Page 32 - Europe

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi to leave for Europe in Sept to meet lawmakers

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi is likely to visit Europe next month and meet European Commission lawmakers in Belgium besides addressing students at a university in Paris. He is also likely to address the Indian diaspora at an event in Oslo early September, sources said. Notably, his visits abroad will come at a time when the crucial G20 Summit will be held from September 9 to 10 in the national capital. India currently holds the G20 presidency. The sources said the Gandhi scion is likely to leave for Paris in the the first week of September for a five-day tour. He will attend a meeting with European Union members in Brussels on September 7. According to the sources, the former Congress chief will address students at a university in Paris on September 8 and deliver a lecture there. He is also slated to participate in a meeting of the Labour Union of France in Paris on September 9. Thereafter, the sources said Gandhi is slated to visit Norway where he will address the Indian diaspor

Risk of fatal heatwaves rises sharply over 2 decades, finds study

The risk of fatal heat waves has risen sharply over the past 20 years, and such extreme weather will become more frequent in the future, increasing heat-related excess mortality, a study shows. The study, published in the journal Nature Communications, found that Europe will be particularly affected. Heat waves of the kind we are currently experiencing are particularly deadly for the elderly, the sick and the poor, the researchers said. The 2003 heat wave, which saw temperatures in Europe reach 47.5 degrees Celsius, was one of the worst natural disasters of recent decades, claiming an estimated 45,000 to 70,000 victims in the space of a few weeks, they said. The researchers from ETH Zurich in Switzerland found that such heat waves could become the new norm in the coming years. Since 2013, they have been systematically collecting data on daily heat-related excess mortality for 748 cities and communities in 47 countries in Europe, Southeast Asia, Latin America, the US and Canada. T

Awaiting India's response on setting up dispute settlement mechanism: EU

The European Union on Saturday said it is awaiting India's response to its proposal for setting up of a dedicated dispute settlement mechanism under the bilateral investment protection pact that is being negotiated along with an ambitious free trade agreement (FTA) by the two sides. The EU's Executive Vice-President and Commissioner for Trade Valdis Dombrovskis told a small group of journalists that both sides are engaged in "intensive" negotiations on the proposed FTA and that "progress" has been made on various issues. But at the same time the top EU official, currently on a visit to India, noted that there is "still a lot of work ahead of us". Asked when the FTA can be sealed, he said the main focus has been on "substance over deadlines". To a question, Dombrovskis said there is no direct impact of New Delhi's trade ties with Moscow on the India-EU trade negotiations, adding: "In a sense, we do not see new topics emerging which could be obstacles for the FTA in this ...

Diesel exports to Singapore set for highs in Aug, drop for Europe: Trade

India is on track to ship between 330,000 and 439,000 tons of diesel in August to Singapore, shiptracking data from Refinitiv, Vortexa and Kpler showed

Jefferies Financial is hiring 10 investment bankers to expand India team

Jefferies has been increasing its presence in Asia Pacific, seeking to leverage its stronger position as an advisory firm in other markets such as the US and Europe

Europe's sweeping rules for tech giants to kick in, here's how they work

Google, Facebook, TikTok and other Big Tech companies operating in Europe are facing one of the most far-reaching efforts to clean up what people encounter online. The first phase of the European Union's groundbreaking new digital rules will take effect this week. The Digital Services Act is part of suite of tech-focused regulations crafted by the 27-nation bloc long a global leader in cracking down on tech giants. The DSA, which the biggest platforms must start following Friday, is designed to keep users safe online and stop the spread of harmful content that's either illegal or violates a platform's terms of service, such as promotion of genocide or anorexia. It also looks to protect Europeans' fundamental rights like privacy and free speech. Some online platforms, which could face billions in fines if they don't comply, have already started making changes. Here's a look at what's happening this week: WHICH PLATFORMS ARE AFFECTED? So far, 19. They include eight social media .

Flights to charger: How to prepare for your European holiday break

Research the places you want to visit, book hotel room and flight well in time

UK inflation cools as expected in July but services surprise to upside

Despite the drop, Britain retains one of the highest rates of price growth in Western Europe, with only Iceland and Austria suffering higher inflation in July

EU govts increased R&D budget allocations by 5% to euro 117.4 mn in 2022

In 2022, the total government budget allocations for R & D (GBARD) across the EU stood at Euro 117.4 million, equivalent to 0.74 per cent of the GDP. This was a 5.4 per cent increase compared with 2021 (Euro 111 393 million) and a 49.2 per cent increase compared with 2012 (Euro 78 656 million).Data on government budget allocations for R & D (GBARD) published by Eurostat today showed that in 2022, government budget allocations for R & D at the EU level stood at Euro 262.7 per person, a 47.2 per cent increase compared with 2012 (Euro 178.5 per person). The highest allocations were recorded in Luxembourg (Euro 661.6 per person), followed at a distance by Denmark (Euro 529.1) and Germany (Euro 517.6).On the other hand, EU countries with the lowest R & D budget allocations per person were Romania (Euro 17.6 per person), Bulgaria (Euro 27.3) and Latvia (Euro 49.6).Between 2012 and 2022, all EU governments increased their budget allocations for R & D in terms of Euro per .

ECB's Philip lane sees inflation slowing significantly later this year

While price pressures won't hit the ECB's goal until sometime in 2025, the recent decline in energy will reduce costs across the economy before long, he said in a podcast produced by the central bank

US, Europe growing alarmed by China's rush into legacy semiconductors

President Joe Biden implemented broad controls over China's ability to secure the kind of advanced chips that power artificial-intelligence models and military applications

Europe economy shows modest growth after months of stagnation as rate hikes

The European economy grew modestly in the most recent quarter, breaking out of a months of stagnation or contraction as higher interest rates designed to fight inflation make it more expensive for households and businesses to borrow, invest and spend. The 20 countries that use the euro currency and their 346 million people saw 0.3% growth in the April-to-June period, the EU statistics agency Eurostat reported Monday. That's an improvement over zero growth in the first quarter of this year and a slight decline in fourth quarter of last year, but not by much. A revision raised figures for the first quarter from a decline of 0.1%, wiping out two straight quarters of declining output. Inflation in the eurozone, meanwhile, continued its gradual decline, falling to 5.3% in July from 5.5% in June. Europe's economic growth got a boost by 0.5% growth in France and 0.4% in Spain, where lower inflation has helped lift consumer spending power. The French figure, however, was increased by a ...

Tata Steel Q1 results: Net profit plunges 92% but still beats estimates

Net profit was Rs 633.95 crore and revenue from operations Rs 59,489.66 crore, 6 per cent lower from a year ago

Madrid, Rome shut down tourist places as temperature rises to 40 degrees

The high heat in the continent is a result of an anti-cyclonic high pressure system, named 'Cerberus' by the Italian Meteorological Society

Russia launches intense attacks across Ukraine, targets southern port city

Russia launched an intense series of night-time air attacks sending drones and missiles toward places across Ukraine, and targeting the southern port city of Odesa for a second night in a row, Ukrainian officials said Wednesday. Meanwhile, Russian emergency officials in Crimea said that over 2,200 people were evacuated from four villages because of a fire at a military facility. The fire also caused the closure of an important highway, according to Sergey Aksyonov, the Russia-appointed head of the region, which was annexed in 2014. He did not specific a cause for the fire at the facility in Kirovsky district, which came two days after an attack on a bridge linking Russia to the peninsula that the Kremlin has blamed on Ukraine. A difficult night of air attacks for all of Ukraine, said Serhii Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration in a statement on Telegram. Ukrainian authorities reported more drones and missiles sent against more parts of Ukraine than in recent ...

European development bank chief takes reform agenda to G20 talks in India

The President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), of which India is a shareholder, will arrive in India on Sunday for a G20 finance summit with the reform agenda for multilateral development banks (MDBs) high on the list of priorities. Odile Renaud-Basso, the first woman head of an MDB as EBRD president, will begin her four-day visit in Gandhinagar for the Finance Ministers and Central Bank Governors gathering. From Gujarat, she is scheduled for a high-level roundtable with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in New Delhi to discuss opportunities for the Indian private sector in EBRD countries of operations in Central Asia, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Turkey and Eastern Europe. The key discussion which is relevant for us is everything related to the MDB reform agenda, which is very prominent in the G20 discussion now, said Renaud-Basso during a pre-visit interview. India has a very important role to play as the president of the G20 at a t

Biden closes out his Europe trip by showcasing new NATO member Finland

Finland joined as NATO's newest member earlier this year, an entry that effectively doubled the alliance's border with Russia

Biden is closing out his Europe trip by showcasing new Nato member Finland

President Joe Biden will close out his five-day trip to Europe on Thursday standing alongside Nordic leaders in an effort to show NATO's expanding power and influence against a burgeoning Russia. The brief stop in the shoreline Finnish capital is the coda to a Biden tour that was carefully sketched to highlight the growth of the military alliance that the president says has fortified itself since the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Finland joined as NATO's newest member earlier this year, an entry that effectively doubled the alliance's border with Russia. Biden arrived in Helsinki after what he deemed a successful annual NATO summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, where allies agreed to language that would further pave the way for Ukraine to join the military alliance. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the summit's outcome a significant security victory" for his country but nonetheless expressed disappointment Kyiv did not get an outright invitation to join NATO. Biden and other .

China-based hackers breached European govt email accounts: Microsoft

A China-based hacking group has breached email accounts linked to government agencies in Western Europe, Microsoft Corp. says. In a blog post published Tuesday, Microsoft said the group, which it identified as Storm-0558, focuses on acts such as espionage and data theft. The group gained access to email accounts affecting about 25 organisations including government agencies and to accounts of individuals linked to these organisations, and had gone undetected for about a month until customers complained to Microsoft about abnormal mail activity. We assess this adversary is focused on espionage, such as gaining access to email systems for intelligence collection, Charlie Bell, Microsoft's executive vice president of security, said in a separate Microsoft post. The hackers carried out the breach by forging authentication tokens a piece of information used to verify the identity of a user required to access the email accounts. Microsoft has since dealt with the attack and informed ..

Amazon pushes back against Europe's pioneering new digital rules

Amazon is disputing its status as a big online platform that needs to face stricter scrutiny under European Union digital rules taking effect next month, the first Silicon Valley tech giant to push back on the pioneering new standards. The online retailer filed a legal challenge with a top European Union court, arguing it's being treated unfairly by being designated a very large online platform under the 27-nation bloc's sweeping Digital Services Act. Amazon, whose filing to the European General Court was made available Tuesday, is the second company to protest the classification. German online retailer Zalando filed a legal claim two weeks ago with a similar argument. The Digital Services Act imposes new obligations on the biggest tech companies to keep users safe from illegal content and dodgy products, with violations punishable by potentially billions in fines or even a ban on operating in the EU. The rules, which will take effect on Aug. 25, are expected to help Europe maintai