Author: staff

US Republicans open an extraordinary midterm convention in Dallas later on Wednesday betting that putting Donald Trump at the centre of their campaign can rescue a party facing grim election forecasts, despite the president’s deeply negative approval ratings. The two-day gathering, dubbed “Trumpapalooza,” is designed to persuade the Republican leader’s supporters that he is effectively on the ballot on 3 November, when Republicans risk losing the House of Representatives and face a fierce fight to retain the Senate. “So what I really want you to do is pretend, please, that I’m on the ballot,” Trump said recently at a rally…

Published on 09/09/2026 – 10:16 GMT+2•Updated 10:22 The front month contract on Brent crude, the international standard for oil prices, crossed $100 per barrel again on Wednesday morning while the US standard, WTI, hovered around $95. Prices have risen almost 20% since the middle of last week as fighting around the world’s most important oil chokepoint has once again intensified. It is also the first time since 23 July that oil has hit the $100 mark. US Central Command said its forces destroyed five Iranian tankers carrying crude oil on 8 September after Iran’s Revolutionary Guard fired ballistic missiles at…

Overtourism is a major problem for residents living in some of the world’s most popular destinations. Visiting in off-season, or opting to avoid the busiest neighbourhoods and sights, can help, but the best thing you can do is to just not visit these cities in the first place. That’s not to say you shouldn’t travel at all – on the contrary, you just need to choose your holiday spots wisely. Which is where Intrepid Travel’s annual “Not Hot List” comes in. First launched in 2018, the list puts the spotlight on under-the-radar alternatives and lesser-visited spots where your tourism money…

Published on 09/09/2026 – 9:18 GMT+2 Donald Trump has been busy lately, mostly focusing his energy on renaming things – specifically geographical locations. He has signed an executive order to change the name of Lake Ontario to Lake America, following previous one changing the name of the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of America. Over the weekend, he also suggested renaming the state of New Mexico as New America, and in a recent AI slop posting rampage, claimed that the Moon was American. Yes, seriously. In light of his attempts to rename a gulf, a lake, a state and…

Despite these extensive ties, AfD leaders have sought to distance themselves from the Trump administration over concerns that the U.S. president’s unpopularity in Germany could turn into an electoral liability. AfD scored a historic victory in Saxony-Anhalt’s state election on Sept. 6, winning 43.8 percent of the vote — more than twice its 2021 result. It grants the party 39 of the 83 seats in the state parliament, leaving it three seats short of an outright majority and raising the prospect of Germany’s first far-right state government since World War II. The right-wing party advocates a sharply restrictive immigration policy,…

The mass entry of around 80,000 migrants into the Spanish enclave of Ceuta from Morocco was a “hybrid attack” on an “external border of the European Union”, Spain’s former foreign minister Arancha González Laya has told Euronews. The goal was to “use migration as a tool” to “weaken” the European Union at a time when migration is a “sensitive social issue”, the former minister added. Rabat’s potential role in orchestrating the border breach has come under the spotlight after leaked police reports suggested Moroccan security forces could have played a role in facilitating the incident. Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez…

Published on 09/09/2026 – 9:16 GMT+2•Updated 9:18 Thai authorities said on Wednesday they are investigating a Bangkok clinic where a Nigerian-born British businessman and influencer underwent a penis enlargement procedure that led to his death. A coroner in London ruled last month that the 6 March death of 43-year-old Igho Ubiribo in the Thai capital was caused by the hyaluronic acid injection he received hours earlier. The case has reignited debate about medical tourism, with Thailand a leading destination for visitors from abroad seeking healthcare, including cosmetic procedures. Ubiribo, reportedly known as “Tiny” and “Ego”, had 185,000 followers on Instagram,…

September is, par excellence, the month of the grape harvest in Portugal. It is during this period that, across the country, the grape harvest comes to life and often turns into a leisurely opportunity for discovery for those who want to learn more about this age-old tradition. A practice that, in recent years, has been affected by the consequences of climate change. According to Frederico Falcão, president of ViniPortugal, the Interprofessional Organisation of Portuguese Wine, speaking to the Lusa news agency, the “greater frequency of periods of intense heat” has brought the harvest forward in several regions of the country,…

Brussels’ simplification drive has continued, with a weakening of anti-deforestation rules, watered-down 2040 climate targets, and a decision to put the brakes on the EU’s most important climate policy, the Emissions Trading System. But a European summer of extreme heatwaves, wildfires and drought, combined with renewed anxiety over dependence on foreign fossil fuels, has injected new energy into the decarbonization and environmental push.  Overall, the push to slash green rules has found a natural limit with EU legislators, where weakening the rules is acceptable, but gutting them outright is not. Protecting the environment remains embedded in Europe’s political mainstream, even…

The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, suffered another political defeat when member states torpedoed her latest initiative to set up an expert group on European defence, at a time when her diplomatic service is under growing pressure to reform. On Sunday, the European External Action Service (EEAS) cancelled, at the last minute, the launch of a new high-level group tasked with producing a report on how to boost the EU’s defence capabilities by identifying strategic investment gaps. Kallas, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, had announced the initiative just days earlier, saying it aimed…