Author: staff
“It is clear to us that the legal process that led to the Swedish citizen being executed has not been fair,” Stenergard wrote. “The death penalty is an inhumane, cruel and irreversible punishment. Sweden, together with the rest of the EU, condemns its application in all circumstances” she added “Sweden will continue to condemn serious human rights violations in Iran.” The execution takes place during the third week of the U.S. and Israel’s ongoing war with Iran, where the regime has a long record of human rights violations, most recently underscored by a deadly crackdown on nationwide protests. Iran also…
The strike hit shortly after dawn on 18 March, sending thick smoke over central Beirut as emergency teams rushed to the scene. The Israeli army said it had warned residents to evacuate about an hour before the attack, which flattened the building and damaged nearby vehicles on a busy road. The building had already been targeted three times on 12 March without collapsing, marking a fourth strike in less than a week. Israel claims the site was used by Hezbollah to store large sums of money, though no evidence has been made public. The attack comes as Israel intensifies operations…
Published on 18/03/2026 – 14:53 GMT+1 Meta will stop end-to-end encryption for private messages on Instagram, after criticism from law enforcement and child protection groups who warned that private chats make it harder to protect children online. End-to-end encryption is a method of sending messages that only the intended recipients can read, meaning that neither the platform nor the company’s servers, nor outside hackers, can view messages or listen to calls. In an encrypted chat or call, every device has a unique secret key that ensures messages remain safe. When a user sends a message, the device locks it so…
Die politische Brandmauer soll die AfD auch im EU-Parlament isolieren. Eine neue Recherche enthüllt nun einen geheimen Austausch: In Chatgruppen kommunizierten Mitarbeiter von Abgeordneten der Christdemokraten (EVP) mit dem rechten Rand. Ist die Brandmauer in Brüssel und Straßburg in Wahrheit nur noch eine Fassade? Pauline und Frederik analysieren die Tragweite dieser informellen Zusammenarbeit auf Mitarbeiterebene. Alice Weidel erzielt Rekordreichweiten in den sozialen Netzwerken. Der Rückenwind kommt jedoch teils von Bot-Accounts aus dem Ausland. Ihr hört, wie die AfD die Grauzonen der Algorithmen nutzt und warum die Parteichefin bei Fragen dazu schmallippig reagiert. Der AfD-Abgeordnete Manuel Krauthausen aus Nordrhein-Westfalen sorgt mit…
When Iran declared the Strait of Hormuz closed after US-Israeli air strikes and began attacking commercial ships attempting to pass through, the effects were felt almost immediately. Not just in the Gulf, but in European homes and businesses thousands of kilometres away. The blockade severely disrupted one of the world’s most critical shipping routes for oil, gas and chemicals, triggering a sharp energy price shock across Europe. Brent crude surged towards $100 (€86) per barrel, and Europe’s wholesale gas benchmark jumped. For ordinary consumers, that translates directly into higher petrol prices, heftier heating bills and a fresh wave of inflation…
But the plan has already drawn attacks from the Greens’ political opponents, keen to paint the left-wing challenger outfit as profligate. The last time the U.K. government intervened with a universal cap on costs was in 2022, when then-Prime Minister Liz Truss froze average bills at £2,500 per year, after energy prices rocketed on the back of Russia’s war in Ukraine. That universal move ended up cost a whopping £23 billion. Polanski said his policy, which would freeze bills at £1,641 for the average household, would cost £8.4 billion, paid for in part through taxing high-polluting oil and gas firms in the North Sea. Government ministers have already stressed that homes…
Published on 18/03/2026 – 13:36 GMT+1 Far-right leaders Marine Le Pen and Matteo Salvini will join Viktor Orbán at a campaign rally in Budapest next Monday, three weeks before a parliamentary election that could pose the most serious challenge to the Hungarian leader’s 16-year hold on power. The event, dubbed “the first Patriotic Grand Assembly”, comes as Orbán’s Fidesz party trails behind Tisza — the party of his rival Péter Magyar— in most opinion polls ahead of the 12 April vote. Besides speeches from Le Pen, France’s National Rally leader and Salvini, an Italian Deputy Prime Minister and head of…
The victims, a couple in their 70s, were hit by shrapnel as they headed to a shelter. The attack caused widespread damage and disrupted rail services near Tel Aviv. Police said the impact appeared to involve a cluster munition. Emergency teams found heavy damage to homes and cars, while smoke rose over the area as sirens sounded across central Israel. The overnight barrage hit several sites, with at least eight impact points reported in the Tel Aviv district and nearby Bnei Brak, where one person was lightly injured. Shrapnel also damaged platforms at Savidor Central station, forcing a nationwide suspension…
Published on 18/03/2026 – 13:32 GMT+1 Artificial intelligence (AI) companies Anthropic and OpenAI are looking to hire weapons and explosives experts to prevent misuse of their technology, according to job postings from both companies. Anthropic announced in a LinkedIn post that it was searching for a policy expert on chemical weapons and explosions to prevent “catastrophic misuse” of its technology by shaping how its AI systems handle sensitive information in these fields. The person hired at Anthropic will design and monitor the guardrails for how AI models react to prompts about chemical weapons and explosives. They will also conduct “rapid…
As of March 2026, more than 200 locations in 22 countries across the world have been certified as International Dark Sky Places by the NGO DarkSky International, spanning more than 160,000 square kilometres of protected land. These places act as green sites which make conscious efforts to protect and conserve the natural darkness of the sky, which also helps nocturnal wildlife. Cooler temperatures, avoiding daytime crowds and a greater desire to connect with nature has led to the rise of “noctourism”, especially among millennials and Gen Zers. This includes nighttime activities like stargazing and “starbathing”, or observing celestial events such…