Author: staff
Published on 08/05/2026 – 12:11 GMT+2 According to HD Hyundai Oilbank, a major South Korean petroleum and refinery company, the Malta-flagged vessel named Odessa reached waters near the port city of Seosan on Friday morning, concluding a journey that began in the Strait of Hormuz around mid-April. The cargo consists of one million barrels of crude intended for processing at one of the country’s largest refineries, highlighting the persistent reliance of East Asian economies on the volatile shipping lanes of the Persian Gulf. This specific delivery is estimated to represent between 35% and 50% of the daily crude consumption of…
Published on 08/05/2026 – 12:26 GMT+2 Getting between Dublin and Belfast is set to get much quicker. A major investment of nearly €700 million will cut rain journey times on the cross-border Enterprise service to under two hours, with brand-new trains, more frequent departures and upgraded onboard facilities all planned by 2028. By the end of that year, there will be eight new intercity Stadler trains on the route, which will assist the existing fleet in running up to 16 daily services between Ireland’s two capital cities. The plans were unveiled this week during a ceremony at Belfast Grand Central…
Published on 08/05/2026 – 12:26 GMT+2 The Edinburgh Fringe, the world’s biggest and most open-access arts festival, will have a theatre inside of a sauna this year. The festival, taking place from 7 to 31 August, draws almost 3 million visitors every year. For the 2026 edition of the Fringe, the Sauna Sessions Art Club is bringing the UK’s first purpose-built “Sauna Theatre” to life at the Summerhall Arts venue. This will be the first theatre and arts centre of its kind in the UK, while also being the country’s biggest sauna. Founded by Lucy Osborne and James Grieve, the…
It is the second time in nine months that D66’s offices have been targeted. In September 2025, the building was pelted with stones during an anti-immigration demonstration that turned violent. Speaking to reporters in The Hague Friday morning, Jetten said D66 is not the only target of political violence. “Almost every week something happens because people think they can intimidate council members, mayors, politicians … and ambulance workers with violence,” he said. “But fortunately, you also saw last night that most Dutch people make it very clear that we absolutely do not accept this in our country,” he added. “This…
Updated: 08/05/2026 – 11:27 GMT+2 Disarming Hezbollah will require a lot of “will, courage and decision” from Lebanon. A difficult mission, as the country has “no state” and the Lebanese are “paying the price” of the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah, MP Nadim Gemayel said in an interview on Euronews’ morning show Europe Today. … More
Iranians living near the border with Iraq’s Kurdistan region are crossing into neighbouring territory or gathering at the frontier just to get online, as the Tehran regime’s months-long internet blackout has cut tens of millions of people off from the outside world. The Islamic Republic officials have justified the restrictions by citing “security considerations” and the need to counter “cyber warfare”. Citizens say the blackout has cut them off from independent news sources, made it impossible to reach family members abroad, and in many cases destroyed their livelihoods. Authorities have also outright criminalised many of the tools Iranians have turned…
Most countries aim to diversify their energy sources and reduce their dependency on fossil fuels. Batteries are central to that transition to renewable energy. They determine how much electricity a storage system can hold and feed into the power grid. Some countries have already brought battery capacities online in recent years, while many others have committed investments to expand theirs, revealing their pipelines. So, which countries have the highest operational battery capacity across Europe? And when the pipeline is included, which countries emerge as the leaders? According to Ember’s European and Türkiye Electricity Review 2026 reports, Germany leads Europe in…
Published on 08/05/2026 – 11:05 GMT+2 No one could blame you for not knowing that ever since the first Mortal Kombat movie came out in 1995, there have been five follow-ups: Mortal Kombat Annihilation (1997), Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpion’s Revenge (2020), Mortal Kombat (2021), Mortal Kombat Legends: Battle of the Realms (2021) and Mortal Kombat Legends: Snow Blind (2022). Spoiler: They’re all pretty awful, and while 2021’s live-action reboot was a step in the right direction for fans of the beloved 90s games, it still proved that video game adaptations were still Hollywood’s bête noire. Many will cite the recent…
Séjourné has long championed a “European Preference” as part of his flagship Industrial Accelerator Act (which aims to make Europe more competitive by favoring local manufacturers of green technologies) and for projects funded by the EU’s long-term budget. However, some EU countries — led by Germany — oppose what they say are too rigid criteria that could disrupt supply chains. However, Séjourné said “the more the world is changing,” the stronger the case for the policy grows and “the debate is no longer about why Europe should do this, but about how to do it effectively.” The intervention comes as…
Published on 08/05/2026 – 11:13 GMT+2 A large forest fire was burning through the Chernobyl exclusion zone on Friday following a drone crash near the defunct nuclear plant the previous day, Ukrainian authorities said. Radiation levels at the site were within “normal limits,” authorities reported, adding that firefighters were working to contain the blaze. An image published by Ukraine’s state emergency service showed a large column of white smoke billowing into the sky from the area, parts of which are closed off to the public due to high levels of radioactivity. The site surrounding the Chernobyl nuclear plant has been…