Month: February 2020

ROME — Europe’s best friend, Emmanuel Macron, handed Italian populists a helping hand by announcing a spending spree of his own. During a 13-minute televised address to the nation on Monday night, the French president promised a minimum wage increase and tax cuts, including for low-income pensioners, in an attempt to appease the Yellow Jacket protesters. The announced measures could push France’s budget-deficit-to-GDP ratio to 3.5 percent, well over the EU’s 3 percent ceiling, according to…

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Mayor Pete Buttigieg is a huge fan of the political drama The West Wing, but he also praised Game of Thrones in an interview as one of the best shows about politics. “I also think Game of Thrones is the best TV show about politics perhaps since the West Wing if it’s properly understood,” he said in an interview with National Public Radio. When NPR reporter Tamara Keith admitted she was still trying to get through…

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European Commissioner for Economic and Financial Affairs Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici (second from left), next to President of the ECB Mario Draghi and President of Eurogroup Mário Centeno | John Thys/AFP via Getty Images Finance ministers clinch eurozone deal after all-night talks Deal set to make reference to plans to develop eurozone budget after insistence from France. By Bjarke Smith-Meyer 12/4/18, 9:25 AM CET Updated 4/19/19, 1:26 AM CET EU finance ministers managed to…

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WASHINGTON, DC — The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is using its financial clout over Hollywood to exert influence and deepen its authoritarianism by censoring alternative ideas, an expert warned a House panel on Thursday. Christopher Walker, the vice president for studies and analysis at the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), argued that China had co-opted Hollywood to support Beijing’s authoritarian goals. Moreover, he pointed out that Beijing gained control of some U.S.-based traditional media outlets,…

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Europe has withstood unprecedented shocks since the last European Parliament election in 2014 — a spate of terror attacks, a migration crisis, the erosion of rule of law. And yet, as the next election day approaches, we are still asking the same questions we were asking the last time around: How high can the populist tide get? Have we reached the point at which divided factions that share a loathing for the European Union in its…

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Rocker David Crosby went after President Donald Trump during an appearance on CNN’s Cuomo Prime Time on Friday, describing him as having “no morals” and accusing the president of dragging America “to a new level of low.” During his interview with Chris Cuomo, the founding member of Crosby, Stills & Nash argued Trump was damaging America on purpose. “The guy in charge is doing the wrong thing. He’s doing it on purpose. This is a brand-new level of low……

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European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker | John Thys/AFP via Getty Images Juncker, Mogherini duped by pranksters pretending to be Armenian PM Commission pair talked about Trump and Russia during calls with fake Nikol Pashinyan. By Paul Dallison 7/19/18, 1:42 PM CET Updated 4/19/19, 1:49 AM CET Jean-Claude Juncker and Federica Mogherini reportedly fell victim to a pair of Russian pranksters posing as the prime minister of Armenia. According to Euronews, the European Commission president and…

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Zalando has announced that its private label Zign is now “fully dedicated to sustainability”, with all its new products containing 50 percent more sustainable materials or at least 20 percent recycled content. All products in its SS20 collection are manufactured in the top 50 percent of Zalando’s supply base when it comes to social performance, according to the company. The German fashion giant said it also requires these factories to submit environmental data to the…

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Even the Avengers failed to save the domestic box office, which dove nearly four percent in the second quarter of 2019 when compared to last year. After a disastrous first quarter collapse of 16 percent, the second quarter’s 3.8 percent decline might come as a relief, but it was not supposed to be this way. What’s more, only to one studio, Disney, is responsible for all five of the top five blockbusters of the second…

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EU Commissioner of Economic and Financial Affairs, Taxation and Customs Pierre Moscovici | Aris Oikonomou/AFP via Getty Images Moscovici: EU to add 10 countries to its blacklist of tax havens The list will be amended at a meeting of EU economy and finance ministers on Tuesday. By Florian Eder and Bjarke Smith-Meyer 3/11/19, 4:04 PM CET Updated 4/19/19, 1:13 AM CET The European Union is expected to considerably expand its blacklist of tax havens on…

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