Author: staff
Published on 13/11/2025 – 14:55 GMT+1 Nordic and Baltic countries have said they will jointly fund a $500 million (€430 million) package of military equipment and munitions for Ukraine, NATO announced on Thursday. The kit, purchased by Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway and Sweden, will be sourced from the United States and purchased under NATO’s Prioritised Ukraine Requirements List (PURL) initiative. “Our Nordic and Baltic Allies are stepping up to fund a further package of critical military equipment for Ukraine,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said. “This equipment is extremely important as Ukraine enters the winter months and…
“This is a very proud day for Scotland, because we’ve achieved the highest possible credit rating that we could do within the United Kingdom,” Scotland’s First Minister John Swinney said in an interview with POLITICO. “It’s a reflection of the strength of the Scottish economy, the strength of our financial management and the strength of our financial institutions.” The Scottish government will issue its first bonds next year, with a £1.5 billion bond program planned over the life of the next parliament. “The focus of that would be on key capital investment priorities around net zero and housing to make…
Published on 13/11/2025 – 13:33 GMT+1 The European Parliament approved on Thursday a package to simplify corporate sustainability reporting and weaken due diligence requirements. European People’s Party (EPP) teamed up with European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and far-right Patriots for Europe (PfE) to pass the law, after a vote on a slew of amendments. The bill is part of an EU push for simplification and aims to make sustainability reporting and due diligence obligations easier for European businesses. The Parliament’s version of the law now has to be negotiated with the member states before final approval. The legislature was rejected…
The United States has ended production of the penny after 232 years, striking the final coin in Philadelphia on Wednesday. Treasurer Brandon Beach oversaw the last minting, following President Donald Trump’s order to stop producing the one-cent coin as part of government cost-cutting. Although the penny will remain legal tender, roughly 300 billion coins are already in circulation. The Mint says production costs have climbed to 3.69 cents per penny, making the coin increasingly impractical to manufacture.
Published on 13/11/2025 – 12:47 GMT+1 Siemens has reported record profit and cash flow for 2025, driven by steady demand for its software and energy infrastructure. The company said net income rose 16% to €10.4 billion, while free cash flow reached an all-time high of €10.8 billion. The German industrial group said on Thursday that it had finished the year with a strong fourth quarter. Cash flow rose to €5.3 billion, the highest quarterly figure Siemens has ever reported, and revenue grew 6% on a comparable basis. Earnings were partly held back by costs linked to the $10.6 billion Altair…
It is unclear whether any meeting or follow-up discussion ever took place. In the same exchange, Epstein referenced previous conversations he had with Russia’s former U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, who died in 2017. “Churkin was great,” Epstein wrote. “He understood trump after our conversations. it is not complex. he must be seen to get something its that simple.” Jagland could not be reached for comment. The Council of Europe declined to comment. Epstein died in prison in August 2019. A former Norwegian prime minister and longtime Labor Party politician, Jagland also served as Oslo’s foreign minister and later led the…
European lawmakers backed on Thursday a proposal to slash due diligence requirements for business operators under the European Union’s anti-deforestation law, after pressure from industry groups and countries outside Europe claimed the law was too burdensome. The ballot followed the European Commission’s announcement last month of an IT glitch that effectively delayed the law’s implementation until the end of 2026, the second delay, as the law was initially due to take effect from 30 December 2024. However, tensions among economic operators, including the United States and Brazil, have led EU governments to rethink the law last year and delay its…
For five years, Halima* worked in Afghanistan for the German Air Force in the security sector. Now she fears for her life. During her time with the aerial branch of the Bundeswehr, her personal details and facial biometrics were collected and stored. In 2012, health problems forced her to leave the role. Then the Taliban returned – and alongside them, terror. Because of her previous work with the German government, she became a target for the hardline Islamist militant group. The forgotten local hires As early as 2013, the German government had promised Halima support. She was given an email…
The phrase “sick man of Europe” has a long, ignoble history — first applied to the Ottoman Empire to describe the demise of a major economic and political power, later to Britain during stagflation and industrial unrest in the 1970s — and it is now being whispered again in the corridors of Westminster and the City. With fresh figures showing the UK economy unexpectedly shrinking by 0.1% in September and quarterly growth slowing to just 0.1%, the question is resurfacing: is Britain once again losing its economic momentum? “Today’s GDP release confirms what recent data has hinted at – the…
The changes would raise the threshold of corporate sustainability disclosure and due diligence rules so that even fewer companies will have to report on the environmental footprint. 382 MEPs voted in favor, 249 against and 13 abstained. The Parliament also voted to scrap mandatory climate transition plans for companies under EU due diligence rules, to force them to align their business models with the greenhouse gas emission reduction objectives of the Paris Agreement. It comes after months of intense negotiations in which the EPP, the center-left Socialists and Democrats and the centrist Renew group failed to reach a deal among themselves on…