Author: staff

“We are highly alarmed by these developments,” reads the letter, signed by Austria, Belgium, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden. A series of Hungarian laws which threaten fines against organizers of and participants in LGBTQ+ events, under the guise of child protection, “run contrary to the fundamental values to human dignity, freedom, equality and respect for human rights as laid down in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union,” the statement reads. The text doesn’t spell out which measures Brussels should take. The obvious option, though, would be to impose so-called…

Published on 26/05/2025 – 17:42 GMT+2FN Herstal, located in eastern Belgium, is a leading manufacturer of light weapons, including machine guns, assault rifles, and pistols. The company, known locally as “la FN,” supplies nearly all NATO armies and has gained attention in the EU since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022.In June 2024, FN Herstal secured a 20-year contract with the Belgian defence ministry to produce small-calibre ammunition — a crucial deal for the company which employs 3,000 people across Belgium, Finland, the UK, and the US.”For 20 years, we will be producing all the Belgian defence’s small-calibre…

The shift marks a significant change in German security policy under the new center-right grand coalition between Merz’s conservative Christian Democrats and the center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD). While the previous SPD-led government under Olaf Scholz repeatedly rejected the delivery of Taurus missiles — citing escalation risks — Merz had signaled during the campaign that he was open to it, provided there was alignment with allies. That condition may now be fulfilled. France and the U.K. have already supplied comparable SCALP/Storm Shadow long-range cruise missiles, and the U.S. has eased restrictions on Ukraine’s use of American weapons near the border. …

Auf der wichtigsten Digitalkonferenz Europas spricht der Kanzler über Krieg und Krisen. Dabei findet er klare Worte zum Vorgehen Israels im Gazastreifen, gibt Einblicke in seine bisherigen Gespräche mit Donald Trump über die Ukraine und Zölle und kündigt zudem einen härteren Ton innerhalb der EU gegenüber Ungarn und der Slowakei an. Das Berlin Playbook als Podcast gibt es morgens um 5 Uhr. Gordon Repinski und das POLITICO-Team bringen euch jeden Morgen auf den neuesten Stand in Sachen Politik — kompakt, europäisch, hintergründig. Und für alle Hauptstadt-Profis:Unser Berlin Playbook-Newsletter liefert jeden Morgen die wichtigsten Themen und Einordnungen. Hier gibt es alle…

Norwegian prosecutors have charged the navigator of a cargo ship after he allegedly fell asleep on duty and the vessel ran aground in one of the country’s fjords last week, narrowly missing crashing into a home.The ship, the Cyprus-flagged NCL Salten, ran aground shortly before 6 am Thursday, stopping short of crashing into the house of Johan Helberg on the Trondheim Fjord’s coast.The unnamed crewman was charged with negligent navigation.No oil spills were reported and none of the 16 people aboard were injured.Johan Helberg told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that he’d slept through the whole thing and only woke up when a neighbour…

Retailleau, a hardliner on immigration, was recently elected president of France’s main conservative party and is seen as a likely contender for the 2027 presidential election. The conservative’s eagerness to take the lead on the topic drew criticism from experts and religious organizations who deemed the report “alarmist” and feared that Retailleau was seeking to draw political capital from it. On Monday, speaking after a meeting on “fighting Islamism” held on the outskirts of Paris, Retailleau insisted that the report needed to be made public to raise awareness of the issue. Shortly after, Macron, who is in Vietnam, was asked…

The next phase of artificial intelligence (AI) is robots, which will help with the global labour shortage, an Nvidia executive told Euronews Next.”We are at a very interesting point in time. The promise of robotics has existed for a long time. It’s been in our imaginations and science fiction,” Rev Lebaredian, vice president of Omniverse and simulation technology at Nvidia, told Euronews Next at the Computex technology fair in Taiwan.  He said that despite tech companies trying to build a general-purpose robot for years, the issue has been that, despite being able to build the physical robot, programming it has always…

The Court of Auditors, however, said it believed the 2025 deficit is likely to be even greater, as that forecast is based on government projections on growth and savings from tax cuts that the report’s authors deemed optimistic. “We need to take back control. Over the past years, especially in 2023 and 2024, we have lost control of our public finances,” the court’s president, Pierre Moscovici, said in an interview Monday with radio station RTL. France’s state budget deficit has ballooned in recent years, reaching 5.8 percent of gross domestic product in 2024 — well over the 3 percent limit set by…

The demands come as Israel continues a new large-scale ground offensive in the Gaza Strip. The operation aims to expand Israeli control over the territory. The Israeli campaign was launched in response to the Oct. 7, 2023 Hamas-led cross-border attack on southern Israel that killed some 1,200 people; another 251 were taken back to Gaza as hostages. The European Commission has urged Israel to “exercise the utmost restraint,” an EU spokesperson told a press briefing in early May. Meanwhile, Israel recently eased its nearly three-month blockade on humanitarian aid to Gaza. Senior SPD lawmaker Ralf Stegner warned in the same…

By AP with Indrabati Lahiri Published on 26/05/2025 – 12:33 GMT+2A consortium led by US investment firm RedBird Capital Partners has agreed to buy the publisher of Britain’s 170-year-old Daily Telegraph newspaper for about £500 million (€595.5m), the two sides said on Friday.RedBird said it has reached an agreement in principle to become the controlling owner of the Telegraph Media Group, ending a lengthy takeover saga for the conservative-leaning newspaper.Gerry Cardinale, founder and managing partner of RedBird, said the sale “marks the start of a new era for The Telegraph, as we look to grow the brand in the UK and…