Author: Press Room

If CIA Director John Ratcliffe’s secret trip to Moscow was intended to calm fears of a confrontation between Russia and NATO, it appears to have achieved almost the opposite. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT His sudden arrival in the Russian capital this week triggered days of speculation over what intelligence could have prompted Washington to dispatch its spy chief to deliver a message to Moscow and whether the Baltic states should be worried. US media reported that Ratcliffe warned Russia against attacking NATO members, particularly Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, amid intelligence assessments that Moscow could seek to test the alliance as its war…

Published on 28/08/2026 – 15:30 GMT+2 The Beznau nuclear power plant in Switzerland, which was shut down multiple times over the last two months due to summer heatwaves, is fully operational again, Swiss energy company Axpo said on Friday. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Axpo said the second reactor at the Beznau plant in northern Switzerland, Europe’s oldest nuclear power plant still in operation, went back online on Thursday. The heatwaves that hit Europe sent temperatures soaring in the Aare River, which the site uses for cooling. Reactor 1 has been back in operation since 21 August and Axpo said it had now…

“Should Iceland resume accession negotiations with the European Union?” ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT This is the question being put to 270,000 Icelanders on Saturday 29 August. From 9am local time, eligible voters will head to the polls to chart their nation’s course closer to the European Union — or further away. The results from the referendum will determine whether the island of 400,000 people should restart negotiations to join the 27-member bloc, or place the revived idea on the backburner for the foreseeable future. Early polling shows that the results will most likely be down to the wire. An August survey by…

Published on 28/08/2026 – 17:27 GMT+2 Four men admitted on Friday being behind an arson attack on London ambulances owned by a Jewish charity at a UK court hearing. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT British nationals Hamza Iqbal, 20, Rehan Khan, 19, Judex Atshatshi, 18, and British-Pakistani Saif Ali, 18, all pleaded guilty to criminal damage linked to the 23 March attack. Four ambulances run by the Hatzola charity were destroyed in the London neighbourhood of Golders Green that is home to a significant Jewish population, one of a spate of attacks in the British capital targeting Jewish or Israel-linked locations. Three of…

European monarchs and world leaders paid tribute to Norway’s King Harald on Friday, after the royal palace announced his death at the age of 89. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Harald was the continent’s oldest reigning monarch. His son Haakon automatically succeeded him to the throne. Here are some of the main tributes from across the continent and further afield. Danish and Swedish monarchs The kings of Denmark and Sweden called Harald an “extraordinary” leader and good friend who unified his country. “Both as head of state and a successful athlete, he was an outstanding representative of his country. He gave ‘All for…

Spain has asked the European Commission (EC) for the support from Frontex and Europol to assist with the screening of migrants who are staying irregularly in Ceuta, according to several Spanish media outlets. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Spain’s Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska has asked the EC for Frontex, Europol and the European Union Agency for Asylum (EUAA) to “reinforce the device set up to address the management of the triage and subsequent processing of the personal files of the immigrants who still remain in Ceuta irregularly.” The Interior Ministry also demanded the extension of Operation Minerva, a joint initiative of the Spanish…

Published on 28/08/2026 – 18:17 GMT+2 A Dutch drug addiction and mental health institute warned users on Friday about potentially lethal ecstasy pills shaped to look like the head of US President Donald Trump. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The Trimbos Institute said that several of the pills have been handed in recently at a network of centres that test drugs for users before they take them. “Absolutely do not use these pills,” the institute warned. It released a photo of the pills that have a depiction of Trump’s head on one side and on the other side “NL” and “Trump” stamped into…

Greenland said on Friday it would establish a Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Denmark’s forced contraception of thousands of indigenous Inuits, after experts failed to agree on whether the scheme constituted “genocide.” ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The forced contraception campaign is one of the darkest chapters in Greenland’s history with its former colonial master Denmark. From the 1960s to 1990, more than 4,000 Greenlandic women were forced to wear a contraceptive coil, or intrauterine device (IUD), in the vast majority of cases without their consent or that of their parents if they were minors. Girls as young as 12 were affected, some…

Published on 28/08/2026 – 17:57 GMT+2 Brussels’ chief prosecutor called for a tougher crackdown on drug trafficking gangs on Friday, after a spate of shootings that have rocked the Belgian capital. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The city, home to the headquarters of the European Union, has seen an eye-catching rash of gun violence in recent days. Masked assailants have fired off automatic weapons in a string of incidents, leaving several people wounded and seeing a police station targeted. “Anyone could get shot,” prosecutor Julien Moinil told journalists. Moinil said that there have been 69 shooting incidents in Brussels so far this year…

Published on 28/08/2026 – 17:00 GMT+2•Updated 17:04 Russia continued to send waves of drones towards the Ukrainian capital Kyiv on Friday, repeatedly forcing residents into shelters and disrupting life across the city for a second consecutive day. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The attacks followed an extraordinary day of disruption on Thursday, when Kyiv spent almost 15 hours under air-raid warnings, with sirens sounding 13 separate times, according to the Foreign Ministry. “Again and again throughout the day, sirens sounded as Russia launched drones in small groups towards the Ukrainian capital. Each new threat put people at risk and forced them to seek…