Category Archives: Europe

Mexico’s snub to King Felipe rekindles colonialism row with Spain

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President-elect refuses to invite Spanish king to her inauguration after lack of apology for crimes of conquest

A festering diplomatic row between Mexico and Spain has been reopened after the Latin American country’s leftwing president-elect refused to invite King Felipe to her inauguration because of his failure to apologise for crimes committed against Mexico’s Indigenous people during the conquest 500 years ago.

In 2019, Mexico’s president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador wrote to King Felipe and Pope Francis, calling for them to apologise for the “abuses” of the conquest and the colonial period.

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Vladimir Putin warns west he will consider using nuclear weapons

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Comments are strongest yet against allowing Ukraine to launch long-range missiles into Russian territory

Vladimir Putin has escalated his nuclear rhetoric, telling a group of senior officials that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons if it was attacked by any state with conventional weapons.

His remarks on Wednesday came during a meeting with Russia’s powerful security council where he also announced changes to the country’s nuclear doctrine.

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Zelenskyy is pitching his ‘victory plan’ on adverse terrain

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Ukraine president made forceful call for ‘just peace’ at UN, but winning more US support and fending off Russia are both uphill battles

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has come to the US with a mission: to sell his vision for a Ukrainian victory despite the growing odds against Kyiv in its war with Russia.

The Ukrainan president spoke out forcefully on Tuesday and Wednesday in the security council and then at the general assembly of the United Nations, calling on other countries to back Ukraine’s proposal for a “just peace” and refrain from holding alternative talks with Vladimir Putin.

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Zelenskyy warns of Russia threat at UN as Putin steps up nuclear rhetoric

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Ukrainian president urges world leaders to back peace plan in general assembly speech ahead of Biden meeting

Volodymyr Zelenskyy has told the United Nations that Russia is planning to attack Ukrainian nuclear power plants as he repeated his calls for unity from world leaders in order to force Russia to the negotiating table to conclude a “just peace”.

His comments came as Vladimir Putin on Wednesday escalated his nuclear rhetoric, telling a group of senior officials that Russia would consider using nuclear weapons if it was attacked by any state with conventional weapons.

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Demonstrations being held in Italy against ‘repressive’ security bill

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Bill by Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government comes down hard on climate activists and migrants

Demonstrations are being held across Italy on Wednesday evening in protest against a new security bill described as “repressive” and “dangerous for the country’s democracy”.

The 24 laws contained in the bill, which passed its first hurdle in the lower house of parliament last week and now needs approval in the senate, is the latest attempt by Giorgia Meloni’s far-right government to get tough on law and order. It comes down especially hard on climate activists and migrants.

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Three men charged in Germany over Michael Schumacher blackmail plot

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Chief suspect threatened to release private photos and demanded €15m from F1 star’s family, prosecutors say

German prosecutors are bringing charges against three men arrested this year over an alleged blackmail plot targeting the family of Formula One legend Michael Schumacher.

They said the chief suspect, a 53-year-old man from the western city of Wuppertal, had threatened to release private photos and videos and demanded €15m (£12.5m) from Schumacher’s family.

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UK economy to grow faster than Japan, Italy and Germany this year, says OECD

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Forecast upgrades UK to joint second after US but it is still expected to have highest inflation among G7 countries

The global economy is “turning a corner”, according to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, which has upgraded the UK’s growth forecast for this year to faster than that of Japan, Italy and Germany.

The OECD’s latest outlook ranked Britain joint second among the G7 developed countries in its latest outlook for the world economy. However, the UK is still expected to have the highest inflation in the group.

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Starmer avoids backing anti-Trump comment before potential meeting

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PM hopes to meet both candidates on US trip but attempt to see Trump undermined by Home Office minister saying he had emboldened racists in UK

Keir Starmer has said he wants to meet Kamala Harris and Donald Trump before the US election, as he declined to back one of his ministers who said the Republican candidate had contributed to racist rhetoric in the UK.

The prime minister said he was hoping to find time with both candidates as he travelled to New York for the United Nations general assembly – his third trip to the US since taking office.

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High-speed Paris-to-Berlin rail link to launch in December

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Daytime service will take about eight hours and will complement the night route that launched last year

A new high-speed train linking Paris and Berlin is to launch in December, operators have announced.

The daytime service will complement a popular night train route between the two capital cities that relaunched last year to much fanfare but has since been beset by technical problems.

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EU moving towards more xenophobic view of ‘Europeanness’, report warns

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‘Whiteness’, low youth engagement and lukewarm pro-Europeanism in some states risks eroding bloc’s founding values, expert says

Voting patterns and polling data from the past year suggest the EU is moving towards a more ethnic, closed-minded and xenophobic understanding of “Europeanness” that could ultimately challenge the European project, according to a major report.

The report, by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) and the European Cultural Foundation (ECF), identifies three key “blind spots” across the bloc and argues their intersection risks eroding or radically altering EU sentiment.

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Global heating ‘doubled’ chance of extreme rain in Europe in September

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Researchers find climate crisis aggravated the four days of heavy rainfall and deadly floods

Planet-heating pollution doubled the chance of the extreme levels of rain that hammered central Europe in September, a study has found.

Researchers found global heating aggravated the four days of heavy rainfall that led to deadly floods in countries from Austria to Romania.

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Keir Starmer heads to US for summit at UN as aides seek meetings with Harris and Trump

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PM to give speech on international issues as team hopes to set up talks with both presidential candidates

Keir Starmer is heading to the US for his third trip in three months, with aides pressing for meetings with the presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump.

Fresh from his speech at the Labour conference, the prime minister headed to the United Nations general assembly in New York where the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, will be pushing for a deal on the use of Storm Shadow missiles against Russia.

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Meloni-themed restaurant opens near asylum-seeker camp in Albania

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Trattoria Meloni contains 70 portraits of Italian PM and is near site where arrivals to the EU are processed

A restaurant dedicated to Giorgia Meloni has opened in the vicinity of a camp in Albania where the asylum claims of people who seek to enter the EU by sea will be processed as part of a controversial pact promoted by the Italian far-right prime minister.

Trattoria Meloni, a seafood restaurant in the northern port of Shëngjin, was opened by Gjergj Luca, a restaurant owner who is close to the Albanian prime minister, Edi Rama.

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Swiss police make arrests over suspected death in ‘suicide capsule’

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Criminal case opened after Sarco capsule – which releases nitrogen gas at the touch of a button – used in Merishausen

Swiss police say they have opened a criminal investigation and arrested several people after the suspected death of a woman in a so-called suicide capsule.

According to local reports, the capsule, named the Sarco Pod by its inventor, was used for the first time on Monday afternoon in a forest close to the German border in the Swiss town of Merishausen.

In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org and Open Counseling

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Outrage as Hungary presides over EU talks on democratic standards

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Country held chair due to rotating presidency despite Orbán government being under EU sanctions procedure

Hungary’s government has presided over EU talks on upholding democratic standards across the continent, in a development one prominent MEP described as “outrageous”.

Viktor Orbán’s government has been under an EU sanctions procedure since 2018 for posing a “systemic threat” to democracy and the rule of law.

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Thousands of lives will be lost if Kyiv denied permission to use western weapons in Russia, Zelenskyy says – as it happened

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Ukraine president expected to reiterate plea to use western weapons deep inside Russia when he meets Joe Biden. This live blog is closed

Russia plans to maintain defence spending at an historic high in 2025, Bloomberg News reports, suggesting that the Kremlin intend to continue its invasion of Ukraine for the foreseeable future.

The Kremlin is increasing up the spending as its forces slowly advance in eastern Ukraine. The Russian government has raised personal and corporate taxes to plug holes in the budget.

Draft three-year budget proposals seen by Bloomberg News show the government intends to increase defense spending to 13.2tn rubles ($142bn) in 2025 from 10.4tn rubles projected for this year, putting it at 6.2% of gross domestic product.

Military expenditure is planned to decline to 5.6% of GDP in 2026 and 5.1% in 2027, according to Bloomberg calculations based on the draft data.

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Equality ‘downgrade’ in European Commission dismays rights groups

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Ursula von der Leyen criticised for merging equality commissioner role into brief including crisis management

More than 50 rights organisations from across Europe have expressed their “shock and dismay” at Ursula von der Leyen’s decision to do away with the standalone EU position of equality commissioner, describing it as a “downgrading” of the fight against discrimination.

Von der Leyen presented her lineup for the new commission in Brussels earlier this month. Her 27 commissioner designates – senior EU officials who hold positions akin to government ministers – included Hadja Lahbib, currently Belgium’s foreign minister, who was tasked with a portfolio that spans preparedness and crisis management as well as equality.

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Germany and France call for Europe-wide deal with UK on migration

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Letter sent to EU said Brexit had gravely affected ‘the coherence of policies’ on asylum and migration

Germany and France have called for a Europe-wide deal on migration and asylum with the UK government, to capitalise on Labour’s more “constructive” approach to EU-UK relations.

In a letter to the EU home affairs commissioner, the German interior minister, Nancy Faeser, and her former French counterpart, Gérald Darmanin, said Brexit had gravely affected “the coherence of migration policies”.

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As it meets against backdrop of Israel’s bombing of Lebanon, is UN too broken to be fixed?

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Supporters say UN mediation has prevented even worse outcomes, but security council is stuck in vicious circle

As diplomats from nearly 200 member states gather in New York this week for the United Nations general assembly against the backdrop of a massive Israeli bombing campaign in southern Lebanon, a nagging question to be addressed is whether the UN is too broken to be fixed.

UN officials are facing three intractable conflicts, in the Middle East, Ukraine and Sudan. While it remains one of the most important humanitarian organisations on Earth, organising relief efforts for refugees, natural disaster victims and others in dire need, the UN’s principal security body appears to be powerless to intervene in some of the world’s most grinding conflicts.

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EU plant exporters turning backs on UK over ‘painful’ border checks, says trade group

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Trading relationships at ‘breaking point’ because of delays and costs, garden centres and nurseries warn

Exporters of plants and flowers from mainland Europe are turning their backs on supplying Britain as “painful” new Brexit border checks are putting some trading relationships at “breaking point”, garden centres and nurseries have warned.

The Horticultural Trades Association (HTA), which represents garden retailers and growers, said long-held links between British nurseries and EU suppliers were now being put under strain because of the delays and costs associated with the new border processes.

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