Forty-year-old has cardiac arrest after boat carrying 50 people deflates shortly after leaving France
A 40-year-old man died on Sunday trying to cross the Channel from northern France to the UK.
According to the prefecture in Calais, the man was of Indian heritage and had a cardiac arrest after the boat he was in with about 50 other men, women and children deflated minutes after leaving the French shore.
Continue reading...OSCE observers say election bore evidence of ‘democratic backsliding’ with reports of intimidation and coercion
Georgia’s ruling party has retained power in a contested parliamentary election in a blow to the country’s long-held aspiration for EU membership, amid accusations of intimidation and coercion of voters.
Georgia’s pro-western opposition refused to concede defeat, accusing the ruling party of a “constitutional coup” and promising to announce protests, setting the stage for a potential political crisis that could further polarise the Caucasus country.
Continue reading...Group commits to unspecified measures to enforce price cap on Russian exports in response to Ukraine war
Finance ministers of the G7 nations vowed on Saturday to step up efforts to prevent Russia from evading sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine.
“We remain committed to taking further initiatives in response to oil price cap violations,” the group said in a statement after a meeting in Washington. Those further steps were not spelled out in detail.
Continue reading...Results with 70% of precincts counted give Georgian Dream majority in vote seen as crucial to possible EU membership
Georgia’s ruling party is leading in a pivotal parliamentary election widely seen as a make-or-break vote for the country’s long-held aspiration for EU membership.
Early official results, with 70% of precincts counted, showed the ruling Georgian Dream (GD) party had won 53% of the vote, the electoral commission said.
Continue reading...The government is facing calls to cease trading with DP World because of its partnership with Putin’s northern sea route
Ministers are facing calls to review the UK’s financial ties to the multinational logistics company DP World over its business deals in Russia.
The business announced a £1bn expansion of the London Gateway port earlier this month, despite a row over the transport secretary, Louise Haigh, calling its ferry subsidiary, P&O Ferries, a “rogue operator”.
Continue reading...Voters will decide if Georgian Dream party, in power since 2012, will secure another four-years, having shifted the country closer to Russia
Georgians have headed to the polls in a pivotal parliamentary election that could determine whether Georgia shifts away from its long-held western orientations towards stronger ties with the Kremlin.
Voters will decide on Saturday whether the Georgian Dream (GD) party, which has been in power since 2012 and steered the country into a conservative course away from the west and closer to Russia, secures another four-year term.
Continue reading...Dozens of accused deny rape, despite video evidence showing unconscious Gisèle Pelicot snoring loudly
Taking the stand in France’s biggest ever rape trial, Patrice N, 55, an electrician from the southern town of Carpentras, said he was a “jovial” guy and a fun dad who once trained youth football teams and had a “great respect for women”.
He denied the charges of rape, claiming rape had never been his intention. “To my mind, it was a game,” he told the court.
Continue reading...Trade body Energy UK also estimates total energy cost of leaving bloc could reach £10bn by end of decade
Brexit has added up to £370m a year to the price of power supplies from Europe, according to industry representatives who calculate that the total energy costs of leaving the EU could amount to £10bn by the end of the decade.
Energy UK, the sector’s trade body, has called on Keir Starmer to negotiate a closer trading relationship with the bloc as part of the “reset” he is seeking with Brussels.
Continue reading...Paintings include one depicting a scantily clad Phaedra, mythological queen of Athens, and her stepson Hippolytus
A tiny house featuring erotic frescoes is the latest discovery in the ruins of the ancient Roman city of Pompeii. Experts say the exquisitely decorated abode, called the House of Phaedra after the mythological queen of Athens, sheds light on the changing architectural styles in the first century AD but is also further proof that the residents of Pompeii had an appetite for sensual art.
The vividly coloured wall paintings include one depicting a sexual encounter between a satyr and a nymph on a bed and one of a scantily clad Phaedra and her stepson Hippolytus, whom, according to Greek legend, she accused of rape after he spurned her advances. Another fresco features gods presumed to be Venus and Adonis.
Continue reading...Observers say country’s democracy at stake after Moscow-aligned ruling party’s threats to ban opposition
Georgians are heading to polls in a critical election that could determine whether one of the once most pro-western former Soviet states will veer towards a more authoritarian, Russia-aligned path.
For the past three decades, Georgia – a country of 3.6 million people nestled in the Caucasus mountains – has maintained strong pro-western aspirations, with polls showing up to 80% of its residents favour joining the EU.
Continue reading...Traditional Britain Group’s London conference includes speaker from Germany’s AfD party and far-right activists
A group that emerged out of a faction of the Conservative party has become a forum for Britain’s splintered far right.
A private conference hosted earlier this month by the Traditional Britain Group (TBG) was attended by figures from the Homeland party, an extreme nationalist group, as well as rivals from other groups such as Patriotic Alternative.
Continue reading...President’s comments at Brics summit are ambiguous, however, US says it has evidence of movement of troops who could fight in Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has sidestepped claims that North Korea has sent soldiers to Russia, insisting that it was up to Moscow how to run its mutual defence clause with Pyongyang.
Speaking at the close of the Brics summit in Kazan on Thursday, he accused the west of escalating the Ukraine war and said it was “living an illusion” if it thought it could inflict a strategic defeat on Russia.
Continue reading...Conference convened by French president raises $800m in humanitarian aid and $200m to strengthen Lebanese army
Emmanuel Macron has warned Benjamin Netanyahu that “civilisation is not best defended by sowing barbarism ourselves”, as a conference convened by the French president in Paris raised $200m (£154m) for Lebanon’s official military and $800m in humanitarian aid for the country.
Macron also vowed to help train 6,000 extra Lebanese official forces, and called for a ceasefire and an end to Israeli attacks on UN peacekeepers, for which he said there was no justification.
Continue reading...Sakharov prize goes to María Corina Machado and Edmundo González after contested presidential election
The European parliament has awarded its top human rights honor, the Sakharov prize for freedom of thought, to Venezuelan opposition leaders María Corina Machado and Edmundo González for “representing the people of Venezuela fighting to restore freedom and democracy”.
Machado was set to run as the democratic opposition candidate against the incumbent president, Nicolás Maduro, in Venezuela’s contested 2024 election, but she was disqualified by the government, so González took her place. He had never run for office before the presidential election.
Continue reading...Citizen power forced Germany’s greenest city-state into a binding agreement balancing housing and nature
When Fritz Schumacher laid out his vision for Hamburg a century ago, the sketch looked more like a fern than a town plan. Fronds of urban development radiated from the centre to tickle the countryside, bristling with dense rows of housing. The white spaces in between were to be filled with parks and playgrounds.
Schumacher was Hamburg’s chief building officer in the early 20th century, and a pioneer of green cities with widespread access to nature. “Building sites emerge even if you don’t invest in them,” he warned in 1932. “Public spaces disappear if you don’t invest in them.”
Continue reading...Chipmaker disputed 2009 decision that it abused its market position in case dating back two decades
The US chipmaker Intel has won a long-running battle to quash a fine of more than €1bn imposed by the European Commission for allegedly abusing its market dominance in the sale of computer chips.
In a final ruling on Thursday, theEuropean court of justice upheld an earlier judgment that had quashed the €1.06bn (£880m) fine and partly dismissed the charges of anticompetitive behaviour.
Continue reading...Airstrikes launched against suspected Kurdish militant targets after PKK blamed for Tusaş attack
Turkey has launched airstrikes against suspected Kurdish militant targets in Syria and Iraq after blaming the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) for a deadly attack on the headquarters of the Turkish national aerospace company on Wednesday that killed five people.
Turkey’s National Intelligence Organization said it had targeted numerous “strategic locations” used by the PKK, or by Syrian Kurdish militia affiliated with the militants, the Anadolu Agency reported.
Continue reading...‘Dehumanising rhetoric’ blamed as almost half of respondents say they recently suffered discrimination
Muslims across Europe are grappling with a “worrying surge” of racism that is being fuelled in part by “dehumanising anti-Muslim rhetoric”, the EU’s leading rights agency has said, as it published a survey in which nearly half of the Muslim respondents said they had recently experienced discrimination.
Published on Thursday by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA), the survey of 9,600 Muslims across 13 member states found that racism and discrimination threads through most aspects of their lives.
Continue reading...US says for first time that North Korea has sent at least 3,000 soldiers to Russia and are training at military bases
The US has said for the first time that it has seen evidence that North Korea has sent 3,000 troops to Russia for possible deployment in Ukraine, a move that could mark a significant escalation in Russia’s war against its neighbour.
US defence secretary Lloyd Austin said it would be “very, very serious” if the North Koreans were preparing to fight alongside Russia in Ukraine, as Kyiv has alleged. But he said it remained to be seen what they would be doing there.
Continue reading...Recep Tayyip Erdoğan condemns ‘heinous’ attack after explosion and reports of gunfire at Tusaş HQ near Ankara
Turkey’s interior minister has blamed a “terrorist attack” for an explosion and assault at the headquarters of the national aerospace company, Tusaş, outside Ankara that has killed five people and wounded 22 others.
The large blast happened outside the building at 4pm on Wednesday, and there were reports that gunfire was also heard in the vicinity.
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