Holly Cairns announces birth of daughter on day of Ireland’s general election
• Ireland’s election: the parties, the issues and the voting
The leader of Ireland’s Social Democrats party has announced the birth of a baby daughter on the day of the country’s general election.
Holly Cairns, who is standing for re-election in the Cork South-West constituency, posted on Instagram: “She’s here. We are completely in love with her.”
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German foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, will travel to China next week, where she will meet her Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, to discuss issues including the war in Ukraine, said a ministry spokesperson on Friday, according to Reuters.
Further political talks are also planned, said the spokesperson, adding that Baerbock will also meet German business representatives in the country.
Continue reading...Talks held in Geneva as Iran looks to avoid potential snapback of UN sanctions over nuclear programme
Iran and the so-called E3 grouping of the UK, France and Germany have agreed to continue holding talks in the near future in an attempt to find a way out of an impasse over Tehran’s nuclear programme, in what may be the last chance of a breakthrough before Donald Trump takes up the US presidency again.
Trump, who pursued a policy of “maximum economic pressure” against Iran during his first term, returns to the White House on 20 January.
Continue reading...If Putin allowed to reduce Ukraine to vassal state ‘he will not stop there’, Richard Moore says in plea to Trump
Abandoning Ukraine would jeopardise British, European and American security and lead to “infinitely higher” costs in the long term, the head of MI6 has warned in a speech that amounted to a plea to Donald Trump to continue supporting Kyiv.
Richard Moore, giving a rare speech, said he believed Vladimir Putin “would not stop” at Ukraine if he was allowed to subjugate it in any peace talks involving the incoming US Republican administration.
Continue reading...Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil and Sinn Féin all on about 20% in opinion polls after short, sharp campaign
Ireland goes to the polls on Friday with voters expected to choose either a second term for the incumbent centre-right coalition or a left-leaning rainbow coalition led by a resurgent Sinn Féin, the former political wing of the IRA.
Opinion polls show a dead heat, with the two main government parties – Fine Gael, led by the taoiseach, Simon Harris, and Fianna Fáil, led by the former PM Micheál Martin – and Sinn Féin all hovering at about 20% of the vote.
Continue reading...President accuses government of declaring ‘war on its own people’, as thousands take to streets over fears government is steering country towards Russia
Police clashed with protesters in the Georgian capital Tbilisi early on Friday, after the country’s ruling party said the government would suspend talks on European Union accession until 2028.
The country’s interior ministry said three police officers were injured, two of whom were hospitalised.
Continue reading...Government approves up to four days of paid leave so workers can avoid travelling during weather emergencies
Spain’s leftwing government has approved “paid climate leave” of up to four days to allow workers to avoid travelling during weather emergencies, a month after floods killed at least 224 people.
Several companies came under fire after the 29 October catastrophe for ordering employees to keep working despite a red alert issued by the national weather agency. The firms said the authorities failed to inform them sufficiently and sent telephone alerts too late during the European country’s deadliest floods in decades.
Continue reading...In a co-authored document presented to Trump in April, Keith Kellogg also said US should give Ukraine more weapons if Russia doesn’t join negotiations
Donald Trump’s plan to tap the retired US lieutenant general Keith Kellogg as US envoy to Ukraine and Russia has triggered renewed interest in a policy document he co-authored that proposes ending the war by withdrawing weapons from Ukraine if it doesn’t enter peace talks – and giving even more weapons to Ukraine if Russia doesn’t do the same.
Trump is said to have responded favorably to the plan – America First, Russia & Ukraine – which was presented to him in April and was written by Kellogg and the former CIA analyst Fred Fleitz, who both served as chiefs of staff in Trump’s national security council from 2017 to 2021.
Continue reading...Country is at risk of fresh turmoil with its government on the brink amid soaring sovereign borrowing costs
France is at risk of being plunged into fresh political turmoil as its minority government teeters on the brink of collapse amid opposition anger over a planned austerity budget.
Reflecting growing unease in financial markets, French sovereign borrowing costs have risen sharply, reaching the highest premium over German bonds since the height of the eurozone debt crisis in 2012.
Continue reading...Michel Barnier makes concession over budget but may still face confidence vote
The French government has promised to scrap proposed tax increases on electricity as it scrambles to calm the far right and prevent a political crisis that could lead to the prime minister, Michel Barnier, being toppled in a confidence vote as early as next week.
“I’ve decided not to raise taxes on electricity,” Barnier told Le Figaro on Wednesday in a major concession to opposition parties who are threatening to bring down the unpopular government over its belt-tightening budget.
Continue reading...Recheck of result of the first round, won by Călin Georgescu with Elena Lasconi second, likely to take days
Romania’s constitutional court has ordered a recount of all first-round votes to rule out a suspicion of fraud in the country’s presidential election, which was won in a major upset by a little-known far-right candidate.
The court said on Thursday it had decided unanimously to order Romania’s central electoral bureau to “recheck and recount all valid and invalid ballots” cast in Sunday’s election, won by the Moscow-friendly ultranationalist Călin Georgescu.
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Reuters has a quick snap that there are power cuts in Ukraine’s southern region of Mykolaiv as a result of Russia’s missile attack. It cited regional governor Vitaliy Kim.
Zhitomir and Chernihiv region have ended their air alarms in Ukraine.
Continue reading...More than a million households without power across the country as strikes on energy infrastructure continue
Russia has continued its assault on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as Vladimir Putin threatens to strike “decision-making centres” in Kyiv with Moscow’s new ballistic Oreshnik missile.
More than 200 missiles and drones were fired by Russia on Thursday morning, leaving more than a million households without power, according to reports from Ukrainian officials.
Continue reading...Comments made after nuclear inspectorate board passed motion censuring Iran for building uranium stockpile
The nuclear debate inside Iran is likely to shift towards the possession of its own weapons if the west goes ahead with a threat to reimpose all UN sanctions, the country’s foreign minister has said.
Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in an interview that Iran already had the capability and knowledge to create nuclear weapons, but said they did not form part of its security strategy. He also said Tehran was prepared to keep supplying arms to Hezbollah in Lebanon.
Continue reading...Regional leaders meet after undersea telecoms cables severed, while Chinese ship remains at anchor nearby
The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has said the Baltic sea is now a “high risk” zone as he met Nordic and Baltic leaders days after a suspected sabotage attack on undersea cables.
The Swedish prime minister declined to speculate on who may have been responsible for the severing of two fibre optic telecoms cables in the Baltic last week. A Chinese ship – the Yi Peng 3 – that sailed over the cables about the time they were severed has remained anchored in the Kattegat strait between Sweden and Denmark since 19 November.
Continue reading...German intelligence chief warns continued hybrid warfare by Moscow increases risk of alliance invoking Article 5
Russia’s acts of sabotage against western targets may eventually prompt Nato to consider invoking the alliance’s Article 5 mutual defence clause, the head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service has warned.
Speaking at an event of the German Council of Foreign Relations (DGAP) think tank in Berlin on Wednesday, BND chief Bruno Kahl said he expected Moscow to further step up its hybrid warfare.
Continue reading...Claim comes after Paris signalled it would fulfil obligations as signatory to Rome statute after arrest warrant issued
The French government has claimed that Benjamin Netanyahu has immunity from arrest warrants issued by the international criminal court for war crimes on the grounds that Israel is not an ICC member.
The claim came soon after Netanyahu’s cabinet agreed to a French-backed ceasefire in Lebanon and is in contrast to Paris’s attitude towards last year’s ICC war crimes warrant issued against Vladimir Putin, another leader of a non-member country.
Continue reading...Far-right, pro-Moscow candidate Călin Georgescu came from 5% in polls to win presidential election’s first round
Romania’s telecoms regulator is asking for TikTok to be suspended as the country’s defence council prepares to discuss cyber risks to its elections, after a little-known ultranationalist came from nowhere to win the first round of the presidential vote.
The country’s constitutional court will also examine two allegations of electoral fraud after Călin Georgescu, a Moscow-friendly, EU-sceptic and anti-Nato independent, topped the ballot in a result that upended Romanian politics.
Continue reading...Government faces risk of collapse over planned austerity budget
French sovereign borrowing costs have soared to the highest premium since the eurozone debt crisis amid political turmoil as the government faces the risk of collapse over a planned austerity budget.
The gap between French 10-year government bond yields and their German equivalent ballooned to as much as 90 basis points on Wednesday, the widest level in 12 years, while shares listed on the Paris stock exchange also tumbled.
Continue reading...Lawyer for man who drugged wife and invited strangers to rape her says she has felt like ‘devil’s advocate’
Dominique Pelicot, the French man on trial for drugging his wife and inviting strangers to rape her, has a split personality caused by the effect of childhood trauma, his defence lawyer has argued.
In her summing up on Wednesday, Béatrice Zavarro told the court in Avignon there were “two Dominiques”, one a man apparently devoted to his family and the other with a “certain perversity”.
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