TikTok is mounting a public defence of its safety record as European policymakers step up efforts to restrict children’s access to social media, increasing pressure on major platforms to demonstrate that they can protect younger users.

Pressure Builds Across Europe

Speaking to CNBC’s Squawk Box Europe, Ali Law, TikTok’s director of public policy and government affairs for Northern Europe, said the platform was built with a “safety by design” approach aimed at protecting younger users.

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“We’re really conscious of the concerns that both parents and policymakers have in this area,” Law said. “We want people to have a healthy and safe relationship with the app because of the amount of benefits that people can get when they’re using it.”

Governments are increasingly moving to tighten rules around children’s use of social media. Australia became the first country to enforce a legal ban in December, while the U.K., France, Greece and Spain have all announced plans to introduce similar restrictions.

At the EU level, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen confirmed this week that the bloc will move forward with measures aimed at limiting children’s access to social media, including the possibility of introducing a minimum age requirement.

The proposal follows recommendations from a special panel on child safety online established by von der Leyen.

“We in Europe believe that parents bring up our kids, and not predatory algorithms,” she said. “To that end, let me be very clear: social media is not a toy.”

TikTok’s Safety Playbook

Law said TikTok has introduced more than 50 default safety features for users under 16, including a one-hour daily screen-time limit and a 10 p.m. reminder encouraging teenagers to stop using the app. Although users can continue browsing, the prompts are designed to discourage excessive use.

The platform also restricts direct messaging for younger users and does not allow those under 16 to buy or sell products through TikTok Shop.

“All of these are little default aspects, little nudges to make sure that people have a balanced and healthy relationship with our app,” Law said. “That works in our interests, because if people are using it too much and are burnt out, they’re not going to get value from it.”

He added that TikTok invested $2 billion in trust and safety last year, reflecting the company’s growing focus on moderation, parental controls and product safeguards.

A Broader Industry Reckoning

The debate extends well beyond TikTok as regulators scrutinise how major social media platforms affect children’s wellbeing.

Earlier this year, TikTok settled a high-profile lawsuit alleging that platforms including Instagram and YouTube contributed to mental health problems among young users through addictive features such as infinite scrolling. In the same case, a jury later found Meta and Google negligent for failing to warn users about risks associated with their platforms.

As governments consider tougher age limits and new accountability rules, social media companies face growing pressure to demonstrate that user engagement can coexist with meaningful protections for younger audiences.

Minimum Pensions In Europe Reveal A Deep Policy Divide

As Cyprus continues discussions on pension reform, with Labour Minister Marinos Moushiouttas considering planned increases to minimum pensions, new parliamentary research highlights just how differently European Union countries support retirees.

A study prepared by the Cyprus Parliament Research Service at the request of AKEL MP Nikos Kettiros shows that minimum old-age pensions across the bloc range from as little as about €250 per month in some countries to more than €2,350 in others. The differences reflect each country’s pension system, contribution rules, living standards and cost of living.

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The Cypriot Baseline

In Cyprus, the full basic pension stands at €483.77 per month, while the minimum pension for beneficiaries without dependents is €411.20. The monthly social pension amounts to €391.85.

These figures form part of a broader debate over how much income protection the state should provide in retirement and how that support should be shared between the social insurance system and general taxation.

A Wide Range Across Europe

The parliamentary study highlights striking differences in minimum pension levels across the EU.

Luxembourg provides the highest minimum old-age pension, at €2,350.89 per month for retirees with 40 years of insurance. Austria follows with €1,273.99 for single pensioners and €2,009.85 for married couples, while Belgium pays roughly €1,500 net per month for employees and self-employed workers with a full 45-year career.

Elsewhere, guaranteed pensions remain below €1,100. The Netherlands provides between €1,045.91 and €1,527.63 depending on household composition, Sweden pays €1,095 to single pensioners and €992 to married pensioners, while Finland’s guaranteed pension stands at €986.30 per month.

Southern Europe offers lower minimums. Greece’s full national pension is €436.40, Portugal pays between €331.79 and €480.08 depending on contribution years, while Italy’s minimum pension varies annually according to each beneficiary’s circumstances.

Across Central and Eastern Europe, statutory minimums are generally lower still. Slovenia provides €774.67, Latvia calculates its minimum pension using a reference income of €754.74, while Poland pays approximately €440 gross per month. Slovakia’s minimum pension stands at €397.70, Estonia’s national pension at €393.26 and Bulgaria’s at €322.38. Romania guarantees €253 per month, the Czech Republic €255, while Hungary records the lowest statutory minimum in the study at around €74 per month, although eligibility rules differ significantly from country to country. Croatia also applies a different model, calculating minimum pensions according to years of pensionable service rather than setting a fixed amount.

Countries Without A Fixed Minimum Pension

Not every EU country operates with a single statutory minimum pension.

France relies on a guaranteed minimum pension linked to years of insurance and eligibility for a full pension. In 2025, it stood at €747.69 per month and could rise to between €800 and €850 for those meeting the full contribution requirements.

Germany also has no legislated minimum pension. Retirement income depends on contributions and earnings throughout a person’s working life, while lower-income pensioners may receive additional support through the country’s basic security scheme, which can amount to roughly €900 to €1,000 per month depending on individual circumstances.

Lithuania follows a similar approach, supplementing lower pensions automatically to meet minimum consumption needs rather than guaranteeing a fixed statutory amount. In 2025, the minimum consumption threshold was estimated at €450 per month.

Why The Numbers Matter

The comparison illustrates that minimum pensions are shaped by far more than generosity alone. Contribution histories, residency requirements, household composition and national wage levels all influence what retirees ultimately receive.

For Cyprus, where pension reform remains under discussion, the findings provide useful context. The debate is no longer simply whether minimum pensions should increase, but how any changes can balance fiscal sustainability with adequate income protection and the long-term resilience of the country’s social security system.

Cyprus has emerged as one of the European Union’s clearest examples of how the benefits of the energy transition are not being shared evenly.

A Wider Divide Than Most Of Europe

New Eurostat data show that 30.3% of Cypriots not at risk of poverty or social exclusion lived in homes that had undergone energy efficiency improvements during the previous five years. Among those at risk of poverty or social exclusion, the figure dropped to 16.7%.

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The resulting gap of 13.6 percentage points ranks among the three widest in the EU.

Only the Netherlands recorded a larger disparity, with 63.3% of people not at risk of poverty living in upgraded homes compared with 45.3% of those at risk, a difference of 18 percentage points. Denmark followed with a gap of 13.5 percentage points, as 36.4% of higher-income households had benefited from energy efficiency improvements versus 22.9% of vulnerable households.

The EU Picture Still Favors Better-Off Households

Across the EU, 23.9% of people lived in homes that had undergone energy efficiency improvements over the previous five years.

The overall figure, however, masks a persistent inequality. Only 17.4% of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion lived in upgraded homes, compared with 25.6% of those not at risk.

For lower-income households, access to improvements such as better insulation, more efficient heating systems and upgraded windows can significantly reduce energy bills while improving resilience to future price increases.

Netherlands Leads, Italy Trails

The Netherlands recorded the highest overall share of residents living in energy-efficient homes, at 60.5%, followed by Denmark at 34.0%. France and Slovenia shared third place, with 33.3% each.

Italy ranked last at just 2.6%, followed by Malta at 7.8% and Greece at 9.5%.

A Challenge For Europe’s Green Transition

The figures suggest that while energy efficiency upgrades are becoming more common across Europe, access remains uneven both between and within member states.

For policymakers, the challenge extends beyond improving buildings. Ensuring that lower-income households can benefit from the energy transition will be essential if Europe wants to reduce both emissions and energy poverty at the same time.

Spotify Expands Its AI Playbook

Spotify is taking another step toward making artificial intelligence a core part of how users discover and control audio. On Tuesday, the company announced that Premium subscribers can now hold interactive conversations with the app to find music, podcasts and audiobooks.

The feature is rolling out in beta to English-speaking Premium users aged 18 and over in the U.S., Ireland and Sweden on iOS and Android.

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How The New Feature Works

Rather than relying on a traditional search bar, users can type or speak to Spotify and engage in back-and-forth conversations within the Home and Now Playing views. The experience is designed to make content discovery more natural and context-aware.

Spotify says users can ask for recommendations, revisit their listening history or learn more about songs, artists, podcasts and audiobooks. They can also ask questions about their own listening habits, such as when they first played a track or which genres they stream most often.

AI Becomes A Bigger Part Of Discovery

Spotify confirmed to TechCrunch that the feature combines the company’s own AI technology with models from multiple providers, selecting the most suitable system depending on the task.

The launch builds on Spotify’s broader AI strategy, which already includes its AI DJ, AI-powered playlist features and integrations with third-party chatbots such as ChatGPT.

A More Personal Listening Assistant

Users can give open-ended prompts such as “play some artists I haven’t heard before” and refine the results through follow-up requests, including adding a specific artist, focusing on recent releases or changing the mood of the recommendations.

The assistant can also perform actions such as saving songs, adding tracks to the playback queue and following artists directly within the conversation.

The latest rollout reflects Spotify’s wider push to replace traditional search and navigation with a more conversational experience, turning AI into a personalised listening assistant rather than simply another discovery tool.

David Beckham-backed startup IM8 has secured up to $1 billion in financing from General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund, according to a company announcement on Tuesday.

How General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund Works

The financing is not a traditional venture capital investment. Instead, General Catalyst’s Customer Value Fund (CVF) provides non-dilutive growth capital through a structure that resembles a loan, with repayments linked to future revenue under a pre-agreed cap.

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That means General Catalyst does not take an ownership stake in IM8, allowing the company to raise capital without diluting existing shareholders. The model is designed for businesses with predictable recurring revenue and a proven ability to turn additional marketing investment into growth.

Inside IM8’s Growth Story

IM8 was co-founded by chief executive Danny Yeung, founder of health technology company Prenetics, which went public in 2022. According to the company, the idea for IM8 emerged after Yeung met David Beckham, who later became a strategic partner in the business.

The company develops longevity-focused nutritional products, including a subscription-based daily vitamin drink containing ingredients such as açai fruit extract and coenzyme Q10.

Why This Deal Matters

Under the agreement, General Catalyst will finance up to 70% of IM8’s customer acquisition costs. In return, it will receive a capped share of the revenue generated by those customers based on a predetermined gross-margin formula.

Once the agreed repayment threshold is reached, all future revenue from those customers will revert to Prenetics.

The deal highlights a broader shift in startup financing, as companies with strong recurring revenue increasingly turn to non-dilutive funding instead of traditional equity rounds. General Catalyst used the same model with Grammarly, which secured $1 billion through the fund in 2025 before acquiring Superhuman.

Plans to revive Cyprus’ cooperative banking model could strengthen competition in the country’s financial sector, improve consumer choice and deliver broader economic benefits, according to Argyris Alexandrou, president of the Cyprus Association of Economics Teachers.

His comments come as efforts to re-establish the Pancyprian Cooperative Bank enter a key fundraising phase following approval of its public offering prospectus by the Cyprus Securities and Exchange Commission (CySEC).

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A Capital Raise With Broader Ambitions

A public share offering will run from July 22 to November 17, 2026, with up to 42 million new shares, each with a nominal value of €1, available through the Athlos Capital platform.

Proceeds from the offering will be used to establish a new cooperative bank through a newly created holding company, allowing individuals and organisations to become shareholders.

“The effort being made is certainly for the common good, and we welcome it,” Alexandrou said. “It is positive that it is being recreated in such a short period of time.”

A Different Banking Model

Alexandrou said the cooperative bank would differ from commercial lenders by placing greater emphasis on serving households and vulnerable groups rather than maximising profits.

“When the cooperative was created, it was established for a good purpose and to protect vulnerable and poorer social groups,” he said.

Competition Could Benefit Consumers

Beyond its social role, Alexandrou believes the return of a cooperative bank could encourage stronger competition in a banking sector that has remained highly profitable since Cyprus’ 2013 financial crisis.

Banks today generate substantial income not only from lending but also from charges on everyday banking services, he noted.

“The existence of another bank, such as the Cooperative, will provide greater incentives for more businesses to compete, ultimately leading to better interest rates for citizens,” he said.

Public Ownership At The Centre

Alexandrou also welcomed the decision to allocate most of the new shares to individual investors, arguing that the ownership structure reflects the bank’s cooperative mission.

“The project is intended for the people, so it is more appropriate that the shares are allocated to the people,” he said, adding that shareholders would help shape the institution’s future through voting rights.

Under the proposed structure, 60% of shares will be reserved for individual investors and 40% for Cypriot companies. Should demand exceed expectations, the offering could be expanded from 42 million to as many as 100 million shares, in line with the company’s authorised share capital.

Licensing Remains The Final Step

Before operations can begin, the new bank must still obtain licences from both the Central Bank of Cyprus and the European Central Bank. Organisers are already preparing the required applications.

If the fundraising succeeds and regulatory approval is secured, the cooperative bank could return to Cyprus’ banking sector, introducing a new source of competition for consumers and businesses.

Planning and permitting delays are quietly becoming one of the biggest cost drivers in Cyprus’s housing market, adding an estimated €60,000 to the price of the average new apartment without increasing developers’ profits.

That is the warning from Yiannis Misirlis, chairman of the Cyprus Property Developers Association (CPDA), who argues that delays, rather than construction costs alone, are becoming one of the biggest drivers of housing affordability.

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A Realistic Project, A Very Different Outcome

To illustrate the impact, Misirlis pointed to a residential development of 125 apartments with a €7 million land cost and €25 million in construction and development expenses, bringing the initial investment to €32 million.

He compared two scenarios. In the first, permits are secured within six months, and construction begins immediately, allowing the project to be completed two years later. In the second, planning approvals delay construction by four years, while the build itself still takes two years.

“At first glance, the only difference appears to be time. In reality, the entire financial structure of the project changes,”

Misirlis said.

Where The Costs Accumulate

Keeping €7 million tied up for four years creates significant financing costs. Using a 6% cost of capital, Misirlis estimates that land holding alone adds about €1.7 million.

Professional and administrative costs also continue to accumulate while the project awaits approval, adding an estimated €800,000 over four years.

Construction inflation further increases the bill. Assuming costs rise by 4% annually, the original €25 million construction budget grows by roughly €3.8 million.

Together, those factors add about €6.3 million to the project before any profit is taken into account. Misirlis noted that the estimate excludes higher financing costs, interest rate movements, energy price increases, legal disputes, additional banking charges and regulatory changes.

How Delays Affect Apartment Prices

In the first scenario, a €32 million project would require total sales of around €38.4 million to achieve a commercially sustainable 20% profit margin, translating into an average selling price of roughly €307,000 per apartment.

After four years of permitting delays, development costs rise to about €38.3 million. Maintaining the same profit margin pushes total sales to approximately €46 million, increasing the average apartment price to around €368,000.

“The developer’s profitability has not increased by a single euro. Yet the average selling price rises by about €60,000 per apartment solely because of delays in the permitting process,”

Misirlis said.

A Supply Problem, Not Just A Cost Problem

Misirlis argues that the impact extends well beyond a single development. Lengthy approval processes reduce the number of projects that can be completed over time, limiting housing supply while placing further upward pressure on prices.

For that reason, he believes planning efficiency should be central to any discussion about housing affordability.

“Any meaningful conversation about affordable housing must address the efficiency of the planning and permitting system. When approvals immobilise capital for years, increase development costs, constrain housing supply and create uncertainty, the resulting costs are ultimately transferred to households,”

he said.

He stressed that faster permitting should not come at the expense of planning standards or environmental safeguards.

“No responsible developer is asking for fewer checks. We are asking for the same checks to be completed within reasonable and predictable timeframes,”

Misirlis said.

Cyprus-based medical technology startup MammoCheck has won first place at the 16th NBG Business Seeds Innovation and Technology Competition, emerging as the overall winner from 344 entries submitted from Greece, Cyprus and other countries.

The annual competition, organised by the National Bank of Greece, announced the results during an awards ceremony in Athens. MammoCheck received the competition’s top distinction along with a €20,000 cash prize.

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Founded in 2024 as a spin-out from Frederick University, MammoCheck is developing an artificial intelligence-powered Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) platform designed to support breast cancer screening. The solution combines a smartphone application with low-cost thermal cameras to provide an adjunctive screening tool powered by AI.

The company says its technology aims to address a significant gap in breast cancer screening, with hundreds of millions of women worldwide lacking regular access to mammography, including many women under the age of 45 who are not covered by most national screening programmes.

“We are honoured to receive first place among 344 entries from Greece, Cyprus and abroad. This recognition reflects the dedication of our team, our clinical partners and the women who inspire our work every day,”

said Alexandra Dimitriadou, co-founder and CEO of MammoCheck.

MammoCheck is currently conducting a clinical trial across multiple hospital sites as it advances toward FDA 510(k) clearance in the United States and CE marking under the European Union’s Medical Device Regulation (MDR).

The latest award marks another milestone for Cyprus’ growing health technology ecosystem, highlighting the increasing international visibility of locally developed medical innovations.

One concern is increasingly shaping the debate around artificial intelligence: proprietary AI models may be functioning less like neutral tools and more like strategic Trojan horses.

As startups and large enterprises rely on models from companies such as OpenAI and Anthropic, critics argue that model providers gain access to valuable institutional knowledge that could eventually become a competitive advantage against the very companies using their systems.

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The Data Paradox At The Heart Of Enterprise AI

Warnings about this dynamic have come from investors and executives, including Jason Calacanis and Palantir CEO Alex Karp. Now Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has entered the debate with a blog post published on Sunday, arguing that enterprise customers are effectively paying twice for AI.

First, they pay for token usage. Then, more quietly, they pay with the proprietary knowledge required to make the model genuinely useful.

“You essentially pay for intelligence twice, once with money, and again with something even more valuable: the proprietary knowledge you must reveal to make that intelligence useful. The better you want the model to perform, the more of that knowledge you have to feed it!”

Nadella argues that enterprises are teaching AI models how their businesses operate through prompts, workflows and corrections.

“Models learn from ‘exhaust,’ the prompts people write, the tools agents use, and especially the corrections people make when the model is wrong. Every correction is distilled into institutional know-how.”

Fair Use, Distillation, And The Battle Over Model Access

Nadella also challenges the industry’s own logic. If AI companies are allowed to train their models on publicly available content, he argues, enterprises should also be free to learn from those models.

Distillation, the practice of using one model’s outputs to train another, has become one of AI’s most contentious issues. Earlier this year, Anthropic accused Chinese developers of sending millions of prompts to Claude to improve competing models and called for tighter U.S. export controls.

Nadella argues that the industry cannot champion openness when it benefits model developers while restricting imitation when it benefits customers.

“While the great innovation that comes from model providers having fair use rights to train models on public data is needed, I find it ironic that the status quo is to then turn around and impose restrictive terms on distillation.”

Ownership, Control, And The Push Toward Open Systems

Another of Nadella’s concerns is that some AI providers reserve the right to learn from customer prompts and interaction data, creating what he sees as a structural conflict between vendors and enterprise customers.

His proposed solution is for organisations to retain ownership of their data, including prompts and feedback, while building proprietary learning environments in the cloud. He also encourages companies to adopt orchestration layers that make it easier to switch between AI models instead of becoming dependent on a single provider.

That approach is already gaining traction. AI gateways that route requests across multiple models are becoming increasingly popular as businesses seek greater flexibility, stronger governance and tighter cost control.

Although Nadella does not explicitly frame his argument as a case for open source, it aligns closely with a broader enterprise shift toward models that organisations can run and manage themselves.

Why Open Source Is Winning Share In The Enterprise

Large organisations with their own data centres are increasingly deploying open-source models on premises, allowing them to keep sensitive data within their own infrastructure while reducing costs.

Idit Levine, founder and CEO of Solo.io, says many customers are moving in that direction after experimenting with proprietary vendors.

“Can I take an open source model and run it on-prem? It will do almost 90% of what the big one’s doing. It will cost way less. They understand that, and they can control it.”

The trend extends beyond infrastructure providers. Companies including Vercel and OpenRouter have reported growing adoption of open-source models. According to Vercel, open models accounted for 29% of traffic routed through its AI gateway last month.

The Strategic Signal For Enterprise Leaders

Microsoft’s position reflects a broader shift in enterprise AI, where ownership, portability and control are becoming almost as important as model performance.

As Nadella concluded:

“In consuming intelligence, you are creating intelligence. And what you create should belong to you.”

For enterprise leaders, that is increasingly becoming not just a philosophical principle, but a procurement strategy.

The Human Resource Development Authority of Cyprus (Anad) disbursed €11.7 million to businesses in Limassol between the beginning of 2025 and the end of the first half of 2026, highlighting the district’s strong participation in workforce training and employment support programmes.

Limassol Accounts For A Large Share Of Training Activity

According to figures provided by Anad to Entrepreneurial Limassol, the publication of the Limassol Chamber of Commerce and Industry (Evel), the data covers programmes for which payments had already been completed.

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More than 2,625 businesses in Limassol took part in Anad training schemes during the period, representing nearly one-third of the 8,261 participating companies across Cyprus. Participation was particularly strong in multi-company training programmes, with 11,967 participants from Limassol out of 54,754 nationwide.

Another 674 businesses implemented single-company training programmes tailored to their own workforce, while 257 companies benefited from schemes supporting the recruitment of university graduates and the placement of long-term unemployed people.

Skills Demand Continues To Grow

Speaking at a recent Anad event in Limassol, chairman Constantinos Fellas described the city as one of Cyprus’ most dynamic business centres, pointing to continued growth in services, shipping, trade, tourism, financial services and technology. He said the district’s expanding economy is increasing demand for workers with up-to-date skills and stressed the importance of aligning education and training with labour market needs.

Full Employment Brings New Challenges

Anad Director General Pambos Efstratiou said the employment rate among people aged 20 to 64 has reached 81%, while unemployment has fallen to 4%, its lowest level in recent years. Long-term unemployment has dropped to 0.9%, bringing Cyprus close to full employment.

Youth unemployment, however, remains comparatively high at 13.5%, with Anad continuing to support programmes that help young people enter the labour market. Efstratiou also highlighted lifelong learning as a growing priority, noting that only 12% of adults aged 25 to 64 currently participate in education or training programmes.

He said digitalisation, artificial intelligence, demographic change and the green transition are reshaping the labour market, making continuous skills development increasingly important for both employees and businesses. The event also brought together businesses and social partners to discuss future workforce development priorities and training needs in Cyprus.