Tents outside the chamber to send a warning: young people are done being priced out of Luxembourg, as Luc Frieden says action is underway

Mikhail Lochtchinine’s appeal against his 16-year treason sentence in Russia has been postponed for a second time so he can attend in person

Tents outside the chamber to send a warning: young people are done being priced out of Luxembourg, as Luc Frieden says action is underway

Mikhail Lochtchinine’s appeal against his 16-year treason sentence in Russia has been postponed for a second time so he can attend in person

An end to the conflict in Ukraine "will not be achieved through silence," Finland's President Alexander Stubb said.

The Oleshky ceasefire, which the White House said was secured by US First Lady Melania Trump, is meant to allow aid to get in and civilians to get out.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission is exploring whether to use revenue from a global tax agreement on multinational companies to finance the EU’s next seven-year budget, four EU diplomats with knowledge of the proceedings told POLITICO. The idea could facilitate an agreement on new EU-wide taxes, known as own resources, which has emerged as a major stumbling bloc in the ongoing budget negotiations. The European Council President António Costa has urged countries to approve the new taxes to reduce national contributions to the bloc’s budget, which is worth €1.82 trillion according to the latest proposal from earlier this month. Costa, who is brokering budget talks, is pressuring leaders to reach a budget deal among themselves by the end of the year — before elections in Poland, France and Italy threaten to derail the negotiations. Yet after more than a year of haggling, EU governments are still at odds over five proposed new taxes that the Commission estimates would generate €65 billion per year.  Among the options on the table, a corporate tax known as CORE — which charges a lump sum on companies’ revenues exceeding €100 million — has emerged as the most unpopular option and is particularly toxic in Germany.   To break the deadlock, French President Emmanuel Macron supported funneling part of the tax on multinationals to the EU budget during a leaders’ summit in October, said two of the diplomats. They were granted anonymity, like others, to discuss the sensitive plans. Supporters argue that this idea could garner more political support than CORE as it targets companies’ profits as opposed to their revenue. “The corporate income tax is about taxing companies based on their profitability. CORE is not about that, CORE is about taking a toll blindly,” said Pascal Saint-Amans, a former OECD official and one of the architects of the global tax arrangement. The tax deal Under the OECD tax deal from 2021, EU countries are compelled to levy a 15 percent minimum corporate tax on large multinationals with an annual turnover exceeding €750 million. Controversially, the U.S. secured an exemption from the rules as it introduced a national tax arrangement that was deemed equivalent to the OECD framework. The end goal is to prevent countries from competing to offer lower and lower corporate tax rates to attract large multinationals. Historically, many foreign multinationals operating across the EU such as Apple and Google have set their headquarters in Ireland because of its low taxes and light-touch regulation. To tackle this phenomenon, the OECD deal compels countries undercutting the 15 percent rate to levy a “top-up tax” on large foreign companies. Currently, the revenue is collected by national governments. However, European capitals could funnel part of these proceeds to the bloc’s budget, the diplomats said.  This could hit countries such as Ireland and the Netherlands which charge low corporate rates and collecting large sums from the top-up tax. The Dutch government alone collected €449 million in 2026 from returns related to the global minimum tax, according to Bloomberg. Saint-Amans defended the potential new own resource on the grounds that the multinationals’ “activities are taking place in Ireland, but are about managing the EU markets.” “That’s how I believe that it could make sense to visualize” the top-up taxes, he added. Costa’s team and the Commission are looking into this option ahead of bilateral discussions with EU countries starting next week. Costa will test the waters with governments before proposing new budget figures and EU taxes ahead of a leaders’ summit on Nov. 26 and 27.

BRUSSELS — Hope for the best, prepare for the worst. The European Commission updated its approach to dealing with climate change along those lines on Tuesday with a package aimed at improving the bloc’s response to mounting disasters such as extreme heat, supercharged storms and worsening wildfires.  Unveiling its first-ever law to boost the bloc’s resilience to global warming, the EU executive conceded that merely slashing planet-warming emissions is insufficient as climate extremes wreak havoc across the continent.  “There is no alternative to continue to cut emissions more forcefully and to move full-frontal into clean energy,” Climate Commissioner Wopke Hoekstra told reporters. “But at the same time, we do have to acknowledge that the problems we’re facing have morphed into something that is so large that just doing that alone unfortunately no longer is good enough.”  The Commission’s proposed Climate Resilience Law asks governments to draft plans to prepare for a world that’s 2 degrees Celsius hotter in 2050 and 3C hotter by the end of the century, aligning with the United Nations’ latest projections that current global climate policies can only limit warming to 2.8C.  The same U.N. report also warned that the world can no longer limit warming to 1.5C, the lower bound of the Paris Agreement’s dual goals, and that steep emissions cuts are needed to achieve the best-case scenario of halting the rise in global temperatures at 1.8C.  The Commission insisted that Tuesday’s package did not amount to Brussels resigning itself to catastrophic levels of warming.  “Let me just be crystal-clear on the 1.5C, that remains our goal,” said Hoekstra. “At the same time, it would be unwise not to prepare for… the current trajectory the world is on.”  Regulation for the deregulation era Under the proposed law, governments are “encouraged” to take the 3C scenario into account when designing policies, budgets and investments.  Countries will have to carry out national climate risk assessments every five years starting in 2029, and subsequently draw up climate-proofing plans by the end of 2030. These strategies should also indicate which public authorities are in charge of managing certain climate risks to avoid inaction and finger-pointing among ministries and agencies.   The fairly light-touch legislation reflects the prevailing mood in the EU. Brussels itself has committed to a deregulation agenda, and national governments have called for fewer rules, not more, particularly where climate and the environment are concerned.  Efforts to improve resilience to weather extremes, such as flood prevention or urban greening, are also largely a national and even local responsibility, with the EU holding limited powers.  Wopke Hoekstra looks on during the European Industry Summit in Antwerp, Belgium on Feb. 11, 2026. | Nicolas Tucat/AFP via Getty Images Even the limited rules proposed on Tuesday are already raising eyebrows.  “I strongly support a clearer allocation of responsibilities,” said Peter Liese, the lead climate lawmaker of the center-right European People’s Party. But, he added, “we need to examine whether the plans, in the form proposed by the Commission, are necessary. Plans alone do not protect people and could tie up resources unnecessarily if we do not design them pragmatically.”  Others argued the law was too limited. “The danger is a framework that tells us exactly how exposed we are and then commits us to nothing,” said Greens-affiliated lawmaker Kai Tegethoff. “Europe needs binding resilience targets and clear, measurable goals for the sectors most at risk.” The Commission, for its part, has sought to appeal to governments’ concerns over the EU’s economic competitiveness by emphasizing the wealth-destroying threat of climate disasters and the business potential of climate-proofing technologies.  “Some may say resilience is expensive. But the right question is, what is the real cost of being unprepared,” said Teresa Ribera, the Commission’s executive vice president in charge of the green transition. Both she and Hoekstra cited data showing the impact of heat on GDP as an example. “Europe cannot be competitive without being resilient,” she added.  In the wider package presented Tuesday, the Commission also highlighted the emerging market for climate technologies such as drought-resilient crops and cooling solutions, casting European industry as a front-runner in that sector.  As the EU is currently negotiating its next long-term budget, the package does not come with any funding attached, despite financing often acting as the biggest barrier to climate-proofing efforts. The bloc needs to invest around €70 billion a year by 2050 to adapt to a warmer world but currently only spends €29 billion.  More where that came from While presenting new obligations for governments, the Commission also promised to push ahead with work in Brussels.  The European Environment Agency will draw up bloc-wide climate risk assessments, with the next one due in June 2028, and the Commission will present an EU “strategic plan on climate resilience” by the end of September 2028.  Progress will be assessed regularly based on four criteria — climate-related deaths, economic losses attributable to global warming, the share of uninsured losses, and related fiscal costs. The Commission’s Eurostat agency will start compiling EU-wide statistics on climate-related deaths and economic losses by the end of 2030, according to the regulation.  Beyond the legislative efforts, the EU executive also presented a wider package that includes several digital tools, including a “climate viewer” that converts the new warming scenario into local projections policymakers can use. The Commission also vowed to take into account the new 3C warming scenario in all its future policy proposals. Further steps, including a heat wave action plan and a climate insurance alliance, are planned for next year, it said.  “I wouldn’t say that we’re nearly done,” said Hoekstra. “Much of this is going to be work in progress.” And if climate change continues getting worse, he added, “this package might well need to be beefed up.” 

The country's National Security Authority said the rapid growth of artificial intelligence technology also posed a "serious risk" to Norwegian businesses and organisations.

Nordic unity broke on Tuesday after the leaders of Finland and Norway held a 90-minute phone call with Vladimir Putin. The Danish and Swedish prime ministers publicly cast doubt on the diplomatic overture.

Erin Ogunkeye is pleased to welcome Ron Gerlitz, CEO of aChord Center at Hebrew University, an Israeli organization specialising in the social psychology of intergroup relations. “The main issue in this election is the fight for Israeli democracy,” explains Gerlitz. And beneath the struggle over democratic institutions lies the erosion of Benjamin Netanyahu's longstanding association with national security. Gerlitz also examines the psychological foundations of Netanyahu's enduring support, the influence of conspiracy narratives, the electoral significance of Arab parties and the uncertain future of the two-state solution.

Critics have said that a proposed French law that would make rioters liable to pay thousands of euros for any damage they cause is anti-democratic, as it could undermine the legitimate right to protest. The government put forward the law in a bid to quell looting and vandalism on the fringes of ongoing national protests over poor conditions in French schools and the high cost of living.

Trump's comments come as his administration files legal challenges to Democrat-led US states over election integrity.

Voting has begun in Israel, with over seven million eligible voters expected at the polls.

First vote since October 7 2023 attack pits Benjamin Netanyahu’s far-right coalition against opposition bloc in knife-edge contest

Scandal-prone Trump pick goes head-to-head with seminarian Democrat in race that could determine control of the upper house of Congress

The diplomatic outreach was part of an effort to push talks to end the war in Ukraine, though it was not welcome by all European leaders.

The move would be the latest U.S. concession to Moscow as President Trump pursues economic incentives he hopes will secure an end to war in Ukraine.