Author: staff
Published on 13/12/2025 – 8:26 GMT+1 US President Donald Trump says that the leaders of Thailand and Cambodia have agreed to renew a truce after days of deadly clashes, even as Thai and Cambodian officials suggested that there is still work to be done to get the ceasefire the US brokered in late October back on track. Trump announced the agreement to restart the ceasefire in a post on his own social media platform, Truth Social, following phone calls with Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet. “I had a very good conversation this morning with…
In the same week that Donald Trump dismissed European countries as “decaying” and European leaders as “weak”, they came back with all guns blazing. In a bold move, the European Union decided on Thursday to trigger an emergency clause in the treaties to indefinitely immobilise the assets of the Russian Central Bank, worth a whopping €210 billion across the bloc’s territory. As a result, the EU has shored up its mightiest leverage, pushed back against external interference and insulated the money from the Kremlin’s war machine – all at once. “We are sending a strong signal to Russia that as…
Updated: 13/12/2025 – 7:00 GMT+1 Catch up with the most important stories from around Europe and beyond this December 13th, 2025 – latest news, breaking news, World, Business, Entertainment, Politics, Culture, Travel. … More
By Mateusz Jaronski & Jan Bolanowski & Paweł Głogowski Published on 13/12/2025 – 6:15 GMT+1 Polish Border Guard officers have revealed the illegal crossing of the Polish-Belarusian border by more than 180 foreigners. The migrants had entered Polish territory through a tunnel dug under a dam near Narewka in the Podlasie region. Thanks to integrated electronic systems, border guards were able to quickly locate them after they emerged and more than 130 migrants have been apprehended while the search for others is still ongoing. The tunnel is almost a hundred metres long and about 1.5 metres high. The entrance, hidden in the forest…
Italy saw large crowds in Rome on Friday as hundreds joined a national strike against the government’s budget plans. The action, called by the country’s main trade union, disrupted transport, schools and parts of the health system. Union representatives argue that the 2026 budget puts too much money into defence and not enough into public services. They call for stronger investment in healthcare, education and housing, as well as better safety at work. Speakers also raised concerns about the future of the Italian steel industry and pointed to recent workplace deaths as evidence that protections are still too weak
Published on 12/12/2025 – 19:57 GMT+1 •Updated 21:32 Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has slammed the European Union after it announced on Thursday is was indefinitely immobilising the assets of the Russian Central Bank, a central element of the reparations loan to Ukraine. “Brussels is crossing the Rubicon today,” Orbán wrote in a social media post published on Friday. “The subject of the vote is frozen Russian assets, which until now have been voted on every six months by EU member states, resulting in unanimous decisions. With today’s procedure, Brussels is abolishing the unanimity requirement with the stroke of a…
By Sertac Aktan with AP Published on 12/12/2025 – 20:36 GMT+1 A fresco depicting a Roman-looking Jesus as the “Good Shepherd” has been uncovered by Turkish archaeologists, one of the most important finds from Anatolia’s early Christian era. The painting was discovered in August in an underground tomb near Iznik, where Pope Leo XIV recently visited as part of his first overseas trip. The town is known in Christian history as the site where the Nicene Creed was adopted in AD 325. The tomb in the village of Hisardere is believed to date to the 3rd century, a time when Christians still faced…
Ten years ago today, on 12 December 2015, the leaders of 195 countries, meeting in France at the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21), ratified the Paris Agreement. The signatory countries pledged to “strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change”. It was a moment described by many as historic. The aim was to keep “the global average temperature increase well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels” and to continue efforts “to limit the temperature increase to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels”. But ten years on, the mission is far from complete. In a report published on 4 November, the…
While Italy’s right-wing Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has always supported sanctions against Russia, the government coalition she leads is divided over supporting Ukraine. Hard-right Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini has embraced a Russia-friendly stance and endorsed U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Ukraine. Emergency rule Offering a further criticism, the four countries expressed skepticism toward the Commission seizing on emergency powers to overhaul the current sanctions rules and keep Russia’s assets frozen in the long-term. Despite voting in favor of this move to preserve EU unity, they said they were wary of then progressing to use…
Published on 12/12/2025 – 18:56 GMT+1 Spanish Economy Minister Carlos Cuerpo has called on the European Union to stay united in the face of severe criticism from the Trump administration, which has recently warned that Europe’s supposedly “weak” leadership and poor economic policies could lead to the demise. Cuerpo, who oversees one of the fastest-growing economies in the eurozone, said it is time for the EU to take the initiative instead of reacting to events, calling for closer integration among member states and a renewed push to complete the euro’s architecture. “This is very personal, but the reaction this instils…