Vadinamosiose čekiukų bylose dėl neteisėto tarybų narių veiklai skirtų lėšų panaudojimo įtarimai pateikti penkiems Jonavos rajono, Marijampolės ir Kaišiadorių rajono savivaldybių politikams, pirmadienį pranešė Specialiųjų tyrimų tarnyba (STT) ir Generalinė prokuratūra.

Kinijos lyderis Xi Jinpingas praleido Indijoje vykusią vakarienę su Vladimiru Putinu ir kitais pasaulio šalių vadovais dėl prastos savijautos, teigia su situacija susipažinę šaltiniai. Tai dar labiau pakurstė spėliones apie jo sveikatą likus vos kelioms dienoms iki planuoto vizito į JAV, skelbia dienraštis „The Wall Street Journal“ (WSJ). Socialiniuose tinkluose pasklido gandai apie tariamą insultą.

Exit polls show damaging losses for Merz's centre-right CDU party in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Berlin.

Vladimir Putin will likely use the result to claim most Russians back the so-called special military operation in Ukraine, writes the BBC's Steve Rosenberg.

Flights are affected again owing to air traffic control problems, so what are your rights if you're affected?

The party says scrapping the scheme in 2021 left the UK less competitive than European destinations.

BRUSSELS — Brussels on Monday unveiled an environmental rating scheme for data centers that power artificial intelligence, a move the EU’s energy chief described as the first step in pressuring tech giants into aligning with the continent’s climate efforts. The new rules, which will apply from August 2027, oblige big data centers to display a label grading them on their energy efficiency, water usage and clean power uptake on a scale of A to G, much like the EU’s influential appliances ranking. “This will add a lot of transparency and hopefully provide the incentives for these data centers to be as sustainable as possible,” said Energy Commissioner Dan Jørgensen in an interview with POLITICO ahead of the label’s presentation.  The new label is optional for smaller data centers, “but later we are also going to introduce minimum performance standards which, of course, will put more pressure on those who may not voluntarily wish to be as sustainable as we want them to,” he added.  While Australia and Singapore already have schemes rating the energy efficiency of data centers, the Commission’s new label would be the most comprehensive worldwide — asking tech companies to be transparent not only about their power use but also their impact on the local and global environment via information on how much water they consume, how clean their electricity is, whether they reuse the heat they generate and more. The EU executive’s performance standards, which the Commission wants to present in spring 2027, are expected to tighten the screws by setting mandatory sustainability thresholds for newly built or retrofitted data centers. Those two initiatives are an attempt at ensuring the European Union can compete in the artificial intelligence race without sacrificing its commitment to climate neutrality in 2050, Jørgensen said.  “We need to deal with this in a way that data centers in the future are not something that will hurt our energy systems, and thereby our competitiveness and capabilities of decarbonizing and making sure we have security of supply for our citizens,” he said.  “If we do not make sure that these big power consumers are indeed in line with our overall objectives… then they will risk undermining our ability to live up to our own targets,” Jørgensen warned. Data centers are already hoovering up 2.5% of the bloc’s electricity use, a share expected to double in the coming years, he noted. “We’re looking at a huge change.” Monday’s announcement is a delegated regulation, meaning that it can take effect without the input of EU governments and the European Parliament. The two institutions have two months to object to the regulation, however. The label will be generated automatically each year from figures companies are already required to report under the bloc’s energy efficiency rules, though an accompanying Commission report acknowledges that compliance with those rules is low: Only 36% of sites in the EU disclose required data. Go green, get popular Data center operators have lobbied against the Commission’s plans. The European Data Center Association in April warned that the requirements would kill investment and in June insisted that the bloc must prioritize AI ambitions over its climate goals. Earlier this year, a Commission document seen by POLITICO indicated that around 20 percent of Europe’s data centers could land at the bottom of the new rating scheme. But Jørgensen urged tech companies to view EU efforts to regulate their environmental impact as an “opportunity” that could help them win over a skeptical public.  In the United States, a backlash is mounting against AI infrastructure, in part over its voracious appetite for energy and water. Similar protests are starting to emerge in Europe.  “We do see some places where public opinion is maybe turning a little bit against these data centers, we’ve seen it in some places in Europe and we see it even more so in the United States of America,” said Jørgensen. “So I firmly believe that it’s also in the interest of the data centers to be able to show how sustainable they are.”  But he indicated that the EU would not impose bloc-wide rules requiring data center operators to provide their own clean energy, something his Commission colleague Teresa Ribera advocated for in a recent interview with POLITICO.  “This will always be a national decision,” he said.  Still, government efforts such as Spain’s recent move toward forcing data centers to provide a share of their own renewable power are “a part of the solution in many places, because the consumption of these data centers will be so big,” he added.  Overall, Jørgensen said, the EU wants to avoid developments such as in the U.S., where data centers are increasing the demand for polluting fossil fuels.  “My overall message to the Big Tech sector is: We want AI, of course, we want data centers, we want Europe to be a place for investments, but it’s in the interest of them and of the European Union that we do it in a way that is sustainable,” he said. “And we will be setting demands for them.” 

Three news organizations whose journalists were banned from the White House last week are suing President Donald Trump and three top advisers, calling the abrupt lockout a “direct assault on the First Amendment.” POLITICO, CNN and MSNOW said in a joint statement Monday that they are bringing the federal lawsuit in a bid to immediately restore access for their reporters, who were denied entry to the White House complex on Saturday and had their credentials confiscated by the Secret Service. “This morning, we notified the government that we are filing a lawsuit today to protect our First Amendment rights and defend the principle that the government does not decide what the press reports or publishes,” the news organizations said. “Without notice or process, the White House revoked our journalists’ credentials because it objected to our reporting. Left unchallenged, this threatens press freedom and the public’s right to independent journalism free from government interference.” The organizations are asking a judge on the U.S. District Court in Washington. to quickly rule Trump’s ban unconstitutional and prevent his aides from enforcing it. White House and Department of Justice spokespeople did not immediately return requests seeking comment. The White House’s exclusion of the journalists followed an announcement from Trump on Truth Social Friday that he was banning reporters for the three outlets “effective immediately.” Trump’s post was vague about the reasons for the ban, beyond complaining about “constant ‘reporting’” of what he called “FAKE NEWS!” as well as “FICTION and LIES.” During an Oval Office photo op Friday, Trump offered few specifics. “It’s really just cumulative stories over the last few years. You get sick of it,” Trump said. “They’re smart people, but they purposely write negative news.” The news organizations, represented by Theodore Boutros, Jr. of law firm Gibson Dunn, are filing suit against Trump, chief of staff Susie Wiles, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung and Secret Service Director Sean Curran. The news outlets argue that the president’s ban violates the Constitution in multiple ways: The abrupt cancellation of White House access without notice violated the organizations’ Fifth Amendment due process and property rights, and the retaliation for the content of their reporting violated their First Amendment rights. The suit contends that the ban is already “severely impeding” the news organizations’ ability to report on the Trump White House while also causing a chilling effect among other news outlets, who could find themselves similarly locked out if the president deems their coverage “insufficiently favorable.” Though longstanding legal precedents permit the White House to restrict journalists’ access to the building, courts have ruled that officials can’t apply those restrictions in ways that discriminate based on viewpoint or content. Previous efforts by Trump to deny access to specific reporters or news organizations have run into resistance in the courts, although the most recent litigation led to a muddled result. In 2018, during Trump’s first term, officials suspended the White House hard pass of then CNN White House correspondent Jim Acosta, with officials contending he kept speaking and clung to the microphone after Trump made clear he was moving on to another reporter. A judge ordered Acosta’s credential restored, citing a murky process surrounding the suspension. A similar fight played out the following year, following a verbal altercation in the Rose Garden between a freelance journalist for Playboy, Brian Karem, and Trump adviser Sebastian Gorka. A federal judge ordered the White House to return Karem’s credential, concluding that the rules of decorum for such events were not clear enough to provide due process. Last year, another legal clash erupted after Trump barred the Associated Press from attending East Room events and kicked the wire service out of the White House press pool, the small group of reporters routinely given access to the Oval Office, Air Force One and other sensitive locations frequented by the president. Trump’s action came after the AP refused to adopt Gulf of America, after he signed an executive order renaming the body of water long known as the Gulf of Mexico. Though a federal district judge sided with the AP, the bulk of his ruling was temporarily put on hold by a panel of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, which found the most restricted areas such as the Oval Office and Air Force One were not subject to the broader First Amendment protections of the rest of the complex. “These restricted presidential spaces are not First Amendment fora opened for private speech and discussion,” the panel’s majority wrote. “The White House therefore retains discretion to determine, including on the basis of viewpoint, which journalists will be admitted.” Although the appeals court’s June 2025 ruling was a preliminary one, it allowed Trump to follow through with his attempt to ban the AP from the Oval Office. The AP asked the D.C. Circuit’s full bench to take up the issue, but a majority of the court’s judges declined to do so. Arguments aimed at a definitive ruling on the AP’s lawsuit took place before a three-judge panel last November. The court has yet to rule. The D.C. Circuit ruled almost a half-century ago in a case involving Nation magazine reporter Robert Sherrill that journalists can’t be denied access to the White House arbitrarily or based on the content of their reporting.

The US invasions after 9/11 were disasters -- but the US is trying again in Iran anyway

The oil and gas sector shrank 26 percent, new official data shows, pointing to the costs of the US-Israel war on Iran.

US president tells Ukrainian leader in phone call it is all about ‘diesel, diesel, diesel’, according to officials

European Central Bank hopes to launch a retail equivalent by 2029

Ukraine launched more than 1,000 drones at Russia, including hundreds at the capital Moscow, in its largest attack of the war so far, officials said Sunday. The attack came as Russia wrapped up the final day of voting in tightly controlled parliamentary elections that President Vladimir Putin has cast as a test of support for the war in Ukraine.

Another electoral setback for German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, as his centre-right CDU performed poorly in two state elections on Sunday. Projections showed the party failing to enter the state parliament in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, where the far-right AfD came out on top, while the far-left Die Linke led the vote in Berlin. The AfD also made significant gains in both states, building on its recent victory in Saxony-Anhalt. France 24 Europe editor Armen Georgian shares further insights.

Helicopters roared overhead and fighter jets tore across the skies as crowds gathered for an aerospace and defence show in Tshwane, South Africa, showcasing the country’s growing defence capabilities.

The United States has deported more than 25,000 people under secretive agreements with 35 countries to take migrants with no ties to those nations, according to an investigation published Monday.