Brand partnership for pastis, a traditional Marseille aperitif, with arch-rival decried as ‘stab in the back’
It is the quintessential pre-dinner apéro enjoyed in the Provençal afternoon sun, as unmistakably southern French as the clicking sound of a game of pétanque.
But the cloudy, aniseed-flavoured aperitif Ricard Pastis is leaving an aftertaste even more bitter than its makers intended in the mouths of some football fans in the southern city of Marseille.
Continue reading...Plan to cut German factories is politically fraught but makes sense economically
When Bernd Pischetsrieder attempted to cut jobs at Volkswagen in the early 2000s, he was forced out. When Herbert Diess tried the same, he got the same result, leaving in 2022. Yet now Volkswagen appears to be deliberately grasping the nettle.
“This time it’s different,” says Matthias Schmidt, a Berlin-based automotive analyst. Chief executive Oliver Blume is “VW through and through”, and his actions likely reflect the desires of the controlling Porsche and Piëch dynasties, Schmidt said. The course is set for a historic clash over the future for Germany’s largest carmaker.
Continue reading...Academics say vulnerability of the two countries’ nuclear launch sites makes dangerous mistakes more likely
The US and its allies are capable of threatening and destroying all of Russia and China’s nuclear launch sites with conventional weapons, creating what two experts describe as a potentially unstable geopolitical situation.
Prof Dan Plesch and Manuel Galileo, from Soas University of London, describe a “quiet revolution in military affairs” reflecting increased US military power relative to Moscow and Beijing, particularly in missile technology.
Continue reading...Belongings and tents removed, and residents bussed away, as part of official policy to deter coastal encampments
French police have cleared a camp believed to have been used by some of the dozen people, including six children, who died after their dinghy ripped apart in the Channel.
In the early hours of Wednesday, belongings and tents were removed and tens of people were bussed away from an unofficial refugee settlement near Calais known locally as the “BMX site”.
Continue reading...Critics say Labour ‘should have run a mile’ from LetterOne after it is acquires 15% of Aberdeen-based Harbour Energy
The government faces growing criticism after a company backed by two sanctioned Russian oligarchs was allowed to become a part-owner of the UK’s largest North Sea oil producer.
Critics of the decision to allow LetterOne, the investment company part-owned by oligarchs Mikhail Fridman and Petr Aven, to acquire almost 15% of Aberdeen-based Harbour Energy, warned that oligarchs should have no place owning critical national assets.
Continue reading...President carries out biggest government shake-up since start of war as deadly attacks continue
Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, has resigned as part of a wide-ranging government reshuffle designed to give what Volodymyr Zelenskiy has called “new strength” to the embattled country.
Kuleba’s departure, announced in a handwritten note, came as Russia continued its relentless air barrage. At least seven people died and 53 were injured in a missile strike in the western city of Lviv.
Continue reading...Volodymyr Zelenskiy says reshuffle linked to ‘strengthening our state’ after foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba and others step down. This live blog is closed
The mayor of Lviv shared a photo of a mother and her three daughters who were killed in Russia’s attack today.
Norway has contributed funding for buying drones and strengthening Ukrainian air defence.
Continue reading...Carmaker defends plan to close German plants as Volvo ditches target to sell only electric cars by 2030
Volkswagen says it has “a year, maybe two” to adapt to a slump in European car sales, as it seeks to justify proposals to close factories in Germany for the first time in its history.
Separately, the Swedish automaker Volvo said it had ditched a target to sell only electric cars by 2030, opting instead to continue selling some petrol vehicles alongside battery models.
Continue reading...Hvaldimir rose to fame in Norway after his harness sparked suspicions he was Russian spy
Animal rights groups have said that gunfire killed a beluga whale that rose to fame in Norway after its unusual harness sparked suspicions the creature was trained by Russia as a spy.
The organisations Noah and One Whale said they had filed a complaint with Norwegian police asking them to open a criminal investigation.
Continue reading...Residents tell of ‘apocalyptic scenes’ after more than 60mm of rainfall falls on Italian capital in less than an hour
Lightning has struck the Constantine Arch near the Colosseum in Rome during a violent thunderstorm, breaking off fragments from the ancient structure, officials have said.
The fragments were immediately gathered and secured by workers at the Colosseum Archeological Park, authorities in the Italian capital said. The extent of the damage, which occurred on Tuesday, was being evaluated.
“The recovery work by technicians was timely. Our workers arrived immediately after the lightning strike. All of the fragments were recovered and secured,” the park said in a statement.
Rome was hit by a sudden and powerful storm that dumped more than 60mm of rain in less than an hour, equivalent to a month’s rainfall in autumn. The city’s mayor, Roberto Gualtieri, described it as a “downburst”.
Continue reading...Volodymyr Zelenskiy says more than 206 people injured as unconfirmed reports say strike targeted military ceremony
Ukraine has experienced one of the deadliest attacks of the war after a Russian missile strike on the central city of Poltava hit a military training institute and a nearby hospital, killing at least 51 people and injuring more than 200 others.
The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, said in a video address that, according to preliminary information, two ballistic missiles had “partially destroyed” one of the buildings of the Poltava Military Institute of Communications, leaving people under the rubble.
Continue reading...Victims ‘primarily of Eritrean origin’, French prosecutor says, as France mobilises helicopters, fishing boats and military vessels
La Voix du Nord’s Florent Caffery has shared footage from the scene where emergency services are gathering.
French authorities have confirmed at least five people died in a Channel crossing attempt, AFP reported.
Continue reading...Caroline Darian overwhelmed as details are revealed during trial of father, Dominique Pélicot, and 50 other men
Harrowing details have emerged at the trial of a French man charged with enlisting dozens of strangers to rape his drugged wife, with their daughter temporarily leaving the courtroom as she became overwhelmed by emotion.
The case against Dominique Pélicot, 71, has horrified France after the allegations were only exposed by chance when he was caught filming up women’s skirts in a supermarket.
Continue reading...Review follows UK competition watchdog’s announcement of ‘urgent review’ into Oasis concert tickets fiasco
Ticketmaster’s ability to raise the price of concert tickets based on demand is being scrutinised by the European Commission, the Guardian has learned, as the UK’s competition watchdog launches an “urgent review” into the Oasis concerts fiasco.
The US-owned ticketing giant has been told it may have breached laws in the UK and Europe for inflating the price of some Oasis tickets from £135 to £350, leaving many fans devastated.
Continue reading...Inquiry to follow preliminary investigation unearthing 2,400 allegations of historic abuse
The Irish government is to set up a statutory commission of inquiry into sexual abuse at schools run by Catholic religious orders after a preliminary investigation found almost 2,400 allegations of historic abuse.
The investigation, led by a leading barrister, Mary O’Toole, documented 844 alleged abusers in 308 schools run by 42 religious orders across the Republic of Ireland.
Continue reading...Minister requests review of building project for bike shelter at Leinster House in Dublin
Ireland’s prime minister, Simon Harris, has said he is “angry and annoyed” at the “inexcusable” €336,000 cost for a bike shelter at Leinster House in Dublin, the seat of the Irish parliament.
The taoiseach told a news conference that “people can see the benefit of having somewhere to park a bike at a workplace” but what they don’t get is “the extraordinary sum of money” the shelter cost, and neither does he.
Continue reading...180 more people have been wounded after two ballistic missiles hit Ukrainian city, says president Volodymyr Zelenskiy
A Moscow court sentenced a prominent physicist to 15 years in a penal colony on Tuesday after finding him guilty of “treason” – the latest prison term for a scientist accused of sharing state secrets.
Several high-profile scientists have been arrested in recent years, with at least three detained since Moscow launched its Ukraine offensive in 2022.
Continue reading...Police find group ‘collecting olives in flagrante’ near Seville, with lucrative fruit a tempting target for criminals
Police in southern Spain have thwarted the theft of almost half a tonne of olives as the country’s harvest season begins and the lucrative fruit becomes a tempting target for opportunistic thieves and professional criminal gangs.
The verdeo – or collecting of the green olives – takes place in the early autumn and marks the beginning of the harvest season. As it got under way in Seville province this week, officers from Spain’s Guardia Civil force prevented 465kg (73st 2lbs) of olives from being stolen near the town of Albaida del Aljarafe.
Continue reading...France led by caretaker administration since July snap election
Eric Ciotti, a right-wing politician who had allied himself with the far-right ahead of the elections, has expressed his opposition to Xavier Bertrand.
BFMTV reports that Emmanuel Macron will hold new phone consultations with different political groupings.
Continue reading...In today’s newsletter: Alternative für Deutschland have deployed Nazi rhetoric throughout their rise – and they are pulling the mainstream further to the right
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Good morning. For the first time since the second world war, a far-right party has won a regional election in Germany. As well as finishing first in Thuringia, where it won nearly 33% of the vote, Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) finished second in Saxony, with 31% – and it did so with none of the normalisation strategy that similar parties have deployed in France or Italy. Instead, the AfD uses Nazi slogans and calls the Berlin Holocaust memorial a “monument of shame”.
While the AfD demanded to be included in coalition negotiations in both states yesterday, a “firewall” designed to keep the party out of government is likely to hold for the foreseeable future. Even so, its success is undoubtedly a seismic moment in German politics. For today’s newsletter, I spoke to the Guardian’s Berlin correspondent Deborah Cole about how the AFD did it, and whether this is a regional phenomenon or a signpost to something larger. Here are the headlines.
Israel-Gaza war | The UK has broken with the Biden administration by announcing it is suspending some arms export licences to Israel because of a “clear risk” the materiel may be used in violation of international humanitarian law. It came as Benjamin Netanyahu defied protests at home and criticism from Biden by vowing that Israel would not relinquish control over the strategic Philadelphi corridor along the Gaza-Egyptian border.
Grenfell inquiry | Companies found at fault over the Grenfell tower fire are facing calls to be banned from public contracts. Ahead of the final public inquiry report’s publication tomorrow, it emerged that about £250m in deals have been made in the past five years with firms involved in the high-rise’s refurbishment.
Politics | Jeremy Corbyn is to form an official parliamentary alliance with four independent MPs who were elected on pro-Gaza platforms, and has issued a call for more MPs to join. The group will have the same number of MPs as Reform UK and the Democratic Unionist party, who each have five MPs, and more than the Green party and Plaid Cymru, who each have four.
France | A husband who allegedly drugged his wife and invited more than 80 strangers to rape her at their home for almost a decade will go on trial on Monday in a case that has shocked France. Fifty men accused of taking part in the abuse of the woman are also on trial at the court in Avignon.
Society | Pride in Britain’s history has fallen sharply over the past decade as the country has become more reflective about its place in the modern world, according to a leading barometer of the British public mood. The proportion of people saying they were proud of Britain’s history fell from 86% to 64%.
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