Author: News Desk

Colombia’s president said his country will impose visa requirements on British citizens in response to the UK Government’s decision to impose visa rules on Colombian visitors. The changes, which came into force at 3pm on Tuesday, mean visitors from Colombia will now need a visa to travel to the UK. Colombian nationals will also need a transit visa if they need to pass through the UK to travel on to another country. On Tuesday evening, Colombia’s leader Gustavo Petro said his country will adopt similar rules under “the principle of reciprocity”. Si el Reino Unido ha restablecido la necesidad de…

  French supermarket group Carrefour attempted on Tuesday, November 26, to end a supplier “boycott” of its stores in Brazil by apologizing for refusing to sell Mercosur-origin meat in its outlets in France. “We apologize” if the domestic French retail ban announced last week “created confusion,” Carrefour CEO Alexandre Bompard said in a letter to Brazil’s agriculture minister released to media including Agence France-Presse (AFP). Meat suppliers in Brazil have since last Friday halted deliveries to Carrefour stores, in a campaign termed a “boycott” by Brazilian media that on Monday earned vocal support from the agriculture minister, Carlos Favaro. Responding…

Citing “concern” for his country’s farmers and food security, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said his government “will not accept” the prospective free trade deal between the European Union and the Mercosur block in its current form, joining its “primary ally”, France, in forming a blocking minority to against the agreement. Poland joins France in opposing EU-Mercosur free trade agreement

Across southern Africa, support for long-standing ruling parties has dwindled during the past year. South Africa’s once-strong African National Congress (ANC) had to form a coalition government with the Democratic Alliance (DA) to govern for the first time since independence. Neighboring Mozambique is facing violent unrest after Frelimo’s disputed election win. Opposition parties have recently won in Botswana and Mauritius. Namibia is holding its elections on Wednesday, where the governing South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO), which has been in power since 1990, remains strong in the country’s populous northern regions. Could SWAPO recover from its 2019 decline? SWAPO has already seen…

The French presidency on Tuesday, November 26, issued a categorical denial that President Emmanuel Macron had predicted that the government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier would soon fall due to a motion of no confidence backed by the far right. The presidency used its official account on X, @Elysée, to deny the story published in the The Parisian daily. The controversy comes a day after French far-right figurehead Marine Le Pen threatened to back a no-confidence motion that could topple the government of Barnier in a standoff over the budget. She said after crunch talks both sides were “entrenched” in…

The only debate between the three candidates to lead Esquerra was reduced this Tuesday to practically an exchange of speeches, with white gloves, between the representatives of the two lists with the most options, Oriol Junqueras (Militància Decidim) and Xavier Godàs (Nova Esquerra Nacional). . Not even the frontal attacks of the other candidate, Helena Solà (Foc Nou), towards her two rivals managed to dynamite an obvious commitment to maintaining a contained tone. The controversy over the Maragall posters and the pacts with the PSC dominated the meeting in which Junqueras once again avoided revealing what he voted for in…

Today, the Commission has launched a Trusted Investors Network bringing together a group of investors ready to co-invest in innovative deep-tech companies in Europe together with the EU. The Union’s investment comes from the European Innovation Council (EIC) Fund, which is part of the EU research and innovation programme Horizon Europe. The first group comprises 71 investors from across Europe, including venture capital funds, public investment banks, foundations and corporate venture funds. These investors collectively represent over €90 billion of assets, which positions the network as a key initiative to mobilise capital for Europe’s deep tech sector. Following preparatory meetings with investors…

  THE root-and-branch examination into finding cures for Gaelic Football’s alleged ailments reaches its moment of truth at the Special Congress in Croke Park on Saturday. Headed-up by former Dublin manager Jim Gavin, the Football Review Committee conducted a forensic and thorough investigation of the laws of the game, consulted with stakeholders, played trials and invited the public to have their say before they tabled a list of measures they feel will clean up the sport and make it a more interesting spectacle. Gaelic Football has changed dramatically over the last two decades and some of the proposals – such…

A key measure of France’s sovereign borrowing costs hit a 12-year high on Tuesday, November 26, indicating growing investor concern over the government’s stability following snap elections earlier this year. The “spread” which measures the gap between yields on French 10-year state bonds and the benchmark German ones hit 0.86 percentage points, up from 0.72 on November 18. Investors were demanding a yield of 3.05 percent to buy French sovereign debt because of the higher risk, compared to only 2.18 percent for German government-issued bonds. The peak came with the government facing the threat of a no-confidence vote next month…

Fifty-one men of all ages, professions and origins have been on trial in Avignon, southern France, since September. All but one, who is on the run, took the stand to explain their background and their involvement in the rapes of Gisèle Pelicot as she was drugged by her husband Dominique Pelicot. Many of them denied any guilt, despite video evidence. Here are their profiles. 51 men are standing trial for the rapes of Gisèle Pelicot. Here’s who they are and what they said in court