Author: staff

Yemen’s Tehran-backed Houthis captured more islands in the southern Red Sea, government and Houthi officials said Monday, strengthening their control of a major maritime shipping route. The capture of the islands of Greater and Lesser Hanish is the latest in the group’s swift advance around the Bab el-Mandeb Strait, a key passage for oil shipments that has become even more crucial during the Iran war as the Strait of Hormuz remains under US and Iranian blockades. Like Hormuz, located at the mouth of the Persian Gulf, the Bab el-Mandeb Strait — on the opposite side of the Arabian Peninsula —…

A trip to Mars could take months. So what happens if an astronaut develops a serious eye problem halfway there? A team of researchers in the United States sent artificial lenses used in cataract surgery outside the International Space Station to find out whether the implants needed for future operations could survive the journey to places such as Mars. Researchers behind the study believe someone will need cataract surgery on Mars in his lifetime. “A Mars transit can require almost a year, and returning to Earth for a vision-limiting cataract, injury, or other surgical eye problem may not be realistic,”…

Published on 14/09/2026 – 13:11 GMT+2 Céline Dion’s long-awaited return to the stage has taken the world by storm – and the travel industry is following suit. Following last week’s news that flight searches to Paris have been surging ahead of the Canadian icon’s residency in the French capital, a top hotel is going all in on celebrating Céline. At Le Méridien Paris Arc de Triomphe, Marriott Bonvoy has launched a themed room – called the ‘Paris, I’m Ready’ Suite – with fixtures transporting fans backstage to the concert. The suite, which has stays starting from €659 per night, makes…

The new proposal comes after intense pressure by government leaders like France’s Emmanuel Macron to put minors’ safety on social media platforms at the top of the political agenda. The French government is pushing ahead with a national law to restrict kids’ access to platforms like TikTok and Instagram. The EU’s new proposal will apply to social media, video-sharing platforms, online games and AI chatbots and AI companions, but it will excluding educational tools and will also come with some tools for parents and guardians, the documents said. The proposal will come with a new enforcement architecture similar to those…

Published on 14/09/2026 – 12:41 GMT+2 Norway made history on 6 March 2024 when it settled on a new deal for peaceful coexistence between the Sámi community and one of Europe’s largest onshore wind power sites. The agreement granted Sámi reindeer herders more winter grazing land, partly free electricity and the right to veto potential future wind farm concessions in exchange for allowing 151 turbines operated by Roan Vind to remain in the coastal Fosen district. Nevertheless, two years later, the story was turned on its head by a false social media narrative with hundreds of thousands of views, which…

Published on 14/09/2026 – 12:05 GMT+2•Updated 12:49 Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he expected Moscow to escalate the war in “in the coming weeks”, following Russian strikes that hit a Warsaw-bound train in Ukraine, just two kilometres from its border with Poland. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she believed Russia’s strike to close to the Polish border was designed to “scare” Western countries backing Kyiv. “It is clearly meant to scare Western countries from supporting Ukraine, from going to Ukraine to show support,” Kallas said, urging Kyiv’s supporters to do “the opposite”. Meanwhile the country’s foreign minister…

An official familiar with the matter said Kristersson intends to play hardball — he is expected to try to tempt the small, liberal Center party to leave Andersson’s camp and join his side, before forcing a vote in the new parliament on whether he can stay on as prime minister. That vote is likely to be at least two weeks away. The finely balanced contest is bittersweet for Andersson and her allies on the left. For months, her bloc had been leading comfortably in the polls, but the race tightened dramatically in the last two weeks of the campaign.  Speaking around…

Marine Le Pen put housing and the cost-of-living crisis at the heart of her presidential campaign on Sunday, using her first major speech in the former northern mining town of Hénin-Beaumont to promise French citizens that they would come “first in their own country” — regardless of skin colour, religion or origin. “We will guarantee all French citizens a natural and fair right, as is done in every country in the world,” said the far-right National Rally party’s figurehead, stating that French nationals would have “more rights in France than others” under her leadership. Le Pen announced that the policy…

A non-league goalkeeper from south-east London turned down the throne of Uganda’s Tooro Kingdom last week, setting off a succession battle that erupted into open confrontation prior to King Oyo’s funeral on Saturday. George Desmond Kamurasi, 36, captain and goalkeeper of SE Dons — a club competing at the ninth tier of English football in Crayford — had been selected by a 21-member royal succession committee as the preferred candidate to succeed his cousin, King Oyo Nyimba Kabamba Iguru Rukidi IV. Fifteen of the 18 members who took part in the vote backed him. He said no, citing other responsibilities,…

A small Ionian island has unexpectedly become a popular tourist destination, thanks to some unusual “residents”. On the shores of Atokos, near Ithaca, visitors find not only crystal-clear waters and natural scenery, but also herds of black pigs roaming freely along the beach. Atokos is a private island and until recently was relatively unknown to the general public. That changed when photos and videos of the pigs started going viral on Instagram and TikTok. Now travellers from many countries visit the island specifically to see the animals up close, and some even swim alongside them or feed them. The pigs…