Closing summary
… and on that note, it’s a wrap from me, Jakub Krupa.
Here are the three things to take away from today’s Europe Live blog:
US vice-president JD Vance has repeatedly criticised the EU’s overly cautious and prescriptive approach to digital regulation, urging Europe to look at the rise of AI with “optimism rather than trepidation” (10:51). In particular, he took aim at the EU’s Digital Services Act and the GDPR (10:53), and aimed the bloc to focus on opportunities instead of safety when planning for the roll out of artificial intelligence (10:44 and 11:15). As a sign of these tensions, the US and the UK declined to sign the final summit declaration (14:30).
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that if Donald Trump withdraws US support for Ukraine, Europe alone will be unable to fill the gap (15:14). He spoke on the eve of what could be his most consequential diplomatic trip since Russia’s full-scale invasion three years ago, as he is due to meet Vance at the Munich Security Conference later this week (17:21).
European and world leaders have promised swift retaliation after Donald Trump signed proclamations imposing 25% tariffs on all steel and aluminium imports to the US in a move that risks precipitating a global trade war (9:21, 9:40, 10:26, 15:37).
And that’s all from me, Jakub Krupa, for today. See you again tomorrow.
If you have any tips, comments or suggestions, email me at [email protected].
I am also on Bluesky at @jakubkrupa.bsky.social and on X at @jakubkrupa.
Italian song contest that inspired Eurovision starts tonight
And finally, for something lighter…
The 75th Sanremo music festival, at the famous Teatro Ariston, starts tonight, kicking off a week of music with 29 artists competing for the prestigious win, which usually also means they get the Italian spot on the Eurovision final, this year in Basel, Switzerland, in May.
The rules are incredibly complex (they run into 40 pages!) but here’s the tl;dr:
On the first night, competitors will perform their entries – which must be kept secret until then – and be judged by the jury composed of the representatives of the press room, TV viewers, and audiences online. Later during the week, others get a say, too, with televotes and online votes all combined into the final score.
On the final fifth night, votes from all days will be added up, and the final five will be determined and invited to perform again, with the final decision made in equal parts by (1) televoting, (2) press room, TV and web jury, and (3) radio jury.
Got it? You may need a calculator for all of this.
Either way, every day the concerts run well into the night as they finish past 1am... but as the festival’s host, Carlo Conti, says: “Have fun. If you don’t have fun at Sanremo, then where?”
The competition will be streamed globally by Italian TV Rai.
Here is last year’s winner, Angelina Mango, with la noia.
