Author: staff

Drivers in Russia’s Saint Petersburg are facing long queues at petrol stations after weeks of intensified Ukrainian strikes on the country’s energy infrastructure disrupted fuel supplies. Ukraine has stepped up long-range drone attacks on Russian oil refineries, fuel depots and other energy facilities since early June, saying the campaign is aimed at disrupting Moscow’s military logistics and reducing oil revenues that help finance its war effort. At some filling stations in Saint Petersburg, signs indicated that 92 and 95 octane petrol was unavailable, while some stations were closed altogether. Drivers told AFP they were spending hours searching for fuel and…

A Polish court jailed a former Russian opposition activist and his wife for spying for Moscow on Thursday and also accused them of organising a parcel containing explosives. Authorities in Warsaw have warned of Russian sabotage acts in Poland since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than four years ago. According to court documents seen by the AFP news agency, Russian citizen Igor R., identified by Russian media as Igor Rogov, was jailed for seven years while his wife Irina was sentenced to three years. The couple, living in Poland since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022,…

A cluster of mostly smaller NATO allies has committed to a new institution built to finance the West’s military build-up, though the hesitancy of Europe’s heavyweight nations casts doubt over how much financial firepower it can ultimately command. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney announced the nine founding backers of the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank (DSRB) at the NATO summit in Ankara on Tuesday, calling it a foundation for the allies’ collective security. The signatories, Canada, Albania, Belgium, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Romania, Turkey and Ukraine, will shape the bank’s initial rules before its planned launch in 2027. First proposed in…

Portuguese rapper 18 Karat was deported by plane from Germany to Portugal, his country of origin, in the early hours of Wednesday morning, and his family has already been informed of his whereabouts. “He managed to get in touch with his family this morning [Wednesday] and tell them the time and place of his arrival,” said the musician’s lawyer, Lisa Grüter, quoted by German daily Die Zeit (source in Portuguese). The deportation was confirmed to German news agency dpa by the authorities in the city of Dortmund, where the 40-year-old rapper moved with his family as a youngster. The artist…

Published on 09/07/2026 – 20:00 GMT+2•Updated 20:20 Christine Lagarde has welcomed the Spanish government’s proposal for joint borrowing, telling Euronews it marks the start of a discussion based on merit rather than “over my dead body” positions, as tough talks on the next European budget get underway. “It’s great that a country like Spain, for instance, makes a proposal and puts it on the table for debate. Now it’s for the others to say, ‘this part we like, this part we don’t like’, and how that can be addressed. I think it’s good to move forward,” she told Euronews. On…

Published on 09/07/2026 – 20:03 GMT+2•Updated 20:19 The digital euro will complement, not replace, cash, and the goal is not to trace payments, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde told Euronews in an exclusive interview, rejecting claims that the project is designed to monitor citizens. The European Parliament approved its negotiating mandate on Thursday, bringing the legislation a step closer to adoption by the end of 2026 after months of stalled talks. The proposal initially faced criticism from members of the European Parliament, who argued that the digital euro could undermine privacy and eventually diminish the role of banknotes and…

Paris City Hall has displayed large banners supporting France’s national football team ahead of their 2026 World Cup quarter-final against Morocco. The footage shows the façade decorated with ‘Paris avec les Bleus’ signs and banners in the colours of the French team as the capital shows its support before the game. The display in central Paris comes as Les Bleus prepare for a key World Cup fixture against Morocco on 9 July. Led by coach Didier Deschamps, the French side face a Moroccan team that has established itself as a strong competitor on the international stage. The city has previously…

South Korean chipmaker SK hynix, known for its high-bandwidth memory chips, is preparing to raise roughly $28 billion (€24.5bn) on Wall Street, a sum surpassed only by SpaceX’s record flotation last month. It is an extraordinary outcome for a firm that once survived on job cuts and asset sales. Pricing is due on Thursday, with trading expected to begin on Friday under the ticker SKHY. SK hynix is issuing 17.79 million new shares in the form of American depositary receipts (ADRs), each representing a tenth of a Seoul-listed share, and cornerstone investors including Baillie Gifford and funds run by Coatue…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Thursday that technical details still need to be agreed with the United States before Patriot air-defence missile production can begin in Ukraine. US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that he would allow Kyiv to manufacture them. “And now, after our agreement with the president, our teams…must agree on all the remaining technical aspects,” said Zelenskyy, answering a question on the Patriot system during a WhatsApp briefing with journalists. “We are working with our European partners to obtain additional missiles, as we do not yet have our own system, of course.” Speaking alongside Zelenskyy…

Published on 09/07/2026 – 21:05 GMT+2 A South Florida airport officially changed its name on Thursday to the President Donald J. Trump International Airport. Signs for the Palm Beach International Airport have been removed, while new signage goes up. “Because an entire airport transformation doesn’t happen overnight, you’ll notice a combination of both our classic look and our new brand elements coexisting while traveling through the terminal over the next several weeks,” airport officials said in a Facebook post. “Trump Force One,” a Boeing 757 owned by The Trump Organisation, was the first plane to arrive at the airport under…