Author: staff

TikTok’s fate arrives at the US Supreme Court in a case that represents a collision of free speech and national security. TikTok’s fate will be on the line in the United States on Friday as the country’s Supreme Court hears arguments on a law passed to force a sale or ban the short-form video app.The US Congress passed legislation last year with wide bipartisan support requiring TikTok’s Chinese parent company ByteDance to divest from the social media platform or face a ban over national security concerns.TikTok has said that it will shut down the platform by January 19 unless the…

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk says Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu will not be detained despite the International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant. The Polish government has guaranteed that Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be arrested if he attends the 80th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp, despite the International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant against him.Poland’s President Andrzej Duda, from the opposition Law and Justice party (PiS), this week wrote to the government requesting that Netanyahu not be arrested if he decides to attend the Auschwitz commemoration on 27 January, according to a presidential aide.The office of…

The European planemaker delivered 766 jets last year, marginally missing its goal due to supply chain disruptions. Airbus looks certain to retain its lead ahead of competitors in the aerospace industry as it confirmed it had delivered 766 jets last year.”On deliveries, we kept our trajectory and celebrated several landmark firsts,” said Christian Scherer, CEO of Commercial Aircraft at Airbus, in a statement released on Thursday.”Given the complex and fast-changing environment we continue to operate in, we consider 2024 a good year. It has been a massive team effort to deliver this 2024 result,” he added.An end-of-year push was instrumental…

The percentage of smokers in the EU has remained almost static since 2020. Nearly a quarter of EU citizens (24%) are smokers.The latest Eurobarometer survey on smoking highlights that the smoking rate has remained relatively unchanged between 2020 and 2023, with just a 1% drop.The heaviest smokers are in Eastern Europe, with 37% in Bulgaria, 36% in Greece, 35% in Croatia, and 34% in Romania.Sweden has the lowest rate of smokers (8%), followed by the Netherlands (11%) and Denmark (14%).Men are more likely to use tobacco products than women (28% vs 21%). At the same time, 56% say they never…

The world’s richest man has a lot to say, a vast platform, and the ear of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump. Now he has turned his focus to Europe. As Elon Musk weighs in on European politics, often supporting extreme candidates and promoting conspiracies, Brussels tech regs appear no match for the algorithmic onslaught. For former MEP Marietje Schaake, now International Policy Director at Stanford University’s Cyber Policy Center, it’s just a small part of Europe’s subordination to Silicon Valley, as described in her book “The Tech Coup.” She joins Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, professor at the University of Copenhagen and co-author of…

Trump, however, gave no timeline for when the meeting might take place. “We have a lot of meetings set up with a lot of people. But I’d rather wait after the 20th,” he said, referring to his presidential inauguration date. Moscow has not yet commented on Trump’s statement. Earlier Thursday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Putin would welcome Trump’s desire to meet, but so far there have been no official requests for contact.   “If, after taking office, the political will to resume contacts at the highest level remains, then, of course, President Putin will only welcome this,” Peskov said…

The lawsuit was filed at state district court in Santa Fe, where a judge in July dismissed a charge of involuntary manslaughter against Baldwin in the death of cinematographer Halyna Hutchins. Actor Alec Baldwin has filed a civil lawsuit for malicious prosecution and civil rights violations in the fatal shooting of Halyna Hutchins, a cinematographer on the set of the Western movie Rust.Baldwin claims prosecutors and investigators intentionally mishandled evidence during the case and accuses them of defamation.The lawsuit names special prosecutor Kari Morrissey, Santa Fe District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies, three investigators from the Santa Fe County Sheriff’s Office, and…

Olaf Scholz blocked €3B Ukraine aid proposal, German report says – POLITICO Skip to main content

The German government has approved a new system to make it easier to return Nazi-looted art to their rightful owners. Germany’s federal government has set up a new arbitration court to simplify the process of returning property stolen during the Nazi regime. The court is intended to make the final decision in a situation where parties dispute the return of Nazi-looted art during a preliminary process. The Arbitration Court for Nazi Looted Property allows for “unilateral appealability”. This distinguishes it from the old system where the descendants of the former owners and the current owners both had to agree on…

The targets in the agreement, which saw countries around the world pledge to keep warming below 2C and ideally within 1.5C, refer to long-term warming over several decades, not a single year. But last year’s unprecedented temperatures are a sign that the world is getting close to breaching the lower goal of the Paris Agreement, scientists say.  “Each year in the last decade is one of the 10 warmest on record. We are now teetering on the edge of passing the 1.5C level defined in the Paris Agreement, and the average of the last two years is already above this…