Month: August 2022

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called on Monday for international inspectors to be given access to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant after Ukraine and Russia traded accusations over the shelling of Europe’s largest atomic plant over the weekend.

Italy has lurched closer to electing a far-right government in September after a centre-left coalition broke down on Sunday.

The Financial Times newspaper reports EU rules being discussed on political advertising are to create tensions between the European Parliament and the European Commission. The paper cites European Commission vice-president Věra Jourová as saying she rejected parliament’s desire to impose a total ban on personally targeted online political advertising, also known as microtargetting. “If we […]

Energy companies, including Belgian Fluxys and French utility EDF, have warned gas exports from the UK to the EU are “contaminated” with toxic elements that are often radioactive. Removing the materials has cost gas traders an estimated €320m. If the problem is left unchecked pipelines may have to be closed down this winter. EU countries […]

Amnesty International apologised on Sunday for “distress and anger” caused by a report released on Thursday which stated that the presence of Ukrainian troops in residential areas heightened risks to civilians during Russia’s invasion. Ukrainian army officials said they try to evacuate civilians from front-line areas. In an email to Reuters Amnesty said it had […]

Afghan nationals who had worked for the German government are being prevented by the Taliban from fleeing the country, report German media outlets. News magazine Der Spiegel on Sunday said an emergency plan by the German government to evacuate thousands of former local staff of German institutions had stalled. It said Berlin had wanted to […]

Last month’s declaration by the breakaway Moldovan region of Transniestria that it wanted to join Russia, coupled with a spike in anonymous bomb threats in Chișinău, looked like “a kind of prelude to an operation in Moldova”, Oleg Serebrian, Moldova’s deputy prime minister, told The Times. Transniestria hosts at least 1,500 Russian troops. Russia-friendly separatists […]

Water levels on the Rhine River are set to fall perilously close to the point at which it would effectively close, according to German data. This puts the trade of huge quantities of goods at risk and also hampers EU plans to increase the movement of goods along waterways by 25 percent by 2030, as […]