Author: staff
By Laila Humairah Published on 19/06/2026 – 18:13 GMT+2 At the fifth edition of what organisers call “the festival for digital freedom,” the conversation around blockchain moved beyond Bitcoin and crypto speculation. The focus shifted to a bigger question: can decentralised technology challenge the growing power of Big Tech over data, artificial intelligence and the digital economy? At the heart of the debate is whether Web3 can deliver on its original promise — an internet where users have genuine ownership and control over their digital lives. “Less trust, but more truth” emerged as one of the summit’s key themes: the idea…
BUDAPEST — Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok, an appointee of former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, on Friday approved a constitutional amendment barring the same Orbán from returning to office. The amendment limits prime ministers to no more than eight years in office. Orbán served a total of 20 years. The Hungarian parliament overwhelmingly approved the amendment on Monday, sending it to the president’s desk for his signature. The amendment follows a longtime campaign promise by the Magyar government to introduce term limits, which would also apply to Prime Minister Péter Magyar, too. In his decision, Sulyok wrote that the popularly dubbed…
French President Emmanuel Macron and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez have issued a blistering rebuke against deportation camps outside the European Union, setting their countries on a collision course with a growing political majority. During a summit on Friday, 19 leaders across the bloc signed a joint declaration calling to make “full use” of a new European law that enables the construction of so-called return hubs to host migrants whose asylum applications have been denied. The coalition, led by Denmark and Italy, two fierce advocates of outsourcing, wants to “move forward with solutions based in third countries as soon as…
In Paris, visitors to the Sacré-Cœur Basilica arrived early with water bottles, parasols and portable fans, while long queues built up in Montmartre and many people took shelter on the basilica steps. Several tourists said they had switched to morning sightseeing and indoor activities later in the day as temperatures in the capital climbed to 36C. The heat is also reshaping life beyond Paris. In Toulouse, local authorities installed large shade structures this week across Place du Capitole and Rue d’Alsace-Lorraine as part of a municipal heatwave response plan, with pedestrians and cyclists gathering beneath the canopies as forecasts pointed…
Kemi Badenoch’s Conservative Party — now fiercely anti-net zero and pro-oil and gas — won the vote in Aberdeen South, unseating the Scottish National Party. Oil and gas firms are major employers in the constituency, where many jobs linked to drilling have been lost in recent years as reserves depleted and investment dried up. Badenoch argues Miliband’s policies are making things worse, and put the issue at the heart of the party’s local campaign. Labour finished fourth with just 5.4 percent of the vote, having come second with nearly 25 percent as recently as the 2024 general election. The victorious Tory…
EU leaders meeting in Brussels have agreed to produce a preliminary deal on the €2 trillion EU long-term budget for 2028–2034 by October, according to a draft statement published on Friday. In a gathering on Thursday and Friday, the bloc entered a sensitive phase of the negotiations, trying to reach a common understanding on expenditure and revenues to fund the priorities of the next seven years. There is a delicate balancing act to be struck among EU member states. While a group of net payers led by Germany and The Netherlands pushing to slash the bloc’s total spend, southern and…
Published on 19/06/2026 – 14:15 GMT+2 Estonia said it will be the first country in the world to create digital identities for artificial intelligence (AI) agents. Agents are systems that can perceive information, make decisions and autonomously perform tasks to achieve specific goals. Many of the major AI companies, including OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Microsoft, have deployed agents within their popular chatbots. The Estonian government will launch “AI ID codes” that will enable the agents to act on behalf of people, companies or organisations with defined limits, it said. “In the future, AI will increasingly carry out digital tasks on…
Venice’s entry fee, which was first introduced in 2024, may see a significant rise in cost in the near future. The city’s newly elected mayor, Simone Venturini, has announced a proposal to hike the day tripper tax to €50 on select days to curb overtourism. It comes as data shows that the current rates – €5 for advance booking and €10 for last-minute – are doing little to disincentivise visitors. Venice proposes hiking entry fee to €50 Venturini has said he will ask the Italian government for permission to raise the Venice entry fee to €50 on certain days. Figures…
Published on 19/06/2026 – 16:10 GMT+2 Being a pop star must be pretty great for the most part – the travel, the money, the adoring fans screaming your lyrics back at you… But there’s a less glamorous reality that stardom doesn’t prepare you for, according to Olivia Rodrigo: the smells. Specifically, the poopy, pissy smell of fans who wear diapers just to hold their place in the front row. Speaking recently on Kiss FM, the 23-year-old American singer, who has just released her latest album ‘you seem pretty sad for a girl so in love’, said: “I have been to…
Last May the NSF had said it would dismantle the observation network and remove “all in-water infrastructure” on parts of its coastline after the Trump administration had fired the NSF’s independent board. The news prompted backlash from experts. Other regional ocean observation networks, including Europe’s ocean monitoring and simulation systems, rely on data gathered by American infrastructure to understand how oceans are evolving. U.S. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren, a Democrat, welcomed the decision but criticized the agency for attempting to dismantle the program. “To be clear, this should have never happened,” Lofgren said. “This pathetic scheme was illegal. NSF is governing via chaos and reactionary…