Author: staff

The tech industry is spending some €151 million annually on lobbying in Brussels: a rise of more than 50% when compared to four years ago, research published Wednesday by NGOs Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and Lobby Control claims. Top spenders include Meta at €10 million, and Microsoft and Apple at €7 million each. At the same time, EU tech legislation — including the artificial intelligence rulebook and the bloc’s platform rules — has come under pressure from the US administration led by President Donald Trump, as well as tech firms themselves, who claim the rules are too restrictive and stifle…

Roughly 1,000 American soldiers will remain in Romania, the ministry said, emphasizing that they will continue to “contribute to deterrence of any threats and represent a guarantee of the U.S. commitment to regional security.” This marks the first official acknowledgment from a NATO ally that Washington is scaling back forces on the continent. The move follows a shift in Washington’s strategic priorities announced in February by Donald Trump’s administration, which has been reviewing deployments in Europe amid calls to redirect resources toward the Indo-Pacific. The Pentagon and U.S. European Command have not yet publicly detailed the scope or timing of…

Published on 29/10/2025 – 12:04 GMT+1 A seven-storey building has collapsed in the northwest Turkish city of Gebze, with five members of the same family trapped under the rubble. İlhami Aktaş, Gebze’s governor, confirmed the development on Wednesday, saying it was unclear whether there were any casualties. His comments came as teams from the Disaster and Emergency Management Directorate (AFAD) continued rescue operations at the site. The cause of the building’s collapse is currently unknown, according to the state-run Anadolu Agency. However, Zinnur Büyükgöz, the mayor of Gebze, told local reporters that it may have been caused by nearby metro…

You can only walk 6 kilometers per hour if you want to follow the law in Slovakia.The Slovak parliament Tuesday afternoon adopted an amendment to the traffic law that sets a maximum permitted speed on sidewalks in urban areas at 6 kph.The limit applies to pedestrians, cyclists, skaters, and scooter and e-scooter riders — all of who are allowed on sidewalks — and aims to avoid frequent collisions.”The main goal is to increase safety on sidewalks in light of the increasing number of collisions with scooter riders,” said the author of the amendment, Ľubomír Vážny of the leftist-populist Smer party…

More than six in 10 young EU citizens say they use social media platforms to follow daily content on social and political current affairs, according to new figures from Eurobarometer. The study follows a declaration signed earlier this month by each EU country, except Estonia and Belgium, calling for stronger protections for children online and backing a minimum age for children to access social media. EU ministers said they will explore whether further measures are needed to complement existing EU rules, since they state minors are increasingly at risk of being exposed to illegal, harmful, and extremist content, and “require…

The chancellor has been talking about “necessary choices” around next month’s budget in an article for The Guardian. Rachel Reeves says she needs to be “candid” and doesn’t want to “simply accept” forecasts – but to “defy them”. With four weeks to go, Sam Coates and Anne McElvoy ponder what she might be up to – and how she might fill a black hole coming in above £30bn. Will Labour manifesto pledges be breached? Elsewhere, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer chooses a Labour veteran to lead the party’s election campaigns next year. Lord Spencer Livermore will take on the task.

Lobbying spending is concentrated in the hands of tech giants, mainly from the U.S., according to the analysis by Corporate Europe Observatory and LobbyControl, two non-profit campaign groups focused on corporate influence. The ten largest technology spenders — which include Meta, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Qualcomm and Google — outspent the top ten firms in pharmaceuticals, finance and the automotive industries combined. Amazon, Microsoft and Meta have “noticeably” ramped up their expenditure since 2023, by more than €4 million for Amazon and €2 million for Microsoft and Meta, the analysis said. The Brussels-based lobby group Digital Europe, which includes many U.S.-based…

From help with mundane admin tasks to seeking out relationship advice, internet users are increasingly turning to AI chatbots for life tips. But can you really use AI for voting advice, and can it be trusted with democracy? The Dutch Data Protection Authority (AP) has said no, warning that AI tools such as ChatGPT and Gemini can be unreliable and prone to bias, ahead of the country’s snap elections scheduled for 29 October. The AP recently published a study in which it fed four chatbots — ChatGPT, Gemini, Grok and Le Chat — 200 typical voting profiles per political party…

US President Donald Trump met with South Korea’s President Lee Jae-myung on Wednesday in the final leg of his Asian tour, as he seeks to iron out a trade deal with Seoul that appears more elusive. Speaking broadly about international trade in Seoul, Trump suggested a more conciliatory approach than his usual confrontational stance. “The best deals are deals that work for everybody,” he said. Trump praised their “very special relationship” during remarks at a business forum. He said the US and South Korea are “wedded” and that they’re “very close” to a deal. But the disparity between what Trump…

The attack, which took place in May of last year, was not an isolated act of hate. Police quickly identified and arrested three Bulgarian suspects whose trial begins in Paris on Wednesday — a case that investigators and intelligence officials say offers a rare window into Russia’s escalating campaign to destabilize France through covert influence and psychological operations. The vandalism of the Holocaust memorial was one of several symbolic assaults to shake the country over the past two years — featuring pig heads dropped at mosques, Stars of David sprayed on buildings, coffins left next to the Eiffel Tower— each…