Author: staff

Published on 14/01/2026 – 15:47 GMT+1 Marking a shift in the competitive landscape of commercial aviation, Boeing reported a significant rebound in 2025. The firm achieved its highest annual aircraft delivery total since 2018, outselling European rival Airbus in new aircraft orders for the first time in seven years. According to a company press release, Boeing delivered 600 commercial aeroplanes during the year, a sharp increase from previous annual figures, with 63 jets delivered in December alone. The tally reflects ongoing progress in ramping up production after years of operational challenges. Boeing has had to dial down output over the…

Published on 14/01/2026 – 16:03 GMT+1 •Updated 16:26 Ice from France’s iconic Mont Blanc and a slice of Switzerland’s Grand Combin glacier have become the first ever samples to be stashed away in a unique Antarctic archive, known as the Ice Memory Sanctuary. This human-made cavern of ice near the Franco-Italian Concordia research base on the high Antarctic plateau was inaugurated on 14 January. The first two ice cores travelled in -20°C containers all the way from Europe to the near southernmost spot of the planet, and will now lie in the ice cave nine metres below the surface as…

Iran is now in its sixth day of a sweeping, nationwide internet blackout that leaves millions effectively cut off from the outside world. With nearly all of the country’s internet traffic funnelled through a single government-controlled choke point, authorities were able to shut down digital communications almost instantly using an automated “kill switch,” said the director of the internet watchdog NetBlocks, Alp Toker. As conventional networks are offline, Elon Musk’s satellite internet service, Starlink, is one of the few remaining ways for Iranians to get online, despite a nationwide ban on satellite internet providers, enacted after last year’s Twelve-Day-War with…

Bagging the win: The Tory leader welcomed the “rubbish policy” getting put on the scrapheap, though crowed that the change of heart came just after Health Secretary Wes Streeting urged ministers to “try to get it right first time.” Awks. In response, the PM reiterated his determination to “make it harder for people to work illegally,” and said there would still be mandatory digital checks. Hmm … Grab the sick bags: The PM attempted to divert attention by making queasy political analogies. Highlighting the number of PMs, chancellors and housing ministers under the last Tory government, Starmer said “they had…

Iran’s violent crackdown on protesters has reignited a long-running debate within the European Union over designating the Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) — widely seen as a key force behind the repression — as a terrorist organisation. Placing the most powerful branch of Iran’s armed forces on the EU’s terrorist list would put the IRGC alongside groups such as Daesh, al-Qaeda, Hamas and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad. A terrorist group designation would subject its members to travel bans, asset freezes and “a prohibition on making funds or economic resources available to those listed”, according to rules established by the…

Once the legal text is agreed, the EU will raise joint debt to finance the initiative, although the governments in the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia said they will not participate in the funding drive.  The conditions on military spending are splitting EU countries. Paris is demanding strict rules to prevent money from flowing to U.S. weapons manufacturers, while Germany and other Northern European countries want to give Ukraine greater flexibility on how to spend the cash, pointing out that some key systems needed by Ukraine aren’t manufactured in Europe. Meeting halfway The Commission has put forward a compromise proposal — seen by…

The European Commission on Wednesday put forward its legal proposal to provide Ukraine with a €90 billion loan, calling on the European Parliament and member states to approve it swiftly so Kyiv can start receiving the money it desperately needs in early April. Under the proposal, the money would cover Ukraine’s financial needs for the next two years, with roughly €60 billion earmarked for military spending and the remaining €30 billion intended to support Ukraine’s overstretched national budget. “We are aware of Ukraine’s both sizeable and urgent financing needs. That’s why we are aiming indeed to start with disbursing in…

Published on 14/01/2026 – 13:10 GMT+1 Iran’s chief coroner has laid the blame for the deaths of demonstrators in Iran on what he said were “terrorists,” claiming forensic examinations revealed victims whose “throats had been slit” and others shot at close range with hunting shotguns. Detailing a series of killings during a Supreme Judicial Council meeting, Abbas Masjedi-Arani, head of Iran’s Legal Medicine Organisation, said a large number of victims were killed with knives and double-barrelled shotguns. “The shotgun blasts were fired at such close range to the neck that the plastic wads from the cartridges remained lodged in the…

Now a date has finally been set for Jan. 27, according to officials. The head of Shein’s Business Integrity Group for Greater Europe, Yinan Zhu, will appear before the committee. “Shein finally answers to EU lawmakers and will appear before the IMCO Committee after I had several email exchanges with them,” said the committee’s chair, German Green MEP Anna Cavazzini. In a letter seen by POLITICO, Zhu confirmed his attendance and asked for a separate meeting with the committee chair. Zhu said he wants to discuss in detail the measures that the company is putting in place to address lawmakers’…

Former Ukrainian Premier Yulia Tymoshenko was charged with offering bribes to lawmakers following an investigation and a raid by the country’s anti-corruption bodies, authorities revealed on Wednesday. Ukraine’s National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialised Anti-Corruption Prosecutor’s Office (SAPO) reportedly raided the offices of a political party on Tuesday evening. It was later reported that the searches took place at the Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party headquarters, which is led by Tymoshenko. Tymoshenko confirmed the news of the raid on Wednesday morning and rejected all allegations against her, calling them “absurd”. NABU and SAPO issued a statement saying that they have notified…