Author: staff

Published on 05/05/2026 – 15:45 GMT+2 A team of astronomers has identified what they believe are 27 “candidate planets” orbiting binary star systems, using a radical new detection method. Instead of spotting a planet crossing in front of a star, which has been the usual way of detecting new planet-like objects — known as the transit method — researchers looked for tiny changes in the timing of how two stars eclipse each other. These tiny shifts in eclipse timing can reveal the gravitational influence of an unseen planet orbiting the system. The study, published in the Monthly Notices of the…

When you think of Welsh artists, chances are your mind will wander to Bonnie Tyler and Tom Jones. Connoisseurs will mention Manic Street Preachers, Feeder, Funeral For A Friend, Stereophonics, Catatonia and The Joy Formidable. However, even they would be missing the most important band to hail from Cymru: Super Furry Animals. If you haven’t had the pleasure yet, this Welsh rock group was formed in Cardiff in 1993. Led by singer-guitarist Gruff Rhys (and featuring actor Rhys Ifans on lead vocals during an earlier incarnation of the band), the five-piece were at the forefront of what many referred to…

LONDON — PornHub, which partially blocked access to its platform in the U.K. back in January amid concerns about the implementation of the Online Safety Act, has fully restored access to U.K.-based Apple users, the porn site’s parent company announced Tuesday. Under the OSA porn providers are required to have highly effective age assurance in place to prevent children from accessing adult content. PornHub argued that instead of going through its age-checks, would-be visitors were flocking to non-compliant sites en masse, and that only device-based age checks from the likes of Apple, Google and Microsoft would level the playing field.…

Before 11,500 troops marched through Moscow’s Red Square last year to a cacophony of trumpets and cannons, the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, issued a stark warning. “Any participation in the 9 May parades or celebrations in Moscow will not be taken lightly on the European side, considering that Russia is waging a full-scale war in Europe,” she said. Despite the warning, nearly 30 world leaders attended the pomp-filled Victory Day parade, marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. Among them were high-profile guests such as Chinese President Xi Jinping, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio…

Almost a decade after British voters chose to leave the European Union on 23 June 2016, the FTSE 100 has been hitting record highs. Yet beneath the headline, the financial scars of that vote remain unmistakable. A new Morningstar analysis titled “The Brexit Decade” laid out the damage in numbers that are hard to dismiss. Since the referendum, UK equity funds have bled roughly $160 billion in cumulative net outflows, six consecutive years of redemptions that have hardened into a structural loss of confidence rather than a passing cyclical drawdown. How wide a performance gap has opened between UK stocks…

Published on 05/05/2026 – 14:55 GMT+2 Iran has ended its part in this year’s Venice Biennale just days before the exhibition’s opening to the public this weekend. In a short statement published on the exhibition website, the organisers state: “With regard to the National Participations in the 61st International Art Exhibition, In Minor Keys by Koyo Kouoh (9 May-22 November), it has been announced that the Islamic Republic of Iran will not participate.” No reason has yet been provided for the withdrawal. The news will not come as much of a surprise to many as tensions remain high throughout the…

This accounting trick was repeatedly mentioned in last year’s audits, and this year the Parliament’s administration urged organizations in several meetings “to discontinue the practice,” the report says. “There could have been an attempt to fraudulently use public money,” said Louis Drouneau, founder of the European Democracy Consulting, an organization that tracks political party donations and expenditure. “And since there is so little transparency regarding the expenses of European parties … this decreases the ability of civil society and the press to keep a watchful eye on party expenses,” he said. “This is noticeably different from the level of transparency enacted in…

Romania’s pro-European coalition government collapsed on Tuesday after lawmakers voted in favour of a no-confidence motion against Prime Minister Ilie Bolojan, triggering a fresh period of turmoil in the less than a year after the coalition was sworn in. The joint effort was launched last week when the leftist Social Democratic Party (PSD), which withdrew from the coalition in late April, and the hard-right opposition Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR), submitted the motion to Parliament. After a parliamentary debate, 281 lawmakers voted in favour of the motion and four against. Lawmakers from Bolojan’s centre-right National Liberal Party (PNL)…

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday rebuffed U.S. President Donald Trump’s threat to hike tariffs on European cars, warning Washington to stick to the terms of its trade deal with Brussels. Speaking out for the first time since Trump’s Friday announcement that he would impose 25 percent tariffs on EU-made automobiles, von der Leyen flatly stated that “a deal is a deal.” “We have a deal, and the essence of this deal is prosperity, common rules and reliability,” she said during a press conference at the EU-Armenia summit in Yerevan. While the EU is in the “final…

Published on 05/05/2026 – 13:52 GMT+2 Sweden’s government said on Tuesday it would push forward with a plan to form a new spy agency targeting overseas threats, part of a wider rethink prompted by Russia’s war in Ukraine. The new agency would be called Sweden’s foreign intelligence service (UND) and would start operations in January 2027, Foreign Minister Maria Malmer Stenergard said at a press conference. “During the ongoing war in Ukraine, it has become very clear that an information advantage and the ability to rapidly and continuously adapt various technical systems are just as crucial as advanced weapons systems,”…