World
New EU rules to stop illegal short-term rentals are a welcome change
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent in any way the editorial position of Euronews.
The regulation is a promising step forward in achieving a balanced ecosystem for short-term rentals, serving the interests of both the public and visitors in our cities, Famke Halsema writes.
On Thursday, the European Parliament passed a regulation concerning the sharing and collection of data for Short-Term accommodation Rental services (STR).
This piece of legislation is crucial for many European cities, in particular those facing housing shortages and challenges related to tourism.
The main benefit for cities is that the regulation imposes data-sharing obligations on short-term rental platforms — data we have been demanding for years, but never received.
These new obligations, including the mandatory removal of illegal advertisements, will help us enforce existing regulations.
It’s a matter of a balanced approach
Local rules ensure a balanced development of short-term rentals in our society, protect the liveability of our neighbourhoods and prevent residential housing from being withdrawn from the market.
As online servicing of short-term rentals is by nature transnational, an EU legislative initiative was imperative.
We welcome this EU regulation, which marks the end of a process that started in 2018. Back then, the European Cities Alliance on Short-Term Holiday Rentals, led by my own city Amsterdam, shared its concerns with the European Commission on the impact of short-term rentals on cities.
These temporary online-serviced accommodations had seen impressive growth in the previous years, leading local governments to implement rules to protect public interests.
However, city administrations had no information about where the accommodation was located, for how many nights it was available, or how many guests were involved.
We do not oppose short-term rentals. However, there must be a balanced regulatory approach to the subject.
For enforcement of these rules, such as limiting the maximum number of rentals allowed per year in an accommodation, access to data is essential.
While tourism is on the rise, affordable housing for residents is diminishing
To ensure a broader understanding of this issue, there are several dimensions to highlight.
Firstly, European cities offer some of the most beautiful historical centres in the world and play a key role in making Europe the top destination in a growing tourism industry.
The European Travel Commission expects international tourist arrivals to Europe to reach pre-pandemic levels this year, which is a year earlier than expected. In short, tourism is on the rise.
While cities will continue to be open and welcoming, there is a risk that imbalances will occur between the growing numbers of visitors and our local population. Curbing illegal short-term rentals is one of the keys we have to restoring and maintaining this balance.
Secondly, many European cities face a persistent and increasing lack of affordable and decent housing. In Amsterdam, for example, there is currently a waiting list of approximately 13 years for social housing for those with modest incomes.
Meanwhile, on the private rental market, prices are prohibitively high, far beyond what average households can afford.
Limits on short-term rentals are needed to ensure our housing stock remains available for residential use, to be able to accommodate all the students, teachers, police, healthcare workers, shop retailers, taxi drivers, and many other residents that contribute to the social fabric of our cities.
Lastly, local governments have an important responsibility for safeguarding livability in their cities. Short-term rentals require regulation, as the anonymous nature of these temporary stays, which are usually based in residential areas, tend to correlate with local disturbances, such as litter and noise.
The new regulation will benefit everyone
Our cities’ alliance is grateful to the European Commission for proposing legislation aligned with our objectives. This regulation not only serves the public interests I have already mentioned but also benefits consumers by promoting transparency and preventing tourists from staying in illegal accommodations.
We hope the new regulation will close the long chapter of litigations in which our local rules have been disputed by online platforms — and may it mark a new beginning for cooperation between public authorities and the sector.
The regulation is a promising step forward in achieving a balanced ecosystem for short-term rentals, serving the interests of both the public and visitors in our cities. Our alliance will closely monitor its implementation and aims to be involved as a key stakeholder in its evaluation.
Femke Halsema is Mayor of Amsterdam, writing on behalf of the European Cities Alliance on Short-Term Holiday Rentals: Amsterdam, Arezzo, Barcelona, Berlin, Bologna, Brussels, Budapest, Florence, Krakow, Lyon, Madrid, Munich, Paris, Prague, Porto, Utrecht, Valencia, Vienna, Warsaw and Eurocities.
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World
Britain drags feet on IRGC terror designation as Iran-linked center allegedly sells extremist merchandise
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British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labour government is facing intense criticism over its failure to swiftly outlaw Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The development comes as a London-based Islamic center has been accused of selling merchandise supporting terrorism.
Potkin Azarmehr, a British-Iranian expert on Iran who has written extensively on Iran’s influence operations in the United Kingdom, told Fox News Digital the “Islamic Centre of England is a regime outpost.
“The head of the center is directly appointed by Iran’s supreme leader. The letter of the appointment is publicly read during the inauguration ceremony. There is not a shred of doubt that the center is used to peddle the influence of Iran’s political Islam. It is also used to recruit disgruntled British individuals who are sent to Iran for training.”
The Daily Telegraph reported in late January that U.K. authorities were investigating the Islamic Centre of England for allegedly selling Hezbollah phone cases and pro-Iranian regime key rings. Britain has sanctioned the Iran-backed Lebanese terrorist movement, Hezbollah.
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A Google Maps photo showing the Islamic Centre of England in London. (Google Maps)
The pro-Hezbollah and pro–Islamic Republic goods were reportedly sold at a bazaar Dec. 14, 2025, according to the paper. One key ring displayed the words, “With the kindness of God, Seyyed Ali [Khamenei] is our leader.” The Islamic Republic of Iran’s supreme leader, Khamenei, would order the murder of thousands of Iranian demonstrators just weeks later.
The bazaar also allegedly had stickers of late IRGC global terrorist Qassem Soleimani, who was responsible for the murders of over 600 military personnel, according to the Trump administration. President Trump ordered a drone strike in January 2020 that killed Soleimani in Iraq.
Emma Schubart, a research fellow at Britain’s Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital, “The Islamic Centre of England is not an isolated religious institution; it is part of a wider ecosystem of Iranian state-linked influence operating openly in the U.K., and at the center of that ecosystem sits the IRGC.
“The U.K. Government is dragging its feet over designating the IRGC. By delaying action, ministers are allowing hostile Iranian networks to continue operating under the cover of civil society and religious life. This is a dangerous blind spot in Britain’s national security.”
The Islamic Centre of England is a registered charity. When asked about reports of the Islamic Center’s role in selling pro-terrorist merchandise, a spokesperson for the U.K.’s Charity Commission told Fox News Digital, “As part of our ongoing statutory inquiry into (the) Islamic Centre of England, we have raised concerns with the trustees about material sold by third parties at a recent event hosted at the charity’s premises. We take very seriously any alleged links between a charity and extremism or terrorism. Such links are abhorrent and corrosive to the trust on which the charitable sector depends.”
A British Union flag flies from a souvenir stall near the Houses of Parliament in London Oct. 27, 2025. (Jason Alden/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Azarmehr, however, countered, “The U.K. Charity Commission, the regulatory body, has been ‘investigating’ the center for five years with no decisions and no updates other than appointing an interim director, but the center carries on business as usual.
“The only tangible result is that every time you make a complaint to the charity about the center, they reply by saying that because they are investigating the center, they cannot comment.
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“The first head of the center, Ayatollah Mohsen Araki, is now a member of Iran’s powerful Assembly of Experts and a key figure in propagating Iran’s soft power abroad. Araki’s family have U.K. citizenship. The previous U.K. government, in which Alicia Kearns was part of its administration, even paid the center in excess of £100,000 in COVID-19 furlough.”
In this photo released Jan. 6, 2020, by the official website of the Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, fourth from left, leads a prayer over the coffins of Gen. Qassem Soleimani and his comrades who were killed in Iraq in a U.S. drone strike at the Tehran University campus, in Tehran, Iran. (Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader via AP)
Kearns, who is the shadow minister for home affairs for the opposition Conservative party, is now demanding that the Islamic Center be shuttered.
“These latest revelations of terrorist tat being sold by the Islamic Centre of England are yet more evidence of why the center must be closed and those responsible for propagating terrorist propaganda face the law,” she told the Telegraph.
“The figures being idealized are responsible for the cold-blooded murder of tens of thousands of young Iranian protesters, adding to the many regional and international crimes of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
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A spokesperson for the Islamic Centre of England told Fox News Digital, “The trustees take all concerns about the center very seriously. We are currently reviewing matters pertaining to the Dec. 14 event and, in light of this, are unable to comment further at this time.”
The EU announced last week that it has classified the IRGC a terrorist entity. The U.S., Canada and Australia have previously designated the IRGC a foreign terrorist organization. The IRGC played a key role in the massacre of Iranian demonstrators last month.
Iranians gather while blocking a street during a protest in Tehran, Iran, Jan. 9, 2026. (MAHSA/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images)
The proliferation of pro-Iran activism unfolded last weekend in London. Nigel Farage, leader of the Reform Party in the United Kingdom, posted on X, “When people in Britain are chanting support for the thuggish regime in Iran, we are in serious trouble as a nation.”
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Video footage embedded in Farage’s post and other clips on social media shows a mix of pro-Palestinian and pro-Iran regime messaging at the protests.
Multiple Fox News Digital inquiries to the British prime minister’s office went unanswered.
World
Council of Europe chief calls for political and financial backing of Ukraine Special Tribunal
The head of Europe’s leading human rights organisation, the Council of Europe, told Euronews that European countries need to provide the budgetary resources and political will to ensure accountability for Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine.
World
Sporticast 525: Live From the Super Bowl With a Former NFL MVP
On the latest Sporticast episode, hosts Scott Soshnick and Eben Novy-Williams chat from Super Bowl Radio Row in San Francisco.
They open by discussing a chaotic start to the week for the NFL. Commissioner Roger Goodell held his annual state of the league press conference Monday, and he answered a number of questions that no commissioner wants to address. Reporters asked about why no Black head coaches were hired in this recent cycle, how Goodell feels about halftime performer Bad Bunny’s political comments at the Grammy’s and how the league is reacting to New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch’s frequent communications with Jeffrey Epstein.
Next they share clips from a few radio row interviews. In the first, former Seattle Seahawks running back Shaun Alexander discusses significant changes in how NFL teams treat his former position. Running backs were once among the highest paid players on an NFL team. Now, they’re valued quite differently. A former NFL MVP, he speaks about his own experience, his contracts and injuries, and why he thinks running backs are currently undervalued.
In another clip, USA Football CEO Scott Hallenbeck talks about the sport-wide push for flag football. At the Super Bowl alone, there was a flag Pro Bowl, a celebrity flag game and an exhibition for the flag football that will be coming to the Summer Olympics in 2028. He discusses NFL players participating in LA28 and the way flag football has opened the sport to wider demographics.
(You can subscribe to Sporticast through Apple, Spotify, or wherever else you get your podcasts.)
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