Category Archives: Europe

UK momentum on Ukraine has dropped under Labour, Ben Wallace says

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Former Tory defence minister says leadership of Sunak era is lacking and bureaucracy is holding up equipment

Momentum on Ukraine has “dropped back” since Labour took office, according to the ex-Tory defence minister and former army officer Sir Ben Wallace.

Responding to recent comments by Kyiv officials that Ukraine’s relationship with the UK has “got worse” since Keir Starmer was elected prime minister, Wallace said that was because “the leadership that Britain showed right from the start has started to drop back into the pack”.

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Markets and farm shops among targets of organised crime gangs, say experts

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Smoked salmon, artisan cheese and fine wine among food and drink lost by European outlets

Small food producers are increasingly being targeted by organised crime gangs and rogue industry insiders looking to exploit national and global supply chain challenges , according to food crime experts.

The warning comes after several food businesses in the UK and continental Europe revealed how they had lost hundreds of thousands of pounds in scams where thieves apparently posed as legitimate buyers.

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Ed Davey urges Starmer to ‘Trump-proof’ UK with closer European ties

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Lib Dem leader says government should work with Trump but be prepared for him to act on security and trade threats

Ed Davey has urged Keir Starmer to “Trump-proof” the UK by urgently seeking closer European cooperation over military aid for Ukraine and economic ties, after the US president-elect’s threats about security and trade wars.

The Liberal Democrat leader, whose party is the third biggest in the House of Commons, argued that while the UK government should seek to work with a Donald Trump administration, it should also be as prepared as possible if he were to abandon Ukraine or impose sweeping tariffs.

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North Korea accused of GPS jamming attacks on South Korean ships and aircraft

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Seoul’s military says several vessels and dozens of civilian planes disrupted, a week after Pyongyang fired what it called its most powerful solid-fuel ICBM missile

North Korea staged GPS jamming attacks on Friday and Saturday, Seoul’s military said – an operation that was affecting several ships and dozens of civilian aircraft in South Korea.

The jamming allegations come about a week after the North test-fired what it said was its most advanced and powerful solid-fuel ICBM missile, its first such launch since being accused of sending soldiers to help Russia fight Ukraine.

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Elon Musk reportedly makes surprise appearance on Trump-Zelenskyy call

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X chief, who campaigned hard for Trump, spoke to Ukraine leader after being handed phone by president-elect

Elon Musk reportedly made a surprise guest appearance on a call between Donald Trump and the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy, solidifying the Tesla chief executive’s role as the most influential civilian in the country come January.

Musk was present with Trump during the call for roughly 25 minutes, according to Axios, which first reported the call. Trump handed Musk the phone and Musk and Zelenskyy spoke briefly. On the call, Zelenskyy thanked Musk for the satellites he had been providing Ukraine through his company, Starlink, according to AFP. Musk said he would continue to provide satellite internet connection, the report said.

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Amsterdam police arrest more than 60 people after attacks on Israeli football fans

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Plane carrying fans home lands in Israel as Amsterdam mayor condemns ‘hit and run’ attacks on visiting supporters

Amsterdam police have made more than 60 arrests after what authorities called “hateful antisemitic violence” against Israeli football fans.

A plane carrying football supporters brought home from the Dutch capital by the Israeli government landed on Friday at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport after the clashes on Thursday, which took place after a Europa League match between Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

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EU leaders vow to make bloc more competitive in face of Trump threat

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Budapest meeting finds consensus on need to raise growth and productivity as ‘America first’ protectionism looms

EU leaders meeting in Budapest have signed a declaration aimed at boosting the bloc’s ailing competitiveness – a task given added urgency by the threat of “America first” protectionist trade policies promised by the US president-elect, Donald Trump.

The bloc has too many barriers to innovation and must drastically reduce red tape, especially for startups; ramp up investment; make access to capital easier; and raise productivity, the European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said on Friday.

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Relationship between UK and Ukraine ‘has worsened since Labour won election’

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Exclusive: Official in Zelenskyy administration expresses frustration with Starmer over lack of missiles

Ukraine’s relationship with the UK has “got worse” since the Labour government took power in July, officials in Kyiv have told the Guardian, voicing frustration over Britain’s failure to supply additional long-range missiles.

The UK prime minister is yet to visit Ukraine four months after taking office and a frustrated Kyiv has said that a trip would be worthless unless Keir Starmer committed to replenishing stocks of the sought after long-range Storm Shadow system.

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‘Was I drugged and raped? I’ll never know’: partners of accused share fears at Pelicot trial

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Some ex-girlfriends of accused men tell court of burden of not knowing if they had been sedated and molested in past

Giving evidence in Avignon’s criminal court, a softly spoken woman in her 30s pondered the question if the medication she took as part of managing her multiple sclerosis might have allowed her ex-partner, Cédric G, to sexually abuse her without her knowledge. She described their relationship as “lies, from start to finish”.

Cédric G, 50, a software technician who used to run a record shop in Avignon, looked on from behind the glass-screened dock in the court. He is one of 51 men on trial over the rape of Gisèle Pelicot, whose then husband, Dominique Pelicot, crushed sleeping tablets and anti-anxiety medication into her food and invited dozens of men to rape her while she was unconscious over a nine-year period from 2011 to 2020 in the village of Mazan in Provence.

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Elephants can wash with a hose – and sabotage shower time, scientists say

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An elephant at Berlin zoo used its trunk to interrupt flow of water from hose used by another elephant

If you get frustrated by the shower hog in your house you’re not alone: research suggests such behaviour might even irritate elephants.

Scientists say they have not only discovered an elephant with an astonishing ability to shower with a hose, but spotted another cutting off the flow of water – possibly in a deliberate act of sabotage.

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Fiscal policy was a squabble too far for German coalition’s odd throuple

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At times it felt like the three parties thought they were governing three completely different countries

Germany’s coalition government, which collapsed in dramatic fashion on Wednesday night after almost three years in power, was always an odd throuple.

A pact between three parties with three quite different histories and different priorities, it was made up of two outfits that have traditionally located themselves on the left of the political spectrum – the Social Democratic party (SPD) and the Greens – and one, the liberal Free Democrats (FDP), that had until then been a loyal junior partner to the conservatives.

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Turkish film festival scrapped over Daniel Craig gay drama censorship

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Mubi cancels four-day event in protest as local government blocks screening of Luca Guadagnino-directed movie Queer

Organisers of an Istanbul film festival announced its cancellation on Thursday to protest against a local authority ban on the screening of Queer, a drama starring Daniel Craig.

The arthouse film streaming platform Mubi said it was cancelling the entire four-day festival just hours before it was set to open in Kadikoy, on the Asian side of Istanbul.

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Winner of Paul Mescal lookalike contest in Dublin receives €20 ‘or three pints’

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Competition to resemble Normal People star is markedly lower-stakes than chaotic Timothée Chalamet event in New York last month

Two weeks ago, a mobbed competition to find a Timothée Chalamet lookalike in New York led to one arrest, a $500 fine for an “unpermitted costume contest” and a surprise appearance by the real-life Chalamet, fuelling further chaos.

But a similar event in Dublin on Thursday, this time to find a doppelganger for Paul Mescal, the star of Normal People and the upcoming Gladiator II, unfolded rather more sedately.

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Leaders urge stronger action to defend Europe after Trump’s re-election

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EPC talks in Budapest hear calls for unity on continent as former US president’s return to White House brings uncertainty

European leaders have called for stronger action to defend their continent and support Ukraine, in a show of unity after Donald Trump won re-election to the White House for a second term that is likely to prove a major challenge for the bloc.

Meeting in Budapest for two days of talks hosted by Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, an outspoken Trump ally, the EU’s 27 heads of state and government were joined on Thursday by 20 other leaders from the wider European Political Community including Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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French minister cancels holy site visit after Israeli police arrest gendarmes

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France summons Israeli ambassador over incident at Eleona domain in Jerusalem which is under French control

The French foreign minister Jean-Noël Barrot has abandoned a visit to a holy site in Jerusalem under French control after armed Israeli police entered the site and briefly arrested two French gendarmes.

France has summoned the Israeli ambassador over the incident, the latest of several controversies involving the Eleona sanctuary on the Mount of Olives, which along with three other sites make up the French national domain in the Holy Land.

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Finnish fathers taking nearly double length of paternity leave since 2022 reform

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Dads say rule change granting both parents equal time off has helped build bond between children and fathers

Paternity leaves in Finland have nearly doubled in length after a 2022 reform of the parental leave system, the social benefits agency has said.

The change granted both parents equal amounts of leave for the first time: 160 days each of paid leave, to be used before the child turns two. Sixty-three of the days can be transferred to the other parent, if desired.

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Russia strikes Kyiv in huge drone attack hours after Trump win

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Attack on Ukrainian capital lasts eight hours with five districts hit and high-rise building set on fire

Russia has carried out a massive drone attack on Kyiv, and killed four people in a strike on a hospital in Zaporizhzhia, hours after Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential election.

Five aerial bombs destroyed an apartment block in the southern Ukrainian city and damaged a cancer hospital. Rescuers clambered over debris to search for survivors. Eighteen people were hurt, including three children, two of them babies, officials said.

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German government collapses after Olaf Scholz sacks finance minister

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Unexpected move throws Europe’s largest economy into political disarray and is likely to lead to snap elections in March

The German government has collapsed after the chancellor, Olaf Scholz, unexpectedly sacked his finance minister, plunging Europe’s largest economy into political disarray.

Christian Lindner was thrown out of the three-way coalition during a meeting of high-level government members on Wednesday evening, after months of bitter infighting that has contributed to the administration’s growing unpopularity.

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US diplomats brace as Trump plans foreign policy shake-up in wider purge of government

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Analysts say it is hard to separate the president-elect’s bluster from his actual plans but it’s clear his priority is to bin many of Joe Biden’s policies

The US foreign policy establishment is set for one of the biggest shake-ups in years as Donald Trump has vowed to both revamp US policy abroad and to root out the so-called “deep state” by firing thousands of government workers – including those among the ranks of America’s diplomatic corps.

Trump’s electoral victory is also likely to push the Biden administration to speed up efforts to support Ukraine before Trump can cut off military aid, hamper the already-modest efforts to restrain Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu in Gaza and Lebanon and lead to a fresh effort to slash and burn through major parts of US bureaucracy including the state department.

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This year ‘virtually certain’ to be hottest on record, finds EU space programme

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Copernicus Climate Change Service says 2024 marks ‘a new milestone’ and should raise ambitions at Cop29 summit

It is “virtually certain” that 2024 will be the hottest year on record, the European Union’s space programme has found.

The prognosis comes the week before diplomats meet at the Cop29 climate summit and a day after a majority of voters in the US, the biggest historical polluter of planet-heating gas, chose to make Donald Trump president.

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