Author: staff

The British prime minister, who once purchased a field in the leafy English county of Surrey so his mum could look after rescue donkeys, probably knows better than to mess with Britain’s animals. “One of the main platforms those who wanted to leave the EU stood on when campaigning for Brexit was that we would be able to improve animal welfare standards, it is therefore essential that any agreement that is entered into still allows the UK to have higher animal welfare laws,” Edie Bowles, executive director at The Animal Law Foundation said. “Not only that, we should ensure that…

A similar showdown had taken place in Spain earlier this year, with Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s partial obstruction of national lender BBVA’s move on the Catalan lender Sabadell to preserve support in Catalonia, a vital political constituency. Berlin, meanwhile, is also gearing up for a confrontation with UniCredit, which is seeking to take control of national champion Commerzbank. On the one hand, this all reflects tension between the EU’s efforts to promote the creation of homegrown global banking heavyweights and the immediate national priorities of governments. In Italy, for instance, the events were cast as an epochal struggle between free-market…

While expressing empathy with the plaintiffs who pursued legal action following the tragedy, the justices noted that criminal negligence accusations must be supported by evidence demonstrating “an abstract neglect of the victims.” The ruling also stressed that such cases cannot be based on evaluations of “discretionary decision-making” by the prime minister. Citing jurisdictional limits, the Supreme Court declined to rule on similar legal complaints filed against Valencian President Carlos Mazón, who has been criticized for downplaying the threat posed by the storms that sparked the disaster. The ruling noted that a judicial probe is ongoing in Catarroja, one of the…

LONDRES — Dominic Cummings, ancien conseiller de l’ex-Premier ministre Boris Johnson qui a orchestré le Brexit, a d’autres chats à fouetter ces jours-ci. Mais lundi, il a interrompu son flot de prophéties sur l’immigration, la censure et les échecs des élites politiques pour noter quel terrible accord commercial l’Union européenne avait conclu avec le président américain Donald Trump. “Grâce au Brexit, nous sommes à l’abri de ce désastre humiliant pour l’UE et des nombreux autres à venir”, a écrit Dominic Cummings dans un post sur X, précédé de deux émojis clown. Pour un homme connu pour son langage fleuri et…

Members of the selection committee also said Wednesday that the process was complete and that they could not legally revise their choice of Tsyvinskyi, as the government has demanded. They added that the cabinet has no legal authority to reject their nominee and is violating the law. But at its Wednesday meeting — the last before a July 31 deadline to appoint Tsyvinskyi expires — the Cabinet again refused to confirm him.  The EU had already cut some €1.5 billion in funding for Ukraine in July after the country failed to complete several other required reforms, the Commission spokesperson previously…

“This manbaby was not feeling it. … He was gonna pigeonhole the conversation into only things that he wanted to discuss, and anything else was gonna be shut down, because that’s what free speech, I guess, looks like to him,” Crockett said. She laughed: “There was a little bit of drama, and somehow it did not involve me or Swalwell.” The contentious London meeting comes after the U.S. delegation visited Brussels, where Jordan and Republicans raised concerns about the bloc’s Digital Services Act and Digital Markets Act. GOP lawmakers warned that those laws, aimed at requiring platforms to take more…

Still, Veldkamp ruled out unilateral recognition of Palestine, saying, “At this moment, there is no process underway. Recognizing a Palestinian state now will not make much of a difference on the ground.” ‘Political gesture’ Italy, another key player, is waiting to see the outcome of the U.N. meeting in September before deciding whether to back recognition. “If Hamas remains, then declaring the willingness to immediately recognize Palestine as a state is a political gesture, not an anathema,” said one Italian official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “But we need to see what opportunities may arise in a week’s time. As…

Ukraine’s domestic security agency has arrested an air force officer accused of spying for Russia by leaking the locations and flight schedules of Western-supplied fighter jets, officials said Wednesday. The officer, identified only as a major in one of Ukraine’s air brigades and a flight instructor, was allegedly working as an agent for Russia’s military intelligence agency, Ukraine’s Security Service (SBU) said Wednesday. He is suspected of helping coordinate missile and drone attacks against key Ukrainian air bases. The officer is accused of gathering data on the locations and schedules of Ukrainian jets — including U.S.-made F-16s and French Mirage…

Germany and Italy — the bloc’s two big manufacturing economies — performed less well, with GDP contracting by 0.1 percent quarter-on-quarter. Franziska Palmas, senior Europe economist at Capital Economics, said that this leaves the long-suffering German economy at its pre-pandemic size. “Germany is likely to be hit harder than other major economies by tariffs and continue to struggle this year before fiscal stimulus starts to boost the economy in 2026,” she said. Spain continues to outperform, growing by 0.7 percent, making it the fastest-growing economy across the entire European Union. Year-on-year, Spanish GDP expanded by 2.8 percent.  The currency area’s…

In order to avoid a similar fate, Merz — before even taking office — moved to pass landmark legislation loosening Germany’s so-called debt brake, overturning years of self-imposed fiscal austerity and allowing for massive spending on defense while unlocking €500 billion in borrowing for infrastructure. But despite that legislation, a major budget gap still looms, forcing Merz’s government to make tough spending decisions in the next several months. “There’s no time to lose now,” said Klingbeil, a leader of the SPD. “Everyone in the cabinet will have to save. There’ll be a strict consolidation course, which I also demand of…