Author: staff
Several countries are racing towards EU membership, putting strain on staff at the Directorate-General for Enlargement and the Eastern Neighbourhood (DG ENEST), the department that manages candidates’ bids, both of the officials said. They were granted anonymity to speak freely. Ukraine and Moldova entered the first phase of membership on Monday, a major milestone on their path to joining the bloc, while Montenegro this week closed two more accession chapters, taking its total to 16 out of 33. Albania is also making progress on its membership application, while those of Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia and Georgia have…
Polish police have arrested a man suspected of participating in the murder of a Russian artist critical of President Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Thursday. The suspect in the daylight murder, which took place on Monday, “is using a Georgian passport,” Tusk wrote in a post on X. “Services are working to establish the mastermind,” he added. Interior Minister Marcin Kierwiński confirmed the Georgian passport at a news conference in Warsaw and said the suspect is 36 years old. Kierwiński said the man is suspected of links to organised crime and is being linked by police to…
Canada saw thousands of football supporters gather in Toronto on 17 June as Ghana claimed a dramatic 1-0 victory over Panama in a FIFA World Cup Group L match. The winning goal came in the 95th minute when Caleb Yirenkyi found the net, sparking celebrations inside and outside Toronto Stadium. The result gave Ghana a valuable three points and prompted jubilant scenes among fans who had travelled from across Canada and beyond to support the team. Earlier in the day, supporters from both countries filled parks and streets across Canada’s largest city. Ghanaian fans organised rallies featuring music, flags and…
The race to build Europe’s artificial intelligence future sets up a home in Paris this week, as the city’s flagship tech conference VivaTech becomes a magnet for global technology giants who see France as a key to building AI on the continent. The event has grown from a 45,000-person gathering into Europe’s largest startup and tech conference, drawing over 200,000 attendees from 170 countries. This year, it carries more geopolitical weight than ever, with AI sovereignty and infrastructure dominating the agenda. Taiwanese manufacturing giant Foxconn and French computing firm Bull announced a partnership on Thursday to build powerful AI computers…
By Theo Farrant & AP Published on 18/06/2026 – 14:23 GMT+2 Archaeologists have discovered a structure near the iconic prehistoric stone circle of Stonehenge in southern England that may have served as a “prototype” for the 5,000-year-old Neolithic monument. A team from the British firm Wessex Archaeology said the structure would have consisted of two wooden poles 120 metres (394 feet) apart and aligned to point directly at the rising sun during the summer solstice and the setting sun at the winter solstice. Based on the depth of the postholes, researchers estimate the wooden poles stood between three and four metres high. The…
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The Global Green Bond Initiative is one of the EU’s largest financial instruments to fund sustainable infrastructure and climate-related projects with the bloc’s partner countries. Its declared aim is to mobilise between €15 and €20 billion in investments. But European Commission and EU officials are now warning that some of these investments could end up benefiting Chinese companies, undermining Brussels’ policy of diversifying away from Beijing in key supply chains. In practice, the European Investment Bank (EIB) and other European development institutions will act as anchor investors and provide technical assistance for environment-related projects in third countries. The green bonds…
The US-Iran framework deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and bring the two adversaries back to the negotiating table over Tehran’s nuclear programme was signed on Wednesday amid differing reports and growing confusion over its contents. Despite an earlier announcement that the agreement would be signed at a ceremony in Switzerland on Friday, US President Donald Trump signed a physical copy of the deal while dining with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Palace of Versailles. In Tehran, President Masoud Pezeshkian also signed the document on Wednesday, according to the state-run IRNA news agency, which posted an image of…
By Mike Starling & AP Published on 18/06/2026 – 13:20 GMT+2 England head coach Thomas Tuchel hailed captain Harry Kane’s “complete performance” as the Three Lions kicked off their World Cup campaign with a 4-2 victory over Croatia at Dallas Stadium on Wednesday. Two goals from Kane, including a re-taken penalty kick, plus strikes from Jude Bellingham and Marcus Rashford gave England an impressive victory against the team that defeated them in the semi-finals at the 2018 World Cup in Russia. After scoring his two goals in the first half, the second a powerful header, Kane was the first person to jump on…
Tusk on Wednesday said “everything indicates that this was a political assassination,” but he added that Polish authorities were still compiling “evidence and more concrete findings.” “If it turns out that Russia was behind this attack, it would constitute an act of state terrorism,” he added. On Thursday, Tusk appeared to double down on his belief that the murder had been commissioned. “Authorities are working to identify the person who ordered the crime,” he wrote on X.