Author: staff

Cash has become almost as scarce as food or fuel in the Gaza Strip, where Israeli shekels remain the primary currency but fresh notes have stopped arriving. Torn or worn banknotes are often refused by vendors, forcing people to pay to “repair” money, a service that costs up to 10 shekels per note.At a time of soaring inflation and unemployment, families are selling possessions to buy essentials. Inflation surged 230% in 2024 and unemployment topped 80%, leaving daily survival in Gaza increasingly dependent on physical cash, and the soaring cost of simply getting it.

Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor and a foreign affairs columnist at POLITICO Europe. Has the penny finally dropped with U.S. President Donald Trump that Russia’s Vladimir Putin has no serious interest in peace talks and is in no hurry to halt his war on Ukraine? Is Trump’s bromance with the Russian leader, whom he described only last month as “very kind,” finally over? The mercurial Trump’s midweek comments certainly prompted a flood of speculation on the matter. “We get a lot of bullshit thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth,” he said, indicating he’s finally…

An independent UN investigator and outspoken critic of Israel’s military operation in Gaza said on Thursday that “it was shocking” that the Trump administration had imposed sanctions on her but stood by her view on the war.Francesca Albanese said in an interview with the AP that the powerful were trying to silence her for speaking out for those with little to no power, “other than standing and hoping not to die, not to see their children slaughtered.””This is not a sign of power, it’s a sign of guilt,” the UN Special Rapporteur on the Occupied Palestinian Territories said.The State Department’s…

Bitcoin has reached a new all-time high, trading at more than $118,000 (€100,000) on Friday. It followed an enthusiastic trading day on the US stock markets on Thursday, where the main index for tech companies, the Nasdaq, hit a record value.Interest in Bitcoin was fuelled by a bullish, optimistic trading outlook across risk assets and an appetite for investment in tech companies, such as Nvidia, which recently surged to a $4 trillion valuation. Bitcoin’s all-time high also comes days before what the US House of Representatives, one of Congress’ two chambers, has labelled as “Crypto Week”, starting on 14 July. This…

Perhaps feeling the heat, Trump told NBC News late Thursday that: “We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, a hundred percent.” “We’re going to be sending Patriots to NATO, and then NATO will distribute that,” he added. Across Europe, there’s a feeling of whiplash over the Trump administration’s recent Ukraine policy reversals plus confusion about who is making decisions at the Pentagon, while Kyiv worries that the aid package passed under the previous administration could soon run out, and the Republican-dominated U.S. Congress shows no sign of approving a new one. “We discussed with our partners…

Headed for conflict These tensions are nothing new. While von der Leyen has stood by the Green Deal she helped erect, Weber, who leads both the EPP’s parliamentary group and its EU-wide party, has now spent years trying to stamp out what he views as environmental excesses.  His campaign has intensified since last year’s European election, which tilted the Parliament to the right and elevated Green Deal skeptics within the EPP. Von der Leyen has sought to accommodate some of Weber’s concerns, especially regarding nature laws, corporate regulation, and specific industrial sectors like the automotive industry, which are core to…

It only escalated from there. Rama, in a series of X posts, called Farage’s figures “bonkers” and questioned how many were convicted due to the U.K.’s “outdated immigration and visa system,” yet decided to kill Farage with kindness and invite him to visit to enjoy “real sun, real hospitality, and even more facts about Albania and its fabulous people.” Farage eventually accepted the invitation on the condition that he would discuss the return of Albanian prisoners. Since a 2023 agreement with the Conservative government of Rishi Sunak, just eight Albanian prisoners have been repatriated, according to U.K. Justice Minister Nic…

Une initiative encouragée par Laurent Wauquiez Etonnamment, tant il est peu connu pour sa passion pour l’écologie, le feu vert et même l’impulsion pour constituer cette petite escouade verte sont venus de Laurent Wauquiez. A la fin de la réunion de groupe qui a suivi le vote du moratoire sur les renouvelables proposé par l’un des leurs, Jérôme Nury, le président des députés Droite républicaine a enjoint à ceux qui le voulaient de se mettre au travail. “En réponse à certaines voix du groupe qui prenaient leur distance avec Jérôme Nury, Laurent Wauquiez a dit que c’était très bien qu’une…

Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez recently claimed that his country is responsible for the creation of half of all new jobs in the eurozone.While giving a speech at the Federal Committee of his centre-left PSOE party, Sánchez praised the improving state of Spain’s employment figures.”Despite all the difficulties we have encountered both internally and externally, Spain is moving forward,” Sánchez said on 5 July. “We contribute 40% of the growth and half of the new jobs in the eurozone.”However, the official figures from Eurostat paint a different picture. They show that some 157,125,000 people were employed in the first quarter…

In his speech at the state banquet in Windsor Castle earlier this week, King Charles said “our two countries face a multitude of complex threats, emanating from multiple directions. As friends and as allies, we face them together. These challenges know no borders: no fortress can protect us against them this time.”  He also spoke of the need to tackle “irregular migration across the English Channel.” ‘Of course we should be there’ The Reform MP hit out at the “Establishment” for not inviting party leader Nigel Farage or Tice himself to the state banquet, which was also attended by the…