Author: Euronews

Published on 04/07/2026 – 15:07 GMT+2 Outgoing British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called his decision to step down from office “intensely personal” in his first interview since he resigned last month. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “It was tough. I’m not going to pretend otherwise,” Starmer, who will remain in office until his Labour Party appoints a successor, told the BBC. “I grappled with what was the best thing to do for me, for the country, for the government,” he said. “In the end, it became an intensely personal decision”. Starmer also had some words of warning for his likely successor, the former…

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“The security of the Baltic states is also Germany’s security,” Chancellor Friedrich Merz (CDU) said as he welcomed the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to Berlin. He was referring to a plaque on Vilnius Town Hall which reads: ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT “The security of Lithuania is our security. The defence of Vilnius is the defence of Berlin.” The quote comes from a speech he delivered at the formation ceremony of the 45th Armoured Brigade in Lithuania in May last year. Preparations for next week’s NATO summit in the Turkish capital, Ankara, were high on the agenda. At a joint press…

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EU Commissioner Olivér Várhelyi is facing renewed scrutiny after a leaked European Commission document indicated that Hungary’s Permanent Representation operated a spy ring during his tenure as Hungary’s permanent representative. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Last October, several media outlets reported that Hungary’s Permanent Representation to the EU in Brussels had allegedly run a network of intelligence officers posing as diplomats, who targeted Hungarian nationals working at the Commission between 2012 and 2018. Várhelyi was drawn into the investigation because he served as Hungary’s ambassador to the EU between 2015 and 2019, which overlapped with part of the period under scrutiny. He was…

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A civilian aircraft crashed near the eastern French town of Tomblaine on Sunday, killing 11 people on board. It was reportedly carrying skydivers on a training flight. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT According to franceinfo (source in French), the aircraft was carrying people as part of a first-time parachute jump session. Emergency services, including medical teams and a large number of firefighters, have been deployed to the scene. Police urged the public to stay away from the area. The prefect of Meurthe-et-Moselle, Yves Séguy, has brought together all the relevant services to ensure real-time monitoring of the situation. France’s Interior Minister, Laurent Nunez,…

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European Union energy ministers have secured a greater role in planning Europe’s future electricity system after launching an intense political campaign against the European Commission’s proposal seeking more control over the bloc’s power grid. ADVERTISEMENT ADVERTISEMENT Two politically sensitive issues in the bloc’s plan to revamp the electric grid were discussed by energy ministers in Luxembourg on 26 June: a new centralised planning scenario for future grid investments and a sweeping effort to accelerate permitting procedures for clean power projects, which typically take 5 to 10 years to be approved. While Europe excels at producing clean power, it struggles to…

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