Author: staff

Published on 21/04/2026 – 18:09 GMT+2 This year’s European Heritage Awards, bestowed by Europa Nostra, have been won by 30 projects from 18 countries. The projects were competing in five categories, ranging from conservation and adaptive reuse to research, education and awareness-raising. “From pioneering AI-based risk prevention to hands-on training in traditional building techniques, these projects show that heritage is not just about the past, it is a living force for progress,” said Glenn Micallef, European Commissioner for Intergenerational Fairness, Youth, Culture and Sport. President of Europa Nostra Cecilia Bartoli stated that in a world marked by conflicts, geopolitical tensions…

The pipeline, which stopped transporting oil from Russia to Central Europe after it was damaged in a Russian strike in January, became the focus of a bitter dispute between Ukraine and Hungary. Budapest, which receives the vast majority of its oil from Moscow, accused Kyiv of slow-walking repairs and subsequently vetoed a €90 billion EU loan for Ukraine, initially approved by the bloc’s leaders at a summit in December. Zelenskyy’s announcement paves the way for Hungary to finally lift its veto on the loan, which is intended to prop up Ukraine’s war-battered economy and help fend off Russia’s full-scale invasion.…

Published on 21/04/2026 – 17:03 GMT+2 Qatar has urged an end to the Iran war and a return to negotiations on Tuesday, saying it is in contact with all parties as uncertainty surrounds US-Iran talks in Islamabad. “The crisis is ours, and the crisis of our region. That’s why we have direct contacts,” foreign ministry spokesperson Dr Majed al-Ansari said at a press conference in Doha. Al-Ansari added that Qatar supports maintaining the ceasefire as uncertainty remains over whether talks are moving forward. “Our call has only been to end this war and return to the negotiation table,” he said.…

Published on 21/04/2026 – 17:14 GMT+2 Kazakhstan, one of the biggest and greenest countries in the world, has announced plans to expand its national parks. This move is expected to add around 20,000 square kilometres of protected land by 2035, bringing the total to approximately 332,000 square kilometres – bigger than in either Poland or Italy. Believed to be where the apple originated, Kazakhstan is also famed for its massive steppe landscapes, vibrant red Charyn Canyon, dramatic Altai Mountains and the Kaindy Lake, with its submerged forest. The Central Asian country is also known for its nomadic culture, especially eagle…

This is particularly wounding for Starmer because Doyle, like Mandelson, has since been embroiled in a scandal over his past association with a pedophile. (Mandelson resigned over the depth of his friendship with the late convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein in September, while Doyle campaigned in 2017 for a friend who had been charged with child sex offenses, and was later convicted.) It was in March 2025, when Robbins was making large numbers of career civil servants redundant in a restructure. He told MPs he was “under strict instruction” from No. 10’s private office not to discuss the offer with then-Foreign…

Emmanuel Macron will host Lebanese Prime Minister Nawaf Salam on Tuesday evening, as new talks between Israel and Lebanon are expected to take place in Washington on Thursday. The visit comes as the Élysée Palace said France intends to”reaffirm its commitment to the strict respect of the ceasefire, France’s support for Lebanon’s territorial integrity and the steps taken by the Lebanese state to fully guarantee its sovereignty and arms monopoly.” This diplomatic sequence is unfolding in a particularly tense atmosphere following the death on Saturday of a French soldier serving with the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL). All…

Three men aged 24, 25, and 26 were arrested in Harpenden, a town in Hertfordshire, on Sunday evening and taken into custody before being released on bail. A 25-year-old man was arrested in Stevenage on Monday, while a 26-year-old man and two women, aged 50 and 59, were arrested in a car near Birmingham. They remain in custody in a London police station. Separately, a 39-year-old man was arrested Tuesday morning in Ealing, west London, under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000 and taken into custody. His arrest was in connection with an existing investigation after jars containing a non-hazardous…

Published on 21/04/2026 – 15:33 GMT+2 Italy’s Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni issued a sharp rebuke of a Swiss hospital on Tuesday for allegedly billing the families of some of the victims in a devastating fire at a bar in the Alpine skiing resort of Crans-Montana on New Year’s Eve. “I spoke with our ambassador: the Swiss authorities have assured us that it was a mistake, and that the families will not have to pay anything,” Meloni wrote in a post on X. “But I asked the ambassador to maintain the highest level of attention to this issue, because it would…

“We will assess whether we need a minimum stock obligation for jet fuel, requiring member states to maintain minimum emergency reserves,” he said during the press conference. Tzitzikostas also said the AccelerateEU plan — which the Commission will present Wednesday in response to recent energy market shocks — will include the creation of a new fuel observatory, which “will start with jet fuel,” and efforts to secure “an alternative jet fuel supply for Europe, such as type A jet fuel produced in the United States.” However, the fuel produced in the U.S. differs from the Jet A1 international standard, making it…

Published on 21/04/2026 – 14:20 GMT+2 Russia and North Korea held a ceremony on Tuesday to mark the joining of the first road bridge connecting the two countries which is set to open for traffic this summer, Moscow said. Ties between the two heavily sanctioned countries have surged amid Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with Moscow and Pyongyang deepening economic, political, cultural and military links. South Korea warned last week that Chinese and Russian support was helping revive the North Korean economy, which has struggled for years under sweeping international sanctions, almost complete international isolation and huge military investment. Moscow’s…