Author: staff
Lebanon and Israel on Friday agreed to extend their ceasefire by 45 days, even as a fresh escalation of violence erupted, the US State Department said following mediated talks. “The April 16 cessation of hostilities will be extended by 45 days to enable further progress,” State Department spokesman Tommy Pigott said. He added that the State Department will hold negotiations on 2 and 3 June aimed at reaching a lasting political agreement, while the Pentagon will convene military delegations from both countries on 29 May. “We hope these discussions will advance lasting peace between the two countries, full recognition of…
The push would also accelerate work on a so-called overcapacity instrument to deal with state-subsidized firms producing vast quantities of goods in strategic sectors, making it virtually impossible for other industries to compete. Such a mechanism has been under discussion for some time, but is perceived as risky as it would likely run afoul of World Trade Organization rules, which generally bar members from discriminating against single countries. According to two EU officials working on the proposals, granted anonymity to speak frankly, the plans will first be discussed and refined by commissioners at an “orientation debate” on May 29. EU…
Published on 15/05/2026 – 11:40 GMT+2 German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Thursday that joint debt was not an option to finance the European economy, speaking at a ceremony awarding former European Central Bank President Mario Draghi the Charlemagne Prize. In his speech at Aachen Cathedral, Merz echoed Draghi’s call to boost European competitiveness, but differences remain over how to finance it. “Some now believe we can evade this painful task by taking on new debt, European debt, by financing regular spending through debt. Germany cannot follow this path for constitutional reasons alone, and, ladies and gentlemen, we also need…
By Euronews Published on 15/05/2026 – 21:37 GMT+2 Israel announced on Friday that it had launched an airstrike on Gaza City targeting the head of Hamas’ military wing,Izz al-Din al-Haddad. “Under the instructions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defence Minister Yisrael Katz, the IDF carried out an airstrike in Gaza targeting the dangerous terrorist Izzedine al-Haddad, commander of Hamas’ military wing and one of the main architects of the October 7th massacre,” the Israeli Ministry of Defence said. “Al-Haddad was responsible for killing, kidnapping and harming thousands of Israeli civilians and IDF soldiers,” the statement said. “He held our hostages…
Ultimately, it’s the government that needs to find nearly £2 billion a week to plug the gap between what it spends and what it takes in taxes. Global investors, who currently hold around one-third of all U.K. government debt, are under no obligation to keep lending to it. Moreover, said Fathom Consulting managing director Erik Britton, even Burnham’s row-back is problematic. “The U.K. is in hock to bond markets because it has borrowed from them,” Britton said on LinkedIn. “Asserting that we should not be ‘in hock’ is like asserting that you are intending to default. That’s just not a…
Published on 15/05/2026 – 20:28 GMT+2•Updated 20:57 Hundreds of road surfaces in western Hungary may be contaminated with asbestos. One of these areas is the Oladi plateau, a suburban part of Szombathely that is currently under construction, which may have been exposed to contamination for eight to ten years, when stones were transported there from Austrian mines. Tamás Weiszburg, a geologist and former head of the mineralogy department at Eötvös Loránd University, explains to Euronews the dangers asbestos poses to the human body. “On its own, it is just a piece of rock; it is the form that matters. It…
“Some estimates of his personal vote suggest he could have added up to 20 points or so to Labour’s vote share in Gorton and Denton, and 5 points on top of Labour vote intention nationwide,” as YouGov analyst Patrick English put it. “He’d need every bit of that personal boost to hold off Reform in Makerfield.” Farage’s team are vowing to throw money, activists and major national attention at the contest — and they’re planning for the leader to spend a lot of time on the ground in the campaign. “I struggle to see locals thinking voting Labour gets Starmer…
At least seven individuals — including multiple figures with ties to Europe’s far-right — have been barred from attending a rally organised by far-right activist Tommy Robinson in central London on 16 May. A number of those barred by British authorities were set to address crowds at the “Unite the Kingdom” march, but the Home Office declined their electronic travel authorisation (ETA), a system brought in earlier in 2026 that, once granted, allows visa-exempt foreign nationals to visit the UK multiple times over a period of two years. Shabana Mahmood, the home secretary, said that they were banned because their…
Despite being NATO allies, Greece and Turkey have been at odds for decades over a number of bilateral squabbles, including quarrels over maritime boundaries, overlapping claims to their continental shelves and the long-running Cyprus dispute. Greece has designated restricted fishing areas in the Aegean Sea, some of which have been challenged by Turkey as being out of the country’s jurisdiction. Athens has also protested against a Turkish maritime spatial plan that designated zones for fishing in the Aegean Sea. Athens says that in several cases Turkish fishing vessels have operated in areas that Athens considers to be Greek territorial waters…
The Spanish government is seeking to contain a scandal linked to EU pandemic funds, categorically denying that it used European money to pay pensions, as member states prepare for tough budget talks amid deep divisions over how funding should be allocated. An official in Madrid with direct knowledge of how EU funds are structured told Euronews that a technical matter is being instrumentalised in a way that is “simply false”, accusing the opposition of playing politics over what it describes as an accounting issue. A Spanish budget watchdog reported earlier this month that the government of Pedro Sánchez used budget…