Oasis: Debbie Ellis recalls meeting Liam: "Where do you get your trainers from?"
09/07/2025
'Worrying': Single EU member states make asylum agreements with other countries
Europe
08/07/2025
UK-France: The tide of realpolitik rises as the sea of rhetoric fades on both sides of the Channel
UK
08/07/2025
'Restatement of that historic commitment: Renegotiate important Franco-British bilateral agreements'
UK
06/07/2025
Oasis: What's the story? "A man with a fork in a world of soup"
UK
05/07/2025
Oasis kicks off reunion tour in Cardiff after 16-year hiatus
UK
28/05/2025
King's Speech: In fractured world, Charles seeks to reassure Canadians amid unprecedented challenges
Americas
19/05/2025
'Caution on both sides': EU-UK summit a first step in 'deepening the relationship'
Europe
01/05/2025
'While voters are disenchanted with Labour, they're not necessarily willing to go back to Tories'
UK
16/04/2025
Anti-trans rhetoric: Parallels between the US and UK in the wake of Trump's return to power
Analysis
UK
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France 24
2 hours ago
- France 24
France, Eq. Guinea to clash at UN top court over Paris mansion
The central African nation has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to issue emergency orders preventing France from selling the building, seized after Vice President Teodoro Nguema Obiang Mangue, known as Teodorin, was convicted of corruption. French authorities seized the property, which boasts a cinema, a hammam, and marble and gold water taps, after convicting Obiang under a law targeting fortunes fraudulently amassed by foreign leaders. In 2021, France's top appeals court gave Obiang -- the eldest son of the long-standing president of Equatorial Guinea, Teodoro Obiang Nguema Mbasogo -- a three-year suspended sentence and 30 million euros ($35 million) in fines. France also confiscated assets, including the luxurious building near the Arc de Triomphe, which has an estimated value well above 100 million euros. In its latest complaint to the ICJ last week, Equatorial Guinea argued French police entered the property last month and changed the locks on several of the doors. Equatorial Guinea called on the court to order France to give it "immediate, complete and unhindered access" to the building. Lawyers for Equatorial Guinea will address judges at the Peace Palace in The Hague at around 10:00 am (0800 GMT), before France responds at around 4:00 pm. 2016 dispute The mansion was also at the centre of an earlier case filed by Equatorial Guinea in 2016 at the ICJ, which rules on disputes between UN member states. Equatorial Guinea argued the building served as the country's embassy in France and that Paris had broken the Vienna Convention, which safeguards diplomats from interference by host countries. But the UN court sided with France, which said the building was merely Teodorin Obiang's residence and served no diplomatic purpose. The ICJ upheld France's objections that Equatorial Guinea had only tried to designate it as such after the investigation into Obiang began, and that the country already had an embassy in Paris. A request for emergency orders -- provisional measures, in the court's jargon -- takes precedence over all other court business. The ICJ is currently wrestling with a busy caseload, including a high-profile case brought by South Africa against Israel, alleging its actions in Gaza have breached the UN Genocide Convention. The court will also deliver a key ruling on countries' climate change obligations next Wednesday. While the ICJ is the highest United Nations court, whose rulings are binding, it has no way of enforcing its decisions. © 2025 AFP
France 24
6 hours ago
- France 24
Trump sours on Putin, but bromance may not be over
With his announcement Monday of new arms for Ukraine via Europe and tariff threats on Russia, Trump's bromance with Putin has hit a new low -- but it may not have run its course. Trump, who had vowed to end the Ukraine war within a day of returning to the White House, said he was "disappointed" in Putin, who has kept attacking Ukraine as if the leaders' telephone conversations "didn't mean anything." "I go home, I tell the first lady, 'You know, I spoke to Vladimir today, we had a wonderful conversation. She said, 'Oh really? Another city was just hit.'" "I don't want to say he's an assassin, but he's a tough guy. It's been proven over the years. He's fooled a lot of people," Trump said. Trump quickly rejected that he was among those fooled and again insisted that the 2022 invasion of Ukraine was the fault of his predecessor Joe Biden, who championed a hard line on Russia. Brandishing his favorite weapon, Trump gave Russia 50 days to comply before facing 100 percent tariffs on countries that purchase from Russia, but stopped short of backing a bill before Congress for up to 500 percent tariffs. Russia's own trade with the United States has slowed down a trickle. Trump had "promised that he could get Putin to the negotiating table, and he has failed to do that," said Heather Conley, a former State Department policymaker on Russia now at the conservative American Enterprise Institute. His tariff threat "shows frustration that he has failed to do it, but I don't see it as a big policy change," she said. The great deal-maker? Trump stunned European allies on February 28 when he publicly berated Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, telling him he was ungrateful for billions of dollars in weapons under Biden. Trump then briefly held up new military and intelligence. For the US president, a transactional-minded businessman, Putin committed a key offense -- undermining Trump's self-image as a deal-maker. "For six months, President Trump tried to entice Putin to the table. The attacks have gone up, not down," Senator Lindsey Graham, a Trump ally who has led the push for tough new sanctions on Russia, told CBS News show "Face The Nation." "One of the biggest miscalculations Putin has made is to play Trump," Graham said. Yet Trump has repeatedly shown a willingness to trust Putin, despite firm warnings from within the US government. Most famously, he sided with Putin over US intelligence at a 2018 news conference after they met in Helsinki after the Russian president denied meddling to support Trump in his first election. For observers of Putin, the longest-serving leader in Moscow since Stalin, there was never much chance he would accept compromise on Ukraine or work with the West. Putin has rued the demise of Russia's influence with the fall of the Soviet Union as a historic calamity and rejected the idea that Ukraine has its own historical identity. With Russia making small but steady gains on the battlefield and bringing in North Korean troops, Putin has put his entire country on war footing, Conley said. "The Kremlin has thrown everything into this," she said. "President Putin believes that this is just going to be a slow erosion of Ukraine's position and the West's position, and he will win this conflict on its own merits," she said. Mark Montgomery, a retired US rear admiral and Senate policy aide, said Putin believed in what has been referred to as TACO -- Trump Always Chickens Out. Putin "thought he could take it to the limit each time, and he found out he was wrong," said Montgomery, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, a hawkish research group. "I don't think this stops until Putin feels either weapons system pain or economic pain that he cannot sustain." © 2025 AFP
Euronews
7 hours ago
- Euronews
At least 30 killed as Syrian government forces clash with militias
At least 30 people have been killed and nearly 100 wounded in fierce clashes between local militias and tribal factions in southern Sweida province, according to Syria's Interior Ministry. The violence, which erupted over the weekend, continued on Monday as government forces deployed to restore order were drawn into confrontations with local armed groups. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based war monitor, reported a higher toll, stating that at least 50 people had died in the fighting, including two children and six members of the security forces. The unrest began with a series of tit-for-tat kidnappings between members of the Druze religious minority and Sunni Bedouin clans. According to the observatory, hostilities were triggered when Bedouin tribesmen set up a checkpoint, where they allegedly attacked and robbed a young Druze vegetable vendor. That incident sparked retaliatory abductions on both sides. "Some clashes occurred with outlawed armed groups, but our forces are doing their best to prevent any civilian casualties," Interior Ministry spokesperson Noureddine al-Baba told state-run Al-Ikhbariya TV, confirming that security forces entered the city early on Monday. The Interior Ministry called the situation a dangerous escalation, blaming the deterioration in security on 'the absence of relevant official institutions,' which it said had deepened the chaos and hindered the local community's efforts to restore calm. Israel and the Druze minority The Israeli army also said on Monday that it had struck military tanks in southern Syria but gave no further details about the nature of the operation. Israel has previously intervened in Syria in defence of the Druze minority. In May, Israeli forces struck a site near the presidential palace in Damascus, in what was seen as a warning to interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa. The strike came after dozens were killed in fighting between pro-government gunmen and Druze fighters earlier this year in the town of Sahnaya and the Druze-majority Damascus suburb of Jaramana. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and then Defence Minister Israel Katz said in a statement at the time that Israel 'will not allow the deployment of (Syrian government) forces south of Damascus or any threat to the Druze community.' In Israel, Druze are seen as a loyal minority and often serve in the armed forces. The Druze — an esoteric group that split from Ismaili Shi'ism in the 10th century — are concentrated in Sweida and in certain Damascus suburbs such as Jaramana and Ashrafiyat Sahnaya. During Syria's 14-year civil war, Druze factions formed their own militias and have remained largely self-governed. Since the collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime, the Druze have been divided on whether to reconcile with the new government in Damascus. Earlier this year, some Druze groups clashed with security forces aligned with the current authorities. The Syrian Observatory claimed that government forces had sided with the Bedouins in some confrontations, further complicating an already volatile local power dynamic.
