Author: staff
Experts have warned that crucial U.K. infrastructure — including gas pipelines — are at risk of sabotage from Russia or other hostile powers. In the Strategic Defense Review, commissioned by Keir Starmer’s government and published last year, officials warned that “adversaries are more willing to threaten the free flow of critical commodities such as food and energy to hold the U.K. and its allies at risk.” Earlier this year, John Healey — then the defence secretary, now chancellor under Prime Minister Andy Burnham and facing pressure to find more cash for defense — said that Russian submarines had conducted a…
Published on 29/09/2026 – 18:03 GMT+2 A Russian military plane crashed in the far eastern region of Amur on Tuesday, killing six crew members and leaving another injured, the Russian defence ministry said. The Russian defence ministry said the military aircraft went down in an uninhabited area during a training flight and was not carrying ammunition. “According to preliminary data, six crew members died, while one was injured and evacuated to a medical facility,” the ministry added. According to the Russian state-affiliated media, the crash occurred near the village of Krasnoyarovo shortly after the bomber took off from the Ukrainka…
The Iron Lady will soon have a new director. Weakened since female staff were sidelined during a visit by a Hindu religious group in early September, the chief executive of the Eiffel Tower operating company (SETE), Patrick Branco Ruivo, announced on Tuesday 29 September that he will leave his post at the end of the year. His position, at the head of SETE since 2018, had been severely undermined after female employees were excluded during a visit in early September by members of the ultra‑conservative Hindu movement Bochasanwasi Akshar Purushottam Swaminarayan Sanstha. The decision to keep women working at the…
Cautious welcome Burnham’s address has so far received a cautious welcome from Brussels and from EU capitals. Sandro Gozi, the lawmaker who chairs the European Parliament’s parliament’s delegation to U.K., told POLITICO that Burnham’s “call for a new course deserves a serious European response.” “Let’s turn that opening into concrete choices for a closer EU–UK partnership to give citizens and businesses on both sides of the channel a more prosperous, secure future. As Europeans, we must unite and we must adapt our relations for a new world.” Another EU diplomat told POLITICO: “It was a very passionate speech. What I…
Published on 29/09/2026 – 17:46 GMT+2•Updated 18:03 British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he will set out “different options” for the UK’s future relations with the European Union around a planned UK-EU summit later this year. Speaking at the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool on Tuesday, Burnham told the audience that Brexit had “done more harm than good” and that the UK needed a clear strategy on its long-term relationship with the EU. The country’s divisive 2016 vote to leave the EU has once again been thrust under the spotlight this year amid mounting calls from leading Labour…
Hundreds of students took part in protests in Rennes and Paris, blocking school entrances and demanding more resources for education. In Rennes, students barricaded the entrance to Lycée Bréquigny, where bins were set alight and police faced protesters. In Paris, students at Lycée Simone Weil used bins and crates to block an entrance and called for more staff and funding, citing overcrowded classrooms and poor conditions in some schools. Students in several other parts of France also joined the national day of action.
The IEA has hinted that releasing further strategic oil reserves could be an option to ease supply shortages. Speaking at a meeting of EU energy ministers in Dublin, International Energy Agency Executive Director Fatih Birol said that the agency has released 400 million barrels of crude oil from its strategic reserves since March and that one-third of that has yet to “come to the markets”. The released stocks are equivalent to “20% of the overall stocks”, Birol said, adding that “80% is still in our pocket. If there is a need and if our member countries do agree with it,…
By Roselyne Min with AFP Published on 29/09/2026 – 17:38 GMT+2 Chip maker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is spending $8.2 billion (€7bn) on a company that builds virtual worlds, entering a field where its rival Nvidia is developing AI models to train robots. AMD said this week it had agreed to buy World Labs, co-founded by Fei-Fei Li, one of the most influential researchers in artificial intelligence (AI). Li, a Stanford University computer scientist sometimes called the “godmother of AI,” will become AMD’s executive vice president and chief scientist when the acquisition closes, according to a statement from Li. Li is best known…
La droite et le centre apparaissent plus faibles que jamais au sortir des deux mandats d’Emmanuel Macron. Quelle responsabilité porte le président dans l’état de déliquescence de son propre camp ? Pauline Thiévenaud, journaliste à RTL, et Jérémy Marot, journaliste à l’AFP, ont mené 160 entretiens et racontent dans « Le crépuscule des principes », publié aux Editions du Rocher, les coulisses de la fin de règne du chef de l’Etat. Ainsi que les efforts de ses dauphins pour s’éloigner de son bilan. Les deux auteurs sont les invités d’Anthony Lattier. N’hésitez pas à vous abonner et à laisser vos…
Pro-choice demonstrators marched through Santiago and Bogotá on Monday, calling for abortion access without restrictions and defending reproductive rights. In Chile, abortion is currently legal only when the pregnant person’s life is at risk, in cases of rape or when the foetus is deemed non-viable. In Colombia, abortion is decriminalised up to 24 weeks of pregnancy, following a landmark 2022 Constitutional Court ruling. Protesters in both countries expressed concerns about potential setbacks to reproductive rights.