Europe

The Black Sea 200 Regatta 2025, Romania’s first non-stop offshore regatta with a 200 nautical mile route, will start tomorrow with expected end before 27 July; at its first edition, the event brings together more than 10 boats from Romania and Bulgaria

Over 70 wildfires have been extinguished in a single week, as heatwaves intensify across the Balkans; the 2025 wildfire season is testing both the region’s emergency responses and long-term planning, coordination and political will

The 30th anniversary of the 1995 genocide of Bosniaks by Bosnian Serb forces was celebrated with the mass funeral of seven more victims in a ceremony at the Srebrenica Memorial Centre

Shops in Belgium will soon be allowed to remain open until 21:00, and seven days a week; the measure is expected to be validated to relax businesses' opening hours and meet modern needs

A passenger boat service in the Neris River will be launched by the end of July in Vilnius and the first electric vessel of the fleet has been unveiled; for Mayor Valdas Benkunskas the new type of transport could fulfill the city's recreational potential

The concert "Te–aust" closed this year's School Youth Song and Dance Festival: it presents works of contemporary composers who have chosen lines written by prominent poets and sequences of Latvian folk songs for their compositions

40% of board seats in large publicly listed companies in Finland are held by women, data from the Chamber of Commerce show, a record figure that reflects ongoing shifts in governance ahead of new diversity recommendations set to take effect in 2026

Vardarac, a village with 504 people in 211 households, will have a new €7,5 million stadium, partially financed by Hungary, investing in sports and cultural infrastructure in neighbouring countries where Hungarian minorities live

Applications for the 'Mountain Package' have been opened, that will provide support for 500 projects through fiscal incentives over 10 years; the new law also includes 'Made in Albania' products

Thousands of Afghans brought to UK were victims of a major data breaches with names and details published on FB: fearing reprisals from the Taliban, they were relocated under a scheme kept secret; the measure preventing media reporting has now been lifted

Two streets in Braunau am Inn, Adolf Hitler's hometown, are to be renamed following a 28 to 9 vote by the city council as they are named after classical music composer Josef Reiter and entertainer Franz Resl, both of whom were Nazi party members

A new 5G 'pocket' siren technology transmitting threat alerts where mobile networks are down, was tested by the Estonian Ministry of the Interior in Tallinn, Pärnu and Rakvere

The 75th FISEC-FICEP Games, international sports competitions for Catholic schools, are being held in Budapest with 750 athletes from 15 countries on three continents; the event celebrates sports, youth, and Catholic Christianity