Category Archives: Europe

UK cabinet ministers barred from visiting Russia amid missile row

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Moscow bans Labour figures including Angela Rayner, Yvette Cooper and Rachel Reeves under new sanctions

Russia has banned cabinet ministers including Angela Rayner, Yvette Cooper and Rachel Reeves from entering the country under new sanctions announced by Moscow’s foreign affairs ministry.

More than a dozen other senior Labour politicians are among the 30 British citizens on the Russian “stop list” after tensions between London and Moscow rose following Ukraine’s recent use of British missiles to strike deeper into Russia.

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Trump’s tariff threat sets stage for bitter global trade war

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Trade experts hail ‘new era of protectionism’ with targeted countries retaliating with their own tariffs

Donald Trump’s threat to impose steep tariffs on goods imported into the US has set the stage for a bitter global trade war, according to trade experts and economists, with consumers and companies warned to brace for steep costs.

The president-elect announced on Monday night that he intends to hit Canada, Mexico and China with tariffs on all their exports to the US – until they reduce migration and the flow of drugs into the country.

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Irish PM’s party drops six points in pre-election polls amid ‘Simon slump’

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Fine Gael had looked sure of victory on Friday before Simon Harris’s disastrous interaction with care worker

Ireland’s three main parties are almost neck and neck in the polls ahead of Friday’s general election, as the taoiseach, Simon Harris, struggles to contain the damage inflicted on his campaign by a disastrous interaction with an angry care worker.

In what has been called the “Simon slump”, Fine Gael, the centre-right party which Harris leads, and which seemed almost certain to top the polls, is now under pressure. An Irish Times poll on Monday showed FG had lost its commanding lead of two weeks ago and was down six points.

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Russia preparing to retaliate after it says Ukraine hit it with US-made missiles – as it happened

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Călin Georgescu, a Moscow-friendly independent candidate with a nationalist background, has taken a surprise lead in the first round of Romania’s presidential election.

As my colleague Jon Henley notes in this report, with 99.98% of votes counted, Georgescu, who has praised Vladimir Putin as “a man who loves his country”, was on 22.9%, with the reformist Elena Lasconi, of the Save Romania Union (USR), second on 19.17%.

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Power cuts in Ukraine after Russia’s biggest drone attack yet

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Moscow is pushing hard on eastern frontline amid uncertainty as to how Trump taking office will affect war

Russia launched its biggest ever drone attack on Ukraine on Monday night and Tuesday morning, sending a reported 188 drones into the country against various targets, resulting in power cuts in part of western Ukraine and damage to residential buildings outside Kyiv.

Russian forces are pushing hard along the frontline in the east of the country, amid uncertainty as to how the dynamics of the war might change once Donald Trump takes office in January. Russia also vowed “retaliatory actions” for fresh Ukrainian strikes on military targets inside Russia that used long-range missiles sent by the US.

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Russia expels UK diplomat over spying allegations

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Security service accuses diplomat of ‘reconnaisance and subversive activities’ amid rising tension

Russia said it was expelling a British diplomat for alleged spying as tensions between London and Moscow rose after Ukraine’s recent use of British weapons to strike deeper into Russia.

The FSB, Russia’s domestic intelligence agency, announced on Tuesday that it had acted on documents accusing a British diplomat of engaging in “reconnaissance and subversive activities that threaten the country’s security”.

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Ireland prices corporation tax loss from Trump policies at €10bn

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Figure costed for three multinationals repatriating to US after nomination for commerce secretary hits out at Ireland’s tax regime

Ireland’s prime minister has said the country could lose €10bn (£8.35bn) in corporate tax if just three US multinationals were repatriated to America under a hostile Donald Trump administration.

His remarks come just days after Trump nominated the Wall Street investor Howard Lutnick to lead the Department of Commerce with direct responsibility for trade.

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UK government vows to do all it can to help Briton captured by Russia

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Foreign secretary offers support for James Scott Rhys Anderson, who was fighting for Ukraine reportedly in Kursk

The UK government has promised to do all it can to assist a former British soldier fighting for Ukraine who has been taken prisoner by the Russian army.

Two videos of a man who identified himself as James Scott Rhys Anderson surfaced on Russian Telegram channels over the weekend. They featured interrogation of a bearded man in military fatigues, who had his hands tied and spoke slowly in English to give details from his biography, including that he served as a signalman in the British army between 2019 and 2023. Anderson is 22, according to the date of birth he gave in the video.

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Ukrainian boxing champ Wladimir Klitschko calls out Rogan for ‘repeating Russian propaganda’

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Olympic gold medalist argues in video that podcaster’s remarks about war in Ukraine is result of Putin-led plot

The podcaster Joe Rogan is “repeating Russian propaganda” about the war in Ukraine, the former world heavyweight boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko charged in remarks on social media, adding that Rogan should invite him on his podcast to discuss the issue “like free men”.

“I listen to your latest podcast,” said Klitschko, whose brother Vitali Klitschko was also a world champion boxer and is now mayor of Kyiv.

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Germany draws up list of bunkers amid Russia tensions

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App planned for public to find emergency shelter in places including underground train stations and car parks

Germany is drawing up a list of bunkers that could provide emergency shelter for civilians, the interior ministry has said, at a time of rising tensions with Russia.

The list would include underground train stations and car parks as well as state buildings and private properties, a ministry spokesperson said.

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Weather tracker: Swaths of Canada braced for heavy snow

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Temperatures unlikely to exceed -20C in parts of Canada, while a red weather warning has been issued for Sri Lanka

An area of low pressure moving along the US-Canada border brought heavy snowfall to parts of western Canada at the weekend. A weather warning has been issued for the provinces of Alberta and Saskatchewan for 150-250mm (6-10in) of snow.

As the weather system moves, it is expected to bring further snow to eastern parts of the country early this week. Pressure building after the snowfall is expected trap cold air from the north, triggering severe frost.

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Russia-Ukraine war: more than 20 injured in Russian attack on Kharkiv – as it happened

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Casualties include 14 people who have been sent to hospital

Jon Henley is the Guardian’s Europe correspondent

An ultranationalist, Moscow-friendly Nato critic is set to face a centre-right candidate in the runoff of Romania’s presidential elections after a shock first-round result that has upended the country’s politics and could jeopardise its support for Ukraine.

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Norway launches Jon Fosse prize for literary translators

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The award will be the biggest of its kind in Europe and aims to celebrate the work of an overlooked and underpaid profession facing an existential threat from AI

Norway is launching a new translation price that is one of the most highly endowed of its kind in Europe, in an attempt to boost a “partly invisible” and often poorly paid profession increasingly under threat from machine translation.

Named after the Norwegian novelist and playwright who won the 2023 Nobel prize in literature, Jon Fosse, the Fosse prize for translators will reward one author every year with 500,000 NOK (£36,000) for making “a particularly significant contribution to translating Norwegian literature into another language”.

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Danish parenting tests under fire after baby removed from Greenlandic mother

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Campaigners say psychometric tests are discriminatory amid protests over case of Keira Alexandra Kronvold

Denmark is under pressure to stop subjecting Greenlandic people to “parenting competency” tests that campaigners say discriminate against them, amid uproar over the case of a mother whose baby was removed two hours after she gave birth.

The psychometric tests are widely used in Denmark as part of child protection investigations into new parents, and have long been criticised by human rights bodies as culturally unsuitable for Greenlandic people and other minorities.

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Shock as pro-Russia independent wins first round of Romanian election

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Călin Georgescu, a critic of Nato, says people have ‘cried out for peace’ after he heads into runoff with 22.9% of vote

An ultranationalist, Moscow-friendly Nato critic is set to face a centre-right candidate in the runoff of Romania’s presidential elections after a shock first-round result that has upended the country’s politics and could jeopardise its support for Ukraine.

With 99.98% of votes counted, Călin Georgescu, an independent who has praised Vladimir Putin as “a man who loves his country”, was on 22.9%, with the reformist Elena Lasconi, of the Save Romania Union (USR), second on 19.17%.

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Poland prepares for election crucial for ruling coalition and progressive reform

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Next May’s presidential vote is effectively referendum on whether Donald Tusk’s government can rule freely

Donald Tusk’s government in Poland is gearing up for a crucial presidential election next year, after a first year in office that has been marked by clashes with the current president, Andrzej Duda, as well as splits within the ruling coalition.

Tusk took office as prime minister last December, ending eight years of rule by the populist Law and Justice (PiS) party. The change of government prompted celebrations from progressive Poles and relief in Brussels, where PiS had put Poland on a course of conflict with European bodies.

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DHL plane crash in Lithuania may be result of sabotage, says German minister

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Baerbock raises possibility of accident or ‘hybrid incident’ after Vilnius cargo plane crash kills one and injures three

The fatal crash of a DHL cargo plane as it approached Vilnius airport could have been the result of sabotage or an accident, Germany’s foreign minister has said.

A Spanish crew member was killed and three others injured when the German plane crashed into a house near the Lithuanian capital on Monday.

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Former British soldier fighting for Ukraine captured by Russian forces

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Man identifies himself in a video as James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, saying he joined the country’s International Legion

A British man has reportedly been captured by Russian forces while fighting for Ukraine.

In a widely circulated video on Sunday, first posted on Telegram, the man identifies himself as James Scott Rhys Anderson, 22, and says he is a former British army soldier.

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China unnerved by Russia’s growing ties with North Korea, claims US official

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Comments part of debate over whether Beijing backs Kim Jong-un’s decision to send troops to fight in Ukraine

China is increasingly uncomfortable about North Korea’s engagement with Russia and finds the growing cooperation between Pyongyang and Moscow unnerving, Kurt Campbell, the US deputy secretary of state has said.

He was leaning into a growing debate among the US’s security partners in Asia on whether China supports the decision of North Korea’s Kim Jong-un to send 10,000 troops to fight for Russia against Ukraine. It is said the North Korean troops are now inside Russia.

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Romania votes in presidential poll with nationalist and leftist vying for runoff

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Sunday’s election could lead to a battle between far-right’s George Simion and Marcel Ciolacu of Social Democrats

Romanians are casting ballots on Sunday in the first round of a presidential election that could pit a far-right nationalist against the incumbent leftist prime minister in the runoff.

Thirteen candidates are vying for the presidency in the EU and Nato member country and the vote is expected to go to a second round on 8 December. Polls opened at 7am local time (05.00 GMT) and will close at 9pm. Romanians abroad have been able to vote since Friday.

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