Author: staff

PARIS — The French government will spend €70 million to subsidize the price of fuel for farmers, logistics companies and fishermen from April 1 until the end of the month. “We have built a response at the national level which is gradual, targeted, sector-specific and limited to the month of April,” Economy and Finance Minister Roland Lescure told reporters Friday evening, presenting the plan amid spiking energy prices caused by war in the Middle East. “My primary concern is, above all, to sustain growth while ensuring that every euro of public money is spent effectively,” said Lescure.

The incident was “contained,” the Commission said. But the early stages of its investigation suggest some data may have been taken from those websites, it added. Its own internal systems were not affected, it said. It did not say who was responsible for the attack. European governments and companies are increasingly under attack from hacking groups, both criminal and state-sponsored. The head of the EU’s cyber agency, ENISA, recently warned that Europe is “losing massively.” The Commission added that it is in the process of contacting EU institutions that might have been affected, and that it will continue to monitor…

Published on 27/03/2026 – 18:29 GMT+1 A boat packed with migrants capsized off the coast of Djibouti on the way to Yemen this week, the UN migration agency said on Friday, killing at least nine people died and leaving another 45 missing. The tragedy was the latest in a series of shipwrecks between the Horn of Africa and the Arabian Peninsula that have over the past few years killed several thousand African migrants fleeing conflict and poverty in hopes of reaching wealthy Gulf Arab countries. The boat had left from the Djibouti port town of Obock with more than 300…

A Parliament spokesperson said that “all necessary preventive and reactive measures are in place to ensure the security and safety of MEPs and [European Parliament] staff during official missions.” Both lawmakers and officials have been given “briefings, training and assistance regarding security,” they added. The European Parliament has used burner phones and security pouches to protect devices like mobile phones before, including on a trip to Hungary last year, POLITICO first reported. Other European Union institutions have beefed up their protections against cyberespionage, too. One senior official, granted anonymity to disclose details about security policy, told POLITICO’s Brussels Playbook that…

The European Union is calling for the Black Sea grain model agreed between Russia and Ukraine as the diplomatic method to unblock the Strait of Hormuz, the EU special envoy to the Gulf region Luigi Di Maio told Euronews in Doha on Friday. “After the beginning of the war in Ukraine, we managed as international community to strike a deal between Russia and Ukraine for ensuring humanitarian corridors in the Black Sea,” Di Maio said in the Euronews interview. “We have to do the same with the Strait of Hormuz, we have to guarantee the freedom of navigation in the…

And that’s not all. Some of the stranded ships are now starting to run out of food and other necessities. “It’s not as easy as people think to get resources to the ships,” explained Hutchinson. “And now we’re beginning to see pressure on supplies getting to the ships. The firms that deliver the supplies are local. Fuel is up from $700 per ton to over $2,000, and these firms have to secure the supplies in the first place, which isn’t easy when the Strait of Hormuz is closed. And in a situation like this, delivering the supplies to the trapped…

Published on 27/03/2026 – 15:04 GMT+1 Switzerland’s new army chief Benedikt Roos said on Friday the country does not yet have the necessary defences against potential drone attacks, such as those being used in the war in the Middle East. “Today’s world has become more complex, more dynamic and, in some respects, more dangerous,” Roos told reporters at a military base in Thun. “Power politics is not a new phenomenon, but today it is once again manifesting itself in a more overt and immediate way,” he added. Asked whether Switzerland is ready to face potential new threats of drone attacks,…

Published on 27/03/2026 – 15:36 GMT+1 NASA astronaut Don Pettit, recently shared a picture of an odd, purple, egg-shaped object with “tentacles” from the International Space Station (ISS) on the social media platform X. While you could be forgiven for thinking that this was some kind of alien creature, it is in fact only a potato that Pettit grew in space. Although the colour is not commonly seen, potatoes can be purple , mainly due to high levels of anthocyanins. In a post on X, Pettit shared more about his space food-growing hobby. “Spudnik-1, an orbiting potato on the International…

Published on 27/03/2026 – 15:32 GMT+1 The X Files revival is starting to take shape… Oscar-winning filmmaker Ryan Coogler (Black Panther, Sinners) will both write and direct the pilot episode of the 90s cult classic series reboot, which has been officially greenlit for Hulu-lulululuuuuuu… The new series is moving away from original series creator Chris Carter’s iconic characters Mulder and Scully, played by David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson, with the announcement of two new leads. Last month, we learned that American actress Danielle Deadwyler (The Harder They Fall, Till) had been cast as an FBI agent who gets assigned to…

The Kremlin on Friday denied reports that President Vladimir Putin had asked Russia’s richest men to bankroll the war in Ukraine, pushing back on claims that Moscow is scrambling for cash as military spending surges. “It’s not true that Putin made such a request,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, according to Reuters. Peskov explained that one individual had independently offered to donate a “very large sum” to the state during a recent meeting with business leaders, describing it as a personal initiative. “This was absolutely his initiative, and not President Putin’s. Although, of course, the head of state welcomed such…