Tootfinder

Filing: in 2025, TikTok posted its first net profit of $702.5M in Europe, Africa, and Latin America on $9.1B in revenue, up 45.7% YoY (Iain Martin/Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/iainmartin/2026/08/20/tik…

TikTok’s Europe, Africa and LatAm Business Turns Its First Profit
TikTok made $9.1 billion and its first profit in Europe and Latin America but faces a wave of lawsuits and investigations from European regulators.

Growing nervosity in Germany on the low filling level of its gas storages: only 50%, six weeks before the end of the usual filling season. No lessons learned from years of Russia (and now Trump) using gas to pressure Europe, and Trump's war in the Middle East. https://www.tagesschau.de/wirtschaft/en…

Filing: in 2025, TikTok posted its first net profit of $702.5M in Europe, Africa, and Latin America on $9.1B in revenue, up 45.7% YoY (Iain Martin/Forbes)
https://www.forbes.com/sites/iainmartin/2026/08/20/tik…

TikTok’s Europe, Africa and LatAm Business Turns Its First Profit
TikTok made $9.1 billion and its first profit in Europe and Latin America but faces a wave of lawsuits and investigations from European regulators.

Michael Roberts on why 'Rentier Capitalism' is a misleading understanding.
EU companies: a ‘capitalism of rent’? – Michael Roberts Blog
https://thenextrecession.wordpress.com/2026/07/20/eu-companies-a-capitalism-of-rent/

EU companies: a ‘capitalism of rent’?
Why is Europe falling behind in investment and growth compared with the US, let alone China and India?  In a new report, Labour Squeezed, Investment Stalled – the renowned economist Mariana Mazzuca…

“Buildings are the single largest energy consumer in Europe. Transposition and implementation of the #EPBD is key to boosting the EU's current very low annual energy renovation rate (1%), reducing bills for citizens and businesses and the EU's dependence on imported fossil fuels, and achieving a zero-emission and fully decarbonised building stock by 2050.”

The Commission calls on EU countries to transpose the reinforced rules on the energy performance of buildings
The European Commission decided to open infringement procedures by sending letters of formal notice to all 27 EU Member States for failing to fully transpose into national law the provisions of the recast Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EU) 2024/1275.

The feeling of unity soon gave way to anger and division,
in large part due to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars,
begun by the George W Bush administration
and framed as necessary conflicts to help the US win the "war on terror".
“We launched two forever wars that were wholly ineffective at making us safer militarily,
and only sank our prestige in the world
– especially [in] Europe and the Middle East
– at the cost of thousands of American sold…

Americans on how 9/11 changed their lives: ‘It completely unraveled the US’
Twenty-five years later, the Guardian asks US readers how the attacks affected their lives, and their country

"Yet the system is falling apart as it is. Yes, the AfD (and the far right in general) is a fundamental threat to liberal democracy, but so is the fact that a sizeable and growing part of the population no longer feels represented by its politicians. While many still come out to vote for democracy, they increasingly vote against a party rather than for one.
"

The AfD’s win in Germany is a dark day for Europe. Time is running out to stop the far right
This party is among the most extreme in Europe. To protect our democracies, liberal parties must urgently change their tactics, says Cas Mudde, author of The Far Right Today

"There are also mounting economic costs of falling behind. As of January 2026, more than 80% of European AI chatbot users relied on OpenAI's ChatGPT. That means European data — the raw material of the modern information economy — is flowing primarily into American algorithms rather than European ones."
No! This completely misunderstands what the advantage of a European stack should be. I don't care much whether my data goes to an American or a European company.
…

How the EU became a digital colony — and how it might break free
European lawmakers and analysts warn that reliance on US artificial intelligence and digital services is a strategic liability, spurring calls for ...

A profile of Tatyana Kim, founder of Russia's largest online retailer Wildberries, which has lost an estimated third of its warehouse space to Ukrainian attacks (New York Times)
https://www.nytimes.com/2026/08/08/world…

She Is Russia’s Richest Woman. Her Business Empire Is Going Up in Flames.
As Ukraine repeatedly strikes warehouses of the e-commerce site Wildberries, Tatyana Kim, its billionaire co-founder, faces her biggest test yet.

Wildfires raging across southern Europe have forced thousands to flee their homes
and prompted officials to ban spectators from a stage of the Tour de France,
amid warnings of “powder keg” conditions after a record-breaking early summer heatwave.
Hundreds of firefighters are tackling blazes that have burned through almost 20,000 hectares (49,500 acres)
in Portugal, Spain, France and Greece.
Strong winds are forecast to fan the flames and temperatures are expect…

Wildfires rage across southern Europe, forcing thousands to flee homes
Tour de France spectator ban as country along with Spain, Portugal and Greece faces ‘powder keg’ after heatwave