Author: staff

Electric vehicle company BYD has announced record sales for the last year, boosted by rising Chinese demand, as well as government trade-in deals. China’s biggest electric vehicle (EV) maker BYD revealed record sales of both hybrids and EVs worldwide in 2024, supported by soaring domestic demand, as well as the success of government trade-in programmes. The car maker also experienced a spike in consumer interest because of year-end discounts. This was despite intensifying domestic competition, as a number of smaller Chinese electric vehicle manufacturers ramped up efforts to gain a bigger share of the market. The company sold 4.27 million new energy…

“There comes a point where we don’t need more inquiries,” Wynne argued. “Had Elon Musk really paid attention to what’s been going on in this country, he might have recognized that there’ve already been inquiries.” A 2014 state-commissioned report by senior social worker Alexis Jay found that some 1,400 vulnerable children were targeted and sexually abused in the northern English town of Rotherham between 1997 and 2013. Jay blasted “collective failures” in the care system and said local authorities failed to confront Pakistani-heritage perpetrators of the abuse, in part because some staff feared being labeled racist. The findings of that…

“We invited the entire diplomatic corps, but after the situation with Mr. Romanowski, [Foreign] Minister Sikorski sent a note to the Hungarian ambassador that he was not a welcome guest at the theater,” said Polish Deputy European Affairs Minister Magdalena Sobkowiak-Czarnecka. She added that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was not invited either. “We are waiting to see if a lower-ranking representative will appear,” she said. Romanowski, an MP with the nationalist opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party, faces 11 charges in Poland for misuse of public funds when he was deputy justice minister from 2019 to 2023. A Warsaw court issued a European arrest warrant…

No full meeting for the group has been convened since Trump’s election victory in November. The loose alliance — also known as the Ramstein format, named after the air base in which it is usually convened — has been run by the U.S. Department of Defense since the start of Russia’s full-scale war on Ukraine. Since then, it has been the principle vehicle for coordinating Western military support on everything from air defense to drone warfare to cybersecurity. It is as yet unclear whether Trump, who has repeatedly claimed he will end the war quickly after taking office, will continue the initiative.…

The collapse of the talks, which formally began in November, strengthens the hand of the anti-migrant, Russia-friendly Freedom Party (FPÖ), which doubled its vote share and surged to first place in September’s national election but has been blocked from forming a government, with all other major parties refusing to work with it. FPÖ General Secretary Michael Schnedlitz called on Nehammer to resign after the failure of the coalition talks, which he dubbed a “political monstrosity” and a “loser-traffic-light coalition.” Even without the support of NEOS, the SPÖ and ÖVP could continue negotiations on their own and form a two-way coalition,…

The proposed settlement filed in a US court would resolve a 5-year-old lawsuit revolving around allegations that Apple surreptitiously activated Siri to record conversations through iPhones and other devices equipped with the virtual assistant for more than a decade. Apple has agreed to pay $95m (€92.4m) to settle a lawsuit accusing the privacy-minded company of deploying its virtual assistant Siri to eavesdrop on people using its iPhone and other devices.The proposed settlement, filed earlier this week in a federal court in California, would resolve a 5-year-old lawsuit revolving around allegations that Apple surreptitiously activated Siri to record conversations through iPhones…

According to Fico, the expiry of an agreement that allows Russian state energy firm Gazprom to export supplies via Ukraine would “have drastic impacts on all of us in the European Union.” And the Slovak leader has even threatened to cut off electricity exports to Kyiv in retribution for its refusal to renegotiate the deal with Russia, teaming up with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to pressure Ukraine. Despite that, days after the gas stopped flowing, predictions of shortages have been proven wrong and prices have not skyrocketed. According to statistics from Gas Infrastructure Europe, Slovakia’s reserves are more than…

Slovak PM Robert Fico said his government was discussing retaliatory measures against Ukraine after Kyiv shut off a pipeline supplying central Europe with Russian natural gas. Slovakian leader Robert Fico has threatened to cut financial aid for more than 130,000 Ukrainian refugees living in the country as part of a set of retaliatory measures against Ukraine over its decision to halt the flow of Russian gas through its territory to Slovakia. In a video message posted on Facebook, Fico said his Smer party would also consider cutting electricity supplies to Ukraine and demand the renewal of gas transits or compensation…

“L’idée est de permettre en urgence de pallier l’absence de communication sur une partie de l’île”, précise une source préfectorale. “Ces 25 kits Starlink sont disposés dans les 13 communes éligibles et permettent un échange d’information essentiel à la gestion de crise”, notamment avec les communes les plus isolées, ajoute la même source. En plus de ces 100 premières antennes déployées en urgence, 100 autres doivent être achetées et déployées dans la foulée du plan Mayotte Debout, annoncé lundi par le Premier ministre. Cette fois, le ministère de l’Intérieur pourrait bien avoir à régler la note. “Les solutions pour le…

Talks between the left and Bayrou never really took off, and the Socialists are once again threatening to vote against the government, but the close encounter may prove to be a turning point in French politics. The Socialists have been playing second fiddle on the left for years, their last president, Francois Hollande, having departed office in 2017, leaving them to fight for credibility since. But as politicians from all sides jostle for support with eyes on the 2027 election to replace President Emmanuel Macron, the Socialists are trying to up their game. While they teamed up with other lawmakers…