Author: staff

Harris, the 38-year-old elevated to the top job in April after Varadkar’s surprise resignation, could lose the taoiseach’s chair soon to the 64-year-old Martin. The Fianna Fáil leader last held the post from mid-2020 to the end of 2022 as part of the outgoing coalition’s novel power-sharing agreement. Harris’ gaffe-prone campaign has cost Fine Gael its early poll lead. It now narrowly trails Sinn Féin and Fianna Fáil, but all three are essentially bunched close to the 20 percent support mark. None of the parties is fielding enough candidates to win a parliamentary majority alone. Reflecting Ireland’s fast-growing population, the…

Tanguy said that were the government to collapse, it will still be able to introduce stopgap measures to ensure that the administration keeps functioning. “We commit to vote in favor of that law,” Tanguy promised. The financial markets, however, do not appear assuaged. Wednesday saw the interest rate on France’s benchmark 10-year government bond come within a mere one-hundredth of a point to its Greek counterpart. Additionally, the premium investors are demanding over the comparable German bond is now higher than at any time since the depths of the eurozone sovereign debt crisis in 2012, at 0.87 percentage points. Barnier…

The European judges dismissed HSBC’s procedural challenge against the cartel fine imposed by the European Commission in 2021. The EU General Court on Wednesday upheld a fine slapped on HSBC for online trader collusion with other banks to manipulate euro interest rate derivatives, dismissing a procedural challenge against the sanction.In 2016, the European Commission fined Crédit Agricole, HSBC and JPMorgan Chase for participating in a euro interest rate derivatives cartel, after finding traders colluded by manipulating key Euribor euro interbank offered rates.The exchanges took place online in corporate chat-rooms and instant messaging services.HSBC was fined €33,6 million while Deutsche Bank,…

Georgia’s ruling party has picked former Manchester City footballer Mikheil Kavelashvili as its presidential candidate, the chairman of Georgian Dream Bidzina Ivanishvili announced at a briefing Wednesday.The move means that Kavelashvili, an anti-Western political hard-liner who was prevented from running as a president of the football federation in 2025 because he has no higher education, will now likely become Georgia’s next president. For the first time ever, the president will be elected indirectly by a 300-member electoral college consisting of members of parliament and local government representatives, which are dominated by the Russia-friendly Georgian Dream. “I am sure that Mikheil…

Researchers are now picking apart just how Georgescu — who gathered more than 370,000 followers on his TikTok account — managed his sudden rise in the polls, picking apart the activity around his online profile. “We believed that Tiktok was misused and was led to be misused by him and an army of fake accounts that were used for his purpose,” said Bogdan Manolea, executive director of the Romanian campaign group, Association for Technology and Internet. Others pointed at the use of influencers that would not have labeled their content as paid advertising. Paid political advertising is prohibited by TikTok.…

The suggestion comes after a 1,000-kilometer-long undersea telecoms cable linking Finland and Germany, and another connecting Sweden to Lithuania were severed last week. A Chinese-flagged ship that departed Russia and sailed through the Baltic Sea is suspected of being involved. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius dubbed it an act of “sabotage.” Moscow, which has stepped up its hybrid warfare campaign in Europe since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, called suggestions that Russia had anything to do with the broken cables “ridiculous.” Beijing has also denied any involvement. Nine countries — Sweden, Denmark, Russia, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Germany, and Poland…

The deal has been 25 years in the making and it aims to create one of the largest free trade zones in the world – but farmers in Europe are heavily opposed to sealing it, saying that they cannot compete with South American livestock producers. After more than 20 years of negotiations, the 27-nation European Union and Mercosur — a South American trade bloc of Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay and Bolivia — are still trying to finalise a major trade agreement that is sparking protests by European farmers.A draft deal was announced in 2019, but disagreements over environmental, economic and…

With modern resorts, mounds of snow and legendary hospitality, Georgia is a hidden gem for thrill-seeking skiers. When Taylor Beckwith-Ferguson first visited Georgia in 2015, he thought he would spend a few days on the piste.It didn’t take long for his plans to change.“I found that Georgia has skiing that’s similar quality to the Alps but cheaper. There’s good infrastructure and good snow, and it’s not crowded,” he says.Add the untouched backcountry and legendary hospitality, and Beckwith-Ferguson soon discovered all the reasons why this nation wedged between the Black and Caspian Seas might be Europe’s best-kept secret for snow sport…

Gröger said “warning strikes” will take place before Dec. 9, ahead of the next round of negotiations with management over cost cuts, and threatened much more sweeping action should talks go poorly. “There is the possibility of larger-scale industrial action,” he said. “We are prepared for that.” The challenges come at a time when Germany’s government is unable to act following the collapse of the three-party ruling coalition earlier this month. It could be several months before Germany has a new government, as negotiations between the parties could drag on well after the Feb. 23 election. Even then, the country’s…

👉Listen to Politics At Jack And Sam’s on your podcast app👈 Sky News’ deputy political editor Sam Coates and Politico’s Jack Blanchard share their daily guide to the day ahead in politics in under 20 minutes. It’s only the third time Sir Keir Starmer and Kemi Badenoch have faced each other at PMQs – how do they both prepare? A busy first appearance for David Lammy at the Foreign Affairs Select Committee as a ceasefire is declared in the Middle East. And is growth this government’s top priority? You can send a WhatsApp to Jack and Sam on 07511 867…