EUROPEAN UNION: EU member states meeting in the Bulgarian capital Sofia yesterday urged the US to stop threatening it with tariffs on steel and aluminium.

The bloc said it is prepared to discuss trade but not at gun point, after Washington gave its members a temporary exemption from tariffs of 25 per cent on steel imports and 10 per cent on aluminium.

“It’s Europe’s economic sovereignty and what we are demanding is that we are exempted without conditions or time limits,” said French President Emmanuel Macron.

SPAIN: Catalan nationalist Quim Torra was sworn in yesterday as regional president after being elected by the Catalan parliament on Monday.

Mr Torra had only the red-and-yellow Catalan flag behind him during the ceremony. The Spanish flag was absent.

He pledged in his oath to be faithful to the people of Catalonia, making no reference to upholding the Spanish constitution or declaring loyalty to Spain’s king.

DENMARK: Taxation Minister Karsten Lauritzen announced yesterday that online accommodation-rental platform Airbnb has undertaken to automatically report its users’ deals to tax authorities.

The company “has committed to report data so their hosts pay taxes,” he added, revealing that Airbnb will record the number of renting days and its users’ total income.

The deal closes a loophole in which hosts had to report to tax authorities on a voluntary basis.

VATICAN: The Holy See’s doctrine office teamed up with its social justice department yesterday to denounce offshore tax havens and such financial instruments as derivatives and credit default swaps as gravely immoral and unjust.

Their joint document, approved by Pope Francis, calls these instruments “ticking time bombs” that hurt the world’s poor the most.

It urged banks to create internal ethics committees to ensure decisions work for the common good and not just the “myopic egoism” of individual corporate bottom lines.