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Saudi Arabia has moved to assemble a multinational maritime defence coalition to protect Red Sea shipping, a rapid political-military escalation of the chokepoint crisis that has severed normal tanker traffic through the region and pulled European naval assets deeper into the conflict. Military representatives from 43 of 51 invited nations, alongside a European Union delegation, gathered in Riyadh on Thursday to discuss the initiative, with the kingdom naming itself founding

Stellantis swung back to a quarterly profit as a resurgent North American business drove revenues higher, but a squeeze on European margins caused by intensifying Chinese competition left earnings short of expectations and sent the shares sharply lower. The owner of Jeep, Peugeot, Fiat and Ram reported net profit of €293 million for the second quarter, a marked recovery from a €1.87 billion loss a year earlier, when one-off charges dominated the accounts. Net revenues climbed

Eurostar has confirmed the launch of a new direct service between London and Antwerp from 14 December, a rare concrete addition to its network at a moment when the cross-Channel operator is bracing for the end of its three-decade monopoly on the tunnel. The service will add the Belgian port city as a stop on the existing London to Amsterdam route, running up to four times a day from St Pancras International. The direct journey will take two hours and 41 minutes, cutting rough

Europe's two largest airline groups have laid rival binding bids on the table for a stake in TAP Air Portugal, setting up a decisive contest for what is widely seen as the final major flag-carrier consolidation prize left in Western Europe. Air France-KLM and Lufthansa Group both submitted binding offers to Portugal's state holding company Parpública by Tuesday's deadline, entering the third and final mandatory stage of a privatisation relaunched by Lisbon in 2025. The field

Renault returned to profit in the first half of 2026, powered by a surge in electric vehicle sales, in a set of numbers that offered a rare note of resilience from a European mass-market carmaker under sustained pressure from Chinese rivals. The French group reported first-half revenue of €30.25 billion on Wednesday, up 9.4 per cent year on year, and swung to a net profit of €700 million from a loss of more than €11 billion in the same period of 2025, when a one-off charge ti

The two maritime arteries carrying most of the Gulf's oil to Europe and Asia are now effectively closed simultaneously, a dual blockade that has severed normal commercial tanker traffic at both ends of the region and pushed the operational risk picture to its most severe of the conflict. Maritime intelligence firm Windward assessed on Thursday that both the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab el-Mandeb strait are effectively shut to normal commercial tanker movements, for different

Spain's liberalised high-speed rail market has hit its first serious reversal since the pandemic, with passenger numbers falling sharply in early 2026 and a public row erupting between state operator Renfe and the competition regulator over how the downturn is being presented. Long-distance high-speed services carried 8.05 million passengers between January and March, a 21 per cent drop on the same period a year earlier, according to competition authority CNMC. Seat capacity

Airbus reports half-year results after the European market close on Wednesday, in a release that will test whether the delivery recovery of recent months can carry the planemaker to an ambitious full-year target, and one now framed by a fresh capital-return pledge and open questions over who leads the company into its next chapter. The Toulouse group publishes its H1 figures alongside an analyst call at 19:30 CEST. Investors want confirmation that the second-quarter pace is d

Shipping through the Bab el-Mandeb strait has collapsed to its lowest level in months after Houthi attacks on Saudi oil installations, deepening a two-front squeeze on the maritime arteries that feed crude to Europe and Asia and keeping freight and insurance costs elevated for owners. Only 15 commodity vessels transited the waterway on Sunday, down 56 per cent from the 34 that crossed on 20 July, the day the Iran-aligned group first declared a maritime embargo on Saudi-linked

Audi lowered its full-year guidance on Monday and confirmed the elimination of a night shift at its Neckarsulm plant, in a stark signal that the pressures reshaping Germany's premium car industry are translating into hard capacity decisions. The Volkswagen-owned marque now expects 2026 revenue of €58 billion to €63 billion, down from a prior floor of at least €63 billion, and cut its operating-margin target by a percentage point to between 5 and 7 per cent. Net cash flow guid

Airbus heads into first-half results on Wednesday with its delivery machine visibly back in rhythm, even as the supplier bottlenecks that dogged the year's opening months continue to shape how far the European planemaker can push its production ambitions. The Toulouse group delivered 351 commercial aircraft in the first half, up around 15 per cent on the 306 handed over a year earlier and its strongest January-to-June showing since 2019. Momentum built through the period, wit

Irish Rail has launched a billion-euro programme to expand the country's most congested railway line, in a plan that widens one of Europe's tightest passenger bottlenecks and deepens cross-border integration on the Dublin-Belfast axis. The FourNorth project, announced by Iarnród Éireann on Friday, will add two tracks alongside the existing pair over a 14-kilometre stretch between Dublin Connolly and Malahide. The corridor currently squeezes DART, Northern Commuter, Belfast En