Author: staff

The Czech justice ministry should not have accepted a gift that showed significant signs it could be tied to criminal activity, an external audit found.The €40 million bitcoin donation to the ministry from a convicted drug dealer rocked Czech politics in June and triggered the resignation of then-Justice Minister Pavel Blažek, who comes from Prime Minister Petr Fiala’s conservative Civic Democratic Party (ODS). The ministry auctioned off the gift in exchange for cash in a public sale, bringing in tens of millions of euros for the government.“Prior to accepting the donation, the Ministry of Justice was aware of relevant circumstances indicating a…

Warning: This article refers to practices and contains language which some readers may find offensive. A new documentary came out this week in the UK, titled 1000 Men and Me: The Bonnie Blue Story.   Airing on Channel 4, the new film has caused quite the stir among viewers who were shocked to discover all about Blue and her story.  For those with scrupulously clean internet histories, Bonnie Blue – real name Tia Billinger – is a 26-year-old British pornographic actress who made headlines earlier this year when she claimed to have had sex with 1,057 men in a single…

You may have read reports about an interstellar object hurtling through your solar system. Well, that’s where I work with my fellow alien explorers, on board 3I/ATLAS. I know, I know, it’s a rubbish name. We wanted to call it Spacey McSpaceface but we couldn’t get approval from the Space Council in time. The leader of the planet 55 Cancri e is a skeptic, a bit like your Viktor Orbán but with three heads, and wouldn’t sign off on the name change. I digress. My name is Martin and I’m an alien. And my colleagues were planning to invade Earth around…

Portuguese authorities evacuated dozens of residents from two villages Friday as wildfires injured at least 19 people and threatened homes across three districts, with more than 1,800 firefighters deployed nationwide. The blaze in Ponte da Barca remains the most concerning hotspot, with dozens of people being evacuated from their homes in rural areas of Sobredo and Paradela. In Ponte da Barca’s district of Viano do Castelo, some 622 firefighters, 214 ground crews and one aerial vehicle were battling the blaze on Friday. Overnight, around 60 people had to leave their homes in Viano do Castelo due to the proximity of…

Professional WWE wrestler and 90s pop culture icon Hulk Hogan’s death last week was caused by a heart attack, according to a Florida medical examiner’s report.  Hogan, 71, whose real name was Terry Bollea, previously had leukemia and atrial fibrillation, an irregular heart rhythm, the report from the District Six Medical Examiner said. To honour the “Hulkster,” US Gov. Ron DeSantis has said that flags will be flown at half-staff at all official buildings today, which he declared “Hulk Hogan Day in Florida.” “He was a true Floridian through and through,” the Republican governor wrote in a memo Thursday. Hogan was pronounced dead…

A French Commission veteran with scars from the eurozone crisis, Brexit and the EU’s pandemic recovery, Riso has quietly become one of the bloc’s most influential — and polarizing — civil servants. At 49 she’s heading up the mother of all assignments: steering the EU’s next budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), away from farmers’ subsidies and regional payouts toward more modern pan-European industrial projects. Now that the budget draft, with Riso’s fingerprints all over it, has been published, it will shuttle between capitals and the European Parliament as a final version is nailed down. It’s a gargantuan task. In…

Monti said the government may ultimately revert to traditional power plant designs, even though these have incurred huge cost overruns in Europe in recent years. It may also be the case, he added, that the energy source will need to be subsidized for a while. Still, Monti said, nuclear energy was financially competitive with solar and wind energy when considering the additional infrastructure, such as batteries, needed to make renewables sufficiently reliable to power the grid. Michele Governatori, an academic and a member of climate think tank Ecco, said he didn’t think there would ultimately be any return to nuclear,…

LONDON — Rachel Reeves needs Britain’s savers to feel richer. But she’s got a job on her hands convincing them to actually back U.K. companies. In the next year, an advertising blitz launched by the U.K.’s top finance minister will hit screens extolling the benefits of investing in stocks and shares. But an idea that originally looked set to give the ailing London Stock Exchange a much-needed boost could now end up sending more cash out of the country. “It’s first and foremost encouraging people to learn more about investing on their own, as opposed to this being a solution…

Von Paternoster zu Paternoster, vom Springer-Hochhaus ins Auswärtige Amt: Außenminister Johann Wadephul im Spaziergang-Interview mit Gordon Repinski. Kurz vor seiner Reise nach Israel hat er über rote Linien gegenüber der Regierung Netanjahu gesprochen, die Lage in Gaza und die Hoffnung auf eine Waffenruhe.Wadephul spricht außerdem darüber, wie die Zusammenarbeit mit US-Außenminister Marco Rubio funktioniert, das neue Interesse von Ländern wie Island oder Norwegen an einer EU-Mitgliedschaft und die Atomverhandlungen mit dem Iran.Und: Der Minister erklärt sein Verhältnis zu Kanzler Friedrich Merz, seine Abgrenzung zur feministischen Außenpolitik seiner Vorgängerin Annalena Baerbock – und sein Büro, in dem einst Erich Honecker saß.…

“The way through [local opposition] is to have a couple of test wells for a couple [of] years,” Tice said, “using different extraction techniques, under independent supervision and monitoring, so that one can show to people it can be done safely. I think that is the way through it.  “And, cards on the table — if you do a couple of test wells and, in a sense, for whatever reason, it doesn’t work out, then my hands are up, and I’ll say: ‘It was the right strategy to try, it doesn’t work, but at least we’ve tried and we know.’ …