Author: staff
All the Iranian diplomats and representatives will be banned from the European Parliament’s premises as a response to Iran’s crackdown on protesters, the Parliament’s president, Roberta Metsola, announced on Monday. “This House will not aid in legitimising this regime that has sustained itself through torture, repression, and murder”, Metsola wrote on X. The ban will apply to all the Parliament’s premises in Brussels, Strasbourg, and Luxembourg, and will remain in place until revoked by another president’s decision. In the meantime, the European Union is prepared to push for fresh sanctions on the country after the repression of the protesters. Earlier…
About 100 participants, mostly men wearing white loincloths and a few women in white robes, stepped into tubs of ice cold water in the shrine courtyard. After warm up runs and chants to the purification goddess Haraedo no Okami, they poured water over themselves with wooden buckets, shouting to steady their nerves. Drums and flutes accompanied the ceremony, now in its 71st year. The rite is rooted in Shinto beliefs that physical hardship cleanses the spirit and protects against misfortune. Once limited to shrine members, the event now accepts public applications, which filled quickly this year as onlookers watched from…
Asked if this meant cuts to programs or pushing them back, Knighton said: “All of those things are options under consideration, but so is the level of ambition we might take and these are straightforward facts.” The Ministry of Defence is currently locked in a battle with the Treasury over the Defense Investment Plan (DIP), which was originally meant to be published in the fall last year. The DIP is intended to build on the strategic defense review (SDR) and put hard numbers against the government’s plans before an uplift to defense spending from 2027. The Times reported that military…
South Korea is seeing large winter crowds gather in the county of Hwacheon for the annual Sancheoneo Festival, known for its freezing water challenges. Tens of thousands of visitors travel to the northeast to try catching live mountain trout by hand. Wearing shorts and gloves, participants step into icy pools and clutch the slippery fish to their chests once caught. Others choose a calmer option, lowering fishing lines through holes cut into the ice and waiting for a bite. Nearby grills fill the air with the smell of trout cooked on the spot, following the rule that you eat what…
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul is set to meet his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in Washington on Monday to discuss the issue. That meeting comes ahead of a high-level meeting between officials from Greenland, Denmark and the U.S. set for Wednesday. Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen warned last week that a U.S. invasion of Greenland would spell the end of NATO. Members of Merz’s government have taken a rhetorically softer approach in a bid to prevent the alliance from rupturing, depicting Trump as raising legitimate security concerns. “We simply want to work together to improve the security…
The European Commission has publicly raised the prospect of engaging in direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin to end the war in Ukraine, while cautioning that Moscow’s relentless bombing campaign makes such a move impossible at this stage. “We’re working very, very hard for peace in Ukraine,” Paula Pinho, the chief spokesperson of the European Commission, said on Monday afternoon. “Peace in Ukraine depends on one single person. That person is, as you know very well, President Putin. So obviously, at some point, there will have to be talks also with President Putin. In the meantime, a lot of…
US President Donald Trump has referred to himself as “acting president of Venezuela” in an image of a mock-up of a Wikipedia page on his Truth Social account on Monday morning. The post, which has been liked more than 24,000 times, is the latest in a string of claims that Trump and Washington are in charge of the South American country following the 3 January capture of Nicolás Maduro. In a lightning overnight military operation led by US special forces, Maduro and his wife were taken from their Caracas compound and flown back to the United States. Last Thursday, Trump…
Sitting beside Farage Monday, Zahawi denied that his move was careerist, or that he thought Farage was racist: “If I thought this man sitting next to me in any way had an issue with people of my colour or my background who have come to this country, who have integrated, assimilated, are proud of this country, worked hard in this country, paid millions of pounds in taxes in this country, invested in the country, I wouldn’t be sitting next to him.” Zahawi was also the U.K. vaccines minister during the Covid-19 pandemic — but deflected what he called “stupid” questions…
The appeals trial of Marine Le Pen, leader of France’s far-right National Rally (RN) party, begins on Tuesday, and the outcome could significantly affect the country’s next presidential election. Le Pen was found guilty of misappropriating public funds and barred from running for office for five years “with immediate effect,” a Paris court ruled in March. Eight MEPs for the RN and their 12 assistants were also found guilty and barred from running for office. The party was fined €2 million. The prosecutor also demanded that Le Pen be fined €300,000 and serve up to 10 years in prison. The…
The move comes after a secretly recorded video was posted on X on Thursday evening, just a day after Cyprus officially assumed the presidency of the Council of the EU, triggering a political crisis. It was not immediately possible to find public and verifiable information confirming the real identity of the person behind the account that posted the video. The video includes a montage of senior figures filmed apparently describing ways to bypass campaign spending caps with cash donations, and seemingly discussing a scheme allowing businesspeople to access the president and first lady. One segment made reference to helping Russians avoid EU sanctions.…