Overall output flat, with downturn in major sectors including financial services

Visit museums on brewing and tanning in the castle or explore the interactive Kannermusée PLOMM

Overall output flat, with downturn in major sectors including financial services

Visit museums on brewing and tanning in the castle or explore the interactive Kannermusée PLOMM

Ukraine's president tells the Russian leader that only "direct engagement" between the two countries could end the war, with the US focused on Iran.

Russian incursions into UK defences risk crossing a line, Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Richard Knighton tells the BBC.

LUXEMBOURG — There is “strong support” among EU home affairs ministers to exclude men who could be called up to the military from Europe’s temporary protection scheme for Ukrainian refugees, said Swedish Migration Minister Johan Forssell. The temporary status scheme — under which more than 4 million people who fled Ukraine have been given the right to work, live and study in European countries — will expire in March 2027. The directive has already been extended several times and preparations to prolong it once more are underway. A proposal to exclude men aged 23 to 60, who may be conscripted, from the scheme is being discussed. Speaking on the sidelines of a meeting of EU home affairs ministers in Luxembourg on Thursday, Forssell said the ministers had been “more or less unanimous” in favoring an extension of temporary protection. “From what I heard, I also think there was a strong support for excluding the ones with travel bans,” said Forssell — referring to men barred from leaving the country because they could be called upon to fight against Russia. Asked whether he expected the European Commission to include that idea in its upcoming proposal, Forssell said: “Absolutely.” “That’s also what the Ukrainians want us to do,” stated Commissioner for Migration Magnus Brunner in a press conference following the meeting. The Commission had listened “very carefully to the ministers … and especially to those who are most affected … the Czech Republic, the Baltic States, Poland, Germany, Austria,” he said. The proposal is expected to land in the coming weeks, according to the commissioner. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r

PARIS — The EU’s transparency watchdog has accused the Commission of maladministration for failing to keep a text message from French President Emmanuel Macron to Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the EU executive, urging a freeze in talks on a major trade deal with Latin America. Macron’s text message in early 2024, exclusively reported by POLITICO, sought to halt talks on the trade accord with the Mercosur bloc within sight of the finish line. The deal was only approved at the beginning of this year by a qualified majority of EU member countries — and against the resistance of a French-led minority. It finally entered provisional force on May 1. More broadly, in a recommendation published on Friday, EU Ombudsman Teresa Anjinho said von der Leyen and other EU commissioners should keep all text messages with heads of state and government, including those that automatically delete. The recommendation comes as part of a probe which originated after POLITICO reported on Jan. 30, 2024, that Macron had privately texted von der Leyen in an attempt to derail the trade deal between the EU and Mercosur, a trade bloc grouping Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. The watchdog launched the probe last September after Follow the Money journalist Alexander Fanta requested access to the message. The Commission acknowledged the existence of the message but said it had been automatically deleted as the “disappearing messages” feature of the Signal app was activated. The ombudswoman said that, in future, “the Commission should ensure that all text and instant messages relating to the Commission’s policies, activities and decisions exchanged between Heads of State or Government, or ministers, and Members of the Commission, including those subject to automatic deletion after a certain time interval, are duly preserved for a reasonable period.” The watchdog also criticized the Commission for taking 15 months before responding to the request to access the text message and said it could not rule out that the Commission might have deleted the message after receiving the request for access. “The way the Commission handled the complainant’s public access request constituted maladministration,” Anjinho wrote. Von der Leyen’s handling of text messages has already come under scrutiny. In May last year, an EU court found that the European Commission had been wrong to refuse access to von der Leyen’s text messages with Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. In that case, the European Commission also reviewed the texts in question before allowing them to be lost.

Months after fleeing the fighting in eastern and southern Lebanon, thousands of displaced people remain in makeshift camps across Beirut. Despite the announcement of a ceasefire between Israel and Lebanon, many say they feel no safer and have little confidence the truce will hold. France 24's special correspondent Antonia Kerrigan

The Central Asian country of Turkmenistan is immensely proud of its horses. The ancient and endangered Akhal-Teke species has become a symbol of great national pride in a deeply isolated state where power is firmly concentrated, and are considered so beautiful that beauty pageants are held for them annually. The species and the culture surrounding them has even been listed on UNESCO's Intangible Cultural Heritage List. 

How the world failed a mother’s children, killed in Israeli strikes on Gaza

Thousands protest in Albania over Kushner-linked resort project.

Up to a quarter of the rocket builder’s $75bn float will be set aside for individual investors

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Guido Crosetto, Italy’s defense minister, said in an interview that European nations should forge a new joint defense system and take greater responsibility for their own security.

Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan of Armenia is seeking re-election as his country weighs questions of war and peace, of autocracy and democracy, and of subjugation and independence.