Born in Amsterdam, she settled in northwestern Luxembourg with her husband, raised four children and found a calling at Slate Museum

A Long-Standing Presence in the Grand Duchy

Born in Amsterdam, she settled in northwestern Luxembourg with her husband, raised four children and found a calling at Slate Museum

A Long-Standing Presence in the Grand Duchy

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.

LONDON — The U.K. government has defended its publicly-owned energy company, days after POLITICO revealed Great British Energy was still funding firms that could not rule out exposure to slave-made goods.  “We are tackling forced labor where we find it in global supply chains, and we want to go further,” Energy Minister Michael Shanks told MPs when questioned in the House of Commons Tuesday.  The Department for Energy Security and Net Zero promised last spring that the government-backed GB Energy would “secure” supply chains free of forced labor. But POLITICO revealed last month that the company has since funded firms that cannot guarantee they are free of that risk.  The concerns relate to solar panels imported from China, which dominates global solar manufacturing. Campaigners and MPs accuse Beijing of forced labor abuses against the Uyghur population in the country’s northern Xinjiang province, including in solar manufacturing. Of seven companies given contracts to install solar panels on British schools last fall — funded partly by GB Energy — five could not guarantee there was no risk of forced labor in their supply chains when asked by POLITICO.  A sixth firm did not respond to multiple requests for that guarantee. A seventh said it had “ruled out” the risk, although that firm obtains its solar panels from a Chinese-based manufacturer which said the “risk remains present” in its own supply chains.  A government spokesperson said at the time there were “strict procurement controls in place to ensure that any solar panels are free from forced labour, as far as possible.”   GB Energy “will be a leader in how we tackle this,” Shanks said Tuesday, under questioning from Conservative MP Bradley Thomas. Shanks added that GB Energy has “set up a function within, to look at sustainable supply chains and to make sure they’re free from [forced labor].”  The clean energy company is central to government plans to scale up the country’s solar capacity as ministers bid to drive down energy bills and rapidly shift the country away from fossil fuels.  But opposition MPs and some Labour backbenchers have warned that the rush to install clean power by 2030 leaves the U.K. reliant on importing panels from China. The Chinese government denies allegations of forced labor in its solar manufacturing. 

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.”

Ever been asked how much money you make and felt uncomfortable? In this edition of Entre Nous, we take a look at salary transparency. With the looming deadline of an EU directive on the issue, we find out what changes are coming, which nations are ready and why transparency may actually ease tensions at work rather than create them.

The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday reported a drop in suspected Ebola cases to 116, down from 906 last week. Testing had "cleared out" some on the suspected cases list. Around 321 cases were confirmed in the DR Congo, including 48 deaths, while nine confirmed cases have been registered in neighbouring Uganda, including one fatality.

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.

Prime minister failed to follow through on threat to bomb Hizbollah after pressure from US president

Nearly 1mn people have been displaced as impoverished state struggles to cope with enduring impact of Israeli offensive

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.