Author: staff
Published on 16/06/2026 – 17:21 GMT+2 Portuguese writer Lídia Jorge has been awarded the 2026 Austrian State Prize for European Literature. The announcement was made on Tuesday in a statement published on the official website of the country’s Ministry of Culture (source in Portuguese). The prize, first awarded in 1965, goes to the complete literary work of a European author whose writing has achieved significant international recognition and is available in German, through translations, the same press release explains. In its justification for the choice, the jury argues that “Lídia Jorge has for many years been one of the most…
Security-Update: Straße von Hormus – Öffnung, aber kein Ende in Sicht – POLITICO Skip to main content
Published on 16/06/2026 – 17:12 GMT+2 Belarus leader Aliaksandr Lukashenka said his country poses no military threat to Ukraine and claimed his earlier statements were only in response to what Lukashenka said were threats from Kyiv to Minsk. “If (Ukrainian President) Volodymyr Oleksandrovych (Zelenskyy) was offended, I apologise to him for these words,” Lukashenka said. “Perhaps I shouldn’t have said that, given that he is after all at war. Perhaps I shouldn’t have spoken so bluntly about it. But, on the other hand, he must understand that, as we often say: ‘you reap what you sow,'” Lukashenka said. At the…
By Mohamed Elashi & Euronews Doha Published on 16/06/2026 – 16:38 GMT+2 “We are cautiously optimistic,” Qatar’s foreign ministry spokesperson Dr Majed Al Ansari said on Tuesday, as Doha welcomed an expected US-Iran agreement while pointing out that the framework should be treated as a first step rather than a final settlement. “We are on the right track towards regional security. Obviously, there are a lot of challenges coming ahead, but let’s take this as a moment to enjoy some optimism,” Al Ansari said at his weekly briefing in Doha. However, the framework deal expected to be signed in Geneva on Friday —…
By Christina Molle with Agences Published on 16/06/2026 – 16:59 GMT+2 The French government wants to free itself from American influence. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu announced on Tuesday morning that French firm ChapsVision has been chosen to replace US company Palantir in handling large-scale data processing for the General Directorate for Internal Security (DGSI). “We cannot accept new strategic dependencies in the digital sphere”, the prime minister argued, saying he wanted to “build real autonomy” so as “not to depend on the goodwill of certain partners, who are able to turn off the tap of access” to AI. A break after ten years…
Iran coach Amir Ghalenoei said his team was “perhaps the most oppressed in the World Cup,” after his side was ordered to leave the US and fly back to its training base in Tijuana only hours after opening the tournament with a 2-2 draw against New Zealand on Monday night. “They didn’t even give us time to recover,” Ghalenoei said through an interpreter. “After the game today, they said to us, ‘You have to leave immediately. “It’s very important for us to have time for recovery, but we are asked to get on a plane and return to our camp…
The British PM has been in the room twice with U.S. President Donald Trump since they arrived at the G7 summit, but has not been offered a bilateral meeting. He was also absent from a meeting between Trump, Emmanuel Macron and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, which took place separately from Tuesday’s working session on Ukraine. Starmer denied he had been “snubbed” and said Trump had raised no concerns with him about the U.K.’s defense spending or the announcement of a new social media ban for children. The prime minister said he had had “a very honest and frank” and “productive conversation” with…
A Russian artist well-known for satirising President Vladimir Putin has been shot dead in eastern Poland, officials said on Tuesday. “An investigation is being conducted…into the murder of a 44-year-old citizen of the Russian Federation…known in the media as Semyon Skrepetsky,” a spokesman for the prosecutor’s office in Lublin, Marcin Kozak, told journalists. Two Belarusian nationals have been arrested in connection with the killing, he added. They were detained in the vicinity of the Belarusian consulate in Biała Podlaska in eastern Poland, where the killing took place. According to Polish officials, Skrepetsky, whose real name is Robert Kuzovkov, was shot…
A light-hearted World Cup moment briefly stole the spotlight at the G7 summit in France on Tuesday when German Chancellor Friedrich Merz presented U.S. President Donald Trump with a German national football team jersey bearing the name “Trump 47.” The gift was exchanged as G7 leaders gathered for a working session attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Video showed Merz handing the jersey to Trump before leaders took their seats for discussions on Ukraine, the Middle East and global economic challenges. The gesture came as football remains in the global spotlight during the 2026 World Cup, co-hosted by the United…
Steven Spielberg’s sci-fi thriller Disclosure Day is proving to be a box office hit, having debuted to $93 million globally. The film marks the celebrated director’s return to human contact with extraterrestrial life, focusing on a whistleblowing mission to uncover a government conspiracy regarding aliens visiting Earth. While the film is on track to become the 79-year-old director’s best performing original title in the US, reactions have been mixed. We’re in two minds. On one hand, the uneven script undercuts Spielberg’s efforts, and the third act topples into shmaltzy parody. However, Disclosure Day remains further proof that few directors can…