Author: staff
“It’s robbery,” Putin said Friday during his annual question and answer session with journalists and the Russian public. “But why isn’t it working? Why can’t they carry out this robbery? Because the consequences could be severe for the robbers.” “No matter what they steal or how they do it, sooner or later they will have to give it back,” the Russian president added, warning that such actions undermine investors’ trust in the eurozone. “We will defend our interests, particularly in the courts.” Putin’s legal threats aside, Ukraine’s fresh cash injection in the new year means Russia will be forced into…
By Euronews Published on 19/12/2025 – 12:52 GMT+1 French lawmakers failed to reach a compromise on the 2026 state budget on Friday, leaving France without a new budget approved before the end of the year. The joint committee of seven senators and seven deputies broke down in less than an hour, with disagreements so pronounced that discussions never properly began. Philippe Juvin, the Senate budget rapporteur, acknowledged “the absence of agreement on a common version” that could be adopted by both chambers within the required timeframe. Prime Minister Sébastien Lecornu said he regretted that parliament would be unable to vote on…
It’s that time of year again when we round up our favourites and count down to the Best Album of 2025. It’s been an eventful year in music, with Britpop reunions, failed comebacks, the Trump administration beefing with Bad Bunny and Sabrina Carpenter, no discernable Song of the Summer, and a hell of a lot of ear-assaulting slop courtesy of AI-generated “artists” like The Velvet Sundown, Xania Monet and Breaking Rust. There’s also been a rash of really naff albums with equally mediocre titles, proving that nominative determinism is alive and well. Main offenders included Morgan Wallen’s prophetically-titled album ‘I’m…
Mette Frederiksen (and the Nordics) Denmark’s prime minister stayed largely out of what was framed as a German-led fight, but Frederiksen, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the Council of the EU — and the broader Nordic bloc — quietly backed the “only game in town” narrative. What resurfaced was a familiar fault line: frugals versus joint debt, this time refracted through a dispute over how to use frozen Russian assets. In the end, one camp clearly prevailed. Leaders agreed to move toward joint borrowing to cover Ukraine’s financial needs for the next two years, sidelining alternative schemes that…
Greek authorities rescued 545 migrants from a fishing vessel off Gavdos on Friday in one of the largest operations in recent months, as arrivals from Libya to Greece’s southernmost islands continue to surge. The Hellenic Coast Guard received a distress signal shortly after 3 am on Friday. Three coast guard vessels, three Frontex ships and three commercial vessels responded to the emergency approximately 16 nautical miles southeast of Gavdos. Rescuers located hundreds of migrants packed aboard a fishing boat. After several hours, the operation was completed safely and all 545 people were transferred to the port of Agia Galini on…
The Bank of Japan’s historic shift away from ultra-loose monetary policy is firmly underway, and signs of tension are starting to emerge across global bond markets. At its December meeting, the BoJ raised its key short-term policy rate by 25 basis points to 0.75%, the highest level since 1995. While the move itself was widely expected, the tone surrounding it was not. Governor Kazuo Ueda leaned toward a hawkish stance, underlining that Japan’s era of extremely low interest rates is drawing to a close, and that the implications may stretch far beyond Tokyo. A hawkish shift from the BoJ In…
“Voices of reason in the EU BLOCKED the ILLEGAL use of Russian reserves to fund Ukraine,” he added in a post on X. “Law and sanity win… for now.” Grigory Karasin, chairman of the foreign affairs committee in the upper house of the Russian parliament, wrote on Telegram “for now, international law, not Ursula von der Leyen, is prevailing.” The EU’s climbdown was “a moderately encouraging sign,” he added. “The remnants of a civilized approach to financial traditions have stopped those who were pushing the situation toward a major collapse.” Thursday’s talks hit a wall after Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever refused to…
Misleading claims online have skewed and simplified the causes of mass protests in Bulgaria to fit anti-EU narratives. One post circulating on X, viewed more than 80,000 times, claims that Bulgaria’s “pro-EU government has just resigned” after mass protests, while also alleging the country’s planned eurozone accession has been cancelled. Another post hails the fall of the “socialist government” of Bulgaria, while others claim that the government’s resignation shows that power belongs to the people of Bulgaria, rather than Brussels. However, these posts mislead about the nature of Bulgaria’s Gen Z-led anti-corruption protests, which last week led to the resignation…
The US military struck two vessels in the eastern Pacific on Thursday, killing five people, as Washington escalated its months-long campaign against alleged drug trafficking operations. US Southern Command said four “male narco-terrorists” were killed in the first vessel and one in the second. No US military personnel were harmed in the operations, which Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth ordered as part of Operation Southern Spear. The strikes brought the total death toll to 104 across 28 operations since September, when the Trump administration began targeting vessels it claims are operated by designated terrorist organisations. The Pentagon says the boats transit…
The EU stands on the threshold of such a moment: a €1 billion investment in a NAMs Moonshot Programme under Horizon Europe 2028-2034. Such a programme would represent a transformative, coordinated effort to accelerate the development, validation and adoption of more human-relevant research methods across the full innovation cycle, from discovery to deployment. Europe’s current investment trajectory risks leaving it behind. Under the Choose Europe for Life Sciences strategy announced in July, the Commission pledged €10 billion annually through EU funding programs to position the EU as a global leader in health and life sciences. Yet only €50 million of…