Author: staff

1) Energy stole the show right out of the gate The summit’s first major clash came Thursday morning, with EU leaders split over whether to delay ETS2, the bloc’s second phase of carbon pricing, to address high energy prices, triggering a three-hour-long standoff. Italy and Greece joined the Visegrád Four — Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia — in calling for a delay, a push rejected by the majority of countries. The debate dragged on, delaying lunch (spare a thought for our hungry leaders!) and leading to the cancellation of a press conference on Thursday night. 2) Budget negotiations are a…

The world’s official time standard will stop adding leap seconds from 20 May 2027. The General Conference on Weights and Measures (CGPM) decided to end the practice on Thursday 15 October 2026. The resolution was adopted at the conference’s 28th meeting in Versailles, where delegates discussed the future of world time. Until now, leap seconds have been added from time to time to keep atomic time in line with the Earth’s rotation. But from 20 May 2027, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC) will run continuously, with no interruptions. Why the leap second is being scrapped The old rules were meant to…

Thousands of pumpkins have transformed the grounds of Groot-Bijgaarden Castle near Brussels into a colourful autumn wonderland for the annual Pumpkimania festival. This year’s theme, “The Magic of the Forest”, features towering sculptures of foxes, owls and deer covered in pumpkins of every shape and size, sourced from Belgium, Germany and Portugal. The star attraction is a giant pumpkin weighing 772 kilograms, grown for the castle’s traditional weigh-off on 26 September. Visitors can also watch giant pumpkins being turned into makeshift kayaks for rides across the castle lake. Organisers expect around 50,000 visitors before the festival closes on 1 November.…

Ireland’s lucrative tech sector has been rattled by waves of AI-driven layoffs — and the country’s fledgling tech union has seen an exponential spike in sign-ups from workers who are worried about their future.   There’s an “awakening” happening right now among workers in Ireland’s tech sector, and a growing “awareness that they’re not bulletproof,” said Sinéad Gibney, a social democrat lawmaker who previously worked for Google.   “I do think what we will see is that parts of roles will be automated, which means that people will be competing more heavily for the same roles,” she said. “They won’t have…

Published on 16/10/2026 – 13:14 GMT+2 Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen called on the European Commission to scrutinise Spain’s plan to legalise the status of 600,000 irregular migrants, directly challenging Madrid’s migration policy during the EU leaders’ summit. “I have asked the European Commission to examine what happens when a country does almost the exact opposite of what the rest of us are doing,” Frederiksen said on Friday at the start of the summit’s second day. Her comments put her at odds with Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, despite both leaders belonging to the same broad Socialist political family, which…

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The EPPO did not immediately respond to a request for comment. “The EESC was informed by OLAF yesterday that this case has been transmitted to the EPPO,” an EESC spokesperson told POLITICO. “Under these circumstances, the EESC cannot comment further except to re-confirm that when these matters first arose, the EESC president immediately and proactively referred the allegations to OLAF. The EESC will continue to respect fully the independence of this process.” Séamus Boland of Ireland was elected president in October 2025. “The EESC and its senior leadership take this matter very seriously and remain fully committed to integrity, transparency…

Published on 16/10/2026 – 16:41 GMT+2 Pope Leo XIV celebrated Mass at Rome’s Gemelli Hospital at noon on Friday after medical tests confirmed that his condition continues to improve following lung cancer surgery, according to the Vatican. “His post-operative recovery allows him to carry out his normal daily activities completely on his own,” said a medical update signed by Leo’s personal physician Dr. Luigi Carbone and the head of thoracic surgery at Gemelli hospital, Dr. Stefano Margaritora. The service was attended by off-duty medical and nursing staff, as well as members of the Vatican City State’s Gendarmerie Corps. During his…

When it rains, Abdullah Siyam moves his family’s bedding to the one corner of his house in Al-Mughraqa, in central Gaza, where water does not seep through the roof. Bombardment that struck neighbouring homes left cracks in the ceiling, and the family has no alternative. “We move our mattresses there and sleep. That is the solution,” he told Euronews. More than 4,000 damaged buildings in Gaza need to be fully or partially demolished, including more than 2,300 still inhabited by nearly 44,000 people, according to preliminary estimates cited in this month’s report by the UN’s Office for the Coordination of…

Uzbekistan has signed six energy agreements worth $4.7bn (€4.19bn) and announced plans for two more nuclear power plants, as President Shavkat Mirziyoyev seeks to attract foreign investment and meet rising demand from industry and data centres. The agreements, signed during talks in Tashkent on Friday, cover 3,000 megawatts (MW) of new generating capacity and 400 MW of energy storage, according to the presidency. Companies named in a project list obtained by Euronews include Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power and Saudi Tabreed, the UAE’s AMEA Power, Japan’s Toyota Tsusho and Sojitz, France’s EDF, Qatar’s Nebras Power, StorEn and CRE International. A new…