Ukrainian president’s remarks come as Russia praises trilateral talks but warns against expectations of ‘significant results’
The European Commission got also asked about the regular US criticism that it is “targeting” US big tech companies and that, in doing so, it undermines free speech.
Digital spokesperson Regnier replied:
“Again, we don’t target any company … based of its origin.
Now on your censorship point: I think if anyone dares to compare freedom of expression with child sexual abuse material or freedom of expression with undressing women digitally without their consent, then they are not fully aligned with Europe or absolutely not aligned with Europe. We don’t even live on the same planet.
“No comments to be made on this US internal matter. But, of course, we deplore any loss of innocent lives.”
“I have said innocent lives, but it’s not for us to judge, innocent or not innocent. Any life lost, we deplore it, in general, and it is, of course, for the justice system in the US to establish the facts.”
The Independent's travel team shared their predictions for the location of the next White Lotus hotel last year — and US Travel Editor Ted Thornhill correctly prophesied Château de la Messardière in Saint-Tropez. Here he recalls his blissful family stay at the property
The European Commission has launched an investigation into Elon Musk’s X over the production of sexually explicit images and the spreading of possible child sexual abuse material by the platform’s AI chatbot feature, Grok.
The formal inquiry, launched on Monday, also extends an investigation into X’s recommender systems, algorithms that help users discover new content.
Warnings issued across 26 US states, while Portugal braces for heavy rain as Storm Joseph rolls in
The US is enduring another bout of severe winter weather, as a succession of powerful weather systems brings heavy snow, freezing rain and extreme cold temperatures to much of the country.
Twenty-six states, from Texas to Massachusetts, were under storm warnings issued by the National Weather Service over the weekend, with many alerts remaining in place this week.
Director Miklós Jancsó creates a bizarre psychodrama set after the fall of the 1919 Hungarian Soviet republic, encompassing postwar trauma and erotic overtones
Miklós Jancsó’s mysterious film from 1968 is a deeply strange somnambulist ballet. It shows a piece of Hungary’s political history implicitly juxtaposed with the postwar Soviet present, in which Czechoslovakia and Hungary have been crushed. The brutality of the anti-Communist powers of 1919 depicted in the film would have been an officially acceptable subject, but the indictment of brutality is clearly transferable. And it is an impenetrable psychological trauma with weird erotic overtones, like an absurdist bad dream transcribed by Kafka.
The scene is the vast Hungarian plain, with a desolate wind always blowing, on which the characters perform their roles as if on a gigantic stage; it is a single unitary space which appears to extend, Sahara-like, to the far horizon in all directions. People do not quite enter and exit in the conventional fashion, but rather can often be seen gradually arriving from an impossibly long way away, and leave by progressively dwindling to a vanishingly small dot in the distance. Jancsó’s distinctively sinuous camerawork glides and swoops elegantly around the action in a series of long unbroken takes.
La Commission européenne travaillerait sur un nouveau cadre législatif visant à renforcer la souveraineté technologique de l’Union, dans un contexte de tensions commerciales croissantes avec les États-Unis. Selon plusieurs responsables européens, l’objectif ne serait pas d’exclure les entreprises américaines du marché européen, mais de réduire les dépendances stratégiques …
La Commission européenne travaillerait sur un nouveau cadre législatif visant à renforcer la souveraineté technologique de l’Union, dans un contexte de tensions commerciales croissantes avec les États-Unis. Selon plusieurs responsables européens, l’objectif ne serait pas d’exclure les entreprises américaines du marché européen, mais de réduire les dépendances stratégiques …
Déjà leader mondial de la voiture électrique, le géant chinois BYD veut accélérer la cadence. Il prévoit désormais d’exporter pas moins de 1,3 million de véhicules en dehors de son pays natal en 2026.
Raúl Capdevila Murillo’s debut documentary follows the director’s journey back to his farming family, whose way of life is newly endangered
Raúl Capdevila Murillo’s debut documentary has all of the components of a thrilling retro western. Set to a rousing score, the opening titles feature giant letters in bold yellow, splattering over the horizon of a dusty landscape. Then we get the return of the prodigal son, fresh from the hubbub of the so-called civilised big city. The son is, in fact, Capdevila Murillo himself, and instead of gunfight, Los Saldos – or Remainders – is about a different kind of struggle, that of the film-maker’s own family, farmers unsettled by industrial changes.
Shot in widescreen, the film lends a majestic quality to ordinary life in Binéfar, north-eastern Spain. We observe José Ramón, the director’s father, on his daily rounds, driving around in his pickup truck, tending to his crops and animals. The rhythm is slow and languid; even the mere discussion of a new water tank results in protracted discussion between José Ramón and his neighbours who, like him, are the remnants of a vanishing line of work. Meanwhile, a major meat-product company is planning a macro abattoir in the area. The news lingers in the air like a bad smell, as news reports and political discussions unspool on radio and TV.
Energy secretary Ed Miliband says clean energy project is part of efforts to leave ‘the fossil fuel rollercoaster’
The UK and nine other European countries have agreed to build an offshore wind power grid in the North Sea in a landmark pact to turn the ageing oil basin into a “clean energy reservoir”.
The countries will build windfarms at sea that directly connect to multiple nations through high-voltage subsea cables, under plans that are expected to provide 100GW of offshore wind power, or enough electricity capacity to power 143m homes.
Are the German people on board with the government’s massive militarisation programme? Kate Connolly reports
“Not so long ago, to be a German soldier dressed in German uniform was quite a difficult role to embody. I mean, you could be going down the street and you could be spat on, or you could have names called at you.
“I’ve recently seen people get into conversation with soldiers, which I hadn’t seen in the past, [and] more recently, somebody going up to a soldier and actually getting him into conversation about his role, and at the end of the conversation, thanking him.”
Geoffrey Mason, who had a five-decade career in sports television and was best known as the coordinating producer for ABC’s coverage of the 1972 Munich Olympic Games hostage crisis, has died
Ukraine president indicates progress after talks with Russia in Abu Dhabi, ahead of further discussions this weekend. What we know on day 1,433
A US security agreement for Ukraine is “100% ready” to be signed, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said after two days of talks involving representatives from Ukraine, the US and Russia – indicating some progress was made. Further discussions are expected next weekend. Speaking to journalists in Vilnius during a visit to Lithuania on Sunday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is waiting for its partners to set a time and place for the signing of the security guarantees document, after which it would go to the US Congress and Ukrainian parliament for ratification. “For us, security guarantees are first and foremost guarantees of security from the United States. The document is 100% ready, and we are waiting for our partners to confirm the date and place when we will sign it,” Zelensky said.
Ukraine sought more air defence support from allies on Sunday as hundreds of buildings in Kyiv were without heating in freezing temperatures for a second day after Russian strikes. More than 1,300 apartment buildings Kyiv were still without heating, mayor Vitalii Klitschko said on Sunday. Sub-zero temperatures and repeated airstrikes have slowed efforts by repair crews working to restore heating and electricity.
Zelenskyy has also emphasised Ukraine’s push for European Union membership by 2027, calling it an “economic security guarantee.” He described the talks in the UAE capital of Abu Dhabi as likely the first trilateral format in “quite a long while” that included not only diplomats but military representatives from all three sides. Zelenskyy acknowledged fundamental differences between Ukrainian and Russian positions, reaffirming territorial issues as a major sticking point.
Polish president Karol Nawrocki called for unity among countries under threat from an “imperial Russia”, at a Vilnius event commemorating the 1863 uprising in Poland and Lithuania against Tsarist Russia, which Zelenskyy also took part in. “The message of these celebrations is that by looking to the past for what we have in common, it’s easier today to face the problems ahead of us. Especially in an era of the revival of imperial Russia,” Nawrocki’s office said on X. “Whether it’s tsarist Russia, Bolshevik Russia, or Vladimir Putin’s Russia, our countries [Poland, Lithuania, and Ukraine], now independent, still face the same problem: the threat posed by the Russian Federation,” Nawrocki said in his speech. Zelensky, in his speech, said Europe should cherish its independence and remain alert. “It is too early for Europe to relax while Russia’s war machine is still running, and while dictators around Europe are not weakening,” he said. “They all look at Europe – at us – as prey.”
European nations committed to a new clean energy pact, the Hamburg Declaration, aimed at boosting the region’s energy security. The deal, tobe signed at a summit in the German port city on Monday, will bring an “unprecedented fleet” of offshore wind projects to the North Sea that will supply multiple nations, the UK Department for Energy Security said. It comes three years after North Sea countries pledged to build 300GW of offshore wind in that sea by 2050, in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the “weaponisation” of European energy supplies.
Drone debris has sparked fire at two enterprises in Russia’s Krasnodar region, authorities say. One person was injured in Slavyansk-on-Kuban after drone fragments fell on them, the regional emergencies centre said on Monday, while not specifying what enterprises were affected. The city hosts a private refinery, supplying fuel for both domestic use and export. Russia’s defence ministry said air defence systems had intercepted and destroyed 40 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 34 in the Krasnodar region.
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