EU increases pressure on Russia with 18th sanctions package
"The EU just approved one of its strongest sanctions package against Russia to date," said EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Friday morning. "We will keep raising the costs, so stopping the aggression becomes the only path forward for Moscow," she added. "We are striking at the heart of Russia's war machine," emphasized Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, who noted, when presenting the sanctions proposals, that Russian oil continued to generate substantial revenue for the country.
"Done! This morning, we Europeans have adopted unprecedented sanctions against Russia and against the countries providing their support. France has played a key role in this decision. Together with the United States, we will compel Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire," said French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot on X. French diplomats said they were behind half the measures adopted by the 27 member states. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also welcomed the new European sanctions against Moscow, which he described as "essential and timely."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Euronews
3 hours ago
- Euronews
Zelenskyy proposes new round of peace talks with Russia
Kyiv has proposed a new round of peace talks to be held next week with Russia, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Saturday. In a video message posted on X, Zelenskyy urged "the pace of negotiations must be increased" to ensure lasting peace. "A meeting at the level of leaders is needed," he said, emphasising Ukraine's willingness to do so. Ukraine's newly appointed Secretary of National Security and Defence, Rustem Umerov, was the one who sent Moscow the invitation, Zelenskyy said. He also previously lead the delegation talks held in Istanbul last month. The previous negotations held in June failed to lead to a ceasefire agreement, but did result in a new prisoner of war exchange. The first round of negotiations held on 16 May also resulted in a prisoner exchange, the largest one yet, but hadn't yielded much result either regarding putting an end to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. In his video address, Zelenskyy also urged Western allies to further toughen their sanctions against Russia. "It is very important that the new EU sanctions package is also supported by other free European countries that are currently not part of the European Union," Zelenskyy said. "We are also working on the American track, there are agreements with President Trump that must be implemented as soon as possible," he added. A day prior to Zelenskyy's address, the EU imposed new sanctions on Russia, targeting its oil and banks. It marks the 18th package of sanctions imposed by the EU since February 2022. Earlier this month, the US President also threatened harsher sanctions on Russia if a peace agreement was not reached within 50 days. Writing on his Truth Social platform, Trump framed the threat as a response to Russia "absolutely 'pounding' Ukraine on the battlefield right now." "To Russia and Ukraine, get to the table right now, before it is too late. Thank you," the US president said.
Euronews
5 hours ago
- Euronews
European luxury market is growing and TikTok is increasingly key
The value of the European luxury goods market grew to almost €110 billion in 2024. "This is the result of several converging factors," assesses Rafal Drzewiecki, TikTok's Country Director for Central Europe, in an interview with Euronews. "The recovery of tourism after the pandemic, attractive exchange rates and the growing importance of emotional consumption. European luxury has become more accessible." In his opinion, a generational change is playing a key role. New consumers of luxury no longer buy for prestige. They buy for themselves. This is borne out of the popularity of the hashtag #selfgifting, which has seen a 110% increase on TikTok in recent times alone.** "We are seeing an explosion of content in which users celebrate their own achievements by buying themselves a gift," said Drzewiecki, adding that "it's not about demonstrating status, but about pleasure, satisfaction, and self-expression". Polish luxury conquers the world Against this background, Poland comes off impressively. The domestic luxury goods market grew by as much as 24% year-on-year in 2023 - well above the European average. The fastest growing segments are beauty, fashion and accessories. It is not only global brands that have benefited from the wave of interest in luxury, but also Polish brands with character. TikTok has played no small part in this. An example? Inglot, a well-known cosmetics brand from Przemyśl, which gained a new global audience thanks to its presence on the platform. "Brands such as Inglot and Chylak show that a well-told story and authenticity reach an international audience. On TikTok today, they are building communities around values, aesthetics and everyday rituals," Drzewiecki told Euronews. In user content - from tutorials to 'get ready with me' - Inglot's products appear on smartphone screens from São Paulo to Seoul. The 9:16 aesthetic has become a natural environment for luxury. Luxury without the glitz The new generation expects more than perfect shots. What matters is authenticity. Premium brand campaigns gain popularity when they are real, surprisingly everyday - such as Burberry's clip of The Crown actors making tea. "It works because it's human. The consumer today doesn't want advertising - they want relationships," Drzewiecki added. This can also be seen in the data. As many as 89% of users say they trust the opinion of influencers more than classic advertising. One in four refrains from making a purchase until they have seen the product from their favourite creator. In contrast, 60% of Polish TikTok users admit that they have been influenced into purchases through content on the platform. TikTok made me buy it The #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt trend has already amassed over 18.5 million videos. This is not a joke, but a conversion path. Today, luxury is not the result of a marketing strategy - it is an emotion, a moment, an aesthetic. "If a product looks good, tells a story and resonates with the viewer's identity, a purchase decision is made almost immediately," Drzewiecki explained. The luxury of tomorrow is a brand that listens Does luxury have a future? Only if it becomes more accessible, more empathetic and ready to talk. "The new generation expects authenticity, not perfection, from brands," said the director, adding that young people want "relationships, social engagement, and shared values". "Luxury today starts in a world that does not resemble a catalogue," he concluded. In a world where the 9:16 format reigns supreme and the voice of the user is as important as the brand narrative, luxury is no longer an exclusive privilege. It becomes a personal choice - lined with emotion, experience and aesthetics. It all starts with a scroll of the screen.
France 24
7 hours ago
- France 24
Jensen Huang, AI visionary in a leather jacket
The unassuming 62-year-old draws stadium crowds of more than 10,000 people as his company's products push the boundaries of artificial intelligence. Chips designed by Nvidia, known as graphics cards or GPUs (Graphics Processing Units), are essential in developing the generative artificial intelligence powering technology like ChatGPT. Big tech's insatiable appetite for Nvidia's GPUs, which sell for tens of thousands of dollars each, has catapulted the California chipmaker beyond $4 trillion in market valuation, the first company ever to surpass that mark. Nvidia's meteoric rise has boosted Huang's personal fortune to $150 billion -- making him one of the world's richest people -- thanks to the roughly 3.5 percent stake he holds in the company he founded three decades ago with two friends in a Silicon Valley diner. In a clear demonstration of his clout, he recently convinced President Donald Trump to lift restrictions on certain GPU exports to China, despite the fact that China is locked in a battle with the United States for AI supremacy. "That was brilliantly done," said Jeffrey Sonnenfeld, a governance professor at Yale University. Huang was able to explain to Trump that "having the world using a US tech platform as the core protocol is definitely in the interest of this country" and won't help the Chinese military, Sonnenfeld said. Early life Born in Taipei in 1963, Jensen Huang (originally named Jen-Hsun) embodies the American success story. At nine years old, he was sent away with his brother to boarding school in small-town Kentucky. His uncle recommended the school to his Taiwanese parents believing it to be a prestigious institution, when it was actually a school for troubled youth. Too young to be a student, Huang boarded there but attended a nearby public school alongside the children of tobacco farmers. With his poor English, he was bullied and forced to clean toilets -- a two-year ordeal that transformed him. "We worked really hard, we studied really hard, and the kids were really tough," he recounted in an interview with US broadcaster NPR. But "the ending of the story is I loved the time I was there," Huang said. Leather jacket and tattoo Brought home by his parents, who had by then settled in the northwestern US state of Oregon, he graduated from university at just 20 and joined AMD, then LSI Logic, to design chips -- his passion. But he wanted to go further and founded Nvidia in 1993 to "solve problems that normal computers can't," using semiconductors powerful enough to handle 3D graphics, as he explained on the "No Priors" podcast. Nvidia created the first GPU in 1999, riding the intersection of video games, data centers, cloud computing, and now, generative AI. Always dressed in a black T-shirt and leather jacket, Huang sports a Nvidia logo tattoo and has a taste for sports cars. But it's his relentless optimism, low-key personality and lack of political alignment that sets him apart from the likes of Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg. Unlike them, Huang was notably absent from Trump's inauguration ceremony. "He backpedals his own aura and has the star be the technology rather than himself," observed Sonnenfeld, who believes Huang may be "the most respected of all today's tech titans." One former high-ranking Nvidia employee described him to AFP as "the most driven person" he'd ever met. Street food On visits to his native Taiwan, Huang is treated like a megastar, with fans crowding him for autographs and selfies as journalists follow him to the barber shop and his favorite night market. "He has created the phenomena because of his personal charm," noted Wayne Lin of Witology Market Trend Research Institute. "A person like him must be very busy and his schedule should be full every day meeting big bosses. But he remembers to eat street food when he comes to Taiwan," he said, calling Huang "unusually friendly." Nvidia is a tight ship and takes great care to project a drama-free image of Huang. But the former high-ranking employee painted a more nuanced picture, describing a "very paradoxical" individual who is fiercely protective of his employees but also capable, within Nvidia's executive circle, of "ripping people to shreds" over major mistakes or poor choices.
