FOXBOROUGH, USA: Scotland star Scott McTominay is ready for the team’s opening World Cup game against Haiti on Saturday after overcoming a stomach bug, coach Steve Clarke has said. “He is perfect and ready to go,” Clarke said when asked about the fitness of the Napoli man, Scotland’s star player. M»»»

MAKKAH: When the 2026 FIFA World Cup kicked off at Mexico City’s legendary Azteca Stadium, fans looked up and saw a piece of Saudi Arabia. FPC Industries, a subsidiary of FIPCO, supplied more than 4,000 sq. meters of PVC fabric for the venue’s new “Red Crown” — the sweeping canopy that rings the to»»»

LOS ANGELES: When Iran kick off their World Cup campaign next week in Los Angeles, Iranian-American businessman Ehsan Shafi will be in the stands cheering on Team Melli, a rare chance to welcome the national side he adores to his adopted home. Instead of a moment of pure sporting celebration, howev»»»

France and Germany are discussing proposals for a radical overhaul of the EU’s 15-year-old diplomatic service and cutting the powers of EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, in an attempt to improve the bloc’s response to geopolitical crises, the Financial Times reported on June 11. Paris, Berlin an»»»

China and the EU have crossed the threshold beyond which population decline is mathematically irreversible — no matter what fertility policy is adopted. Now they simply don’t have enough women of childbearing age to produce enough children to keep the population stable, irrespective of what happens»»»

The EU appears to be willing to sacrifice both the well-being of its people and its own fiscal stability for the sake of military buildup justified by an alleged Russian threat. The bloc’s members push forward with their defense budget increase plans despite record debt levels, with some of them al»»»

BERLIN: The humpback whale that kept Germany spellbound for months likely lived for roughly five days after the final controversial rescue attempt failed to guide it back to its natural habitat in the Atlantic Ocean, officials said Friday. The whale, nicknamed “Timmy” and “Hope” by German media, wa»»»

Paris, France: Massive cuts to international aid have put the world's response to HIV "in peril", the UN's top AIDS official warned Friday, as a new report revealed the scale of disruption to HIV prevention efforts. Last year, the new administration of US President Donald Trump --- with help from t»»»

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Finland will not become a nuclear power, but will take part in NATO nuclear planning, President Alexander Stubb said. "Finland will participate in NATO nuclear planning, but Finland will not become a nuclear power," Stubb told Yle, commenting on French President Emmanuel Macron's»»»

The ambassadors of France, Germany and the UK have requested a meeting with Russia’s foreign ministry following an E3 London summit at which the three European leaders issued a five-point list of demands aimed at persuading Moscow to begin ceasefire negotiations over the war in Ukraine. Russian For»»»

Over 240 uniformed officers, supported by specialized equipment, will take part in intensified road traffic control across Burgas Region during the summer, chief commissioner Nikolay Nenkov of the Burgas Regional Police Directorate said Friday. He spoke at a briefing after a midnight specialized op»»»

Bulgaria's State Agency for Refugees (SAR) is ready to implement the requirements of the European Union's Pact on Migration and Asylum, which entered into force on Friday, SAR Chair Ivan Ivanov said, as quoted by the agency's press office. Ivanov explained that the pact introduces a border procedur»»»

BAWI is an established provider in the field of railway infrastructure, with comprehensive expertise along the entire value chain – ranging from construction and modernisation services to specialised works and its own component production. The company employs around 240 people and generated output »»»

Doha, Qatar: The FIFA World Cup 2026 is already guaranteed to be unlike any previous edition of football’s biggest tournament. With a record 48 participating teams, 104 matches, three host nations and an expanded knockout stage, the tournament will rewrite several chapters of World Cup history. Yet»»»

A vote in Sweden’s parliament could force public sector workers to report undocumented people to authorities. The bill, popularised as the ‘snitch law’, will be voted in on Monday (15 June), as part of a greater policy of migration deterrence by the right and far-right Swedish government. The Swedi»»»

IRVINE: The long-awaited World Cup opener on home soil Friday promises to contain deep shades of red, white and ‌blue for the United States men’s national team. Manager Mauricio Pochettino might be from Argentina and goal-producing forward Folarin Balogun grew up in England after he was born in New»»»

Doha, Qatar: The Cultural Village Foundation -Katara, in cooperation with the Embassy of Italy in Qatar, hosted a screening of the Maria Montessori documentary at the Drama Theatre yesterday evening in honour of one of the most influential Italian women of the 20th century and one of the most impor»»»

WASHINGTON: The relationship between US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron started simply enough, with a handshake, nearly a decade ago. But even then, there were signs of strain in their relationship — tensions that could be on full display during next week’s G7 summit in »»»

RIYADH: The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) has launched its first office dedicated to cybersecurity, establishing a new global hub in Riyadh to support efforts to strengthen cyber resilience through training, research, policy development and knowledge exchange. The Riya»»»

SANTA CLARA, California: Qatar take on Switzerland in their World Cup opener on Saturday eager to shake off the pressure of expectation, coming in as back-to-back Asian champions with an urgent need to make amends for a dismal debut as hosts of the 2022 tournament. Qatar’s 2022 unraveling was unpre»»»

“Hochmut kommt vor dem Fall” (arrogance precedes a fall) says a proverb every German knows. That, you may say, is little wonder, considering how the last two world wars started and ended. But the saying is much older. It is rooted in Martin Luther’s punchy translation of the Old Testament (in the E»»»

Many Germans want their politicians to be stripped of the special protection against defamation and insults they enjoy under current laws, a recent survey conducted by the INSA polling agency has shown. The issue has come into the spotlight following dozens of criminal cases opened against people c»»»

The summer of 1938 in France was no ordinary one for Hungarian goalkeeper Antal Szabó. He was contesting the World Cup with his national team for the second time, and with Hungary’s forwards scoring freely and propelling the nation towards the final, it meant that he was idle for long stretches bet»»»

The EU’s controversial deportation bill is heading for a crucial vote next week at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, as lawmakers make last-minute efforts to amend legislation that would allow member states to deport rejected asylum seekers abroad. The bill is likely to sail through at Wednesd»»»

PARIS: Leading European nations and their G7 allies will seek to narrow differences with Donald Trump at a summit from Monday chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron but expected to be dominated by the US leader’s presence. Leaders will be looking to put the fizz back into relations with the Un»»»

EU member states could seek to curtail the powers of the bloc’s diplomatic service, headed by Kaja Kallas, amid concerns among officials that the body is “dysfunctional,” the Financial Times has reported. The European External Action Service (EEAS) was launched in 2010 as a kind of collective forei»»»

LONDON: Around 1.3 million people returned to Syria in 2025, marking one of the largest refugee return movements in the world in that year, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees. The number of Syrian refugees has now dropped to 4.9 million as more people have returned to their homes fo»»»

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - German Chancellor Friedrich Merz's government has been pushing for confrontation with Russia to divert public attention from its failed probe into the Nord Stream pipeline sabotage and other shortcomings, Alice Weidel, co-chair of the opposition Alternative for Germany (AfD) part»»»

LONDON: Serena Williams’ much-hyped comeback to professional tennis at the Queen’s Club lasted just one match. The 44-year-old Williams’ doubles partner, 19-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko, was forced to withdraw from the draw on Thursday because of a knee injury she sustained in a singles match a»»»

MOSCOW: British, French and German ambassadors to Russia held talks Thursday in Russia’s foreign ministry, several days after a London summit with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky. The UK hosted Zelensky and the leaders of France and Germany earlier this week, supporting Kyiv’s call for direct talks wi»»»

Dubai: Travellers will get more flight options between Abu Dhabi, Germany and Asia after Etihad Airways and Condor expanded their strategic partnership with a new Bangkok service and a frequent flyer agreement. Sign up for our daily business newsletter, Cheques & Balances.Condor will launch flights»»»

Undertakings in a monopoly, dominant or collective dominant position were barred from quoting excessively high prices, Bulgaria's Parliament resolved on Thursday, passing conclusively amendments to the Protection of Competition Act moved by Progressive Bulgaria. The revisions define "exceedingly hi»»»

Milan, Italy: Carbon dioxide removal experts have sounded the alarm in Milan this week over a shortfall in research and investment in the nascent sector viewed as essential for mitigating climate change. Still marginal and costly, CO2 removal, known as CDR, consists of extracting the greenhouse gas»»»

Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly chaired a meeting of the Economic Ministerial Group at the government headquarters in the New Capital on Tuesday, June 10, 2026, to review a number of priority economic issues and developments. The meeting was attended by Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Hu»»»

Who is Timur Turlov? Where did his billions come from? And how did he turn a small brokerage firm into a transnational financial ecosystem? Freedom Holding Corp. is a Kazakhstan-born international fintech company listed on the Nasdaq and valued at nearly $9 billion. In recent years, the company - w»»»

According to NASA, there is “unequivocal evidence that Earth is warming at an unprecedented rate”, Statista reports. Data from Copernicus, the European Earth Observation program for the European Space Agency, shows that July 22, 2024, was the world’s hottest daily global average temperature since t»»»

The economic fallout from the conflict in the Middle East is expected to slow growth across emerging Europe, Central Asia and parts of Africa and the Mediterranean, as higher energy costs reignite inflation, weaken industrial competitiveness and strain already fragile public finances, the European »»»

Who is going to pay for rebuilding Ukraine after the war is over? Now the EU has raised a €90bn two-year loan to keep the country in the fight against Russia, attention has started to turn to what comes next. The European Commission (EC) has drawn up a draft recovery plan for 2028-2034 but it falls»»»

Wars in the Middle East and Ukraine are set to dominate next week’s Group of Seven summit, as host France crafts an agenda aimed at projecting unity and avoiding confrontation with US President Donald Trump. The June 15–17 gathering in Evian-les-Bains, on the shore of Lake Geneva, brings together t»»»

LONDON — Stock markets mostly rallied Tuesday as investors returned to the AI trade, while easing Middle East tensions weighed on oil prices and the dollar.Bargain buying saw Seoul's Kospi stocks index rebound strongly after big losses Monday that had been sparked by prospects of a hike to US inter»»»

Wars in the Middle East and Ukraine are set to dominate next week’s Group of Seven summit, as host France crafts an agenda aimed at projecting unity and avoiding confrontation with US President Donald Trump. The June 15–17 gathering in Evian-les-Bains, on the shore of Lake Geneva, brings together t»»»

Doha, Qatar: From Uruguay captain Jose Nasazzi becoming the first man to lift the Jules Rimet Trophy in Montevideo in 1930 to Lionel Messi fulfilling his lifelong dream beneath the lights of Lusail Stadium in Qatar in 2022, FIFA World Cup finals have produced some of the most unforgettable moments »»»

Eastern European members of the European Union are facing mounting demographic pressure from population decline, ageing societies and persistently low birth rates, according to new data from the EU’s statistics agency Eurostat, highlighting a widening demographic divide across the bloc. While the E»»»

When EI first invested in Anwim in 2018, the company operated 180 fuel stations. By the end of March 2026, the MOYA network had tripled to 540 locations, making it the third-largest and fastest-growing fuel station chain in Poland. Over the same period, Anwim evolved into a fully integrated player »»»

Tourists from the United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Italy made the largest contribution to foreign visitor spending in Romania. Together, they spent almost €2 billio, accounting for around 40% of the total. For the first time in 2025, American tourists were the biggest spenders, at €55»»»

America’s allies are getting an uncomfortable message from Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon contractor that manufactures one of the West’s most important air-defense missiles: don’t expect any timeline delivery guarantees. Even as the defense giant expands production of PAC-3 interceptors for the Patr»»»

On June 11, 1963, for a brief moment, Gov. George Wallace blocked the enrollment of two Black students to the University of Alabama. 1 of 5 | Alabama Gov. George Wallace blocks the enrollment of two Black students to the University of Alabama on June 11, 1963. File Photo by Warren K. Leffler/U.S. N»»»

Twenty-two countries, including the US and European nations, have condemned what they called “lethal plots” and “malign actions” carried out by Iranian security services in Europe, North America and Australia. In a joint statement released by the US State Department on Wednesday, the countries accu»»»

The E3 European leaders met in London over the weekend to thrash out a new formula to take to the Kremlin and end the war in Ukraine. Unfortunately, the document they produced takes us all the way back to the very beginning of the process. It leads, like before, with a demand for an unconditional c»»»

Vladimir Zelensky is learning that even Ukraine’s most loyal backers may no longer be willing to overlook Kiev’s glorification of Nazi-backed nationalist figures – not even in the name of jointly opposing Russia. Warsaw, whose military and logistical support remains vital to Kiev’s war effort, has »»»