Author: staff

Published on 11/02/2026 – 19:09 GMT+1 Tankers from Russia’s “shadow fleet” circumventing European sanctions navigated through Denmark’s waters at a rate of almost one a day in 2025, data compiled by the Danish Maritime Authority showed on Wednesday. “In 2025, there were 292 voyages with EU sanction-designated tankers in Danish waters,” the authority said in an email to the AFP news agency. Russia has reportedly built up a flotilla of old oil tankers of opaque ownership to get around sanctions imposed by the European Union, as well as the United States and the G7 group of nations, over Moscow’s 2022…

Read More

“Joining a group that is not, at least from the outset, seen as one-on-one representing a certain political ideology is the best thing for us … we have always the potential to vote against group lines due to our pragmatic approach,” he said. The move still needs to be approved by Sieper’s Party of Progress — a German party with around 1,000 members and no presence in the German parliament — on March 22 and then ratified by Renew Europe’s lawmakers. The Party of Progress describes itself as not having a specific ideology but instead voting on a case-by-case basis…

Read More

The NATO military alliance had barely announced the launch of its Arctic Sentry programme on Wednesday before it found itself fielding accusations that the new scheme, meant to appease United States President Donald Trump, is nothing more than a rebranding exercise. The new multi-domain activity, agreed during a meeting between Trump and NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Davos last month, is meant to strengthen NATO’s posture in the Arctic and High North by bringing together the activities of the 32 allies in the region under one overarching operational strategy. These will include Denmark’s Arctic Endurance, a series of multi-domain…

Read More

A brawl erupted in Turkey’s parliament on Wednesday after lawmakers from the ruling AK Party and the opposition clashed over the appointment of a controversial figure to the Justice Ministry in a Cabinet reshuffle. Opposition legislators tried to block Akın Gürlek, who President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan appointed to the top judicial portfolio, from taking the oath of office in parliament. As tempers flared, legislators were seen pushing each other, with some throwing punches. As Istanbul chief prosecutor, Gürlek had presided over high‑profile trials against several members of the main opposition party, the Republican People’s Party (CHP), proceedings that the opposition…

Read More

“Despite significant investment over the years and multiple changes of its rules, the Prize has proven to be a complex, resource-intensive process that has delivered minimal outreach results, including negligible measurable media impact,” reads an internal note signed by the Parliament’s Secretary-General Alessandro Chiochetti, seen by POLITICO.  “The experience has shown that the projects distinguished with the Prize failed to attract sufficient attention at local and regional levels, which in turn prevent the Prize from contributing meaningfully to the Parliament’s visibility on a large scale,” the note reads. The measure will save around €200,000 a year, most of which comes…

Read More

Published on 11/02/2026 – 17:43 GMT+1 European Union defence ministers on Wednesday approved the national investment plans of eight member states, paving the way for the first disbursements under the bloc’s €150 billion Security Action for Europe (SAFE) scheme. The plans by Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Spain, Croatia, Cyprus, Portugal and Romania are together worth €38 billion. “Today’s decisions show that the EU is not only talking about defence – we are delivering. Through SAFE, we are strengthening our security where it matters the most,” said Vasilis Palmas, minister of defence of Cyprus, which currently holds the presidency of the Council…

Read More

Footage shows fighting breaks out between Turkish lawmakers from opposition party CHP and ruling party AKP during the swearing in ceremony of new Justice Minister Akin Gurlek. Opposition legislators tried to block Istanbul Chief Prosecutor Akin Gurlek, who President Recep Tayyip Erdogan appointed to the top judicial portfolio, from taking the oath of office in parliament. As tempers flared, legislators were seen pushing each other, with some hurling punches. In his previous role as Istanbul’s chief public prosecutor, Akin Gurlek issued an arrest warrant for Istanbul Mayor Ekrem Imamoglu in March last year, a move that was followed by widespread…

Read More

Published on 11/02/2026 – 17:12 GMT+1 More than 100 major humanitarian and child protection organisations are calling for urgent action against AI nudification apps and tools. The coalition includes Amnesty International, the European Commission, Interpol, Safe Online, Save the Children and other child protection experts and human rights advocates. This movement comes after the Grok nudification backlash, where users requested Elon Musk’s AI chatbot Grok to remove clothes from digital photographs of women. This started with the “put her in a bikini” trend, which changed pictures to show women in bikinis, but quickly devolved into increasingly sexualised pictures. These non-consensual…

Read More

Industrial decline. Disruptive technologies. Sluggish investment. Regulatory barriers. Punitive tariffs. Unfair competition. Climate change. Demographic crisis. The formidable challenges besetting the European Union have triggered a desperate search for bold, ingenious solutions that can deliver the much-needed big bang. But just how big are leaders willing to go? “Our ambition should always be to reach an agreement among all 27 member states,” Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in a letter to leaders ahead of an informal summit on Thursday. “However, where a lack of progress or ambition risks undermining Europe’s competitiveness or capacity to act, we should not…

Read More