Author: staff

Andy Burnham has used his first major policy speech as Labour leadership frontrunner to promise the biggest shake-up of political power in modern British history, pledging to hand sweeping new authority to local leaders and relocate part of the prime minister’s office to Manchester. Speaking at the People’s History Museum in the city where he spent nine years as mayor, Burnham laid out a 10-year plan to revive a UK economy he described as stuck in a rut since the 2008 financial crash. “Growth cannot be ordered from the top down. Indeed, it can only be nurtured from the bottom…

Some 360,000 of the over 900,000 people who applied by mid-June have already been granted provisional work and residence permits, according to officials. Sánchez has defended the measure as recognition for those who already contribute to Spain’s economy, but the legalization scheme has been challenged by the center-right People’s Party and far-right Vox group. Last month, the country’s Supreme Court rejected a request to provisionally suspend the decree. The mass legalization puts Madrid at odds with the migration policy currently favored in Brussels. Earlier this month, the EU finalized a sweeping overhaul of its migration system, paving the way for…

Updated: 29/06/2026 – 16:12 GMT+2 Diana Ürge-Vorsatz, Vice-Chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, said governments should provide “temporary measures” such as cooling centres during heatwaves. High air conditioning use is “already jeopardising” the EU’s energy capacity, she said. … More

Doubling down on drones While the release of the much-delayed DIP meets a key demand from allies and the U.K.’s military-industrial complex, the implementation will rely on Andy Burnham, who is expected to take over as prime minister later this summer. Under the plan, the U.K. will get some of the way to meeting NATO’s new target of spending 3.5 percent of GDP on defense by 2035, but Britain’s spending is off the pace of other allies like Germany, France and Poland and it has yet to set out a clear funding pathway to hitting that target. The new investment…

Updated: 29/06/2026 – 19:48 GMT+2 Carlo Buontempo, Copernicus Climate Change service director, says heatwaves have become “more intense, lasting longer and starting earlier in the season” in Europe as the continent “is warming faster than the global average”. … More

Updated: 29/06/2026 – 16:44 GMT+2 Australian man Simon Carman has been charged with murdering 17-year-old Tunchanok Donhomla after her body was found inside a suitcase in Pattaya. Police say the investigation is ongoing, while the suspect denies abducting and killing the teenager. … More

The two sides issued a joint statement on the topic, the first of its kind since 2019, although Šefčovič briefed reporters alone after the bilateral. The talks were due to continue Monday evening before Wang travels to Britain on Tuesday. The platform will be divided into four main categories: trade and investment balancing, export controls, intellectual property rights, and World Trade Organization reform. A working group dedicated to the first topic will be launched immediately and will set up a joint mechanism to monitor trade flows. The idea, the commissioner said, is to share a set of data that both…

Amid record-breaking temperatures, the European Commission has declined to take a stance on the increasingly contentious debate over air conditioning, saying it is not the role of the EU executive to dictate consumers’ choices. About 20% of European households have AC units installed, compared to 90% or more in the United States, Japan and South Korea. The glaring lack of cooling systems has become a political lightning rod after a brutal heatwave killed at least 1,300 Europeans and prompted a desperate search for makeshift solutions to make daily life tolerable. “We know most residential buildings and apartments in the European…

Published on 29/06/2026 – 22:20 GMT+2 Iran said on Monday evening that a delegation of experts would travel to Doha “later this week” to discuss implementation of the Memorandum of Understanding signed with the United States earlier this month, but stressed the visit would not constitute negotiations with Washington. A foreign ministry spokesperson said “we have not yet entered the stage of negotiating a final agreement” and that “over the coming days, we will not have any negotiation meetings with the US side at any level.” The announcement came after conflicting reports regarding whether talks would take place between the…

Speaking to reporters last week, U.S. President Donald Trump dismissed Burnham as the former “mayor of a town” and labeled him as “extremely liberal.” The Grand American Jubilee is set to attract roughly 2,500 guests to Winfield House, U.S. Ambassador Warren Stephens’ official residence in Regent’s Park, where invitees will squeeze past U.S. Marines and into the gardens. Stephens has issued fewer invites to the party this year than usual, according to two people familiar with the planning, granted anonymity to speak freely. Up to 4,500 guests have attended in previous years. Invitations have been sent to every major party…