A Long-Standing Presence in the Grand Duchy

Tilly Metz of the Greens has criticised the agreement, which marks a significant tightening of the EU’s migration policy

A Long-Standing Presence in the Grand Duchy

Tilly Metz of the Greens has criticised the agreement, which marks a significant tightening of the EU’s migration policy

An eight-year-old boy and a woman killed in a strike on an apartment block are among the dead, officials say.

The leader of Denmark's Social Democratic Party is forming a centre-left coalition minority government, giving her a third term as prime minister.

BRUSSELS — The world must prepare for a surge in weather extremes and heat waves as a potentially exceptional El Niño emerges, the United Nations’ World Meteorological Organization has warned.  The WMO said on Tuesday that there’s an 80 percent chance of an El Niño — the warm phase of a natural climate cycle in the Pacific Ocean — developing between June and August, and a 90 percent chance the event will arrive by November.  El Niño’s return heralds a temporary upsurge in global temperatures on top of the warming effect of human-caused climate change. The event also disrupts rainfall patterns around the world, usually producing intense downpours and floods in some regions while bringing drought to others.  “El Niño conditions will pour fuel on the fire of a warming world,” said U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres in a statement Tuesday morning. The world, he added, “must treat it as the urgent climate warning it is.” The event’s expected impact on agriculture, hydropower supply and electricity demand for cooling will likely further strain the world’s food and energy supplies, coming at a time when many countries are already grappling with fertilizer and fuel shortages due to the Strait of Hormuz blockade. “Extreme heat alone is already one of the deadliest climate hazards we face. An El Niño event could intensify the threat, on average,” said Celeste Saulo, the WMO’s secretary-general, at a press conference on Tuesday morning.  “More heat-related illness, wider spread of vector-borne diseases, increased pressure on food and water systems, and communities that were already struggling will be pushed further beyond their limits,” she added. The extent of the impacts depends on El Niño’s strength. And there are signs that the event emerging now will be significant, which is often dubbed a ‘super’ El Niño — though the WMO doesn’t use that term.  An El Niño is considered very strong if sea temperatures in the relevant Pacific region increase by more than 2 degrees Celsius at its peak. The only time this has happened in the 21st century was during the 2015–2016 El Niño.  Several projections, including by the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts, suggest that not only could this coming El Niño reach 2C, but it may far exceed that threshold.  The most recent El Niño, in 2023, ranked among the five strongest on record and helped turn 2024 into the world’s hottest year. WMO experts already warned last week that the next such event may see 2027 break global temperature records once again.  However, the WMO stressed on Tuesday that the strength and peak of this El Niño are as yet uncertain.  “We will speak about moderate or strong when we are sure about that,” said Saulo. “There are models that are not providing any indication of a strong El Niño, while others are doing so.” Though El Niño tends to drive up temperatures worldwide, with the most pronounced warming effect occurring in the year after its emergence, the regional impacts vary. For Europe, effects are difficult to predict due to the continent’s distance from the Pacific.  In the southern United States, as well as parts of southern Latin America, the Horn of Africa and Central Asia, the event brings more rainfall, risking floods and landslides, said the WMO. In contrast, Australia, other parts of Latin America, the Caribbean, Southern Asia and Indonesia often face drier conditions.  But, said Saulo, if countries prepare accordingly and ensure early warning systems are in place, “El Niño does not have to be a recipe for disaster.”

BRUSSELS ― Hungary has signaled it will drop its long-standing opposition to Ukraine’s bid for EU membership, allowing it and Moldova to begin formal negotiations to join the bloc in the coming days, four diplomats told POLITICO. The opening of the first negotiating “cluster” — a formal step on the path to membership — is scheduled to take place during an intergovernmental conference in Luxembourg on June 15, three of the diplomats said. Kyiv and Chisinau applied for EU membership at the same time, meaning that Moldova’s bid can only advance if Ukraine’s does too. Budapest opposed Ukraine’s accession fiercely under former Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, but the country’s new leadership has privately signaled openness to lifting its veto following a meeting on Monday between Ukrainian and Hungarian experts on the matter of minority rights for Hungarians living in Ukraine, said the diplomats, who were granted anonymity to speak about a closed-door meeting. A Hungarian official said that “no decision” had yet been taken on opening clusters for Ukraine. “Negotiations are ongoing. No agreement has been reached,” said the official, granted anonymity because the discussions are confidential. During the meeting on Monday, the Ukrainian side provided assurances on how to resolve most concerns laid out in an 11-point plan originally prepared under Orbán, one of the diplomats said. Not all of Hungary’s requests can be immediately granted, but the diplomat added that Budapest’s approval was not contingent on passing new legislation in Ukraine. Talks on Ukraine’s membership picked up pace after Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar went to Brussels and met with top EU officials to discuss how to unlock €16.4 billion in frozen EU funds, said one of the diplomats. The diplomat said that EU ambassadors would finalize their position on whether to open the first cluster for Ukraine and Moldova by the end of this week after Ukraine presents its plans for internal reforms as well as addressing the minority issue. EU countries would then approve the opening of the cluster for Ukraine and Moldova at the June 15 inter-governmental conference. Opening clusters requires unanimous approval by all 27 EU member countries. Any country can block the process at any stage, either by opposing the first cluster or any of the subsequent steps on the path to membership.

Californians have their final chance to vote Tuesday in a fiercely contested gubernatorial primary ahead of Democratic Governor Gavin Newsom’s mandate coming to an end at the end of the year. The state's open-primary system, which allows the two best-performing candidates to advance regardless of party, has raised fears among Democrats that a split vote will pave the way for a Republican victory.

Premiering in the Directors' Fortnight section at the Cannes Film Festival, "I See Buildings Fall Like Lightning" is Clio Barnard's adaptation of Keiran Goddard's acclaimed novel about five childhood friends from working-class Birmingham whose lives have drifted far from the futures they once imagined. "Peaky Blinders" actor Joe Cole stars as Rian – the one who escaped, made money and seemingly "made it", only to discover that success cannot free him from the place he came from.

Southampton back Tonda Eckert despite missing out on a playoff final for a Premier League place due to spying scandal.

Mamdani signs ‘executive order’ letting kids stay up late for NBA Finals.

Washington has signalled openness to additional countries hosting nuclear-capable bombers

After decades of upheaval, the lender that wanted to take on Wall Street has scaled back its ambitions to focus on Europe

The war has not been going the Kremlin’s way recently, with battleground losses and mounting casualties. With renewed strikes, Moscow hopes to gain a better position for negotiations.

In the first major British retrospective for over 60 years, a London museum seeks to recast the wartime leader as a painter with emotional depth.