Author: staff
Despite public declarations that economic ties with Russia will be severed, Europe has paid an estimated €7.28 billion for liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Moscow’s Arctic Yamal project in just over eight months this year, already surpassing the €7.3 billion spent in all of 2025. The figures were revealed by an investigation by Urgewald, an NGO that exposes the financial institutions and companies backing climate-damaging projects. During the first eight months of 2026, European ports received 156 Yamal LNG cargoes carrying 11.39 million tonnes, compared with 142 cargoes and 10.34 million tonnes between January and August 2025 – an increase…
As a disastrous summer of droughts and wildfires turns into fall, some countries are grabbing the opportunity to convince counterparts to keep spending billions on farmers in the EU’s next long-term budget. While some nations have called for reducing spending on “traditional” topics like cohesion and agriculture, ministers like Fernandes argue it’s not just about paying farmers, but adapting the food system and the countryside to more extreme weather. “A lot of people don’t know that 42% of the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) is for environmental objectives,” said Fernandes. “The best friends of the environment are the farmers.” The summer…
On the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, former US Ambassador to the European Union Anthony Gardner says “diplomatic, financial and economic” means are also needed to fight terrorism. Gardner pointed out that 9/11 showed the world the power of “asymmetric warfare” and the damage “a small but determined radicalised group of terrorists can do” against “a much bigger power”. Gardner also insists that “AI is going to make asymmetric warfare even more relevant.”
A case in point is that OpenAI agents hacked a German website back in May to use it as a messaging board, Reuters reported last week. OpenAI had not publicly announced the incident and responded to the Reuters reporting on X saying: “We and the larger AI community do not yet have a clear standard for how to report misalignment that shows up during training, evaluation, and deployment.” “[Reporting] timelines are going to need to be dramatically shortened [for incidents], and so we need much better continuous monitoring capabilities,” said Imogen Stead, AI policy manager at London-based think tank…
Published on 11/09/2026 – 14:31 GMT+2 The European Commission transmitted the EU-India trade deal, clinched last January, to EU member states for ratification on Friday – but only in English, despite opposition from France. The EU executive wants to fast-track the ratification process for trade deals by skipping the translation of agreements into the bloc’s 24 official languages. “When President von der Leyen went to India in January to conclude negotiations for this landmark trade agreement, she made a commitment to try to get it over the line within this calendar year,” Commission Deputy Chief Spokesperson Olof Gill said on…
For two days, Astana Finance Days 2026 brought together representatives of global financial institutions that collectively manage more than $26 trillion in assets, as Kazakhstan seeks to strengthen its position in the global competition for capital. The forum is organised by the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), which was launched in 2018 and operates as a separate financial jurisdiction in Kazakhstan with its own regulatory and legal framework based on the principles of English common law. The gathering included BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, alongside Goldman Sachs, Capital Group, Brookfield and other major financial institutions. Investors, policymakers and regulators…
Up until the current government, there was “no acceptance of a harm reduction or harm minimisation approach,” said Karl Fagerström, a researcher on tobacco and nicotine who has received consulting fees from tobacco companies. He said he was not against taxes on nicotine pouches as long as the levies on cigarettes are higher. However, the Public Health Agency of Sweden, an arm of the government, pointed to tobacco control policies including bans on tobacco advertising, tax regulation, age limits and smoking bans for how Sweden achieved its low smoking rates. “The decline in cigarette use has been going on for…
Published on 11/09/2026 – 8:01 GMT+2•Updated 14:41 On today’s show: Stefan Grobe speaks to Anthony Gardner, former US ambassador to the European Union during the second Obama administration, about how 9/11 changed America and the world, and what lessons political leaders should still be learning today. Maria Tadeo reports live from the Rīga Conference in Latvia, where she speaks exclusively to the EU’s economy chief Valdis Dombrovskis about Russia’s aggression and whether the Baltic states are getting the Russian threat right. She also interviews Norway’s Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide. Also in Riga, Angela Skujins interviews Kyrylo Budanov, Head of…
Published on 11/09/2026 – 4:33 GMT+2•Updated 4:37 An Israeli strike in Gaza on Thursday killed a family of four, including two children, according to Palestinian hospital and security sources, while the Israeli military claimed it targeted a “military operative”. “The bodies of four members of the Ahmad family were recovered in pieces after an Israeli strike hit a house in the Beit Lahia Project area in the northern Gaza Strip,” an official at Al-Shifa hospital in Gaza City said, identifying the children as aged 12 and eight. The Israeli military said it “struck a military structure… from which terrorists had…
Published on 11/09/2026 – 17:14 GMT+2 Norway’s Princess Astrid, the older sister of the late King Harald, died on Friday at the age of 94, the Norwegian Royal Palace said in a statement. “Aunt Astrid was an important source of support for King Harald and the rest of our family. We learned a great deal from her, and she was never afraid to speak her mind,” King Haakon VIII said in the statement. “Her passing is a great loss to us. We will miss her.” The King added that Princess Astrid had stepped into the role of First Lady at…