European Union

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A Long March 3B rocket lifts off from the Xichang launch centre in Xichang in China’s southwestern Sichuan province early. Photograph: China OUTSTR/AFP/Getty Images
China launches first mission to the dark side of the moon

China has launched a daring space mission to boldly go where no one has gone before by landing a lunar probe on the dark side of the moon. A Long Mar(...)

Neither party to the Brexit negotiations wants to see the return of a hard border but they cannot agree a plan on how to achieve this. File photograph: PA Wire
Brexit explainer: What is the backstop and why does it matter?

Why is the Irish Border such a big deal with Brexit? The 499-kilometre border running from Carlingford Lough to Lough Foyle will become the only land (...)

Protesters at an anti-Brexit demonstration at City Hall in Belfast in October: seminars will cover sectors such as aviation and financial services and key areas like citizens’ rights. Photograph: Clodagh Kilcoyne
Commission intensifies preparations for no-deal Brexit

The European Commission is intensifying preparations for a no-deal Brexit with high-level briefings for member states next week on the consequences of(...)

UK prime minister Theresa May addresses the House of Common. Photograph: PA Wire
Brexit talks remain locked over Northern Ireland backstop – May

Theresa May has told MPs that Brexit negotiations stalled on Sunday because the European Union insisted there should be a Northern Ireland-only backst(...)

Speaking at a special Cabinet meeting in Derrynane House, Co Kerry, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar said the British government will be expected to honour its ‘cast iron guarantee’ of the so-called backstop arrangement. Photograph: PA
Brexit: 1,000 new customs and veterinary inspectors to be hired

The European Union has reassured the Government that no physical checks will be needed on the Border even if Britain crashes out of the union without (...)

Irish aged 18-24: The biggest binge drinkers in the European Union in 2014. Photograph: Eric Luke
Young Irish topped EU binge-drinking table

Irish people aged 18 to 24 had the highest rates of binge drinking in the European Union, according to the Central Statistics Office (CSO). The data,(...)

Between 15 per cent and 40 per cent of dumped plastic enters the ocean each year, according to a survey in the journal ‘Science’. Photograph: Erik De Castro/Reuters
8.8m tonnes of plastic debris dumped in oceans every year

Nearly nine million tonnes of plastic is dumped into the world’s oceans every year – much more than previously thought – and about one-third of it com(...)

Named Operation Archimedes, police say 1,027 people have been arrested so far, drug seizures have included 599kg of cocaine, 200kg of heroin and 1.3 tonnes of cannabis, and that 30 Romanian children have been saved from trafficking. Cannabis plant pictured. File photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA Wire
Garda take part in the largest international action against organised crime in EU

Police from 34 countries, including Ireland, have taken part in what they describe as the largest internationally co-ordinated action against organise(...)