Author: staff

During both meetings, MEPs and members of China’s National People’s Congress will address the topics of Russia’s war in Ukraine, trade, maintaining the role of the United Nations in the global order, and human rights, Eroglu said. The last gathering was an interparliamentary summit held in Beijing on May 2018. Further talks were put on hold because of the Covid-19 pandemic and a break of diplomatic ties after China sanctioned EU lawmakers in 2021. Lifting sanctions “We need to change the status quo of our trade relationship,” Eroglu said. “At the moment, we have a massive trade deficit with China,…

Published on 03/09/2025 – 14:49 GMT+2 A 2023 data transfer agreement between the EU and the US remains valid, the EU General Court has found, dismissing a French MEP’s complaint that it allows for disproportionate data collection, lacks transparency and adequate safeguards for Europeans’ personal information, and offers insufficient legal redress.  The case brought by French MEP Philippe Latombe was the first such challenge to an international agreement. He needed to convince judges that the deal affected him directly as an individual – but he failed to do so.  Over 2,800 US companies rely on the agreement to conduct business,…

Published on 03/09/2025 – 14:47 GMT+2 Film stars taking office in the US is not unheard of (see: Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenegger), but it’s less common in the UK. That said, two-time Oscar-winner and three-time Emmy Award-winner Glenda Jackson did serve as a Labour MP for 23 years and Andrew Faulds also transitioned from acting to politics in the ‘60s. However, it seems that Idris Elba won’t be following in their footsteps. The celebrated British actor has quashed rumours that he will be pivoting towards politics, saying that he doesn’t have the “courage” for it. Elba spoke about these…

“Earlier, people rarely lived to 70, but these days at 70 you are still a child,” Xi told Putin according to the translator in Russian. “With the development of biotechnology, human organs can be continuously transplanted and people can live younger and younger, and even achieve immortality,” Putin replied, according to translation in Mandarin. “Predictions are, this century, there is also a chance of living to 150,” Xi responded. Xi hosted 26 world leaders, including Putin and North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in Beijing on Wednesday, for a huge military parade which commemorated 80 years since Japan’s surrender in…

Published on 03/09/2025 – 15:00 GMT+2 Last year was catastrophic for Giannis´ olive trees. Olives were so small that they were referred to the oil market, much less lucrative, he says. This year seems only slightly better. By the day we film, not a single rain drop has fallen here in two months.  “Due to the climate crisis, this olive variety has faced many serious issues. Mainly due to lack of water, but also due to increased winter temperatures, which don´t provide trees with the hours of cold they need to become fruitful. This results in too many trees not…

The 38-year-old from Salzburg surpassed the previous 340 km/h B.A.S.E. wingsuit record in a 35-second descent from the North Face of the Eiger. On 19 August, Salzmann launched from the ‘Ecstasy Board’ ledge at 3,713 metres, descending 2,073 metres before landing safely at 1,640 metres. His custom-designed wingsuit carried him faster than the world’s quickest camera drone. Precision trackers confirmed the record in extreme conditions. For comparison, F1 cars reach a top speed of around 320 km/h at the Red Bull Ring.

Published on 03/09/2025 – 15:12 GMT+2 •Updated 15:12 A Labubu pop-up store in the centre of the Austrian capital Vienna was raided by customs officers on Wednesday. The authorities found that the shop, selling the incredibly popular Chinese dolls, neglected to hand out receipts after purchases, and the cash register had not yet been connected to the tax registry. The shop had monthly sales in August of approximately €43,000, which had not yet been reported to the tax office, Austrian press agency APA reported. Officers also suspected that the shop was selling falsified versions of the Chinese dolls, known as…

Published on 03/09/2025 – 14:56 GMT+2 Ryanair revealed on Wednesday that it will be cutting one million seats to and from Spain this winter.  The budget airline said that it will be slashing its capacity for this winter by 10 per cent, or 400,000 seats in the Canary Islands and 41 per cent, or 600,000 seats in Spanish regions. In total, it will result in one million seats being axed this year and an annual reduction of two million seats.  The budget carrier has blamed this move on uncompetitive and excessive airport charges implemented by Spanish airport operator AENA, which…

House in order: The PM gave an answer reminiscent of Boris Johnson’s comments during the Partygate scandal, insisting Rayner had gone “over and above” and “explained her personal circumstances in detail,” knowing “just how difficult” it was to refer herself to the independent adviser on the ministerial code. Bricking it: Badenoch, unsurprisingly, wasn’t satisfied, suggesting that the PM wouldn’t have “all that sympathy if it was a Conservative deputy prime minister” and that if Starmer had “backbone, he would sack her.” The PM happily distinguished between now and the Tory era, arguing there “wouldn’t have been the accountability that there…

The U.K. government said more than 19,500 Ukrainian children have been forcibly transferred or deported to Russia and the territories it occupies in Ukraine — while other estimates suggest the total number could be as high as 35,000. Only 1,592 are thought to have been returned, according to Ukrainian government assessments. Ukrainian intelligence claims to have identified more than 150 locations where children are being held, stretching from the Ukrainian occupied territories, Belarus, and inside Russia. Last month it was reported that Russian authorities in Ukraine’s Luhansk region had created an online catalogue of Ukrainian children categorized by age, eye…