Author: staff

Civil defence teams are still searching the rubble for survivors, while rescuers use heavy machinery to clear the debris. The bodies of children and other victims have been recovered, but dozens of people remain missing. The building, in the Tal al-Hawa area of western Gaza City, was damaged in strikes early in the war and was already cracked when displaced families moved in. Civil defence spokesperson Mahmoud Basal said crews received a report of the collapse at around 2:15 to 3 am local time and immediately began rescuing people trapped inside. He said residents were aware of the danger but…

They are pressuring Ireland, in its position at the helm of the six-month rotating presidency of the Council of the EU, which is steering the talks, to cut hundreds of billions of euros in their next negotiating document due in October. Officials involved in the negotiations who spoke to POLITICO and were granted anonymity because the discussions are confidential see more moderate cuts as the most likely outcome. Debt time bomb The EU’s seven-year budget, the multiannual financial framework, which governs EU spending from farmers’ subsidies to student exchange programs, is the subject of some of the fiercest negotiations in…

The internationally backed Kosovo court’s verdict sentencing former President Hashim Thaçi to 25 years in prison for war crimes sparked shock and anger among most Kosovars on Wednesday. Judges of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague found Thaçi and three other former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) leaders guilty of illegal arrests, torture, murder and cruel treatment during the 1998-1999 war for independence from Serbia. But among many Kosovo Albanians, Thaçi and his co-defendants are still widely lauded as heroes of the independence movement — and their simmering anger threatened to escalate into wholesale riots. In Prishtina, a crowd of…

The old global order is breaking down. Ursula von der Leyen thinks Europe may have to start building something new around it. In her State of the European Union speech, she floated closer ties with Canada — even “associate membership” — and a new European Security Council, as Europe looks for new ways to work with like-minded powers in an increasingly chaotic world. But both ideas immediately raised questions about whether von der Leyen was getting ahead of her own allies. Host Sarah Wheaton is joined by POLITICO Executive Editor Carrie Budoff Brown, senior EU climate reporter Zia Weise and…

Published on 17/09/2026 – 11:43 GMT+2•Updated 12:07 The Palestinian Authority on Thursday sharply criticised a decision by the United States to deny visas to its officials ahead of next week’s UN General Assembly in New York, a measure that also affects its president Mahmoud Abbas. In a statement, the Palestinian foreign ministry called it “an unjustified measure that runs counter to efforts to rebuild trust, develop Palestinian–US relations, and create the necessary political climate for implementing the two-state solution and achieving peace and stability”. The decision marks the second consecutive year in which Abbas has been prevented from traveling to…

A new European Security Council, an emergency protocol and a new strategic enabler initiative: in her State of the Union speech on Wednesday, Commission President Ursula von der Leyen laid out a new security architecture for Europe. But several question marks still hang over it. With the war in Ukraine increasingly spilling over into Europe’s eastern flank and Russia intensifying its campaign of sabotage attacks and drone incursions, security and defence took centre stage in von der Leyen’s annual address. “We already have many tools. And we are strengthening our work with NATO. But our doctrine, our institutions and our…

American rapper Macklemore has said he will donate his $1million (€871,000) net earnings from Ed Sheeran’s tour to organisations supporting the Palestinian people. The rapper, who has been dropped from the tour for making pro-Palestinian remarks on stage, has challenged Jewish billionaire Robert Kraft to match his donation. “I will be donating the entire $1 million of my net earnings from Ed Sheeran’s Loop Tour to six organizations working directly to support the Palestinian people,” wrote Macklemore. “And I invite Robert Kraft to match my donation. Whatever we disagree about, perhaps we can agree on this: Palestinian lives are worth…

Expectations are high after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Wednesday offered to create a tailor-made status of “associate EU membership” for Canada, and pitched closer collaboration on tech, energy and defence (if you missed von der Leyen’s landmark annual speech, here are our five takeaways). Trump strikes back: The announcement has already created ripples across the Atlantic, with US President Donald Trump overnight describing the invite as “hostile” and “laughable”, threatening “very serious tariffs” or to even “stop trading with Europe”. It’s a nightmare scenario for Brussels. The bloc has been treading carefully in its rapprochement with…

Every missile and drone strike on the UAE during the Iran war was matched by a cyberattack on the same target, the head of the UAE Cybersecurity Council told Euronews on Wednesday. In an interview at the Arab Media Summit in Dubai, Dr Mohamed Al Kuwaiti said the strikes and cyberattacks went hand in hand and that the mix of methods used against the UAE was, to his knowledge, unmatched anywhere. “Whenever we see a kinetic attack on any of the ports or on any refineries or the airport, there is always a cyberattack towards many of those entities,” he…

By the end of 2026, every EU country must legally offer citizens a European Digital Identity Wallet. This smartphone app holds a person’s government ID, driving licence, diploma, and other verified documents in one place and is designed to work across all 27 EU countries. Digital rights groups warn the technology and the safeguards meant to protect it are not ready and that the wallet could become exactly the kind of surveillance tool it was designed to prevent. “We are at maybe 50-60% of the technical standards that are needed to build this wallet,” says Thomas Lohninger, executive director of…