Author: staff
Dick Cheney, the conservative who became one of the most powerful and polarising vice presidents in US history and a leading advocate for the invasion of Iraq, has died at the age of 84. The quietly forceful Cheney served father and son presidents, leading the armed forces as defence chief during the Persian Gulf War under President George H W Bush before returning to public life as vice president under Bush’s son, George W Bush. Cheney was, in effect, the chief operating officer of the younger Bush’s presidency. He had a hand, often a commanding one, in implementing decisions most…
Russia contributes only about one percent of global rare earth production despite possessing vast reserves. According to the Kremlin’s estimate, the country holds reserves of 15 rare earth metals totaling 28.5 million tons. China currently dominates the market, producing about two-thirds of the world’s supply and accounting for almost half of the EU’s imports. Although the EU has sought to diversify its sources, mining and processing rare earths is complex and costly, leaving the bloc heavily dependent on Beijing. Antonia Zimmermann contributed to this report.
Typhoon Kalmaegi battered the central Philippines on Monday, leaving at least two people dead and displacing tens of thousands. The storm, with winds reaching 140 km/h and gusts up to 195 km/h, caused flash floods, power outages, and damage to hundreds of homes across several provinces. Authorities reported widespread flooding in Southern Leyte and Bacolod. Kalmaegi, the country’s 20th storm this year, is expected to move toward the South China Sea by Wednesday.
Published on 04/11/2025 – 11:08 GMT+1 Roll your eyes all you want, but at this point, you should probably just embrace it and juggle your hands in the air… because Dictionary.com’s Word of the Year is the viral term “6-7” – also spelled “67”, “Six-seven” and usually blurted out as “six SEVEN!” Unless you’re part of Generation Alpha, a younger member of Gen-Z or just perpetually online, the random shouting out of these two numbers probably doesn’t make any sense to you… And nor should it. There’s no sense to be found in this trend – as we explained in…
EPSO’s bid to modernize recruitment with fewer, faster digital tests suffered repeated technical glitches — prompting a French prospective EU staffer to complain to the Parliament, citing issues such as translation errors introduced by AI. In response, the Parliament drew up a resolution calling out EPSO and urging it to conduct internal reform, stressing “the urgent need to restore the integrity, transparency, accountability and predictability of EPSO selection procedures in order to repair the reputational damage done to the EU institutions.” Now that the Petitions Committee has voted on the resolution, it will be ratified at a plenary session of…
Falsified claims, fabricated quotes, and inaccurate reporting can destroy a journalist’s credibility and, for some, even their career. But what happens when a journalist finds their name and photo on a story they never even wrote? This is becoming an increasingly common occurrence, as part of campaigns orchestrated by pro-Russian disinformation actors — some of which fit into the Storm-1516 operation, a Russian propagandist group that spreads false narratives about Ukraine and the West online. As part of this strategy, the work of legitimate news outlets — from Euronews to the BBC and ABC News — is impersonated, while journalists’…
Published on 04/11/2025 – 11:19 GMT+1 A Romanian worker has died after being trapped for hours when part of a medieval tower collapsed near the Colosseum in central Rome, authorities said on Tuesday. Part of the Torre dei Conti collapsed on Monday morning during renovation work near the Imperial Forums. It had been abandoned for years before the current works began. Octav Stroici, 66, was pulled free from the rubble by firefighters on Monday night — about 12 hours later — and immediately rushed to hospital. Yet Stroici’s heart stopped while he was in the ambulance and he was declared…
By Tokunbo Salako & Anders Garde Kongshaug & Jakub Dutkiewicz Published on 04/11/2025 – 9:14 GMT+1 ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’ goes the old saying which might explain why Aqua, the world famous Danish-Norwegian europop band, are the latest 90’s act to decide to put their colourful life and times on the stage. Aqua’s Barbie Girl is without a doubt one of the definitive pop anthems of the late 90s and the early 2000s. And just like plastic, the song was absolutely everywhere. The song’s aesthetic captures the era in all of its colourful ‘kitschness.’ The lyrics, an ode to senseless…
Like Reform, Polanski’s team has so far tried to paint in populist, primary colors. His first party political broadcast — a convention by which parties are given guaranteed five-minute TV slots — was filmed in the early hours as a metaphor about billionaires sleeping comfortably while others struggle. “Both were efforts to visualize things that you can’t see and to consciously make them as simple as possible,” Clancy says. Those short videos racked up millions of views. Whether this translates into electoral success, however, remains a wide open question. Next May’s local elections will offer the first real ballot box test…
The European Union’s population will shrink by one-third by the end of the century without migration, losing the equivalent of 1 million workers annually in the next 25 years as Italy and Spain face looming population collapse, latest data shows. According to Eurostat’s official projections, the EU’s population will shrink by around 9% by 2050 compared with 2025 if migration ceases entirely. The decline is forecast to continue in the following decades, reaching 23% by 2075 and 34% by 2100. Labour shortages are a key aspect of demographic change. According to Peter Bosch, senior research associate at the Egmont Institute,…