Meeting with president in bid to break political deadlock hailed as positive even if Macron has yet to name a PM
Leaders of France’s leftwing coalition declared they were “extremely satisfied” after Emmanuel Macron launched the first of a series of tense consultations aimed at pulling together a new government.
The New Popular Front (NFP) wants the president to name its candidate prime minister to break a six-week political deadlock.
Continue reading...Coastguard confirms body of Hannah Lynch, 18, found after four-day search, bringing number of dead to seven
Prosecutors in Italy are investigating potential manslaughter charges relating to the sinking of the superyacht Bayesian as the body of Mike Lynch’s 18-year-old daughter, Hannah, was recovered.
The Bayesian sank off the coast of Sicily early on Monday morning when the area was hit by violent storms. Seven people died, including the British tech entrepreneur Lynch.
Continue reading...Indian PM calls on Ukraine and Russia to open dialogue as soon as possible to find way out of conflict
Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser in the Ukrainian president’s office, has told Reuters that Narendra Modi’s visit to Kyiv is significant because New Delhi “really has a certain influence” over Moscow.
“It’s extremely important for us to effectively build relations with such countries, to explain to them what the correct end to the war is - and that it is also in their interests,” he said.
Continue reading...Campaigners denounce ‘pure slaughter’, which could threaten survival of entire Scandinavian population
More than 150 brown bears have been killed in the opening days of Sweden’s annual bear hunt, as controversy mounts over what conservationists have called “pure slaughter”.
The Swedish government issued 486 licences to shoot bears in this year’s hunt, equivalent to about 20% of the remaining brown bear population. This follows a record-breaking cull of 722 bears last year. By Thursday afternoon – the second day of the hunt – 152 bears had already been shot, according to Sweden’s Environmental Protection Agency.
Continue reading...Marinovka airbase becomes latest target of Kyiv’s ambitious long-range drone campaign
Ukraine has carried out a night-time drone attack on a Kremlin military airfield near the city of Volgograd and announced the capture of another village in Russia’s Kursk region, as Russian forces pressed on with their advance in the Donetsk region.
Volgograd’s governor, Andrei Bocharov, said the strike took place at about 3am. Local people reported a series of explosions. Several hours later, ammunition continued to detonate as a vast carpet of black smoke engulfed the area.
Continue reading...Social media influencer and brother among six detained for crimes including trafficking and sexual exploitation of minors
A Romanian court has ordered Andrew Tate to be placed under house arrest, his representative said, after he was among six people taken into custody in an investigation into human trafficking and sexual exploitation.
The former professional kickboxer and his brother Tristan were among six people detained on Wednesday for an initial 24 hours after Romania’s anti-organised crime prosecuting unit, Diicot, conducted four house searches in Ilfov county and the Bucharest municipality.
Continue reading...Felipe David says he acted ‘without thinking’ when he saw the boy had gotten into trouble at Alicante apartment
A Brazilian migrant living in Spain has been hailed as a hero after he risked his own life to rescue a young child who was dangling precariously off a second-floor balcony in the coastal city of Alicante.
Felipe David Souza, a 29-year-old painter, was preparing to head home on Wednesday when he heard screams outside the apartment where he was working. He glanced out and saw that a crowd of people had gathered on the street below.
Continue reading...Tech tycoon, 59, was among six people missing since early hours of Monday morning when Bayesian yacht capsized
The British tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch has been confirmed dead by search and rescue authorities after his yacht sank off the coast of Sicily during a violent storm, according to officials.
Lynch, 59, the founder of Autonomy Corporation, was among six people missing after the British-flagged 56-metre sailing boat Bayesian capsized at about 5am local time on Monday off the coast of Palermo when the area was hit by a tornado.
Continue reading...Tech tycoon’s 18-year-old daughter Hannah is still unaccounted for, reports say. This live blog is closed
Assostampa, one of the main unions of Italian journalists, has issued a press release accusing the authorities of hindering the work of reporters on the Bayesian incident in Porticello.
According to the union, the “silence of the authorities is making the work of the press difficult, forcing them to carry out a complex and challenging task in order to verify the news”.
Continue reading...French service sector drives growth but experts warn strong figures mask disappointing performance elsewhere
The Paris Olympics have provided a boost to the eurozone economy after a sharp rise in spending as athletes and spectators descended on the French capital for the summer sporting event.
Figures from a closely watched survey of businesses showed monthly French private sector output rose to its highest level in 17 months in August.
Continue reading...Emma Ramsay, 19, was on holiday with friends in San Antonio and police are treating her death as an accident
A Scots law student has died while on holiday in Ibiza after reportedly falling from a sixth-floor hotel balcony.
Emma Ramsay, 19, is reported to have died in the early hours of Tuesday morning after a fall at a beachfront hotel in the resort of San Antonio, in the north-west of the Spanish island.
Continue reading...Comments come after wave of false claims online about suspect in killing of 11-year-old boy
A Spanish judge has called for an end to social media anonymity in the wake of a wave of online disinformation after the killing of an 11-year-old boy.
Miguel Ángel Aguilar, a judge from the court that handles hate crimes and discrimination, wants to oblige platforms to reveal users’ true identity in cases of suspected hate crime so the law can impose digital restraining orders.
Continue reading...Singer shares ‘rollercoaster of emotions’ at end of European leg of Eras tour, saying she is grateful ‘we were grieving concerts and not lives’
Taylor Swift has spoken for the first time about the three Vienna shows on her blockbuster Eras tour that were cancelled earlier this month after a foiled terror attack, saying she felt “a new sense of fear” and a “tremendous amount of guilt”.
The planned terror attack was uncovered by Austrian authorities who eventually arrested three teenaged suspects – aged 17, 18 and 19 – for allegedly planning an Islamist attack in the Vienna region, with Swift’s shows being the “focus” of the plot.
Continue reading...Countries in south most at risk, with rise likely to outstrip fall in cold-related deaths if global heating hits 3C or 4C
Heat deaths in Europe could triple by the end of the century, with the numbers rising disproportionately in southern European countries such as Italy, Greece and Spain, a study has found.
Cold kills more people than heat in Europe, and some have argued that climate change will benefit society by reducing those deaths. But the study, published in the Lancet Public Health, found that the death toll would respond slowly to warming weather and may even rise through people growing older and more vulnerable to dangerous temperatures.
Continue reading...Identities not disclosed but UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and his daughter were among those onboard
Divers scouring the wreck of the luxury yacht that sank off the coast of Sicily on Monday have found the bodies of five of the six missing passengers.
The UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch, his teenage daughter Hannah Lynch, the Morgan Stanley International chair, Jonathan Bloomer, his wife, Judy, and the Clifford Chance lawyer Chris Morvillo and his wife, Neda, have been missing since the vessel went down on Monday morning.
Continue reading...Bodies of missing people recovered as witnesses and experts ponder fate of ship hit by localised storm off Sicily
Fishers in the Sicilian village of Porticello who witnessed the Bayesian superyacht sink rapidly in a violent storm on Monday say that the vessel was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
But for Italian prosecutors investigating the incident, their focus will be on whether the captain and crew took all the necessary safety measures to prevent the tragedy.
Continue reading...Inquiry into eight EU countries is latest chapter in hostility between Beijing and EU over trade
Chinese authorities have launched an anti-subsidy investigation into European dairy imports, in the latest sign of escalating trade tensions between Brussels and Beijing.
The announcement from China’s commerce ministry on Wednesday came a day after the European Commission revealed revised duties on Chinese electric vehicles as part of its examination into what it viewed as artificially cheap cars that posed a threat to jobs in Europe’s motor industry.
Continue reading...Mayor says no damage or casualties reported as 11 drones are downed
Ukraine’s parliament voted on Wednesday to ratify the Rome Statute, a senior lawmaker said, paving the way for Kyiv to join the International Criminal Court.
In a Telegram post, Yaroslav Zhelezniak said 281 deputies had voted for the measure, a key requirement for Ukraine to eventually join the European Union.
Continue reading...English banker Jonathan Bloomer and American lawyer Chris Morvillo reportedly confirmed as among bodies recovered by Italian rescuers
Reuters, citing a source, reports that one of the two bodies found by divers is a “heavily built man.”
Italian rescue divers have found two bodies inside the sunken luxury yacht, Reuters reported citing a source.
Continue reading...UK tech entrepreneur Mike Lynch and daughter among those thought to have been trapped when storm hit off Sicily
Six people are now presumed dead after the super yacht they were onboard sank in a violent storm off the coast of Sicily.
Divers tried in vain on Tuesday to gain access to the inside of the sunken 56-metre Bayesian luxury vessel, where rescue crews believe those missing may have been trapped.
Continue reading...