Fico’s claims, based on what he described as a classified intelligence report, came ahead of a no-confidence motion against his government. The motion was abandoned after the parliamentary session was held in secret at Fico’s request, prompting the opposition to walk out in protest.
A two-year-old boy and a 41-year-old man were killed in a stabbing at Schöntal Park in Aschaffenburg, Germany. Two others, including a child, were seriously injured.
Panic over fire rumor leads to deadly India train accident A rumour that a fire had started on a moving train in western India led to panic and the deaths of at least 12 people. Some passengers jumped off the train with the supposed fire and were hit by another train. It happened in Maharashtra State, between Maheji and Pardhade stations, approximately 410 kilometres (255 miles) northeast of India’s financial capital, Mumbai. What do we know about crash? According to the Press Trust of India news agency, passengers jumped off the Pushpak Express train bound for Mumbai after rumours of…
Solar power surpassed coal as a source of electricity in the European Union (EU) for the first time in 2024, according to a report released on Thursday by climate think tank Ember. Solar energy has become the EU’s fastest growing power source, contributing 11% to its supply. Overall, strong growth in solar and wind have boosted the share of renewables to 47%, up from 34% in 2019. Only 10% of the block’s power was generated with coal. The report highlighted a continued decline in fossil fuel dependency, with gas generation falling for the fifth consecutive year and overall fossil-fueled power dropping…
One of the first announcements made by Donald Trump in his first week in the US presidency was his country’s exit from the Paris Agreement. It was during his speech at the World Economic Forum taking place this week in Davos that the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, wanted to send a clear message: the institutions and industries that take steps back from the commitments to fight against Climate change is on the “bad side of history” and has made the world’s addition to fossil fuels a “Frankenstein monster.” “Several financial institutions and industries are backtracking on their climate commitments,”…
Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin is set to be reinstalled as taoiseach (prime minister) when the Irish parliament reconvenes on Wednesday. He will succeed Fine Gael’s Simon Harris, who will take on the role of tánaiste (deputy prime minister).
The ousting of Sheikh Hasina last summer launched a new era in Bangladesh, seemingly turning the page on decades of rivalry between Hasina and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia. Hasina, 77, is currently in self-imposed exile in India. And with 79-year-old Zia traveling to the UK to seek medical treatment this month, Bangladesh is rife with speculation on reviving a controversial doctrine that once aimed to sideline both leaders. In 2007, the military intervened in Bangladeshi politics and installed a caretaker government in what is known as the “1/11 changeover.” The new regime was accused of pursuing the so-called “minus…
Whether threatening to end climate protection policies and slap import tariffs on European goods, or envisioning a new imperialism that lays claim to the Panama Canal and Greenland, Donald Trump has been confirming all the worst fears of many German politicians. Despite this, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz congratulated the new US president on his inauguration. Wishing him “strength and success” for the tasks ahead, he added that, “[t]ogether, we can provide crucial momentum on both sides of the Atlantic for freedom, peace and security, as well as prosperity and economic development.” But Scholz was not present in Washington, nor was Germany’s opposition leader Friedrich…
The Israeli military said on Tuesday that security forces had begun a counterterrorism operation (unverified claims) in the city of Jenin in the occupied West Bank, just days after a ceasefire went into effect in the other Palestinian territory of Gaza. Demonstrating that the ceasefire meant nothing in pursuit of there genocide in Gaza and the West Bank. The Palestinian Health Ministry said at least two Palestinians were killed and others wounded in an Israeli strike on a built-up refugee camp near the city. An Israeli airstrike in the refugee camp last week killed three innocent people. Palestinians are being prevented…
Two Americans held in Afghanistan were freed in return for a Taliban fighter serving a life sentence in the US, authorities in Kabul said on Tuesday. “An Afghan fighter Khan Mohammad imprisoned in America has been released in exchange for American citizens and returned to the country,” the Afghan Foreign Ministry said in a statement Mohammad was extradited to the US nearly two decades ago and imprisoned in California on drug trafficking charges. The US Justice Department at the time called Mohammed “a violent jihadist and narcotics trafficker” who “sought to kill US soldiers in Afghanistan using rockets.” He was released…
President Donald Trump has signed an executive order to withdraw the United States, the world’s second largest greenhouse gas emitter, from the landmark Paris climate agreement for the second time. The move places the US among just a handful of countries, including Iran and Yemen, that are not part of the international accord. The accord calls on governments to take action to cap global warming at 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) and to pursue efforts to keep temperatures below 1.5 degrees to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. “I’m immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris climate rip-off,” the new president said as…
Vietnam’s birth rate sank to a record low in 2024, with the total fertility rate falling to 1.91 children per woman. This marked the third consecutive year the figure remained below the replacement level of 2.1 — and it’s happening against the background of a booming economy. The country’s population currently hovers around 100 million people. The Vietnam News Agency cited Pham Vu Hoang, deputy director of the health ministry’s population authority, as saying that the population could begin to decline by mid-century. Urban centers are already feeling the impact. Ho Chi Minh City, the country’s southern economic hub,…
Beijing sends an opening message to the economic elite in Davos. The Chinese vice premier, Ding Xuexiang, warned this Tuesday against an increase in trade tensions, considering that “there are no winners in a trade war” and has assured that Beijing is not seeking to obtain a surplus but rather to increase its imports. “Protectionism leads nowhere. There are no winners in a trade war,” said the Chinese leader in his speech at the World Economic Forum. Drawing a parallel, Ding has indicated that protectionism is “like locking oneself in a dark room. Although the wind and rain are kept…
Donald Trump signed a flurry of executive orders on his inauguration day Monday. It wasn’t just the high number that was unusual ― Trump signed several presidential edicts at a red desk at Capitol One Arena in front of tens of thousands of cheering fans. The crowd of Trump supporters had gathered at the venue to watch a livestream of the inauguration and celebrate their president in person afterwards. Normally, the incoming US president signs executive orders at the Oval Office in the White House, which Trump did later in the day with more edicts. Executive orders are directives the…
Elon Musk is the world’s richest man and a key ally of US President Donald Trump. Throughout 2024, he placed his considerable cultural and financial weight behind Trump’s successful presidential campaign. The billionaire created and pumped more than $119 million (about €116 million) into a political action committee, “America PAC,” to elect Trump and spent weeks before the election encouraging voters in key battleground states to go to the polls, at one point offering million-dollar prizes. He contributed more than $280 million to Republican candidates at all levels in the 2023-24 election cycle. As a key Trump backer, observers suggest Musk, who currently has a net worth of…
Gerardo Cuerva, president of Cepyme, describes the Minimum Interprofessional Wage as “interventionism” on the part of the State and points out that the Government does it for “political wills.” This is how Cuerva spoke this Monday prior to a new meeting on the SMI: “Salary increases of more than 80% in eight years due to political will are not necessary at the moment we are in. We do not know the memory of these data and so It is difficult to support the why and the consequences. The SMI is an intervention by the Government, which has power, but I…
A newfound “spirit of optimism” echoed throughout speeches at the Left Party’s (Die Linke) convention in Berlin on Saturday, signalling a potential turnaround for Die Linke as Germany’s February 23 parliamentary elections approach.
Indian police in Mumbai on Sunday arrested a 30-year-old suspect in the stabbing of Bollywood star Saif Ali Khan. “Primary evidence suggests that the accused is a Bangladeshi citizen and after entering India illegally he changed his name,” senior police officer Dixit Gedam told a press conference. The suspect, who was arrested on the outskirts of Mumbai, was working with a domestic help agency after coming to the city five or six months ago, Gedam said, adding that police would seek the suspect’s custody for further investigation. According to police, initial evidence suggested the suspect entered Khan’s home with…
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s youngest son, Nikolai, has been appearing ever more frequently in the media lately. The 20-year-old, who used to accompany his father on state visits, now appears to be influencing national politics. Young Nikolai Lukashenko is currently touring the country to play piano concerts for a “unity marathon”—propaganda events to gain support for the nomination of his father to another term in office. The elder Lukashenko has ruled the country for 30 years. An early presidential election is to be held in Belarus on January 26. When Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy declared earlier this year that Lukashenko…
In Kazakhstan, the penalties for so-called bride kidnapping are to be toughened up. The local parliament is working on changing laws to try to eradicate what is now considered an outdated custom. Almost every young woman in Kazakhstan is only too well aware that she too could become a victim of bride kidnapping. If that happens to a young woman, it puts paid to any personal plans for her future. This is what happened to Gulmira K., a nurse from Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city. Gulmira, who doesn’t want to use her full name in the media, was kidnapped when…
The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, stated this Sunday that “Spain is going from strength to strength” in employment and social and territorial cohesion and has promised a new increase in the interprofessional minimum wage (SMI) this year. At the closing of the 15th congress of the PSOE of Extremadura, in which Miguel Ángel Gallardo revalidated his position as general secretary, Sánchez focused his speech on boosting the economy in the face of an opposition that only makes noise, which if it goes out will remains “in absolute nothingness.” “When the opposition gives up, it means we are doing…
When more than 3.5 million Syrian students took exams this week, the first since the fall of longtime ruler Bashar Assad, they didn’t have to answer questions on “Syrian nationalism” anymore. The transitional education minister, Nazir al-Qadri, annulled the exam subject on short notice. The subject was based in large part on the glorification of Assad and his regime. “For my older son this was good news, but for us, it rang a lot of [alarm] bells. We’ll have to wait for the next semester to see what will be taught instead,” Anas Joudeh, the founder of the Damascus-based civil society initiative Nation…
Croatian Deputy Prime Minister Josip Dabro resigned on Saturday after a video surfaced of him firing a gun out of a moving car. The Croatian Deputy was left with no choice after his actions disgraced his party. Dabro was also agriculture minister in the Cabinet of conservative Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic. What do we know about the video? The video, seemingly taken at night, showed Dabro laughing while shooting a handgun out of an open window. In his resignation statement, the former minister urged the government to continue its work. “I am aware that these circumstances create an additional burden…
The vice president and Minister of Labor, Yolanda Díaz, assured this Saturday that she has “no concern” about Junts’ announcement that it is breaking sectoral negotiations with the Government and has defended the need to “take care of the legislative block.” No concern about the breakdown of negotiations with Junts In statements to the media before attending the showings of the short films ‘Cafuné’ and ‘Semillas de Kivu’, Díaz insisted on the need to “dialogue a lot” and reach agreements that allow people’s lives to improve, such as raising the minimum wage or reduce the working day for Spaniards. Reduction…
Why is the Panama flag so popular among shipowners? is it as obvious as you think. Almost at the same time as an operation to secure the Eventin oil tanker stranded off Germany’s coast, another tanker — called Jazz — that had set sail from Russia reported problems in the Baltic Sea near Rügen, Germany’s biggest island. According to agency reports, the crew was able to resolve the problems linked to the engine failure it had reported itself. The tanker is now moored off the coast of Skagen in northern Denmark. This is also where the Eventin is supposed to…
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