A former ECB chief says the lack of access to cheap energy from Russia has undermined the bloc’s competitive advantage
The global economic competitiveness of the European Union has been substantially eroded due to the loss of cheap energy from Russia, former European Central Bank president Mario Draghi said on Monday.
A wide-ranging report presented by Draghi indicated that reducing energy prices, raising competitiveness, and strengthening defense investment are among the top priorities for the bloc’s policymakers.
According to the politician, who served as Italy’s prime minister in 2021-2022, member states have been struggling to cope with higher energy prices and can no longer rely on open foreign markets.
“Europe has abruptly lost its most important supplier of energy, Russia,” Draghi said, emphasising that geopolitical stability was waning, while the region’s “dependencies have turned out to be vulnerabilities.”
The politician and economist acknowledged that energy prices have considerably fallen from their peaks, but stressed that EU companies are still dealing with electricity prices that are 150% higher than those in the US, while paying nearly 350% more for natural gas....more below
https://www.rt.com/business/603712-draghi-eu-energy-prices-warning/
By PHILLIP NIETO, US POLITICAL REPORTER
GOP lawmakers have released a trove of new emails from pedophile Jeffrey Epstein, including the financier claiming to have compromising photos of 'dirty' Donald Trump.
The House Oversight Committee, which includes Trump loyalist and Florida Representative Anna Paulina Luna, published 23,000 pages of documents from the estate of the deceased pedophile on Wednesday after the Democrats released a selective batch of emails earlier in the day.
Republican and Democratic members of the committee are investigating Epstein.....more below
Gustavo Petro said that the US president’s actions don’t help stopping drug traffickers
Colombian President Gustavo Petro has denounced the US strikes on alleged cartel vessels in the Caribbean Sea as the Pentagon announced a new operation to fight drug traffickers.
In an interview with NBC News, Petro did not mince words when criticizing US President Donald Trump. “He’s a barbarian,” Petro said in excerpts aired Thursday. “He wants to frighten us,” he added.
The Colombian president did not rule out that some of the vessels hit by the strikes were linked to cartels. “Maybe or maybe not. We do not know,” he said, adding that, “According to due process, the civilized treatment of people, they should be seized and detained.”
Petro described the victims as “poor boatmen” hired by cartels. “Then when one.....more below
China’s innovation drive is reaching fever pitch in 2025. Let’s cut to the chase and focus on four crucial domains.
1.The Huawei Factor
Huawei is already testing its first, self-developed EUV lithography machine capable of producing 3nm chips. Trial tests are going full blast at the research center in Dongguan, and mass production should start in 2026.
It’s impossible to overstate how much of a game-changing paradigm this Chinese breatkthrough – specifically in laser-induced discharge plasma (LDP) - is
all about. It’s set to turn the seminconductor technology...more below
