Dutch and Hungarian politicians among those hailing result for pro-Kremlin, anti-Islam FPÖ
Karl Nehammer, Austria’s chancellor, called the result, which will send shock waves through Europe, “bitter” while his defence minister, Klaudia Tanner, admitted the debacle for the governing parties was a “wake-up call”.
Because it failed to win an absolute majority, the far-right Freedom party (FPÖ) will need a partner to govern.
Continue reading...French far-right leader and 24 others from National Rally party allegedly embezzled European parliament funds
The French far-right leader Marine Le Pen has gone on trial on charges of embezzling money from the European parliament, in a high-profile case that could endanger her presidential ambitions.
“We have not broken any rules,” the three-time presidential candidate of the far-right National Rally (RN) said before the start of the hearings in Paris, adding that she was in a “very calm” mood.
Continue reading...Party wins 28.8% of votes ahead of centre-right People’s party’s 26.3%, according to near-complete count
The far right won the most votes in an Austrian election for the first time since the Nazi era on Sunday, as the Freedom party (FPÖ) rode a tide of public anger over migration and the cost of living to beat the centre-right People’s party (ÖVP).
The pro-Kremlin, anti-Islam FPÖ won 29.2% of votes, beating the ruling ÖVP of the chancellor, Karl Nehammer, into second place on 26.5%, according to near-complete results.
Continue reading...Far-right FPÖ could become strongest force in the country for first time in postwar period
Here’s the projected seat distribution, from ORF:
Far-right MEP Harald Vilimsky has thanked voters.
Continue reading...Ex-Gucci star brings 70s haute bourgeoisie ladies in trailing chiffons and Gen Z boys in tattoos and pearls to the runway
Valentino was the hottest ticket of this Paris fashion week, and the show had a sense of occasion to match.
A vast floor was laid with smashed mirror tiles, glittering like a ballroom after an earthquake. Five hundred armchairs and a smattering of glowing lamps lay beneath a shroud of white sheets, as if a grand house had been locked up for a long winter. The house of Valentino was shaking off the cobwebs for a new era and hitting the dancefloor.
Continue reading...Two countries agree to modifications beneath Matterhorn peak, one of Europe’s highest summits
Switzerland and Italy have redrawn a border that traverses an Alpine peak as melting glaciers shift the historically defined frontier.
The two countries agreed to the modifications beneath the Matterhorn, one of the highest mountains in Europe, which straddles Switzerland’s Zermatt region and Italy’s Aosta valley.
Continue reading...At least nine dead and 48 missing after vessel carrying 87 people sinks off Spanish island of El Hierro
Rescuers renewed their search on Sunday for about 48 people missing after their migrant boat sank close to the Spanish island of El Hierro in what could become the deadliest such incident in 30 years of crossings from Africa to the Canary Islands.
Nine people, one of them a child aged between 12 and 15, have been confirmed dead in the incident in the early hours of Saturday morning.
Continue reading...City authorities take case to Lombardy regional court in effort to block initiative by Matteo Salvini
Milan council has appealed against a “grotesque” move to rename the city’s main airport after the scandal-tainted late former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi.
The council approved a resolution to take the case to the Lombardy region’s administrative court after the initiative to rename Malpensa was accelerated by Matteo Salvini, the transport minister in Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government.
Continue reading...Prime minister hopes to use talks with European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen this week to prepare for a reset in the spring
Keir Starmer will use a meeting with the European Commission president this week to pave the way for a springtime overhaul of Britain’s Brexit deal, amid warnings that closer ties will be essential in his government’s desperate search for growth.
The prime minister will meet Ursula von der Leyen in Brussels on Wednesday. However, it comes with home secretary Yvette Cooper still vehemently opposed to an agreement that would allow young people to move more freely between Europe and the UK – a measure that EU diplomats regard as key to unlocking more serious talks in the spring.
Continue reading...Rescue services say they saved 27 of the 84 people aboard the vessel believed to have come from Mauritania
Nine people are confirmed drowned and at least 48 are missing after a boat carrying migrants capsized off Spain’s Canary Islands overnight, rescue services said on Saturday, the latest in a series of such disasters off the west coast of Africa.
Sea rescue teams said in a statement they had answered a distress call off El Hierro, one of the islands in the Atlantic archipelago, shortly after midnight. They managed to save 27 of the 84 people on board.
Continue reading...Sergei Lavrov accuses west of using Ukraine ‘to defeat’ Russia days after Putin shifts Moscow’s nuclear posture
Russia’s top diplomat warned on Saturday against “trying to fight to victory with a nuclear power”, delivering a UN general assembly speech packed with condemnations of what Russia sees as western machinations in Ukraine and elsewhere – including inside the United Nations itself.
Three days after Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, aired a shift in his country’s nuclear doctrine, his foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, accused the west of using Ukraine – which Russia invaded in February 2022 – as a tool to try “to defeat” Moscow strategically, and “preparing Europe for it to also throw itself into this suicidal escapade”.
Continue reading...Former prime minister’s claims about wanting to seize Covid vaccines being held in the EU ‘may have been a joke’
Senior Tories have cast doubt on Boris Johnson’s claim that he seriously considered invading the Netherlands to seize vaccines during the pandemic, saying the story had obviously been overblown and reheated to boost sales of his memoirs.
The former prime minister says in his new book, Unleashed, that he asked senior members of the armed forces about the possibility of conducting an “aquatic raid” on a warehouse in Leiden in March 2021 in order to get hold of 5m doses of the AstraZeneca vaccine which he believed the EU did not want to be exported to the UK.
Continue reading...Reports of dissenters working for £4 a day on onion plantation owned by Saxony state parliament AfD member Jörg Dornau
Midway through Nikolai’s shift sorting onions alongside other political prisoners in a warehouse in western Belarus, a tall and bald foreigner entered the building.
“He arrived in a car with German license plates. Then he came over and greeted us warmly,” Nikolai*, recalled in an interview with the Observer.
Continue reading...This live blog is now closed, you can read more of our Ukraine war coverage here
Russia has filed “pre-trial claims” against Denmark, Germany, Sweden and Switzerland over the Nord Stream pipeline explosions, accusing the West of trying to “sweep the matter under the carpet”, Reuters is reporting.
The multi-billion dollar pipeline that carried natural gas from Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea was ruptured by a series of blasts in September 2022, seven months after Russia invaded Ukraine.
Continue reading...The former Arsenal and Germany goalkeeper Jens Lehmann has been fined €135,000 (£113,000) by a court in his hometown of Starnberg for damaging his neighbour’s garage with a chainsaw.
Lehmann, who was accused by the public prosecutor of sawing off a roof beam in the garage, was initially fined €420,000 (£351,000) over the July 2022 incident, which was reduced on appeal.
Continue reading...Conservationists celebrate as efforts to save the Caretta caretta sea turtle, which has existed for 100m years, pay off
After nearly a quarter of a century observing one of the world’s most famous sea turtle nesting grounds, Charikleia Minotou is convinced of one thing: nature, she says, has a way of “sending messages”.
Along the sandy shores of Sekania, on the Ionian island of Zakynthos, what she has seen both this year and last, has been beyond her wildest dreams. The beach, long described as the Mediterranean’s greatest “maternity ward” for the Caretta caretta loggerhead sea turtle, has become host to not only record numbers of nests, but record numbers of surviving hatchlings as the species makes an extraordinary resurgence.
Continue reading...Former prime minister admits in extract from forthcoming book that he discussed possible military operation at height of pandemic
Boris Johnson considered an “aquatic raid” on a Dutch warehouse to seize Covid vaccines during the height of the pandemic, he has revealed in his memoirs.
The former prime minister discussed plans with senior military officials in March 2021, according to an extract from his forthcoming book, Unleashed, published in the Daily Mail.
Continue reading...Ex-president hails ‘very good relationship’ as Ukrainian leader says pair share ‘common view’ that Putin cannot win
Donald Trump has met Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York in a high-stakes meeting at which the Ukrainian leader hoped to repair ties with the former US president.
The two men met at Trump Tower on Friday amid a growing feud between Zelenskyy and Republicans that Ukraine fears could sabotage further US military aid if Trump wins in November.
Continue reading...S&P 500 index of major US companies registers near 100% gain on year ago amid expectation of interest rate cuts
A fall in US inflation expected to pave the way for further cuts in interest rates pushed stock markets to record highs on Friday.
Ending a week of gains that began when the Chinese authorities approved a huge economic stimulus package, the S&P 500 index of major US companies soared above 5,750 to register a near 100% gain on a year ago.
Continue reading...PM hopes to work more closely on defence, borders and trade with EU as he sets meeting with von der Leyen
Keir Starmer has said a new relationship with the European Union will not be easy “but is possible” before a meeting with Ursula von der Leyen next week, as he set out defence, borders and trade as areas where he hopes for improvement.
The prime minister spoke of his hopes for a reset and did not rule out accepting an EU proposal for greater youth mobility – including easier travel, study and work for under 30s.
Continue reading...