Europeans

YouGov survey of six countries shows respondents think crime is increasing – though most trust their national police Western Europeans believe crime is rising in their country, according to a survey, despite long-term overall crime rates falling across the region since the mid-1990s.The YouGov poll of Britain, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Spain found most countries trusted their national police, led by Denmark where 74% of respondents said they had a lot or a fair amount of confidence in police nationally. Continue reading...

• Top AI executives, including OpenAI's Sam Altman and Google DeepMind's Demis Hassabis, are meeting with world leaders at the G7 summit in France this Wednesday. • The discussions center on the governance of artificial intelligence and the growing desire among European nations to establish checks on the market dominance of American tech firms. • This effort is supported by a recent Canadian initiative aimed at helping "middle powers" and like-minded countries develop viable alternatives to the current AI giants.

Exclusive: poll across 15 countries finds ‘deep mistrust’, with majority doubting US would come to their aid in an attackEuropean confidence in an American “security guarantee” has hit a historic low, a survey suggests, with only one in 10 people across 15 countries seeing the US as an ally and majorities in all doubting it would come to their aid if they were attacked.The survey, published on Wednesday by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) thinktank before critical G7 and Nato summits in France and Turkey over the coming weeks, revealed “deep European distrust in the US”, the authors said. Continue reading...

• A new analysis by the MCC Brussels suggests that EU sustainability mandates and restrictive building regulations are contributing to extreme indoor heat during heatwaves. • In countries including Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and Austria, the installation of fixed air-conditioning is hindered by a complex web of noise limits, heritage controls, and environmental permits. • The report argues that the EU's "green-building dogma" prioritizes environmental targets over human comfort, leaving residents unable to cool their homes effectively.

Summer holidaymakers opting for ‘more familiar, easy-to-reach locations’ as travel industry counts cost of Middle East conflictHolidaymakers who had planned to visit the eastern Mediterranean this summer are moving their trips to the west and the Caribbean because of the US-Israel war on Iran, travel companies have said.Travellers from the UK and mainland Europe are increasingly swapping their holiday destinations away from Cyprus, Turkey and Greece towards Italy, Spain, Malta and Croatia, as the region around the Middle East grapples with flight cancellations and airspace closures. Continue reading...