Germany's foreign intelligence service is to be given far more scope for taking decisive action in threatening situations under plans of the office of Chancellor Friedrich Merz, according to media reports on Thursday. The proposals would allow sabotage operations to weaken hostile forces, according to public broadcasters WDR and NDR as well as the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper, citing a new draft law on the country's Federal Intelligence Service BND.
The European Union is postponing the signing of a free trade deal with four Mercosur countries until January, an EU official said on Thursday. The agreement between the EU and Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay, which has been in the making for over 25 years, was scheduled to be signed at a summit in Brazil on Saturday.
For decades, Belgium has been at the beating heart of the European Union. The headquarters of the 27-nation bloc’s main institutions and NATO are based there. EU leaders meet in the capital Brussels at least four times a year.
Police intensified their search Wednesday for a suspect in the killing of professor Nuno F.G. Loureiro at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, two days after he was shot to death at his home outside Boston. Loureiro, a 47-year-old physicist and fusion scientist, was shot Monday night at his apartment in Brookline, Massachusetts. The prosecutor’s office said the homicide investigation was “active and ongoing” as of early afternoon Wednesday and had no update — earlier they had said no sus
Four GOP congressmen defied party leadership by siding with Democrats, but premiums are still on track to skyrocket at the end of the year.
Negotiators from EU countries and the European Parliament have agreed on new safeguards for imported agricultural products under the pending Mercosur free trade agreement, despite persisting divisions over the approval of the deal with four Latin American countries. The controversial free trade deal is intended to boost trade between the European Union and the four Mercosur countries — Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay — but is still viewed critically by some in the EU.
Authorities are searching for a suspect in the killing of Nuno F.G. Loureiro, a prominent physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who was shot at his home near Boston. Loureiro, a married 47-year-old from Portugal, was shot Monday night and died Tuesday at a local hospital. Authorities have not disclosed a possible motive, and no suspects were in custody as of Wednesday morning, the Norfolk District Attorney’s Office said.
Additionally, despite the United Nations’s continued complaints about the supply of aid into Gaza, COGAT stated the UN only provided 20% of the aid reaching Palestinians. Between 600 and 800 trucks carrying humanitarian aid have entered the Gaza Strip daily since the start of the ceasefire, the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) announced on Wednesday.
A new report claims the Asia Pacific was a dominating regional hotspot for international tourists in 2025.
The leaders of the European Union and the Western Balkans countries agreed to forge closer ties at a summit on Wednesday evening in Brussels. Russia's war against Ukraine and the increasing geopolitical challenges underscore the need for ever closer relations, according to a joint statement issued by the EU's 27 members and five countries of the region.