Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.11-105637/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/italys-sex-workers-get-business-code-step-out-shadows-2025-04-11/

ROME, April 11 (Reuters) - Italy has made its first direct reference to prostitution in the business classification it uses for data collection and tax purposes, the national statistics institute said, including escort services, events and the management of premises.

Prostitution in Italy lies in a limbo where individuals are allowed to offer sex services, but that activity lacks specific rules. On the other hand, organising sex workers such as in a brothel is strictly prohibited.

Sex workers are now expected to use the business classification adopted by Italian authorities to get a VAT number and try to regularise their status.

Archive: tbc

VILNIUS, April 11 (Reuters) - The Estonian navy detained an oil tanker in the Baltic Sea on Friday and boarded the vessel to inspect its legal status and safety, the country's prime minister said.

The vessel, named Kiwala, was on its way to Russia at the time of the seizure, MarineTraffic data showed.

The text, which will only come into force once it has been officially adopted by the member states and the European Parliament, bans PFAS, unless they are inaccessible to children, and targets endocrine disruptors.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.11-042303/https://www.ft.com/content/692c60b6-b243-440c-b7d1-96ff6c7d3300

The turmoil caused by Donald Trump’s trade policies has ensnared the entire automotive industry except for one smaller player: France’s Renault.

Having emerged from a five-year turnaround under boss Luca de Meo and with hardly any US sales, Renault is insulated — at least for now — from the 25 per cent tariff Trump has imposed on all vehicles imported to the US.

“I had so many miseries as a Renault CEO in the last four years but at least, in this case, I don’t have to be the first one to be worried,” De Meo said in an interview held before the US president’s tariffs were announced.

However, analysts and company insiders say a broader market slowdown caused by the tariff chaos could hurt de Meo’s plans to further expand Renault’s share in electric vehicles as well as hybrids. 

“In the storm, we’re doing pretty well but we’ll see what the boat looks like afterwards. The storm is tough,” said one company insider.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.11-075007/https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/volkswagens-scania-buys-bankrupt-northvolts-heavy-industry-battery-packs-unit-2025-04-11/

STOCKHOLM, April 11 (Reuters) - Volkswagen's (VOWG.DE), opens new tab truckmaker Scania said on Friday it had agreed to buy bankrupt Northvolt's division that makes battery packs for heavy industry, reviving a transaction first presented in February, for an undisclosed price.

Sweden's Northvolt filed for bankruptcy last month in one of the country's largest corporate failures, bringing to an end Europe's best hope of developing a rival to Asian electric vehicle battery makers.

The EU will not rip up its tech rules in an attempt to reach a trade deal with Donald Trump, the bloc’s most senior official on digital policy has said.

Henna Virkkunen, the European Commissionvice-president responsible for tech sovereignty, indicated the EU was not going to compromise on its digital rulebook to reach an agreement on trade with the US – a key demand of Trump administration officials.

“We are very committed to our rules when it comes to the digital world,” Virkkunen said in an interview with European newspapers, including the Guardian. “We want to make sure that our digital environment in the European Union … that it is fair and it’s safe and it’s also democratic.”

She gently pushed back at suggestions that EU digital regulations could be considered trade barriers, saying the same rules applied to all companies, whether European, American or Chinese. “We are not specially targeting certain companies, but we have this risk-based approach in all our rules.”

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-212943/https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2025/04/10/british-troops-could-be-deployed-in-ukraine-for-five-years/

Britain is considering deploying troops to Ukraine for five years under plans being discussed by allies, The Telegraph can disclose.

Military chiefs want the deployment to help train and reconstitute the Ukrainian army to prevent Vladimir Putin from mounting another invasion.

A scheme for a phased withdrawal was raised in the discussions being led by Britain and France over a “coalition of the willing” to uphold any post-conflict peace agreement.

Under the plan, one of a number of options on the table, a European-led force would be dispatched to Ukraine to initially deter Russia from breaching any settlement and to offer Kyiv’s men some much-needed respite.

Archive: tbc

LONDON, April 11 (Reuters) - Ukraine will receive fresh military support worth 450 million pounds ($580 million), Britain said on Friday, as European allies attempt to strengthen the country's position ahead of any peace deal with Russia.

Britain will provide 350 million pounds of the amount from its 4.5-billion-pound military support package for Ukraine this year, with Norway contributing further funding, Britain's ministry of defence said.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.11-032050/https://www.wsj.com/world/europe/one-corner-of-europe-feels-sharp-chill-in-trans-atlantic-ties-cb1766d9

KAISERSLAUTERN, Germany—Driving toward the German village of Ramstein-Miesenbach feels like entering a twilight zone. It is no longer Germany, but it isn’t quite America either.

The density of pickup trucks and baseball caps increases. Bilingual signs are everywhere and live country music is played every Thursday at Big Emma’s brewery.

But a chill has gripped the tiny village just across the fence surrounding Ramstein Air Base. “We still play soccer [with the Americans], we cook together, we’ll celebrate Easter,” said Mayor Ralf Hechler. “We just don’t talk politics all that much.”

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-201115/https://www.ft.com/content/fba18bd9-46f9-4736-89f3-976afe3abf7a

The EU is prepared to deploy its most powerful trade measures and may impose levies on US digital companies if negotiations with Donald Trump fail to end his tariff war against Europe.

European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen told the Financial Times that the EU would seek a “completely balanced” agreement with Washington during Trump’s 90-day pause in applying additional tariffs.

But the Commission president warned she was ready to dramatically expand the transatlantic trade war to services if those talks failed, potentially including a tax on digital advertising revenues that would hit tech groups such as Meta, Google and Facebook.

“We are developing retaliatory measures,” von der Leyen said, explaining these could include the first use of the bloc’s anti-coercion instrument with the power to hit services exports. “There’s a wide range of countermeasures . . . in case the negotiations are not satisfactory.”

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.11-035932/https://meduza.io/en/feature/2025/04/10/a-russian-nostradamus-to-rival-the-simpsons

LDPR has been without its charismatic, foul-mouthed founder for three years. Kremlin strategists are doing everything they can to hide Zhirinovsky’s absence from voters.

(…) The right-wing, misleadingly named Liberal Democratic Party of Russia has been without its founder for more than three years now. Vladimir Zhirinovsky died in April 2022, and polling data published by the Kremlin-linked sociological institutes All-Russian Center for the Study of Public Opinion (VTsIOM) and Public Opinion Foundation (FOM) show that his death actually had a positive effect on the party’s popularity: LDPR’s candidates are now (slightly) outperforming candidates from the Communist Party (KPRF).

While Zhirinovsky was alive, his party almost never placed second in national politics, and the same was true for its performance in regional elections. The current success is paradoxical: Aside from its founder, the party has had neither prominent figures nor a clear ideology that appealed to voters. LDPR campaigns were built entirely around Zhirinovsky’s theatrics, and his name always led the party's ballot lists, even in local municipal elections.

Liberal Democrats owe their party’s survival and recent electoral good fortune to the Kremlin’s support and the continued use of Zhirinovsky’s image in campaign materials. The Putin administration had time to preparefor this transition: Zhirinovsky’s death became an imminent concern in early February 2022 when he was hospitalized with COVID-19 and placed in a medically induced coma a few days later. With LDPR’s irreplaceable leader on life support, officials started looking for a successor. (…)

The special tribunal that Western nations intend to establish to prosecute the crime of aggression against Ukraine will not try Vladimir Putin in absentia as long as he remains president of the Russian Federation.

The same provision will apply to the Russian prime minister, Mikhail Mishustin, and the Russian foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov, according to two European officials with knowledge of the process who spoke with Euronews.

The prosecution of these high-level officials will be allowed only if the defendants are physically present in the room - unlikely given Russia does not recognise the invasion of Ukraine as criminal and is firmly opposed to cooperating with the West.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-174245/https://www.reuters.com/business/autos-transportation/eu-china-start-talks-lifting-eu-tariffs-chinese-electric-vehicles-handelsblatt-2025-04-10/

BERLIN, April 10 (Reuters) - The European Union and China have begun negotiations on the abolition of EU tariffs on imports of Chinese electric cars, German newspaper Handelsblatt reported on Thursday.

EU trade commissioner Maros Sefcovic met China commerce minister Wang Wentao during a visit to Beijing at the end of March and both sides agreed to resolve a dispute over EU tariffs through negotiations, Handelsblatt reported.

The European Union imposed tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs) late last year, saying they were needed to counter cheap loans, land and raw materials and other subsidies and the goal was a level playing field, not shutting Chinese car makers out.

The European Commission has said it is willing to continue negotiating an alternative to tariffs with China.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-120225/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/permit-free-entry-eu-ukrainian-cargo-extended-till-year-end-kyiv-says-2025-04-10/

April 10 (Reuters) - A freight liberalisation agreement allowing Ukrainian cargo to enter the EU without a transport permit has been extended until the end of the year, Ukrainian officials said on Thursday.

The agreement, signed in 2022, cancels the requirement for Ukrainian carriers to obtain permits for bilateral and transit transport to the EU and avoids exports of Ukrainian products having to stop at road checkpoints.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.09-163541/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/article/ukraine-war-trumps-wariness-can-only-get-russia-so-far.html

It hardly seemed like good news for Ukraine when Donald Trump won in November, but the reality has been worse than most expected. While pursuing a thus-far illusory Russia/Ukraine cease-fire, Trump labeled Volodymyr Zelenskyy a “dictator,” embraced Vladimir Putin’s version of the war’s history, demanded that Ukraine hand over much of its mineral wealth, and castigated Zelenskyy in the Oval Office. Yet as the U.S. pulls back from its role as Ukraine’s central backer and Europe struggles to fill that void, the actual battlefield in Ukraine has not changed very much. Given the international headwinds, can this equilibrium last much longer? To get a picture of the military and political reality in Ukraine and what the rest of 2025 may bring, I called Michael Kofman, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment, whom I have spoken with several times since Russia launched its full-scale invasion three years

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-113411/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/eu-pauses-countermeasures-against-us-tariffs-von-der-leyen-says-2025-04-10/

PARIS, April 10 (Reuters) - The European Union will put on hold for 90 days its first countermeasures against U.S. President Donald Trump's tariffs, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement on X.

"We took note of the announcement by President Trump. We want to give negotiations a chance. While finalising the adoption of the EU countermeasures that saw strong support from our member states, we will put them on hold for 90 days," she said.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-162722/https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/french-audit-office-says-keeping-pension-system-unchanged-is-impossible-2025-04-10/

PARIS, April 10 (Reuters) - France cannot afford not to reform its pension system and it should look at how to get people working for longer and make changes to how pensions are indexed to inflation, the independent audit office said on Thursday.

Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has tasked the Cour des Comptes with analysing how the pension system weighs on the competitiveness of the euro zone's second-biggest economy.

He commissioned the report to shape a debate underway among employers' federations and unions on how to revise an unpopular 2023 reform that gradually raises the pension age to 64 from 62.

State pensions are an explosive issue in France and audit office head Pierre Moscovici was careful not to make explicit recommendations, although he highlighted that working longer and tweaking the pension link to inflation would yield results.

"The status quo for the financing of the retirement system is impossible, or at least is insufficient to keep the system sustainable in the medium and long-term," he told journalists.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-161854/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2025/04/10/the-uk-s-labour-government-is-at-odds-with-its-left-wing_6740071_23.html

Is the British Labour Party still a left-wing party? This question has taken on new weight after Keir Starmer's government announced a series of highly controversial measures, including cuts to support the most vulnerable to fund defense efforts and adhere to budgetary rules that seem outdated in the face of rising geopolitical threats and the global trade war initiated by Donald Trump.

On March 18, the prime minister, whose party ended 14 years of Conservative rule in July 2024, confirmed a £5 billion (over €5.8 billion) cut in aid to people with disabilities or long-term illnesses. The eligibility criteria for the Personal Independence Payment (PIP), an allowance granted to people with health issues affecting their daily lives or ability to work, will be tightened.

Indeed, the current situation appears untenable: As of January 31, nearly 3.7 million people were receiving PIP, according to the Ministry of Labor – almost 60% more than in 2020, before the pandemic. "One in 10 people of working age now claiming a sickness or disability benefit. Almost one million young people not in education, employment or training – that's one in eight of all our young people," highlighted Minister of Labor Liz Kendall. Without reforms, the cost of health and disability aid will rise from £65 billion to £100 billion by

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-130244/https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/italys-prada-agrees-buy-fashion-rival-versace-2025-04-10/

MILAN, April 10 (Reuters) - Prada (1913.F), opens new tab struck a deal on Thursday to buy smaller rival Versace from Capri Holdings (CPRI.N), opens new tab for $1.375 billion, which includes its debt, in a move that unites two of the biggest names in Italian fashion.

Prada is seeking to expand, having defied a slowdown in luxury demand, while Versace has been operating at a loss. The merger strengthens Italy's hand in a luxury industry led by French conglomerates.

The deal follows the announcement on March 13 that Donatella Versace was stepping down as the chief creative officer of the brand founded by her late brother Gianni.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-162944/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/04/10/germany-s-merz-unveils-his-coalition-deal-on-illegal-immigration-taxes-and-bureaucracy_6740072_4.html

(…) Bitterly negotiated by parties with opposing positions, the coalition agreement presented Wednesday ultimately contains few surprises. It consists of a combination of measures restricting illegal immigration, some tax cuts and a reduction in "bureaucracy," a term that appears about 50 times in the document.

In reality, the most significant reform of Merz's term has already been voted on: On March 18, a nearly €1 trillion spending package to finance defense efforts and modernize the country was approved. This already stands as the future coalition's main achievement and the one most likely to transform the German model being challenged from all sides.

On the politically sensitive issue of immigration – strategic for the conservatives – the two parties reached a compromise that allows each to claim victory. Merz, who had promised drastic measures "from day one" of his mandate, asserted that the document would "largely end" ilegal immigration and that asylum seekers would be turned away at the border "in consultation with European partners" – a somewhat vague phrase already employed in the wake of the elections. Klingbeil, for his part, maintained that it had "always been clear that the fundamental right to asylum remains intangible." "Germany remains a country of immigration," he stressed.

The CDU secured the repeal of expedited regularization procedures introduced by the previous government but, in return, gave up its push to revoke dual nationality from offenders – a measure advocated by Merz. Family reunification will also be restricted for some refugees, and the Bürgergeld (a welfare benefit for people with few resources) will be transformed into unemployment benefits with stricter conditions.

Archive: https://archive.is/wgkWW

Poland’s opposition Law and Justice (PiS) party has condemned a court ruling overturning the granting of a terrestrial broadcasting licence to two conservative TV news stations. Its leader, Jarosław Kaczyński, says that the decision is further proof of how the government is “destroying democracy”.

However, he provided no evidence of government influence on the court’s decision. The ruling is also almost certain to be appealed, meaning the case could drag on for years, during which time the stations can continue using the licences they were granted.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-003553/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/04/10/in-pokrovsk-ukraine-the-underground-war_6740043_4.html

Photographer Adrien Vautier accompanied combat units for Le Monde on the front line surrounding Pokrovsk. The city is a major logistical hub for the entire Donbas region. The battle, which began nine months ago, has been violent; Russian assaults have intensified and Ukrainian counterattacks are swift and fierce.

Archive: https://archive.is/2025.04.10-035217/https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2025/04/10/polish-nationalists-striking-contradictions-over-trump-s-policies_6740048_4.html

(…) As international political expert Witold Jurasz from the site Onet pointed out, "In terms of values, the PiS is as anti-Western as it is anti-Russian. The fact that the United States distances itself from Western values doesn't bother them, as long as they can keep American power on their side." According to Jurasz, the PiS's attitude is explained above all by its dogmatism: "They think that a Republican president in the White House cannot harm us and a Democratic president cannot do us any good. That's the logic."

In the eyes of public opinion, this attitude does not wash. The "Trump effect," which was supposed to bolster the PiS candidate, did not occur, and the party is still significantly trailing in the polls behind its liberal rival Rafal Trzaskowski. An editorial in the daily Gazeta Prawna aptly summed up this sentiment: "The far right is closing its eyes, continuing to sleep and afraid of waking up to this new reality. The cult of an American leader who might bring the Russians closer to the Polish border can hardly be defended."