Author: staff

Published on 14/07/2026 – 6:43 GMT+2 US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has launched a sweeping campaign to undermine the International Criminal Court that could include further sanctions and other measures. In a video posted on X and a lengthy op-ed in the Wall Street Journal, Rubio vowed to “dismantle” the court, claiming it posed “an intolerable threat to US sovereignty.” “The ICC and its friends are waging a war against our country, not with bullets or missiles, but with statutes, compacts and the force of so-called international law,” Rubio said in the video. Rubio added that the ICC “threatens…

Heading to Portuguese beaches this summer and not sure where on the sand you’re allowed to stick your parasol? That uncertainty should end with a new map that will be placed at the entrance to beaches in the Algarve and along the Alentejo coast, showing concession, circulation and safety areas as well as free zones, to clarify where sun umbrellas can be set up. The measure was announced by the Minister for Environment and Energy, Maria da Graça Carvalho, during a visit to the headquarters of the Portuguese Environment Agency (APA), following the controversy over sun umbrellas on Portuguese beaches,…

Ask most people to name Catalonia’s greatest cultural figures, and Antoni Gaudí and Joan Miró are likely to be among the first names mentioned. Far fewer will say Joaquim Gomis. Yet without his camera, the world’s understanding of Gaudí’s architecture may have looked completely different. At a time when the radical architect’s work was still being by dismissed by parts of Barcelona’s own artistic establishment as eccentric rather than visionary, Gomis understood its significance. A photographer, modernist and close friend of Miró, he documented Gaudí’s extraordinary forms, textures and details. In doing so, he did more than preserve the architect’s…

“In Europe, whoever develops the product is responsible for its safety. Car manufacturers must make their vehicles safe. We do not expect children to design their own safety seat belts. We do not expect parents to fit airbags at home, and the very same must be true for Big Tech,” said von der Leyen. This line of thinking could put at least some aspects of child safety online into the realm of consumer protection, a set of rules the EU is also set to revamp later this year. In the U.S., it was under consumer protection provisions that multiple companies…

Updated: 14/07/2026 – 7:04 GMT+2 President Donald Trump watched an IndyCar pit stop demonstration at the White House as he promoted the inaugural Freedom 250 Grand Prix, a race set to take place around Washington’s National Mall next month. … More

Published on 14/07/2026 – 7:23 GMT+2 The increase in exports in June was much better than economists had expected. Exports rose 19.4% year-on-year in May. Imports in June surged 36%, better than May’s 27.4% year-on-year growth, with analysts attributing the expansion in part due to the Iran war driving up import costs. China recorded a trade surplus of $125.6 billion in June, widening from $105.4 billion in the previous month. “Trade values took another big leg up in June,” Julian Evans-Pritchard, head of China Economics at Capital Economics, wrote in a note Tuesday. “This predominantly reflects the recent surge in…

Former football players show higher levels of depression and anxiety and self-reported difficulties with thinking and decision-making than healthy non-players, according to new research. Early results from the study show that nearly a third of the 142 professional former players in the study had symptoms serious enough to be classed as clinical depression, compared with just 9% of the comparison group. For anxiety, 42% of players met the threshold, against 25% of non-players. “Although there were not clear differences between ex-players and non-players in standard cognitive tests, we did see significant differences in symptoms (such as anxiety and depression) reported…

Finanzminister Lars Klingbeil plant eine deutliche Erhöhung der Tabaksteuer, um das Haushaltsloch zu verkleinern und Jugendliche vom Rauchen abzuhalten. Bis zum Ende des Jahrzehnts könnte eine Schachtel 11,80 Euro kosten und dem Staat ab 2030 über 3,5 Milliarden Euro an Mehreinnahmen bringen. Gordon Repinski darüber, warum das eine der wenigen gerechtfertigten und damit sinnvollen Steuererhöhungen ist. Im 200-Sekunden-Interview äußert sich die SPD-Gesundheitspolitikerin Claudia Moll kritisch zu den Plänen. Sie bezweifelt den gesundheitlichen Lenkungseffekt der Steuer und warnt vor einem blühenden Schwarzmarkt. Zum Nationalfeiertag am 14. Juli ist Kanzler Friedrich Merz in Paris, um an der Seite von Emmanuel Macron die…

Listen on Spotify Apple Music Amazon Music Enlargement is high on the list of priorities for the Irish presidency of the Council of the EU … and Dublin is not wasting any time. On the sidelines of the EU’s General Affairs Council happening today, there will be four separate accession conferences: for Ukraine, Moldova, Albania and Montenegro — to formally mark progress in their membership bids. Ireland’s Europe Minister Thomas Byrne said it’s the largest number of accession meetings held on a single day since 2002. Next: The European Commission is undertaking its first major workplace overhaul in two decades. Piotr Serafin, the…

Published on 14/07/2026 – 5:24 GMT+2 US forces launched strikes on Iran for a third straight night early on Tuesday, as hostilities escalate despite US President Donald Trump saying a deal was “still possible”. US Central Command wrote on X that its forces “successfully struck military targets across Iran including Bushehr, Chah Bahar, Jask, Konarak, Abu Musa, and Bandar Abbas” in an operation that lasted five hours. Moments after the military announced the new strikes, Trump called it “another major attack.” “We’re hitting them very hard. And it’ll continue, and we’ll see what happens,” he told reporters in the Oval…