Author: staff
The story was first reported by SIC Notícias (source in Portuguese) and reveals that the National Aeronautical Authority has requested further technical information on the MQ-9 Reaper drones that were due to arrive at Lajes air base during the week. According to the Portuguese broadcaster, clarifications have been requested from the US embassy in Lisbon regarding the aircraft’s technical specifications, the licences of the pilots who will operate them and the area designated for ditching in case of an emergency. Before heading to the Middle East, the drones are expected to arrive in the Azores in containers and then be…
Updated: 26/03/2026 – 14:16 GMT+1 A timelapse captured from MarineTraffic and OpenStreetMap over March 25–26, 2026, reveals a slowdown in tanker and cargo movements through the Strait of Hormuz. Tankers, shown in red, and cargo vessels, shown in green, moved cautiously as tensions between Iran and the United States escalated. … More
“Coolcations” are growing in popularity as holidaymakers increasingly attempt to escape the soaring temperatures and crowds in major summer destinations such as Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal. Rising incidents of extreme weather, including heat waves and wildfires in these southern European destinations, have only served to bolster this trend. Recent analysis by car rental company Sixt has revealed that travel to Scandinavia is expected to surge up to 35% in 2026, mainly driven by the ongoing popularity of coolcations. Tour operator Intrepid Travel is also seeing the growing trend. CEO James Thornton says that the company carries more than 40,000…
“As a parent, lawmaker and European, I find today‘s vote in the European Parliament hard to understand,” Home affairs Commissioner Magnus Brunner told POLITICO after the vote. The decision will leave “countless victims without visibility or protection,” he said, noting that Europe hosts the most child sexual abuse material in the world. A total of 311 lawmakers rejected the European Commission’s proposal to extend the law, with 228 voting in favor and 92 abstaining. The vote followed weeks of clashes, as national governments pushed Parliament to drop its privacy objections in order to secure a swift deal to extend the…
The European Chemicals Agency (ECHA) has taken a decisive step toward what could become one of Europe’s most far-reaching chemical regulations by supporting a wide-ranging restriction on PFAS, commonly known as “forever chemicals”. The agency is signalling a major shift from managing PFAS-related risks to phasing them out, while seeking to minimize sudden disruption of critical industries reliant on such chemicals. Pressure to adopt a comprehensive ban on PFAS stemmed from Sweden, Denmark, Germany, Norway, and the Netherlands in 2022, as the harmful effects of these chemical pollutants have become increasingly evident. PFAS, first produced in the 1940s, are used…
Published on 26/03/2026 – 12:56 GMT+1 Israel said on Thursday that it had killed Commodore Alireza Tangsiri, the head of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Navy (IRGCN). Israel’s Defence Minister Israel Katz said Tangsiri had been killed in a “precise and lethal operation” along with other senior naval commanders in an overnight strike. “The man who was directly responsible for the terrorist operation of mining and blocking the Strait of Hormuz to shipping was blown up and eliminated,” Katz claimed. Katz said Tangsiri was responsible for military operations in the key waterway that has blocked cargo ships from transiting the…
A church in the Greek village of Ropoto in Thessaly has become an attraction for tourists wishing to test their balance skills. This is because, due to subsidence, the church in question has been moved up the mountainside and has taken on a 17-degree slope, much steeper than, for example, that of the Tower of Pisa in Italy. For the last 14 years it has remained firmly in the same place. Due to subsidence in the village, the inhabitants were forced to leave in 2012. Those who have visited the church explain that it is a very surreal experience as…
A landmark social media addiction trial in California on Wednesday found Meta and YouTube negligent for designing addictive social media platforms that harmed a child, ordering them to pay $3 million in compensatory damages. In its probe into Snapchat, the EU could fine Snap, the parent company, up to 6 percent of its annual global revenue if it’s found to have breached the digital rules. Snap didn’t respond to POLITICO’s request for comment. The Commission said it will pursue multiple angles of investigation including whether the platform does enough to assess the age of its users, which Snap does through…
Millions across Europe can no longer afford safe, stable homes. The housing crisis is now front and center. It is changing lives, pushing back important milestones, and putting a strain on public budgets. The burden falls most heavily on those with the least resources. Who’s bearing the cost? People between 18 and 34 are struggling the most. Over a quarter spend more than 40 percent of their disposable income on housing, a level considered severe overburden by economists. Nearly one in four live in overcrowded conditions, and they experience housing stress at two to three times the rate of those…
The European Commission has launched an investigation to determine whether Snapchat exposed minors to grooming and criminal recruitment, potentially breaching EU digital safety laws. Snapchat is a social media platform where users share photos and videos that typically disappear after being viewed. Approximately 94.5 million Europeans had a Snapchat account in 2025, according to the company’s latest transparency report. The Commission said on Thursday that it suspects the platform might allow adults to masquerade as young users, who then contact children to recruit them for illegal activities or to exploit them sexually. “From grooming and exposure to illegal products to…