Trump tells the New York Post that he has a plan to end the war but declined to go into details
Donald Trump has said he held talks with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, over a negotiated end of the three year Russia-Ukraine war, indicated that Russian negotiators want to meet with US counterparts.
Trump told the New York Post that he had spoken to Putin, remarking that “I better not say” just how many times.
Continue reading...Best European film at Goya awards goes to musical at centre of storm over past social media posts written by its star
The multi-Oscar-nominated narco-musical Emilia Pérez, whose success has been overshadowed by the emergence of a series of racist and Islamophobic social media posts written by its star, Karla Sofía Gascón, won best European film at Spain’s prestigious Goya awards on Saturday night.
Gascón, the first out transgender woman to be nominated for a best actress Oscar, stayed away from the ceremony after posts came to light in which she called George Floyd “a drug addict swindler”, denigrated China, and said Islam was “becoming a hotbed of infection for humanity”.
Continue reading...Family of Daphne Caruana Galizia condemn delays in bringing Yorgen Fenech to trial after arrest in 2019
A millionaire businessman charged with the 2017 murder of the Maltese anti-corruption journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia has been released on bail with no date set for his trial.
Yorgen Fenech, the heir to a casino and hotels group, was arrested and charged with complicity to kill Caruana Galizia in November 2019. However, delays in bringing the case before a jury have allowed his lawyers to successfully argue for bail.
Continue reading...Kerr’s mother, Dawn Searle, and her partner Andrew were found dead at their rural home in south-west France on Thursday
A former Hollyoaks actor has said he is “grieving the tragic loss” of his mother after she was found dead alongside her husband in France.
The bodies of Andrew Searle, a retired fraud investigator, and his wife, Dawn, a project manager, were discovered at about 12.30pm on Thursday at their home in the village of Les Pesquiès, south of Villefranche-de-Rouergue. The couple had moved to south-west France from Scotland about 10 years ago.
Continue reading...Widowed parent’s allowance claims for those not married or in civil partnership can only be backdated from 30 August 2018
Two bereaved parents have filed a case at the European court of human rights, claiming that the UK government’s treatment of them is discriminatory.
Jyotee Gunnooa and Andrew Byles lost their partners but were unable to claim a benefit for widowed parents because they were not married or in civil partnerships when the deaths happened.
Continue reading...Crooked Cross, Sally Carson’s ‘electrifying masterpiece’ from 1934, to be republished
Sally Carson was not an oracle or a prophet, just a young woman from Dorset, born in 1901. Yet she foresaw a dark and violent future for Europe and gave voice to those fears in a 1934 novel that is now being hailed as “an electrifying masterpiece”.
Carson’s book, Crooked Cross, predicted the scale of the Nazi threat and is to be republished for the first time this spring, ahead of the 80th anniversary of the end of the second world war. Controversial in its day, her novel had to walk a careful path to avoid the accusation that it was alarmist about the Fuhrer’s aims. A stage adaptation of her story was even censored, shorn of all its “Heil Hitlers”.
Continue reading...Former French president was found guilty of trying to bribe a judge in 2014 after he had left office
The former French president Nicolas Sarkozy was fitted with an electronic tag on Friday after losing his appeal against his conviction for corruption and influence peddling.
He will be required to remain at his Paris home between 8pm and 8am, but has been given a special dispensation to be outside until 9.30pm for three days a week when attending a separate trial on charges – that he denies – of accepting millions in illegal campaign funds from the Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi.
Continue reading...‘We have to ensure that only the right people have guns in Sweden,’ says the prime minister, Ulf Kristersson
Sweden’s government has announced plans to strengthen its gun laws, including by restricting access to semi-automatic weapons, after the country’s worst mass shooting.
On Tuesday, a gunman killed 10 people at an education centre in Örebro, west of Stockholm, before shooting himself. Police have not said what type of weapon he used but they have said he had a licence to own four weapons, three of which were found beside him.
Continue reading...Several teams have pulled out of the Étoile de Bessèges cycling race in France after a car came towards the peloton at a roundabout during the third stage on Friday.
Ineos Grenadiers said: “The safety of our riders and staff is of paramount importance. Following multiple incidents of public vehicles entering the race course our riders, together with other teams, have decided not to complete today’s stage at #EDB2025.”
Continue reading...Baku reportedly preparing to appeal to ‘an international court’ unless Moscow takes responsibility for crash
Azerbaijan is escalating its rare standoff with the Kremlin as the fallout from the downing of an Azerbaijani passenger jet continues, highlighting Russia’s diminishing influence across the former Soviet Union.
Thirty-eight people were killed when an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crashed on 25 December near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan after rerouting across the Caspian Sea from southern Russia.
Continue reading...US attorney general issues memo to break up effort started after 2022 Ukraine invasion to target those close to Kremlin
The US justice department under Donald Trump is disbanding an effort started after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine to enforce sanctions and target oligarchs close to the Kremlin.
A memo from the attorney general, Pam Bondi, issued during a wave of orders on her first day in office but not previously reported, said the effort, known as Task Force KleptoCapture, will end as part of a shift in focus and funding to combating drug cartels and international gangs.
Continue reading...With member states keen to link quotas to any deal, António Costa says defence and fisheries ‘are different things’
The EU will not let the question of fishing rights derail a pact with the UK on security and defence, the president of the European Council has said.
The comments from António Costa, who took over as the European Council president in December, is a boost for Keir Starmer, amid frustration among UK officials over EU insistence on linking a security deal to other demands, notably fishing rights.
Continue reading...Greek civil protection authorities announce measures after an estimated 7,700 tremors in less than a week
Greek civil protection authorities have declared a state of emergency on Santorini as natural disaster experts voice mounting fears over the “intense” seismic activity that has rattled the island.
The emergency measures were declared by the island’s town hall hours after seismologists recorded a 5.2-magnitude earthquake – the most powerful tremor to be felt on Santorini since the first of an estimated 7,700 temblors were registered last week.
Continue reading...The actor was due to attend the Goya awards on Saturday but has pulled out and has also been dropped by publishers
Karla Sofía Gascón will not attend this weekend’s prestigious Goya awards as the fallout from the Spanish actor’s racist and Islamophobic social media posts continues with her being dropped by her publisher and criticised by prominent politicians.
Gascón – the star of Emilia Pérez and the first transgender woman to be nominated for a best actress Oscar – is already understood to have been removed from the film’s campaigning materials by its studio, Netflix. Her comments have been described as “absolutely hateful” by the movie’s director, Jacques Audiard, while Gascón’s co-star, Zoe Saldana, has said the views expressed had saddened and disappointed her.
Continue reading...Syrian embassy says its citizens were among 11 killed in attack by lone gunman in Örebro
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People of several nationalities were among the 11 killed at a school in Sweden’s worst mass shooting, police have said.
Anna Bergkvist, who is leading the police investigation, told Agence France-Presse that people of “multiple nationalities, different genders and different ages” were among those killed by a lone gunman at Campus Risbergska, an adult education centre, in the city of Örebro on Tuesday.
Continue reading...Survivor of Ceuta incident that ended with 14 deaths asks why use of anti-riot equipment was never investigated
A refugee who was almost blinded in one eye during a police operation that ended with the deaths of at least 14 people off the coast of Spain’s north African enclave of Ceuta 11 years ago has filed a complaint to the UN Committee Against Torture.
Shortly before dawn on 6 February 2014, about 200 people tried to enter Ceuta by climbing the border fence or by swimming around the breakwater that separates the city from Moroccan territory.
Continue reading...EU monitor says global temperatures were 1.75C above preindustrial levels, extending run of unprecedented highs
A run of record-breaking global temperatures has continued, even with a La Niña weather pattern cooling the tropical Pacific.
The Copernicus Climate Change Service said last month was the warmest January on record, with surface – air temperatures 1.75C above preindustrial levels.
Continue reading...Exclusive: Decision comes after it emerged an Italian investigative journalist and two activists targeted by Paragon Solutions spyware
Paragon Solutions, whose military-grade hacking software was allegedly used to target 90 people, including journalists and members of civil society, in two dozen countries, has terminated its client relationship with Italy, according a person familiar with the matter.
The decision to terminate the contract comes less than one week after WhatsApp announced that Paragon’s spyware had been used to target dozens of people. Like other spyware vendors, Paragon sells its cyberweapon to government clients who are supposed to use it to prevent crime. It remains unclear who the specific government clients were behind the alleged attacks.
Continue reading...Robert Hendy-Freegard, the subject of a Netflix documentary, injured two gendarmes at his home in 2022
A British conman who featured in a Netflix documentary has been sentenced to six years in prison by a French court for deliberately ramming two police officers with his car as he attempted a getaway.
Robert Hendy-Freegard, 53, nicknamed the Puppet Master because of his career as a serial swindler, made his escape after injuring the gendarmes at his home in the Creuse in central France.
Continue reading...Police say suspect, who is among the dead, acted alone as they continue the work of identifying victims
The gun rampage that left 11 people dead in the Swedish city of Örebro was “a one-man operation”, police have said, as local media identified the shooter as a former student of the adult education centre he attacked.
As Sweden reeled from the deadliest mass shooting in its history, investigators were working on Wednesday to identify the people who were killed and injured after the attack at Campus Risbergska just after 12.30pm on Tuesday.
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