Author: staff
Published on 19/10/2026 – 15:46 GMT+2 The World Food Programme will stop monthly assistance to half a million people in Gaza because of a funding shortfall, the UN agency said on Monday. The cuts leave 1.1 million Palestinians, around half of Gaza’s population, receiving food or cash each month. Since the October 2025 ceasefire, the WFP had been reaching between 1.5 million and 1.8 million people a month. “This has been a lifeline. But now, rather than being able to sustain and scale up that assistance, we’re actually having to reduce it,” Shaun Hughes, the WFP’s country director, told AFP…
By Doloresz Katanich with AP Published on 19/10/2026 – 16:35 GMT+2•Updated 16:40 Elon Musk on Monday pledged to give one of his own SpaceX shares to “every kid in America” next year. The offer came a day after artificial intelligence company Anthropic announced in a social media post that it would commit 5% of its shares to a new “public benefit” fund, subject to shareholder approval. In a response to that Sunday post, Musk wrote, “I recommend giving the shares directly to the public.” Shares of SpaceX, which will report its quarterly earnings on Tuesday, closed at $146.03 (€130.09) on Friday. With approximately…
Published on 19/10/2026 – 16:27 GMT+2 Norway is set to introduce a social media ban for children under 16, with the government announcing on Monday that it is finalising legislation to be submitted to parliament by the end of the year. The proposed restrictions will also cover potentially harmful online games and messaging services, beyond conventional social media platforms, the government said in a statement. TikTok, Snapchat and Roblox, a popular online gaming platform where users can create and play games while interacting with others, would likely fall under the proposed law. “Children’s safety must come first,” said Lene Vågslid,…
Those announcements came after an emergency meeting at the French interior ministry following scenes of widespread chaos that played out across France on Saturday. While President Emmanuel Macron attempted to reassure a worried public with a primetime address Sunday night, the speech was widely panned across the political spectrum as insufficient. Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez submitted his resignation in the aftermath of the weekend’s unrest, but Macron refused to accept it. The government is now scrambling to bat down allegations that it has mismanaged the affair and stop it from snowballing into a sustained movement like the Yellow Jackets of…
Published on 19/10/2026 – 16:13 GMT+2•Updated 16:14 Slovakia and Hungary called on Brussels on Monday for greater flexibility in phasing out Russian gas, arguing that their landlocked position and reliance on existing supply routes make diversification more difficult and costly. Bratislava said it had historically served as an entry point for Russian oil and gas but now risks becoming the end of the line, alongside Hungary, as Russian energy supplies to Central Europe are due to end in 2027 under the EU’s plan to phase out imports from Moscow. “We would like to discuss with the European Commission how the…
Protesters blocked the entrances to the Louvre museum in Paris on Monday, following a weekend of demonstrations over the cost of living that escalated into violence and looting in several French cities. A sign on the museum gates read “Entrance closed”, while demonstrators handed out leaflets and spoke to passers-by about their action. The Louvre protest was linked to a wider movement initially led by high school students, but the weekend unrest extended beyond student demonstrations. A first-year student at the École du Louvre said the action aimed to bring the cultural sector into the movement, citing budget cuts and…
The eurozone’s second-largest economy saw its bond yields rise further on Monday, following violent street demonstrations in the country over the weekend. France’s 10-year government bond yield hovered around 4.9% on Monday, near its highest level in more than two decades, as investors demanded a higher premium for holding French debt. Protesters are demanding action on the rising cost of living and declining public services, including education. The unrest adds to pressure on the government as it battles to get its 2027 budget through a deeply divided National Assembly, the lower house of France’s parliament. The immediate challenge is to…
By Theo Farrant & AP Published on 19/10/2026 – 13:09 GMT+2 Could the iconic design of one of Hollywood’s most coveted awards owe a debt to an ancient Egyptian god? A 2,700-year-old bronze figure of Ptah, the Egyptian creator god and master architect, has drawn attention at Frieze Masters in London, where an antiquities dealer has uncovered a possible link between the sculpture and the design of the Oscar statuette. The figure was once owned by newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, a friend of Cedric Gibbons, the art director who designed the Oscar statuette in 1928. Antiquities dealer Rupert Wace says he discovered…
LONDON — The British and Polish governments have criticized U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, after he appeared to downplay the role fellow NATO members played in the Afghanistan war. No.10 Downing Street joined Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski in pushing back at Hegseth, who told an audience at the University of Tennessee over the weekend that few NATO allies were “actually involved in kinetic operations.” “I was a captain in Afghanistan and we would go to the headquarters in Kabul and there would be 50 flags at the headquarters,” Hegseth recalled. “It was a beautiful thing to see, 50 different…
Published on 19/10/2026 – 15:09 GMT+2 Preparations are under way to hold a European Council summit in Rome in March 2027 to mark the 70th anniversary of the Treaties of Rome, amid speculation over an early election in Italy. It would be the first time an anniversary celebration has been combined with a formal European Council summit held outside Brussels. EU leaders’ summits are normally held in Brussels. In exceptional circumstances, European Council President António Costa can propose another venue, provided all member states agree unanimously. “President Costa has put forward the idea to organise a formal European Council in…