Author: Press Room
Can you not go five minutes without checking your phone? Do you open Instagram “just for a second” and find that half an hour later you are still there? Do you wake up during the night and the first thing you do is check your notifications? Or do you keep scrolling through bad news even though you know perfectly well it is making you anxious? ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Welcome to the age of new digital addictions. Experts stress that the point is not to demonise smartphones, social networks or video games. The digital world is now part of our lives and…
Published on 30/08/2026 – 0:19 GMT+2 Polling stations closed at 10:00 pm local time on Saturday for Iceland’s high-stakes EU referendum. Vote counting is expected to begin shortly, with results due overnight. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT On Saturday, Icelanders were called to vote on whether to resume accession negotiations with the European Union or abandon any prospect of joining the bloc for the foreseeable future. According to preliminary figures, voter turnout was higher than, or at least comparable to, the 2024 parliamentary elections, when it reached 80%, according to local media. Until a few days before the vote, polls suggested a neck-and-neck…
Before France knows who its next president will be, it must first adopt a budget for the year 2027. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT That is the main task facing the French Prime Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, he told French daily Le Parisien in an interview. With less than eight months to go before the first round of the presidential election and no majority in the National Assembly, Lecornu said he hopes to avoid a political stalemate by promising a budget”with measures that, for the most part, can be reversed by the new majority that emerges from the ballot box.” Lecornu is not planning…
Published on 29/08/2026 – 18:44 GMT+2 A flotilla of around 50 vessels from the Costa del Sol and other Spanish ports set sail on Saturday for Ceuta to show their support for the city after the migratory crisis that has been unfolding since the end of July, according to local media. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT The initiative, dubbed the Fleet of Solidarity with Ceuta, brings together around 120 participants under the slogan “We are all Ceuta, Spain responds as one”. The organisers have arranged up to 60 free berths in the city’s harbour for the participating boats. The vessels have not departed…
Published on 29/08/2026 – 17:24 GMT+2 Iceland’s capital Reykjavík recorded a higher voter turnout in the high-stakes EU referendum by noon than at the same time during the country’s parliamentary elections in 2024, preliminary figures showed on Saturday. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT In the hours after voters began casting their ballots in the referendum that will determine whether to reopen EU accession talks, 13.7% had voted by noon in the Reykjavík North constituency, compared to just over 10% in the 2024 election. In Reykjavík South, just over 14% had voted by noon, compared to just over 11% for the parliamentary election. More…
By NH Published on 29/08/2026 – 11:33 GMT+2 The Schakal is more than just a new armoured vehicle. It is a key component of the German army’s so-called Medium Forces – a new category of troops designed to be rapidly deployable while also offering substantial firepower. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT This capability is particularly important in the context of NATO’s eastern flank. Rapid forces for the eastern flank The current security situation in Europe has fundamentally changed the demands placed on the Bundeswehr. The central question once again is how German units can be quickly moved to an area of operations in the…
By Laura Fleischmann Published on 29/08/2026 – 12:02 GMT+2 Authorities in Nepal suspect that the recent devastating flash flood was triggered by a glacial lake outburst or a glacier collapse in the Himalayas – something experts say could also threaten the Alps. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT A torrent of water, mud and debris surged almost 170 kilometres through southwest Tibet and into central Nepal earlier this week, killing hundreds of people. Such disasters are also possible in Europe, particularly in the Alps, explains glaciologist Olaf Eisen, a professor at the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research and at the University of…
Published on 29/08/2026 – 10:11 GMT+2•Updated 10:57 At least 27 people were killed after a Russian drone strike caused a major fire and explosions at a warehouse overnight, according to local authorities. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Tymur Tkachenko, the head of the Kyiv Oblast Military Administration, said at least 42 people, including four children, were also injured in the attack on the village of Myla, with 381 people evacuated from the area. “The attack caused a large-scale fire. The fire also spread to private residential buildings. Fires in 5 houses and a catering establishment have already been extinguished,” Tkachenko wrote in a…
General Charles de Gaulle used to talk about Europe stretching “from the Atlantic to the Urals”. At the time, he was defending a geopolitical project designed to reunify the continent as the Cold War split Europe into two blocs. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT But in the midst of the current global geopolitical shift, could the Atlantic border extend to Canada? Perhaps de Gaulle, who had a fierce desire for independence from the US, would have sympathised with Ottawa’s concerns and said “oui”. The arrival of Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney in Strasbourg in mid-September to attend the State of the Union address…
Published on 29/08/2026 – 9:00 GMT+2 Icelanders are voting today on whether to resume their EU accession bid or shelve the prospect of joining the bloc for the foreseeable future. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Polling stations are open from 9am to 10pm local time, with voters deciding whether to return to membership negotiations or reject even exploring what a deal would look like. A “Yes” vote would not commit Iceland to joining the EU, but it would reopen accession talks, with any eventual membership deal put to another referendum. Iceland applied to join the bloc in 2009, in the wake of its…