Category Archives: Europe

Project to build German EV microchip factory put on hold

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US firm Wolfspeed and German car parts supplier ZF postpone plans over doubts about viability

A project to build a €3bn factory making microchips for electric vehicles once hailed as part of a “return of the industrial revolution” in Germany has been put on hold, as the crisis in the country’s hi-tech manufacturing industry deepens.

The US company Wolfspeed and the German car parts supplier ZF have postponed plans to build an EV chip factory, adding to problems caused by a delay to two large-scale factories belonging to the US chip giant Intel and possible factory closures being considered by Volkswagen.

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Norway to increase minimum age limit on social media to 15 to protect children

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Prime minister wants young people to be shielded from ‘power of the algorithm’

Norway is to enforce a strict minimum age limit on social media of 15 as the government ramped up its campaign against tech companies it says are “pitted against small children’s brains”.

The Norwegian prime minister, Jonas Gahr Støre, conceded it would be “an uphill battle” but said politicians must intervene to protect children from the “power of the algorithms”.

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Putin calls for alternative international payment system at Brics summit

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Russian president’s goal to de-dollarize world economy alarms members that do not want bloc to turn against west

Vladimir Putin has opened the expanded Brics summit by issuing a call for an alternative international payments system that could prevent the US using the dollar as a political weapon.

But the summit communique indicated that little progress had been made on an alternative payment system.

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Gisèle Pelicot tells mass rape trial ‘it’s not for us to have shame – it’s for them’

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Woman who was raped by her husband and allegedly abused by 50 other men says she is driven by ‘determination to change society’

Gisèle Pelicot, the French woman who has become a feminist hero for insisting that the rape trial of her ex-husband and 50 other men should be held in public, has told a court in southern France she was driven by her desire to change society and expose rape culture.

“I am a woman who is totally destroyed, and I don’t know how I’m going to rebuild myself. I’m 72 soon and I’m not sure my life will be long enough to recover from this,” said the former logistics manager, who was repeatedly unknowingly sedated and raped by her then husband, Dominique Pelicot, 71.

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Gisèle Pelicot ‘determined to change society’ as she tells trial that shame of rape lies with the accused – as it happened

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Woman at centre of France’s mass rape trial says ‘will and determination to change society’ is what keeps her going in face of evidence heard

Earlier this month the Guardian’s associate editor, Europe, Katherine Butler, spoke to Angelique Chrisafis about why this trial is so unusual and whether it might change French attitides to sexual violence.

Trials like this are normally held behind closed doors, away from the media, but this case is being heard in public because Gisèle Pelicot “wanted to draw attention to the use of drugs to commit sexual abuse,” Angelique said.

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Italian leaders push back at accusations of police racism and homophobia

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Council of Europe monitor reports ‘many accounts of racial profiling’ but Giorgia Meloni says force ‘deserves respect’

The Council of Europe has come under fire from Italian leaders after the publication of a report accusing the country’s police force of racist and homophobic abuse.

In its latest snapshot of Italy, published on Monday, the ECRI, the council’s independent human rights monitoring body, said that during a visit to Italy its delegation learned about “many accounts of racial profiling by law enforcement officials that impacts especially the Roma community and people of African descent”.

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Three people dead and 46 rescued after boat sinks in attempt to cross Channel

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French maritime officials say rescue operation was launched after lifejacket spotted in sea off Calais

Three people have died after a boat sank in the Channel, French maritime authorities said.

The French maritime prefecture for the Channel and the North Sea said a further 46 people were rescued after the incident off the coast of Calais on Wednesday morning.

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UK watchdog formally investigates Carlsberg’s £3.3bn takeover of Britvic

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CMA sets 18 December deadline for initial review as it considers whether deal could reduce competition

The UK’s competition watchdog has launched a formal investigation into the £3.3bn takeover of the UK soft drinks maker Britvic by the Danish brewer Carlsberg.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has set a deadline of 18 December for the first phase of its investigation into the deal.

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EU refuses to publish findings of Tunisia human rights inquiry

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Inquiry preceded controversial migration deal linked to claims of abuse in increasingly authoritarian country

The European Commission is refusing to publish the findings of a human rights inquiry into Tunisia it conducted shortly before announcing a controversial migration deal with the increasingly authoritarian north African country.

An investigation by the EU ombudsman found that the commission quietly carried out a “risk management exercise” into human rights concerns in Tunisia but will not disclose its results.

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Cop29 host Azerbaijan set for major fossil gas expansion, report says

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Exclusive: Those with ‘interest in keeping world hooked on fossil fuels’ should not oversee climate talks, say report authors

Azerbaijan, the host of the Cop29 global climate summit, will see a large expansion of fossil gas production in the next decade, a new report has revealed. The authors said that the crucial negotiations should not be overseen by “those with a vested interest in keeping the world hooked on fossil fuels”.

Azerbaijan’s state-owned oil and gas company, Socar, and its partners are set to raise the country’s annual gas production from 37bn cubic metres (bcm) today to 49bcm by 2033. Socar also recently agreed to increase gas exports to the European Union by 17% by 2026.

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Putin disrupting food aid for Gaza by attacking Ukraine ports, says Starmer

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Russian president ‘willing to gamble on food security’ by stepping up strikes on grain ships, says UK prime minister

Keir Starmer has accused Vladimir Putin of disrupting food supplies to Gaza after British intelligence suggested Russia had stepped up its attacks on Ukrainian ports.

Starmer said it was clear the Russian president was “willing to gamble on global food security” after several grain ships en route to developing countries were damaged by Russian strikes.

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Putin plays host to 36 world leaders at Brics summit in Russia

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West infuriated as UN secretary general accepts invitation to meeting of countries including China, India and Iran

Vladimir Putin, ostracised by the west and labelled a possible war criminal by the international criminal court, has played host to 36 world leaders from nations including China, India and Iran as part of a summit of the Brics group designed to display Moscow as anything but isolated.

One of the main aims of the summit will be to speed up ways to reduce the number of dollar transactions, and so mitigate the US ability to use the threat of sanctions to seek to impose its political will.

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Hungary asks EU to strip parliamentary immunity from Italian MEP Ilaria Salis

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Former teacher was detained in Budapest for alleged attack on neo-Nazis before being released in June

Hungary has called on the EU to strip parliamentary immunity from the Italian MEP Ilaria Salis, who was detained for 16 months in Budapest after an alleged attack on neo-Nazis.

The case of Salis, 39, a teacher from Monza, near Milan, sparked diplomatic protests and anger in Italy after she was brought last January to court in Hungary in chains, her hands cuffed and feet locked together.

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Loser of Austrian election to try to form government after parties shun far right

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People’s party tasked with coalition talks with Social Democrats after winning Freedom party fails to find partner

Austria’s president has tasked the incumbent chancellor with forming a new government, after the general election winner, the far-right Freedom party (FPÖ), failed to find a coalition partner to allow it to take power.

Alexander Van der Bellen, the 80-year-old head of state, told reporters he had asked Karl Nehammer, head of the centre-right People’s party (ÖVP), to begin negotiations with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPÖ).

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Side of cocaine with that? German police raid pizzeria after finding secret ingredient

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Authorities smash drugs gang in North Rhine-Westphalia after learning Düsseldorf pizzeria was delivering narcotics

Pizza No 40 was long one of the best-selling dishes at a restaurant in the German city of Düsseldorf, until police discovered the secret ingredient: a side of cocaine.

Authorities say uncovering the illicit narcotics delivery scheme allowed them to smash an organised crime ring in Germany’s most populous state, North Rhine-Westphalia. About 150 officers, including from elite units, last week searched 16 properties in nine cities, arrested three suspects and seized caches of weapons, the news agency DPA reported.

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South Korea mulls aiding Ukraine amid reports North Korea to assist Russia

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Seoul signals its most proactive position towards arming Ukraine to date

South Korea is considering directly supplying weapons to Ukraine as evidence increases that North Korean soldiers are preparing to assist Russia in its war against Ukraine.

South Korea’s spy agency (NIS) said last week that North Korea had shipped 1,500 special forces personnel to Russia’s far east for training and acclimatising at local military bases for future combat alongside Moscow’s troops in Ukraine.

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Alexander Rodnyansky: Oscar-nominated producer sentenced to jail in Russia in absentia

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The Ukrainian film producer behind Leviathan and Loveless was sentenced to eight-and-a-half years in prison after speaking out against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine

A Moscow court has sentenced Oscar-nominated film producer Alexander Rodnyansky to eight-and-a-half years jail in absentia on Monday for spreading “fake” information about the Russian army.

Rodnyansky, 63, was born in Kyiv but spent most of his career in Russia, producing dozens of TV series and movies there including the Oscar-nominated crime drama Leviathan. He has been an outspoken critic of the Kremlin’s offensive since it sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022, repeatedly denouncing the invasion on social media.

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UK to lend Ukraine an additional £2.26bn for weapons to fight Russia

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Loans will be repaid using interest generated by $300bn of frozen Russian assets held in the west

Britain is to lend Ukraine an additional £2.26bn and allow Kyiv to spend the money on weapons to fight off the Russian invasion as part of a wider $50bn (£38.5bn) loan programme expected to be confirmed by G7 members later this week.

The loans will be repaid using interest generated by the $300bn of frozen Russian assets held in the west, with the extra funds promised as the US heads towards a presidential election where support for Ukraine is a divisive issue.

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North Korean arms more significant than troops in Russia’s war against Ukraine

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Intelligence builds that members of Pyongyang’s special forces are in Russia preparing for combat as munitions are also shipped

Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, got to the point in his presidential address last night: “Another state,” he said, was “joining the war against Ukraine”. He was referring to the growing intelligence that shows elite soldiers from North Korea are in Russia preparing to join what has become a fight that, in effect, extends all the way across Asia.

The effect will be greater than the numbers believed to be involved. On Friday, South Korea’s National Intelligence Service (NIS) reported that 1,500 members of Pyongyang’s special forces had crossed the border to Vladivostok in Russia’s far east to begin training and some degree of participation in the war in Ukraine.

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Moldovans back joining the EU by razor-thin majority

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Final result sees ‘yes’ vote scrape ahead by 13,000 votes, narrowly avoiding shock setback for pro-western president

Moldovans have voted by a razor-thin majority in favour of joining the EU after a pivotal referendum clouded by allegations of Russian interference.

On Sunday, Moldova held key votes in a presidential election and a referendum on EU membership, marking a critical moment in the continuing struggle between Russia and the west for control over the small, landlocked nation in eastern Europe, home to 2.5 million people.

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