Author: staff

MGCS — which involves KNDS France, KNDS Germany, Rheinmetall and Thales — has been bogged down by years of delays, industrial disputes and political tensions. POLITICO reported in June that the next-generation tank project was increasingly doomed. Mandon’s admission comes only a few months after another high-stakes Franco-German defense industrial program — the Future Combat Air System — abruptly ended. However, answering a question from a far-right National Rally lawmaker, the French general pushed back against the word “failure” to describe the MGCS’s fate. “It’s not a complete failure; it’s an important decision by Germany, but our land forces have worked together for several…

Published on 08/10/2026 – 21:48 GMT+2 Former prince Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has won a legal challenge over police searches of his royal residences after officers admitted the warrants were “unlawful”, a High Court judge revealed on Thursday. The court must still decide whether police can keep items seized during the searches. Both the judge and police said the investigation is ongoing. Judge Nicholas Hilliard revealed on Thursday that police had acknowledged “the search warrants were unlawful”. However, he stressed that “the fact that the search warrants were quashed does not bring an investigation to an end”, adding that Thames Valley Police…

Hundreds of thousands of people worldwide remain missing in wars, as experts who met in Baku warned that political will, not technology, is the obstacle to identifying them. The figures have continued to grow, rising 70% between 2019 and 2024, according to the ICRC. In Ukraine alone, around 280,000 people are registered as missing as of September 2026, with an estimated 10,000 new cases added every month, according to the same data. Government officials, forensic experts, and diplomats met at the fourth International Conference on Missing Persons in Baku, under the Baku Dialogue on Missing Persons, to discuss how countries…

More than half of the total cost of employing an average worker in Spain goes to public authorities, according to the Juan de Mariana Institute, a liberal think tank highly critical of the government. The institute estimates the tax burden at €53.60 for every €100 in labour costs. The figure comes from a report the think tank describes as an “economic autopsy” of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s time in office, as reported by The Objective. The report, written by the institute’s head of research, Diego Sánchez de la Cruz, estimates that €21,144 of the average employee’s €39,481 annual labour cost…

Published on 08/10/2026 – 13:28 GMT+2 Canadian poet, essayist and translator Anne Carson has been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature for 2026, “for her bold and inventive oeuvre that, in playful dialogue with the classical tradition, has created new forms for contemporary literature.” The 76-year-old writer is known for her hybrid style, combining poetry and prose, as well as contemporary stories with ancient myth. The Academy stated: “Almost all her literary production has centred upon the intersection between the philologist’s obsession with words and the poet’s desire for new meaning. She has herself identified the etymology of words as…

“Its purpose is really essentially to train our allied forces so that we are ready and prepared, and we ensure the safety and security of our nuclear capability,” she told reporters. Following the previous NATO exercises, Moscow sent a letter to the alliance threatening to hit allied territory and mentioning the use of its nuclear arsenal — a move that NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte publicly rebuked last week. Tensions are rising as European countries accuse Russia of sabotage and growing so-called hybrid attacks across the continent.  “Our intention is to really keep things calm,” said a senior NATO official, who…

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the hard left France Unbowed party took to X on Thursday to declare the Bastille had been “retaken”, after students staged demonstrations across the country — including a major rally at Paris’ infamous Place de la Bastille. Thursday’s major protests were part of the student-led movement which began on 17 September in the suburbs of Paris gradually developed into a broader campaign addressing issues including long school days, overcrowded schools, teacher absences. The mass gathering which took place at the place de la Bastille started off peacefully, but clashes with the police later erupted, with tear…

On Mataking Island, off Malaysia’s Sabah state, conservation staff collect green turtle hatchlings, place them in boxes and release them on the beach. The tiny turtles then crawl towards the sea as staff watch them enter the water. The work is part of decades of conservation efforts that have helped the species recover globally. The Mataking hatchery has collected about 36,000 eggs since it opened in 2006, according to its managing director. It works with WWF-Malaysia and the Sabah Wildlife Department to protect nests and improve survival rates. Adult turtles can also be seen feeding and swimming around the island’s…

Italy’s antitrust authorities have launched an investigation into Microsoft-owned gaming company Activision Blizzard amid claims it has used predatory game monetisation such as “loot boxes” and pay-to-progress designs in its popular mobile games Diablo Immortal and Call of Duty Mobile to target and exploit children and other players. Italy, supported by consumer protection authorities in Norway and Denmark, is first seeking to find if the games company’s practices constituted a “widespread infringement” of EU consumer protection rules following player and public backlash in recent years. Activision Blizzard is one of Microsoft’s most well-known game publishers, known worldwide for genre-defining game…

The annual ranking of the 50 Best Bars in the world has been revealed, and 18 are in Europe. Following its unveiling of positions 51-100 in September, the prestigious ranking body revealed that Hong Kong’s Bar Leone held on to the top spot for a second year running. The results were announced at a ceremony in Milan on Wednesday, and two European bars – Moebius Milano in Milan and Line in Athens – featured in the top 10. Europe was far and away the most represented continent in the ranking with its 18 spots. It also achieved a further 18…