TAG: Technology
German budget crisis: Government reaches spending deal for 2024
Leaders of Germany's three-party ruling coalition agreed on a new draft budget for next year after w...
8 months ago
EU warms up for fight over economic security
BRUSSELS — With an economic boxing match between China and the U.S. in full swing, the EU is getting...
8 months ago
Russian bombs failed to destroy Ukraine’s energy grid. Corruption could break its own
When Vladimir Putin landed in Khabarovsk on his tour of Russia’s Far East last week, he was given a...
8 months ago
Why electric aircraft may never be the next big thing
BRUSSELS — The first electric aircraft was certified by the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (E...
8 months ago
Tony Blair seeks climate role at COP29 in Azerbaijan
LONDON — Tony Blair was once hired to lobby for a gas pipeline from Azerbaijan that activists described as a “carbon bomb.” Now he wants to help the Baku government run its climate talks.The Tony Blair Institute for Global Change (TBI), which was founded...
6 months ago
UK government scraps heat pump plan
LONDON — The government has scrapped controversial plans to fine boiler manufacturers if they miss targets for installing heat pumps.The Clean Heat Market Mechanism (CHMM), which was due to start next month, has been “scrapped” until April 2025 in a bid t...
6 months ago
Behind the Macron-Lula bromance
BRASÍLIA, Brazil ― France's Emmanuel Macron and Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva spent three days publicly showering each other with mutual presidential affection, framed by the Amazon's golden sunsets and Brasília's white modernist palaces.It was Macro...
6 months ago
Macron bets on investments and fraternité to charm Lula in first visit to Brazil
BELÉM, Brazil — “You can do business without necessarily having trade agreements,” French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters bombarding him with questions on why he so adamantly opposes an EU trade deal with Brazil and other South American countries...
6 months ago
The EU wasted €60M on a pointless fintech fad — but the Belgians won’t let it die
A faddy EU fintech project that clocked up €60 million in development costs with almost nothing to show for it has been thrown a lifeline by the brother of Belgian EU Council chief Charles Michel.Known as the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure Co...
6 months ago
Brussels fights Putin with an arsenal of acronyms: The EU’s defense plans, explained
When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, EU politicians lined up to demand an urgent rethink of European security. In order to protect themselves in an uncertain world, EU countries must reinforce their own defenses and work together far m...
6 months ago
Von der Leyen threads the climate needle to keep her job
BRUSSELS — Ursula von der Leyen has just pulled off a delicate green balancing act. The German politician secured a second term as European Commission president on Thursday with a political program carefully designed to woo both conservatives and environm...
2 months ago
Labour’s climate plan: build, baby, build
RUNCORN, England — Prime Minister Keir Starmer is a man in a hurry.He arrived in No. 10 Downing Street with a promise that Labour would rapidly transform the U.K. energy system. Now, he has little choice but to crack on and try to make it happen.That mean...
2 months ago
Starmer’s ‘quiet’ climate radicalism sets up battle with Farage
LONDON — Early last year, U.K. Labour leader Keir Starmer’s top green lieutenant traveled to Berlin. He was there to take notes on a German government full of climate vim. Starmer’s man Ed Miliband — then in opposition, now the U.K. energy secretary — enc...
2 months ago
Labour’s top policy priorities
LONDON — Keir Starmer has arrived in Downing Street with his new Cabinet. So what are their first priorities?Big-ticket items include decarbonizing the electricity grid by 2030, building 1.5 million homes over five years, hitting long-missed health servic...
2 months ago