Giorgia Meloni is turning Spain’s spiraling migration crisis into political capital, using record arrival numbers to push her hardline EU border agenda. With over 64,000 irregular arrivals hitting Spain in 2024, Rome sees both a warning and an opening.
ChatGPT and Roblox are set to be designated under the EU’s Digital Services Act strictest tier, exposing both platforms to mandatory audits, risk assessments, and fines of up to 6 percent of global revenue. The move marks the first time a generative AI chatbot has been pulled into Europe’s toughest platform regulations.
The WMO warned Friday that El Niño will intensify starting next month, with a 90 percent chance it persists through early 2024. The powerful climate pattern is developing against a record-breaking backdrop of global heat.
A French teenager has been fined USD 465 after a video of him licking a public drink dispenser straw at a Singapore hawker centre went viral. His lawyers said he was “truly sorry” for causing trouble.
Poland’s prime minister says a missile that gouged a 10-metre crater near the village of Tarnawa Kolonia, close to the Ukrainian border, was probably Russian in origin. The incident has triggered NATO consultations and an urgent forensic investigation.
The US military launched heavy retaliatory strikes on Iran after Iranian ballistic missiles targeted American troops, marking the most serious direct military exchange between the two nations in years. Oil prices surged and the UN Security Council called an emergency session as tensions rapidly escalated.
The Trump administration is weighing new restrictions on artificial intelligence after a series of hacking incidents struck OpenAI. It’s a significant pivot for a White House that has largely kept regulators away from Silicon Valley.
Oman has presented Iran with a Gulf-backed plan to jointly manage the Strait of Hormuz, including voluntary transit fees for ships. The proposal marks the most concrete diplomatic push yet to restore stable shipping after months of disruption.
Iran’s foreign ministry told Washington it won’t be allowed to set the terms or timeline of any potential negotiations, pushing back hard on Trump’s claim that Tehran had requested talks. The war of words is complicating efforts by mediators to revive a collapsed interim nuclear deal.
The European Commission has opened a public consultation on its territorial cohesion policy, asking citizens and local governments to help reshape how EU regional development billions are spent. The input will feed directly into proposals for the post-2027 budget framework.
