Author: Press Room

French President Emmanuel Macron urged investment in Africa on Monday as he co-hosted an economic summit in Kenya, after defending European involvement on the continent. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The European leader, speaking at the University of Nairobi, said Africa “needs investment to become more sovereign,” replacing aid with economic opportunities. Speaking in French, Macron said that previously European chiefs would lecture African leaders on what they needed, but, “this is no longer what Africa needs or wants to hear.” “That’s just as well, because we, too, no longer have the means, if we’re being honest,” he said. Ahead of the summit,…

Published on 11/05/2026 – 16:42 GMT+2 The EU agreed on Monday to sanction Israeli settlers over their violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, a move enabled by backing from Hungary’s incoming government. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “Today, we reached a political agreement to sanction Israeli extremists settlers and entities,” Kaja Kallas, the EU’s top diplomat told reporters following a meeting of foreign affairs ministers in Brussels. “We move from political deadlock that was there for a long time. Violence and extremism carry consequences.” Kallas added in an X post earlier on Monday that the measures, which include asset freezes and travel…

Poland’s former justice minister Zbigniew Ziobro, wanted on several criminal charges in his home country, has fled Hungary to the United States, he confirmed on Sunday, following local media reports. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “I am in the United States,” Ziobro told right-wing broadcaster Republika. “I arrived yesterday and this is my third time travelling around the country.” Ziobro, who received asylum from right-wing ally Viktor Orbán’s government last year, faces up to 25 years in prison in Poland if convicted of the charges laid against him. They include abuse of power, leading an organised criminal enterprise and using funds meant for…

Published on 11/05/2026 – 14:50 GMT+2 The complaint was forwarded to Luxembourg on Sunday evening, said the Deputy Foreign Minister Marcin Bosacki. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT He also stressed that Poland expects the Court’s ruling to lead to a suspension of both the validity and implementation of the agreement. In his view, the current version of the deal with the Mercosur countries — Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay — would be harmful to both Polish and wider EU agriculture. Warsaw is also seeking interim measures to suspend the application of the agreement pending a final ruling by the European Court of Justice.…

German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius and his Ukrainian counterpart Mykhailo Fedorov signed an agreement in Kyiv on Monday to launch “Brave Germany,” a joint programme focused on developing defence technology and supporting innovative start-ups. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT According to the Ukrainian news outlet Ukrinform, Fedorov said Germany was now “the world’s leading provider of security support for Ukraine.” He added that Berlin accounted for around a third of all assistance provided to the country. Pistorius arrived in Kyiv on Monday for a surprise visit aimed at deepening defence cooperation between Germany and Ukraine. Speaking to German news agency dpa, Pistorius said…

Published on 11/05/2026 – 11:49 GMT+2 Around 50 farmers mobilised in the Lyon region on Monday morning following a call by the Coordination Rurale union to protest soaring fuel costs linked to the crisis in the Middle East. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT After staging a roadblock with around 20 tractors near a loading point at the TotalEnergies refinery in Feyzin, demonstrators headed along the A7 motorway towards the Rhône prefecture under police escort. By around 10 a.m., the convoy had reached La Mulatière and was moving towards Lyon’s Confluence district, where significant traffic disruptions were reported. The protest went ahead despite a…

Published on 11/05/2026 – 11:56 GMT+2 André Ventura, the leader of Portugal’s far-right Chega party, recently claimed that the Dutch capital has banned meat adverts because they could be seen as offensive to Muslims. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT In this post on X, Ventura published a video of himself reacting to a headline that says Amsterdam has prohibited such adverts in all public places, and he says in the clip that it shows Europe is descending into madness. “Please see the point of insanity we’re reaching, this is in Europe,” Ventura says in the clip. “Meat adverts, for any kind of meat,…

Published on 11/05/2026 – 10:31 GMT+2 EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas on Monday rejected the possibility of appointing former German Chancellor Gerhard Schröder as the bloc’s negotiator in potential peace talks on Ukraine. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed on Saturday that Schröder act as a European mediator in future negotiations, claiming the conflict was “heading towards an end”. However, Kallas dismissed the suggestion while speaking to journalists ahead of an EU foreign affairs ministers’ meeting in Brussels. “First, if we give Russia the right to appoint a negotiator on our behalf, that would not be very wise.…

Published on 11/05/2026 – 9:27 GMT+2 Latvian Defence Minister Andris Spruds resigned on Sunday following a recent incursion by two Ukrainian drones into the Baltic country’s territory. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Latvia’s Prime Minister, Evika Silina, had called for Spruds’s resignation, writing on X that he had “lost (her) trust and that of the public.” Silina said anti-drone systems had not been deployed quickly enough to counter Thursday’s incursion. “The drone incident that occurred this week clearly demonstrated that the political leadership of the defence sector has failed to fulfill its promise of safe skies over our country,” Silina wrote. “That is…

Published on 11/05/2026 – 8:00 GMT+2 On 28 April, the European Parliament has formally adopted its position on the EU’s 2028-2034 budget, the Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), with 370 votes to 201 and 84 abstentions. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT MEPs demand a 10 per cent increase to the Commission’s original almost €2 trillion budget proposal from 16 July 2025, according to the Parliament’s Research Services April 2026 report. The Parliament wants funds evenly divided among the three key areas (cohesion and agriculture, competitiveness, and external action) and excludes NextGenerationEU repayments of €149.3 trillion (2025 prices) from spending ceilings. Calling for a more…