Author: staff

Published on 13/08/2026 – 9:32 GMT+2 Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the far-eastern Kuril islands for the first time on Thursday, prompting a “strong” protest by Japan which also claims the territory. Russian-Japanese relations have long been dogged by tensions over the contested islands, known in Japan as the Northern Territories and seized by the Soviet Union in 1945. The Kremlin posted a video of Putin in the Kuril Islands, with Russian media saying he visited a fish-processing plant where he was given caviar. Putin travelled to the Kurils after visiting the nearby Russian island of Sakhalin, where Russia’s navy…

Lionel Messi rarely shares his private life. Over two decades of his career, the Argentine has kept the media at arm’s length and reserved his emotions for his closest circle. That is why it is striking that, after his father’s death, he chose to publish an open letter on social media in which he appears broken with grief. In the message, addressed directly to Jorge, Messi writes that he does not know how to continue without him. “I don’t know what I’m going to do without you, I don’t know how to carry on. I just played football and now…

Authorities in Tokyo lashed out at Moscow after a visit by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the disputed island of Iturup on Thursday. The island, also known by its Japanese name Etorofu, lies northeast of Japan — around 100 kilometers from the coast of Hokkaido — in the Kuril Islands chain and is claimed by both Moscow and Tokyo. Like the other disputed islands in the chain, they are administered by Russia. Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi wrote on X on Thursday: “Today, I was informed that Russian President Putin visited Iturup Island. The Northern Territories, including Iturup Island, are…

The UK witnessed its best solar eclipse since 1999 on Wednesday, as the Moon passed between the Sun and Earth and partially blocked the Sun from view. In Britain, more than 90% of the Sun was obscured at the peak of the eclipse, drawing crowds across the country. People flocked to hilltop parks and other locations with unobstructed views of the sky to watch the rare spectacle. At Greenwich Park in London, which offers views over the River Thames and central London, the sky turned an eerie grey as the eclipse reached its peak. The Royal Observatory Greenwich captured the…

Europe spends billions of euros every year on card payments, almost all of them processed outside European systems. The vast majority of card purchases go through Visa or Mastercard, two US companies that dominate global payments. For many years, this was considered the price to pay for the efficiency that these US giants offered whenever a card was used to pay for a service or product. EU leaders now see this dependence as a risk that Europe can no longer ignore, given the possibility that this infrastructure could be turned into a geopolitical weapon. This is one of the arguments…

Published on 13/08/2026 – 8:46 GMT+2•Updated 8:55 What newlywed wouldn’t say their marriage was the best night of their lives? Well, American footballer Travis Kelce is certainly no exception after speaking out for the first time about his nuptials with pop star Taylor Swift. The pair tied the knot at New York’s Madison Square Garden in early July in an extremely secretive ceremony and festivities over two days. “I appreciate everybody who came out and celebrated and, you know, had fun with us,” the Kansas City Chiefs tight-end told a media briefing. “That’s pretty much all I’m taking away from…

As droughts intensify across Europe, causing water shortages, ageing pipes are accelerating the depletion of the bloc’s water supplies. Europe loses 23 percent of its non-revenue water (NRW) to leaks, which is water that’s extracted and treated but never reaches households. NRW levels vary from 6 percent in the Netherlands to 45 percent in Bulgaria, resulting in costly reactive repairs. In 2024 alone, 67 percent of monitored EU properties had leaks, losing 772 million litres of water (equivalent to 300 Olympic-size swimming pools) and costing more than €3 million. Of the 19.3 billion litres monitored in 2025, 1.47 billion (equivalent…

In Medinaceli, a hilltop town in north-eastern Spain, spectators arrived hours early with chairs, hats and eclipse glasses to secure a clear view before the event reached totality shortly before sunset. Getxo, a coastal town just north-west of Bilbao in the Basque Country, also lay within the narrow path of totality. There, the Moon completely covered the Sun for only a few seconds at around 20:27 CEST, with the Sun just 8 degrees above the western horizon. Totality lasted for about one minute in Spain before the eclipse moved towards the Mediterranean. The longest total phase, lasting less than 2.5…

With missile strikes keeping cargo ships away from its ports, Kyiv is scrambling, yet again, for a way out via Europe. But its fallback routes run overland through EU countries, including Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, where previous waves of Ukrainian grain left governments facing a fierce domestic backlash. The last surge of Ukrainian agricultural exports through Eastern Europe unleashed mass protests from farmers, particularly in Poland, who complained that cheap Ukrainian produce that was meant to merely pass through the region was instead ending up on their domestic markets. Poland imposed a ban on Ukrainian grain in 2023, alongside similar…

A Pentagon review of US airstrikes against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen last year found that over 150 civilians were killed, an assessment sent to Congress as part of an annual report on civilian casualties showed on Wednesday. It comes as worries about civilian casualties during Trump administration military campaigns are growing, including from lawmakers in Congress, after a US missile struck an Iranian primary school in the opening days of this year’s war, killing up to 168 people. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is said to have slashed the size of an office focused on reducing civilian harm, according to…