Alexei clears his throat without showing the slightest expression on his face. Squatting and wearing gloves, he shakes the military uniform that once belonged to a man. The jacket and trousers still hold their shape, but inside there is nothing. Just air. Alexei pulls out a worn, stained piece of paper from one of the pockets. Andrei. Moscow, he reads aloud. There's a phone number written here. Good. It helps us trace his origin. Whoever he was, he was a Russian soldier.
The crunch moment in Google's antitrust battles with the Justice Department over its ad tech stack looms ever closer, with Justice Leonie Brinkema expected to issue her remedies ruling by the close of Q1. While these deliberations take place in the chambers of a courtroom in the Eastern District of Virginia, developments elsewhere underscore the political undercurrents at play, namely the push to limit Big Tech's power.
In January 2018, when Donald Trump was in the second year of his first term as US president, Angela Merkel, in her 13th year as German chancellor, gave a gloomy speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos. She opened her remarks with a warning from Europe's past. Politicians had sleep-walked into the first world war. As the number of surviving eyewitnesses to the second world war dwindled, she added, subsequent generations would have to prove they understood the fragility of peace.
A major hotel operator with properties in Austria has filed for bankruptcy proceedings covering around 140 of its companies, with more than 100 establishments affected. The Revo Hospitality Group said all hotels would continue operating, but it has not yet specified which Austrian sites are included, according to Kleine Zeitung. The filing was made at the Charlottenburg district court in Germany and covers roughly 140 group companies, including 125 hotels employing around 5,500 people in Germany and Austria.
Rory McIlroy has challenged Tyrrell Hatton and Jon Rahm to demonstrate their commitment to the Ryder Cup cause by settling fines for their LIV Golf participation. McIlroy pointed towards motivation used by Europe during victory at Bethpage last September after it emerged the United States players were paid to play the Ryder Cup. The switches of Rahm and Hatton to LIV has drawn fines totalling several million pounds due to tournament conflict with the DP World Tour, where both remain members.
"Calm down the hysteria," Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said Tuesday. "Take a deep breath." He was urging European counterparts and journalists not to read too much into the current kerfuffle over President Donald Trump's desire to annex Greenland, which was followed by the threat of new U.S. tariffs on a group of European countries standing in solidarity with Denmark.
Ireland remains cautious about deploying the so-called "big bazooka" economic mechanism against the US, despite Europe moving closer to using the trade weapon in response to threats to take Greenland. Amid reports that Germany is moving towards supporting France in its call for EU member states to ask the European Commission to unleash the Anti-Coercion Instrument, Ireland has remained coy on its position and is instead calling for dialogue to avert an all-out trade war.
Ireland remains cautious about deploying the so-called "big bazooka" economic mechanism against the US, despite Europe moving closer to using the trade weapon in response to threats to take Greenland. Amid reports that Germany is moving towards supporting France in its call for EU member states to ask the European Commission to unleash the Anti-Coercion Instrument, Ireland has remained coy on its position and is instead calling for dialogue to avert an all-out trade war.
Mykhailo Fedorov said on Tuesday that Kyiv had rolled out a program inviting defense companies to test their small interceptor drones in Ukraine, paying them $20,000 for each Shahed drone their product destroyed. "At the time, no one believed in it," Fedorov said at a press briefing. "But now, by this month, 40,000 interceptors are expected to be delivered to the military."
In the coming weeks, we will begin to roll out enhanced technology in Europe to further support how our moderation teams detect and remove accounts that belong to someone under the age of 13. This follows an initial pilot in Europe over the last year, which led to the removal of thousands of additional underage accounts.
More than three-quarters of Germans reject the idea of buying an electric car from the US manufacturer Tesla, according to a recent survey by the German Economic Institute (IW). Some 60% of respondents said buying a Tesla was "completely out of the question," while another 16% said they would "probably not" purchase a car from US tech billionaire Elon Musk's company, which saw sales fall by 13% worldwide in the first quarter of 2025, by 45% in Europe, and by 62% in Germany.
Revenue wrote to 34,000 family carers notifying them carer's allowance or carer's benefit have always been taxable and warning those who have not been declaring them as income they may face back-taxes. Payments to carers have always been subject to taxation but were previously self-declared. Under the new system, tax on income from the payments will be collected in real time, similar to other payments from the Department of Social Protection.
The remarks led to a rebuke of Vistisen, who was cut off in the middle of his speech. I'm sorry, colleague, said fellow MP Nicolae Stefanuta of Romania. This is against our rules as much as you might feel, or the room might feel in this, we have clear rules about cuss words, language that is inappropriate in this room. I'm sorry to interrupt you, but it is unacceptable, even if you might have strong political feelings about this.
The HSE Mid West has said it accepts "full institutional responsibility" for the "catastrophic and irreparable harm caused" when teenager Jessica Sheedy died at University Hospital Limerick.
Its model offered consumers access to all of Setapp's mobile apps through a $9.99 monthly subscription, provided the user's Apple ID was associated with an EU member state. Now, the company says all applications will be removed from Setapp Mobile by the end of the sunset date, February 16, 2026. Applications that are available on Setapp Desktop will not be affected, the company told TechCrunch.
Russia carried out an aerial attack on Kyiv overnight, severing power and water supplies for thousands of residential buildings in the Ukrainian capital amid a temperature of minus 14 degrees Celsius (7 degrees Fahrenheit), the city's mayor said Tuesday. The drone and missile strikes hit the east bank of the Dnipro River on the night of Monday to Tuesday, Vitali Klitschko said. A 50-year-old man reportedly died in the attack, according to Kyiv regional governor Mykola Kalashnyk. The strikes also damaged two fuel stations, he added.
China's plans to build a new embassy on the site of the two-century-old Royal Mint Court near the Tower of London have stalled for three years over opposition from residents, lawmakers and Hong Kong pro-democracy campaigners in Britain. Pro-democracy campaigners from Hong Kong fear Beijing could use the embassy to harass political opponents and even detain them, while nearby residents fear it could pose a security risk to them and attract large protests.
An extortionist who demanded €20,000 from two innocent victims - threatening one that their children's throats would be slit and warning another he would be killed - has argued that his five-year sentence was twice as severe as that handed to his co-accused.
MIGUEL MACIAS, BYLINE: The multiple routes that connect major cities in Andalusia in southern Spain with Madrid come together in the region of Cordoba. That's where a train that was traveling from Malaga to Madrid on Sunday may have collided with a train headed for Huelva, traveling at over 120 miles per hour in exactly the opposite direction. Yuri Montoya was on the train headed to Madrid and described the moment for the Spanish national radio network Cadena SER.
Spanish authorities have launched an investigation following the disappearance of a statue commemorating golfer Seve Ballesteros from his hometown of Pedrena, near Santander in northern Spain's Cantabria region. The Marina de Cudeyo Town Council confirmed the incident on Sunday through their social media accounts, describing the disappearance as an unfortunate event and suggesting foul play. Everything indicates that it was a theft, the council stated.
a 33-year-old consultant traveling from Malaga to Madrid in carriage number six of the high-speed train run by Spanish company Iryo, who prefers to remain anonymous, began to feel the train vibrating excessively. Then she noticed it swaying, lurching from side to side. Suitcases and bags tumbled from the overhead luggage racks, and glasses, laptops, and other items on the tables fell to the floor.
