PM says UK does not have to choose between Europe and US, before meeting EU leaders in Brussels
Keir Starmer has said he wants an “ambitious security partnership” with the EU, while insisting the UK does not have to choose between Europe and the US.
The prime minister was speaking before meeting EU leaders in Brussels to discuss security and defence, the first time a British leader has attended a European Council meeting since Britain left the EU five years ago.
Continue reading...Prospective chancellor takes startlingly aggressive line against those protesting against gamble with AfD
The German conservative opposition leader, Friedrich Merz, whose party is widely tipped to win this month’s general election, defended his hardline migration proposals after a wave of protests accused him of breaching the time-honoured “firewall” between the far right and centrists.
In an uncompromising speech to a party congress of his Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in Berlin, Merz said he was confident they would win the 23 February vote “with a very good result”, well ahead of the anti-immigration, anti-Islam Alternative für Deutschland (AfD), which has been consistently placing second in the polls.
Continue reading...PM wants to ‘see all allies stepping up’, saying Donald Trump’s threat of sanctions has rattled Vladimir Putin
Keir Starmer has called on European leaders to put more economic pressure on Russia, saying Donald Trump’s threat of sanctions has left Vladimir Putin “rattled”.
Before a meeting in Brussels on Monday, the prime minister said it was necessary to “see all allies stepping up – particularly in Europe” when it comes to inflicting economic harm on Russia, and argued it would help bring about peace by ending the Ukraine war sooner.
Continue reading...Schools shut as precautionary measure and people told to avoid shoreline after hundreds of seismic tremors
Greek authorities have dispatched special forces, rescue teams, tents and drones to the island of Santorini after hundreds of seismic tremors were recorded in the area.
Amid fears of a bigger earthquake that could cause a tsunami, people were advised to avoid the shoreline and derelict buildings, to empty swimming pools and to refrain from gathering in large numbers in enclosed spaces. The civil protection ministry said schools would be shut as a precautionary measure on Monday.
Continue reading...Nika Melia and Gigi Ugulava detained as thousands try to block highway into Tbilisi amid unrest against ruling party
Georgian police arrested two opposition leaders during a street protest against the ruling party on Sunday, a move quickly denounced by the EU, which condemned Tbilisi’s “brutal crackdown”.
The Black Sea nation has been rocked by daily mass protests since the Georgian Dream party claimed victory in October parliamentary elections rejected by the opposition as falsified.
Continue reading...Spanish football federation’s former president is accused of sexual assault and coercion over incident in 2023
Spain’s former football chief Luis Rubiales will go on trial in Madrid on Monday over the unsolicited kiss he planted on the World Cup winner Jenni Hermoso, a gesture that stunned millions of TV viewers and unleashed a backlash against sexism in sport.
Rubiales, 47, is accused of sexual assault as well as coercion after allegations that he tried to force Hermoso, 34, into publicly declaring that the kiss, which occurred as she celebrated her team’s victory in the 2023 World Cup in Australia, was consensual.
Continue reading...Belgium leads calls for suspension of agreement after Rwanda-backed rebels captured city of Goma
The EU is under mounting pressure to suspend a controversial minerals deal with Rwanda that has been blamed for fuelling the conflict in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Calls to freeze the agreement have grown after fighters from the Rwanda-backed M23 rebel group captured the city of Goma in the eastern DRC, escalating a decades-old conflict and raising fears of a regional war.
Continue reading...Home secretary rules out return to full union with bloc as Keir Starmer prepares for talks in Brussels this week
Keir Starmer will seek to improve customs arrangements with Europe without returning to a full union with the bloc, the home secretary has said.
As the prime minister heads to Brussels as part of his attempted reset with the EU, Yvette Cooper said it was still a red line that the UK would not be part of a customs union or single market.
Continue reading...Former Labour leader says government should show greater willingness to work with bloc
Labour needs to end its “cycle of hesitation” over Europe and press ahead with an ambitious new relationship with the European Union, the party’s former leader Neil Kinnock has said.
Keir Starmer will head to a Brussels dinner with EU leaders this week as he attempts to negotiate a security and defence pact with the bloc. It is the first summit of its type to be attended by a British prime minister since Brexit.
Continue reading...Ukraine armed forces say 84 people were rescued or had medical help after strike in Russian territory that Kyiv holds
Ukraine and Russia have traded blame for a deadly missile strike that killed at least four people in the dormitory of a boarding school situated in a part of Russia’s Kursk region held by Ukrainian forces.
Some of the war’s fiercest battles in recent months have been taking place in the Kursk region that borders Ukraine, where Kyiv forces have held swathes of the land since staging a major cross-border incursion last August.
Continue reading...Tens of thousands rally against government and in memory of railway station roof collapse that killed 15
Serbia’s powerful populist leader Aleksandar Vučić was facing his biggest challenge yet as student-led demonstrations intensified at the weekend in what was being called the Balkan country’s greatest ever protest movement.
Three months to the day after a concrete canopy collapsed at the entrance of Novi Sad’s railway station, tens of thousands of protesters converged on the northern city, blockading its three bridges in commemoration of the 15 people killed in the accident. The tragedy has been blamed squarely on government ineptitude and graft.
Continue reading...Hardline agendas, especially on immigration, are copied by mainstream conservatives in vain effort to win back votes - but it’s not working
Far-right parties could become the largest force on the right in Europe within a decade, experts have said, as mainstream conservative parties look to copy their hardline agendas, especially on immigration, in a vain effort to win back votes.
Germany’s conservatives last week sparked fury when their leader, Friedrich Merz, the country’s likely next chancellor, broke a longstanding pledge by relying on far-right votes to adopt a non-binding motion urging a drastic immigration crackdown. The leader of Alternative für Deutschland, Alice Weidel, hailed “a historic day for Germany” as the Bundestag, for the first time in its history, passed a vote with the backing of her party, which is second in the polls weeks before this month’s elections.
Continue reading...Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32 and originally from Hungary, were last seen on CCTV near harbour on 7 January
The body of a second woman has been found in the search for two sisters who went missing in Aberdeen last month.
Eliza and Henrietta Huszti, both 32 and originally from Hungary, were last seen on CCTV near the Dee at Aberdeen harbour early in the morning on 7 January, walking towards a path along the river.
Continue reading...Francesco Cancellato, whose reporting exposes fascists within PM Meloni’s far-right party, condemns ‘violation’
An Italian investigative journalist who is known for exposing young fascists within prime minister Giorgia Meloni’s far-right party was targeted with spyware made by Israel-based Paragon Solutions, according to a WhatsApp notification received by the journalist.
Francesco Cancellato, the editor-in-chief of the Italian investigative news outlet Fanpage, was the first person to come forward publicly after WhatsApp announced on Friday that 90 journalists and other members of civil society had been targeted by the spyware.
Continue reading...The coalition government will be led by the conservative New Flemish Alliance party’s Bart De Wever
Five Belgian parties struck a coalition deal on Friday to form a new government headed by the Flemish conservative Bart De Wever, after more than seven months of tortuous negotiations.
The agreement paves the way for De Wever to become the first nationalist from the Dutch-speaking Flanders region to be Belgian premier – although in recent years he has backed off on calls for it to become an independent country.
Continue reading...Plan to tighten migration policy was brought by the opposition leader Friedrich Merz with the help of AfD
The German parliament has rejected a bill to tighten immigration controls brought by the frontrunner to be the next chancellor, Friedrich Merz, with the backing of the far-right Alternative für Deutschland.
It came after a similar but non-binding motion was passed by parliament on Wednesday with the votes of the AfD, prompting a wave of protest from those who said it was a breach in Germany’s longstanding “firewall” between the far right and the mainstream.
Continue reading...European Central Bank picks two themes for redesign submissions: ‘iconic personalities’ or rivers and birds
He was a master of notes, and now the German composer Ludwig van Beethoven could be one of the faces of the redesigned euro, the first time the EU currency’s banknotes have been revamped.
In a process that started in 2021 and has already involved a public inquiry and two multidisciplinary advisory groups, the European Central Bank (ECB) has selected two themes for the redesign.
Continue reading...Revered Helmet of Coțofenești among items from ancient Dacian civilisation stolen while on loan at Drents Museum
Hours before the sun rose over the Netherlands, the group crowded around the large external door, appearing to pry it open. Seconds later, the grainy security video appeared to show a powerful explosion, sending plumes of smoke and sparks into the air, and the thieves rush into the museum in the north-eastern city of Assen.
Minutes later they were gone. But the mystery of what exactly took place during their few minutes in the Drents Museum – and what came afterwards – has left officials in the Netherlands scrambling for answers, and prompted a row that has stretched to the other side of Europe.
Continue reading...Agreement between farmers, politicians and environmental groups led to a €170m action fund for plant based food
“Plant-based foods are the future.” That is not a statement you would expect from a right-wing farming minister in a major meat-producing nation. Denmark produces more meat per capita than any other country in the world, with its 6 million people far outnumbered by its 30 million pigs, and it has a big dairy industry too. Yet this is how Jacob Jensen, from the Liberal party, introduced the nation’s world-first action plan for plant-based foods.
“If we want to reduce the climate footprint within the agricultural sector, then we all have to eat more plant-based foods,” he said at the plan’s launch in October 2023, and since then the scheme has gone from strength to strength. Backed by a €170m government fund, it is now supporting plant-based food from farm to fork, from making tempeh from broad beans and a chicken substitute from fungi to on-site tastings at kebab and burger shops and the first vegan chef degree.
Continue reading...Exclusive: More Danish people regard US as a threat than see North Korea or Iran as danger
Almost half of Danish people now consider the US to be a considerable threat to their country and the overwhelming majority oppose Greenland leaving to become part of the US, new polling has found.
The research by YouGov, shared exclusively with the Guardian, comes after weeks of tension between Denmark, Greenland and the US over Donald Trump’s repeated assertions that he plans to take control of the autonomous territory, which is part of the Danish kingdom.
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