Author: staff
Published on 17/02/2026 – 7:00 GMT+1 Defenceless penguins are being killed en masse as puma populations recover in Monte Leon National Park in Argentina’s ruthlessly wild Patagonia. After cattle ranching was abandoned in the country’s south in the 1990s, pumas began recolonising parts of their historical range. At the same time, Magellanic penguin colonies have expanded from nearby islands to the mainland, where “terrestrial predators” had previously been absent. It’s resulted in what scientists are calling a “conservation dilemma” that could see penguin colonies dwindle in the region. Now, a study by Oxford University has quantified the risk of long-term…
A battle for power in the European Parliament is already underway — though quietly for now — with the midterm reshuffle a year away. Behind the scenes, MEPs are counting votes, testing alliances and positioning themselves for the presidency and other top jobs. On this episode of the Brussels Playbook Podcast, host Zoya Sheftalovich is joined by senior European politics editor Ian Wishart to unpack the maneuvering — and what it means for Roberta Metsola, the far right and the balance of power in Brussels and Strasbourg. They also examine how debates over trans rights are gaining visibility in Brussels,…
Relentless Russian attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure – a hallmark of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine – have left more than a million citizens without electricity, water and heating as temperatures plunge as low as -23°C. The EU has sent Ukraine nearly 10,000 generators since the invasion was launched in 2022, and EU Commissioner for Crisis Management Hadja Lahbib visited Ukraine with 1,000 more as Russia steps up its attacks. “Things are as bad as ever”, the Mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, told Euronews at a warehouse containing 500 of the newly arrived generators. The warehouse’s location is classified. Anyone…
By Jerry Fisayo-Bambi with AP Published on 17/02/2026 – 6:29 GMT+1•Updated 6:48 Hundreds of millions of people across Asia began on Tuesday to mark the Lunar New Year with prayers, fireworks and festivities as China ushered in the Year of the Horse, one of 12 animals in the Chinese zodiac, succeeding the Year of the Snake. The Lunar New Year, which coincides with the lunar calendar’s first new moon, is a 15-day celebration that takes place annually between 21 January and 20 February, the most important annual holiday in China and some other East Asian nations. This year’s extended Lunar New Year holiday…
Der CDU-Parteitag in Stuttgart am Freitag und Samstag wird für Friedrich Merz zum Stimmungstest. Als Kanzler ist er sowieso präsent, als Parteichef steht er nun im Mittelpunkt. Es geht um sein Ergebnis, um Geschlossenheit und um die Frage, wie stark er in der eigenen Partei wirklich ist. Eine Analyse von Gordon Repinski. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview: Wiebke Winter, Mitglied der Klima-Union und von der Jungen Union für das Präsidium nominiert. Sie setzt auf Generationengerechtigkeit, spricht über Rente, Klimapolitik und über die Erwartungen an Friedrich Merz. Außerdem geht es ins Kanzleramt und damit irgendwie zur Berlinale. Jury-Chef Wim Wenders und Intendantin Tricia Tuttle…
A central output of the project is the Gender Gap in Investments Dashboard, developed by Dealroom. The dashboard is a prototype repository that already presents a clear picture of the current state of the gender investment gap using Dealroom data. It brings together information on company founding teams and venture funding outcomes across Europe in a single, accessible interface. The dashboard is not an endpoint. It is designed as a foundation that can, over time, incorporate additional data sources, improve coverage, and offer a more nuanced view of how gender, sector, funding stage and geography interact. The long-term ambition is…
The EPF has been tracking the rise of what they call the “anti-gender” movement across Europe, and found that hundreds of groups targeting so-called gender ideology — including think tanks, church-run advocacy groups, political parties and media — had raised $1.18 billion between 2019 and 2023, up from $81 million between 2009 and 2018. The groups cover a range of policies from abortion to sex education, with transgender rights making up a large part of the lobbying. LGBTQ+ groups argue the mainstream politicization of such debates is part of a rolling back of fundamental rights, while gender-critical groups believe that…
Belgium’s Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot has summoned Bill White, the U.S. ambassador to the country, over his comments accusing Belgium of antisemitism and lashing out against its health minister.“Any suggestion that Belgium is antisemitic is false, offensive, and unacceptable. Belgium condemns antisemitism with the greatest firmness,” Prévot wrote Monday evening in a long post on X, calling White’s statements “unacceptable.”“Personal attacks against a Belgian minister and interference in judicial matters violate basic diplomatic norms … The Ambassador has been immediately summoned for a meeting this Tuesday,” Prévot continued.White on Monday criticized Belgium’s handling of a case in Antwerp where three…
Harris’ comments came after the finance ministers of Germany, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands and Poland met in Brussels, behind closed doors, earlier in the day to discuss how best to speed up Europe’s plans to take on Wall Street. That’s a problem for the likes of Dublin, which has a direct stake in the plans to deepen the bloc’s financial markets. Most money managers in Europe do the bulk of their business in Ireland and Luxembourg, which oppose efforts to create a single EU watchdog for the biggest financiers across the bloc. Monday’s E6 gathering was the second meeting…
But the checks have angered Berlin’s neighbors, in part for creating traffic headaches at border crossings, and led to tit-for-tat retaliation from Warsaw. A Berlin court also deemed the most controversial measure of Berlin’s border regime — namely turning away asylum seekers at its frontiers — to be in violation of European law. Chancellor Friedrich Merz has sought to crack down on migration under pressure from the far-right, anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is now the largest opposition party in Germany’s federal parliament. The AfD is currently polling neck-and-neck with Merz’s conservatives. Border controls of the type implemented by…