US president-elect praises Italian prime minister at Florida resort for ‘really taking Europe by storm’
Italy’s prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, made a flying visit to Donald Trump’s Florida golf club on Saturday, during which the US president-elect praised the far-right leader for “really taking Europe by storm”.
The pair were photographed in the grand ballroom of Trump’s Mar-a-Lago club.
Continue reading...Footage purports to show Ukrainian armoured columns advancing towards village of Bolshoe Soldatskoe
Ukrainian armed forces began a surprise offensive in Russia’s Kursk region on Sunday, in an apparent attempt to regain the initiative on the battlefield before Donald Trump’s imminent return to the White House.
Video showed Ukrainian armoured columns advancing across snowy fields towards the village of Bolshoe Soldatskoe, north-east of the Ukrainian-held Russian town of Sudzha. Vehicles could also be seen driving through empty rustic settlements.
Continue reading...World’s richest man has been voicing support for Germany’s far-right AfD party while insulting its current leaders
When the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, was asked in an interview about the barrage of insults being directed at him and other German leaders by Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, his reply was: “Don’t feed the troll.”
Speaking to the German weekly Stern, Scholz described the criticisms as nothing new. “You have to stay cool,” he said in the interview. “As Social Democrats, we have long been used to the fact that there are rich media entrepreneurs who do not appreciate social democratic politics – and do not hide their opinions.”
Continue reading...Chancellor Karl Nehammer to step down after failure to form government without far-right Freedom party
Talks between the two biggest centrist parties in Austria on forming a coalition government without the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) have collapsed, Chancellor Karl Nehammer said on Saturday, adding that he would step down in the coming days.
The announcement came a day after a third party, the small, liberal Neos, threw the process into disarray by saying it was quitting the talks, blaming the other parties for failing to take the bold and decisive action it said it had called for.
Continue reading...The US president-elect’s policy on the conflict may prove decisive, but appeasing both sides will be a challenge
A new year in Ukraine began in much the same way as the old one finished: with deadly Russian drone attacks across the country. In Kyiv, one person was killed and at least six others were injured in the first few hours of 2025.
It is Ukraine’s third new year since Russia’s invasion. If 2023 began with hopes high that Ukrainian battlefield gains would push Russia back and lead to an outright victory, by the start of 2024 the Ukrainian army and population were already settled in for the long haul and had few illusions about a quick victory.
Continue reading...Small FPV drones, which travel at 37mph, have become ubiquitous, evolving from ‘a novelty to a weapon of choice’
Denys, a soldier with Ukraine’s Khyzhak brigade, describes a new kind of war. Standing in a barracks workshop with piles of basic Ukrainian First Person View (FPV) drones behind him, he says simply: “There are fewer gunfights because there are more drone fights.”
Frontlines that were once a gunshot apart are now a killing zone several miles deep, as Russian and Ukrainian drone squads, hidden about one- to three miles behind the frontline, target each other’s forces with simple aerial attacks. “Back in 2022, we were still running around with machine guns from the tree lines,” Denys says, almost with nostalgia.
Continue reading...Surprise move by Neos raises doubts about viability of forming centrist government excluding far right
The smallest of three parties in talks to form Austria’s next government has unexpectedly quit the negotiations, throwing into disarray an effort to form a centrist ruling coalition without the far-right Freedom party (FPÖ).
The surprise move by the liberal Neos party raised serious doubts about the future of the coalition talks and buoyed the Eurosceptic, Russia-friendly FPÖ. The FPÖ has railed against those negotiations since it was shut out despite winning the last parliamentary election in September with 29% of the vote.
Continue reading...Choice of Thilo Mischke, author of Around the World In 80 Women, for ARD’s flagship arts show criticised
More than 100 prominent German writers and artists have signed an open letter refusing to appear on one of Germany’s top culture programmes on public television after the broadcaster announced a new host who has been accused of sexism and racism in his writing.
ARD said in late December it had picked the author Thilo Mischke, 43, to co-present its flagship culture show, ttt – Titel, Thesen, Temperamente (Titles, Theses, Temperaments), after the programme’s veteran host Max Moor stepped aside.
Continue reading...Figure includes hundreds of children, who make up one in five migrants trying to reach Europe fleeing war and poverty
More than 2,200 people either died or went missing in the Mediterranean while trying to reach Europe in search of refuge in 2024.
The figure, cited in a statement from Regina De Dominicis, the regional director for Europe and central Asia for the UN’s children’s agency, Unicef, was eclipsed on New Year’s Eve when 20 people fell into the sea and were reported missing after a boat started to take in water in rough seas about 20 miles off the coast of Libya.
Continue reading...Families Like Ours has become national talking point but some scientists say events depicted could not happen
Featuring scenes of huge crowds boarding ferries, protest and desperation as six million Danes become climate refugees and life as they know it rapidly collapses, the new TV series by the Oscar-winning director Thomas Vinterberg is a potential “look into the future”, he says.
Familier som vores (Families Like Ours) – a drama which depicts a flooded Denmark shut down and evacuated – has been viewed nearly 1m times and become a national talking point. At its premiere at the Venice international film festival, it evoked tears, shouts and a standing ovation, with one critic describing it as “grimly prophetic”.
Continue reading...Council to crack down on antisocial behaviour linked to rapid rise of e-scooter riders in city
Anyone riding an electric scooter on the pavement or without a helmet in Barcelona faces a fine of up to €500 (£415) from 1 February as part of a crackdown on antisocial behaviour linked to the rapid rise of e-scooter use in the Mediterranean city.
In an urban landscape that is mostly flat, with more than 250km (155 miles) of cycle lanes, 2,500 hours of sunshine and barely 55 rainy days a year, electric scooters are a perfect fit. According to the city council’s figures, the number of people using e-scooters since the pandemic has risen four times faster than those choosing to travel by bicycle.
Continue reading...Jean-Noël Barrot and Annalena Baerbock in highest-level visit by major western powers since rebels toppled Assad
The foreign ministers of France and Germany are to meet Syria’s de facto leader, Ahmed al-Sharaa, in Damascus in the highest-level visit by major western powers since rebels toppled the regime of President Bashar al-Assad last month.
Jean-Noël Barrot and Annalena Baerbock, who arrived separately in the Syrian capital on Friday, would hold talks with the head of the Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) on behalf of the EU, their ministries said.
Continue reading...Most of the bosses, released from prison on furlough or for good behaviour, have never disavowed Cosa Nostra
Families of victims killed by the Sicilian mafia have expressed fears that more than 20 senior mobsters released over the last three months may now return to the neighbourhoods they once controlled.
The majority of these bosses, some of whom held leadership roles in the main mafia families of Sicily’s capital, Palermo, have never disavowed Cosa Nostra, the Sicilian mafia, and have always refused to cooperate with the judicial authorities. They have been released on furlough or for good behaviour.
Continue reading...Pro-Russia Moldovan region suffers major hit after Ukraine ends transit agreement, with only food producers functioning
The shutdown of Russian gas supplies to Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region has forced the closure of all industrial companies except food producers.
The mainly Russian-speaking territory of about 450,000 people, which split from Moldova in the 1990s as the Soviet Union collapsed, has suffered a painful and immediate hit from Wednesday’s cut-off of Russian gas supplies to central and eastern Europe via Ukraine.
Continue reading...Founder of renowned knitwear brand was at forefront of bringing Italian ready-to-wear industry to global market
Rosita Missoni, the esteemed Italian fashion designer who co-founded the eponymous knitwear brand, has died aged 93.
Internationally admired for her colourful fashion house, which she established with her husband, Ottavio, in 1953, Missoni came to be regarded as fashion royalty for being one of a group of designers who brought the Italian ready-to-wear industry to a global market in the 1950s and 60s.
Continue reading...Foreign ministry summons ambassador as Cecilia Sala reportedly tells family she sleeps on floor of prison cell
Italy’s foreign ministry summoned the Iranian ambassador on Wednesday and urged the immediate release of an Italian journalist held in solitary confinement in Tehran.
Cecilia Sala, a 29-year-old freelance journalist for Il Foglio newspaper and a podcaster, reportedly spoke of the harsh conditions of her detainment in the notorious Evin prison, including having to sleep on the floor of her cell without a mattress.
Continue reading...Finnish real estate company says deal for sports and entertainment venue will restore it to its former glory
Helsinki’s main sports and entertainment arena is expected to reopen in the spring after getting caught in a Russian sanctions drama that left it disused, without power and starting to smell.
Helsinki Halli, formerly the Hartwall Arena, has been closed since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, when its Russian oligarch owners were subjected to sanctions from the EU and US, which meant they were boycotted by the entertainment industry, and banks and insurance companies refused to provide essential services. The last events to be held at the 14,000-capacity venue were an ice hockey game and the televised Finnish sport gala in January 2022.
Continue reading...Experts’ group employs new technologies and techniques to help relatives of those missing in the migration crisis
Four years ago, the remains of a toddler encased in a lifejacket and a navy snowsuit washed up on a beach in southern Norway, having spent the previous two months being carried on North Sea currents. Though his face was barely recognisable, publicity about the sinking of the migrant boat he had been travelling on, and suspicions about his identity, enabled Norwegian police to locate a relative to whom his DNA could be matched, providing this lonely corpse with a name: Artin Iran Nezhad.
Others remain nameless. Of the tens of thousands who die trying to reach Europe, only about a fifth are ever formally identified. For their relatives, this lack of closure is a continuing trauma. However, a recently established network of forensic scientists is trying to change this, through the development of new technologies and processes to aid identification efforts.
Continue reading...Known as ‘one of the jet set’s most outrageous characters’, Wildenstein died in Paris hotel aged 84
The Swiss socialite and cosmetic surgery aficionado Jocelyne Wildenstein, sometimes known as “Catwoman” due to her extensive plastic surgery, has died, her partner said on Wednesday.
“It is with heavy heart and with great sadness that Mr Lloyd Klein announces the unexpected death of his beloved fiancée and longtime companion, Jocelyne Wildenstein,” the fashion designer said in an English-language statement sent to the Agence France-Presse news agency.
Continue reading...Police identified the attacker as 45-year-old Aco Martinović, who they say opened fire in bar after a fight
At least 12 people, including two children, were killed and four others were wounded in a shooting on Wednesday that followed a bar brawl in a western Montenegrin city, officials said.
Police identified the attacker as Aco Martinović. The country’s interior minister, Danilo Šaranović, later told the state broadcaster RTCG that the 45-year-old died from injuries en route to hospital after shooting himself.
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