Author: staff
Sky News’ Sam Coates and Politico’s Anne McElvoy serve up their essential guide to the day in British politics. They start by picking over what Sir Keir Starmer had to say about the potential for an American attack on Iran – which sounded rather different from the line his German counterpart was taking. So what was going on there then? Back in Westminster, the details of benefit cuts which will impact millions get published – the government needs to convince dozens of Labour MPs to back the plan. And HS2 slows down – we’ll hear today the new line will…
Published on 18/06/2025 – 11:01 GMT+2The EU and Australia announced on Wednesday they will start talks for a defence and security pact, with the bloc expected to strike a similar deal with Canada next week, a first step that could eventually allow both NATO allies to take part in the EU’s €150 billion programme to boost military production. “I very much welcome the EU’s offer for a Security and Defence Partnership and Australia will warmly take it up and commence work immediately,” Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said in a joint statement released following a meeting on the sidelines of…
The event, held beside Museum Island in the city’s Mitte district, was organised by Fluss Bad Berlin, a group campaigning to reintroduce public swimming to the German capital after a ban that’s lasted nearly 100 years.The protest was officially registered, sidestepping the swimming ban, which was introduced in 1925 due to pollution.Campaigners say the river is now clean enough on most days and point to Paris, where the Seine has recently reopened to swimmers.
Published on 18/06/2025 – 10:56 GMT+2The European Commission has notified Chinese online marketplace AliExpress that it is in breach of the bloc’s online platform rules for not taking enough measures to counter illegal products. Preliminary results of its investigation into the platform’s alleged breaches the Digital Services Act (DSA) – EU rules that oblige online platforms to counter illegal content and products online – were sent to AliExpress on Tuesday.The Commission’s began an investigation in March 2024 focussing on several areas including risk mitigation, content moderation and the internal complaint handling mechanism, as well as transparency of advertising and recommender systems. The…
Content warning: This article contains images which some readers may find offensive.If you’re a music lover and enjoy a bit of drama, you must have heard that controversy is brewing over the artwork of Sabrina Carpenter’s upcoming album ‘Man’s Best Friend’. The suggestive – but hardly sexually explicit – cover features the buzzy ‘Espresso’ hitmaker on her knees in front of a faceless man who is pulling her hair back. And the release of the image has caused much debate.Many argue that Carpenter’s MO has always been pop-horniness, and that she has every right to express herself and her sexuality –…
That law requires Very Large Online Platforms — of which AliExpress is one — to assess what risks it carries for the spread of illegal content or goods and how it would mitigate them. AliExpress failed to properly consider these risks and its content moderation systems show systemic failures, the Commission said Wednesday. It also said AliExpress doesn’t enforce its policy against traders that sell illegal goods. The Commission accepted the company’s commitment in other areas of compliance with the DSA. Those include how it monitors the potential health impacts of goods sold on the platform, its notification system for…
By Euronews with AP Published on 18/06/2025 – 10:14 GMT+2Iranian state television urged people to remove WhatsApp from their smartphones, alleging without specific evidence that the messaging app gathered user information to send to Israel.In a statement to the Associated Press, WhatsApp said it was “concerned these false reports will be an excuse for our services to be blocked at a time when people need them the most.” WhatsApp uses end-to-end encryption, meaning messages are scrambled so that only the sender and recipient can see them. If someone else tries to access these messages all they will see is a distorted…
Consumer price inflation in the U.K. slowed only slightly in May, all but ensuring that the Bank of England won’t cut interest rates at its policy meeting on Thursday. The Office for National Statistics said the consumer price index rose 3.4 percent in the year to May, down from 3.5 percent in April but still above market forecasts for 3.3 percent. The number is likely to strengthen the arguments of those on the Monetary Policy Committee that the Bank should remain “gradual and cautious” with rate cuts as it squeezes lingering inflation pressures out of the system. The numbers will…
“We’re likely to go into the next election with Tories and Reform both promising to leave or hold a referendum. We need to get ahead of it,” they added. However, the minister — granted anonymity like others in this piece to discuss internal government thinking — issued a warning based on bad memories of David Cameron bringing back insufficient concessions from the EU as prime minister, only to then lose the Brexit referendum. “There is a risk you end up like Cameron” where you say you’re going to get reform “and you come back with not very much,” said the…
Ja, aber: „Klärung brauchen wir bei den Maßnahmen und der Finanzierung”, sagt Scheer. Sie setzt vor allem auf den Ausbau erneuerbarer Energien, um „unsere Abhängigkeit von fossilen Energieressourcen [zu] überwinden“. Der Strompreis könne bis zu 23 Prozent sinken, wenn der geplante Ausbau der Erneuerbaren komme, hat der Thinktank Agora Energiewende berechnet. Investitionen in Erneuerbare seien effizienter als die Senkung der Stromsteuer und der Netzentgelte, so das Institut. Teures Netz: „Wir brauchen eine Finanzierung von Netzausbau und Netztransformation aus Steuern“, fordert Scheer. Bisher werden die Kosten auf den Strompreis aufgeschlagen. Im Schnitt liegen diese Netzentgelte bei 11,37 Cent je kWh und…