Author: staff

Published on 07/07/2026 – 9:00 GMT+2•Updated 15:46 As the holiday season peaks, the grand vision of smart EU borders has collided with a physical breakdown, risking the travel plans of millions. Welcome to the premium queuing experience. The automated network is now live across 29 European nations. And since the rollout, the digital net caught 40,000 border refusals and identified 1,000 security risks. To Brussels, these figures prove the database works by instantly flagging visa overstayers and fake documents. But here goes a problem: biometric collection is triggering a systemic operational crisis. Industry lobbies report waiting times at border control…

PARIS — Marine Le Pen’s muted legal victory Tuesday leaves the far-right leader battered and bruised, but it also burnishes her reputation as France’s ultimate political survivor. In an unexpected verdict, a three-judge panel upheld her conviction for embezzlement but reduced her five-year ban on running for office. The judges also sentenced her to a year of house arrest, which she said on Tuesday evening she would appeal. Le Pen’s announcement Tuesday that she will stand as her party’s candidate in next year’s presidential election anyway means Jordan Bardella, the 30-year-old protégé she had said would replace her, will now…

Uruguay’s Foreign Minister, Mario Lubetkin, has urged the European Union to seize what he calls a historic opportunity by completing the ratification of the EU-Mercosur trade agreement, warning that Europe risks ceding influence in Latin America to China and other global powers if the deal stalls. Speaking to Euronews during a visit to Brussels, Lubetkin, whose country has just assumed the rotating presidency of Mercosur, described the agreement as a “quality change” in relations between Europe and South America and insisted that the bloc has already fulfilled its part of the bargain. “The four Mercosur countries ratified the agreement in…

Published on 07/07/2026 – 9:00 GMT+2•Updated 15:17 Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi said there can be no lasting peace or stability in the Middle East without an independent Palestinian state as he inaugurated Egypt’s new Strategic Command Headquarters in the New Administrative Capital. Speaking at the ceremony, el-Sisi said on Saturday that normalising Egypt’s ties with Israel depends on Israel ending the occupation of Palestinian territories. According to el-Sisi, a comprehensive and just peace remained the only way to end decades of conflict, calling for the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with East Jerusalem as its capital, in line…

The IOC stressed that its position on Russia’s invasion “remains unchanged,” adding that it “strongly condemns” the war and “stands in solidarity with the Olympic community of Ukraine.” It also said it would continue monitoring Russia’s compliance and “reserves the right to take any further measures if deemed necessary.” The decision comes after Ukraine’s Paralympic team boycotted the opening ceremony of the Milan-Cortina Games in February, protesting the inclusion of Russian and Belarusian athletes under their national flags — a move Ukraine’s Paralympic Committee described as “cynical.” Russia’s sports minister, Mikhail Degtyarev, wrote on Telegram that the IOC sent a…

Published on 07/07/2026 – 20:03 GMT+2 The UK High Court dismissed Prince Harry’s privacy case against Associated Newspapers, the publisher of the Daily Mail newspaper, on Tuesday. Harry and six others – including singer Elton John – had brought the case against the publisher, with each of them alleging that they had been the victims of unlawful information gathering for articles. They accused Associated, which has denied any wrongdoing, of obtaining private and confidential information through techniques such as phone hacking and the use of private investigators. In a written judgement published on Tuesday, Mr Justice Nicklin said the claimants…

Dozens of Tibetan Youth Congress activists protested outside the Chinese Embassy in New Delhi on 7 July, calling for a ‘Free Tibet’ and condemning Chinese rule in the region. The footage shows demonstrators carrying placards bearing the image of Tibetan activist Rangzen Lobga, chanting slogans and trying to approach the embassy before police detained them. Officers carried protesters to waiting buses while others continued shouting slogans from the windows after their detention. The demonstration followed the death of Rangzen Lobga, who self-immolated outside the United Nations headquarters in New York City on 2 July.

In the space of just 12 months, Morocco has become a much more visible supplier of olive oil to the Spanish market, according to the latest DataComex figures (source in Spanish), an office attached to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Enterprise. Between January and April 2025, Spain bought 103 tonnes of oil from its neighbour; in the same period in 2026, the figure reached 10,384.7 tonnes. The increase of 9,979% is accurate and verifiable, but it needs some context to understand what it actually means. Why such a high percentage is not a mistake The jump is largely explained…

Published on 07/07/2026 – 15:11 GMT+2 NATO must become more European to reduce its long-standing reliance on the US security umbrella, Ursula von der Leyen and Mark Rutte said on Tuesday as leaders of the 77-year-old alliance gathered in Ankara, Turkey, for their annual summit. “We both know how important close cooperation between the European Union and NATO is,” the European Commission president said alongside the NATO secretary general at an industrial forum ahead of the summit. “But to make this possible, what we need is interoperability.” Rutte echoed von der Leyen’s remarks, highlighting the “clear division of labour” between…

Published on 07/07/2026 – 18:37 GMT+2•Updated 18:42 The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has eased restrictions on Russian athletes ahead of the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. The IOC said on Tuesday that it had “provisionally lifted the suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee,” meaning Russian athletes could be able to compete for their country in the US. Russia’s Olympic Committee had been suspended in 2023 amid Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. But the IOC said that following a “thorough analysis,” it had determined that ban was “no longer applicable”. Any Russian athletes looking to return to international competition will now…