Europe

Amid rising EU-US tensions, a new report has accused Big Tech of courting far-right MEPs to weaken the EU's regulatory power on AI and data.

Major US technology companies have tapped into the European far-right to help pressure the European Commission into stripping back regulations for its sector, according to a new report released on Wednesday.

The European Commission's deregulatory push in the Digital Omnibus – which delayed the AI Act and weakened GDPR protections – was also revealed to closely align with Big Tech’s lobbying demands, while seriously damaging EU citizens' digital rights.

Big Tech companies such as Google, Microsoft and Meta increased their meetings with far-right groups in the European Parliament ahead of the Commission's push last year, revealed a new analysis by non-profit organisations Corporate Europe Observatory (CEO) and LobbyControl.

"This is largely because the far-right has expressed support for the Commission’s deregulation plans," Bram Vranken, CEO’s researcher and campaigner, told The Brussels Times.

Continue Reading here - https://www.brusselstimes.com/1916422/us-tech-giants-allying-with-european-far-right-to-strip-back-eu-rules

Called Skovsporet, or “The Forest Trail,” the development is now home to 36 student apartments in the town of Holstebro, Denmark.

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Germans GDP hits US$ 5 trillion (€ 4,47 T) per January 2026 (Bundesambt).

Germany eked out 0.2 per cent growth in 2025, as Europe’s largest economy slowly recovers from a multiyear recession.

The estimate is in line with the latest forecast from Germany’s central bank and marks the first annual GDP growth since 2022.

Economists hope that Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s debt-funded investment spree will result in a higher growth rate this year as the government forks out billions of additional euros on infrastructure and defence.

London’s murder rate has dropped to its lowest in more than a decade with police in the capital and the mayor saying it is now one of the safest cities in the western world.

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Around the world, many people expect China’s—already considerable—global influence to grow over the next decade, and more now view Beijing as an ally or necessary partner.

Europeans are the world’s chief pessimists. They lack faith in the EU’s ability to deal on equal terms with the US or China and worry about Russian aggression and nuclear weapons.

European leaders should share greater honesty about where Europe stands in this post-Western, “China first” world in order to devise a successful strategy to navigate it.

One way the Chinese are dealing with this—and with America’s hegemony—is to work with other countries to “democratise international relations” by giving non-Western countries more of a voice. In a global order in which (as this year’s survey shows) publics feel their countries are freer than ever to choose their friends, the results of the poll will be music to the ears of decision-makers in Beijing. For decision-makers in Europe, however, the question is how to live in the truly multipolar world many Europeans have long dreamed of, but perhaps never imagined would take shape in quite this way. They also worry the Venezuela intervention legitimises the idea of China and Russia having their own spheres of influence.

China’s rise is seen as something that suits people living in most non-Western countries. Life without a hegemon is how most people appear to imagine the post-American world.

Most Europeans do not believe the EU is a power able to deal on equal terms with the US or China—and these doubts have grown over the past 12 months. As data presented earlier showed, Europeans are among the least confident in the EU’s strength.

On the surface, Europeans may already be making the mental shift to a post-Western world in which Europe increasingly finds itself alone. They harbour no illusions about the US under Trump. They support ramping up defence spending and realise they are living in a dangerous world.

Greenland and Denmark on Wednesday said they “agreed to disagree” with US diplomats after a “frank, constructive” discussion at the White House on US President Donald Trump’s desire to acquire the autonomous territory.

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/41615901

BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union will dedicate most of a massive new loan program to Ukraine’s military needs over the next two years while also injecting billions into its war-ravaged economy, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday.

SOFIA, Bulgaria (AP) — Thousands of people braved freezing weather to protest in Bulgaria’s capital on Wednesday, calling for a fair election as the Balkan country appears to be headed to its eighth vote in the last five years.

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When researchers from Westfälische Hochschule read the publications, they became suspicious. For one thing, many passages sounded inconclusive to them. When they clicked on the provided links to cited sources, they didn't work at all. And on a large scale: according to Der Spiegel magazine, 26 out of 492 footnotes in one of the reports were incorrect.

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President Karol Nawrocki vetoed the law for the national implementation of the Digital Services Act (DSA). With this, the right-wing conservative head of state demonstratively sides with US President Donald Trump and his declared rejection of European platform regulation.