Ireland’s EU commissioner said Dublin would “continue to play tough” over its threat to veto talks about trade after Brexit unless Britain provided guarantees over the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic. Phil Hogan, the EU’s agricultural commissioner, said that Britain, or Northern Ireland at least, should remain in the single market and the […]

Support for Ireland’s governing Fine Gael party fell in a poll on Saturday as a political crisis that has left the country two days away from the calling of a snap election showed no sign of being resolved. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar’s minority government was on the brink on Friday after the party propping it […]

Members of Germany’s Social Democrats (SPD) will likely approve a renewed coalition with Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives if party leaders present a convincing proposal, a member of the party’s executive leadership said on Saturday. Niels Annen of the SPD, in an interview with the Passauer Neue Presse newspaper, called for quick action to form a […]

The largest insurance company in Britain has announced that all new parents are to be offered the same amount of paid leave after a child’s birth. Aviva is offering one full year of leave, with half of that term to be on full pay. The firm said the terms will apply to all employees, irrespective […]

The leader of Germany’s socialist party is under heavy pressure to fix the country’s political stalemate – despite the experienced lawmaker not being involved in recent coalition talks. Martin Schulz of the Social Democratic Party (SPD) has stated repeatedly that the party wants to stay in opposition rather than joining another coalition, despite gaining 20.5 […]

Saudi Arabia’s powerful Crown Prince called the Supreme Leader of Iran “the new Hitler of the Middle East” in an interview with the New York Times published on Thursday, sharply escalating the war of words between the arch-rivals. The Sunni Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Shi’ite Iran back rival sides in wars and political […]

Bitcoin and other digital currencies are not “a fraud,” the chief executive of app-based bank Revolut told CNBC, ahead of the start-up’s plans to launch a range of services for cryptocurrencies. The firm’s CEO gave an alternative view to JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, who has called the phenomenon a “fraud” that will “blow up.” “They […]

Saudi Arabia has agreed to buy about $7 billion worth of precision-guided munitions from U.S. defense contractors, sources familiar with the matter said, a deal that some lawmakers may object to over American weapons having contributed to civilian deaths in the Saudi campaign in Yemen. Raytheon Co and Boeing Co are the companies selected, the […]

European equities are seen slightly higher on Friday morning amid lower liquidity levels due to the Thanksgiving holiday. The FTSE 100 is seen up by 0.2 points at 7,412; the DAX is expected to start up by 13 points at 12,009 and the CAC 40 is set to open up by 1.3 points at 5,376, […]

Islamic State (ISIS) is looking a shadow of its former self, having lost almost all trace of its self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq. But experts are predicting that the militant organization will regroup and return should the political and physical reconstruction of those two countries be unsuccessful. Fearful of a resurgence of ISIS and […]