BRUSSELS, BELGIUM – In the fourth quarter of 2023, the EU imported US$120.5 billion (€111.3 billion) worth of energy products amounting to a total of 187.9 million tonnes. Compared with the same period in 2022, imports decreased both in value (-34.2 percent) and in net mass (-11.7 percent), according to...

Brussels, Belgium - Business activity in the eurozone stabilized in March thanks largely to a "modest recovery" in the service sector, a closely watched survey showed on Thursday. The HCOB Flash eurozone purchasing managers' index (PMI) published by S&P Global stood at 49.9 in March, up from 49.2 in February. A figure...

Cairo, Egypt -- The European Union, which is seeking to stem the inflow of irregular migrants, announced Sunday a 7.4 billion euro ($8 billion) package of loans, grants and energy cooperation deals with cash-strapped Egypt. It will include billions in loans over coming years and aims to step up Egyptian energy...

Istanbul, Turkey - Twenty-two migrants including seven children have drowned after a boat capsized off the Turkish coast, local officials said on Friday. Two people were rescued by the Turkish coastguard and another two managed to make it out of the water on their own, officials said. The victims' nationalities were...

Britain and the United States have already imposed sanctions on a small number of Israeli settlers accused of committing human rights abuses against Palestinians in the West Bank.

ROME, ITALY – The European country's data protection watchdog - Italian Data Protection Authority - said on Friday it has launched an investigation into Sora, a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool made by US firm OpenAI. The Italian Data Protection Authority said it was concerned over "the possible implications for the...

In his annual State of the Union address to Congress, President Joe Biden said the US military would "lead an emergency mission to establish a temporary pier in the Mediterranean on the coast of Gaza that can receive large shipments carrying food, water medicine and temporary shelters."

Brussels, Belgium - Changes Apple is making to its services in the European Union "make a mockery" of new antitrust rules in the bloc, 34 digital organizations complained to the European Commission this week. They include app makers Epic Games and Spotify. "We are very concerned that Apple’s proposed scheme for...

Global condemnation flowed after Israeli forces in war-ravaged Gaza opened fire as Palestinian civilians scrambled for food aid during a chaotic incident which the Hamas-run territory's health ministry said killed over 100 people. The Israeli military said a "stampede" occurred when thousands of desperate Gazans surrounded a convoy of 38...

The European Union has struggled for a united response on Israel's military operation following the October 7 attack by Hamas. But Borrell said foreign ministers from 26 states had agreed a statement calling for "an immediate humanitarian pause that would lead to a sustainable ceasefire".

TEHRAN, IRAN - The Statistical Office of the European Union (Eurostat) reported that Iran and the 27 European Union member states traded over US$5 billion (€4.7 billion) worth of goods in 2023. Trade between Iran and the member states of the European Union recorded a decrease of 9 percent from...

Rafah is the southernmost city in the Palestinian enclave that has been hit by a fierce Israeli offensive since the October 7 Hamas attacks on Israel. Many of the population of 2.2 million have taken refuge there. Earlier, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told officials to "submit to the cabinet...

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell called on all parties to avoid further escalation in the Middle East after US strikes on Iran-linked groups in Syria and Iraq. "Everybody should try to avoid that the situation becomes explosive," Borrell said at a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

Brussels, Belgium - The European Union's 27 member states on Friday approved landmark rules on reining in artificial intelligence, passing a key last hurdle after tough negotiations to the very end. Brussels first proposed an AI law in 2021 but spent most of last year racing to greenlight the draft text after...

Tehran carried out strikes against an anti-Iran group in Pakistan on January 16, the same week the nation's military targeted Iraq and Syria. Two days later, Pakistan responded in kind with a pre-dawn raid on "militant targets" in Iran's Sistan-Baluchistan province, one of the few mainly Sunni Muslim regions in...

The European Union unveiled plans to strengthen the bloc's economic security including measures to protect sensitive technology from falling into the hands of geopolitical rivals like China. Brussels has bolstered its armoury of trade restrictions to tackle what it deems to be risks to European economic security, following Russia’s invasion...

The European Commission said it had "preliminary concerns that the transaction may reduce competition in the market for passenger air transport services on several short-haul and long-haul routes in and out of Italy".

Hamas was created in December 1987 shortly after the start of the first Palestinian intifada, or uprising, in the Israeli-occupied Palestinian territories by a group of fighters claiming to be from the Muslim Brotherhood, including the influential Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Twenty years later, in June 2007, Hamas took control of...

"These risks are serious because they limit our ability to tackle the big global challenges we are facing. Changes in our climate and our geopolitical climate, shifts in our demography and in our technology. Spiraling regional conflicts and intensified geopolitical competition, and their impacts on supply chains," she adds.

Brussels, Belgium - The EU, racing to regulate the fast-moving world of artificial intelligence, said on Tuesday it has started a preliminary study of Microsoft's multi-billion-dollar investment in ChatGPT developer OpenAI to see if it could be a disguised merger. The early-level examination is "checking whether Microsoft's investment in OpenAI might...

Abu Dhabi, UAE - The UAE has announced its participation in developing a module on Nasa’s Lunar Gateway Station alongside the USA, Japan, Canada and the European Union, in addition to sending the first Emirati astronaut into lunar orbit as part of the project. During the event held at Qasr...

Josep Borrell held talks with the head of Hezbollah's parliamentary bloc, Mohammad Raad, Lebanese media reported. An EU source confirmed the meeting, which came hours after the group's fighters fired rockets at an Israeli military base in response to the killing of a senior Hamas figure in a suspected Israeli...

The European Union foreign policy chief warned against a regional conflict that would involve Lebanon, as border clashes intensified nearly three months into Israel's war with Hizbollah ally Hamas. “It is absolutely necessary to avoid Lebanon being dragged into a regional conflict," Josep Borrell said during a press conference in...

Saudi Arabia and Qatar condemned comments by two Israeli ministers calling for Palestinians to emigrate from the Gaza Strip. Israel's National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir on Monday called for promoting "a solution to encourage the emigration of Gaza's residents" and the re-establishment of Israeli settlements in the Gaza Strip.

After President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine in February 2022, Western countries hit Russia with a slew of sanctions including a European Union embargo on its seaborne oil deliveries. As it was losing much of its market share in Europe, Moscow pivoted to other buyers including China.

MOSCOW, RUSSIA - The Russian government has extended the ban on the entry of trucks from the European Union, the UK, Norway and Ukraine to the country. “The restriction will remain in effect until the circumstances that served as the basis for its introduction are eliminated,” the Cabinet noted on...

A joint statement said the funds amounting to around $164.3 million "aims to support the efforts undertaken by the Tunisian government to promote the recovery of the economy" through "the improvement of the management of public finances". Tunisia, which devotes a good part of its resources to repaying a crippling...

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - Several Moroccan officials have been questioned as part of a high-profile investigation into alleged bribery by the north African state and Qatar at the European Parliament, Belgian prosecutors said on Saturday. The interviews in Morocco -- conducted by local authorities in the presence of Belgian investigators -- were...

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - Business activity in the eurozone slumped at a faster rate in December, weighed down by a deeper downturn in France, a key survey said on Friday. The HCOB Flash Eurozone purchasing managers' index (PMI) published by S&P Global fell to 47 in December from 47.6 in November. A figure below...

Brussels, Belgium - The EU demanded on Thursday that Apple and Google provide more details on how they identified risks concerning their respective software hubs, the App Store and Google Play. The request for information is the first step in a process begun under the EU's Digital Services Act (DSA), but...

The agreement will see states given the "possibility to exclusively support" the acquisition of new renewable generation, in line with member countries' decarbonization plans, said the EU Council statement. The deal also empowers the Council, which represents member states, to declare a union-wide "crisis" based on market conditions.

Colombia, whose left-leaning government has aggressively promoted environmentalism, warned that COP28 was also failing on raising financing for countries to adapt to the effects of climate change. If countries block "goals on adaptation but at the same time oppose the phase out fossil fuel, they need to be held accountable....

BRUSSELS, BELGIUM - Margrethe Vestager is preparing to return to her day job as the European Union's competition chief after a hard-fought and ultimately unsuccessful bid to lead the bloc's lender. She stepped down temporarily in September after entering the race to become the next head of the European Investment Bank...

PARIS, FRANCE - The family of Mahsa Amini, the Iranian Kurdish woman who died in custody, have been banned from traveling to France to collect a top rights prize awarded posthumously, their lawyer said on Saturday. Amini died aged 22 on September 16, 2022, while being held by Iran's religious police...

Inside the negotiating rooms and on the sidelines of the COP28 climate talks, simmering tensions over wealthy countries' "green trade" policies have been bubbling to the surface, with developing nations fearful they will be penalized. A particularly sore point has been the European Union's new carbon border tax, which sets...

A tentative "phasedown/out" was included in a first draft of an agreement on climate action that delegates are haggling over during talks that are scheduled to finish on December 12. But Energy Minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told Bloomberg that Saudi Arabia, the world's biggest oil exporter, would not agree.

The SUVs produced by Toyota, Volkswagen, and Hyundai-Kia have all posted sales increases of more than 150% over the past decade, meaning the companies are moving "in the opposite direction" of efforts to curb CO2 emissions, Greenpeace said. The analysis came out a day before the COP28 climate summit is...

Stockholm, Sweden - Fine particle pollution caused the deaths of over 250,000 people in the European Union in 2021, according to a report by the European Environment Agency (EEA) published on Friday. Fine particulate matter, or PM2.5, is a term for fine particulates that are typically the by-product of car exhausts...

Germany on November 2 banned Hamas and Samidoun. According to official figures, Germany hosts an estimated 450 members of Hamas, proscribed as a "terrorist" organization by the European Union, the United States and Israel. The ministry said that while Hamas members had not staged "violent action" in Germany so far,...

Founded in 1957, the European Economic Community (later renamed the EU) started out with six members Belgium, France, Italy, Luxembourg,  the Netherlands and West Germany.

The tech giant said it made a profit of $23 billion.

The number of people using Facebook monthly rose slightly to 3.05 billion in a year-over-year comparison while monthly active users of Meta's "family" of apps was 3.96 billion in a 7 percent increase from the same quarter in 2022, the company reported. Meta had suffered a rough 2022 amid a...

There have also been increasing cross-border exchanges of fire along Israel's northern border with Lebanon, between Israeli troops and Hezbollah, an ally of Hamas.

Jerusalem - The Israeli military said on Saturday that Gaza City residents must not delay their departure before a military offensive starts, as people leaving the north of the territory again jammed roads south. Ahead of an expected Israeli ground offensive against Hamas, which attacked southern Israel on October 7,...

EU internal market commissioner Thierry Breton raised the alarm in letters sent to Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, whose Meta group includes Facebook and Instagram. He demanded late on Tuesday each of them provides details within 24 hours on how "illegal content and disinformation" is being removed from their platforms in...

Israel imposed a total siege on the Gaza Strip and cut off the water supply as it kept bombing targets in the Palestinian enclave in response to the Hamas surprise assault it has likened to the 9/11 attacks. Israel has counted over 700 dead and launched strikes on Gaza that...

Brussels is creating a trade armory to protect the bloc from actions by rival countries, including a tool aimed at punishing nations that seek to put pressure on one of its member states. The European Parliament is also set to give its final green light to a mechanism that would allow...

Telecoms giants say that they need more money to maintain and update the infrastructure to meet Europe's voracious data needs, and that it would be fairer if firms like Netflix contributed towards the cost. But tech behemoths say telecoms companies already get money from customers, while digital rights activists fear...

PARIS, FRANCE - Wavering ambition by governments and a growing belief that science is politically subjective are great causes for concern in a rapidly escalating climate crisis, an expert told AFP. A cascade of extreme weather events have inflicted devastation in 2023, which the European Union's climate monitor says is likely...

Part of the aim of the revised policy is for European Union countries to act together should they be faced with a sudden large inflow of asylum-seekers, as happened in 2015-2016 when hundreds of thousands of migrants arrived, most of them Syrians fleeing the war in their country.