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By Irina Aleksandrova Published on 23/07/2026 – 10:28 GMT+2•Updated 10:29 Russia’s parliament passed a law on Wednesday that will strip the property rights, bank accounts and consular services of Russians living abroad who face prosecution at home on political grounds, in measures lawyers say amount to the de facto revocation of citizenship. The State Duma approved the bill in its second and third readings simultaneously. State Duma Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin made no effort to obscure who the law was aimed at. “We are talking about those who harm our country,” he said before the vote. “About extremists, traitors to our homeland.…
Hollywood star Zendaya has come under fire for wearing 3,000-year-old Iranian gold artefacts as earrings at a London photocall for Christopher Nolan’s film The Odyssey, which some critics have called a misappropriation of one of the ancient world’s most significant collections of objects. The earrings — gold disc medallions dating to the first millennium BCE and attributed to the Ziwiyeh hoard, a collection discovered in northwest Iran in the late 1940s — were remounted with diamonds and 18-karat gold by London jeweller Glenn Spiro as part of his Materials of the Old World series. They are owned by Barron London,…
The agreement resolves a dispute over shipping Russian gas to third countries and freezes the bloc’s price cap on Russian crude oil for 12 months. Listen AI generated Text-to-speech
The European Union has agreed to impose a new round of sanctions against Russia, following chaotic negotiations that threatened to put the entire package at risk. Greece, whose veto had until now prevented a deal, secured an exemption to continue shipping Russian LNG to non-EU clients for the foreseeable future. It marks the 21st sanctions package since February 2022. The agreement, reached on Thursday by ambassadors, is considerably watered down and raises serious questions about the influence of national economic interests in the yearslong campaign to cripple Moscow’s ability to finance the invasion of Ukraine. Still, the bloc managed to…
Divers from Italy’s police, navy and emergency services carried out the annual cleaning of the Christ of the Abyss statue off the coast of San Fruttuoso, Liguria. Placed on the seabed in 1954, the 2.5-metre statue was created by sculptor Guido Galletti as a memorial to those who lost their lives at sea. Made from melted-down metals from medals, cannons and ships, it has become a symbol of remembrance in Italy. The cleaning operation is coordinated by the Liguria Superintendence of Archaeology, Fine Arts and Landscape, with divers using pressurised water to protect the bronze surface.
Travellers eyeing adventures on two wheels in central Spain should add exploring Castilla La-Mancha to their bucket list. A newly launched cycling network, which has a route spanning 2,180 kilometres, is offering visitors a new way to explore the region by bike. The Rural Bike Conecta CLM, backed by investment from the European Next Generation funds to the tune of €2.4 million, unfolds across 168 municipalities within the autonomous region. More than 3,200 signposts have been installed along the way, with the route journeying through provincial capitals as well as rural enclaves. Patricia Franco, Castilla-La Mancha’s regional minister of economy,…
Published on 23/07/2026 – 9:13 GMT+2 It’s a small detail that has rubbed Ryan Gosling up the wrong way for a decade. Now, the La La Hand saga finally comes to an end… Damien Chazelle’s La La Land is set to return to cinemas to mark its tenth anniversary next month. It starred Gosling and Emma Stone as a couple who meet and fall in love while pursuing their dreams in Los Angeles. Stone won the Oscar for Best Actress and Chazelle won Best Director at the 2017 ceremony, and the film was infamously announced as the winner of Best…
The latest policy announcement from Burnham’s new government is a 20% tax break for pubs, clubs and live music venues. That means pubs could save an estimated £1,100 a year. Sam Coates and Anne McElvoy delve into the details and again ask, how will this be funded? The two also discuss Burnham’s communication style and if it might need more discipline now that he’s in No.10. This is in light of the new PM’s comments on a potential review of early prison release in England and Wales. The Foreign Office has withdrawn its remaining UK staff from Iran as Donald…
Published on 23/07/2026 – 8:00 GMT+2•Updated 8:39 On today’s show: Europe Today’s anchor Mared Gwyn interviews Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs about NATO, European security and the alliance’s future. Shona Murray reports on what a meeting between US Secretary of State Marco Rubio with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov could mean for peace in Ukraine, and speaks to Colonel Martin O’Donnell, NATO’s senior military adviser. Luca Bertuzzi explains why the EU is set to fine Google for breaching the bloc’s Digital Markets Act (DMA). We also speak to Germany’s Minister of State for Europe, Gunther Krichbaum, about EU enlargement and…
On Tuesday morning, the official launch ceremony for Google’s Nuvem transatlantic submarine cable system took place at Lisbon’s Oceanarium. The project represents a new investment which, as Minister Delegate for State Reform Gonçalo Matias said in his speech at the event, aims to link “North America and Europe along a new digital corridor that crosses the Atlantic”. At a time when “around 95% of all the world’s data travels through submarine cables”, the minister explained, Portugal is stepping up to become one of the main players in a project that will be the first to connect the country directly to…