Author: staff
The EU region with the highest employment rate is the archipelago of Åland in Finland (86.4%). This small Swedish-speaking community in the Baltic Sea leads the latest Eurostat release on jobs, closely followed by a string of central European capital cities: Warsaw (86.2%), Bratislava (85.4%), and Budapest (85.3%). The new stats come as EU authorities herald a “historic” 75.8% record employment across the bloc for people aged 20 to 64, thanks to a 2.7% increase from 2021. It also means that the EU may be on track to meet the 78% employment target set for 2030 by the European Pillar…
Published on 24/10/2025 – 14:43 GMT+2 According to a survey by the German Association of Local Utilities (VKU), one in five municipal providers (19%) plan to decommission their gas network by 2045 at the latest. Almost half of suppliers, 46%, are still undecided on whether they want to switch their networks to climate-friendly gas in the future or shut them down completely. Only 8% have so far made a clear decision to convert their grids for private households to green gas. Mannheim is particularly ambitious when it comes to phasing out gas. According to the plans of supplier MVV, the…
Orbán — a longtime Trump ally — was defiant, however, claiming the “battle is not over yet,” and insisting Budapest will find ways to get around Washington’s sanctions. “There are indeed sanctions in place against certain Russian oil companies,” he told the radio program “Good Morning Hungary.” “I started the week by consulting with MOL executives several times, and we are working on how to circumvent these sanctions,” Orbán said, referring to Hungary’s MOL energy company. “Anyone who wants utility price reductions must defend Hungary’s right to buy oil and gas from Russia,” he added. The Hungarian leader has previously argued that Budapest has no choice but to rely on Russia for cheap oil…
German family-run business Böcker, based in North Rhine-Westphalia, became an accidental accomplice in the weekend’s highest-profile Louvre Museum heist — after one of its mechanical lifts played a key role in the audacious heist. On Sunday, perpetrators parked a truck with a lifting platform at the Louvre, used it to climb onto a terrace, and from there forced their way into the interior of the building and stole crown jewels worth €88 million in the space of seven minutes. And just one day after the robbery, Böcker decided to react with a post loaded with sharp humour, turning the theft…
“For Germany, that would mean possible shifts along sea and land routes, as well as in digital distribution. We already have highly dynamic structures of organized crime — especially online. The U.S. administration’s announced ‘war on drugs’ could further intensify this,” he added. Streeck, who is pushing for a partial rollback of Germany’s cannabis legalization, described the narcotics situation in Germany as an “impending” crisis. He warned that cocaine prices are falling, that consumers are getting younger and drug-related deaths among people under 30 would rise dramatically. According to the EU Drugs Agency, cocaine availability continues to increase across Europe. In 2023, for…
A glimmer of optimism shone over the eurozone economy on Friday, as fresh business activity data revealed the fastest pace of private sector growth since mid-2023. October’s Composite Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) for the eurozone rose to 52.2 from 51.2 in September, according to flash estimates, marking the ninth consecutive month of expansion and tying for the most robust reading since May 2023. The outcome defied market expectations of a slowdown to 51, offering signs that the bloc’s economic recovery may be regaining traction. The upturn was broad-based, with both the services and manufacturing sectors contributing to the improvement, though…
Published on 24/10/2025 – 11:38 GMT+2 Amazon has laid out why its cloud computing service went dark this week, taking down online banking platforms, a government website, social media, and food delivery services for hours. In a lengthy description posted on its site, Amazon Web Services (AWS) said there was a bug in its automation software that caused cascading issues. The root of the problem was that its customers – including companies such as Signal– could not connect to DynamoDB, a system that stores customer data. AWS said this was because of “a latent defect within the service’s automated DNS…
The south Wales town of Caerphilly is known better for its vast, 13th century castle than its politics — but establishment parties might want to pay it a visit. A century of rule by the center-left Labour Party was smashed to rubble Friday in a by-election for the Senedd, the Welsh parliament. Labour’s vote bled away in its oldest heartland to two rivals: Welsh nationalists Plaid Cymru on the left (47.4 percent) and Nigel Farage’s populist Reform UK on the right (36 percent). Labour’s mere 11 percent is alarming strategists ahead of full elections to the Senedd in 2026, as…
One of the most direct threats involves remote management from China of products embedded in European critical infrastructure. Manufacturers have remote access to install updates and maintenance. Europe has also grown heavily reliant on Chinese tech suppliers, particularly when it comes to renewable energy, which is powering an increasing proportion of European energy. Domestic manufacturers of solar panels have enough supply to fill the gap that any EU action to restrict Chinese inverters would create, Langerová said. But Europe does not yet have enough battery or wind manufacturers — two clean energy sector China also dominates. China’s dominance also undercuts…
The sanctions threaten to take out “half” of those supplies, he said, given the measures prevent the two firms from selling their cargoes in dollars, the currency used almost exclusively for trading crude internationally. For Lukoil in particular, the sanctions “will hurt significantly,” said one former executive at the company, who was granted anonymity to speak candidly about sensitive matters. The firm will likely have to sell its stakes in overseas projects from Egypt to Iraq, the person said, hitting up to 20 percent of its revenue. But the majority of Chinese and Indian buyers, Russia’s two largest oil trading…