Month: August 2025

Ireland’s public healthcare infrastructure is facing intensifying scrutiny over its preparedness for a surge in dementia cases, as Health Service Executive (HSE) data reveals a significant reduction in publicly funded bed capacity, despite projections that the number of people living with dementia will more than double by 2050. Figures released in response to a parliamentary […]

French Trade Minister Laurent Saint-Martin signalled openness to Chinese investment on Wednesday, floating a détente with Beijing as the EU grapples with trade tensions with Washington. Speaking at a Paris business forum, Saint-Martin backed the idea of closer economic ties with Beijing, but stressed that investments should be sector-specific, tied to technology transfers and involve […]

French Prime Minister François Bayrou is facing mounting pressure as recent polls reveal that most French people want him to resign, call for fresh parliamentary elections, and even see President Emmanuel Macron step down. Opposition parties are expected to back Bayrou’s removal in a confidence vote scheduled for 8 September, which the prime minister called […]

The EU’s humanitarian chief Hadja Lahbib on Wednesday urged the bloc to take tougher action over the war in Gaza as divisions among member states stall moves to punish Israel. “We are at a turning point and now it’s time for the EU to act in a way that matches its international stature,” Lahbib, European […]

President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday gave his “full support” to France’s embattled prime minister, who has called a confidence vote that could see his government collapse next month. Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said he would request the confidence vote in a bitterly divided parliament on September 8, as he tries to garner enough support for […]

Bulgaria’s national doctors’ union has accused the government of squandering EU healthcare funds. Nikolay Branzalov, President of the Bulgarian Medical Association (BMA), told Euractiv that a key project to open healthcare practices in small settlements is likely to fail due to its flawed design. At the end of July, the Ministry of Health announced plans […]

Danish Foreign Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen summoned the US Embassy’s top diplomat in Copenhagen, Mark Stroh, on Wednesday following media reports of covert American influence operations in Greenland. At least three people connected to the Donald Trump administration are said to be conducting covert influence operations in Greenland, according to Danish public media DR reports, […]

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Defence Minister Boris Pistorius announced the formation of Germany’s new National Security Council (NSC) on Wednesday, streamlining high-level consultations on defence and security issues. German officials are describing the newly formed body as the “new nucleus of Germany’s security architecture”. It merges two previous bodies: Germany’s Federal Security Council, responsible […]

French President Emmanuel Macron escalated his diplomatic row with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, urging him to abandon what he called a “deadly and illegal headlong rush into permanent war in Gaza,” in a letter shared with Le Monde on Tuesday. The unusually blunt response followed Netanyahu’s accusation that France was not doing enough to […]

Iran suspended cooperation with the United Nations’ International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) following a 12-day war with Israel in June, with Tehran pointing to the IAEA’s failure to condemn Israeli and US strikes on its nuclear facilities. “Now the first team of IAEA inspectors is back in Iran, and we are about to restart,” director […]