RIYADH: The Gulf Cooperation Council economy is forecast to rebound 8.1 percent in 2027 after contracting 2.4 percent in 2026, as regional energy exports, tourism and investor confidence gradually normalize following conflict-related disruptions, a new analysis showed. The forecast, published by th»»»

Abu Dhabi: Hamad Al Kaabi, Director-General of the Federal Authority for Nuclear Regulation (FANR), visited the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant to review the authority's oversight activities and assess the operational status of the facility. During the visit, Al Kaabi received updates on the operation »»»

Abu Dhabi: The Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (MoHESR) has launched an updated version of its registration and admissions platform, Edu Hub, aimed at making the university application process easier and more efficient for students across the UAE. The platform, developed in col»»»

Although the US-Iran deal brings hope to Lebanon, reactions remain mixed. Lebanon may be mentioned in the first paragraph, it is not included in the $300 billion reconstruction fund despite the south of the country having been totally destroyed, and Israeli strikes have not stopped. FRANCE 24's Ren»»»

PRESS REVIEW – Thursday, June 18: An Israeli paper slams the US's deal with Iran as a "catastrophic capitulation". While Trump sees the US as the big winner, the press says Iran's chokehold on the Strait of Hormuz shows that it has set a new status quo. Also, EU leaders scramble to find anti-C»»»

Dubai: Meet Vega and Kuda. Two specially trained dogs are preparing for a journey from London to Zimbabwe — not as pets, but as part of a conservation mission to help track poachers and protect endangered wildlife. Sign up for our daily business newsletter, Cheques & Balances.Emirates SkyCargo anno»»»

Doha, Qatar: The Ministry of Transport took part in the 29th extraordinary meeting of the Committee of Transport Ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states, held via videoconference. The ministers in attendance discussed the implementation of the directives of the GCC country leaders du»»»

According to European Commission data, 4.6 billion low-value parcels entered EU member states in 2024 alone, with 91% originating from China. Starting July 1, 2026, this exemption will be abolished. A flat 3 euro fee will apply to shipments from third countries valued at up to 150 euro, for each ca»»»

Revolut, the fintech company with over 70 million customers globally, has appointed Wiktor Stopa to lead the Growth and Marketing Department for Central and Eastern Europe. Wiktor is also responsible for coordinating the same types of activities in Western Europe. BR sat down with him to ask him ab»»»

Évian-les-Bains, France — Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi and US President Donald Trump held talks on the sidelines of the G7 Summit in Évian-les-Bains, France, focusing on Middle East stability, Gaza, the recently announced US-Iran agreement and the long-running dispute over the Grand Ethi»»»

An Israeli drone strike in south Lebanon killed two people on Thursday, hours after the United States and Iran signed an agreement to end the Middle East war, including in Lebanon. The strike targeted a car in Kfartebnit, near the Israeli-declared 'yellow line'. "An enemy drone targeted a car" in t»»»

Israel is holding negotiations with the United States as it seeks to maintain its troop deployment in southern Lebanon, media reports said, as the U.S. and Iran signed a deal to end the war including in Lebanon, although Israel and Hezbollah aren't parties to the agreement. Iran insists Israel must»»»

Russian President Vladimir Putin’s main trait is his mercifulness, RT Editor-in-Chief Margarita Simonyan has said. Simonyan was asked to expand on the Russian leader’s personality during an extensive interview with Zhang Weiwei, a professor of international relations at Fudan University and host of»»»

Sharjah's Roads and Transport Authority (SRTA) will implement temporary traffic diversions at the Imran Bin Taryam and Ahmed Bin Hadid roundabouts from Sunday as work begins on a project to convert the two roundabouts into signal-controlled intersections. The authority said the changes form part of»»»

Prime Minister Rumen Radev said on Thursday that he expects fuel prices to decrease as soon as possible, reflecting the recent decline in global crude oil prices. Speaking to journalists after attending the opening of a National Meeting of Local and Central Executive Authorities in Sofia, Radev not»»»

The political leadership of North Macedonia is doing everything possible to delay its country's accession to the European Union, Prime Minister Rumen Radev said on Thursday in response to a journalist's question. Radev was speaking at the opening of a national meeting of local and central executive»»»

The Ministry of Education and Science has prepared the budget for 2026 according to the instructions of the Ministry of Finance, the Minister of Education and Science, Prof. Dr. Georgi Valchev, told journalists on Thursday. He attended an event of the "Az-buki" National Publishing House which offic»»»

The Hungarian government announced a series of significant policy decisions during Thursday’s government press briefing, ranging from the release of European Union funds and urban development projects in Budapest to major reforms affecting law enforcement, the military and public asset protection. »»»

Secretary's SpeechLebanon PalestineZionist EntityRegional and International International More Video Language Ar En Fr EsSubscribe for Weekly Updates Subscribe Residents of Hadatha manage to reach the town’s square and eastern neighborhoods, accompanied by the Lebanese Army and medics: Al-Manar rep»»»

Keir Starmer isn’t on the ballot, but the U.K. prime minister’s future is on the line in a special election on June 18. Voters in the Makerfield district of northwest England are electing a new lawmaker. The leading contender is Andy Burnham, the current Labour mayor of Greater Manchester and the f»»»

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told NATO the Pentagon will conduct a review of its force presence in Europe within the next six months. The review will depend on how fast European NATO allies take responsibility for their own security. This comes on the back of a G7 summit deemed a success, as T»»»

The sweltering heat returning to France is hitting farmers particularly hard. Temperatures are set to reach up to 40 degrees celsius , but those in the agriculture sector have no choice but to carry on with their daily work.»»»

Bulgaria is positioning itself in the middle tier of NATO defense spending rankings, with 2025 data showing the country allocating 2.05% of its GDP to defense, a level that matches France and slightly exceeds Italy. The figures place Sofia within what analysts describe as the Alliance’s “golden mea»»»

The pro-Russian “Revival” party has called for the expulsion of Ukrainian Ambassador Olesya Ilashchuk, demanding that she be declared persona non grata in connection with the so-called “Baba Alino” case. Speaking from the parliamentary podium, MP Kosta Stoyanov argued that the case goes far beyond »»»

The United States’ war against Iran represents a more serious strategic setback than the Vietnam War, contending that it directly damaged core US interests and weakened Washington’s position on the global stage, a Foreign Policy analyst has reported. Writing in Foreign Policy, Paul Musgrave, an ass»»»

DUBAI: Filipino conjoined twins Olivia and Gianna Manuel were successfully separated on Thursday as surgeons completed a major stage of a complex operation under Saudi Arabia’s Conjoined Twins Program. The twins, who were born joined at the chest and abdomen, were separated during the procedure, wh»»»

A new poultry farm Kirovets has been opened in Kyrgyzstan. It can produce up to 180,000 eggs per day and will create 25 new jobs. The poultry farm is part of the Tri T breeding poultry farm. According to the company, together with its other production facilities, it meets approximately 16.5 percent»»»

RIYADH: Saudi Telecom Co., also known as stc, and Public Investment Fund-backed Humain have extended by six months a memorandum of understanding to establish a Saudi AI data center joint venture. The extension, disclosed in a Tadawul filing on June 18, follows the expiry of the original agreement s»»»

Lithuanian lawmakers are preparing legal changes that could prevent companies maintaining commercial ties with Russia or Belarus from operating at the country's strategic infrastructure facilities, including airports and other nationally important sites, independent Lithuanian news agency BNS »»»

Uzbekistan is an unusual case in the Islamic world. Its population of nearly 40mn is overwhelmingly Muslim — around 90% — yet the country has operated since independence as a resolutely secular state, with a conventional western-style banking system inherited from the Soviet era. Islamic finance ha»»»

BusinessGermanyProtests target private equity industry at Berlin summitVanessa Guinan-BankActivists gathered to protest the SuperReturn private equity summit in Berlin, accusing the industry of driving inequality, job cuts and rising costs as investors representing trillions gather to seek high ret»»»

BELGRADE - The Serbian dinar's official median exchange rate against the euro is 117.3899 dinars for one euro on Thursday, which is a slight change relative to Wednesday, the National Bank of Serbia said. The dinar is steady against the euro m-o-m, down by 0.1 pct y-o-y and down by 0.1 pct relative»»»

The solemn naming ceremony, including raising the Russian flag, took place in Russia's Far Eastern town of Bolshoy Kamen. The Konstantin Posyet will be able to transport liquified natural gas year-round along the Northern Sea Route, including its eastern sector.Due to its optimized design and effic»»»

Bulgarian surgeons at the Queen Ioanna - ISUL Hospital in Sofia have performed the country's first small-intestine transplant reconstruction of the cervical esophagus, preserving speech and swallowing in a patient with advanced cancer. The surgery lasted more than 10 hours and was performed on a 58»»»

BELGRADE - After a retrial, the Higher Court in Belgrade on Thursday handed prison sentences to the parents a teenage boy who killed nine pupils and a security staff member and wounded six more people in a shooting spree in his primary school in central Belgrade on May 3, 2023. His father Vladimir »»»

Doha, Qatar: Qatar Airways Group has restored its network to 85 percent of pre-crisis levels and created two new executive roles to sharpen its operations and deepen its focus on customers. The milestone was reached with the launch of the airline's summer 2026 schedule this week, which sees more th»»»

Doha, Qatar: HE Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari, Minister of Finance, attended the opening session of the 2026 Annual Meetings of the Islamic Development Bank Group, which were inaugurated by HE Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan. The meetings were held in Baku from June 16 to 19, 2026 u»»»

The event took a practical approach, featuring plants sampled from the field, comparative analyses, and open discussions about yield losses, the impact of drought, soil compaction, diseases, and pests, as well as solutions that can stabilize results at the farm level. “This year, the field speaks v»»»

The political and strategic decisions adopted at NATO and European Union level mark the beginning of a new economic cycle for the defence industry. The accelerated increase in military budgets, the adoption of unprecedented investment targets, and the pressure on existing production capacities are »»»

DUBAI: Mohammed Ben Sulayem, president of the FIA, says the federation’s Extraordinary General Assembly and Annual Conference in Macau next week has an important part to play in guiding the future of motorsport and mobility. Hosted in partnership with the Automobile General Association Macao-China »»»

JERUSALEM: Israel’s foreign minister said Thursday that he was severing all contact with the European Union’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas over reported remarks in which she allegedly compared Israel to the apartheid regime that once ruled South Africa.“Recently, it was published that during her visit »»»

In the first 11 matches out of the 33 scheduled for the 2026 women’s T20 World Cup, there have been several surprises, coupled with strong expressions of intent by Australia, India, and England. Margins for error are fine in T20 cricket and New Zealand illustrated that in abundance against the West»»»

Dubai: The UAE has become the latest nation to ban children under 15 from social media, following strict new under-16 restrictions in the UK and Australia. Driven by rising concerns over cyberbullying, mental health, and online predators, a growing wave of global governments are shifting away from »»»

Prime Minister Rumen Radev said Thursday that Bulgaria won't allow sanctions against Russia, that harm the Bulgarian economy. "We won't allow sanctions against Russia, that impact negatively the Bulgarian economy," he told reporters ahead of the opening of a national meeting of local and central ex»»»

Almost all Bulgarian administrative structures are experiencing a decline in their administrative capacity, according to the results of the National Survey of the Administrative Capacity of the State Administration for 2025, presented at the University of National and World Economy (UNWE) on Thursd»»»

Parliament on Thursday adopted at second reading amendments to the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC) introducing judicial review of 72-hour detention orders issued by prosecutors. The new provision is set to enter into force one month after its promulgation in the State Gazette. The amendments also req»»»

Due to the introduction of «Carpet» plan in Moscow, flight schedule between Kyrgyzstan and Russia has been changed. The press service of Airports of Kyrgyzstan OJSC reported. According to it, Aviatrafic flight YK883 en route from Bishkek to Moscow has been diverted to an alternate airfield in Nizhn»»»

Talks between President of Kyrgyzstan Sadyr Japarov and the President of the Republic of Albania, Bajram Begaj, have concluded as part of his first official visit to the Kyrgyz Republic. They discussed the development of cooperation between the two countries. Sadyr Japarov stated that Kyrgyzstan vi»»»

Doha, Qatar: The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs HE Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi, met on Thursday with HE Ambassador of the State of Kuwait to the State of Qatar Ahmad Abdulrahman Al Shuraim. During the meeting, they discussed cooperation relations between the two countries and ways to support»»»

Dubai: United Arab Emirates (UAE) issued a decision regulating children's access to social media platforms. This resolution, passed in its cabinet, aims to enable children to benefit from it within a safe, balanced and age-appropriate digital environment. The decision comes in light of the increasi»»»