelle Visage, with performances from Leigh-Anne, LeoStayTrill, and Bimini. Winners were some of the most popular accounts of the past year, with a shortlist curated by TikTok and then voted on by nearly 3 million people. Creator of the Year went to Kyra-Mae Turner, who has amassed over 1.2 million followers for her travel and lifestyle blog content. “Thank you…
United States President-elect Donald Trump’s top team is reportedly considering forcing European governments to deploy soldiers to staff a demarcation line separating Russia and Ukraine as part of its plan to force an end the war. The European Union’s new top diplomat Kaja Kallas said over the weekend that she wasn’t “ruling anything out” when it comes to fixing a European military presence inside Ukraine as part of any cease-fire deal but said it was up to Kyiv to decide. The German government has so far been resistant to backing any deployment plan, but Nico Lange, a former chief of staff…
A Milan mural depicting Holocaust survivors has been removed after it was vandalised last month. Italian artist and activist aleXsandro Palombo painted a mural of Italian senate member Liliana Segre and author Sami Modiano, both survivors of Auschwitz-Birkenau in the extermination camp’s striped uniform with bullet proof jackets featuring the yellow star of David that Jews were forced to wear by the Nazis. He unveiled the artwork in September, ahead of the anniversary of the October 7 Hamas terror attacks that sparked the ongoing Israeli assault on Gaza. Situated in Milan’s Piazzale Loreto, the mural was vandalised on 11 November.…
Vujčić offered the strongest rebuttal yet that there could be a serious debate among Governing Council members over the rationale for a jumbo cut. “I saw the Governing Council being on the same page and I don’t really believe that it will be much different in the coming meetings,” he said. The ECB’s key deposit rate currently stands at 3.25 percent, following three 0.25 percentage points cuts this year. Vujčić, nonetheless, conceded that things could become more contentious as ECB policy gets more accommodative. Thus far, most economic data released since the ECB’s last policy decision in October has faithfully…
France’s Prime Minister Michel Barnier faces a no-confidence vote after he forced through a controversial draft budget without parliamentary approval. French Prime Minister Michel Barnier has said it is possible he may survive a no-confidence vote on Wednesday which is all but certain to oust his minority government.The motion was tabled by opposition parties after Barnier pushed through his contentious social security budget without a parliamentary vote on Monday. Opposition lawmakers from the left and the far-right, including Marine Le Pen and her National Rally (RN) party, have vowed to topple Barnier, and have the numbers to do so.In an…
It’s been a banner year for women, the biggest in global songs chart history. Taylor Swift did very well, as did a certain Mr. Kendrick Lamar with his hit diss track ‘Not Like Us’. Ahead of the always anticipated release of Spotify Wrapped, which looks back at users’ most listened-to songs, albums and podcasts of the year, Apple Music Replay has revealed its list of the biggest songs of 2024. This shows Apple Music users their listening habits over the past 12 months.This year’s edition shares the year-end charts for 2024, which reveal the biggest songs of the year by Apple…
But amendments proposed by the EPP and passed by the European Parliament have been abandoned, after they met with strong resistance from the Commission and EU member countries. These amendments include a proposal to create a new “no risk” category that would reduce due diligence requirements for commodities sourced from areas at zero or negligible risk of deforestation. The Council of the EU had raised concerns about the compatibility of such a measure with World Trade Organization rules, and which POLITICO reported the EPP had finally dropped late last week. That backtrack was not the first in the saga. Back…
Ukraine has a new way of countering Moscow’s increased use of Shahed drones in mass attacks — redirecting them back to Russia or into the airspace of Kremlin-friendly Belarus. While Moscow might have been producing more drones to attack Ukraine, Kyiv has found a way to crash them or send them back where they came from. On Sunday night, Russian forces launched 110 Shahed drones and other decoys against Ukraine. Some 52 of them were shot down by Ukraine’s air defence forces, while 50 were deemed “lost” — not shot down deliberately by the air defence, and they did not reach their intended…
Guests staying in rental accommodation in Italy, like Airbnb or Booking properties, must now be met in person by owners. There has been growing discontent in European destinations around the proliferation of Airbnb properties and the disruption this brings to neighbourhoods. Earlier this year, residents of cities including Rome, Florence and Milan sabotaged key lock boxes in protest against the rental property phenomenon and its tendency to drive up housing prices.Now, the Italian government has brought in a ban on the self-check-in system citing “public order and safety risks”.This means guests staying in rental accommodation in Italy, like Airbnb or Booking…
And while there was significant opposition to the plan among lawmakers last week in Europe’s now more polarized Parliament, the capitals were able to largely align with Brussels’ intention. To some who opposed it in the Parliament, the capitals’ vote is merely symbolic. “I regret the voting outcome in the Health Council regarding the smoke-free environment topic,” said German lawmaker and doctor Peter Liese, “but I also believe it is a Pyrrhic victory for the opponents of e-cigarettes.” Liese, the health spokesperson for the European People’s Party, argues that vapes and cigarettes should not be treated equally, and that vapes…