Author: Press Room

There are almost 5,000 fishermen and one not-for-profit foundation behind Spanish sustainable fashion brand Ecoalf. Every day, the fishermen recover waste caught in their nets, while the Ecoalf Foundation has developed a system to give that waste a second life, turning it into raw material, ultimately, fabric. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “Plastic alone now accounts for around 80% of everything we bring up. This is our daily reality,” says fisherman Tony Beltrán, while showing the waste that got caught in his nets off the coast of Gandía, south of Valencia. **“**Even before recycling became popular, we were already collecting it, the only…

Published on 02/10/2026 – 15:00 GMT+2 In the Grésivaudan Valley near Grenoble, sometimes dubbed the “Silicon Valley of the Alps”, millions of highly sophisticated silicon wafers are produced every year. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT They come from Soitec, a French company little known to the general public, but a world leader in advanced substrates for the semiconductor industry. Founded 33 years ago around an invention developed at French technological research institute CEA-Leti, Soitec started with just a dozen or so people. Today, it employs more than 2,000 and holds more than 4,700 active patents worldwide, with production facilities in France and Singapore.…

Published on 03/10/2026 – 8:46 GMT+2 A Russian strike hit Kyiv’s Northern Bridge on Saturday, halting traffic from the left bank to the right and deepening a transport crisis that began when the Southern Bridge was shut a day earlier. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Mayor Vitali Klitschko announced the strike on Telegram after a drone alert in the capital. “Northern Bridge has been hit,” he wrote. “Emergency services are heading to the scene.” He later reported damage to the road surface and to the overhead wires that power trolleybuses on the bridge. “Traffic across the bridge from the left bank to the…

Journalist and social media expert Carmela Ríos posted an investigation into the sale of the garment on X on 27 September. The T-shirt emerged following the mass entry of migrants into Ceuta on 30 and 31 July. Here is what lies behind the sale. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The T-shirt is being launched by Terre de France, a brand that sells a “patriotic and solidarity-based” range of products it claims are 100% French. Part of the revenue is used to support other organisations that, according to its website**,** include groups of farmers, agricultural colleges and an association for wounded French soldiers. In…

Published on 03/10/2026 – 18:32 GMT+2 Thousands of people took to the streets of Paris to take part in Paris Pride, defending the rights of LGBTQ+ people against a backdrop of growing popularity of the far right. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT As the march set off, Alexandre Schon, co-president of Inter-LGBT, which organises the march, said: “We are just a few months away from the presidential election, so we are calling on LGBT+ people and allies to mobilize for a future based on solidarity.” Adding: “We must stand up against the far right.” The event, which began at Place d’Italie in the…

The leaders of 17 European Union countries have sent a letter to Taoiseach Micheál Martin, in his capacity as current president-in-office of the Council of the European Union, calling for agriculture to be given priority ahead of the revision of the Negotiating Box, the document drawn up by the presidency to steer and progressively narrow down negotiations on the EU’s long-term budget. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT As negotiations on the 2028-2034 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) enter a decisive phase, the leaders of Bulgaria, Cyprus, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain and Hungary…

Germany is marking the 36th anniversary of reunification. On 3 October 1990 the former GDR acceded to the Federal Republic, ending a division that had lasted 41 years and making Berlin once again the capital of a united Germany. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT In Brandenburg, Steeven Bretz, the leader of the Christian Democratic Union in the state parliament, paid tribute to former Chancellor Helmut Kohl at the Glienicke Bridge in Potsdam, where the border once ran. “We owe him a great deal, above all the fact that unity succeeded,” Bretz said, according to his Instagram account. “The fact that we are able…

Published on 03/10/2026 – 9:34 GMT+2 Demonstrators are set to march in more than 50 Spanish cities on Saturday, a day after parliament voted down two government decrees meant to give tenants stronger protection. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The Tenants’ Union, which has been coordinating the protests, called the demonstrations. “There is an irreparable disconnect between what the people want and what the parties vote for,” it said in a statement. In Madrid, marchers are due to leave from several points around the city at noon and converge on Plaza de Cibeles in the centre. Activists have already been camped for about…

Published on 03/10/2026 – 8:00 GMT+2 Across the EU, the number of hospitality venues is falling fastest in Hungary. Between 2021 and 2024 the decline was 6 percent, while 22 member states recorded growth. Looking at the past ten years, the situation is even more dramatic: 18.5 percent of hospitality businesses have disappeared. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT According to a recently published study (source in Hungarian), one reason for the worsening trend is that cheap, poor-quality lángos and goulash bars, geared towards foreign tourists and working with high margins, are pushing quality restaurants out of the market. This segment primarily attracts low-spending…

EU farmers received lower prices for their products on average in the second quarter of 2026, while the prices of supplies used in agriculture increased, according to Eurostat. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Agricultural output prices fell by 5.8% compared with the same period in 2025, the statistics office said. It was the third consecutive quarter of year-on-year decline. Meanwhile, average prices for goods and services consumed in agriculture, such as energy, fertilisers and animal feed rose by 4.7%. Ministers for agriculture, who met on 28 September, highlighted high production costs, particularly for fertilisers and energy, alongside lower output prices and pressure on…