Federica Di Sario
@fededisa.bsky.social
Climate, energy & trade reporter for The Parliament Magazine
As temperatures begin to cool Europeans can finally breathe a sigh of relief. But the continent won't soon forget just how disruptive a heat wave can be. So, how is Europe gearing up for a hotter future? Read the full story here: buff.ly/IVQXjWC
Europe's latest heatwave has passed. The next one is only a matter of time.
Europe is mapping out fountains, opening cooling centers and rethinking its cities as temperatures climb. But some limits cannot be engineered away...
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Next to the Kazakh Embassy in Brussel’s Uccle neighborhood stands a striking symbol of Astana’s diplomatic ambitions: a traditional Kazakh yurt. More than an architectural curiosity, the yurt reflects Kazakhstan’s broader charm offensive toward the EU buff.ly/DqxbtS4
Inside the yurt where Kazakhstan courts Europe
From critical raw materials to the Middle Corridor, Astana is using diplomacy, and symbolism, to strengthen its relationship with the European Unio...
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Austria's status as Europe's premier playground for spies might soon come to an end. The government has announced it will tighten its espionage laws, making life harder for the estimated 7,000 spies believed to roam the city Read the full story here: buff.ly/eHK9srx
Austria is done playing host to Kremlin spies
After decades of giving foreign intelligence services an easy ride, Austria is fighting back. Will tougher espionage laws end Vienna’s reign as Eur...
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The International Atomic Energy Agency was once an obscure player on the international stage. But with the risk of nuclear proliferation rising for the first time in decades, the multilateral agency has a huge mission to avert the worst. Read the full story here: buff.ly/dgaHcOR
Inside the IAEA, where the world's nuclear order is secured
As nuclear proliferation is on the rise for the first time in decades, the Vienna-based multilateral agency has a huge mission to avert the worst.
buff.ly
As Europe races to secure the raw materials needed for its green transition and defence build-up, the small Czech town of Cinovec has become a symbol of the tension between Brussels’ industrial ambition and the environment. www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article...
The Czech mining town saying ‘no thanks’ to Europe’s critical raw materials push
As Brussels races to secure raw materials and cut its reliance on China, it's facing resistance from a Czech region that's thought to hold signific...
theparliamentmagazine.eu
The European Union should play a bigger part in a US-brokered peace process in Israel-Palestine, a senior European Commission official said just ahead of a key donor conference the bloc is hosting Thursday focused on reforming the Palestinian Authority. www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article...
EU Mediterranean Commissioner: 'We want to be players and not only payers'
With Brussels set to host the inaugural Palestine Donor Group on Thursday, Dubravka Šuica is calling for the bloc to play a more strategic role in ...
theparliamentmagazine.eu
In 1947, De Beers convinced the world that a diamond meant forever, and that an engagement ring should cost two months’ salary. Today, the industry is betting it can pull off the same trick to persuade buyers that lab-grown diamonds are worthless merch www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article...
Inside Antwerp's battle to save the natural diamond trade
Squeezed by a boom in lab diamonds, sanctions, and fresh tariffs, the Belgian city is fighting back to persuade people the shiny natural rocks are ...
theparliamentmagazine.eu
Some comments for this article by @fededisa.bsky.social "What the Commission is doing is very tactical. They are trying to control damage, but they have clearly not given up on the medium- to long-term objective of acting autonomously and in line with the laws they have enacted” shorturl.at/gzwz0
Blackmail or realpolitik? Why the EU blinked on Big Tech
Brussels has delayed a Google fine after fresh US threats over EU tech rules. While the move has been widely denounced as capitulation, some analys...
shorturl.at
Tradwives & “alpha males” are winning over young Europeans — and shifting politics right. Once a US trend, EU influencers are now promoting a return to strict gender roles by tapping into millennials and Gen Z’s economic anxiety and disillusionment. My latest for The Parli Mag sl1nk.com/lJLKI
How alpha men and tradwives are winning over young Europeans
The spread of right-leaning subcultures fetishising a return to traditional gender roles is reshaping European politics.
theparliamentmagazine.eu
For The Parliament, I reported from a plastic recycling factory in Malaysia to examine the EU’s attempts to crack down on the harmful — and morally dubious — practice of exporting plastic waste beyond its borders. www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article...
Is the EU ready to face its mounting plastic waste problem?
The European Commission is participating in UN-led negotiations in Geneva this week to hash out the terms of a Global Plastics Treaty.
theparliamentmagazine.eu
Here it is. The White House has published the executive order adjusting the so-called "reciprocal" tariffs and codifying the recent trade deals, including the one with the European Union.
Further Modifying the Reciprocal Tariff Rates
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including the International Emergency
whitehouse.gov
As EU officials tried to justify the new US tariff deal to a sceptical Brussels, they pointed to the “immediate relief” from even harsher measures. But for steel and aluminium, even that’s not guaranteed. www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article...
Steel industry waits in purgatory as dust settles on EU-US trade deal
A preliminary agreement between the EU and the US left European steel producers the promise of a quota system to be negotiated — and 50% tariffs un...
theparliamentmagazine.eu
A lopsided trade deal with the US leaves the EU in a weakened position — but Brussels insists it has narrowly avoided a far more damaging full-scale trade war My latest for The Parliament mag www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article...
Europe’s ‘good as it gets’ trade deal redefines ties with Washington
A profoundly asymmetric trade deal with the US leaves the EU weakened, but Brussels says it could have been a lot worse.
theparliamentmagazine.eu
"It's clear that the world that was there before the 2nd of April is gone," Maroš Šefčovič, the EU's commissioner for trade and economic security, told a press conference on Monday, referring to Trump's Liberation Day. "I'm 100% sure that this deal is better than a trade war with the US."
Really don't envy EU folks having to cut that deal and get the hell out of dodge with their hides intact. But selling it as the "biggest trade deal ever" and praising Trump to high heaven looks brutal. Similar to the obsequiousness at Nato last month, not a good look to the rest of the world
More details - Trump and EU sign trade deal after 4 months of talks. - 15% baseline tariffs. - 50% tariffs on steel to continue - pharma and semi-conductors not in deal - EU to purchase $750bn of energy from US - EU promises $600bn investment www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Trump and von der Leyen announce US-EU trade deal
Agreement includes 15% baseline tariff for most EU exports to US after deal reached at Scotland crunch talks
theguardian.com
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she will travel to Scotland this weekend to meet with President Trump, as the two sides aim to conclude a trade deal ahead of an Aug. 1 deadline
EU’s Von der Leyen to Meet Trump in Bid to Clinch Trade Deal
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she will travel to Scotland this weekend to meet with US President Donald Trump, as the two sides aim to conclude a trade deal ahead of an Aug. 1 deadline when 30% tariffs on the bloc’s exports are otherwise due to kick in.
bloom.bg
For a brief moment, it looked like the turmoil sparked by US President Donald Trump’s tariffs might defrost relations between the EU and China, with this week’s summit widely hoped to be the culmination of that thaw. Except, none of it happened. www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article...
China snubs Europe, dashing hopes of summit breakthrough
Hopes that this week’s EU-China summit would herald closer relations are now a distant memory, with Beijing showing no intention of fixing spiralli...
theparliamentmagazine.eu
"Beyond stacking institutions with loyalists and demanding ideological purity, there’s another — arguably more effective — way for governments to dominate cultural centres: cut off their funding." By @fededisa.bsky.social www.theparliamentmagazine.eu/news/article...
Folk art and Soviet-style purges: How Europe’s populists are hijacking arts and culture
Across the EU, far-right and populist governments are defunding museums, censoring artists and stacking cultural institutions with loyalists, often...
theparliamentmagazine.eu
A powerful alliance of aristocrats, ultra-conservative tech moguls, and ideologically aligned businesses funnelled $1.18 billion into efforts to roll back women’s and LGBTQ+ rights across Europe. My latest for The Parliament Mag shorturl.at/g9fSx
Inside Europe’s billion-dollar anti-gender movement
A new report reveals how groups critical of so-called gender ideology across the EU raised $1.18 billion to target abortion, sex education and LGBT...
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‘Keep calm and carry on.’ That’s how the EU’s trade stance vis-a-vis the US could be summarised in a nutshell — even as it contends with a 50% tariff on steel and aluminium that could wipe out the bloc’s metals industry. Read my latest: bit.ly/4jScdCU
Keep calm and carry on: The EU’s Trump trade doctrine
Brussels' measured response to the US president's trade tirades points to a disconnect with European industries that are grappling with already cri...
bit.ly
In my first story for the Parliament Magazine,I delved into whether the widely-held belief that loosening regulations will stimulate economic growth still holds true when the very foundations of the EU model may be at risk of being undermined.
Cutting red tape or cutting corners? The EU 'simplification’ dilemma
Brussels’ ‘unprecedented’ effort to make the EU more business-friendly hopes to do away with onerous regulation. It could also harm the foundation ...
theparliamentmagazine.eu
ANALYSIS: A flurry of green steel projects led by some of the leading steelmakers has hit a major roadblock in recent months, underscoring how difficult it is to clean up an industry already teetering on the edge of decline. @fededisa.bsky.social investigates ⬇️
Delays and broken promises: Can Europe’s steel production go clean?
A flurry of green steel projects led by some of the leading steelmakers has hit a major roadblock in recent months, underscoring just how difficult it is to clean up an industry already teetering on t...
endseurope.com
And the last of my pieces to be published over the holiday break! Here I check out with @fededisa.bsky.social why the bougie gyms of Brussels are becoming the new power lobbying spot. 🤸♂️🏋️🤸♂️
POLITICO Europe@politico.eu · 2y agoForget Place Lux, power lunch and Aperol Spritz — the hot new spot for Brussels wheeling and dealing is the upmarket gym.
A refinery in Bulgaria is the latest hole to be found in the "Swiss cheese" of the EU's Russia sanctions. Read @victorjack.bsky.social's story here www.politico.eu/article/how-...
Putin rakes in extra €1B for his war chest via Bulgaria sanctions loophole
Last year, the EU gave Sofia a sanctions exemption to protect its citizens from energy shortages. Since then, Russia has profited.
politico.eu
