Category Archives: Europe

Italy’s centenarians grow in number as another 2,000 reach the milestone

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Southern European country has more than double the number of people aged over 100 than it did in 2009

The number of people in Italy living to 100 continues to grow sharply, with more than 2,000 reaching the milestone age in 2025, the vast majority of them women.

There are now 23,548 residents in Italy who are 100-years-old or over, compared with 21,211 in 2024, according to the latest figures from Istat, the national statistics agency. Italy has more than double the number of centenarians than it had in 2009, Istat said.

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EU could water down AI Act amid pressure from Trump and big tech

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European Commission confirms reports it is looking at postponing parts of landmark legislation

The European Commission is considering plans to delay parts of the EU’s Artificial Intelligence Act, after intense pressure from businesses and Donald Trump’s administration.

The commission confirmed that “a reflection” was “still ongoing” on delaying aspects of the regulation, after media reports that Brussels was weighing up changes with the aim of easing demands on big tech companies.

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Famed Florentine diamond surfaces in Canada after century-long disappearance

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Empress Zita brought stone to Canada as Nazis took over Europe in 1940s and it remained in bank vault ever since

At the height of the Battle of Britain, when the UK government needed a secret location to store 186,332 gold bars, it turned to Canada.

Shipped across the Atlantic and stored beneath a hastily constructed vault in Montreal, Operation Fish became known both for the vast amounts of gold involved – and the immense secrecy that followed.

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Europeans recognize Zohran Mamdani’s supposedly radical policies as ‘normal’

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Critics of New York City’s mayor-elect have said his pledges of free bus service and universal childcare are unrealistic, but in Europe it’s a given

After New York City’s race for mayor catapulted Zohran Mamdani from state assembly member into one of the world’s most prominent progressive voices, intense debate swirled over the ideas at the heart of his campaign.

His critics and opponents painted pledges such as free bus service, universal childcare and rent freezes as unworkable, unrealistic and exorbitantly expensive.

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Louvre heist a ‘deafening wake-up call’, says auditor

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Report says Paris museum prioritised ‘visible and attractive’ projects over security in run-up to robbery

The spectacular theft of an estimated €88m (£77m) of crown jewels from the Louvre last month was “a deafening wake-up call” for the “wholly inadequate pace” of security upgrades at the Paris museum, the head of France’s state auditor has said.

Presenting the report, which was completed before the dramatic heist at the world’s most-visited museum, Pierre Moscovici said the Louvre had sufficient funds for the improvements and “must now implement them without fail”.

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Ukraine faces ‘forever war’ unless Europe steps up pressure on Russia, says ex-Nato chief

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Anders Fogh Rasmussen calls for air shield on Nato territory and deployment of European protection force for Ukraine

Ukraine is facing a “forever war” and a slow erosion of territory unless Europe dramatically increases pressure on Russia, including by deploying troops and establishing a missile and drone shield on Nato territory to protect Ukraine from Russian attacks on its infrastructure, a former Nato secretary general has said.

Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who held the Nato post from 2009 to 2014 and was the prime minister of Denmark from 2001 to 2009, said in an interview with the Guardian that if countries such as Poland agreed to host such air defences, Russia would understand that an attack on them would be an attack on the whole of the Nato alliance.

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Danes are Europe’s keenest nudists in principle and practice, survey suggests

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YouGov study of six countries finds those in Denmark most likely to approve of nudism and have been naked in public

Germans may have a hard-won reputation for being Europe’s most enthusiastic nudists, but a survey suggests Danes are not only more accepting of stripping off in public, but more likely to have actually done so.

The YouGov survey of six western European countries – the UK, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy and Spain – found that Danes were the most likely to say it was perfectly OK to bare all in public places – and to have followed through.

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Belgium to hold security meeting after drone sightings at airports and military bases

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Source says Russia ‘very probably’ responsible amid surge in incursions into European airspace since mid-September

Belgium’s national security council will hold an emergency meeting on Thursday after drone sightings at airports caused chaos for travellers and raised security concerns.

Arrivals and departures were halted for several hours on Tuesday evening at Belgium’s busiest airport, Brussels, leading to the cancellation of dozens of flights. The skies were also closed over Liège airport, an important hub for freight transport, leading to further cancellations, delays and diversions.

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British military announces first delivery of Ajax armoured vehicles – eight years late

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First 50 vehicles, costing nearly £10m each, finally ready to deploy to Nato’s eastern flank, where drones now dominate

Britain’s military has announced the first delivery of Ajax armoured vehicles, eight years behind schedule and amid questions about their relevance as cheap drones dominate the battlefields of Ukraine.

The junior defence minister Luke Pollard said the first 50 vehicles, costing nearly £10m each, were ready to deploy on Nato’s eastern flank, though he acknowledged the problems of the past when delivery deadlines of 2017, 2020 and 2021 were all missed.

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Disgraced former king of Spain’s memoir details ‘enormous respect’ for Franco

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Memoir chronicles Juan Carlos’s anointment as heir to dictator and death of younger brother when playing with pistols

A memoir by Spain’s disgraced former king chronicles his anointment as heir to the dictator Francisco Franco, his role in saving democracy from a coup attempt in 1981, and his grief at the death of his younger brother when the two were “playing” with a pistol as teenagers.

The book, published 11 years after Juan Carlos’s abdication and exile, is titled Reconciliation but appears to do anything but, instead detailing how he feels abandoned and misunderstood by his son and heir, King Felipe VI, and by other close family members.

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Louvre heist suspect is social media star and former museum guard, reports say

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Man, identified as Abdoulaye N, is one of four accused over theft of historic jewels worth tens of millions of pounds

One of the men arrested on suspicion of stealing €88m (£77m) of crown jewels from the Louvre museum is a minor social media star with a passion for motorbikes who has worked as a security guard at the Pompidou centre, French media have reported.

Identified by justice officials as Abdoulaye N, the 39-year-old man was arrested at his home in Aubervilliers, the suburb north of Paris where he was born, six days after the 19 October heist. He faces charges of organised theft and criminal conspiracy.

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Russian forces appear to tighten grip on strategic city of Pokrovsk

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Military analysts say situation in Pokrovsk has deteriorated, while Kremlin says it plans to explore resumption of nuclear testing

Moscow’s forces appear to be tightening their grip on Pokrovsk, with street fighting raging across the ruined city in eastern Ukraine, as the Kremlin announced plans to explore the resumption of nuclear testing.

Ukraine’s general staff on Wednesday denied Russian claims that its troops had been encircled, saying efforts were under way to reinforce the flanks around Pokrovsk and the nearby town of Myrnohrad.

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Danish authorities in rush to close security loophole in Chinese electric buses

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Investigation launched after discovery that Chinese supplier had remote access to vehicles’ control systems

Authorities in Denmark are urgently studying how to close an apparent security loophole in hundreds of Chinese-made electric buses that enables them to be remotely deactivated.

The investigation comes after transport authorities in Norway, where the Yutong buses are also in service, found that the Chinese supplier had remote access for software updates and diagnostics to the vehicles’ control systems – which could be exploited to affect buses while in transit.

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Five injured after man ‘deliberately’ drives car into people on French island

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At least two people in intensive care and suspect arrested after pedestrians and cyclists hit on Île d’Oléron

Five people have been injured, two of them seriously, after a driver rammed into pedestrians and cyclists on Île d’Oléron, a popular tourist destination off France’s Atlantic coast, authorities have said.

The driver has been arrested and an investigation opened into attempted murder, the La Rochelle public prosecutor, Arnaud Laraize, said on Wednesday. France’s anti-terrorism prosecutor’s office said it was observing the case but was not so far involved.

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Global stock markets fall sharply over AI bubble fears

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Drop in US, Asia and Europe follows warning from bank bosses that market correction could lie ahead

Global stock markets have fallen sharply amid concerns that a boom in valuations of artificial intelligence (AI) companies could be rapidly cooling.

Markets in the US, Asia and Europe have fallen after bank bosses warned a serious stock market correction could lie ahead, after a run of record stock market highs led some companies to appear overvalued.

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Facebook’s job ads algorithm is sexist, French equality watchdog rules

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Regulator found ads for mechanics skewed towards men while those for preschool teachers targeted women

The French equalities regulator has ruled that Facebook’s algorithm for placing job adverts is sexist, after an investigation found that adverts for mechanic roles skewed towards men while those for preschool teachers were targeted at women.

The Défenseur des Droits watchdog said the Facebook system for targeted job ads treated users differently based on their sex, and constituted indirect discrimination. The regulator recommended that Facebook and its parent company, Meta, took measures to ensure adverts were non-discriminatory, giving the company three months to inform the French body of the measures.

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Munich’s surfers left stunned after famed river wave vanishes

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Eisbach wave in the Bavarian city had been a surfing magnet for decades but disappeared after a cleanup

A standing wave in a Munich stream that has been a surfing magnet for more than four decades has vanished, leaving urban surfers high and dry.

Water levels in the Eisbach (“ice brook”) dropped last week for annual cleanup work along the streambed.

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Friedrich Merz says Syrians no longer have reason for asylum in Germany

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Chancellor suggests deportations could begin ‘in the near future’ as government seeks to counter rise of AfD

Syrians no longer have reason to be granted asylum in Germany after the end of their country’s civil war, according to Friedrich Merz, who said they will instead be encouraged to return to help with the reconstruction of their homeland.

During Syria’s 14-year civil war, Germany took in more refugees than any other country in the EU, but the chancellor and others in his coalition cabinet argue that the situation has changed since the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government 11 months ago.

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Spain grants citizenship to descendants of civil war’s International Brigades

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About 32,000 volunteered to fight Franco dictatorship, including 2,500 men and women from Britain and Ireland

The Spanish government has granted citizenship to 170 descendants of volunteers in the International Brigades in recognition of their fight against fascism during the Franco dictatorship that followed the civil war.

An estimated 32,000 volunteers from around the world joined the anti-fascist brigades during the civil war, including approximately 2,500 men and women from Britain and Ireland, of whom 530 were killed.

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Manslaughter inquiry opened after death of worker in Rome tower collapse

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Contractor was trapped for 11 hours under fallen masonry at medieval landmark near the Colosseum

Prosecutors have opened a manslaughter investigation over the death of a worker trapped when a medieval monument in central Rome partly collapsed.

Octav Stroici, 66, was rescued on Monday night after 11 hours under fallen masonry but died of his injuries at the city’s Umberto I hospital. Romanian foreign affairs officials, who said he came from their country, thanked rescuers for their efforts to save him during a long, complex and delicate operation.

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