Measure designed to stem brain drain is pulled from budget at last minute amid conflict between coalition partners
Portugal has paused plans intended to stem the country’s brain drain by offering young people a decade of progressive tax breaks that would have seen them paying nothing at all in their first year of work.
The proposal, advanced by the centre-right minority government of Luís Montenegro, had been one of the most eye-catching schemes in Portugal’s 2025 budget.
Continue reading...Hitachi digger tracked down to town of Pruchnik, with arrangements made to reunite it with its owner
A digger stolen from a development site in Dorset has been found five months later and 1,200 miles away in a rural town in south-eastern Poland.
Dorset police received a report on 1 April that a Hitachi digger and a JCB digger had been stolen in the small town of Ferndown, near Bournemouth.
Continue reading...Police say pair ‘assisting with investigations’ after Dani Cuesta posted photo of himself with ‘Lim go home’ sign
A Spanish couple have been detained after the man held a banner to protest against Peter Lim, the billionaire Singaporean owner of Valencia football club.
Dani Cuesta had shared photos on social media of himself holding a sign that said “Lim go home” at various locations in Singapore, including the residences where Lim reportedly lives and the tourist landmark Merlion Park.
Continue reading...Bent Søndergaard’s children say they want to carry out ‘his final wishes’ and send back antiquities he bought in 1960s
Their father bought the antiquities, a haul of dirt-encrusted Etruscan objects handed to him from the boot of a car, while on holiday in Italy in the 1960s. For decades they remained in the loft of the family home in Denmark, exasperating his wife and perplexing his children.
Now, inspired by a growing movement of people choosing to return antiquities apparently looted or illegally excavated from their countries of origin, his children are trying to give the items back to Italy.
Continue reading...Firefighters are stoic about the risks they face but say climate change has affected every part of the job
A short drive and a world away from the tourist-thronged old town of Split, past retirees clambering out of cruise ships and stag parties stumbling into beachside bars, Ivan Sanader studied a smouldering hillside that stank of smoke.
The night before, he had fought a fire that charred the slope and threatened to engulf a roadside restaurant. Now, the commander of a mobile firefighter centre in Croatia was issuing orders to stop it flaring back up.
Continue reading...Dove maker’s deal with local manufacturer Arnest Group includes four factories
Unilever has sold off its Russian operations to a local manufacturing group after pressure from campaigners who claimed that the presence of the Dove and Ben & Jerry’s owner in the country was supporting the war in Ukraine.
Arnest Group, a Russian manufacturer of perfume, cosmetics and household products will take control of Unilever Rus, which includes four factories, as well as the group’s interests in Belarus. Arnest is owned by the businessman Alexey Sagal and bought the brewer Heineken’s business in the country last summer.
Continue reading...Han, whose works include The Vegetarian, was praised for her ‘intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life’
The Nobel prize in literature has been awarded to 53-year-old South Korean novelist Han Kang for her “intense poetic prose that confronts historical traumas and exposes the fragility of human life”. Her works include The Vegetarian, The White Book, Human Acts and Greek Lessons.
“I was able to talk to Han Kang on the phone,” said Swedish Academy permanent secretary Mats Malm after announcing the winner. “She was having an ordinary day it seemed – had just finished supper with her son. She wasn’t really prepared for this, but we have begun to discuss preparations for December” – when Han will be presented with the Nobel prize.
Continue reading...Former BBC host, with millions of social media followers, was arrested in Australia following alleged attack on woman in Perth hotel room
The British rapper, YouTuber and television personality Yung Filly has been arrested in Australia and charged with rape and assault.
The 29-year-old, born Andrés Felipe Valencia Barrientos, who was on tour in the country, was arrested in Brisbane and taken to Perth where the alleged incidents occurred.
Continue reading...Activist’s treatment at Evin prison has become even more severe since she was awarded prize last year
The jailed Nobel peace prize laureate Narges Mohammadi has marked the first anniversary of her award with a call for peace in the Middle East from Tehran’s notorious Evin prison.
The Iranian human rights activist said in comments to Italy’s Corriere della Sera: “Today, the dark shadow of war once again hangs over our beloved country. I hate war.
Continue reading...Engineers said to be supporting missile launches and reports of North Koreans killed near Donetsk
North Korean military engineers have been deployed to help Russia target Ukraine with ballistic missiles, and fighters operating in occupied areas of the country have already been killed, senior officials in Kyiv and Seoul said.
There are dozens of North Koreans behind Russian lines, in teams that “support launcher systems for KN-23 missiles”, a source in Ukraine told the Guardian.
Continue reading...This blog is now closed. Find the full report on Hurricane Milton here
Footage coming in from the Tampa area as Hurricane Milton makes landfall shows the devastating consequences of what Joe Biden has called the “storm of the century”.
Reporters with NewsNation have captured video from Tampa Bay, where the storm sucked water back from the coast. At the mouth of Tampa Bay, a weather station has recorded a wind gust of 100mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.
Continue reading...Guardian US’s chief reporter, Ed Pilkington, explores Donald Trump’s plans for a second term as president if he wins next month’s election, and how they would give him unprecedented power
By the time Donald Trump left the White House in January 2021, he was frustrated by the limits of his office.
As Guardian US’s chief reporter, Ed Pilkington, explains to Michael Safi, Trump felt he had been held back as president not by the standard checks and balances of a democracy, but by a shadowy “deep state”.
Continue reading...Raid centred on Jabaliya camp is worsening hunger and threatening polio vaccine campaign, says Philippe Lazzarini
Hundreds of thousands of civilians in Gaza remain trapped by the latest Israeli offensive centred on Jabaliya refugee camp, according to UN agencies and human rights groups.
“At least 400,000 people are trapped in the area,” Philippe Lazzarini, the head of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, Unrwa, posted on X on Wednesday, amid witness accounts of bodies lying uncollected in the streets because of the renewed fighting.
Continue reading...Former president to run for mayor of Davao amid fight for power against formidable Marcos family
Former Philippine president Rodrigo Duterte, 79, returned to politics this week when he registered to run as mayor in his family’s stronghold, Davao city. It leaves little doubt: two of the country’s most powerful political families, the Dutertes and the Marcoses, are set for an epic struggle for power.
For the Dutertes, it could prove a battle for their survival. Rodrigo Duterte is facing an investigation by the international criminal court for crimes against humanity over his brutal war on drugs, and the family needs political clout and powerful friends.
Continue reading...Tata, described as ‘a truly uncommon leader’, credited with transforming Tata Group into a global conglomerate
The Indian business tycoon and former Tata Group chairman Ratan Tata has died, aged 86.
Tata, who had headed India’s largest conglomerate for over 20 years, had been receiving intensive care at Mumbai hospital, according to Reuters.
Additional reporting by Reuters
Continue reading...British drugmaker agrees payment to resolve 80,000 cases alleging cancers were linked to drug known generically as ranitidine
The British drugmaker GSK has struck an agreement to make a payment of up to $2.2bn (£1.7bn) to resolve litigation brought in the US over its heartburn treatment Zantac.
The company said it had struck agreements with 10 plaintiff law firms who represent about 93%, roughly 80,000, of the US state court product liability cases pending against it.
Continue reading...Leaders talk for first time in weeks as US administration seeks to weigh in on Israel’s plans
Joe Biden and Benjamin Netanyahu spoke for the first time in weeks on Wednesday amid expectations of an imminent Israeli strike on Iran, which Yoav Gallant warned would be “deadly, precise and surprising”.
Netanyahu’s defence minister issued the warning in a video message on Israeli media on Wednesday night, broadcast after he postponed a scheduled trip to Washington.
Continue reading...Hugely successful Netflix show has been a boon to French tourism but latest season takes events to Rome
It is shameless fantasy, from high heels on cobblestones to sanitised streets free of litter and dog poo, a suspiciously blue River Seine, no homelessness and a main character so cut off from reality that French media refer to her as “the overdressed American”.
But the hugely successful Netflix series Emily in Paris – for all its stereotyping about a Chicago marketing executive’s culture clashes in France – did bring hordes of tourists to the country, boost trade and increase inquiries to estate agents in the capital. So now its departure to Rome for series 5 has become a political issue, with the president, Emmanuel Macron, announcing he’ll fight hard to keep it in France.
Continue reading...Prime minister champions migration in stance at odds with European neighbours
Spain plans to make it easier for newcomers to settle, the prime minister said, promoting migration as an effective way to protect prosperity in sharp contrast with the attitude of much of Europe.
“Spain needs to choose between being an open and prosperous country or a closed-off, poor country,” Pedro Sánchez told parliament on Wednesday. “It’s as simple as that.”
Continue reading...World leaders pull out from talks in Germany after Joe Biden withdraws due to Hurricane Milton
An international summit on Ukraine where Volodymyr Zelenskyy was going to present a “victory plan” to western leaders has been formally postponed – though the Ukrainian president will try to organise a tour of European capitals instead.
Organisers said that the Saturday meeting of about 20 world leaders at the US Ramstein airbase in Germany would be rescheduled, a day after Biden had said he had to stay at home to respond to Hurricane Milton’s landfall in Florida.
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