Author: staff
Published on 01/09/2025 – 14:17 GMT+2 Rhode Island has kicked off a fresh round of chatter in America’s heated housing debate after enacting a new annual levy on expensive second homes—quickly nicknamed the “Taylor Swift tax”. The idea is simple: ask wealthier, non-resident owners to chip in more and use the cash to support housing for others. The measure forms part of the 2026 state budget. From July 2026, a non-owner-occupied property in Rhode Island valued at more than $1 million (€853 thousand) will face an extra charge each year of $2.50 (€2.13) for every $500 (€426) of value above…
MLex first reported the story. The move to hold fire on hitting Google comes amid increasing fears in Europe that Trump is ramping up more pressure on Europe after striking a one-sided trade deal in July. He is now threatening to “impose substantial additional Tariffs” and stop selling tech and chips to countries with digital rules he deems discriminatory to American companies. The EU executive’s antitrust decisions are led by Competition Commissioner Ribera but need to be signed off by the whole College of Commissioners to be formally adopted. It is unusual for a commissioner who is not in the…
Published on 01/09/2025 – 15:05 GMT+2 A suspect in the fatal shooting of prominent Ukrainian politician and a former speaker of the parliament Andriy Parubiy has been detained, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced on Monday. “The suspect has given an initial testimony. Urgent investigative actions are currently underway to establish all the circumstances of this murder,” Zelenskyy said on X. “Urgent investigative actions are currently underway to establish all the circumstances of this murder. The entire law enforcement team and the prosecutors are working around the clock,” he explained. Head of Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) in the Lviv region Vadym Onyshchenko…
Inflation across the eurozone ticked up in August, surpassing expectations but staying close enough to the European Central Bank’s 2% target to avoid causing too much concern—at least for now. According to the latest flash estimate from Eurostat, annual inflation in the euro area rose to 2.1% in August, nudging higher from 2.0% in July. Economists had expected no change. On a monthly basis, prices were up 0.2%, rebounding from a flat reading the previous month. Core inflation—which strips out energy, food, alcohol and tobacco—held steady at 2.3% for the fourth month in a row. This suggests underlying price pressures…
It comes after a heated summer of anti-migration protests and amid an ongoing national debate about identity. Now, politicians of all stripes are desperately trying to show that they are true patriots — without endorsing the far right. POLITICO runs through five politicians totally convincingly getting in on the act. An online campaign has seen English and U.K. flags hung from street furniture and even painted on roundabouts, amid a heated summer of protests. | Christopher Furlong/Getty Images Keir Starmer Buttoned-up, lawyerly Prime Minister Starmer has long wrapped himself in the flag, and told the BBC Monday he was “very…
Having first met Russia’s leader Vladimir Putin and then his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy in August, US President Donald Trump said Washington would have a clear picture of whether an end to Moscow’s war in Ukraine is attainable within half a month. “We will know within two weeks whether there will be peace in Ukraine. After that we will have to maybe take a different tack,” Trump said on 21 August. He did not elaborate on what that would entail, but Russia’s intentions in its all-out invasion of Ukraine have not changed since. What happened on the ground in Ukraine…
Published on 02/09/2025 – 17:26 GMT+2 Klarna has revived its plans to go public by selling its ordinary shares at the New York Stock Exchange. The fintech company paused its efforts to carry out the initial public offering (IPO) in April due to unpredictable market sentiment following US President Donald Trump’s trade tariffs. The digital bank, which is hoping to raise up to $1.27 billion (€1.09bn), is offering just over 34.3 million ordinary shares priced at between $35 and $37 each. Klarna has been approved to list its ordinary shares on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol “KLAR”, the…
Nearly 2,000 lightning strikes were recorded within two hours as cars were swept away and emergency services struggled through flooded roads. Residents described the scale as unprecedented. “That’s never happened,” said Vlado from Dajla, who has lived there for 30 years. Another resident, Anton, called it “a catastrophe, a cataclysm.” In Mareda, a resident, Denis, blamed blocked canals for worsening the flooding, recalling how similar conditions once left people navigating Umag by boat.
By Andra Miron Diaconescu Published on 01/09/2025 – 18:45 GMT+2 •Updated 02/09/2025 – 14:00 GMT+2 European People’s Party (EPP) President Manfred Weber said that Europe needs to step up its collective defence following the news that Russia allegedly jammed the GPS system of a plane carrying European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen. In an interview with Euronews Romania, Weber said that “if someone like Putin is becoming aggressive, is becoming brutal, takes our way of life into question, then we have to stand up and defend ourselves.” “It’s obvious that Putin continues the attacks against all of us,” he added,…
Governments in WHO’s Europe region spent $51.76 per capita in 2024 on mental health, far more than any other region globally. The next-highest-spending region is the Americas, with $6.86 per capita. European countries also spend a higher proportion of their overall budget on mental wellbeing, with 4.5 percent compared to the global median figure of 2.1 percent. The 2.1 percent figure is stuck at the same level as in 2017 and 2020, with no evidence of greater spending at any income level, WHO officials told reporters Monday. High-income countries in general greatly outspend lower- and middle income countries on mental…